Lord by the Spirit Ex 35:30-36:1; Ps 115:1-8; 1 Cor 12:1-11; John 14:25-26; 16:12-15 St Mark’s 30.10.16
Introduction
Some traditions measure spirituality in terms of commitment to social justice, for others it means frequent communion and deep meditation, elsewhere those active in evangelism and Bible reading hold pride of place. In Corinth, spirituality meant exercising the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit and especially speaking in tongues. Through selfish individualism the gifts of God had become a basis for envy, rivalry and immaturity in the church. The Corinthians unhealthy focus on this expression of spirituality mirrored the religious environment of the day with its itinerant wisdom teachers, miracle workers and temples centred on divine healing. In discussing the use of supernatural gifts in church Paul seeks to re-centre the enthusiasm of the Corinthians away from their own experience to the person of Jesus. He begins to do this by changing the language of the conversation. In verse one the Corinthians seemed to have opened a discussion on gifts with a word (pneumatikon) which could mean either spiritual “persons” or spiritual “gifts”. However when Paul expounds the ministry of the Holy Spirit he uses a different Greek word, charismata, from which we get the English “charisma/tic”. The important thing about this word is that it means a gift freely given by God without merit and without strings. There is no status connected to having or using spiritual gifts.
Exposition
v.1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. v.2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.
Whatever powerful spiritual experiences the Corinthians might have had in their idol worshipping days the single test for discerning anything that is truly of God has to do with the identity of Jesus. Paul presses in on this point with a specific example which however is difficult to interpret.
3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus be cursed!”
This might have been something said about Jesus by a person in a demonically induced state (1 Cor 10:20-21) or a renunciation of Jesus demanded by the Roman authorities who compelled Christians to testify that Caesar alone was Lord. Or perhaps this text should be translated, “no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus grant a curse””. Pagans prayed to their gods to ‘curse’ rivals in business, in love, in court cases, or in sporting contests and some of the believers could simply have continued this practice. Whatever the correct interpretation of this verse, Paul immediately re-centres the whole discussion by testifying, “and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.”
The Lordship of Christ and the gifts of the Spirit are linked in the most intimate way because the Holy Spirit is given to us by God through Jesus (John 14:25-26; 16:12-15;Acts 2:33). The Spirit came with power on Jesus at his baptism (Luke 3:21-22; 4:14 etc.) so that inspired and empowered he ministered with supernatural wisdom and knowledge, performed miracles and healings, prophesied of things to come and by faith believed he would be raised from the dead and so on (Heb 12:2). It was the work of the Spirit through Jesus that established him as Lord of all and the Spirit’s purpose in the Church today is the same (Acts 10:36). Spiritual gifts are the Holy Spirit’s way of drawing attention to the victorious Lordship of Christ; in contemporary language the Spirit passionately want to make Jesus “famous”. The spiritual phenomena the Corinthians were familiar with from their pagan days were all self-centred, to confess the Lordship of Jesus in the power of the Spirit is to put Christ first in everything. Paul presses on to give a Trinitarian framework for the gifts of God.
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.
The varieties of gifts, services and acts distributed by Father, Son and Holy Spirit across the Body of Christ answer to the variety of needs that exist among people. As there cannot be any competition in God so there cannot be any competition between the gifts and ministries of the Church. I remember when we re-established the Anglican congregation in West Leederville I made it a priority to visiting the local pastors in the area to affirm that there is no competition in the kingdom of God.
Paul tells us that “God empowers” these gifts “in everyone”. Empowerment is a buzz word today; people want to be empowered sexually, financially, physically… A few days ago the U.N. officially appointed the comic book hero “Wonder Woman” as the honorary ambassador fort he empowerment of women and girls around the world. But the empowerment that the Spirit gives is not for the individual’s own benefit but, as Paul puts it,
7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
When Paul talks about the “manifestation” of the Spirit he means that you can see for yourself where the Holy Spirit is working. Jesus said of his ministry of driving out demons, “if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Matt 12:28). When demons came out of people there was a visible demonstration of spiritual power (Mark 9:25-26). I distinctly remember being in a meeting in Argentina, a country where occult practices are common, and seeing these sorts of things visibly breaking out as the Spirit demonstrated that the Lordship of Jesus is supreme over the power of the devil.
The gifts Paul lists exist for the good of the whole Christian community. A gift is given by the Spirit to an individual to be used for others. Just as the Spirit uplifts Jesus and Jesus glorifies the Father, Christians are called to passionately seek gifts of the Spirit to help others (1 Cor 14:1). I remember a church elder who had a gift to pray for the sick when everyone else, including me, had given up, and amazingly these sick folk would recover. He recognised he had a gift of faith, but when I asked him if he ever prayed that the Lord strengthen that gift he confessed he had never thought about it. Whatever gifts we have from God bring a responsibility to pray they would be used more effectively for his glory and the good of others.
8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,
“To the one is given”; not earned or deserved but freely given to each and every believer. The one thing you don’t have to be to receive a gift of the Spirit is mature. The Corinthians were spiritually mature in their own eyes but Paul calls them “infants in Christ” (1 Cor 1:7; 3:1; 14:37). If such gifts are freely given by God’s grace for others why the average Christian/Anglican today so reluctant to seek them? Ignorance and fear are a part of it but there is a much deeper root. Jesus said; “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”” (Luke 11:13). The Father loves to give good gifts to his children; especially gifts which are designed to help and heal others. A passage in James goes even further to explain why we struggle to ask God for gifts. “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without rebuke, and it will be given to you.” (James 1:5). If you ask God in Christ for a spiritual gift he will NOT tell you off for asking! Any wisdom or knowledge that comes from the Spirit will not be about personal profit but totally Christ shaped (1 Cor 2:6-16).
9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
The gift of “faith” that Paul has in mind here is not faith for salvation, but the sort of faith that believes God will answer a prayer for someone else’s benefit. “gifts of healing” refer to supernatural healing from physical or other weaknesses.When I used to lecture on healing I always found one or two people in every class that God had used on multiple occasions to heal others. I believe praying for the sick is something we all need to persevere with so that it will become plain who in the congregation has this gift. “the working of miracles” is literally “the working of powers” and seems to refer to any supernatural power that advances God’s kingdom other than healing the sick. Here’s a personal example.
Who knows what W.W.J.D. stands for? (What Would Jesus Do) This can be a bit of a religious slogan or it can be a provocation of the Spirit. Some years ago I was in an aboriginal convention in the Alice Springs show grounds. At the beginning of the conference Satan showed up with power; a young lady (without bras) started to strip in public and two big blokes stood up and started to fight. WWJD came straight into my mind and though frightened I went to the drunks and gently shepherded them to the side, but it was what happened next that amazed me. When I laid hands on each of them in turn and prayed they felt straight to the ground under the power of the Spirit of God, and then when they got up and I prayed once more it happened again. They were turned from aggressive drunks into meek lambs. This was the Holy Spirit demonstrating that Jesus and not Satan is the boss!
The gift of “prophecy” is spontaneous Spirit-inspired speech delivered in church for the building up or encouragement of the hearers (1 Cor 14:3). In later passages Paul singles out this gift as especially desirable for the good of the congregation (1 Cor 14:1). To “discern/distinguish between spirits” is the ability to recognise where the Spirit of God is working in contrast to the influence of human or demonic spirits (1 Cor 14:12, 14, 29, 32; 1 Thess 5:20-21; 1 John 4:1). This gift is most likely normally used to test prophecies. “various kinds of tongues” and “the interpretation of tongues” involved the ability to speak in and interpret a language other than the natural language of the speaker. Tongues speaking strengthens the spiritual life of the speaker and when interpreted functions like prophecy to build up the church. Paul seems to have put tongues speaking last in the list because the Corinthians were obsessed with it.
11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
Whatever the diversity of gifts they can all function in perfect harmony for their common source is the Holy Spirit. No one gets to choose their gift; it is the Holy Spirit who chooses what gift he will give to an individual at whatever time and place. Since gifts are not private possessions but expressions of the Lord they should not be envied nor ever put down in value.
Conclusion
Some of us may think we are spiritual because we come to church or sing in the choir or help with services or read the Bible and exercise various gifts of ministry. On the other hand some of you think you are not spiritual because you think other people are more devout and gifted by God than you are. Both of these understandings of spirituality are ruled out by Paul’s teaching in Corinthians because they have left out the centre of it all…..the Lord Jesus. The single criterion of spirituality in scripture is Christ (1 Cor 2:1-16). Whoever wants to speak the wisdom and knowledge of Christ into the lives of others, whoever seeks a greater faith for the coming of the kingdom of God, whoever wants to see a release of the healing and delivering power that was at work in Jesus when he was on the earth, whoever desires to accurately discern where the Spirit of Christ is at work in the Church, whoever wants to grow closer to the Lord through the release of his presence in speaking in tongues, that person is spiritual in Christ.
The crisis of Christ-centred spirituality in the Church means almost nowhere are we seeing these sorts of manifestations of the Spirit of the Lord. The famous Bible translator J.B. Phillips said of the spiritual dynamic of the New Testament church, “we cannot help feeling disturbed as well as moved, for this surely is the Church as it was meant to be. It is vigorous and flexible, for these are the days before it ever became fat and short of breath through prosperity…These men…did not “say their prayers”, they really prayed. They did not hold conferences on psychosomatic medicine, they simply healed the sick….if they were uncomplicated and naive by modern standards we have… to admit that they were open on (towards God) the God-ward side in a way that is almost unknown today.” Whenever I read the Anglican Messenger I come away with an impression that many of its contributors think of themselves as experts in contemporary spirituality. But popular contemporary spirituality isn’t New Testament spirituality because it isn’t the radically supernatural spirituality of Jesus. Contemporary spirituality I can cope with but reading 1 Corinthians 12 leaves me feeling out of my depth in my walk with the Lord as an individual and as part of the Church.
Alison (our last minister) once remarked the archbishop had asked her why there seem to be no charismatic churches left in the diocese. This sermon is not about us becoming a charismatic church, but it is about the visibility of Jesus in all we do, for whenever the people of God are filled with the Spirit and gifts of God people see…Jesus. That’s what I want and need to see – more of Jesus. I can see how the Spirit wants to transform our lives as a congregation. He wants this to be an amazing place where believers and unbelievers can receive wise guidance from God, hear God speak into their lives and encounter his healing power in the name of the Lord Jesus (Mark 1:27; 2:12 etc., Acts 4:30; 1 Cor 14:1, 24-25). When people step into the life of a church where they experience God giving to them unconditionally they know that the Lordship of Jesus is a Lordship of saving love and they want him as their Lord. This will surely happen if we seek spiritual gifts to help others and likewise pray that others in the congregation receive God’s gifts for the good of us all. Given the terrible spiritual state of the Church and the world such praying is urgently needed. For the sake families, friends, neighbours, and work colleagues we can’t do without a visitation of the Lordship of Christ through his Spirit amongst us. Let us be encouraged, for the Spirit of the Lord is certainly willing to make Jesus famous through our church.