Dennis Tuuri

the spiritual gifts. And for today’s sermon, we’ll look at 1 Corinthians 12, allude briefly to 13 and 14. The whole section could be said to be on spiritual gifts, but 12 has the bulk of the instruction for us. So, we’ll turn there for today’s sermon text. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. And remember as you listen to this that Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians is corrective in many ways. Okay. 1 Corinthians 12.

Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you are pagans, you are led astray to mute idols. However you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed. And no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. Now, there are varieties of gifts but the same spirit. And there are varieties of service but the same Lord.

And there are varieties of activities but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. 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 another faith by the same Spirit. To another gifts of healing by the one Spirit. 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. All these are empowered by one and the same spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills. For just as the body is one, and has many members and all the members of the body, though many are one body. So it is with Christ. For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.

For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?

But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Nor again the hand to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. And on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor.

And our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no divisions in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administration, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret but earnestly desire the higher gifts and I will show you a still more excellent way.

Let’s pray. Lord God, we thank you for this chapter of your holy scriptures and we pray that you would help us to understand it and then make some application to our lives. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Please be seated.

First a bit of diversion. I foolishly forgot to run the outlines before I got here. So, I’ll be right back and we’ll hand them out to everybody. See, I didn’t even have to ask for volunteers. Great helpers here and servants of the church. I’ve been a little under the weather, of course. Appreciate your prayers. I think a lot of us here have been suffering both with the influenza on one hand and with this kind of walking pneumonia thing on the other that seems just to go on and on and on and I’m on the mending side of that. I’m still a little tired. So, I tend to forget things such as the outlines today, but I thought you ought to have them because all I want to do here is I want to go basically through this text and explain it.

I don’t think it’s readily apparent what the flow of the argument is just from reading it and I think there’s been a lot of different takes on it. So I just want to explain the text for the most part of today and then draw out some simple lessons for us individually and corporately.

Last time I spoke here two weeks ago I talked about spiritual gifts and love. Romans 12 is what we looked at and verses or chapters 1 to 11 were the presentation of the basic essentials of the gospel. So 12 begins the response to the gospel that we’re supposed to have and very significantly at the beginning of that response there is this discussion of ministry in the context of the church and spiritual gifts in relationship to that. So that was a pure exposition of the topic.

Here in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul is responding to a concern that the Corinthians had. And as with much of this book, his response is corrective. And so as we see this text play out, we’ll see that and it will help us to understand some things. I think for instance, it’ll help us to understand why there’s two different lists in this one chapter or some would even say three with the questions at the end of the chapter of these gifts. What’s going on with that? Why is that in one chapter?

Now the text begins with Paul saying, “Now concerning spiritual things,” and I want to talk about two parts of this first verse and the first is the words now concerning. So the way first Corinthians is structured is as I said they had apparently written to Paul asking for instruction on particular things. And so if you go throughout first Corinthians you’ll see him say this repeatedly now concerning this now concerning that etc. For instance this really begins in Chapter 7 verse one. Now concerning the matters about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.

You remember we talked on that text when we did our series on marriage. But it was a specific concern they had. So Paul after the first six chapters of Corinthians now is addressing a series of topics one of which is this spiritual gifts or spiritual things. Chapter 7:25 says this. Now concerning the betrothal I have no command from the Lord. But so a new topic. 1 Corinthians 8:1 now concerning food offered to idols. So that’s the next topic he addresses. And then here in 1 Corinthians 12, now concerning spiritual gifts.

So this marks a new division portion of this epistle. 1 Corinthians 16 says, now concerning the collection for the saints. So this continues. This isn’t the last subject of what he’s that he’s writing on. So first of all, What we have here is a clear delineation that we’re in a particular section of this book and it seems to by way of looking at the subject matter go on for three chapters.

The bulk of the teaching relative to spiritual gifts is in chapter 12 that leads to a discussion in chapter 13 of love faith hope and love is the great gifts of God and then in 14 to application relative to tongues and the use of tongues and worship etc. It is very important to remember that Corinthians is largely corrective and sometimes it’s hard to tell if Paul is saying something by way of command or if he’s saying something by describing what they’re doing negatively.

Many people turn to 1 Corinthians 14 as an example for the sort of worship service we should have. What then? He says now when you come together everyone has a psalm, a hymn, a song. But usually when he says things like what then? He’s not being kind to them. He’s being corrective of an improper practice. And of course, what he goes on to say is how to modify what they’re doing when they come together. So, we can’t look at most of these things in first Corinthians as examples of what we’re supposed to do because Paul is correcting problems.

Now, that begins to happen right away in this first verse because of the second word I want to reference and that is this term that’s translated in most translations spiritual gifts in verse one. Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, this is a completely different word than he will use throughout the rest of the chapter to refer to spiritual gifts. This word is better translated spiritual things or spiritual people. It’s a word that has the word pneuma or spirit in it. And so, this is used throughout Paul’s writings to refer to spiritual things, right? So, it’s a generalized term.

Now, he’s responding to their letter and they’re talking about gifts by using this word that emphasizes the Holy Spirit. And so, what they’re doing is they’re talking about particular gifts that they think are better than other gifts. And these are gifts that really characterize spiritual people. Okay? And so, that’s the way he begins to respond to them. He uses the term that they use but then he quickly changes to the normal term for spiritual gifts which is charisma or charismata and you know that comes from the root word of grace a thing that manifests the grace of God and a charisma can be all kinds of things it was Timothy’s office or the gift that was placed on him with the laying on of hands salvation is described as a charisma from the father Israel’s election was a charisma, a gift of some sort.

So charisma, this term that is normally the term that underlies the term spiritual gifts, it just means a manifestation of the grace of God. It is not some kind of technical term for spiritual gifts. In fact, it doesn’t say spiritual in it at all, although of course the Holy Spirit’s involved as we’ll see. But interestingly enough, in 1 Corinthians 12, the first half of the chapter, you’ll see the word spirit, spirit, spirit, spirit, spirit. And in the second half of the chapter, and in chapter 13 and almost all of 14, no mention of the Holy Spirit.

So, Paul is correcting an abuse on the part of Corinthians, spiritual gifts, stuff that manifest how spiritual a particular person is by the sort of ministry they have in the local church. So, right away by Paul’s use of this term spiritual things it helps us to sort of differentiate then the use of the term charisma and the focus becomes less on the Holy Spirit in the normal term for spiritual gifts mistranslation and the focus becomes the grace of God made manifest in the world you know we’re in that season of Epiphany and we’re singing about being lightbearers and Jesus has come to initiate new creation, new humanity, etc.

And so, this is what Paul’s talking about. He’s talking about it in reference to the church. And what he’s going to be describing in this chapter is how we manifest the new light of creation through the grace of God. God gives us not just grace in a in a uh in a broad sense of the term, but he gives us particular ministries or enablements for ministry to be used in the church. that are manifestations of the grace of God that we can see and touch and feel.

So, it was a manifestation of the spirit’s work this morning, you know, when Bob and Brian and who else was that? Eli came up to hand things out. That’s the grace of God. They ministered to the rest of you and to me by doing that. And so, they made plain or obvious or they put into motion something about the grace of God. So this text, you know, it starts off by declaring itself to be a section and then very significantly Paul uses their term at first, but he’s going to transition to his term.

And I think this sets us up for the two lists. I think the just before we get there, I think the first list are the list the Corinthians were big on and the second list is a more complete list that Paul wanted to stress. Okay. so that’s point number one. Point number two is the Corinthians need for humility. And this again is a textual matter that isn’t obvious when you read the text and you get all confused and kind of goofed up when you read two and three together.

You know that when you were pagans you led astray to many idols, to mute idols rather, whoever you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand that no man speaking in the spirit of God can say Jesus is accursed and no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. So, some people see that and they connect up verses 2 and 3 and they think that what Paul is addressing here is the same sort of ecstatic utterances that the Corinthians participated in pagan temples.

But I don’t think that’s what’s going on. I do think that again he’s bringing correction to them, you know, later he’ll address another topic about the Lord’s supper and he says I don’t bring this up to commend you. So it’s common for Paul when addressing the Corinthians to correct them at the first so he can get their attention for what he wants them to know. So he says okay so this topic I don’t want you informed you know that when you were pagans you were led astray and mute idols whoever you were led remember you weren’t that sharp remember you had big problems get teachable here I think is the purpose of verse two It’s to get them humble before him so that they’ll listen to the word of God coming through Paul, he’s saying get humble. And that doesn’t continue into verse three. Verse three begins with therefore.

That therefore ties verse three back to verse one. And that’s why I’ve got the outline looking the way it does where B is sort of, you know, pushed in a bit on the outline. Verse three picks up the topic of spiritual gifts that he begins in verse one. So Paul corrects the Corinthians. He brings them into a teachable spirit. He reminds them of their past and therefore of their need for humility and to listen up, listen hard to Paul’s corrective.

And that first corrective then in terms of their topic of spiritual things is verse three. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking by the spirit of God ever says Jesus is accursed. No one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. He immediately starts to wean them off of an overemphasis on the Holy Spirit by saying that look, you want to know who spiritual people are?

Spiritual people are people that say both in their words but with their deeds, Jesus is Lord. The spirit has come to bring us things of Jesus. So if you want to hear who the spiritual people are in your church, it’s everyone there who says, you know, and not just as a performance utterance where you say the words, but who believes, who says, who makes confession with their mouth and believes in their heart that Jesus is Lord. You’re all spiritual, he says. So, he corrects the abuse by tying the work of the Holy Spirit to Jesus.

Now, that’s what he’s going to do for the rest of the chapter. What’s he going to talk about for most of the verses? For most of the verses, he’s going to talk about the body of Christ, the body of the Messiah. And so, what he wants to talk about is not the spirit necessarily but what the spirit has come to make manifest which is grace and a grace to follow and become part of the work of Jesus Christ in the world.

So spiritual gifts manifestations of grace are seen are presented by Paul in this corrective that he’s presenting to the Corinthians as heavily tied not to the spirit as manifestations of the spirit but rather as manifestations of the body of Christ. Make sense?

So verse three is this sort of summary statement what his answer is to their questions about who are the spiritual ones and the spiritual ones are the ones all of them that proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord. All right. So then he issues another corrective in verse four. So he’s given them one corrective. Now he gives them another now there he makes a little more extended treatment of what he just said. There are varieties of gifts and there’s that word charisma from which the charismatic movement took its you know a name and which I’ve already described. It simply means something that manifests the grace of God.

It’s not a technical term for a spiritual gift. although it certainly does refer to these gifts of ministry that Paul is going to talk about here. Okay. So, he uses this term varieties. There’s varieties, varieties, varieties. There’s varieties of gifts, but the same spirit. So, that’s what they’re asking about. He says, “Okay, great. The spirit does make manifest things to you. And if you want to talk about the spirit, I’ll engage you in the topic of the spirit, but I will broaden that out to the other members of the trinity.

There are varieties of service.” That’s the word that’s kind of the basis for our word deacon, diacinos, service generally. It doesn’t mean deacon. But a deacon, you know, a deacon, the whole name is just the name that all of us has. We’re all deacons, right? We’re all servants of Jesus. And that’s what he’s saying here. If they’re all, you know, manifesting the Holy Spirit through proclaiming Christ as Lord, we’re all servants of the same Lord Jesus.

Okay? And there are varieties of activities and that word means like works. The idea is energy something that’s done through power and energy and work. There are varieties of works, but it’s the same God who empowers them all and everyone. So yet this is a corrective from an unhealthy focus on just one member of the Trinity. And Paul wants them to see manifestations of grace in terms of enablements and ministry in the church in the broader context that father, son, and holy spirit are all involved in this.

Okay. So yeah, they’re manifestations of grace by the holy spirit, but they’re also service to the Lord. And you know service means you’re serving somebody and the somebody is your Lord. So the word service hooks up nicely with Lord. And God is the one who works and empowers people. And so God is the one who is creating energy and tasks and work for each of us to do. So what he’s saying is these spiritual things that you want to talk about, these ministries, spiritual gifts, they’re really Yeah. They can be called charisma of the Holy Spirit, but they’re also your service to the Lord Jesus Christ in the context of the church and they’re also the work that you do for God.

Again, he’s talking specifically in the context of the church. So, his corrective gets a little broader. It becomes trinitarian and it helps us avoid, you know, sort of an odd obsession with spiritual gifts and the Holy Spirit and all that stuff that seems to seep much of the evangelical church in the 70s and 80s and as we know it’s important Romans 12 says the beginning of our response to the gospel you know has to do with spiritual gifts manifestations of grace and ministry in the church so it’s very important that we focus on it but it can become a perverted focus on the manifestation of the Holy Spirit and not seeing them related to service and work and the Lord and God.

Okay. So he brings this corrective to bear in verses 4 to 6. The spirit’s work is part and parcel of the Trinity’s manifestations. Okay. So again charismata are tangible ways that God expresses his grace both to the one who’s serving and to the one who is served. They want me to drink something here. I’m afraid if I drink cold water, it’s going to make me cough, but I appreciate it very much. See, trying to apply the sermon right away.

Thank you.

Okay. The thesis statement is found in verse 7. So, I think this is like central to the flow of this chapter is verse seven. Then he’s given a couple of correctives and now he says here’s what I want you to hear. This is what I’ve softened you up for and made you teachable for. Here’s it. Here’s the big deal. To each is given the manifestation of the spirit, the charisma, the grace of God for the common good.

And there’s two things there. The first is if you want to know who your spiritual people are, they’re all confessing Christ as Lord. And they’re all given a particular manifestation of grace for ministry in the church. So first of all he says everybody has a gift. Everybody’s got some ministry that they should be performing in the context of the extended body of Jesus Christ. And secondly he says that the goal or purpose of those gifts is not some kind of grand aren’t I great sort of thing. Obviously it’s the common good.

So he makes two basic statements which he then articulates. in the next couple of verses. And so on your handout, I’ve got one to each is given the manifestation of the spirit and two for the common good. And then the next point on the outline expands out as Paul does in this epistle. The first statement, each is given the manifestation of the spirit. And in verses 8 to 11, he then begins to talk about spiritual gifts and this list in the context of that.

Okay. So everybody’s got a manifestation. 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 another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by this one Spirit, 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.

All these are empowered by one and the same spirit who apportions to each one individually as he wills. Okay, so that’s an expansion of what he just said. Everybody gets a spiritual gift or gifts. Everybody has a ministry to be entered into in the local church. And he explains that by what I think is the list they sent him. And I there’s two reasons I say this. One, you’ll see the heavy peppering in this particular first list in 1 Corinthians 12 of spirit, spirit, spirit.

And remember, that’s what the Corinthians are into. They’re into the spirit. not so much into the Lord or to God. So I think one that’s an evidence of that and now immediately this is where the transition happens. Paul dumps the whole topic of the spirit. He just moves away from it. So one I think it’s their list because that two these are all sign gifts. These are all kind of miraculous wowy zowie that is cool stuff.

Now it may not look like that. I mean it does in some of them you know tongues interpretation all that sort. of stuff. But you know if you were to look at 1 Corinthians 13, okay? So for instance, one of these things that he has just said is he says the utterance of knowledge, okay, and the utterance of wisdom, right? well, if you look at 1 Corinthians 13, he says, “If he has all knowledge and all wisdom and could speak the tongues of angels, but has not love. He’s ineffectual. It’s an ineffectual gift. It’s not being used to help others. It’s being used for you to show off to God if love and ministry to Jesus by ministering to his people isn’t what it’s all about.

So, the point is that in 1 Corinthians 13, Paul returns to the things that were at the head of the Corinthians list and tells them, “Well, hey, you know, you’re into this stuff, but I’ll show you the best thing to do. and that’s to manifest the gracious gift of God’s love for one another in whatever ministry you’re doing. In any event, it puts it in 1 Corinthians 13, it says this word of knowledge stuff and these gifts that are listed here are part of those sign gifts along with speaking in tongues that are described tongues of men and angels in 1 Corinthians 13.

So the big point he’s making is that there’s a multiplicity of manifestations of grace, but he does it, I think, using the Corinthians list. And that’s why when he gets around to his list, it’ll look different. There’ll be new things in it that have nothing to do with wowy zowie sort of stuff that have more to do with bringing a glass of cold water and handing out outlines and that sort of thing. We’ll get to that in just a couple of minutes.

So, so Paul expands out that everyone has a manifestation of grace given to him by the Holy Spirit. And then so he does that and he then expands out the second half of that thesis statement and that is that the purpose of these things is the common good. It’s the common good. Now it’s interesting to me because a number of Christians are focused these days and in fact this whole Q organization that I’ve mentioned to some of you that I went to a conference to LA two years ago I guess you know, their whole deal is, you know, ministering for the common good. It’s picking up this phrase from 1 Corinthians 12.

The difference is that when Paul will describe what this common good is, it’s the body of Jesus Christ. It’s not the culture generally. It’s those who have been baptized and through baptism been brought into the body of Christ or those who are in process of God calling them, right? Right? I mean, I might be ministering to a member of the body of Christ before they know they’re a member of the body of Christ. But it’s that purpose when he gets to talking now, he expands out the common good. And he expands it in a way that’s different from much of the way that it’s being used in today’s missional world.

There’s a tremendous focus here on ministry to other members of the church or the body of Christ. So, this is spelled out. This is the biggest section in verses 12-26. And this is Paul’s use of the body metaphor. Now, notice here that he’s not just choosing an easy illustration. Well, it’s kind of like the body. Jesus says, you know, the body is sort of like this and these spiritual gifts are sort of like that. But that’s not really what’s happening, is it?

When we come to this table, we come informed by the last chapter of 1 Corinthians, chapter 11 and 10, which tells us because we eat of the one loaf, we’re one body and that this is the body of Christ. So, it’s not some metaphor that just happens to work in the ministry of churches. We are the body of Messiah Jesus Christ. You see, it’s very significant to know that he’s not just choosing a metaphor out of the blue.

He’s saying, look, there is a new world. There is a new second Adam and the world will now move in terms of all of those united to second Adam and who are part of his body. And so he’s going back to creational sort of language with this new body stuff and he’s telling us that’s the thing. It’s there’s no less significance. So in other words, the point is that as he talks about various manifestations of service or grace in the local church or in the church, what he’s saying is it is directly related to the work of new creation in the world toward manifesting the body of Christ which will over time fill all the world is his the world is the second Adam’s and he will have it all.

Okay. So what does he say here? Well okay he goes on to talk about these things and he says for just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body though many are one body so it is with Christ. So, you know, this is his big deal. You got lots of gifts, but there’s one common good that they’re being exhibited toward, and that body that is the growth of the body of Jesus.

For in one spirit, we were all baptized into one body. So, I think this is his last reference to the spirit. So, by the spirit, we’re brought into that body. That means some people aren’t in the body. People that aren’t baptized are not in that body. So, he’s talking specifically about spiritual gifts or ministries, you know, and it’s whether it’s in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, which we’ll look at next week, first Peter, no matter where it is, spiritual gifts are not something generally used in the kingdom, but their spiritual gifts are manifestations or ministries for use in the church.

Now, the church is not coterminous with the kingdom. The kingdom extends beyond the church. But this isn’t your normal job sort of stuff. As important and as spirit empowered as that is in the week when he talks about spiritual gifts, that is not what he’s talking about. He’s talking about particular callings that you have to minister specifically to the body of Christ. Not tangentially or off to the side. Well, you know, I sell cars and you know, sometimes Christian buys cars and it helps them to buy cars. No, no, no. That’s not what he’s talking about here.

He’s talking about for the common good being for the good of the body of Christ. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. You ever think member? You know the this is the theological underpinning for church membership. Why do we have membership? Because people are acknowledged to be a member of a body which is the church of Jesus Christ. We, you know, that’s what people used to understand and we don’t understand that anymore. Membership now is just some sort of abstract concept and means you’re on a list or something.

But, but the way Paul is using it here underpins the whole idea of church membership. It’s an acknowledgement there are people now in the body of Christ and that membership happens as a result of the one baptism. Okay. The body doesn’t consist of many members, but one member but many. If the foot should say because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.

And if the ear should say because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body. That would not make it any less a part of the body. It’s interesting, isn’t it? He’s going to go on to say, you know what we always think of? If somebody says, I’m an ear. I’m more important than somebody else. He’s goofed up because he doesn’t understand the commonality, the common good that all members of the body can contribute to. We understand that we know about pride of gifts.

But this is interesting because he begins by talking about people who says, “Well, maybe I’m not that important to the church and who cares about my little gift. I’m just this, so what do I care?” Or it could be pride. You know, I’m not I don’t want to be part of the body because they’re not all like me. It could be that. But I think it could just as easily be people who are kind of don’t think their gift is important, right?

So whether you think your gift is unimportant to the body or you think your gift is overly important. Paul is telling us here you’re wrong either way. Everyone gets a gift or gifts and the purpose is the common good. And what he’s going to go on to say is the common good cannot be developed if people are bugging out on their ministries to the extent that any one person in the church doesn’t do what they’re supposed to do, the whole body suffers, right?

And if you got, you know, 10%, 20%, 30%, in most churches, 70% of people got no ministry to the body of Christ, are, you know, is there any wonder why churches are weak and are the tail these days rather than the head?, the key is the well-being of the body is contingent upon the proper exercise of everybody in their giftings.

If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? So these are obvious things. As it is, God arranged the members in the body. Each one of them is he chose. So that’s important. God chose. So you see, he’s making that transition from the spirit now to God the father. And he says that your particular ministration is as God chose it for you.

Now you have a dream one night. And in the dream, God appears to you and says, “I want you from now on to do everything you can to help the order of worship look beautiful at Reformation Covenant.” Now, my guess is you get up the next morning and you call somebody, probably somebody that would help you not have such dreams. No, but I mean, if you knew that God told you that’s what he wanted you to do for this church, I mean, if you really knew it in terms of, you know, that kind of message.

I think you would apply yourself diligently to that in whatever time you have available to do that in your life. And I know we’re all busy. Well, that’s exactly what God said is going on. If you’ve got a ministry in this church, and a lot of you do, don’t forget God chose you for that ministry. God chose you for the common good of this church and I would say the extended body of Christ as well. God chose you to have that particular ministry. He appointed that to you and it’s an evidence of the grace of Christ and it’s given to you to help mature the church of Jesus Christ.

If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. Nor again the hand to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty.

So he’s saying you know you got different body parts different you know bits different things going on interior and also exterior parts of your body and they’re not all alike and they don’t all manifest themselves in the same way but the importance of each member is what he’s talking about. Okay. So there are some parts that we give more modesty to right and so and I don’t want to get into you know any details here there are some parts that because they don’t look that great we put more honor on them and make them look better.

Okay. And that’s okay. Paul’s saying he says we do this. He includes himself in that. Right? So what he’s saying is in the context of ministries in the church. You’re not all going to look alike. But what you want to do is value each and every part. And part of that valuing may be that some of the ministries happen in private and some of the ministries are, you know, adorned with more glory and spoken up and other things are differently.

So he’s saying that there are different parts of the body, but they’re all necessary components of the body, right? You know, if you have a you take all the little bones in your foot for granted, but if you break just one little bone in that foot, your whole life is thrown off. Your whole health begins to be affected by that one little break. And so what he’s saying is he’s going on diversity of gifts for the common good.

Okay. and to this is to the end that there be no division in the body. Yeah. Well, there is a key to whether we’re doing a good job or not. If the spiritual gifts, the roles of the manifestation of God’s grace in the church is creating divisions or not. It can, you know, choirs. I don’t see this problem at our church, so I can talk about it, but I know a church that’s split because of the choir. And I was sitting at a meeting with a southern guy and a southern pastor.

He says, “Well, you know what they said? Hey Dennis, when the devil fell, he fell right into the choir loft.” See, there’s a great ministry of the church, but if handled incorrectly, in a prideful sense, in a sectarian sense, in a divisive sense, it’s not well-being for the church anymore. In fact, the instance I knew of, it split the church right down the middle. Now, you know, God is great, and I think those both churches will survive and thrive.

But that’s what it’s talking about here. A test of the proper use of ministries in the church is the lack of division. An increasing lack of division. I think we got divisions here. I we got some divisions. Wouldn’t say we’re characterized by it, but it’s something to think about, right? We’re going to have these community groups. And what we stressed at yesterday’s meeting, one of the things we stressed, and it’s in the actual job description for the community, community group leaders, the very first word I think is care for all the members of your group, right?

Care. It’s easy to care for people that are kind of like us or that have particular gifts. Not as easy to care for other members of the body who’s, you know, maybe not that glorious or whatever it is. But what we want in these community groups are leaders who are committed to care for each and every member of the body that they have shepherding oversight relative to and if we can accomplish that in the community groups I think it will be tremendous blessing in terms of what Paul is saying here okay so no divisions but that the members may have the same care for one another.

If one member suffers all suffer together if one member is honored all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church and now we get to Paul’s list and don’t want to dwell on this. We’ll come back to the lists in probably a month or so., but then he gives his list. God has appointed. So, you see his list doesn’t emphasize the spirit. His list emphasizes God and God’s appointment of these particular gifts.

God has appointed in the church. First apostles, second prophets, teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administration, and various kinds of tongues. There’s his list. Now, his list is really significant because it doesn’t stress necessarily this great manifestation of a particular gift exclusively. He talks about men that men are given, right? Or women if women evangelists that there are people given to the church. The grace of God is really a ministration of each of us being given one to the other.

So, he adds people. And then secondly, He adds things like helping, administering less glorious gifts because he wants them to expand their understanding of spiritual gifts to include a ministry for every member of their particular church. Every one of them, some ministry, and some of those ministries are going to be glorious or more honorably seen by others, and some won’t be, but they’re all to be encouraged by Paul.

So that’s his list. And then he says, well, you know, are they all apostles? Are they all prophets? Are they all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? And he says, and the answer is no. And so again, he’s ending here with his thesis statement that there’s a variety of spiritual gifts, manifestations of the grace of God that are directly linked to ministry in the local church.

And that the purpose of that is the common good of the body of Christ. And then he ends with verse 31. But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. Lots of different ways to interpret that verse. Some people say he’ll pick it up in 14. It’s better to do prophecy. Some people say no. In fact, he’s correcting them. You’re desiring the most important gifts. But can’t you see that each member of the body, each gift is equally important?

Or it’s also setting us up for 13? I’ll show you the best things to desire. And what are they? They’re faith, hope, and love. Those are the great manifestations. Faith at work, hope at work, love at work. And particularly emphasizing love for Jesus by loving the body of Christ. So that’s what he points them to in 1 Corinthians 13. And it is the great poetic summation of what he’s teaching us here, that there’s a variety and diversity of gifts for the common good. And the significant thing you want to do The best gift of all is to manifest the grace of God by loving each other, loving their ministry.

One last aspect or one other one last point here and that’s well I say in your outline the valuelessness of the sign gifts without love and the abiding value of faith, hope and love. I think I talked about that two weeks ago, but the last point is pursue love and edification. And so we can’t get into chapter 14 and any kind of uh lengthy way, but I did want to say this. So after he does this great thing on 13, he says, “I’m going to show you a great way, the better way, faith, hope, and love, mostly love.” Then in 14, he says, “Pursue love.”

So if you want to pursue something that’s a great gift, a manifestation of grace, make it be love. Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. Don’t want to get into that now. but pursue love. And then down to verse three, on the other hand, the one who prophesies, speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. And there Paul gives us three particular ways that our what that we’re supposed to do in terms of honoring and using our gifts.

Now, the emphasis in Romans 12 was all that use of the gift stuff. The emphasis here is diversity for the common good. But this is a point of how we’re to exercise those gifts and how we’re to love one another in the body. of Christ. We’re supposed to build each other up. I mean, every person in the church, not your favorites, not the people that are like you, and in fact, the people that are not like you and maybe aren’t need building up, right?

So, you’re supposed to go out of your way to build people up. Secondly, you’re supposed to encourage people in their gifts, right? I mean, nothing will be a sure killer gift. more than people laboring away at a gift for months and nobody’s saying anything about it. Nobody’s saying thank you. You know, we have a tendency here and it’s a good thing, you know, to thank the deacons and thank the elders. That’s great.

But if we’re in every member ministry sort of church, you know, and I think Dave T. is good at this, but we want to go out of our way and don’t wait for the dinner or something, but just to go up to somebody say, “Gee, I noticed you’re doing this at the church. Thank you so much. I really wanted to encourage you in your gift. That’s what it’s talking about here. Paul goes out of his way to instruct them in that.

And then finally, consolation, which means to come alongside and speak words to somebody. Ministries can be difficult. Some people may not appreciate them. They’re difficult to do and people need consolation as well as encouragement. And then verse four, the one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. So the whole point is variety of gifts all for the purpose of building up the body of Christ.

Okay.

Application one, the body in the church in Oregon City. Well, this is, you know, this text is broader than a particular individual church. You want to apply it at a local church level, but honestly, the scriptures talk about churches in the city. And so, you know what? Right now, what churches tend to do is eyes tend to go to eye churches, ears to ear churches. You know, you sort of pick which one you want to go to and you pick it so that people are like you in that church in different ways.

And that’s too bad. But one way to come to work against that and to express the body of Christ is to work with other churches. And that’s what we’re trying to do at the church in Oregon City. Secondly, corrections to body life and service. One, the body is unimportant. That’s one attitude out there. I mentioned the other two attitudes, my ministry isn’t important. I don’t have anything to offer. I just sharpen pencils.

Well, that’s a ministry. And Paul says that’s a ministry. It’s a demonstration of grace. And the sharpening of pencils so that people can take notes is just as important for the well functioning of the body as me getting up here and preaching. And there’s a direct connection. How do you know? Maybe somebody used a pencil in the last month to write a little note that had a significant transformative effect on their lives or help them to love their wife or husband better or be better at work and accomplish more dominion.

So, you know, we’ve talked about that. I’m unimportant. You’re unimportant. Both are but the but as I read through this text, I thought maybe the most important thing is that it stresses the importance of the church, the body of Jesus. You know, I I can’t emphasize that enough. I mean, I mean, this is the Bible. This thing’s true. It’s not my agenda. But this thing says, look, how important is the church to you?

How important is the body of Christ? Do you have a ministry? Are you using that ministry? What kind of ministry would you rather have? These are the questions we’re going to be asking in the community groups over the next month. We want you to take seriously what this text says, that every one of us has a God-given ministry to be used in the context of the church and without people doing their things, the church suffers.

Now, you know, it could be the broader church, church in Oregon City, doesn’t have to just be RCC, but a ministry of some sort apart from your normal vocation. The church, the body of Christ is important.

C. The quiet work of the Holy Spirit. I mentioned this before, that Paul transitions them away from an undue emphasis on the Holy Spirit to talking about God and the body of Messiah Jesus Christ.

D. The common good can only be achieved by all parts functioning. Mentioned that already too.

E. The functioning is to be upbuilding, encouraging, and consoling to one another. Can’t emphasize it enough. Maybe practical ways could be discussed in the community groups of how you can encourage upbuild one another and console one another in your ministries.

The body and RCC’s community groups. Well, enough said about that, but this is a big emphasis. This is a big part of what we’ll be talking about for the next few months in your community groups. And I would just encourage you to take 1 Corinthians 12 to heart to try to think through what’s my ministry? How can I help the body of Christ? How is it being hurt now by me not stepping up and then stepping up to do something.

Now, a lot of you already do that. One of the things that’s really going to be fun about the community groups, the first ones, is to hear from everybody what you’re doing in terms of a Christian ministry. That’s going to be fun. And that’s going to be encouraging to each of us. We’re going to find out that there’s a lot more going on than we thought there was and that’ll be encouraging. But if you’re one of those people that right now don’t have a ministry at the local church, and by the way, if you’re not a member, of this body, become one.

And when you enter into membership, assume that you’ll have some sort of ministry to help the others here at RCC and the broader Christian community.

Let’s pray. Lord God, we thank you for this instruction by Paul that is corrective to that particular group and yet so very instructive to us. We do pray that throughout Reformation Covenant and the various community groups, people would take seriously an evaluation of what they should be doing in terms of ministry to the body of Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.