This sermon explores 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, defining spiritual gifts as abilities from God for the common good of the church, emphasizing their purpose to glorify Christ and build up the body. It contrasts spiritual control with worldly frenzies and highlights God’s quiet, powerful work.
Transcript
Please open your Bible to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. And we’re continuing this section where the apostle was dealing with worship issues and he’s going to talk about the issues involving spiritual things today. And today I’m going to just read through verse 11. This is one of my favorite chapters, all of 1 Corinthians 12. It’s one of my favorite chapters in the Bible, especially the second half. But it’s a wonderful, is a wonderful chapter and explains a lot that is really important in Christian life and in the way and in the functionality of a local church. So, I think there’s a lot for us to learn in this chapter as we work through the chapter. Today, I’m just going to look at the first 11 verses. This is God’s holy and inerrant word.
The Spiritual
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is accursed.” And no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. Now, there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another, the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit. And to another, faith by the same Spirit, and to another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit. And to another, the effecting of miracles, and to another, prophecy, and to another, distinguishing of spirits, and to another, various kinds of tongues, and to another, the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as he wills.
Father, as we come to this passage, we thank you, Lord, for your kindness and grace and blessing, and giving us your Holy Word. We thank you, Father, for revelation that you have entrusted to us. We thank you that it is a guide for our life, and that as the Spirit of God as your Holy Spirit uses that in our life, that we are directed and guided through it to live the life that you would have us live. We ask, Father, for blessing this morning as we read from this. It has to do with the gifts that the abilities that you have given us and how we are to use them and what they are for and what they mean. We pray, Father, that as we study this this morning, we begin to understand these truths. And Father, that we begin to use these things in a way that is right and pleasing to you. We ask, Father, for your care and mercy and blessing. Help us to understand this we pray and apply it to our hearts and lives in Jesus’ name. Amen.
So, let’s just begin with verse 1. I don’t know if you caught that or not, but it begins with those two words, “Now concerning.” And as we’ve worked through 1 Corinthians so far, you might know what that means. Maybe not, but you might remember that when you see this in 1 Corinthians, he’s introducing a topic, a new topic. Something that he’s dealing with, probably something that’s a response to something that he has learned about the Corinthians, or perhaps even more likely, a response to the letter that they have sent him. And so, here’s a new topic. It’s related to the same general topic that began a couple of chapters back, having to do with worship, and how we worship, and how the body interacts in worship, especially. And so, he says, “Now concerning spiritual gifts,” you notice I don’t know if you look at your Bible, you might notice that the word “gifts” is in italics. It’s really not there in the in the original language. Now, “concerning spiritual things, spiritual men, spiritual gifts.”
Brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. That second thing, we’ve seen before this second part, we’ve seen this phrase before, “I don’t want you to be ignorant of this,” he’s saying. What does that mean? It means that what he is about to teach them is really important. It’s important to them, and it’s really important to us. This is something that you need to know. Here’s something that you need to know. These spiritual things. Now, the word, in verse 1, “concerning these spiritual things,” that word is used 15 times in this chapter. I mean in this book, in the book of 1 Corinthians. And Paul uses it 24 times total. And it’s used maybe three other times in the New Testament. So, you’re going to get most of your instruction on a great deal of your instruction for what it means for this idea of spirituality, or what it means to be spiritual from this chapter, because he has a lot to say about it here. And as I mentioned, the word “spiritual,” the Greek word is pneumatikos. So, I wouldn’t throw that out if it wasn’t important. So, pneumatikos, I can say that word and you know something about it. Just in speaking the word pneuma, you know in English that pneuma might have an idea, something about what pneuma might mean. Things like pneumatic. If you know anything about pneumatics, you know it has to do with air pressure, that type of thing.
But the word pneuma originally had to do with the wind, with the air. And the idea of spirit, the idea of air. It’s something that is invisible, and yet powerful. And it became a metaphor, and then a figure, and then the word is used to describe the spiritual nature of a person, an animal, or a person has a spiritual nature that gives it life, the life force that’s active, that causes the animation. You can’t see what that is. It’s not something that’s visible. The Spirit of God, God is a spirit, it tells us in John 4:24. He’s the eternal great Spirit. And you can’t see God. God is infinitely powerful. So, that’s the first part of the word, the pneuma part, the spirit, it means spirit. It means something that is invisible and powerful. And then you have that suffix -tikos. And whenever you have something like that in a Greek word, -ikos, or -ika, or -ikon, it has to do with characterized by or controlled by. So, that’s what this word means. Something that is characterized by the spirit, or controlled by the spirit.
Concerning spiritual, and I was talking about how precise the Greek language is, and the fact that it has genders, that helps you clarify the meaning. Last week or a week before I was mentioning that. Well, this particular word could be either masculine or neuter in the form that it is in the New Testament. It could be either one. And so, here it’s being translated as if it’s translated as spiritual gifts or spiritual things. It’s likely what he’s talking about, but if it was translated masculine, then it would be spiritual men, that would be the idea. And it’s used that way in 1 Corinthians earlier. In 3:3, that’s exactly he’s talking about spiritual men, the idea of that. Either way, the meaning won’t change much in this passage. It’s going to be describing the same issue, the same kind of thing, whether he’s talking about a spiritual thing that we’re receiving, he’s really talking about the manifestation of that in the person. So, either way, it’s going to have the same idea. So, the question is, how do you know if a person is being controlled by the Spirit? How do you know, when a person is in a worship service and they give an utterance in a worship service, how do you know that that’s a spiritual thing? That they’re being controlled, and the word that they’re giving is spiritual. Now, this issue is important for us today. It’s really important for us. And it was particularly important in the early church. It was crucial in the early church, even more so than today, because today we have all the New Testament. We have the revelation of God, Old and New Testament. But they only had the Old Testament. They didn’t have the Gospels at this time. And so, how did they have the Word of God? Did God leave them in a void? No, He gave them His Word. And He gave it through the ministry of the people of the church. He provided for that need. He made up for that. And so, there are certain gifts that they have here, where people are giving utterances that are revelatory. They needed that. They needed to have the Word of God. God hadn’t left them in a void. The Spirit had inspired the Word of God. God was using in these churches, and blessing them through it. But how do you know, who is real and who isn’t real?
This, let’s think about this, coming out of paganism, as the Corinthians did. What was spiritual? And how did they know what was spiritual in their past experience? What was what was important to them? In pagan culture, and he’s going to go there in verse 3. The person who was spiritual, it was obvious that person when they were controlled by the spirit of God, by a spirit, whatever that spirit was. How do we know? And how important this is to us? Are we controlled by the Spirit of God? Are we spiritual people, spiritual men and women? Back in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, and verse 3. If you go back to chapter 2, Paul has just said, “I’ve received spiritual revelation from God.” That’s basically what he’s saying. Or spiritual given this spiritual revelation, and I’ve passed on the spiritual revelation to you. That’s what I’m doing. But in chapter 3, and verse 3, he says,
“And I, brethren, could not speak to you as spiritual men, but as to men of the flesh, as to infants in Christ.”
So, what does he mean there when he says that they’re not spiritual? Remember that -ikos word, being controlled by or characterized by the Spirit of God. He’s saying, “The way you’re living your life, and the decisions that you’re making, and the way you’re thinking, and the way you’re practicing, you’re not being controlled by the Spirit of God. You’re not spiritual.” And so, chapter after chapter, we’ve gone through 1 Corinthians, he’s given evidence of the Corinthians’ behavior, and how they’re living their life apart, really, from spiritual control, it’s not characteristic of the Spirit of God. It manifested itself in so many ways.
So, the spiritual man is the one who walks by the Spirit, as in Galatians 5, “Walk by the Spirit,” and the person who shows the fruit of the Spirit. In pagan culture, the Oracle of Delphi, or what was really common in one of the common religions in Corinth was Dionysian worship. The Oracle of Delphi, the woman that gave out those utterances, when she gave out the utterances, manifested wild, frenzied action, behavior and speech that was hard to, wild speech, basically. And the fact that she was so out of control of herself, meant to them that she was being controlled by the god that they were worshipping. And the same thing in Dionysian worship. They would have these orgy-like worship services. It was literally a drunken orgy, a lot of it with all sorts of things that they took. And they would work themselves up into a frenzy of wild dancing and action and weirdness. And then when they gave themselves over to all of that stuff, then they were being controlled by their gods. And they would give utterances which were taken to be prophetic utterances and being controlled by their gods. And then you have Paul’s instruction, and how radically different it is. Compare this, they’re looking and I think the early church was looking for these spectacular, out-of-control, exotic kinds of things as evidence of the spirit, the worship of God, as evidence that God was controlling. But Paul is saying a lot different in this section as we’ve worked through this section and over the next couple of chapters, he’s saying that God doesn’t work that way. God works in an orderly way. It’s quite different. It’s so much different. How unexciting by comparison, I suppose, are the fruits of the Spirit, the fact that God works love and faith and goodness and patience and all the qualities of the fruits of the Spirit in us. That’s the way God works. God works in us and changes who we are and our character and nature. And yet, you look at history, and you can see how powerful those things are, incredibly powerful, far more powerful than a frenzied action and speech.
So, if we can manifest love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness, if we can show gentleness and self-control, the fruits of the Spirit, then we are manifesting something that is true of the Spirit of God. We are a spiritual person and to the degree that God is using us to work those things out in us, to that degree we’re acting in the Spirit. So, the word that’s used here is that word spiritual, spirit, spiritual things, spiritual things that are coming from God. How do we know that they’re coming from God? Well, the first thing, in verse 2,
“You know that you were when you were pagans, you were led astray to the mute idols, however you were led.”
And that verse is saying a lot. It’s saying you were led into these things. You were being controlled and led into these things. The language is used in Greek to describe someone who is bound over in chains to a prison, or to be executed. So, that’s kind of interesting. You have that. And so, the idea here is that that kind of binding, that kind of bondage that leads them to the idolatry. And they’re doing what they want to do. So, they’re totally blind to the bondage. Not only spiritually bound, but they’re also blind, so they can’t see the chains binding them. That’s what they want to do. So, verse 2, this is their history, that’s what they’re coming out of. And then verse 3,
“Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says Jesus is accursed.”
And so, you have this statement in verse 2, and then you have this statement in verse 3, and they’re connected by the “therefore.” And so, basically what he’s saying here is that because of that connection, he’s saying, coming from that background, you need to know this. I don’t care how frenzied the action is, I don’t care what it is that you’re looking to to think that a person is spiritual. If they say that Jesus is accursed, Jesus is anathema, He’s accursed, then they’re not speaking by the Spirit of God. It’s not they’re not being controlled by the Spirit of God, you can know that. Now, I don’t know, it could very well have happened that that was an example that had been given to Paul, which initiated part of this discussion. That could very well have happened in their worship service. It’s hard to imagine that, but that could very well have happened. Perhaps Paul points out that on the cross, Jesus became accursed for us. He’s not accursed. It’s a very different thing to say. He became accursed for us and that he took on our sins. Maybe they in some twisted thing of that, somebody could have said something like that. Or they’re speaking in the Spirit? No, they’re not. In fact, it’s interesting historically, just a few years after this, this becomes the test of who is real. Because Rome puts them to the test in that Roman persecution that comes. They if they had to deny their history, and they had to say that Jesus Christ was accursed. And if they said that Jesus Christ was accursed, then they wouldn’t be tortured or executed. And so, it became a test for who was real.
So, it’s an interesting verse. And it’s saying, whether this happened historically or not, there’s more here than just the fact that the words themselves, or that it could have happened historically. There’s a truth here that we need to pull out for us. It’s not just describing the words either. People can say all different kinds of things. You can say, “Jesus is Lord.” You can say those words and not be of the Spirit of God. It’s not a contradiction to what he’s saying here. You need to, for example, in Matthew chapter 7, Jesus points out that there are many who will come to me in that day and say, “Lord, Lord, have we not done these works, cast out these demons, done these works in your name?” And Jesus says, “Depart from me, you worker of iniquity, I never knew you.” That’s not the point. The point is, it’s not just the words. Same thing in 1 John, when he’s talking about if anyone says to you that if they say to you that Jesus has come in the flesh, that He actually had a physical body, then that’s good. That’s of God. That’s of the Spirit. Well, you could say that and not be of the Spirit. That’s not the point. The point is, you’ve got an issue with people denying that Jesus came in the flesh, and then you have these people who are affirming truth. And the truth is of the Spirit of God. So, the affirmation of truth is of the Spirit of God. It doesn’t mean that you can’t say things hypocritically, that’s not the point. The point is that the exercise of a spiritual gift, the genuine exercise, when it’s genuine, it demonstrates the lordship of Christ. It points back to Christ as the Lord. And if that doesn’t happen, then what is happening in that service is not of the Lord. If it’s not magnifying the lordship of Christ, if it’s not glorifying Christ, if it’s not working to the work of God in any way like that, then it is not of God. So, if it’s from God, then it’s going to be coherent and understandable in speech and it’s going to magnify the lordship of Christ.
Verse 4, it says,
“There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.”
There are all these different things that’s coming from God. The usual word that talks about gifts of the Spirit, the charisma, that idea, that’s found in verse 4 here. All the rest of the time, it’s this idea of spiritual, effects of the Spirit, and the control of the Spirit. There are varieties of charisma, charismatic gifts. These are, the idea is with that particular word, the first part of that word means grace. A gift that has been given. It’s a gracious grace from God that is given to His people. We receive spiritual gifts when we come to faith in Jesus Christ. He endows us with abilities and things, the means to be controlled by the Spirit of God. And there will be effects in our life that are useful to God and to the building up of His body. The point here is, there is a lot of variety. There’s gifts and services and workings, all of these coming from the Spirit of God, and they come to all these different people. But the thing you need to keep in mind is it’s the Spirit. It’s the Lord. It’s God. There is one source for all these things. There’s great diversity in the body of Christ in gifted gifts and abilities and all these things. There’s great diversity. God has blessed you, and when He saved you, He’s given you abilities to be used in the body of Christ. There’s all these different things, but there’s only one God. There’s one source, and there’s one purpose. There’s the purpose of glorifying the Lord, but the main the purpose is singled out here in particular is of building up, of edifying the body of Christ.
Verse 7,
“For to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
And here’s a really important, some really important things. You’re given grace from God. When God saved you, He saved us by grace, and we understand that generally. But He gifted us with abilities. And that comes to you as a grace. First of all, it’s not something that you deserve. Grace is not something that’s deserved. You can think that you deserve it. And secondly, it is not for you. When you are given an ability or a gift, if God has blessed you with a talent, with physical talent, just a natural talent. Or if He’s blessed you especially with a spiritual gift, it’s not for you. It’s ultimately for the Lord, but it’s for the building up of others. God blesses you with a gift, and you have a unique gift, and that gift is for me. It’s for me, and it’s for the body of Christ, and it’s so that Christ can be glorified. It’s not for the glory of the person and the building up of the person who has the gift. That’s why there’s no reason to be jealous of somebody who has a unique gift from God. We don’t need to be jealous of their gift because the gift is for us. It’s not for them. God has entrusted that to them to be used in the body of Christ. And it’s an entrustment. It’s a stewardship. They take the gift that they’ve given, and then they offer it back to it just like in Jesus’ parable, when they say, “I took what you gave me, and this is the benefit. I invested it for you, and this is what it has produced, and I give that back to you.” And that’s a wonderful thing to be used of God. It’s a grace to be used of God in that way, but it’s not for the individual. It’s for the body of Christ. It’s for building up other people. So, the gifts are entrusted to you not for you, but for the common good. And so, he in verses 8 to beginning in verse 8, he lists some of these: word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, the gift of faith, and gifts of healing, and effecting of miracles, and distinguishing of spirits, and various kinds of tongues. I think, these gifts were active in the early church, and some of them were probably being abused and imitated in the early church.
But I don’t think all of these gifts are necessary once the Word of God has been given. That God still gives gifts. He gives what is necessary, what we need. And I’m not sure any list of gifts is complete. I don’t know what all God gives, only way of spiritual gifts. But some gifts were really important, gifts of administration so that things can be ordered rightly. Gifts of teaching are certainly important. Gifts of encouragement are important, are vital. And we don’t we can’t continue without the gifts being exercised, or we were certainly hurt. We become sick, as a spiritual church, if these gifts aren’t being exercised rightly.
Spirit’s Gentle Work
So, the Corinthians weren’t behaving spiritually. Going back to chapter 3, their behavior is carnal, as we’ve explored the chapters, we’ve seen that. Their behavior was factious and divisive. They were called up in various immoralities that we’ve talked about earlier. One of the main things is that it’s come up repeatedly is a selfishness, a self-focus, where people were asserting their rights, and they were claiming rights for themselves, instead of giving over to the other person out of love. And so, because of their selfishness and factiousness and immorality and the way their own self-focus, they couldn’t recognize the working of the Spirit of God rightly. They couldn’t recognize the spiritual things. They’re looking for something spectacular and grand, and they don’t see the powerful that is in the small things. It’s one of the reasons that I read that chapter from Elijah. Elijah had just performed an extraordinary work in bringing fire, he didn’t do it, of course, he prayed, and God sent fire down from heaven, consumed the altar and everything on it. And then the prophets of Baal were put to death. And he had this great victory for the Lord. God is omnipotent and all-powerful, and Baal certainly is not. And anybody could see that and recognize it. It’s just absolutely ridiculous to continue believing in Baal. But they continued to believe in Baal, and that was devastating to Elijah. There’s a lesson he needed to learn about how the Spirit works, a lesson that we need to learn as well. Sometimes he works in unexpected ways and in small ways. He doesn’t always work in the grand, showy ways that we think. He works within, and He changes us eternally as we hear His Word. And through the power of the Spirit, He puts it to work in our life. It tells us in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 7, that
“Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”
That means that every one of us has received special grace from God to be used of God. How different is this from the pagan thing that was going on. First of all, it wasn’t just to the few, it’s to every child of God. And secondly, it doesn’t to show ourselves in frenzies out-of-control behavior, but it is it works to produce and to build up and to edify the body of Christ, the local body of Christ. And so, God has given abilities to you, and they’re not to magnify you. They’re not to magnify me. They’re not to build up my name. It’s to build up the name of Jesus Christ. So, we don’t we don’t own ourselves. The Christian life is not about us and our rights, but the abilities that God has given us, it’s for His people. It’s for the building up of His people and His local church. And that’s the main application of chapter 12. But especially as we looked at these first 11 verses, this gets richer and better as we explore it. So, we’ll do that beginning next week.
Father, we thank you for your kindness to us and mercy in Christ. We thank you for gifting us and giving us spiritual graces, recognizing that none of these things is something that we deserve. We can’t it’s wrong for us to be envious of any gift because they’re grace, and there’s nothing that we deserve. And Father, we pray that as we begin to understand this better, that you would put these gifts to use in our life in ways that we are able to see that the Spirit of God is manifested. The Spirit of God is seen. The invisible is seen. Just as the wind blows and you can see its effects, the Spirit of God is seen as it works in us, building up your church. Use us in these ways, we pray, in Christ’s name. Amen.