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After our last message, it may be asked, "What does the baptism with the Holy Spirit have to do with stewardship?"
The answer lies in the fact that the church in general has to get beyond theories.
We could teach on the gifts of the Holy Spirit (three groups of three), and have it all nicely compartmentalised, and yet forget that God isn't impressed by what we know, He's much more interested in what we do.
So we couldn't really talk about spiritual gifts without talking about the source of spiritual gifts, the baptism with the Holy Spirit.
This isn't just an intellectual exercise so we can gain some knowledge, we have a stewardship responsibility before God, as we're about to see.
So that we can see the connection between the baptism with the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts, I'm going to emphasise how much the Holy Spirit is mentioned as we read our text today: 1 Cor 12:4-11
All these gifts come from the Holy Spirit; that's why every believer needs also to be baptised with the Holy Spirit.
Being baptised with the Holy Spirit is the first step to obtaining these spiritual gifts.
And since the gifts are available to every born-again believer in Christ, we automatically have a stewardship responsibility for them.
So Step One to gaining access to spiritual gifts is to be baptised with the Holy Spirit.
1 Cor 14:1 Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.
The Greek word used for "desire" is the word zelow from which we get our English word "zeal".
It means "the intense and earnest efforts to reach a goal."1
Don't just say, "If God wants it to happen, it'll happen."
God expects us to take the initiative; that's part of the stewardship responsibility for which we will one day give an account.
James 4:2 says, "...you do not have because you do not ask."
It's not enough just to say, "Yeah, well I'd like it to happen. But we'll just leave that up to God and see what He does."
He says, "desire (make intense and earnest efforts) spiritual gifts".
It starts with the desire, because the desire will cause you to seek God.
In 1 Cor 12:31 Paul says, "But earnestly desire (same word zelow) the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way."
The Bible says we should have an intense desire for the best spiritual gifts.
What does it mean by the "best" gifts? Let's see if we can figure this out.
If someone comes to you and they're seriously ill, which do you think is going to be the best gift? Interpretation of tongues or healing?
If someone comes to you and they're facing a very tricky situation at work, which do you think is going to be the best gift? A word of wisdom or healing?
It changes according to the situation - the best gift is the most effective and appropriate one for whatever we have to deal with.
Now let's qualify that a bit further.
1 Cor 14:1 Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.
1 Cor 14:39 Therefore, brethren, desire earnestly (same word zelow) to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues.
God puts a premium on prophecy.
He's saying, "Out of all the gifts that are available to you, this one is so valuable, make sure you strive for it."
That's not my opinion, that's God's opinion.
A verse that's often been quoted in the past as an argument against spiritual gifts is:
1 Cor 12:31 But earnestly desire the best gifts. And yet I show you a more excellent way.
At which point Paul goes on to expound the virtues of love, the more excellent way.
Now the funny thing is, even though this is used by conservative churches against Pentecostals to prove the supremacy of love, I don't know a single Pentecostal that disagrees with it.
Love is a superior way.
And if it comes to a choice between love and spiritual gifts, the Bible is clear, love is the way to go.
But there isn't a choice here, God commands us in His Word to pursue both.
It's not either / or, it's both.
And if we really love other people, we will seek spiritual gifts because - as we've already seen - they were given for the edification of the church.
1 Cor 14:12 Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel.
1 Cor 14:26 How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.
ie. Spiritual gifts are for the benefit of others, and as such are part of our love for them.
We can't just ditch the gifts and claim that we will show love instead.
Exercising the gifts of the Holy Spirit are part of our demonstration of love.
Let's take a look at these gifts individually, but for convenience we'll look at them in a slightly different order from the way they're presented in Scripture.
The reason is that these gifts are generally grouped in three groups of three .
Gifts of revelation:
Word of wisdom - supernatural revelation of divine wisdom.
Word of knowledge - supernatural revelation of divine knowledge.
Discerning of spirits - supernatural revelation into the realm of spirits.
Gifts of power:
Faith - supernatural trust in God for the miraculous.
Gifts of healings - supernatural power to heal diseases.
Workings of miracles - supernatural intervention in the ordinary course of nature.
Gifts of inspiration:
Prophecy - supernatural utterance in a known language.
Different kinds of tongues - supernatural utterance in an unknown language.
Interpretation of tongues - supernatural interpretation of the meaning of other tongues.
Did I say anything about supernatural?
I want you to notice that all these gifts are supernatural.
A word of knowledge is not just a matter of being smart, healing isn't just being a medical practitioner, etc.
They are supernatural gifts imparted by the Holy Spirit.
With most of these gifts, I'll try to give you an example from the Old Testament and also from the New Testament.
We'll start with the three gifts of revelation.
The word of wisdom is a supernatural revelation of divine wisdom.
It's given for specific situations.
ILLUS - 1 Kings 3:16-28 - Two prostitutes came to Solomon both claiming the same baby. How could he deal with this without DNA testing? Solomon's judgment was to divide the child in half. The response revealed which was the true mother.
ILLUS - Mat 22:15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted how they might entangle Him in His talk. Vs. 16-22 - they asked Jesus if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. If He said yes, they had him as a Roman collaborator, but if He said no, they could have Him arrested as an enemy of Rome.
The word of knowledge is a supernatural revelation of divine knowledge, facts that you could not otherwise know.
ILLUS - 1 Sam 3:11-14 - God speaks to Samuel about Eli and his sons and the coming judgment.
ILLUS - John 4:3-26 - Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well and tells her that she has had five husbands, and that the man she is living with isn't her husband.
Discerning of spirits is a supernatural revelation into the realm of spirits, good or evil.
ILLUS - 2 Kings 6:10-17 - Elisha kept warning the king of Israel about the Syrian attacks, so the Syrian king sent a great army and surrounded the city of Dothan where Elisha was. When Elisha's servant saw it, he was afraid. Elisha prayed that God would open His eyes, and when He did, he saw "the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha". (vs. 17)
ILLUS - Acts 16:16-18 - Paul and Silas are followed by a girl with a spirit of divination. Eventually, Paul commands the spirit to come out of her.
Gifts of power:
The gift of faith is a supernatural trust in God for the miraculous.
This is not the same as saving faith, but it's the kind of faith that can move mountains.
ILLUS - Joshua 10:12-15 - Joshua commands the sun and the moon to stand still.
ILLUS - Luke 8:43-48 - The woman with the blood flow.
Gifts of healings are the supernatural power to heal diseases.
There are comparatively few healings documented in the Old Testament compared to the New Testament.
ILLUS - Numbers 12 - Miriam spoke against Moses and God struck her with leprosy. Moses interceded and she was healed.
ILLUS - But in the New Testament there are 35 different healing incidents in the Gospels alone, many of them mass healings. So here's just one. Luke 6:6-10 - Jesus heals a man with a withered hand in the synagogue.
Note that the Scripture says "gifts of healings": Both words are plural.
There are a couple of possible explanations for this.
First, it suggests the possibility that each individual healing is a gift - in other words, God doesn't just give a blanket ability to heal that lasts for all time.
That means that each time a person needs to be healed, the person praying needs another gift of healing.
The second possibility is that different kinds of healings need different gifts.
ILLUS - There have been a number of people over the years who see great results in praying for people's healing, but claim to be especially gifted in one or two areas. Derek Prince often said he had a special gift to heal back problems; Frank Houston apparently had a special ability to heal gastric reflux.
They may have a measure of success in other areas, but they excel in these.
The workings of miracles are supernatural interventions in the ordinary course of nature.
ILLUS - 1 Kings 17:17-24 - Elijah raises the widow's son from the dead.
ILLUS - John 6:15-21 - Jesus had just fed 5,000 people. Then He walks on water, calms the sea (see Mk 6:51), and a third miracle occurs. Jn 6:19 tells us that they were 4½ - 5½ km out to sea. Mk 6:47 tells us that they were in the middle of the sea. But John 6:21 tells us that when Jesus got into the boat, they were immediately at the land where they were going - another miracle.
Note again that the Scripture says "workings" of miracles - it's a plural.
This could again be because you need a gift every time you perform a miracle, or it's an acknowledgement that there are different kinds of miracles.
For instance, it's evident that some miracles relate to the way in which people are healed.
ILLUS - Acts 19:11-12 Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, (12) so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.
Casting out of demons is regarded as a miracle.
Mark 9:38-39 Now John answered Him, saying, "Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us." (39) But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me."
Gifts of inspiration:
Prophecy is a supernatural utterance in a known language.
ILLUS - 2 Sam 12:1-14 - Nathan's prophecy to David after he committed adultery.
ILLUS - Acts 21:10-11 And as we stayed many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. (11) When he had come to us, he took Paul's belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, "Thus says the Holy Spirit, 'So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.'"
Since we've already seen that out of all the gifts, prophecy is the one we're encouraged to pursue above all others, we need to understand that there are also some detailed instructions about this gift in the Bible.
So here are some important facts about prophecy:
1. There is such a thing as false prophecy. 1 Sam 18:10 And it happened on the next day that the distressing spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied inside the house. So David played music with his hand, as at other times; but there was a spear in Saul's hand.
2. Prophecy is therefore to be judged. (1 Cor 14:29) Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.
This means that you should never just accept prophecy without judging it.
ILLUS - There have been many abuses of this gift over the years, for instance, pastors inviting Christians to prophetic meetings and then prophesying over them that they should be in that church.
If anyone prophesies over you like that, give it the attention it deserves - ignore it.
Trevor Chandler said, "I can make do without a prophecy better than a wrong prophecy."
Wynne Lewis said, "If 5% of the prophecies I had heard over the years had been true, we would already have taken the world for Jesus."
The test of whether something is prophetic or not is clearly outlined in the Bible: "And if you say in your heart, 'How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?'; when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him." (Deut 18:21-22) The test of the prophetic is its truthfulness or accuracy.
So let's be wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
3. Prophecy is under your control - 1 Cor 14:32 And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.
It's ridiculous when people interrupt a preacher with a prophetic word - and it's unscriptural.
Believe it or not, the preacher is also working hard to be inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Kong Hee said, "God doesn't interrupt Himself [during preaching] with a word of prophecy."
4. Prophecy isn't just foretelling, most of it is forthtelling. 1 Cor 14:3 But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.
5. There is evidently a difference between a person who prophesies and a person who has the office of a prophet.
Everyone is invited to seek the gift of prophecy, but the prophet is part of the government of the church, and as such has a special calling and position.
The prophet is one of what has been termed the Five-fold Ministry Gifts. Eph 4:11-12 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, (12) for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,
Different kinds of tongues are supernatural utterances in an unknown language.
Now we've arrived at the last two gifts on our list - tongues and interpretation of tongues.
And the interesting thing about these two remaining gifts is that they don't exist in the Old Testament.
They're totally unique to the New Covenant.
Here are some important facts about the gift of tongues:
1. As we've already seen, tongues can be both a gift and a prayer language - we won't go into that in depth since we've already done that, but we've seen this fact clearly taught in Scripture.
2. If a person feels they have a gift of tongues, and they have a message for the church, they have three options. First, make sure someone is present who can interpret. (1 Cor 14:27) Second, pray that you may interpret. (1 Cor 14:13) Or third, keep quiet. (1 Cor 14:28)
That means that if you deliver a message in tongues, and it's followed by stunned silence, you're it - the responsibility is yours to interpret.
3. Tongues, when interpreted, are equal to prophecy. 1 Cor 14:5 I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, [lots of people stop there, but it goes on] unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification.
Interpretation of tongues is a supernatural interpretation of speaking in other tongues.
This gift is not necessary if tongues are used as a prayer language.
1 Cor 14:28 But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to himself and to God.
Yes, there's not always a clear cut difference between individual gifts. Eg. healings / miracles; miracles / faith; prophecy / word of knowledge or wisdom.
Some very conservative churches have taught for a long time that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased to be after the time of the early church.
Interestingly, to find out if this is true, we're going to look at the text that some use to "prove" that the gifts stopped when the early apostles died out.
And we might be surprised to find out what it really says.
1 Cor 13:8-12 - What is this passage really saying?
First, the gifts will eventually cease; there will come a time when we don't need them.
That's not really any big deal.
The question is not whether they will end, but when.
Verse 10 gives us a clue as to when this will be.
1 Cor 13:10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
What's going to be done away with?
That which is in part; in the context, it's talking about the supernatural gifts.
But this happens when the "perfect has come".
Some people have thought that "the perfect" referred to the completion of the New Testament.
Not only is this purely an assumption, but it can't possibly be true.
First, because the supernatural gifts were given for the building up of the church: Are we now so superior to the early church that we don't need that?
Second, it quite clearly describes what it will be like when the "perfect" comes.
Paul - probably regarded as the greatest representative of Christianity who ever lived - describes himself in verse 12.
1 Cor 13:12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
Paul saw only dimly, and knew only in part.
But the day would come when he would see face to face, and know just as fully as he also was known.
That day is the day when Jesus returns for His church.
Until then, we need all the help we can get, both supernatural and natural.
1 Cor 2:4-5 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, (5) that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Why do we need the demonstration of the Spirit and of power?
So "that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God".
Very simple - as we have already seen - I have a responsibility to seek them.