Ever been in that situation where you’re invited to a party, or some sort of social gathering where you know no one, except maybe that one friend who invited you? And even if you know that one friend, they know others, so you’re left alone to talk with yourself? Or you’ve been set up on a blind date, and the whole time it’s just an awkward experience, because you don’t know them, and they don’t know you?
When I was a junior in high school, my sister was a teacher at a different school. There was a girl in her class that didn’t have a date to the spring formal, so she asked if I would take her. Now, I did end up taking her, but the night was awkward. First off, I was a teenage boy, with all the awkwardness that it brings. Second, I didn’t know what the girl looked like, and we all know what “has a good personality” is code for. Third, not only was my sister there, but she had gotten my oldest sister and my mom to chaperone the dance as well. Awkwardness all around. But the night went as well as possible, she wasn’t bad looking in the least, and we had a good time.
But there’s always that fear of being the one friend at the party, that gets let behind.
And it’s this idea of leaving behind someone that brings us back into our study in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church, where we’ll being picking it back up in chapter 12, starting in verse 1. As we open up to 1st Corinthians 12:1, let’s bring ourselves back to what is happening in the letter.
In our first week we spoke about the purpose of the writing, unity. Paul’s desire for the church, is to be unified. Yet, there are two kinds of unity: Unity that sweeps issues under the rug, which is actually false unity, and then there is real unity, that deals openly with the hard issues. Paul desired that the Corinthian Christians have real unity, and so for the first 10 chapters Paul addressed issues that pertained to the relationships the believers were having with each other. Lack of leadership understanding, not addressing sin, not being content, using knowledge to belittle others, and more, were issues that the Corinthians were dealing with, and which led to disunity in the body of believers.
After Paul addressed these issues, he then moved on to how the Christians were to worship together in a way that brought glory to God and unity in the body. The first of these worship issues that Paul addressed, were head coverings and the Lord’s Supper. Both of which had at their core a need for godly submission, and personal evaluation in the Lordship of Jesus.
So now, let’s continue forward as Paul deals with another issue, that again, is one of controversy.
Let’s read together starting in verse 1 of chapter 12, in 1st Corinthians.
1 Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
Yes, we are going to cover the issue of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Now, as we address the issue of gifts, we’re going to go into great detail. That being the case, we’re going to spend at least four weeks in chapters 12-16 just dealing with the issue of gifts. This is because, especially in the modern era of Christianity, the gifts have become a point of contention throughout the Church. And I know, that at some point, I’m going to say something that someone will most likely disagree with. But my hope, is that at the end of this study, we will find unity in the gifts, even if we don’t fully agree with everything.
To start off this study, there’s one major item we need to cover. It’s an item that usually gets put to the back burner when talking about the gifts. That item is the Holy Spirit. In the first 11 verses Paul writes on the subject of gifts, he keeps bringing up the Spirit several times. The the opening verse, where we translate it as the gifts of the Spirit, Paul simply calls it the pneumatikos (pnyoo-mat-ik-os’), or the spiritual. What Paul has already covered in the worship issues area, are physical things that have spiritual consequences, these were but toes dipped into the spiritual realm. But now, we are are going fully into the spiritual.
Yet, to understand this, we must understand the Spirit himself. Now, you might wonder why we need to spend a whole week just on undertaking the Spirit, and the answer is because of a 2009 Barna Research Group study. This is the most recent survey on the Church in relation to how Christians view the Holy Spirit. In Barna’s research, they found that 67% of Christians either didn’t know if the Holy Spirit was a living entity, or they agreed in someway that he wasn’t.
In other words, the majority of Christians have the understanding that the Holy Spirit is not a person like God the Father or God the Son. But rather they believe that the Spirit is an immaterial power that is equivalent, to sound waves produced when we speak. To most Christians, the Holy Spirit is nothing more than what we call God’s actions, his power, is activity in the world. Or at the very least, simply another way of talking about God the Father in his spirit form.
But let’s take a brief look through the Scriptures and see how the Holy Spirit is reveled through it.
Now, we’re only going to focus on the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, because to do a complete study of the Spirit through the entirety of the Scriptures will lead us into another hour or more study, like a couple of weeks ago. And though it would end up be fulfilling, it doesn’t need to be done to understand who the Spirit is.
So what I’m going to do, is give you all of the references here, but I’m only going to read the first reference I give you.
In Matthew 1:18-20, Luke 1:35, and John 1:32-33 we are told that, it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus is set in or conceived in Mary’s womb. Matthew 1:18 states, “18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.”
In Matthew 3:16, Mark 1:10, and Luke 3:22, we are told that, at Jesus’ baptism by John, Jesus rises from the water, the voice of God the Father speaks, and the Spirit is seen as a bird descending on Jesus. Matthew 3:16 reads, “As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.”
Now these first two instances could be calked up to simply, a showing of God the Father’s power, but as we continue, listen to the words that are used in relation to the Spirit.
Matthew 4:1 & Mark 1:12, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” The Spirit leads Jesus.
In Mark 13:11, Matthew 10:20 & Luke 12:12, we read of the Spirit speaking. Mark 13:11 states, “Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.” So the Holy Spirit speaks through Jesus’ disciples.
In Matthew 12:28, we’re given the who that drives out demons, “But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Jesus drives our demons, not by his power but by the Spirit’s power.
In Matthew 12:31-32; Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10, we get the debated issues of the unpardonable sin. Matthew 12:31-32 reads, "And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” What’s interesting here is, it’s not against God the Father nor against God the Son that someone can make an unpardonable sin, but rather against the Holy Spirit.
In Matthew 28:19, we get, what Theologian Robert Jenson says, is the proper name for God. This reads, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” Here we see that the Spirit is named with the Father and the Son as an equal.
In Luke 4:14, we see where Jesus draws his miracle working power. "Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.” It is the Spirit who empowers Jesus in his earthly ministry.
In John 3:6 & 8, Jesus talks with a man about being born again. "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” In this, Jesus states that it is by the Spirit that we are reborn.
In John 4:23, we are told in what capacity we are to worship God the Father, “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” Jesus states here that his disciples will worship the Father through or in the Spirit.
In John 14:16, Jesus say he will send a paraklétos (par-ak’-lay-tos), “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever…” This Advocate is the Spirit, which is to be our advisor or counsel in the matters of God.
Later in John 14:26, Jesus says that the Holy Spirit is the Pneuma to Hagion (hag-ee-oe),. “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” So it is the Spirit who teaches and reminds the disciples of Jesus teachings.
John 16:8, Jesus tells us who convicts the world, “When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment…” The he who comes to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment is the Spirit.
Then in John 16:13, we see that the Holy Spirit works in the unity in authority we spoke of two weeks ago,. “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.” The Spirit doesn’t speak in his will by the will of the Father and the Son.
Throughout the chapters of John 14-16 the writer uses the Greek word autos (ow-tos’) when speaking of the Holy Spirit, this word is a personal pronoun used of everyone, Jesus, God the Father, a disciple, a man, woman, or child, it’s used of anyone with personhood.
Finally, back to 1st Corinthians chapter 12 verse 11, where Paul tells us that it is the Spirit who gives out the spiritual gifts, and it’s based on his discretion, “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.”
All this to say this simple sentence: The Holy Spirit is not a power of God, but rather one of the three persons of God. Not so individual to the point of being separate from God, but not so disseminated into God that he loses his personhood. This is the complexity of the God who created us, who is revealed through the Bible, and who calls us to follow him.
What we need to understand, is that the Holy Spirit is on equal terms with the Father and the Son, because as we talk about the gifts of the Spirit, we are not talking about things we are given by a force of God. No, we need to begin to think of the gifts as a commission specifically from the Holy Spirit to work in tandem with him and utilizing those gifts as he desires them to be used.
We cannot understate the role of the Holy Spirit in this process, because if we understate his role, we have already started on the wrong foot in understanding the gifts he bestows.
And so, as we move forward in this study of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, let us first stop, and recognize the Spirit for who he is. He is the one by which we communicate with our Father. He is the one, by which we are brought from death to life, by the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. And he is the one, by which we live out the salvation that has been given to us as a free gift of God.
In his book Holy Fire, R.T. Kendall wrote this, “Never think of the Holy Spirit as an ‘it,’ an ‘attitude,’ or an ‘influence.’ He is a person and has very definite ways. Call them peculiar, eccentric, or unique if you like; He has His ways. You may or may not like His ways. But get over it! He is the only Holy Spirit you have! He won’t adjust to you; you must adjust to Him.”
But sometimes, we do try to to reduce the Holy Spirit down to something other than he is, we try to leave him behind as we introduce others to the Father and Son, and it seems at time the party isn’t for him. And yet, he continues to go about his work, empowering and guiding those that call on the name of Christ. Why? Because he desires to point everyone back to Jesus, who points back to God the Father in an endless cycle of love.
And so, we must seek the Holy Spirit to move in our lives if we desire to understand the next few chapters of 1st Corinthians. We must seek him as he is meant to be sought from the Scriptures. To convict us of sin, to lead us to where God would have us, and to empower us to do the work we have been called to. He points to the Son, and the Son points to the Father. And so, we must seek to be pointed to the Son by the Spirit in our understanding of Jesus’ teaching, and of the work that he has for us.
So this week, my challenge for you is to add to your prayers, before you say”Amen”, something like this simple line: And Holy Spirit, convict me, teach me, and empower me as you see fit.
Let us be a people who seek after the Father, who are saved by the Son, and who are empowered by the Spirit. That the world would know the God who saves. Amen.
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