The Gifts of the Body, Part 1
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians Chapter 12 please. The last few weeks in preparation for a study of the book of Ephesians, we have been studying the concept of the body of Christ. We have talked about the body of Christ in terms of its nature. And we're not talking about His physical body, but the church which is His new body.
We've talked about the witness of the body, that is the importance of the body communicating. That is we who belong to Christ who are His church, who make up this body of believers, witnessing not only by our individual testimony, but by collective love and unity.
Tonight we come to the third in this series, entitled the gifts of the body. The Holy Spirit has specially empowered and enabled those of us who belong to Jesus Christ to carry about some very, very important functions. Now by way of introduction some thoughts, God wants to reach this whole world with His truth. Obviously.
In the Old Testament, Israel was God's vehicle to reach the world. In the gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Christ, Himself, and His disciples were the vehicle to reach the world.
Today, and sense the second chapter of Acts right up until today, the church is the vehicle through which God has designed to communicate to the world. And it is not only by the words that we say that we communicate, but it is also by what we are that we communicate. And that's the reason that Jesus said in John 13, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples that you have," what, "love one for another." And also in John 17, "That all men would know that the Father sent Christ if we were one." And He prayed, "that they may be one that all men might know that the Father sent me."
Our witness then is not only a verbal witness, it is not only a communication of the gospel in specifics, it is the witness of love and unity. And when we are one in love, the world will find our witness devastating. And so the church then is the vehicle by which God designed to communicate to the world His nature and His truth. And that's been the case since the second Chapter of Acts when the church was begun on the day of Pentecost.
A unity within the church on the basis of humility and love becomes then our greatest testimony. But needless to say, although all believers are one in terms of position that is 1 Corinthians 12:13 says, you have it right there, "By one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body whether Jew, Greek, bond, free, we've all been made to drink into one Spirit." So though we are one position, though we have been made one in terms of the Holy Spirit's ministry and salvation and putting us into the body of Christ, though we are one in fact we are not one in terms of our activities or our actions. And we certainly are not one in Spirit and witness.
Christianity's testimony has been decimated because it has been fractioned and hacked up into pieces and you've got this little group over here and this little group over here and that big group over there and so forth and so on. And people stand up and say that we're this and we do that, it's all fractioned.
Consequently though we are one position, the world does not see us as one in practice and we do not have a singular testimony of humility and love. Now you know that if God wants us to be one that Satan wants us not to be one. And so while the prayer of Christ was that we would be one, while the activity of the Spirit was to make us one, all of the energy of Satan is to fraction us.
So whenever you come into situation where you or me or anybody else is a divisive issue, we can be assured that if it's in the body of Christ, that we are the agent of Satan because Christ wants to unify. Satan wants to divide. Now may I add just a footnote. There is no scriptural justification for the existence of all the present divisions of the church. You know there weren't any divisions denominationally in the New Testament, none at all.
In fact, all of the divisions of the church are totally and explicitly contrary to the straightforward teaching of the Word of God. The whole intention of Christ informing the body was that we may be one body. Not all fractioned into little parts. Now how was the body formed? Was it formed in discord or was it formed in unity? Obviously, it was formed in unity.
The book of Acts, the body of Christ, the church was formed in a prayer meeting in the upper room of a house in Jerusalem. The disciples of Jesus gathered to pray. Out of that faith and obedience and waiting in prayer, by a company of humbled disciples, God brought into being the church against which the gates of Hell can prevail. There in that prayer gathering in an upper room in Jerusalem the hour of another divine dispensation struck. And men and women filled with the Holy Spirit and possessing gifts of the Holy Spirit when down out of that room into the streets to preach Christ's crucified, risen, and the day of God's free grace.
It was a group of humble people. There weren't any great ones. There weren't any mighty ones. They didn't get an organizational structure. They just prayed and waited. Hardest thing in the world to do. They prayed and waited. God said to them through Christ, "The church will be born in Jerusalem." Christ had told them this, "Not only will it be born in Jerusalem, but you will evangelize the world."
Now had Christ said to the church today, "The church will born in Jerusalem, or something will happen in Jerusalem, and you will evangelize the world," immediately we would start master planning, organizing, get the committees going. Got to get a chairman, have an election. You know what they did? They just prayed and sat there. They didn't even have an evangelism committee.
And you know something else? They were told to begin world evangelism and they didn't begin it for seven years. You say it's terrible. No, they wanted a solid foundation. They wanted strong capable evangelists. It takes time. God said, "The church will begin at Jerusalem and you'll evangelize the world." And they prayed and they waited.
And when God's Spirit got ready to act, He could act through them, because they were already filled with the Spirit. And you know something, when they went out of that room, when the church began, all of them evangelized. And that's the way it ought to be. There is no believer who's not responsible to evangelize. Oh you may not have the specific gift of evangelism, but you are witnesses. Everyone of them went out of that room and publicly preached the wonderful works of God.
In fact, they did it by a divine miracle in a language they didn't even know. That was the birth of the church. That was the birth of the body of Christ. It was born in a prayer meeting where they prayed and waited. It was all on the energy of the Holy Spirit, and every member, every member, that was part of that prayer meeting was engaged in the activity, through the Spirit's power. And from that moment on, friends, every single member that's been added to the church, has been added the same way.
"For by one Spirit were you," what's the next word, "all baptized into one body." Every believer who's ever come to Jesus Christ since that birth of the church has come the same way by the Spirit of God's power placing him into the body of Christ. We are as singularly one today in 1971 as we were one in Acts 2. And everyone of us entered the body the same way.
Now that early church was fantastic. They were exciting. And the reason was this, they were all, now watch this, "they were all filled with the Spirit." Now can you imagine what would happen if a total church was filled with the Spirit. The energy of the Spirit would fire through that body and it would be devastating. That church was filled with the Spirit.
Secondly, they were all exercising their spiritual gifts. Thirdly, they were all preaching the gospel. Can you imagine that? All filled with the Spirit, all exercising their gifts, all preaching the gospel. And they had a unity of humble love that was manifest everywhere. The world was flabbergasted. They couldn't believe it. They gave such a tremendous witness that daily souls were added, weren't they? Daily, daily, daily, daily souls were added.
Now, bring it up to us. In order for us to be an effective witness as a body, as the early church was, we must be just as healthy as they were, right? We must also be not organized, Spirit filled. Not super committed. No, just exercising our spiritual gifts. And all preaching the gospel. We have to be just as healthy as the early church. The standard for us is no different at all.
Now, the pressure is different, right? You know what the missing ingredient in the church today is that makes it so hard for us to be like the early church? There's one missing ingredient. Do you know what it is? Persecution. You know what persecution does? It drives out, whoosh, all the terrors. It gets rid of them. Why if all of a sudden the United States government declared that Christianity was illegal and everybody who was a Christian was going to be shot, what do you think our attendance would be on Sunday?
And you know what we'd have? We'd have spirit-filled, redeemed, committed people. And all the rest would just fade by the wayside. Persecution really puts it down to the nitty gritty. See, and that's the thing we're missing. But the standards are no different. We have to be mature, functioning, loving, humble, spirit-filled, exercising our gifts, preaching the gospel just like that early church.
And you yeah, but we didn't have what they had. Oh yes, we do. The only thing we don't have is persecution, but brother we've got everything else, because you know what everything else was? One thing, the Holy Spirit. That was everything else. Now Christ wants the church to be powerful. He wants the church to be mature. He wants the church to be functioning. He wants the church to be growing. He wants the church to be witnessing and manifesting His love.
Now, in order to do that, now here we go, in order to do that God designed a plan within the confines of the church, His body. And I'm not talking about church building or an organized church, but the true church. All right, here was God's plan. In order to make the church really grow and really have a unified witness, God designed that every single member of His body, every believer, every Christian, every body member would have a certain function or functions within the body.
Now hang on to your hat. "Every Christian then has a function within the body that results," watch it, "in the health of the total body." In other words, if God designed it, we'd be a healthy body growing, maturing, functioning, witnessing, then every member has a ministry that lends itself to the health of that body.
Now the human body is the analogy and the human body has all kinds of organs that interact. All kinds of limbs that interact. If you have just one of your organs that doesn't function, then the whole body is sick. And the same thing is true of the body of Christ. Every organ has a function that results in the health or sickness of the whole body.
So every believer has a vital ministry as a vital organ of the body. And if the body is to be healthy and mature, and thus a single dynamic edified built up testimony to the world, then every believer must actively and intensely involve himself in the function which God has given him. Your service and your ministry makes the body healthy. Because it carries strength to the other vital parts of the body.
Your failure to serve on the other hand, your unfaithfulness, your carnality, your self-centeredness, your divisive spirit, your laziness spiritually are all non-functions. And non-functions make the body sick, crippled, and retard its health, its growth, and maturity. And as a result, they retard it's witness. God has designed you into the body as a vital functioning organ if you're a Christian.
You must, you must minister to the body if the body is to be healthy. Now God's will for the body is that we be like Christ. Christ likeness. That's His will for the body. In Ephesians 4:13, it says this, just listen, "Until we all come in the unity of the faith, unity of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man," watch this, "unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of," whom, "Christ."
You know what our total body is to be? Like Jesus Christ. Is the total body like Christ? No, no. Is Christ divided? Paul said that didn't he? "Is Christ divided?" No. Is the body divided? Yes. Is the body like Christ? No. Is the body supposed to be like Christ? Yes. Why isn't the body like Christ? Because it's divided. Right. Why is the body divided? Because some members are non-functioning organs.
God's will for the body is that we be like Christ. You see here's what the point is folks, through the church, the body, Christ wants to manifest His own character. He wants to manifest His person through us, not only as individuals, and that's what he wants to do as individuals doesn't He? But as a body, He wants to manifest His person through the body of Christ. We are to be individually like Christ. We are to be in unity like Christ. And the method as I said to accomplish this Christ likeness is to give every member of the body a function that ministers to the rest of the body certain spiritual gifts that each of us have through which the Holy Spirit can manifest Himself to the whole body and bring the whole body to maturity and health.
Now, keep this thought in mind and you're going to have to think with me on this. It's not going to come easy. "All the gifts were in their fullest sense," now watch this, "complete in Christ." "All the gifts were in their fullest sense complete in Christ. The gift of preaching. Could Christ preach? Could He preach. The gift of teaching. Could He teach? Showing mercy? Could He show mercy? Helps, ruling, I don't care what the gift is, it was complete in Christ. And the reason He gave each member these different gifts is He wanted a composite Christ likeness. Do you see the point?
Every one of the gifts that we have was complete and perfect in Christ and He gives us as members these various gifts that we might be built up to the fullness of whom? Christ. You see? The Holy Spirit didn't say, hmmm, gift, I...I'll take a couple of those. Have those ones. Well, there's a nice one. No, every single gift that the Holy Spirit gave to the church was a characteristic of Jesus Christ. And He was the totally complete and full person. Just like God wants the church to be.
And you as a believer, you want to know something, the only way you'll ever be that full stature man in Christ, is when you have all those gifts being ministered to you. Did you know that? You see, you'll never be like Jesus Christ until you characteristically have been built up in all the areas that He was built up in.
That's why I must minister my gift to you, because as I minister my gift to you it builds you up in that area. And though...let's say my gift is preaching, if I minister to you in the gift of preaching maybe you'll never have the gift of preaching. But you'll learn just from my ministering to you how to communicate on a better level. And so I've built you up in that way. Maybe your gift is showing mercy and you minister that gift to me and I learn a little more how to show mercy. And I'm built up in that area and pretty soon as every member ministers to each other we're all built up as individuals to be like Christ and to show forth all his attributes and then collectively as a body we manifest a total person of Christ.
So you see every spiritual gift was taken from the nature of Christ. And they are gifts given to His new body, the church, that we might individually be like him as the minister the gifts to us and that we might as a body be like Him functioning with all those various gifts.
Now these gifts, and the word in the New Testament, charismata means grace gifts, they're gifts of grace, you don't earn them. The more spiritual you get the more gifts you get? No, wrong. You don't earn them. They're grace gifts. They are so critical they are critical to the health of the body. And a sick body is a sick evangelist. And if we're going to reach the world, if we're going to reach down the street, if we're going to really have a testimony that is devastating, it'll only happen when we are one ministering in love to each other these gifts.
Friends, this is important stuff. Now, go to 1 Corinthians Chapter 12 if you're not already there. And I want to show you four things about the gifts, about spiritual grace gifts. First the importance of the spiritual gift. Secondly, the source of spiritual gifts. Thirdly, the power of spiritual gifts. Fourthly, the extent of spiritual gifts. The importance, the source, the power, and the extent.
Number one, the importance of spiritual gifts. Now we have already talked about this haven't we? Why are they important? Because the body can't be like Christ unless they're ministered. And we all grow up together in maturity and all these areas that characterize Christ. How can I say I am...I am like Christ. I have Christ likeness if I don't how to show mercy. If I don't know how to teach to some degree. And how can I know these things unless somebody who has that gift teaches me, right?
And you know, it's not a human capacity in which you use the gift. It's the Spirit through you teaching me. And we'll talk about that more. But basically see, they are important because unless we minister our spiritual gifts not in our energy, but in the energy of the Spirit, but unless we minister our spiritual gifts the body is not built up. If it's not built up, it's not like Christ, and I'm not like Christ and the prayer was that we would be like Him. And if we're going to have any witness in the world, it'll be when we're like Him.
All right, the importance of spiritual gifts. Verse 1, and that's the verse that we'll deal with, no other verse on this subject. The importance of spiritual gifts. "Now concerning spiritual gifts brethren, I would not have you ignorant." Now unfortunately people are ignorant. The Corinthians were grossly ignorant, and people today are ignorant.
Some people abuse the spiritual gifts. Some people have gone way out in left field somewhere. They've climbed a fence, they're out in a parking lot in the area of spiritual gifts. All strange things, you know, emphasizing the sign gifts, the miraculous gifts. And we often stand back and say oh look at them, they're...they're way out man. What's that weird thing? And so we just take spiritual gifts and file it some where. And as some are daily abusing spiritual gifts, we are guilty of neglecting them. It seems to be indifference on the one hand or fanaticism on the other hand and nothing in the middle.
And here Paul says, I don't want you to be ignorant brethren, I want you to know about spiritual gifts. The understanding of spiritual gifts is so critical to the life of the body of Christ and the testimony of the gospel and the world that it ranks with the cardinal essentials of salvation and the gospel.
Dear people, this is essential. It's not a passing fancy. It is one of the keys to all the revelation of God and to the ministry in the world today that you understand spiritual gifts. And this church right here, Grace Community Church, or any other church or the total body will never be what it could be. It will never be what Jesus prayed that it would be. It'll never be what the Holy Spirit gifted and empowered to be until we are no longer ignorant about spiritual gifts, but rather we understand them and we begin to use them in the energy of the Spirit. So we see the importance of Spiritual gifts don't we. Very, very important. If you don't understand spiritual gifts friend you are ignorant of a critical basic, God's revelation.
All right, secondly, the source of spiritual gifts, verse 11. We're passing 2 to 10, we'll come back. Verse 11, the source of spiritual gifts. Where do they come from? Verse 11, "But all these," and he's just referred to the spiritual gifts some of them, "worketh that one and the very same," whom, "Spirit, dividing to every man severally as," what are the next two words, "He will."
What is the source of spiritual gifts? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit. Where do the gifts come from? They come from the Holy Spirit. That's where they come from. And this is so clear in this verse, it's also clear that God is involved in Chapter 7 verse 7, it says, "I would that all men even as I myself, but every man hath his proper gift of God." God gives these gifts through the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit then takes the various gifts and distributes them to the body member. The day that you were born into the family of God, the day that you receive Jesus Christ as your personal savior, the Spirit of God distributed to you a certain gift, and through those gifts, now watch it, here's the key, through those gifts, the Holy Spirit wants to minister to you and to the rest of the body.
Let me clarify it. Through those gifts, the Holy Spirit wants to minister through you to the body. Now, we'll talk more about that in a moment. A spiritual gift, we'll define it for you, a spiritual gift is a Spirit given ability which acts as a channel through which the Holy Spirit ministers to the body. You got it?
Say it again. The spiritual gift is a Spirit given ability which acts as a channel through which the Spirit ministers to the body. Did you get it? The spiritual gift is not end in itself is it? The spiritual gift is only the channel through which the Holy Spirit operates. Let me add a footnote, spiritual gifts have nothing to do with spirituality. Every believer has spiritual gifts. Even the back-slidden ones.
Because the spiritual gift doesn't mean you're spiritual. All a spiritual gift is is a Spirit given vehicle through which the Spirit can minister. The only question is whether the channel is clear or whether it's all plugged up. That's the only question. Spirit gifts are only Spirit given vehicles through which the Spirit of God ministers to the whole body. They are not signs of spirituality. You know, it's amazing how many people think that they have obtained some spiritual gift and they've gotten instant spirituality.
No, never has anything to do with spirituality. You can have all the gifts of the record of scripture and it wouldn't mean you're spiritual. And would you please notice that it says at the end of verse 11 "The Holy Spirit divides to every man severally as He will."
It's also amazing to me that people think they can seek certain gifts. You can't. People think they can tarry for certain gifts. You can't do that either. The Holy Spirit gives them as He will to whom He will. Some of you even developed gimmicks and devices, little techniques to get certain gifts. And they try to generate artificial emotional and Satanic activity and then they call it the gifts of the Spirit. This goes on all the time. And it usually deals with the miraculous gifts, which we'll talk about in a little while, like tongues and so forth and so on.
I read a little pamphlet entitled Ten Easy Steps to Speaking In Tongues. And it started out by saying you say a certain word hit yourself on the chin. Now, that is the most ludicrous kind of biblical scholarship I've ever heard of. The Spirit of God is the source of these gifts, not some gimmick. Not a little piece of paper that says ten easy steps to the gifts of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives the gift by divine will and divine choice. Not ours.
The Holy Spirit knows what gifts are needed. He knows where they're needed, when they're needed and who is to receive them to be ministered. And thus does He give them. And if each member uses His gifts, then there is a total complimenting and the work is accomplished to the glory of God as the body is built up.
You know, you can have the gift given by the Holy Spirit, and be doing nothing about it. It's interesting that a guy fell into that problem, and His name was Timothy. And Paul who had chased Timothy around like a mother hen constantly picking at him, which is a healthy thing to do, said to him in 1 Timothy 4:14, listen to this. "Neglect not the gift that is in thee." See he had the gift. Oh he'd become sidetracked by certain people who were pressuring him and he was becoming a little upset and he was even developing an ulcer, you know. And Paul told him to take a little wine for his stomach's sake. And he was really uptight.
And Paul says, "He Timothy, don't neglect the gift." He didn't lose the gift, he had it. He just neglected it. 2 Timothy 1:6, Paul puts it another way. Evidently, Timothy still wasn't doing too well. 2 Timothy 1:6, "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God." See, get going Timothy. You've got it, use it.
Well, essentially beloved that's what I'm saying to you. You're a believer, you've got a gift, don't neglect it. Stir it up. Activate it in the energy of the Spirit. Now please notice that a gift is not a natural ability. You can't say my gift is making pie. That is not a gift to the Spirit. That's a wonderful gift. And I would be happy to verify whether or not you have that gift, but that is not the gift of the Spirit.
Some of you say well my gift is to do this kind of thing or my gift is to work with my hands or my gift is to sing and that...those are not spiritual gifts. Those are natural abilities. Now the spiritual gifts are sovereignly bestowed manifestations of the Spirit's power through a divinely given ability.
Let me illustrate it to you. Now no doubt the Apostle Paul was a graphic illustration of the difference between a true gift and just a physical ability. Now let me show you why. Paul obviously had natural ability to express himself publicly. He just was...he was glib, sharp, fast, really quick. He had a natural ability to talk. But it is perfectly clear, and I want you to mark this as critical to understand, it is perfectly clear that Paul never, now watch it, he never regarded his ability to talk as a gift of the Spirit. He was a man of tremendous learning. He could have used his knowledge of philosophy and literature and composed eloquent, convincing orations couldn't he. And he could have delivered with magnificent ability. But you know what Paul said, now watch it, he said this, 1 Corinthians 2:2, just listen. "I came not with surpassing skill of speech or wisdom for no knowledge did I purpose to display among you, but the knowledge of Christ and Him," what, "crucify."
Do you see what Paul's saying? He's saying I have a natural ability to speak. I have a natural ability to communicate. I know philosophy. I took it all, stuck it over there and said Spirit speak through me. The Holy Spirit expresses Himself through man's powers. He uses a man's knowledge, but it is in a supernatural way apart from that man's own ability. And it's interesting about this, here's another way to illustrate it. There are a lot of people who have the gift of gab, and they aren't preachers.