Showing The Spirit
1 Corinthians: "Life Under Grace" • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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†CALL TO WORSHIP Hebrews 11:6
Pastor Austin Prince
Minister: We are here to worship God!
Congregation: We come in faith, because without faith it is impossible to please him. We come seeking an audience with God, because he is a rewarder of those who seek him.
†PRAYER OF ADORATION AND INVOCATION
O Lord our God, Creator of all that is visible and invisible–the earth and all that dwells in it is for your honor. The earth declares it and we your people declare that you are the Lord. Receive our worship this morning as a testament to your glory. Perfect our worship by the blood and intercession of Christ, and send us the Helper, the divine Spirit that our words and actions could be pleasing to you. Receive our prayer offered in the name of Jesus.
†OPENING PSALM OF PRAISE #111B
“O Give the Lord Wholehearted Praise”
†CORPORATE CONFESSION OF SIN
based on Exodus 20
As we confess our sins let us remember the words of the Lord
Minister: “God spoke all these words, saying, I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make idolatrous images; to have or to worship.
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness.
You shall not covet.
Congregation: Almighty God, we confess that we have sinned against your holy law in thought, word and deed. We have not loved you with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. We have not loved our neighbor as we love ourselves. By grace through faith, you made us righteous in Christ. Yet we have not lived with the perfect purity of our savior.
Forgive us, for his sake. Purify us, by his blood. Wrap us in his love and righteousness, that we might stand before you on the day of judgment, and find favor. We thank you that the promises of forgiveness we find in your word are true. Give us the Holy Spirit, that we might live before you more faithfully. Make us glad for our salvation, and eager to serve your holy will. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
What is one of those promises of forgiveness?
“The Lord is faithful in all his words and kind in all his works. The Lord upholds all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.” (Psalm 145:13–14, ESV)
CONTINUAL READING OF SCRIPTURE Exodus 10:21-29
Paul Mulner, Elder
THE OFFERING OF TITHES AND OUR GIFTS
CONGREGATIONAL PRAYERS
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
†HYMN OF PREPARATION #170
“God, in the Gospel of His Son”
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
Almighty God, I earnestly ask you for such deeper fellowship of the Holy Spirit, who speaks in the blessed Scriptures, that when I open them, I may perceive his mind in what I read, and immediately hear in them his voice to myself. I ask you for a quicker understanding in spiritual things, for more desire to understand, a fuller perception of your promise in the church, that I may become teachable, and may love that by which you will teach me. Amen. —Henry Wotherspoon
SERMON 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 // Showing The Spirit — Pastor Austin Prince
TEXT
1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 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. 4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 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. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
AFTER SCRIPTURE
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.
INTRO
INTRO
The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks as its first question, What is the chief end of man?
A: Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
Our chief end, our purpose, the reason you exist is to glorify God in whose image we are made. But Romans 3:23 reminds us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.
And that tension is where we live. There is a long shadow cast over us, as if we are meant to do something that we can’t or meant to be something that we simply aren’t. And there arises an anxiety about life and meaning that we can seek to fill with marriage or career or wealth and experience, etc.
But at the bedrock of who we are, though we may have marriages, marvelous experiences, great careers, etc., what we must do, what we were made to do among the many different paths that we may take, is to glorify God.
And in that way, for those who are in Christ, there is not only salvation, but redemption. In Christ, we are no longer defined as falling short of His glory but as a demonstration of His glory.
As Paul will later write to the Corinthians,
“ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us..….” (2 Corinthians 5:16–20, ESV)
In a world of darkness, we are the light
In a world of hurt, we are the salt
The chief end of man is to glorify God. And we have been given not only the ability to glorify Him, we have been given the motivation to glorify Him, and as we will see today, unique gifts to glorify Him through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
1) Principle about The Spirit 1 Cor. 12:1-3
1) Principle about The Spirit 1 Cor. 12:1-3
“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were 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.” (1 Corinthians 12:1–3, ESV)
Concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed…
Paul begins a new section in His letter to the Corinthians addressing Spiritual gifts. Like we have seen him do with previous topics, he gives a principle to anchor his argument and then he proceeds with multiple applications of that principle. For example, we just finished a long section on Christian freedom (all things are lawful but not all things are helpful). Freedom being the principle with multiple applications that followed.
In this section, Paul begins a conversation on Spiritual gifts by stating a new grounding principle:
“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”” (1 Corinthians 12:3).
Paul gives a test that clarifies the main fruit of The Spirit. If someone can say that Jesus is accursed, then they don’t have the Spirit. But if someone can testify that Jesus is Lord, then they do have The Spirit. The test makes for a principle spanning the rest of the argument: That is, The Spirit attests to the Lordship of Christ.
Now, I take this test to not merely mean speech–That a test of the Spirit’s genuine presence is whether or not you can simply speak the words “Jesus is accursed” or “Jesus is Lord”. Judas certainly could have said Jesus is Lord. And Jesus Himself says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21, ESV).
And here is where we have the key to this principle. The real presence of the Spirit can be discerned when someone’s lips and life testify to the Lordship of Christ. The real absence of the Spirit can be discerned when someone’s lips and life testify that Jesus can go pound sand.
We are told in Romans 10 that salvation comes, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved”. It is a testimony of both the lips and the life.
And that is the true mark of a Christian, they show the Spirit. And what is it exactly that they are showing? That Jesus is Lord.
And, the presence of The Spirit won’t let you remain in sin but pulls you back. “No one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed”. For the Christian, there is the creation of a new nervous system–a sensitivity to the Lordship of Christ that directs you with truth or yanks at you with guilt. You may sin, which is always in some form a belief and trust in a different ‘lord’, but The Spirit of Christ pulls you back.
Many times I have heard from people who were so discouraged by their sin that they doubted if they were children of God. But I remind them that their guilt is good. Hebrews 12:6 reminds us that God disciplines the ones that he loves - those whom he calls sons.
Whereas the dumb idol you used to serve said nothing, the Spirit in you now speaks. You are alive in Christ
In verse 2 Paul says, “You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led” (1 Corinthians 12:2)
Paul says, you remember, right, that at one time you were so in the dark and so gullible as to be led to mute idols? There were spiritual forces working on you, however they led you, into blindness and foolishness and dead ends, and ultimately damnation. You remember how you used to call those idols Lord (Lord meaning ruler, master, someone in authority). You remember when you used to say that Aphrodite was Lord, or fertility was Lord, or money was Lord, or circumstances were lord, or Caesar was Lord? And don’t you remember how hollow and false that was? All of that hope and allegiance to what you thought would protect you abandoned you. All of that confidence that you had was only a mirage. You were duped into trusting an embarrassing mute idol.
But now we worship the living God– a God who can speak and does speak and has spoken. And our lives now are meant to speak of Him, to testify to the world in various ways and through various means that Jesus isn’t accursed or shameful or foolish, but that He is Lord. That’s the Spirit’s work in us–a testimony, evidence, a witness, that Jesus is Lord.
A quick illustration of this principle can be seen in Paul’s own conversion (This text caught me in my Bible study this week):
“For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus. And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ” (Acts 9:19–22, ESV).
Paul now moves from the principle into the practical ways that a Christian can show the Spirit - how we individually and corporately testify that Jesus is Lord.
2) Diversity in unity: 1 Cor. 12:4-6
2) Diversity in unity: 1 Cor. 12:4-6
“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” (1 Corinthians 12:4–6, ESV).
Notice two main things about what is being said here: 1) there is a real variety represented among gifting, ways to serve, and activities within the body of Christ. Calling our mind back to the main principle, we demonstrate The Spirit’s working in our lives by declaring that He is Lord in very different ways, and 2) Paul draws upon the Trinity to demonstrate this idea of diversity and yet unity.
There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit
Varieties of service, but the same Lord
Varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empower them all in everyone
Just as persons among the Trinity glorify the Godhead uniquely, they are united. So, too, the church is blessed with many differing ways to testify about Him that come from many differing people with differing gifts, but all of it is united in Him.
This is a similar point as we saw a few weeks ago in Paul’s conversation about head coverings. Though men and women are equal in the image of God, they must not grumble about not being equal in their roles. The difference is intentional; it serves to display glory.
Instead of creating tension or jealousy among Christians, our differing gifts are varying ways that we paint the world with the glory of God. Some may be a small brush for detail work and some may be a twelve inch roller, but when you stand back the picture that is painted made good use of both brushes. But we’ll focus more on that dynamic in our text for next week.
3) For the common good 1 Cor. 12:7
3) For the common good 1 Cor. 12:7
“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” (1 Corinthians 12:7, ESV)
Among the Church and among a local congregation, there are many different gifts represented but they all serve the same purpose: to testify to the Lordship of Christ and to build up. It is a worldly mindset that views difference as a way to compete, to divide, and to determine a hierarchy. But in the Church, our differences are meant for serving and building up. We aren’t all hammers. (we’ll look at that in more detail next week).
Let me show you how Paul chooses to highlight this point of building up in this text.
Remember that this section of First Corinthians is where Paul is responding to questions that the Corinthians had for Him. What’s in view here with Paul’s response about questions of the Spirit and gifts, what Paul “does not want them to be uninformed about”(1 Cor. 12:1), is the attitude they should have in regard to these gifts.
It’s really not possible to see in our English translations, but Paul is doing a bit of wordplay in the Greek.
In verse one, the text reads like this: “now concerning πνευματικῶν”, the word here likely means “spiritual people”. That is, what are we to make of these “spiritual people”?
But as Paul responds to their question about these πνευματικῶν “Spiritual people”, he starts to use another word from them– he refers to them as χαρισμάτων. Charisma means something that is given, a gift. Charis is the word for grace.
And we can see what he is doing in the english within the context, but he is also doing the same thing by the very choice of words, he is pushing the Corinthians away from pride and hierarchy, and reminding them that the gifts are meant to bless and to serve the common good.
These Corinthians have been proud and divided about everything: which apostle/teacher was their leader, who was more pure, lawsuits, who was eating right, etc. Paul saw through them and changed the nature of the conversation.
You can see where someone who has the vocabulary of spiritual persons may say “I am one of the πνευματικῶν”. I am a spiritual person.
But it’s much harder to look down your nose at someone when you have to use a vocabulary of grace: “Look at me. I have been given more grace than you too glorify God. ho ho ho, look at me go”.
The blessings that we have among the congregation aren’t generated from within, they are gifts given by a gracious God.
4) Apportioned as God wills 1 Cor. 12:11
4) Apportioned as God wills 1 Cor. 12:11
“All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.” (1 Corinthians 12:11, ESV)
It is God’s will to give you the gifts that you have. There aren’t just special ones and special people, as the Corinthians (and we) might be tempted to believe. Each gift is apportioned by God. Don’t be ashamed of who you are or what God has made you to be.
Kids, will be thrilled if grow up one day and step into a career of ministry as a teacher, but we will be equally thrilled that you step into a career as a faithful mechanic, or stay at home mom, or engineer, or anything. You may be tempted to feel discouragement at who you are or how you serve (and we’ll look at that in more detail next week), but this verse calls us to see that it is God who determined your gift and your place and you time. He is using you, and we should not scorn that gift, that charisma, that grace.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We are to lean into the gifts that have been given to us. They are the means by which we glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
What it means for you today to have purpose in the Lord is to show the Spirit, to testify with life and lips and love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control, and teaching and preaching and hospitality and many many other ways that Jesus is Lord.
†HYMN OF RESPONSE #291
“O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing”
THE MINISTRY OF THE LORD’S SUPPER
Minister: Lift up your hearts!
Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord.
Minister: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
Congregation: It is right for us to give thanks and praise!
CONFESSION OF FAITH Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A’s 32, 34
Minister: Christians, confess your faith in Christ!
Congregation: I am called Christian because by faith I am a member of Christ and so share in His anointing. I am anointed to confess His name, to present myself to Him as a living sacrifice of thanks, to strive with a good conscience against sin and the devil in this life, and afterward to reign with Christ over all creation for all eternity.
We call Him ‘our Lord’ because - not with gold or silver, but with His precious blood He has set us free from sin and from the tyranny of the devil, and has bought us, body and soul, to be His very own.
INVITATION TO THE LORD’S TABLE
// ad hoc invitation or use below if needed //
So come and welcome to Jesus Christ. The only thing that bars anyone from partaking in this covenant meal with Christ is our sin, a spirit that says “Jesus is accursed”. But for those who have turned from their sin, and those who desire to turn from their sin, fellowship with God has been purchased for you, not with the gold or silver, but with Jesus’ precious blood. For those who call Him Lord, this meal testifies to our forgiveness, fellowship with God, and that we have been bought, body and soul, to be His very own.
This meal is for those who are sorry for their sin and those who hate their sin. This table welcomes all who belong to Christ through repentance, faith, baptism, and continuing union with his Church. If you do not repent of your sin, you must not come. If you do not believe you have sinned, you must not come. But if you know your sin, and confess it, he is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness and this table is for you. Come, touch, taste and see the faithfulness of God.
PRAYER
DISTRIBUTION OF THE ELEMENTS
After elements are distributed read the WOI while congregation is partaking.
WORDS OF INSTITUTION AND SHARING OF THE LORD’S SUPPER
M: The Lord Jesus, the same night he was betrayed, took bread;
and when he had given thanks,
he broke it
and gave it to them, saying, “Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you:
do this in remembrance of me.”
After the same manner also, he took the cup when they had supped,
saying, “This cup is the new testament in my blood:
this do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
BENEDICTION
The blessing of God, the giver of every good and perfect gift; and of christ, who summons us to service, and of the Holy Spirit, who inspires generosity and love, goes and abides with you all. Now and forevermore, Amen.
Grace Notes Reflection
Being made in the image of God defines our existence. From speech to the capacity for creativity to the inner-workings of our relationships, we are to reflect God’s holiness and character. And yet, we have all sinned and fallen short of this glory (Rom. 3:23), leaving us with a feeling that our lives are meant to do something that they can’t and meant to be something that they aren’t. What a grace, then, that Jesus not only saves us from having fallen short, but also restores us as image bearers of a new creation (2 Cor. 5:16-20).
God is making His appeal through the Church by giving gifts of grace that bear witness to His glory–various gifts that all testify that “Jesus is Lord” (1 Cor. 12:3). But why would God need to make an appeal, and who is He making an appeal to? His word tells us that “all have gone astray and have turned-every one-to his own way” (Isa. 53:6). As the Church, we join the scriptures (Heb. 4:12) and creation itself (Rom. 1 :20) as a testimony to the glory of God. What a great blessing it is, then, for each to be given gifts of grace for the building up of the Church (1 Cor. 12:7), and, conversely, what a shame to turn such grace into a means of competition and self-promotion (1 Cor. 12:15).