Sermon Tone Analysis

I tell ya what, we are in the thick of it now. 1 Corinthians 12-14 is widely regarded as one of the most difficult and difficult-to-talk-about sections of the Bible.

These chapters are somewhat controversial as well as confusing.

So go ahead and buckle your seat-belts and hang on; it’s going to be an interesting ride.

You see, I don’t have the sense to shy away from the confusing or controversial.

But neither do I believe I have the right to skip over, avoid, or ignore any section of God’s Word.

We will discuss every part of this letter and then pick another one of the 66 books that make up the Good Book and do the same.

The Corinthian Christians have been corresponding with Paul.

They’ve written him at least one letter by this point and 1 Corinthians is one of Paul’s letters back to them (2 Corinthians is, of course, another of Paul’s letters to his friends, his sheep, his congregation there in Corinth).

What Paul is addressing are issues in the Corinthian church gathering, specifically their worship.

There are all sorts of issues in their worship gathering which can be grouped into a handful of different topics.

For our purposes, we are taking them one section at a time making this part 3 of the worship issues Paul has to address.

Verse 1 tips us off as to what Paul’s going to be discussing.

He writes:

Most of our modern Bible translations use the word ‘gift’ here in verse 1.

But verse 1 doesn’t actually use the word for gift.

What Paul says is, “Hey, let’s go ahead and chat about spiritual things (pneumatikon),” using a different word than is used in verse 4 (gifts, charismata).

So verse 1 reads literally:

Paul wants the Corinthians (and us) to be informed about spiritual things; he wants to make sure we’re not ignorant.

This is, albeit controversial and confusing, an important subject—a subject of which we must take note and pay heed.

Even though verse 1 doesn’t use the word ‘gift’, that’s what it’s introducing—a discussion on gifts of the Spirit, spiritual gifts.

He wants the Corinthians to know that they are gifted, maybe not skip-a-grade-in-school gifted (my grade school teachers thought I might be gifted…that lasted about 3 minutes and they quickly decided I wasn’t).

Paul wants his brothers and sisters in Corinth to know that they are gifted—gifted by the Spirit.

No one is left out.

Every single one of them is gifted.

And so are you, if you are a Christian.

>If you have your Bible (and I hope you do) please turn with me to 1 Corinthians 12. Keep your Bibles open in front of you this morning as we make our way through these first 11 verses.

Gifted to Believe

What’s foundational, what has to come first is an understanding of who we were and who we are.

We have to know this before we can grasp anything about spiritual gifts or the like.

Before Christ rescued and redeemed the Corinthians, they were, as are we all, pagans—separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship…foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope, and without God (Ephesians 2).

This is what they were.

Paul knows they know, but sometimes it’s good to have it pointed out to you that you know that you know, you know?

As pagans, as idol worshippers, what they did before Christ was worship idols, false gods; they were led astray to mute idols…somehow or other.

This is what they were.

Now that they’re Christians, their background as idol worshipers comes to the forefront and is potentially confusing matters.

There’s no somehow or other when it comes to faith in Christ; there’s no somehow or other when it comes to a relationship with God.

There’s no question.

If you are a Christian it’s because the Holy Spirit called you, opened your eyes; God drew you to Himself.

He gave you faith to believe.

It didn’t happen somehow or other.

Grace and faith are gifts of God.

You don’t fall into a relationship with God.

Nor does it come about through sheer force of will or the persuasion of someone else.

God might use another person to draw you to Himself—He will use the preaching of the gospel to convict and call you—but it’s not their work.

A relationship with God doesn’t happen somehow or other.

This is the work and gift of God, from top to bottom, beginning to end.

No one speaking by the Spirit speaks against Jesus (lest there was any doubt about what people might be saying in their exercise of speaking in tongues/different languages).

Likewise, only by the Spirit can someone say, “Jesus is Lord.”

The declaration— “Jesus is Lord” —is the most fundamental of all Christian statements of faith.

By confessing “Jesus is Lord” you are identifying Jesus with and as Yahweh—the LORD, as in:

By confessing “Jesus is Lord” you are also making a politically loaded claim, especially in the Roman Empire where the title “Lord” was meant to be applied only to Caesar and where people would proclaim (and often) “Caesar is Lord”, Christians would proclaim loudly, publically, and often: “No, Caesar isn’t Lord; Jesus is Lord!”

It’s a statement of theological conviction and personal allegiance.

No one can say such a thing aside from genuine faith.

In fact, no one can (dunatai)—no one has the power to say, “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

This confession of faith—any true confession of faith—can only be made in the Holy Spirit.

Faith itself is given.

Belief is a gift.

This removes all pride and ego from the equation—and should remove altogether all pride and ego from the discussion of spiritual gifts, the realization that we have been gifted at the fundamental level of belief.

Christians have—be it in Corinth or in Rich Hill and everywhere in between—Christians have been gifted to believe.

This is primary, foundational.

Once they understand that they have been gifted to believe, hopefully they can begin to understand both the diversity and uniformity of their giftedness.

Verses 4-6:

Gifted by the Triune God

Spirit…Lord…God—this is a common Trinitarian reference to the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ, and God the Father.

There is a great variety of gifts (which we will see in vv.

7-11).

This diversity of gifts is reflective of the diversity of the divine persons of the Trinity.

Not only is the Trinity diverse, but it’s unified/united.

Our diverse giftedness is meant to unite us, not divide us.

Sadly, these things often divide.

Each of these verses—4, 5, and 6—refer to what is different and to that which is the same.

Different kinds of gifts…different kinds of service…different kinds of working...

Same Spirit…Same Lord…Same God...

It’s crucial to see, and so significant to realize that all believers receive their various gifts from the same Spirit, Lord, and God.

All believers are gifted by the Triune God—there is no difference in the source of the giftedness.

The rich/poor divide that’s present within the church and at the Lord’s table doesn’t mean anything where the Triune God is concerned.

It’s not that the rich believer gets theirs from Bergdorf Goodman or Barney’s and the poor believer gets theirs from Dollar Tree or the garage sale down the street.

Each believer receives their gift directly from God.

God-given gifts of this kind become opportunities and obligations for service.

The proper response to receiving such gifts is not boasting—boasting would make it harder for people to see the gift is from God; the proper response is sharing God’s gifts with the whole church, and then the world.

We are stewards of the gifts of God—and we use them in such a way that the honor and praise offered to God increases.

All of this should lead us to an encounter with the Gift-Giver.

I would say if our hearts are in the right place, any time we receive a gift (birthday, Christmas, anniversary, whatever) our joy is not caused just by the gift we received but with the one who gave us the gift.

The gift doesn’t mean half as much apart from the giver.

These spiritual gifts are special, not in and of themselves, but because they come from Him.

This should lead us to worship.

According to D.A. Carson, “spiritual gifts” can also be translated as “grace gifts.”

Spiritual gifts are not something on top of grace or better than grace; rather, they are manifestations of God’s grace to His people.

At their core, they are given things.

You cannot merit or earn a grace gift.

It is something given.

It is undeserved.

To be gifted by the Triune God is an incredible privilege, blessing, honor.

We cannot selfishly think they are something we earned, nor can we selfishly hoard them.

They are not for our benefit, as Paul writes:

Gifted for the Common Good

Brothers and sisters, we have been gifted to believe, gifted by the Triune God, and this—all this—for the common good.

The word translated common good here (sympheron) is the same word used in 1 Corinthians 6:12 and 1 Corinthians 10:23— “I have the right to do anything,” you say, but not everything is beneficial.

The point he was trying to make there is the same point he’s making here: It’s not about you.

It’s not.

Stop being selfish.