Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Good Morning Church...

We are continuing in our series on the early church today called Ekklesia, the unstoppable Movement of God and for the past couple of weeks we have been looking at one particular local Church, the Church in Corinth.

Paul loved this Church, and last week we looked at how he affectionately considered himself their “Father in Christ Jesus”, and as any other good Father would, Paul sets out to guide and instruct his children so that they will flourish.

Tension

Whenever a group of people come together they are doing so with different personalities, preferences and life experiences and we can expect that we will not always see eye to eye on everything, so the Apostle Paul is excited to tell them about the special way that Holy Spirit works to equip each Church to come together like no other gathering on earth.

Unfortunately, this is not the overwhelming reputation of the Christian Church.

Our culture right now doesn’t disagree very well, as evidenced by the events over this past weekend.

There just doesn’t seem to be a lot of logical argument and intentional listening out there.

We just seem to be talking right by one another and end up rushing away to “our side” before we ever really hear what it is that we are disagreeing about.

Sadly, in too many instances the Christian Church has not been an exception to this cultural norm.

But we need to be.

We must be.

And we can be.

Because God has given us everything we need to be able to come together in ways that no other gathering of people could accomplish.

To flourish together as a group that is both diverse in it’s make up and unified in it’s mission, even over a sustained period of time.

The kind of gathering that would stand out so brightly in our world that people would have to sit up and take notice.

This is what the Apostle Paul wants for the Church in Corinth and it is what Jesus wants for every local expression of His Church.

It can be done, and the Apostle Paul is going to show us how.

In fact, this is such an important aspect of being a Christian Church that Paul also writes similar things to the Church in Rome and the Church in Ephesus.

Clearly this is something that Paul knew would be essential for the Church to be all that Jesus is building it to be.

So open up with me to 1 Cor 12, page 959 in the Bibles in the Chairs.

I’ll pray and we will look at how God is working to equip His Church to be so different than any other gathering of people on earth.

Truth

Paul begins by saying:

1 Corinthians 12:1–2 (ESV)

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.

We have a way to go this morning, but lets stop here and unpack this for just a second.

Having been in the book of 1 Corinthians for several weeks now we know something of the culture there.

Like much of the Roman world, the Corinthians practice a polytheism.

Poly meaning “many” and “theism” meaning how they worshiped their gods.

So they worshiped many different gods and each of these gods had various kinds of priests who would demonstrate some sort of “spiritual gift” that they had in order to set them apart as someone who could get you in good with that particular god.

This is how the people were “led astray” to these many different idols.

But it all really just led to confusion.

Because one person with a so called “spiritual gift” would tell you that you had to do one thing and then another one would say that you had to do something else and so on and so forth so you never really knew where you stood with these so called “gods”, because they never directly asked you for anything and they never directly taught you anything.

It was always through these “spiritually gifted” people.

Paul begins here by bringing up their previous experiences with “spiritual gifts” to contrast that experience with how “spiritual gifts” operate in the kingdom of God.

Specifically here, he brings up one of the most unique aspects of the one true God…that is that He is not mute…our God speaks.

He doesn’t leave us guessing about who He is or about who we are or about what it takes to be right with Him.

And the truth is that this can be either very freeing or very frustrating depending on how you have responded to Jesus.

It can be Freeing because unlike the “made-up gods” worshiped through out the Roman Empire - we are not left guessing over what God asks of us.

We don’t have to hope that maybe we might have gotten it right this time.

Maybe we gave just the right offering in just the right order with just the right attitude to please this and/or that god.

We should praise God that he didn’t leave us in the dark like this.

Instead, we can freely rest in the message of the Gospel.

That on our behalf, Jesus gave the perfect offering in his life, death and resurrection and all that we do now is in loving response to that amazing gift that He has given us.

We then follow Him by faith through grace and love him by obeying everything he has commanded of us in His Word.

This is such a blessing, if you have submitted your life to Jesus.

But if you have not submitted your life to Jesus, then this is where it becomes frustrating.

Since God has been so clear about what He asks from us, there is not room to manipulate the system.

We don’t get to play any games with God, or try and make bargains with Him.

In Polytheism, nothing is really set in stone so if you don’t like what one “Spiritual guide” tells you then you just go talk to another one.

Eventually you find someone who will let you worship your “god” in the way that you want to worship him or her or him/her or it.

Not that I am confused by pronouns, but they were - There is nothing new under the sun guys!

But Jesus has not left us wondering about who we are, or who He is or the way to be right with the One True God.

John 14:5–6 (ESV)

5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going.

How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

____

Acts 4:12 (ESV)

12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

There are no other options.

There are no other choices.

You cannot game God, you just don’t have enough game.

Jesus is the only way to salvation…that is why when it comes to people who are claiming to have “spiritual gifts”, Paul says that you will know if they are legit or not according to what they say about Jesus:

1 Corinthians 12:3-6

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.

Our first theme for the week is:

1. Spiritual gifts work in unity to establish the supremacy of Jesus Christ over every other allegiance.

(1 Corinthians 12:1-6).

No matter what experience these Corinthians have had up to this point with things called “spiritual gifts”, the “spiritual gifts” given by the Holy Spirit always point people to Jesus.

It is always about Jesus.

His Kingdom.

His Glory.

His Name.

His People.

His Church.

It is never about ourselves.

The “Holy Spirit” doesn’t give gifts for our selfish us or personal gain.

It is always about Jesus.

This is how Jesus described the nature and role and the Holy Spirit.

Before He ascended into heaven Jesus told His Followers:

John 16:12–15 (ESV)

12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

This is an incredible picture of how the Trinity works in our world now that Jesus has conquered sin and death and is working through the Holy Spirit to build His Church.

John Piper explains it like this:

“The Spirit is sent to make Christ real to people and to show us who he really is in his glory so that we come to love him and trust him and obey him and show him to the world.

What this means is that the Holy Spirit is more likely to come in power where the truth about Jesus is being lifted up and made plain.

The Spirit loves to come and take the truth about Jesus and turn it into an experience of Jesus.” - John Piper

So our first step in walking in brilliant unity is that the we are spiritually united together in this one purpose.

To communicate the life-giving message of Jesus Christ.

That is our mission statement.

That is our goal.

And wherever the name and glory of Jesus is bring lifted up, the Holy Spirit is going to active.