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This year your elders have asked me to talk about spiritual gifts and the fruit of the Spirit.
I have more to say about these subjects than time will allow.
I hope that you will pardon me if I leave something unsaid, and I trust that you will benefit from what I do say.
Our first subject is spiritual gifts.
We all know that a modern army is fitted with a strategic mix of weaponry to maximize its effectiveness.
Some soldiers have rifles and others use machine guns, tanks, bombers or ships.
All of these weapons are necessary to win the war, and those who use them must work together as a single army.
The Lord has followed a similar program in building his church.
He gives spiritual gifts to his people so that we can work together to build his church on earth.
!
What are Spiritual Gifts?
It may surprise some Reformed people to learn that all Christians are “charismatics.”
This word in Greek simply means /gifts/.
All Christians have been gifted by the Spirit.
Therefore, all Christians are charismatics.
We must also function as charismatics.
Unless we are serving charismatically, we are not serving as member of the body at all.
Why?
Because the Spirit gives his gifts to individuals for the edification of the whole body (I Cor.
12:7).
They are to be used within the body (Rom.
12:3–6; I Cor.
12:14–30).
The body of Christ moves when the different parts do what they were designed to do.
Pastors must teach the Word of God.
Those who have the gift of mercy must show mercy.
And those whose gift is giving must give generously, as unto the Lord.
It’s interesting that those who call themselves “charismatics” seem to think that the gifts begin with the Spirit.
On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit descended as in cloven tongues of fire and the apostles spoke in languages that they had never studied.
But it isn’t true that the gifts begin with the Spirit.
They actually begin with Jesus Christ.
Two passages of Scripture teach this.
The first is Isaiah 11:2–3.
Here the prophet foretold that the Messiah would grow out of Jesse’ stump.
The Messiah would also be given seven gifts: wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, fear and quick understanding.
More than one scholar has noted that these seven gifts parallel the gifts given to the church as Paul enumerated them in 1 Corinthians 12, where the list is much longer although the order is basically the same.
The second passage is Ephesians 4. In verse 7 Paul even refers to /the gift of Christ/.
He gave these gifts to the church when he ascended into heaven (v.
8), and he gave them to the church for the edification of /his/ body (v.
12), which will become mature as its knowledge of him matures (v.
13).
So, contrary to charismatics, the work of the Holy Spirit is to exalt Jesus Christ, not himself.
Jesus said that when the Spirit comes he would teach them what Christ had taught them (John 14:26).
There are four passages in the New Testament that list the gifts of the Spirit (Rom.
12:3–8; I Cor.
12–14; Eph.
4:7–13 and 1 Peter 4:10–11).
All in all, there are about nineteen gifts.
I say “about nineteen” because it’s impossible to fix this number with certainty.
Some of the gifts overlap a little, and there may be other gifts that are not specifically listed.
Even so, the gifts are as follows: prophecy (Rom.
12:6; I Cor.
12:10; 28–29; 13:2; 14:26, 29–32; Eph.
4:11), service (Rom.
12:7; I Pet.
4:11), teaching~/pastoring (Rom.
12:7; I Cor.
12:28–29; 14:26; Eph.
4:11) , exhortation (Rom.
12:8), giving (Rom.
12:8; I Cor.
13:3), ruling (Rom.
12:8), showing mercy (Rom.
12:8), wisdom (I Cor.
12:8; 13:2), knowledge (I Cor.
12:8; 13:2), faith (I Cor.
12:9; 13:2), healing (I Cor.
12:9, 28–29), miracles (I Cor.
12:10, 28–29), discerning spirits (I Cor.
12:10), tongues (I Cor.
12:10, 28–30; 13:1; 14:26), interpretation of tongues (I Cor.
12:10, 30; 14:26), apostleship (I Cor.
12:28–29; Eph.
4:11), helping (I Cor.
12:28), governments (I Cor.
12:28) and evangelism (Eph.
4:11).
!
Principles Relating to Gifts
Because there are so many spiritual gifts, it might be helpful to categorize them.
However, the problem here is that the gifts can be categorized in any of several ways.
For example, there are some gifts that require miraculous intervention (miracles, healing, tongues, etc.) and others that do not (pastor, government, giving, etc.).
Then there are gifts that relate specifically and directly to leadership in the church (apostle, pastor, elder) and others that do not (healing, tongues).
And there are some gifts that all believers have to some extent (faith, charity) and others that are more specialized.
The most common method of classification is to divide the gifts according to their permanency.
Gifts like pastoring, governing, and giving were intended to be practiced in the church until the Lord returns.
But prophecy, tongues, and healing had a very specific purpose in the early church and were not intended to be practiced perpetually.
We’ll come back to this idea in a little while.
The most extensive treatment of spiritual gifts occurs in I Corinthians 12, where the apostle Paul lays a theological foundation for us.
Let me just point out a few things that he says here.
First, Spirit-gifted people can be distinguished from impostors by their confession of Jesus as Lord (vv.
1–3).
Second, all Christians have at least one spiritual gift, which is to be used for the edification of the entire body (v. 7).
This means that we do not have to wait for some post-conversion experience in order to receive a gift.
This, of course, does not preclude God later giving additional gifts to individuals.
Third, there is a diversity in the gifts, but since they are all bestowed by their same Spirit there is also a fundamental unity in their purpose (vv.
8–11).
Fourth, the gifts are given as the Spirit determines (v.
11).
This means that we should not expect others to have the same gifts that we have or that we will have their gifts (vv.
15–26).
Fifth, all the gifts are necessary for the maturity of the church.
We are not permitted to despise the gifts that we have or those that have been given to others (vv.
14–26).
Sixth, we may desire other gifts in addition to those that we currently have (v.
31; see also I Cor.
14:1, 12).
But we must also remember that God does not promise to give us the gifts that we desire.
The choice is entirely his.
Seventh, in regard to gifts of service, there is no single gift that God gives to all Christians (vv.
29–30).
The /all/ in 1 Cor.
14:31 is best taken as referring to “all prophets” not “all believers.
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