Sermon Tone Analysis

Title: Holy Spirit Power, Holy Spirit Purpose: Spiritual Gifts

--PRAY--

Verse:

Thesis: The Holy Spirit is God Working Within His Church.

Intro:

As we begin this series, I want to go as deep as I can without preaching for as long as I can, so I do want to just dive into the text this morning.

We will see the Holy Spirit working within the church as He leads us, empowers us, and is sovereign over us.

The Holy Spirit is Leading Us

This points us back to something that Paul said earlier in this letter.

In chapter 7, Paul points out that he is actually writing this to respond to concerns that were expressed within the church.

He says, 1 Corinthians 7:1

1 Corinthians 7:1 (ESV)

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote...

and he goes on to address the topic of marriage, sexual relations, and the like.

Paul is not unaware of what’s going on in the Corinthian church, he’s kept tabs on them.

He’s likely received letters from those within the church as well.

In fact, the incestuous relationship we see taking place in chapter 5 seems to indicate that, as he writes

So in chapter 5, we see it’s not that they wrote and told Paul about it, it’s that he’s heard about it from someone else.

Likely Chloe, who he mentions in chapter 1, verse 11, who had also told Paul there was quarrelling within the church (1:11).

Now, in the previous chapter, chapter 11, Paul had addressed the behavior of these Christians as they’d come together for the Lord’s Supper, as well as how they’d behave in fellowship with one another

Much of what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians is to address the church’s actions, mistakes, misdirections, whatever we wish to call them - Paul’s letter was to get them back on track.

And here, to begin chapter 12, he tells them that he does not want them to be uninformed about Spiritual Gifts.

The word uninformed, of course, means he doesn’t want them to be ignorant of these things.

He wants the church to know about them, so that they can use them, but use them effectively.

I enjoy listening to some great preachers, many who do not believe the Spiritual gifts are for the church today, but nowhere in Scripture do we see the apostles telling us that the gifts are not for future generations!

Only, we see that we are not to be ignorant of them, and we are to use them properly, for the right purpose, if we are to use them in the truth of their power.

Many of those ministers have seen the abuse of the gifts, have seen them used in the wrong way, or have seen evil men use the good things of God for their own evil purposes.

Peter warned the church of such men, in 2 Peter 2.

Especially when he compares such men to Balaam.

Peter writes:

Who was Balaam?

He was a prophet.

These men claim to prophesy, they claim to be acting in the giftings of the Holy Spirit, when in reality, it is their own spirit, or even a demonic influence that is corrupting those around them.

Paul says don’t be ignorant.

Now, I want to get this out of the way as we move forward - we can discern what is and is not from the Holy Spirit.

Scripture gives us 4 simple and easy tests.

The first is when we ask if it somehow contradicts Scripture.

Numbers 23:19 (ESV)

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind.

Has he said, and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

If someone prophesies, or gives a message in tongues, we test it with what God has already given us.

What Scripture says is final.

That’s not debatable, that’s Christianity 101.

If you don’t believe Scripture is the word of God, and it is our foundation, then you need a heart check.

and not far above the page, Paul said

2 Timothy 2:13 (ESV)

if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

So if a prophecy or word of knowledge, or any other “word from the Lord” contradicts the written word of the Lord, what do we do with it?

We throw it out.

We disregard it.

We move on.

Second, we have to ask - especially if it’s prophecy - is it true?

Or does it come true?

An old Pastor who helped me learn to preach once said, “If you’re going to stand before the people of God and say, ‘Thus sayeth the Lord,’ you better be sure He said it.’”

That goes for preaching as well as prophecy.

The difference is, the one speaking prophetically is to hear directly from God the exact words he’s relaying to the people - if he gets it wrong, we ignore him.

In fact, he’s disqualified himself from the office of prophet.

Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel have strong words for such people.

and

So does their prophecy come true?

Is their word of knowledge applicable?

Does the message in tongues have any truth to it?

We have to ask this.

We must be discerning.

Third, does it add or subtract from Scripture?

In other words, is it adding a special revelation to the divine revelation we’ve been given?

It may not contradict, but does it add to what’s already there?

And Revelation warns

So at the beginning of your Bible and at the end, we are warned not to add or subtract from the revelation of Scripture already given to us.

Should a gift of the Spirit do that, we know it’s not the Holy Spirit.

Now, with that said, we also know from Revelation

Revelation 19:10 (ESV)

... the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

So someone may come along with a word of knowledge, a word of encouragement, a prophetic word, and it may not be something that sounds very scriptural, for example, “Brother, I believe the Lord told me you need to put your iPad down a little more and spend some time in your Bible.”

Now, you might hear that and say, “Psh, God doesn’t care about iPads, they weren’t even invented back then.”

But if you’re addicted to screens all the time, that may very well be God saying, “You’re not making time for me, that tablet is an idol, put it down.”

The word or prophecy is meant to draw you closer to Jesus.

On the flip side of that, and I’ll just say this: There were a lot of so called prophets the past few years more concerned with politics than they were the kingdom of Jesus, and they need to repent and sit down.

Is it drawing you to Jesus?

Is it edifying?

Is it rebuking?

Is it helping you knock off the sins and stains that have kept you from where you need to be?

Or is it some new revelation that “What God really meant when He said ___” or, “Jesus is coming back on October such and such”.

Because that’s definitely adding and subtracting, right?

And the fourth and final thing for discerning is simply the track record of the person giving the message.

What are they teaching?

what are they like outside the church?

Their words may sound right, may seem Biblical, but are they leading people to Jesus or to themselves?

Paul says don’t be ignorant of such things.

In fact, the word he uses here in verse 1, for Spiritual Gifts is not the word we typically see used.

It’s the word πνευματικῶν pneumatikon - which literally means “pertaining to the Spirit”.

Referring to spiritual qualities or characteristics under spiritual control.

Spiritual gifts are the divine enablement for ministry that the Holy Spirit gives us in some measure, under His control, and used for the building of the church for Christ’s glory.

Typically, and later on we’ll see, the word “charismata” (χαρίσματα) used, and that means a “gracious gift.”

That’s where we get the word “Charismatic”.

But that’s not what Paul is emphasizing just yet.

Charismata is Paul’s preferred word for such things, but it seems that when the Corinthian Church wrote him, they may have used the word “Pneumatikon”.

Now, this matters because it’s going to open our understanding as to how Paul views these giftings going forward.

The Corinthian church, as we’ll see, were using their tongues with no interpretation, they were prophesying and discouraging discernment, and doing this all before outsiders who had no clue what was going on.