Our Sermons

Bible Passage: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  January 20, 2018

There once was a city located on a isthmus. This city a major center of business. It has a reputation for immorality. It has about 200,000 people. In this city, the rich and the poor live side by side. The educated of the city are steeped in the wisdom of this world. It has factions or cliques that cause division throughout the city. What city are we talking about here? It’s too easy, right?  The obvious choice would be Madison, right? Doesn’t that describe Madison to a “T”? But I wasn’t describing Madison. Believe it or not I was describing Corinth at the time of the Apostle Paul. Madison and Corinth could be sister cities…same size, same societal blessings and issues. And so it would seem very likely that what Paul would have to say to those in Corinth is going to be extremely applicable to us who live in Madison. And that’s why we’re going to spend the next few weeks looking at a few chapters in the book of 1 Corinthians under the theme of Building Up the Body of Christ.

The Bible regularly pictures the Church as a body. As Christians, as members of the Holy Christian Church, we are part of the body of Christ. Naturally, we’re going to be interested in what that means for us. What is our role in the body of Christ? What can we do to make sure the body is healthy? How can we build it up? Thankfully, we have a place to find answers to those questions. As Paul writes the the Corinthians, he tackles many of those topics as he addresses the challenges that faced these Christians in Corinth. We get a hint of what some of the problems were in the first couple of verses of chapter 12. Paul writes: “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were deceived and somehow led away to mute idols.”

These Corinthian Christians were new to Christianity. Before Paul had come to Corinth, they had no knowledge of the true God, no knowledge of Jesus. They were uninformed. And because they were uninformed, they were deceived. They were led to believe in idols in false gods who had no way to help them. That’s why Paul calls them mute. Since they were idols, no matter how many prayers were sent or offerings were given or sacrifices were made, these idols had no power to help. But things have changed. Now these Corinthians are informed. The true God of the Bible has been made known. They know Jesus as their Savior. They’ve received spiritual gifts because of their connection to Christ. But with this new knowledge came new temptations. It wasn’t easy to put away the sins of their past. Their divisiveness and their tendency to form cliques remained. And now, it was the spiritual gifts that they had received that were causing the problems. And so Paul clarifies for them. He wants them to know what these gifts are all about and how they are supposed to be used. So he says, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed…Therefore I am informing you that no one speaking by God’s Spirit says, “A curse be upon Jesus,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.”

In the next few verses, Paul is going to speak at length about different gifts, but he wants to make one thing abundantly clear from the start: they all share one gift in common, in fact it’s the greatest gift. The greatest gift that the Spirit gives is the gift of faith. That’s what makes us part of the body of Christ. That’s what puts us all on the same team. No one can confess that Jesus is the Savior unless he’s been given the gift of faith by the Holy Spirit.

It was hard to be a Christian in Corinth in much the same way that it can be hard to be a Christian in Madison. Once you get outside these walls, things change. You become the minority. And the same was true for the Corinthians. And so Paul desperately wants to show them how they need each other. They need each others gifts. Listen as he continues.

“There are various kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of ministries, and yet the same Lord.  There are various kinds of activity, but the same God, who produces all of them in everyone. Each person is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Can you sense what the problem in Corinth might have been? Three different ways Paul says that everyone’s different and yet everyone has the same God. Why do you think he says this? I think it’s pretty clear that there was some divisions cropping up based on the spiritual gifts people had received. There were some cliques forming around the different ministries that were being carried out. People in Corinth were jealous of others gifts. They were using their gifts for purely selfish reasons. Rather than building up the body of Christ, they were threatening to tear it down.

Do we find ourselves with similar issues? We’d be lying if we said we didn’t. It’s only natural that people with similar gifts and interests will gravitate toward one another. And while there’s nothing wrong with that, in and of itself we must be mindful that this natural gravitation may bring with it the temptation to look down upon others who don’t share the same gifts. Think about groups here at church that you are a part of. Do you seek to inform and educate and to encourage people to join you or do we form our “holy huddles” and leave others on the outside looking in? Do you think that there are some ministries, some activities that are more important, more valuable to God than other? Do they happen to be the ministries and activities where you have gifts to offer? When it comes to the best of God’s gifts being used, are we concerned only with our own personal tastes or are we truly thinking about what’s best for everyone, for the common good?

Paul is very clear.  All the gifts, all the ministries, all the activities, every single one of them, come from God. And not only that: “Each person is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” That word “manifestation” is telling here. It means to clearly reveal or show something. Do you hear what Paul is saying? Every single Christian is given something some gift that clearly reveals itself to be from the Holy Spirit. Every single person. And I’ll be the first to confess that I haven’t looked at people that way. I haven’t seen the value in the gifts of the Spirit that God has given to his people. I’m prone to favoritism and factions just as much as the next person. And for that I need to repent.

And for that and all the other sins that come from a misunderstanding of spiritual gifts, there is forgiveness. There is forgiveness because of Jesus. Jesus always valued the people he came into contact with. He spent his time with the tax collectors and sinners. He lived and died and rose again so that every single person might be saved, so that they might no longer be destined for hell, so that they would come to a knowledge of all that he did for them. And not only that, Jesus promised his Spirit to those who trust in him. He promised spiritual gifts. Listen to how Paul continues: “To one person a message of wisdom is given by the Spirit; to another, a message of knowledge, as the same Spirit provides it; by the same Spirit, faith is given to someone else; and to another, the same Spirit gives healing gifts.  Another is given powers to do miracles; another, the gift of prophecy; another, the evaluating of spirits; someone else, different kinds of tongues;and another, the interpretation of tongues. One and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them to each one individually as he desires.”

What jumps out at you as Paul catalogues these gifts? Certainly the variety of the gifts is striking. But I don’t want to get caught up in the list that Paul gives because it was not meant to be exhaustive. There are many more gifts that Paul could have listed here. There’s something else. Notice how many times Paul says “to one” or “to another” or “to someone else.” Paul doesn’t say that all the gifts reside in one person or in a few. To one, to another, to someone else…in other words to everyone. Everyone has been given spiritual gifts. And there’s one more thing that jumps out here. The gifts are given by the Spirit, by the same Spirit. Every spiritual gift comes from the Spirit. And therefore every spiritual gift is valuable and useful and needed. The Holy Spirit gives different gifts in different amounts in different combinations to different people at different times under different circumstances for different purposes. And all of them are given for the common good.

What does this mean? It means that every single one of you sitting here today has a gift you can use to build up this body of believer and at the same time build up the body of Christ. Every single person. One of the things I hear most often when I visit shut-ins at home or in the nursing home is a tone of frustration. Many of these people were actively involved here at Eastside for many years. And now, because of their age and their health, they can’t serve in those same ways. And they say, almost to a person, “Pastor, I can’t do anything any more.” And in a certain sense, they’re right. They can’t serve in the way they once did. But they still have something to offer. They can pray. They can use that access to the Father which they have through Jesus and they can pray. And if even the shut-ins have something to offer, how much more so us who have health and strength. Think about the gifts God has given you. Maybe your gift is encouragement. You can find positive and encouraging words to share. Use that gift. Maybe your gift is a willingness to help behind the scenes. We’re always looking for volunteers. Use that gift. Maybe you have an ability to explain things clearly so people can understand them. Find ways to use those gifts. When we use our gifts out of love for our Savior to serve our neighbor, we are building up the body of Christ!

Folks, it’s hard to be a Christian living in Madison. Perhaps we don’t face the bold-faced, life threatening persecution as in other parts of the world, but we are not the majority voice. We need each other and we need each other’s gifts. Like Paul, I don’t want you to be uninformed. You have gifts, every single one of you. May God help us to recognize those gifts. May God help us to use those gifts, not for ourselves, but for the common good. Amen