Introduction
Ken Sande, in his book The Peacemaker, says that the history of Christianity has re-written a very well known verse in the Bible. Mt. 18:20 says, "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." Ken Sande says that the Church has understood this verse to say, "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there will be conflicts." That seems to be an accurate description of the history of the Christian Church. One area of disagreement or conflict has been in the understanding of spiritual gifts, particularly the understanding of chapters 12 and 14 in this epistle.
Review from Last Week: The evidence of the Spirit's presence in your life is not what you can do or the gifts that you may have received. The evidence of the Spirit's presence in your life is your allegiance to Christ.
I. The Holy Is Most Glorified When Christ Is Most Exalted, 3.
A. Spirit of God is the One who empowers a person to confess that Christ is Lord.
B. Paul points to Christ as the evidence of the Spirit's presence in their lives, and in doing that he helps us understand what the function of the Holy Spirit is – the main function of the Holy Spirit is to exalt Jesus Christ in the church.
C. We often mean something else when we say that we want a Spirit-filled church, or a Spirit-filled life, or marriage, etc.
1. We usually mean that we want something extra exciting, some bang in our lives, some extraordinary manifestation.
2. But at the end of the day, a Spirit-filled life is a life in which Christ is exalted, loved and obeyed.
II. The Triune God Is the Source of All Gifts and He Gives Them out in Order for Us to Serve Each Other in unity, 4-7.
A. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is the giver of all good gifts to his Church.
B. The Triune God is intimately involved with his Church.
C. Notice that Paul uses three different words to describe the gifts that God gives to the church: gifts, ministries, and activities.
D. Paul emphasizes that, though the gifts may vary and not everybody has all the gifts, they all come from the same God.
E. Since the Giver is united in his diversity, we must be united in our diversity of gifts.
III. Every Member of the Body of Christ Is Gifted with a Gift That Is Good for the Body, 8-11.
A. Once again, listen to Paul's emphasis of the source of the gifts: the Spirit!
B. Each person in the church has been gifted by the Spirit in order to serve others, 7, 11.
C. Each gift that you have is a good gift to be used to build up those who are around you.
D. This list is not an exhaustive list of gifts – as matter of fact, no such list exists.
E. A final word about gifts: Jesus, who is Lord, is equipping his Church with everything it needs to grow into the fullness of the Body of Christ.
Conclusion
The controversy over the miraculous gifts of the Spirit will likely rage on till Christ comes back. We need to be part of the discussion and we need to know how these gifts relate to us. But more than anything else, we must be united in our diversity, using our diverse gifts to serve one another as Christ reigns over our hearts.
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2014/01/spiritual-gifts-and-serving-others-1.html
Put the internet to work for you.
