Introduction
Last October witnessed a new outburst of a long-running controversy. Pastor John MacArthur hosted a conference called Strange Fire in which the speakers dealt with what they considered the dangers of a continualist understanding of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, particularly speaking in tongues and extra-biblical prophesies. Pastor Mark Driscoll showed up at the conference to attempt to distribute his book on the dangers of a cessationist understanding of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit. The battle raged on as any modern battle in the battleground of Twitter and blog posts.
This controversy is not new. It has been raging since the second century of our era. The main difference between the controversy now and how it has historically been framed is that historically the continualist party was a fringe party, and now it is considered part of the main stream.
This controversy is largely based on what Paul teaches in chapters 12 and 14 of this epistle. Chapters 11-14 all touch upon the church's congregational life. He started by talking about men and women gathering together deliberately as men and women to pray and prophesy. So we took the opportunity to consider what the Bible says about Christian masculinity and femininity. Then Paul moves on to the corporate life of worship and singles out the Lord's Supper as we considered last week. Now he moves on to other elements of the worship service.
I. The Evidence of a Person's Standing before God Is not in the Gifts, but in the Giver, 1-3.
A. Paul is back to addressing questions the Corinthian Christians had sent to him – "Now concerning…" 1.
B. The problem that was plaguing the Corinthian worship was an over emphasis on the miraculous gift of speaking in tongues during the corporate, congregational worship – the whole context through chapter 14.
C. The way that they were conducting themselves in their corporate worship was a reversion to their pre-conversation life, 2.
D. The evidence of the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life is not how loud you are, or how mindless you are, but on your attitude toward Christ, 3.
E. 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.
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-spirit-who-gives.html
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