Spiritual Gifts, Part 4

Let's see, I would like to ask Mr. Hale and Mr. Wilkie to pass out the handouts. I have a handout two-sided for each of you here today as well. We won't be getting to that for about 15 minutes or so here, but please take one. We're actually going to have an art class today. That's why there's this figure of an individual here, and I'll explain that a little bit more when we get into it. Today I would like to continue with our subject and series on spiritual gifts, picking up and expanding on some of the thoughts we did not have time to cover last time. And today what we will be talking about is building the body through spiritual gifts. This is the fourth in a series of sermons on spiritual gifts. In the first of those we gave basically a biblical overview of the major scriptures about spiritual gifts. And in the second sermon we went through and saw how the Bible defines the different individual spiritual gifts that are listed. There's actually 20-something in all there. And then in the last sermon we actually had an exercise that we went through to determine what our spiritual gifts are from a list of seven gifts that are found in Romans 12.

And there are handouts for all of those. And if you would like to if you missed that or would like to get one of the handouts, feel free to send me an email. Again scottashley at gmail.com is probably the easiest way to reach me there and the easiest to remember. So you can get those handouts from previous messages. And also three out of the yeah the first two are up online. The third one should be up online this coming week from last Sabbath. So in that last sermon we began reading in in Romans 12.

We based the sermon around that. So let's go back and review that very quickly. Romans 12 verses 6 through 8. And it says, having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. If prophecy, and I'll digress a little bit here to define how we're using that term, prophecy in English is not the same as the word that is translated this from the Greek.

It generally had several meanings, whereas we tend to in English view that as strictly foretelling the future. In Greek it was more a sense of revealing God's will, of perceiving and revealing God's will. So when I refer to this gift, I'll probably interchangeably use the term perceiving or perceiver and prophecy or prophesy or prophet. That's more the term in which we would view it as a spiritual gift. So if prophecy or if perceiving, let us use that gift in proportion to our faith. Or ministry, ministry here in the Greek isn't talking about the ordained ministry, but it's simply talking about serving.

That's what the word means. To minister to someone is to serve someone. So I'll refer to this gift as serving or servers. Let us use it in our serving. He who teaches in teaching, he who exhorts in exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads or administers with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. And again, last time we went through an assessment that helped us identify where our individual strengths were in each of these categories here.

And as we saw from the assessment sheets, we each did have particular strengths in one or more of these areas. And today I would like to expand on that concept some more so we can better understand what we're to do with these gifts. And as Mr. Price alluded to, those are things we are essentially hardwired with at birth. To review just briefly about that for those who didn't hear it last time, we are all essentially programmed from birth with our DNA, which essentially dictates how tall we'll be, how wide we'll be, the color of our hair, color of our eyes, genetic predisposition to different illnesses, diseases, that sort of thing.

But also from birth we come out of the womb with essentially a given, more or less set personality type. And it's interesting that researchers have identified that. A number of I asked the question last time, how many people were familiar with or had taken the Myers-Briggs personality tests? And nearly everybody was familiar with that. And that's a very famous type of test, been around for several decades, that identifies one of several basic personality types. And what researchers have found is that actually those basic personality types actually correspond with these spiritual gifts or spiritual predispositions to types of serving the body that we have.

It's rather a fascinating finding there. And of course, scientists are finding all kinds of things, now discovering in recent decades, that have actually been in the Scriptures for the last 2,000 years or more. And they're only now beginning to discover this. But it's really a fascinating study that they have been able to find and find the correspondence in the intersection between these personality types and individual spiritual gifts, or ways that we serve the body based on our individual character, individual personality type, temperament, that sort of thing.

So that's a real short couple of minutes summary of what we talked about last time. But one thing that we did not cover last time and haven't really talked about in this sermon series yet, and I do want to cover this today, is the context in which Paul writes about the subject of spiritual gifts. Because context is very important.

Context sets the frames, the issue, and sets the stage for the discussion. And consequently, context is a major part of the story. And as I've mentioned and included on the previous handouts, Paul talks about spiritual gifts in three different chapters of his writings. He talks about them in Ephesians 4 and in 1 Corinthians 12 and in Romans 12. And as we'll see today, it's also very interesting that in each of these chapters he also talks about something else.

He talks about the church being a body, the body of Christ. And he compares it to a human body. And as we'll see today, this is very important for understanding and applying the subject of spiritual gifts. So let's notice the verses here, Romans 12, 6 through 8. Let's notice what immediately precedes this passage here that we talked about so much last time. And let's just back up here to verses 4 and 5 and see what he says.

Paul writes here, For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.

So he's talking about the body here just before he talks about spiritual gifts. I especially like the way the New Living Translation puts this, which I think makes it more understandable to us here. So let's read it here. Same verses, verse 4 of Romans 12. Just as our bodies have many parts, and they do, we have fingers, toes, arms, legs, ears, eyes, noses, hair, that sort of thing.

Just as our bodies have many parts, and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body, referring to the church. We are all parts of his one body, and each of us has different work to do. And since we are all one body in Christ, we belong to each other, and each of us needs all the others. So we see here that Paul, just before going into this discussion of spiritual gifts, talks about the church being one body that is comprised of a number of different individual parts, and each part has its own role to play. So there are three different points I'd like for us to consider at this point. Here again, this is what he flows right into next, which we talked about that again, so we won't go over that again. But there are three points for us to consider here about this aspect of a body. First of all is that a body is one unified whole, even though it has different parts. A body is one unified whole, even though it has or is made up of different parts. A body, in other words, is not a bunch of separate scattered pieces here and there and all over the landscape. That's not the way a body is. A body is one body, one complete body, one whole body that is made up of a number of individual parts that work together for the good, for the benefit of the body as a whole. Again, as the New Living Translation put it that we just read here, we are all parts of His one body and each of us has different work to do. So each part of the body has different abilities and different gifts. In other words, is what Paul is saying when he gets into the discussion of spiritual gifts there. Just as our physical bodies need our eyes, we need our ears, we need our hands, we need our our legs, we need our feet, we need our heart, our lungs, all of these different parts. And we need them all working together for the body to function correctly. So the spiritual body, that is the church, needs all of the members with their individual gifts working together to function properly as a body, as a unified whole. That's the point that Paul is making. Again, we'll see this brought out again and again in what he writes. Another part for us to consider here that kind of frames this discussion is that in a body, one part doesn't do everything. In our physical body, the brain doesn't do everything. The hands don't do everything. The feet don't do everything. The eyes don't do everything. The mouth doesn't do everything. Each part, each individual part of the body has a part to do, a role to play, an important part to play. One part doesn't do everything. Each part has a job to do and a role to play.

There. The parts are not alone. Each part does the work that it is given to do. And each part does its part and every other part of the body does its part as well. And working together, the body then functions correctly to accomplish the job that needs to be done.

A third point for us to keep in mind to frame this discussion is that each part of the body is mutually dependent on the other parts. Each part of the body is mutually dependent on the other parts. And in other words, no part of the body is independent of itself. You know, if you have a body, the brain can't exist by itself. The eyes can't exist by themselves. The hands can't exist by themselves. The feet can't exist by themselves. Each part relies on the other parts. The brain can't survive without the heart pumping blood to it there to keep the blood circulation and without the lungs that provide oxygen to the brain to keep it working and functioning there. The heart can't do its work without the nervous system telling it when to beat. How many beats per minute and so on to keep that frequency going there. And without the stomach and the digestive tract processing the fuel that will fuel the muscles of the heart.

The heart can't survive on its own like that. In the stomach, the stomach and digestive tract can't do their work without the mouth and the tongue and the throat and the esophagus taking in the food and without the kidneys and the liver filtering out the bad stuff and the colon eliminating the waste and all of that. It's all one interdependent system where everything works together for the benefit of the body as a whole.

And the point of all of this is that being a body we all need each other. We all need each other. We're not designed to be a body of one part. We're not to be designed like some of the old sci-fi movies of this glass jar with a head or a brain sitting in there existing on its own. No, that's just that sci-fi and sci-fi only. We're not designed to be a Christian off by himself or herself off on the proverbial desert island off somewhere existing totally by ourselves without other people around. God actually made us, he actually designed us, so that we are incomplete without interacting with and working with other members of the body. That is the church. And the way this ties in with spiritual gifts is that each of us is given gifts, as we've talked about, read many scriptures earlier in this series, to serve other members of the body. That's the whole point, to serve and to edify and to build the body. And the other members of the church, in turn, are called and given gifts to serve us as well. We serve others and others serve us. That's the way the body grows. That's the way the body edifies itself in love, as we've read a number of times before. And that's how the body is built up and how it grows together in love. So the seven types of gifts that we talked about last time, as revealed by the assessment that we took, how might these relate to a body? To help us understand this concept a little bit better, how might these seven gifts that we talked about and that we just reviewed briefly here a minute ago relate to a body? What can we learn from this analogy or this metaphor of a body to help us learn how to use our God-given gifts to serve and to build the body?

Now, it's interesting that the seven gifts that we talked about, perceivers, servers, teachers, exhorters, givers, leaders, or administrators, and those with mercy and compassion, it's interesting that they actually correlate very well with specific parts of the human body.

Let's start with the perceivers here. What part of the body might this correlate with?

As we talked about in our assessment last time and went through that detail questionnaire to determine where our strengths lie in these individual areas, perceivers are those who generally have more insight, more perception in terms of dealing and interacting with other people, in terms of understanding what is going on in the larger scope of the church as a whole, or as of the nation as a whole, or of the world as a whole. That is where that intersects with the category of prophecy there. We talked about some of the individuals who are perceivers in the Bible, like John the Baptizer there, and read some quotes from his messages about how he was really nailing the hypocrisy of the individuals of his time there. And that is true of the biblical prophets. They were very perceptive, very aware of what is going on, of course, through the inside of God's Spirit working with them as well. But those who are perceivers tend to see things that other people miss. So what part of the body might perceivers correspond to? I would submit that the perceivers are the eyes of the body. In other words, they have a clearer view of what God is doing, and they can see this and relate this to others. And this is a very valuable function in the body, in the human body, as well as the spiritual body. Let's notice just a couple of scriptures relating to this, how important the eyes are to the body. Matthew 13 in verse 16, where Jesus Christ says, Blessed are your eyes, He's talking to the apostles there, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

And also Matthew 6 and verses 22 and 23, The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.

But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.

If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

So the eyes of the body, the perceivers, those with that gift, are very important. They can more clearly see what is going on and are able to share this with others. But it is also important that their vision, their eyesight, the lens through which they view the world, be rooted in the word of God. Because if it's not, what's going to happen to their vision, their eyesight? It's going to be distorted. It's going to be warped. It's not going to be accurate. It's not going to be unable to do others any good. So those who are perceivers also cannot let themselves be involved in sin. Because the sin will corrupt their outlook and how they see things. It will corrupt their vision, their perceptive, and their reality. And may ultimately end up leading other people astray there because their vision is warped by their sins or by their individual weakness.

Next, in order of this list, and I'll go through this fairly quickly here, are the servers, or ministers, or ministry, as it was worded there in Romans 12. What part of the body might the servers correspond with? Well, who are the servers? Again, as we went through last time, servers are those who see a need and do it. They do their best to fill it. They pitch in and they get the job done. They physically help with a lot of needs that need to be done, like hallmarks. Like hall set up, take down, working with the sound equipment, technical needs, things like that.

They serve a lot in helping other individual members of the body, the shut-ins, doing visiting, helping those who perhaps can't mow their lawn or who need repair work done around the house, that sort of thing. These are the servers. They physically help with what needs to be done.

What part of the body does this sound like? Well, I would submit that the servers are the hands of the body. The servers are the hands of the body.

They see a need and they do it. They take care of that. Let's take a look at one scripture here about the importance of hands and the human body. This is from Proverbs 31 and verse 20.

You may recognize this as the chapter about the virtuous woman. She extends her hand to the poor.

In other words, she reaches out to the poor. Why? To help them. She reaches out her hands to the needy to help them, to assist them, to help out those who are in need there, showing the importance of that.

In 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 28, we won't turn there. It's one of the chapters. We'll read this verse later. But Paul refers to this in the New King James as the gift of helps, a very similar meaning to serving there, the gift of helps. Those with this gift love being helpful to other people at any time and at any place. Again, these are the people who willingly pitch in to help and do whatever is necessary to get the job done. As a result, they are very important to the body.

Think about what your hands do for your body and what your life would be like if you didn't have your hands. Imagine the kind of existence that would be and how much could you get done if you did not have your hands. So hands are very, very important to the functioning of the body there. I think this helps us understand how important those who are serving are to the functioning, the proper functioning and growth of the body that is the church.

What's next on our list? Next on the list is teachers. Teachers, as we talked about last time, are people who are often asking questions and seeking answers to those questions. They want to learn as much as they can about particular subjects and particularly about the Bible, about God's Word. What part of the body does this sound like to you? I would submit that the teachers are the mind or the brain of the body. The mind or the brain of the body. They help the body learn, they help the body grow mentally and spiritually as they dig into and explain God's Word.

Let's notice a scripture about the importance of this type of attitude and function in the body.

This is Acts 17 and verse 11 describing the reaction of the Jews and Berea to the teaching of the apostles. Notice what it says about them, very complimentary, actually. These, these Jews and Berea were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica. They received the Word with all readiness and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. In other words, they heard the teaching of Paul, and I believe it was Silas, the other apostle there, and they received the Word with readiness. Then they searched out the Scriptures daily to find out whether this was true, whether what Paul was saying was accurate or not.

And then, as a result of this, this fair-minded inquisitive attitude, therefore many of them believed. They accepted what Paul said and believed it, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.

So these individuals wanted to know the truth of God, so they diligently searched it out with a right attitude. They searched out the facts. They evaluated and weighed what they learned, and then they made the right decision to accept and to act on what they had learned and to share it with others. And this is what good teachers do. They like searching things out. They like determining whether these things are true, and then sharing them with the rest of the body so that the rest of the body might grow together. So we see then that the teachers would correspond with the mind or the brain of the body. Next on the list we have the exhorters.

Exhorters, as we discussed last time, they like to encourage people. They like to edify people. They like to exhort others. That's what exhortation means, to edify, to encourage others. They like to talk a lot, generally. You could rightly say that the exhorters are the mouth of the body.

The mouth of the body. Let's notice a scripture that talks about this over in Acts 13.

In verse 15, this is breaking into a story about Paul and his companions arriving at a synagogue in Antioch. It says here, "...and after the reading of the law and the prophets, which is part of the standard synagogue service of that day, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them to Paul and his companions, saying, Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on." So it was the practice in the synagogues of that day to allow visitors to give a message of exhortation and encouragement to those who were gathered there at the synagogue that day. We see this during Christ's ministry. We see this with Paul as well. And that's what an exhorter does. An exhorter gives messages of encouragement and edification and exhortation to other members of the body. Next on the list we have the givers. In the list there, what part might that correspond to with the human body? We've already talked about how the servers are essentially the hands of the body and how important that is to the proper functioning of the body. And of course, it's obvious that serving and giving the givers, the servers and the givers, are closely related spiritual gifts there. They're both involved in serving and helping and doing for others there.

What part of the body might we say then is very closely related to the hands?

Well, I would argue that the givers are the arms of the body. They're the arms of the body because the hands can't work without the arms. There, you need the arms and the hands working together there. And as the arms provide the strength for the hands to do their work, so do the givers in the body. They provide the strength for the body to get its job done. Let's notice a few scriptures about this. Isaiah 51 in verse 9, Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Eternal.

So the arm is connected with strength, and that is where much of the strength is in our bodies. Without our arms, we lose essentially our strengths. Very difficult for us to even function without the strength we have in our arms. Another one, a famous passage we won't remember. I won't go into a lot of detail about this, but going back to the story of the Exodus, you probably remember how when the Israelites are leaving Egypt and they encounter the Amalekites at Rephidim.

I'll just read it through here quite quickly. Moses said to Joshua, Choose us some men, and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Her went up to the top of the hill. And you probably remember the famous story what happened there. And so it was when Moses held up his hand with the rod in it there that Israel prevailed. And when his arms got tired, and he lowered his arms there to get some rest, Amalek prevailed and started defeating Israel. But Moses' hands became heavy, so they took a stone and put it under him for him to sit down on. And he sat on it, and Aaron and Her supported his hands. Each of them took one of his arms and hands and held it up there so that the Israelites could prevail. Verse 13, so Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.

So Moses, as reading through his story, you can learn that he was probably a leader or administrator, very capable individual there. But Aaron and Her were the support people there, who in this case stepped in to support Moses' arms so that the Israelites could win the battle against Amalekites. In the same way, the church needs the givers to provide the support strength needed to get the job done and for the church to grow and develop together in love.

Next on the list in Romans 12 are the leaders or administrators. What part would they correspond with in the body? What do we typically say about someone in a leadership role? It's become rather proverbial in our English language. We would often say that someone in a leadership role is shouldering a great responsibility. Or they have a big burden on their shoulders. So I would suggest that the leaders and administrators are the shoulders of the body. They're the ones who essentially control what goes on with the arms and with the hands in carrying out the physical work of the body there. Let's notice also a prophecy of the Messiah in Isaiah 9 and verse 6.

Very familiar one, but for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder. So we see here the leadership of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, bearing the burden, you might say, the responsibility, the obligation of government upon his shoulders. So I think this would correspond with the shoulders there.

This gift of leadership or administration. And last we come to the last of the seven gifts we talked about last time, which is that of showing mercy and compassion. And what part of the body do you think this gift would correspond to? This one may be the easiest to answer when you think about it here, because when someone is filled with mercy and compassion, we typically say that they are ruled by their heart instead of by their head. And there's a need for both. So those with mercy and compassion, I think, would correspond with the heart, the heart of the body. And let's notice that we could probably read a number of scriptures. I'll just read read one here, 2 Thessalonians 3 and verse 5. May the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ. So people with this gift, the gift of mercy and compassion, show the rest of the body something very important. They show by their example the loving nature and character of God the Father and Jesus Christ, by the compassion that they have, by the mercy, by the tenderness, by the concern and the love that they show toward others.

Now let's diagram this on your handout here. It's art class time. What I'd like you to do is take this handout and copy what you see right here on this. And I'd like you to do this exercise to help it sink in a little bit more here because it's too easy to forget the spoken word not long afterwards. But I'll leave this up here briefly. And I see I've had a font issue. This changed in my PowerPoint here. That should be a heart symbol, not a copyright symbol.

I'm not trying to say your heart is a circle with a little c in there, but that should be a heart symbol in there. So you can draw in a heart there. But this shows the different parts here, how the teacher would correspond to the brain or the mind, how the perceiver would correspond to the eyes, the exhorter to the mouth of the body, the leaders to the shoulders, the compassion and mercy to the heart, the giver to the arms, and the server to the hands of the body. I think this is a very useful diagram to help us understand where the individual gifts, aptitudes, personality type that we were born with and which God enhances through His Spirit can help us play a role in the body, the body that is the church as a whole here. So there are all different parts of the body, as we can see here, but all of them obviously have a very important role to play. What would the body be without the brain? What would the body be without the eyes? What would the body be without the mouth, without the shoulders, without the arms, without the hands, without the heart?

How would the body function? How well would the body function? Would it function at all if we were missing some of these very important parts of the body?

Okay, moving on a little bit. I'll show this diagram again in a minute if you don't have everything down. But let's read another passage that we've read several times before in this series. I'll read it from the new international version because it captures the meaning of several of the Greek words better here. Each one, 1 Peter 4 and verse 10, should use whatever gift he has received to serve others. I've emphasized before this is the purpose of the gifts God has given us, to serve others. Faithfully administering God's grace, God's compassion, God's kindness, God's goodwill toward human beings in its various forms. That is how God's grace is administered a lot of ways in the church, is through what we do through our gifts for one another. God uses us, in other words, as instruments administering God's grace, His compassion, His kindness, His goodwill toward us, through the gifts He has given us. But notice this here as well, verse 11, which we haven't read yet.

If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.

To Him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. So notice that Peter here categorizes gifts in two very broad categories. Those being speaking, if anyone speaks, and serving, if anyone serves. It's not to say they're mutually exclusive, they're not. But it's interesting how Peter talks about gifts and he categorizes them in these two broad categories of speaking and of serving there. But which gifts are which?

And here too, the analogy of a body becomes helpful. You may have noticed, going through the list we've covered today, or maybe you noticed it the first time we went through this list of gifts land Sabbath. And that is that these gifts fall into these two basic categories, the speech or speaking gifts, and what we might call the serving gifts. So what are the implications of these? Let's go back to our diagram here. Give you a few more things to write in now.

What are the implications of this? Well, some of the implications, the teachers, if they are the mind or the brain of the body, how do they teach? Through the spoken word, primarily written word as well. But primarily the teachers cannot exercise that gift without putting what they learn into words to share with the body. The perceivers, the eyes of the body, what must they do if they are to share what they perceive, their insights, their understanding, their understanding of God's will, what must they do to share that with the body? They must speak. They must use words to put that into practice, to use that gift. Exhorters, the mouths of the body, must obviously speak, to exhort, to edify, to encourage others through that gift that God has given them. The leaders or the administrators, the shoulders of the body, if they are to lead, if they are to get the body working together and cooperating and working toward getting the job done, then they must speak so that they can effectively lead and administer. So what we see is that these four parts, four gifts, teaching, perceiving, exhorting, leadership, fall above this dotted line here.

You can draw your dotted line out across on your diagram there. So these would be in the category of the speaking gifts, or speaking as for God, as Peter put it. We'll go back to that verse here later. But what about the gifts then that fall below this line? Well, the compassion people, what are they like? They're generally people, those with the heart, those who are motivated by their compassion, their mercy, their love for other people. They're generally much more comfortable working behind the scenes and serving other people quietly behind the scenes, and visiting with them, encouraging them, writing them cards, letters, giving them phone calls, something like that. There, that's the way they exercise their gift. They're much more comfortable in doing that rather than standing up in front of a crowd and talking about things like that.

What about the givers? Those who are the arms of the body, the givers, generally will also avoid the limelight there. And they will serve in the background primarily. I mentioned last time there we have some very generous givers here along the front range. And in actually every case that I can think of, they give anonymously, they give quietly, they don't want it publicized. They're just generous in that way. And they're not doing it for recognition, not doing it to be publicly seen or recognized or anything like that. They're doing it quietly behind the scenes. And that is a typical characteristic of those with that gift of giving. And then there are the servers as well, the hands of the body. They're generally working away in the background. You don't necessarily see them unless they happen to run over you or run into you on their way to get something another part of the job done there. Unless you get in their way there as they're doing the work there. So generally they are doing that instead of getting up and speaking in front of others in that way. So thus these would be, as Peter puts it there in 1 Peter 4 verses 10 and 11, serving with the strength that God provides. So this is the way I think Peter intended to categorize these different gifts that are described in Scripture here. Those that he calls the speaking gifts up here, teacher, perceiver, ex-order, or leader. And those who are the servers, those motivated by their mercy and compassion, those who are the givers, those who are the servers. And they serve with the strength that God provides. So an important thing to note about the way Peter describes these gifts is that those who are charged with or need to exercise their gifts through speaking, they have a responsibility to say what God wants said.

What God wants said. Not their own words, not their own thoughts, not their word, not their own opinions, not their own interpretations. They have to constantly seek God, to seek God's will, and to ask Him to speak through them, to give His words, not their own words. And this is something for all of our speakers we need to be doing.

And those who have these gifts of serving here, serving in a physical way, they're to serve with the strength that God provides. In other words, they need to be close to God also, and they need to be seeking God to be their source of strength, and energy, and commitment, and endurance to do the physical labor, the work that is involved there for the body. So all of these gifts are serving in different ways there, but they all have to serve as though they are serving God, and to serve, as Peter put it here, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ, because to Him be the glory and the power forever and ever. It's all done for the glory of God, not for the glory, not for the edification of the individual with the gifts, but for the edification, the building of the body, and for the glory of God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Now obviously this does not mean that those who are serving will not ever be speaking. That's certainly not the case, nor will those who are involved in speaking at times not be physically serving. We have to do both of them. We'll talk about that in the next part of this sermon series. I'm just giving generalities here to help us better understand our parts in the body, and how we can exercise what God has given us in terms of serving the body. Now I mentioned in the introduction we'll shift gears now and move away from these aspects of the discussion of the body, and get to the next part of your handout. You'll notice I have a lot of different points here. I decided I would prevent you from getting writer's cramp and list these for you here. When Paul writes about spiritual gifts, again I mentioned this in the introduction, in Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12, and Romans 12, in each of these three chapters he also talks about the body. He connects these spiritual gifts with the body, and the way the body functions together as a unified whole.

What I would like to do in our remaining time here is to read those portions of these three chapters so that we can better understand the context in which Paul discusses this subject of spiritual gifts and relates them to the body that is the church. It makes a number of key points, so many that again I wrote them down here for you and printed them out, because they are all vital for us to understand if we are to properly use the gifts that God has given us.

See how many of these points you can pick out as we go through and read these three sections. I'll do this fairly quickly, but they're all listed here in order. What I'd suggest you do as we read them is list the verse out beside these so that again it'll register in your mind, and you can use this as a reference to go back as well. Let's begin in Ephesians 4.

I'll just read through this fairly quickly here and help us to understand the context. Again, this is what I'm emphasizing, the context in which Paul discusses the subject of spiritual gifts.

Paul says, I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

And again, now he gets into the subject of the body. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, excuse me, get ahead of myself, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. And now he starts talking about gifts. Verse 7, But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

And then he goes off on a tangent, which we'll skip over for now, for lack of time.

And then we'll pick up to a section we discussed in some detail in one of the earlier sermons.

And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. As we talked about just very briefly, these are gifts given not so much to individuals but to the church as a whole. And we'll see why he gave them in just a minute here.

Keep changing slides here. I'm trying to flip pages and change slides at the same time. And sometimes my brain part isn't interacting with the serving part here in the hands. So sorry for that. So he gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. And why? Why did he give these positions, these responsibilities within the church? For the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, or the work of service, is what it means in the Greek. For the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ.

Verse 14, that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

But speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies.

Let's talk about all the different parts of the body. Now he's talking about the body again, right in the same context of spiritual gifts, according to the effect of working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

As I've mentioned before, this is paraphrased in the vision statement of the United Church of God.

What do we see then in this statement? I'll go back and you can see these points.

Verse 4, there is one body and one spirit. We see that the church is called the body.

I'm going through this section right here, so you can write down this verse, verse 4 of Ephesians 4.

And we also see here there is one body led by one spirit, one Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God.

Skipping down to verse 6, we see that God is over all, God is in control, and He is working in the church. That's from verse 6. Verse 7, we see that God gives grace and gifts to the members of that body. Skipping down a bit to verse 13, again, going through this fairly quickly, we see here the purpose for these gifts. We've talked about this in more detail previously, but Jesus Christ gives these gifts to the body to equip the saints for works of service, for edifying the body, that is, the church, for the ultimate goal so that we can be perfected like Jesus Christ. That is the whole point of spiritual gifts. That is the point of responsibilities within the church, such as apostle, pastor, evangelist, teachers, and so on, for the equipping of the saints for works of ministry or service for the edifying of the body till we all become like the perfect man, Jesus Christ. Skipping down a few more verses, verse 15, we see that Christ is the head of the church. Then in verse 16, we see that, again, every part of the body has a part to play and a role to share in the proper functioning of that body. Overall, this leads to the growth of the body as it edifies, as it builds itself in love.

Again, this is the whole point of spiritual gifts here. Now let's move on to 1 Corinthians 12, the other chapter where Paul talks about spiritual gifts a great deal. Again, he connects it with the body, the metaphor of a human body and the body that is the church.

He says, Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant.

He does a brief tangent which we'll skip over.

He continues, verse 4, there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit.

There are differences of ministries or ways of serving but the same Lord.

There are diversities of activities but is the same God who works all in all.

But the manifestation of the Spirit, the manifestation being the evidence of the Spirit, where it's evident that God's Spirit is working through someone, the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.

Again, that's the purpose of the gifts for the benefit of all of the entire body.

For to one is given, and now he starts into a discussion of these different gifts, for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit. We talked about this in the second sermon in the series. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy or inspired teaching or perception, as we've talked about, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues or languages, to another interpretation of tongues or interpreting languages. As we talked about earlier in the series, a number of these gifts were very evident in the early decades of the church where we see these great miracles that are showing God's stamp of approval on the church through these miraculous manifestations of these gifts, such as speaking in tongues. We read about in Acts 2, that Pentecost there, and these other gifts that were very powerful, very dramatic miracles there in the early decades of the church, which we don't see on anywhere like that scale in the church today. It's not to say that God is not going to use those gifts again. It's certainly His option, His decision to assign those gifts as He sees fit. He just doesn't seem to be using them in the same way at this time. Continuing on with that little digression, verse 11, "...but one in the same spirit works in all these things, distributing to each one individually as he wills." Paul has talked about and listed a number of different gifts here. Now he immediately goes into a long comparison about the body, the metaphor of the physical body and the spiritual body that is a body like that, the spiritual body that is the church. Here's the famous passage about the body that we're familiar with. But again, what's it in the context of? It's in the context of talking about spiritual gifts. He says, "...for as the body is one and has many members, many parts, heads, arms, hands, feet, legs, so on, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves are free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit. For in fact, the body is not one member, but many. And if the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not part of the body? And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, am I not of the body? Is it therefore not a part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? And if the whole body were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as he pleased. And if they were all one member, where would the body be? In other words, if everybody was a finger, or a big toe, or a toenail, or whatever, where would the rest of the body be? He's pointing out the ludicrousness of viewing ourselves apart from the body, the spiritual body that is Jesus Christ's.

But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you, nor again the head to the feet, I don't need you. No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker, or not as important, are necessary.

And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable on these, we bestow greater honor, for our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another.

So in other words, if people had this understanding of what the body is and how important it is, that we all have a role to play in the body through the gifts that God has given us for the edification of the body, why would anybody even think of dividing the body?

And this should also help us to understand how reprehensible it is in God's sight for people to divide the body that is the church. It's just unthinkable. Just unthinkable in God's perspective to do that. Continuing on in verse 26, And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. Or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. And then what does he talk about next? It goes right back into spiritual gifts again. Again, the spiritual gifts are how the body builds itself, how it grows, how it is knit together, how it accomplishes God's purpose for the body. And then he goes into in verse 28, and God has appointed these in the church. First apostles, second prophets, third teachers.

After that, miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.

As we talked about in an earlier sermon too in this series, this isn't talking about a hierarchy of rank when he says first, second, and third, because those are adverbs.

Adverbs are describing the verb. In other words, God has appointed, it's not describing ranks, but it's describing the chronological order in which God appointed these different functions within the body. He appointed first the apostles. Jesus Christ's disciples joined later by individuals like Paul and Barnabas and James and others like that. Secondarily, the prophets, the prophets, those with the gift of perceiving and revealing God's will, and so on, then teachers. These are other functions that had to be appointed within the church to build and edify the members that God is calling and placing within the body.

And so on. We'll go through and recount all of that again. That's back in the second part of the series if you wanted to listen to that. Then it continues on. Verse 29, Are all apostles? Is everybody that God calls an apostle, which means one who is sent?

Are all prophets? Does everybody have that gift of perceiving and of revealing the word and the will of God? Are all teachers called to teach and explain God's word to others? Are all workers of miracles? The obvious answer is no to all of these. Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues for other languages?

Do all interpret these other languages, but earnestly desire the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way. In Paul's letter here, there is no chapter break. There are no verse breaks. Those weren't added until sometime in the 1500s.

Chapter 13 is just a continuation of the same subject of spiritual gifts in the body and how they work together to build and edify the body there. Chapter 13 is a continuation, and here Paul talks about what is really important and the attitude we should have in using the gifts that God has given us.

Chapter 13, verse 1, The way speak with the tongues of men, one of the gifts that he just wrote about, and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. In other words, I'm just making a lot of noise if I'm not motivated by love.

Verse 2, though I have the gift of prophecy, again, one of the gifts that he just talked about in the previous chapter, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, the gift of knowledge that he just talked about, and understand, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, again, one of the gifts he just talked about, but have not love, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, if I am a giver, if I am a server, one of the gifts that he's just talked about, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long, it is kind. Love does not envy, love does not parade itself, it's not puffed up. It does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, it is not provoked, it thinks no evil. It does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.

It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

But whether there are prophecies, they will fail. Whether there are tongues, they will cease.

Whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. He's again talking about all these different gifts that he's just talked about in the earlier verses.

But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

What's he saying here? What's his point here? What he's saying is that what good will the gift of prophesying, what good will that be at the end of Revelation when all the prophecies are fulfilled?

And there are no more prophecies. If you've got the gift of prophecy, what good is it in the long run? If you've got the gift of speaking in other languages that you don't know, or interpreting those other languages, what good is that gift going to be when God institutes a pure language over the entire earth? And everybody's speaking one language?

What good is your gift of speaking in tongues going to do?

Nothing. The gift of healing. What good is the gift of healing going to be when everybody has resurrected, transformed into spirit beings in God's kingdom? What need is there going to be for the gift of healing or miracles when everybody can perform miracles? So his point here is that all of these things, as he says here, are going to pass away in the end. But one thing is going to remain. And the one thing that is going to remain is the love that we have. The love that motivates how we use the gifts that God has given us. That's going to remain because that is going to be a permanent part of our character after all of these other things are gone. After there's no more need for these other gifts that he talks about here. That's the point. That's the most important thing, is love. As he points out here, that's why it is more important than any or all of these other gifts.

Eventually they will no longer be needed, but love will go on forever. That's why he says love never fails. Here in verse 8, it will be forever. So what do we see? Let's recap now again on our list these things that we've just seen. Tremendous amount of information in this chapter. Verse 1, we see that God does not want us to be uninformed about spiritual gifts. Verse 4, we see that the gifts given are different, but the same spirit is behind them. Verse 5, we see that there are different ways to serve. That's what ministries means here, different ways to serve. But the same Master, Jesus Christ, is behind them. Verse 6, we see that there are different activities of the body, but God works in all of them. Verse 7, we see that the manifestation or the working of God's Spirit is given to each member for the benefit of all the members of the body. Skipping down, you could probably write in others. I just tried to hit the most important ones here.

Verse 11, we see that God distributes gifts as He sees fit. And why? Again, for the overall benefit of the body. Verse 12, we see that there is again one body made up of many members. Verse 18, we see that God places members in the body as He sees fit.

And skipping down to verse 22, we see that all the parts of the body are important and have a role to play. Verse 25, skipping down some more, we see that God does not want the body divided but unified. And unified in the same care for one another. Verse 26, we see that all members have a part in caring for one another. And verse 31, we see that God wants us to use our gifts and places us in the body for the edification, growth and benefit of the body. And skipping to the next chapter about love, we see verse 3 that without love, our gifts are empty and meaningless. We see that love is more important than any gift we may have.

And verse 7, we see that ultimately our gifts will no longer be needed, but love will last forever. So here, too, is the context in which Paul frames his discussion about spiritual gifts.

And we have one more chapter here. We'll cover this quite quickly here.

I am getting close to the end here. Romans 12, the third chapter in which he talks about spiritual gifts. Mr. Price read part of this in his sermonette, so I won't repeat that. But he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Now what does it mean to be a living sacrifice? And how does that tie in with spiritual gifts? Well, it simply means if you are a living sacrifice, it means that you are living your life to serve God and to serve others rather than to serve yourself, which is the way of the world, which he talks about next. And do not be conformed to this world, which is all about serving the self, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So the point of using our spiritual gifts in the right way is to transform us by the renewing, by the reprogramming, you might say, of our minds there. And that is what conversion is all about. When we do what God tells us to do, it should change us. When we obey Him, it should change us. That's the whole point that we change, starting in our minds with what we think. And as we change what we think, it changes how we act. And as we change how we act, it changes how we live. And as we change how we live, it changes our character and our nature to become more like God the Father and Jesus Christ.

Verse 3, for I say through the grace given to me that to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. And now, what does Paul talk about now?

He starts talking about the body in verse 4. Again, for as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, different parts of the body have different functions, so we, being many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.

And now, right after talking about the body, what does he talk about? Spiritual gifts. Again, they're so intertwined. You can't really separate them. Having then gifts according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. And we read this passage earlier. If prophesy or the gift of perceiving, perception, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith. Or serving, let us use it in our serving, he who teaches and teaching, he who exhorts and exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness.

So again, you can't really separate this topic of spiritual gifts from the discussion of what the body is all about. They're just so intertwined that they are inseparable. And why? Again, because spiritual gifts is how the body grows. How it comes to grow to become more like God the Father and more like Jesus Christ. And now he talks about the impact and the influence that our gifts, utilizing our gifts, should have on the church or on the body.

Let love be without hypocrisy. So now he talks about these gifts in action. Let our love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. In honor, giving preference to one another. Again, here are these gifts in action. Not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Again, the gifts in action.

Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.

Distributing to the needs of the saints, giving and serving. Given to hospitality, again, the gifts in action. That's what he's talking about here. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Here again are the gifts in action. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Again, the gifts in action. Do not be wise in your own opinion.

Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.

If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

Again, the gifts in action. Putting them to work in our lives.

Verse 19. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Again, the spiritual gifts in action and the way we live our lives.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Again, the gifts in action.

So what do we see from these? Again, let's turn to our list here. You may want to write these down.

Verse 1. It tells us we are to be living sacrifices. And that this is our reasonable, or the Greek actually means logical. You can actually see the root of the word logic in the Greek there. This is our reasonable, or logical, service to God.

Next, verse 2. It tells us we are not to be like the world, but we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. And by this transforming, by this renewing of our minds, this will prove what is God's good, acceptable, and perfect will for us. What is God's will for us? For us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. How do we transform and renew our minds? By exercising God's gift in love toward the rest of the body and toward our fellow man.

Continuing on, verse 3, we learn that we are not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but we are to see ourselves soberly and realistically. Verse 4, we see that the body has many members with different functions. Again, one of the themes that he repeats. And also, verse 5, we are all members of that body and members of one another. Verse 8, we see that we are to use our different gifts in love for the body.

And again, some of the different examples that we talked about earlier today of revealing God's will, of teaching, of serving, of exhorting, of giving, of leading, and administering, and of showing mercy and showing compassion to others. Those are how we use the different gifts that Paul lists in this chapter to serve the body. We see that next in verse 9, that our love should be sincere and unfeigned, not pretending. Here, we also see that we are to hate evil and to hold what is good. Verse 10, we see that we are to be affectionate to one another in love, and we are to give preference to others first. Verse 11, we see that we are to not lag and zeal. That we are to keep up our spiritual fervor. That we are to serve God. And verse 12, we see that we are to rejoice in the hope that we have, the hope of salvation, the hope of God's kingdom. That we are to be patient in our trials. That we are to be faithful in our prayer and not give up. Verse 13, we see that we are to share with God's people the gifts of giving, the gifts of serving again. That we are to be hospitable. Again, the gifts of giving and of serving. We see that we are, in verse 14, to bless those who persecute us. And verse 15, that we are to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. In other words, we are all part of the one and same body. We're all members of one another. There, as he puts it. Continuing on here, verse 16, we see that we are to be of one mind in harmony with one another, not divided. We see that we are not to be proud, but we are to associate with the humble with those who have less than what we have. We're not to be conceited or arrogant.

Verse 17, we see that we are not to repay evil for evil, and that we are to do what is right in the eyes of others. In verse 18, we see that we are to live in peace with everyone. And in verse 18, we see that we are to not seek or take revenge, because that is God's business, not ours. That's up to God, not us. And lastly, we see, in verse 21, that we are not to let evil overcome us, but instead we are to be overcoming evil. So here too is how Paul frames this discussion on spiritual gifts. So again, I will close with something I've shown to us before, and this is important. This is why we formulated this a little over a year ago for the United Church of God. This was drafted by the Council of Elders, the vision statement of the United Church of God. And this describes what we want the church to be. It's not specifically talking about spiritual gifts, but actually it is, because this is paraphrased from what we've read today. And this is how the church becomes this vision. This is how the vision becomes a reality when we are utilizing the gifts, the abilities, the personal characteristics that God has given us to grow together. The vision of the United Church of God is, quote, a church led by God's Holy Spirit, joined and knit together by what every member supplies, with all doing their share and growing in love, to fulfill God's great purpose for humanity, to bring many children to glory. And again, that's paraphrased from Ephesians 4, verse 16, and Hebrews 2, and verse 10.

So that's all of this installment. We have another one to go, and we'll talk about more and learn more about the subject of spiritual gifts in a future sermon.