1 Corinthians 12

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
​Series: 1 Corinthians (Acts)

Rusty's Notes

I inadvertently used the New Living Translation on this message. I normally use the Christian Standard Bible.

​Review:

• We started Chapter 11 two weeks ago with Matt Tully talking about covering your head and submission.
• I talked about the practice of the Lord’s Supper in relation to the Church.
• It is this section that Paul is referring to practices of public worship… when they come together.
• There was obvious division in the Church.
  
  

SPIRITUAL GIFTS
1 CORINTHIANS 12
1 Now, dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this. 2 You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols. 3 So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.

• Special abilities – gifts
• Paul describes here the difference between believers and non-believers.
• Believers won’t curse Jesus
• Non-believers won’t say “Jesus is Lord”
• Paul wants to make clear at the outset that simply because something appears to be a manifestation of the Spirit of Christ, of the Spirit of the living God, it may not necessarily be so.
• One has to observe it, one has to test and evaluate it, and then make an assessment.
• it is an important foundational reminder that one’s fundamental allegiance must be seen and known to be of Jesus.[1]

4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. 5 There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. 6 God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.

• Paul can three times say, there are diverse gifts, but one Lord, one God, one Spirit.[2]

7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.

• The gifts given by God were intended to benefit the Church as a whole and as individuals.
• They are gifts given by God and directed by God.
• Spiritual gifts are for the common good of the Church.
• The gifts are given for the good of the whole church.
• They are not for individual enjoyment, but for corporate employment.[3]

8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge.

• Wisdom and knowledge are two different things.
• Knowledge is book or experience smart.
• Wisdom comes from God and is used for applying knowledge to life.

9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another,

• Two types of faith:
• 1) Faith to say, “I need you God” – salvation.
• This faith comes from you.
• 2) Faith that comes from God to believe in Him beyond what the normal person believes.
• This is where trust for the unknown or unseen comes into play.
• This faith comes from God.

and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles,

• An interesting difference of these two gifts from the rest of the list is it they are not the kind of thing that people necessarily have as ongoing abilities or responsibilities but require the Spirit’s choice to work in a particular moment in a way that He doesn’t necessarily in every single instance.[4]
• Do I believe in the gift of healing and miracles today?
• You better believe I do.
• I’ve seen it… I’ve seen massive tumors disappear yet the hole where the tumor was… still was there.
• I’ve seen many marriages that had divorce papers written completely healed.
• I’ve seen people who were told they were never going to walk again… walk.
• People who were told they were going to die… live far beyond predictions or expectations.
• I’ve seen emotional wounds and scars disappear.
• I am praying for an absolute miracle of healing for my friend Randy in Tulsa right now.
• I believe.

and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit.

• Speaking a word that came from God however long a person may have meditated on it or prepared how to say it, or however spontaneous it may have been given, and the gifts of discerning, prophecy determining its origin:
• Is this from the Lord, is this of human manufacture, or something worse?[5]

Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.

• It is the most problematic gift at Corinth, and so he perhaps deliberately waits and puts it at the end.
• “Tongues,” a Greek word that again has a very broad semantic range and can mean everything from the literal part of one’s anatomy fit in one’s mouth to any human utterance in some linguistic configuration, known, unknown, or a collection of syllables that God uses to provide meaning to someone in a particular context.[6]
• I grew up in the charismatic capital of the world, Tulsa, OK.
• It is still problematic and Paul will talk about this issue later.

11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

• No spiritual gift was ever intended to be the gift of every single Christian.
• And any Christian context that claims believers have to have a certain one or a certain combination of the gifts, either to be saved or even simply to reflect a certain level of Christian maturity, is contradicting what Paul says here in 1 Corinthians 12.[7]
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ONE BODY WITH MANY PARTS
12 The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. 13 Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.

• In this very room, we could be divided many ways.
• Fishers, Carmel, Indianapolis, Westfield, etc.
• Children, teens, adults, senior adults
• Wealthy, median or poor
• Hoosier born or transplants
• Employed or unemployed
• Former Catholic, former Baptist, etc
• Men or women, republican or democrat, conservative or liberal, etc.
• So many ways to divide
• But Paul is saying we have one unifying factor… Jesus.
• We have been baptized into one body…
• Baptism being our identifier of what we believe… Jesus.
• The baptism of the Spirit occurs at conversion when the Spirit enters the believing sinner, gives him new life, and makes his body the temple of God.
• All believers have experienced this once-for-all baptism.
• Nowhere does the Scripture command us to seek this baptism, because we have already experienced it and it need not be repeated.[8]
• You can fight for unity and make that your stance.
• Or you can keep your eyes on Jesus and unity will be a byproduct.

14 Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. 15 If the foot says, “I am not a part of the body because I am not a hand,” that does not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear says, “I am not part of the body because I am not an eye,” would that make it any less a part of the body? 17 If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything?
18 But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. 19 How strange a body would be if it had only one part!

• Paul was hardly the first in the history of the world to liken a community of people to the members of a body.
• In the Roman world, armies were often thought to be like a body, every individual soldier needing to work together under the various commanding officers themselves, under the top military general, and yet each having a distinctive role to play.[9]
• But think about the diversity in this room.
• The capabilities in this room.
• What if we all did the same thing?
• What if we were all alike?
• But that is not the way it works.
• We seek each other for wisdom.
• We lean on each other in times of need.
• We share what is ours with one another.

20 Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. 21 The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you.” The head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you.”
22 In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. 23 And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, 24 while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. 25 This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. 26 If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad.

• POS – Power of sin
• POS begins to work here… one person is more important than the other.
• It is easy for me to get recognition over my wife.
• Michelle does just as much for this body as I do, if not more.
• During pandemic, she has been less present on Sundays… it hasn’t changed her importance to the body.
• Luke is a loud personality and everyone knows Luke. He is role-model in this community.
• Matt and Keith teach often from this stage. They are recognized as leaders.
• My set up crew… faithful every week and you don’t even know who they are.
• Wanda Pontius, one of the most important people to our body and she has been home since the quarantine.
• I don’t even know the whole chair pusher group after the service.
• I don’t know half the stuff that happens on a weekly occasion.

27 All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. 28 Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church:
first are apostles,
second are prophets,
third are teachers,
then those who do miracles,
those who have the gift of healing,
those who can help others,
those who have the gift of leadership,
those who speak in unknown languages.
29 Are we all apostles? Are we all prophets? Are we all teachers? Do we all have the power to do miracles? 30 Do we all have the gift of healing? Do we all have the ability to speak in unknown languages? Do we all have the ability to interpret unknown languages? Of course not! 31 So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts.

• Rhetorical questions
• He wants the recipients of the letter to think… to process.
• The roles inside the body are important.
• We are not going to know everything that happens.
• But each of you are important to this body.
• How so? Don’t ask me… ask the Spirit.
• I’m not going to do any spiritual gifts tests or try to assign you to ministry opportunity.
• Just go do what the Spirit leads you to do.
• If you tell me about a great idea you have for this ministry… I’m going to tell you… “Sounds like the Spirit is leading you…”

But now let me show you a way of life that is best of all. [10]

• Did you see the IU win over Wisconsin yesterday?
• Did you see the after game interview on the field with Coach Tom Allen?
• Go look at that video
• https://twitter.com/i/status/1335375688313004041
• This is what Paul is about to jump into next week.

LEO

[1] Blomberg, C. L. (2017). NT334 Book Study: Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[2] Blomberg, C. L. (2017). NT334 Book Study: Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[3] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 608). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[4] Blomberg, C. L. (2017). NT334 Book Study: Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[5] Blomberg, C. L. (2017). NT334 Book Study: Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[6] Blomberg, C. L. (2017). NT334 Book Study: Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[7] Blomberg, C. L. (2017). NT334 Book Study: Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[8] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, pp. 608–609). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
[9] Blomberg, C. L. (2017). NT334 Book Study: Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[10] Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (1 Co 12). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.