Sermon: Sunday, 5th May, 2024
Speaker: John Johnstone
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12
Most of us now know that our denomination’s vision statement is that we would have ‘a healthy gospel church in every community in Scotland’. That’s a wonderful aspiration to have. It is our prayer. For this vision to become a reality, we need to understand what a healthy church looks like, and make sure that’s the direction of travel for our church. There are different aspects of church health we always need to keep in the foreground, perhaps best summarised in Acts chapter 2. ‘They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.’ (Acts 2:42-45)
God wants you to be devoted to the fellowship of this church. He wants us to know and serve one another in meaningful ways. He wants us to spend time with one another. This must be a top priority. Notice that in the picture of the early church, all the Christians are involved in meeting the needs of one another.
Let me give you a good picture of an unhealthy church. It’s like a bus, with the minister as the driver doing the work, perhaps even a conductor collecting the money (an old-fashioned bus) and everyone else is just a passenger, not involved in the work. That would be an awful church to be in, and the minister wouldn’t last long before burning out. Fortunately, God has given us the picture of a healthy church, and he says it is like a body, where each member is important and each member has an important job to do. What a wonderful picture! ‘If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” (1 Corinthians 12:17-20)
God is reminding us that in a healthy church, we need one another. This church needs you and your gift to be used. And you need the gifts of others in this church to be at work in your own life, whether you realise that or not. We are interdependent. We are one body.
That’s why part 5 of our vision statement for our church is: ‘That we should all prayerfully seek to identify the spiritual gifts we have and use them in the church for the benefit of the church family’. To help us to reach this goal, we are going to spend several weeks sharpening our Biblical thinking about spiritual gifts. Today, we want to nail down some of the basics. So, let’s begin at the beginning of this topic. What do we mean by a spiritual gift?
Wayne Grudem: ‘A spiritual gift is any ability that is empowered by the Holy Spirit and used in any ministry of the church.’
Is this topic relevant to all Christians in Kirkcaldy Free Church? Yes. Why?
1. All Christians are given at least one spiritual gift by God.
‘Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.’ (1 Corinthians 12:7) Who receives a spiritual gift? ‘Each one’. That includes you, if you are a follower of Christ. You might not yet know what your gift or gifts are, but you do have one.
‘Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.’ (1 Peter 4:10 emphasis added)
The gifts the Bible mentions are really varied, including: helping, service, teaching, encouraging, giving, administration and showing mercy. I can see all of these gifts being put to use in our church family. I think it is obvious that if in a church family all the members use their gifts, the blessing will be enormous. The opposite is also true – if many in the church family leave their gift ‘locked away’ as it were, and do little to serve others, then many people will miss out on the support and help they ought to have had.
A healthy church is one where all the members are busy using their gifts. This means that all of us must be thinking about this whole area. We all must make an effort to identify our giftings. We have a responsibility to discover what they are. And we can help one anther to do this.
Timothy had a gift of teaching. Paul says to him: ‘Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. (1 Timothy 4:13-15)
Notice that Paul commands Timothy not to neglect his gift. This means it’s easy for us today to neglect the gift God has given us. They can remain dormant, unused, or underused. God wants us to do the opposite. He wants us to identify and develop our gifts in the local setting of the church family. Paul instructs Timothy: ‘For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.’ (2 Timothy 1:6) That’s fascinating. God gives Timothy a gift, but he himself has a responsibility to develop and use this gift. The same is true for each one of us.
For example, God might have given you a musical gift. That doesn’t mean that it will be easy to serve in this way. It will still require hard work and practice, but this will be done in order to serve the church family and bring glory to God. You might be good with numbers and finance, but to be the treasurer still involves learning how the job is done, and putting in the hours to complete the task. But you do it to serve the church family, for God’s glory. You might have the gift of encouragement, but you still need to spend considerable time with people, listening to them, and time in the Bible, to know how to bring God’s comfort to them. We need to develop our gifts and put them to use.
2. All spiritual gifts have the same purpose – to strengthen others in the church.
‘Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. You should use your gift for the good of others.’ (1 Corinthians 12:7) God hasn’t primarily given you a gift so that you feel better. It’s not about you, but others.
‘Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others…’ (1 Peter 4:10)
Your gift isn’t about your happiness or self-promotion but it’s about serving others. The focus of gifts is on others. It’s on those whom you serve. So, with music, we don’t want players who draw attention to themselves, but those who aid the singing with the focus on God. It’s not about them. And with preaching, we want people leaving church thinking what a great God we have and never, what a great preacher. And if you are washing dishes after a church lunch, you are doing it to help facilitate the lunch for others. Here’s our challenge from this sermon – over the coming weeks, let’s try and help one another to identify our gifts, develop these gifts, and make sure we are using them in order to edify others, and not to draw attention to ourselves.
3. There is a wide variety of gifts which God gives.
What are some examples of spiritual gifts? There is not an exhaustive list in the Bible. We have 4 key passages which each list some of them:
• 1 Corinthians 12:8-12 and 28-30
• Romans 12:6-8
• Ephesians 4:1
• 1 Peter 4:11
There are 20 gifts listed in those 5 passages and they are often helpfully divided up into 3 different kinds:
Sign Gifts: these are gifts which no longer given out. They were given to the apostles as signs that they were the true apostles of Jesus Christ: gifts such as healing, raising the dead, prophecy, speaking in tongues. There are, of course, groups of Christians who still believe we have apostles and believe that these gifts were not just signs of apostleship, and that these gifts continue today. And in our denomination, we certainly believe the power of God to heal the sick and to guide his people.
Speaking Gifts: such as preaching, teaching and encouraging others.
Serving Gifts: such as helping others, mercy ministries and hospitality.
Think of the person with a gift of encouragement. There will be many times when there are people who are depressed or grieving or have lost their jobs or have fallen into the same pattern of sin again, and those people will need that encouragement.
In order for the church to communicate well, we need people gifted in running the website, and keeping the Facebook group page updated and sending out emails from time to time. We need people with administrative gifts to organise safeguarding, minutes of official church meetings, and to organise rotas. We need people gifted with children to run Sunday School and creche. We need people to wash dishes and clean toilets and to teach people who are confused about parts of the Bible.
I think it’s a beautiful thing that we all need one another. God has designed the church this way. It also means that each one of you has a very important role to play in this church. You might not realise that yet, but it is true nonetheless. You are valuable here. Your gift might be behind-the-scenes, but it is vital. There’s a saying: ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ and there’s much wisdom in that saying. Children need the input of so many in order to develop properly into adults. Here’s another true saying: ‘It takes a church to raise a Christian’. Is that true? Yes, it really is. We need one another. And that’s why God has given such a large variety of gifts.
4. Are you using the gift Jesus has given you?
Why do I say that ‘Jesus’ has given? ‘But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: ‘When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.’ (Ephesians 4:7)
Imagine a child receives a lovely gift from her parents. It is just what she needs. She unwraps it, doesn’t bother to say thanks, and doesn’t even use the gift she’s been given. How would parents feel? You’d be upset. Disappointed.
As Christians, we need to understand that Jesus himself has given us at least one spiritual gift. In fact, Jesus died, not only so that our sins could be forgiven and so we could reflect God’s glory, but also so that he could bestow gifts upon the church for her good.
More personally – Jesus shed his blood for you. And that blood purchased a spiritual gift for you. Have you thought about that seriously? Are you grateful? Are you using the gift? Or is it just like an unappreciated, unvalued gift that we have tossed aside? You (if you are a believer) have been given a spiritual gift by Jesus. Is it locked away? Hardly ever used? Sometimes used? Used quite a lot? Where do you fit in?