"So then, tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe!" (I Corinthians 14:22)

In last week's lesson, on I Corinthians 14:1-12, the apostle Paul wrote about how much he wished the Corinthian believers would earnestly desire "spiritual gifts," but especially the gift of prophecy, over their "hang-up" with speaking in the emotionally-driven gibberish of "unintelligible tongues," which so appealed to their feelings, but benefited nobody!

Paul, in this passage, identifies two kinds of "speaking in tongues"--the first, with "tongue" in the singular (as used in verse 2), referring to the frenzied and unintelligible way in which the Corinthians had begun speaking in the church!  Having copied the way the pagans gave utterances in their worship of idols, which, Paul writes, "did not speak to men" (since nobody was able to understand what they were saying), but to "a god" (not "to God" as improperly translated in most Bible versions), "speaking mysteries in their own spirit," and not by the Holy Spirit!  MacArthur noted, you'll recall, that "all spiritual gifts are given by God for the purpose of ministering to men, and that no spiritual gift was ever given to minister to God, who does not need to be ministered to"!  Also that "no ecstasies, eroticisms, or 'feelings of going out of yourself in emotional frenzies' are ever associated in the New Testament with the work of the Holy Spirit"!

The second use of tongues is plural, as used in verse 5, where Paul writes that "he wishes they all could speak in tongues," referring to 'other languages,' just as manifested in Acts 2 when the miraculous "gift of tongues" was given by God to the early believers on the Day of Pentecost, enabling them to speak in other languages in order that those attending from other countries could hear the gospel message in their own languages--resulting in many believing and the founding of the church of God!  And authenticating the testimony of the apostles and the working of the Holy Spirit!

The Corithians, on the other hand, were so influenced by the culture of their day that they began speaking in unintelligible tongues, just like the pagans, and so counterfeited, and abused, the gift of tongues that it resulted in nothing more than chaos and confusion in the church, with little real worship and no edification of believers taking place--"even rivaling Babel in the confusion of their speaking (MacArthur writes)!

Speaking in this way somehow satisfied the Corinthians desire for the "showy," the attention-getting, ego-building, and their emotional quests that they used as a "badge of their spirituality," and that they even claimed "reached a spiritual plateau where they spoke to the eternal God in their own private way of praying "in tongues"!

And so, we saw again how the worldliness of the Corinthian culture, with the immorality and idolatry, and now the ecstaties and eroticisms, and the emotional gibberish way of speaking in tongues had influenced the Corinthian believers and infiltrated the church of Corinth!  And, sad to say, it's happening as well in the church today, as MacArthur notes, with the "Charismatic movement," which he labels as, "Corinth revisited"!

And it's for this reason that Paul expresses his desire that the Corinthians would instead seek the "gift of prophecy"--speaking and preaching and teaching the Word of God in a language with words that the people could understand, and thereby be edified! And he takes this personally, as he writes in verse 6: "What will I profit you, brethren, unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge, or of prophecy, or of teaching?"  Then, in verse 7, using the analogy of how "even musical instruments must have distinctions in tone so that they don't give an uncertain sound"!

And Paul ends last week's passage with the thought that "since they were zealous for spiritual gifts, they should seek to abound for the edification of the church"! And that set the scene for our lesson last night where Paul continued to write about "speaking in tongues,"--devoting this entire, lengthy, chapter to address this issue which was so repesentative of the wayward spiritual condition of believers in the church of Corinth!

And so Paul begins I Corinthians 14:13 with what seems to be a bit of sarcasm by writing that "one who speaks in a tongue (again, in the singular, referring to an "unintelligible tongue") should pray that he might interpret it!"!  In other words, before he goes spouting off in a bunch of gibberish, he should know what he's talking about!  How could anyone else know what he saying if he himself doesn't know! And he goes on: "If I pray with my tongue (singular!), my spirit (or my emotions!) prays, but my mind is unfruitful" (Phillips says, "inactive"!) "So what good is it?"  And so, he basically says,in verses 14-17, that one must pray and sing and speak with both his spirit (or his emotions) and his mind (his thinking and intellect!) so that those coming to the church, including those who are "unversed in spiritual gifts" may be able to understand what's going on and be able to say "amen," and be edified!  

And it's just as applicable when speaking in other languages (tongues, plural)!  Although Paul says he "can speak in more languages than any of them," he says, in verse 19, that "in the church he'd rather speak five words with his mind (in words that everyone can understand!) than ten thousand words in a language which few, if anyone, can understand"!  Makes sense!  As Rod Turk noted last night, "Christianity is totally rational"!

Then, in verse 20 (in the Phillips translation) Paul says, "Brethren, don't be like excitable children but use your intelligence!  By all means be innocent as babes as far as evil is concerned, but where yours minds are concerned be full-grown men! Constable writes that "thinking that tongue-speaking demonstrates spirituality evidences only immaturity!"  The Corinthians, however, were not innocent in their behavior any more than they were mature in their thinking!  

Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:11-14, that "Christ gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saint for the work of service, for the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.  As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ!"  And, in Galatians 6:16, he writes, "Walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh...!"  These were the desires the apostle Paul had for the Corinthians!  But, as MacArthur notes, the Corinthians had virtually all the manifestations of the flesh and almost none of the fruts of the Spirit!"

In verse 21, Paul quotes from Isaiah 28:11, seemingly in trying to explain the purpose of the gift of languages (tongues, plural)!  "In the law it is written, 'By men of strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, and even so they will not listen to Me!"  Constable notes that when the Israelites didn't listen to the warnings of Isaiah that they needed to repent, speaking in their own language, God reminded them again to repent by sending the Assyrians so they could hear of destruction in the language of the enemy!  And so tongues-speaking in the church was a sign to visiting unbelievers like the foreign-speaking language of the Assyrians was to the Israelites!  MacArthur notes that it also was, or should have been, a sign to the Jews on the Day of Pentecost (in Acts 2) of the coming destruction of Jerusalem (which occurred in A.D 70 with the invasion of Titus), as well as the realization that God would no longer favor and work through one nation (Israel) but that the church of Jesus Christ was for all people of all nations!  (And yet, as Romans 11 makes clear, that God had not forgotten Israel)!

"So then (Paul says in verse 22) tongues (or speaking in other languages) are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers, but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe!"  And it's noteable to recognize that the sign of tongues (again, as other languages) was given again, in Acts 10:44-46, when Gentiles were added to the church!

But the gift of prophecy is clearly the favored gift for believers, according to Paul!  This passages closes by highlighting what happens in the church when "all prophecy"!  An unbeliever, among other things, is convicted and repents and is gloriously saved!

MacArthur sums it all up appropriately!  "When tongues were misused, there was only confusion, frustration, and bewilderment!  Unbelievers were repelled and believers were not edified! But Prophecy edifies believers and evangelizes unbelievers! God is honored and men are blessed when His Word is clearly declared!  Our desire should be that every service, every activity, everything we say or do in the Lord's name will cause people to say that 'God is certainly among us"!

We sang the beautiful song, "In Christ alone my hope is found, He is my light, my strength, my song...here in the love of Christ I stand..."!

Here's another: "Let it be said of us...that the Lord was our passion, that with gladness we bore evey cross we were given; that we fought the good fight, that we finished the course knowing within us the power of the risen Lord...Let the cross be our glory and the Lord be our song...!"  Sign joyfully with your spirit and your mind!

And as Rod reminded, "let us never lose the sense of the wonder of it all!

Go with God, men!

Lowell

The following are notes from the sermon.  

Jesse Johnson – Sep 14, 2014
The Case for Cessationism - by Jesse Johnson - Immanuel Bible Church
Any ability that is empowered by the Holy Spirit and is used in any ministry to build or strengthen the church. 

• They began at Pentecost; confined to the NT and required to be a believer
  • The gift of regeneration
  • At the moment of conversion, you are sealed…
• Using your gifts to build and strengthen the church…
  • 1 Cor 14:16:  All gifts used for edification
  • 1 Cor 1:7 – we are not lacking in any spiritual gifts

What are the gifts?

• Rom 12:6
• 1 Cor 12:8
• 1 Cor 12:28
• Eph 4:7, 11-12

1 Cor 7:7 – gift of singleness

1 Peter 4:11 – two kinds of gifts, those who speak and those who serve

Anything that you do under the yielding of the Holy Spirit is your way of building the church. 

• Where you enjoy serving
• They grow as you grow in maturity

Category of Gifts called Sign Gifts

• Tongues, interpretations, miracles, word of knowledge, healing, apostleship
• Tongues:  Language…
• Interpretations: 
• Miracles:
• Word of Knowledge: Speak someone into somebody’s life…
• Healing:  Healing people at will…(James calls for prayer)
• Apostleship:  Given as leadership over the whole/universal church

4 Different Views

1. Extreme cessationism – all spiritual gifts have ceased
   1. Not just sign gift, but all the gifts are gone
2. Cessationist camp – the sign gifts are done
3. Continuationism – the sign gifts are still ongoing, but not in the same way as in the early church
   1. Languages vs prayer languages
   2. Prophesy of the future or words of knowledge
   3. Apostleship is overseeing a denomination
   4. Heal at will, vs ability to pray for people
   5. They are “analogous”
4. Extreme Charismatic– all the sign gifts are still present in the same way
   1. Largest churches likely one of these; Pentecostal

Why have they ceased?

1. Because the miraculous gifts are not around right now, this fact is self-evident
   1. Not still practiced in the Church today as they were used in Acts…
   2. No one has the ability to speak in actual human languages
      
      1. Now they are mystery languages
   3. No one has the universal gift of healing, or prophesy, or …
      
      1. Miraculous, visible healing
2. The function of the sign gifts was to establish the early church—they served their purpose
   1. 1 Cor 13:8-13 – list prophesies, language, knowledge
   2. Eph 4:10 – for the training of the Saints, the working of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ; developing a mature theology (very, very similar)
      
      1. Body analogy
         
      2. Describe the sign gifts; given when they are immature body (no NT, established church or leadership)
         
      3. Sign gifts held the church together at that time
3. The function of the gifts were to authenticate the early apostles—they confirmed the messenger
   1. 2 Cor 12:12 – the signs of a true apostle were performed among you (signs, wonders and miracles); he even refers to them in the past tense
4. You already see them ceasing inside the New Testament
   1. Heb 2:1-4 (spoken in the past tense; instead he would say…look around you)
   2. 2 Tim 4:7 – Trophimus remained unhealed at a time when most needed
      
      1. Acts 19:  Paul is healing EVERYBODY
         
      2. They church was established…

Does God then go in a box?  No. 

• He has the ability to do whatever he wants
• God has chosen to describe the time of miraculous gifts for building up of the church
• Regeneration is still a miracle
• God still heals—according to His will

"Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy!" (I Corinthians 14:1)
 
Last week, we dealt with I Corinthians 13, perhaps the most poignant and compelling, and inspiring, literary passage ever penned by the apostle Paul! It begins with a challenge focused on himself but clearly directed as well to all believers and followers of Christ!  And here's how he began: "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong and clanging cymbal!  If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing!  And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but have no love, it profits me nothing!" Wow!
 
It comes ironically in the middle of a discourse that is otherwise almost completely problem-oriented"!  Coming "like a breath of fresh air--like an oasis in the desert--in the midst of a disputation of continual reproof and correction, of wrong understandings, and wrong attitudes, and serious abuses of God's ordinances and spiritual gifts," notes MacArthur.  Where the very absence of love is the main culprit, the key missing ingredient, that led to factions and quarrels, idolatry and immorality, and exhibitions of selfishness and pride within the church of Corinth, the body of Christ!
 
Paul begins by speaking about "tongues" and, more specifically, about the misuse of tongues, because (Constable notes) of "the Corinthians' fascination with them!"  And he says simply that if one is able to speak with the eloquence And fluency of the greatest speaker in the world, or even of angels (using a hyperbole, since there's no evidence in the Bible that angels actually speak in a special heavenly language)!  Without love, they become nothing more than "noisy gong and clanging cymbal" (comparing them with pagans who engaged in ecstatic sounds and incoherent babble, spouting gibberish in a state of emotional frenzies, accompanied by smashing gongs, clanging cymbals, and blaring trumpets as part of their worship of idols)!
 
Real love--the "agape" love of the Bible, Paul says, is "the love of God," exemplified by Him sending His Son into the world to die on the Cross, as our substitute, so that we might be delivered from sin's consequences! Self-sacrificing! Measureless and strong!  More important than any other gift, including the gift of tongues!  The first and foremost "fruit of the Holy Spirit," which comes only by "walking in the Spirit"!
 
In verses 4-7, Paul gives us the best possible description of what it's actually like to live out this kind of love--words to which we can relate, but are unable to fully emulate!  And here's how he puts it: "Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things..."!  Wow!
 
And so we see that love is defined by what it does, and doesn't do!  It's action-oriented and intentional!  It's the "still more excellent way" that Paul promised to show the Corinthians (in 12:31)!  And it's the one thing that will stand when all else fails!  "Love never fails!" Because, as Constable notes, "it shares God's very nature and eternality"!
 
The apostle Paul ends his great discourse with this final thought which, in the Phillips translation, says this: "In this life, we have three great lasting qualities--faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of them is love!"
 
While Paul was finished, we weren't!  And we wanted to turn to other Scripture that speaks further about this great "agape" love!  Jesus said to His disciples in John 13:34-35, "A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you love one another; by this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another!"
 
Then, in I John 4:7, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God!"
 
And, finally, in I Peter 4:8, where the apostle Peter writes, "Above all keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins!"
 
And how about some hymns and songs of the faith?   Like "The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell!  It goes beyond...!  O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong!  It shall forever more endure--the saints and angels song!"  Or, "Sing the wondrous love of Jesus..."!  Or, "Love lifted me...!"  Or, "They will know us by our love..."! Or, "Jesus love me, this I know, for the Bible says it so!" Go head and sing them!
 
And that set the scene for our lesson last night on I Corinthians 14:1-12, where verse 1 continues with (you guessed it!) Love!  
 
"Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy..."  And so, the apostle Paul is back to speaking more about spiritual gifts, and he's not through speaking more specifically about "speaking in tongues"!
 
So what are the tongues he's speaking about?
 
Two kinds of tongues, it turns out!  First "in a tongue," singular, referring to the "unknown," or unintelligible speaking of pagans in their worship of idols! The KJV translates verse 2 more clearly, and correctly, when it says, "For one who speaks in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men..."  Not unto men, because there's no way they could understand the emotionally-driven and incoherent bunch of gibberish being spoken as part of their worship of idols!  And the second part "unto God" should be translated as "unto god," in lower case, speaking of an "unknown god," as also used in Acts 17:22-23! MacArthur notes that "all spiritual gifts are given for the purpose of ministering, or speaking to men!  No spiritual gift was ever given to minister to God, since God doesn't need to be ministered to"!  And that "no ecstasies, no sensualities, no eroticisms, no jumping up and down, no feelings of "going out of yourself (in an emotional frenzy, and no loss of control is ever associated with the true work of the Holy Spirit, in the New Testament"!
 
The second use of tongues is the plural form, used in verse 5 where the apostle Paul writes that "he wishes they all could speak in tongues..." speaking of "other languages," just as the miraculous "gift of tongues" God gave to the early believers, as recorded in Acts 2, on the Day of Pentecost when people from many other nations gathered together to hear the gospel spoken in their own languages, and many believed, leading to founding of the church!  
 
The Corinthians, however, had counterfeited the gift of tongues and substituted the same incoherent emotionally-driven utterances as was common among the pagans!  Resulting in their worship services becoming "bedlam and chaos, with little real worship and little or no edification taking place!  MacArthur notes that "the believers in the church of Corinth so abused the gift of tongues that they rivaled Babel in the confusion of speaking," and so Paul devotes an entire chapter in addressing the problem, which was "so representative of their sinfulness"! The ecstasies and eroticism, as well as the immoralities and idolatries accompanying pagan worship, and the pagan culture, had somehow influenced and infiltrated the "body of Christ" in the Corinthian church! It was "their desire for the showy, and the attention-getting, and ego-building, and the emotional "speaking (supposedly!) with the gift of tongues that they used as a badge of their spiritually"! And they even claimed to "reach such a spiritual plateau, so as to speak to the eternal God in their own private way of speaking in tongues"!
 
And it's happening again today, MacArthur notes, in the so-called "Charismatic movement"!  Which he calls, "Corinth revisited"!
 
The apostle Paul says he preferred, now with the church established, that believers "prophesy"!  Or "speak and preach and teach the Word of God, in a language, and with words, that everybody can understand, so the church can be edified"!  And that describes the real purpose of the church, and the foundational principle that should govern all worship!
 
Prophecy edifies the whole congregation of the church and would continue to be used by the Lord to build and sanctify the church long after tongues "ceased"! Paul writes, in verse 6, "But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will it profit you, unless I speak to you either by way of revelation (some new revelation from God), or of knowledge (an insight into truth), or of prophecy (a word of edification, or exhortation, or consolation(, or of teaching (instruction in righteousness)!"
 
But Paul can't let go about speaking in tongues and, in verse 7, uses the analogy of musical instruments to make his case about the importance of intelligible sounds!  "Even musical instruments must have "distinctions in tone so they don't give an uncertain sound," and confuse the hearers!  And he further writes, in verse 19 (which we'll deal with more specifically in next week's lesson) that he'd rather "speak five words with my mind so that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a (unintelligible!) tongue"!
 
Not that some excitement and a bit of emotion aren't to be expected, or even called for, as we "pour out our hearts" in expressing praise and adoration, and gratitude in worshiping our great Creator God Almighty!  But Paul makes it clear (in conclusion, as the last word of I Corinthians 14) that, at least for public worship, "all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner"!  And that should settle it!
 
So, looking back, what might the apostle Paul expect us to take with us from the last couple lessons?
 
How about this:

• Go out there and share the message of the gospel with someone!
• Learn, teach, and live out the Word of God!
• Give due praise and adoration to our great God and Father!
• Do whatever you do (or don't do!) in love!  The "agape" kind!
• And watch your tongue!

Lowell 

"If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have no love, I am nothing!" (I Corinthians 13:2)
 
In last week's lesson, on I Corinthians 12:13-31, the apostle Paul used the metaphor of the human body, with its many different parts, to describe the diversity and yet the unity and harmony of the "body of Christ," the church--and the sovereignty of God to bring it all about!  Noting that just as the human body is a beautiful and miraculous display of God's handiwork--the "crown jewel of His creation"--with its many parts, carrying out the many functions of the body (made up of 37 trillion cells, among other things, as Mark Wever noted), so the body of Christ, with its many diverse members, is the living organism known as the church!
 
Ephesians 1:22-23 says that He (God the Father) has put all things in subjection under His Son's feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all"!  Romans 12:4-5 says, "For just as we have many members in one body, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another."  And Paul writes, in verse 13, that "by one Spirit we were are all baptized into one body, whether Jew or Greek, whether slave or free, and were all made to drink of the Holy Spirit"!  Describing how the church was formed, and continues to grow, as the Holy Spirit is "immersed" into the life of a believer at the time of his (or her) conversion.  Constable notes that the "drinking of one Spirit" recalls the words of Jesus, in John 7:37-39, when on the great day of the Passover feast He cried out saying, ""If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink...and he who believes in Me, as the Scripture says, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water"!  Jesus speaking, John writes, of the Holy Spirit whom those who believed in Him were to receive "after he was glorified"!
 
In verses 14-20, Paul emphasized again how every member, each with his own divinely-provided diversity, is essential for the effective functioning of the body; and he uses the analogy of the foot and the eye to make his point!  "The foot cannot say, 'because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,' and the ear cannot say, 'because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body!  So, God has placed many members in the body of Christ, just as He desired...and now there are many members but one body.  And so, as individual members, we need to discover how God has gifted us, and become as effective as possible where He has placed us, rather than longing (as some of the Corinthians did!) to have a different gift, or insisting on doing something that God has not gifted us to do!
 
And that led Paul, in verses 28-31, to refer again to some of the key gifts that God gave, beginning with apostles and prophets, who "laid the foundation" of the church," and received and declared the revelation of God's Word, and gave confirmation of the Word through signs and wonders, and miracles!  But noting that with the church established, those gifts, including the gifts of healings and miracles, and of tongues (and the interpretation of tongues), were no longer needed!  But the gift of teachers (or pastor-teachers), to interpret the Word of God for the church, and the gifts of helps and administration (as well as other identified in other parts of Scripture) are still needed and vital, and will continue to be given to believers for ministry throughout the church age!
 
Chapter 12 ends, we noted, with what appears to be a reprimand from Paul to the Corinthians, some of whom were apparently not satisfied with the gifts they were given, and "desired the greater gifts"!  Perhaps, we speculated, knowing the Corinthians, the more showy and exotic gifts, like "speaking in tongues"!  To which Paul said that he would "show them a still more excellent way"!  And that set the scene for our lesson last night on I Corinthians 13--and "the way of love"!
 
Many consider I Corinthians 13 to be the greatest and most inspiring passage ever written by the apostle Paul!  And, among other things, it puts all the other spiritual gifts in their proper context! And here's how it begins, as picked up by the Phillips translation: "If I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels, but have no love, I become no more than blaring brass or crashing cymbal!  If I have the gift of foretelling the future and hold in my mind not only all human knowledge but the very secrets of God, and if I also have that absolute faith which can move mountains, but have no love, I amount to nothing at all!  If I dispose of all that I possess, yes, even if I give my own body to be burned, but have no love, I achieve precisely nothing!"  Wow!  
 
Interesting that Paul writes this in the "first person," as an admonition to himself first!  And also interesting that chapter 13 is positioned where it is--in the middle of a book that, as MacArthur notes, is so "problem-oriented"!  Coming "like a breath of fresh air, an oasis in the desert, in the midst of a dissertation of almost continual reproof and correction of wrong understandings, wrong attitudes, and wrong use of God's ordinances and spiritual gifts"!  Where the very absence of love is the culprit, the missing ingredient, that has led, among other things, to divisions and quarrels within the church, and to idolatry and immorality, and exhibitions of selfishness and pride!
 
And Paul begins by referring to "tongues," as Constable notes, "because of the Corinthian's fascination with them"!  And he says simply that even if someone is able to speak with the fluency and eloquence of the greatest speakers in the world, and even with the tongues of angels (here using "tongues of angels" as a hyperbole since there's no evidence in the Bible of angels speaking in a specific heavenly language), without love they only become "a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal" (likening them to pagans who engaged in ecstatic sounds, incoherent babble, and emotional gibberish, accompanied by smashing gongs, clanging cymbals, and blaring trumpets in their worship of idols)!  
 
And so Paul says that love is more important than any other spiritual gift and that it is first and foremost "a fruit of the Spirit," according to Galatians 5:22, which comes only by "walking in the Spirit," and which, according to MacArthur, is "Paul's way of defining one's day-by-day obedience to the Word of God and submission to the Lord"!  And so it's what most clearly demonstrates the Spirit's presence in the life of a believer!  
 
So what exactly is this love that the Bible teaches?  It's the Greek word, "agape" which is defined as the highest form of love and, according to MacArthur, "the supreme measure and example of God's love--the love that caused Him to send His only begotten Son to the Cross"!   And so, it's totally "self-giving" and sacrificial--and best described for us in verses 4-7 of I Corinthians 13!  
 
And here it is: "Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things!"  Wow!  And so, basically, as we discussed last night, "love is what love does"!  What more need we say!
 
Love is, in fact, "the one thing that will still stand when all else has fallen"! (verse 8, in Phillips) Constable says that "love cannot fail because it shares God's nature and God's eternity!  And he further notes that "in heaven we not only have no more need for faith and hope, but no need for the gifts of teaching, preaching, helps, prophecy, discernment, knowledge, wisdom, tongues, miracles, healings, faith, mercy, or leadership!  None of these gifts will have a purpose in heaven.  And yet love is, and forever will be, "the very air of heaven"!  Verses 9-10 say, "For we know in part and we prophecy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away!"  
 
And when will "the perfect come"?  For the believer, we believe, it's when we go to be with the Lord, either at death, or at the Rapture, when the Lord takes His own to be with himself!  The "perfect" is "the eternal heavenly state of the believer!  "But now we see in a mirror dimly," Paul writes, "but then face to face; now I know in part; but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known!"  Wow!
 
I Corinthians 13 ends with this probing thought: "In this life we have three lasting qualities--faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of them is love!"  But we need to go on to I Corinthian 14:1 (which we'll talk more about next week, which says, so compellingly: "Follow then the way of love...!"  The "more excellent way," which Paul promised to show the Corinthians, and us too (at the end of chapter 12)!
 
But hang on!  I can't leave this lesson without citing a few more verses, and reference to some great old gospel hymns:
 
John 13:34-35--"A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you love one another.  By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another!"
 
I Peter 5:8--"Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins!"
 
Ephesians 4:15--"But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up itself in love!"  
 
I John 4:7--"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God!"  Wow!
 
And some songs?  How about (and I'll only give the titles, or a key line, here, lest I run out of paper)?  

• "I love You, Lord, and I lift my voice...!" 
• "More love to Thee, O Lord, more love to Thee...!"
• "Love lifted me...!"  
• "They will know we are Christians by our love...!"
• "The love of God, how rich and pure...!"
• "Love divine, all love excelling...!

And remember Jim Clingenpeel's last slide: "Love without action is empty!  Action without love is meaningless!  Action with love demonstrates God's design for the body of Christ!"
 
And so, fellow MOBsters!  "Pursue love!"  You gotta chase it!  It doesn't come naturally!
 
Lowell 

"And if one member suffers, all its members suffer; and if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it!" (I Corinthians 12:26)

In last week's lesson on I Corinthians 12:1-11, the apostle Paul addressed the issue of "spiritual gifts," noting that every believer at the time of his (or her!) conversion, is given one or more spiritual gifts--by the Holy Spirit--to be used for the common good within the church, the "body of Christ"!  "To one (he writes) is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healings by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues!  But one and the same Spirit works in all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He will!"

This, we noted, is not the complete list of spiritual gifts given to believers by the Holy Spirit, and we briefly alluded to the array of gifts listed in the Bible, making reference to, and reading other passages where some of the same or other gifts are cited--including in Romans 12:4-8, Ephesians 4:11-13, I Peter 4:10-11, and in verses 28-31 of our lesson tonight!

Spiritual gifts can basically be divided into two categories, according to MacArthur, and as affirmed by the teaching and constitution of IBC: "permanent gifts," which are given for us today, and for the duration of the church age; and "temporary gifts," which were given, and exercised, as "signs" to authenticate the ministries of Christ and the apostles, until the Scriptures were written and completed, and became self-authenticating!

The permanent gifts are both verbal and nonverbal, with the verbal ones variously described as "prophecy, knowledge, wisdom, teaching, and exhortation," while the nonverbal ones are described as leadership, helps, giving, mercy, faith, and discernment," and the greatest one of all: "love"!  The temporary "sign gifts"--again which we believe were limited to the time of Christ and the apostolic age, and have now ceased, included "healings, the effecting of miracles, tongues (or languages), and the interpretation of tongues--which doesn't mean that God doesn't, in His sovereign way, still heal the sick and perform miracles, and do all kinds of supernatural acts, according to His will and purpose!  And, in this regard, our lesson closed last week with a reference to the apostle Paul, in verse 11, stressing that while spiritual gifts are diverse, it is the Holy Spirit who "works all these things and distributes gifts to each one individually as He wills"!

Swindoll sums up I Corinthians 12:1-11 this way: "All believers in Jesus have been baptized with the Holy Spirit and therefore have received the gift of the abiding Spirit Himself!  The indwelling Spirit of God then bestows upon each individual unique spiritual gifts to exercise for the building up of the body of Christ, the church.  The Spirit also nurtures within us the manifestations of His spiritual character, producing the fruit of the Spirit, which enables us to live godly, victorious lives!"

And that set the scene for our lesson last night, beginning with verse 12, where the apostle Paul uses the metaphor of the human body, with its many parts, to describe the diversity and yet the unity of the "body of Christ," or the church--and the sovereignty of God who makes it all happen!

And so Paul begins by comparing the human body with the body of Christ, noting that just as the human body is a beautiful and miraculous display of God's creation handiwork--the "crown jewel of God's creation"--with its many parts carrying out the many different functions of the body (and "each one made of 37 trillion cells," among other things, as Mark Weaver pointed out last night in his slide presentation)--so the body of Christ with its many members carrying out many different functions, with the diversity among its members as an essential characteristic of the unified and living organism known as the church!

Ephesians 1:22-23 says, "And He (God the Father) has put all things in subjection under His (Jesus Christ the Son's) feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all"!  (Phillips puts it this way: "God has placed everything under the power of Christ and has set Him up as head of everything for the church.  For the church is His body, and in that body lives fully the One who fills the whole universe!"

Romans 12:4-5 says, "For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another!"

Paul says, in verse 13, that "by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jew or Greek, whether slave or free, and we were all made to drink of the Holy Spirit"!  This describing how the church, or body of Christ is formed when the Holy Spirit is "immersed" into the life of a believer, at the time of his (or her!) conversion. Constable notes that "the drinking of one Spirit" recalls the words of Jesus in John 7:37-39 where He "cried out, saying, 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink, and that he who believes, as the Scripture said, 'from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water"!  Jesus was speaking, John writes, of the Holy Spirit whom those who believed in Him were to receive "after Jesus was glorified"!

In verses 14-20, Paul writes (again) that just as the human body is made up of many members and every part of the body is essential to the effective functioning of the whole body, so is unity an indispensable need of the body of Christ, or the church, but that divinely-provided diversity is also necessary!  And so, "the foot cannot say, 'because I am not a hand I am not a part of the body,' and the ear cannot say, because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body!  But God has placed many members in the body of Christ, just as He desired...and so now there are many members but one body"!

Constable notes that "uniformity" is not what makes the human body work and that "if all the members of the body were the same it would not be able to function"!  And so the body of Christ! And so, as unique and individual parts, we "need to discover how God has gifted us and become as effective as possible where He has placed us, rather than in longing to have a different gift, or insisting on doing things that God has not gifted us to do!" 

Philippians 2:1-4 says, "Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is an consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.  Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own interests, but also the interests of others!"

And that leads us back to "spiritual gifts," in verses 28-31, where Paul writes that "God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, administration, various kinds of tongues"!  Indicating an order or ranking of the importance of these gifts but, more likely (MacArthur notes) just representing the sequence of them in the history of the church! And further noting that "the apostles and prophets had three responsibilities: (1) to lay the foundation of the church, (2) to receive and declare the revelation of God's Word, and (3) to give confirmation of the Word through signs and wonders and miracles!

Ephesians 2:20 speaks of the church as "having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Himself being the corner stone"!  Ephesians 3:4-5 speaks of "the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it now has been made known to His holy apostles and prophets by the Holy Spirit"!  And Hebrews 2:3-4 says, "God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His will"!

MacArthur notes that "once the work of the foundation of the church was completed, the work of the apostles and prophets was finished, and the gift is no longer given"!

The gift of teachers, or "pastor-teachers," on the other hand, is given for the ministry and interpreting of the Word of God to the church and obviously continues in our day, and throughout the church age!

The second half of verse 28 lists several other representative gifts, both temporary and permanent, again (we believe) with the gifts of healings and miracles no longer existing as gifts given to individuals, although God still deals in supernatural workings in response to the prayers of saints, and according to His divine will and purpose!

In verses 29-30 we are reminded again of the sovereignty of God in bestowing a diversity of gifts among members of the body of Christ, with no one having all the gifts, and God operating under the same principles He followed when He created the human body!

This passage ends with what appears to be a reprimand from Paul to the Corinthians, some of whom were apparently not satisfied with the gifts they were given and so were "earnestly desiring the greater gifts"!  Perhaps the more showy and acclaimed ones! For greater recognition and to satisfy their prideful hearts!  And so Paul writes that he would "show them a better way"! What they desperately needed was not another "gift" but "a more excellent way"!  The way of "love," and the gift of love, which he's about to show them in chapter 13!

Can't wait!

Lowell

"Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.  There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.  But each one is given the manifestations of the Spirit for the common good!"  (Corinthians 12:4-7, NASB)
 
In the last four chapters of I Corinthians (chapters 8-11), the apostle Paul has been addressing various issues raised by, or "problems" otherwise observed concerning, the Corinthian believers, including the question about "eating meat that was offered to idols"!  Paul took the opportunity (in chapter 8) to forbid the believers from participating in pagan feasts and eating the meat offered to idols if doing so might cause a weaker brother to stumble!  "Limit your liberty out of love," was the principle he offered!  In chapter 9, he used the analogy of an Olympic athlete to encourage them to "run the race set before them to win...exercising self-control and disciplining their bodies"!  In chapter 10, he instructed them "not to grumble and try the Lord, as some of them did and were destroyed" (referring to the time of Moses and the children of Israel in their wilderness journey)!  Then to "flee idolatry," and to "drink the cup of blessing and not the cup of demons"!  Then leading off chapter 11 with the challenge for them to "be imitators of him, as he was of Christ!"  Then, charging women not to be influenced by the "feminist movement" of their day (as many are in our day!), by questioning their origin as women and therefore their calling, and duty, to function under the authority of their husbands!  But recognizing God's "divine order," established in the beginning, that "Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ"!  A God-given principle of male authority and female subordination (but not one of "inequality"!) for the purpose of order and complementation, and not on the basis of the innate superiority of male!
 
Then, in last week's lesson on I Corinthians 11:17-34, the apostle Paul wrote how he heard that not only were there divisions and factions among them, but also that they had turned their "coming together" for meals as a church body into "gluttonous, drunken revelries," and since it was connected with the partaking of the Lord's Supper, it had become a flagrant desecration of the holy ordinance!  And so, he used the occasion to remind them of what the Lord's Supper is really all about and how it should be celebrated as a most sacred time of worship--and so, recited the beautiful words of Jesus, which he said "he received directly from the Lord" when He instituted the Lord's Supper!  How "the bread represented His body which was given for them," and how "the cup was the new covenant in His blood," and how all believers needed to "eat the bread and drink the cup in remembrance of Him"!  Noting that "as often as they would do this, they would be proclaiming the Lord's death until He comes"!  Paul then gave a solemn warning that whoever does this in an "unworthy manner," (as some of them apparently were doing!), "shall be guilty of (or dishonoring!) the body and blood of Christ," and suffer serious consequences!  And so, a man "must examine himself, and judge himself rightly" before he partakes, noting that "many of them are weak and sick, and a number sleep," because of their failure to judge themselves before partaking!  (These words speak strongly to us!)
 
And so, all that set the scene for our lesson last night where the apostle Paul exposed yet another "impropriety" in the way the Corinthians were conducting themselves when "coming together' for worship!  And this concerns their failure to fully understand the role of the Holy Spirit in the life and workings of the believer, and of the church!  And specifically concerning how the Holy Spirit gives a variety of "spiritual gifts" to believers to be used--and not abused--in carrying out the ministry of the church!
 
And he begins by wanting to make them aware of the clear and important distinction between the spiritual gifts, and their effects, given by the Holy Spirit to believers and the mystical, ecstatic, emotional, frenzied, sensuous and bizarre effects that were experienced by those who worshipped the pagan gods of the false religions of Corinth! Many of the Corinthian believers had come out of that pagan culture and so after they had become believers were still not completely freed from these dramatic practices and so misunderstood and were confused about the true work of the Spirit of God as compared with the former pneumatic and ecstatic experiences of the pagan religions!  MacArthur suggests perhaps misinterpreting the words of Joel 2:28-29, where the prophet Joel prophesied about a time coming when "God would pour out His Spirit and their sons and daughters would prophesy...old men would dream dreams, young men would see visions..."  Constable suggests that "many of them had heard first-hand from Peter about the miraculous events of Pentecost, with the tongues of fire and speaking with other languages (in Acts 2), and were so determined to experience these same signs and wonders that they tried to manufacture them themselves"!  He further suggests that "they were particularly attracted to the more dramatic gifts, like speaking in tongues, since they appealed to their emotions and reminded them of the exotic experiences and ecstasies they once experienced and gleefully practiced with the pagans"!
 
Paul wanted them to know how they could make that all-important distinction between truth and error, and so he writes, in verse 3, that "no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, 'Jesus is accursed' (as some of them may have said, or been tempted to say, under the demonic influence of pagans); and that "no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit"!  "It's by virtue of what someone expresses verbally about Jesus that gives evidence of whether he (or she!) is under the control of the indwelling Spirit of God, or of a demonic spirit," Paul's was saying! And "whether what he (or she!) says is in harmony with the basic confession that Jesus Christ is Lord," Constable adds!  And further noting that "confessing Jesus Christ as Lord has always been understood as confessing Jesus as God! And that "Lord" implies sovereign authority, and rulership"!  MacArthur writes that "the Lordship, deity, and sovereignty of Jesus Christ is central to true faith, and that such affirmation is the work of the Holy Spirit"!  (Maybe that's why some people put bumper stickers on their cars and otherwise proclaim that "Jesus Christ is Lord," or simply, "He is Lord!")
 
But just what "spiritual gifts"?  MacArthur notes that they're "not just natural talents and abilities, which all people (believers and unbelievers alike) have, but are special capabilities bestowed on believers by the Holy Spirit to equip them to minister supernaturally to others...given by God at the time of their salvation... and the means through which believers are to grow, worship, witness, and serve"!
 
Walvoord writes that "spiritual gifts are capabilities that make it possible to do things far beyond one's natural abilities by the indwelling Holy Spirit!  So that it's an expression of the power of the Spirit rather than of the individual!"  
 
I like the way the Phillips translation translates verses 4-7: "Men have different gifts, but it is the same Spirit who gives them!  There are different ways of serving God, but it is the same Lord who is served!  God works through different men in different ways, but it is the same God who achieves His purposes through them all!"
 
MacArthur writes that "each gift which the Holy Spirit now gives to believers had its perfect expression in Jesus' own life and ministry.  His church continues to live out His life on earth through the power of His Spirit working through His gifted people!"
 
The Bible Hub expresses how I Corinthians 12 "beautifully illustrates the unity in diversity within the body of Christ, underlying the importance of every believer and their unique contribution to the community.  Regardless of the nature of our gifts, we are reminded, it says, that we all have a place and a purpose within the body!  We're interdependent, and it's through our collective efforts, each performing his God-given role, that we manifest the love and power of Christ in our communities. Using the metaphor of a body with many parts, it  emphasizes the interdependence of believers, highlighting that every gift no matter how great or small, contributes to the functioning of the whole body--the church!"
 
The apostle Paul specifically lists and describes some of the gifts in verses 7-11, but it's important to realize that this passage doesn't include the complete list!  In fact, they are also listed variably, or referred to, in Roman 12:4-8, and in Ephesians 4:11-13, and in I Peter 4:10-11, as well as in I Corinthians 12:27-31 (which we'll get into in our lesson next week) and, most emphatically, in I Corinthians 13 where Paul describes "the greatest gift of all"!
 
MacArthur states, I believe correctly, and consistent with the teaching and constitution of our church, that the spiritual gifts can be divided basically into two categories: "permanent gifts," which are given to edify the church and which will continue to be given throughout the duration of the church age; and "temporary gifts," which were given as signs to authenticate the apostolic message and confirm the word of God until the Scriptures were written and completed, and became self-authenticating!
 
The permanent gifts which apply to us today include a combination of verbal and nonverbal gifts, listed in one or more of the passages listed above (which we read and alluded to last night).  The verbal, or speaking gifts, include prophecy, knowledge, wisdom, teaching, and exhortation, while the nonverbal ones include leadership, helps, giving, mercy, faith, and discernment!  And the greatest one of all: love!
 
The temporary "sign gifts"--which we believe were limited to the apostolic age and therefore ceased after that time--include healings, the effecting of miracles, tongues (or languages), and the interpretation of tongues!
 
Last night, however, we limited ourselves to dealing with the gifts listed and described in I Corinthians12:1-11!
 
Paul writes in verse 8 that "...to one is given the given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit..."  MacArthur says that the 'word of wisdom' is the ability to understand God's word and His will, and to skillfully apply that understanding to life; while the 'word of knowledge' is the ability to understand and speak God's truth, with insights into the mysteries of the Word that cannot be known apart from God's revelation"!  Constable adds that knowledge "majors in grasping the meaning of the truth; while wisdom emphasizes the practical conviction and conduct that applies it!"
 
Thank God for the gift of "faith"!  Romans 10:17 says that "faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ!"  Romans 5:1 says, "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ!"  And Habakkuk 2:4 says, "But the righteous shall live by faith!"  Jesus said to His disciples (in Matthew 17:20) that "if you have faith the size of a mustard seed...nothing will be impossible to you!"  Wow!
 
MacArthur writes that faith "is exercised in persistent prayer and endurance in intercession, along with a strong trust in God in the midst of difficult circumstances;" and that those who have the gift of faith "have a special ability to lay claim to the promises of God!"
 
Well, what about the gifts of "healings," and the "effecting of miracles"?  Again, we believe these were temporary gifts to authenticate Christ and the apostolic preachers of the gospel so people would believe, prior to having the Scripture!  John 2:11 says that when Jesus "turned water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana of Galilee," it was the beginning of "His earthly ministry, and of signs to manifest His glory!  And that the apostles also performed miracles as confirming signs of the gospel message!
 
And it's important to realize that although Christians aren't specifically given the gift of healing today, God still heals and restores the sick, as James 5:15-16 says, "through prayer offered in faith" (there's the gift of faith at work again!)--and noting that "the prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much"!
 
And that brings us to the gift of "tongues," and the "interpretation of tongues" which Paul will say more about in lessons to follow but which basically involved speaking languages the speaker had not previously learned (to spread gospel)--not the "gibberish" that pagans spoke!  And again, temporary signs and, we believe, not for today!
 
We'll deal with more signs in next week's lesson on verses 12-31 where Paul, interestingly, ends by referring to the greatest gift of all!  The gift of love, and puts all other gifts in proper perspective by concluding that "if I have the tongues of men and of angels...and the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge...and (even) have all faith, so as to remove mountains...and (even) surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing!"  Nothing!  Wow!
 
We need discover and use the gift, or gifts, that God has graciously supplied to us!
 
But first, and foremost, to love God, and one another!
 
Lowell