Nature Of The Gifts Of The Spirit Series

Intro

We are examining the gifts of the Spirit. Last week, we talked about the purpose of the gifts. The gifts of the Spirit are not designed to entertain the saints or make church more exciting. The gifts of the Spirit are to build up the saints so they can do the work of the ministry. The gifts of the Spirit have two fundamental objectives:

(1) Relieve human suffering and

(2) Advance the kingdom of God.

This is done by (a) strengthening the saints for the work of the ministry and (b) confirming the resurrection of Jesus through supernatural manifestations by the Holy Spirit so that people may believe the message of the gospel.

Today, we will talk about the nature of these gifts. How do we know that it is the gifts of the Spirit in operation? What are the biblical characteristics of these gifts? We take our text from 1 Cor. 12:1-11.

“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: 2 You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. 4 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: 8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.”1

We identify eight characteristics of these gifts from that passage.

(1) In the first verse, we learn that they are “spiritual,” not natural.

(2) in verses 2-3, we see that they are Christ-exalting

(3) Verse 4 tells us they are “gifts,” not something earned.

(4) In verses 4-7 we see that they are diverse in their expression

(5) Verses 4-11 tell us they come from God alone, not various spirits. Although the manifestations are diverse, they come from one source: the Holy Spirit.

(6) Verse 7 calls them “manifestation” of the Spirit.

(7) Verse 7 also tells us they are given for the common good of God’s people.

(8) Verse 11 tells us they are distributed as the Holy Spirit wills, not by the will of man. I will deal with some of these characteristics at length this morning, and I will only make a few comments on others which will be dealt with more fully later on.

I. These gifts are “SPIRITUAL,” not natural endowments.

In verse 1 the word “gifts” is not in the Greek. The word gifts is borrowed from verse 4 by the translators to make the meaning easier to follow in English. That’s perfectly legitimate, although it would have been clearer to borrow “manifestations” from verse 7. I suspect they took gifts because of its closer proximity. So Paul introduces his subject by simply saying, “Now concerning pneumatikos .…” The Greek is in the plural. So here is Paul’s introduction to this subject, “Now concerning spirituals….” The UBS Greek Dictionary defines pneumatikos as, “spiritual, pertaining to the spirit; spiritual person; spiritual thing, spiritual gift; supernatural or spiritual.”2 Pneumatikos stands in contrast to psuchikos which means natural3 or soulish. It relates to the mind. We get our word psychology from psuchikos.4 Paul did not use the word psuchikos, but the word pneumatikos.

I’m going into this kind of depth to clear up a misunderstanding about the gifts that is very common among Christians: the confusion between a supernatural, spiritual manifestation verses natural God-given abilities of the soul. Let me give a few examples. A lot of people confuse wisdom with the “word of wisdom” in verse 8. There are some very wise people in Christian circles who do not operate in the supernatural gift of a “word of wisdom.” That person may be considered wise because he has studied the Bible for many years and has embraced biblical truths in his value system. That is a wonderful thing. But it is not a supernatural “word of wisdom.” The person may have a lot of insight and sound counsel because of extensive life experience. That, too, is wonderful, but it is not the “word of wisdom.” A word of wisdom is a supernatural impartation of wisdom for a specific occasion. It is not just wisdom in general.