Do you like the way your body looks? Some of you do and some of you do don’t. But all of us can find parts that need improving.
When God looks at the church – known as the “body of Christ” – do you think He likes what He sees? Just like us I think he likes certain parts and really wishes other parts would get “shaped up”. Well, if we are to get “shaped up” it will mean first understanding what part of the body we are – and then getting involved.
With that in mind we’re spending these 4 weeks Discovering Our Spiritual Gifts. My prayer is you will see that God has uniquely created YOU to be involved in a life that matters for eternity. Last week we looked at the first section in 1 Cor 12 and the 9 gifts of the spirit listed there. This week we’ll continue a quick look at each of the spiritual gifts – and I hope you’ll find one or two today that you really identity as a way that God has gifted you!
1 Cor. 12:27-31
27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues. 29Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? 31But eagerly desire the greater gifts.
10. Apostle/missionary (from gk. “apostolos” – literally “sent out one”)
A representative of the church sent out to establish new works of God.
For most of my life I’ve considered this gift only a title for the 12 disciples – as if their name changed after the ascension of Jesus to heaven. But a careful look at scripture shows that many others beyond the twelve disciples and Paul were designated with the title “apostle”: James (Gal 1:19), Barnabas (Acts 14:4, 14), Epaphroditus (Phil 2:25), Silas and Timothy (1 Thess 1:1, 2:6), Andronicas and Junia (Rom 16:7), and others (1 Cor 15:5, 7; 2 Cor 8:23; 11:13).
In the early church, then, to be an apostle meant you were “sent out” from one place to do ministry work in another place. It is a bit unclear whether this is a spiritual gift or simply a calling from God – but either way, those who are sent out as apostles or missionaries are specially gifted to pioneer new works of God.
In our own story here at CTK, we have one who definitely has the gift or calling of apostle – and that is Dave Browning. He is just not happy if he is in a settled place. He has a pioneering spirit that loves the challenge of moving into new places and trying new things in ministry.
Where do we need people with this gift here at CTK Oak Harbor? If you feel God has gifted or called you as a missionary/apostle, we need you make yourself known. The need for new small group leaders to develop new ministry with new people is huge! You can start a new small group. Or maybe you’re going to be moving away sometime in the next year or so – did you know God might want you to start a new CTK location? Or perhaps God is calling you to go to a foreign land and bring the gospel of Christ to the masses who have no opportunity to hear it. Regardless, if you have this gift – then be praying about how God wants to use YOU to go and start something new.
TRANS: the next gift we’ll discuss today is teaching. (You’ll notice I skipped “prophecy” in verse 28 – that’s because we introduced the gift of prophecy last week.)
11. Teaching
The ability to clearly communicate information relevant to the health and ministry of the church.
Obviously, there are many people who by education and by experience learn to be effective communicators. But the spiritual gift of teaching allows someone to take deep spiritual truths and help other people understand those truths.
People with the gift of teaching enjoy studying the Bible and related materials in order to communicate what they have learned to other Christians. Those with this gift find it easy to organize vast amounts of information in such a way as to make it easy to communicate, understand, and remember.
Teaching was one of my highest scores when I recently took the spiritual gifts inventory, and I’m not surprised at that. I really enjoy being in front and helping people understand what the Bible means. But in order for this church to succeed in its mission, we need many different people who have been gifted in this area. If this is you – you should be making plans to lead a small group this fall – or at least to tell your small group leader you’re ready to be an apprentice leader in preparation for starting a group in the near future.
We need people with the gift of teaching to put it to use in leading youth small groups or in children’s ministry as well.
I also love it when people come up to me and ask if they can lead a seminar on some subject that they feel passionate about. Ken Mann has done this on occasion over the past few years with a teaching tool he developed called “The Holy Spirit and the Believer”. If you have this gift – don’t keep it a secret, but let me know!
TRANS: The next gift Paul mentions in 1 Cor 12:28 is…
12. Helping
The ability to invest one’s talents in the life and ministry of others, thus enabling them to serve with greater effectiveness.
It’s interesting that as I looked through scripture to find an example of a person with this gift it wasn’t all that easy to find. That’s because people who have this gift are very seldom found in the limelight. They get great joy out of helping others succeed in their ministries. I did find one, however – Phoebe!
Rom. 16:1-2 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant of the church in Cenchrea. I ask you to receive her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many people, including me.
One person at CTKOH with this gift is Diana Guernsey. Diana is someone who is always utilizing her gift of helps by doing things behind the scenes in children’s ministry to help things run smoothly.
Where do we need people with the gift of helping at CTKOH? Everywhere! Every small group leader needs someone with this gift to help take care of the details of the group like food and remembering birthdays and anniversaries and things like that. Every ministry group needs people with the gift of helping to come alongside and relieve the burden of details that accompany any ministry task. We can often use some help at our church office putting mailings out and doing computer work. People with the gift of helping are so important to the success of the body!
TRANS: The final spiritual gift Paul mentions in 1 Cor. 12 is the gift of administration.
13. Administration
The ability to understand clearly how to accomplish immediate and long-range goals in the body of Christ, and to execute those plans successfully.
This gift is a leadership gift and is often characterized by people who lead the body by steering others to remain on task. These people generally are concerned with the details of how to accomplish tasks, and tend to be masters at delegating specific tasks to other people according to their gifts and talents.
In the 6th chapter of Acts, we see the Twelve disciples functioning in the gift of administration as they solve a dilemma facing their growing church.
Acts 6:1 ¶ In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
Acts 6:2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.
Acts 6:3 Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them
Acts 6:4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”
Acts 6:5 ¶ This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.
Acts 6:6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
Acts 6:7 ¶ So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.
The Twelve (as they are called) recognized they simply could not do everything on their own. They could not effectively pray and teach AND make sure the food distribution was going fairly. So they delegated the task to others who were well qualified to get the job done. What was the end result? “The word of God spread.”
We need people with this gift at CTK! Every ministry group (youth, worship, children’s, small groups) has need of people who can help bring organization and efficiency to the ministry being done. If you have been given the gift of administration – I pray you will use that gift to build up the Kingdom!
TRANS: Now that concludes all of the spiritual gifts mentioned in 1 Cor. 12. But as I’ve mentioned there are other places in scripture where the gifts are mentioned as well. We’re going to take a look at 2 other gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4 today, and will finish our study with a look at Romans 3 next week. Let’s turn to Eph. 4…
Ephesians 4:4-12
4There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8This is why itsays:
"When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men."…
11It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up…
Of the five gifts mentioned here, we’ve already discussed apostles, prophets, and teachers, so let’s take a look at those other two, starting with…
14. Evangelism
The ability to readily share the gospel with unbelievers in such a way that people often become repent and become disciples of Jesus.
Obviously evangelism, or sharing your faith with others, is something that every believer is expected to be involved in. But certain people are given the gift of being able to be far more effective in their “batting average” when witnessing than others.
Sometimes, in fact, God will give someone with the gift of evangelism a very specific assignment to go and speak to someone in particular.
We see an example of this in the life of Philip, in the 8th chapter of Acts.
Acts 8:26-38
26Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." 27So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians. This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the book of Isaiah the prophet. 29The Spirit told Philip, "Go to that chariot and stay near it."
30Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. "Do you understand what you are reading?" Philip asked.
31"How can I," he said, "unless someone explains it to me?" So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him….
35Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
36As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?" 38And he gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water and Philip baptized him.
Phillip didn’t know why God was sending him to the desert road between Jerusalem and Gaza – but he obeyed! And I’m sure that this Ethiopian official was not exactly the type of person he usually associated with – but again he obeyed! And the result of his obeying the promptings of the Holy Spirit was the almost immediate salvation of this man from Africa.
Those with the gift of evangelism today should be sure and keep their spirit listening for promptings just like this one, and be prepared to share what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.
15. Pastor (Shepherd)
The ability to assume personal responsibility for the welfare of a group of believers.
Too often the church has limited this gift to a certain few who hold on office of leadership in the church, but the word used by Paul in Ephesians 4 describing this gift is “poimen” which simply means “shepherd”.
When taken this way, we see that there need to be many people in any given congregation who are actively using this gift. In fact, because of our belief that no one can really effectively shepherd more than 10-15 people, we are constantly seeking those with shepherding gifts to lead small groups here at CTK.
We get an idea what is expected of people with this gift when we read Jesus’ words about himself in John 10.
John 10:11-14
11"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14"I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—
Those with the gift of shepherd, then, are needed to take deep personal responsibility for others in the body of Christ. For those with this gift, such a ministry is a great joy and not a burden.
One person I know who has this gift in abundance is Pastor Terry at CTK Coupeville. His heart just abounds with care for those in the church there, even when their life situations are demanding and difficult to handle.
We definitely need people with this gift to be involved in small group ministry at CTK!
CONCLUSION:
If it’s true that we are a body and that each of us has an important part to play – then let me ask you an important question: Are you exercising enough? In order for the body of Christ here at CTK Oak Harbor to be healthy we must be active about doing what each of us has been designed to do. A leg or arm that never gets moved will find the muscles atrophy – they simply lose their ability to function. But those same arms and legs, when put into motion and tested – will become stronger and stronger.
If you’ve been an observor or a benchwarmer – I want to challenge you to find your places of ministry by getting up and getting involved.
