The Complete Picture Series

The Complete Picture

1 Corinthians Series

CCCAG 11-23-25

Scripture:1 Corinthians 12:1–11

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INTRODUCTION – WHEN A BODY FIGHTS ITSELF

Everyone here has heard about diabetes. Everyone here knows someone too sweet for their own good, or you are one of those sugary sweet people.

But here’s something most people don’t realize: people with Type 1 diabetes — the kind where you need insulin from childhood — aren’t suffering from an endocrine problem as much as an autoimmune one.

Autoimmune disorders are where the body’s own defense system mistakenly attacks the very organs it was designed to protect. The symptoms can be subtle at first, but over time the damage becomes life-altering. Strength fades. Coordination falters. What was meant to give life begins to steal it away.

Paul sees something similar happening in Corinth.

Not physically—but spiritually.

The church at Corinth was a church filled with passion, spiritual hunger, supernatural experiences, and incredible potential… was also filled with jealousy, pride, confusion, division, immaturity, and competition.

They had all of the gifts—but none of the glue.

They had manifestations—but not maturity.

They had spiritual horsepower—but were steering in twelve different directions.

So Paul does something very typical of his teaching style- before he gets into the description of the particular’s, he lays down a framework for them to work in concert with God’s design.

We see it here-

So, before he talks about gifts,

before he teaches about the body,

before he approaches controversies about tongues and prophecy and manifestations—he takes them somewhere deeper.

He pulls them behind the curtain and shows them the foundation that holds everything together.

He shows them God Himself.

He teaches them that the very unity they need is seen in the God who saved them.

Here is the truth-

The unity of the church is displayed in the unity of God.

And the diversity of the church is rooted in the diversity within God.

It is not random.

It is not chaotic.

It is not a spiritual free-for-all.

There is a Trinitarian pattern behind everything.

1 Cor 12 is the biblical truth of that.

The Spirit gives the gifts.

The Son directs the ministries.

The Father produces the results.

The Church is unified because the Trinity is unified.

Let’s read through this text and see what the Spirit is saying.

1 Corinthians 12:1–11

Now concerning spiritual gifts: brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be unaware. 2 You know that when you were pagans, you used to be enticed and led astray by mute idols. 3 Therefore I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

4 Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are different ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are different activities, but the same God works all of them in each person. 7 A manifestation of the Spirit is given to each person for the common good: 8 to one is given a message of wisdom through the Spirit, to another, a message of knowledge by the same Spirit, 9 to another, faith by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another, the performing of miracles, to another, prophecy, to another, distinguishing between spirits, to another, different kinds of tongues, to another, interpretation of tongues. 11 One and the same Spirit is active in all these, distributing to each person as he wills.

Prayer

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We have a bit to unpack this morning so let’s start with the first few verses.

The first thing we want to do, is establish the foundation needed to understand the rest of this chapter, and the following 2 chapters in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.

I. CLARITY BEFORE POWER (vv. 1–2)

“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.”

“You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray to mute idols.”

Paul sets the foundation-

In Corinth, spirituality was loud. Flashy. Emotional. Frenzied.

They incorporated many of the worship practices that they had in the pagan temples they came from- highly emotional where your personal performance in the rituals showed your passion and devotion to that idol.

It had to be loud and it had to attract attention if you were to get that pagan gods attention so he or she would do what you wanted them to do.

Think about Mt Carmal and Elijah with the prophets of Ba’al. They danced, they screamed, they spoke in demonic tongues and even cut themselves to try and get Ba’al’s attention- so much so that Elijah mocked their behavior when their actions yielded no results, suggesting maybe Ba’al was in the bathroom or asleep and needed to be woken up.