Spiritual Gifts pt.5	    Unity Through Diversity   	1 Co.12:11-26		7-14-2002

Any chapter in the Bible that speaks this much of the Holy Spirit should really pique our interest, because the Christian life, from beginning to end, is connected to the Holy Spirit.  

We are called to walk in the Spirit, 
To live in the Spirit, 
To be filled with the Spirit, 
To pray in the Spirit, 
To manifest the fruit of the Spirit, and
To utilize the gifts of the Spirit
And on the negative side we are exhorted 
not to grieve the Spirit, 
not to resist the Spirit, 
and not to quench the Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the Manager, Organizer, Author and Power Source of every part of the Christian life.

The very first thing He does when you become a Christian is wash you so thoroughly that you are actually a new person – reborn.  Then He immerses (baptizes) you into a community of people called the Church.  

As you read through this Bible you get the distinct impression that the Holy Spirit is concerned with very little outside of this community of people He is building called the Body of Christ.

His leadership approach in this organization is fascinating.  Instead of handing down policies and memos and operating procedures, He simply distributes gifts, enables and motivates the individual people, and then moves inside their hearts to influence them to do what He desires for them.

The variety and combination of giftedness is varied and complex, but there are some catagories of giftedness.  The longest list of those categories appears in 1 Co.12:8-10. 

1. message of wisdom 
Skillful rhetorical ability in articulating the Gospel. (Preaching)

2. word of knowledge 
Special ability to teach and explain Scripture in the area of Christian living.  (Teaching)

3. faith
Special ability to trust God

4. gifts of healings 
A gift of healing is a single event in which a person is enabled to heal another person.

We can’t pin down with exact precision what this gift is, but I think we would be safe to assume that it must be something different from the world’s counterfeit.  

Surely the miraculous healing of God’s hand would be something that would be distinguishable from the things the guys on the infomercials are doing with their positive thinking or miracle drugs.

5. miraculous powers
A miraculous power is a single event in which a person is enabled to do another kind of miracle (exorcism, resurrection, or perhaps miracles of judgment).

6. prophecy 
Infallible, revelatory, inspired speech (word-for-word announcements of what God is saying).  

Prophecy in a broader sense can involve knowing things that couldn’t naturally be known

7. distinguishing between spirits, 
Special ability in evaluating a prophet from Scripture to see if he is from God or not.

8. Languages
The ability to speak in a language you have never learned, but that conveys meaningful things such as thanksgiving or the wonders of God.

9. Interpretation of Languages 
The ability to correctly interpret (translate) the utterances of one with the gift of languages.
The Spirit distributes the gifts
11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. 

This is a significant verse in demonstrating the personality of the Holy Spirit.  It is not correct to think of the Holy Spirit as simply being God’s spirit in the sense of you or me having a spirit.

I have a spirit.  But my spirit is not a distinct person.  In fact, it’s not a person at all.  It’s a part of a person.  I am a single person, and I am composed of various constituent parts.  

So if you were talking about my spirit, you would talk about it in just that way – as at “it” (not a “he”).  

But the Holy Spirit is a distinct person.  The Spirit is a “He” and He has a will and decides things and carries them out.

You have the spiritual gift you have because the Holy Spirit made the decision to give you that gift, and then gave it to you.

So the Spirit is a person who is distinct from God the Father or God the Son.  They speak to one another, respond to one another, love one another…  

The Son sends the Spirit, the Spirit glorifies the Son, the Son glorifies the Father, the Father exalts the Son – those are interactions between persons.

We do not believe in three gods.  There is only one, single God.  But we also believe that the Son is fully God, the Spirit is fully God, and the Father is fully God, and they are distinct from one another.

Incidentally, this passage also demonstrates the deity of the Holy Spirit.

11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. 

18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be… 24 God has combined the members of the body

The unity of the body is dependent upon the diversity of the parts, so no part should be disparaged.
12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized into one Spirit into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 
14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 
17If 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? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 
21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 
Low profile parts are not lesser.
22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 
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The Spirit distributes the gifts
11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. 

If that idea sounds familiar to you, it should.  Paul already made that point no less than 7 times in the first 9 verses.  And he will keep repeating it throughout the rest of the chapter.

You cannot set up a hierarchy of people based on giftedness, because they all come from the same Spirit for a single purpose.  When you have a variety of parts working together for a single goal, how can one be more important than another?

Which is more important in your car, the engine or the wheels?  What’s more important in your body, your brain or your heart?  What part of a computer is more crucial; the processor or the power supply?

Every part that is necessary to make it function is equally important.  It’s the same way in the church.
The unity of the body is dependent upon the diversity of the parts, so no part should be disparaged.
12The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized into one Spirit into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 

V.13 is an important verse for understanding what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is.  The Pentecostals teach what is known as a “second work of grace.”  (The first work of grace is conversion, when you are born again, and the second work of grace comes at a later time when you are baptized into the Holy Spirit)

So they teach there are two distinct classes of Christians – the regular ones and the Spirit-baptized ones.

But that entire theological system collapses altogether under the weight of v.13, which says every Christian has been baptized into the Spirit.  The only way something can right now be true of every Christian is if it happens at conversion.

If there were such a thing as non-Spirit-baptized Christians, Paul wouldn’t be able to say all Christians are baptized.

The Pentecostals will argue that in Acts we see people receiving the Holy Spirit after they were already converted.  And that’s true.  It happened 4 times: Acts 2,8,10,19.  

Let’s take a look at those events to see if there is something there that implies that is the way it is to be throughout the Church age.

At the beginning of his ministry, John the Baptist prophesied: "After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." (Mark 1:7-8)

At the end of His ministry, Jesus elucidated that a little further with a prophecy of His own

John 14:16-18
And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever- 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

When I go back to heaven, I’m not going to leave you as orphans.  You will enjoy My presence in an even greater way then than you do now.  

It will be through the Holy Spirit.  Up until now He has been with you.  In the OT, the Holy Spirit came alongside God’s people in times when they needed special enabling or strengthening.  

But then, instead of just being with you, He will be in you.  In the Church Age you will experience the Holy Spirit in a greater way.

The very first thing that happens after Jesus ascends up into heaven is this prophecy is fulfilled.  The Holy Spirit comes in a very dramatic, unmistakable way.

But it doesn’t happen to the entire Church all at once.  It happens in 4 stages.

The first stage is when the Holy Spirit comes to the Jewish believers.  That happens in Acts 2.

Acts 2:1-6
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 

They all happened to be together, because they were celebrating one of the OT feasts.  God commanded in 2 Chrn.8:12 that Israel have a harvest celebration every year on the 50th day after Passover.  That’s where the term “Pentecost comes from.

It came 7 weeks after Passover, so it was also called the Feast of Weeks.

So they were all together celebrating that feast.when…

2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. 
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.

Now the Holy Spirit is inside them, and they have been immersed (baptized) into the Body of Christ.  

The greatest difference between the Church and the OT community of believers, and the hardest part for the Jews to understand, was the fact that in the Church there is no longer any distinction between Jew and Gentile.

Gentiles do not have to become Jewish to enter this Body.  They are members who are on totally equal footing with the Jews.

That truth proved extraordinarily hard for the Jews to accept.  The only thing that finally convinced them was the Apostles.

And the only thing that finally convinced the Apostles was the fact that they personally witnessed the Holy Spirit come into the Samaritans and Gentiles.

After the Day of Pentecost, the word traveled quickly to Samaria.  And many of the hated Samaritans accepted the Gospel.  

Acts 8:14-19  When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. 

This was an unmistakable event.  When Peter and John laid their hands on them and the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit, that event was accompanied by such astounding and marvelous miracles that Simon the Sorcerer offered to pay them money if they would do the same thing to him.

The Jews never would have believed those Samaritans were on an equal level with them, and had the Holy Spirit inside them if the Apostles hadn’t seen it with their own eyes.

Do you see why that couldn’t happen right on the Day of Pentecost?  The Jews would have never known it happened.

What about the Gentiles?

In chapter 10 God gave Peter a dream in which he was instructed to eat foods that were unclean in the OT.  At first Peter was horrified at the idea, and refused.  

The observance of clean and unclean foods is one of the main things that distinguished Jews from Gentiles, and Peter wasn’t about to eat unclean animals.  But God insisted, so he did it.

Right after that dream, God told Peter to go into the house of a Gentile (another defiling thing).  

Peter did it, and while he was there, with his own eyes Peter saw the Holy Spirit come to those Gentiles.

Acts 10:44-48   While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message. 45 The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said, 47 "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have." 48 So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days. 

When the Jewish Christians in Judea heard about this, and found out that Peter had gone into the house of a Gentile, they were not happy.

Acts 11:2-18  So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him 3 and said, "You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them."   4 Peter began and explained…
15 "As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'  17 So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?" 18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, "So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life."

When the Holy Spirit entered the Church at the beginning of the Church age, why didn’t He enter all believers at the same moment?  Why did He wait a little while before entering into the Samaritan believers and a little longer for the Gentile believers?  

It had to be that way so the Jews could see it.

That’s three of the four.  There is one left: ch.19.

The Spirit has come to those in Jerusalem, the Samaria, then Caesarea.  But what about the rest of the world?  

By ch.19 the Apostles are out to the uttermost parts of their world spreading the Gospel, and they find themselves in Ephesus.  

There they encounter some leftover OT believers who have not yet even heard about Christ.

Acts 19:1-7  While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?"  They answered, "No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." 
3 So Paul asked, "Then what baptism did you receive?"  "John's baptism," they replied. 
4 Paul said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." 5 On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all. 
The picture is pretty clear.  When the Holy Spirit came into the Church at the beginning of the Church age, He came to the entire Church in order to show there is no longer any distinction.  

And He did so in such a way as to demonstrate that every believer in every part of the world is included.

That much is agreed upon by both Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal scholars. 

Where the disagreement comes is in whether that is simply an historical event, like the crucifixion or ascension, or if it is presented as a model to describe what is supposed to happen to each believer throughout the Church age.

The Pentecostals say, “See, those people received the Holy Spirit after their conversion.”

But just because something happened in the transition from OT to NT doesn’t mean we can make that normative for the entire Church age.

In fact, if you are going to say based on that that the Holy Spirit is received after conversion, you have to say the same thing about Christ!

Those guys in Acts 19 had never even made the transition from John to Jesus.  They had believed (v.2), and Paul refers to that as their conversion, yet they were unfamiliar even with Jesus.

So based on that are we going to say that the norm in throughout the Church age is to become a Christian, and only years later become aware of Jesus?

And are we going to say the delay between conversion and Spirit baptism is shortest for Jews, a little longer for Samaritans, longer still for nearby Gentiles and longest of all for disciples of John the Baptist?
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Back to 1 Co.12.

13 For we were all baptized into one Spirit into one body-whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free-and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

Recently many Charismatic commentators have given up on making Spirit baptism a second work of grace, and have sought instead to find support for that idea in the second half of v.13.

So the idea is you become a Christian at one point, and later on you are made to drink of the Holy Spirit.
But that suffers from the same flaw – we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

So we have a double analogy.  We were baptized into the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit came into us.

Paul’s point is that since everyone has been baptized into the Holy Spirit, a person ought not to disparage his own role.
14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 

Usually the foot doesn’t compare itself to the eye.  When someone’s gift is in a completely different category than yours, there generally isn’t a sense of inferiority.  

The comparisons comes against those who are similar to us, yet seemingly have more ability or have a more glamorous job.  Compared to the hand, the foot is pretty clumsy, awkward, and has much less ability.

The foot needs to realize that if the body had hands attached to the ankles it would be crippled.  

Some of you who are really down on yourselves for the work you do – or look down on someone else for what they do or don’t seem to do, you need to consider the possibility that you may be measuring by the wrong standard.

17If 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? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.

The percentage of teachers, leaders, servers, helpers, etc. is no accident.  It’s by God’s design.  The fact that we have the number of Sunday School teachers that we do is as much part of the design of God as the fact that you have 10 fingers, two hands and one heart.

 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 
Conversely, no one should disparage another person’s role.
21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 
Low profile parts are not lesser.
22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker (probably internal organs) are indispensable  (not a nice addition or some welcome help, but indispensable), 23and the parts that we think are less honorable (“private parts” we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24while our presentable parts need no special treatment.

The organ we refer to as “vital” organs are invisible (if someone can see your vital organs, you are probably dead).  Yet we call them “vital organs” because without them we can’t live.

So it is in the church.  Some people’s ministries are invisible to the body, yet their role is crucial.  

But God has combined the members of the body 

The word combined refers to a harmonious mixing – sometimes used of the mixing of colors on a palate.  The Church is a masterpiece of just the right shades of each kind of gifted person

and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

The word translated concern is the normal word for “worry.”  It’s the word Jesus used when He told us not to be worried about tomorrow or clothes or food (Mt.6:25-34).

In Mt.10 Jesus used this word to tell the disciples not to be worried about what they would say when they got arrested  (Mt.10:19)

He used to describe Martha being worried about so many things (Lk.10:41).

And in Php.4:6 we are commanded not to be anxious (same word) about anything.

Worrying about your life is sin.  But there is a good kind of worry or concern.

In 1 Co.7 Paul uses this word repeatedly to describe the difference between a married person and a single person (vv.32-34).  The married person is worried about his wife, whereas the single person is free to worry only about the Lord.

So it’s a strong term.  Single people have closer friends that they are concerned about.  But this level of concern is only present for a spouse.  It rises way above regular friendships.

Being concerned with someone else’s worries is the same as looking out for the interests of Christ.
Phil 2:20,21   Speaking of Timothy, Paul says I have no one else like him, who takes a genuine interest in your worries. 21 For everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 

The fact that God has intermixed the gifts as He has, and made some people stronger or more visible, others weaker or less visible – knowing that God has done all that as part of the infinitely complex process of putting together the Body, should cause us not to look down on one another but to be worried and concerned with each other’s concerns.

When I get a sliver in my foot, my whole body is worried about it.

 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 

These verses call to mind all the detailed discussion of weak and strong believers (ch.8) and wise and foolish (ch.1,2).  Both the ideas of role reversal of the latter and the idea of strong caring for the weak in the former seem to be present.

Sports are also a great way to illustrate this same thing, because teams are like bodies in that they are only successful if they function with great unity, and yet that unity is only attained when everyone does something different. (The job of an offensive lineman is very different from that of a quarterback).

This point about rejoicing is also seen in sports.  

How many times have you seen some superstar player have a record-breaking game and then walk off the court haning his head because his team lost an important game?

And how often have you seen a team win a big game, and those who played terribly and even those who didn’t play at all are jumping up and down for joy like little kids?

That’s exactly the way the Body of Christ should function.