Why Desire Spiritual Gifts? Part One
I Corinthians 12-14
My first car was a 1968 Volkswagen Bug. And I remember one day I was driving – I think I was on a freeway – that there was a sudden massive loss of power. It was still moving ahead – but there was an immediate loss of speed. So I pulled off and opened the hood and looked inside. But since I’m mechanically challenged, I had no idea what the problem was.
So I started up the car and as soon as I got home I called a friend who was more mechanically inclined than I was. He opened the hood, and after about 15 seconds he said – “Oh, this will be easy.” And after maybe another 15 seconds, he closed the hood and said “start it up.”
The problem was that a spark plug wire had disconnected from its spark plug. So instead of running on 4 cylinders, I was running on 3. It was not a serious problem. It was easy to fix. But until that wire was hooked up, I’d have much less power and speed because the car was built to run on all cylinders.
Jesus created the church to run on all cylinders. We need to run on all our cylinders if we are going to see our neighborhoods filled with the gospel, if we are going to multiply home groups throughout the South Bay area, if we are plant churches here and around the world -- we need to be firing on all cylinders.
But one of the cylinders we can easily neglect is spiritual gifts. Jesus Christ intended spiritual gifts to be firing away, so that we are running on all the cylinders he has for us. But if we neglect spiritual gifts, if we don’t understand spiritual gifts, then we won’t have anywhere near the power or speed that Jesus intends us to have.
Over the past months we elders have become concerned that we have become a bit complacent when it comes to spiritual gifts. When it comes to our time Sunday mornings, it doesn’t seem that we are as earnest in praying for and desiring spiritual gifts. And my guess is that this is probably also true when it come to our home groups – and our daily life in community with each other.
So we decided to take two weeks to look again at this issue of spiritual gifts – especially at reasons why we should earnestly desire them. So I thought of barriers which keep us from earnestly desiring and praying for spiritual gifts. I’ll cover half of them today, and the rest next Sunday.
And the passage of Scripture we’ll be focusing on is I Corinthians 12-14. So let’s turn there together. And if you need a Bible, go ahead and raise your hand and we’ll bring one to you. I Corinthians 12 is on page 959 in the Bible we are passing out.
Here’s some background. Paul had received a disturbing report of problems that had arisen in the church of Corinth. He wrote I Corinthians to address these problems. One of these problems was their abuse of spiritual gifts, which Paul addresses in I Corinthians 12-14.
We’re not going to go through these chapters verse-by-verse – I’d encourage you to do that during this coming week. But I’ll focus on key verses which can help us overcome our obstacles.
So let’s start by looking at I Corinthians 14:1. What does Paul call us to do about spiritual gifts? The answer is in I Corinthians 14:1 --
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
Paul calls us to pursue love, and for the sake of love to earnestly desire spiritual gifts. This word “earnestly desire” implies strong, passionate emotion. So if we love others, as part of this love we will earnestly, passionately, fervently desire spiritual gifts.
See, most of the ministry that happens in church happens not through pastors, but through everyone else. It happens through you. This morning God could give you a spiritual gift that will deeply encourage the person three seats down from you. Wednesday night at home group God could give you a spiritual gift that profoundly strengthens the person across the room from you. Thursday night at Starbucks God could give you a spiritual gift that will reveal Jesus to someone who doesn’t know Him.
So if you love people, you will earnestly desire spiritual gifts.
So think about that. Do you earnestly desire spiritual gifts? How strong is your desire for them? I think we all need to have our desire strengthened. So what barriers keep us from earnestly desiring spiritual gifts?
One barrier is not being sure that spiritual gifts are still part of God’s plan. There are godly people who teach that many spiritual gifts are part of God’s plan – but that the more supernatural ones, like prophecy or healing or tongues and interpretation are not.
But I am convinced that God’s Word teaches that supernatural spiritual gifts are part of God’s plan today. Earlier this year I showed you why from I Corinthians 13:8-12, and you can listen to that or read the notes online if you want. But because I already covered that passage this year, today I’d like to show you this same truth from another passage. Let’s turn to Acts 2, which is on page 910 in the Bibles we are passing out.
Here’s the setting. After Jesus was crucified, and raised from the dead, he told his followers to pray for the outpouring of His Spirit. So they devoted themselves to prayer. And on the day of Pentecost Jesus poured His Spirit upon them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke in tongues – which in this case was foreign languages they’d never learned – which enabled the foreigners who had come to Jerusalem for Pentecost to hear the gospel in their own language.
Some were puzzled, wondering what this meant. Others mocked, thinking they were drunk. But look at what Peter says in Acts 2, starting with v.14 --
14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them: "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words.
15 For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.
16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:
17 "'And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;
18 even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.
So Peter says it’s not that the people were drunk. This is what Joel prophesied 600 years before about God pouring out His Holy Spirit. And notice two things about the outpouring of the Spirit. One is that the outpouring of the Spirit includes supernatural spiritual gifts. You can see that by the way Joel mentions prophesy and dreams and visions – which are all supernatural spiritual gifts.
But second, this outpouring of the Spirit continues throughout the last days. The “last days” are the days beginning at Jesus’ first coming and going all the way through to the Second Coming. The Last Days are not the days right before the end – they are the entire period between Jesus’ first and second comings.
And it’s during the Last Days that God will pour out His Spirit, with prophecy, and dreams, and visions: supernatural gifts. So just as the outpouring of the Spirit continues until the Second Coming, so do supernatural spiritual gifts continue until the Second Coming.
Which means that today God is continuing to pour out His Spirit – whenever He saves someone – and God continues to pour out supernatural spiritual gifts.
Another barrier is not being sure of the purpose for spiritual gifts. If you are given a tool that you’ve never seen before, and you don’t know it’s purpose, you’re probably not going to be very confident using it. Same with spiritual gifts. If we’re not sure what their purpose is, we’ll hold back from passionately desiring them.
So what is their purpose? Paul mentions two main purposes in these chapters.
One purpose is to build up God’s people. You can see that in 1 Corinthians 12:7 –
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
Jan and I were over at a friend's home. We had been talking and sharing and then spent some time in prayer. And as we were praying, Jan said that she saw a picture in her mind which she felt was from the Holy Spirit. She said that she was seeing a picture of our friends at some future point, looking back on this season of their lives, and as they looked back they saw that Jesus was sustaining them through this season, and that He had powerfully worked in every obstacle they were facing.
And as a result of Jan receiving this and sharing what she received, our friends, and all of us, were built up trusting Jesus. If Jan had not received and shared that vision, we would not have been as built up.
Another purpose is to save those who don’t know Jesus. You can see that in 1 Cor 14:24-25 –
24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all,
25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
I remember reading about Charles Spurgeon, who was a preacher in England in the 1800’s. One Sunday he stopped in the middle of his sermon, pointed over towards the crowd, and said: “Young man, those gloves you are wearing have not been paid for; you stole them from your employer.” After the service a young man walked up to Spurgeon and said – “these are the gloves” – and repented.
So let this sink in. This week as you are in line at Starbucks, God could give you insight into the person’s life in front of you that would show them Jesus is really help bring them to faith. That’s why we should earnestly desire spiritual gifts.
Another barrier is not understanding when gifts are received. Lots of people think that gifts are only received when God first saves you – and that’s it for the rest of your Christian life. It’s sort of like if you showed up at a construction site, and the foreman gives you a hammer, and someone else a saw, and someone else a drill – and that’s the tool you’re supposed to use the rest of the day.
But that doesn’t fit I Corinthians 12-14. For example, let’s say you receive a word in tongues, and you sense that God wants you to stand up and share it with all of us, and so you do. But now you also know that that gift needs to be interpreted. So what should you do? Look at what Paul says in ch.14 v. 13 –
Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret.
You should pray and ask God to give you the interpretation. So how would you know if you were going to receive the gift of interpretation? Not by seeing if you’ve ever interpreted in the past, but by asking God for the gift now.
So it’s not that when you were saved God gave some of you prophecy, and some of you faith, and some of you healing, and some of you interpretation. It’s that when you were saved God gave you the Holy Spirit, and as you live your life you pray for God to give you whatever gifts God chooses to give you.
So it’s not that the foreman gives you a hammer, and that’s what you’re supposed to use the rest of the day. It’s that the foreman gives you a tool bag and promises that when you earnestly desire and pray, He’ll always have in the tool bag exactly the tool that you need.
This also fits what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:1. Read it again –
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
The Corinthian church had decided that tongues was the most awesome gift. But Paul explains that uninterpreted tongues, while a wonderful gift, should not be heard in public because no one can understand what’s being said. That’s why Paul urges them to specially desire prophecy, which everyone can understand.
But if you’ve already received all the gifts you’re ever going to receive, why would Paul urge you to specially desire prophecy? It’s because even if you’ve never had God give you a revelation, God might do that for you today, and your earnest desire has a role in whether God gives it to you.
That’s why it’s so crucial that we pray for and earnestly desire gifts, because lack of prayer and desire could cause God to withhold gifts. This is huge. Your earnest desire and prayer could make the difference in how much the church is built up and the lost saved here on Sundays, at your home group, or Friday at Starbucks.
Another barrier is not understanding how gifts are received. Some people are afraid of spiritual gifts because they think spiritual gifts mean that you lose control. But that’s not what we see in these chapters.
I’ll talk about this more next week, but for now, take a look at I Cor 14:29-31 –
29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.
30 If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent.
31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged,
Notice that prophecy means receiving a revelation from God. This means that as you are in prayer, waiting on the Lord with earnest desire and expectancy, the Holy Spirit spontaneously brings something into your mind. It doesn’t mean you hear an audible voice. It means that a thought or picture suddenly arises in your mind.
And notice that the one receiving this revelation doesn’t lose control. He or she can decide if and when to share the spiritual gift with others. That’s how gifts are received.
Now let me mention one more barrier – thinking I’m not good enough to receive spiritual gifts. This is where you understand that God works through spiritual gifts, but you don’t think you are spiritual enough, or good enough to receive spiritual gifts. You think spiritual gifts are only for those who are really spiritual, who maybe haven’t sinned this past week, or who have followed Jesus longer than you have.
If this is what’s in your mind, then you will not earnestly desire spiritual gifts, you will not pray for spiritual gifts, and you probably will not receive any spiritual gifts.
So what’s the answer to that barrier? It’s in 1Cor 12:4 –
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;
Notice that word “gifts” in v.4. Spiritual gifts are gifts, and this Greek word “gifts” has the word grace in it – which means these gifts are God’s undeserved favor.
So just like everything else in our lives, we don’t receive anything because we’ve been good enough. We have not and never will be good enough. But because Jesus died on the Cross we don’t need to be good enough. But we do need to trust Him. And when we trust Him, we receive His grace – the grace of forgiveness, the grace of relationship with Him, the grace of His presence, and the grace of spiritual gifts.
So let’s see if there are any questions.
And now let’s give some time to see what gifts God might bring to us.