We concluded our series called “Miracle” at Gateway Church in Austin.
Somewhere in our faith journey we stopped believing in the impossible. We traded in the God who became flesh, born of a virgin, crucified, resurrected, and ascended into Heaven, for a Divine guide-from-the-side.
Let us open our eyes once again, or for the first time, to the God who still parts seas, who still heals broken bodies, and who still transforms lives. The God of Miracles.
God gives us miraculous gifts in order to be a witness.
Digging Deeper
Work through the following questions and scriptures on your own, and get together with your running partner, life group, or friends and family to talk through what you are learning.
Discussion Questions
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Message Notes:
Have you ever been part of a team?
And by team, I really mean, a sport/activity/club/community service team that really took a group of people with varying gifts and talents to pull off something?
I think most of us have been on a team of sorts where there’s a star player, a major contributor, and everyone else simply exists to make that person shine. The team may win, lose, hit a deadline or miss it, but at least they put their best player out there to try and win.
The truth is, it is in our human nature to categorize who is a winner and who isn’t, who is worthy of our praise, and who deserves our adoration. It is in our hardwiring to do this, and every culture, every people group does this to some extent. This phenomenon is known as Social Stratification.
Social stratification refers to a society’s categorization of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social status, or derived power. It is a hierarchy within groups that ascribe them to different levels of privileges.
In the church, social stratification happens when people have giftings that are outward and public. So it’s in our nature to then elevate certain giftings.
A few of those examples would be people who can sing really well, or speak well from stage. It is normal to see those kinds of people and categorize them in a way that elevates them more than we ought to.
Another example of this is when it comes to the miraculous, what our current series is about. We love to love the supernatural…things we cannot explain with our human limitations. So we hear about faith healers, those who have miracles follow them wherever they go, and we are in awe of these kinds of people. Others of us may be skeptical about all of this. Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of people who may have great gifts but lack character. There are certainly others who don’t have this gift at all but they know how to manipulate a crowd.
So just as we have the other two weeks in this series, I want to encourage you to have an open heart and open mind whether you are following Jesus with all your heart but struggle to believe God still does the miraculous or you are struggling because He isn’t giving you the answer to your prayers right now or you aren’t sure about God at all – or anywhere in between.
What if there is a God who wants us to know Him and experience His peace, His love, and even His presence in miraculous ways? Wouldn’t you want to experience this?
This is where the Apostle Paul gets inserted into the story, and he is talking about these Spiritual Gifts in the body of Christ.
- We talked about Paul in week one.
- He experienced a dramatic transformation.
- He went from being known as Saul, the one who persecuted followers of Jesus to one of the most important church planters in history.
- Many of his letters to the churches he started and the leaders he invested in make up our New Testament. In one of those letters to one of the churches, he writes in chapter 12 of first Corinthians starting in verse 3.
I Corinthians 12:3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
Paul is saying here, that first and foremost, anyone actually teaching what’s true about Jesus can only do so with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
No one would actually proclaim Jesus in these early times unless they were at least a hint of being followers of Jesus (the way).
Same goes for those who may be coming against Jesus or teaching a message contrary to the message Jesus taught. They could not do so and truly be led by the Spirit of God.
He’s wanting the people to be able to discern for themselves when someone is teaching what’s true about Jesus.
You know, often I have heard people complain about the local church and say that they just wish we were more like the early church.
It was an amazing time to be alive for sure as we saw last week in the book of Acts, there were lots of miracles and many people coming to follow Jesus.
We forget though there was also a great deal of persecution. And if you read the letters from Paul you also discover the early church was also filled with immorality, conflict, and heresy.
That’s the challenge and the beauty of being the local church. We are all broken people on a journey towards becoming more and more like Jesus, and we have to be willing to love unlikeable people and exercise the muscle of saying “I’m sorry” and “I forgive you.”
We must also be willing to have hard conversations to work through conflict and gently rebuke those whose lives are not reflecting Jesus to the world or who teach things that are not truly from Jesus.
4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
Paul is bringing unity to the church by helping to dismantle some of our human understanding of hierarchy, what we just talked about ‘social stratification.’
- He’s making room for all of the ways that God desires to use people, with all kinds of backgrounds and giftings.
- Think about this for a minute. In an incredibly divided and socially stratified Roman world, Paul was creating communities which included Jews, Gentiles, men, women, the enslaved, the wealthy, and even the barbarians!
- There was no distinction between your social status and which spiritual gift you might receive.
- An enslaved person could have the gift of leadership.
- A woman could have the gift to teach.
- A barbarian could have the gift of hospitality!
- We should not limit what God wants to give to us or what He might give to others!
- The same God who is using a person in one way, is the same God someone else in another way.
- We are all to be aware that God has gifted us, expects us to serve using that gift, and to allow God to be at work in ALL of us.
- He’s emphasizing that God does not discriminate.
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
Paul is about to go through some of the spiritual gifts, but makes it clear that the gift is not for the person who has the gift.
The gift is for us all to use for the body of Christ, we use our gift in service for the common good of all.
He goes on to break down the 9 gifts in this particular passage.
The fact we receive different gifts also reminds us that we need one another and that we should value those who are different than us because they bring more of who God wants us to be to us.
8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
There are other passages of Scripture which list other types of spiritual gifts, but we are just looking at 1 Corinthians 12 today.
There’s a lot to cover here, because these 9 gifts are broken down into 3 categories that most people agree could be categorized into: Vocal Gifts, Revelation Gifts and Power Gifts
For the sake of today’s message on the miraculous gifts of the spirit, we will focus on the Power Gifts: Faith, Healing and Miracles. But let’s finish out this part of the passage…
12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
You have to know how revolutionary this was in that day.
Today we can talk about people from different social groups, religious groups and backgrounds working together, but that was not the case in biblical times.
So for Paul to say that the same spirit of God that is in me, is also in you, the same God who uses me, is using you, was almost heretical to some.
For that reason, Paul had to emphasize the unity and the bond of being brothers and sisters in Christ. That we are one body, with all kinds of parts, and that we are all baptized by the same spirit with the same God to be ONE. We cannot emphasize just one part of the body, but all of the parts of the body.
So in context of our natural bent towards social stratification, the lifting of one person or a giftset over another, why would this be the case with spiritual gifts?
So if we take the power gifts of faith, healing and the miraculous, we hit the nerve of some of our anxieties.
“In a lot of ways, supernatural beliefs are a form of psychological medicine in that they help us deal with some of the difficulties in life, and our need to grapple with the big existential questions.”
– Dr. Clay Routledge, Existential Psychologist
In other words, when we have no hope, when we have hit the wall of our ability to explain something, faith, healing and the miraculous unlock a hope we did not have. Some may balk at that and say it’s misguided, but we who believe in a God of love and hope, find comfort in knowing that there is always a way out.
So when there is a person filled with faith we are in awe of the confidence they exude. They speak with such assurance in the things that are not known.
Hebrews 11:1 -Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
We attach our need for something beyond our abilities to those who are filled with this assurance of things they cannot see.
They are faith-filled…and we are all called to be faith-filled!
Then there are those who have the gift of bringing healing.
I know I know I know…we roll our eyes at even a hint of believing there are people who can heal other people. But let me share with you something very practical by Dr. Chloe Swart from Wales, England.
She earned her PhD from a secular university with her focused research being on miracles. She shared that when she went to the academic leaders of her PhD program they were speechless at her request of study. They gave her a few weeks to come up with 6-8 documented healing before she could proceed, she came back, and they asked her if she had found those documented healings, and instead of 6-8, she found over 600 healings documented in her region of the world alone.
She shares about how there is no fanfare needed when praying for healing, just a genuine belief in a God that heals, faith-filled hearts for healing and a genuine care and love for people who are in need of healing.
So what does this really mean for you?
How do we explore the gift(s) that God has given us, and still not get caught up in the silliness of creating hierarchies based on those gifts?
Seek the Gift-giver more than the gift
Matthew 6:33- But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 7:7-8- “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Some of us grew up in environments where spiritual gifts were the pinnacle of the Christian experience. Nothing could be further from the truth. Continued intimacy with Christ is the epitome of the journey. Lest we forget, the greatest miracle is a transformed life.
Keep being transformed to be more like Christ, not the gifts you have or don’t have.
But listen…one of the reasons we don’t just seek gifts or are wowed by gifts is because some of them can be deceiving.
The Bible actually calls us to test every prophetic word and every Spirit, and the filter is always the Word of God.
Why?
Because the enemy gives gifts also.
We see that in many places like Exodus when Pharaoh’s magicians start doing some of the same things Moses was doing.
In Acts where sorcerers are leading people astray. That is why God throughout the Bible tells us to have nothing to do with mediums, psychics, divination (fortune telling). Because there is real power behind these things but their root is always darkness.
It won’t appear that way at first, it may appear harmless. But if it is not from God’s kingdom, it is from the kingdom of darkness. This is why Scriptures give us these filters to discern everything.
Listen you should never just “take our word for it” as your pastors, in fact test what we say against Scripture.
1 John 4:1-3 gives us a filter- Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
It’s one of many reasons followers of Jesus should steer clear from things like Tarot, crystals, astrology, and New Age occult practices. Gifts by themselves can deceive.
That is why we seek the Holy Spirit, the gift-giver, and learn to follow His leading and truth in our lives.
God gives us spiritual gifts for the purpose of building HIS kingdom
1 Corinthians 14:1-3- Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. 2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. 3 But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort.
Spiritual gifts deal with the capabilities for service that God gives.
So how do we discover our spiritual gifts?
There are free online assessments like the one at spiritualgiftstest.com, but do you know how they did in the New Testament and in the local churches throughout history before the internet?
People just started serving and others would see them operating with a spiritual gift and affirm them for what they saw.
Other times, while looking for those in need and trying to meet those needs, people would realize they are naturally good at something or really enjoying something.
So if you want to discover your spiritual gifts, start serving in the preschool area!
As you serve with the babies, I imagine you might discover you might have other areas of passion or you might love it!
Spiritual Gifts & Fruit of the Spirit
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. – Galatians 5:22-26
Fruit of the Spirit deal with the character of a Christ follower
Gifts of the Spirit with no fruits of the Spirit, leads to someone who is prideful.
Fruits of the Spirit, with no activation of the gifts of the Spirit, leads to someone who is just principled.
But the fruits of the Spirit + gifts of the Spirit = someone who is powerful.
The purpose of having gifts is to be a witness
Acts 1:8- 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
This is in line with Matthew 28, where Jesus gives his final charge to his disciples.
He tells them to GO…go into all of the world sharing the good news of Jesus, baptize people, disciple people in the way, with the final encouragement that he is with them until the very end.
Can you receive that same message today?
That you too have been charged to go in the world, filled with faith, knowing the God who can do the impossible, and that he can use you and I to love people well with the gifts he has given to you and to me.
Can we have spiritual eyes to see what he sees, ears to hear what he hears and a heart determined to be a witness of who he is?
As we reflect on today’s message, we’re going to sing a song from a generation ago. It’s from Ephesians 1:18-19:
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
