Word of Salvation – Vol.39 No.31 – August 1994

 

Grace For The Common Good

 

Sermon by Revd. R. Brenton

Text: 1Corinthians 12:1-11, Heidelberg Catechism Q/A 55

 

My brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ,

Each Lord’s Day as we gather here in God’s name, we express the truth we hold in common by confessing our faith in the living God: the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  When we confess that truth, we attribute to each person of the Holy Trinity certain works or actions.  To the heavenly Father created and preserves all things.  The Son is the Redeemer of God’s once upright, but now fallen, sin-enslaved creation.  To the Holy Spirit we ascribe the power of God’s new creation revealed through the church of Jesus Christ, the Lord’s living community.

Today we have occasion to look at ourselves – Christ’s visible and local church – in the light of our confession, where we say, ‘I believe a holy catholic church, the communion of saints.’

When we say that, we are not speaking of two things: a church over here and a communion of saints over there.  We are confessing one and the same thing.  The holy catholic church, of which we are a part, is the communion of saints.  ‘Communion of saints’ defines what Christ’s church is.  It is the community where the Lord Jesus lives with His people, and where His people – one and all – by faith belong to Him and enjoy Him as they share in all His treasures and gifts (Q/A 55).

I highlight the truth that the church is by definition the communion of saints because so many of us tend to view the communion of saints not as our expression of what the church is, but as that reality which we hope to experience inside the church.  This view often surfaces in our prayers when we express the wish that we might enjoy or experience this sweet communion in our own local gathering.  My mention of such prayers in which we express our heart’s desire for communion is hardly meant as a criticism, for surely we do want to enjoy the unity that is ours in Christ as we come together in His name.  Let us continue to beg for his blessing of communal joy in his presence; but as we do that, let us be mindful that the communion we so much covet is already ours by virtue of the truth that Christ’s church is His holy community.  We are the communion of saints.  Believe it!

As for our prayers which express our desire to enjoy an intimacy or closeness with God and His people – are they not prayers that the local community of faith will function for us as a united community?  Are they not prayers that we will be who we are in Christ?  Are they not prayers that we will behave in a manner that is worthy of, and consistent with, our high calling as the saints of God?  Yes, I believe so with all my heart.

Nothing can change who we are.  We are the communion of saints.  But, something can disrupt or disturb the unity we share to the extent that some of us simply do not enjoy the community to which we belong.  It’s sad when some members of the holy catholic church pray for the ‘communion of saints’ because that is precisely what they do not enjoy within their local congregations.

The apostle Paul responds to such a unity disturbing problem in his first letter to the church in Corinth.  In Corinth, sad to say, some members felt like they were second class citizens of the holy commonwealth because their contributions to congregational life and worship were not valued.  As you can well imagine, it didn’t take long for what we know as ‘inferiority complex’ to set in among this second class, as they wondered: Do I really belong in this church?  Is there room for someone like me in a place like this?  Why does nobody here seem to appreciate me, or value my contribution to this community?  Does my presence here, my very existence, matter?

Maybe you have posed such questions about your place among God’s people.  Perhaps you are even now nursing bruised feelings from being on the blunt end of second class treatment.  Mystified by such treatment, you ask yourself: Why does mistreatment happen in a place like this; this place of union and communion with the Lord and his people?  What accounts for it?  How does it happen here?

Let me tell you how it happened in Corinth.  That will explain how it can happen here, or anywhere.  Christ’s congregation in Corinth was a lively, active church, intensely interested in and fascinated by the power of the Holy Spirit, particularly as that Spirit was manifested in the ability of some of the members to speak in unknown languages.  Such inspired utterances impressed a sizeable portion of the church, who regarded the strange tongues as the Spirit’s supreme gift.  Indeed some considered it the most sought after gift, yes even the ultimate sign of a Christian’s spirituality.  Those who spoke in tongues were esteemed as ‘the spiritual ones’.  They were the elite of Corinth – first class travellers on the Christian way.

Inadvertently, the designation of these people as first class Christians meant the virtual consignment of those with less spectacular gifts to second class status.  The result..?  There was division in the church – the separation of the spiritual upper class from the common class of Christians.

This division prompted the Corinthians to seek Paul’s advice.  So they asked Paul, what about the Holy Spirit’s work?  Does the Holy Spirit create a caste of spiritual members who are a cut above all the others, and therefore deserving of first class status?  Who is truly spiritual anyway?  What is it that marks a person as truly spiritual?  How can the church test spiritual persons or spiritual things?

Please give us some advice…!

1Corinthians 12 is Paul’s advice to the church on these matters of spiritual significance.

Paul begins by sending a clear signal to indicate what is not of the Spirit.  The signal comes in the form of a sobering reminder of the pagan past from which these saints were saved.  (Read verses 1-3)

How does this reminder about the Corinthian’s pagan past serve as a signal of the Spirit’s work?  In this way: by indicating what kind of work is uncharacteristic of the Spirit.  Paul is saying, in effect: Remember how you as pagans, were continually being swept away and led astray to the worship of dumb idols – gods who could obviously do you no good.  As pagans, you were out of control, under the influence of (or intoxicated by) demonic powers which carried you away and made you act as if you were out of your minds.

My friends, the mark of pagan religion is this: the worshippers are under the intoxicating influence of the gods they are worshipping.  The worshippers are so out of control that they do not know what they are doing.  They are literally beside themselves.  Is it any wonder that paganism is marked by ecstatic utterances, by uncontrolled and unintelligible speech?

Hence Paul’s signal to the Corinthians: Do not look for the supreme manifestation of the Holy Spirit in such ecstatic utterances and actions!

Let me just add a word of caution at this point, so that we are careful not to misread the apostle Paul.  Without condemning those who engaged in ecstatic speech, Paul nevertheless made it crystal clear that the way of ecstasy is not the way most characteristic of the Holy Spirit.  The Corinthians, you see, had conditioned themselves to recognise the work of God’s Spirit solely in the spectacular, ecstatic utterances of those who spoke in unintelligible languages.  The attitude of the Corinthians could well have been revealed in an exclamation like this: How awesome to be so in the grip of the Spirit as to have Him generate in you the gift of glossolalia (strange tongues)!

Whatever you and I might think about the phenomenon of speaking in tongues, we do well to keep in mind that at this point Paul does not condemn the practice.  The fact is, Paul happened to be more gifted in the use of glossolalia than anyone in Corinth.  As he put it later in this same letter: I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you (14:18).  Paul’s aim is not to condemn the practice.  What he aims to do here in chapter 12 is to dispel the misguided notion that the Holy Spirit concentrates all of His power to perform one particular operation, namely, speaking in tongues.  Such a faulty notion left people with the impression that one had to be a ‘tongues speaker’ in order to be truly spiritual.  In response to that notion comes Paul’s signal, which says that being swept away through the medium of ecstatic preaching in not the normal way of the Spirit.

Normally the Holy Spirit does something very simple and basic.  The Holy Spirit enables every believer to recognise Jesus as the Lord and to confess that truth in a rational and reverent way.  ‘No one can say, Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit’ (12:3).  The Holy Spirit, as a rule, is not interested in drawing attention to Himself by means of some spectacular display of power or ecstatic action.  His ministry is simply to honour Jesus Christ as Lord through the words and works of the common, everyday believer.

In short there is no such thing as a spiritual elite within Christ’s church.  There are no Christians who ride first class while other believers travel economy class.  The Holy Spirit does not create a church divided!  He creates instead a united fellowship (that’s what communion means): a communion of saints who share in Christ and in all His treasures and gifts, and who dutifully use these gifts readily and cheerfully for the service and enrichment of the other members.

This brings us now to the heart of the matter in the verses 4-7.  Let us note at this point that Paul makes a strategic shift in his vocabulary.  This shift, I believe, is germane to his argument.  It is regrettable that our English translation does not reflect this subtle, but strategic shift.  The shift I refer to is from ‘spiritual things’ to ‘grace things’.

In verse 1 Paul introduces his subject by saying: ‘Now about spiritual gifts brothers…!’ The word translated spiritual gifts is the Greek word PNEUMATIKON.  You recognise the root of that word as PNEUMA, which means air, wind, breath or spirit.  A good translation for PNEUMATIKON would be ‘Spirit things’ or spiritual gifts (which is the NIV translation).

In verse 4 however, a strategic shift occurs in Paul’s vocabulary.  He goes from PNEUMATIKON (Spirit things) to CHARISMATON.  Again, you recognise the root as CHARIS from which we get the words charisma and charismatic.  Now CHARIS means grace.  So, a good translation for CHARISMATON would be ‘grace things’ or grace gifts.  Or, as I prefer to put it: graces.  The NIV translation by-passes this subtle change when it says in verse 4: there are different kinds of gifts.  The NIV leaves you with no way of knowing that Paul has shifted from speaking of ‘Spirit things’ in verse 1 to ‘grace things’ in verse 4.

Am I just picking at nits from the NIV, or has Paul actually engineered a strategic shift from the ‘spiritual things’ of verse 1 to the ‘graces’ of verse 4?  In answer to that question let me tell you what may very well account for this change of words.  Are you ready for this?  The Corinthians were so preoccupied with the Holy Spirit’s spectacular work that they began to view His work in isolation from the work of Jesus Christ.  They were fascinated by certain ‘things of the Spirit’ being manifested in their presence, but in their fascination they had lost sight of the apparent connection between these ‘Spirit things’ and the Lord to whom the Spirit belonged.  The challenge for Paul was to bring the Corinthians back to reality by showing them that the spiritual realm was also the realm of Jesus Christ their Lord.  They needed to see that the spiritual gifts they so much valued were not merely ‘spiritual things’ they were ‘grace things’.

Now, if ‘spiritual things’ are ‘grace things’, then we have a bridge between the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus Christ.  That bridge assures us that the gifts we so much enjoy come to us through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.  As I said earlier, the Spirit’s work is to honour the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of all grace.  The Spirit of the Lord enhances the grace of the Lord.  Surely, that is Paul’s point, and the reason for his strategic shifting of words.  (Read verses 4-7)

What did you hear?  Did you notice that there is a variety of gifts, but ONE Spirit.  There are different kinds of service, but the SAME Lord.  There are different kinds of working, but the SAME GOD works all of them in all men.

Do you see it?  On the one hand, Paul speaks of the variety of gifts, services and working.  On the other hand is the unity of the Holy Trinity, the Spirit, the Lord Jesus and the Father, each with a part in the gifted service of the saints.  Look at it this way: there is one God and one work of God performed by the Lord through His Spirit powerfully indwelling His church; the Spirit motivates all the members to use the diversity of gifts Christ has bestowed in the variety of services which constitute the totality of the church’s task.

Really, it all comes down to the employment of the diversity of gifts to perform a variety of services.

This means that the ‘graces’ of which Paul speaks are not first and foremost spiritual privileges for the edification of individual members.  The ‘graces’ of which Paul speaks are gifts of service.  Grace is given for the sake of others; for the common good of the entire church.  Listen to verse 7: ‘Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.’

To Paul’s thinking there is no such thing as a gifted individual who is not employed in the service of the church.  It has to be that way because the Holy Spirit makes Himself known through the variety of works of service performed by God’s people for the common good of the gathered community.

In verses 8-11, Paul lists some of the serviceable works by which the Holy Spirit manifests His powerful presence.  Pay attention now to the order in which Paul lists the manifestations of the Spirit as I read the verses 8-11.  (Read verses 8-11)

Notice that the manifestations most admired and sought after have been placed at the bottom of the list.  Notice also that the gifts most conducive for the common good are placed at the top of the list.  All of these (from the top to the bottom) are the work of the one and same Spirit, and He gives them to each one just as He determines.

These “graces” are not confined, however, to a select few or to a spiritual upper class who have the capacity to exhibit these gifts in an extraordinary way as a result of their deeper dedication or closer proximity to the Spirit.  Not at all!  The whole variety of gifts, ranging from the sober to the ecstatic, all are being continually apportioned by the one Spirit to each member, as the Spirit determines.

The result…?  The entire church is gifted, as the Spirit gives to each one.  In giving to each one, He gives to all.  And as each one of us employs our gift (or gifts) in the service of the church for the honour of Christ, the common good is attained.  Everybody benefits and nobody is left out.  All are enriched as Christ’s gifts, distributed by His Holy Spirit, are shared.  When this happens, the value of every member and every member’s serviceable gifts are appreciated.  It does not matter a whit whether other members have the same gifts as I have.  All of our gifts, you see, are the Lord’s graces for the common good.

My brothers and sisters, I am amazed at the way Christ has gifted His church.  Yes, even this local congregation!  I see a wide range of graces being employed in Christ’s service for the good of the whole congregation.  Just look at them all!  The gifts of teaching and training; of helps and hospitality; of mercy and music; of counsel and encouragement; of faith and friendship; of leadership and management; of design and craftsmanship; of wisdom and discernment; of patience and prayer; and of love and liberality!  Look at them all, and there are undoubtedly more!  This church is rich in grace!  There is no telling what the Lord our God can do with the graces He has already given us if we will but use these gifts in the joyful service of the common good.  I cannot help but marvel at the wisdom by which the Spirit has apportioned the gifts of Christ.

What still saddens me is that there are yet some members who feel as though they have nothing worthwhile to contribute for the common good.  The following experiences tend to fuel that kind of feeling:

1) You have tried to share your gift, but your contribution was not appreciated by the congregation;

2) You know that you have a valuable gift, but your services have not yet been called for; or…

3) You view your gift as a private possession for your own self-enrichment, and have never seen the need to share your treasure with your needy brothers and sisters who could stand to benefit from your spiritual wealth.

Isn’t it time we turned on the light and realised that Christ’s church is the communion of saints?  This means first, that believers one and all, as members of this community, share in Christ and in all his treasures and gifts.  This means second, that each member should consider it a duty to use these gifts readily and cheerfully for the service and enrichment of the other members (Q/A 55).

My friends, this is what we confess about our church and about our part in it.  Let us strive then, to make ours a good confession as we together resolve to employ all the graces given to us for the common good.

AMEN