Word of Salvation – Vol.42 No.26 – July 1997

 

Now – Where’s Your Part?

 

Sermon by Rev S Bajema on Romans 12:6-8

Scripture Readings: Rom.12:3-8; 1Peter 4:7-11; 1Cor.12:1-11

H.C. Lord’s Day 21, Q&A 55

Suggested Hymns:

BOW 164:3; 66:1-3; 440; 206; 525

 

Dear Body of Christ.

What we see here in this part of Romans 12, with this aspect of the gifts in the church, is part of a theme found right through the New Testament letters, whether of the apostle Paul, the apostle Peter or the apostle John.  We have already read from 1Peter and 1Corinthians, about the same thing.

This “…grace given us…” in verse 6, is “…God’s grace in its various forms…” in 1Peter 4, and it’s “…the manifestation of the Spirit…” in 1 Corinthians 12.  There is no difference between them in meaning.  The Lord’s Day expresses it well when it says that, “…believers one and all…  share in Christ and in all His treasures and gifts.”

It’s also the radical difference between the Old and New Testaments.  From a situation where there was a limited gifting to fulfil certain callings, there’s now the fullness of the Spirit enabling all believers as a church to show their Lord and Saviour.  Just as the temple of the Holy Spirit is now upon the heart of every believer and not a physical place in Jerusalem, so the gifting of that same Spirit of Christ is in all the Church.  1Peter 4:11 even wraps it up this way, “…so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.”

Congregation, those words of Peter are written straight after pointing out the two types of gifting in Christ’s Body.  The essence is that God may be praised through Jesus Christ and the way here that He can be praised is through the different gifts among believers, because we’re the different parts of His Body.  That’s how our text begins, “We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.”

Now, the subject of spiritual gifts’ was very popular in Christian circles in the late 1970s and early 1980s.  There were various books and Bible studies written.  There was the realisation that we could learn more about which was our particular gifting.

The Greek word for gifts, ‘charismata’, even came to be used by the Pentecostal movement as it came into mainline churches.  These days the word ‘charismatic’ would be used just as much as the word ‘pentecostal’.  But sadly they’re both used the wrong way.  Actually, the Charismatics fail to realise the full extent of God’s gifting; they focus on just a few gifts; the few gifts, by the way, which the Lord told us wouldn’t be in the church today.  One of these gifts is the first gift on this list in Romans 12: the gift of ‘prophesying.

Now, as we say that this spiritual gift of prophecy has ceased, we must always be careful what we say.  We cannot make such a claim without supporting it.  After all, there are many different interpretations of the Bible these days; so, which one is true?  And there are so many different things the Bible itself says which sometimes appear to be contradictory, even in the very next verse.  So how can we know?

With this matter of gifting, and with all those other things, we must compare Scripture with Scripture.  We use the scriptural interpretation of Scripture.  By saying this we’re not trying to be clever, but take some of these spiritual gifts; take those so-called revelatory gifts, those gifts of apostleship, prophecy and tongue-speaking; and what do we find happening to them in scripture itself?  Well, they disappear!

In 1Corinthians you get a whole lot of stuff about them; in Romans 12 quite a bit less; and in Paul’s last letters, to Timothy and Titus, those letters when he sets down the order for the church in the future, they’re gone altogether!  Why?  Was the church already then beginning to miss out on these wonderful things, those things the Pentecostals say they’ve re-discovered now – nineteen hundred years later?

Congregation, we don’t have much of a God if that’s the way He’s been treating us all this time.  No, instead, He’s a God who’s not only moved us on, historically, beyond those gifts, but who keeps blessing us through the type of gifts there are.  You see, there are still gifts of teaching.  We’re not short on this score.  Rather, we realise that 1Corinthians is the first New Testament literature, written even before the Gospels, so it describes the way the Lord guided His Church at that early stage of New Testament church history.

There’s no way we’re missing out, rather, the LORD is moving us on.  And the LORD moves us on in the way where in all things God is to be praised through Jesus Christ.

With this background in mind, let’s see that… SINCE IN ALL THINGS GOD IS TO BE PRAISED THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, THERE ARE first of all…  THE PUBLIC GIFTS IN THE CHURCH; and secondly there are… THE PRIVATE GIFTS IN THE CHRISTIAN.

With the first four gifts we have what is in the church publicly.  So prophecy, serving, teaching and encouraging are openly displayed.  With the last three gifts we have what is in people privately.  So, contributing, leadership and showing mercy are personal.

A good way of illustrating this is to think of a body.  As we think of Scripture’s description of Jesus Christ as the Head of the Body, let’s see that the public gifts are the nerves and ligaments which convey His messages to the different parts of the Body, who then each do their work.  Ephesians 4:16 describes it in that way, “From Him – that is, Christ – the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work”.

None of these gifts are anyone’s by right, and they are certainly not ours to use for personal prestige.  We can only share what we have been given – that’s grace.  And as we tell or show it to others, it becomes grace for them, when it’s spiritually received.

In 1Corinthians 14 prophecy is encouraged because it’s a gift that builds up the church.  The prophet is the man who can announce the Christian message with the authority of one who knows; he was personally told it by the Lord.  And we can all be prophetic in the sense that we have personally become convicted by the truth about Christ.

So easily faith can become an academic exercise, a going through the motions, but do we really mean it?  And, publicly, do we see that our ministers and elders are themselves so changed by this most amazing fact?  Or is it like one man who lamented over his minister, “What this church needs is a man who knows Christ other than at second-hand.”  A preacher worthy of his calling will preach with meaning; it’s real to him, he’s lived it already in his life, and he so much prays and works that you’ll know that urgency too!  You can see it – Jesus is His Master and Friend!

In a way, we’re really looking at the public fourth gift – the one called ‘encouraging’.  Encouraging, though, isn’t the closest translation.  It’s the word ‘exhortation’ which most Bibles use.  But ‘encouragement’ tells us what it does.  You see, it goes to the heart.  While teaching is aimed at the understanding, exhorting goes to the heart, the conscience, the will of a man.  It’s really preaching.

Now, are these gifts done publicly among us?  Not just that there is preaching and teaching done, but that especially it’s seen to be done?  The Catechism says that we use our gifts “…  readily and cheerfully for the service and enrichment of the other members”  (answer 55b).  It means ministers and elders learning and studying God’s Word.  That’s the way they use the gift of teaching Christ’s Body what He says in His Word.

It also means, congregation, that we receive it as a gift from them!  It’s no accident that three out of four public gifts in this list are in the teaching sphere.  The Gospel must be proclaimed.  In Paul’s words, “…we preach Christ crucified…”; and elsewhere he says, “The important thing is that in every way…  Christ is preached.”

Congregation, that’s why, in relation to the gift of ‘serving, there were deacons appointed in Acts chapter 6.  Luke records there, that, in response to the growing work of looking after the widows, the apostles said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.  Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom.  We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word” (vss.2-4).

Deacons show publicly this gift of serving; they make sure Christ’s compassion is given to His Body and others.  You see, this is so that God is praised through Jesus Christ.  Whether it is by the primacy of preaching or the support of serving, it’s clear Who the focus is on.  It’s in Christ where we, who are many, form one body, and let everyone see it!  And may they be driven to also confess it!  Then Christ’s Kingdom will come and God will be glorified.  And, brothers and sisters, what a change this gospel makes inside people.

The last three gifts, although private gifts in the Christian, yet show the difference salvation makes.  I mean, look how opposite ‘contributing’, ‘leadership’ and ‘showing mercy’ are to the natural nature of mankind; they’re all giving – not taking!  Oh, yes, pull a few heart strings and Aussies will give money, especially if their name gets mentioned on TV, or their name goes in the lucky draw that might win a car, but to actually have a heart to do it – that’s different!  In fact it makes all the difference, as the rest of Romans 12 will show.

This is the reason why Paul wrote the famous chapter 13 of 1Corinthians, the love chapter, in between his extensive exposition about gifts.  They cannot be truly gifts unless they’re given!  And no matter how much anyone may seem talented at a particular thing, it’s no spiritual gift unless it is given.

It’s interesting, in this light, that the gift of contributing to the needs of others, in the NIV, is qualified by letting him give generously.  But that’s not how it literally reads in the original.  Rather, it would read more accurately, “…he who gives, in simplicity…!”  This can mean generously, as 2Corinthians 8 and 9 show us, in those famous chapters about giving.  But it can also mean a simple, single purpose.

So, the sense of, ‘single-mindedness of heart, of motive, and of purpose’.  The believer knows that he’s meant to give.  The Lord, in fact, has put him in a position where he can give very generously.  And he’s not doing it for any credit to himself.  He follows the words of Jesus, in Matthew 6, “…When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret” (vs 3).

You know, it’s amazing how well the apostle Paul knows the character of rich people.  For a rich man to give simply for giving’s sake often goes right against how he became rich!  To give because they simply love to give, challenges them where it really hurts!

Friend – do you love to do it?  Boys and girls, when you put the money in that your mum and dad give you, do you think it’s a lot; could you imagine yourself buying lots of things for it?  But you love to give it, don’t you?  It’s the motivation of love, which means that those gifted to lead, do their governing diligently.  If you love someone aren’t you looking out for them?  Don’t you care for their health?

Those who lead by spiritual gifting do care – because Jesus cared.  When He took off His formal outer clothing and wrapped a towel around His waist, and poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples’ feet, drying them with that towel, He was showing a certain attitude.  Only love would have you grovelling around like that when you certainly don’t have to!

As Jesus explained why he did it: “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord”, and rightly so, for that is what I am.  Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you” (John 13:13-15).

Perhaps we can illustrate this by comparing it with what the world thinks leadership is.  On one occasion, during a pre-marital counselling session, the young man declared that he believed his leadership in the future family home meant that he would be making any final decisions, if they couldn’t agree.  He was shocked in being pointed to real leadership meaning that he so worked in with his wife that no such situation would ever happen.  This is leading in love; this is the example Jesus showed.

Then, to top it all off, of the last gift in this list, Paul says, “…if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.”  You know, it’s hard to be cheerful when you’re dealing with the very depths of human misery.  It’s so easy to be full of self-righteousness and contempt for them.  But that attitude of grudgingly doing our care, of doing it because we’re on a roster and it’s our turn, that attitude defeats the whole purpose of mercy.

John Calvin says it well, as he comments, “In the same way that nothing gives more comfort to the sick or to anyone distressed than seeing people cheerful and prompt in helping them; so seeing sad faces from those helping makes them feel very despised”.

Dear friend, have you been given a ‘gift’?  Ah, in case you would say that you don’t think you have, what of the most precious gift of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself upon Calvary’s cross?  And, knowing that by faith, would you think that His love leaves you now?  Having saved you, doesn’t He desire to make you, in turn, into a way to glorify His Father even more?

A gift is not a gift, until it’s given.  And if you expect to get a gift, it’s not a gift.  Believer, that’s the grace given you, to give.  We who have received so much are asked to give so little.  There’s no excuse – you know you have a part, and you know that you’re never apart!

Now – where’s your part?

Amen.

PRAYER:

O Lord Jesus, You the Great Giver of every grace, please so work in us by Your Spirit that we will give, more and more, until that great Day when we receive your gift of eternal life with You in heaven itself.

Don’t let us count the cost, but let’s give Your gift, because as we’ve freely received we must freely give.

Amen.