A. Jesus made the statement, “On this rock I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” It was and is a powerful statement. There is no force, not even death, which stands against the power of the church which belongs to Christ. As a Christian you are a part of the empowered church. You are a part of a church that has and can withstand all the powers of evil that seeks to come against her. Why? Because we are the body of the risen Christ. We are his church. Bound together and standing together as one. This is the church which belongs to Jesus. This is the empowered church.
B. When Jesus prepared to leave this earth he made a promise to the apostles. He told them the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father, would teach and remind them of all that Jesus had said. The teaching had been that the baptism of Jesus would be different from the baptism of John, because in Jesus would come the power of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus taught Nicodemus about entering the kingdom of God, he told him that person must be born again of the water and the Spirit. On the day of Pentecost Peter told those assembled. “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and you WILL receive the Holy Spirit.
C. Brethren, the empowered church is the Spirit filled church. The empowered Christian is the one whom God’s Spirit dwells. For where God is power exists. That is why John could write, as an old man, “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Paul came preaching, not with his own wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.
D. Paul wants us to have some clear understanding about spiritual gift that empower the church. Let’s examine his teaching.
I. Types of Gifts
A. To the church in Corinth, Paul writes, “Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.” Paul desired for these Christians to know that there was a power at work in the church and they had missed it.
B. Paul then brings out the idea of influence. In verse 2 he reminds them that they were once influenced by mute idols, but not the influence needs to be through the working the Holy Spirit. Bruce Bugbee, defined spiritual gifts as, “divine abilities distributed by the Holy Spirit to every believer according to God’s design and grace for the common good of the body of Christ.” Gifts are “divine abilities” but not all gifts were given for all times. When you examine 1 Cor. 13:8 we see that the miraculous gift of prophecies, tongues, and knowledge will cease when the perfect comes.
C. You see, we argue in the Christian world today if certain miraculous gifts; like prophecy, speaking in tongues and revelation/knowledge, have cease or are still present. The problem is that in our argument we miss the teaching. The teaching is that Holy Spirit gives gifts just as HE determines, not us. He gives them for the common good of the body to meet our needs.
D. When you as a Christian realize that God is living in you, then you need to realize that you are important to this body because God has a work for you to do and has empowered you to get it done. Verse 7 states, “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” However God has gifted you it is not intended for you to keep to yourself or stifle sitting at home alone.
E. The empowered church is one where every member is present, active and doing the will of God as the Holy Spirit is at work within them. So the rest of chapter 12 is not a dissertation on what gifts will the church have in 2000 years, but a focus on recognizing the importance of every member because God placed them here for a purpose. What is your purpose? What is God doing in you that we need? If we are not the church we should be, is it because you are not the conduit of the Holy Spirit that he desires you be?
F. The church in Corinth missed out the real power because they had two problems that Paul address in this chapter.
II. I Don’t Belong
A. The first problem was with people who viewed themselves with other people instead of submitting to God.
B. For too many people, church is about “me.” You might have heard statements like, “It is not a good fit for me and the way I think.” “Nobody misses me when I am not here so who cares if I attend or stay home?” Brethren, those types of statements and that type of thinking misses out on the power of the Holy Spirit at work in you and through you.
C. Just listen to Paul (1 Cor. 12:12-20). When God called Moses from the burning bush to go back to Egypt, back to the place from which he ran away, and stand before Pharaoh and say, “Let my people go!” Moses had all sorts of reasons why he was not the man. Finally he says, “O Adonai, I have never been eloquent…I am slow of speech and tongue.” Right after that he says, “O Adonai, please send someone else to do it.” Moses reference to God as “Adonai” is a statement of God being “master, lord, or owner.” But the problem was, the “master, lord and owner” of Moses told him to go and he gave every excuse as to why he couldn’t. God got angry. In fact, the bible says that the Lord’s anger burned against Moses. God questions Moses, “Who gave man his mouth? Who make shim deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or make shim blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now Go.” When that was not good enough for Moses, God told him to take his brother Aaron and let him be the mouthpiece.
D. Here is the point. God never asks something of you that he does not empower you to do. Don’t give God the excuse, “Because I am not hand I don’t belong to the body.” Yes you do. In fact you don’t cease to be a part of the body because of you complaining, you just hurt the body and your own spiritual life. God knows exactly where you need to be within the body and he places you there at his will.
E. The empowered church is the one where every member desires to be at work doing exactly what it is that the Spirit has empowered them to do. So quit with the excuses and get to work.
III. I Don’t Need You
A. The flip side of that coin, that also was a problem in Corinth, is when some members felt they were more important than others to such a degree that they acted as if they the others were not important. Listen to Paul in verses 21-26.
B. I love to listen to what I call “good music.” I like the sound of the orchestra. Sometimes you go to a concert and they highlight a violinist or some other person whose talent it incredible. But without the rest of the orchestra, they are lacking.
C. The tuba may not be the most fun instrument in the band or get the most recognition, but where would the sounds of a marching band be without the deep bass tones of the tuba?
D. There is not one person in this body that is so important they can dismiss others. I cannot say to someone, “I don’t need you.” The truth is some Christians have tried, but it is wrong. In the human body, there are parts that we treat with more modesty. I don’t say, “I have 10 toes, so I am just going to cut off my little toe, I don’t need it? Just try stubbing your toe or hitting a finger with a hammer and see how the rest of your body reacts. If one part suffers, your whole body suffers with it. If that is true with your physical body, it should be even truer with the spiritual body.
Conclusion:
A. We are an empowered church. The Holy Spirit is alive and well. He is active and working inside every Christian. He has called you to this body for a purpose and you, as a servant of the Lord, should not seek to find a way out.
B. To some, the gifts of the Spirit may be more evident than with others. To some within this body, they may need help discerning what God has called them to. What I know is that we cannot be all that God desires for us to be without you. You are important, please don’t withhold yourself from us because of hurt feelings or misunderstandings, or anything else that keeps you from letting God’s Spirit be at work in you.
C. Brethren, we are called to be one body. If you are not a part of the one body of Christ, then we invited you give yourself to him and come as we stand and sing.
