Sermon for Trinity 10, August 8, 2021
Grace and peace be multiplied to
you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. Amen.
1 Corinthians 12:1–11 Now concerning
spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2You know that when you were
pagans, you were deceived and somehow led away to mute idols. 3Therefore I am informing you that
no one speaking by God’s Spirit says, “A curse be upon Jesus,” and no one can
say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. 4There are various kinds of gifts,
but the same Spirit. 5There
are various kinds of service, and yet the same Lord. 6There are various kinds of
activity, but the same God, who produces all of them in everyone. 7Each person is given a
manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8To one person a message of wisdom
is given by the Spirit; to another, a message of knowledge, as the same Spirit
provides it; 9by the same Spirit, faith is given to someone else;
and to another, the same Spirit gives healing gifts. 10Another is given powers to do
miracles; another, the gift of prophecy; another, the evaluating of spirits;
someone else, different kinds of tongues; and another, the interpretation of
tongues. 11One and the same
Spirit produces all of these, distributing them to each one individually as he
desires. (EHV)
Spirit
given gifts give glory to God.
Dear fellow redeemed,
Divisions—factions—pride—arrogance—worldliness,
all of these things troubled the Corinthian congregation. Much like the church in our times, that
congregation needed instruction from the Lord’s apostle. Many things were happening in that young
congregation that could become stumbling blocks for sinners and offensive to
fellow Christians, but for some reason those sinful elements had been ignored
or even celebrated in that church. Now,
this accusation could also be made against so much of Christianity in our day
and place. The Christian church in the
United States could only be described as divided, and many segments celebrate and
promote things that are offensive to God.
Still, rather than point our fingers elsewhere, we need to examine our
own hearts so that we give glory where glory is due.
Paul recognized that the Corinthian
congregation had, by and large, come from a pagan background that had no
knowledge of the workings of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, it was, as it still is, important that Christians not remain
in pagan ignorance. Thus, Paul writes, “Now concerning
spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were
deceived and somehow led away to mute idols.
Therefore I am informing you that no one speaking by God’s Spirit says,
“A curse be upon Jesus,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the
Holy Spirit.”
Because most of us were baptized into the
Christian faith as infants, we have no memory of being pagans. However, we still need to be warned for pagan
ideas surround us. Whether that be
friends and neighbors practicing the wishful thinking of superstitions, or
government officials imagining that they can change the future of the planet by
passing another law, or simply our own fears about the future and the hardships
of this life, we all have troubling influences in our lives.
Likewise, we are not in the habit of cursing
Jesus, yet how often do even believers take God’s name in vain when anger or pain
causes a reactive explosion from our lips?
And do we always bless and defend our Savior’s good name? Do we always properly give thanks for the One
who set us free from sin, death, and the devil?
Certainly, we all can think of people in the current culture who deny
Jesus His rightful glory. The point is
none of that glorifies God nor does it come from the Spirit of God.
On the other hand, there is not one person in
the history of the world who has come to believe in Jesus without the action of
the Holy Spirit producing that change.
To the congregation at Rome, Paul wrote, “Faith comes from hearing
the message, and the message comes through the word of Christ.” (Romans
10:17) While we do have many words recorded
that came directly from Jesus’ lips, yet much more of the Scriptures came as
Peter explains, “No prophecy of Scripture comes about from someone’s own
interpretation. In fact, no prophecy
ever came by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were being carried
along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:20-21) Indeed, Jesus told His disciples, “The word
that you are hearing is not mine, but it is from the Father who sent me. I have told you these things while staying
with you. But the Counselor, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and
remind you of everything I told you.” (John 14:24-26)
There are numerous gifts that come to us
through the Holy Spirit, but the greatest and most important gift of the Spirit
is faith in Christ Jesus. Without faith
in Jesus, there is no hope for the future, no forgiveness, no peace with God,
and no everlasting life. Thus, every
other gift pales in comparison to the gift of faith, because every other gift
depends on faith.
It appears that arrogance concerning the
extraordinary gifts of the Spirit led to some Corinthian believers thinking
themselves better people, or at least, better Christians than their fellow
believers. Paul makes it perfectly clear
that this is foolish thinking. He wrote,
“There are various kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are various kinds of service, and yet
the same Lord. There are various kinds
of activity, but the same God, who produces all of them in everyone.” The Holy Spirit gave the same emphasis to
the Ephesians for He had Paul write to them, “Make every effort to
maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body
and one Spirit, just as also you were called in the one hope of your
calling. There is one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and
in us all.” (Ephesians 4:3-6)
The Spirit gives numerous gifts, and every
Christian has received gifts from the Spirit, so any jealousy, or selfish
pride, concerning gifts the Holy Spirit gives is simple foolishness, for our
God and Lord gives only good gifts and He gives them for His good purpose of
winning souls for everlasting life in heaven.
Paul wrote, “Each person is given a manifestation of the Spirit for
the common good.” For the common
good means for you and me and for all fellow members of God’s Church. Therefore, with whatever faith and talent you
have received from the Spirit (and all of it is from the Spirit), those gifts
are intended to be used for the good of the whole assembly of believers. Remember, Christians make up the whole body
of Christ. “We are God’s workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared in advance so that
we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)
Paul then listed several gifts of the Holy
Spirit, some of which may have led to pride and arrogance among the recipients
which contributed to the factions and jealousies that were dividing the
congregation. However, that would be
like the knee being jealous of the eyes, or the ears being jealous of the
feet. God puts us together for the good
of the whole, and this is what He plans for the people of His body, the
Church. Be assured, whatever gifts and
talents God gives you, He intends for your good and for your service in His
Church.
Therefore, there is no room for arrogance and
selfish pride in God’s people. No pastor
should lord it over his congregation if he might be a better speaker or have
more knowledge than others. No leader
should expect greater honor than the least among us because we are all one in
Christ Jesus. Those honors are for God
to hand out in His time. Our hope
remains for each of us to hear His declaration on Judgement Day, “Well done,
good and faithful servant.”
Spirit given gifts give glory to God. There is one Lord,
one Father, and one Holy Spirit. God is
never divided, nor does any man or woman deserve greater glory from God here on
earth. That doesn’t mean we need to turn
down recognition from those we serve, but it does mean we need to stay humble
in our service of our God and our fellow Christians.
Why be humble?
Because God humbled Himself to come down to earth to rescue all of us
from sin and death. The One and Only Man
who could rightly claim the glory of God made Himself nothing so that we might
live in glory forever. This knowledge is
one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The
Spirit gifted to us the good news of all that Jesus has done to rescue us from
this wretched world of sin and death.
The Spirit brought the news of a coming Savior through the prophets of
old, and the Spirit brings us the news of Jesus’ victory and righteousness through
the apostles Jesus appointed for the task.
All of this is to God’s glory. He
glorifies Himself by sending His Son to rescue us.
The night Jesus was betrayed into the hand of
His enemies, Jesus “looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the time has
come. Glorify your Son so that your Son
may glorify you. For you gave him
authority over all flesh, so that he may give eternal life to all those you
have given him.” (John 17:1-2) For
you and me, God gave His only begotten Son to live for us a perfectly holy life
and to die a death He didn’t deserve so that you and I could be counted
righteous in the courtroom of heaven.
For you and me, the Father and Son together send the Holy Spirit in Word
and Sacrament to rescue us from this troubled world. Apart from the grace of God, there is no way
out of our predicament of sin. Only
through faith in Jesus will anyone be saved.
Thanks be to God, the Holy Spirit is ever
working through the gospel in Word and Sacrament to give faith to hopeless
sinners, hope to those who once were lost, life to those who had been born dead
to God, and immortality and incorruption to those of us who were formerly
doomed to eternal torment in hell.
At one point in our lives, all of us, like the
Corinthians, “were deceived and somehow led away to mute idols.” That is the state of natural man at
birth. However, God loves those He has
chosen to believe. God loves us enough
to give His Son to be our Savior, and God loves us enough to send His Holy
Spirit to enlighten us with the Gospel and bless with gifts that give us eternal
life.
Dear friends, give glory where the glory is
due; Spirit given gifts give glory to God. Amen.
Now may the God of hope
fill you with complete joy and peace as you continue to believe, so that you
overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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