Gifts and Experiences

I want to begin with a confession, and the confession is this: I think I spoke in tongues once. For my non-charismatic friends, the confession is that I think I spoke in tongues; for my charismatic friends, the confession is that I only think I spoke in tongues, and it was only once.

I was on beach mission; it was about day 8, and I was pretty tired and emotional; I was having my quiet time in the morning, I had been reading a particularly intense section in Jeremiah and I was praying for the people in the vanpark and feeling quite burdened for them as I prayed and overwhelmed by the responsibility of praying for them and evangelising them, and then suddenly it occurred to me that for who knows how long I had been praying in a kind of gibberish – in unintelligible words.

That was the experience. You can tell me later if you think it meets your definition of speaking in tongues. I tell that story tonight because for me it illustrates a couple of things about spiritual experiences. The first is simply that people have them – and if you’ve had one it seems a bit pointless to try and convince yourself that it didn’t happen. Secondly, it illustrates the fact that experiences often need interpreting and explaining – they don’t usually explain themselves, and sometimes without questioning the reality of the experience, I need to be challenged to rethink the meaning of the experience in the light of Scripture.

And that’s what we’ll be trying to do together this evening. We bring with us different experiences – for some of us that will be the experiences that we’ve had and for others of us it will be the experience of not having had experiences. We bring with us different experiences and our task tonight from here on in is not to compare experiences, but to interpret and understand them in the light of what the Bible says about gifts and experiences of the Spirit. We’ll be in 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14, and we won’t be expounding all three chapters verse by verse, but we’ll aim to get the gist of what it says in each chapter – particularly chapter 12 – about this topic we’re looking at tonight.

Spiritual Things (12:1-3)

Paul begins in chapter 12 verses 1-3 by talking in general terms about spiritual things and spiritual experiences. Verse 1: “Now about spiritual gifts [or, rather, it should read: ‘about spiritual things’ – the word ‘gifts’ has been put in by the NIV translators, and I think it narrows the meaning to something more specific than Paul has in mind in this verse] – Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. 2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3 Therefore I tell you 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.”

We live in a society where many people are obsessed with spiritual things. People drive around in cars that have stickers on them saying ‘magic happens’; this weekend in Katoomba was the ‘winter magic festival’. You can do courses in Feng Shui and Native American Spirituality and Spiritual Massage. Naomi Wolf reckons she had a vision of Jesus; Madonna is a devotee of the kabbalah.

And when you live surrounded by that kind of stuff, it’s easy to think of a subject like ‘spiritual gifts’ in the same sort of way - that it’s all about special supernatural powers and abilities that special people have, that set them apart from everyone else, and give them a kind of aura. That the really exciting and important ‘spiritual gifts’ are the ones that are the most supernatural, the most weird, the most extraordinary. It’s easy to think that way.

The Corinthians lived in a similar kind of culture, and they also seem to have fallen under the influence of that worldly way of thinking in the way that they thought about the Holy Spirit, and about ‘spiritual gifts’. They were arrogant; they were envious; they were obsessed with the really ‘supernatural’ gifts like miracles and speaking in tongues; and they were falling over each other in their eagerness to ‘exercise their spiritual gift’; they were competing for their share of the limelight.

So Paul starts off this chapter in his letter to them by speaking in general terms about ‘spiritual things’. And he reminds the Corinthians that it’s not just among Christians that ‘spiritual’ things happen. He says to them: Back before your conversion, when you were pagans, you were into all kinds of spiritual stuff. Ancient Greek religion was full of prophecy and ‘miracles’ and even speaking in tongues. And there were probably people in the church at Corinth who were into all those things long before their conversion. But Paul is saying to them: the fact that those things were ‘spiritual’; the fact that they were a bit weird and supernatural didn’t make them good. In fact, quite the opposite. What was going on was that they were being deceived; they were being influenced and led astray to dumb idols.

And so, verse 3, Paul has to remind them that the thing that really matters is not whether something is ‘spiritual’ or not, in that sense of the word - whether something is a bit spooky and weird and supernatural. The thing that matters is whether Jesus is honoured. If Jesus is being truly honoured and glorified as Lord, then the Spirit of God is at work. If not, then if there is a ‘Spirit’ involved it is certainly not the Holy Spirit.

Now Paul’s not giving us a fail-safe, works-every-time kind of test, here; he’s not saying just get them to rattle off the magic words - ‘Jesus is Lord’ - and you know they’re kosher; he’s saying the thing that matters is not how ‘spiritual’ something is, but whether it honours and glorifies Jesus.

Diversity and Unity (12:4-31)

Having said that, he gets onto the more specific issue of gifts in verse 4. And the first point that he wants to make about them is their diversity. We are all different people that God has placed together, and God has given us all different gifts to use in serving him. Verse 4: “There are different kinds of gifts...”; verse 5: “Different kinds of service...”; verse 6: “Different kinds of working.”

God has made it that way not so that we can be envious of each other and compete with each other, but so that we are inter-dependent. We all need each other, just as the foot needs the hand and the hand needs the eye. There is a great diversity of gifts.

That is the point of the list that Paul gives in verses 8-10. It’s not there so that we can make a catalogue of ‘the nine spiritual gifts’ and work out which one we’ve got. In fact, every time the NT writers include a list of spiritual gifts, it comes out different.

This list here in 1 Corinthians is very much a ‘Corinthian’ list. Paul is choosing examples that were a big deal in the church in Corinth. It’s not really meant to be a ‘typical’ list at all. If you just went from this list, for example, you’d think that speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues - whatever that means, and I don’t think anyone’s really certain - you’d think that they were one of the main things that the church is supposed to be on about; that every church needs the right number of tongue-speakers or we’re not really using all the gifts. But what you find when you read the other lists in the New Testament is that in all the other lists those gifts aren’t even mentioned as examples.

And even if we put all the lists together, from Romans and 1 Corinthians and Ephesians and 1 Peter, and if we come up with some amalgamated list of ‘the nineteen spiritual gifts’, the chances are it’s probably still not complete. The point is not to get out the catalogue and work out which one we think we’ve got, or which one we’d like to have; the point is simply to recognise that there is a rich and enormous diversity in who we are and the gifts God has given us. And God gives the gifts as he chooses – verse 11: “he gives them to each one, just as he determines.” He knows what gifts we need; he knows what experiences we need; and he gives them in his freedom, according to sovereign will. One Spirit; different gifts; as he determines.

But underneath that diversity there is also a deep unity. All the different gifts and abilities that we have come from the same source. Verse 4 - “there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.” And all the different ways that we can serve are all part of working on the same job, for the same boss. Verse 5: “There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.” It’s like a building site where there are carpenters and plumbers and tilers and electricians and bricklayers, but they’re all working on the same building, and ultimately, under the same project manager. Verse 6: “there are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.”

So Paul uses the example of the body in verse 12 and following, and he says, verse 25: God’s purpose was “that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.”

Our culture teaches us to think of ourselves as independent individuals; we come to church when it fits our programme, and as long as it meets our needs; the church is kind of like a business, and we are the customers.

The Bible teaches us to think of ourselves as members of a body; we don’t belong to ourselves; we belong to God and we belong to each other. Verse 13, Paul tells us that when we were converted and baptised with the Holy Spirit, we were baptised into Christ; and therefore we were baptised into his body, the church. We’re part of the same body together; we belong to each other.

Love (13:1-13)

But having said all that about gifts, there is something that is far more important than spiritual gifts. Paul introduces the subject in the final sentence of chapter 12. He says: “And now I will show you the most excellent way.” And he goes on, of course, to write what is probably the most famous chapter in the Bible; the great chapter about love.

And the point that he makes to the Corinthians is about what matters most. What matters most, Paul says, is not how gifted you are, but how loving you are. He writes: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor, and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

We’ve all got spiritual gifts; different people have different gifts, but we all have some contribution to make in ministry. But the big issue is not how gifted you are, or how gifted the person next to you is, but how genuinely we love each other. That’s the important issue. And if we have love, then that will make a big difference in our approach to spiritual gifts.

On the one hand, it will make a difference to the way we view other people’s gifts. Love is not envious or boastful. If you have an attitude of love then you’re not always looking sideways at the person next to you, to see how many times they get asked to do something, to see how much recognition they get compared to you. If you love someone, and they are picked out for some special honour, then you rejoice with them - chapter 12 v. 26. Hard to do sometimes, isn’t it; but it’s the way that God calls us to.

Our own gifts

But love also teaches us the way that we should view our own gifts. Love is not self-seeking. If love is our motivation then we will not be pushing ourselves forward, complaining if we don’t get a big enough share of the limelight. If love is our motive then we won’t just gravitate to the easy jobs, or the glamorous jobs; we will be willing to serve where there is a need. If love is our motive then we will realise that the gifts we have been given actually belong to the church, not to us; that they have been given to us for the common good. If love is our motive then we won’t keep volunteering for things and then forgetting to turn up, or dropping out after a few months when we get sick of it. Love perseveres, even when it costs you something in time and money and effort. Love perseveres and serves, in costly commitment.

And you and I have to ask ourselves; are we prepared to pay that cost? Am I someone who just turns up to get something for myself, or am I prepared to put in; to give; to serve? Am I going to use my time and my money and my energy, and all the gifts that God has given me, just for myself, or am I prepared to say: tell me where I’m needed; let me know where I can help; I want to play my part in the body of Christ.

Edification (14:1-40)

One last point to make, in chapter 14, and it’s about the goal of all this serving, which is edification - the building up of the body of Christ. There’s a whole lot we could say about chapter 14 seems to be this. Paul is urging the Corinthians to pursue and value not the gift that gives us the best spiritual experience but rather the gift that builds the other person up and edifies the body of Christ. So for that reason Paul says: if I had to choose between prophecy and tongues, I’d choose prophecy every time. If have a choice between mysterious spiritual experiences and simple, direct, clear, intelligible words, I’d go for the intelligible words every time.

Verse 1: “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. 2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understands him; he utters mysteries with his spirit. 3 But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. 4 He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. He who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be edified.”

Paul’s definition of prophecy is a fairly broad one, I think – it’s words that God puts on our heart for the benefit of others – verse 3, for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. It probably includes predictive prophecy, along the lines of what we read about in Acts from time to time. But the focus seems to be on words that encourage others, verse 3, and convict others, verse 25, and instruct others, verse 31. And the challenge is for all of us – not just the preacher on Sunday night – for all of us to bless each other with those kinds of words. Simple, clear, intelligible words that God puts on our hearts to speak to the hearts of others and build them up.

So that’s the gist of Paul’s teaching in these chapters about spiritual gifts and Christian community. Four big points to remember:

First, chapter 12 verse 1-3, the emphasis Paul puts on the glorifying of Jesus as Lord, over and against the seductiveness of supernatural experiences as an end in themselves.

Second, chapter 12 verses 4-31, the diversity of the gifts within the one body of Christ, and the fact that God gives the gifts as he chooses.

Third, chapter 13, the pre-eminence of love – costly, committed, sacrificial love – the pre-eminence of love over giftedness as the thing that matters to God.

And finally, chapter 14, the importance of simple, direct, clear, intelligible words as the way that God builds up his people with his truth.