Summer in the Systematics – Pneumatology (Part 8): The Gifts of the Spirit

Transcript

JRS 72
The Gifts of the Spirit Part 8
8/17/2025
Selected Scriptures
Jesse Randolph

Tonight, we are back in our summer evening series in Summer in the Systematics, study of Pneumatology, the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Our subject for this evening, getting right to it is THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT or Spiritual Gifts. I am consciously aware of the fact by the way that the only thing standing between you and those food trucks, that ice cream truck in the parking lot is this message. So, I’m going to do everything I can to keep it on time and keep the train on the tracks. In doing so, we handle a really massive subject. A truly massive subject. This is a massive subject, the gifts of the Spirit because there has been so much confusion and chaos and aberrant theology which has developed over the years, over this matter of “the gifts.” I’m going to save my comments actually for next Sunday night when I get into the abuse of the Spirit to consider some of the ways the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, specifically the gifts of the Spirit, have been abused in church history. But the point for tonight though is that the study of spiritual gifts or the gifts of the Spirit is massive and it’s a minefield. I’m going to do my best to summarize the high points in less than one hour.

So last week we spent some time working through the “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:22-23. That was part of our study of the realm of the Spirit’s work in the life of the believer. Namely, the spiritual fruit He produces in the believer as He sanctifies them and conforms them into the image of their Savior, Jesus Christ.

Tonight, we’re still on this realm of the Spirit’s work in the life of the believer. But as we study this topic of spiritual gifts or “gifts of the Spirit” we’re considering the way the Holy Spirit equips and gifts followers of Christ with a gift for use in Christ’s church. To get us started, I’m going to share this quote with you from Charles Ryrie. He notes that “The ‘peril of the pendulum’ operates in relation to spiritual gifts. On the one swing of the pendulum is the idea that spiritual gifts are essentially irrelevant to Christian service today because the gifts were given to the early church only and the important matter today is maturity, not gifts. On the opposite swing (says Ryrie) is the emphasis that you cannot even begin to serve unless you are sure of your spiritual gifts.” So, Ryrie is onto something here. He’s right. There can be this tendency in our circles to de-emphasize the gifts of the Spirit to such a degree that we essentially read them out of the Bible. But there can also be this opposite tendency to engage in what I would call “paralysis by over analysis” where a person never gets truly engaged in service in the church because they are unable to specify with confidence whatever their exact or precise “spiritual gift” is.

So, Ryrie is onto something here. There’s quite a bit of fear, and confusion, and even ignorance concerning spiritual gifts. Which is unfortunate because Paul says this so clearly in I Corinthians 12:1, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.” So, this is not an area where we want to be ignorant. Rather, this is an area where we want to be studied up. As we bring each of our thoughts, as in all matters, in conformity to the plumb line of Scripture, to determine what the Bible says about this matter of “spiritual gifts.” So, with that, let’s learn what the Scriptures teach about spiritual gifts.

First, we are going to look at THE DEFINITION OF THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT. Second will be THE SOURCE OF THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT. Third will be THE PURPOSES OF THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT. Fourth, THE DIVERSITY OF THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT. Fifth, THE CESSATION OF CERTAIN GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT. Then six is THE SUMMARY OF THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT.


Let’s start with our first point, THE DEFINITION OF THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT. What are the gifts of the Spirit? What is a spiritual gift? I’ve got a few different definitions for you offered by various theologians. Thomas Edgar says “A spiritual gift is an ability given to an individual supernaturally by God through the Holy Spirit so that the recipient may utilize that ability to minister to the needs of the church, the body of Christ. God supernaturally gives the believer special ability for service.” And then here’s Tom Schreiner. He says that spiritual gifts are “gifts of grace granted by the Holy Spirit which are designed for the edification of the church.” Rolland McCune says, “A spiritual gift is a sovereign, God-given, Holy Spirit energized ability.” Rene Paché says that a spiritual gift refers to a “certain qualification given by the Spirit to each individual believer to enable him to serve within the framework of the body of Christ.” Here’s MacArthur and Mayhue. They say that “these are gifts associated with the Holy Spirit which have a spiritual nature and that are given for a spiritual purpose.” And then last, very briefly here is Charles Ryrie. “I suggest that a spiritual gift is a God-given ability for service.”

So those are some basic definitions from some different theologians of different theological persuasions even about what spiritual gifts are. And those are helpful in fleshing out, in these various degrees of detail what a “spiritual gift” is. But what we want to determine ultimately how Scriptures define “spiritual gifts.” In doing so I couldn’t help myself. I want to bring to your attention two different Greek words, which help us build out our biblical definition of “spiritual gifts.” The first word is this one. This ought to look familiar. It’s just like our English word, but it has a different meaning. Charisma. We think of the word charisma of course. We think of somebody who’s bubbly and personable and gets along at cocktail parties and that sort of thing.

That’s not what this word means in Greek. This word is rooted in the word “charis” which means “grace.” “Spiritual gifts” are grace gifts. They are literally gifts graciously bestowed upon believers. They are not earned. They are given and as we’re going to see they’re given by God. This word charisma is found frequently in the New Testament. Not only in connection with spiritual gifts, but with other gifts that God sovereignly and graciously bestows.

For instance, we know that God sovereignly and graciously bestows salvation. That’s a gift. But the gracious gift Paul says in Romans 5:15 “is not like the transgression.” Or Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift (that’s our word charisma) of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” But for purposes of our study here this evening, we’re going to zero in on this word charisma, or “grace gift” in reference to spiritual gifts. Like we see here Romans 11:29, “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” Or I Timothy 4:14, “Do not neglect the gift within you, which was given to you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the council of elders.” Or II Timothy 1:6, “For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”

The basic idea here is spiritual gifts are grace-given. Spiritual gifts are God-given. As John Walvoord notes, “They are bestowed in grace, are entirely undeserved, and their power and operation is due to God alone.”

Now here are a few additional passages. These are spiritual gifts-related passages, and I want you to note that express connection that’s made between the gift and the gift having been given by grace. Ephesians 4:7, “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” Romans 12:3, “For through the grace given to me I say to each one among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound thinking, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” Then Romans 12:4, “But just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another, but having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.” So spiritual gifts are grace-gifts. They’re grace-given gifts. God given gifts.

Not only are “spiritual gifts” grace-gifts and God given grace gifts though, but they are also truly spiritual gifts. As we see from the word pneumatikon. Pneuma is the Greek word for “spirit” and what this tells us is that “spiritual gifts” are not merely sovereignly given gifts, but they truly are “of the Spirit.” They come from the Holy Spirit, the pneuma and that’s why we use the term “spiritual gifts.” John Walvoord again says, “The sphere of spiritual gifts is peculiarly a doctrine of the Holy Spirit.” The gifts, the spiritual gifts we see here are sovereignly distributed according to His will. I Corinthians 12:11, “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.” I’ll mention more on this later but the fact that they are not only grace-given gifts, but truly spiritual gifts from the Spirit, means that they are distinguishable from the natural powers or the natural abilities that man has in his flesh as the old man.

Well, that’s going to bring us to our second point for this evening. We’ve looked at some of the definitions given the gifts of the Spirit. Now we want to look at THE SOURCE OF THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT. We’ve already gone over some of this. We’ve just looked at that word pneumatikon for Spirit given gifts and how that word points to the fact that “spiritual gifts” are truly Spirit-derived. But when we survey the landscape of Scriptural teachings on the subject of gifts of the Spirit, we actually see that all three Persons of the Trinity are involved in some respect in the giving and distribution of spiritual gifts.

First, we see that God the Father has planned for and appointed the gifts. I Corinthians 12:18, “But now God has appointed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.” That’s referring to God the Father. Or I Corinthians 12:28, “And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.” That’s referring to God the Father. I Peter 4:10-11, this is from our Scripture reading this evening. “As each one has received a gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, as one speaking the oracles of God; whoever serves, as one serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and might forever and ever.” So, God the Father is involved in the giving of gifts.

God the Son is also involved in the giving of gifts. Ephesians 4:7, “But to each one of us (as Paul in Ephesians 4:7) grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” Ephesians 4:11-12, “And He Himself gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.”

Of course, the subject of our study all summer long, the Holy Spirit, God the Spirit, He ultimately indwells and empowers people with spiritual gifts. I Corinthians 12:11, “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.” Again, what this means is that we have to distinguish true spiritual gifts from natural abilities. Or natural tendencies or natural gifts. While God has elected and God does save people with certain natural abilities, we must remember that what the Scriptures describe is the conferral or the bestowal of a “spiritual gift.” A Spiritual gift by definition is tied in with having been regenerated by the Spirit in the new birth.

So, just because someone’s a leader in the business world does not mean by definition, they will be a leader in the church. That’s the distinction between a natural gift and a spiritual gift. Just because somebody teaches as a profession does not mean by default, they will be a teacher in the church or that they have a teaching gift to serve in the church. There’s a distinction between the natural ability and the spiritual gift.

Now surely there might be overlap between the two and one who is prone or given over to teaching might be proven to have spiritual gift of teaching. But it’s not like there’s an “always and forever” one to one correlation. John Walvoord picks this up when he says, “spiritual gifts must not be regarded, then, as an enlargement of natural powers, but a supernatural gift bestowed in keeping with the purpose of God in placing that individual in the body of Christ.”

Alright so we’ve looked at the definitions of the Spirit. That was point one. We’ve looked at the Source of the gifts of the Spirit. That was point two. Next point three, we’re going to consider THE PURPOSES OF THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT. Under this one, let’s start with the basic truth that we as Christians, are members of one another. We hit that one pretty hard this morning. I Corinthians 12:27, “You are now Christ’s body, and individually members of it.” Or Romans 12:5, “So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” As members of one another, everyone has some spiritual gift. Again 1 Corinthians 12:11, “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.”

Since we’re on this matter of the “purpose” of our spiritual gifts, whatever gift or gifts we’ve been given, they’ve been given for the purpose of being profitable and edifying to other members of this body. I Corinthians 12:7, “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for what is profitable,” it says. Then I Corinthians 14:26, “When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has a translation. (we’ll get into those later) Let all things be done for edification.” Or again Ephesians 4:11-12, speaks of these different offices, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers. They are given for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ. What this means for us practically speaking is that however seemingly “small” or “insignificant” we think our gift is for the service of the body of Christ, every believer, every Christian is essential to the service of the body that the Lord has placed you in. I Corinthians 12:22, “the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.” I mean people want to talk about having purpose or meaning in this life. We all know that our ultimate identity is in Jesus Christ. But you want to talk about purpose, here’s one that you’ve been given purpose as a follower of Christ to serve your body. The body of believers that you’ve been placed into with whatever gift His Spirit has given you.

Another purpose for spiritual gifts, gifts of the Spirit is that they represent our ministry that we are to carrying out and exercising the “one another” that we spoke of this morning. Romans 12:5-8, “So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another, but having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: whether prophecy, in agreement with the faith; or service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with generosity; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.” There’s purpose here with how we are to serve.

Spiritual gifts are ultimately a divine stewardship for we will one day stand accountable to God as believers. Romans 14:12 says “So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.” II Corinthians 5:9-10, speaks of “our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, (the Bema seat) so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”

Then in terms of purposes for gifts of the Spirit, they’re to be exercised in love. “Spiritual gifts (Walvoord notes) in themselves do not make great Christians. Their use in the proper way motivated by divine love, which is the fruit of the Spirit, is effective and bears fruit to the glory of God.” And of course, we can’t forget these verses; sometimes they get read at weddings but ultimately these are about spiritual gifts. I Corinthians 13:1-3, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” So, love must be the motivation behind our exercise of whatever gifts the Lord has given us.

Broadly speaking the presence of love in our lives, as we saw last week, shows, proves, indicates that we truly have been filled with the Spirit as Galatians 5:22 notes. It’s that love again that fuels and provokes and promotes the exercise of our gifts. I Corinthians 13:4-7, the next few verses. “Love is patient, love is kind, is not jealous, does not brag, is not puffed up; it does not act unbecomingly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered; it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” Another passage on the love which we are to not just demonstrate or enact our spiritual gifts, but the love we are to have in general for our brothers and sisters in Christ is mentioned here in Romans 13:8-10. “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET,’ and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF. Love does not work evil against a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfillment of the Law.” So, love must be a purpose behind or a purpose in the exercise of our spiritual gifts.

Alright, moving right along. Number four, THE DIVERSITY OF THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT. It is stated, many different ways in many different places in the New Testament. We’ve already looked at some of these, but God gives different gifts to believers. Consider how that truth is expressed here, in I Corinthians 12:7, “But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for what is profitable.” Four verses down the page, I Corinthians 12:11, “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.” Again, I Peter 4:10-11, “As each one has received a gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” So spiritual gifts are variously distributed.

Not only are they variously distributed, but it is also clear that not all believers have the same spiritual gift. I don’t have the same gift that you have or the same two or three gifts that you have perhaps. We all have different and various gifts like Romans 12:4-6 says, “But just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another, but having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.” I Corinthians 12:4 says, “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit.” Just down the page I Corinthians 12:8-10 says, “For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to someone else faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit.” As we’re going to see later, some of these gifts were exclusively for the Apostolic era. Meaning the days in which the apostles were living and ministering and functioning before the New Testament canon was closed. But there are also gifts which have continued on into the current church age. We’re going to start with those gifts, the ones which, in some sense exist yet today.

We’re going to start with this one. Teaching. This one is found in both Romans 12:7 and in I Corinthians 12:28. Simply put, the gift of teaching enables a person to explain God’s truth clearly and effectively to people. The gift of teaching is about explaining God’s truth clearly and effectively to people. The Lord has given teachers to His church to equip people for ministry and to promote their spiritual growth. Ephesians 4:11, “He Himself gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers.” It is through teaching that the Holy Spirit gives people an understanding of spiritual truth. Like we see here in I Corinthians 2:12, “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, (that’s the Holy Spirit) so that we may know the depths graciously given to us by God.”


It’s through teaching that those who hear it receive salvation and/or they grow spiritually. Romans 10:17, “Faith comes from hearing, (i.e. hearing teaching) and hearing by the word of Christ.” I Thessalonians 2:13, “And for this reason we also thank God without ceasing that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also is at work in you who believe.” Then II Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is God breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.” That was teaching.

Next, we’re going to look at Service. This one is found in Romans 12:6-8 list and specifically in Romans 12:7. This could be synonymous with the gift of helps which is found in I Corinthians 12:28. This is the ability to serve in the broadest sense of the term. This gift enables a person to function where they serve people’s various temporal earth-bound needs in a variety of different capacities. I think we see examples of it in places like this. I Corinthians 16:15, “You know the household of Stephanas, that they were the first fruits of Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves for service to the saints.” Colossians 1:7, “Just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow slave, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf.” Colossians 4:7, “Tychicus, our beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow slave in the Lord, will make known to you all my affairs.” Hebrews 6:10, “For God is not unrighteous so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and continuing to minister to the saints.” I think these are all examples potentially of the gift of service in action.

I mentioned helps being found in I Corinthians 12:28. Again this could be likely is synonymous with the gift of “service” over in Romans 12:7 which we just went over. But this gift of helps very briefly gives a person the ability to render a variety of forms of assistance, support to others in the body of Christ. It’s one of the most practical gifts. But it’s a vital gift and no church could run effectively without it.

Administration. This one is also found in 1 Corinthians 12:28. This one appears to be akin to the gift of “leading” which is in Romans 12:8 and this is the Spirit-directed ability to oversee and provide leadership for the body of Christ. MacArthur and Mayhue define it as “the divine enablement to zealously govern Christians toward the goal of accomplishing the will of God.”

Evangelism. This gift gives a person the ability to present the gospel clearly and effectively to unsaved people. Ephesians 4:11, “He Himself gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists.” Of course, every believer should be prepared to share the hope that we have within us, but some have been specially gifted by the Holy Spirit to do just that. The gift can be found in a church planter, a missionary, or even some of the guys like we have here on our E-team who commit large parts of their week to sharing the gospel with the lost.

Exhortation. Found in Romans 12:8. This is the ability to encourage, comfort, admonish. It enables people to encourage the discouraged and the fainthearted. I Thessalonians 5:14, “We urge you, brothers, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.” This gift helps people to comfort the afflicted and bereaved. II Corinthians 1:3-4, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” This gift of exhortation is often paired up with a teaching gift. I Timothy 6:2, “Teach and exhort these things” Paul says to Timothy. II Timothy 4:2, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and teaching.” This gift is often paired with a pastoral leadership gift. II Thessalonians 3:12, “Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ, that working with quietness, they eat their own bread.” Titus 2:15, “These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.”

Here's our next one Giving. This one’s found in Romans 12:8. This is the ability to be very generous with what means the Lord has given you to devote to the Lord’s work and to the needs of others. It’s a gift that’s exercised with no thought of return or self-gain. It enables one to give freely of money and resources in extraordinary ways. Thomas Schreiner says, “All believers are called upon to be generous and give, the cheerful giver idea, but some give in remarkable and unusual ways.” The words here in Galatians 6:6 could be illustrative of this gift. “And the one who is instructed in the word is to share in all good things with the one who instructs him.” This could also be what’s referred to in II Corinthians 8 where we learn of the poor Macedonian churches sharing though they were poor, they’re sharing sacrificially and generously with the apostle Paul and others in Corinth and in Rome.

Mercy is another gift. This one is also mentioned in Romans 12:8. This is the gift that enables people to minister compassionately to the needs of others, especially those who are going through some sort of crisis situation, some sort of personal distress, some sort of hurting, some sort of pain, that they’re going through. Of course, all believers are called to care for and alleviate the distress of others and be burden bearers toward others. We see that in I John 3:16-17, “By this we have known love, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?” We are all called to live in this merciful manner, but those who have this gift of mercy can do so and they do do so in a special, Spirit-directed way.

The gift of Faith mentioned in I Corinthians 12:9. This is the ability to believe God for the supply of specific needs. Believe that God will supply in times of need. Ryrie notes “Every believer should walk by faith, Galatians 5, and each has a measure of faith, but not all have the gift of faith.” So, this gift of faith, spiritual gift of faith, Ryrie is saying, can’t be saving faith because all believers have that. This must be referring to some sort of extraordinary faith in God’s ability to do the wondrous and some would even say the miraculous. Paul might have had this in mind by the way when he mentioned that the faith that can move mountains in I Corinthians 13:2, He says “And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” This gift also, this gift of faith, might have also to do with the prayer of faith offered by church’s elders like we see here in James 5:15. “And the prayer offered in faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.”

Next is the gift of Pastoring found in Ephesians 4:1, “And He Himself gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers.” Now I should clarify that like “evangelist,” we already went over that one, but evangelists and “pastors” are offices in the church. But tied into that office is a gift and namely it’s a gift of shepherding. Ryrie notes, speaking of this gift of pastoring that “This is the ability to shepherd, provide for, care for, and protect God’s people.” Someone came up to me this morning after the morning service and told me they thought I was really shepherding from the pulpit today. I told him I hope so. I mean that’s the job. A pastor is not just a mouthpiece, he’s not just a spokesman, he’s not just a voice. A pastor ultimately, functionally and truly is a shepherd. And those who are called a pastor to serve as a gift to the church they’ve been called to pastor, what they do is they serve the needs of the Lord’s people in that church. They teach and preach, they minister the Word in personal settings, they promote, they encourage spiritual growth in the body of Christ, they equip church members for the work of service, they marry and bury church members and then they serve of course as an example to the flock.

Well, that now brings us to our fifth point here this evening. THE CESSATION OF CERTAIN GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT. The gifts that we’ve just gone over, like I’ve mentioned still do exist in the church age, though I think they can be simplified and thinking of them as “speaking” and “serving” gifts. But there are other gifts, which we haven’t gone over yet and we’ve sort of blown by. The reason we haven’t talked about those yet is because these gifts were given temporarily during the apostolic era, while certified apostolic messengers were still getting the word out about Jesus and His saving gospel, before the canon of Scripture closed. But these gifts have since ceased in their operation. These gifts that we’re about to get into are no longer functioning and no longer exercised in the current church age even though as we’ll see next week, there are many who claim that they’re exercising these gifts.

Here is Robert Gromacki on this topic of gifts ceasing. He says, “Cessationists, including myself, believe that some spiritual gifts ceased to function during the first century, the time when the apostles ministered and the New Testament was written.” So, Gromacki here is identifying himself as a “cessationist.” I, too, would call myself a “cessationist.” That’s the official position, the official doctrine of our church. We are “cessationist.” We believe that certain signs and certain revelatory gifts and certain sign gifts, from the apostolic era, don’t exist anymore. They don’t function anymore. There are many reasons why we take that position. I can’t get into all of them, but I’ll give you a few. One reason that we believe some of these gifts stopped functioning early on is that there was a very clear need in the first century for miracles at the time when these gifts were operating. They had a purpose in this apostolic New Testament being written era.

As Thomas Edgar here notes, “The gospel message was unusual and astounding. A man executed in a very small country was presented as the Son of God who came to die for all men. For those who trusted in him, God would by grace forgive their sins. Few people outside Israel had ever heard of Jesus. He died before the church was established. He was executed after a brief career. These facts at least show the difficulty faced by early evangelists. The miraculous sign gifts put this whole message in a different perspective since the miracles were evidence that the message was from God.” So, they served a purpose in other words.

But now of course with the complete revelation from God in the Scripture. There is no longer that need for the miraculous to be performed. There is no longer that need for outside signs to certify what God has already declared perfectly on the pages of His inerrant Word.
Another thing we need to consider is the foundational role of the apostle. The apostle’s foundational role in the early church. And just about everyone, even continuationists, even the really charismatics continuationists, will agree that there are no apostles in the church today. There are some exceptions out there, but most would agree that there are no apostles.

The office of the apostle was foundational, and they have to say that because look what the Scriptures say. Ephesians 2:19-20, “So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone.” Or Hebrews 2:3-4 says, “That salvation, first spoken by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.” The whole point here is that foundation has already been laid. The foundation is only laid one time, and it was laid with the apostles. So not only apostleship, but the miraculous gifts that went along with apostleship, have served their purpose.

Another one we must consider in terms of the fading of these gifts, or the cessation of these gifts, is that we see that as you read the New Testament progressively, you’ll see instances early on like in the letters to Corinth or in the book of Acts that these various signs and wonders were being performed. But then you get 10, 12, 15 years later as Paul is writing II Timothy and now, he’s telling Timothy to take some wine for his frequent ailments. So, he’s going from miraculous healing to medicinal healing at that point.

Then last, another reason why we hold to the cessationist position, and we’re going to get into this more next Sunday night when we look at The Abuse of the Holy Spirit. But modern-day expressions, so called expressions, of the miraculous gifts. Whether it’d be miracle working, or healing, or prophesying, or tongue speaking. They bear almost no resemblance to what is described in Scripture. They’re counterfeits. They’re fraudulent. They don’t even hold a candle to what was actually happening in the apostolic era. So those are a few reasons why we hold to the cessationist view, which again is the view that certain gifts, certain sign gifts, and certain revelatory gifts, passed off the scene many many hundreds of years ago. With that and for the sake of the completeness of our study, let’s go ahead and work through some of these temporary gifts, which again do not exist today. But we want to make sure we go through the whole set here in these letters.

Apostleship. Apostles were the “sent ones.” That’s what “apostle” means. Sent one. These were early foundational figures who were commissioned by the Lord Jesus Himself in founding of the church. The Apostolic Gift enabled them to speak, the apostles that is, with Jesus’ authority and to fulfill their commission. Mark 3:13-15, “And He went up on the mountain and summoned those whom He Himself wanted, and they came to Him. And He appointed twelve (whom He also named apostles) to be with Him and to send them out to preach, and to have authority to cast out the demons.” Paul was called as an apostle. I Timothy 2:7. “For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (says Paul) I am telling the truth; I am not lying as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.” He also says I Corinthians 12:28-29 that God has appointed in the church, first apostles, and then prophets, teachers, and then all the rest. Of course, in Ephesians 4:11-12, we’ll see this many times tonight. “He Himself gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, some as evangelists, pastors and teachers…”

For apostles, their apostleship was confirmed or accredited by special signs that they performed. II Corinthians 12:12, “The signs of a true apostle were worked out among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.” But as we just looked at. We don’t need to spend too much time here; this gift is no longer needed today. This gift is no longer in operation today because we now have the completed New Testament which possesses and bears witness to Jesus’ inherent authority, just as the apostles of old once testified. So, apostleship.

Next is Prophecy. “Prophets” were those who had the ability to receive direct revelation from God. and then communicate what they had received from God to men. So, prophets receive direct revelation from God, going all the way back to the old Deuteronomy 18 standard and then they communicated that revelation to men. Then their messages came from God and became special revelation. This gift enabled a person, a prophet, to speak and write God’s words. Hebrews 1:1-2, “God, having spoken long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days spoke to us in His Son.” II Peter 1:21, “For no prophecy was ever made by the will of man, but men being moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.”

Now before the New Testament Scriptures were written and distributed, God made known His will and His directions to the local churches through people with this prophetic gift. Ephesians 2:19-20, “So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.”

This apparently was a gift that was functioning rather widely in the New Testament apostolic era. We know of Agabus in Acts 11:27-28. There were prophets in Antioch in Acts 13:1. Philip’s four daughters in Acts 21:9, are called prophetesses. There are prophets in the Corinthian church in I Corinthians 14. But this again was a gift for the foundation of the church, and it became unnecessary after that period. After the completion of the New Testament canon. Now we look to passages like this, that all Scripture is God breathed and profitable. We look to the Scriptures for revelation from God.

Next is Miracles. Another gift on the I Corinthians 12:28 list. This gift would have enabled a person to perform superhuman works in the physical realm which would have otherwise been contrary to natural law. Somebody could, with the gift of performing miracles, could perform superhuman works in the physical realm which were apart from or contrary to natural law. This would include things like raising people from the dead, like Peter did with Tabitha in Acts 9. Or showing immunity to the venom from a snake bite, as Paul would in Acts 28. Or these various other wonders like Acts 5:12, “Now at the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were happening among the people.”

This gift of miracles, the gift of the miraculous served as proof to certify their divine commission, the apostles divine commission. Hebrews 2:3-4, “That salvation, first spoken by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.” We’ll get into this a little bit later, but God of course does do the miraculous today. He still of course, the God who is capable of doing the miraculous, but this is not tied into a gift of miracles today.

Very related to that is Healing. The gift of healing. That one is found in I Corinthians 12:9. This gift enabled somebody to bring about, without medical intervention, the immediate healing of the sick. Now this does not mean because this gift existed at this time, that one couldn’t use medical remedies to treat the sick. Like Paul here to Timothy. I Timothy 5:23, saying “use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.” They still used normal medicinal remedies. We also know that this gift of healing was not exercised in every case in which it could have been exercised. Paul here says in II Timothy 4:20, “Erastus remained at Corinth, but Trophimus I left sick at Miletus.” Meaning I didn’t exercise the gift of healing with poor Trophimus. Again, we know that God heals today. There was a whole sermon I preached about six weeks ago in our Luke series called the hermeneutics of healing, where we went through God’s healing power in various phases of history. You can look that one up for more on that topic. God does heal, but there is no gift of healing today. That’s the jest.

Next, Tongues. This one is found in I Corinthians 12:10 and in 1 Corinthians 14:1. Charles Ryrie notes here that “Tongues is the God-given ability to speak in a language of earth that is unknown to the speaker.” Now note that. That language here is important by Ryrie. Tongues involve the speaking of known languages. Earthly languages. Language of earth. Recognizable languages. Not made-up, false, gibberish. It’s an existing language. Thomas Edgar is of the same mind. He says “No proof from the Greek language has been presented to demonstrate that glossa (that’s the word for tongues) was used to mean unintelligible ecstatic speech. A word must be interpreted according to its normal usage unless the context demands otherwise. Those passages describing the gift of tongues cannot be interpreted as referring to other than known human languages.”

The gift of tongues served several purposes. We are going to get into tongues a lot more next week when we look at false use of tongues in the modern day Charismatic and Pentecostal movements. Tongues at this time served various purposes. Tongues were proof that these early believers had actually received Holy Spirit’s baptism after Pentecost. Tongues were a sign to skeptical, unbelieving people, that God blesses all who trust in Jesus as Savior and Lord. I Corinthians 14:22, “So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers.” And then tongues were also a means of edification which blessed the speaker but then when interpreted, blessed the congregation. I Corinthians 14:4-5, “One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church. But I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy. And greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he translates, so that the church may receive edification.” Again, we’ll get int this more next week, about the abuse of tongues today.

Translation of Tongues. That one’s listed in the I Corinthians 12:7-10 list. Or interpretation of tongues. Now this is the ability to interpret that message in a language understood by the hearers.” This gift would have enabled a person in the church at this time to understand and explain to the congregation the meaning of what was being said by the person who was speaking in tongues. So, in our context it would be like somebody came up here and they were speaking in French to the whole church and maybe a few of you speak French. Maybe a better reference would be something like Swahili or something like that. Then somebody gets up here and interprets for the whole church because it’s a known language, Swahili, but not everyone speaks Swahili, so we need an interpreter to edify the whole church. That would be the context of the translation or interpretation of tongues. This gift was necessary if the whole church was to be edified. Otherwise, nobody would know what the person speaking tongues was saying.

Distinguishing of Spirits. That one is listed in I Corinthians 12:7 list. This one enabled someone to perceive immediately whether someone who supposedly speaking a prophecy was speaking under the direction of the Holy Spirit or not. There were, as we see in I John 4:1-3 for instance, many false prophets who were going around at this time spreading falsehood. And without a full canon of Scripture at this time to check what they were prophesying against to make sure it was truth or error; you needed this gift of distinguishing of Spirits in the church.

I think that’s what John might have had in mind here when he says in I John 4:1-3, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.” Now this principle still holds true. You know we don’t have this gift of distinguishing of Spirits today. We use the Scriptures now to test whether something is truly of the Spirit in the sense that John is mentioning here in 1 John 4.

Word of Wisdom. This one is mentioned in I Corinthians 12:8. This would have been most likely a temporary revelatory gift that was linked to prophesying. This was the gift as MacArthur and Mayhue note that involved “a direct word from the Lord to skillfully guide the local church in a specific decision.” So, it was a direct word from the Lord. Sounds very much like a prophetic type of gift, one that has passed off.

Word of Knowledge also in I Corinthians 12:8. Again, in the times before we had the full New Testament revelation, there was a need for special revelation from God to understand what God wanted men to do at the time. What direction He wanted them to go. And that’s where the word of knowledge came in. Again, MacArthur and Mayhue say it’s “The divine enablement to communicate a direct word of insight from the Lord to guide the local church.” So that direct Word of insight makes it sound very prophetic, meaning it’s a temporary gift that has passed off the scene.

That brings us to our sixth and final heading for tonight, THE SUMMARY OF THE GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT. I’m just going to make a couple of concluding remarks under this one before we close. First, it is important to note that even if we don’t have some of these gifts that are still operative in the church today, that doesn’t mean that we are excused from ministering to others in ways that are similar to the gifts as defined. Here’s what I mean by that. We may not have the gift of “helps” or the gift of “service.” Right? But we still have Galatians 5:13 which tells us at the very end there that through love we are to serve one another. So, gift or not we’re still called to serve one another. It’s one of the 59 “one anothers” from this morning.

We may not have the gift of exhortation. But Hebrews 10:24-25 tells us we are to be encouraging one another and all the more as the day draws near. So, gift or not, we’re still called to exhort, encourage etc. We may not all have that gift of giving that we looked over, but II Corinthians 9:7 says, “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” No one here is going to say I don’t have the gift of giving so I’m not going to give to the church. That would be disobedient according to what God has revealed to us here.

We may not all have the gift of teaching. But we all have the Great Commission from Jesus Christ who tells us to go and Matthew 28:19-20, “make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you.” We may not have the gift of mercy as defined. But we have Ephesians 4:32 which tells us that we are to “be kind to one another, tender-hearted, graciously forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has graciously forgiven us.” We may not have the gift of faith as defined. But we’re still called to walk by faith. We may not have the gift of evangelism. But we still have Acts 1:8 that we’re to be Christ’s witnesses in Jerusalem, all Judea and Samaria and in our context, to the end of the earth.

Then one last item. How do we go about, this is the question we always get as pastors, how do we go about figuring out what gift we have? How do I figure out how the Spirit has gifted me? What “spiritual gift” do I have? I’ll just give you a few brief pointers here.

First and simple is pray. Ask that God would give you wisdom from His Word as you study charts like these and Scriptures like these to see which gift or gifts you might have. What fits you in your desires and your gift set.

Second, consider the areas in which you are naturally gifted and see if there might be carry over to see if there might be a spiritual gift there. Again, there’s not one to one correlation between the two all the time, but there might be some bleeding in of one into the other from the natural ability into the spiritual gift.

Third would be to try out various kinds of ministries in which you are interested and for which you might be gifted and simply see how it goes. Listen to these announcements that are made on Sunday morning and Sunday evening. See what needs the church has and maybe you don’t feel a call or a gift to be in the nursery but who knows, that could be a place that you can serve the body of Christ, and you might have some sort of special gift to serve over there.

Fourth, self-evaluate. So, after you’ve served in some place for some time and put some gift to work or maybe it’s not a gift, you’re just trying to see if you have the gift. Simply look at whether the fact and consider whether you were effective in that place. Consider whether others were blessed by your service. You might say I have the gift of leadership but if nobody’s following you, you don’t have that gift.

Fifth, seek out the evaluation and input of godly counselors. So do your own self-evaluation but then also ask others who you trust and look up to and who are godly to see what they think about where you might be gifted.

Sixth and last, remember that the exercise of any gift that you might have is ultimately not for your sense of satisfaction or joy or fulfillment even. Those things that we all tend to want to chase after. But it’s ultimately for the edification of others, the building up of the body of believers and for the glorifying of God.

As we close, I do appreciate this final charge from Charles Ryrie. He says, “Amid all the discussion and debate about various aspects of the doctrine of spiritual gifts, we must not lose sight of our responsibility to be good stewards of whatever abilities and skills the Holy Spirit has given us.” Right. Even better.
I Corinthians 4:2, remember these gifts that we have, whatever gift we have is about stewardship and Paul here reminds us “it is required of stewards that one be found faithful.”

Well, we are out of time for this evening, and I am going to go and pray for us as we close. Pray for the dismissal and even pray for our time of fellowship out there in the parking lot as we go enjoy each other’s company out there. Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you this evening for these reminders of the Spirit’s work in your church. We thank you for the reminders of the Spirit’s work in our hearts as believers. I appreciate the study that we’ve been able to go through, being reminded last week that the Spirit produces fruit in us and then to be reminded this week to the Spirit gifts us to serve You ultimately and one another in the body of Christ. I do pray that this material would be helpful to people as they consider where they’re serving now or where they may serve in the future or what gift they may or may not have for edification of believers here in the body of Christ. I pray that we would be encouraged by this time and rejoicing that you have the perfect plan for your church which includes putting us together in it with this manifold series of gifts and assembling the perfect beautiful bride of Christ here in Lincoln, Nebraska. I thank you for this chance to fellowship this evening. I thank you for the idea behind it that was laid up by many men on our staff. I pray that this time of fellowship would be encouraging, it would spur us on to do the things that we were charged to do this morning as we seek to invest one another, serve one another and love one another for Your glory. It’s in Jesus name we pray, Amen.