SPIRITUAL GIFTS - I CORINTHIANS 12-15

Ressurection - 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 There are many different beliefs about life after death in our culture: Annihilation: There is no afterlife Buddhism: after death you lose your identity into the ‘formless’ and ‘nameless’ beyond Traditional Christian/Muslim: Paradise or heaven awaits Reincarnation. Believing in ‘karma’ means that one must return in a different body to pursue the next stage in ones destiny. How you do in this life determines how you will return. Spiritualism: Ghosts, spirits and contacting the dead.

However 1 Cor 15 says RESURRECTION is the central affirmation of Christianity after death – it’s why Paul, who writes this letter is so clear. 1 Cor 15:3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”

If there is a weakest link in the chain of Christianity – here it is.  The Resurrection of Jesus.  Because our faith and hope for the future stands or falls on whether or not it happened.  The bible even affirms that fact.  1 Cor 15:17 “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins…19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”

One only need to provide the bones of Christ, and all of this collapses like a house of cards. If Christ stays in the tomb, then nothing has been achieved, a good man has died and that’s it. But if he rises and still lives – then no one has ever done that and that proves a whole ton of things about the Christian faith has massive implications for everyone.

Historical Evidence for the Resurrection:
1) Resurrection was Totally Unexpected.
2) The Witnesses were Women!
3) Mistaken identity:
4) Empty Tomb.
5) Jesus didn’t die:
6) Jesus only appeared to people who believed in him?
7) The accounts were biased or incorrect.
8) No shrine:
9) the Sabbath Shifting

The best historical explanation is that Jesus of Nazareth having been thoroughly dead and buried, was raised to life on the third day with a renewed body (not just a resuscitated corpse) and appeared to many different people.  Now, I realise it is still possible for you to say, “I don’t have a great explanation for the empty tomb and the resurrection appearances but I still maintain my belief that people don’t rise from the dead and so something else must of happened.” That’s fine, but can you see, your putting your faith in something other than the logical facts or evidence of the events.  That may be a shock to you but are you sure your putting your faith in the right things?

Christians have this wonderful hope that is far bigger than just going to heaven when you die.
God is interested in this life, this world. 

All Christians are called to bring resurrection and restoration to this dying, decaying world and look forward to the job getting completed at the end of time.  If Christ really does rise again, it means the worst that life can throw at you - Hardship, trouble, evil, even death, has been defeated. If you trust him, you get to benefit both now and in the future.

Questions:
What are the most commonly held beliefs about life after death with your friends?
What happens when a Christian dies? Where do they go and where do they end up?
How does Jesus’ resurrection impact your life?
What do think of the evidence for a physical resurrection?

TALKS AVAILABLE FROM ‘TOGETHER ON A MISSION’ CONFERENCE

Click on this link to listen to some excellent talks from the Newfrontiers Brighton Leaders Conference. Talks

Spiritual Gifts + Love (by JR BAKER)

The buildup In chapters 12 and 14 of this same book, Paul is really doing a lot of clarification for the people of Corinth, in regards to spiritual gifts and what they’re all about. he’s very clear and firm on the issues they had struggled with and wants to be sure that they understand, as clearly as possible, what this is truly all about.

most excellent and greatest

Now, as Paul is flowing into the chapter 13, the one on love, he starts out by mentioning that the way of love is the most excellent way.  he wants you to know, right off the bat, that even though living out all these spiritual gifts is crucial to the body and an absolute part of life in Christ, that a life of love is the most excellent way to live. 

and just to make sure that we don’t miss it, he ends the chapter by coming back to the fact that love is the most excellent way and he says that after all the gifts have faded away, that faith, hope and love will remain, but the greatest of these is love.  Paul starts and ends the chapter on love, making sure we are fully aware of the fact that love is absolutely imperative to all of these other things we have been discussing.

in fact, living a life of love is so vital to the life of the church and of the believer that he goes on a little bit of a rant pointing out just how much you’d be lacking if you went out and did all these incredibly spiritual things but did them without love.  he talks about how you can be a spiritual giant, and do so much for so many, and yet be completely missing it if you don’t have love as the foundation.

i told the story about how in seminary, i was doing all these good little church things with all of my free time, i was preaching and leading bible studies, i was mentoring college guys and discipling folks, and yet my competitive nature led me to get so upset about a flipping volleyball game, that i actually made the referee cry…i, the pastor, made this sweet, little, girl referee cry⎯i am a horrible human being.

the reality is that the lost of the world couldn’t care less about all your great spiritual accolades and wonderful community service and awesome prayers if they don’t see and experience the love in your life.  i hope you’re getting the point that love is absolutely fundamental to our lives.

The focus
in our culture, love is often misconstrued and it gets mixed up with so many other things.  we confuse emotions and feelings and lust and movie-love and the list goes on, with what God is actually desiring for us to live out with each other, in the body of Christ.

because of this problem, Paul does something extremely helpful and gives us this nice little checklist of what exactly the love of Christ is to look like.  He tells us exactly what this love is and it’s a pretty thorough list of challenging things.  it is a list that i know for a fact that i have not mastered and chances are, will never come close.  we can definitely take out the word love and try putting our name in the blank and see just how well we measure up.  unfortunately, most of us would not stack up to well with Christ.

essentially this list is the perfect description of a beautiful, selfless, sacrificial love that puts others before ourselves.  it goes right back to the Greatest Commandment and the simple point that Jesus makes about us loving God first and then loving our neighbor.  we have got to improve on this because the world around us is dying and it desperately needs to see the beautiful love of Christ that we see so clearly in the cross.

and i hate to be the bearer of bad news and please don’t shoot the messenger, but the truth is…love is difficult.  it is hard to live this out, it is a challenge to live this out, it is something that each and everyone of us need to actively seek out and pray about on a regular basis, so that we can try and be more and more like Christ. 

we’ve got work to do, so lets quit making excuses and get on with it.

challenges and discussion

* pray for the group and one another and that the Spirit would show you where you need to improve in these areas and how you can practically be more loving

* which attribute of love do you struggle the most with? why do you think this is?

* if you were to remove love from that list and put your name in its place, how would you stack up to the ideal?

* do pray for the ability to be more loving as often as you pray for yourself, your friends, your spiritual gifts, etc.?

* if Jesus said that love was the greatest commandment and numerous other authors throughout scripture say this as well, why do you think we choose to focus on so many other things more than we do the aspect of love?

* the beatles have a famous song that says, “all you need is love”…how can this concept that love is “all you need” be dangerous to us in the church? or do you think it is great?

* what is one thing from the sermon that you really felt like God was speaking directly to you and whispering right in your ear?

* in Galatians 5:22, love is the first attribute listed in the fruits of the spirit…do you think that it is listed first for a reason? why or why not?

* this week, try your hardest to love those where it doesn’t come naturally.  it is easy to love my wife, my best friend, my family, etc., but what about those others? be intentional in stepping out in love in new and powerful ways.

SPIRITUAL GIFTS - I CORINTHIANS 12-15

Using the Spiritual GIfts: 1 Corinthians 14:26-33. How do we makes sure the Spiritual gifts are used wisely and responsibly? Here are 6 principles:

1. Encourage Freedom
A key verse in this chapter is verse 26 “What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.” There was an openness and expectation that the Holy Spirit would be present as the church gathered for worship.  We must make sure there is room and space given for people to contribute their gift when we meet.

2. Encourage Leadership:
Even though Paul stresses the ability of the tongues speaker to be in control of their utterances, and likewise for the prophet (28 & 32), it is not necessarily their responsibility to be counting the number of contributions.  Their contribution is the tongue or prophecy and it would be helpful to have others to bring control and clarity to proceedings. 

3. Encourage Weighing
The passage encourages the evaluation of the prophecy or tongue.  The main question is who does the weighing when Paul says “Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said“?    Who are the ‘others’? It is unlikely the ‘others’ are other prophets.  Paul is clearly addressing the whole church and not just prophets.  So the words must be given publically and all the people weigh them. 

a) Is it Biblical? 2 Peter 1:20-21)
b) Is it God honouring? (1 John 4:1-3)
c) Is it Encouraging and strengthening, (1 Cor 14:3)
d) Is it what God wants to say now? (Acts 15:28)

So Paul says three things about Tongues when we use them in gatherings:
i) First there must be an interpreter present
ii) second only one person can speak at a time and
iii) thirdly, only two or three may speak in one go. 

4 Encourage Edification:
1 Cor 14:26 ‘All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.’
It seems to obvious to state but edification is the stated purpose of spiritual gifts.  It means encouragement and building up.

5. Encourage Order:
The passage concludes with a clear appeal to structure (40) “But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way.”  This ordering has it’s foundations in the nature of God (33 For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.). 

6. Encourage Intelligibility
Our final guideline is to encourage intelligibility, especially for guests and unbelievers. Look to explain, promote understanding, create safe environment. Paul was concerned for unbelievers was huge (see verses 22-25).

Questions:
1) Is there anything you don’t understand about using the spiritual gifts in our gatherings?
2) Spend some time this week at mission group practicing using the Spiritual gifts then feedback to each other about the experience.