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Faith & The Holy Spirit It is fitting that we should be exploring an aspect of the Holy Spirit as this is the season of Pentecost on the Church Calendar. Pentecost as many will know, was the day on which the disciples who were gathered for prayer after the ascension of Jesus, received the Holy Spirit which Jesus had promised to send them. See John16. The Holy Spirit is identified by a number of different names in the New Testament. It is sometimes called the counsellor; the comforter or the advocate. The word Pentecost may ring bells for many of you in connection with the so called Pentecostal churches. I thought I might take a few moments to sketch a little church history in this regard. The Pentecostal movement began way back in the 1900’s and a good marking date for its inception is the 31st December 1900 when Charles Parham of Topeka in Kansas laid his hands on Agnes Ozman and she began speaking in tongues. From this incident grew the modern day Pentecostal movement . The original intention of it’s leaders had been to highlight the infilling of Holy Spirit as a way of personally experiencing God. They tried as Luther and Wesley had in former times, to influence the major denominations from within. However, resistance to their teaching from the mainline churches stopped them in their tracks and meant that a new stream of Christianity evolved. By the mid 20th century Pentecostal churches like the AOG had been set up independent of the mainline churches. The movement did however continue to influence Christians everywhere and gradually it gained respectability . By the 1970’s the Pentecostal movement had gained influence in the mainline churches and even the Catholic Church. This movement is also known as the charismatic movement from the Greek word charis which means grace. We have to be clear that during the course of this sermon series we are exploring the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. So while we may from time to time mention the fruits of the Holy Spirit , the focus of the series is around the gifts of the Spirit which are somewhat different. The fruits of the Spirit , listed in Galatians as patience love peace and so forth, are expressions or manifestations that the Holy spirit of God is at work in our lives transforming us into Christ- like people. Whereas, the gifts of the Spirit are the special abilities God gives to the various members of the Church for the specific purpose of being used in ministry. These spiritual gifts ought not to be confused with talents or the fruits of the Spirit or Christian roles which various people may fill in the church. You may well be asking yourselves: Why do a series on the Gifts of the Spirit? I am not sure whether you have ever come across a situation in church where someone is involved in a particular ministry because no one else would do it. Or because they were too shy to say ‘no I don’t want to do that’ when someone asked them to fill a vacancy. Or because they couldn’t think of what to do but wanted to do something for the church? Often these people are not working in their giftings and at times they may well be quite the wrong person for the job. The net result is that the job is done sloppily and they are unhappy. Their dilemma is illustrated by the story of a certain sea captain and his chief engineer who were having an argument as to which one of them was the more important to the ship. Failing to agree, they resorted to the unique idea of swapping places. The chief ascended to the bridge, and the captain dived into the engine room. After a couple of hours, the captain suddenly appeared on the deck covered with oil and soot. “Chief!” he yelled, wildly waving aloft a monkey wrench. “You’ll have to come down here; I can’t make her go!” “Of course you can’t,” replied the chief. “She’s aground!” Clearly then, when people know what their giftings are and are able to work in the areas to which they feel God is calling them we find they have more energy, enthusiasm and function at optimum levels. When a whole church functions on this basis we find a church that is buzzing with energy; ministries that are flourishing and worship that is inspiring. In today’s reading we discover that the church of Corinth was one such church. While there were obviously many difficulties that Paul was trying to address in this church, it remained nonetheless a flourishing exciting and happening church where amazing things were taking place. This passage is one of 3 passages where Paul offers instruction on spiritual gifts . They are Romans 12: 6-8; Ephesians 4: 7 – 12; and of course today’s passage, 1 Corinthians 12: 4 – 11, 28 – 30. In this passage, he emphasises that the Church is like the human body. It is made up of different parts which all have a function, but essentially they all form one body, which is the body of Christ. He stresses that unity does not mean the same as uniformity and that though we all belong to the same church; worship the one Lord and are given gifts by the same Spirit, we are all given different gifts and are called to serve different functions. He goes on to explain that these gifts are given only by the Holy Spirit at God’s discretion and by grace. See 1 Corinthians 12 : 11. They are received, not achieved they need to be discovered before they can be developed. Also these gifts are given not for the glory of the individual member of the Church, but for the good of the whole Church. The picture we get is of a church that that is vividly alive, where astonishing things are happening in the power of the Spirit. As we have seen, in the last century some people in the church have taken stock and looked back to the first century churches for guidance and out of this process of reflection has come a whole new brand of Pentecostal theology based on Paul’s teachings called Gift Theology. Paul writes in 1 Cor. 12 :1 that “I would not have you ignorant of spiritual gifts.” In 1 Peter 4:10 we read that every Christian has received a spiritual gift and in 1 Cor 12 : 7 we learn that these gifts are given to every person for the profit of the whole. They are certainly not designed for ‘Lone Rangers’. Spiritual gifts are functional and congregational. God has always worked through groups of people who are in community. Jesus himself worked this way with his 12 disciples and he also declared “where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.” This does not mean that gifts are inward looking, just that they are team based. It also means that everyone is given a gift that is needed for the effective mission and ministry of the Church. There are no spectators in Christ’s church. Though there are 3 primary lists which offer us 20 separate gifts none of these is complete in itself and each contains some gifts that do not appear in the other lists. We can conclude from this that these lists are not intended to be a complete catalogue of the spiritual gifts that God gives. The mix and variety of spiritual gifts that God is able to offer us, is as infinite as God himself. However, the gifts that are listed may be divided into three categories: Motivational gifts; ministry gifts and manifestational gifts. Today I would like to conclude with a brief look at one example of these motivational gifts which is the spiritual gift of Faith. William Barclay points out that there is a difference between general or saving faith and the special spiritual gift of faith which some people have. This faith is also known as potent faith because of its dynamism and power. Basic foundational faith that Jesus Christ is the anointed messiah through whom we receive forgiveness for sins and eternal life is the necessary faith which all who call themselves Christians must have. However the spiritual gift of faith is the special ability to use the power of general faith in Jesus to appropriate a change or accomplish an objective in a particular situation for the good of the whole body. People with the gift of potent faith are goal centred; possibility thinkers who are undaunted by adverse circumstances and obstacles. They can trust God to remove mountains. Like Noah they can build an ark on dry ground trusting that God will do as he said and send rain. These people display spiritual courage and are visionaries. They start to go where they believe God is leading them even before they have the remotest idea how they are going to get there. This kind of faith is more than the intellectual conviction that a thing is true or right; it is the passionate belief in God that steels the will and nerves the sinew. It is the faith which turns the impossible into the possible and vision into deeds. This gift is referred to in 1 Corinthians 12: 9 and is illustrated in Acts 11: 22 –24 where Barnabas, ‘filled with the Holy Spirit and faith’, demonstrates such faith in God that he is moved to give a huge sum of money to the cause of Christ’s Church. As a result “ a large company came to believe”. Barnabas had the ability to extend the general gift of faith to the building up of the body of Christ. People with the gift of faith stubbornly believe God is going to do something even in the most adverse circumstances. They simply and joyfully trust without doubt that God will show up. See David Friend. Sometimes we find this kind of faith daunting when we compare it with the mustard seed faith you or I might have. We feel inadequate and perhaps a little envious. However, this kind of faith is designed to be inspiring, encouraging and empowering. People with this kind of faith pioneer new ministries, they encourage others and help them grow in their faith. Proverbs 29: 18 says without a vision the people perish. Without people who have the spiritual gift of faith, I believe the church ceases to grow; runs out of energy and finally will perish. Paul himself had this gift of faith. He writes in Romans 1: 12, “I want to strengthen you by my faith”. Let us affirm people who have this kind of faith and allow them to encourage us as we search for our own giftings. Let us give thanks for those of us to whom the Holy Spirit has given the gift of faith. |
