1 Cor No.24 The Body of Christ (Luke 19?)

And verse 11. While they were listening to this, he went on to tell them a parable because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once. He said, a man of noble birth went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return.

So he called ten of his servants and gave them ten minas. Put this money to work, he said, until I come back. But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, we don't want this man to be our king.

He was made king, however, and returned home. Then he sent for the servants to whom he had given the money in order to find out what they had gained with it. The first one came and said, sir, your mina has earned ten more.

Well done, my good servant, his master replied, because you have been trustworthy in a very small matter, take charge of ten cities. The second came and said, sir, your mina has earned five more. His master answered, you take charge of five cities.

Then another servant came and said, sir, here is your mina. I have kept it laid away in a piece of cloth. I was afraid of you because you are a hard man.

You take out what you did not put in and reap what you did not sow. His master replied, I will judge you by your own words. You wicked servant, you knew, did you, that I am a hard man, taking out what I did not put in and reaping what I did not sow.

Why then didn't you put my money on deposit, so that when I came back I could have collected it with interest? Then he said to those standing by, take his mina away from him and give it to the one who has ten minas. Sir, they said, he already has ten. He replied, I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given.

But as for the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away. But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them, bring them here and kill them in front of me. I would be grateful if you would follow me in a series of short Bible readings.

And the first is found in Romans 12. And can I ask you, when I've read each of these passages of scripture, if you don't mind just to fold over the top of that page, which will help you to find it again quickly when I return to it in my address. Romans chapter 12, those of you who follow the NIV, it's on page 202.

Just a few verses from the fourth. Pardon my hesitation, I'm having difficulty focusing my eyes just at the moment for some obscure reason. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve.

If it is teaching, let him teach. If it is encouraging, let him encourage. If it is in contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously.

If it is leadership, let him govern diligently. If it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. Now I want you to, having marked that page by turning over the leaf, turn to Ephesians and chapter 4, and verse 8. When he, that is the Lord Jesus, ascended on high, he led captives in his train, and gave gifts to men.

Verse 11. It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith, and in the knowledge of the Son of God, and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants tossed about and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching, and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him, who is the head, that is Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. And my last reference, before bringing you back to 1 Corinthians, is 1 Peter and chapter 4, page 290 in the NIV.

1 Peter chapter 4, and in the seventh verse we read, the end of all things is near. Therefore be clear-minded and self-controlled, so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God.

If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.

And now I bring you back to 1 Corinthians and chapter 12, which I'm not reading at the moment. Last week, you will recall, I gave what was an introductory study to this whole business of spiritual gifts. I tried to show you that 1 Corinthians 12 to 14, in a brief summary that I engaged in, gives a great deal of the New Testament's teaching in what has become today a very controversial area.

It does not exhaust what the Bible has to say. That's the reason why I have brought this other little catena of readings to your consideration. But a great deal of what the Bible says regarding spiritual gifts is found within the chapters 12 to 14 of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.

Now, you will recall that last week I said that there are two ways in which one can approach this subject and particularly the 12th and 14th chapter of 1 Corinthians. One can argue, and I endeavored to give a clear, accurate presentation of the case, that this is really historical and has little to do with contemporary Christianity. These supernatural gifts of the Spirit were evidence in the apostolic era of the remarkable ministry that these foundation members of the church had.

I presented the case, as I say, as clearly and as accurately and as without bias as I could. And yet I went on to say that though I think it's a strong case for which I have a measure of respect and understanding, I do not find it to be convincing. And you might remember, and if you weren't here last week, can I be so immodest as to suggest that you get the tape as it's basic to your understanding of the rest of the studies that are to follow, that you hear what I had to say in my introductory address.

You may recall that I gave five reasons as to why I cannot agree that spiritual gifts of necessity terminated at the end of the apostolic era or when the canon of Scripture was new complete and we had our New Testament and Old Testament in its entirety. There is not time to go over my reasoning, but the last point that I brought to your attention I will enlarge upon. And it was simply this, that it seems to me when the Apostle Paul speaks about spiritual gifts at the beginning of this letter to the Corinthians, he suggests that such gifts will be available within the sovereignty of God throughout the whole of the age until Jesus Christ returns.

You will remember that in the opening chapter of the letter, Paul significantly in the fourth verse thanks God for the Christians at Corinth. And one of the reasons why he engages in this piece of congratulations is developed in the fifth verse where we read, for in Jesus you have been enriched in every way in all your knowledge. And he goes on in the seventh verse to say, therefore you do not like any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed.

Paul has in mind the return of Jesus and he says I congratulate you that in the interim period between your conversion and that distant event you are not coming behind in the pursuit of any spiritual gift. He links the charismata, the spiritual gifts, to the parousia, that means the second advent. Now he doesn't just do it there, it's very significant I think that when you turn back to that first reading I gave you in Romans 12 where there's another list of the charismata, the gifts of the Spirit, the whole teaching has in view the return of Jesus.

From the 12th chapter of Romans and on to the end of the epistle, Paul is practically applying what he has reasoned out in the first 11 verses, in the first 11 chapters. In the 12th chapter he makes reference, as I say, to the gifts of the Spirit or to certain manifestations of these. And then we discover in the 11th verse of the 13th chapter that he starts to speak again about the coming of Jesus.

All these things that I've been talking about, presenting your body as a living sacrifice to the Lord, manifesting certain gifts of the Spirit, all these things you are to practice, says the Apostle Paul, do this. Understanding the present time, the hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over, the day is almost here.

And he goes on in the 14th verse to say, clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ. And the whole of the teaching there is preparedness, making preparation for the return of Christ and involved, this is all I'm arguing, involved in this teaching. The Apostle Paul gives further instruction, concerning the use of spiritual gifts.

So he links the charismata to the parousia in Romans 12 and 13, as he does in 1 Corinthians. Yes, but he's not through. Come to Ephesians 4, there again you get reference to these great gifts of the Spirit, the ministry gifts.

And Paul tells us in the 9th verse that it's the Lord Jesus that has bestowed these gifts upon the church. And later on, towards the end of that chapter, he speaks about the day of redemption. That's in the 30th verse, that refers to the return of Jesus.

I read the whole verse, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. And he goes on with certain other instructions. But the point again, that I'm simply bringing to your attention, is that when Paul, in Ephesians 4, deals with the ministry gifts of the Spirit, he also has his eye on Jesus's return.

And in no way does he argue for the cessation of spiritual ministries, of spiritual gifts. Now, just in case you're still not convinced, then I put to you my final argument. Here we are in 1 Peter and chapter 4. Again, you may not have realized that Peter has something to say about charismatic gifts.

The list is not exhaustive. In 1 Corinthians, they are referred to elsewhere. And Peter makes reference to a couple.

He says, for example, in the 10th verse, each one should use whatever gift, the word that is charisma, he has received to serve others. And in the 11th verse, he speaks about the gift of speaking, of proclaiming God's word. He speaks later on about the gift of serving, and how all this should be done in the strength of the Lord, and for the mutual help of members of the Christian church.

Well, you say, we noted that before. Why are you repeating it? Well, look at the 7th verse, and you will see what proceeds Peter's injunction concerning the use of spiritual gifts. He says, the end of all things is near.

What's he referring to? The end of the world, the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, the second advent. He has his eye, as does the Apostle Paul, on this tremendous event at the end of the age. And when he looks forward to it, he encourages Christian people to use any part of the talents, gifts, helps that the Lord Jesus has bestowed within the body of his church.

Now, I personally find it very difficult to get round that reasoning. These are my own deductions from Scripture, and I'm quite happy to have conversation or correspondence with any about what I'm teaching at this very moment. But it seems to me, and I'm very strong in my conclusion, though willing to learn from others, that in no way can you substantiate the idea that spiritual gifts terminated at the end of the apostolic era.

Now, let's get back to 1 Corinthians and chapter 12, where there are a list, in fact, two lists of the gifts incorporated. I'm not dealing with these lists just at the moment. What I want to do is to bring your attention to one or two things in the opening verses, and then I'll have done for this morning.

Do you notice how the Apostle Paul, when he opens the subject, he says, I don't want you to be ignorant about these things. No, about spiritual gifts, brothers. I do not want you to be ignorant.

Sometimes the charismatic friends, and if you allow the definition that I would give to the word charismatic, then I don't object to that description of myself in any way. But sometimes it is said of them that they are people with an experience looking for a theology. People with an experience looking for a theology.

There are times, and I will admit that people perhaps are being kindly in saying this to me, when folk come into my office and perhaps have some discussion about biblical things or things that are on their heart, they'll say, well, you know, I'm no theologian and I smile, at least cosmetically, but in my heart I frown. You're not a theologian? Should you not be a theologian? After all, the Apostle Paul says here, I would not have you ignorant. And he doesn't just say that about spiritual gifts, he says this throughout the whole of his teaching as he brings this letter to the Corinthians and all that it contains.

What is a theologian? Well, what does the word theology mean? Theoslogia, the word of God. You're a Christian? What do you believe? Oh, I believe the word of God. Then what do you mean when you say I'm not a theologian? Of course you must strive to understand what the Bible has to say, and to be able to convince others, particularly on the main issues of salvation.

So the Apostle Paul says, I don't want you to be ignorant, I want you to have a theology. Why is he concerned about this? Well, you see, those folks who say, I've got an experience, but I don't have a doctrine, are in a very difficult situation. The Moonies have an experience, and it's a real experience.

The folks at the last night in the proms, of the proms, they have an experience. Have you ever seen them, when you switch on the television, and the joy and the rapture, as the patriotic feeling of the British really grips them, they start to sing some of those traditional hymns and songs? But that's not a religious experience, and neither is the Moonies' experience a biblical experience. How do we test? Well, we test by the word of God.

We bring our experience to God's word, and if God's word says, yes, that's right, then we glory in our experience. But if there is any way in which our experience does not correspond to Scripture, then we recognize that it's a false experience, and not a spiritual one in Christian terms at all. So the Apostle Paul says, brothers, I don't want you to be ignorant.

Why is he concerned about them not being ignorant? Well, he tells us in the second verse. He has his eye to the background from which they came. You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other, you were influenced and led astray to dumb idols.

Now, the worship of the gods at Corinth and throughout Greece was very much an emotional, sexually-orientated worship. There were times when they went into ecstatic trances and so on and so forth. The very word there, it doesn't come out very plainly in the English, but the idea of them being led and being led astray and being influenced had all this business of psychology and demonic activity in it.

And says, Paul, this is the society from which you emerged. It was an experience-centered society. You were stimulated in many ways.

But he said, as far as your experience of Christ is concerned, I want you to be fully knowledgeable in your mind, as well as in your heart, to have an outworking of what mentally you believe. In other words, there are certain basic tests which one can apply to any claimed experience of God's spirit. That's why the apostle in the third verse, you see, goes on to speak about some of these tests.

If anyone claiming to be inspired, claiming to be the spokesman of the spirit of God and says, Jesus is accursed, then reject what is said. In other words, test the manifestations. I remember some years ago, I was invited to bring a paper on the doctrine of the spirit, particularly in reference to the charismatic movement to two or three hundred ministers in the north of England.

And I spoke at some length, which you might say is not unusual, but even longer than I inflict upon you. And at the end, one man got up. I can see him now.

And in the lengthy discussion that followed, he said to me, why don't you come off the fence? He said, in no way are you fully endorsing the charismatic movement, and in no way are you fully rejecting the charismatic movement. Why not get off the fence? Well, there was a certain amount of laughter that followed his comment. But the laughter was superseded when I suggested to the good man that the apostle Paul here in Corinthians, again in Thessalonians, and the apostle Peter also joins Paul with the apostle John, telling us to judge, to hold fast to that which is good, to prove all things.

In other words, I cannot give a blanket recommendation of any movement that claims to be manifesting spiritual gifts. All I can say is what I believe about any one alleged manifestation of a spiritual gift. I cannot tell you what's happening in Latin America unless I was there.

I cannot tell you what's happening in a church in India unless I was there. The apostle Paul, you see, even in Corinthians says, you people, you are to judge what is claimed to be a manifestation of the Spirit, and he gives them certain basic tests which he will enlarge on later in his teaching. Now, that's my point, you see.

Don't misunderstand me. In no sense do I sit on the fence. In this whole area, I am saying that it is biblical to reserve judgment and to apply that judgment on every occasion when a spiritual gift is manifested.

It seems to me that that's an intelligent thing to do. It seems to me a biblical thing to do. Historically, I could demonstrate the wisdom of this.

Well, let's move on. What I want to do now is to show you from the apostle Paul's teaching how here in 1 Corinthians 12, endorsed by the readings from Romans and Ephesians and 1 Peter, what the position of a Christian is in the economy of God. And though there will not be time to enlarge on this, what his or her function happens to be.

What is the position of a Christian in the eyes of God? Well, will you drop down to the 12th verse of 1 Corinthians 12, and you will discover there the words which speak about the human body. It tells us that the body is a unit. It's made up of many parts.

Paul is using an illustration. And later on, in a very full way, he's going to develop the analogy. The human body has many constituent members, and each part is vital to the whole.

The hand, the foot, the head, and so forth. Now, says the apostle, the position of the Christian, as seen by the Lord, is this. He is a member of the body of Christ.

You say, you've lost me completely. What do you mean? Well, the body of Christ is the way that Corinthians, and when Paul's arguing in Romans and Ephesians, he alludes to it too, describes that relationship that you and I have to the Lord. We call our organization, if you like, or organism here, a church.

Part of the great Church of God International. Wherever there are Christian, born-again, Bible-believing folk, there is a church. All right, says the Bible.

But there's another way in which you can describe the church. It's part of the body of Christ. Now, how do I know that I'm a member of the body of Christ? Well, I know that because of the indwelling spirit.

Will you come down to the thirteenth verse? Rather to the... Yes, it is the thirteenth. As I say, my vision's not so good at the moment. For we were all baptized by one spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free.

And we were all given the one spirit to drink. What is the apostle there referring to? Well, anyone who's looking for evidence for a second experience of the spirit, and I'm not arguing against such at this point, but anyone who is looking in this verse will have to look elsewhere, because this verse is dealing with the initiation of people into the Christian faith. And it's done by the apostle Paul saying, consider a body.

And you have joined that body. You have been baptized into that body when you acknowledged who Jesus was, and when the spirit of God took residence within your life. You're baptized by the spirit into the body of the Lord Jesus.

This applies to every Christian, whether he comes from a Jewish background or a Gentile background, whether he's a slave or whether he's free, answers the apostle with his mind doubtless on John chapter seven, where Jesus speaks about giving the river of life, the waters of life for the Christian to imbibe. We were all given the one spirit to drink. Now, these are very interesting comments the apostle makes.

He says, Christian people are all members of the body of Christ. They've all drunk from that stream, that fount of living water, which comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. He could have taken us to John's gospel and later on to the analogy of the vine, where John spells out so beautifully the teaching of our Lord that we have been grafted back onto the vine.

Our Lord using that analogy to describe the unity that there is within the company of people who follow him. So that's your experience. It must be.

Indeed, I would argue this, that if you are not a member of the body of Christ, if you have not been baptized into the body of Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, then you cannot be a Christian. It is impossible to be a Christian and not to know the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of the Lord. Let me express it another way.

Here is the apostle Paul, and on one occasion when he's writing to another church, not the church in Corinth, he says, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by my faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Paul is incorporated into the body of Christ so that he says he no longer has any spiritual existence apart from his relationship to the Lord Jesus. Listen to what one charismatic teacher has to say.

Whoever entrusts his life to the disposal of God will find that God installs him anew as a steward. He will experience God's taking possession of him through the Holy Spirit and working through him. He will discover that God speaks and acts through him.

When I become a Christian, I'm brought into the body of Christ. That's what Paul says in Romans 12, he says it in 1 Corinthians 12, he says it in Ephesians 4, and by implication Peter says it in 1 Peter 4. When I become a Christian, I'm in the body of Christ. Alright, back to the human body.

You see mine. You may not be impressed, but it's there. What controls my human body? Well, it's my head.

My head is so vital to my body that if you disarm me of my head, then my body will just crumple. Now that's same spiritually. Here I am in the body of Christ.

Who is the head? The pastor? God forbid. The elders, the deacons? God forbid. The Pope? God forbid.

Who is the head of the church? None other than the Lord Jesus. Alright, back to the human analogy. What causes my body to react as I'm speaking to you now? It is the stimulus that is received from my brain.

Now who stimulates the church? It is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what I mean, therefore, by the function that we perform within the body of Christ. Our position, that's easily expressed.

We're incorporated into Christ. Ah yes, but we're not incorporated there to be inactive. We are there to do things.

How do we do them? By the stimuli that we receive from the head. By those charisms, that charismata that comes from the Lord Jesus. You see, we, some of us conservative, oh so conservative evangelicals, have become so frightened of Pentecostal teaching that we have allowed the whole business of the gifts of the Spirit to be exploited by one section of the Christian church, not recognizing that the gifts of the Spirit are so numerous, at least 21 in the whole canon of Scripture, and possibly even more than that.

And it's only by the gifts of the Spirit that the body of Christ can function. They are the stimuli that is sent by the head through to the body so that they can act and react accordingly. Look, Jesus is a man who's anointed by the Spirit.

The Greek term there is enchristened. He's anointed, he's enchristened, he's Christed by the Spirit. But Stephen, we are told in the Acts of the Apostles, has a similar experience.

He's anointed by the Spirit. So is the Apostle Peter. Here is this apostle with his colleague, and there's a man who's lame at the gate of Jerusalem, the beautiful gate.

You remember? And Peter says, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I unto you. Get up and walk. And he does.

Remarkable. And later on, a crowd gathers. Peter, you're a miracle worker.

You're a wizard of a man. And Peter says, don't be foolish. Do you think that this comes about by any authority, any power that I have got? What you see in operation is none other than a manifestation of the power, the exousia, the authority of the Lord.

You cannot achieve anything for Jesus Christ outside of the charismata. It is utterly impossible. I have no innate gifts that can be used apart from the Holy Spirit coming upon me and enabling me to work for the Lord Christ.

My time is virtually gone, and I wanted to come back and speak about some of these specific gifts. But let me tie what I have said this morning together by bringing you back to that parable that I read earlier from Luke chapter 19, was it not? There you have the picture of a wealthy man going on a journey. And as he goes on the journey, he leaves ten servants and he entrusts them with, according to the AV, one pound, according to the NIV, one minna each.

In other words, he gives all these men a specific endowment. These men can well stand for, I suggest to you, the church of Jesus Christ. Ten is the number of completion.

And there were ten men. And they all had a gift. A gift which was of similar value and worth, of equal value for each one.

You remember how when the wealthy man came back, the one who would reign over them, he had his servants in front of him. And one of them said, Master, I've taken your gift, your charisma, and I have used it. In fact, he goes on to tell us that it was not so much the fact that he used the gift, but the gift itself so multiplied in his hands, in his service, that as a result, ten other minnas were added to what he had originally used.

The effectiveness of the gift, as it was used, caused this man's ministry to be improved tenfold. And then you remember there was another man, and he'd invested exactly the same gift, at least as far as value was concerned, and he had worked for his master. And he said he'd made five more.

His gift had been so used that it was fivefold in multiplication. And he was commended for so doing. And then you recall there was this other man, and he said, Master, I know that you're a severe person.

I know how you're an acute businessman, and I didn't want to lose your gift at all. So what I did was I just put it in store. I put it in reserve until the day that you came so that I could hand it back to you.

There's no access. There's no interest. Neither is there any loss.

And you remember how the master denies that this servant has offered him any faithful ministry at all. And he takes his one gift, and he adds it to the reward of the man who has usefully employed his one and made ten. What does that signify? Surely it's a lovely analogy of the church of Jesus Christ.

We're all given a gift. It may differ in its ministry, but essentially it's the same in value. Some will take their gift or their gifts, and they will use them zealously and well for the Lord.

And when Jesus comes back, they can indicate just how their ministry has been fruitful. Others, however, will say, well, you know, I didn't really want your charisma. I just put it on one side.

I felt that I could work for you with the endearment that I had, but I didn't want anything else. I was afraid of anything else. And in embarrassment, they will have to consult the Lord as he returns.

That doesn't mean to say that they're not saved. The Apostle Paul, earlier in Corinthians, talks about those who are saved as by fire. They have the opportunity, but they let it go.

There was a potential endowment, but they didn't enter into it. There were at least the 21 manifestations of the gifts of the Spirit, but they didn't want one of them. Saved, yes, but as by fire.

The Apostle Paul gives us very clear teaching of the fact that we are part of the body of Christ. We are linked into the Lord Jesus. He is the head, and we are to manifest as he stimulates us those gifts that he makes possible in our lives.

And the nature of those gifts, we'll speak about more next week. Amen. In a charismatic sense, respond to all that the head of the church orders.

And as we ask for his glory and for the mutual encouragement of each member of his body. Amen.