Sermon Notes
Introduction
Let me invite you now to turn your attention to 1 Corinthians 12:27. We are on our topical series on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:27 ESV
27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
This then is God’s dictate for his church, as we considered it in detail last week, that the Church ought to be a body of many members. These members are not meant to look identical, they each have their varied gifts and workings, but rather they are meant to be identified as one in Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:4–6 ESV
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.
Paul used the metaphor of the body with hands and legs and other physical members, with each member then belonging to one another and to the whole body that is Christ.
The word for ‘you’ here, is in the plural and so what Paul is trying to say is that we are all collectively the body of Christ, but individually members of it.
Now, you must forgive me for I am an expositor at heart and I am always tempted to exhaust as much as I can from a given text. And here, as I was preparing this sermon, was reminded of another deep and precious truth that is vivid in Paul’s metaphor of the body.
As members of the body of Christ, if one of us is absent from his God-given duties, the whole body suffers. This is why Paul says in:
1 Corinthians 12:26 ESV
26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together.
Notice here that Paul is not saying that we must suffer along with those who suffer, or that we must be humble enough to rejoice when others are honoured. Rather, Paul is explaining the state of affairs. If you break your leg, then does not your whole body suffer because of it. Do you need to convince your hands to weep for your leg? And if your hands were healed of some disease, does not your whole body rejoice? How often would you say, “I am healed” synonymously with the phrase, “My hands are healed”?
When we are covenanted as the local church, it is not the more talented or the more gifted or the more prominent personalities that are meant to do all the service. There are duties that God has appointed for each of you, and if you refrain from pouring out your life for the edification of the church, the church will suffer the lack of your help. A healthy church is a church where the members have a clear understanding of their call to serve one another.
Now, given the nature of Christ’s body, Paul then shows us how God established his church.
Exegesis
1 Corinthians 12:28 ESV
28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.
“Appointed”
It will do us well to remember that it is God who appointed the various gifts, services and workings in the church. When in the OT we see how God meticulously arranged every aspect of the Israelite worship, in the NT then, we mustn’t assume, as many Christians do, that God is no longer particular about how he is to be worshipped. Paul did not expect the Corinthians to be disorderly or ignorant in their order of worship.
Rather, what has changed is the finer attention to detail. When God gave instruction regarding the temple and the tabernacle, the regulations and commands, God seemed far more explicit about the specific details than he appears to be in the NT regarding the workings of the church. The Bible does not tell us the measure of the height and breadth of the pulpit, or if it should carry the symbol of the seraphim. Why is that?
Because of the cross and the gracious rule of Christ. God reveals to us in the journey from the OT to the NT that man cannot attain God’s standard by the works they do, but only by grace. In these details then including the Levitical laws we see the perfection of God’s standard, and man’s constant inability to meet those standards. These regulations and symbols of the OT were the foreshadows or teasers for that which was to come. And in the NT, that which was to come – has come. The mystery is now revealed, and the truth is now clear.
However, here is what we tend to forget. The NT is most assuredly the greater testament, not because it replaces the OT but because it is the fulfilment of the old. It is the complete story of the revelation of Christ. The standards of this New Testament then are not lesser than the OT, if anything, they are greater. We see this in Matthew 5 when Jesus talks about lustful thought as the sin of adultery in the heart, and hatred as the sin of murder committed in the heart.
With the greater revelation of God, we received a greater revelation of sin and the cost of lawlessness. But we also received a greater revelation of grace. And this grace now manifest is in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
1 John 2:1 ESV
1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
Romans 11:16–17 NASB95
16 If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too. 17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree,
Therefore, let us not approach the understanding of God’s purposes for the church as though grace permits us to do what we want. In the April edition of our newsletter, I write about the importance of applying biblical categories in our thinking. The Bible is not a moral book of all the do’s and don’ts. Although it does tell us a lot of do’s a don’ts, it gives us biblical categories of thought that we may apply when discerning and critiquing all aspects of life, whether politics, finances, vocations, cultures and so on.
So, an oversimplification does no one any good. It is the same God of the OT that has “appointed” the church and her constituents.
1 Corinthians 12:18 ESV
18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
“First, second, and then”
Now, here Paul gives us an order or a ranking as to how God has appointed the various gifts in the church. But it is very important at this stage that we understand what this ranking signifies.
So, we have God appointing in the church, and there is a ranking to those appointments. In fact, at the end of this section, Paul tells us in:
1 Corinthians 12:31 NASB95
31 But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way.
What are these greater gifts?
1 Corinthians 14:5 ESV
5 Now I want you all to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.
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- Here we find a reason for one gift being greater than the other. It is not in the tenacity of the gift, especially its appearance of being more supernatural than the other. It is not in the outward display of power.
- It is in its usefulness in building up the church.1 Corinthians 14:12 ESV
12 So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church.
1 Corinthians 14:16–17 ESV
16 Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say “Amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? 17 For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up.
1 Corinthians 14:26 ESV
26 What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.
So, when Paul asks us to earnestly desire the greater gifts, he wants us to have in view the good of the church.
Therefore, if that is the ranking that Paul has in mind here, God has appointed to the church first, the Apostles.
Now, this presents us with two problems – who is Paul referring to by ‘apostles’ and how is this a spiritual gift?
- Paul here is not using the word Apostles in the general sense, where the word means the ones who are sent out. For there were many who were sent out. But Paul here is talking about the 13 apostles:
Acts 2:42 ESV
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.One reason is that the role of the 13 apostles is a unique call at a specific point in history. Let me make this clear – there are no more apostles. - Going into our second problem, what is the gift of apostleship? Or is there such a gift? Jack Deere explains that we can easily conceive of someone exercising the gift of prophecy without being a prophet. The same is true for all the other gifts. We know that God can impart a gift for a specific time. A prophecy I give once or twice in my life does not then make me a prophet. However, how does one exercise the gift of apostleship? We are unable to separate the apostolic ministry from the historical apostles.
They were first-century Jews who were first-hand eyewitnesses to the ministry of Christ.
1 John 1:1–2 ESV
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—
2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—
The apostles laid the pillars upon the foundation that is Christ, and we who are Christians are committed to their teaching.
Do you see what this means? That God has appointed to the church first, the gift, not of apostleship, but of the historical apostles themselves. They are the first gifts to the church, the primary appointments.
Again, do you see what this means? That first and foremost in the church is not the gifts we possess but the word of truth declared by these Apostles, the sound foundation of all their teaching.
No prophet, no teacher, no administrator, no help, nothing in the life of the church can overrule that which is primary to the church, the teaching of the Apostles recorded in the books of the New Testament.
God sets even in the NT, above all, his word as the centrepiece of our faith.
1 Corinthians 12:28 ESV
28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.
Second, prophets.
Third, teachers.
Then, miracles.
Then, gifts of healing, helping, administration, and various kinds of tongues.
Paul gives us a similar list in:
Ephesians 4:11–12 NASB95
11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;
A simple read of this and we can see how the greatest of the gifts are instructions of godliness and conduct. All of them centre on the exposition of the word of God. These equip the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:29–31 ESV
29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
The uniqueness of the ‘apostles’ here is then the grounding clause to the rest of these questions. If not all are apostles, then it must follow that not all are prophets or teachers and so on.
