Spiritual Gifts (part 3)

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University: Spiritual Gifts (part 3) Elder John Lasken February 5, 2017

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Spiritual Gifts (part 4)

Spiritual Gifts (part 4)

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running? Do you hit the start button? Yeah, I think it's running.
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All right, so welcome back. This is week three. As we're continuing, the intent is to finish our study today on the spiritual gifts, which by the way, is not to say that we have done a fully exhaustive study of the
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Holy Spirit's gifts. We've looked at them. Our attempt has been to look at it from a scriptural standpoint.
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There are a lot of books out there. There are a lot of parables out there. You actually can go online.
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There are some sites online. I was reading one this week. I should have gotten the
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URL for it, but it was outstanding. The site was like 50 pages long.
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It was like this individual had written a master's dissertation on spiritual gifts.
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It was readable, but it was very thorough. So I don't intend to express that what we're doing now is going to fully educate you or fully equip you with an understanding.
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Ralph, I want you to get 1 Corinthians 12 .1. This has been kind of our mantra as to how and why we're gathering together.
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Okay. Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. That's what we are now.
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I don't mean to say that coming into today we were ignorant. I honestly don't mean that. I'm sure that within your walk you've had exposure to or participation with or perhaps used some of the surveys to understand what your spiritual gift is.
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But the church leadership felt it was good for our church to spend time understanding the spiritual gifts, and it's probably driven by the two main objectives, the two main reasons why we were given spiritual gifts.
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This is your quiz. What are the two reasons why we were given spiritual gifts?
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To glorify God and build up the church. Glorify God and build up the church. We can never get enough training or insight.
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We can never spend enough time in scriptures to expose ourselves to what it means to glorify
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God, because the truth is there are forces out there that will do everything possible to to negatively impact our ability to glorify
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God. Spiritual gifts are one of those areas, one of those areas where I believe that the evil one is doing everything he possibly can to take even something as amazing as spiritual gifts and turn it into something that glorifies man.
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How would spiritual gifts be used to glorify man?
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I'm special. I know you are. Especially like just on the other week.
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Oh, I'm sorry. That was your answer. Yeah. Look how God has blessed me. I'm awesome.
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I've got all these talents and gifts. I can use them to make some money. And you know what?
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He does it the other way too. How come I don't have that? So he can,
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Satan can use it as jealousy, absolutely as jealousy, discouragement, anything, anything
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Satan can possibly do to derail, derail the two main uses of spiritual gifts.
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And one is to glorify God. The other is to build up the body. We're going to finish last week's lesson.
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Last week's lesson, if you don't have it, I have extra copies up here. I guess the good news for you, the bad news is for me is the copies
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I have here have all the answers written on it. But I know that you guys probably need it.
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There's two, two different pages. If anybody else needs it, they'll, I think you were here last week, were you last week? Okay.
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We spent time last week looking scripturally at four main chapters, five main passages.
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We had Ephesians, 1 Corinthians, two different sections in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and 1
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Peter 4. We went on an efficient expedition. We found all the lists. And on the second page of that is a, is a nice one page graph that has everything that we found.
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This will give you the chapters. It'll give you the gifts. They're kind of grouped into sections where they show up.
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I think this can become a useful piece of paper for us as we go into today.
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Because today we're going to be talking about, what about me? Today we'll be talking about what about me? And if you want to understand what your spiritual gift, it's not a bad idea to understand what the spiritual gifts are.
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But that's, that's out there. What we also did was we talked about a few of them, and we're down to, down to the last two.
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One of them is miracles and healing, and the other is apostles. We're going to understand these a little bit more in depth.
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We, we did prophecy interpretation last week. So, Bob, would you open us with a prayer this morning?
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Sure, yeah. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for bringing us together this morning and for this opportunity to look into your word,
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Lord. And we pray as John leads us through this discussion, Lord, that you give us open minds to hear what you have to say to us today.
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And we just pray that we'll take what we're learning and we'll apply it in our lives. In your name we pray.
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Amen. Miracles and healing. This, this one probably has more air time, whether it's true or whether it's a counterfeit.
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But it probably has more air time, maybe even than tongues, because this, this is one of those gifts that if you're amongst non -believers, they couldn't point a finger at those
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Christians who are looking for money. But the question is, from a biblical standpoint, what are, or what were, the gifts of healing?
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Or miracles, the gifts of miracles or the gifts of healing, what were they? And maybe another way to ask it is, why were they given in the first place?
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Why were they given to the early church? They were given to attest the message as delivered by the messenger.
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So throughout the book of Acts, as someone did miracles and signs, it was at a station that the words that they were saying were true and were from God.
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Yeah, that's, yeah, that's excellent. It's interesting that the actual ability actually precedes the book of Acts.
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So Eric, you've, you've got Mark 6. There's two different sets of verses. Acts 3, we'll get into Acts, Kerry.
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3, Acts 5, Ralph, Rick, as opposed to Rich. Rick, Acts 8 and Acts 14, probably.
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Go ahead if you've got that. And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits.
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So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them.
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There's another passage, 12 to 13. Let's try that. Oh, you're right. Okay, so this is obviously before Pentecost.
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So this is before the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in Pentecost.
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But Jesus enabled, um, the apostles to go out two by two.
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How did they do that? By what power did they do that?
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The power of God. Yeah. The Holy Spirit. By the Holy Spirit. And there, um, sorry,
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Rick. Oh, sure. There are, there are times prior to Pentecost where people are temporarily, temporarily empowered by the
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Holy Spirit to do things. Um, and this would be one of them. This would be one of them where, uh, the apostles go.
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They do have indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and they do perform miracles. They do cast out demons, and they do heal people.
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How about this? We start to move now into Acts. But Peter said, I have no silver and gold, but what
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I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and raised him up.
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And immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up, he stood and began to walk and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising
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God. This has an interesting twist to it. And that, again, we're talking about now a gift of healing.
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A lame man, uh, begging. And Peter and John say what? Okay, what do they say?
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Rise up and walk. Before that, what did they say? In the name of Jesus. Before that.
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At the beginning of it. Silver and gold. It's not silver and gold that I'm going to be giving you. So the emphasis is not on wealth, monetary things.
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It's not on that approach. The approach is going to be focused purely on the miraculous, the
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God. And so as we're going to be using, uh, spiritual gifts in our realm today, it is, it's not monetary, it's not power, it's not authority, it's not earthly gain type of things.
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It's in the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk. And that's what we have. Ralph, how about yours? And by the hands of the
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Gospels were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon's torch.
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And of the rest, there's no man joined himself to them. But the people magnified them.
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And believers were the more added to the Lord multitudes, both men and women. In so much as they brought forth the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that the least of the shadow of Peter passing by might shadow some of them.
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So that's exactly clearly where you were. The gifts are given in order to provide signs and wonders, to validate the message.
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And as a result of the message, the people came in large numbers and the message was validated.
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So that sign, that validation was given. Rick, how about yours? Acts 8, 5 to 8,
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Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the name of Christ. And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip when they heard him and saw the signs that he did.
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For unclean spirits crying out with a loud voice came out of many who had them. And many who were paralyzed or lame were healed.
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So there was much joy in that city. Yeah, and again, we're seeing this validation.
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And this time we're having now the people pay attention. Having the people pay attention.
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The emphasis now is that the word that they have to proclaim is validated to people.
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They got their attention and they're listening. It doesn't say that these gifts saved everybody.
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But it does say that these gifts validated the message that it drew crowds, it brought people, and people paid attention.
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It does say that. Now there will be words in there about the people that they saved, that people came or joined as a number.
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But I don't think scripture teaches us that it was the healing that saved. It's the Holy Spirit.
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But this would be an encouragement for people to listen. Are they just for time?
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We're going to pass on yours. It's another of the same. My question is, are healings and miracles valid today?
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If so, why? If so, why not? I'm not sure.
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Okay. I think it's important to differentiate between an occasion of a miracle and the gift of miracles.
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Because God can do a miracle anytime, anywhere. But I think there's a difference between that and the gift that was given during the
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Apostolic Age for the purpose of attesting this first generation of witnesses who were testifying to what they had witnessed in Jesus' death and resurrection.
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Yeah, let's just dwell on that a minute. I'm glad you bring that up. It's undeniable that God performs miracles today.
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We see it in the medical realm. We see it in various ways. It's undeniable. He still is the
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God of all creation. He still does perform miracles. So Kimberly, I'm reading into it.
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You would be of the belief that miracles still happen. But for the
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Holy Spirit's gift of miracles, you're not so sure that that exists? Yeah, I don't think he's given anyone a particular gift.
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But like, I watch the 700 Club all the time. And, you know, Pat and Terry pray for these people and they call in saying they've been healed.
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So I believe the gift was given, you know, to that person. They were healed to confirm the truth of God's Word.
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Okay. I think starting with Scripture is important to say, is there evidence in the text to suggest that the gifts will cease or the gifts will continue?
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So we've already considered what's the purpose of this particular gift or any of the other signed gifts. So what's the purpose?
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Is there any indication that God gave in Scripture whether it will continue to cease? Okay, so let's just go down that path, because that's where I really wanted to go, is back to Scripture.
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Our paradigm, if you would, is here.
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You know, we're in affluent suburbia, southern New Jersey, and we're aware of many things.
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But there are parts of the world where the word has yet not taken root.
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And to, I'm 100 % down on your path. There's really nothing scripturally that tells us that miracles still exist today.
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But there's really nothing that tells us that it doesn't, except that Acts seems to express that the gift of healings and miracles were signed gifts to validate the message and the speaker of the message.
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So I guess, yeah, right. I think it depends how you define a miracle, too. I mean, every time somebody comes to Christ, they consider that a miracle.
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That's very true. And that is as important as anything. Yeah. The greater miracle.
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It's a greater miracle. And I believe, Rick, that's true. I believe we would find that under the gift of evangelism.
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So that particular application of God's miraculous healing of the soul.
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I just would be cautious, because I can't scripturally tell you that it's stopped. But I can't scripturally tell you that it still exists.
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To be at least considering in your thoughts that there are still parts of the world where the word being validated is a good thing.
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It may still exist. It may still exist. And I, Carol, you may have more insight to this through your interface with our missionaries.
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I imagine they seek kinds of things to help us. Help influence people to say, yeah, this message is true.
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I'm wondering, too, whether it's a lack of our faith in believing that it can be done.
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That is that maybe we don't see more of it in our path of society, because we rely so much on we probably chalk up most of the miracles that we see to the medical realm.
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We have medicine and technology and things like that. Where we may not see God's specific hand in that particular healing, although he's the one who makes that stuff work in the body with some and not others.
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But when the apostles went out, they went out with this as authority. And they believed that what they were going to do and say was going to happen.
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And maybe we don't. Maybe we don't. We don't. We pray out of formality.
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I just remember one, I remember hearing a story once about people like praying for someone who had cancer.
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Like, oh, we pray that you feel better and you don't have pain and everything. And the guy was just like, I want you to pray that I get healed.
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Like, pray for healing. I want to be healed. Like, that's ultimately what I want.
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I mean, if that's God's will, I want to live. I want God to heal the cancer, not that I would be, all those other things are great.
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But I appreciate that maybe we're not praying the right way or having faith in God.
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I think God might actually do a miracle through me and my witness to this person. And maybe that's because of our relationship with God isn't what it should be.
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So I wanted to bring one more. Go ahead. Just a quick question. Are we talking about the gift of healing as an ongoing given spiritual gift that someone carries?
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That's what we're talking about. Not the occasional. That's what we're talking about. Because clearly
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God performs miracles through people. But the question is, do people have the gift of healing?
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I do want to bring one other. And this, Arlene, I'm glad you say that because this kind of, is it an occasion or is it a gift?
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The scripture does tell us, and I don't believe it was only for the first century church, the anointing of oils.
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Calling for the elders, the anointing of oil. Has anybody here been involved in anointing of oil for a healing?
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Yeah, I used to go to a charismatic church. They spoke in tongues and everything. Anointed your head with oil if you were sick and prayed over you.
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And it was a matter of faith. You know, they always ask, do you have the faith that God will heal you?
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You know, they emphasize faith as a key. And I apologize, I don't remember your name. John. John, I should remember that.
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Do you have any insight? I got hurt really bad in 99.
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I blew my back out. Mad. And went through major surgeries.
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They put me on the strongest medication there was. I was on for eight years. And threw a lot of time praying.
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And it was just a lot. It was a real lot. I mean, I was in a body cast from my neck to my knee for a few months a day. And we just kept praying.
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And my pastor was praying oil on me. And finally
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I said to my wife, I said, I can't take this medicine anymore. I'm going to stop. And I just went down my basement.
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It took six and a half months to come off the medicine. I feel normal. Just stop taking it altogether. But during that time,
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God spoke to me. Just like we're talking right now. I heard him in the corner of my basement speaking to me. Like, play this deck.
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And it was a miracle. Because by 2008, I was off the medicine. And I've never had a problem with my back since.
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He healed me. Praise God. He healed me 100%. All through prayer and just believing in God.
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I was on the floor dying. Calling out to the Lord. I look at the clock. It'd be 12 o 'clock, 12 to 1,
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I think. Another day has passed. Another day has passed. Can you tell how it takes a week to come off it? Six and a half months later,
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I was still dying from it. But the Lord healed me. He healed me. Thanks for sharing that.
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He spoke to me, right? That's just amazing. Gift of miracles. Gift of healing.
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I am not going to sit here and tell you that it exists today. But I'm also not going to sit here and tell you that it doesn't.
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Because there are scenarios where... For instance, a missionary in a realm.
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You take the Akha Indians with maids, saints, and the rest of them, who had never heard the word.
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Would the gift of healings been appropriate in that setting? Perhaps it would have. Like it would have been in the first century church.
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But I can't prove that scripturally. I think there is clear evidence that miracles happen today.
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I would say this. If you're in an area where an individual proclaims to have the gift of healing, test the spirits.
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We've talked about that and how it relates to tongues. Test the spirits. In the gift of miracles, be very cautious of an individual who claims to have it.
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Test the spirits. That would be my one. And that's about as far as I'm willing to go scripturally.
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Okay, let's take the next. Yeah, Carol. I would just say that healing and miracles happen in isolated incidences, like what you're talking about.
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But the gift of healings and miracles, that's an ongoing... We see it in scripture.
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Every time Peter or Philip laid their hands and told someone they were healed, they were healed. So if somebody claims to have the gift of healings or miracles, then it would have to continue on.
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Everybody they laid hands on would be healed. And I don't see that at all. Okay. I appreciate that from your insight with the mission, so thank you.
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Apostles. Give it some to the apostles and some to me teachers. So Matthew 10,
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Arlene, you're going to get that one for us. And Acts 1, Kimberly Acts 14,
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Ephesians 2. Nate, what is the definition of an apostle?
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And what was the role of an apostle? And by the way, you know what
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I say, what is parentheses was, because I don't want to beg the answer because it exists yet or not.
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What is or was an apostle? One sent out. Well, that's the pure definition. Proclaiming the word.
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Okay. Give me
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Arlene, give me yours. And he called to him his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every disease and every affliction.
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The names of the 12 apostles are these. First, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother,
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James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew, the tax collector,
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James, the son of Daphnius, and Thaddeus, Simon, the zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
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It's interesting that he takes time to name them. And it's also interesting, in that passage, it starts out with, he calls all of his disciples.
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I didn't write the Greek name down there, but it's the word for disciple, follower. And he eventually named his 12 apostles, apostolos.
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So out of this group of followers, he picked 12 who were his followers. And he renamed them apostles.
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And we know them by name, so they are very significant. Carol, how about yours? Go ahead,
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Rick. No, I was just going to say, they had difficulty casting out spirits and demons themselves because they didn't have the faith of a mustard seed.
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You're right. Yeah, Jesus actually, yeah, he tells them about this. How come we couldn't do these?
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Yeah. Go ahead, Carol. Oh, sorry, I was just going to say that was also before Pentecost.
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Yeah, the Holy Spirit didn't come down on them yet. It is therefore necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time, that the
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Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning with the baptism of John, until the day that he was taken up from us.
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One of these should become a witness with us of his resurrection. And they put forward two men,
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Joseph, Pope, or Paris Abbas, and Matthias.
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And they prayed and said, Thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show which one of these two thou hast chosen to occupy this ministry and apostleship, from which
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Judas turned aside to go to his own place. And they drew lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias.
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And he was numbered with the 11 apostles. It's really interesting that they chose...
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What were the criteria for being chosen in the Passage of Acts? Having been with Jesus.
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Having been with Jesus. The whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John's baptism to the time when
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Jesus was taken up from us. And there's one more criteria in there, oh, by the way. You have to almost find it.
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Resurrection. Yes, called. Called. Called. They did not presume to know.
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They allowed God to call. Isn't that the last time they selected somebody by drawing lots?
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Because after that the Holy Spirit, the Pentecost came, and the Holy Spirit led their decisions?
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That's good insight, Bob. I'm not aware of anywhere after that in Scripture where lots are used.
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I'm not aware of it. It's good insight. But that being said, that's not the last time the word apostle shows up in the
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Book of Acts. Kimberly. That's 14, 14 and 15.
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Yeah. But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting,
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Men, why are you doing this? Like you, we are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living
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God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. Who are called apostles in that passage?
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Barnabas. And Paul. Okay, so Scripture uses it.
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This is not a maybe. Scripture actually is using the word apostolos for Barnabas and for Paul.
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Now we know the story of Paul, very famous. The road to Emmaus, declares himself to be called.
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He had been a witness. He had been taught by God. But some of the criteria for Paul don't seem to entirely line up with having been with Jesus from John the
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Baptist on through. But still, Scripture calls both Paul and Barnabas as apostles.
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There are two more people called apostles. In Romans 16. Go ahead. Verse 7.
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Gree, Andronicus, and Junius, my relatives who have been with me in prison, they are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.
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Yeah, that, you read, you definitely read that and say that they, among the apostles, as to say that I'm here among all of the women in the room.
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I'm not a woman. Or I'm here in the room with everybody in the room. I'm part of everybody. You can read that one way or the other, but yeah, it's there.
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It definitely is there. Clearly, the expansion of the term apostle goes beyond the original 12 plus Matthias, plus Paul.
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It does go beyond that. But we read this last week, and it's important to understand.
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We read this when we were talking about prophecy. Give me Ephesians 2, please. Ephesians 2, 19 and 20.
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Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people, and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.
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The concept of apostles appears to be foundational, as opposed to continual application.
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From that passage. Apostles. Does it remain today?
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It wouldn't seem so. It wouldn't seem so. The foundation's been laid.
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They don't keep laying the foundation. They build on the foundation. But how do you explain 1
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Corinthians 12, 1T, 8? Nate, if you would get that, just get 1
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Corinthians 12, 28 for me. How do you explain 1
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Corinthians 12, 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 talents.
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Now, to say that apostles are foundational and don't exist, you have to take that verse and you have to draw a line between the first two, prophets and apostles, and the rest of them.
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The Greek doesn't necessarily provide for that. No, you have to read into it. You have to read it.
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Now, I'm not saying I disagree with you, Richard, but I'm just saying we need to be careful on that. I think looking at the historical context of 1
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Corinthians might give insight into that. Go ahead. Since this was written roughly the same generation as apostles,
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I mean, the apostle Paul wrote it, so it would be accurate to say that the gift of apostles was something that they were familiar with because they had a gifted apostle writing to them.
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So in this context, what
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Paul was writing to this particular local church was true of them, so then the question becomes, is that something that we can expect to continue, or there have to be other factors.
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And when you do this exegete, I'm going to ask a question in return. How much of the book of 1
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Corinthians is applicable beyond the first century? That becomes a difficult question.
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I was going to say, I mean, what then becomes a difference between an apostle and a disciple?
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Well, I've always felt, or since I started looking at the difference, we're all disciples,
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I think, of Christ, but we weren't sent out by him. Those are the apostles that were selected and sent by him specifically to do that kind of work.
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Well, then that would be the question of then it would cease, right?
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Right. So there are two approaches to this one, clearly, with all of these. And again, what
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I'm doing right now is telling you the things that I've been able to read, study. I can't give you the verse in scripture.
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Prophecy, foretelling, forth telling. Prophets, forth telling still exists today.
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Apostle in the first century office, as opposed to somebody who is sent today.
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Small a, as opposed to capital A. That's a dialogue.
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The difference between an apostle and a disciple, a disciple is a follower and an apostle is a sent one. Okay, with a specific calling, sent.
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Today we have pastors, today we have evangelists, today we have teachers. We have all of that kind of stuff.
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There are still the TV evangelists that call themselves apostles. You can still find people who call themselves apostles.
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There are, and there becomes the danger. Because when you hear somebody today proclaiming themselves to be an apostle, test the spirit again.
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What's the motive behind them calling themselves an apostle? I think Jeff even mentioned in the sermon last week that there's this group of guys in California that he said it's the new apostolic movement or something like that.
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Re -emergence of the five -fold office ministry. Test the spirits on this type of a thing.
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I'm not going to, again, on this one I'm not going to be able to give you that specific passage and I'm with you on the concept that Corinthians is written to the first century church, but then the entire book of first Corinthians is written to the first century church.
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So, first Corinthians 13 applies today as much as it did as much as it did.
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We often use the terminology for missionaries. They are called to the mission field.
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They are sent by the local church. You're the modern day apostles. So, again, terminology is important.
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I just feel like that word sent is hard because in Matthew 28 it says go and make disciples, baptizing them.
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So, we are called, just like anybody else, as disciples to go and make disciples.
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So, this is where... But she's saying...
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It's semantics. It's almost like semantics. We're arguing over the terminology.
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So, last week we got into a discussion, and this is a very good application to it again, the gift of giving.
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We are in significant time trouble. I'm going to take a little parenthesis.
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I promise I'll come back to you. Are you folks okay if we do another week of this?
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Because there is absolutely no week we're going to finish this discussion and all of last lesson. You folks okay continuing this next week?
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Okay. It's worth a discussion. A democratic decision. Because we're hearing from different people here how the
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Lord has impacted their lives. We may not have heard that if we didn't take the time to have this discussion.
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So, I think it's really, really beneficial. Thank you. The gift of giving.
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It's a gift. The gift of faith. Those are spiritual gifts.
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They don't take those of us who don't have that specific gift off the hook.
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Those who have the gift of giving, there's a spiritual empowerment to them on a certain level of gifting.
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But all believers are biblically mandated to give back a portion of what they receive.
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All believers have faith. Like they say, through faith. But yet there is a gift of faith which goes above and beyond.
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We are all sent by the Great Commission. But there is a, at least in the first century, is it now?
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We'll talk about that. We'll debate that. But there is a stronger scent than there is Great Commission's scent.
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You have that look on your face, Carrie, that I've learned to recognize. I'm just, part of me is like, don't have a kid because it's not clear.
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The only question
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I'd have today afternoon would be Barbas. We have no scriptural evidence that Jesus specifically called
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Barnabas and yet in Acts Barnabas is specifically identified as an apostle.
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That's the only question I would have today. It becomes difficult. I'm trying to,
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I'm kind of looking in Revelation now to see, like, is there, like it talks about in the
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New Jerusalem, there'll be 12, and the wall of the city had 12 foundations and on them were the name, 12 names of the 12 apostles of the
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Lamb. You know, and then in Revelation 2 it talks, when he's talking to the church at Ephesus about,
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I know your works, your toil and your patience and endurance and how you cannot bear with those who are evil but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and found that to be false.
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So there are people that have called themselves that, like they do today, but I'm trying, I was just thinking ahead, like, right, well, in Revelation we see a picture of what the
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New Jerusalem is going to be like and it seems like they only list the 12. So, is
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Barnabas, yeah, to me that would give an indication, and Paul doesn't get that.
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That to me would say that there are the 12 and if we believe that Acts redefines the 12 so that Judas is no longer in the 12,
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I can't believe Judas would be included in that list in Revelation, so Matthias would be, but then the continued use of the term in Acts, maybe not a capital
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A Apostle, maybe a small A Apostle, but something is going on there, but something is going on there beyond the original 12, plus Matthias.
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See, another thing, too, is Jesus had disciples, many disciples following him, but he called those 12 specifically and to a special office to become
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Apostles. So he selected them, he chose them, so I think that helps us define what an
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Apostle was. Because there were others that were disciples that followed him, but they were called to that special office.
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Okay, for those of you who are hoping to come in here today and hear a definitive answer to this question,
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I hate to disappoint you, I'm only going to go as far as I can find in Scripture. That's all as far as I'm going to go.
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There are a lot of teachings out there that will give you dogmatic opinions, and I encourage you to read them,
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I really do, but as far as the gift of prophecy, clearly it still exists if only to the realm of foretelling.
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We saw in Joel, foretelling still may apply at the end of times.
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As far as the gift of tongues, there's no reason to expect that it does not exist today. It needs to be done in order, it needs to be done in a way that is honoring to God.
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Not everybody has the gift of tongues, I suppose I'll say. Miracles, definitely miracles are performed today.
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The gift of miracles, test the spirits, if somebody claims to have the gift of miracles, test the spirits the same way.
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If somebody claims to be an apostle, really test the spirits. Find out, seek the spirit, be in prayer, is the motive to glorify
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God, because if a person who claims to have the gift of being an apostle is doing it in anything other than to glorify
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God, build up the body, test the spirits, you'd be very, very, very cautious.
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A couple of last questions, we are going to stop in a second, backside of that page. Many of the writings talk about a position gift, a service gift, or a sign gift.
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Now you can go to the list of gifts that I've given you, what's the difference between a position gift, a service gift, and a sign gift?
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Let me try this out for signs. The gift of giving, that would be service, that's pretty easy.
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The gift of teaching, teacher might be, actually if you look at the list, there's teacher, but there's also the gift of teaching.
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So that's a tweener. The gift of pastor, that sounds like a position, but the gift of ministry, service, so they're both in there.
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So to say that the gifts are only actions, whether it's a sign or a service, scriptures actually use a certain positional description, they're in there in scripture.
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There's nothing wrong with understanding that you have the gift of being an evangelist.
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Now we're all taught to be evangelists, to have the gift, and then there's the gift of evangelism.
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What gifts are applicable in the modern age today, we've almost talked about that in depth.
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Next week we're going to go back, look at the lists a little bit, we're going to look scripturally at how can you ascertain, scripturally, how can you ascertain how
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God wants to use I'll ask this question, and then we'll close on this one.
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We have lists of gifts, five different passages, four different passages with gifts, is a yes no question.
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Are all the gifts included in the biblical list, or are they just representative and there may be others?
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What's your thoughts? By the way, I can't prove this one scripturally, it's an interesting question.
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I think they would be in the Bible, because to go beyond the Bible, we shouldn't do that.
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I was going to say yes based on the sufficiency of scripture. Based on the sufficiency of scripture. And we have to talk about the difference between a gift and a talent.
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Thank you, we did that in the first week, so you have gifts, you have fruit, and you have talent slash ability.
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Fruit, that's easy, I'm not going to ask you to sing it again, but there's nine of them, congratulations.
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But then you can almost make a column A and a column B, talent, ability, versus spiritual gift. Non -believers have talents and abilities.
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There are gifted, talented teachers who aren't believers, they don't have a gift of spirit, but they have a gift of teaching, they clearly are.
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There are those who are gifted leaders, they have this ability to lead, but they're not believers.
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So yeah, Phil, that's a good question. John, you mentioned that, I think the interesting thing about that is
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God has gifted them in those ways, and I always say, like Carrie's dad, when he becomes saved, he's evangelist.
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That guy knows everybody, he loves people, he will convert the world if God blesses him that way, because that's what he loves to do, he loves to talk to people, he loves to share, he shares his stocks, he has everything that's important to him, if Jesus became that to him, he would be an evangelist.
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So this is a tease for next week, we're going to stop right now. This, by the way, this discussion, is a major part about how you know what your gifts are.
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How has God talented you? It'll be a major part of how you know what your gifts are. So, we do need to stop, we do need to stop from prayer.
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Kimberly, would you close us today? Heavenly Father, thank you for the gifts that you have given us, thank you for your word that gives us insight into what you've done and who you are.
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Thank you for this opportunity to study in depth and to discuss with one another and to share what you have done in our lives.
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Help us to understand your word and be transformed by it, that we may love you more and glorify you more, and thank you again for this time in Jesus' name, amen.