The Gifts of the Spirit — Zac Poonen

The Sermon on the Mount as the New Covenant Standard

So, we come to study number nine in the New Covenant and we've been looking at how the New Covenant is introduced in the opening chapters of Matthew in many, many ways. We saw that Jesus placed the emphasis on the inner life.

Matthew 5, 6 and 7 is, we can say, the New Covenant equivalent of the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament. The Israelites were proud of the Ten Commandments. They held it up as the law, but I don't find Christians so excited about the Sermon on the Mount.

That's one indication of how the devil has blinded Christians to think that this was a burden that God was placing on people. We can say that Matthew 5, 6 and 7 is the description of a healthy life. You know, if a doctor gave a description of a healthy person whose eyes and hands and legs and ears, everything is healthy, that's the Sermon on the Mount.

And you've got to be foolish to think that health is a burden. Sickness is a burden. Sin is a burden. Holiness is never a burden. And if the devil, the devil has succeeded in making a lot of Christians think that holiness is a burden.

That's why they're afraid of it. They'd rather go to a church where sin is tolerated. It's like getting admitted in a hospital which keeps you sick. Can you imagine anything more crazy than that? And avoiding a hospital that guarantees perfect health.

This is the situation of Christendom. We can say that's madness, but that's the madness the devil has put upon a lot of Christians. So, we looked at Matthew 5, 6 and 7 as the inner life. Everything which was external in the Old Testament is inward.

They had an external temple there. Here the temple is inside. The sacrifices are external. Now it's inside. It was external sin that was important in the Old Testament series. Now it's inward, hidden sin that's serious.

Ministry Must Flow from a Transformed Life

So, once we understand that, and also that our ministry must come out of our life. See, in the Old Testament, Samuel could start prophesying when, I don't know does a 10-year-old know, but the Spirit of God was upon him.

It says that Jeremiah was a very young man when he started prophesying. But in the New Testament, when the Son of God came, he couldn't start prophesying when he was 10. He knew the Bible when he was 12, but he wasn't ready to prophesy.

He had to spend 30 years. What for? If Samuel could prophesy when he was 10, and Jeremiah could prophesy when he was 20, why did Jesus have to wait until he was 30? Because he was introducing the New Covenant.

And in the New Covenant, everything we speak must come out of our life. How many hours did Jesus take to prepare the Sermon on the Mount? 30 years. Every sermon Jesus preached, he took 30 years to prepare.

That is New Covenant ministry. It's not something you sit down and study books and listen to tapes and prepare a message. This is how 99 .9 of preachers preach today. But in Jesus' case, everything he spoke came out of his life.

And that is New Covenant ministry. You know, rivers of living water. You don't pump a river. It just flows. That's how Jesus' ministry was. And when you really enter into New Covenant ministry, if you have a life to back it up, it flows.

When a person doesn't have a life to back it up, then he's got to sit down and say something that will amuse people or interest people or something that will tickle their ears so that he can collect money from them.

Most of what I hear today in Christendom is Old Covenant ministry, preaching Old Covenant truths. And they get their verses from the Old Testament because the vast majority of today's preachers, I'd say more than 95 of them, don't have a clue.

They don't have a clue about what New Covenant is. If they did, they'd be preaching holiness. They'd be preaching freedom from anger and lust and freedom from the love of money and freedom from seeking the honor of men and the many, many other things that Jesus spoke in the Sermon on the Mount.

But you hardly ever hear a message on that. I think even if you hear 5 of preachers preach that, you'd be lucky. I think it's about 1%. So I'm just trying to stress how the devil has succeeded so much.

Imagine if the devil succeeds in blinding 99 of God's army and only 1 have got their eyes open. Imagine what a burden it is for that 1 to carry on a battle because the other 99 don't have a clue what they're supposed to fight.

Jesus' Ministry and the Meaning of Following Him

So now we come to chapter 8. In chapter 8, 9, and 10 and so on, we see ministry. Now Jesus is exercising a ministry. And for that, he was anointed and had the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit. And that is how God endorsed Jesus' ministry.

Now when Jesus told us to follow him, he didn't tell us to follow him in his ministry. It's important to know that. When he said, follow me, he said, take up the cross and follow me. He wasn't talking about doing all the things that he did in his ministry, but doing all the things that he did in his life.

When he said in John 14, 12, the works that I do shall you do also. He's talking about his life and not his ministry. He said in John 14, 12, that every single person who believes in him, every person who believes in him, can do the works that he did.

What does that mean? Does that mean every believer is going to walk on water? Have you seen one person walk on water? Does it mean that every believer is going to feed the 5 ,000 with five loaves of fish?

Have you seen even one believer do it? We shouldn't be unrealistic and get a skip over these verses and without understanding what they mean. It means that we will do the works that Jesus did in his life.

Works of obedience, works of denying his own will, works of doing the will of the Father 100%. Then we say, why can't we follow him in his ministry? Because Jesus was the total body of Christ, the first body of Christ.

Whereas each of us are only one member in that body of Christ. Can a little finger do what the whole body does? No. A little finger can't see, it can't hear, it can't talk, it can't do what the liver does, it can't do what the heart does, it can't do what the stomach does.

There are a thousand things this little finger can't do, but it is a member of the body. So it's a crazy thing when preachers tell you, you can do everything that Jesus did. It's like telling the little finger, you can see, you can hear, you can digest food.

The stupidity of thousands of believers to believe that. It's because they don't read the Bible. We're living in a time of tremendous spiritual ignorance. Because people know more about the movies than they know about the Bible.

They know more about television than the Bible. Well, let me instruct you. Jesus was the total body of Christ. You could look at Jesus, he was the body of Christ. Today, you cannot look at any human being and say, there is the body of Christ.

Even the Apostle Paul, with all his gifts, was one person in the body of Christ. Do you think Paul could teach anybody how to bring up children? Tell me. Have you ever noticed why in the Bible Paul says, only one sentence on bringing up children, fathers bring up your children in instruction and discipline of the Lord.

Why does he say only that? Because he knew his boundaries. Do you think Paul could teach husbands how to live in an understanding way with their wives? No. He knew his boundaries. Other members of the body of Christ have to do that, which Paul could not do, because Paul was not a married man.

So Paul had his limitations too. There were a number of things he did. So what I'm trying to say is, no human being in the history of the church in 2000 years has been anything more than one member of the body of Christ.

So, we can do only a small part of what Jesus did in his ministry. But this little finger can have the same life that flows all over this body. The same blood, the same life, the same power, that it can have.

And so that's why the church is called the body of Christ. You can have the same life and power in your life that Jesus had. But when it comes to ministry, you can have only that particular ministry that God has called you to.

Every Believer Has a Function in Christ's Body

And every member in the body of Christ has a ministry. For 68 years, I heard that the doctors said that there's one part of the body which has no function, and that's the appendix. And I always said, the humble doctor will say, we don't know the function.

The proud doctor will say, there is no function. But just last week in the papers I read, the doctors have discovered the function of the appendix. I wasn't a doctor, but I always said that. For more than 40 years I said it.

Because I believe the Bible. I believe that God never created anything in this body without a function. And I want to say to you, if you're a part of the body of Christ, every single person in the body of Christ has a function.

I mean, you may be ignorant of the function. That's another thing. Or you may be too lazy to find out what your gift is. That's another thing. But every person is called by God to fulfill a function. A hand can be paralyzed.

And many Christians are paralyzed. So we see Jesus ministering here. He comes to a leper. And it says here, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. And he healed him. The other thing we see in John chapter 8 is Jesus ministering to Gentiles and praising non-Jewish people.

I mean, this would be as surprising as in the church, getting up and praising a Hindu man here, saying he's much better than all of you Christians. I'll tell you, I sometimes say that. The way some Christians behave.

That's exactly what we see here. This Roman centurion, you read in Matthew 8 verse 5, Jesus says about him, I tell you, he says, I have never, verse 10, found such great faith in anyone in Israel. I've never found such faith in anyone in Israel.

Lord Jesus, not even in your mother Mary. I mean what I said. Not in anyone in Israel. What a word of praise he gave to that Roman centurion. I see here that Jesus was a person who always knew how to appreciate.

Whenever he saw something good in somebody, he appreciated it. We are such misers. Just like we're misers in money, we are misers in expressing appreciation. That shows we're not like Christ. I know in my younger days, I was like that too.

That I was not like Jesus. But I have learned to follow Jesus here. To express my appreciation. For non-Christians. But this chap is like, he's a non-Christian. Jesus appreciated, yeah, there's something good I see there.

And we need to, in children, people who don't have much Bible knowledge, what Bible knowledge did this chap have? But Jesus appreciated faith, he appreciated goodness, wherever he saw it. I like that.

Because the gospel was not meant just for one little community of people, it was meant for the whole world. That's what we see here. And we see also in Matthew 8 verse 28, Jesus encountering demons for the first time.

I told you earlier in Matthew chapter 4, that is the first time in history, in the Bible that you read of a man coming face to face with the devil, is Jesus Christ. And that's part of the new covenant.

Jesus didn't confront the Philistines and the Amorites and the Hittites like the people in the Old Testament. He confronted Satan. And as long as anybody is fighting human enemies, he's under the Old Covenant.

Ephesians 6 verse 12 says, we don't wrestle with flesh and blood. Anyone who wrestles with flesh and blood, go back to the Old Covenant. There they fought with flesh and blood. Philistines, Canaanites, Egyptians, Syrians, all types of people.

And you can be fighting with your wife or husband or mother-in-law or brother-in-law or neighbor or somebody in the office or your boss or it doesn't matter. It's all Philistines and Canaanites and everybody else.

Flesh and blood. That is the clearest proof that you also have not understood anything about the New Covenant. A man who enters into the New Covenant stops fighting with human beings. Jesus would never fight with human beings.

You could spit on him, call him a devil, do what you like. You couldn't get him to fight with you because he's concentrated in fighting the devil. It's one mark of New Covenant Christians. Where do you find people like that?

Deliverance from Demonic Powers

And here we find him confronting demons now. He dealt with the devil first, the strong man. Now he deals with the people who belong to him. And here he deals with this man who has got thousands of demons.

His name was Legion and he had at least 2 ,000 demons because we read that the demons went into the pigs. And so many demons in one person. This is the first time in the Bible that you read of a man possessed by demons and somebody casting it out.

I mean we read of evil spirit coming up in Saul, King Saul in the Old Testament. But here were demons in a person and somebody cast it out. That was Jesus. That's a new part of New Covenant ministry. And he gave us the same authority.

We read here that the demon said, have you come here, verse 29, to torment us before the time? You know, there is a, they know there's a time coming when they'll be tormented for eternity in a lake of fire.

That's described in Revelation 20. And they knew that time had not yet come. I mean they know scripture very well. They know Jesus has come only the first time. He's got to die and the church has got to be built.

And later he'll come and then they'll be cast into the lake of fire. And he says, it isn't yet time. Are you going to torment us before that? They knew he had authority. And he wouldn't. He didn't send them to hell.

You know there are some people I have heard who try to cast out demons like this. I command you in Jesus name, go away to hell. Rubbish. If Jesus couldn't send them to hell, who are you going to send them to hell?

There is a time when they will be sent into hell. We can only command that demon to get out of that person. I never tell a demon to go to hell. I never tell anybody to go to hell. Like a lot of people do.

I tell them to get out of that person, stop oppressing him, stop, leave him alone. And so they said, can you let us go into the pigs now? Have you ever thought why Jesus allowed this? You know there are some people who say animals are as important as human beings.

Well, here's the clearest proof. They're not. At least Jesus didn't think so. You know the Jews were not supposed to raise pigs. It was forbidden in Leviticus chapter 11. And these guys were all disobeying God's word and raising pigs because you pork people like to eat pork.

I'm not talking about the new covenant. You can eat it today, but it is forbidden under the old covenant. And so I think that's one reason. The other thing is that Jesus wanted this man to know that the demons had left him.

I mean, if you just tell a person the demons are gone, how will he know? He said, there they are. They've gone into those pigs. See the pigs going down? He knew for certain they're gone. And then we see in Matthew chapter 9 about his calling Matthew and other disciples.

The Apostolic Mission and the Coming of Pentecost

And I want you to move to chapter 10. The thing I want you to see here, we're talking about ministry now. The new covenant ministry with Jesus initiated, with the supernatural gift of healing, healing lepers and you know, casting out demons, opening up to Gentiles, to non-Jews.

And then in chapter 10, we read that this authority that Jesus had, he gives to the 12 disciples whom he's called. That's where we come in. See now we see Jesus and in the new covenant, he's giving this authority to others.

He called his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, cast them out to every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. He gave them authority to, verse 8, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, freely receive, freely give.

And he taught them how to serve in this new covenant time. Now remember this, this was a particular time when he was sending them out only within the borders of Israel, because time had not yet come to reach out to the rest of the world.

That would come after the day of Pentecost. So he said to them, now this is not the time to go to the Gentiles, verse 5, or to the Samaritans. Now only to Israel. First we want to give these fellows an opportunity to hear the word.

The gospel is preached to the Jew first and then to the others. And the Jews rejected it. Then Jesus said, okay, now, in Acts chapter 1, he said, now you will be witnesses to the uttermost parts of the earth.

So for that period of time, before the day of Pentecost, he told them to go only to the Jews. And he said, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, and various things there. Now what I want you to notice is that these people were given authority to go and preach the gospel.

The gospel will be confirmed by these signs. Now it's not the gospel we preach today. They were not preaching Christ died for your sins like we preach today. But we can see here a picture of what became completely fulfilled on the day of Pentecost.

So what happened on the day of Pentecost? The Holy Spirit came upon his disciples and they got power to be the witnesses of Jesus under the uttermost parts of the earth. That's what we want to look at.

New Covenant ministry that began on the day of Pentecost. In Mark chapter 9, verse 1, the coming of the Holy Spirit is described like this. It's described in many ways. In Mark chapter 9, verse 1, the coming of the Holy Spirit is described as the kingdom of God coming with power.

The coming of the Holy Spirit was the coming of God's rule on earth. It didn't mean he ruled the whole earth, but he ruled 120 people. The fire of God came and filled 120 people. The kingdom of God means the rule of God.

The sphere in which God rules is called the kingdom of God. Today we don't use the word kingdom so much. We talk about government. We don't talk about the kingdom of India. In the old British Raj days they did that.

Now we say the government of India. The area where India governs. The kingdom of God is the area where God governs. Where he rules. And you know whether you're a part of God's kingdom by just asking yourself whether God rules your life.

It's very simple. That's all there is to the kingdom of God. It's the sphere. For example, you go to Sri Lanka. Indian government has no power there. Whatever rules you have here don't apply there. But everyone who lives within this country comes under the rulership of the government of India.

Now there can be rebels in this country like Naxalites and terrorists and a lot of Christians behave like that who say they are part of the kingdom of God. But the real citizens of God's kingdom are those who have God's rule over their life completely.

Please remember that. So on that day the Holy Spirit came and gave them gifts. So I want you to turn to Acts of the Apostles chapter 2 and see what happened there. In Acts of the Apostles chapter 2 the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Before that I want you to see Acts 1 verse 1. Now Acts 1 verse 1. And the book of Acts by the way was written by Luke. And we know that he wrote the gospel of Luke as well. We can say this is the second book of Luke.

The first book of Luke and the second book of Luke. The first is about Jesus' life and the second is about the disciples. Mostly Paul. Because Luke was a very close co-worker and follower and traveler with Paul.

So Luke wrote two books. The gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. And he refers to the gospel which is describing the whole life of Jesus from the time of his birth to the time of his death and resurrection and ascension.

How does he describe it? In Acts 1 verse 1 he says the first account or what we know as the gospel of Luke. I composed O Theophilus. That one is also written to Theophilus which means just friend of God.

Now notice how he describes his gospel. All that Jesus began to do and teach. That's how he describes the gospel of Luke. All that Jesus began to do and teach. So using your simple sense of logic what do you think Acts of the Apostles is about?

All that Jesus continued to do and teach. That's the Acts of the Apostles. The gospel is all that Jesus began to do and teach in his physical body. The Acts is all that Jesus continued to do and teach through his spiritual body.

In both cases it is Jesus doing and teaching. There with his physical body. Here with a number of people who are his spiritual body. And then we come to Acts chapter 2. We must keep that in mind when we read Acts of the Apostles and say because Acts of the Apostles that first verse and what follows on from that is to describe the entire new covenant period.

What are we supposed to do today? Jesus wants to continue to do and teach what he did in Nazareth and in Palestine in Israel two thousand years ago. He wants to continue to do and teach through you and me.

It's Jesus continuing to do and teach through you and me. I want that in my life. I want to treat other people the way when I deal with people I want Jesus to do something for them through me. I wanted Jesus to speak through my lips.

He can speak through your lips. You must believe it. OK. Now in Acts chapter 2 it says when the Holy Spirit was outpoured. Peter describes it like this. In the last days verse 17. I'll pour out my spirit on all mankind.

This didn't happen in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit came on one person here one person there sometimes hundreds of years apart. The spirit was on Moses and then the spirit was on Joshua.

Then we wait a long time. And then in the book of Judges the spirit was on Samson. Then on Samuel. Then on King Saul and David. Elijah, Elisha and the different prophets Isaiah onwards. But it was only on a few individuals.

Everyone didn't have the Holy Spirit. And now it says everyone all mankind every single person can have the same Holy Spirit that came upon Elijah and Elisha and John the Baptist. Do you know that? I mean you won't have the same ministry.

What is the same power to do the ministry which God has called you to do? Well you know that Samuel and John the Baptist didn't have the same ministry. Elijah did so many miracles. John the Baptist did none.

Yet they had the same spirit. In fact the Holy Spirit told Zechariah John the Baptist's father your son is going to have the spirit of Elijah. Amazing. And yet Elijah did so many miracles including raising the dead and John the Baptist didn't even do one.

Can two people have the same spirit and one do so many miracles and the other do none? Yes. And Elijah and John the Baptist are the most classic examples of that. It's not a question of ministry. Same spirit doing different ministries.

The same spirit that was in Elijah was in John the Baptist. He did miracles through Elijah but he prepared the way for Jesus through John the Baptist. So today the Holy Spirit can be on two believers and through one person he may do miracles like he does through Elijah and through another person he may just prepare people to live a holy life.

And just by the way Jesus said John the Baptist was greater than Elijah. That means the one who prophesied and proclaimed God's word and prepared God's people for the coming of Christ was greater than the one who did so many miracles and brought fire down from heaven and raised the dead.

I don't think many Christians understand that. So the Holy Spirit poured out on all mankind and it doesn't say here in verse 17 your sons and daughters will do miracles. No. But it does say here your sons and daughters will prophesy.

Prophecy, Spiritual Gifts, and the New Covenant

And that's another word which is completely mistaken. In the Old Testament prophecy was mainly foretelling the future. Mainly about the coming of Christ and about things that were going to happen to Israel in the future etc.

But in the New Testament prophecy is not foretelling the future at all. 1 Corinthians 14 3 says prophecy is speaking forth the word of God to build up the body of Christ. To encourage, challenge, rebuke, comfort, build up the body of Christ.

You never read of any other type of prophecy in 1 Corinthians 14. Now we do read in the Acts of the Apostles about one man called Agabus. He was a rare among the prophets who did say something about the future.

In Acts 11 he said about there's going to be a famine. In Acts 23 he prophesied that Paul would be bound in Jerusalem. But in both those cases he never told people what to do. In New Testament prophecy even if somebody tells the future he never tells anybody what to do.

He never said there's a famine so you fellows should send money. No, no, no, no. He knew where to stop. He didn't say to Paul you're going to be bound so don't go. He never said so don't go. Then he would have been a false prophet.

False prophets are those who tell you what to do. Very simple guideline by which to find out false prophets. You never find a New Testament prophet telling another person what to do. In the Old Testament they did.

The King of Israel kings would come to the prophets tell us what to do. Hang on he'd say come back after a couple of days I'll tell you. He'd tell you you must do this. But there's not a single instance in the New Testament of a person prophesying and telling another person what to do.

If the Christian church had only understood this they would have been saved from so many calamities. So many people are being told whom to marry and whom not to marry by self appointed prophets. Where to go, what to do, what house to buy and what job to take.

Christianity is in the Old Testament and these are false prophets because there is no such prophet today in the New Testament who can tell you what to do. You know why? I'll tell you why. Hebrews chapter 8.

He's saying in the days are coming verse 9 when I will make a new covenant. Hebrews 8 verse 8. I will make a new covenant and this will not be like the old covenant verse 9 because in this covenant verse 11 they will not teach everyone his fellow citizens saying know the Lord or know the Lord's will.

For all will know me personally from the least. Least means a little child to the greatest saint. Even the little child can know God personally as a father. That's why it says all can prophesy and that means the sons and daughters Acts 2 17 when it says your sons and daughters will prophesy it doesn't mean they'll go around telling other people what to do like you see in a lot of charismatic circles.

A lot of people say somebody prophesied over me that this is what I'm going to do. I say brother are you in the old covenant or the new covenant? And don't believe all these prophecies. The Bible says we are not to despise prophesying but we must judge prophesying.

Very clearly it says that in 1 Corinthians 14. And you know we can have a completely wrong understanding of the gifts of the Holy Spirit if we don't understand the new covenant. That's what I'm trying to say.

And the other thing I want you to see is in the Old Testament it was very rare for a woman to prophesy. There were some rare cases like Deborah and Huldah in the book of Jeremiah and the book of Kings and in the book of Judges.

But mostly it was men. But in the new covenant men and women can prophesy. And what is prophecy? 1 Corinthians 14 .3 they can speak to the edification of the church to build up challenge and courage. When a church lives in the old covenant they will not allow the women to share anything.

They'll think the men are superior. The multitudes of churches like that. And I think a lot of us here have been understanding the old covenant for many years. In fact many of our churches live in the old covenant.

Our own churches. They think they are in the new covenant. They are not. Do you allow the women to prophesy? You know there we can understand the hang ups that brethren people have and Pentecostals have and Charismatics have.

We have a culture that holds us back from the freedom of the Holy Spirit. We think we are free. We are not free. We are bound by traditions as much as the Pharisees were bound. And Jesus found it so difficult to deliver people from the traditions of the Pharisees.

And I tell you he finds it very difficult with a lot of Christians today. So what suffers? God's work suffers. So I want to encourage you sisters to claim Acts 2 .17 and learn to prophesy. The only thing the Bible forbids that a woman can't do is to teach and to have authority.

To have a position as an elder. Teaching is authoritative. See like what I'm doing right now. Prophesying is different from teaching. They are two completely different gifts. Prophesying is to encourage people, to build them up.

Teaching is authoritative, giving direction to the church. Eldership is giving direction to the church. You are a blessed husband if you have a wife who can prophesy. I feel sorry for a husband who shuts his wife's mouth and prevents her from prophesying.

You are going to be the loser. I would say that. You are going to be the loser. 50 of your life will be cut off from direction from the Lord because God gave you somebody to prophesy and you won't listen.

Because of culture and tradition. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Now I understand that to mean that God will speak to us through supernatural means.

I don't think there is much difference between dreams and visions. The point is that God can speak to us when our minds are sort of resting in a supernatural way. Warning us. You read right in the big book of Matthew in the first two chapters of God warned people don't go that way, don't go that way.

Through a dream. And we must be open to that. These are some of the blessings coming to the Holy Spirit. And again it says, verse 18, I tell you my men and women, verse 18, will prophesy. Why in the world does God say that twice in verse 17 and verse 18?

The women will prophesy, the women will prophesy. God is trying to break this power of tradition but He doesn't succeed with many people. That's why I've always encouraged you folks. Be open. Let the Holy Spirit come upon you and put something on your heart that can bless the church.

No, don't say I'm a woman. Well, if you're an old covenant woman, okay. But you're welcome to enter the new covenant if you want to. God won't force anybody. Do you know that God doesn't even force people to go to heaven?

Tell me, which is more important? To go to heaven or to prophesy? Well, surely no. To go to heaven is more important. But God doesn't even force people to go to heaven. Where in the world is He going to force you to prophesy?

He's not going to catch you by the neck and say, come on, prophesy. You've got to be open to go to heaven. You've got to be open to prophesy. And if the people in your church don't allow you to do that, you pray that God will give you other openings somewhere else.

Your church will miss the blessing. But you can be a blessing somewhere else. When you visit somebody's home or somebody visits your home, you can bless them. You can't be hindered. You can't keep a good woman down.