Are Spiritual Gifts For Today? | Theocast

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So, let's talk about spiritual gifts. Speaking in tongues, healings, prophecy, this seems to be a debate that is growing in popularity.

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I get a lot of questions about this as a pastor and host of Theocast, and I didn't want to have a conversation that's supposed to end all conversations.

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I wanted to look at this from a perspective that's a little bit different from the debate.

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The debate is around, should the church still be pursuing and practicing spiritual gifts?

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Does the Spirit still work in this way in the church? And this question is a very important conversation.

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There's a lot that the Reformation has to say about it and the confessions, but I wanted to look at it from a different perspective.

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One where we look at the whole Bible and how God has used these in the past and ask some hard questions, things that we maybe don't really have conversations about when this subject comes up.

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One of the things that you have to look at is how God uses something and why, and why

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God chooses to use it. And if He tells us why He chooses to use it that way, then we should probably pay attention to that and ask ourselves, are we coming to the same conclusions as the text is telling us?

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And I just want to present a case for you, something to think about as you're working through this discussion as it relates to what we would call the miraculous gifts, speaking in tongues, miracles, prophecies, and specifically the

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New Testament. But before we do that, let's go to the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, you see God using

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His power throughout the history of mankind, specifically with Israel.

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As they're a nation and they're gathering together, you see God use His power to protect them, to develop them as a nation, and also to punish them at times.

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But what's interesting is that as God is using His gifts to protect them and guide them, He doesn't always use

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His power in ways in which we would think. For instance, yes,

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God provided manna for them from the heavens. He fed them. He provided water from the rocks as Moses struck it, but He didn't always heal them of their sickness.

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They died in the wilderness. There were laws, Levitical laws, about leprosy and how to deal with that.

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So why is it that the God who provides manna and water from a rock and the soles of their shoes wouldn't wear out, and yet there isn't a cure for leprosy?

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If you just continue to go on, the children of Israel had lots of things that they died from that God in His power clearly could have preserved them from, but why didn't

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He? And that's the biggest question is why doesn't God just cure us of all ailments that we have in life?

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Why are hospitals necessary? He obviously had the power to heal. We see this in the

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New Testament as He raises people from the dead, and you see Him as He is healing people from blindness, but why is that not the normal?

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Well, let's go back to the beginning of the story and do a quick flyover of the Word of God, and we might be able to find some helpful answers to this.

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Adam and Eve were put into the garden, and Adam was given a promise that if he ate of the tree that he would die, and we learn later on, as covenant theologians have shown us, that if he would have not eaten of the tree,

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Paul says, for all have fallen short of the glory of God when we sin. For all fall short of the glory of God.

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What does it mean to fall short of the glory of God? It means that if we would obey, then we would gain this glory.

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It's the same thing that when Jesus says that when He died, He brought many sons into glory.

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In other words, as Paul calls them, the second Adam, where the first Adam failed, the second

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Adam succeeded. Well, we then watch this entire world tumble into a curse.

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So Adam falls. There's an immediate promise given to Eve that from her the seed will come. That seed, the second

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Adam, is going to make all things right. But in between this period of the first Adam and the second Adam, we have a cursed world.

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Childbirth will have pain. The ground is cursed. Romans tells us that the earth is groaning for restoration.

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So this world is not okay. It's under the curse of sin. And from the moment of Adam and Eve's fall till today, we are feeling the curse of sin.

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We need a Savior who will not only save our souls and earn for us the right place in the presence of God again as the second

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Adam, but we need one who will restore all things. So God proves

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His power in promise and His faithfulness and His ability by demonstrating throughout history

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His capacities to alter creation, to do with it as He wills, to flood the world, to stop the sun, to divide waters, to bring pestilence, to raise people, an entire army from the dead, from dry bones.

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So God has the power to do whatever He wants. But are we missing His point? The point is what we are being saved from is not the enemy of this world.

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The world's not the enemy. Our sin is what's causing us to be the enemy of God. This is Ephesians 2.

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It says, by nature, we are the children of wrath. We are born the enemies of God. So our sin is the one that's causing all of this chaos, and God, through His promises of the

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Messiah, the second Adam, is going to restore everything. And so you can see His promises being fulfilled and really pushed along by the demonstration of His power and His miracles.

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Well, Isaiah 35 tells us that the one who's going to save us—that's what he says in verse 3—the one who's coming to save us,

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He will heal the blind. He will bring the dead back to life. He will heal the deaf.

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There's a prophecy from Isaiah saying that the Messiah, He is going to demonstrate the same powers as God.

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And when God shows up on the scene, Jesus, in flesh, He says this.

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Even John records. He says, I write these things that you might believe and have eternal life. Write what?

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The miracle of Jesus, His birth, His life, His death, and resurrection. Even at Hebrews, let me read this to you.

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Hebrews chapter 2, and he's writing to Jews. And this is important because this is going to help us understand the flow of what's going on here.

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So Isaiah 35 is a prophecy written to the nation of Israel. It's saying, now be watching for the

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Messiah, the one, the promised one, the anointed one, the one who's going to come, and He is going to fulfill this prophecy where you will see

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Him do miracles, raise people from the dead. You will see Him heal the blind. And when

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He does this, it's a confirmation to the nation of Israel, the Messiah is here. So think about that for a moment.

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Prophecy that the Messiah is coming to the nation of Israel. Hebrews 2, 1 says this. Therefore, we must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

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For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how should we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

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So he's saying to the Jews here, this Jewish document, the Hebrews, how are you rejecting the promises that were given to us?

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The angels declared it to be true. Jesus came and fulfilled it. So how should we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

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It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard. While God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the

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Holy Spirit distributed to them according to His will. So God has proved His message.

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Jesus Christ came. They saw the message fulfilled because Jesus did the signs and wonders.

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Hebrews is now reflecting back, talking to Jews, saying, how is it that you could see these signs and reject the message of the

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Messiah? So here's the argument I want you to see and think about. The New Testament, when

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Jesus comes multiple times in Matthew and in John, He says,

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I am fulfilling the will of the Father. I am proving to you that I and the Father are one by my miracles.

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Then when He sends the disciples out to the Jews, He says, go out to Israel and preach me the

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Messiah. I have risen. I am the one. And He says, you're going to do many signs and wonders.

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Why? Because who was prophesied to be the one to fulfill the Messiah, the role of salvation?

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It was Jesus. So the apostles or the prophets, those who would be the ones who would be spreading this message to first the

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Jews and then the Gentiles, they needed to confirm their message. And it made sense that they were going about, and you see them healing people.

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Not just general healings of headaches and backaches and sores.

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They are affirmed, blind, people going from death to life, people who were deaf.

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These were real miracles documented that cannot be questioned by science of just a heart.

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We have heartburn or something like that, or I've always struggled with arthritis. These are clear, blind to sight, dead, now alive.

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And when the message of the gospel gets past the Jews, and now it's getting into the Gentiles, Paul says something very interesting.

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He says that the power of the gospel is God's power. It's the only thing that is housing

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God's power, says the gospel is the power of God to transform people from death to life.

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So you are no longer talking to people who believe in God, who need the confirmation that the

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Messiah has come. You need to stop trusting in the prophecies because the prophet is here.

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Jesus, the priest is here. The King is here. Here's the miracles to prove it. You're now talking to Gentiles who don't know the

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Hebraic scriptures. They weren't born and raised on waiting on prophecy.

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They're pagans. They have their own gods. What they need to hear is about Jesus, the one who came and died for their sins.

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And as they do, Paul says the gospel is enough power to transfer them from death to life.

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They aren't transferring their faith from the promise of the Messiah to the Messiah. They are no history.

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So as you see this ministry transition into the Gentile world, the non -Hebraic world, there's no

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Israelites, you stop seeing miracles as prevalent because all it's needed is the message of the gospel is enough to transfer somebody from death to life.

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Now, are you saying, well, John, did God get rid of these gifts or they're no longer necessary? Well, when you see them being commissioned to the apostles and to the prophets, they're being used to affirm the message.

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Well, once the message gets out to the Jews and now it's your first generation of Jews have now passed away, the message of Jesus has now been preached.

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There's no confirmation necessary. He's now spread not only to the Jews, but to the

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Gentiles. I just wanted to put this out for you. So you understand the purpose of the miracles. A lot of what we see today, as far as speaking in tongues and prophetic nature and even of healings, they don't seem to be to the same level.

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They don't have that irrevocable nature to them where there's no question.

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This is an absolute work of God. Does God not do healings today? I think he does.

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But think about it this way. Just like in the Old Testament, you have people dying of leprosy and all kinds of different diseases.

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In Jesus's day, everybody that Jesus healed still died. 100 % of the people Jesus healed all died because their ultimate need was not physical healing.

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It's not why he came. The signs obviously showed mercy and kindness, and God had tremendous mercy on the suffering.

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But he didn't offer them, as the woman at the well, a temporary filling.

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He offered her eternal water, eternal life. The man by the pool, he didn't offer him just a temporal healing.

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He offered him an eternal healing, an eternal life. So let's not forget that the purpose of miracles is not to just wow people with a message of temporary healing, but it's to offer them something that is far beyond that.

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And I believe Paul, when he says the gospel is the power of God, he doesn't say, how will these people come to Christ unless we heal them or unless we show them miracles?

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He says, unless we proclaim the gospel, they will not come to faith in Christ. So it's not miracles that bring them.

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As a matter of fact, thousands upon thousands of people saw Jesus walk on water or,

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I'm bringing people back to the life, and they still questioned him.

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After feeding 5 ,000 in John 6, they questioned him. Prove to us you're the Messiah. And Jesus just got done feeding 5 ,000 people out of a basket of food.

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Miracles won't change people from death to life. They never have. It will only be when they hear the gospel and the spirit comes in and transitions their heart.

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So something to think about in this whole debate, the purpose of miracles, as you're struggling through this, ask yourself, what is it that this world needs?

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They need the power of Christ and him crucified, the message of the gospel, to come and transfer them from death to life.

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And in Corinthians, Paul did talk about the gifts. And he says, look, if these gifts aren't being for the edification of the body, if they aren't building us up, then what use are they?

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Being one that I am reformed and I hold to the 16th Annual Lenten Baptist Confession, I believe that the ordinary means of grace is how

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God organizes his church. And the Church of Corinth still had a ministry that was going out to definitely those who are part of the

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Jewish culture. But I think as the history goes on, we will see that the emphasis becomes on the preaching and teaching of God's word and the body of Christ, focusing themselves on Christ, and that those miraculous gifts, as the gospel goes out to the

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Gentiles, begin to fade away because they aren't seen as necessary. That's just some thoughts for you.

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Leave me what your questions are below, and maybe we'll do a follow -up video to this.

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Again, didn't want to try and end the entire argument or debate, but just maybe look at the whole arch of the story and maybe think about this of what

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God was using it for. Obviously, there are people still dying of cancer and all kinds of sickness, and the only true thing we can offer them is eternal life, not a temporal physical health.