Good Morning My Beloved,
I am so thankful for each and every one of you.
For those of you who have returned to join us, thank you,
and for those of you joining perhaps for the first time
thank you, I pray that you will be blessed and hope that
you will consider returning to join us tomorrow.
Heavenly Father,
Lord, teach me to be humble, to love, to know my gift
and use it in a way that's pleasing to you
In this world today, Lord, we need you,
Your church, the body desperately needs you to unite us
to operate in the Spirit, to be sensitive to one another.
Lord, I know that I need you
Help us all work together whatever the cost,
caring for one another as one.
That’s what Your Son Jesus prayed for
I want that, I want that for His glory.
Father, we pray that You will really embed these truths
deep within our minds, and our hearts so that we might indeed would be one.
Teach us to be one. Help us, to be one
Soften our hardened hearts and make us one in the Spirit. In Your Spirit
We pray this in Christ’s name.
Amen
"For as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. So the body is not one part but many. If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” in spite of this it still belongs to the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” in spite of this it still belongs to the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed each one of the parts in one body just as He wanted. And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? Now there are many parts, yet one body.
So the eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” But even more, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are necessary. And those parts of the body that we think to be less honorable, we clothe these with greater honor, and our unpresentable parts have a better presentation. But our presentable parts have no need of clothing. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other. So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it."
I Corinthians 12:12-27
Today's Message: The Body of Christ - Part 8
Well, I know you're probably surprised, but as you can see, the Holy Spirit, is not yet finished with the message series on I Corinthians 12, and so, I'm not going to speculate as to just how long we'll be continuing in our study. But as I stated previously, it's not my will, but His will be done.
However, we can be assured, it is for our benefit in knowledge and understanding.
That said, today, let's continue in our study on the gifts of the Spirit and the gifts of the body of Christ.
There's still a great deal to cover, so rather than to recap all that we've been studying up to this point, I'd like to encourage you to read and study the previous messages on this subject, if you need to catch up or review what you've learned thus far.
When we left off, we learned that though the prophets have ceased the gift of prophecy or preaching still goes on. However, the office of prophet has ceased. And the Greek word, as I said before, for prophesy simply means a foreteller or a preacher. And that’s why in I Corinthians 14 verse 1, he says, "Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, and above all that you may prophesy." Every time you see the word, prophesy, you can just pronounce it preach.
Then in verses 3-4, "But the person who prophesies speaks to people for edification, encouragement, and consolation. The person who speaks in another language builds himself up, but he who prophesies builds up the church."
So, in other words, preaching was a dominant thing. And you know there’s kind of a running deal today where people are kind of putting down preaching, and they want to get together in these little groups and just you know, nobody wants to be the preacher, and nobody wants to exalt himself, supposedly that’s what you have to do if you’re a preacher and they sort of put preaching down.
Preaching however, is still a gift of the Spirit, and it is to be sought in the ministry and meeting of the Church. He says, "Seek as a body to prophesy or preach." No service of the body would be complete without a declaration of God’s truth. The preaching of the cross, whether today's modern church wants to acknowledge it or not, is still central in the meeting of the church. And there are so many attempts to de-emphasize it. Some churches have one preaching thing a week, Sunday morning, and that’s it. Well, that is not putting prophesy in the exalted place where it belongs: Preaching. It’s the greatest gift from the viewpoint of importance, because it edifies and builds the body. So, for all you once-a-week preachers of the gospel, it's a priority. Add a service, online, email, text, something. If as the lead pastor, you don't want to put in the effort, incorporate others who are qualified, but preach the Word in your church!
Now, what was the standard of measure for true preaching? Let's look at verse 37, still in chapter 14, here is the standard for true preaching, "If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual," – so in other words, you think and this is the early Church, if an early Church individual thought he had the gift of a prophet – "he should recognize that what I write to you is the Lord’s command."
Do you know what the standard was of a prophet? Whether or not his words squared with the words of Jesus Christ. That was the standard. And I must say, it should certainly still be the standard today.
I hear of so many preachers, many of which do not even use the Bible to preach, they say that they, "Go by a feeling." I'm sure I don't need to mention who that was. And others, will only teach messages that will not build up the body, but deceive them instead. You know, the prosperity preachers. "God just wants to bless you!" "He wants you to live your best life today, it doesn't matter what you continue to do, that's considered sin, He just wants to bless you, so go ahead and write those checks, drop 'em in the collection plate. My wife's been after me to buy her a new car, a $250,000 one. She likes the finer things in life." - Insert the flashy smile and a few jokes. - They may as well through in, "Hey, Go ahead, get yourself an 8 ball and a fifth of Jack, God's good with that, He doesn't really care, because you're under grace. Now you just write me a big check, and make it count. And remember, the bigger the check, the bigger your blessing!"
Seriously? Are you kidding me? Look, I know I may be exaggerating a little here, but only slightly! It has really gotten almost that bad. Man, that really gets me worked up. When you're under grace, that doesn't give you a license to sin. A pulpit is not a stage in some comedy club. You are a new creation in Christ! That means you cannot do what ever you want. You servants of corruption!
That's not what a relationship with Jesus Christ means. He's not some Joe Schmoe. He's Almighty God, Creator of the Universe! I just continue to pray for them, I really do. I pray that God will reach down and touch their hearts. Or maybe even give 'em the Saul from Tarsus meets the apostle Paul conversion experience.
Okay, so where were we, there are no more prophets. But you know that the gift of preaching is exercised by the same standard? So what exactly is our standard when we preach? Peter said what it is, "Let him speak as one who speaks the oracles of God." Of Whom? "of God." Our standard for preaching is the same. The standard for preaching today is not to be TIME magazine, Newsweek, The National Enquirer, or even politics. The standard for preaching, is not standing in the pulpit, listing all the reasons, your favorite political candidate should be elected, or in so many cases today, defending them. When you're a preacher of God's Word, you have one purpose for being in that pulpit for which you are privileged, and that is to preach Christ.
Look, allow me to make something very clear, the pulpit is not for somebody’s personal philosophy, or your latest book, a review of the book you've just read, or are currently reading; The pulpit serves one purpose - it’s for the Word of God. The Word of God. That’s it. And that's our standard measure for preaching. Unless it relates to the Word of God in someway, and because we must confront sin, that also includes the abuses of Christs' churches from the pulpits today, but other than that, keep it out of the pulpit. Nobody comes to church to hear where you just ate for lunch the other day. It's not about you.
The apostle Paul knew this in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. This is a powerful section on this. "When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. For I didn’t think it was a good idea to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a powerful demonstration by the Spirit, so that your faith might not be based on men’s wisdom but on God’s power."
Now, I know some of you might say, "That’s just ignorant man." No, that’s not ignorant man.
Just look at verses 3 - 5 again, "I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a powerful demonstration by the Spirit, so that your faith might not be based on men’s wisdom but on God’s power."
And if I could claim a verse that I would like to see in my own life, that would be it – "that your faith might not be based on men but on God’s power."
Have you ever met anybody whose faith stood in the wisdom of men? Though they typically do not see it, man, are they vulnerable – "However, we do speak a wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age..." Or this world. "..or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing: On the contrary, we speak God’s hidden wisdom in a mystery, a wisdom God predestined before the ages for our glory., even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world" Or before the ages. "None of the rulers of this age knew this wisdom, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."
Now, in verse 13, the apostle Paul says our message is clear, "We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people." As we said earlier, the prophet office has ceased, we know it ceased with the apostolic church. However, the gift of prophecy continues; the standard is the words of Christ and the Word of God. That’s the standard.
And it’s interesting, I think, that the true preacher gives forth the Word in the energy of the Spirit. That’s the true preacher. There’s a lot of false ones. Interesting, too, is the fact that in the early Church, this seems to be the gift most widely distributed. And just to have the gift of preaching does not necessarily mean you have to exercise it in a formal sermon. Not at all.
The gift of preaching could be to children. Yes, it can certainly be to minister to young people, like a youth pastor. It could be to teach a class of adults. It could be a class of 1 or 2, even 3, or it could be to 5 or 10,000, or anything in between. The size of the class is not important. The gift of preaching is a Spirit-given and Spirit-energized ability to proclaim the truths of Jesus Christ in the energy of the Spirit of God with results. And that doesn’t have to be done, standing in a pulpit; it can be in a small group setting, for any number of people, at any age level.
Now, some of you have the gift of preaching. Maybe you can’t stand up in front of a congregation and preach a sermon, but that doesn't mean that you don't have the gift of preaching. You can declare your faith to somebody in the energy of the Spirit with God-given results. Now, some of you, and there's one specifically I'm thinking of here, he knows who he is, (laughing), you may sit back and say, "Well, I get so nervous speaking in front of people." I’m trying to tell you, it doesn’t matter what your natural abilities or even your disabilities are, if you have the Spirit-given gift of preaching, and when you find that you do, man, that the Word of God through the Holy Spirit comes through you, it come with such a power, that penetrates right into the hearts of people, it doesn't matter how big or how small the group, that’s still the gift of preaching.
I mean all Christians are to be preachers to some degree, isn't that true?
We're all supposed to sharing Christ, with the world. Telling them the Good News.
"According to the grace given to us, we have different gifts:
If prophecy, use it according to the standard of one’s faith; if service, in service;
if teaching, in teaching;"
if teaching, in teaching;"
So the next gift is teaching. In I Corinthians 12:28, we read, "And God has appointed...", or etheto in the original text, "...in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers." There is distinction between the gift of teaching and the office of being a teacher. God has appointed teachers. And appointed pastors and appointed evangelists – the only two that He does not have anymore, that ended with the apostolic era, are the apostles and the prophets.
In Ephesians chapter 2 and chapter 3. Now, he’s talking about the Church and how it was built. Are you ready? Ephesians 2:20, and he’s talking about all Jew and Gentile becoming one in the Church, and it says in verse 20 the whole thing, "is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets." Now look at chapter 3:5, "Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets." Now, the apostles and the prophets were the foundation of the Church. The Church began on a foundation of apostles and prophets. And then it moved from there, and continuing ministries belonged to teachers, pastors, and evangelists. Those are the three existing ministries that followed the foundational ministries of apostles and prophets.
We have the same kind of a dichotomy. It’s one thing to have the gift of teaching and it’s another thing to be an appointed teacher. Teachers were appointed in the early Church and given specific position to teach. And that’s true today. Has God set some men to be teachers? Obviously they’ve been lifted up above others. Some of the great professors in evangelical seminaries, some of the great Bible teachers that traveled the world, some pastors who have obviously been placed by God to teach the Word, all of these are divinely-appointed teachers given to the Church.
And on top of that, they have the gift of teaching. But you, believers, may have the gift of teaching and not be appointed to a teaching office in terms of a total ministry to the Church. Do you see the difference? And since teaching is not a foundational ministry, it’s not included in Ephesians 2:20 or 3:5 But since it’s not a foundational ministry, it’s still going on and God still has His teachers. Still appointing them as teachers who sort of have a shepherding ministry over the flock. God still gives the gift of teaching and still grants certain men to be teachers of the body.
Allow me to quickly add something here are many body members who have not been called to a ranking position as teacher, but who yet have the gift of teaching. So what’s the difference between preaching and teaching? Well, one is proclamation, and the other is study or research or communication or dialogue. According to the Pentecost in his book, "Teaching is the ability, to take a newborn babe in Christ and teach that babe the truths of the Word of God." It’s one thing to begin to declare and proclaim; it’s something entirely different to sit down with a newborn babe, put your arm around him, and instruct him in the things of God. That’s the gift of teaching. I mean, it could be in a Sunday school class, it could at home, it could in some sort of one to one counseling. It could be with any age or any number of people teaching.
But some have the gift of proclaiming and some have the gift of just bringing along that new babe and instructing him in the basics, and there are some who have both gifts. Preaching to an assembly is one thing and sitting down on a personal instructional level with a babe in Christ is completely something else and that’s what teaching was.
The teachers in the early Church were to take the new converts and nurture them. That’s the gift of teaching. Now there again, teaching is a special gift. Every Christian does not have the gift of teaching, but every Christian is to be in some sense a teacher isn’t that true?
In Closing....
We are all responsible for that to some degree. Let me show you why I say that. In Galatians 6:6, it says this, "The one who is taught the message must share all his good things with the teacher. Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked." In other words, for every believer there is to be an interaction of spiritual truth.
And we have essentially the same thing over in 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 2, "And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." Then verse 14 of the same chapter, "Remind them of these things, charging them before God not to fight about words; this is in no way profitable and leads to the ruin of the hearers. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth."
Every believer’s responsibility is to teach on some level. Verse 24, "The Lord’s slave must not quarrel, but must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient, instructing his opponents with gentleness. Perhaps God will grant them repentance leading them to the knowledge of the truth."
So, you see, in a sense we all are to be teachers, do you see it? And yet, although all of us are teachers, some of us have the gift of teaching, and some of us take that to the next level, to the office of teacher.
We'll get into this again, tomorrow.
Until then,
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Brian Monzon Ministries