Tag Archives: Charismatic

Eternal Wind, New Fire – Sermon on Acts 2:1-21 for the Day of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-21

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Today we celebrate Pentecost, the day the Holy Spirit came with wind and fire. The Holy Spirit came in a special way to enable those believers in Christ—back in Acts 1:15, we read there were about 120 of them—the Holy Spirit enabled those believers to speak in languages from every nation under heaven (Act. 2:5, 8-11) that they didn’t previously know. In those languages, they preached about Jesus to the crowds. And 3,000 souls were added to the Christian Church.

This sermon is going to focus on the Holy Spirit, but I do want to point out that the Holy Spirit doesn’t get mentioned much in this text. You’d think Pentecost would be all about the Holy Spirit, but He’s only mentioned twice in v. 4, and two more times in the passage Peter quotes from the prophet Joel (Act. 2:17-18; see Joel 2:28-32). When you go home today, read the rest of Acts 2, which will give you all of Peter’s sermon and the response of the crowd who hears that preaching. The majority of the text is pointing to Jesus and His death, resurrection, and ascension. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit points people to Jesus as He calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies, and preserves the entire Christian Church in the true faith.

Dear saints, what that means is that if you want to know if the Holy Spirit is present and working, you simply need to ask, “Am I being pointed to Jesus? Is Jesus is being proclaimed as the crucified, risen, and ascended Savior?” According to Jesus’ clear teaching, when He is being proclaimed, that is how you can know without a doubt that the Holy Spirit is at work (Jn. 15:26; 14:26). More on that later.

There are three things I want to highlight about the Holy Spirit, and they build on each other.

First, the Holy Spirit is a Person. He is not some force, electrical current, or emotion that bubbles up from inside us. He is a person. It can be easy to forget this about the Third Person of the Trinity. We know persons who are fathers. We know persons who are sons. The Holy Spirit is also a person of the one true God. He is not simply the Father or the Son at work in a new way. The Holy Spirit shares the same divine being with the Father and the Son. Scripture shows us this in clear ways.

At the baptism of Jesus, the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove while the Father spoke from heaven (Mt. 3:16). Later in Acts, Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, get asked, “Why are you lying to the Holy Spirit?” (Act. 5:1-11). You don’t lie to a force. You can only lie to a person. Scripture clearly teaches that the Holy Spirit is the third Person who is distinguishable from the Father and the Son. Jesus Himself calls Him the “Comforter” (Jn. 14:16), and He says the Spirit “proceeds from the Father” and is sent by the Son (Jn. 15:26; Gal. 4:6). All of this shows us that the Holy Spirit is not just stirring of our heart or a power or force. He is the Third Person of the one true God, and He works according to His own divine will (1 Co. 2:10-12).

We must also be careful to distinguish the Person of the Holy Spirit from the gifts He gives. Paul writes, “There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Cor. 12:4). The Spirit Himself is not the same as the gifts He distributes. He is the Giver, not the gift. Knowing this preserves us from chasing after dramatic experiences or thinking the Spirit is only present when something unusual happens. The Holy Spirit is always the same, whether He works quietly or with visible signs.

The first point is the Holy Spirit is a person. The second point is this: the Person of the Holy Spirit has always been at work. It isn’t as though He was twiddling His thumbs from eternity past and only got going at Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit who appeared at Pentecost was already active long before. He was hovering over the waters at creation (Gen. 1:2). He led Moses and the people through the desert (Is. 63:11-14; Neh. 9:19-21). He was in the prophets, moving them to speak God’s Word (2 Pet. 1:21). Isaiah promises that the Spirit who is upon the prophet will remain upon the Church forever (Is. 59:21). The Spirit has always been at work to make believers holy. That’s why David prayed, “Take not Your Holy Spirit from me” (Ps. 51:11). The Spirit who gives faith and new life has never been absent from God’s people.

Scripture even talks about the Holy Spirit’s work in and through people who aren’t believers. The evil prophet Balaam prophesied by the Spirit, though he was an unholy man (Num 24:2ff). King Saul and his men prophesied under the Spirit’s power. In 1 Samuel 19, Saul was hunting David. He sent out a band of men to find David, but they find Samuel instead. The Holy Spirit comes upon them and they start to prophesy. Saul sends a second and third wave of men and they begin to prophesy too. So, King Saul goes himself, and the same thing happens to him. But listen to what Scripture says, “[Saul] stripped off his clothes and prophesied… and lay naked all that day and all that night” (1 Sam. 19:18-24). That’s crazy! That’s not a good way to prophesy. But what that shows is that the Holy Spirit can work through a deranged Saul as a mark of the Spirit’s judgment upon Israel’s first king.

Before Jesus was crucified, Scripture tells us that the high priest, Caiaphas, spoke a true prophecy by the Spirit, even though he opposed Jesus (Jn. 11:47-53). The Spirit can work where and how He wills. But this is the point: the Holy Spirit has always been at work in the world and in the Church. Pentecost was not the beginning of His activity. Instead, it was a new and visible outpouring of the same eternal Spirit for the sake of spreading the Gospel to all people.

So, first: the Holy Spirit is a person. Second, the Holy Spirit has always been at work. Now, third: the Holy Spirit’s main work is to point you to Jesus, your Savior.

Everything the Spirit does serves this one purpose. At Pentecost, the signs—the sound of the eternal wind and the tongues of new fire—served to draw attention to and gather people for the preaching that followed. Peter stood up and preached an ordinary Christian sermon about the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. Through that preaching the Holy Spirit worked repentance and faith in 3,000 hearts. The signs pointed people to the Word, and the Word pointed to Jesus.

That is still how the Holy Spirit works today. He does not point us to ourselves, to our feelings, or to dramatic experiences. He points us to Jesus. Jesus said, “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me” (Jn. 15:26). Jesus teaches that the Holy Spirit “will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (Jn. 14:26). The test is simple: if Jesus is being proclaimed as the crucified, risen, and ascended Savior, the Holy Spirit is at work. If the focus has shifted somewhere else, the Spirit is not the one driving it.

The Holy Spirit reorients us so that we see Jesus more clearly, but He does not erase who we are. The apostles were still the same men after Pentecost. Peter was still Peter and those fishermen were still fishermen. But now their understanding, their gifts, and their direction in life were reoriented around Christ and His mission. In just fifty-three days, Peter went from being someone who wouldn’t even admit that he knew Jesus before a servant girl by a campfire (Jn. 18:17-18) to someone who openly declared to a massive crowd that they had killed the Lord and Christ (Act. 2:36).

Dear saints, the same Spirit works in you. He takes your personality, your background, your gifts, and even your weaknesses, and He reorients them so that you serve the mission of proclaiming Jesus to a lost world. That intentional proclamation of the Gospel is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and what? Self-control (Gal. 5:22-23). Dear saints, don’t forget that self-control is the result and visible fruit of the Spirit’s work. A sort of chaotic spontaneity is not evidence of the Holy Spirit. Self-control is. The Spirit produces the self-control in you to use who you in an ordered, faithful way for the good of others and the glory of Christ.

The Holy Spirit still comes to us today through the ordinary means He has given—through Word and Sacrament. In Baptism He pours out the washing of regeneration and renewal (Titus 3:5). He gives new birth (Jn. 3:5) and true faith in the heart. The Holy Spirit continually points you to Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins. In the Lord’s Supper He strengthens that faith and keeps you in the one true faith. Through these gifts the same personal Holy Spirit who has always been at work continues to call, gather, enlighten, sanctify, and preserve you in Jesus Christ.

Dear saints, on this Day of Pentecost give thanks to God for the Holy Spirit. He is the Third Person of the one true God, sharing the same divine being with the Father and the Son. He has always been at work in the Church and in the world. His main work is to point you to Jesus, your crucified, risen, and ascended Savior. And He does that work still today right here, as He reorients you with self-control so that your life serves the mission of Christ.

The eternal wind still blows. That new fire still burns. If you want to know if the Holy Spirit is present and working, do not look for any wind and fire. Look to Jesus. Is He being proclaimed as the Savior who died for your sins, rose for your justification, and ascended to rule over creation for your benefit? If that is what you are hearing, then you can be certain the Holy Spirit is at work. He is pointing you to Jesus, and in Jesus you have forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful people and kindle in us the fire of Your love. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Php. 4:7). Amen.

Charismatic Vocation – Sermon on 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity

1 Corinthians 12:1–11

1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. 

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Paul began this letter to the Christians in Corinth by saying that God had given them all knowledge, speech, and every spiritual gift they needed. Paul said that Jesus would sustain them guiltless until He returns (1 Cor. 1:4-8). With this glowing opening, you would expect the Corinthian congregation to be getting along splendidly. But you would be wrong.

There were divided groups that claimed loyalties to different former pastors causing dissension in the congregation. The members were suing each other in civil, secular courts. They were neglecting the poor. A man was having an illicit relationship with his father’s wife and bragging about it. Some members were getting drunk at Communion. On top of all that, there were even disputes about who was more holy based on the spiritual gifts they had received. So, the context of these verses is Christians fighting with each other over spiritual gifts and who was better because of them. That’s what the text is addressing. Now, I’m not preaching on this text because there is fighting here at Christ the King over who is more spiritual or less spiritual.

The reason I’m preaching on this text today is to encourage you to use the gifts the Holy Spirit gives you in your everyday lives. There is a tendency for all of us – please note that I’m including myself here – to be timid when it comes to living out our faith. I think a lot of that timidness has to do with ignorance about spiritual gifts. Paul begins by saying that he does not want us to be ‘ignorant’ about spiritual gifts. I know our translation says ‘uninformed,’ but the word there isn’t so much about a lack of information, rather it is about a lack of understanding, so ‘ignorant’ is probably better. So today, we want to grow in our understanding of spiritual gifts: what they are, how they are received, and how God uses them.

First, what are the spiritual gifts? The New Testament uses six different words or phrases to talk about spiritual gifts. I’m not going to go through all of them, but the Greek term χάρισμα is the most common and Paul uses that word twice in this text (v. 4 & 9). Yes, it is where we get our word ‘charisma.’ Χάρισμα means ‘gift of grace’ or ‘gracious gift.’ 

Scripture has two different lists of these gifts of grace, one is here in 1 Cor. 12:7-11, 27-30, and the other list is Ro. 12:6-8. The interesting thing is that the two lists aren’t the same. And there are many other verses throughout the New Testament that talk about other χάρισμα even though they aren’t included in a list. Many theologians suggest, and I tend to agree, that the lists are different and other χάρισμα are mentioned elsewhere because these lists aren’t intended to be comprehensive. In other words, there are more spiritual gifts than the ones listed.

There are some things that Scripture calls χάρισμα that we wouldn’t expect to be called ‘spiritual gifts.’ Here’s some of the surprises: service (διακονία where we get our word ‘deacon’); teaching; encouragement; generous giving; leadership; being merciful; a word of wisdom, guidance, or knowledge; faith (not what we would call ‘saving faith’ but an abundant trust and confidence in God’s provision); discernment of spirits; being an apostle; helpful acts; even chastity within marriage and outside of marriage – all of these are spiritual gifts, they are all χάρισμα. A lot of them aren’t so spectacular, but Scripture still calls them χάρισμα.

Second, how are the spiritual gifts received? According to our text (v. 4-7), these gifts are given through the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit doesn’t ever work alone. Instead, the entire Trinity is involved. These various gifts are given by the Spirit; the varieties of places to serve are given by the same Lord (i.e. Jesus Christ, the Son). And the varieties of activities are empowered by the same God (think God the Father). We don’t determine what gift or gifts we receive, it’s up to our Triune God. And God will provide whatever gift we need to fulfill our Christian duty to our neighbor.

One of the ways we are ignorant when it comes to spiritual gifts is that we tend to confuse spiritual gifts with natural talents. I think one of the reasons we confuse the two is that there have been spiritual gift tests and inventories for decades that focus more on where we think we have talents and interests. Natural talents are certainly gifts of God, but spiritual gifts are what God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit gives you as you carry out the various callings God gives you in life.

Another problem that makes us ignorant of spiritual gifts is that we confuse the order of things. We think the talents we have should determine the callings we pursue. But repeatedly in Scripture and in your own life, it ends up being the opposite. You are called to do something, and the Holy Spirit equips you with the spiritual gifts you need to do it. You’ve probably heard the phrase, “God doesn’t call the equipped; He equips the called.” It’s a little trite, and that phrase can be wrongly interpreted to mean that we don’t need to train or prepare ourselves – i.e. the phrase can be used as an excuse to be lazy. But with a proper understanding, it’s not a bad saying.

You Christian parents, even if you planned on when you would begin having children, you probably quickly realized that there were a lot of things you didn’t know and skills you didn’t have to be a good parent. But the Holy Spirit has given and will give you what you need when you need it. Most often, God doesn’t equip us with gifts in advance. Instead, He gives us exactly what we need exactly when we need it to minister to others as we serve in our vocations. Wherever God calls you, He will give you whatever you need to minister to that person in that situation (Mt. 10:19-20).

Finally, how does God use the spiritual gifts He gives us? Paul will go on after our text to use the analogy of our bodies (1 Cor. 12:12-26). Your body has many different parts that all need each other. Eyes need ears and toes and noses and hearts and livers and kidneys. No part of the body can say that is doesn’t need the others. In the same way, each Christian is part of the body of Christ and is dependent upon the other members. Just as all the parts of your physical body work together to do one common thing – keep you alive – all the parts of the Body of Christ work together to do one common thing – proclaim the Gospel, the forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

I know I’ve used the term ‘vocation’ quite a bit in the past, but it is good to revisit it and be clear about what a vocation is in a theological and spiritual sense. When we talk about ‘vocation’ in the Scriptural sense, it means your office or your relationship to the person or people God has placed in your life at any given moment. Every moment of every day God puts you into a relationship with another person where you have different responsibilities. Those are your vocations.

As a silly example, if you find yourself in a moving car, you have one of two possible vocations. Either your vocation is to be a driver, which means your tasks are to drive safely, follow the traffic laws, don’t cause danger to others, and get to your destination safely, or, if you aren’t the driver, your vocation is to be a passenger and your responsibilities are to not make the driver’s vocation more difficult than it needs to be.

Here is the good news, God gives you all the gifts you need to fulfill your vocation every moment of every day. So, rather than filling out inventories and reading books to try to discover your spiritual gift, or your χάρισμα, simply ask yourself, “Who is my neighbor right now, and what is my vocation to that neighbor? How does God want me to serve this person/people?” and Scripture promises that everything will fall into place.

We should expect the Holy Spirit to give us what is needed in each situation we encounter. We should expect and pray that the Holy Spirit will give us what is needed based on whom and what God presents to us. Be attentive.

If you are talking with someone who is going through a lot of problems, the Holy Spirit is calling you to the vocation of being a supportive brother or sister in Christ. Then, pray for the spiritual gifts, the χάρισμα of encouragement, wisdom, knowledge, and compassion depending on the situation. If you are struggling in your marriage, pray for the χάρισμα of chastity, faith, and service. If you are playing with your kids, pray for the χάρισμα of joy and generous giving of your time and energy. If you are at work and have a difficult task, pray for the χάρισμα of service, leadership, or helpful acts. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

Constantly let your vocation shape your prayers for the spiritual gifts you need in that moment, and watch God act. God loves to hear those prayers. He has promised to answer them. And God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will gift, equip, and empower you as He freely gives you the gifts you need to love and serve your neighbor. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Various Vocations – Sermon on 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 for the Tenth Sunday after Trinity

Listen here.

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

How many of you would say that we are a “charismatic” church? Some of you might be thinking, “No! And thank goodness. I don’t want to part of a church where people are rolling around on the floor and babbling in tongues.” But some of you might be thinking, “We should shake things up! We could use more manifestations of the Spirit in this stuffy place.” Maybe, some of you are somewhere in the middle. Well, wherever you fall in the charismatic opinion spectrum, this sermon is for you. Technically, of course, all the sermons I preach are for you which is why they are preached from this pulpit. (That isn’t a throw-away line. Remember that for later in the sermon).

James 1 17 Gift.jpgThree times the English word ‘gifts’ came up in this text, but in Greek, Paul uses two different words that get translated as ‘gifts.’ Twice the Greek word is χάρισμα (which is singular and the plural is χαρίσματα – I’m going to try to be grammatically correct through the sermon). Χάρισμα is where we get our word ‘charismatic.’ Inv. 4, “there are varieties of gifts/χαρίσματα,” and in v. 9, he mentions the “gifts/χαρίσματα of healing…” But in v. 1, Paul uses a different word that gets translated as ‘spiritual gifts’ or ‘spiritual things.’

The New Testament uses six different words or phrases to talk bout spiritual gifts. For the sake of time, I’m not going to give you all six, but χάρισμα is the most common and means ‘gift of grace.’ And if you look through all the texts about gifts, you see that the Holy Spirit doesn’t make Christians clones of each other but there is an enormous variety of ways the Holy Spirit’s work is manifested in people.

Now, Scripture has two different lists of the gifts/χαρίσματα (1 Cor. 12:7-11, 27-30 and Ro. 12:6-8). The two lists aren’t the same, but they include: prophets and prophecy; service (διακονία where we get our word ‘deacon’); teaching; encouragement; generous giving; leadership (yes, that’s a gift of the Holy Spirit); the gift of being merciful; a word of wisdom/guidance; a word of knowledge; faith, not what we would call ‘saving faith’ but an abundant trust and confidence in God’s provision; gifts of healing – which would include physical, mental, spiritual, and psychological healing; mighty works (probably referring to exorcisms); discernment of spirits; the gift of tongues and interpretation of tongues; being an apostle is a χαρίσμα; so are helpful acts; even chastity (within marriage and outside of marriage) is a χαρίσμα. All these are the gifts/χαρίσματα that Scripture talks about. Notice that most of these aren’t the wowie-zowie things that you think about as being charismatic gifts, but this is the list that Scripture gives.

For a long time in our country, Christians have been talking about spiritual gifts. You can take inventories to try to discover what your spiritual gift is so that you use it in service to the Lord. Some people get all tied up in knots trying to figure out what their gift is so they can figure out where they should be and what they should be doing to serve the Lord. But Scripture actually teaches that wherever you are as a Christian, you are serving God. Instead of seeking to try to find out what our spiritual gift is, we should be asking ourselves, “Where has God put me?” and, “Who is the neighbor that God has given me to serve?” Or to combine the two and make it a shorter question, “What is my vocation?”

I know I’ve used the term ‘vocation’ quite a bit in the past, but it is good to be clear. When we talk about ‘vocation’ in the Scriptural sense, it means your office or your relationship to the person or people God has placed in your life at any given moment. Every moment of every day God puts you into a relationship with another person where you have different responsibilities. That is your vocation.

As a silly example, if you are in a moving car, you have one of two possible vocations. Either your vocation is to be a driver and your responsibilities are to drive safely, follow the traffic laws, don’t cause danger to others, and get to your destination safely. Or, if you aren’t the driver, your vocation is to be a passenger and your responsibilities are to not put your hands over the driver’s eyes or make the driver’s vocation more difficult than it needs to be.

Here is the good news, God gives you gifts to fulfill your vocation in every moment of every day. So, rather than filling out inventories and reading books to try to discover your spiritual gift, or your χάρισμα, simply ask yourself, “What is my vocation?” and Scripture promises that everything will fall into place.

Thinking back on that list of χαρίσματα, Scripture teaches that there is a great diversity of gifts that are given by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives these gifts equally, but, again, He doesn’t clone people. Instead, He individualizes believers and brings out their distinctive character. Each believer represents and reflects a different aspect of the image of God which is why there is a diversity of gifts.

Trinity and Vocation.jpgAccording to our text (v. 4-7), these various gifts are given through the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit doesn’t ever work alone; instead, the entire Trinity is involved. These various gifts are given by the Spirit; the varieties of service are given by the same Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son; and the varieties of activities are empowered by the same God (think Father) who empowers them all in everyone. We don’t determine what gift we receive, it’s up to our Triune God. And God will provide whatever we need to fulfill our Christian duty to our neighbor.

Paul will go on after our text to say that each member of the entire church and each congregation is part of the body of Christ. And each member is dependent upon the other members. Eyes need ears and toes and noses and hearts and livers and bladders. No part of the body can say that they don’t need the other parts. All the parts work together to do one common thing, and the most important thing is that the forgiveness of sins through Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Gospel, is proclaimed.

Back to that line that wasn’t a “throw away”: I have been called by God to be your pastor and to preach this sermon today. And God has called you here today to hear this sermon, use your Holy Spirit-given gift to listen because Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it” (Lk. 11:28, Rev. 1:3).

So, you might be wondering, “What are my gifts? What are my χαρίσματα?” Well, rather than focusing on what gifts we have, we should be focusing on the people that God has placed in our lives to serve. Doing this helps to shape our prayers so that we ask God for the gifts we need in any particular moment. It also helps to protect us from getting puffed up and arrogant so that we decrease and Christ increases (Jn. 3:30). First, get your priorities right. Holy Spirit open eyes new heartsDo you believe in Christ’s death and resurrection for the forgiveness of your sins? Do you trust that His blood has covered all your iniquities and transgressions? If so, praise God! Then ask, “What is my vocation/station in life? What am I called to do right now?” “What do I need now as a mother?” “What do I need now as a husband?” “As a child?” “A student?” “A customer?” “A citizen?” God has called you to those vocations and He won’t leave you in a lurch. He will give you the gifts you need. In every moment of every day, you have a particular relationship to someone else, so you are called to be God’s representative in that moment. So, ask God to give you what you need to fulfill that vocation.

God doesn’t equip us with gifts/χαρίσματα in advance, but He gives us what we need when we need it to minister to others as we serve in our vocations.

When you need to do something, you can confidently expect to receive exactly what you need to serve in the way that God has called you. Wherever God calls you He will give you whatever you need to minister to that person in that situation (Mt. 10:19-20).

Now, there is a lot here, and I need to wrap things up. So, two concluding thoughts. You, Christian, have been given unique gifts by the Holy Spirit to serve those whom God has put in your life through your various vocations. The Holy Spirit has uniquely equipped you to serve in every vocation where He has placed you. So, what are you waiting for? Don’t wait to figure out how God has gifted you because He has already called and equipped you to serve your neighbor in your vocation. Which brings me to the second conclusion.

In the opening verse of our text, Paul says that he does not want us to be ignorant about spiritual gifts. Our translation says ‘uninformed’ but the word there isn’t about a lack of information rather a lack of knowledge, so ‘ignorant’ is probably better. So, understand this, and don’t be ignorant. Paul speaks about many different gifts/χαρίσματα in our text. But Paul will go on to boil everything down to the three greatest gifts by the end of ch. 13 – faith, hope, and love. These three gifts are the most important χαρίσματα given by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has given you faith. No one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. And because of that God-given faith, you have the gift/χάρισμα of hope.

Dear saints, the Holy Spirit has called you by the Gospel, enlightened you with His gifts, and will continue sanctify and preserve you in the true faith. But also remember that the greatest χάρισμα that you are given is love. Any use of your gifts without the gift, without the χάρισμα, of love is detrimental to the body of Christ. So, may you be faithful, may you be hopeful, and may you be loving as you use the other gifts He gives you as well.In Jesus’ name. Amen.[1]

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

[1]I am thankful for a lecture by Rev. Dr. John Kleinig titled “Heavenly Power for Earthly Service” for much of the information in this sermon.