Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 12:3–11
Date: May 28, 2023
Event: The Day of Pentecost, Year A
1 Corinthians 12:3–11 (EHV)
Therefore I am informing you that no one speaking by God’s Spirit says, “A curse be upon Jesus,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
4There are various kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of ministries, and yet the same Lord. 6There are various kinds of activity, but the same God, who produces all of them in everyone.
7Each person is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8To one person a message of wisdom is given by the Spirit; to another, a message of knowledge, as the same Spirit provides it; 9by the same Spirit, faith is given to someone else; and to another, the same Spirit gives healing gifts. 10Another is given powers to do miracles; another, the gift of prophecy; another, the evaluating of spirits; someone else, different kinds of tongues; and another, the interpretation of tongues. 11One and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them to each one individually as he desires.
You Have the Holy Spirit for the Common Good
More than once in high school as I sat studying vocabulary for a Latin or German quiz, I wistfully thought how nice it would be if the Holy Spirit would suddenly descend on me and I would just be fluent in these languages. I wouldn’t need to study anymore; my skills would be great rather than aggressively mediocre to bad; this would be a tool I could just use rather than fighting to try to haphazardly get it crammed into my skull.
But the Holy Spirit never came with that kind of gift for me. As a result, I’m probably not the person to bring all your burning Latin and German questions, which is probably ok; we can find other things to talk about and encourage each other with.
On a day like Pentecost, when we celebrate the birthday of the Christian church on the first Christian Pentecost day, we might look at some of the gifts that the apostles were given with some envy or even jealousy. We hear Peter’s sermon on Pentecost through which God brought 3,000 to faith and we think that even having 10% of that, or 1%, or even .1% of that would be an amazing blessing. How exciting would it be to have 300, or 30, or even 3 people brought from unbelief to faith through the message proclaimed here? And yet, we rarely see that. In fact, often instead of rejoicing over a myriad of new people coming to faith through our congregation’s work, we feel more like we’re losing the people we already had as part of our church family.
And so, either personally or collectively, we grouse a little bit at the choices God seems to have made. “If I had this gift or that gift, I could really do some good, Lord,” we might think. “If you just did something a little bit different, the way we see it should be done, the ministry of our congregation would be an unstoppable powerhouse, Lord.” And it’s not too far of a jump to go from mild dissatisfaction to full-blown coveting of gifts that God has not given and being filled with discontent over the gifts he has given.
So, this morning, let’s focus our attention on Paul’s parsing of gifts from the Spirit. Let’s work together to understand not just where they come from, but why God chooses to give the spiritual gifts that he gives.
Paul starts us with the most fundamental and the most profound gift of the Holy Spirit: saving faith. He says, “No one speaking by God’s Spirit says, “A curse be upon Jesus,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.” Without the Holy Spirit’s work, Jesus’ work is useless, because no one can choose to believe in Jesus on their own. Because our sin separates us from God, no one can make a decision to start trusting in Jesus or to welcome Jesus as Savior into their heart. None of that happens without the Holy Spirit. So, no one who believes in Jesus curses him, and no one can believe in Jesus as Savior without the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit brings and strengthens that faith through his Word and the sacraments. We see that in the conversion of the 3,000 on that first Christian Pentecost day. How did they come to believe? The preaching of the Word. Where was their faith strengthened? In baptism. The Holy Spirit was not primarily working that day in the sound of wind, the supernatural flames, and the ability to speak in tongues. No, the Holy Spirit was primarily working in bringing people to trust that Jesus was, in fact, their Savior. The conversion of the crowd from unbelief to faith was the most amazing miracle that day. That’s true with the number totaling 3,000; that would still be true if the number had just been one. Because in that conversion, it’s not just an amazing thing for a moment—it is work that brings blessings and rescues through eternity.
That is a gift you have been given. Whether you would deem your faith “weak” or “strong,” that you have faith to trust Jesus as your Savior at all is the gift and working of the Holy Spirit. You cling to Jesus’ death and resurrection as the certainty of your forgiveness. You trust, because of the work of the Spirit, that you will be in heaven as Jesus promised. You say, “Jesus is Lord,” “Jesus is Savior,” “Jesus is Good Shepherd” by the Holy Spirit. Thanks be to God!
Every other gift God gives is in service of that gift of saving faith. Why could the disciples speak in various languages that they had never studied on Pentecost? Not to make studying for that foreign language quiz easier or unnecessary, but to tell people about Jesus. Why did Jesus, the prophets, or the apostles work miracles at times? To draw attention to the saving message that God has given: sins forgiven by the promised Savior.
And this is the point that Paul is getting to in the latter verses of our Second Reading: There are various kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of ministries, and yet the same Lord. There are various kinds of activity, but the same God, who produces all of them in everyone. Each person is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Why does God give gifts to people? For the common good—especially the common good of faith in Jesus and certainty of eternal life.
It's pretty misguided, then, if you or I look at someone else’s gift and envy that person or covet what God has given to them. In those moments, we are not considering the common good, but our own personal good, our own personal reputation, or our own personal glory, which is a wild distortion of why God gives gifts to people. Paul enumerates some of the gifts that may be given: To one person a message of wisdom is given by the Spirit; to another, a message of knowledge, as the same Spirit provides it; by the same Spirit, faith is given to someone else; and to another, the same Spirit gives healing gifts. Another is given powers to do miracles; another, the gift of prophecy; another, the evaluating of spirits; someone else, different kinds of tongues; and another, the interpretation of tongues. Do some gifts in that list seem flashier or more impressive to our human way of thinking than others? Does being able to heal someone’s disease seem more awe-inspiring than being able to “evaluate the spirits,” that is, to determine whether someone is teaching rightly by God’s Word or not? Does the gift of teaching publicly seem more impressive than the gift of encouraging privately?
What are we basing these evaluations on? What is informing our thinking? It’s probably not thanksgiving to God. Oftentimes, we find ourselves sinning either by coveting the gifts that God has not given to us and thinking he’s probably made a mistake of some sort or by disparaging the gifts that he has given to us as unhelpful or unimpressive. We fall into the same trap that the Corinthians fell into—valuing some gifts over others, coveting what we can’t or don’t have. Or, if we have gifts that our sinful natures do think are pretty spectacular, we might lord those over other people rather than using those gifts to serve others.
For these thoughts and attitudes, we need to repent. For our discontent, for our accusations against God, for our ingratitude with the gifts he has given to us, we come before him in sorrow over our sin. For our exalting of ourselves, for our thinking that our gifts have something to do with us rather than him, we come on our knees before our God. We come before him repentant. And we leave forgiven—because Jesus died to pay for these sins as well. In Jesus’ death and resurrection, we find the solution to all our sins, including the discontent or inappropriate exaltation of certain gifts. That chief gift of the Spirit sits above them all—we know our sins are forgiven because the Holy Spirit has worked that trust in our hearts.
It’s important for us to keep in mind how Paul ended our brief reading from this letter: One and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them to each one individually as he desires. It’s important to remember where these gifts come from. Every gift, as different as they may be, all have their origin point in the same Spirit. God not only is the source of these gifts, but he has carefully chosen what, where, and to whom he has given them. God gives these gifts not to produce jealousy and discontent, but for the common good, to serve each other, and to serve the mission of sharing his Word that he’s given to us all.
So, as you look at the gifts you’ve been given, rather than comparing yourself with others, take stock of the blessings God has given to you. If you feel that you cannot serve God as well as some people who’ve been given different gifts than you’ve been given, consider how the gifts you have been given could be better used in service and thanksgiving to God.
Your God loves you and has given each of you the most precious gift—faith to trust Jesus as your Savior. Everything else is a bonus. May God lead us all to cherish that primary gift and everything else he gives, using them to his glory in thanksgiving for the eternal life that he freely gives! Amen.
