Knowing and Growing - Spritual Gifts II
Vern Peterman · Oct 15, 2017
Knowing & Growing, No. 39
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492667514594

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We last time began looking at spiritual gifts. We had a letter size handout on that. And because that might be a little small for some folks, we have a legal size that we've distributed. Let's see if there's any more of them. Yes. So there's more. And so it's legal size. We're not getting legal, however. So it's just It's legal size, but it's not legal. It's still under grace.

So feel free to take advantage of that. Perhaps a little bit more readable. At one point in time, I produced this thing as in a 14 by 17 version. So it's very, very readable, but just a little hard for people to put in their binders and carry in their Bibles and things of that sort. So anyway, we'll be talking about spiritual gifts.

One of the questions that came up last time from Ruka, who I noticed isn't here, or isn't here yet, from Ruka, Ruka, if you haven't had a chance to meet her, she and her husband Niba are from Cameroon, which is on the coast, just south of Nigeria, and it's It has a connecting line with Chad, that Zara and her son Ramaj are from Chad. So anyway, just so you get the connections.

They're African countries, but actually, you know, while we have in the past had More contact with people from Uganda, and I've been to Uganda four times. Very different culture, as we've found. Nancy and I had Lamage and his wife, Memte, over for lunch recently. And, yeah, we've found it's a very different culture. African, but, you know, it's not all the same. By the way, even in Uganda, there are 500 plus different dialects. So along with those dialects often comes different cultures. And so anyway, quite a bit of difference.

Okay, so let's take a look. We have a supplement that's available over here. I emailed it to a couple of folks. This supplement is to address the question from last week. We won't be able to give it enough time, but I wanted to mention it and tell you where you can look further for more information.

The question was in Mark Chapter 16, verses 9 through 20, it talks about those who believe, and then it gives a list of different things that will come along with those who believe. And so the question is, is that those who believe of all the church age, or is it specifically of the apostolic era? And it lists things like tongues, and of course that's one of the favorites they like to make reference to if people are so inclined.

But it also has things like being bitten by snakes and drinking deadly poison and not being killed. What we find is everything in that list is written about as being fulfilled in the Book of Acts or otherwise in the New Testament epistles. except for drinking deadly poison. Even as we go through Acts, we'll see some of these different things fulfilled. The drinking deadly poison thing is one that is not.

But a few different things. One is, is that passage telling us that we need to institute those as rituals? No. Not too many people have taken up the deadly poison thing. A few who have tried it have found it doesn't work out very well. They go home to meet the Lord.

Yes? Is the asterisk cut off in your excel here on interpretation of Thomas? Yes, the asterisks cut off there just because of the width of the column. You could add the asterisk. Thank you. Yeah, and some of the main things to point out is that, in a summary, tongues was given as a miraculous warning to the Jews.

Its background, as we'll see in some of the handout that I gave you, its background actually goes back to the Old Testament, back to Deuteronomy, back to Isaiah. And so tongues is given as a warning to the Jews. It goes along with preaching to them the gospel of the kingdom, which was done until 70 AD. What happened in 70 AD? The Romans came in and took out Jerusalem and it was a disastrous event. And so what you see is that tongues was a warning, the gospel of the kingdom is presented, as we'll see in the book of Acts, all the way to the last verses, to continue to present to the Jews the gospel of the kingdom until this time of the warning being fulfilled. So then, Anyway, so that's a lot to try to cover here today. We won't try to do that.

What you'll find, though, is if you are interested in that, at the bottom of the handout, I've kept the original times and lessons and whatnot at the bottom of each of the handouts on those. So if you want to go and listen to the audio, you can track that down because we have the audio recorded for each one. It gives the dates and the lesson and what what the series was that that's included in. And that's in this supplemental handout, not the legal size handout. So anyway, if you want to track that down.

One more thing, and that is that you will find in some of your modern Bibles that Mark 16, 9-20, It is noted as not being in the latest versions and that sort of thing, and not being in the earliest manuscripts. What is interesting, and I think leans the other way in terms of evidence, is that there are seven early church father references where they quote from that. that predate the first manuscript where we have that included. That's Mark 16, 9-20. Anyway, again, we don't have time to cover that. That we covered in our church history elective. So, at any rate, that's available.

I'll be glad to talk about it some more, but we don't have time to cover it because we're trying to cover the main issue of the spiritual gifts. We say that there are apostolic era spiritual gifts, tongues we mentioned as a warning, the other gifts were given, why? Why were the other apostolic era gifts given, and David was of course an apostle, but things like prophecy, and by the way we're going to see that in the Acts series this morning, prophecy, word of knowledge, healing, why were those gifts given during that apostolic era? Okay, so to demonstrate the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and why else?

That's true. Why else? To validate their message. To validate the message. In other words, here you have, let's take it for instance, here is some apostle, and this apostle may be in Antioch. Antioch is quite a distance from Jerusalem. It takes, you know, well over a week to get there. And so, from one place to the other, here is an apostle who shows up in Antioch and testifies to the resurrection.

And by the way, the entire Greek culture in the Eastern Mediterranean just innately did not believe in a physical resurrection. So the cultural background was not gullibility regarding the resurrection, the cultural background was skepticism. Even among the Jews, which group of Jews did not believe in a resurrection? The Sadducees did not believe. So you had a skeptical element in the Sadducees, who by the way were strongly influenced by Greek philosophy, right? And you had an overall belief among the Greeks that there was no physical bodily resurrection. That was the main cultural background.

So to testify of a physical resurrection of Christ was one of those things like, yeah, yeah. The natural you know, thought on that is skepticism. So, but to come up with and say, okay, I'm going to do a healing here, I'm going to resurrect this person, you know, we're going to carry out some miracle, that would, oh, I guess he's talking about something I've never seen before, right? And would give credibility, it would support the validity of the testimony. So it was a necessary and valuable thing to have in the midst of the skeptical culture overall. Other thoughts?

So looking at that, so why, we talked last week about, for instance, In the past, very early in the book of Acts, we saw Peter and John, they go to the temple and there's a lame man there. Does Peter go up and say, well we can pray for you and we'll see what the Lord does? No. Peter goes up and says what? In the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk. He doesn't hem and haw, he doesn't say we'll see what the Lord does.

He knows that he has been given that ability miraculously. Now, let's ask this question, were the apostles then always able to carry out such miracles to make themselves well all the time, to preserve themselves, keep themselves from being harmed or killed. They were not.

And so an example we saw earlier in Acts chapter 12, just last week, and you'll see a quick reference to it this morning, an example would be who was the first apostle killed? James, brother of John. So here we have the two brothers as bookends. James is the first one to die. Acts chapter 12, verse 2. Acts chapter 12, verse 2.

He's the first one to die. His younger brother John is the last to die. And so far as we have any record, the only one to die a natural death. All the rest of them died a martyr's death. Oh wait, one more thing. James was the only one, so far as we have any record, that died in Israel. James is the only one, so far as we have record, who died in Israel.

All the others, from any record that we have, and the record is outside of scripture, and is of variable reliability, but all the records that we have of the apostles outside of James, was that they died somewhere outside of Israel. and in many cases a long way away from Israel. One of them that we have pretty good certainty about is Thomas, who died in India, on the east coast of India, near Madras. So, looking at the apostles, they were not able to just simply turn it around to keep from being killed, They were not able to take their miraculous abilities and just make themselves healthy all the time.

Even, here's Timothy, and Paul tells Timothy, you know, take a little wine for your stomach's sake because you're sick often. Right? He knows it's a little wine. But for your stomach's sake, why? Because you're sick often. He doesn't just go, oh, let's heal that and move on. Right? So for the sake of always making life easy for the apostles and those who associated with them, that didn't happen. Yes, Marilyn.

Did the Holy Spirit actually tell them who to heal and who not to heal? That's a very good question because we don't always have some explicit statement, the Holy Spirit said this and the Holy Spirit said that. So we don't have that kind of a statement to be able to answer affirmatively that the Holy Spirit made some statement Here's Peter, for example, who has this vision of the food coming down, and they had included things that were unclean, after which the Holy Spirit explicitly spoke to him, and we have record that the Holy Spirit spoke. So when we have other instances, how do we answer that question? Did the Holy Spirit speak, or did the Holy Spirit not speak, or how was it clear? If you look at it, the Holy Spirit may have spoken in other instances, but it's not recorded. The Holy Spirit may have directed without a voice. So those would be instances. So we have specific quotes, but often times we find the apostles viewing things without a specific voice. Other times, yes, a specific voice.

One of the things we find is that often if the Holy Spirit is speaking in the book of Acts, it's to have them do something that they might otherwise not do or might not be inclined to do. So that's one thing, for example, with Peter. He would be ordinarily reluctant to go with the Gentiles, right? And so the Holy Spirit speaks to him, don't hesitate to go with these guys. So one of the things we'll find is that where the Holy Spirit speaks explicitly and it's quoted in Acts, that's a good generalization, that it's for people to do something they would ordinarily not do.

Let's also take an example of the gift of tongues. Do we have the Holy Spirit speaking to those who are speaking in tongues on the day of Pentecost? Not that we have record. What we have is the Holy Spirit acting through them on the day of Pentecost. But not necessarily saying, OK, now go speak in this other tongue, and you speak in this dialect, and you speak in this one. So we don't have, in those cases, always explicit direction. But yet the Holy Spirit is producing the effect or leading without a voice.

I understand from some of the things you said that the Jewish people were able to do some pretty miraculous things like raising people from the dead, but usually it was within a couple of days or something like that. So was this from the Holy Spirit as well? I presume, right? just on a temporary basis or an instantaneous basis? I'm trying to think of the context of what you're saying, so I'll make sure that I answer it correctly. Well, like when they raised Lazarus from the dead, it was on the fourth day. So here was Jesus, and he raised Lazarus, and so here's an instance.

What are the resurrections that Jesus did that we are aware of? So one we have Lazarus, that's recorded in the Gospel of John. There are two other resurrections, do you recall which ones they were? The widow of Nain, her son, her only son, remember Dr. Luke was inclined in chapters 7, 8, and 9 to write about an only son or an only daughter, three chapters in a row, and it was her only son, so it was the widow of Nain, her only son who was resurrected, Jesus resurrected the only son. As an eternal resurrection forever or as a temporary resurrection to this life? just like Lazarus. It was a resurrection back to this life.

And the third instance that we have of Jesus conducting a resurrection of someone back to this life is the daughter of Jairus, the synagogue official. So we have those three instances where Jesus resurrected. And so we have that. In Acts we have one of Peter resurrecting someone and one of Paul. And so we will see those, but all of those resurrections were back to this life. Right, and Jesus and the Apostles I understand. And it was after Pentecost when these things happened, so I understand that.

But what I was saying that It was my understanding that the Jewish people did have times that they could do very miraculous things prior to even Jesus. So, was that from the Holy Spirit? Yeah, there is record. It doesn't have the reliability of Scripture. There is record of some of the Jews being able to do miraculous things. And what I would say is, if it's miraculous, it's likely God's doing, and it may very well have been, here's a godly person that the Lord is regarding, in at least the Old Testament sense. So yeah, you'd have to say this is a work of the Lord. Exactly how it's done is not explicit. But there are some records of such things not having the same reliability as scripture.

So anyway, if we look at these apostolic era gifts, these were gifts that were given during the time of the apostles. The gift of tongues ends sooner, that is at 70 AD, that was the end of the gift of tongues. Your handout, supplemental handout here, and we won't go through the detail, gives several different quotes of early church fathers. who said that those kinds of things like the tongues that happened back then aren't happening now. And even some of them late 1st century and into the 2nd century saying it doesn't happen like it used to back during the time of the apostles.

So you have that. Here's John who was taken home to be with the Lord in 96 AD. He wrote Revelation just before that, probably 95 AD. And so that was the end of the apostles, the only apostle to die a natural death in any record that we have, and probably in or in the area of Ephesus. It was where he was when he went home to be with the Lord.

So then we have kind of the, what's the middle, the Church Age gifts, which are the gifts that, when we say Church Age, that means they existed during apostolic times but have continued to this time. So, let's ask this question, is it possible that the Lord can carry out the functions of any of these apostolic era gifts in our time without having the apostolic era gift itself be given? Can the Lord heal during this time? Yes, the Lord can. Is it possible that the Lord can do a miracle during this time? Yes, and the Lord can and does. The Lord can do miracles. So it is possible for these things to come about and to be expressed.

Example, what are some of the things that the apostles did? They went about and established churches, right? And what we've said is the Apostles were a super gift, that is they included the other apostolic era and non-apostolic era, that is Church Age, gifts. They included all these gifts. They would go and establish churches using those gifts. Today, do we have people who establish churches? Yes. We certainly do. It doesn't mean that they are apostles in the official sense, but they can still go about and establish churches. And so we'll see some of these things that were a part of those gifts exhibited, but not have the gifts themselves be still given. The Lord can heal, the Lord can produce miracles, people can establish churches, things of that sort. And one more thing, and that is...

We say it's the end of the era of the apostles that ends these apostolic era gifts. It's also the end of the collection of the New Testament documents. So they have that revelation. Some of these gifts were, we say, they're revelatory. That is, that they are designed to reveal truth in lieu of, in the absence of, and instead of, the New Testament being completed. Once the New Testament was complete, which it was with the Book of Revelation by the hand of John. Once it was complete, then you had the complete New Testament available.

Okay, so now we have the church age. Those are designed to be carried out in church bodies today. They were back in New Testament times. They were in earlier times. And so let's look at those. We have teachers. And by the way, that's not the same as those who are shepherds, but also teach. So this is those who are teachers.

So it's explaining the truths and applications of Scripture. The result is so that people understand the Word of God. And we find numerous examples. What you see as an example over in the right-hand column is just one of what we could say is many instances of an example.

We also have helps or service. So this is people who help in different ways. Can you think of, as we've gone through the Book of Acts, someone who had a gift of helps or service? Barnabas helped in various ways, and as a matter of fact, we're going to continue to see ways in which he helps out. And Mark assisted.

Here's another one. How about Dorcas? This is the one instance where Peter resurrected, referring to the earlier question about resurrection. Dorcas lived in which city? Remember? Joppa. Dorcas lived in Joppa. And Peter came to Joppa and raised Dorcas from the dead. Dorcas had been making what for the various people?

Clothing, garments. And people would say, look at what she made for us. And just many people would... And so she did that. And what's interesting is, is this necessarily a high-profile gift? Not necessarily. It may be something that just happens real quietly. And it's probably better if it does. But it was needed.

Yes, and so this is a needed gift, this is a valued gift. When she died, the people said, look at what she did for us. And they were sad to see her go. And so through Peter, she was resurrected and brought back to the ability to serve. So that would be an example.

Here at Holly Hills, in order to have the services that we have and even the handouts that we have, we have various people having gifts of service of different kinds. And people serve in ways that are not high profile, and that's fine. But it's wonderful, it's by the Lord's provision that things happen around here and get done, and we don't make a lot of noise and fanfare about it, but it's the gift of service being spelled out. How about administration? Organizing and administrating the work of the ministry. So we have people that will pull things together, And so you'll have that. That again may also be something that is often low profile, or it may have moments of being higher profile. Yeah? That's what I can carry over from non-gifting, right?

Spiritual gifting. Well, okay, so here's an interesting thing, is you have spiritual gifting, And it may or may not correspond to what's evident in the secular realm. Example, you may have someone who is a school teacher that's certified, but doesn't have the gift of teaching. You may have someone who has a master's degree in business administration, but they may not be gifted in administration in the church.

Or they might be. It is often imposed upon pastors that they carry out things like this administration in some regard. They may or may not be gifted with it. Some cases you have guys that are pastors, I'm not sure, gifted as pastors. They may be teachers. The worst case is that they're not gifted with either one, but they're still doing it, right?

In Acts 20, we're going to see the Apostle Paul talking to the elders from Ephesus and saying, the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. And that's ultimately the question. It's not, has your degree made you an administrator? It's not, do you have a teacher certification that's made you a teacher? As we look at spiritual giftedness, is it the Holy Spirit who has given these gifts? And by the way, how many gifts can a person have? Just one? Now that you've got the one gift, that's it. Is that the way it works?

Yeah, in other words, as we read 1 Corinthians, especially chapter 12, and we began doing that last week, as we read 1 Corinthians chapter 12, we see that the Holy Spirit distributes the gifts. So by the way, do I go and pick from a list? No, it's who picks. Yeah, God does. In acting through the Holy Spirit, He distributes the gifts as He wills. I don't get to go say, well, I like this one and this one and this one. Yes? And it can be temporary, too, and for certain instances. Yeah, and I think what you'll look at is, we said last week, there's not only different gifts, but different ministries. So let's ask this question.

Is it possible that a person is gifted as an elder, as a shepherd, as an overseer, and never recognized as such? Never given the title? Could happen, right? And the truth is, it's possible for people to express these things without ever being acknowledged particularly. And again, we mentioned it's not necessarily even high profile. One of the things that our modern culture has done is we make people high profile, when that's not necessarily the biblical pattern.

We don't know for certain, by name, the name of any elder in the entire New Testament from Acts on into the epistles. We don't know for certain the name of any elder in any of the churches, although we were repeatedly told that they appointed elders in the churches, except for James, Jesus' half-brother, who was an elder in Jerusalem. That's it. And that tells me that being an elder or a shepherd is not intended to be high profile.

Our modern pattern, however, is to, in high profile situations, is to, okay, this guy has a high profile name, and we'll recognize this guy's name in all sorts of places in Christendom, even if we don't know the name of any other elders, and we don't know the name of the church. And that happens fairly often where we will put attention, here's a high profile guy, we don't know the name of any of the other elders and we don't know the name of the church, but we know the name of that guy. Because he's got a Bible named after him or he's got a teaching series or whatever it is. And then we'll tend to put other things on him. This guy's called Dr. So-and-so. You know, and again, that's a modern invention, not something from the biblical pattern in Europe. OK, so let's continue on down here.

So we have encouraging. So encouraging is actually a word that can be encouraging and also the same word can be in different contexts, exhorting. So it can be exhorting people towards a certain direction, not simply encouraging in the sense of uplifting of spirits, right? So an example of encouraging in the New Testament would be who?

Barnabas would be one of your principal examples there. Not the only one, but when you call the guy Barnabas after he's first introduced, because by the way, what's his given name? Joseph was his given name, and he's never called Joseph again. He's Barnabas, which means son of encouragement.

So you have that, and so he would go in situations, and that gift would show itself as, I'm supporting Saul here, who everybody's afraid of him, but I'm telling you, it's the real deal. This guy has really come to know the Lord. And so he's supporting Saul.

We're going to see pretty soon in the book of Acts, he's going to be a supporter of John Mark, we're going to see in today's passage, when nobody else is. Not even Paul. Paul doesn't want him to come along, and Barnabas does. So we're going to see what the Lord does with that difference of viewpoint of these two guys. So here is Barnabas as probably a primary example of having the gift of encouragement.

And by the way, do churches need that? Oh yeah. It is very easy for a church to become discouraged in various things. And lots of different things, things on the outside, things within the church, the gift of encouragement is very much needed in our area.

Right along with that, the gift of giving. And we look at the bad example of Ananias and Sapphira, but there's also a right along parallel with that. Here's Barnabas, he's introduced, what is he introduced as doing? As giving. He sells a piece of property, turns around and puts that at the feet of the apostles. By the way, what's happening here in Acts 12 is by this time, Acts 11 and 12, by this time the money is being brought to the elders of the church in Jerusalem, no longer to the apostles. Change. Alright, next one.

Leadership. So how is leadership different from administration? Or could they go together? I would say probably leadership might have charismatic qualities where administration is basically organization and maybe things that go along with organization like endurance and focus and direction. Okay, so someone might have the gift of administration but not have the gift of leadership. So the gift of leadership then is to be able to speak to the body and to draw people in a unified and particular direction. So a person may have the gift of leadership, but it has more to do with communication and getting people to see here's the picture, here's where we're headed and why we're going in this direction. And that would be a different giftedness from administration, which might be entirely behind the scenes.

If a person has both gifts, then you will see them doing both, right? Where they're both going about and organizing things that need to be done. and then also speaking to people and motivating people and convincing and persuading and communicating about the direction things need to be headed. So see the difference there? So leadership is very likely to be higher profile in terms of this is the one who communicates with people. The administration gift may or may not be higher profile. It could even be very under the surface, but it still takes place. Now let's take a look at gift of mercy.

By the way, this is where we've got to talk about what's the difference between mercy and grace. What's the difference between mercy and grace? Are they synonyms or are they similar or related? Grace is something that God has given. I guess we can too give it to somebody who is undeserving. So we look at it, here's an instance where both words are used together. And that would be Ephesians chapter 2 verses 4 through 7. Initially it talks about mercy, and at the end of the passage it talks about grace. We oftentimes get a lack of clarity as we use those words or hear the words used, but mercy is withholding judgment deserved.

Grace is blessing above that which is deserved. So, what do we deserve eternally? Can you repeat the one for grace again, please? Mercy is withholding judgment or removing judgment or penalty or suffering that is deserved. And grace, on the other hand, is blessing above that which is deserved. So both of them have to do with the idea of something being undeserved. What is God merciful to us about? What do we deserve without His mercy and His grace? Yeah, we deserve death. Vern, for all points of justice, ought to go to hell. That's what I deserve. That's it. God withholds that judgment and punishment as an expression of His mercy. How can He do that? How can he withhold that? Because did God just say all the boys will be boys? What's that? He's sovereign, and that's true, but why else?

He paid the penalty. In other words, Christ said, okay, instead of that penalty being paid by Verne, who deserves, he deserves it. There's no question. Verne deserves that penalty forever. Instead, Christ says, I will take that. I will take that penalty entirely upon myself. All Verne has to do is believe. And so Verne has that penalty that he certainly deserves removed by God's mercy. And then what does God do? Does God say He just takes the penalty away and says, now you're in neutral ground and isn't it great you don't have to burn forever?

Grace is that He blesses us again and again and again, way, way above what we deserve. So there's the distinction. So here's the Apostle Paul, he's writing the book of Ephesians. He says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. So here's all the blessing. This is way, way above what we deserve. This is blessing and grace.

And so the Lord not only says, we're going to remove that penalty from you, but He says, okay, now I'm going to make you a child of mine forever. I'm going to save you forever, and you don't deserve that either. You can't lose it. Why? I'm going to be the one who saves you, and I will never revoke it. And you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, and how much of that did you deserve? In Christ.

So here's what happens, is in Greek literature, Ephesians 1 verse 3 through verse 14, is all one sentence, and it's the longest sentence in all of Greek literature that we know of. One long sentence. So the people that translate it have to say, oh man, how do I translate this one long, run-on, run-on, run-on sentence? And they break it up into sentences.

But the reality is, Paul, you know, he talked about we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing, and then his pen just went crazy. Right? With the blessings, he says, these are so exciting, I just, I don't know where to stop. And he stopped at verse 14. And you know what he started in verse 15?

The second longest sentence in all of Greek literature, where he tells more about the blessings that we have. This is so phenomenal. And so that's why he gets into chapter 2, verses 4 through 7, and verse 7 he says, then that grace, the blessings that we have that we don't deserve, mercies withholding judgment, blessings above what we deserve is grace. Those blessings are so phenomenal it's going to take forever for God to show us what those are. We're going to be gasping in awe for eternity.

So, a gift of mercy expressed is essentially someone helping in others' suffering. Helping in others' suffering. They come along with sympathy, they come along with aid, they come along with emotional encouragement and practical help. in cases of suffering. So they should work in FEMA? Well, and that's the problem is that there are government entities where they try to do that. The difficulty is it's government. A very quick instance.

An uncle who was a missionary in Santa Cruz de Guayape in Honduras. A podunk town out in the middle of nowhere didn't even have a road to it. You had to drive along the creek bed. But he invented a water wheel for them to put water from the river and use the river power to pump it uphill so they could water the crops, which they otherwise didn't water. So one of the U.S. aid guys heard about this and had a whole bunch of the product delivered to Honduras and it just sat there at the port and nothing ever happened with it. Why? It's a government attempt to reproduce the gift of mercy. Right? So it never happened. Okay, so then you have evangelists. This was evangelists. And evangelists for what? Evangelists for what?

Giving out the gospel. There is a place for all of us to know what the gospel is and certainly believe it, and also to be able to tell others. Over the decades, I can look back and see instances where the Lord has used me to share the gospel with people. I don't believe I have the gift of evangelism, however. But people who have the gift of evangelism will, by Spirit's enablement, go about sharing the gospel. It will not always show up as, here's some big stadium filled with people, but may in fact just show up with individuals or small groups of people, and you'll see them doing it continuously.

They'll sit next to somebody in the airplane or waiting in the airport and the gospel comes up. They'll be in a situation, even I've seen or heard about it, they're waiting in line talking to somebody at the grocery store. And so these people have an ability to convey the gospel and see the opportunity for conveying the gospel in circumstances that the rest of us would go, wow, that's amazing. Boy, it's apparent. They have a gift of evangelism. It's not just an occasional opportunity, but something the Lord lays both on their heart and lays in front of them. These are the good works that God has prepared beforehand for them.

Isn't there a crown? Well, if you look at the crowns, none immediately comes to mind. But that's another thing you look at. Is there a reward for employing these gifts? The Bible doesn't spell out a reward for each, but for some of them it does, which may tell us that there are rewards and crowns, that our list is not exhaustive.

So that may be the case. And then the last one there is shepherds. This is in the Bible spelled out as pastors. Pastor is the Latin form of a shepherd. A pastor or an overseer is another term, or an elder. Those are equivalent terms. In shepherding and overseeing, those are also given as verbs.

In Acts 20, as we're going to see, and the same for 1 Peter 5, verses 1-4, instead of talking to the elders and talking about the word shepherd, in both cases the verb for shepherd is used, which tells us one thing, and that's that God's more interested in action than He is in titles. We're more interested in action than he is in titles. What has happened again, what the church, if we get our eyes off of scripture, the inclination is to start putting a big emphasis on titles. And boy, the people can go crazy with titles.

You see somebody being titled the Right Reverend Purbendery, whatever that means, you know, big super titles for people, and guess what? In the New Testament, the only one who gets the title shepherd is Jesus. It is never used as a title for those who are gifted with shepherding.

It is only used as a noun, shepherd, in Ephesians 4.11, and that's not as a title.

So it's very interesting the way scripture uses it. So it's important to be mindful of that and not let Christian culture, even if you put the title Christian on it, not let Christian culture or the culture in general force a definition on that. Okay, so we're going to move on from these spiritual gifts. But just key, these are things that Lord intends every single one of us has at least one of these gifts and may have more than one, possibly even several gifts in one person. And again, it's the Holy Spirit who decides who gets what. How many of you have heard of spiritual gift tests? You ever heard of that? So what do you think of that?

Yeah, it may be more entertainment and it's sort of applying something modern again to something that wasn't there. I find no mention of spiritual gift tests. when I look at the New Testament. Yeah. But it's an educational tool in a sense to help you understand what the gifts are. Yeah, in other words, if you look at it, it might be interesting, maybe some value in terms of insight. It shouldn't be used as a replacement for what does the Bible say, right? It's not magic. And it's I can remember some of the tests I've taken over time. Things remember when I was in high school, taking a test that I should either be a game warden or a farm machinery mechanic. Guess what? I never did either one. I was never interested in either one. But that's what it said I should do. So anyway, just. It could be done. I'm not saying it's wrong to do it, but be careful about applying it mechanically. Yes? Real quick, and then we've got to go.

Discerning of spirits, could you also say that it's distinguishing the power behind a teaching or prophecy or event? Yeah, in other words, essentially it's going into a situation. Here is, for example, Simon, the magician in Samaria. And very quickly, you know, Peter comes in and he doesn't just sit there and chat with the guy and spend several days with him. Very quickly, he's stepping in and saying, hey, you've got a problem and you need to repent. So in his instance, it was it was very clear, very quickly. We have, in our era, the Word of God to look at and say, how's everything compared to this? Rather than the apostolic era gift.

So, are we to discern? Most certainly. We're to use the Word of God to do that. I was thinking more like sometimes you end up in a particular instance or event or place and you're there and you go, well, I should... Well, okay, but essentially what that needs to be is not just, you know, woo-woo, you know, feelings, and that may happen, but I'm just saying ultimately we need to compare things with the Word of God, that the Word of God is given. And we rely on that. Our feelings of, this is not spiritually comfortable, our feelings of not being spiritually comfortable need to be checked with the Word of God. because we may have situations that we walk into where we should have been more careful, and other instances where we get some sort of a feeling that, uh-oh, this doesn't square up, but everything needs to be compared with the Word of God as the final test. But feelings don't necessarily have to be wrong.

That's correct, but we don't rely on them ultimately, right? Okay, let's pray. Lord, we look to you as we see these spiritual gifts, we see them even for our time and our era, applying to each and every single one of us. And we do look to you in that to bring understanding on our parts regarding not just ourselves, but others in the body as well. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.