 Good morning everyone. We are now well. I had a good weekend and we are done some good rest. And I hope that we begin with someone who is praying for us in prayer. I ask for your presence to fill your knowledge, to guide us. We give Smith a man of difference. We bless her in the name of Jesus. I thank you for all my classmates over here. God bless them all. all in the name of Jesus help us to open our spiritual minds and the heart and ears and eyes to open them all and to listen to your word with a deep understanding Jesus help us to understand Holy Spirit you guide us Holy Spirit you teach us and whatever we learn today God help us to apply it in our lives so that we can live powerfully for your kingdom so that we can live in boldness to preach the gospel Jesus let every word be a seed that is being planted in our heart which will bear a fruit in our life for sure we give you all the glory and honor in Jesus name I pray okay so last week I had to cancel class and I said I would post the video all last week but I was able to do it I'll try and get that done this weekend post it and I'll also post I think we had three assignments left at least post the two and then I'll move the quiz to the end of the semester so I'll post the quiz maybe the last week of the semester but yeah the last two assignments is on the time first this week so already we just get a drawing on the movie classroom and then we'll be learning platform so last week yeah we missed last week but before that we had looked at first Corinthians 11 and then the beginning of first Corinthians 12 so in first Corinthians 11 we looked a little bit at this holding of women covering their head in worship what does that mean and understanding spiritual handshift so how is the man ahead of all women so okay that in the context of marriage and why women were asked to cover their heads in that cultural context after we looked at the Lord's Supper and some practices that Paul talked about specifically things that were happening in the Brindian church where there was that continued division between rich and poor where there wasn't unity in the church so when they were coming to get and celebrating the Lord's Supper they were not remembering what Christ had done for them and they were not coming together in a way that was glorifying from Christ and so Paul's correction of the church in the Lord's Supper how was it not there we looked at and then we started with chapter 12 where we started to look at Paul's teaching on this spiritual lips so what we do is we just go back to the beginning of chapter 12 and if someone could read that whole chapter for us and then we need to go through our discussion on it chapter 12 first Corinthians chapter 12 versus now concerning spiritual gifts brethren I do not want you to be ignorant you know that you were gentiles carried away to these dumb idols however you were led therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the spirit of God cause Jesus occurs and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit these there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit there are differences of ministries but the same Lord and there are diversities of activities but it is the same God who works all in all but the manifestation of the spirit is given to each one for the prophet of all for to one is given the word of wisdom through the spirit to another the word of knowledge through the same spirit to another faith by the same spirit to another gifts of healings by the same spirit to another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits to another different kinds of tongues to another the interpretation of tongues but one and the same spirit works all these things distributing to each one individually as he was should I continue so that first section the first 11 verses Paul starts to teach about the special gifts now we know as we read earlier in in the same letter that the gifts were already being exercised within the church and in fact they were seeing a lot of the spiritual gifts being given to members of the church and being used within the church so there was no lack in terms of having the gifts present in the church but what they lack was the understanding of what the purpose was of the gift and how they would utilize it in a way that would benefit one another when they gathered as a church so we talked about some of this already the last time we met so the spiritual gifts refers to something that is supernatural also not things that we have acquired by our own learning or our own skills that we naturally have but something that is given to us that is given to us from God and in verse two it talks about how they were worshiping idols that couldn't speak but now to recognize that by the spirit of God the things that come out of their mouth are given by the Holy Spirit so unlike the idols they worshiped who themselves couldn't speak the Holy Spirit is alive and and through us speaks through us so through our lips Jesus is glorified and so if we recognize Jesus as Lord by our words then that has to be the work of the Holy Spirit on the other hand if we are saying things against Jesus then that cannot be by the Holy Spirit so to recognize that what comes out of our lips will reflect whether the Holy Spirit is at work in us and whether we are being delayed by the Holy Spirit in what we say verse four so then it goes on to talk about these different spiritual gifts so he says there is a diversity of gifts so although there are many gifts that come from the Holy Spirit they are a variety of gifts but yet it's the one spirit who gives those gifts verse five I'm just going quickly through this because we already covered this last time there are a difference of ministries but the same Lord so here talking about the office or the function of a person within the church so previously he's talking about the spiritual gifts in the previous verse verse four in verse five he's talking about your function within the church so you might be a pastor you might be a teacher you might be an intercessor you might be a prophet so different roles that you may have within the church that also comes from the same Lord so from Jesus Jesus gives us each gives different people different functions not everyone may have a role or a function to play in the church but everyone has a spiritual gift so we'll kind of we'll talk a little more about that verse six there are diversity of activities so but it's the same God who works all in all so depending on your role or your function within the church how your gift comes out will look different so you might have the gift of prophecy as someone who is an intercessor so when praying for people God gives you a word of knowledge or gives you something to pray over a person and you're able to pray that whereas someone might have the function of a prophet itself and so when they are exercising the gift of prophecy when they have a word of knowledge they may declare it to the church or they may declare it to a group of people so how that same gift is used depends on the function that will play or the role that you have within the church so that is what we mean by diversity of activities so how the gift is manifested in your specific function may look different but it's the same God who works all in all in all of these things we have one Holy Spirit one Father one Lord Jesus who is giving us these gifts who is giving us roles within the church and then is enabling us to use these gifts in the roles that we play in the church so we looked at this example of different kinds of workmen right so an electrician a plumber carpenter an auto mechanic so all of them have different roles but all of them work with tools so they may use a hammer or a screwdriver different things that they use to do their work in the same way as believers we have the toolbox of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and depending on the role that we are playing how we use those tools we look different and how it is expressed and how it impacts other people we look different because of the role we play so verse 7 the manifestations of the Spirit is given to each one for the prophet of all so this is the kind of like a summary statement of why do we have the books of the Spirit so although there are many gifts that come in many forms that come from the Holy Spirit to every believer the purpose of that gift is to benefit the rest of the body it is not for our own glory it's not to project how holy we are or how spiritual we are or how mature we are rather it is to bless the other believers and so how we use those gifts in these gankings or what Paul will talk about as we gather as a church must be in a way that will benefit one another because that's the purpose of the gifts so I think we went up till verse 7 last time so from verse 8 onwards is where we hadn't covered so verse 8 but one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit to another faith by the same Spirit to another gifts of feeling by the same Spirit to another devotee of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits to another different kinds of towns to another the interpretation of towns and so we see here those three sets of gifts the vocal gifts that is the gift of towns the gift of prophecy the gift of interpretation of towns then the revelation gifts so gifts that enable us to reveal something to people so a word of wisdom a word of knowledge discerning of spirits and then the power gifts which are the gifts of healing working of miracles and faith so we see here that Paul is listing those spiritual gifts here the nine gifts of the Spirit so you you've already covered the gifts of the Spirit before right the gifts of the Holy Spirit in your classes so you're already familiar with this but we just look at it really quickly the difference between the gifts of the Spirit versus the membership gifts versus the ministry gifts because Paul will talk a little bit about all of them in this in this chapter so the gifts of the Spirit is what he's listed here these nine gifts that are available to all believers and we can desire to have these gifts and it's from having that desire that God gives us that gives somebody to manifest it and list it on the other hand there are membership gifts so Romans 12 6 to 8 covers this the membership gift specifically there are the passages in the New Testament as well first Corinthians 12 also we'll talk about it in verses 20 27 there's Ephesians 4 7 1st Peter 4 10 and 11 so all of these talk about the membership gifts now these gifts are given to believers based on their role or their function so whatever is their role in the church that God wants them to play within the church they have a membership gift to to carry out that role to carry out that function so every believer may have one or more of these membership gifts so suppose they are a teacher or a leader they may be both a teacher and a leader they may be gifted in giving they may be gifted in mercy they may have a gift of administration of health so depending on what their role is within the church the gift for carrying out that role is called the membership gift and then the third kind of gift is the ministry gift and this is given only two specific individuals we see that in Ephesians 4 11 and Paul references it a little bit here in 1st Corinthians 12 as well so the five ministry gifts are the apostle the prophet the pastor the teacher and the evangelist and these gifts are given specifically to equip believers to do ministry so these leaders the apostle prophet pastor teacher evangelist are placed as leaders over the church as people to to equip believers so that they can fulfill their roles in ministry so whether it is within the church or outside the church so these are the three different kinds of gifts and so in verse 8 to 10 Paul is specifically talking about the gifts just the gifts of the spirit which are available to all believers verse 11 but one and the same spirit works all these things distributing to each one individually as he goes so again here Paul repeats that that all these gifts come from the one spirit so although there are these nine different gifts that are being exercised in our gatherings as a church everything's coming from the same holy spirit and it's the holy spirit who wills that giving so it's not something that we have to beg for or plead for the holy spirit desires to give us that gift and as we desire like as we also have the desire to receive and are willing to cooperate with how the holy spirit wants to move through us then the gifts will be manifested in us so we can move on from there any questions what we've covered so far we'll continue continuing towards 12 converts if someone can read verses 12 to 27 please verse 12 to 27 whereas the body is one and has many members but all members of that one body be many or one body so also is Christ for by one spirit they were all baptized into one body whether Jews or Greeks whether slaves or priests and have all been made to drink into one spirit or in fact the body is not one member but many if the food should say because I'm not a hand I'm not of the body is it therefore not of the body and the earth should say because I'm not an eye I am not of the body is it therefore not of the body if the whole body wear an eye there would be the hearing if the whole body were hearing there would be the smelling but now God has set the members each one of them in the body just as he placed and if they were all one member where would the body be but now indeed there are many members yet one body and I cannot say to that hand I have no need of you nor again the head to the feet I have no need of you no much rather those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable on those we best have great honor and our unpresentable parts have greater honesty but our presentable parts have no need but God composed to the body having given greater honor to that part which lacks it that there should be no season in the body but that the members should have the same care for one another and if one member suffers all the members suffer with it or if one member is on that all the members rejoice with it now view all the body of Christ and members individually so here we go into a deception where Paul is talking from the perspective of each one of us has a function to play each one of us has a role to play because as the body of Christ we are a physical representation of Christ on the earth and so just like we have a physical body with different parts the body of Christ is that physical reflection of who Christ is and each of us acts like a part of that body so each of us has a function according to the part we have to play so we look through these verses and also do a quick summary that is there in your notes so verse 12 we are just as a body has many parts but all it's many parts for one body so it is with Christ so just reminder that although we are all different and each of us comes from a different place each of us has a different background each of us has a different role in society in the society around us each of us has a different spiritual background all of these things cultural background we all come with all of these differences but when we are in Christ we are one we become one in Christ and so he specifically says verse 13 Jews Gentiles say what the doesn't matter what your background was the Jews are Gentiles what your spiritual background what your cultural background is slave of the what your social status is what your financial economic status is all of those things don't matter but when you come together you recognize that we are all together functioning under the headship of Christ and we all work together for the purposes of Christ for the mission of Christ and so just as the Holy Spirit was given to every one of us irrespective of the background we are from so we must recognize that all of us I think there is no difference between us based on what we were before we came to the body of Christ or what we are outside in the world where the world looks at us what they see about us doesn't matter when we come into the body of Christ our identity changes because we all have this one spirit and it is this one spirit that unites us verse 14 even so the body is not made up of one part but it meant now verses 15 to 20 he's talking from the perspective of somebody who feels unimportant in the body of Christ so they were where they look at somebody else and they say because I'm not like that I I'm not a part of the body so the foot says because I'm not a hand I'm not a part of the body if the ear says because I'm not an eye so that is so common within the church right we look at somebody who seems seemingly has a very important role in the church and we think because I'm not in that role or in that function I don't do anything in the church I just like sit back I'm not gifted in music so I can't serve in the church I'm just going to come here and attend the services but that is not the case right so each of us has a role and all of our roles are important because if we don't function we don't do our roles then we're losing out on one function of the body so he says just because you think that way just because you think because I'm not an eye I don't belong to the body that doesn't mean that you are no longer a part of body whether you recognize it or not you are a part of the body and you have a role to play and if you don't play that role then your function is not happening within the body so he says if the whole body were an eye where with the sense of hearing me so that function of hearing would be lost or if the whole body were a year where with the sense smell me that ability of the body to smell here almost things would be lost if we didn't have those very essential parts but in fact what has placed the parts of the body everyone of them just as he wanted them to be if they were all one part where would the body be so it is the very fact that we have these differences these different gifts these different roles these different functions that makes us a body right if we didn't have different roles and functions then we couldn't be called a body and we just be called an eye or we just be called a year but to be called a body which has different parts and different functions for each part there has to be diversity there has to be a difference in the kinds of things we are doing in the in what is accomplished through each role in the work that is being done all of those things have to be distinct for us to function as a body so versus 21 to 26 this is talking about the other side of the argument where someone feels more important than another person so they think okay because I'm the eye I don't need the hand because I'm the head I don't need the feet right so the previous section was where the person who is the person themselves feels unimportant and so they feel they don't have a role to play in the body this is the opposite side where they where someone feels so important that they don't see a need for other people in the body they don't recognize that other people have a part to play in their own in their own spiritual growth and they don't recognize a contribution of other people to their to the functioning of the church so here verse 22 is lifting up those people who are in a place where this place is unimportant so he says those parts that seem indispensable those parts that seem to be weak are actually the most important parts the parts that we cannot do without and that's so true if we just take for example some of the roles in our churches today like the people who come and do the setup setting up things within the church say just putting out chairs or setting up mice or doing different things like that they are never seen nobody in the church actually sees them coming in say at six o'clock in the morning or a few hours before the service starts to do that and so sometimes we can completely forget that those people are there and those people are needed but we never see them on stage we never see them on the camera and so you just don't you don't know the work that is going on behind so many things that have happened on a Sunday service or at a gantry and so this point of the people that seem to be weaker are indispensable is so true because if those people were not there we would not have anything else we would not be able to have any of the singing we would not be able to have any place to sit down if the chairs weren't laid out for people to be sitting down so sometimes those very important roles are forgotten because they are not right up in front of us they are not the ones that we see on stage verse 23 the parts that we think are less honorable we treat so just like in our own physical bodies the parts that are less honorable are treated with special honor right so we have a special modesty that is given to the parts to the parts that are considered less honorable in the same way we should recognize these people within the church that have roles that we think are not as glamorous or not as important as the role of the preacher or the single or somebody else who is considered important in the church so verse 25 there should be no division in the body we should have people concerned for each other if one suffers everyone suffers if one is honored everyone rejoices with it and now you are the body of Christ and each one of you is a part of it so whether you're you consider yourself lesser whether you consider yourself greater doesn't matter every one who is within the church has a part to play and we should have equal concern for one another so if one is suffering everyone suffers one is honored everyone rejoices that should be the attitude with which we relate with one another within the church so we quickly just look at our notes as well so this gives us a summary of what we looked at in these verses 12 to 27 the body has many members so there are people with different roles different functions within the body we are not all the same the second is everyone who is within the church is a member of the body there's no one who is not immediate third is we are not independent we need one another okay so just because we have a more important role doesn't mean that we don't need somebody else and when I say more important role it doesn't mean that it's more important in God's eyes it's actually mostly within as humans we view certain roles as more important or we kind of put certain roles on a pedestal so from that perspective if you are in a role where you are put on a pedestal it doesn't mean that people who are not there with you are people who are not needed that the fourth is there are diverse functions in the body so we need to be able to celebrate each of these roles each of the functions that have been played by different people within the church and the fifth is God places us in these roles and functions and he places us based on what he thinks is best for us and what he uses here so we should look at this as a gift that God has given us right it's a privilege to be part of the body and it's a privilege to have any role to play within the body and so like the psalm says let me be a do keeper in the house of the God house of the Lord so it's not about do I have an important role to have a role that is being recognized it is the fact that I even have a role is a gift from God six it takes every person within the church to make up the role we can't do without anyone we can't give up on a certain role every person is needed to fulfill their role for us to fulfill all of the functions that the body needs to be doing and then yeah we can never claim independence we already said God gives greater honor to what seems to have less honor that's an important point so so let us not be too quick to see positions that have honor in people's eyes because God in fact gives honor to those who are less honored so we can be satisfied in the fact that God sees our work and he will give us the honor that is due to us and then the last point is God doesn't want any division within the body but that we demonstrate mutual love and care so that part about suffering and rejoicing with one another so to be so concerned for one another that when someone hurts you hurt when someone is experiencing something good instead of being jealous or envious or coveting what they have you're able to celebrate and rejoice with them okay so i think we've already covered all of this so we'll go on from here to verse 28 onwards someone can just read verse 28 till the end of the chapter first convenient chapter 12 verse 28 and God has appointed these in the church first opposing second prophets third teachers after their miracles then gift of healings and administrations varieties of tongues all all opposers or all prophets or all teachers or all workers of miracles who all have gifts of healing do all speak with tongues do all interrupt but earnestly desire the best gifts and yet i show you a more excellent way so here we see Paul now reporting to the ministry functions so before this he had covered the spiritual gifts that were available to the church but now he goes into some roles some functions some gifts that are limited to certain people so he says God has appointed these in the church now has appointed is to mean that God has put these people in place for his purpose so God is the head he is the decision maker he's the authority and he decides who goes where what they should be doing what gift station have board roles your functions they should have it so God himself has appointed people to these functions and says has appointed these in the church now some translations take this as God has appointed some in the church kjv and there's a few other translations that take that as some which means that these gifts are for some people specific people not for everyone within the church so this is how these functions are different from the gifts of the spirit because this is for a few people whereas the gifts of the spirit are for everyone she says first apostles so when you talk about first it means first can mean first in terms of in position like in a place of authority a place of influence or a place of honor within the church so the apostles have been put first in that way but also have been put first in time so they were the first ones to encounter Jesus to be filled with the Holy Spirit and they were the first ones to be sent out to reach others with the gospel and so the apostles are not only first in terms of their role in leadership but also in terms of being people who have encountered God and then throughout and reach out to others because of their encounter with God so second prophets the teachers after that miracles healings helps administration so helps talks about people who in any way are more perform a role of service so people who are there to come alongside to help carry out the work that has been done to provide some kind of assistance to the work that is being done and administration is people who have a place of it's it kind of means to rule or to govern like one who is directing a shift so who directs where the shift should turn which way it should go so an administrator is someone who kind of steers who moves the church moves particular ministry in a certain direction so we see here Paul is listing out ministry gifts as well as membership gifts we talked about this earlier right the difference between the ministry gifts which is the apostle the prophet the pastor teacher the evangelist so those are the ministry gifts that are given to specific people within the church to equip the body of Christ and so he talks about the he says first apostle second prophet third teachers and then he says miracles and gifts of healing which are typically the gifts that evangelists are given that as they preach the gospel it is accompanied by miracles and healings and so that can be taken where he's listed miracles and gifts of healing as part of the ministry gifts that he's talking about so as part of the gifts given to evangelists on the other hand he talks about membership is so he talks about helps administrations varieties of towns so membership gifts are the gifts that are given to people within the church to carry out their function or their role within the church okay so so because he starts off his section saying some this is given to some we conclude that these gifts are not available for all believers meaning not everyone is an apostle or prophet a teacher an evangelist or a pastor but those are given to specific people likewise not everyone is given the gift of administration so the membership gifts are not everyone has the gift of administration that is given to specific people to carry out their role of their function or not everyone has the gift of so when he talks about varieties of tongues someone who plays the role of an intercessor someone who brings messages in tongues to people so they bring a message in tongues and they're able to interpret it so these are given to specific people meaning this is a role that is given so in a gathering someone may have that gift of tongues to speak something to the congregation at a gathering where that gift of tongues is given to everyone within the church but this is where someone's given a role as an intercessor or a role as someone who is specifically giving messages to people in tongues and interpreting those things that is their specific function within the community so that is the difference between the person who is gifted as an intercessor versus someone who is exercising the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues so then he goes on in verse 30 asking a few rhetorical questions right so he says verse 29 and 30 are all apostles are all prophets are all teachers do all work miracles do all that he's listening the same things that he talked about before this he's repeating all of them anything does everyone exercise this and we he's asking rhetorically meaning no not everyone is a prophet not everyone is a teacher so from this passage itself we can see that he is saying that this is something that is given only to a few people but we differentiate this from what he's talked about earlier in the chapter where he's talking about the gifts of the spirit so that we understand is available to everyone but these specific gifts and functions are given to specific people not everyone can carry out these functions not everyone is given those positions of a possible teacher a prophet teacher okay i think we have one moment so we just finish this chapter and then we take a break and then verse 31 says but earnestly decide the best gifts and i will show you a more excellent way so we we see that we can desire the gifts right we go back to that initial section where he talked about i don't want you to be ignorant about the gifts so those spiritual gifts we can desire those gifts and when he's talking about the best gifts it means the gifts that would be most suited as we gather as a church what is the gift that is needed in this gathering that will benefit the rest of the church because that's what he's talked about in this chapter the gifts i gave in for the benefit of everyone in the church and with this chapter and the peace chapter he's talking within the context of when we gather as a church he talked about the Lord's support he talked about covering your heads so even this exercising spiritual gifts he's talking about it within the context of our gathering as a church desire the best gifts that are needed in that time when you gather so that you are able to minister to people's needs people are coming into the church with certain needs and they need to be ministered to if you desire for the gift that will benefit people then what you say or what you do will actually minister to the needs that they have come with and so that's why you should come with that desire and then we'll go on into the next chapter okay we can stop here and we'll come back in 10 minutes and start the chapter 13