I realize that right now the minds of many of the pastors, church leaders, and fathers who subscribe to the podcast are focused on the pressures of wokeness that are impacting our families—be it the LGBTQ agenda or the Critical Race Theory agendas, which are shaping the rising generation. In September, I will be doing a series, to help guide our kids away from these misguided worldviews and into the foundations of the biblical worldview. Yet as vital as such equipping is for today’s kids, today’s topic of spiritual gifts may be more important. The reason is that Paul teaches that using our spiritual gifts is central to growing up into Christ, into the STRENGTH we all need when we venture into the world to make a difference for Christ in a Post-Christian era.
The book of Romans is considered the greatest theological tome ever written. In it, Paul devotes the first eleven chapters to explaining God’s mercy in his plan to save us by grace alone through faith in Christ. At the beginning of Chapter 12 are three hinge principles on the doorway through which we leave the doctrine room and enter the life application room. You are probably familiar with the first two.
1. Romans 12:1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. The most foundational principle of everyday spiritual growth is that we offer ourselves to God on the altar as a response to his mercy for us.
2. The second hinge principle comes in Romans 12:2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The second most important principle of spiritual growth is that we are set free from the former patterns of sin in our lives by Scripture renewing our minds.
3. Romans 12:3-8—recognizing and using the different gifts given to us. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. The third most important principle of spiritual growth is that we 1) use our spiritual gifts and 2) be in community where we are built up by others’ spiritual gifts.
Here is one of my favorite illustrations of the way spiritual gifts work. Seven family members, each with a different one of the motivational gifts of Romans 12 are sitting around the dinner table when the eighth (youngest) member of the family who drops the dessert while walking to the table. Here is what you could those with different gifts to say:
- “That’s what happens, when you are not careful” (prophet—motivation to convict of sin)
- “Oh, let me hep you clean it up” (server—motivation to meet a practical need)
- “The reason it well was that it was too heavy on the one side” (teacher—motivated by truth and accuracy and research).
- “Next time don’t try to bring everything at once. Make two trips (exhorter—motivated to learn character by mistakes and correct for the future)
- “I’ll be happy to buy a new dessert (giver—motivated to provide financial resources to meet the need.)
- “Jack, would you get the mop. Lauren, please help pick it up. Courtney could you hep me fix another dessert?” (leader—motivated to build and coordinate a team to get the job done.)
- “Don’t feel badly. It could have happened to anyone.” (mercy—motivated by the desire to alleviate the pain of embarrassment.)
Christian psychologists tell us that every human needs to have a sense of value and a sense of belonging. Paul’s words meet both of these needs. We are given a valuable spiritual gift that God commands us to use, and told that each member of the Body belongs to all the others.
PROPHET: (PROPHETES) which means “to speak forth openly.”
Three word-pictures describe the way this spiritual gift functions:
1. Mouthpiece: Last week we saw that the gift of being a prophet is used three ways in Scripture. It is a job description for someone like Elijah in the OT or Silas in the NT. It is secondly used for prophets whose words actually became Scripture, like Isaiah and Jeremiah. Both of these, i.e. lowercase prophets and uppercase Prophets often had supernatural insight from God about the future. They were the mouthpiece of God. The similar gift of prophet in Romans 12, does not bring fresh revelation directly from God—the Scriptures have been fully completed now. But those with this gift are very committed to the authority of God’s Word. Their attitude is, God’s Word says it. I believe it. That settles it. Here are some specific characteristics that match this aspect of prophets:
- A strong conviction that the Bible is God’s inerrant Word.
- A strong commitment to studying and obeying God’s Word in his or her everyday life.
- Passionate commitment to God’s Word as the authority for the church.
2. Prosecuting attorney: As we saw last week prophets like Elijah had supernatural messages from God about the future—but those predictions were not some kind of fortune teller; their prophecies were always linked to the consequences God brought for Israel’s sin. When Moses brought God’s covenant law down from Mt Sinai, the people vowed to keep the law. But to provide a little extra motivation, very clear sanctions were attached to this covenant made between God and the Israelites. Here are a few sample verses mentioning the blessings promised by God for obedience and the punishments promised for disobedience.
IF YOU FULLY OBEY THE LORD YOUR GOD …. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land… The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you…. The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to…. HOWEVER, IF YOU DO NOT OBEY THE LORD YOUR GOD…. The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him… The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder… The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies… and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth (28:1-25).
Here are some specific characteristics that match this aspect of prophets:
- Quick to detect and point out sin. Notice Peter’s words explaining Pentecost. “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; AND YOU, WITH THE HELP OF WICKED MEN, PUT HIM TO DEATH by nailing him to the cross (Acts 2:23-24)
- Tendency to be direct (blunt) in their words. Here are Peter’s words to the entire priestly family in explaining the healing a lame man. If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, WHOM YOU CRUCIFIED but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed (Acts 4:9-10).
- Sees partial obedience as disobedience, and thus focuses on the empty half of the glass. His focus is on how we have fallen short of God’s moral standards.
3. Oncologist: A passage like Deut. 28 explains why the prophet understands the devastation of the cancer of sin and insists on surgery (repentance) that gets all of the cancerous cells removed from our sinful hearts. The prophet gift of Romans 12 isn’t necessarily a preacher. Preacher (KARUSO) is a position, a job. But the inner motivation of the prophet is to uphold the holiness of God, to hate evil, to warn of its consequences, to call the sinful to repent, and to warn of God’s judgement to come. Here are characteristics that match this aspect of prophets:
- They are very discerning of deception, dishonesty, and wrong motives. Acts 5:1-3, But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?
- The next characteristic of prophets is that they grieve inwardly over sin, weeping when God’s holy standards are violated. Prophets also demand a high standard of themselves. All of Jesus’ disciples abandoned Jesus and fled when he was arrested in the garden, except one. Peter alone followed Jesus to the courtyard. Yet when Peter finally denied him and the cock crowd, Peter went out and wept bitterly. Peter was more loyal than the others—yet there is no record of any other disciple weeping bitterly over his disloyalty. And it would appear that only Peter, whose sin was so grievous to him that he needed to know he was restored to his relationship with Christ, was assured three times by Jesus, “I know that you love me. I still want you to feed my sheep.”
- A prophet is very sensitive to whether someone has repented or not. It was Peter, sensing the lack of repentance in one who repeatedly sinned and kept asking forgiveness who asked Jesus, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” (Matt 18:21).
THOSE WITH THIS GIFT SHOW CHRIST’S HOLINESS
Of all the NT writers, it is Peter who writes, As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” Furthermore, the prophet teaches us to abhor evil (Rom 12:9) and to mourn, as Jesus did on his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and as the second beatitude calls us to do—over the way sin destroys, everywhere it goes.
VULNERABILITIES OF THE PROPHET
- Their hostility towards sin can make them combative towards secular culture and those within the culture holding anti-biblical views. Instead of attacking current culture believers need to winsomely win over culture shapers and the lost to Christ. Those holding ungodly views are not the enemy; they are being held captive by the enemy, SIN. We are not called to separate from and attack the ungodliness of the culture but to shape the culture.
- Their hostility towards sin can cause them to be moralistic, focused mostly upon stopping their children from sinning instead of helping them love Jesus.
- Their hostility towards sin can lead them to focus on outward sins, as the Pharisees did, instead of inner sin like our failure to love God as we should.
- Their black and white nature can cause them to elevate their application of a biblical truth (a parent is responsible to train his kids so I am home-schooling my kids) to the level of Scripture, itself, making their application absolute (all godly parents will home-school their kids.)
- Because they see the empty 5% of the obedience glass, they do not grasp the need every human has for encouragement—for getting the first 95% right.
- The conscience of sinful men attacks the messenger who makes them feel guilty. A prophet’s proclamation of moral absolutes is true love. But when they verbalize such statements, they are called intolerant. Those with this gift often feel alone, like the prophet Elijah after his confrontation on Mt Carmel.
TEACHER (DIDASKALOS)
As we mentioned last week, teaching is an office or position in the church that is joined with the office of elder, who is also called the overseer and pastor. But the Romans 12 gifts do not refer to offices but to gifts given to all believers and motivated by God’s inward working of grace. The DIDOSKOLOS mentioned is motivated to make sure what is claimed to be biblical teaching IS. Just as Microsoft Office’s Word has spell check, those with this gift are the doctrine check for the church. In fact, the DIDASKALOS’ teaching is called DIDASKALIA, which is translated doctrine. The DIDASKALOS’ focus is always on the accuracy of what is being taught.
As we saw last week in Luke’s introduction to his Gospel, Luke demonstrates numerous aspects of this gift. In pursuit of the facts of the gospel stories, he relies on eye-witness testimony faithfully and the accurate transferring of this data. He is devoted to writing an orderly account—so that the readers may have clarity about the events that took place and have certainty concerning the things you have been taught (Luke 1:4). It is ironic that those who have this spiritual gift or often boring teachers, because their motivation is to insure accuracy. Whereas the exhorter has one eye on the biblical text and the other eye on human beings—how to apply the truth, the DIDASKALOS has one eye on what is been taught and the other eye on Orthodoxy—what the Christian confessions and great scholars of the past have defined as biblical doctrine.
Here are 4 reasons why this gift is absolutely vital to having a healthy church:
- Because the foundation of the Christian faith is truth. We reject the cultural idea that it doesn’t matter what you believe so long as your faith is sincere. If you don’t have TRUTH you don’t have Christianity.
- Because Paul tells us in Romans 1 that at the heart of our human fallenness is a desire to suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Every one of us has a darkened mind that distorts truth into a form we want that truth to take.
- Because Satan, heretics, and immature believers take Scripture out of context, arriving at all kinds of false conclusions. The DIDOSKOLOS is devoted to understanding the context in which biblical statements are made.
- Because Scripture texts that appear on the surface to contradict, don’t. The DIDOSKOLAS knows that the great confessions of the faith are rooted in the belief that Scripture is inerrant. Those confessions simply position truths of Scripture on the same topic beside each other to give us the rails within which the truth lies. For example, God is sovereign, but man is morally responsible and not God for man’s sinful heart.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TEACHER
2 Timothy 1:13-14 gives us helpful insight about this gift. What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
- One with the gift of teaching tends to validate the accuracy of what is taught based on the teaching of previous teachers—i.e. doctrinal creeds. So Paul tells Timothy “What you heard from me, keep as the pattern for sound teaching.” One with this gift often knows who the great scholars have been Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Aquinus, Jonathan Edwards—and historic confessional statements like the Council of Nicea and Westminster Confession.
- In verse 13 Paul uses the word pattern—keep as the pattern of sound teaching. This word could be translated outline. The second characteristic of those with this gift is that their hearts love the systemization of truth. Like engineers in the secular world, their hearts just love the way God’s truths fit together.
- In verse 13, Paul also uses the word, sound. Those with this gift are motivated to insure that the church of Jesus Christ is doctrinally sound—in its preaching, teaching, counseling, etc.
- The 4th characteristic comes from vs 14. The DIDOSKOLOS is motivated to guard the truth of God. Vs 14, Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you. It is a fact of church history that false teachers and heretics have routinely corrupted the church robbing it of precious truths. Think for instance of the church of indulgences before Luther’s 95 Theses and the revival of Christianity and Europe through the rediscovering of justification.
VULNERABILITIES OF THE TEACHER
- Applying Scripture is hard for him since his focus is not naturally application, but accuracy. Those with this gift often have difficulty getting their churches to grow because application is what everyday believers want.
- His teaching may not be very motivating for many. He loves truth and doctrine and doesn’t understand why others don’t get excited like he is.
- Educators, and those with the gift of exhortation understand that adults often learn best through discussion, but those with this gift dislike “shared ignorance.” They want classes by scholarly teachers.
- Agreeing on all the minor elements of doctrine can be elevated to a legalistic extreme that hinders working with other believers.
- They tend to have trouble seeing the value of the other spiritual gifts. The biblical truth that the task of the church is making disciples and that we grow up into Christ the head through speaking the truth to one another in small groups. But those with this gift seem to think that all that matters is sound doctrine.
Well, hopefully when you eat dinner this evening, no one will drop the dessert. But I am hoping that you are finding this brief journey into studying these gifts inspiring. God is glorified by variety—and he has given us a special gift to benefit the rest of the Body of Christ that some of us haven’t even unwrapped!
For Further Prayerful Thought
- Was there someone in whom you saw the characteristics of a prophet or teacher
- Why might it be helpful to one you know who appears to have the gift of prophet or teacher to understand their gift?
- If you have neither the gift of prophecy nor teaching, can you understand why you might react certain ways to those who have that gift?
