The Practice of Spiritual Gifts

in the Local Church (9)

I. The Test of Authenticity: The Reality of Counterfeit Spiritual Gifts (12:1-3)

II. The Overview: The Source, Purpose, and Nature of Spiritual Gifts (12:4-11)

III. The Explanation: The Realities of the Body (12:12-30)

A. The Construction of the Body (12:12-19)

B. The Interdependency of the Body’s Members (12:20-26)

Summary of 12:12-26

1) all Christians are a part of a body, made so by the working of Jesus Christ through the Holy

Spirit (12:12-13);

2) the human body, although a unified entity, is yet comprised of a multiplicity of parts (12:14);

3) God constructed the human body in this way so as to link the body’s continued existence to

the proper functioning of each individual body part (12:15-19);

4) the divine design also entailed equipping the human body with an automated reflexive

response (12:20-26);

a) which moves the body to meet the need that parts of the body have based on their

nature or appearance (12:20-24);

b) results in the body being undivided within itself and fully caring for itself in all

circumstances (12:25-26).

C. Some Important Implications of these Realities (12:27-31)

1. The Reality of Christ’s Body (12:27)

a. The Unified Whole (12:27a)

b. The Individuality of the Members (12:27b)

2. Implication One: God’s Sovereignty over the Composition (12:28)

a. The Character of God’s Control (12:28a)

! appointed to place; to arrange or fix

b. The Manifestation of God’s Control (Orderliness) (12:28b)

! The Purpose of the List

! The Priority in the List

! The Partitioning within the List

1) Apostles

! apostle sent one

a) Apostles of Jesus Christ

(1) The Historical Background of the Office

(2) The Requirements to Hold the Office

b) Apostles of the Church

1) they had to be directly commissioned by Jesus Christ (Mt. 10:1-4; Lk. 6:12-16; Ac. 1:2; 1 Cor. 15:6-10, compare with Ac. 9:15-16 and Gal. 1:1);

2) they must have been witnesses to Christ’s ministry from His baptism to His ascension (Ac.1:22);

3) they must have been recipients of the special gifting of the Holy Spirit for that task (Eph. 4:11; 1 Cor. 12:28);

4) they must have been gifted with particular miraculous powers that enabled them through the Holy Spirit to work miracles so as to attest to both their message and their office (2 Cor. 12:2; Heb. 2:2-4; cp. Mk. 6:7);

5) they must have served, along with the early prophets of the church, as the foundation, attached to the corner stone (Christ), upon which the body, that is the church, was to be built (Mt. 16:18; 1 Cor. 3:10; Eph. 2:20; Rev. 21:14);

6) they must have functioned as revelatory conduits for God’s hidden mystery to be revealed to mankind (Eph. 3:5).