October 12, 2025 Holy Spirit: Gift Giver | 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Today, we will wrap up our series on the Holy Spirit. We will be reflecting on 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, The Holy Spirit: Gift Giver. The Holy Spirit gives each one of us various gifts to bless the church and for the common good. Gifts are not given to us for our own sake, but for the sake of the work of God in our church, community, and world. There are various gifts, and they are all rooted in the love of God for his people and for the world. These gifts also shape us and our character, helping us to become more of who God is calling us to be.

Transcript

The Holy Spirit – Gift Giver

1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Paul has just shared with the church in Corinth the significance of the Lord’s Supper, angry that they have taken this gift from Jesus to remember him, and turned it into something that divided the people from each other rather than joining them closer together as the body of Jesus. Paul reminds them that the Lord’s Supper is about the remembrance of Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins, that the meal joins us together as Jesus’ body when we eat and drink the bread the cup together. 

It's with this in mind that Paul moves on to talking about the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. Paul introduces the gifts, “Now about the spiritual things,” which we translate as “the gifts of the Spirit,” because of how Paul goes on, “there are different kinds of gifts, but the Spirit here,” pointing back to the references of the Holy Spirit in the first couple of verses where he calls the Spirit the “Spirit of God,” and the “Holy Spirit.” This is Paul’s way of emphasizing that these gifts are all from the Holy Spirit. The gifts come to each one of us because the Holy Spirit was poured on the believers on Pentecost, a gift from the Father, God’s presence that now lives within us, filling us with spiritual life, guiding us towards Jesus and away from ourselves, reminding us of who Jesus is, and how he has called us to walk his way, and away from mute idols. 

Now just as we’re all different, the body of Jesus is found all over the world in different cultures and languages, so the gifts of the Spirit are varied because the needs of the church vary from one place to another. While the gifts may be different, they all come from the Holy Spirit. Just like we all serve Jesus in different ways and in different places and settings, we all still serve the same Jesus. Paul is really hammering on the theme of unity and togetherness here because of how the church in Corinth had allowed the gift of the Lord’s Supper to become a place of disunity and separation among the people. 

This is why Paul emphasizes that the ministration of the Spirit, the gifts the Spirit gives, are for the common good, to benefit and build up the body of Jesus, for the family of God. The gifts are given to bless and equip the community of believers, not for our own benefit, but to help us reflect the nature of God, to share the gospel news of Jesus, to show how God pours himself out into his people to prepare them to partner with him in the work he is doing here in renewing and restoring a people for himself. 

Paul goes through a number of the gifts given for the common good: a message of wisdom, a message of knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues. The Spirit gives these gifts, plus more, as the Spirit determines are needed for the health and growth of the body of Christ. A little further on, in chapter 14, Paul expands on the gifts of prophecy and tongues, giving us some insight into the reasons for some of the gifts, helping us to reflect on the other gifts and their role in the common good. 

It strikes more how Paul tells the people that tongues are a sign for unbelievers, quoting Isaiah 28:11-12, “Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues God will speak to this people, to whom he said, “This is the resting place, let the weary rest”; and, “This is the place of repose”—but they would not listen.” In the context of Isaiah, God is talking about the Assyrians speaking in their own language which God’s people didn’t understand, and that because they’re unable to understand it is a sign of judgment for unbelievers. This seems to echo back to the tower of Babel where God changed their languages as punishment for their pride and failure to listen to him. Since unbelievers are unable to understand tongues, it’s a sign that they are under judgement, this also emphasizes the importance of the gift of interpretation coming alongside the gift of tongues. Paul states that prophecy in the gift to ask for or desire because it speaks God’s word to the people that can be understood and so blesses the church. Tongues bless the individual as a form of speaking to God in worship, but does little for anyone else or for the common good. 

Chapter 13, a chapter focused on love as God defines it, is placed between these two chapters on Holy Spirit gifts, and close to the warning on proper relationships within the body of Jesus when celebrating the gift of the Lord’s Supper, as a reminder, a call for love to shape how we come to the Lord’s table together, and how to use the gifts given to us, to use them with a spirit of love for each other and the community, especially the community of believers. 

In Romans 15:18-19, Paul ties the gifts of the Spirit to leading the Gentiles into obeying God and in proclaiming the gospel of Jesus, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done—by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.” The gifts and power of the Holy Spirit testify to the salvation we find in and through Jesus according to the writer to the Hebrews, 2:1–4, “We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.” 

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to us to help us be a witness to who God is and the salvation that comes from and through God and Jesus. A family I came to know through being a youth pastor came by the church one day and asked to just talk. They had started attending the church through our youth ministry and the parents wanted to know what was happening. One of their children struggled hard and this was often acted out in his behaviour at home and school. Over the winter, his mom noticed that he was becoming calmer, that youth group was the high point of his week, and she asked why. One of our leaders had taken a special interest in him and acted something like a mentor to him, in our study evenings we were studying the fruit of the Spirit and how the Holy Spirit works in us to help us to grow more like Jesus and he was fascinated by the idea that the Spirit could change him. I shared this with her and her husband and they were stunned that something so seemingly simple, could make such a difference in their son. It felt like a miracle to them. 

I then realized that the power of the Spirit of God, the signs and wonders mentioned in Hebrews are all part of, and the result of the gifts of the Spirit given to us, that they all lead us into a closer relationship with God, but also with each other, that when we use the gifts given to us, whether it’s the gifts mentioned here in 1 Corinthians 12, or any of the other gifts like empathy, compassion and understanding, worship and prayer, hospitality and the ability to build trusting relationships with those who are hurting or struggling, that these gifts are given to us to be used to build up the community of believers and to be a witness to those who are seeking hope, healing, forgiveness, acceptance, or even seeking God. So many of the gifts of the Spirit involve presence, being there with and among people. This is where deep spiritual growth happens, both for the ones we’re with, and for ourselves. This is why we began meeting for a short devotion and prayer time each week with the staff last year; simply being together to reflect a little on a Bible passage and pray together. The reflection and sharing time are especially important for me, it blesses me, and I pray, blesses the other staff too. 

We’ve each been given different gifts, but coming together each week, both as a staff, but also as a church family on Sunday mornings, reminds us who we do this for, for Jesus and his kingdom. The gifts given by the Spirit are gifts given for the common good, to be used to build the church and bless the community as a sign of the presence and glory of God.