Monday, July 22, 2013

HOLY SPIRIT 20

Holy Spirit 20
1 Corinthians 12 Part b
Verses 13-31
Teacher’s notes

Hook:  What have we learned about the Holy Spirit
Will God ever ask you to do something you are not able to do? The answer is yes--all the time! It must be that way, for God's glory and kingdom. If we function according to our ability alone, we get the glory; if we function according to the power of the Spirit within us, God gets the glory. He wants to reveal Himself to a watching world.”  ― Henry T. Blackaby, Experiencing the Spirit: The Power of Pentecost Every Day
What do we learn about the Holy Spirit from I Corinthians 12?
1.            A clear communicator
2.            The source for the Churches equipping
3.            The source for the Church unity
4.            The determining force of the Churches gifting
5.            The Power source for believers  so we may glorify God

BOOK: Read: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Who is the subject of these verses?  Body of Christ!
My Wife an RN as we went through 1 Corinthians 12 said;  This make so much sense the body can always compensate if it loses an eye or hand etc, but it is never the way it was created to be.  So True!
You are the body of Christ,  if you drop out, we are without a body part we may be able to compensate-but it will never fully be what God designed until you participate!

Where are we welded together as one?
                A Baptism verse 13

Parenthetically, it should be noted that Paul is no Speaking here of water baptism.  Water baptism is an outward, physical ordinance believers submit to themselves and which is performed by other believer, in obedience to Christ command. (Matt 28:19,Acts 2:38)  Water baptism plays no part in conversion, but is a testimony to the church and the world conversion that has already taken place.
(The MacArthur New Testament Commentary 1 Corinthians pg.311)

There is a rule of Bible reading here to be observed: whenever the word “baptism” is used in the New Testament, water is the element of that baptism unless some other element is indicated in the text or context.  This is an invariable rule.  We are tempted to reproduce all the references to baptism in the New Testament to demonstrate how obvious it is, but we do not have the space.  Baptism into Christ was obtained by immersion in water.  In the same act and at the same time we were immersed or buried into His death.  At the time and place of our baptism we met His blood in His death and thus obtained the remission of our sins.  There is only one baptism that will place us into one body.  (Don DeWelt  Power of the Holy Spirit Pg 23 Holy Spirit 4 Section 1)

If this is true then what about? –Ephesians 4:5, Romans 6:4, Colossians 2:12?

Those in reform tradition dismiss what the bible clearly states about baptism by making water baptism and Spirit baptism separate Acts 2:38,39 make clear one baptism where we are both baptized into Christ and by the Holy Spirit at Water baptism.  Which from these verses also connect the next vers

                A Holy Spirit that indwells every Christian Verse 13

 How is this body to function?
1.            We are many parts but one body
2.            No division verse 25
3.            Each Christian is cared for in same way
4.            Each Christian is to rejoice with the success of others!

What is the greater gift?  What is the More excellent way?

Unconditional Love for each other!

What does Verses 27-31 do to the teaching that every Christian, Every Christian baptized by Holy Spirit should speak in tongues?

It utterly exposes it as false.  Right along with this is a teaching that speaking in tongues is a indistinguishable prayer language.  The Problem is . . .

Those who had the ability to speak in tongues were involved.  We cannot stress too much the need for definition on this word “tongue.”  We have published Knofel Staton’s research on this word.  We can offer nothing more helpful than a few excerpts from this book, SPIRITUAL GIFTS FOR CHRISTIANS TODAY:

Now we must ask, “What does glossa mean in Acts and in I Corinthians?”  Based upon research thus far, it would be expected that the world would be used in one of the two ways it has consistently been used in every other Bible verse.

Luke’s first usage in Acts is in chapter 2.  There it is clear that glossa is used as a known foreign language (verses 3, 4, 11, 26).  In verse 8, the Greek word dialektos (from which we get our English word “dialect,” and which always means a language or a nation), is used interchangeably with glossa found in verse 11.
What does glossa mean elsewhere in Acts?  It is used in only two other verses—10:46 and 19:6.  The usage in 10:46 is the same as in Acts 2, as explained by Peter in 11:17.  He says it is the same (equal in Greek) gift.  There is no reason to suspect that Luke changed his usage in 19:6.  We have already seen that he considers the usage to be synonymous with dialektos (Acts 2:8).

Now how is glossa used in I Corinthians?  From a usage analysis elsewhere in the Bible, we would expect one of two usages—(1) physical tongue in the mouth, or (2) a foreign language.  If we had no presuppositions, this is the methodology we would follow.  If this methodology had been followed by all, many misleading ideas would not have “gotten off the ground.”

The word unknown which appears in some versions is not in the original Greek.  Its addition to the English text has no textual support.  Until I Corinthians, the Bible does not speak about any “unknown” glossa.  In fact, I Corinthians 12:10 and 28 says that there are “various kinds of tongues.”  The word kind refers to a family or genealogy; Paul could not know that one was from a different family than another if they had actually been unknown languages.

The phrase “There are various kinds” is significant.  The Greek word translated various is heteros, which means “different.”  Every time this word is used in conjunction with glossa, it refers to a known foreign language.  This is the construction in Acts 2:4 and in I Corinthians 14:21.

The latter is a quote from Isaiah 28:11, which is a reference to the Assyrian language.  When Luke used beteros and glossa together, he referred to a foreign language.

Paul and Luke traveled together.  It is unlikely that Paul would use the same construction to refer to a different phenomenon than Luke had in mind.  It is further unlikely that Paul would use an Old Testament reference which speaks about a known foreign language to discuss an ecstatic utterance in an unknown language (I Corinthians 14:21 and Isaiah 28:11).

There is one other important fact to consider in determining the nature of the tongues mentioned in I Corinthians 14.  That is the meaning of the word interpret or interpretation.  The Greek word is hermeneuo, from which we get our English word Hermeneutics.  In one form or another, that word is used thirteen times in the New Testament.  What does it mean?

Outside I Corinthians, it is used to mean to translate words from one known language into another known language.  See John 1:38,42; 9:7; Hebrews 7:2; Acts 9:36.  The only exception to this is in Luke 24:27.  There it is used to mean to explain the content-meaning from one known language into the same known language.  Never is the word used in the Bible to mean to interpret an unknown language into a known language!

The word hermeneuo used with glossa enhances the position that Paul’s subject in I Corinthians 14 is a known foreign language which is translatable.  Thus its nature could be checked out by many who knew the language.  It is further noted that the word glossa referred to a known language.  It was not used to speak about some language which had not been discovered, or which was being used in isolation.  (Don DeWelt  
Power of the Holy Spirit Pg 23,24 Holy Spirit 4 Section 1)

WHY IS VERSE 18 SO IMPORTANT?

God in His wisdom placed, made, birthed each of us exactly as he has desired in the body of Christ.  If we ignore this in our rebellion or apathy the body is not as healthy as it shout be.  Also, if your creator made you to do something, you will not find fulfillment until you are working on that task.  Are you functioning as God made you to function.

Look:  Is Love a Spiritual Gift or a virtue to be practiced as we follow Christ?

From the context it is clear to me Love is the motivation we are to use our spiritual gifts, it is the be the foundation of the whole being of Christ!

Took: What is the Love Paul tells us is the most excellent way?

Language can tell you a great deal about a culture and that culture’s priorities – the Inuit (Eskimos) are said to have nearly thirty words for “ice” which describe various colors, textures, and uses, among other things (I don’t know if this is true or not, by the way).  Any group of adults in the U.S. can probably come up with that many words for money.

However, we tend to use the same word to describe many different aspects of another concept: love.  We love our mothers, pizza, baseball, spouses and children, all the time using the same word to describe these relationships!  The one word:  love, cannot be meant the same way in all these situations.  To avoid confusion, let’s look at some Greek words that distinguished between some of the very different situations.

Mania – Manic love is almost not a love at all.  The word “lust” is probably not strong enough – “obsession” is closer to the word.  This is the love of possession.  I “mania” that which I obsessively desire to own.  It is generally seen as taking over the “lover” like insanity – thus the connection to modern concepts of madness (kleptomania, pyromania).  It is like the opposite of a phobia  – an obsessive need to avoid something. “Mania” is translated as “madness” and “beside yourself” in Acts 26.

Eros – Eros is obviously the root word for “erotic,” but it does not describe sexual love only, it actually describes all emotional love; the feeling of love.  Eros love is that insatiable desire to be near the target of this love.  The exciting, passionate, nervous feelings that sweep over people in the appropriate circumstances.  This is the love that says “I love how you make me feel.”  As an emotion, Eros changes, sometimes suddenly.  Remember that it is entirely based on circumstances and on the target of its emotion.  As an emotion, alone it is morally neutral, however, it can just as easily lead to lust (sinful desire) as it can passion. It is also a good picture to think of Eros as the fruit and flowers of a new relationship.  Eros is not a bad thing, but it is also not a “good” thing. The word Eros does not appear in the Bible.  I have some more thoughts on the way “eros” thinking affects our interaction with sex and intimacy at http://chrismlegg.com/2011/03/01/309/ .

Philos – Philos love, or brotherly/friendship love, is the next kind we will look at.  Philos describes the love between two people who have common interests and experiences, or a fondness for.  Hemophiliacs apparently seemed to ancient doctors to have a “fondness” to bleeding, for example.  Unlike Eros, which pulses up and down like waves on the ocean, Philos steadily grows, like a building being constructed stone by stone.  For this reason, when close friends are separated for a while and reunited, they will often say “it is like we picked up exactly where we left off.”  Philos is half about the circumstances, and half about the commitment of two people to one another; it says “I love who we are together,” or in case of a non person:  “I am fond of this food.”  Philos love generally grows over time except in the case of some kind of betrayal.  It is commonly used in the New Testament, as in Matt. 10:37, John 12:25, and Revelation 3:19.

Storgy – We will not spend much time here; storgy is the love one has for a dependent.  It is commonly called “motherly love.”  It is entirely based on the relationship between the “lover” and the “lovee.”  When the dependent is no longer dependent, this love remains only in its emotional remnants.  It is one of the stronger loves, because it involves a commitment that relies on only one trait of the receiver – that he or she is dependent.   This type of love is toxic to a marriage under normal circumstances.  Marriages that look more like a mother/son or father/daughter relationship is moving quickly downhill.

Agapeo – Agape love is the final of the five loves we look at here.  Agape love is entirely about the lover, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the one loved.  Agape love, in its purest form, requires no payment or favor in response.  The most common word for God’s love for us is Agape (I John, John 3:16) and the love we are commanded to have for one another (Matt. 5:44, I Cor. 13).  This lack of input from the recipient makes it possible for us to love our enemies even though we may not like them or the situation they have put us in – because Agape love is not in any way dependent on circumstances; it says “I love you because I choose/commit to.”  Unlike eros or philos, Agape creates a straight line that neither fades or grows (!) in its perfect form (which of course only exists from God outward)  Oddly enough, even though many people marry out of eros love alone, they make vows that speak of commitment despite any circumstance:  richer/poorer, better/worse, sickness/health.  This kind of love is about a commitment to the very best for another, no matter what emotions or feelings exist!  You can see why in the King James Version of the Bible, Agape was usually translated as “charity.”  It is a love freely given, and freely committed to.  For a more in depth look at its aspects, look at I Corinthians chapter 13.   (http://chrismlegg.com/2009/10/01/5-greek-words-for-love-agape/)

Agapeo is the love we are to have for others , it is  the power of the Holy Spirit expressed!


Holy Spirit 20
1 Corinthians 12 Part b
Verses 13-31
Student Notes

Hook:  What have we learned about the Holy Spirit
Will God ever ask you to do something you are not able to do? The answer is yes--all the time! It must be that way, for God's glory and kingdom. If we function according to our ability alone, we get the glory; if we function according to the power of the Spirit within us, God gets the glory. He wants to reveal Himself to a watching world.”  ― Henry T. Blackaby, Experiencing the Spirit: The Power of Pentecost Every Day

What do we learn about the Holy Spirit from I Corinthians 12?
1.            A clear ______________________
2.            The __________________ for the Churches equipping
3.            The source for the Church _________________
4.            The _________________ force of the Churches gifting
5.            The _____________ source for believers  so we may glorify God

BOOK: Read: 1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Who is the subject of these verses?  Body of Christ!


Where are we welded together as one?


How is this body to function?
1.           
2.           
3.           
4.           
5.

What is the greater gift?  What is the More excellent way?

What does Verses 27-31 do to the teaching that every Christian, Every Christian baptized by Holy Spirit should speak in tongues?

WHY IS VERSE 18 SO IMPORTANT?

Look:  Is Love a Spiritual Gift or a virtue to be practiced as we follow Christ?

Took: What is the Love Paul tells us is the most excellent way?
Five Greek Words for Love
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Holy Spirit 20
1 Corinthians 12 Part b
Verses 13-31
Self-Study
Monday:
Read 1 Corinthians 13
And List all the things Love is. . .

Tuesday
Love is Patient
What does patience look like?
Romans 8:24-26
Ephesians 4:1-3
Revelation 14:12
Wednesday
Love is Kind
What does Kindness look life
Luke 6:34-36
Acts 4:8-10
2 Corinthians 6:3-13

Thursday
Love does not envy
What virtue is not being envious?  Contentment?
Mark 7:14-23
Philippians 4:10-12
1 Timothy 6:5-9

Friday
Love does not boast
What would that look like in your life?
James 4:15-17
2 Peter 17-19
Jude 1:15-17

Saturday
Love is Not Proud-or could say Love is Humble
What does this look like?
Matthew 11:28-30
Luke 14:10-12
Philippians 2:7-9

Sunday
Love does not dishonor others
What would this look like in your life?
John 8:48-50
James 2:5-7

Act 28:9-11

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