SPIRITUAL GIFTS - VI

Various passages
Bob Bonner
March 3, 1996

For the past several weeks we have been looking at the subject of supernatural spiritual gifts or enablings. We have seen that every person who has been "born again" or has personally and voluntarily turned their lives over to Jesus Christ as one's savior and Lord has been gifted with some supernatural spiritual enablement, that when that person exercises that ability, other believers are encouraged and built up in their faith. We have noted that there are several spiritual gifts and they fall into three categories. We have looked at the "speaking gifts", the "serving gifts", and now we want to begin looking at the "sign gifts" or the "miraculous gifts."

Up to this point, our study of the spiritual gifts has been pretty safe and predictable---gifts such as teaching, showing mercy, giving aren't too risky realms for discussion. But as we cross over into the sign or what some call the "charismatic" gifts, the terrain changes. Hence, we must proceed carefully; for unfortunately, this area has often become a mine field of controversy and an unnecessary gulf causing division amongst believers.

This volatile controversy can be traced to two basic causes: extremism and experience.

Under the category of extremism, we find that both sides of the controversy have been guilty in the past. Some "noncharismatic" Christians go too far in their theology to say that the supernatural acts of healing, miracles, tongues and the interpretation of tongues are actually the work, not of God, but Satan.

On the other end of the spectrum are some charismatic Christians who embarrass mainstream charismatics with behavior such as handling poisonous snakes and refusing medical care for their children, and with claims of lengthened legs, miraculously filled teeth, and so forth.

Each extreme promotes damaging caricatures of the other, with the noncharismatics being presented as all intellect but devoid of much emotion and charismatics being presented as all emotion but devoid of much theology. Both caricatures are untrue, unfair and inappropriate.

The second cause, next to extremism, that has brought about this volatile controversy in the past has been the emphasis upon experience versus what the Bible has recorded. On one side of the issue, you have people who say that we are to emphasize Scripture to the exclusion of experience. Those who do so treat Scripture as a cold, academic book rather than the living, vibrant word of God. Assuredly, we should strive to understand God's word literally and interpret each verse within it context---a process which takes a great deal of study and effort. But God's word is also alive and made to live in the emotional-experiential part of our hearts as well.

On the other hand, our experiences should never be believed over scripture. Our faith needs to be based on truth, and there is no more solid a bedrock than the inspired Word of God. When it is all said and done, we are not to pursue scripture just for knowledge sake. And we are not to pursue miraculous experiences either. What we are to pursue is the cross.

At the church in Corinth, where there first arose a serious problem with the exercising of spiritual gifts, Paul addressed this problem when he wrote, in 1 Corinthians 1:22-23, "For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified." So, our goal is not to seek after knowledge or experience, but to know the crucified Christ in our lives.

Hence, as we enter this challenging terrain of the sign gifts, let's keep in mind the dangers of going to extremes and valuing experience too much or too little. And let me add, that if 15 pastors in this town, who are highly educated and highly opinionated as to their views on this subject, can be committed to the same goal of serving Christ together in this community, than so should we be able to worship together and to serve together in this same fellowship, showing deference to one another's understanding in this area.

Now, let's get into our study of these sign gifts. First there are four of them: they are the gift of effecting miracles, the gift of healing, the gift of tongues and the gift of interpreting tongues. This week we will look at just two and next week we will look at the next two.

To start with, this morning, in order to get our bearings, we want to understand, the what, the why and the to whom, sign gifts were given. If we can agree on some of that, it will limit some of the confusion surrounding these gifts.

The first thing we need to understand is what is meant by a sign gift. The word "sign" means in ancient Greek literature an identifying mark; but in the Scriptures, it also means an attesting act that verified that someone was from God or was speaking with God's authority. 

If a person didn't have a way to unquestionably verify their authority, then anybody could claim that they had come from God and bring confusion to true believers. It was for this reason that you read of the account in the Gospel of John 9, that when Jesus healed the man who was blind from birth that the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders were so determined to prove that this was not a miracle at all and that this Jesus was a phony faith healer. Because if Jesus couldn't be proven to be a phony, their status in the community would be undermined by Jesus because of His exposing their hypocrisy. It is why they were so desperate to find the blind man's parents to interview them as to whether or not their son was born blind. It was why in other cases when Jesus had performed the miraculous that they told others, even those who had been healed to keep quiet.

Jesus proved that He was the Son of God partially through signs and wonders. The apostle John tells us in his gospel that "Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name."

So, when we refer to a sign gift, we are talking about a supernatural ability to perform miraculous wonders which authenticated God’s spokespersons by convincing people that they were in fact bona fide servants of God. 

There is another term that quite often is used along side of the word "signs" and it is synonymous with the word signs. It is the word "wonders". This term is used in reference to those miracles or signs that defy natural reasoning: they are extraordinary, unexplainable events that manifest a beyond human, supernatural power: such as the raising of the dead, the ability to be bitten by a poisonous snake and never to die or even get sick; or the ability to read someone else's mind and to tell them what they are thinking or what they have done and prove that they are lying, as in the case with Ananias and Sapphira, in Acts 5.

Scripture describes many of these miraculous events, these signs and wonders, and all of them had a well-defined purpose and role in the early church. In the New Testament, the purpose of signs and wonders was never to draw attention to a person for that person's sake [except in the case of drawing attention to Jesus]; nor was their purpose to draw a crowd for entertaining; rather, these signs and wonders were to bring people to faith and submission to Jesus.

One other thing about miracles and our human fleshiness, our self centered, anti-god ways, Jesus performed miracles to inspire faith, but He also knew that our human nature tends to crave the sensational. So, He often refused when challenged to conjure up a miraculous sign because people were asking for signs and wonders with a wrong motive. They weren't interested in knowing God, they simply wanted to have a selfish need met, or to prove that He wasn't God and they didn't have to submit to Him or it was an attempt to wrongly manipulate God for selfish purposes. In those cases, He refused to perform, and even through the apostles, punished those who tried to gain so as to misuse supernatural gifts.

The next question that we need to consider is why were these sign gifts so important to the church? There were a couple of reasons why these gifts were so important. First has to do with the first-century early Christians. These new believers new very little of what the semi studied believer today knows about the church. And the reason for that is that today, we have the New Testament clearly telling us how the church is to function and what we have in Christ. But in that unique 70 year period after Jesus ascended into heaven, when there was no New Testament written, they had nothing to give them guidance. There was no instruction manual for their faith and practice as the body of Christ. So, God sent those gifted men, the Apostles and prophets to preach the word to educate and guide the young church. There words would later become our written New Testament. But how would the average person ever know that these strangers, these apostles who came to Rome, for instance, from Palestine, were in fact preaching God's word? These sign gifts helped them determine who was authentic and which teaching they could trust.

There is something else that may help you better understand why these sign gifts were so important as well as uniquely needed especially during the first century. When one studies Biblical history, not the historical record of mankind, but the history of mankind beginning with Moses, the first time when those people in the Bible who were alive when the action happened and they recorded it as it happened, that amount of time covers 4,000 years. When you look at the overall history of miracles in the Bible, the miraculous, those signs and wonders cluster around three epochs of history.

Those three periods of the cluster of miracles were the periods around Moses the lawgiver, the new prophet witnesses as to the end of the Jewish kingdom with Elijah and Elisha, and the period surrounding Jesus and the Apostles.

Two things were unique about those periods. First, the spiritual condition of the people just before those periods when there were an abundance of miracles, those periods were spiritually dark years. Then, with the miraculous, God produced a great movement. Then, after that movement was on its way, the concentration of miracles ceased. 

When one adds up the sum of years surrounding those three miraculous periods, they total approximately 300 years. That means, that the rest of the 3,700 years of Biblical history, literally generations of people lived and died never having seen one miracle or rarely any non-controvertible supernatural miracles. Hence, when one looks at history alone, three crucial principles can be noted concerning the miraculous: First, great eras of movements of God began with great displays of miracles. 

Second, as each era got underway, miracles faded. There were long periods after these major pushings of God, when the abundance of miracles disappeared from the scene.

However, this third point must be understood as well. Just because the era of a great movement of God has ceased does not mean that all miracles and healings have ceased. God, in isolated places, as He has throughout all of history, still today performs the miraculous. He still heals, He still reveals hidden truth about certain situations that nobody else would know unless the Spirit of God revealed it to someone. It's just that God never intended the miraculous display of his power to be the norm for life. It is the exception, not the rule. God is not here to perform for us. He wants us to live by faith. We should pray for healings. We should expect God to do the miraculous. He always hears our prayers and sometimes He chooses to answer in a miraculous way. But we must leave it up to Him as to whether he will perform a miracle in our midst.

One last point about the miraculous, I fully expect that during the seven years of tribulation that are prophesied in scripture, that period just before the last war on this earth, called Armageddon, we will see signs and wonders like we have not seen since the first century. These wonders will identify to those converted believers who the true prophets of God are, because as I understand it, there will be so many phony anti-christs and false prophets who are able to do miracles that people won't know who to believe. The rapture of the saints or the believers will have taken place by that time, so the Christians won't be there to give much direction.

Hence, God will call people to His authoritative leaders through powerful displays of the miraculous. And although that will be an incredible time of suffering and pain, it will be simultaneously, one of the most exciting times, miraculously speaking, to be alive.

A third aspect of these sign gifts that we must understand if we are going to deal properly with these gifts, is to understand to whom these sign gifts are primarily directed. All throughout Biblical history, the signs of God's leading were primarily directed to God's chosen people Israel. Whether those signs were a supernatural cloud and a pillar of fire under Moses, or the signs that will be evident in the last seven years of this world, after Christians are raptured. God has, is and always will do his work of signs through his chosen nation of Israel. He may from time to time expose gentiles to the miraculous, but primarily, the purpose of the signs were for the Jews, so that they would know that God was working.

During the period of the early church, between 30 AD and 100 AD, you had Jewish believers who were being converted in droves from their Old Testament walk with Yahweh to walking with their Messiah, which had been promised all throughout the Old Testament. In order to help the Old Testament believers see, that Jesus was truly the messiah, and that they no longer had to follow their heritage's religious ceremonial laws, God used signs and wonders to prove it.

For instance: In 1 Corinthians 14:20-21, Paul is talking about the supernatural gift of tongues. In doing so, he explains why the tongues came in the first place. He is speaking here so as to inform the Gentiles of something they never knew, but also to remind the Jews of an Old Testament prophecy concerning God's judgment upon Israel and the beginning of the working of the New Covenant under Jesus Christ. Paul writes these words: "Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be babes, but in your thinking be mature." Here, Paul is rebuking the believers at Corinth for allowing their emotional experiences to over ride their thinking and knowledge of what the Old Testament word of God has already declared. I personally believe that these words are aimed as a rebuke to the Jewish believers who should have known better. He continues, "In the Law it is written, [and here Paul is quoting from Isaiah 28:11. This quote comes from a judgment passage in Isaiah, whereby through the prophet Isaiah, God is pronouncing His judgment against an unbelieving Israel, declaring that temporarily He will be moving away from the nation of Israel and start working through gentile believers. This is, in effect, a prophecy about the mystery, called the church. Paul quotes Isaiah, "By men of strange [literally foreign or gentile] tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people [meaning to the Jews. Paul in essence is telling us that this very gift is the fulfillment of that prophecy], and even so they will not listen to Me," says the Lord."

God was saying to Isaiah, that the day of this particular judgment against Israel, when God moves to work through the body of Christ, when that day came, they would know it because He was going to use the languages common to foreign nations, common to the non Jews or Gentiles to speak to the Jews.  And even then, the Jews as a whole, the majority of the Jews would still reject God.

That's exactly what happened in the book of Acts. Even though in the first few months of the early church, 8,000 Jews committed their lives to their messiah, millions of Jews in Israel alone rejected him. So, for the most part, the Jews did exactly what Isaiah prophesied. They didn't listen to God. Sometimes, in Acts it was Jews from other nations hearing the gospel in their own gentile language. Sometimes, the Jews witnessed born again gentiles using the gift of tongues which at first must have totally shocked the Jews, because for the Jew, it was a first, to see God touch and welcome as their equals, gentiles.

So, as I understand the scriptures to teach and exemplify, the audience to whom these signs were directed as signs, were the Jews, not non-Jews. That doesn't mean that non-Jews didn't possess these signs. It simply means that these miraculous gifts were being used by non-Jews to get the attention of the Jews. That was God's intent through history before the first century, during the first century and will be the same during the great tribulation during the end times of this world.

Now let's turn our attention to the first two sign gifts. The first sign gift we wish to look at is that gift called the "effecting of miracles" which is found in 1 Corinthians 12:10.

To what does this gift refer? I believe that there is some misunderstanding concerning what this gift actually is. Again, like many of these gifts, we don't have much to go on as to how these gifts worked or a specific example of a person who was declared to have this gift using it. 

In talking about this with my good friend Dennis Webber over at First Assembly, we share the same understanding of some of the gifts, but we hang different biblical titles over different ones. He admitted, that in his denominations historic position on some of these issues, they did not have some answers to some specific questions as to why they point to certain manifestations as being an example of this gift. But to be honest, I have had to admit, that other than these words, I don't have much either. Hence, the ol' reminder comes back to mind, "Don't die on a hill where you can't prove black or white your understanding of what something is. Don't make a major issue out of that which is relatively minor or break fellowship with a brother because you see these issues differently." And I must say, I have really enjoyed Dennis' integrity and willingness to educate me further as to why he believes what he does without feeling like he has to convince me, that he is right and I am wrong.

The way I have chosen to approach gaining an understanding of this gift is to first study the words "effecting miracles", and then look to see if I can find any corresponding examples of it in the New Testament. With that approach in mind, here is what I have discovered.

The word "effecting" comes from the Greek word "energeo" from which we get "energizes". The word "miracles" is "dunymus" from which we get our word dynamite. It actually means power, ability as well as miracle. So, to start with, this gift has to deal somehow with the energizing of special powers. But what does it mean?

When you study this word for "miracles" or "power" when used concerning the miraculous, there is an interesting observation. In the Gospels, for instance, in Luke 4, we find the temptation of Jesus by the Prince of Evil, Satan. In verse 13, Jesus had victory over Satan and the Devil temporarily departed. For the rest of Jesus' human life on earth, he battled Satan. In verse 14, it reads "And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit; and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district." In this verse, Jesus power is seen in direct contrast with his conflict with Satan and the kingdom of darkness. 

In verse 36, we find this word for miracles or "power" again in reference to the kingdom of darkness or evil spirits. Luke writes, "And amazement came upon them all, and they began discussing with one another, and saying, "What is this message? For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.""

Over and over again, we find this term "power" connected with God's dealing with the kingdom of darkness and demons. Luke 6:17-19; is another example involving Jesus. Here, Luke writes, "And He descended with them, and stood on a level place; and there was a great multitude of His disciples, and a great throng of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear Him, and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were being cured. And all the multitude were trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all."

Now in that context, there was the discussion of not only casting out evil spirits, but also the power exercised in healing physical diseases. Keep in mind, as we will see in just a moment, there is already a supernatural gift of healing, separate in function from this gift of miracles or powers. 

In Luke 9:1, Jesus gives the disciples this same ability, the same word for miracles or "power" over demons. Notice that the purpose of these signs was to confirm to the Jews that the disciples were preaching about the true kingdom of God. Luke writes in verse 12, "And He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons, and to heal diseases. And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God, and to perform healing." 

Again in Luke 10:17-20. "And the seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name’. And He said to them, ‘I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall injure you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.""

The conclusion I personally have come to concerning this spiritual gift of effecting miracles is that it is the supernatural spiritual gift to take control over demonic beings. This was its primary use, to counteract the forces of evil and darkness as a sign to believers in the early church that those who spoke to the Jews were from God. 

There are only four cases in scripture where this term for "power" refers to something other than casting out demons and all four deal with healing. But when we come to spiritual gifts, healing was a separate gift. In addition, it is my personal understanding, that as a sign gift, this gift no longer is operative today. Every believer today has the authority in Christ over the demonic beings. But in the early days of the church, these new believers did not have the scriptures to tell them what kind of authority they had in Christ the moment they were saved. So, in order to prove their authoritative position in Christ over the demonic world, and to demonstrate that what the prophets were saying about Jesus and their position in Christ was true, God temporarily gifted some early believers with this gift of "effecting miracles" which was to take control over demonic powers.

One last observation. As you examine the New Testament, you will see that there is never a single indication that anyone other than Jesus did a miracle related to nature. Hence, this term for "miracle" doesn't refer to doing a miraculous work with nature, like stilling a storm or walking on water. The apostles never did these things. 

But whenever this term is used in the New Testament of anyone other than Christ using "power" or "miracles" it always dealt with demons. Again, this leads me to believe that this gift refers to and was limited to having power over the demonic world, even to identify them and to cast them out.

Now let's look briefly and quickly at the gifts of healing. As I understand this gift [OR GIFTS] as being used in scripture by Jesus and the apostle, I would suggest that this gift is the supernatural ability to heal immediately and completely any physical or mental ailment of an individual

As with the sign gift of effecting miracles, this gift was given by God to authenticate His messengers in the first century church. As with the gift of miracles, for now, this sign gift appears to have ceased, for the purpose of this gift was to be a sign to the Jews.

Now let me clarify what I have said. I did not say that God no longer heals today. God does heal in answer to prayer, and sometimes even without us asking. I know of several people in this town, a few who are in this body during the past eight years who have been miraculously healed. And by that, I don't mean simply being in remission from some form of cancer, but healed. But the spiritually gifted person to walk up and miraculously heal someone, someone in some cases who never even exercised any faith, that gift is no longer in existence.

In listening to some other Christians who don't agree with what I have said, many insist that God wants all people to be healed. Their insistence is so great that God wants all people healed that one gets the feeling that God's great objective in this world is to heal all ailments. A scripture that is quite often quoted to support their view is Isaiah 53:5, which states "But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being {fell} upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed." My difficulty with this verse, is that when one reads it in conjunction with the next verse, it is clearly referring to our spiritual healing, not physically healing. In this poetic section, the prophet is saying that the reason that Jesus had to die was not so that everybody was going to be physically healed, but spiritually healed from their sin nature. 

Scripture elsewhere teaches that though God is concerned about our bodies, He is more infinitely concerned about our souls. Matthew 10:28 Jesus said, "And do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." The soul, not the body is God's primary interest.

It's also interesting to note that when Jesus left this earth, His last command was not "go into all the world and banish disease," but rather for us to preach the Gospel. Jesus, like God, is more concerned about the souls of men than their bodies. Jesus' objective was not to banish disease, but to banish damnation."

Again, I am not saying that God does not heal today. He does. In James 5 when someone is ill, they are to go to the elders and ask them to pray with them for healing. We have done that as elders for different persons in this body. Sometimes God heals, sometimes he doesn't. But that is not to be confused with this supernaturally gifted person, the healer. I don't see any gifted person with the gift of healing, who today performs the miracle of healing as did the disciples and or Jesus. But as I mentioned earlier, I am personally convinced that sometime in the future God will very likely reinstate this gift, in the end times to once again be a sign to the Jews.

One final word to those of you who maybe here and are suffering from chronic pain, wheelchairs or you have friends who are suffering from a dreadful disease. There is hope for you. It is found in the compelling promises made by the Healer of our souls. He speaks about days not too far away. For some of you, they will come sooner than others. He says, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them, and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Why do people cry? Because of great emotional, physical, mental and spiritual pain. He says that one day, all of that will cease. The pain you feel will not go on forever. He continues,"...and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be {any} mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."

When will that day be? Jesus says that that day will come for you when either He comes again to establish his kingdom here on earth as he has promised in his word, or when you physically die. And there is a very real possibility, as I understand scripture, that none of us in this room will live to the point of death. Jesus could very well come in our life time. Either way, our present physical conditions that bring pain and shame or embarrassment will not continue. You are not a body you are a spirit who lives in a body.

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