Today, we shall continue our study
from last week. We said that we would
discuss the reasons for the gifts of the Spirit to the church. Let’s look at a few concepts that can clear up
this mystery.
1. God formed
the church that they might be His witnesses to those who have not accepted Him
as their savior – Matthew
28:18-20.
2. Mankind is
ill-equipped to do this activity, on his/her own – John
15:1-5.
3. God is a
God of order; therefore, His church is to be run in an orderly manner,
beginning with the apostles, prophets, etc. that lies at the foundation of the
faith – Ephesians
4:10-11 & I
Corinthians 14:33.
4. Those
leading out are not only to help to grow the “believers”, but they are to reach
out to unbelievers. The original
Christian church was made up of Israelites/Jews; but when the leaders rejected
the teachings of Christ and then the Apostles, Paul began preaching to the
gentiles – Acts
13:41-43.
5. Because Christ
started out with ignorant, unlearned fishermen, He had to equip them to become
fishers of men. In order to do this, He
needed to equip them with gifts, which made them capable of doing this; one of
these gifts came in the form of speaking in other languages, Acts
2:1-11 and through acts of healing –
Acts
28:7-9.
As we can
see, the gifts of the Spirit were essential from the very beginning of the
gospel ministry. I have learned that
whatever Christ sees fit to give us as a gift, it is because He desires to make
us co-laborers with Him and His angels, so that people from all over the world
can be made ready for the second coming of Christ.
