1 Corinthians 12:24-31; 1 Samuel 12
You may be seated. We have two scripture readings today. The first is from the Old Testament book of first Samuel chapter 12. And then also we’ll be continuing our study of first Corinthians chapter 12, the very end, uh, having the bulletin 25 to 31, but we’re going to squeeze a little bit of the back end of verse 24. Uh, so if you want to be technical, it’s chapter 12, 24 B through a 31.
When we come to Samuel, this is his farewell address. Remember, Samuel is Hannah’s little boy that she wept and prayed for. She finally had him and gave him to the Lord, lent him to the Lord, as the scripture says. And he became one of the great prophets of Israel. And so remember, towards the end of his ministry, Israel says, we want to be like everybody else and have a king.
And it upset him. But God said, it’s not against you. It’s against me. They have done this. And so he’s going to remind them in his farewell address, something that Paul will tell us today. We have to fear the Lord and serve him. It’s not an option for the believer, but we must fear God, keep his commandments and serve him. And so we pick up there in verse one of chapter 12. of first Samuel.
Samuel said to all Israel, behold, I have obeyed your voice and all that you have said to me and have made a king over you. And now behold, the king walks before you, and I am old and gray, and behold, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my youth until this day. Here I am, testify against me before the Lord and before his anointed.
Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it? Testify against me and I will restore it to you. They said, you have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man’s hand. And he said to them, the Lord is witness against you. And his anointed is witness this day that you have not found anything in my hand. And they said, he is witness. And Samuel said to the people, the Lord is witness who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt.
Now, therefore, stand still that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and for your fathers. when Jacob went into Egypt and the Egyptians oppressed them. Then your fathers cried out to the Lord and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place.
But they forgot the Lord their God, and he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them, and they cried out to the Lord and said, we have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. But now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies that we may serve you. And the Lord sent Jerubabbel, and Barak, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you lived in safety.
And when you saw that Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, came against you, you said to me, no, but a king shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your king. And now behold the king whom you have chosen for whom you have asked, behold, the Lord has set a king over you. If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord. And if both of you and the, uh, both you and the king, the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord, your God, it will be well. But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king.
Now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call upon the Lord that he may send thunder and rain and you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord and asking for yourselves a king.
So Samuel called upon the Lord and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people said to Samuel, pray for your servants to the Lord, your God, that we may not die. For we have added to all our sins, this evil to ask for ourselves a King. And Samuel said to the people, do not be afraid. You have done evil. You have done all this evil yet.
Do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver for they are empty. For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart, for consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.
And now over to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, the last little bit of verse 24. And then through the end of the chapter, this is Paul in a section on how the church ought to live together, especially in worship. And he’s spoken to them about various gifts. And so this is his conclusion. So in verse 24, Second main sentence says, but God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it.
And that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? are all teachers, do all work miracles, do all possess gifts of healing, do all speak with tongues, do all interpret, but earnestly desire the higher gifts, and I will show you a still more excellent way.
Amen. This is God’s great and gracious word. May he add his blessing to it. Y’all know what rhetorical questions are. Those are the ones you do not answer out loud. So in our passage there are rhetorical questions. Verse 29, seven of them I think, are all apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers. You get the idea. So here are a rhetorical question or two of my own. How did the bread get here today? Who filled the cups? Why is the building tidy? Who counted the beans? On and on we could go. That’s the money, right? It’s not bread and beans. On and on we could go. How did the things that make church happen today? How did they take place?
Well, they took place because God in his grace, God in his goodness has made a people for himself who he has raised up by the spirit and made alive in Christ and endowed them with gifts and graces to serve God, but also to serve you all. Now I mentioned last time we got into the section of 1 Corinthians that you can take all the gifts listed in Corinthians, all the gifts listed in Romans and in other places, and you can basically categorize the ones that still exist for the church today. You can categorize them briefly, teaching, governing, and helping. helping or serving, governing or leading, shepherding, and then also teaching, preaching, teaching little ones, all the rest. So how do all these things happen? Well, they happen by the grace of God giving the gifts of God to the people of God for the glory of God and the good of his people.
That’s what we want to think about for a few moments today. The sovereign God furnishes his church. The gracious, wise, and all-powerful God gives graces and gifts to the people of his church. so that he is glorified and we are edified. I want to think just briefly today as we approach the Lord’s table, how it is we serve the Lord. how it is we serve the Lord for His glory and for the good of one another.
The first thing we want to see pops up in that little bit of 24b, the end of verse 24. And we’re taught there that the body of Christ is sovereignly provided for. That’s something that Paul has mentioned a bunch in chapter 12. But as he concludes, it bears repeating. So he says in verse 24b, God has so composed the body giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it. So in the Corinthian church, and this can happen all around the world in various churches, the big people, the loud people, the shiny people are getting all the glory. And it’s the bubble gum scrapers. It’s the quiet folks that just sneak in, do their job, sneak out. No one ever knows they were there. It’s those who are considered weaker or lesser or not so important.
And what God is saying in the big picture of this chapter and in this little verse is the body of Christ is sovereignly provided for. And it doesn’t matter if you’re the preacher who preaches to thousands or you’re the one who gets on your back under the pews and scrapes off the chewing gum to clean up that sacred space for worship. The risen and exalted Christ has given gifts, Ephesians 4 tells us, has given gifts to the church so that God is glorified and the people are edified. And so the body of Christ is sovereignly provided for. And what we might consider a weaker body part or a less honorable or not honorable at all person or position in the church, that is the one that God oftentimes is most focused on. Now the idea here that Paul has in mind, there’s echoes of Genesis where Paul remembers in his Old Testament studies that God made man. God made man from the dust of the earth and he made him body as a whole and parts, individuals.
And that man, and perhaps you’ve studied biology or looked at human anatomy, or you’ve been to the doctor enough, you are dangerous enough to know the human body and its abilities are pretty amazing and you need your pinky toe. You need your brain. You need your right hand, your left hand. You need all the parts that God has given you. And it’s the same in the church. God has sovereignly made our human bodies to function in special ways. And he’s made the body of individual believers in a special way. We need them all. And so we want to understand the sovereign God provides for the body of Christ.
The second thing we want to think about is how there’s greater honor given to the parts that lack. Oftentimes, think middle school and high school. I suppose it happens in the workplace. It’s the outward and obvious people who have the awards hanging on the wall. They get the corner office. They get the promotions. It’s the ones who seek it and, you know, they sort of put themselves out there. They get the glory.
But what about the little people? What about the ones who behind the scenes make things happen? You come into the office and there’s coffee. Well, who made it? Well, it wasn’t the outward and obvious folks usually. It’s just the quiet person behind the scenes. What about the little people, the gum scrapers?
God and his sovereignty has made the body of Christ full of different people with different gifts to do different things. You put the whole together and it’s wonderful. I was thinking through this week of some of the odd things that happen around here. We all come and drink out of the coffee pot. But several weeks back, someones came in and put some vinegar through it and clean those coffee pots so that they would make better coffee. That’s a kind of an unseen task, but a necessary task.
The trash goes out. I pull in on Monday and it’s just sitting out there. I pull in on Tuesday and it’s empty. I leave work on Wednesday and it disappears to the back. And those things add up, those things are wonderful and example after example of how life in the church goes on and on. But there’s greater honor given to the part that lacked. And I want you to think about this. When Isaiah writes of Jesus, the suffering servant, he doesn’t say in Isaiah 52, 53 and those other places, there’s going to be a big, strong, muscular, shiny King.
Now we just read from first Samuel and who did they pick? They picked Saul. They picked Saul of Kish from the tribe of Benjamin. Wrong, wrong everything. And remember later when they got, you know, Saul’s kind of gummed it up and God says, no, I’m gonna pick a king after my own heart.
He goes to Jesse’s house and Jesse lines them up. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Have you got any more? Yes. The runt of the litter is out in the field. And who shows up but little David. He was ruddy, right? And that what they say. And God says, I don’t look at the heart or I don’t look at the outward appearance. I look at the heart. And so, uh, David is beginning to be a picture of Jesus, the suffering servant, not much to look at, but from God’s perspective, the right person. And perhaps you feel, I don’t know, invisible in your workplace or in the church world. And you think I don’t have this big gift. I don’t have this big grace. Everybody’s not always talking about me.
You’re singing my praises. but God has made the least or the less honorable, in fact, the most honorable in his sight. And so God sovereignly gives gifts and graces to the church and he gives greater honor to the part that lacks. And if you pick up in verse 25, you see the reason, you begin to see the reason for this unity. You begin to see this reason for the many parts, one body, different gifts. Verse 25 says, so that there may be no division in the body. Why does God make the least? Why does God make the less honorable? Why does God make the bubble gum scraper offer more honorable?
Well, it’s because there needs to be no division in the church. You know, we don’t pass out awards, Sunday School Teacher of the Year, you know, Floor Sweeper of the Year. We did used to give out the Golden Toilet Wand, I think, when we were so proud of us cleaning our own building. We gave the Vacuum Cleaner Award. You remember that, don’t you? Because it was fun and we were proud of ourselves for cleaning our own building. But we don’t hand out awards. We let people quietly serve. You may notice, you may say thank you, and that’s wonderful.
But what happens is you begin to have divisions in the church. Well, my Sunday school class is bigger. You know, I have this effect from my ministry and that causes division in the church. What happens when we have division in our human bodies? Well, usually that’s cancer, isn’t it? And what does cancer grow? It grows tumors. It grows harmful things that will kill. And so we don’t want in the body of Christ there to be division or the stronger word is a schism or splits.
Uh, I was watching this week, one of those Senate hearings. Uh, I think I caught a blip of it on the news and you know, you, you ask a guy a question, then you interrupt them so he can’t answer it. And the person who is the question asker didn’t like the answer given and was basically throwing a two-year-old tantrum.
It’s my time. It’s my time. It’s my time. You probably saw that. And that can be what happens in the life of the church. It’s my turn to shine. It’s my turn to get the glory. And one of the reasons that God does what he does and the way he distributes gifts and even brings higher honor to the less honorable gifts or body parts, is so that there is no division in the church. Now there’s another result or byproduct of that. Again, we see in verse 25. It’s so that the members may have the same care for one another.
There is a sense in our human bodies if we smash our toe, You know, we’re not supposed to go barefoot outside to take the trash out at night, but we often do and we end up smashing our toe or kicking it on something. Well, what automatically hurts? The head throbs. Or maybe you’ve hit your thumb or your finger with a hammer and it hurts and hurts, but the pain goes up your arm and the pain goes through your body.
And what Paul is saying here is when the church suffers, we suffer together. So there’s no division with gifts and graces because we see God’s honor in it. But when one suffers, we all suffer. That’s why we care when someone has a death in the family, we mourn with them. That’s why when someone is sick, our heart hurts, our gut hurts, and we want them to not be sick. And so we pray with them. We pray for them. We meet their needs and on and on we go.
The body. is literally to be anxious for one another, verse 25, where it says, but that the members may have the same care for one another. The word there is really an anxiety that we may be anxious for one another. It was good to see folks come a few minutes early today, you know, missed each other. And it was good to see y’all talk right up until the start of the service. You were anxious for each other. How did you do? Did you make it? Did you freeze? Did you lose power? Did your heat stay on? Did you have enough firewood? All the rest. We were anxious for one another. When we pray on Wednesday nights, we’re anxious before the Lord for one another.
We’ve been remembering in particular these last few weeks in our prayers, those who lost loved ones a year ago and how that anniversary may be of particular difficulty for them. And so we’ve made note to pray and to suffer with them in remembering their loss.
And that’s how the body of Christ works. We have teachers, we have governors, and we have helpers, and that’s all wonderful in the unity of God’s distribution of gifts. But we also have, in a sense, a unity of pain when one hurts. The way God cares for us is that we hurt with and for one another in our shorter catechism where it gives a definition of prayer It says prayer is offering up to God the desires of our heart for things agreeable to our will with thanksgiving, with confession of sin. And then the next question is when and where should we pray? And there’s some wording in there that’s wonderful. It says we should pray with and for each other.
And so in the life of the body of church, we should have the same care or anxiety for one another. And then there’s a declaration made in verse 27. Now you all y’all it’s a plural. Now you all are the body of Christ. You’re one whole body, lots of parts, but you all are one body of Christ. He is saying that’s declaration to a group of people that have been suing each other. Remember that he’s saying this to a body of people who some have their, uh, their heads covered in church. Others don’t. that whole cultural business. He is saying this to a group of people that say, I follow Apollos. Well, I follow Paul. I follow Cephas. I follow Jesus. And on and on, we could go back through first Corinthians.
And remember, this is a very divided bunch of people. Uh, and Paul across the sea at Ephesus, where he’s heard of all this now writing a second letter to them, the second one that we have. And he is still saying to them, even though you’re a bunch of meatheads, you are all the body of Christ.
And then individually members of it. Each of us is a member of the body of Jesus, but it is a body. It is a oneness. It is a unity. And so Paul is reminding us of our special privilege. We are God’s people. We are the chosen of the Lord. We’re a family. And that’s the declaration made in verse 27. Well, verse 28 is a reminder for the apostolic times of God’s appointments of gifts and graces in the church.
And he lists, is it seven of them? First apostles, second prophets, third teachers, fourth miracles. And then there’s gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Now remember, because us reform folks are really complicated. We talked about the gifts that were for the apostolic times, gifts that were for the building up of the church after Pentecost.
And that’s where you had apostles. Remember, there were 12 disciples in early Acts. They had to replace Judas because he betrayed Jesus, went out and killed himself. And so they replaced Judas with Matthias, remember the caslots and God gave them Matthias. So they had the 12.
And then the only other apostle to pop up would be Jesus, or I’m sorry, Paul, who Jesus appeared to on the Damascus road. And so the apostles literally are sent ones to go out into the world and be emissaries of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and to build up his church. Now, as every apostle died, and we believe John was probably the last one, we find him on the Isle of Patmos, seeing into heaven and giving us the book of Revelation. As the apostles died one by one, the apostolic era ceased.
But during that era also you have prophets. They would speak the word of God. And you’ll find in Paul’s letters little mentions of Agabus and there was the man whose daughters could prophesy and they would be in the midst of the congregation and they would speak a word, a real word from God to the people of God. Those also, we believe, ceased with the apostolic era.
And then there would be teachers. Now, we still have teachers in the church. If you read Ephesians 4, God, when the Lord was risen on high, the ascended and reigning Jesus gave gifts to the church. He gave apostles and he gave prophets, but he also gave pastors, teachers. That’s the literal way it reads. We still have teachers in the church today. But then they had miracles. Signs and wonders accompanied the early church to give proof that God was at work.
We don’t have that today, though you can turn on your television and you can see Benny Hinn knocking people out. And it looks great, but then you watch one of those exposés and, you know, you go and you’re still in your wheelchair and, you know, you weren’t chosen, I guess, to get slain in the spirit or whatever, but there are people that claim they can heal. Uh, we don’t believe that’s true. Now, can we pray with and for each other? Of course we can, but miracles we think are past gifts of healing the same, but helping.
So teaching, helping, administrating also there. Now we’re going to get into tongues. I don’t know, down the road in a chapter or two. Uh, we also believe tongues has ceased. The tongues would be, the words of God and other languages understandable to people, there would be an interpretation, all the rest.
So you’ve got all these people in the church fighting over lawsuits, head coverings, communion. I got the gift of tongues, you don’t. I’ve got the gift of prophecy, you don’t. On and on it went. This is what they did before they put their name in the stained glass windows, I guess. So the rhetorical question comes up, seven of them, verses 29 and 30.
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all possess or all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? He’s sort of asking what he asked in the other part of chapter 12. Are we all big toes? Are we all left hands? Are we all noses, ears, mouths, eyes? Now the body is made up of many parts. and in unity put together, we need them all.
And so these seven rhetorical questions sort of push them to realize we need each other. In fact, if you go back to verses 25 and 26, we’re to have no division or schism, but we’re also to have the same care for one another. And how does that saying go? When one member suffers, we suffer together, but when one member is honored, we rejoice together.
We live in a world that loves the gifts of the church. And I love the gifts of the church. There are teachers and preachers in our Christian circles that have meant the world to me and I know have meant the world to you. Those are God’s gifts to the church. They are very rare.
But if every minister wanted to be Billy Graham in the 50s and 60s and 70s, was that going to be a reality? No, there was just one Billy Graham. God had raised him up for a special task. What’s wrong with every pastor thinking he’s Billy Graham? Well, he’s going to be sorely disappointed as is his congregation. And you could throw out the same. You know, I’m, I’m the best children’s worker in the world. I’m the best this or that person in the life of the church. And so diversity is a necessity of the church of the living God.
And these seven questions ask us, so what should we strive for? What should we be zealous for? Verse 31, It’s an odd verse in the New Testament. And I think the latter part really goes with the next chapter, uh, the love chapter of, uh, first Corinthians 13, but verse 31 says, but earnestly desire, be zealous for the higher gifts.
We’ll look at the list. The bottom is tongues. Next up is gifts of healing, helping, and administrating miracles, teachers, prophets, and apostles. So in the early church, what was the top job? it was to be an apostle. And here he says something confusing, earnestly desire the higher gifts.
Well, who could be an apostle? Well, you had to be one of the 12 or Matthias or Paul, right? You couldn’t just Joe Blow say, I think I’m going to be an apostle. Now, if you have a billboard on I-40, you can be an apostle, right? Or you can call yourself one. But there were, I guess, what, 14? Judas died. So there was Matthias, that’s 13. Then Paul meets Jesus on the road to Damascus. How does he introduce himself in every one of his letters? Paul, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, called by God, sent to you. That’s usually how it goes. So we’re pretty sure he was one.
But after that 14, when it says earnestly desire the higher gifts, do you need to get on your knees and say, dear God, make me a prophet today. No. Very good. Good answer. Do you need to be a prophet? No. Do you need to be a teacher? Quite possibly. You may have gifts of studying and grasping information and communicating information, and you may need to pray that God would use your teaching abilities in the life of the church. Now, do you need to pray to be a miracle worker? No, that one’s passed. Do you need to possess gifts of healing? Better not.
What about tongues or interpretation? No. So what do we strive after? Well, Joel Beakey, one of the great theologians of the day, has categorized the remaining gifts for the church today as teaching, governing, and helping. And so we ought to strive after being teachers or preachers. We ought to strive after being governors, like elders, or deacons, helpers like deacons, we ought to aspire to be bubble gum scrapers off the bottom of the pews.
We ought to aspire to whatever gift and grace God gives us by his spirit to serve the living church. Remember, God has furnished his church by saving people and giving gifts to those people. And those gifts and graces are for his glory and for the good or the edification of the church. And so we ought to seek for God to show us how he may use us in the life of his body for the sake of others and for his glory.
Let’s pause and ask him for that help. Lord, bless us as a church with people with various gifts and graces to make the many parts, one whole body functioning and useful so that your people are edified and your name is glorified. And this we ask in the name of our God and Savior and King Jesus. Amen.