The Miraculous Gifts of the Spirit - Continuation, Restoration or Cessation? (pt.1)

I. Extraordinary Spiritual Gifts and Their Purpose

The Gifts: 1 Cor. 12:4-10; Romans 12:6

Their Purpose: Eph. 4:8-16, esp. 4:12 & 4:16

Three things should be remembered about these gifts:

i) The presence of the gifts amongst members of the visible church is not a sure sign of salvation (Matt. 7:22) and therefore they are tied to the grace of God and not the condition of the one exercising them

ii) The gifts are not intended for the one to whom they are granted but are intended for the edification and blessing of others.

iii) Not all genuine believers in the Apostolic church (members of the "body") exercised these gifts (1 Cor. 12:30)

II. Which Gift is Really Important

Revelation i.e. instruction in the revealed word of God - 1 Cor. 12:28. The ministry of the Apostles and Prophets is foundational to the church. (Eph. 2:20). Things like healing (i.e. signs) are inevitably placed last. Therefore an emphasis on signs over revelation is surely misguided.

III. Tongues

Speaking in tongues is only mentioned in four places in the New Testament:

Pentecost - Acts 2:4 & 11

The House of Cornelius: Acts 10:46

John's disciples in Ephesus Acts 19:6

Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 12:14ff)

What are these tongues? The Greek word is glossa which always means a language. Are they always human (foreign) languages however? At Pentecost the disciples where clearly empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak in foreign languages previously unknown to them. (Acts 2:8) The only place in the scripture that seems to indicate that tongues might be other than a foreign language is in 1 Cor. 13:1. "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels…" this however could be hyperbole on the part of the Apostle. His primary emphasis is on the importance of love, so he could be saying "even though I speak in the tongues of men or even the tongues of Angels (not that I have) these signs are meaningless without love"

What is clearly evident is that these tongues must be understandable. In order for tongues to be a gift of the spirit that brings blessing (see 1.2) they must understood or interpreted (1 Cor. 14:26-28). In addressing the state of the church in Corinth, Paul says that a profusion of uninterpreted tongues is a sign of confusion and disorder (1 Cor. 14:33) which is contrary to the right way of doing things in the church (1 Cor. 14:40).

Tongues, when uninterpreted do not edify the church, however when they are interpreted they clearly are to be held on the same level as prophecy (1 Cor. 14:5, Acts 2:17-18)

IV. Prophecy

True Prophecy throughout the Old and New testaments is nothing less than the speaking forth of the very words of the Lord. Thus the prophet could earnestly say "Thus says the Lord…" when he delivered his message (Heb. 1:1). The mark of a true prophet was that his words invariably came to pass, and were thus authenticated - the success rate of the true prophets of the Lord was 100% percent. By contrast the mark of the false prophets was that they said was not sent by the Lord and did not come to pass as they said it would (Eze 22:28, Jer. 14:14). Moses instructed the people in how to recognize a false prophet and decreed that false prophets should be put to death:

Deut 18:20 'But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.' 21 "And if you say in your heart, 'How shall we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?' -- 22 "when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him."

Peter also gives us another way of distinguishing false prophets - they bring in heresies (2 Peter 2:1) The teaching of the false prophets will contradict the teaching of the Word of God.

False Prophets have always afflicted the church in both the Old and New Testaments, and there are frequent warnings given by Jesus and the Apostles that they will continue to do so until Christ's return (Matt. 7:15, Matt. 24:11, Matt. 24:24, Mark 13:22, 2 Peter 2:1, 1 John 4:1)

It is important to remember two things in relation to these false prophets:

They will deceive many (Matt. 24:11)

They will perform lying (false) signs and wonders (Matt. 24:24)

While all true prophecy was given by the Lord, and was therefore his inerrant revelation to His people, it was sometimes interpreted poorly. Thus Agabus was right to tell Paul he would be taken captive if he went to Jerusalem (Acts 21:11) but the people were wrong to plead with Paul not to go as a result (Acts 21:12) Paul knew he had to go in any event (Acts 20:22-23).

V. Healings

Miraculous Healings can and should be separated into two groups.

Healing in response to prayer (James 5:14-15)

Healings directly performed by individuals (i.e. the Healings of Christ, Peter, etc.)

Even those who do not believe in the continuation or restoration of miraculous gifts accept the continuing validity of #1 (that God sometimes responds to prayer by healing in spite of or against means). Therefore only #2 is in question.

The Healings performed by Christ and His Apostles that we read of in the New Testament had several characteristics worthy of our note:

The Healings were complete and immediate

The Healings could not be doubted - the lame walked, the blind saw, leprosy was instantly cured

There were no failures or relapses

Large numbers of Healings were performed

VI. The Purpose of these Miraculous Signs in the New Testament

Again and again the Bible tells us what the underlying purpose of these miraculous signs was: to attest to or authenticate the message of Christ and his Apostles.

Acts 2:22 "Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst"

Heb. 2:2 "For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward,3 how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him,4 God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?"

Acts 14:3 "Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands."

2 Cor. 12:12 "Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds."

John 3:2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."

John 20:30 And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

[Note: Stephen and Phillip also performed signs and wonders in the course of performing evangelistic activity - they however were functioning with Apostolic authority and did not have the ability to impart ability to do miracles to others as the Apostles did]

(This blog concludes tomorrow with part 2)