John 14:12-21; 16:5-16; James 1:16-18The passages we study this week will pull together everything we have been learning over the past eight weeks. What a privilege it has been to be in this adventure of learning and growth in Christ together. You have looked at your gifts from several different angles: seeing them in those you admire, in your fulfilling live events, in your spiritual gifts survey, in the actions of Jesus, and in the things that bring you joy. By now, some of the gifts may be getting a little clearer to you. Does your ministry inside and outside the church make use of these spiritual/natural gifts? If not, how can you make adjustments so that you are working from a greater sense of mission, passion, and sense of God’s presence in what you do? Those questions also apply to the church. Do our ministry activities reflect our God-given giftedness or are we mainly doing things because we have either been doing them before or because we think we “should” do them. If our goal as a church is not to offer the whole package (so no one will go anywhere else!), then we continue to try to be all things to all people and not be fully anything to anybody. Most churches fall into that trap. The same is true if we do that as individuals. Is the body of Christ more than you as an individual, more than St. Luke’s as a Church?
At first, John 14:12 seems ludicrous. Do I do greater things than Jesus? Do I heal the blind with the touch of my hand? Do you raise the dead? Qualitatively, this makes no sense at all. But I believe this is a quantitative statement. Because the Holy Spirit has made God’s presence in Christ portable in each of us, we can have an impact way beyond the ministry of Jesus. None of us can do greater things than Jesus on our own, but together we become part of what Jesus dreamed for the Church – a world-changing life-changing movement that would transform every corner of the globe. Our spiritual/natural gifts are the raw material with which the ongoing ministry of Jesus happens through you and me.
Having said that, it is crucial that we keep the gifts and the Holy Spirit connected in our thinking and our motivations. Our spiritual gifts are for the lifting up of Christ everywhere that we are, not for the lifting up of ourselves. As much as we have talked about fulfillment and what gives us joy, seeking fulfillment and joy will short-circuit our ministry. They are not ends in themselves. The goal is to make disciples of Jesus Christ so that the world is forever changed. With that as our goal and our focus on God’s love in Christ through the power of the Spirit, we are then able to become the high-impact children of God we have been created to be.
In chapter 16, we have the role of the Holy Spirit as our guide into all truth. The key metaphor is one of “journey.” We are on a journey of faith, a journey in our spiritual giftedness, and a journey in our ministry for Christ together. Quite often, we want to know what it will be like when we get to our destination. But this journey has a destination in heaven, and we may find that, too, is an even more epic journey. When Jesus talked to Nicodemus in John 3 about the Holy Spirit, he said it was like the blowing of the wind, that couldn’t really be traced where it is going or coming from. We know that meteorologists can do that kind of tracing, but even they cannot control it. To be on this spiritual journey with God is to embrace unpredictability and the need for constant growth.
James 1:16-18 again reminds us where the gifts come from. We are more than conduits, in that we shape and flavor all the Spirit does through us. But we are vessels of a sort. The gifts are not for our benefit. It is those around us who have a claim on the gifts of the Spirit we share. Remember the great theme we learned in class this week: Wherever your great passion and the world's greatest need meet is where your calling is. Have a great, fulfilling and high-impact day in our Lord Jesus Christ.
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