1 Corinthians 12: 4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. 6 And there are varieties of workings, but the same God who works everything in everyone.
10 and to another the workings of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the [g]distinguishing of spirits,
Romans 12: 4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another, 6 but having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: whether prophecy, [d]in agreement with the faith;8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with [f]generosity; he who [g]leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
Well, once again, we come to our study of spiritual gifts. And I want to remind you that at the conclusion of this study, I am going to ask you to take a spiritual gifts inventory. It is a list of questions designed to help you identify and clarify what your spiritual gifts are. I have already had some conversations with people who said that they can already see, just from this list, and our descriptions of what their gifts are. And that is wonderful. Once you know your gifts, now, all that remains is to put them to use. Your spiritual gifts are like a fine musical instrument. You can stand back and admire its craftsmanship, but it is wonderful when put to work, but it loses its shine and usefulness if it sits idle.
The great violinist, Nicolo Paganini, willed his marvelous violin to Genoa -- the city of his birth -- but only on condition that the instrument never be played upon. It was an unfortunate condition, for it is a peculiarity of wood that as long as it is used and handled, it shows little wear. As soon as it is discarded, it begins to decay.
The exquisite, mellow-toned violin has become worm-eaten in its beautiful case, valueless except as a relic. The moldering instrument is a reminder that a life withdrawn from all service to others loses its meaning.
Bits & Pieces, June 25, 1992.
With that in mind, let’s prepare to hear again from the Word of God. But before we do so, let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
Now, if you haven’t been with us, or if you have missed any of the messages, they are on our website under topical podcasts and spiritual gift survey. But we also have this sheet available, that lists the gifts, where they are in the Bible, and a basic definition of the gift. And we have just been going through this list, one gift at a time in our study.
Today, we are going to look at the next three gifts on our list; prophecy, exhortation, and leadership. Now, I changed the order of how I am presenting these. I was preparing for today and began thinking about a logical order. And prophecy is a more general speaking gift that ties together two of the gifts we looked at last time; the word of knowledge, and the word of wisdom, and one that we will look at this time; exhortation. So, I changed the order for a better flow.
Also, the first two gifts we look at today, Prophecy and exhortation, are the last two of the speaking gifts. Let’s start with prophecy.
What is the definition of prophecy. To prophecy is to speak the Word of God. It is setting before people the Word and wisdom of God persuasively.
And the passage that we see it listed is Romans chapter 12.
6 but having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: whether prophecy, [d]in agreement with the faith;
Now, we’ve kind of been eating around the edges of prophecy during this entire study, so let me reiterate a few points about the gift of prophecy. First, it is one of the speaking gifts. Second, it is speaking what God says to speak. Third, it is given in order to build up the church. And fourth, it is the persuasive application to some present circumstance.
First, it is one of the speaking gifts. The speaking gifts are the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, teaching, exhortation, and prophecy. And all these are gifts in which you speak to others. Now, when I say “speak,” I generally mean “communicate.” The communication doesn’t have to be from a pulpit, or in a room surrounded with a group of listeners. Granted, the person we are most acquainted with who has the gift of prophecy would be a preacher or a Sunday School teacher. But it is not confined to those two roles. The proclamation may be conveyed in a letter, or a phone call, or text. It may be uploaded to social media, or to a podcast. It may be written in a book. But it is the ability to persuasively communicate the message of God.
It is speaking or communicating. We see that in 1 Corinthians 14:3, where Paul says "He that prophesies speaks to men."
But, what do they speak about? That’s the second point. To prophecy is to speak God’s message.
The passage we read in Romans says this.
6 but having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: whether prophecy, [d]in agreement with the faith;
Paul is saying that if a person has the gift of prophecy, they should use it, they should speak, but they should speak, “in agreement with the faith.” This is not a gift that God gives for you to give your message. It is to give His message.
And that is primarily accomplished by communicating the Scripture to people. Listen, some people, even those who are not Christian can be great communicators. And they may have some positive message to bring. But if the core of the message isn’t from the Word of God, if it is primarily human psychology, or worldly wisdom, then it is not prophecy. Its core is the Word of God. Let me share with you a couple of Scripture passages that make that clear.
2 Peter 1:21 For no prophecy was ever made by the will of man, but men being moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
Again, it is someone speaking, by the moving of the Spirit. But it is not their words, it is God’s Word.
1 Corinthians 13:2 And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge;
Associated with prophecy was the revelation of mysteries and knowledge. Again, these are mysteries and knowledge revealed by God.
Now what is the purpose of prophecy? That gets us to our third point. Prophecy is given to build up the church, the people of the church. Another Scripture passage from 1st Corinthians emphasizes that.
1 Corinthians 14:6 But now, brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching?
Paul, in teaching about tongues, says, “if you speak in a language that can’t be understood, and there is no interpreter, you haven’t profit anyone.” Nobody knows what was said. But then, by contrast, if you teach or prophecy, you are profitable. You build up the people of the church.
And this is what is so wonderful about this gift. I said to you before that I believe God gives you your gift when you become a believer. And sometimes we imagine that like Christmas time around the tree. I can go to our Christmas tree at that time of year and literally count how many gifts have my name on them. I have three gifts from God. And I open them, and they are prophecy, the word of wisdom, and the word of knowledge.
And you may say, well I only had one gift under the tree. I got the gift of giving. And you say, “I got rucked.” And the reason you think that is probably because you struggle to readily identify the other gifts God has given you.
That’s why I believe the “gift” God gives you is more like one of those “recipe ingredient mason jars” that people give. The jar is full of all the dry ingredients you need to make snickerdoodle cookies. It is a single gift, but it has multiple ingredients, carefully measured out. And although your primary ingredient maybe the gift of giving, God has also mixed in the gift of helps, and mercy, and a pinch of exhortation. And it’s all mixed together in you, so all you see is flour.
And He gave you what He gave you in order to build up the church. Prophecy is speaking. But prophecy can be mixed with other gifts, so that the speaking looks different from one person to the next.
It can be proclaiming the truth from the pulpit using the word of knowledge. It can be systematically teaching the truth in a classroom. It may involve expounding Scripture and applying the Scripture to life using another gift, the word of wisdom. And it can speak the Word of God in a conversation or letter involving the gift of exhortation and comfort.
This is a public speaker who brings edification, exhortation and consolation. It is for the profit or edification of the hearers.
The fourth point about prophecy is that it is the persuasive application of the Word to some present circumstance. Last time we looked at two of the gifts, the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom. The word of knowledge was the gift of digging deep into the meaning of the word of God. That’s part of prophesying, preaching the Word. But the gift of the word of wisdom was applying the Word of God to present circumstances. The gift of prophecy involves both. And it also involves exhorting or persuading the listeners to apply the Word. And it is all empowered by God’s Spirit.
Listen, I couldn’t preach without the Spirit. Yes, I have some natural speaking and organization abilities. But what happens in the pulpit goes far beyond that.
I’ve said previously that modern prophecy is not so much about foretelling, as Telling forth. But I think there is an element of prophecy, where the Spirit of God uses the mouth of the preacher to say things directly to the audience that is hearing them. I’ve had it happen on more than one occasion, that, for example, I will be preaching a sermon emphasizing the doctrine of Jesus’ being God, and unbeknownst to me, a visitor comes that day who is Jehovah’s Witness, who don’t believe that. I’ve had Catholic visitors come on a day that I am talking about what the Bible says about Mary. I think God empowers a preacher when they are preparing the sermon and empowers them in the pulpit in that way. But it’s not something you seek.
Let me close out our look at prophecy with this illustration.
When Charles Spurgeon was pastor at New Park Street in London,
God used his words to bring about amazing changes in the lives of people. A man who was on his way to get some gin saw the crowd at the church door and pushed his way in to see what was going on. At that moment, Spurgeon turned and faced the man and said that there was a man in the gallery who had a gin bottle in his pocket and had come with no good motive. The startled man listened to the rest of the message and was converted.
One evening a prostitute, on her way to Blackfriars Bridge to commit suicide, stopped at the church, hoping to hear some word that would prepare her to meet her maker. Spurgeon was preaching from Luke 7:36-50, the story of the prostitute who wiped Jesus feet with her tears. His text was verse 44; "Seest thou this woman?" As Spurgeon preached, the woman saw herself but also saw the grace of God and trusted Christ.
W. Wiersbe, Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching and Preachers, Moody Press,
The second gift we want to look at today is the last of the speaking gifts.
The definition for this gift is “Encouraging people in their spiritual journeys.” It is listed in Romans 12.
Romans 12: 6 but having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: whether prophecy, [d]in agreement with the faith;8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation;
I chose to place it after prophecy, because I think exhortation can be a part of prophecy.
What is exhortation? These verses in Romans 12 are a part of in the context of a passage about the unity and cooperation of the body of Christ. Paul is admonishing the Corinthian believers to use their gifts humbly and in service to each other. So, if you have the gift of service, then serve. If you have the gift of prophecy, then prophecy. If you have the gift of exhortation, then exhort. But what does it mean to exhort one another?
“You see, the gift of exhortation is the...is the ministry of challenging God's people to act consistent with God's will. Now listen to that. The ministry of exhortation is challenging God's people to act consistently with God's will.
“Well, the word exhort means to encourage, to strengthen, to advise, to comfort. And it can be used in a number of contexts. It could be to encourage out of sin into righteousness. It could be used in the sense of comforting someone in trouble. It could be in the sense of finding someone that's weak and encouraging them to be strong and get stronger and trust the Lord and walk by faith and God will work it out. It can come in a lot of ways. It's a very broad thing. And some people are just really great at comforting those that are in sorrow. Some people are very great at infusing strength into those that are weak, in encouraging those that are fainthearted. These are the encouragers.”
Gty.org
Now, I wanted to give you some Scriptural basis for defining exhortation. So, I looked up the verses that use the word. It means “pleading,” “persuading” and “comforting.” I think those three words do a good job of defining the gift of exhortation for use.
It is translated “pleading.” Matthew 8 tells the story of a centurion who pleaded with Jesus that he would heal his servant.
Matthew 8: 5 And when [f]Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, 6 and saying, “[g]Lord, my [h]servant is [i]lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” 7 And Jesus *said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But the centurion said, “[j]Lord, I am not good enough for You to come under my roof, but just [k]say the word, and my [l]servant will be healed. 9 For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this man, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”
Notice what we have here. This centurion came to Jesus pleading for the life of his servant. And you get the sense that his request was effective. Jesus was impressed with him and did what he asked. And I think that there are things about his pleading, his exhortation that made it especially effective. Notice he knew to approach Jesus in the right way. He was humble. Notice, he got right to the point. He presented the facts, and what it was that he desired. Notice that he exalted God in his plea. He understood the extent of Jesus power. I think someone with the gift of exhortation understands those three things, their own humility, the message that needs to be presented, and God’s exaltation. And they are good at approaching people, pleading with people, exhorting them with a balance of exalting God, humbling themselves, and respecting the other person.
The word is also used in Luke 3 of John the Baptist.
16 John answered, saying to them all, “As for me, I baptize you with water, but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the strap of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 18 So with many other exhortations he proclaimed the gospel to the people.
John again has those same three components in his exhortation. He is humble. He knows that he is not worthy. He does not exhort people from a sense that he is better than they are. He says, “I’m not worthy to even be the servant who removes the shoes of the Messiah. He also gets right to the message. John the Baptist was never distracted by side issues. He continually repeated the message, “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.” “The Messiah is coming, and He is going to separate the good from the bad, the wheat from the chaff.” And he also persuaded and encouraged them to take specific actions in preparation for the Messiah.
So, the word is translated persuading, and I think those are the three components of that persuading.
In 1 Corinthians 1 it is translated “comfort.”
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in [b]any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Here God is described as the exhorter and comforter. We don’t always associate exhortation with comforting. I imagine exhortation to be, you know, your kid falls down and scrapes their knee. And you come along and say, “Alright, alright, your leg still works. You’re not going to die. Stand up. You can do it.” But, I think part of exhortation is also going over to your child when they fall, seeing their pain, putting your arm around them, looking at the injury, treating the injury if necessary, kissing the boo boo. But you don’t stop with that. You encourage them to get up and try again.
Exhortation from God here is described as comforting. And it should be no surprise that He is called a comforter, because the same word used here, and in Romans 12, and the other passages I’ve mentioned is the word for comforter, the name Jesus gave to the Holy Spirit.
John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever;
So here, an exhorter is a comforter or helper. He is God who comes alongside of you when you are hurting, or when you need encouragement, or when you need to be counseled to avoid evil and do good. And that really is what this gift is. People with the gift of exhortation are good at encouragement, and comfort. They see when they need to listen, when they need to address the injury, and when they need to encourage someone to start getting up, and moving beyond the hurt.
And, just as with the other gifts, the gift of exhortation is closely tied to the Word of God.
You are not just encouraging them toward goals of their own making. Like John the Baptist in the passage above, you are trying to persuade you to move toward good, and away from evil. And a person with the gift of exhortation is good at it. When they do it, they are effective in their pleading, persuasion, and comfort.
Do you know people like that? People that you talk to, they shoot straight, they are not arrogant, they hold up the high standard of God’s calling, and when you are done with them, you want to be a better man or woman? You felt darkness before they came, but you can see light?
I mean, bless God for the encouragers. We need you. If that's your gift, then by all means, share it with us. “Come alongside the weak and strengthen them, come alongside the fainthearted and give them courage, come alongside the sorrowful and give them comfort.” And come alongside the ignorant and educate. Come alongside the straying and point them, lead them to the right path.
And what is wonderful is that all of these Spiritual gifts work together. Prophecy proclaims the truth. Teaching we looked at last week. Teaching systematizes the truth. But exhortation calls for a right response to the truth. And serving, another gift we will look at later, serving puts the truth into action.
Well, we are going to stop there for today. We finished the speaking gifts. Next time we will pick up with the service gifts. To conclude let me lay out something specific. You may say, I am not a preacher, prophet, or teacher. But I often feel a compulsion to encourage and comfort. How do I exercise my gift? Well, your gift is still a speaking gift. So, it is exercised by speaking or communicating with people. That means that you need to be in a relationship with people. I think this gift is especially relationship based. A preacher or teacher is often addressing larger groups. But the exhorter is usually in a one-to-one conversation, or relationship. So, you need to cultivate those relationships. And it can be a kind of random thing; I just go around church on Sunday morning looking for opportunities to exhort. But it also needs to be planned, and sometimes structured. If you develop a relationship with someone who is in need of exhortation, start going out for coffee with them on a regular basis.
And you don’t have to say to them, “I think you need exhortation, let’s get together every week so I can exhort you.” Build a friendship. And it is highly likely that they will also minister to you through their gifts.
One man who was ousted from his profession for an indiscretion took work as a hod carrier simply to put bread on the table. He was suddenly plunged into a drastically different world; instead of going to an office each day, he was hauling loads of concrete block up to the fifth level of a construction site. Gone was the piped-in music in the corridors; now he had to endure blaring transistors. Any girl who walked by was subject to rude remarks and whistles. Profanity shot through the air, especially from the foreman, whose primary tactics were whining and intimidation; "For---sake, you---, can't you do anything right? I never worked with such a bunch of --- in all my life..."
Near the end of the third week, the new employee felt he could take no more. "I'll work till break time this morning," he told himself, "and then that's it. I'm going home." He'd already been the butt of more than one joke when his lack of experience caused him to do something foolish. The stories were retold constantly thereafter. "I just can't handle any more of this." A while later, he decided to finish out the morning and then leave at lunchtime.
Shortly before noon, the foreman came around with paychecks. As he handed the man his envelope, he made his first civil comment to him in three weeks. "Hey, there's a woman working in the front office who knows you. Says she takes care of your kids sometimes." "Who?" He named the woman, who sometimes helped in the nursery of the church where the man and his family worshiped. The foreman then went on with his rounds. When the hod carrier opened his envelope, he found, along with his check, a handwritten note from the payroll clerk: "When one part of the body of Christ suffers, we all suffer with it. Just wanted you to know that I'm praying for you these days." He stared at the note, astonished at God's timing. He hadn't even known the woman worked for this company. Here at his lowest hour, she had given him the courage to go on, to push another wheelbarrow of mortar up that ramp.
Dean Merrill, Another Chance, Zondervan, 1981, p. 138.