This blog is based on a sermon originally preached by Sera at St Denys Church in February 2025. It's based on 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Rooted in Jesus, Rooted in the Spirit:

We’ve started this year using the readings set in the lectionary to explore the theme of being rooted. Roots keep you anchored and help you grow.

And we’ve started by looking at Jesus and that we, as friends and followers of Jesus, are anchored in his baptism & his sense of purpose along with his calling to combine our lives with him, and see amazing things happen. Being anchored in Jesus keeps us anchored in the storms of life, and helps us grow healthily in the right seasons of life.

For the next few weeks, the readings take us to the first letter that Paul wrote to the Corinthians, where we see other things that keep us rooted (Note that any healthy plant has more than one root).

And today, in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11, we are reminded that we are rooted in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. 

What's Your Honest Response to Talk about the Holy Spirit & Gifts?

I wonder when there’s talk of the Holy Spirit, or when you hear a reading like today’s, how you respond? How you feel?

Let me name a few responses:

• Intrigue -you don’t really get the whole Holy Spirit thing – there are so many questions
• Opting out -  you let all this talk of Holy Spirit, gifts, wisdom, tongues wash over you – it’s all an optional extra  of the Christian faith. It’s for someone else, or for other kinds of churches.
• Inadequacy – you don’t feel a good enough Christian for these things you read about, they’re only for better Christians
• Jealousy – you’d like a big dose of Spirit given wisdom, knowledge, healing, miracles, but it’s only seems its for other people, places or churches you know have.
• Pain or even anger –you’ve been burnt by things to do with the Holy Spirit, and gifts and prophecies, and now you’d rather not go there.

I get it!

So today I want to offer a gentle encouragement that hopefully speaks into and ministers to some of these responses. Because in preparing for this talk, it struck me that in 21st Century Southampton we find Jesus far more comfortable than the Holy Spirit. But yet, I reckon that for the early church, the Holy Spirit was far more comfortable than Jesus! (there’s a discussion topic for sometime)

Let me say that again: in 21st Century Southampton we find Jesus far more comfortable than the Holy Spirit. Yet, for the early church, the Holy Spirit was far more comfortable than Jesus!

Paul's Audience, Message & Context: 

Keep in mind when we explore this section of 1 Corinthians, that Paul addresses his letter both to the people of Corinth – and Corinth was a polluted, worldly city. At the time, the lowest accusation you could make against a man was to call him a ‘Corinthian.’

But also Paul was writing to ‘all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord’ (1:2). And so this is a letter is for all friends and followers of Jesus. It speaks into the not-great Corinthian context but to all friends and followers of Jesus, with general principles for all. So if we’re thinking we’re not good enough or that this is not relevant, then I’d suggest here’s a nudge to think differently.

 And in this section of the letter, Paul is addressing an issue to do with gifts of the Spirit. There are some issues in Corinthians which are a spring board for all to learn from.

One  issue in lack of understanding: ‘I do not want you to be uninformed’ vs 1, and he makes comparisons between idols and the living action of God in vs 1-3. Old beliefs are shading what they think.

A second seems to be jealousy or greediness: it seems different people are expressing gifts from God spirits, they want more for themselves, maybe to prove they’re better than Christians than others. And so in verses 4 – 5 he spells things out. God’s Spirit gives lots of different gifts. These gifts include (but are not exclusively) wisdom, prophecy, praying in tongues, healing, faith. These gifts are for the common good, not personal gain. And it in the conscious, intentional, purposeful Spirit of God who chooses who has what gifts, it’s not the follower of Jesus who decides.

Now it’s worth saying that this is only a snapshot on what Paul writes about the Holy Spirit, and on what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit. Paul’s letters are soaked through with references to what the Holy Spirit does, and this builds on the what Jesus has to say about the Spirit, and this in terms in surrounded about what is written across the Old and New Testament about the Spirit at work – right back into the opening verses of Genesis, where the Spirit is described as being present in creation. All of which suggests that the Holy Spirit being at work is not an optional extra, but rather integral into God at work. We just don’t get it, and for many reasons we, or others of our brothers and sisters in Christ don’t get it!

Spotting the Holy Spirit at Work:

To help with our struggles the Spirit, there are three threads that I want to draw out today.  Threads that I think can actually help as checks on us understanding and spotting the Holy Spirit at work.

 Firstly: The work of the Spirit is consistent with the work of God, because the Spirit is God: 'There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.' (vs 4-6)The Spirit is God at work in us and in the world. And notice that use of ‘same’ three times. Therefore the Spirit at work will be consistent with the character of God we see in Jesus, building on the work of God through time.

If you see something going on, if the Spirit seems to be at work but you’re not sure, then I suggest asking yourself – is this consistent with what I know of Jesus, and the bigger character of God?

We have a check: consistency with the character of God as best seen in Jesus

Secondly, the gifts of the Spirit has a purpose which is the Common Good: 'Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.' Vs 7

You can imagine there being quite as stir in the Corinthians church as people started to show real wisdom, or impressive faith, or began to do inexplainable things, like speaking in unheard of languages which someone else can then explain. You can imagine some people get pretty excited and beginning to put themselves or others on pedestals. Or wanting more of an experience.

But yet, Paul is firm. These things are not for an individual’s benefit but for the shared good.  This Common Good is a God-shaped shared good: of witnessing to God’s love; of working for his Kingdom of justice, goodness and mercy; of worshipping him together in truth, honour and holiness; of praying to him as our Father,; and of living lives of love of others, self and God.

The Spirit is given so that this Common Good can happen.

If you’re not sure if what you’re seeing or experiencing is the Holy Spirit, then maybe ask yourself – is the thing you see and hear building up the Common Good or is it more for personal or private gain.

Thirdly: The Spirit decides who gets what, and makes the decision consistent with the character of God: ‘To one is given… to another… to another... All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.' V11

The Spirit is at work giving individuals something that is not theirs by simple human striving and character growth. He gives the ‘more’. I wonder if you can think of time when you were talking with someone and had a sense of some insight that you didn’t previously know but did shed light onto the situation. Or you were praying with someone and felt ompelled to pray in a certain way. Or preparing for a talk and really felt something particular needed saying. Or maybe you prayed and someone made huge progress on the path to healing! The Spirit giving you a gift that is 'more than' you. And these gifts might be very subtle, but they are more than you.

We can trust that the Holy Spirit knows what he’s doing, that he operates with the compassion and understanding of God, and he’s not on a mission to humiliate you or make you into someone you’re not. The gifts he gives us as a body at St Denys will be consistent with who we need to be here in this context for his glory, the gift he gives elsewhere will be appropriate for them. Can we not be jealous and can we not be anxious? Can we be open and can we trust?

 So this gives us three checks and three reassurances. The Holy Spirit:

•  works in a way that is consistent with the character of God
• works for the purpose of God-shaped Common Good
• helps individual do and be MORE, but in ways that are appropriate and consistent with the character of God and the context we're in.

A Gentle Encouragement: Be Open to the Holy Spirit

Over the last few months months there's been a verse regularly scrolling through my mind: 'Not by might nor by power but my Spirit says the Lord' (Zechariah 4:6). And it's nudged me to overcome some of my wariness, hurts and inferiority that I have in terms of the Holy Spirit. And I have encountered the quiet power of the Spirit and I have grown in trust.

I wonder if together we can live with an openness to the Holy Spirit, not as a single moment of encounter or ministry, but rather a 24/7 attitude of openness. And in doing so, maybe we build each other up to face the discomfort of Christ through the comfort of the Spirit.