1 Corinthians 12:13-31 & 13:1 | Episode #997

August 5, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

1 Corinthians 12:13-31 & 13:1

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope.

Applying God's word to your daily life.

As we finish Faithful Finance, we want to produce our winter Bible study done at Lake Community Church on First Corinthians.

It'll be a fairly long Bible study.

We will break it up into different parts,

and so you will get a really good, really fast study through the book of First Corinthians before we move on to the book of Joshua.

He says, for by one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, meaning the work of God in bringing you justification in Christ is him giving you the new birth.

You are baptized.

That's the original baptism. Okay.

All right. If we want to talk about. I've talked about this. You know,

have you gotten the second baptism? I always say, did you get the third?

You know, people get all caught up in this.

There was one work of the Holy Spirit that brought you into the kingdom, and that was the work of the Holy Spirit birthing in you a new spirit and making you a part of Christ's kingdom.

Okay?

And then we work toward the other ends, and we work towards sanctification.

And then eventually we. We understand we're going to be glorified. And he talks about that even in here, because he's talking spiritual things.

He says,

by one spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jew or Greek, whether slave or free,

and have all been made to drink into one spirit,

meaning it all comes from him,

and we drink from one spirit.

For in fact, the body is not one member, but many. Now, I'm going to read this just straight through because it is just a narrative argument that is just beautiful and doesn't really need to be broken up.

Notice what he says.

If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I'm not the body,

is it therefore not the body? He asked some rhetorical questions here. They're questions that are obvious answers. Okay, that's what a rhetorical question is. If I ask you, am I not a man?

Well, in our modern culture, that might be different. But if I said, normally to you,

aren't I a man? You would say,

well, yes.

Okay,

that's a rhetorical question.

Okay, am I not standing in front of you?

Yes, it's a rhetorical question. So he says, if the foot should say, because I'm not a hand,

am I not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? The answer is no.

And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, am I not of the body, it is therefore not of the body.

No.

If the whole body were an eye,

where would be the hearing?

If the whole. If the whole were hearing,

where would be the smelling?

But now God has set the members,

each one of them, in the body, just as he's pleased. Meaning he's put each one,

each one of the.

The parts together as he's pleased them to be.

That's his sovereign will.

And if they were all one member, they would be the bot.

Where would be the body?

If we were all the same, where would be the body? It wouldn't.

We'd just be a whole bunch of toenails.

I'm not going to make it a nice one if we're going to all try to be the same thing.

Okay,

we're talking about one of the ones that you don't want to keep toenails.

But now, indeed, there are many members, yet one body.

And the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you.

Nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

No. Much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

Which means you can't say we don't need each other.

You can't say that spiritually.

You can't say I don't want those types.

I don't want the foot peoples.

I don't want the hair follicles.

They're out.

He says, no. Much rather, those members of the body which seem weaker are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable.

On these we bestow great honor.

And our unpresentable parts have greater modesty,

but our presentable parts have no need.

But God composed the body, having given greater honor to the part which lacks it. Which means, he says he honors every part of his body.

He honors everybody.

And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.

Or if one member is honored,

all the members rejoice with it.

Now, you are the body of Christ and members individually.

And God has appointed these in the church.

First, apostles,

second prophets, third teachers.

After that, miracles, then gifts of healing, then helps and administration and varieties of tongues. Notice again, he's saying variety of tongues.

Now, that can mean a lot of things, and we'll get into that.

But he's saying, these are the things that matter. And I want you to notice how he laid it out. First, apostles. Why? Because those were the ones who were sent to build the church.

Okay? And our apostle is a person who sent out into an area to start a church,

to start the ministry of Christ among a people.

Okay? I Have a good buddy who's got a ministry to Tequila Bolas in Brazil. They're the people who come from all the people who escaped into the rainforest for whatever reason.

Some of them used to be slaves, and some of them used to be Indians, and some of them used to be criminals that were from Europe. And they're just a big hodgepodge.

Well, they're a lot like the Cajuns from Louisiana. They're just a hodgepodge of all the different people that escaped. And they escaped 20, 30 miles into the rainforest, and they have villages all there.

And he just goes from village to village and they bring churches in and they start having. Teaching Bible studies. Eventually, this year, they built their first church in one of the villages.

And that's what they do.

Well, he's an apostle.

He's doing an apostolic ministry,

okay? Now, he's a Baptist, so we don't call him the apostle,

okay?

But that doesn't mean that. That's not his ministry. That's his ministry.

Then he says there's prophets.

Now, I want to give you this. Understand understanding of what a prophet is,

okay?

A prophecy,

in the way you think of it in the Old Testament is foretelling the future,

okay?

And there is the gift of doing that,

okay?

But prophecy is.

I want you to think of it in a broader way.

Prophecy is telling supernatural things that can only be understood by the spirit of God,

okay? So a prophet is someone who speaks. It may be something in the future, but he speaks or she speaks.

Cause remember, we've already read that if a woman prophesies. He didn't say she shouldn't, he said if she does.

That's a gift.

He says here that if you have that gift, you are able to speak spiritual things to people that only can be understood by the Holy Spirit, revealing that to them.

And so a person who prophesies to people is a person who speaks about deep spiritual matters. That.

That when they speak,

you hear spiritual truths from God as they're talking from God.

Does that make sense?

Which might be a foretelling, but it's more than that. It's a greater gift than just,

you know, thus saith the Lord,

Trump's going to get elected. You know, it's more than that,

okay? That's not. That's. That's. That's. That's prophecy. But it's. But it's just a small smidgen of the gift because we need people to be able to go in and speak spiritual truths to people once the church has begun, right?

And then you have teachers. And what are teachers? Well, teachers are people who just teach the Bible. They're the ones who kind of lay that foundation and put the solid food on the table and you just eat the food.

Okay. They may not even be trying to do something supernaturally spiritual, may do it, but they're just, they're just teaching. They're teaching you and they're giving you those truths. And so sometimes I function like tonight as a teacher,

and then on Sunday morning I would be more functioning in, in my, in my gift of prophecy.

Does that make sense?

All right. And so that's, that's how, that's how that works.

He says,

are all teachers?

Are all workers of miracles?

He's asking a rhetorical question. The answer is what?

No,

no, you're not all those things.

You're not, not everybody's going to have all those things.

Do all have gifts of healing?

Do all speak with tongues?

Do all interpret?

And the answer is no, no, no, no, no.

Which means do all, by the way. I'm some of speaking to the charismatic side. And then some of them were speaking to the mainline denominational side. When he says, do all speak in tongues?

And in a rhetorical list of questions, I'm telling you, he's a lawyer. If he's asking the question over and over and over again, he's making.

You ever seen a lawyer just start spitting questions at a witness and don't even hardly give the witness a chance to answer because the answer is obvious. You ever seen a lawyer do that?

When I get on a roll doing, well, I don't get to do that anymore. But when I used to have somebody on the stand, I get on a roll doing that.

I could wear them out because I've already got them in the corner. The answer's obvious. I'm just laying it out there so that they don't have any choice but to answer a certain way.

He's doing that here.

He's saying, are all prophets?

Are all apostles? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracle? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? The answer is no.

So anybody who says to you, you have to speak in tongues or you have to work miracles, or you have to be a teacher, or you have to be that in order to be somehow spiritually better than somebody else, they're wrong.

Don't worry, I'm going to step on the other folks toes in a little bit. Okay,

he says, but earnestly desire the best gifts.

Now I'm going to tell you the best gifts ain't got nothing to do with this.

Now, we're fixing to go into chapter 13. And Pastor Jimmy did a great job of just taking that chapter 13 and expositing it last week and giving you.

The best way for me to describe it is the message to the world that you take from 1 Corinthians 13. It's the message that God would give to the whole world.

And that's what Jimmy's preaching. But I'm not gonna use chapter 13 that way,

okay? And the reason I'm not gonna use chapter 13 that way is. Cause I'm putting it in the context of 12 and 14.

And so I want you to follow chapter 13.

After hearing chapter 12, I want you to follow chapter 13 and listen to the argument as it continues.

Because he's saying,

choose the better gifts.

And he's going to describe what the better gifts are.

Now,

before we get into it,

before we move into it, you need to hear me.

Those who are on this side,

not metaphorically on this side,

all right? Those who are on this side,

they will tell. Some will teach you that. That spiritual gifts, certain spiritual gifts have ceased.

It's called cessation.

Yeah. And they ceased with the apostles.

Now, I want you to hear me.

There's a problem with that.

If they're going to cease not long after this is written, why write it?

I got other arguments, but let's just start with the obvious one.

Why aren't we going to have three chapters in a major book of the New Testament about how to deal with this gift if the gift's going away in 20 years?

Why,

that's a foolish argument. And by the way, I'm going to make the argument not from Chad's teaching. I'm going to teach you what my New Testament theologic.

My New Testament theology professor taught me from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, who taught me that cessation is not found in this chapter.

He says, though I speak in the tongues of men and angels, but have not loved,

I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. Now, I'm going to use the King James word here because in the argument, and I do believe King James, the King James Version was translated this way because it's seeing this chapter in relation to chapters 12 and 14.

And the word used here for agape, which is God's love, is charity,

okay? It's the word charity.

Now, charity involves love, but it involves love with certain standards to it,

okay?

The. The standard is this,

that God's love is necessary as it relates to Him.

But it's not necessary as it relates to you.

God is sufficient in Himself.

He does not need you.

He does not need us.

One of the key principles, and it's an underlying principle. If you read the great theologians of the past,

they will talk about the sufficiency of God and that God did not have to create the universe and he did not have to create you, and he did not have to have to love you.

He chose to.

He chose to.

He did not have to make the universe. He and Jesus and the Holy Spirit together are sufficient unto themselves. There was no need to create the angels if they had never been created.

God would be fine just the way he is.

He is sufficient. He is whole. He is perfect. He is beautiful, and he is complete.

He chose to create you.

He chose to know you.

He chose to love you. It was not necessary. It was by his sovereign choice.

And that's a powerful understanding of God.

God did not need me.

He chose me.

God did not need me.

He was charitable in that. He decided by his own sovereign will to give me his love.

This is important.

Otherwise he's not perfect.

If the imperfect need. If the perfect needs the imperfect,

then that perfect is not perfect.

Now that is a.

A very important principle.

So when he's talking about these gifts that he's given you, they are by his charity,

by his agape love.

Just letting that sit on you for a minute.

He says, if I speak in the tongues of men and angels, notice there's heavenly languages and there's human languages.

So we can definitely say that that might be a diversity of what?

Tongues. Right.

You go, what's. How do you tell the difference? Well, you know,

I don't know.

I can tell you this. I one time was in a group and it was an ecumenical group. And there's a.

Well, the best way I can tell you is a little Irish boy.

And you say, well, what do you mean a little Irish boy? He was an Irish preacher boy. And the only way I could tell you I know he was Irish is he's 5 foot 4, redheaded to the core, head freckles everywhere.

If he wasn't Irish, he missed the great opportunity.

We start praying and he starts clicking.

I thought he had some kind of seizure or something over there,

Tourette's something.

He starts clicking.

And I asked him afterwards what he said. That's my tongue.

And I'm sitting there going, that ain't no tongue. Now listen, we can come up with all kinds of tongues. You can ramble on my ding dong all where you want to.

That ain't one of them tongues.

About six months later, the Olympics came out and they had a Visa commercial.

And the Visa commercial, they were saying some kind of welcome in all kinds of languages.

And there was this huge black guy in the middle of Africa and he was clicking.

God said. I said, I see what you did there, guy.

I see what you did. You just showing out. You had the old Irish boy over there clicking and had me thinking, that's all the forest. And now I see it on tv.

Old Visa commercial, got the old big old black fellow over there clicking.

See, that kind of stuff excites me. When I think about John saying I looked and saw men from every tribe and nation and tongue and language. It just tells me he can do it all.

He can make that little Irish boy click like the black guy out of Africa.

Just a little side note.

As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you,

that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.