Tawa Baptist

Wisdom & Knowledge

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:8

Video Link: https://youtu.be/NW9ykX-QVGk

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The gift of wisdom
  • Words of knowledge
  • Knowledge needs wisdom
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Both my grandfathers had a shadow board for their tools. A shadow board is normally hung on a wall in a garage with an outline of the tools on it so you can see where the tools go and whether a tool is missing.  

My shadow board is much less impressive than my grandfathers’ ones. The tools that get used often look in good condition. But the tools I don’t use all that much have gathered a bit of rust over the years.

Today we begin a new sermon series on spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are like tools, given by God to help the church. Different jobs require a different tool. Of course, if we don’t use the tools God provides, they tend to gather rust.  

Over the years, I have not paid much attention to the topic of spiritual gifts in my preaching. This series is overdue. My aim is simply to explore what the Bible says about the gifts of the Spirit and let God do with that whatever he wants.

In First Corinthians 12, Paul lists nine spiritual gifts. Paul’s list is not exhaustive; it is an ad hoc sample. There are any number of ways in which the Holy Spirit equips the church. We come across other spiritual gifts in other parts of the Bible too. I’m starting with Corinthians 12 because that’s as good a place as any to start. From verse 4 we read…

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.

5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Our message today does not cover all those verses. I read that passage from Corinthians 12 to give you some context. In a nutshell, what Paul is saying here is this: the one Holy Spirit of God distributes a variety of different gifts for the common good of the church and by extension the world.

So, as we consider each of these gifts over the coming weeks, we need to keep that in mind. There are many gifts which all come from the one Spirit to be used for the common good.

Our sermon today focuses on the first two gifts in Paul’s list: wisdom and knowledge, or more accurately the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. We will begin with the gift of wisdom, before considering the word of knowledge.

The gift of wisdom:

Wisdom is slightly different from knowledge. Knowledge is about knowing facts and information. While wisdom is about how you handle life and people. True wisdom always serves justice, the kind of justice that leads to genuine peace.

King Solomon was known for his wisdom. He asked God for wisdom and God gave it to him. Earlier in the service I read an account of Spirit inspired wisdom from First Kings chapter 3.

Two women were living in the same house. Each of them gave birth to a baby just days apart. One of the babies died during the night. Now the two women were arguing over whose was the living child. They wanted Solomon to decide.

When Solomon ordered the child to be cut in two, one of the women said to the king, “Please, your majesty, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!”

But the other said, “Don’t give him to either of us; go ahead and cut him in two!”

Then Solomon gave his ruling: “Do not kill the child. Give him to the first woman; she is his real mother.”

That is an example of the spiritual gift of wisdom. Solomon knew how to handle the situation so that justice was done and peace was restored.  

Some people think of the gifts of the Spirit like a superpower. You know, Superman has the ability to fly, Wolverine can recover from mortal wounds, and Spiderman climbs buildings and spins webs.

But with spiritual gifts it’s different from that. The gift is not necessarily your possession to keep forever. It’s not a power you can pull out to use whenever and however you want. The exercise of a gift depends on the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit, more than it does us.

The Spirit of God clearly gave Solomon wisdom to deal with certain problems, but the king did not always act with wisdom. He did a lot of things that were unwise, including marrying hundreds of women and oppressing his own people with heavy taxation.

Spiritual gifts are not a reward for good character. The Spirit is pure and holy, but the gifts are given to imperfect human beings, and we are full of contradictions.

We find another example of Spirit inspired wisdom in Mark 12, when Jesus responds to some Pharisees who try to trap him in his words…

The Pharisees begin by flattering Jesus. They say: “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You are not swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.

Then, after coating the bait in honey, they ask: “Is it right to pay the imperial taxto Caesar or not?” 15 …But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.”

16 They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

17 Then Jesus said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him.

Jesus exercised the gift of wisdom by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit enabled Jesus to see what was really going on and gave him the right words to handle his opponents, without getting himself into trouble.

Not sure about you, but I don’t usually think of the wise thing to say until a few days later. The wisdom of hindsight is not the same as the wisdom the Spirit lends in real time.

Okay, so there’s a couple of examples of what Paul means when he writes about the gift of wisdom. What about the word of knowledge? What does that look like?    

The word of knowledge:

Some of you probably watch the Chase on TV 1 before the six o’clock news. Although the Chasers have a great general knowledge, they are not exercising the gift of knowledge when they play the Chase. The kind of knowledge Paul has in mind here is not acquired by reading books.

In Corinthians 12 the gift of knowledge probably refers to a supernatural endowment of factual information, that could not otherwise have been known without the Spirit’s help. [1]

Last Wednesday the photocopier in the church office was playing up. I opened the copier door to find a paper jam. Now you have to be very careful when removing paper jams because, if you rip the paper, it can be very difficult to get all of it out. You need to take it slow and remove the paper in one piece.

There I was carefully removing the paper when I noticed a component of the hardware was not sitting right. It was loose. I tried to put the component back properly, but it would not stay in place.

After a few failed attempts I began to feel a bit annoyed. I had a lot to do and did not need another hold up. I wish I could say my first thought was to pray, but it wasn’t.

Eventually though, after taking a few deep breaths, I did pray. My prayer went something like this: ‘God, please help me to see the problem’. No sooner had I prayed and a thought came into my mind: ‘You are looking at the wrong end. Look at the other end.’

So, I turned the component over and noticed a piece of plastic was missing. The component would not sit right because the piece of plastic which held it in place was broken. The copier repair guy had to come and replace the part.

The information I needed to remove the paper jam did not come by a word of knowledge. I learned that knowledge through previous experience.

But the information I needed to identify the problem with the hardware, that came the moment I prayed. Was the thought that came to mind as I prayed a word of knowledge or was it just common sense? I’ll let you decide.

What about when you lose your keys and after rushing around for 20 minutes in a panic, you finally pray (in desperation) for God to help you. Then, within seconds, you are reminded of where you left your keys. Is that a word of knowledge or just blind luck? I’ll let you decide.  

We come across people giving words of knowledge in the Bible quite a bit.

Like when Jesus was talking with the Samaritan woman at the well, in John 4. Without knowing the woman at all, Jesus received a word of knowledge that she had been married five times and the man she was currently with was not her husband.

This word of knowledge established Jesus’ credentials as a prophet and helped the woman to trust Jesus.

But it seems Jesus did not always possess this kind of supernatural knowledge. On a different occasion, when a woman with a bleeding complaint touched the fringe of Jesus’ cloak, Jesus knew power had gone out from him, but he did not appear to know who had touched him. He kept looking around and asking, ‘Who touched my clothes?’

We come across another instance of a word of knowledge in Acts 10. From verse 19 we read: While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Simon, three men are looking for you. So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them.”

Peter obeyed the Spirit and went with the men who took him to the home of Cornelius the Roman Centurion. Through that word of knowledge, Peter was directed by the Spirit to preach the gospel to the gentiles with the result that Cornelius and his household believed in Jesus and were saved.

You may be wondering, how do we know when a word of knowledge is from the Holy Spirit? How can we tell the difference between the Holy Spirit’s thoughts and our thoughts? Well, in John 16, Jesus said this…

13 …when the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 

These verses show us that a Spirit inspired word of knowledge is true and it glorifies Jesus. If a word of knowledge proves false or if it does not glorify Jesus, then it is not the real deal.

We could add a third test also. In Corinthians 12, Paul says the gifts of the Spirit are given for the common good. Therefore, we need to ask if the word of knowledge serves the common good. Is it helpful to others in the church?

We know a word of knowledge is genuinely Spirit inspired when it is true, it glorifies Jesus and it serves the common good.    

The problem with these tests is that the results may only be known after the fact. How did Peter know the word of knowledge he had received was true beforehand? Indeed, how can we be confident to act on a word of knowledge?

Hmm. I expect this kind of sensitivity to the Spirit is developed through faith and experience. Peter was able to recognise a genuine word of knowledge because he knew the Holy Spirit personally. He spent time in prayer and study of the word, so he was tuned in to the Spirit.

Ultimately though, Peter had to take a step in faith and act in obedience to the word of knowledge he was given. Proof follows obedience.

Knowledge needs wisdom:

Although Paul lists the gifts of wisdom and knowledge separately, they tend to work better together. Wisdom and knowledge need each other like a right hand needs a left hand.

Have you ever tried to cut a piece of steak with just one hand? It’s really difficult. You need both hands; one to hold the steak with a fork and the other to cut the steak with a knife.

What about tying your shoe laces with one hand? How hard would that be?

You need two hands to tie laces. Knowledge needs wisdom like the left hand needs the right hand.

You may know the story of David and Bathsheba. While Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, was away fighting in the war for Israel, David slept with Bathsheba and Bathsheba got pregnant. Wanting to hide what he had done, David arranged to have Uriah killed on the front line, making it look like Uriah was just another casualty of war.

But the thing David had done displeased the Lord. God, in his justice and mercy, could not turn a blind eye to David’s abuse of power. Therefore, the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to confront David over his sin.

This means Nathan must have received a word of knowledge from the Lord. How else would the prophet know David had committed adultery and murder? David had kept his wrong doing well hidden.

Knowing this inside information about David was one thing, but communicating it to David, without getting his head chopped off, was another thing altogether. David was a soldier king, he was a man of power and violence, and he had a lot to lose. Nathan needed to approach David with wisdom.

In Second Samuel chapter 12, we read the wise way in which Nathan handled the king. Nathan began by telling David a parable…      

When Nathan came to David, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. 4 “Now a traveller came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveller who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.” 5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! 

Nathan then went on tell the king how God was not pleased with the way David stole Uriah’s wife and had Uriah killed. Nathan also spelled out the consequences for David. The king would reap what he sowed.

To his credit, David admitted his fault and the Lord took away David’s sin, but he did not take away David’s consequences.

Conclusion:

A word of knowledge from the Lord is always true and truth is sometimes difficult to receive. A word of knowledge needs to be given with wisdom.

Let us pray. Gracious God, thank you for the gifts you bestow. Help us to tune in to the truth of your Spirit, to be quick to listen and faithful to obey, for the glory of Jesus and the common good of your people. Amen.  

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading these Scriptures and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. Why does God give spiritual gifts to people?
  3. What does Paul mean by the gift of wisdom? How is the gift of wisdom different from the word of knowledge? How do we see the gift of wisdom at work in the Bible?
  4. What does Paul mean by a word of knowledge? How is a word of knowledge different from general knowledge or learned knowledge? Have you ever received a word of knowledge? What happened?
  5. How do we know when a word of knowledge is from the Holy Spirit? How might we tune into the Holy Spirit?
  6. Discuss / reflect on the interaction of wisdom and knowledge in the story of Nathan confronting David. Why does knowledge need wisdom?

[1] Refer Gordon Fee, ‘NICNT, The First Epistle to the Corinthians’, page 592.