Years ago there was a movie that established quite a cult following by successfully poking fun at cubicles and corporate politics associated with working in the office. In one particular scene, two interviewers called in to help make corporate cuts are sitting with an employee as he explains exactly what he does in the office. It quickly becomes apparent to the viewer in a humorous way that this employee would be the perfect example of where to make cuts, as the employee struggled mightily to explain exactly what his responsibilities were. After all, if he couldn’t explain what he actually did, then why did he have a job there?
A similar question sometimes comes up regarding the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit: what exactly does he do? What is his job?
Most are quite clear on the role that God the Father has – after all, we address his name and his work in worship each week in the Lord’s Prayer. And Jesus will not be overlooked, either. Since his cross and his name are the focal points of the Christian faith, they are rightly emphasized in worship week, too. Jesus is what we’re all about.
But what about the Holy Spirit? You probably don’t know the name John McCarthy (not the one associated with politics…). He was a computer scientist who lived and worked in the middle of the last century. Even if you don’t know his name, though, you have already benefited from his work and will continue to. John McCarthy is one of the pioneers of AI, artificial intelligence. It was his foundational groundwork that got us to where we are today and wherever the future of AI takes us. So even if you never knew McCarthy, you’ll still benefit from much of the work he did.
That’s like the role of the Holy Spirit. When he is at work, you may not necessarily know him any better because of it, but you’ll benefit from his work: making Jesus known and believed. When the Holy Spirit is doing his work, you don’t know it because he’s not interested in jumping on stage into the spotlight. Rather, his work is to put Jesus there. His work is to make Jesus known. His work is to bring us to faith in Jesus and keep us in faith in Jesus.
Paul emphasized that point in the first verse of our words from 1 Corinthians. “Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, ‘Jesus be cursed,’ and no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit” (v.3). Paul directly connected the work of the Holy Spirit not with making Jesus known and believed. And he stated how important the work of the Holy Spirit is by clarifying that no one can even come to faith in Jesus (which is what Paul means with the phrase “Jesus is Lord”) unless the Holy Spirit enables it by creating the faith to confess it.
This is the primary work of the Holy Spirit. We call it conversion. When a person is brought from unbelief to saving faith in Jesus, it is the Holy Spirit who has worked that faith. And he works that faith through what we call the “means of grace.” These means, his “instruments” or “tools” of grace, are the gospel (good news about Jesus) in Word and Sacrament. So any effort on our part to make disciples without using those means, without using the Word of God, will be fruitless. The Holy Spirit uses only the message of the Bible to bring people to faith.
When we remember how the Holy Spirit alone works faith through the Word alone, we see faith for what it truly is – a gift. We don’t achieve faith on our own when we work a certain work. We don’t achieve faith on our own when we pray a certain prayer. We don’t achieve faith on our own when we reach some higher level of intellectual or academic achievement. We don’t do anything to come by faith; the Holy Spirit does everything. And he does it through the Word. Faith is the greatest gift the Holy Spirit gives, for through it we receive not only forgiveness and salvation but all other spiritual blessings the Holy Spirit gifts through it as well.
Think of faith like your hand. If I want to give you something, I would place it into your hand. By nature, however, when it comes to our relationship with God, sin leaves our hands clenched in a fist at God. That is because our sin accuses us and shows us our failure at keeping his right ways.
So long as our hands are clenched we cannot receive anything from God. Through the Word, the message about our sin and how God sent his Son to deal with our sin, the Holy Spirit pries open our faithless fists. Then and only then is the open palm of our hand able to receive faith and its gifts from the Holy Spirit.
Although conversion to the Christian faith is the greatest gift the Holy Spirit gives, it is far from the only one. In an effort to make Jesus known to others, once the Holy Spirit gives the gift of faith, he just keeps on giving. He also gives believers spiritual gifts to serve each other and to aid in the process of building up the church with gifts that elevate Jesus to even greater heights.
Although not exhaustive, Paul provided a list of some of those Spirit-given gifts in the second portion of the verses from 1 Corinthians 12. There are a number of ways one might categorize those gifts. One of the simplest might be to just classify them as gifts pertaining to either speaking or serving. While there may be some overlap in gifts, generally most will relate more to speech or service.
Additionally, there are gifts that have been called charismatic gifts, special miraculous gifts given in abundance to the early Christian church. While the Holy Spirit is certainly able to continue dispensing such charismatic gifts to his Church today, that class of gifts does not appear to be as prevalent as it was early on. That is likely because we now have what they didn’t then – the entire written Word of God.
By no means does that imply that the speaking and serving gifts given to the Church today are in any way inferior. If we should for some reason feel as if we’ve been shortchanged in the gifts given by the Holy Spirit, Paul rules out that faulty thinking. “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines” (1 Cor. 12:11). The Holy Spirit gives out his gifts in just the right amounts to just the right people, and that includes every single believer. There are no second or third stringers in the church. There are no benchwarmers or backups. Everyone is contributing to the teamwork through which the Holy Spirit does his work.
And, if we remember the main purpose of these gifts, we can appreciate any and all of the Spirit’s gifts. Paul said, “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good” (v.7). “The common good” means everybody benefits. In other words, your gifts aren’t just for you! My gifts aren’t just for me. They aren’t for personal advantage or personal gain, but for the common good, meaning our gifts are for each other.
The me-centered miser inside each of us needs that reminder. Sin wants to make everything – even undeserved gifts from the Spirit – all about me. “Look at my wisdom, my knowledge, my faith!” Our sin sees the Spirit’s gifts as an opportunity to shine the spotlight on self.
And that isn’t even the only way that sinful pride abuses the Spirit’s gifts! Yes, I see my gifts as being beneficial to me, but I also see your gifts as a service to me! That’s when we are more than happy to point out to others that they ought to be using their gifts for the common good, when often we really mean for my good. So my gifts are for me, and so are yours. See how expertly we make everything about us!
What happens if you forget the common good and use those gifts selfishly? Consider each individual block in a wall. The wall didn’t just start out like that. It is made up of many blocks stacked together. I suppose a person could leave all of those individual blocks spread out over a large area, but unless those blocks are stacked on top of each other, there will never be a wall. And the more blocks that are stacked on top of each other, the higher the wall reaches. When we use our gifts for the common good, we are stacking them together for the Spirit to build something amazing with his gifts. When we use them selfishly, one person at best benefits – just me.
Think of the paramedic or physician who went through years of training and schooling to acquire the knowledge and skills to help the injured and save lives. Now imagine never using those skills. Those gifts might come in handy for the individual to know how to treat an injury on their own, but no one else will benefit from those gifts. It’s even more damaging than that – not only will they miss out on the benefit when those gifts are neglected or unused; they’ll actually suffer because of it. Some injuries would be more serious than they needed to be, and in some cases, some would die unnecessarily! The body of Christ hurts, too, when the Holy Spirit’s gifts go unused because others suffer.
On the other hand, what happens when all the body of Christ does put these faith gifts to use? When these gifts are built upon the all-important foundation of the greatest gift of faith, a faith that believes our selfishness is blotted out by the blood of Jesus, a faith that believes our pride is paid for by his sacrificial death, amazing things will happen!
That’s when the Spirit is able to use those gifts to draw attention to Jesus. Do you know the results of the Word at work in connection with the Spirit’s gifts being poured out on that first Pentecost? “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day” (Acts 2:41). Phenomenal!
That’s the goal, friends. That’s what the Spirit does. That’s why he gives his Word. That’s why he gives his gifts, so that they work for the common good to elevate Jesus to where as many as possible can see him with eyes of faith… until he returns on the last day and we see him with our physical eyes.
While clinging to the gift of faith then, dear friends, let that faith manifest itself in the expression of your other faith gifts. Use the spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit specialized you with so that Jesus might be elevated and others might be brought to faith. We have the Word. We have the work of the Spirit. We have the gifts to get it done. Put it all together and see what the Spirit can do with it at this time and in this place with and through you.