In the late 1800s a cutler in Ibach Switzerland by the name of Karl Elsener wanted to build the perfect tool for soldiers in the Swiss army. Karl knew, in order to meet the needs of the Swiss soldiers, his tool would need to serve multiple functions. The tool needed a knife for cutting, a screwdriver for disassembling a service riffle, and a can opener to open food rations. Karl designed a multi-tool device that not only met all these requirements, but the various attachments of the multi-tool folded inside the handle through a pivot point mechanism, allowing it to easily fit inside a soldier’s pocket. Originally Karl’s multi-tool was used by officers in the Swiss army, so it became known as the “Offiziersmesser". American soldiers, who had as much difficulty pronouncing “Offiziersmesser" as I do, simply referred to Karl’s multi-tool as the Swiss Army Knife.
Today the Swiss Army Knife, with its red handle and small white cross, is one of the world’s most recognized tools. The utility and versatility of the Swiss Army Knife is so well established that, outside of military circles, too call someone or something a “Swiss Army Knife” generally implies the person or thing is useful in an assortment of ways under a variety of situations.
I am not a paid spokesman for the Swiss Army Knife and since my YouTube channel only has 66 subscribers, I am not in any danger of becoming one any time soon. The reason why I have spent the last two minutes talking about the Swiss Army Knife is because today we are focusing our attention on the Holy Spirit, and when I think of the Holy Spirit, I think of Him as the Swiss Army Knife of the Trinity. Take a look at our second lesson for today from 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 and I will show you what I mean.
Paul is writing to a group of people who have a history of division. They argued about who was the best pastor. They took each other to court. They even had problems sharing the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper with one another. The cause of division among them that Paul is addressing in chapter 12 was connected to the use of spiritual gifts.
In verses 1-2 Paul writes, “1 Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. 2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols.” It seems the majority of believers in the Corinthian congregation were pagans; that is, they were worshipers of the pantheon of gods that were popular among the Greeks. Greek poets like Homer described these Greek gods as petty beings. Many believed that the Greek gods played favorites and, for entertainment, often pitted one man against the other. As a result, worship of these gods did not bring people together, rather it caused divisions. Paul reminded the Corinthians that these gods were “mute idols”; they were, at best, reflections of reality, shades of the truth, and figments off the imagination. In contrast to these “mute idols”, Paul wants the Corinthians (and you and me) to know that the Holy Spirit in an assortment of ways and in a variety of situations brings people together.
The first thing the Holy Spirit does to bring people together is He brings them to faith in Jesus as their Savior. In verse 3 Paul writes, “3 …I tell you 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.” I once heard a woman curse Jesus. She stood in front of me and screamed it at the top of her lungs. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever heard, and if you knew anything about my background that is saying a lot. Her blasphemy scarred me so badly that I can still vividly picture the scene in my mind.
A true believer does not scream at the top of their lungs “Jesus be cursed”. The words would stick in their throats. Rather, a true, and only a true believer says, “Jesus is Lord”. Now, Paul does not mean to say that the pagan can’t utter these words in mockery. They can certainly speak these words without the Holy Spirit, but they cannot speak them as a confession of faith. The only way anyone can confess faith in Jesus as their Savior is if the Holy Spirit first works faith in their heart. Recall that familiar passage from Ephesians chapter 2 that says, “8 it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Your faith is not from yourself; your faith is a gift of the Holy Spirit. “no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.” By the way, this is a great passage to use when talking to your friends who claim to have made a decision for Christ. I often tell such friends the only way they could have claimed God as their own was because God first claimed them as His own.
Anyway, the first thing the holy Spirit does to bring us together is He brings us to faith in Jesus as our Savior. The second thing the Holy Spirit does to bring us all together is He gives us different gifts. In verses 4-6 Paul writes, “4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.” In these verses, the words “different” and “same” are repeated three times. Before we talk about what is “different” let’s talk about what is the “same”.
The thing that is the same is the source from which gifts are given. That source is of course God, specifically the Holy Spirit. In the verses that follow, Paul makes that point obnoxiously clear. Five or six times Paul, in speaking of the various gifts that are given, says in verse 8 that gifts are given “through the Spirit”, and “by means of the same Spirit” In verse 9 He says that gifts are given “by the same Spirit” and “by that one Spirit” and then in verse 11 Paul writes, “11 All these (that is the gifts that we have been given) are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.”. Even the most dim-witted student of scripture understands what Paul is saying, The Holy Spirit is the one who gives us all our different gifts. The source for all of our gifts is the same.
Now let’s talk about what is different. The thing that is different is the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives us. In the verses that follow Paul also makes that point obnoxiously clear. Though this is by no means an exhaustive list of gifts that are given by the Holy Spirit, here Paul lists eight different gifts. Paul writes, to one there is given “wisdom”, to another “knowledge” to another “faith”, to another “healing”, to another “powers”, to another “distinguishing between spirits”, to another “speaking in tongues”, and to another “interpretation”. Now, don’t allow yourself to become so fixated on a specific gift that you miss Paul’s point. Paul is saying, in any given congregation or family there are going to be different gifts that are given.
What is kind of cool is, the Holy Spirit gives us these different gifts He gives us in order to bring us together. Here is where the Holy Spirit really starts to act like the Swiss Army Knife of the Trinity. Think about the Swiss Army Knife. Variety is the secret to the success of the Swiss Army Knife. I have owned my fair share of them over the years. My first one had two knives, a nail file, a pair of scissors, a can opener, a corkscrew, and a toothpick. The next one I want to get has a laser pointer and a flash drive. But I would have no use for a Swiss Army Knife if it came with five knives or five corkscrews, or five toothpicks. Again, it is the variety of tools the knife contains that makes it so useful. Likewise, it is the variety of gifts given in a congregation or a family that make them useful. This is an important concept for us to understand because there is a temptation in the congregation and in the family to allow our differences to divide us. Jealousies over the different gifts people have been given have divided more than one congregation and family and if you don’t want that to happen in our congregation or in your family than I encourage you to see how our different gifts bring us together. Think about it, if we all had the same gifts it would be kind of silly for the Holy Spirit to bring us together. There isn’t much use for a congregation of corkscrews or a family of nail files. Instead, the Holy Spirit grabs a knife, and a screwdriver, and a nail file, and a pair of scissors, and a toothpick and brings them all together in one package.
The first thing the Holy Spirt does to bring us together is He brings us to faith in Jesus as our Savior. The second thing the Holy Spirit does to bring us together is He gives us different gifts. The third and final thing the Holy Spirit does to bring us together is He gives us purpose. In verse 7 Paul writes, “7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” Paul reminds us that the different gifts we have been given are to be “manifestations of the Spirit”; that is, our gifts are to be used as demonstrations of the vast variety of things the Holy Spirit can do. In short, our gifts are to be used in such a way that our God is glorified. The most natural way for us to do that is to use the variety of gifts the Holy Spirit has given us “for the common good”. These gifts that we have been given, have not been given to us for our own personal gain. Our gifts are not meant to give us status in a congregation or prominence in our families. Our gifts have been given to us for the benefit of the people around us. Or gifts are meant to train and equip, correct and rebuke, support and encourage our fellow believers. We are to use the variety of gifts the Holy Spirit has given us in such a way that the members of our congregation and the members in our families might be brought closer to Jesus, and as a result brought closer together.
When I think about all the different ways the Holy Spirit brings us together, I can’t help but think of Him as the Swiss Army Knife of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit brings us together by bringing us to faith in Jesus as our Savior, He brings us together by giving us our different gifts, and He brings us together by giving us purpose. Today we give thanks to the Holy Spirit, the Swiss Army Knife of the Trinity, for the various ways in which He brings us all together. Amen.