Sermon Tone Analysis

Good afternoon everyone.

I am so glad to be back with you, after the last couple weeks.

Last week and a half as you know Deb and I were sick.

Two weeks ago I had a chance to share a message Sunday morning in a small church east of here, and –full disclaimer—the message today is going to be that same message.

Our text this afternoon is 1 Corinthians chapter 1, you can turn there.

While I assure you this message is not about computers and technology, I am going to begin with a story on technology.

A book was recently published on technology and Christian life that concludes with a chapter on the question “How should we use technology today?”

Now in this chapter, he observes that technology works through four stages – discovery, production, adoption, and adaption.

In the first phase of discovery, he refers to the finding of new tech.

Lets consider the first automobile.

In the case of the second phase of production, think of the process whereby the new technology can actually be provided to others – such as the manufacturing plants of Henry Ford in Dearborn MI when the earliest automobiles were built en masse.

Then, in the adoption phase, there is the place where technology actually gets to you and me.

Eventually, cars got to us.

The car at its fundamental reality amplifies our ability to use our physical abilities—in the case of the automobile, it enables us to travel father away to get the basic needs of life, it enables us to move more stuff at once in the case of a pickup truck.

Surely, for such a community like this, can you imagine life without the automobile?

Most of us normally actually take it for granted today.

Our society, this community, has surely been changed by the use of the automobile.

However, there is a fourth stage that technology should get to, and that is the adapting stage where these new abilities for what is best for mankind.

The problem with technology, with an automobile, is that it cannot tell us what is the best way to use that technology.

It doesn’t have a built in “instruction book”.

We have to look elsewhere to find this—what we need to properly use technology, Now man has its own wisdom it tries to use to figure out the best way to use technology, but are they figuring it out yet?

Well, that remains to be seen.

More important than just technology, is man’s basic needs.

We all face common issues, and the Bible presents man’s sin and our most basic need.

It is here that God’s wisdom is most needed.

Today, we are going to talk about how God’s wisdom is greater than man’s foolish wisdom.

Paul is writing to the church of Corinth, a city in Greece in the 1st century shortly after Christ lived.

If you heard Pastor’s Sunday morning message last week, I am going to repeat some of the same ground he covered—I told you this is the same message I had already shared two weeks ago!

But no The city of Corinth was a cosmopolitan city, with lots of different kinds of people, permissive morals seeing it was known for sexual behaviors that were very promiscuous.

Given its geography, at a key juncture in the Greek area, it also had a lot of commerce too.

Think of the large cities of the world today, perhaps a place like New York City.

Corinth was along those lines.

Yet, even for all its worldiness, we know Jews, people who knew the one true God were there.

In Acts, and even here in this epistle as we shall see, there was interactions with Jews.

So, Corinth was quite a diverse place.

Paul has a lot of issue he needs to deal with.

Foundational for him though is the centrality of Jesus Christ and the wisdom of God which Christ brought to us.

Lets read in 1 Corinthians 1, our text will be verses 18-31, but I’d like to begin with v10.

1 Corinthians 1:10–31 (KJV 1900)

10Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

(This is the first issue of several problems Paul addresses the church, the issue of divisions.

He moves on to explain why this is an issue)

11For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.

(so someone wrote to him or spoke with Paul in person).

12Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.

13Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?

(So Paul is noting that there is no place for factionalism, noting that all men are but servants of Christ and that there is also a unity between Christ and those who work with him.

He then goes on to explain how he did not exhibit this kind of sectarian).

14I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius;

15Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name.

16And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.

17For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

(this is where he gets to the key idea with which we are dealing here)

18For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

19For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

20Where is the wise?

where is the scribe?

where is the disputer of this world?

hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

21For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

22For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:

23But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

24But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

25Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

26For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

27But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

28And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

29That no flesh should glory in his presence.

30But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

31That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

So, this passage is summarized in the idea that God’s wisdom which brings salvation is greater than man’s foolish wisdom.

Mankind may have wisdom but it is actually foolish wisdom.

One commentator summaries it by saying “Against the spirit of factionalism, Paul carefully presents the wisdom of the cross.

As humble saints, our only boast is in the Lord Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.”

That’s what we’re going to unpack here.

Paul has begun this epistle, as we read, by dealing with the issue of division in the Corinthian church.

In that context, he took a moment to explain the essence of his ministry.

Back in v17, the beginning of our text, he says ”For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.”

Paul was a preacher—he began preaching from the very beginning, you may recall.

After he met the Lord on the Road to Damascus, was blinded by seeing him, and eventually healed, he right away starts preaching in the city of Damascus.

What introduces our main passage is his comment that he did not preach with “wisdom of words” or “cleverness of speech.”

In another translation.

In the Corinthian context, another thing that was a big deal, was this issue of profound speech.

Really, the Greek way of speaking focused more on the form than the actual content.

The Corinthians would’ve been looking for Paul to sound good, but as he is saying, he did not come speaking like that in order to preach to them.

He is saying here that his mission was the preaching of the gospel, not baptism.

But he has in view that he does not want to make the cross less effective, and that is going to depend on the subject of which we speak in this message.

The focus of vv18-31 is actually an explanation for why the cross is indeed foolishness to the world, but wisdom to us.

In chapter 2, notice He will pick back up the theme of a description of his manner of ministry on this point.

However, here, the focus is on explaining the reality of the world in which Paul had to minister – where the gospel is foolish and man’s wisdom is treated as wisdom.

Lets take a look at how he describes the contrast between the world and the believer.

Verse 18 jumps out off the page with its profound statement on which this entire section is built

“For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”

The for at the beginning is what signals this is an explanation.

Paul begins his explanation of the reason for his avoidance of Greek rhetoric by contrasting two groups – to one group, the cross is foolish, to the other it is the power of God.

Note that even later again in chapter 2, there is a link between wisdom and power in this discussion – chapter 2 verses 4-5 Paul elaborates that “[his] speech and [his] preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”

Wisdom, in God, is not weak or without power.

Rather, it is powerful.

“The power of the cross” is real.

It is telling that the fundamental way he describes the people of God and the people of this world are in the terms of “saved” and “perish.”