Wisdom not of this world.
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Wisdom Not of This World.
Wisdom Not of This World.
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.”
Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom;
but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,
but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
** Intro
## Talking Point
At the end of the 1st Century Clement of Rome sent a letter to Corinth. The letter is a response to events in Corinth, where the congregation had deposed certain elders (presbyters). The author called on the congregation to repent, to restore the elders to their position, and to obey their superiors. He said that the Apostles had appointed the church leadership and directed them on how to perpetuate the ministry.
Should we be thankful for our brothers and sisters in Christ in this Corinthian Church that had so much disfunction. We have such rich teachings from there short comings. We not only have Paul’s letter instructing them in their disunity within the body but other letters like Clements letter encouraging the church to living according to the word of God and not according to the wisdom of man.
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.
Why was his focus not to baptize? Why was his focus the gospel?
Not to say that baptism is not important.
religious process
lineage of who baptized you and its credibilty
3. also lineage of who made you an apostle
The contrast between cleverness vs Christ and what he has done on the cross.
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Why is “the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing”?
**NOTES - v18
Consequently the word of the cross includes the entire gospel message and work, God's plan and provision for man's redemption. God's whole redemption story and His whole redemption process seem foolish to unbelievers. And because Christ's work on the cross is the pinnacle of God's revealed Word and work, to reject the cross is to reject His revelation, and to perish. John MacArthur
Why is it foolishness?
Why are they perishing?
2. When man elevates his own wisdom he automatically attempts to lower God's wisdom, which looks to him like foolishness, because it conflicts with his own thinking. That God would take human form, be crucified, and raised in order to provide for man's forgiveness of sin and entrance into heaven is an idea far too simple, foolish, and humbling for the natural man to accept. That one man (even the Son of God) could die on a piece of wood on a nondescript hill in a nondescript part of the world and thereby determine the destiny of every person who has ever lived seems stupid. It allows no place for man's merit, man's attainment, man's understanding, or man's pride. That phrase is a graphic description of Christ rejectors, who are in the process of being destroyed in eternal judgment.
*To us who are being saved ----- IT IS THE POWER OF GOD
And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming?
“For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.”
(Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)
From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.
Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.”
But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”
**NOTES - v18b -
To the natural mind, whether jewish or gentile, the cross is offensive and unacceptable.
For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.”
**NOTES - v19 -
Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous;
And the wisdom of their wise men will perish,
And the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.”
“These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.”
There is a way which seems right to a man,
But its end is the way of death.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing to be wise, they became fools,
and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.
Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
**NOTES - v20
1. This verse specifically teaches that human wisdom not only is unreliable but impermanent. "Where are all the smart people that have the answers?" How much closer to peace is man than he was a century ago- or a millennium ago? How much closer are we to eliminating poverty, hunger, ignorance, crime, and immorality than men were in Paul's day?
We are more educated than our forefathers but we are not more moral. We have more means of helping each other but we are not less selfish. We have more means of communication but we do not understand each other any better. We have more psychology and education, and more crime and more war. We have not changed, except in finding more ways to express and excuse our human nature.
Throughout history human wisdom has never basically changed and has never solved the basic problems of man.
2. “The wise man”
Well then, where are your wise men?
Please let them tell you,
And let them understand what the Lord of hosts
Has purposed against Egypt.
3. Human wisdom sometimes sees the immediate cause of a problem but it does not see the root, which always is sin.
4. Peace, joy, hope, harmony, brotherhood, and every other aspiration of man is out of his reach as long as he follows his own way in trying to achieve them. He who sees the cross as folly is doomed to his own folly.
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.
**NOTES - v21 -
All the boasted science of the heathen world did not, could not, effectually bring home the world to God. In spite of all their wisdom, ignorance still prevailed, iniquity still abounded. Men were puffed up by their imaginary knowledge, and rather further alienated from God; and therefore it pleased him, by the foolishness of preaching, to save those that believe. By the foolishness of preaching—not such in truth, but in vulgar reckoning. - Matthew Henry
Man cannot solve his problems because he will not recognize their source, which is sin, or their solution, which is salvation. Man's own sinful nature is the cause of his problems, and he cannot change his nature. Even it human wisdom could recognize the problem it does not have the power to change it. But God has the power.
Believing implies complete assent to all the truth of the saving gospel. For those who will exchange their wisdom for His, God offers transformation, regeneration, new birth and new life through the power of the cross of Jesus Christ, His Son. This "foolishness" is man's only hope.
When human wisdom recognizes its own bankruptcy and a man turns in faith to Jesus Christ, whose saving work is the message preached, he can exchange poverty for riches, sin for righteousness, despair for hope, death for life. The simplicity of the gospel gives what the complexity of human wisdom promises but never delivers. "Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become foolish that he may become wise" (3:18). When we come down (in the world's eyes) to the cross, God will raise us up to eternal life.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
Seeing God’s greatness is not enough. Knowing that God is real is not affirmation of your depravity and need for a savior. A need to be right with God. A true understanding that you will recieve the full wrath of God at judgement. The so call foolishness of the Cross.
For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom;
**NOTES - v22
Why do they seek a sign?
Jesus Christ stood in front of them.
and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing.
Therefore the neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, “Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?”
Others were saying, “This is he,” still others were saying, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the one.”
He answered them, “I told you already and you did not listen; why do you want to hear it again? You do not want to become His disciples too, do you?”
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
The Gentiles, represented by Greeks, wanted proof through human wisdom, through ideas they could propound and could debate.
Acts 17 Mars Hill Sermon - seeing the many idols having one that was the unknown God. He starts to preach about who God is and man’s relationship and his status with God. The need of a savior was spoken and the wise men begin to sneer.
but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness,
Why was it a stumbling block to the Jews?
Even the disciples were expectant of a coquering King
but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.
Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,
just as it is written,
“Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,
And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
Why is it foolishness to gentiles?
**NOTES - v23 -
He was to the Greeks foolishness. What, hope to be saved by one that could not save himself! And trust in one who was condemned and crucified as a malefactor, a man of mean birth and poor condition in life, and cut off by so vile and opprobrious a death!
The only message a Christian has to tell is the message of the cross of God the Son becoming man, of His dying to pay the penalty for our sins, and of His being raised from the dead in order to raise us to life.
but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
The called
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Calls the unbeliever. Redeems the unbeliever
He chose through His power, not our own. He chose us not through our wisdom but through God’s wisdom.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
**NOTES - v25-
In mentioning God's foolishness and weakness the apostle is, of course, speaking from the unbeliever's point of view. Ironically, and tragically, the very part of God's plan and work that seems most ridiculous and useless from man's natural standpoint actually exhibits His greatest power and greatest wisdom.
Paul is also saying that, even if God could possess any sort of foolishness, it would be wiser than man's greatest wisdom. And if God were able to have any weakness, it would be stronger than the greatest strength men could muster.
It is the power of salvation from sin, of deliverance from Satan, of life in God's very presence for all eternity.
CONCLUSION
What have we learned?
The word of the Cross is mighty to save those that are perishing.
If you have been the religious person striving for redemption through your religious deeds give up know and bow before the cross. It is your only hope to be made right with a Holy God.
If you have been the greek searching the world for meaning and have come up short or found wanting. You have tried every selfhelp book and it didn’t fulfill everything that you wanted. Stop humble yourself and know you can’t find purpose in the wisdom of this world. Your purpose is in worshiping God forever but because of your sin this is not possible without a redeemer.
Foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
If you are a believer but have tried to add to God’s word or have lost your way because you thought your way was wiser. How is that going for you? The darkness that surrounds you may it be greater and greater until it leads to your repentence and you surrender to the truth and life found in the Good News.