1 Corinthians 1:18-25 - Condemning Worldly Wisdom

Introduction

I did a Google search for “relevant church” this last week, and I found a church with that name. I didn’t look for its location, but it did not appear to be any church near here. The main website advertised an “Easter at Relevant” experience for this Sunday. They promised “a unique and compelling perspective on” the story “of Easter” and “over-the-top environments for kids” of all ages.

The main attraction for this Sunday at Relevant Church is 15,000 eggs dropping from a helicopter sometime after the service.

Now, I am pretty sure that both of my sons would be excited to see FBC Diana rent a helicopter for an egg drop on Easter Sunday, but we opted not to do that today. In fact, one might think that FBC Diana has gone in the exact opposite direction as Relevant Church on this Sunday.

The reason for our method here is not that we hate the idea of anyone having fun, but we do believe that some efforts to make a church “relevant” can actually have the opposite effect. We do not intend to be unattractive or stand-off-ish, but we do mean to remove any obstacles that might get in the way of the simple and powerful gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Today we are going to continue our study through the book of 1 Corinthians, and today we are going to be confronted by a hard-but-important reality. The gospel of Christ is itself repelling to many sinners, but that same message is also glorious to others. Why is that? Why do some people laugh at the gospel, while others cling to it? Why do some people dismiss the gospel as foolish, while others treasure it as the best news ever?

These are the questions our passage today aims to answer for us. May God help us to understand and to believe His word together.

Scripture Reading

1 Corinthians 1:18–25 (ESV)

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.

22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Main Idea:

The natural way of thinking and living in this world makes the message of the gospel sound ridiculous, but God has intended to save sinners through a ridiculous message.

Sermon

1. Two Ways to Live (v18)

The first verse of our passage this morning is the beginning of the first section of Paul’s theological teaching in this letter to Corinth. Up to this point, Paul has greeted them, he told them of his regular prayer for them, and he told them that he knew about their ridiculous divisions. Paul did already “appeal” to the church in Corinth to put away their “divisions” (v10), and he did already point to their union in Christ as the basis for their unity with one another, but beginning in v18, Paul is now getting into the meat of his theological argument.

I want to go ahead and point out here that this is the way the Scriptures (and especially the NT letters) instruct and correct and edify the reader. This is also the way our Christian maturity grows over time. We read the Bible, we consider the theological or doctrinal substance revealed there, and then we try to understand the meaning and the application of it – both for our own lives and for others around us.

Christianity is a word-based, logically expressed, intellectually stimulating, and practically useful religion. It’s a way of life that begins with a “word” or “message” (NET, NIV) about what God has done in the person and work of Jesus Christ, a work which culminated at “the cross” (v18). And the “word” of God continues to work “powerfully” in the lives of those who believe it (v18).

Friends, this is why we center our church gatherings on the reading of Scripture, the singing of Scripture, praying according to Scripture, and the preaching of Scripture. We believe “the word of the cross” is “the power of God” for those “who are being saved” by it (v18). We believe that the key figure of the whole Bible is Jesus Christ, who lived and died and conquered death (Lk. 24:27). And we believe “all Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16).

Therefore, we gather Sunday after Sunday to feast ourselves upon a rich diet of biblical singing, praying, and preaching that takes us deep into the substance of the Bible. Many of us read the Bible throughout the week. Some of us make Bible reading and discussion part of our daily routine, and we invite family and friends to do that with us. Some of us listen to podcasts and audiobooks about the Bible and theology, some of us read books about the Bible, and some of us practice memorizing key Bible verses. But why all of this word-centered time and effort?

Well, because we believe these words are the power of God and the wisdom of God and the source of our salvation! We want to know what the words mean; we want to know how the words apply to us; and we want to know the reason for Christian hope and peace, which we believe the words of Scripture provide for us.

But not everyone believes this stuff. In fact, some people hear the “word of the cross,” that central and most treasured word of all Scripture, and they think it is “folly” or “foolishness” (v18). In this first verse of our passage today, Paul describes two ways to live, which are each associated with two ways of looking at the “cross” of Jesus Christ.

One way to live is as “those who are perishing” or “those who are being destroyed” (v18). These are the ones who hear the “word of the cross” as “folly” or “foolishness” (v18). This word “perishing” is just a fancy Bible word for dying, but there is more here than just death. There is a sense in which everyone is dying. We all will one day come to the end of this mortal life. But that’s not all Paul is talking about here, because he contrasts “those who are perishing” with those “who are being saved” (v18). But “saved” from what?!

Well, now we’re getting to the real difference between these two ways to live. One way to live is by “perishing” or by “being destroyed” or by “dying,” but the other way to live is by “being saved” (v18). This word “saved,” or a similar word “salvation,” refers to everything God has promised in the gospel of Christ.

Biblically speaking, to be “saved” is to be “chosen” by God the Father to be His “adopted” child “through Jesus Christ” (Eph. 1:4-5). It is to have “forgiveness” of sins, “union” with Christ, and “every spiritual blessing” (Eph. 1:7, 10, 3). To be “saved” is to have present possession of all that God has promised in Christ (Eph. 1:11), and it is to eagerly await that day when that “inheritance” shall be fully “acquired” (Eph. 1:14).

But these blessings and promises are not natural to us, nor do sinners like us deserve them in any way. Instead, we deserve to “perish” (v18). God said way back in Genesis 2 that disobedience equals death (Gen. 2:15-17), and God repeated this same truth many times along the way. Romans 6 says, “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). The Scripture says that “those who practice” all sorts of sins and those who “know” God’s “righteous decree” [or His command] and yet do not obey it “deserve to die” (Rom. 1:29-32).

Friends, if you do not turn from your sin and believe or trust or have faith in Jesus, then you are “storing up wrath for yourself” that will be come on the “day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed” (Rom. 2:5). God promised to “render to each one according to his works” (Rom. 2:6), and He will do it.

For “those who… do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury” (Rom. 2:8). People like this are “perishing,” and the full extent of their death or destruction will be revealed on the last day. They will face God’s unfiltered and unrestrained wrath, and they are under God’s curse of condemnation right now. They are – present active participle – “perishing” (v18).

But why do some people hear the message contrasting God’s wrath and God’s mercy, contrasting death and eternal life, and reject it? Why do some reject it and others receive it with joy? Why do some hear the “word of the cross” as “folly,” and others hear it as “the power of God” (v18)? That leads us to point 2…

2. Destroying Worldly Wisdom (v19-21)

One thing I’ve learned from participating in Simeon Trust preaching workshops over the last few years is something that seems so obvious once you learn it. It should be no surprise that the New Testament authors were very particular about when and how they cited Old Testament passages. So, when we see a quote from the Old Testament in the New our Spidey-sense should tingle.

Sometimes the New Testament author is using an Old Testament story or character as an illustration, sometimes the author is explaining a theological truth that is consistent both before and after the advent of Jesus Christ, and sometimes the New Testament author is pointing to an Old Testament prophecy that was being fulfilled in the events of his own day.

In our passage this morning, we have a little of all of this going on. The Apostle Paul says, in v18, “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” And then v19, “For,” or because, “it is written…” Paul is going to explain why“the word of the cross” is “folly” to some, and for others it is “the power of God” (v18). And he’s going to do that by citing and explaining a prophecy from around 800 years earlier, a prediction from the prophet Isaiah about the decedents of Abraham who lived in the southern kingdom, called Judah.

There is so much more to this citation than we will be able to get into this morning. Paul cited Isaiah more than any other prophet in this letter, Paul cited Isaiah at the beginning and at the end of this opening section of his theological teaching for Corinth (1:19 and 2:16), and the specific prophecies Paul cites from Isaiah are almost always among what are known as Isaiah’s “oracles of woe.”

Let’s center our focus on three things: this OT citation is (1) an illustration, (2) a theological truth, and (3) a prophecy that was being fulfilled. Let me explain.

First, it’s an illustration. Isaiah was a prophet who lived mostly in the 700s BC, and it was during his adult lifetime that the northern kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrians. The kingdom God had created from one man (Abraham), the nation who had heard the voice of God and received the law of God, the only kingdom on the planet who enjoyed the benefits of having God as their King and as their chief war General, that kingdom was falling apart.

The one nation had divided in two, and the northern kingdom (Israel) suffered total destruction in 722 BC. Prophets (like Amos and Hosea) had warned Israel for a long time that God would judge their sin, and finally judgment came. At the time of Isaiah’s ministry, the southern kingdom (Judah) was sometimes doing better than other times, but it was largely disobedient and corrupt. The northern kingdom never had a good king, but Judah occasionally did: Jotham was good, and then Ahaz was bad; Hezekiah was good, and then Manasseh was bad.

But even during the years with good kings, the people of Judah never completely eradicated their idols, their injustice, and their sin. It seemed that every time their circumstances improved, they forgot about God, and they trusted their own military strength, their own economic wealth, and their own general capability. And it was into that sort of cultural and political and religious moment that God had sent Isaiah to prophesy.

The people of Judah had just experienced more than 50 years with good King Uzziah on the throne. They had national peace, they were riding the top of an economic swell, and they were very active in their religious observances. But God saw otherwise. God said they were a “sinful nation” and “a people laden with iniquity” (Is. 1:4). God saw the heart of the matter, and He said they had “forsaken the LORD,” and they had “despised the Holy One of Israel” (Is. 1:4).

Therefore, God declared a curse upon the people of Judah, and God sent the prophet Isaiah to tell them about it. God told Isaiah, “Go, and say to this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive’” (Is. 6:9). God’s curse upon them was not that they would have no prophet, but that they would be unable to hear him! Their “heart” was “made” “dull,” their “ears heavy,” and their “eyes” “blind” (Is. 6:10). The curse of God was upon them so that they would not “see with their eyes,” or “hear with their ears,” or “understand with their hearts,” so that they would not “turn and be healed” (Is. 1:10).

In our passage, the Apostle Paul is citing Isaiah, and this prophecy from Isaiah 29 in particular, as an illustration. Paul was saying, “Today is like that.”

Friends, do you believe in a God that can do this? Do you believe in a God who can condemn a whole nation of people, and stop up their ears, so that even if someone warns them of judgment, they will not hear it? Is your God the God of Isaiah, of Paul, of the Bible? Or is he one of your own imagination?

A second way Paul is using this citation is to point to a theological truth or reality. Proverbs 1:7 says, “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; [and] fools despise wisdom and instruction.” And so, these are parallel opposites – the fear of the Lord and foolishness. In Isaiah’s day, the people of Judah were not only corrupt and idolatrous, but they were also proud! They acted as though God had not made them (Is. 29:16), as though God could not see their sin (Is. 29:15), and as though God would never follow through with His judgment against them.

In our passage, Paul is highlighting the theological truth that God is the source of all wisdom, but that proud and sinful people will foolishly think of themselves as better than God, and this will ultimately lead to the exposure of the complete emptiness and foolishness of the “wisdom” of this world.

This was an especially important theological truth for the Corinthians to understand since they were a culture and a people who were infatuated with rhetorical wisdom. Like their neighbors in Athens, the people of Corinth loved to hear about “some strange thing” or some “new teaching” (Acts 17:19-20). They cared more about novelty and rhetoric than they did about truth and substance… “Was it new, and did sound good?” Not, “Is it true, and does it make good sense?”

But, friends, empty philosophies are empty! Political or military or societal or even religious wisdom… that is based only on the passion or the freshness or the variety of the thing… that stuff will lead to shame and destruction for the people who chase and embrace such things. Many of the Corinthians, like many in Judah before them, thought of themselves as wise and discerning and respectable… but things were not as they appeared.

Paul was saying that the wisdom that originates and centers on this world… wisdom that seeks to throw off the constraints of God’s word and God’s commands… That is no wisdom at all! It’s actually foolishness, and God will (sooner or later) show it for what it is.

A third way Paul was using this citation from Isaiah (and I think the primary way) was that Paul was arguing here that Isaiah’s prophecy was being fulfilled in Corinth… and in the broader first-century world. We can see this in the way Paul continues his argument and the application of this citation in v20.

Paul says, “Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” (v20). Paul’s application of Isaiah’s prophecy, which was originally fulfilled in the demise of Judah (in 586 BC), is that the “wise” and the “scribes” and the “debaters” of “this age” are the very ones God has “made foolish.” But how?

Verse 21 says, that God “destroyed the wisdom of the wise” and that He “thwarted” the “discernment of the discerning” (v19) by “saving those who believe” …not through “words of eloquent wisdom” (1 Cor. 1:17) or “lofty speech” or “persuasive words” (1 Cor. 2:1-4)… but through “the folly [or “foolishness”] of what we preach” (v21)… through the preaching of “the word of the cross” (v18).

As it was in Isaiah’s day, so it was in Paul’s day. The very message of the wisdom and power of God was perceived as foolishness by many (even most!) of those who heard it. They were wise, and the message of the cross was too primitive. They were refined, and the message of the cross was too barbaric. They were proud, and the message of the cross centered on dying to self and awaiting a resurrection on the last day. All this made the message of the cross sound foolish.

Friends, the same thing happens today. Our friends, our kids, our co-workers, and our neighbors… they are happy to hear about a victorious Jesus who helps His followers win at sports, win at business, or win at life. They are happy to hear about an exemplary Jesus who gives us all a good example of kindness, of charity, of self-sacrifice, or of tolerance. But a crucified Jesus… a message that centers on the word of the cross… that’s just foolishness… or so they think.

3. The Power of God (v22-25)

These last four verses drive home the statement Paul made at the end of v21. Paul wrote, “it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe” (v21). The inevitable questions that arise from a passage like the one we’re in today are “Why do a lot of people reject the gospel?” and “Why or how does anyone believe it?”

The answer to the first question was point number 2 of my sermon. In short, a lot of people reject the gospel because they think it’s foolish. They depend upon worldly wisdom (of one kind or another), and the wisdom of God is moronic to them. In fact, this is a feature of God’s curse upon the world… even when sinners hear the gospel, they cannot hear it as good news because they are deaf to it. This was true in Isaiah’s day, it was true in Paul’s day, and it is true in our day as well.

But some people do believe the gospel! And it is God’s “pleasure” or “delight” that sinners should “believe” through the “folly” of the “word of the cross” (v21, cf. v18). But how in the world can sinners believe a message that they naturally think is foolish? Well, that is what we’re considering in these four verses.

First, it’s not because some sinners are wiser or more capable than others. Paul points to two kinds of sinner in v22. One is Jewish and the other is Greek. And each one “demands” or “seeks” or “asks for” something from the preacher or the evangelist (v22).

It’s not important that we wander off into the weeds here, getting ourselves lost on these two kinds of sinner or their different kinds of demands. The point is that the natural inclination sinners have is to demand something of the Christian witness. They may want some convincing demonstration, they may want some persuasive presentation, but they both sit in judgment over the message.

“I won’t believe unless you convince me!” or “I won’t believe until you show me!” But Paul doesn’t affirm either of these demands. In fact, he says that the message of the gospel refuses to bow to both of them.

Brothers and sisters, I wonder if you’ve ever been in a gospel conversation that has felt like this. You explain the gospel, you urge your friend or family member to repent and believe in Christ, and he or she says something like “I just can’t believe this unless… [fill in the blank].”

What do you do? Do you affirm the unbeliever’s objection? Do you encourage him or her to ask God for a sign?

I love apologetics, the study of reasons or logical arguments in defense of Christianity. I think studying apologetics can often be a wonderful encouragement to Christians, and it can help build our confidence in the truths of Scripture. But the fact is that no sinner is ever argued into believing the gospel. It is not as though some person is walking around, wanting to believe the gospel, if only they might be able to have someone help them overcome this objection of theirs.

Sinners who are wise and capable in their own sight are the furthest from salvation because the gospel is a “stumbling block” or “scandal” to them, and/or it is “foolishness” (v23). The gospel demands that sinners acknowledge their total ignorance and helplessness before God, and only then can they hear it and believe.

Second, the reason why some sinners believe is notbecause some preachers are more convincing or more persuasive than others. This follows on what I’ve already been saying. Paul’s point in v22-23 is that even though sinners make demands, the faithful evangelist simply preaches “Christ crucified” (v23). In fact, as we talked about last week, in our previous study of 1 Corinthians, the sort of preaching or gospel conversation that comes with “words of eloquent wisdom” can “empty” the “cross of Christ” of its “power” (1 Cor. 1:17) because it centers on the persuasiveness of the witness rather than the truth and power of the gospel itself.

Friends, you don’t need a persuasive preacher to convince you that the gospel is true! You need a faithful Christian to tell you what the Bible says about a holy God reconciling guilty sinners like you and me through the death and resurrection of His own Son!

Brothers and sisters, your unbelieving children and friends and neighbors… they don’t need you to be a more eloquent evangelist! They need you to faithfully and repeatedly point them to the only Savior who can save their rotten souls!

Charles Spurgeon was a famous preacher in the 19th century, and he told of his own conversion in his autobiography.[i] He says that it was on a wintry Sunday in 1850 that he walked to a nearby church that he’d never visited before. The snow and sleet had prevented him from going to his normal church, and the weather also prevented the main preacher from being present at the church he entered.

Spurgeon had been feeling the weight of his own guilt and sin, and he was disappointed to see an uneducated and untrained man walk up to the pulpit that day. Spurgeon never knew the man, but he thought he was a shoemaker or tailor. The man said that his text for the day was Isaiah 45:22, “Look unto me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God and there is no other.”

Spurgeon wrote, “He had not much to say, thank God, for that compelled him to keep on repeating his text, and there was nothing needed… except his text. I remember how he said, ‘My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, ‘Look.’ Now lookin’ don’t take a deal of pain. It ain’t liftin’ your foot or your finger; it is just ‘Look!.’ Well, a man needn’t go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look… A child can look. One who is almost an idiot can look. However weak, or however poor a man may be, he can look. And if he looks the promise is that he shall live.’”

Spurgeon said, “[The man] went on in his [country] accent, ‘Many of you are lookin’ to yourselves. But it’s no use lookin’ there. You’ll never find any comfort in yourselves… It is Christ that speaks. I am in the garden in an agony, pouring out my soul unto death; I am on the tree, dying for sinners; look unto Me! I rise again. Look unto me! I ascend into heaven! Look unto me. I am sitting at the Father’s right hand. O poor sinner look unto me! Look unto me! … Look to Christ. The text says, “Look unto Me”.’”

It was that day that Spurgeon first began looking to Christ as his Savior and Lord, and he faithfully followed and preached that same Christ throughout his remaining life. There was no eloquent preacher; there was no convincing argument; there was just a country Christian calling his hearer to look to Christ, who died in the place of sinners and offers grace and hope to all who believe.

Friends, it’s not in the sinner, and it’s not in the witness. Neither of these are the deciding factor in who believes and who doesn’t. The reason why some sinners believe the gospel is because God’s calling is powerful and effective. And this really gets us to the heart of the matter.

Paul says, in v23, “we preach Christ crucified,” which is a message that is a “stumbling block to Jews and folly to Greeks” (v24). In other words, this message of the cross is not attractive to anyone, neither Jew nor Greek. But there are some, both Jews and Greeks, who do respond positively to the gospel! Do you see the deciding factor there in v24?

Paul says, “to those who are called,” this gospel, this crucified Savior is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (v24). The difference-maker is the “calling” of God!

This is a profound truth that we’ve touched on many times before, but it is worth emphasizing again this Sunday, and we ought to emphasize it here because it’s what the text is emphasizing. The reason any of us has heard the gospel and believed it is not because we are wiser or more capable, it is not because we had a more persuasive evangelist share the gospel with us, but it is because the same God who said “Let light shine out of darkness” at creation has shined light “in our hearts” when we heard the gospel “to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).

If you are a Christian today, if you believe the word of the cross, if you look to the crucified Savior and believe in Him, then God deserves all the glory and praise… because He is the one who “called you out of darkness [and] into his marvelous light” (1 Peter. 2:9).

And for those who are not Christians, for our family members and friends who do not trust and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, we must be faithful witnesses… we must faithfully and consistently tell them of the crucified Savior. And on this Resurrection Sunday, we would do well to remember that the best news ever told just might sound outrageous or idiotic to those who do not believe… unless God would graciously call them to Himself.

May God grant us eyes to see and ears to hear… May God make us humble and faithful witnesses… May God help us persevere in faith, even if others do not believe… And may God call to Himself many sinners through our preaching of the gospel.

Endnotes

[i]The account in this sermon is taken from the article found here: https://banneroftruth.org/us/resources/articles/2000/the-conversion-of-charles-haddon-spurgeon-january-6-1850/

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