preaching

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.

2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,

4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

INTRO

In Paul’s letter to the saints at Corinth, he writes during a time of Heighten intellectualism. Wisdom which he will refer to about 3 times in these verses, is the order of the day. The Theoretical is more of a focus that the practical. Knowledge is king, being “woke” was more emfacized than being “work.”

If you know something and how things worked then you were alright. Gnosticism was the philosophy of its day that paraded itself in Religion.

In the midst of all of this, Paul’s claim to know nothing among them but the message of “Christ on the Cross”

BODY

He will use three different characteristics or three different components that govern his preaching of the message of the cross in the midst of such a context.

I. Declaration

II. Determination

III.Demonstration

Declaration

A. Paul will say in verse one “And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.”

1. That when he came to them he didn’t come an

Heighten since of Rhetoric. Rhetoric is being abl

E to say something well. The danger of Rhetoric

Is that you can be a great Rhetoricticion and

Not have a good message. You can say Nothing

So well until people think its something. Paul

Says that he had a weak presentation of a

Message. His declaration weak. Of the mystery of God.

How can a Finite being explain an infinite being?

Dr. Gardner C. Taylor of the Concord Church in New York, After retiring form pastoring went on to preach for years before even retiring from preaching. Story is told that after retiring from preaching he was asked to come to preach in Fort Worth to which he replied NO. I will never preach again. When asked why his reply was “ I have maimed the Gospel Long enough” He goes on to say “ for over 70 years I have tried to preach this gospel and very time I sit down I think of something else that could’ve been said, I quit” he calls it a “Glorious Failure”

God in the Gospel or anywhere else is TO BIG to be explained.

Dr. Robert Smith of Beeson School of Divinity says that “God is too big to be explained, He just must be experienced”

Its a weak Declaration.

II. Determination

A. Paul goes on to say in verse 2 that his preaching was a Determination to know nothing save Christ and Him Crucified.

1. Some would argue that that’s a weak Determination. The message of the Christ on the Cross, The Messiah in a Mess

The Deliverer in a Delima

The Son of God in a sorry state

To the Jew a stumbling block to the Greek foolishness.

To some the Subject is weak.

A weak sermon on a supposed weak subject.

Then he says that I was before you as Weak Preacher “in Fear and trembling”

What was he afraid of? Not the corinthians for sure. Maybe messing up the message.

II.Demonstration

a.Paul has to trust that a Weak sermon, from a weak preacher, about a (supposed) weak subject has POWER. Not just any power, HOLY GHOST power. The Word does the work on the inside of the believer.

The preacher can’t take credit for it by using masterful Rhetoric. And the hearers can’t have faith in the preacher or his ability to preach. He has to get out of the way and Let the word do the work.

What is the meaning of the phrase ᾖ ἐν ‘may be in’?

It is causal in force [Alf, EBC, Ed, My, NIC, TG, TH]: so that men’s wisdom might not cause your faith, but that God’s power might cause it. It means ‘to be in union with’ [Lns]: that your faith might not be in union with men’s wisdom, but in union with the power of God. Ἐν indicates the sphere in which faith had its roots [Vn]: that your faith might not grow out of men’s wisdom but out of God’s power. It means ‘to be based on’ [Gdt, ICC, My, TNTC, Vn; KJV, LB, REB]: so that your faith might not be based on men’s wisdom but on God’s power. Ἐν ‘in’ marks the object of one’s faith, here (men’s wisdom) [Ed]: that you might not believe in men’s wisdom, but in God’s power.

Illustration:

My Mother in Law and Brother in law arguing over how to pop popcorn when the electricity is off. She puts popcorn in a skillet with butter and it began to pop much to his amazement. Because he sees something in real time that takes place inside normally in a bag in the microwave. When the cornel of corn is in the write environment what’s on the inside comes to the outside it POPs.

When the word of God goes forth continuously, God takes it and puts it into the heart of the believer and they pop.

Nicodemas you have to POP. And you don’t know when it will take place, but if you keep listening to the word, you will POP.

So that the excellency of the power will not be of us but of God.

So that the believers faith won’t rest in the Wisdom of men but the Power of God.

The wisdom of men Led him from Judgment hall to Judgment hall

The wisdom of men condemned Him to death

The wisdom of men whipped him all night long

The wisdom of men chose Barabus over the savor

The wisdom of men put that beam on his shoulder

The wisdom of men suspended Him between a soring heaven and a sinning earth

The wisdom of men watched Him die

And took him down and buried him

And set a watch over the tomb to keep his body from being robbed.

BUT THE POWER OF GOD GOT HIM UP EARLY SUNDAY MORNING.