1 Corinthians 2:6-16 - God's Spiritual Wisdom
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
If you have your Bibles let me invite you to open with me to the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 2.
If you are new or visiting with us, let me set the stage for where we are in God’s Word.
The apostle Paul, after years of labor, Has successfully planted a new church in the very pagan city of Corinth.
It has been said that Corinth was the New York, the Las Vegas, and the Los Angelas of the Ancient world.
It was a culture creating epicenter Known for sexual immorality, money, and social elites.
One of the unique cultural phenomenons, was the Corinthian people’s obsession with wisdom speakers known as the sophists.
These wisdom orators entertained people with their long speeches marked by eloquence and arrogance.
They taught on the topics that people wanted to hear.
They taught about purpose.
They taught about human flourishing through human philosophies,
and they debated their positions with flash.
Corinthian people would gather and they would rally behind their favorite, most powerful, most entertaining orators.
The Corinthian church had embraced these Corinthian values
They embraced a form of arrogance,
a form of selfish ambition,
a form os self-centeredness,
an emphasis on man’s wisdom over and above God’s wisdom.
in embracing Corinthian values they denied the primary values of Jesus Christ.…
They drifted from both the message of the cross and the implications of the gospel message.
Paul responds to this drift with a three fold argument that begins in verse 18.
We have covered the first two stages of the argument Already…
The First Stage of the argument emphasized the message of the cross itself as counter cultural.
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.
In the Second Stage of the argument, Paul describes the recipients of such a message.
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
The point here is that God did not save them because they were impressive in the world’s eyes.
God saves unimpressive and sinful people SO THAT he gets all the glory.
The Gospel redirects all of our boasting so that we boast in God and not in ourselves.
28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
Now for our study this morning, Paul introduces stage 3 of his argument.…
Not only does the message of the cross display God’s wisdom over man’s wisdom.
Not only do the people God saves represent God’s wisdom over man’s wisdom.
But the method through which God does all of this is according to God’s wisdom and not man’s wisdom.
Paul now directs us to the simplicity of his own ministry.
There is a whole philosophy of Christian ministry wrapped up in this paragraph.… a philosophy of ministry that is essential to Who we are and what we do as God’s people.
so lets read and lets pray for understanding.
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Lets Pray
I want to begin with a question….
What is Paul’s primary concern in this paragraph?
Why is he writing what he is writing?
I want to begin with the why before we explore the more detailed what of Paul’s ministry.
The “Why?” Is in verse 5 after the “so that”
so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
There is One Dominating Truth in this text toward which everything is pointing.
Truth #1 God Works SO THAT Your Faith Rests in the Power of God, NOT in the Wisdom of Men
Truth #1 God Works SO THAT Your Faith Rests in the Power of God, NOT in the Wisdom of Men
In chapter 1:29 and 1:31 we are given the reason for why God saves sinners the way that he does.
so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
We believe that the gospel message is the good news that Jesus did what we could not do…
He lived a righteous life.
He took what we deserved on the cross…
And now he offers us a grace we cannot earn… a forgiveness that is underserved.
We come to God with nothing in our hands, but the sin that he forgives us of .
So we can NOT boast in his presence.
God chooses us, he saves us, he forgives us, he gives us life eternal.… and he gets all the credit.
that’s the gospel message…, but….
how does anyone come to understand that gospel message?
How does anyone come to believe that gospel message?
Apparently God’s prioritization of his own glory isn’t just in the message,
its not just in the unimpressiveness or undeservedness of the recipients,
its also in how the message goes forth
Its also in how the mission is accomplished - the method of the mission.
Paul directs their attention to how the gospel actually took root in Corinth.
Paul wants them to reflect on how their lives were transformed.
How they came to know God,
repented of their pagan idolatries,
received eternal life.
What did God use to open their eyes to eternal things?
Paul directs their eyes now to his own method of bringing them this powerful message of salvation.
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
Truth #2 God’s Power is Demonstrated Through the Simplicity of Our Ministry
Truth #2 God’s Power is Demonstrated Through the Simplicity of Our Ministry
Paul points them to the fact that he himself was unimpressive and he knows it.
Paul himself did not sound like or look like the powerful and entertaining wisdom speakers of Corinth.
Apparently he would not have won any awards in the Corinthian school of public Speaking.
Apparently, Paul was pretty unimpressive in speech and in stature in the eyes of worldly wisdom.
Paul the apostle would not have gotten speaking gigs at conferences.
He would not have been a successful mega church pastor drawing in the masses by his entertaining stories, or comical presence, or charismatic personality.…
He did not classify himself as an eloquent, masterful, orator or debater.…
In 2 Corinthians, it seems that the Corinthians have continued to disparage the authority of Paul’s words because of His unimpressiveness according to Corinthian standards. We see clues regarding this several times in 2 Corinthians.
I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!—
10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.”
Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.
Paul is not an impressive speaker according to Corinthian standards… and decidedly so…
this is not a fully accidental reality…
It is not necessarily that Paul wishes he could do better, but just doesn’t know how.…
Its not that he does not know the rhetorical and eloquent devices that the big time wisdom speakers use in Corinth.
Paul made a decision that he believed was consistent with the purposes of God in the world.
2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Paul says that he intentionally decided NOT to use the antics, the tactics, and the strategies of the worldly wisdom speakers.
He intentionally stripped down his speech so that he might speak with simplicity and clarity the one message that is the actual power to save.
His aim was to simply explain with as much clarity as possible Jesus Christ and What his crucifixion means for the world.
Does this mean that Paul lacked passion.… no
Does this mean that Paul was incredibly boring… no
Does this mean that Paul was confusing…. No.
Does this mean that Paul did not try to be convincing… no
This means that Paul did everything he possibly could to direct the idolatrous eyes of the Corinthians to Christ and not to himself.
He refused any worldly rhetoric that would have secured praise for himself….
Paul understood the primary difference between man’s wisdom and God’s Wisdom was the intended end.
Man’s wisdom in all areas of life has man’s praise as its intended end.
God’s wisdom in all areas of life has God’s praise as its intended end.
Paul wanted to structure his life and ministry and preaching with such faithfulness to God’s revealed Word…, that no one could accuse Paul of being the primary reason for God’s Working.
Why?
Why wouldn’t Paul do anything and everything he could to draw bigger crowds through Corinthian rhetoric and eloquence.
Well Paul believed that his simplicity actually demonstrated that the power was God’s and not his.
That word “demonstrates” carries with it the idea of convincing.
Paul believed that his simplicity demonstrated convincingly that it was God who was working through Paul.
Paul knew God.
And Paul knew that demonstration of God’s power was God’s priority in the world.
God works in the world primarily for his people to rightly glorify him and him alone.
Paul knew his Old Testament.
Throughout the Bible, God instructed his people to work in ways that would highlight God’s power and not their own wisdom.
Consider the book of Joshua
Joshua becomes the leader of Israel and is commissioned to lead God’s army to overthrow the pagan nations in the promised land…
The first city to be overthrown is Jericho and it is a fortified city with a massive wall around the entire city.
Rather than develop a siege plan according to military strategy of the day, God commands Joshua to simply march around the city 7 times…, not with swords and shields…, but with trumpets.
Where as the wisdom of the world would call for a well armed army, God called for a marching band.
And on the 7th trip around the city, upon their obedience to God’s command all they did was shout and blow some horns… and by the grace of God for the glory of God the walls fall.
What God wanted in the people of Israel was a total trust in his power above anything else.
Consider the book of Judges:
In Judges, God calls Gideon to go to war and then he tells Gideon that he has too many soldiers for the battle.
God takes Gideon’s army down from 32,000 to 300 men and this was his reasoning.
The Lord said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’
God wanted a people who trusted the power of God and not the strength of men.
Consider the book of Nehemiah,
one of my favorite books in the Bible.
My son’s middle name is Nehemiah, primarily because I want to use this story to teach him what it means to be a man of God.
Nehemiah was a cup bearer…, not a wall builder…
God calls him to build back Israel’s wall of defense around the city of Jerusalem.
God call him to something he wasn’t trained for.…, something he was not experienced in, something that seemed impossible from the world’s perspective from his vantage point…
God takes him through incredible opposition at every turn in the process so much so that the nations around are amazed when the wall actually gets built In a remarkably short time table.
this verse was very influential for me in the early days here at St. Rose Community Church.
15 So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 And when all our enemies heard of it, all the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem, for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.
That is the way God works.
That is the purpose of God in the world.
He works to secure for himself the praise that is due his name.
He works in such a way that he highlights his own unmatched power,
not through the power or wisdom or strength Or ingenuity of his people,
but through their faith in his word and his leading alone.
That is the basis of which I wanted St. Rose Community Church to be planted.
I wanted to see God do something that only he could do, something only explainable by the gracious power of God…
We have been decidedly not flashy, decidedly dependent on the Lord As much as we possibly can.
We pray.
We preach Christ crucified.
We sing.
We obey God’s word as best we can
and we trust the power of God to draw people to himself and to change their lives Eternally.
Do you know that the first converts to Christianity in St. Rose through this church were drawn to the Lord before I ever preached a sermon?
They were drawn to the Lord through our prayer meeting.
They simply came and they heard the gospel prayed by the people in our core group.
They came and they saw the gospel power in their lives.
God was showing off…, that he is he and he alone is the God of salvation.
There should be personal encouragement in this for you and for your own gospel ministry.
You don’t have to be eloquent.
You don’t have to be a scholar.
Christian ministry is not complicated.
You are called to depend on God and to simply speak to other people about the God who has saved you through the message of the cross.
This is the essence of your purpose in life.…
You are called by God to depend on his power in speaking the message of the cross to other people and helping them to speak that message to others.
The mission of God is remarkably simple and anyone can do it In dependence upon God.
You don’t have to make up what to say…, its already spelled out for you in God’s word… you just pass it along And you teach other people to pass it along.
This emphasis is in the great commission itself.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Our job is simple…, and we do it in faith…, believing that God’s power will be displayed through it.
Paul understood the simplicity of his ministry to display the power of God…,
but not just the simplicity of his ministry…
He also understood the difficulty of his ministry to be a unique display of the power of God.
Truth #3 God’s Power is Demonstrated Through the Difficulty of Our Ministry
Truth #3 God’s Power is Demonstrated Through the Difficulty of Our Ministry
Simplicity does not equal easy.
Sometimes the simplest things are the most difficult things to do.
3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
Note that the demonstration of the Spirit of God and the power of God was that Paul was sustained by the Lord and used by the Lord through the weaknesses, fear, and trembling.…
Things were not always easy for Paul.
Things were not easy for his ministry in Corinth.
In fact, the ministry in Corinth at times brought Paul to a place of weakness,
a place of fear,
a place of trembling
We know from the book of Acts, at one point, Paul was in such a place of weakness and fear, that God spoke to him directly a message of hope to keep him persevering.
9 And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, 10 for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” 11 And he stayed a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
in 2 Corinthians, Paul articulates why he came to the end of himself in trial and tribulation so often through out his very difficult life and ministry.
8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.
Why the burden?
Why the affliction?
Why the weakness?
Why the fear?
Why the trembling?
Is it because God is not present in our lives…
or is it because he is very much present in our lives?
Perhaps God is protecting us from something far more dangerous than physical death or weariness?
Perhaps God is protecting us from the kind of spiritual state that relies on the wisdom of men more than the power of God.
Christian we need to embrace a a Biblical perspective on our trials, tribulations, and weaknesses.…
Yes they are something that is happening to us…,
but they are also something that is happening for us to know God and make God known in ways we could never have done through our self-sufficiency.…
I could give more commentary on this, but let me allow the inspired words of Paul to elaborate on what Paul means by all this.… 2 Corinthians is like one big commentary on how God used Paul’s difficulties for God’s glory.
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
8 years ago we began meeting as a small group to strategize the planting of St. Rose Community Church…
We wanted to plant a church that was dependent upon God and his word in every way…
But God had plans for us that we could not have made for ourselves.…
God graciously sent us things like COVID-19.
He has graciously sent us things like a powerful hurricane.
Over the years he has graciously sent me all kinds of things like sickness, and emergency room visits, and surgeries, and relational struggles, and weaknesses….
I say graciously… because that is what our trials and tribulations are as Christians.
That is what our weaknesses are…
Satan must continuously exist as a tortured being…, because his every attempt to destroy God’s people with trials and tribulations… Become simply tools in the hand of a sovereign God to deepen the roots of his chidlren’s faith and to more clearly display the power of God.
With every attack of the enemy…, there is a shedding away of our confidence in ourselves and a deeper dependence on our redeemer, our defender, our rock and conqueror to the glory of God.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
do you feel weak?
do you feel incapable or fearful?
Do you tremble at your present circumstances?
Do you get the sense that what God has called you to do is more than what you are capable of doing?
Do you feel somewhat stuck and hopless of escaping your present life circumstances?
good.
Let the gift of those struggles protect you from the more dangerous spiritual condition… of the idolatry of something that is not God.
Let them drive you to Rest more deeply not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Let them drive you out of your slumber and sleepy ignorance of the Spiritual war that we find ourselves.. a spiritual war that requires a daily putting on of armor…, a daily battle against our flesh and against the cosmic forces of evil in the world.
This is how Paul understood his own weaknesses In his own ministry.… and this is how he longed for the Corinthians to understand their own weaknesses and struggle And ministry.
4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Truth #1 God Works SO THAT Your Faith Rests in the Power of God, NOT in the Wisdom of Men
Truth #2 God’s Power is Demonstrated Through the Simplicity of Our Ministry
Truth #3 God’s Power is Demonstrated Through the Difficulty of Our Ministry
Let me close with a few questions:
Does your faith rest in the wisdom of men or in the power of God?
Are you too afraid to share the gospel because you don’t think that you know enough?
Have you over-complicated the mission of God so much that you have punted your responsibility of disciple-making to the professionals or to the younger more energetic generation Or to the older more mature generation?
Are you a part of this church because you are entertained by the weekly sermons or are you a part of this church because this is the best base of operations for you to live your life on mission for God?
I love Saint Rose Community Church so much… I love this community of faith… I love the friendships that I have in this church… I love my fellow Elders…. I love raising my children in this place and the ministry that we get to do together…. But if all of you turned on me tomorrow…, drug me out into St. Rose Avenue and through rocks at me…, I hope and pray that, like the apostle Paul through the power of God…., I’d get up, dust off, and go preach the gospel somewhere else…
I hope that, If God called me home to him tomorrow or to give my life to the international mission field, that you all would be here in this gathering the very next week, figuring out together how you would continue the mission of God here in St. Rose.
I hope and pray our faith is not in men or the wisdom of man…, but in God.
There is a beautiful rest in living this way.
The verbiage of verse 5 suggest that our faith, our confidence, our assurance exists in the power of God…
so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
There is assurance in this. There is rest in this.
God’s power is not limited, it does not vary, it does not change, it does not fail…
whereas anything and everything else we could put our trust in can and will fail…
our God does not and will not… so there is a beautiful rest in this kind of living.…
let me close by turning my attention to the non-believer in the room….
I just want to invite you into this rest.
The gospel message is that we are invited to trust in God and not ourselves or our circumstances .
We trust what Jesus did for us so that no matter what comes in this life, we are sustained until the glorious end we have been promised.
it may seem crazy, that eternal life is ours because Jesus died our death on the cross and rose again…
but that word is the power which is saving us until the we see him face to face.
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.
Lets Pray.