God's Power and Wisdom

1 Corinthians 1:18–2:5 NIV

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness 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; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” 20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” 1 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS

Well, this morning we begin a sermon series on Paul's letter to the Corinthians. The church in Corinth was the collective group of Christians that met together separately in house churches, but all lived together in the city of Corinth.

a church that was planted during his 2nd missionary journey, sometime after he had been preaching up the coast in Athens (Acts 18).

worked as a tentmaker, a trade that he shared with fellow Jews Aquila and Priscilla whom he had met in Corinth.

he began as was his custom by preaching in the Jewish synagoge, but after some time they opposed him and became abusive so he said to them:

Acts 18:6 NIV

6 But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent of it. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

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Paul stayed in Corinth for 1 1/2 years

1 Corinthians is one of Paul’s earliest letters. Likely written not long after his letter to the Thessalonians.....When??

Acts 18:12 NIV

12 While Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews of Corinth made a united attack on Paul and brought him to the place of judgment.

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Dating: The existence of Gallio and his position is confirmed by an archaeological discovery made at Delphi in 1908. In the inscription, Claudius ordered the proconsul Gallio to use incentives to persuade people to move to Delphi because it was becoming de-populated. But importantly for Bible scholars, the text states that Claudius is named as imperator for the twenty sixth time, thereby dating it to late April to early May AD 52.

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Another piece of evidence that supports this date is that Paul met Aquila and Priscilla when he arrived in Corinth. They were Jews and had only recently been expelled from Rome as Claudius expelled all Jews from Rome in AD 50.

[Show CORINTH location]

And Corinth was known for at least three things: First, it was a wealthy city. It was wealthy because it was at the crossroads of the important N-S and EW trade routes. It was located on the isthmus that joined mainland Greece to the Peloponnese. That means no one could travel this well worn trade routes without going through Corinth. In fact, there was a road that was built, which spanned the width of the 4 mile wide isthmus, that lighter ships could be dragged across on using specially constructed trailers. [Modern canal built late 19 century] Because of all the tax money and toll money that they could collect for ships that wanted to cross the isthmus and traders that wanted to go back and forth to the mainland, Corinth was wealthy. [BLANK]As a seaport, it also meant there was a constant flow of foreigners. The second thing it was known for was the famous "Isthmian Games" Second only to the Olympics, the isthmian games were well known in the Roman world for sports, and rhetoric competitions of all kinds of varieties. Rhetoric was an important part of the Corinthian culture....which we are going to hear about in just a moment. Third, Corinth was known for it's luxury, it's pleasures, and maybe most of all for it's immorality. It was a city of commercialized love. On top of the large "acrocorinth" a large rock formation about 1,800 ft. tall was located the Temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. The temple was staffed by numerous temple prostitutes, one ancient writer says there was over a thousand of them, but archeologists doubt whether the number was really all that large.

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One of the ways you worshipped the goddess of love, was by making love to one of her servants.

You might imagine that sexually transmitted diseases were a real problem in Corinth. Archeologists have found another temple, this one to the god Asclepius, the Greek god of healing. And inside the temple were many clay pieces in the shape of male genitals. Infected males could purchase these and bring them into the temple along with their prayers for healing.

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Needless to say it was a thoroughly pagan city. Archeologists have found in the city's market place, some 33 bars and taverns. Greeks, Romans, Jews and Italians all lived this city; a city which attracted many people on account of it's lewd and base entertainment. In a very real sense, Corinth was "sin" city, one writer puts it this way, "[Corinth was all] at once the New York, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas of the ancient world."

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Paul was writing to the church in this city.

What was going on in this church? As we go through this letter together, though we can't visit all of the issues, we'll be discovering a number of divisions and controversies and practices that were going on in the church of Corinth.

Borrowing somewhat from one commentator, let me briefly summarize what was going on in the church of Corinth. Imagine a church wracked by divisions. Powerful leaders in the church play politics against one another and each leader has his own group of followers. One leader is actually having an affair with his stepmother, and instead of disciplining this guy, many in the church boast of his freedom in Christ to live that way! Believers in the church are suing each other in the secular courts; some of the church members like to visit those temple prostitutes that I described earlier. Now there's this other group in the church that's coming hard against this flagrant sexual immorality and this group promotes celibacy complete sexual abstinence for all Christians. But that's not the end of it. Other debates are going on in the church too.

How much of your past way of life actually has to change before you can really be considered a Christian? How cleanly do you have to break from your pagan past? What are the roles of men in the church? What are roles of women in the church? And if all this wasn't enough, there were a bunch of people supposedly speaking prophetic words in the church, there were a bunch of people regularly speaking in tongues, but in a twisted sort of way these gifts of God were breaking down the fellowship of the church. And to top it off, there were a significant number of immature Christians in the church of Corinth that did not even believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.. believing instead that he arose in spirit but not in body.

All I can say is "good luck to the search committee of that church!"

That place would be a hornet's nest of division and pagan living.

Basically Paul has received two reports, a verbal one and a written one.

Chapters 1-6 deal with the issues that he received from his oral report, namely from Chloe's household, as we find out in vs. 11 of chapter one. “My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.”

Then in chapter 7-16 Paul responds to a written report. “Now for the matters you wrote about...”

Let that serve as a brief introduction to the letter and now let’s look more specifically at our text.

1 Corinthians 1:18 NIV

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

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Notice Paul divides his audience, but really he is dividing all of humanity, into two groups....those who are perishing and those who are being saved.....

In Paul’s Jewish worldview the world was also divided into two groups: Jews and Gentiles....but Paul teaches that in the coming of Jesus, and at the foot of the cross, there are only two groups, those perishing and those being saved..... Jews and Gentiles can be part of the perishing group, and Jews and Gentiles can be part of those being saved. What Paul finally is implying is that all the ways in which we distinguish ourselves, racially, culturally, religiously....all those ways are secondary to the TWO.... everybody’s identity is found in relation to the CROSS....did you catch that?.....Significant in Corinth…many cultures, many gods, many religious experiences.....Paul wants to put all that aside for a moment and say the CROSS divides all humanity into two groups.

For those who see the cross as foolishness, a myth, divine child abuse, inconsequential,…they are perishing. For those who see it as the demonstration in history of the power of God for salvation....they are being saved.

The next thing we read in our text is this:

1 Corinthians 1:19 NIV

19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

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In this section Paul wants to address a cultural understanding of wisdom....what in the next verse he will call “the wisdom of the world”.... that in presence of the GOSPEL is foolishness.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ in a very real sense is a contraction to human wisdom. In v. 25 Paul says that God’s foolishness, and everything that Paul is going to describe is considered foolishness from the perspective of human wisdom....Paul says that God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom.

Paul wants to demonstrate that in 3 ways:

God’s foolishness is seen in a CRUCIFIED MESSIAH (1:18-25)

God’s foolishness is seen in the CORINTHIAN BELIEVERS (1:26-31)

God’s foolishness is seen in the PREACHING OF PAUL (2:1-5)

So we are going to look briefly at each of these sections in our passage.

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First, God’s foolishness is seen in a CRUCIFIED MESSIAH.

The message of the cross is foolishness.....to both Jews and Gentiles.

Remember many of the people in the Corinthian church were Greek speaking Gentiles. And the Greeks had an understanding of WISDOM, in Greek the word is SOPHIA, it is very much connected to enlightened or higher levels of understanding, and that understanding is often expressed in cleverly crafted rhetoric....enlightened or higher levels of speaking demonstrated a kind of wisdom that was a indicator of spiritual progression. Spirituality was unconnected to ethics or behaviour but deeply connected to understanding and speech.

Maybe I can illustrate it like this: Using very simple and plain english I could state this simple fact: “My dog likes to eat.” But if I wanted to demonstrate a very high level of understanding and sophistication I could say the same thing like this: “The canine companion in my custodial care exhibits a distinct preference for the consumption of nourishment.” (ChatGPT)

And Paul says, “where is the wise person?”....”where is the philosopher of this age?” Yes, the Greeks look for wisdom (sophia)…but to God, says Paul, that is all foolishness.

And the Jews they looks for signs....for demonstrations of power, for miracles.....think about the Exodus event....that was for the Jew the quintessential sign of God....defeating the Egyptians, setting them free from slavery.... they look for a God who favours them over others and wants to see their enemies defeated by God through a mighty sign of his power.....and more than that they look for signs of right living and purity…signs of those who live according to the LAW.... where is the teacher of the law Paul asks?

Jews demand signs, Greeks look for wisdom.....but we preach the Christ crucified....a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks....

Jews - a crucified God is a defeated God, a humiliated God, a weak God - Jews

Gentiles - its an embarassing God, a shameful God....a criminal God.....

The cross as an instrument of execution was for traitors, criminals, theives, betrayers, the dirt and filth of society....

Lest you think this no longer applies to us today..... think about our own ways of posturing ourselves before God or relating to him.

reason, intellect, understanding.

behaviour, lifestyle, look at me.

at the CROSS all of us are brought to the same level..... it is the great leveler.... “for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”...... at the cross we see our unworthiness....we are confronted by our sin and our evil inclinations.....

and yet at the cross we see the punishment that we deserved taken willingly on our crucified Messiah.... God humbling himself so that we can be lifted up.

“A God discovered by human wisdom will be both a projection of human fallenness and a source of human pride, and this constitutes the worship of the creature, not the Creator. The gods of the "wise" are seldom gracious to the undeserving, and they tend to make considerable demands on the ability of people to understand them; hence they become gods only for the elite and "deserving." (Gordon Fee) (p.73)

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God’s Foolishness is seen in the Corinthian believers....

1 Corinthians 1:26–31 (NIV)

26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Paul’s saying something like, ‘truthfully, you’re a bit of an embarrassment!”

[Maybe share my conference experience.....Vineyard]

SOmething else we might take away from this part of Paul’s letter.....God does seem to have a special place in his heart for the lowly, downtrodden, oppressed, those on the margins.....

Two others I read this week used the language of the “suburban captivity of the church”....explain.

God’s Foolishness is seen in Paul’s own preaching

1 Corinthians 2:1–5 (NIV)

1 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” (C.S. Lewis)

All this and more is what Paul meant when he spoke of the power and wisdom that became real through the announcement of the good news.