Who Has Known the Mind of the Lord?
1 Corinthians - How Faith Informs Our Daily Lives • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him— 10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. 14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. 15 The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, 16 for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
What 10 years ago was called the “New Athiesm” is now passing away. [began around 2007…started gassing out about 10 years later. Picking up on the biblical notion of “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”, 4 leading figures of the new atheism at one point began to be identified as “The Four Horsemen” (Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennant, Christopher Hitchens).....
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Many reasons, but let me briefly share just two:
We live in an enchanted world. [spiritual but not religious, live with somes sense there is more to life than this....sunset, a unique relationship, a strange feeling that you get when you walk into a beautiful cathedral, or the way a particular piece of music seems to connect you with some higher sense of being]
Meaning crisis. [Explain]
When we encounter a passage like the one we are reflecting on this morning we see how the Bible reveals to us a kind of wisdom that quite frankly is not of this world.
[Recall the Corinthian fascination with WISDOM, Sophia, as a means for experiencing God or having greater access to God......explain]
6 We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
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Harry Potter opened up the young minds of many children to the idea that maybe there is a lot more to our existence then the the things we can see or measure.
THIS from my friend Scott Hozee:
Another wonderful bit of intrigue is the Hogwarts Castle and its “Room of Requirement.” This was a real—and very large—room that did not appear on any castle maps, had no entry or exit door anyone could ordinarily see. It was said to be the repository of many mystical objects (and a few dangerous one). It was an assemblage of vast secrets—the place where all things were hidden. But getting into the room was itself a trick. You had to sort of believe in the room and wish your way inside. And there was a standard way to refer to how to find and get into the Room of Requirement and it went like this:
“If you have to ask, you will never know. If you know, you need only ask.”
That pretty well sums up 1 Corinthians 2 as well.
[See Scott Hozee commentary: https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2020-02-03/1-corinthians-21-12-13-16-2/]
In many ways J.K.Rowling was and is quite brilliant...... in some ways the Room of Requirement represents or embodies a different kind of knowledge.
There is a wisdom from God that can’t be known by our natural selves.
9 However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him— 10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.
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It’s fair to say that in the OT no one anticipated God disclosing himself or revealing himself as a Crucified Messiah....to this day can remain a stumbling block...... In a very real sense the whole of Islam stands against this idea.... as does Judaism....
God, in the flesh, offering himself as the perfect sacrifice for sin.... there is something about all of this that remains a mystery for us..... and yet God in his grace and love for us has revealed this to us....but not through human wisdom but wisdom that comes from God...
Next Paul wants to give us an analogy to help us understand how it is that we can know this wisdom that comes from God...
11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
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Begins with a rhetorical question....it answers itself.... no one!....so it is with God....
12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.
13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.
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Going back to what I opened with.... enchantment and meaning....
How can we understand those enchantment experiences?
What is really true about our world?..... what is true about my life? Why am I here?
[Share Joseph Tson story.....]
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God convicted Josef. As a pastor he refused to glorify communist leaders and started to speak out boldly for Christ. Interrogators threatened him with death every day for six months. Finally he told them, “Your supreme weapon is killing. My supreme weapon is dying. My preaching will speak ten times louder after you kill me.”
Josef said, “During the time I was expecting to be crushed by the Romanian secret police interrogators, God became more real to me than ever before or after in my life. It is difficult to put into words the experience I had with God at that time. It was like a rapture into a sweet and total communion with the Beloved. God’s test for me then became the pathway to a special knowledge of the reality of God.” https://www.epm.org/blog/2022/Jun/24/josef-tson
14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.
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[connect to this quote from Melito…]
Second-century bishop Melito of Sardis wrote, “Nature trembled and said with astonishment: What new mystery is this? The Judge is judged and remains silent; the Invisible One is seen and does not hide himself; the Incomprehensible One is comprehended and does not resist; the Unmeasurable One is measured and does not struggle; the One beyond suffering suffers and does not avenge himself; the Immortal One dies and does not refuse death. What new mystery is this?”
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[Talk about mystery...
Mystery of light.....particle theory and wave theory needed in order to understand the properites of light.... solves the mystery....
What Paul is talking about.....that which comes from the Spirit of God is not like that....
We like explanations, we like knowledge, and insights....that gives us a sense of power or control over those things or those people....
Coming to know God’s wisdom is a mystery in the sense that the reality of love is a mystery.
Let’s think about that for a moment....love that is.
What is love, exactly?
How do you really know if someone loves you?.....explain this concept.....
There is much about love that makes it fall into this category; that of knowing..... I know that I know that I know.
From Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC. San Francisco: Harper & Row 1973, p. 64.
“There are mysteries which you can solve by taking thought. For instance, a murder-mystery whose mysteriousness must be dispelled in order for the truth to be known. There are other mysteries which do not conceal a truth to think your way to but whose truth is itself the mystery. The mystery of your self, for instance. The more you try to fathom it, the more fathomless it is revealed to be. No matter how much of your self you are able to objectify and examine, the quintessential living part of yourself will always elude you; i.e., the part that is conducting the examination. Thus you do not solve the mystery, you live the mystery. And you do that not by fully knowing yourself but by fully being yourself.
To say that God is a mystery is to say that you can never nail him down. Even on Christ, the nails proved ultimately ineffective.”
End by taking us to John 15:15-17
15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
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Be intentional this week as you spend time alone with God.....beginning of the day, end of the day, maybe in your commute to work....be intentional about praying to the Lord and saying something like: Lord Jesus, may the wisdom and guidance and understanding that comes from the Holy Spirit fill me more and more. .... and love each other.....bear fruit, fruit that will last. some ideas.....