THE CROSS - STUDY NOTES

The cross is God’s way of ‘nullifying the things that are’

1 Corinthians 1:22–2:5 NIV

Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. 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. 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. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. 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. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” 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. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

How does the cross promote unity?

The cross nullifies our kind of ranking

Paul ends this section by saying, he had committed to preaching, ‘not with wise or persuasive words’.

In fact, this was a common criticism by Paul’s opponents. Look at this guy - he’s unimpressive AT BEST

We are not immune to this as a culture.

Paul isn’t saying, ‘wisdom isn’t even involved’. The next thing he says is, ‘we DO speak a message of wisdom’.

Paul says, the cross is not ammunition for those people who want to seem high and mighty because of what they know or how they present themselves

See, many of the gentiles were caught up in this mess of speculation and pondering philosophy and wisdom.

And people seemed powerful, and wise, and just .... better , for being the smart ones.

But paul says - look around you. Ya, you have some of those kinds of people. But you also have people who aren’t ‘wise by human standards’. People who aren’t nobles, or influential, or powerful.

And honestly - this sounds like a bit of a slight. Look around guys - you aren’t all the smart ones.

But in our world - there are always people smarter, and “more successful” in our eyes than us.

Paul says - God wasn’t picking ‘the best’ in our eyes. He was showing you HIS best.

All of these people, through no ‘qualifications’ that the world would hold up high, have been given the holy spirit in power.

BUT - saying that - there’s a second thing.

The cross nullifies our kind of power

STORY - A time that something made you feel super powerful and cool

We ALSO can’t make the same mistake that the people in the time of Jesus did. Paul says in 1 Cor 2, that he came with ‘a demonstration of the Spirit’s power’ - but then here he takes a shot at at all the jewish people, saying, they were demanding signs.

Paul is surely thinking of Jesus in Mark 8:11–12 “The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it.””

Some translations say, ‘they asked for a miraculous sign’. They told Jesus - we won’t believe your teaching unless you show us some miracle. And jesus flat out said - ‘no’.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with power. Jesus healed tons of people!

But what were they really asking for?

In acts, you have this story. Peter and John were in Samaria, and there this guy named Simon who was a sorcerer.

He becomes a christian. But when he sees the apostles operating with power, laying hands on people and those people receiving the Spirit, Peter rebukes the guy. He rebukes him HARD.

Because Simon was so impressed by this power, that he’s like - look at all this power that they have! I need that!

Ppaul says, the cross is a stumbling block for those people who were looking just for shows of power - or those who were looking to just be showofs.

The cross is the greatest display of God’s power we have ever seen - and many jews at the time saw the cross as evidence that God had JUDGED Jesus and cursed him!

Because they were looking for THEIR kind of power. A messiah who was a military might, who fought with swords and armies, and who overthrew their enemies.