The Wisdom of the Spirit
1 Corinthians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 26 viewsNotes
Transcript
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Greet - Continuing in 1 Corinthians
Something about me: there a lot of men who are handy and so they enjoy fixing things. And some just have a knack for doing it. Not me - It is a true gifting. Can’t be learned (no matter how many YouTube videos there are showing you how to do it.)
Today, I have to do some repairs to my garage because the wood that the track to the door is connected to is pulling away from the wall. I am going to try my darnedest to fix this myself. Likely: Break the wood, lose the nail - the hammer head will fall off.
I just lack the ability to fix things. And if you can’t do something, you can’t do it.
For 29 years of my life, I lacked the ability to see Jesus Christ for Who He is. I couldn’t do it. I lacked the ability to understand the Gospel, even though I had heard many clear presentations of it. Even though I had read some books of the Bible. I could not apprehend the wonderful truth of the Gospel.
I mean, Jesus sounded okay if that was what you were into, but I wasn’t. And quite honestly, it seemed foolish to me that some friends of mine changed their whole lives for the sake of their new-found religion.
I couldn’t understand.
Until I could.
And one day, reading the Bible - a passage I had read before - I read Jesus’ words “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” - and I was born again and brought into the kingdom of God.
What happened?
I was able to understand. I was able to finally surrender myself to Christ and to the truth of the Gospel.
What changed?
I did.
How did I change?
The Spirit of God changed me.
The seeds of the Gospel that had been scattered were finally able to take root.
And I was made someone new.
Do you remember that? When you first understood the Gospel. The trees looked greener, the air was sweeter - the whole world was different. And I could not get enough of what God had to say.
I was no longer of the world. I was born again of God. I could no longer live according to the wisdom of the world. I could no longer live according to the spirit of the world.
Because I had wisdom from God. And I had the Spirit of God.
And that is what Paul is talking about in our passage today. The Spirit of God and the wisdom that comes only by the Spirit of God.
Refer back to Pastor Dave - Paul did not preach the Gospel using words of worldly wisdom (because it isn’t according to worldly wisdom, as we’ll see) - and he didn’t want the Corinthians to think of the Gospel as just another way to look at the world like all the different schools of philosophy
The Gospel is not shared, and it is not understood, through words of wisdom - like philosophy. It is shared, and it is understood, spiritually.
It only can be done by the Spirit of God.
But just because the Gospel is not according to worldly wisdom, doesn’t mean there is not wisdom in the Gospel. There is wisdom in the Gospel. But it is a spiritual wisdom.
Which is why Paul says that he did not share the Gospel according to the world’s wisdom, and that the faith of the Corinthians did not rest in the wisdom of men, and then he says:
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.
I’m going to stop there for a second.
Paul here - after denouncing philosophy and the wisdom of the world - says that yet he does impart wisdom. So this isn’t about wisdom, per se. Wisdom is not inherently bad.
It is about the kind of wisdom. It is about the source of wisdom.
Where is our wisdom from? The world, or the Spirit of God?
Because, while we live in this world, we are going to have the same experiences as many of the unregenerate. We will face many of the same problems. We will suffer in many of the same ways. We will have some of the same needs and the same struggles to have those needs met.
But how to we understand all of these things? By which wisdom? Worldly wisdom, or Spiritual wisdom.
You see, this is where the rubber meets the road of our Christian platitude: “we are in the world but not of the world.” What does that mean? How does that play out?
It plays out in how we understand what happens around us and to us. With what wisdom we understand what happens in this life, and how we react to the circumstances of life.
How do we understand our suffering? How do we understand our purpose through our suffering?
How do we deal with the host of problems we face in this world?
How do we decide what we need and what it is we just want?
How do we think in the good times and the bad? How do we even determine what is good and what is bad?
I can speak for myself: sometimes - too often - the wisdom I have in these things has the wrong source. I understand according to the wrong kind of wisdom. You know, the wisdom Paul just told the Corinthians is contrary to the Gospel.
Too often I get caught up in the debates of the world thinking in worldly categories. I get caught up thinking in black and white terms: such things as liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat, capitalist or socialist - words we are hearing a lot of right about now.
Do you know what that is? That is just the modern day version of opposing philosophies. Different ways to view the world and think about what is most important, and good, and right.
It is no different than Stoicism vs. Epicureanism. Or Realism vs. Idealism. Platonism vs. Aristotilianism. What is the highest truth, and how do we achieve what’s good?
Well, we can’t if we try according to worldly wisdom. That’s why the world is unable to achieve very much that is good or right.
That’s why when everyone looks at the world, they lament all that is bad and going wrong.
Ask yourself, according to what wisdom are you living?
And notice what Paul says. He and those that preach Christ impart wisdom that is not of the world. But to whom is this wisdom imparted?
He says “among the mature we do impart wisdom.”
Paul will speak again about this idea of maturity later in the letter. And he is speaking of spiritual maturity.
Here is another thing we talk about in Christian circles: spiritual maturity. But we tend to reduce this to a platitude, too, because while we can talk about how a spiritually mature person should live - how they should act and how they should talk and even how they should understand things like suffering and trials - we tend to ignore how the Bible says we become mature.
We tend to leave the practical side of this out of the equation.
And that’s what Paul is talking about here. And if we take this whole passage, we see what Paul is talking about.
He is talking about knowing God and what He has said. That is how spiritual maturity happens. Knowing God - what He has revealed to us about Himself.
Paul is talking about knowing God from His Word. That is how we mature spiritually.
This is how we look at our circumstances in life and understand them according to spiritual wisdom, and not worldly wisdom.
OK. This is what worldly wisdom and spiritual immaturity says: “I am so stressed and bummed out by this or that in my life, I just feel far from God and I need a break so I sleep in Sunday mornings.”
How will you mature that way? How will you gain true wisdom that will allow you to look at those circumstances rightly - according to the wisdom of God - so that you can put them in proper perspective and get back to seeking God, the truth Right and Good?
Listen, I am not saying this because I’m the pastor and I want seats occupied. Don’t come to church for my sake. Nobody reports to me how many seats are filled on any given Sunday. That isn’t what matters.
Come for your sake. Come so you can know God and what He has revealed. So you can mature according to the wisdom of the Spirit.
In the same way, worldly wisdom and spiritual immaturity say: “I don’t really read my Bible. It’s hard to understand and I’m just not much of a reader.”
We aren’t talking about nailing wood together here. A skill I lack in hilariously disastrous ways, as I said. When it comes to seeking to know God, you can’t say “I just can’t do it.”
Do you know why? Because if you believe the Gospel, you can. Because it is the Spirit of God that does it.
That’s what Paul is telling the Corinthians.
And this is more important than we might think, at first glance. Look at what he says:
Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Who are the rulers of this age? Paul is not talking about earthly rulers here. Unless you want to say that every human ruler that ever was is doomed to condemnation.
No, when Paul talks about rulers, he most often is talking about the spiritual powers of darkness. The word he uses here shares the same root as the word he uses in such places as Ephesians 6:12 where he says we do not fight against physical forces, but against “rulers…authorities…the cosmic powers over this present darkness…the spiritual forces of evil.”
And this “rulers of this age” Paul uses here with the Corinthians is the saying the same thing as the cosmic powers over this present darkness. Who is the ruler of this present age and of the world right now?
The prince of darkness. Satan. And all the spiritual powers of darkness are right in league with him.
Plus, this entire passage is about spiritual matters. About spiritual wisdom over against earthly, worldly wisdom - which Paul calls the wisdom of this age which he parallels with the rulers of this age.
In other words: worldly wisdom is the wisdom of the rulers of this age - of Satan and the powers of darkness.
So, the worldly wisdom that keeps you from coming to church or from reading your Bible to know God - whose wisdom is that ultimately?
The enemy loves few things like he loves to keep true believers as ignorant of God as possible. To keep us unwise in spiritual matters. And ultimately, the powers of darkness are ignorant about such things.
Look at what Paul says.
Spiritual wisdom - things that are, to many, secret and hidden - this wisdom is concerning what God has decreed from eternity part. Things He decreed while time didn’t even exist. And they are things He decreed for our glory.
In other words, God has an eternal plan that results in our glory.
How impossible it is to grasp the depth of God’s grace!
And this plan for our glory - it has always been the same. It is being worked out in history, from the Garden of Eden to the calling of Israel to the birth of Jesus to the New Heaven and New Earth.
It is testified to from Genesis to Malachi to the Gospel according to Matthew to 1 Corinthians to Revelation. God’s Word - His entire Word - is about this plan for our glory. Because His entire Word is about Christ.
From Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, the Word of God reveals Christ.
But you can’t just read it and get that. It requires the wisdom given by the Holy Spirit. That’s why I can read John 3 once and get none of it, then one day be changed forever by one verse.
This is why the spiritual powers of darkness didn’t get it when Christ came the first time. What is revealed about Christ in the Old Testament is not crystal clear like it is in the New. And what we understand about Christ from the Old Testament is only as clear as it is on this side of Pentecost.
God sent His Spirit so His people could understand the things revealed about Christ in the Old Testament. He sent His Spirit so the New Testament could be written to make clear what the Old Testament reveals about Christ.
Because without the Spirit and the wisdom He gives us, it can’t be understood.
And that is on purpose. God made it so that it could not be discerned.
Think about it. If the Old Testament had a passage that said: “In 1 AD a virgin will conceive by the Holy Spirit, and a Son will be born to her in Bethlehem. And it will God Himself in the flesh. Her family will then flee to Egypt to avoid death at the hands of Herod, and then move to Nazareth of Galilee once Herod is dead. The boy will grow in wisdom and stature and be just like everyone else, except He will never sin. He will then begin His ministry in His thirties, succeed where Adam failed, promise to restore all that was broken by sin, live a perfect life, but be turned over to the Romans by unbelieving Jews, suffer greatly, and be crucified. But He will bear the sins of His people, and He will die right outside of Jerusalem to pay for their sin, and Satan will be vanquished through His death. This is why He has to come as human and die. Then, He will rise the following Sunday to overcome death, be raised to His throne because He is the true Son of David, He will bind Satan and the powers of darkness, give His church the Spirit and authority over those powers, spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth to fulfill His promise to Abraham and then come back in power and destroy Satan and the powers of darkness once for all by throwing them into eternal torment, and His people will live with Him in glory forever.”
If that passage existed, the manger would have been surrounded by countless Jews and they would have fallen down and worshiped Him. If that passage existed, Herod would not have tried killing Him.
If that passage existed, Satan would not have bothered trying to tempt Jesus. And he would not have turned the unbelieving Jewish leaders against Him. And he most certainly would not have led the Romans to hang Jesus on a cross.
Because Satan would have known this would lead to his destruction.
And then there would be no atonement for sin, and no resurrection, and we would be headed for destruction.
But, all of those details are there in the Old Testament. But Satan didn’t know it. The unbelieving Jews didn’t know it, and trust me, they knew their Bible like we can only dream to.
None of the rulers of this age understood what is now only revealed by the Spirit, because if they did, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory and ushered in the promised redemption of God’s people and their own destruction.
Paul expounds on this in verse 9:
But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—
Paul here loosely quotes the prophet Isaiah to show that God even revealed in the Old Testament that, at that time, no one could understand God’s plan. That included His people.
They couldn’t know exactly what He had in store for them or how He would fulfill His promise.
Now that is faith!
I mean, we stand on this side of the cross and on this side of Pentecost and we have the completed Bible and yet we struggle sometimes to live by faith.
The Old Testament believers, they were told by God: “I will be your God if you believe me, though I am not going to tell you exactly what I am going to do or how I am going to achieve it.”
And they believed Him.
Like He told Abraham who was too old to have kids and who was married to a woman that couldn’t ever have kids - God said “I will give you offspring as numerous as the stars” - and Abraham said “okay, I believe you.”
Brothers and sisters, we now know: God has done it. He has fulfilled His promise to His people in Christ. He has fulfilled His promise to Abraham in us, his spiritual offspring.
He has given us His Word. He has given us His Spirit. He has revealed His full plan to us.
He has given us wisdom from on high!
No one understood any of this before, but now, Paul tells us in verse 10:
these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
The Spirit has revealed all of this to us. So those without the Spirit? They still cannot understand.
Only those with the Spirit of God can.
The Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. Because He is God.
We have God within us. Christ came and was God with us. And then He sent His Spirit Who is God in us.
And He has given us insight into the depths of Who He is:
For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
Paul again draws that contrast. There is the spirit of the world, and the Spirit of God. These are the two sources of wisdom, and we need to live by one or the other.
And Paul wants to point out that while the Old Testament believers, the first-century Jews, and even the powers of darkness could not know how Christ would accomplish salvation, that the Spirit has now revealed these things to us.
You see? It wasn’t enough that it happened. That doesn’t mean we wold believe.
I mean, the Jewish leaders saw the miracles of Jesus, and they said He was working in the power of Satan. They heard His preaching, and they called Him a blasphemer. They knew the body was gone from the tomb, and they made up stories to explain it away.
Why didn’t they believe?
They couldn’t.
Why do we?
Because we can!
Because the Spirit of God has given us wisdom from God. We have received the Spirit Who is from God that we might freely understand the things given us by God.
What was freely given? His love. His promises. His covenants. His Word. His salvation.
In short - Christ was freely given.
The world - the wisdom of the world - what Paul here calls the spirit of the world - that wisdom doesn’t understand Who Christ is or what He’s done.
It cannot.
1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
This is why am I Reformed (a Calvinist, usually used as a derogatory terms by those who disagree with Reformed doctrine)? Why do I believe that God is sovereign over salvation - over who is saved and who is not?
Look what this passage is saying.
Without the Spirit - in our natural state - it isn’t that we can choose God or not and we choose not. It isn’t that we choose to not believe.
We are not able. We lack the ability to understand the things of God, because they are spiritually discerned. We cannot accept the things of God.
Don’t tell people they need to choose to “accept Christ.” They can’t choose it. They are unable without the Spirit of God making them new and giving them wisdom from God.
One day we’ll preach through Romans and discuss this more when we read statements like:
For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
One day we’ll preach through Ephesians and talk about what Paul says there:
Ephesians 1:17–19 (ESV)
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might
You see, it is the work of the God the Holy Spirit to make us new - to turn us from worldly wisdom unto the wisdom of God. To take those who are unable to accept the things of the Spirit of God, and make us into something new that can accept them.
The Spirit turns the truth about Christ from folly, to wisdom.
That’s what He did for all of us.
That’s what He did for me.
I was hard, rocky ground - the seed of the Gospel couldn’t grow - until the Spirit made my heart fertile ground that could accept the Gospel.
1 Corinthians 2:12–14 (ESV)
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
This is why we shouldn’t be surprised when people are opposed to the Gospel. When they are opposed to Christianity. When they are opposed to us. They can’t be anything else.
And I say to you: don’t avoid that opposition. Because the only way to avoid it is to either come out of the world - which we will see in chapter 5 Paul tells the Corinthians they cannot do - or we will need be like the world.
To live as if we still have the spirit of the world and not the Spirit of God.
But we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit Who is from God.
And all that, of course, raises the question: if we have no choice in the matter, if the Spirit needs to regenerate someone before they can even believe, why bother sharing the Gospel?
Because as I said earlier and Pastor Dave pointed out last week, the Gospel is not shared according to worldly wisdom.
We impart the Gospel in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit.
In other words, the Spirit works through the means of the Gospel message. Through the truth of God.
If I wasn’t sitting there on my bed, with the words of Christ before me, the Spirit would not have suddenly given me new life to understand. Because what would I understand?
If my brother Jeff had not spread those seeds of the Gospel again and again over the rocky ground of my heart, the Spirit would not have given me a new heart for those seeds to take root. Because what would take root?
The Spirit enables people to understand, but our job is to give to them what they need to understand. We need to speak the truth to them. That’s our ministry.
The Spirit gives them a new heart to understand. That’s His ministry.
Do not get discouraged - keep sharing the Gospel! Keep spreading the seed!
Yes, many will not understand because they cannot understand.
But when the Spirit of God works through the Word of God, we will have imparted to those who hear the Gospel spiritual wisdom that will save their very souls.
They will understand those things freely given by God.
Because that includes not just His Son, but His Spirit.
The Spirit is also given freely by God.
Pentecost - the day the Spirit was poured out on the church - Peter quotes Joel’s prophecy of the coming of the Spirit and then says:
“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
Who put Jesus on the cross?
The unbelieving Jews? The Romans? Peter says yes to both.
Was it the powers of darkness using their influence over the world and its wisdom? Paul in our passage today says yes.
Was it me and you and our sin that put Christ on the cross? Yes! The Bible makes that very clear.
But Who was it ultimately? According to Peter here, and according to Paul, and according to the Spirit that gives us the wisdom to understand… it was ultimately God Who put His Son on the cross.
God freely gave it all for our sake.
Peter didn’t understand that until the Spirit fell on the church that day.
We know it because the Spirit of God has used the seeds of the Gospel someone planted, and the Word of God to give us wisdom.
Do you see? This is the primary ministry of the Spirit. He gives us wisdom from on high that we may know God. So that we may grow in faith. So that we may mature to live by faith and the wisdom of God.
And we need to remember that. Jesus Himself said that when the Spirit comes:
He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
He said:
“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.
This is what Paul is talking about. This is the Spirit’s work in this present age.
He bears witness to Christ in us, and through us.
But there are many Christians, many churches, many entire denominations that misunderstand the ministry of the Spirit. And they look for the Spirit to give demonstrations of power and to baptize them a second time - which the Bible knows nothing about.
And this is what was happening in Corinth. It’s nothing new.
We have already seen, some in Corinth were looking for the Spirit to give them gifts - like prophecy and speaking in tongues - and they were doing it for their own glory. But the Spirit glorifies Christ, not men.
And when Paul says:
And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
He is talking about the declaration of the Gospel. We will see this again later.
But this is a dig at those who were glorifying themselves by seeking the gift of tongues.
Not that this spiritual gift does not exist - it does, and the Spirit still uses it to glorify Christ and bear witness to Him. And we will get into the weeds on that one later in the book.
But the point that Paul is making here to the Corinthians is that God - by His grace - has given them the Spirit and wisdom from above so that they may know God, and that they may live according to that knowledge.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, we have the mind of Christ. Elsewhere Paul says that this mind is not some abstract understanding. It isn’t about mere head knowledge of what God has done in Christ.
It is about wisdom. It is about applying that knowledge. It is about understanding what God has done in Christ that we may live according to that understanding.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
Where is our mind set?
I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
This is spiritual wisdom leading to a spiritual life. It is spiritual wisdom that reveals what is truly right and good, and it is the Spirit that changes our minds so that we conform to His wisdom.
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
We have been created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. We need to live like it.
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
There’s your application of what Paul is saying to the Corinthians. This is about wisdom that comes from the Spirit, according to which we live our lives as a testimony to Christ. Because that is what Christ said the Spirit’s ministry is.
And if we have the Spirit, and we have that wisdom, we can live that out. We can live to glorify Christ. We can be a testimony to Him.
This is the mission of the church.
At the end of the fourth Gospel, Jesus appears to His disciples in Galilee and tells them that He was sending them like the Father sent Him. And then He breathes on them and says “receive the Holy Spirit.”
In Jerusalem, He tells His disciples that repentance and the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed, and then He tells them to wait for the coming of the Spirit so they could do it.
Then, moments before He ascended on high, Christ told His disciples:
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.”
And as we carry on this mission, like the Corinthian church was to do, we need to remember that it is by the Spirit of God that we can do it. So we must do it.
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
Brothers and sisters, we have received the Spirit Who is from God. We need to seek to understand all the things freely given to us by God.
We now can.
The question is: will we?
