1 CORINTHIANS 2:1-9 - The Way of Wisdom

Introduction

Back in 2015 when the church called me to serve as the permanent pastor for Bethel Baptist, several other pastors came to Sykesville to conduct an installation service—these men had been instrumental in walking with the church through some difficulties we had been going through for a few years previously, and so it was fitting for them to be present as the church took some of its first healthy steps.

One of the pastors was given the task of delivering a charge to the congregation; how they were to relate in a godly way to the pastor’s ministry. And he said something that has stuck with me ever since—though perhaps not in the way he intended it to. He said to the people, “Now, whatever you do, make sure you call him the pastor; don’t ever just call him “the preacher...”

Now, I think that he was trying to make the point that a congregation should love the shepherding ministry of a pastor and not just “relegate” him to being a preacher on Sunday. And while I understand where he was coming from, I really do think that he was probably more than a little affected by the attitude that Paul was trying to correct in these verses.

Because the longer I have served here at Bethel the more that I have come to realize that (especially in this present hour in our culture) that the task of preaching is actually the most important element of a pastor’s work. Being called a “preacher” may seem demeaning or dismissive to some people, but what we saw last week is that if anything, being dismissed as a preacher means that it is going to be used mightily by God. (Plus, Solomon calls himself “the Preacher” in Ecclesiastes 1:12, so if that title is good enough for the wisest man to ever draw breath on this earth, it’s good enough for the likes of me!)

If “preacher” is a demeaning term in the eyes of some people (even some well-meaning Christians), it is because the preaching of the Cross is supposed to be foolishness in the eyes of the world; but that foolish weakness is the means of incredible power and wisdom in God’s hand. In Chapter 1, Paul laid out the reasons why God’s people should not try to pursue the world’s idea of wisdom; here in Chapter 2 he goes on to demonstrate what God’s wisdom looks like in the life of a church:

1 Corinthians 2:6 LSB

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature...

As one preacher puts it, “The Bible may condemn worldly wisdom, but it will never hand wisdom over to the enemy...” (Piper). The word “wisdom” appears no less than seven times in these nine verses. Having warned the church in Corinth not to chase the world’s ideas of wisdom and power, Paul now sets out to demonstrate what the wisdom and power of God looks like in the life of a church. Paul’s goal here in these verses (and therefore the goal of this sermon!) is to call the church in Corinth (and the church in Sykesville!) to

Discern the SIGNS of God’s WISDOM in the life of your CHURCH

As we come to these verses this morning we do so remembering the words of Ecclesiastes 10:14:

Ecclesiastes 10:14 LSB

...No man knows what will happen, and who can tell him what will come after him?

We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, and wisdom means that we take that into account. Because the fact is that this church is going to have to pick a new pastor someday. Now, to be clear, I’m not planning on going anywhere soon (take that as good news or bad news; but I fully intend to be carried out of here feet first...) But we don’t know what will happen tomorrow; the church needs to know what signs of godly wisdom they need to look for in a pastor.

Here’s another thing to consider: Do you know the number one reason why a Christian family stops attending church? Studies have been done on this, and it’s not what you expect—church splits and fights all play their part—but the number one event in someone’s life that will cause them to stop attending church is moving to a new city. Moving to a new town and not being able to find a new church is the number one reason for regular church goers to give up going to church.

I know a lot of you feel the same way about Bethel Baptist that I do—they’re going to have to carry you out of here feet first—but James warns us:

James 4:14 LSB

Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.

You need to know how to identify the signs of godly wisdom in a church; in a pastor, in a congregation. So let’s look at what Paul is teaching here about discerning the signs of godly wisdom in the life of a church.

If you look carefully at the structure of this passage you’ll see that there is a natural division between Verses 1-5, where Paul speaks about himself (“I”, “my”, etc.) and Verses 6-9 where he speaks about the church (“we”, “our”, etc.) So that makes a good division for us to follow as we study.

In the first five verses of our text Paul lays out

I. Signs of Godly wisdom in PREACHING (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)

Paul uses his own ministry among the Corinthians to demonstrate what godly wisdom looks like in the preacher:

1 Corinthians 2:1 LSB

And when I came to you, brothers, I did not come with superiority of word or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the witness of God.

The first sign of godly wisdom in preaching is that you have

A SIMPLE Preacher (v. 1)

The story is told that King Charles II once asked the brilliant theologian and Puritan writer John Owen why a learned scholar like him would waste time listening to John Bunyan, an uneducated Baptist preacher and former tinsmith. Owen famously replied, “May it please your majesty, could I possess the tinker's abilities for preaching, I would gladly relinquish all my learning!”

Paul didn’t try to mimic the “superiority” of the professional orators of the day, the ones the Corinthians were so impressed with. A preacher with a lot of natural charisma and chemistry can go a long way with the typical rhetorical tricks for captivating an audience.

It is entirely possible to whip up an emotional frenzy among your audience and get them to turn any direction you want that is entirely separate from a work of God through His Word. Have you ever listened to a skillful speaker that has been enormously entertaining and thought-provoking while he spoke, but afterwards you couldn’t remember a thing that they said? That’s what Paul was fighting against—he made it his aim to be a simple preacher, so that the power of God would work mightily through him.

Look for the signs of God’s wisdom in preaching—look for a simple preacher. And in Verse 2 Paul says that he aimed to be

A SINGLE-MINDED preacher (v. 2)

1 Corinthians 2:2 LSB

For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

This isn’t to say that every sermon has to come from one of the Gospel accounts of Christ’s crucifixion; what Paul is saying here is that his preaching would always come back to the Cross of Christ and the message of the Gospel. Charles Spurgeon tells the story of a young preacher who had been preaching in the presence of an old Welsh minister, and after the sermon asked the old man what he thought of it.

“A very poor sermon indeed,” said he. “A poor sermon?” said the young man, “it took me a long time to study it.” “Ay, no doubt of it.” “Why, did you not think my explanation of the text a very good one?” “Oh yes,” said the old preacher, “very good indeed..., but still it was a very poor sermon.... because there was no Christ in it.” “Well,” said the young man, “Christ was not in the text; we are not to be preaching Christ always, we must preach what is in the text.” So the old man said, “Don’t you know young man that from every town, and every village, and every little hamlet in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London?” “Yes,” said the young man. “Ah!” said the old divine “and so from every text in Scripture, there is a road to the metropolis of the Scriptures, that is Christ. And my dear brother, your business is when you get to a text, to say, ‘Now what is the road to Christ?’ and then preach a sermon, running along the road towards the great metropolis — Christ. And,” said he “I have never yet found a text that had not got a road to Christ in it, and if I ever do find one that has not a road to Christ in it, I will make one. I will go over hedge and ditch but I would get at my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a savor of Christ in it.” Charles H. Spurgeon, “Christ Precious to Believers,” sermon at Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens, London, March 13, 1859.

Whatever other topics and themes and applications a preacher may include in his sermon, a wise preacher will always make a road to Christ; will determine to show how absolutely everything in the Scriptures, everything in the Christian’s life, everything in all Creation hinges one way or another on what Christ accomplished on the Cross.

Paul demonstrates that godly wisdom produces a simple preacher, a single-minded preacher, and in Verse 3 we find

A TREMBLING preacher (v. 3)

1 Corinthians 2:3 LSB

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,

Read through the Book of Acts and you will see that Paul was anything but a weak man; he was a man able to hold the professional philosophers in Athens spellbound, and could use his rhetorical skills to turn the Sanhedrin on their heads arguing with one another.

But when he came to preaching the Gospel in Corinth, his “fear and trembling” was not because he had a case of the butterflies before giving a speech; it was because he knew that the message he was preaching was so powerful and so weighty he feared that the “rickety cart of his words would collapse under the weight” (Wilson, Partakers of Grace).

A preacher who treats the task of preaching with a lighthearted breeziness, who acts during a sermon as though he is telling a couple fun stories to friends around the table foolishly misunderstands the weight of his task.

The great Scottish reformer John Knox was another man of great personal courage; in 1547 following the siege of St. Andrews Castle he was captured by the French and was a galley slave for nearly two years. At one point he was threatened with a beating if he refused to kiss a wooden statue of the Virgin Mary—Knox promptly threw the statue into the sea, saying, “Let Our Lady now save herself; she is light enough, let her learn to swim...." But he once said about preaching, "I have never once feared the devil, but I tremble every time I enter the pulpit.”

Look for signs of godly wisdom in the preaching that you receive—Paul demonstrated that he was a simple preacher, a single-minded preacher, a trembling preacher, and, in Verses 4-5

A POTENT preacher (vv. 4-5)

1 Corinthians 2:4–5 LSB

and my word and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

This is the sign that Paul wanted his people to see—that godly wisdom in preaching will result in a changed life. Not in his rhetorical tricks, not the force of his personality, not in his learning or his skill, but in the power of God to change lives. This is the fundamental mark of godly wisdom in preaching, that those who sit under that preaching grow in holiness and wisdom. That they are cultivating real obedience, that they are experiencing real victory over sin, that they are growing in real likeness to Christ.

Over time, a congregation will always begin to take on the character of the preaching that it takes in—shallow or deep, flippant or serious, weighty or fluffy, condemning or gracious, defensive or bold, foolish or wise. Paul says that if he focused his preaching on his own personality or his own strengths the result would be a people who put their faith in him—but he was not out to create “Paulians”; he was aiming to make Christians.

God’s Word calls us to look for signs of God’s wisdom in the life of our church; Paul shows what the signs of godly wisdom in preaching look like from his own example in Verses 1-5; in Verses 6-9 he goes on to describe

II. Signs of godly wisdom in the PEOPLE (1 Corinthians 1:6-9)

Look with me at Verse 6:

1 Corinthians 2:6 LSB

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature, a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are being abolished.

Once again Paul reminds the church in Corinth that their hunger for wisdom is not wrong-headed; they are to seek wisdom—just not the world’s idea of wisdom. This true wisdom, the godly wisdom Paul is writing about here is wisdom that is known and loved by

A MATURE people (v. 6; cp. Eph. 4:13)

The Greek word beneath our English translation “mature” carries the idea of being “complete” or “full-grown”. Paul uses the same word in Ephesians 4:13:

Ephesians 4:13 LSB

until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ,

The people who love godly wisdom have “grown up” in Christ; reflecting His character in their lives. They aren’t marked by the divisions that Paul warns them about in Chapter 1, they have unity in mind and in their love for God and one another. A congregation that has been receiving preaching marked by godly wisdom will be growing in love for one another and for the Word—they will love godly wisdom and delight in it; they will seek it out in the Scriptures and meditate on it day and night (Psalm 1:2).

A people who show the signs of godly wisdom are a mature people, and see further in Verse 6 that they are

A people with an ETERNAL perspective (v. 6)

Starting in Verse 6 Paul turns his attention to how mature believers relate to the wisdom of “this age”—the Greek word where we get “eon” appears 4 time between verses 6 and 8:

1 Corinthians 2:6 LSB

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature, a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are being abolished.

One of the favorite levers that the secular world uses against Christianity is that their insistence on standing on the Bible as their authority puts them “on the wrong side of history”—that if you hold fast to the truth revealed here in God’s Word to govern your life and you submit yourself to this wisdom you will be someday be shown to be backward and bigoted, and that someday the world will look back on you and pity you for your ignorance and cluelessness.

But a people with an eternal perspective do not care about the judgment of “history”. As we’ve noted before, it is far better to be “on the wrong side of history” than to be on the wrong side of eternity! An eternal perspective in a people means that they can’t be baited or steered into abandoning the Scriptures; they see what God sees about this world, they know that His wisdom and His power are at work, and they are secure in that wisdom.

A church that is characterized by godly wisdom does not cower before the world’s wisdom; it does not constantly try to make God’s wisdom palatable to the world or apologize for standing firm on the Scriptures. A church governed by godly wisdom doesn’t back down on the evils of our day like abortion or the sexual confusions and perversions of transgender ideology or LGBTQ lies, it doesn’t need to find “common ground” with false religions. Because the wisdom that we speak does not belong to this age; it cannot be understood and accepted by the world in its own wisdom.

And in Verses 7-9, Paul points out why this wisdom is unknown by the world:

1 Corinthians 2:7 LSB

But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom which has been hidden, which God predestined before the ages to our glory,

We hear the word mystery and think about it according to our English usage—the Sherlock Holmes-style “mystery”, where there is a crime to be solved and by putting together all the clues you can figure out the truth.

But the way that the Apostle Paul uses the word in his letters has a different meaning—a mystery is something that God has hidden from the world and only He can reveal it by His Spirit. One of the remarkable things about reading the Old Testament from a Christian perspective is how every single page points to the person and work of Christ in one way or another—like Spurgeon’s story we mentioned earlier, there is always a road to Christ from any given text.

And sometimes we kind of scratch our heads over why the people in Jesus’ day couldn’t see that; the Pharisees and the chief priests and scribes and elders knew the Scriptures inside and out, and yet could not see Him for Who He is. As Paul writes in Verse 8

1 Corinthians 2:8 LSB

which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

This mystery of Christ’s work on the Cross was not understood by the Pharisees, by the chief priests and the Sanhedrin, by Pilate or the Romans; they did not recognize Who He was—the Lord of Glory. Paul is using the Greek word kurios here in the Hebrew sense, calling Jesus YHWH of Glory.

Psalm 24:9–10 LSB

Lift up your heads, O gates, And lift yourselves up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in! Who is He, this King of glory? Yahweh of hosts, He is the King of glory....

This is the third characteristic of a church governed by godly wisdom—they are a mature people, they are a people with an eternal perspective, and they are

A people whose GLORY is in the GOSPEL (vv.7-9)

Paul is making a deliberate connection with the word glory in Verses 7-8—read them together and you can see it:

1 Corinthians 2:7–8 LSB

But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom which has been hidden, which God predestined before the ages to our glory, which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

The mystery is that the Cross of Christ that has purchased salvation for all of God’s people, Old Testament and New Testament alike, and reconciled them to Him and to each other. It is the mystery of a dying man on a cross conquering the world, a man of sorrows and acquainted with suffering presented as king, a simple Galilean peasant carpenter Who is Himself YHWH of Glory.

Verse 9 is often quoted at Christian funerals as a way of expressing the hope that we have in Christ because of His work on the Cross:

1 Corinthians 2:9 LSB

But just as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Once again you’ll notice that this is an Old Testament quotation—this time from Isaiah 64:4 and Isaiah 65:17. The original context of those verses (along with the way Paul uses them here), however, indicate that this is not about some wonderful revelation of the love of God for His children in eternity—this is a statement of what God has revealed to those who love Him now through the Gospel!

Paul is saying here that this great mystery of the wisdom of God found in the person and work of Jesus Christ, which had been hidden for millennia, has now been revealed, and it was far more than anything we could have dreamed of! It could never even have entered our minds what an amazing display of God’s wisdom was going to be revealed in the Good News of the Gospel, that unbelievable and glorious

...Good News that the just and gracious Creator of the universe has looked upon hopelessly sinful men and women and has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, to bear His wrath against sin on the cross and to show His power over sin in the resurrection, so that everyone who turns from their sin and themselves and trusts in Jesus as Savior and Lord will be reconciled to God forever. (David Platt, Secret Church)

And a people governed by godly wisdom are a people who glory in that Gospel! Show me a people who love the glory of the Gospel and I will show you a happy people; a people who glory in the grace of God that saved them and who delight in declaring that same Good News to everyone they meet. A congregation marked by love for each other and love for those who come in from outside; not judgmental and suspicious, not threatened by honest questions about the Gospel, who love to share it and talk about it with anyone who asks.

The dazzling beauty of the Gospel is at the heart of everything they do; whether it is the sermon on Sunday morning or the picnics on Saturday afternoon; the Bible studies and the backpack giveaways, the Sunday School classes and the praise and worship talent nights—all of it anchors back to the amazing and never-fading glory of the wisdom of God to save us. How can this Good News ever be boring? How could a people ever get tired of talking about it and singing about it and meditating on it?

But there is a caution to be noted here—there are a lot of ministry platforms and churches out there in the evangelical world that would call themselves “Gospel-centered”, but have absolutely caved in to the wisdom of this world; white fragility, BLM, “Believe all women”, racial wokeism, COVID lockdown shenanigans, feminism, you name it. Every last one of them would heartily affirm that they are “Gospel-centered”, that they want to “preach Christ and Him crucified” (v. 2), and yet want to make extra sure that none of their “Gospel-centeredness” interferes with their invitations to sit at the cool kids’ table.

The problem with those ministries and churches is that they never defined where the Gospel should be centered—what is the Gospel the center of? As one writer has pointed out, Satan himself is very “Gospel-centered”: He wants to make sure that the “center” of the Gospel is way down deep in your heart where it can’t get out and wreck any of his plans for the world!

A people who glory in the Gospel must glory in the Gospel as the center of everything. And that means that this glorious Gospel addresses everything. Is this not what Jesus Himself tells us in Matthew 28:19-20?

Matthew 28:19–20 LSB

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Glorying in the Gospel means that it governs your entire life. If Christ is to be Lord at all, then He must be Lord of all. And that means—among other things—that wives should submit to their husbands; that Christian children should have a Christian education; that Christians should not be entertained by raunchy sex comedies; that women should be kept out of combat roles in the military; that Christians must vote against political candidates that promote abortion; that Christians should not speak lies by using feminine pronouns to speak about a man and vice versa; that Christians must reserve the Lord’s Day for gathered worship with His people. If we are a people who glory in this Gospel, then it will change every part of our lives.

So Christian, do you love this Gospel? If so, does it show? Do you love this Gospel enough to turn your back on anything else that wants to govern your life? If you immediately began responding to that last paragraph with the “Yeah-buts”, wanting to come up with all the reasons why those applications would be difficult or impossible, then ask yourself where your affections truly lie—with the wisdom of God revealed in the beauty of the Gospel, or the wisdom of this age that is being abolished along with its rulers?

Here is the beauty of the Gospel, beloved—that God Himself has orchestrated all of human history in order to bring you into His glory! He has wiped out the penalty of your sin, He has freed you from its power, He has made you into His precious child and He has given you a new heart to delight in Him with free and joyous obedience. The world has no handle on you; you are free from guilt and free from shame; He has called you to build His Kingdom as you live this Gospel and announce His kingship to every tribe, tongue people and nation. And this Kingdom cannot fail! Glory in this Gospel as you call the nations to obedience to their King—your Savior!—Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Ephesians 3:20–21 LSB

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

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