Never be driven by Eloquence

Praise the Lord!

It is indeed a great joy for me to stand with the word of God. We always hear and are blessed by the sermons we hear at the chapel, and tonight I decided to take a simple topic where we all know and where we especially I need to be careful.

The reason for selecting this portion (STORY).

Shall we look into the portion for tonight 1 Cor. 2:1-5

Introduction

The Corinthian church had split because the believers there thought they could judge people’s motives. Individuals had rallied around certain “superstar” preachers (Paul, Peter, Apollos, and others) and had formed groups within the church based on who followed whom. The groups argued with each other over whose leader was the best Christian. But all this conflict depended on their ability to judge the hearts and motives of others—which they could not do. Paul urged them to stop judging one another, to rally around Christ, and to let God decide who served him faithfully and who did not (1 Corinthians 4:1-5).

Paul addresses the Corinthian believers to stay focussed on Christ and not on man made role models. The topic for I would like to highlight tonight for the people who are listening to me, is that preachers and teachers never be driven by eloquence of speech and consider that as spirituality. Many times this has been one of my major flaws where I have been driven by big words and fancy thoughts, and eventually I ruled out the gospel in my sermon.

Verse. 1 Paul instructs us the same in 1 Cor. 2:1-5, in the place of Corinth we see that the people respected the display of intellectual sophistication and wit. Rhetorical polish thoughts got a man famous.

But there is a problem and Paul draws our attention to this problem and that is my first thought of the evening: it’s all about self-display for self-glorification, and that’s where Paul draws the line. He was a gifted, articulate, careful, passionate, learned, fascinating man, but he knew the difference between preaching Christ and showing off. He knew the difference between winning disciples to Christ and attracting a following to himself. He knew the difference between getting the gospel out and branding his own recognizable way of saying it. He knew the difference between the Spirit and the flesh. And Paul addresses the Corinthian church that they had no problem with it (2 Cor 11:18–21).

My dear brother and sisters some of us leave this place in 3 months or another 3 years or 2 years, my major thought forgive me Paul’s urges us by the Spirit of God never drive your sermons with the sophisticated words or thoughts keep the message simple. Paul was responsible to the One who had sent him. We know from 1 Cor 9 that Paul adapted humbly and widely to the various human profiles in his mission field. He saw himself as a debtor to the wise and to the foolish (Rom 1:14), but he could never adjust his message for anyone. That message was the cross, and the humiliation and powerlessness and egolessness of the cross disciplined Paul’s communication. He knew it was the wisdom and power of God. Paul understood that. He respected it. He didn’t want salvation any other way. The cross set Paul free not to be a glittering personality in his preaching but to be as weak as Christ himself.

Verse. 2

For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 2:2).

I wish I had a face to face encounter here with Apostle Paul, one of the many questions I would ask him what was in his mind when he wrote this epistle, I am pretty sure one of the words he would draw up to is reverence. This is the second point I would like to draw you attention to having Reverence to Christ alone. Paul revered Christ. He did not use the gospel of Christ for another end. He revered Christ.

A nineteenth-century poet put these imaginative but appropriate words into the mouth of the apostle:

Christ! I am Christ’s! And let the name suffice you; Aye, for me too He greatly hath sufficed. Lo, with no winning words I would entice you; Paul has no honor and no friend but Christ.

Paul knew and felt that the preaching of Christ crucified was sacred, untouchable, and sufficient in itself. It is the testimony of God, who said to his people through Isaiah,

When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? (Isa 1:12)

The courts of the temple belonged to him, not to them, and the preaching of the gospel belongs to him, not to us. He sets the tone. He defines the ground rules. If we vulgarize the sacred precincts of gospel ministry by intruding our egos into our preaching, he is offended. You have some courageous decisions to make about your preaching style. If you don’t, the pressure of the audience will overwhelm you, and those pressures are not helpful to the reverence of the Scriptures and the God who gave the Scriptures.

Verses. 3-4

And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power (1 Cor 2:3–4).

Paul is not saying that he showed off hesitancy rather than confidence. Paul draws our attention as teachers and preachers to be authentic or genuine. He didn’t show off at all. William Willimon reminds us, “Authenticity is more than a matter of being who I am; it is a matter of being who God calls me to be. For preachers, authenticity means being true, not just to our feelings, but true to our vocation, true to God’s call.” When Apostle Paul comes to verses 3 and 4 Paul feels inadequate. And why not? It is God’s strategy for human history to expose that inadequacy and then replace it with Jesus. So Paul did not falsify himself or compensate in any self-exalting way. He decided that when he stood before people, it was only about Christ, and the power of God entered in.

When Paul comes to the words persuasive words of human wisdom. What I have understood here is that Paul is teaching us that persuasion is valid, even obvious. Paul himself says, “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others” (2 Cor 5:11). And he draws out our responsibility that we should aim to satisfy the mind, win the heart, and move people to action (Acts 17:2–4; 18:4).

. Paul not only depended on the Spirit’s power; his preaching demonstrated the Spirit’s power. The word “demonstration” here means proof. It takes a person’s thinking beyond plausibility into certainty, where the decisions of a lifetime are forged. That is what the Holy Spirit does, and only the Spirit can do that. Paul is frankly admitting here that he wasn’t even effective at the level of plausibility. But God came down. The Spirit flew in under the radar of people’s prejudices, entered their minds and hearts, and demonstrated—he proved as only God can—that Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God brilliantly disguised as folly and weakness and that the worldly beliefs the hearers had always clung to were folly and weakness brilliantly disguised as wisdom and power. That change of heart is a miracle No preacher ore teacher, not even an apostle, can get people there, but God can, and he does, through weak preachers. Here is the net result:

1 Corinthians 2:5

that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God (1 Cor 2:5).

The advantage of spiritual preaching—not just expository preaching but spiritual preaching—is significant. Paul could have achieved results with “the wisdom of men,” but human wisdom works with human power.

Even the message of the cross, preached in human power, leaves converts forever vulnerable to a more clever argument, a more impressive presentation, a more charismatic personality. This is why we see more divisions in the church and more backsliders. I like this quote – which I saw earlier - Today’s unanswerable argument by human wisdom is tomorrow’s unnoticed academic footnote.

Paul preached as a vessel fit for noble use because the Holy Spirit is moving through the world in power today for this one purpose: to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Friend of sinners.

Conclusion

So dear colleagues let’s never be intimidated or depressed or carried away by our ordinariness and inadequacy and unimpressiveness. Most of us are quite ordinary. All of us can improve our preaching, and we will. But the sacred given is the message of the cross, which the Holy Spirit empowers in us men and women of the cross. Let us work toward the goal of only preaching about the Christ who has died for us and glorify the name of Jesus. I would not say let us be like Paul let us be ourselves, and remind ourselves of the commitment we have taken and continue preaching the gospel.