Does He Want To Use Me

3rd advent sunday Key Verses: 1 Corinthians 1:17-3:4 (NLT) - 17 For Christ didn't send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News-and not with clever speech, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power. 18 The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. 19 As the Scriptures say, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent." 20 So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world's brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. 21 Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. 22 It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. 23 So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it's all nonsense. 24 But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God's weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength. 26 Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world's eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. 27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 28 God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 29 As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God. 30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. 31 Therefore, as the Scriptures say, "If you want to boast, boast only about the LORD." 1 When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn't use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God's secret plan. 2 For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness-timid and trembling. 4 And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. 5 I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God. 6 Yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten. 7 No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God-his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began. 8 But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. 9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." 10 But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets. 11 No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit. 12 And we have received God's Spirit (not the world's spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. 13 When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths. 14 But people who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can't understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. 15 Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. 16 For, "Who can know the LORD's thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?" But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. 1 Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn't talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in Christ. 2 I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren't ready for anything stronger. And you still aren't ready, 3 for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn't that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren't you living like people of the world? 4 When one of you says, "I am a follower of Paul," and another says, "I follow Apollos," aren't you acting just like people of the world? Paul Declares That Believers Are the Wisest People Possible 1. In 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 Paul told the Corinthian believers that he had not come to them in words of human wisdom. 1. 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (NLT) - 1 When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn't use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God's secret plan. 2 For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness-timid and trembling. 4 And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. 5 I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God. 2. But in verse 2 he tells them that Him whom he declared to them, "Jesus Christ and him crucified," did not lack divine wisdom. 1. "1 Corinthians 2:6 (NLT) - 6 Yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten. C. He calls Jesus Christ "the wisdom of God," and what He did on the cross was the wisest thing possible. Christ is called "the power of God, and the wisdom of God" (1 Cor. 1:24). D. But He is not wisdom to all. To the Greeks He is a foolishness and to the Jews, a stumbling block. E. He is wisdom only to "them which are called" (effectively called, i.e., those who receive Him and became children of God [1 Cor. 1:24]). In 1 Corinthians 2:6 Paul calls them the "perfect" ones. The word "perfect" in Greek is téleioi, those who reached or attained the goal set by their creator for them. God did not create man to be an enemy of His, but to have fellowship with Him. But man chose to turn his back on God and became His enemy. The only way to reconcile man to God and to change him was through the sending of His Son into the world to become man and to give His life as a ransom for him (Rom. 5:11; 2 Cor. 5:18-20). The Greeks thought dying for one's enemies was foolishness. They considered that one does not die for his enemies, but being stronger as God must be, one eliminates them. The Jews expected a Messiah who would reign, not one who would suffer and die. But changing man to a friend from an enemy is far better than killing him. That takes not only power, but love (John 3:16; Rom. 1:16). But the only ones who would recognize the wisdom of the crucified Christ are the ones who permitted Him by faith to save them, to bring them to Himself. To the elect or "called" or the "perfect" (1 Cor. 1:24, 26), "Jesus Christ and him crucified" (2:2) is "wisdom of God." The only way for anyone to recognize the wisdom in God's action is to experience its transforming power. II. The Wisdom of This Age Is Different from God's Wisdom A. ". . . yet not the wisdom of this world" (1 Cor. 2:6). The word for "world" is aioṜ́n, age, time period. The wisdom of this age is sinful. B. Because it is not eternal, it takes into account only the here and now. C. It is selfish. It is based on the survival of the fittest, instead of the stronger dying for the weaker. D. It leaves God out of the picture. E. It may feel sorry for those suffering but it cannot appropriate the suffering in order to bring an end to it and restore man to His original, intended state of being. A little boy asked, "Why is it that when I open a marigold it dies, but if God does it, it's so beautiful?" Before anyone could answer him, he said, "I know! It's because God always works from the inside out." III. God's Wisdom Is Not the Same as That of the Wisdom of the Rulers of This Age A. Those who rule do not place those whom they rule above their own selfish interests, but God so loved that He gave His Son to die for us while we were His enemies (John 15:13; Rom. 5:7). Man would love to make his enemies his friends or servants, but that is often impossible. However, God, through the power of the cross, can save a soul and cause him to dedicate his life totally to Him. One must experience the power of the cross in order to admit its wisdom (Rom. 1:16). This power must precede its wisdom (1 Cor. 1:24). Jesus Christ was "declared to be the Son of God with power" (Rom. 1:4; 1 Cor. 1:18; 2:4, 5; 4:20). B. Those who rule us in this world cannot prepare us for eternity, but God gives us eternal life, a quality life for the here-and-now and a blissful life for eternity. It takes God to do this. Christ said, ". . . that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer: I have overcome the world" (John 16:33. See 1 Corinthians 15:26, 54, 55). "If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable" (1 Cor. 15:19; also Phil. 1:21; 3:21). C. The Christian must realize that those who rule over them are not the real rulers, but are only acting as such. They are called árchontes, rulers, the present participle of árchō, while Christ is spoken of as the archēgós, "the prince," or the inherent leader, the source, the author, the cause of life (Acts 3:15; 5:31; Heb. 2:10; 12:2). Those of this age are simply árchontes, those temporarily ruling over us, but always under God, the absolute Ruler and Sovereign. Their rule is being canceled out as time goes on. The verbal phrase translated "that come to nought" is toṜ́n katagouménōn, who are being rendered inoperative. God is going to eliminate them one day and prevail as the only ruler (1 Cor. 15:24-28). IV. Through His Cross, Jesus Christ Has Shown Us That He Is the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25) A. Had He not chosen to die, He would not have risen from the dead, thus becoming the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18). If through His cross He could demonstrate to us that we, too, shall rise (John 5:25), that constitutes the greatest wisdom that God could demonstrate to us. B. What man has the power to rise from the dead to demonstrate how wise he is? He who defeated death has to be acknowledged as having wisdom greater than the corporate wisdom of all humans during the ages. 52 New Testament Sermon Starters - 52 New Testament Sermon Starters - Volume Four. The Upside-Down Kingdom In his recent book, "An Hour Before Daylight," former US President Jimmy Carter reflects on his childhood in rural Georgia, his relationship with his parents, and his infamous brother Billy. He writes, "Mama always said that Billy was the smartest of her children, and none of us argued with her." "When the international news media moved into our town during the 1976 presidential campaign, Billy became the center of attention. He drank more, talked more, and saw his deliberately outrageous statements quoted as serious comments ... He was always good for a delightful quote. When one of the reporters remarked that Billy was a little strange, he replied: 'Look, my Mama was a seventy-year-old Peace Corps volunteer in India, one of my sisters goes all over the world as a holy-roller preacher, my oldest sister spends half her time on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, and my brother thinks he's going to be President of the United States. Which one of our family do you think is normal?'" * Disciples of Jesus Christ are supposed to be deviations from the norm. We're supposed to mess up the world as it is, draw outside the lines, and think outside the box. For us, everyone else's 'off the shelf' solutions don't quite fit, and normal isn't quite good enough anymore. * So, the world sees us as 'abnormal' - and we are! Our wisdom doesn't mesh with the world's wisdom because we are wise in the customs, culture and value system of the world that is to come. 1 Corinthians 1:25-31 (KJV) Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men. [26] For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: [27] But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; [28] And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: [29] That no flesh should glory in his presence. [30] But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: [31] That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:25-31 (GW) God's nonsense is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength. [26] Brothers and sisters, consider what you were when God called you to be Christians. Not many of you were wise from a human point of view. You were not in powerful positions or in the upper social classes. [27] But God chose what the world considers nonsense to put wise people to shame. God chose what the world considers weak to put what is strong to shame. [28] God chose what the world considers ordinary and what it despises-what it considers to be nothing-in order to destroy what it considers to be something. [29] As a result, no one can brag in God's presence. [30] You are partners with Christ Jesus because of God. Jesus has become our wisdom sent from God, our righteousness, our holiness, and our ransom from sin. [31] As Scripture says, "Whoever brags must brag about what the Lord has done." * Jesus completely redefined what it means to be "normal." Everything He taught goes against how 'normal' people see the world and function in their everyday lives. Turning the other cheek, going the second mile, giving away the spare coat, washing the feet of your inferiors, heaping blessings on those who curse you, living without anger, laying down your life ... Normal people have a hard time understanding, much less living, these principles. * The truth is that Jesus turned normal wisdom upside-down. The truth is that Christians - real Christians - are called to see the world through Jesus' eyes, not from a normal point of view. * Jesus once compared himself to a hen and King Herod to a fox. Think about it! Jesus was like the brooding hen, whose chief purpose in life is to protect her young, with just a tiny beak and no talons. About all she can do is fluff herself up and sit on her chicks. She can also put herself between them and the fox, ill equipped as she is. About the best she can hope for is that she satisfies his appetite so that he leaves her babies alone. Meanwhile, King Herod is like the cruel, cunning, crafty fox. Jesus has disciples, but Herod has soldiers. Jesus serves, but Herod rules. Jesus prays for his enemies, but Herod kills his. In a contest between a fox and a chicken, whom would you bet on? And how do you like that image of God? * In God's kingdom, the way up is down, the way in is out, the way to be first is to be last, the way to be great is to become the least, the way to be a success is to be a servant, the way to attain is to relinquish, the way to be strong is to become weak, the way to be secure is to become vulnerable, the way to life is through death, and the way to freedom is through total obedience to God's commands. It sounds crazy, but it works! * On the way home from church, an eight-year-old boy was sharing with his parents what he had learned in Sunday school. "Boy, was it exciting!" he explained. "Moses organized all the Hebrews into a resistance group. They planned real carefully, and finally broke loose from their Egyptian slave masters. They moved as fast as they could toward Canaan. They drove every kind of SUV they could get their hands on: Expeditions, Navigators, Jeeps, and Hummers." But Pharaoh's army wouldn't give up. They tracked down the Israelites with radar. They exploded missiles all around them and shot at them from jet planes in the sky. When Moses and his people reached the Red Sea, they thought they were finished. There was raging water in front of them and Egyptians behind them. Suddenly, the Corps of Engineers came to the rescue and built a pontoon bridge over the Red Sea and all the fugitives crossed over to freedom. Then, just as Pharaoh's forces were about to go across the bridge, the Hebrews blew it up with dynamite and saved all the people. Then they lived happily every after in the Promised Land." The little boy's parents were more than just a little concerned about their child's overactive imagination. "Is that really what they told you at church this morning?" they inquired. "Well, not exactly," their son replied. "But if I told you what really happened, you'd think I was nuts!" * Here's one better than that: Picture the very Son of God, sent to earth, born of a prince and princess under the dazzling white dome of a beautiful palace. He is wrapped in the cleanest of linen, attended by the greatest physicians in the land, and presented to the world in a royal blue, gold embroidered baby bathrobe at a star-studded ceremony that becomes the media event of the century. Musicians from around the world write songs to commemorate his birth, and they hit the top of the airplay charts overnight because everyone loves him so much. Every politician and king on the planet take time out of running their countries to make a pilgrimage to the place where this wonderful ruler is born, so they can pledge allegiance to him. "Glory to God in the Highest" quickly becomes the new greeting of choice in all languages around the world. What? You don't remember it that way? But if I told you how it really happened, you'd think I was nuts! * When Emmanuel (God with us) came to earth, He literally turned things upside down. God in a manger - that's not normal! And because the world is so 'normal' they rejected Him outright. John 1:10-12 (KJV) He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. [11] He came unto his own, and his own received him not. [12] But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: * The more you live life on God's terms, the more the world will look on you as abnormal. The more you read the Bible, the more the Bible reads you. The more status Jesus has in your life, the more you'll upset the status quo. The more Jesus becomes your Prince of Peace, the more you'll disturb the peace. THE WORLD: God helps those who help themselves. THE BIBLE: When we were powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. THE WORLD: We look on the outward appearance. THE BIBLE: But the Lord looks on the heart. THE WORLD: Seeing is believing. THE BIBLE: Unless you believe you shall not understand. THE WORLD: Don't let them see you sweat. THE BIBLE: When I'm weak, I am strong in the Lord. THE WORLD: He who dies with the most toys wins. THE BIBLE: We look for a city whose builder and maker is God. THE WORLD: Power lunches, power salesmen, power principles. THE BIBLE: We preach Christ and him crucified. * The concept of a crucified God was deemed so offensive, so crazy that Christians were accused of madness for even suggesting the idea. That's why it was 500 years before any images depicting Jesus on the cross began to appear. God on a cross - that's not normal! But it was at Golgotha where the greatest defacement of beauty, the greatest graffiti scribbled on God's goodness, became the Mount Everest of beauty. * The number one problem God has with the church today is that it often becomes numbingly 'normal' - when it is supposed to be abnormal. The world is not supposed to understand our lifestyle, our dedication, our enthusiasm, or our worship. When they do, something has gone terribly wrong and we have failed them! Ezekiel 22:26 Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Ezekiel 44:23 And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean. Profane (Hebrew "chalal") - "to make ordinary or common, to normalize, to wound" * The greatest indictment against the modern day Apostolic church is that there is often little difference between the "holy" and the "normal" (profane). When we can figure every service out in our natural mind, we automatically figure God completely out of the equation! * Kid at Vacation Bible School: "Can we sing that song again? Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah, Crazy the Lord!" * Call me crazy, but I'm still crazy enough to believe that ... Jesus loves me, this I know The B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus Jesus is the sweetest name I know Oh I want to see Him, look upon His face Because He lives, I can face tomorrow Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me The Rule of God is confusing to us B. It's upside-down when compared to our value system 1. Who in our society is deemed blessed? a. The poor or the rich? b. The hungry or the full? c. The sorrowful or the happy? d. The persecuted or the popular? 2. Especially in Hollywood, these contrasts are clearly visible, aren't they? a. In Hollywood, the blessed are "rich and famous" 1) Who, we are told, are happy and full all the time, never hungry and sorrowful. 2) Hmmm.... C. But God's economy is different 1. Things are not valued the same in God's kingdom - under God's rule. 2. In God's economy, the poor are blessed 3. In God's economy, the persecuted have the edge 4. In God's economy, the hungry are full and the sorrowful are joyful. D. This is all quite good news, isn't it? 1. And it meshes with Jesus inaugural sermon in Nazarath, only a short time ago, when he announced, from Isaiah, a. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free" (Lk 4:18). 2. Jesus, it seems, is on message. E. But what about the flipside? F. Jesus can't just stop with these blessings and let us infer the rest. G. He gets explicit H. Not only does Jesus defy conventional wisdom and say the poor are the ones who are blessed, I. But he will now rub salt in the wound and say, Woe (Cursed) to you who are rich..." 1. Ouch! J. And curses to you who are full and laughing and popular, so that all speak well of you. VII. Promises of Reversal A. What is going on here? B. Does Jesus just love to hate rich people? C. Are we supposed to just go home with a guilt complex if we are happy and have enough money to fill our stomachs? D. What Jesus is saying in this passage is that in God's reign there is and will be a "great reversal." 1. Things will be turned on their head - upside-down. 2. Injustices and inequities will be justified and equalized. 3. The poor will have enough, which means the rich will not be nearly so rich. 4. The hungry will be fed which means the fed might have to do with less. E. These blessings and curses have to do with rectifying wrongs F. As NT Wright loves to say, "God is in the business of putting the world to rights." G. Isn't this what Jesus' mother, Mary, prophesied? H. Remember, only a few pages back, Luke 1:52-53? "He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty." I. Part of the economics of this, according to Luke's Jesus, is that the rich have already had theirs 1. And now it's time for a change. 2. Which is consistent with what we get from Mary as well. VIII. The 'Now' and 'Not Yet' A. So far we've said that these blessings and curses are about the kingdom of God that Jesus is both bringing and announcing. B. And that God's purpose in his new reign of mercy and grace 1. (remember the backdrop of all those healings) C. ...is to put the world to rights. D. Through Mary in Luke 1 and Jesus (quoting Old Isaiah) in the synagogue in Luke 4 and now to the multitudes in Luke 6, the message is, God has begun to reign. 1. There is a new king in town. 2. And this king is bringing radical change 3. That change will be, at once and the same time, good news and bad news, depending on who you are and where you stand when you hear the news. E. One important dimension of this kingdom is that in the New Testament it is both now and not yet. 1. At times Jesus announces the kingdom is if it is here now. 2. At other times He is clearly talking about something that will come in the future. 3. The reality is that it is both! F. Jesus says, the Kingdom of God is at hand 1. But that doesn't mean it is in hand. 2. We don't fully "have it" and we certainly don't "own it" or "control it" G. So, coming back to our passage for today, we might look around and see that the poor are NOT blessed. 1. The hungry are NOT full 2. The sorrowful are not yet laughing! H. This can be puzzling to us until we realize that there is a future dimension to Jesus' words. 1. They are promise and hope 2. They are descriptive of the way things will be one day. I. And as such, they are warnings for the rich and the full and the rejoicing. 1. The simply message to the rich, it seems, is that there will be a great leveling someday. 2. You might want to share your riches, your food and your joy with those who have less 3. Lest you end up on the wrong side of the future leveling. J. However! K. And I don't' want us to miss this! L. For Jesus and certainly for Luke's community, these blessings for the poor, hungry, sorrowful and excluded ones are not simply promises for the future. 1. The community which prayed, 'Your kingdom come, your will be done', was itself a place where the reign of God began to be realized. M. We've been flashing back to Luke 1 and 4 today N. But now flash forward for a second to the beginning of Luke's second volume - Acts - chapter 2:43-47. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. And day-by-day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. O. These apostles Luke refers to here in Acts 2 are the same apostles (minus one) who Jesus appointed in Luke 6. 1. And they got it! 2. They understood the blessings of the kingdom P. They got that Jesus' sermon on the plain was an outworking of the Sabbath theology of Luke 4, pointing back to Exodus 16 where God first introduced his economic plan. Q. The people of God were formed by this teaching in Exodus 16. 1. As the Sabbath is first seriously formed in God's "coming-out-of-slavery" people 2. God links Sabbath with creation a. A creation in which there was abundance of every good thing. b. A creation in which every creature was adequately provided for. 3. On the Sabbath, they would be reminded of God's provision, through the manna. 4. Every day they were to collect just enough for them and their clan a. Millennia later Jesus would teach his followers to pray, "give us this day our daily bread" or "give us today, bread enough for today." 5. On Friday they were told to collect twice as much and miraculously it would keep over the Sabbath. 6. The theology of ENOUGH - it was ingrained in God's people 7. By the time of Jesus, people needed some reminding 8. And it was also a promise of hope that God would redeem his people's oppression and restore Israel. R. Today, and every week, as we observe Sabbath, we STOP. 1. We stop our labor, our accumulating, our consuming 2. We opt out of the rat race of consumerism and wealth acquisition for a day a week, as a witness to the truth that God is creator, owner and provider. S. But, as Isaiah had to remind his people, this is not just a day for God's people to stop accumulating. 1. It is also a day to share - to give our excess away to those with less (Isaiah 58:7) 2. If the rich shared their abundance with the poor there would be no lack 3. The poor would get their blessing and the rich would escape their curse. T. Those with vested interests will often prefer a Christianity that will leave the status quo as it is and focus only on the world to come. U. When we do that, we betray the poor when we call them blessed. IX. Conclusion A. The question for us is "how will we live?" 1. Can we envision ourselves living in this "upside-down kingdom?" 2. What would it mean for this community to share its wealth with each other and with the community outside our doors. 3. This passage really does point to Acts 2 as the outgrowth of this kingdom teaching of Jesus. 4. Can we imagine living like that? B. Can we let go of our pride, our individualism, our need to go it alone? C. Can we truly "live together" as a band of strangers and urban pilgrims, bound together by the Way of Jesus? D. This is the call of discipleship that Jesus holds out to the multitude E. It is the challenge of Luke to his community F. And it is our challenge today! In fact, God is building His kingdom wherever people bow to the Lordship of Jesus, and take up their cross to follow Him. This is not some fantasy kingdom, or a kingdom that we enter after we die. This is the kingdom that Jesus announced when He quoted Isaiah (61:1-2): "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, and freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to set the burdened and battered free, to announce 'This is God's year to act!'" [Luke 4:18-19 (NIV & The Message)] This morning I want to think with you about God's kingdom, and I want us to think about the Upside Down nature of that kingdom. God's kingdom is an Upside Down Kingdom. It operates under different rules than the nations of this world. There's really something subversive about it. Jesus said that in this kingdom the last will be first, and the first will be last. He said that, to enter this kingdom, we must become as little children. Jesus said that it's very hard for a rich person to enter this kingdom. He said that if I want to be great in this kingdom, I must become the servant of all. God's kingdom is an Upside Down Kingdom. It's a kingdom where forgiveness is extended 70 times 7 - 490 times. It's a kingdom where thieves and prostitutes and broken people are welcomed in from the streets to sit at the King's table. I want to be a part of that kind of kingdom! God's kingdom is an Upside Down Kingdom. Jesus said this kingdom is like a pearl of great price - it's worth selling all you have to obtain it. He said it's like a mustard seed - so small that you ignore it until it grows to become the biggest plant in the garden. We get a glimpse of the Upside Down Kingdom in the life of Joseph, the son of Jacob, in the book of Genesis. Here was a young man hated by his brothers, sold to slave-traders who brought him down to Egypt. (Genesis 39) 2 The LORD was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. 5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. 6 So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph's care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate... God prospered Joseph and gave him success. But it's a very strange, upside-down kind of success. As far as his family knew, he was dead. Joseph was obeying God in a place hidden from almost everybody. Only the people in Potiphar's house knew of him at all. Some of you may be in a similar place today. You are faithful to God in a hidden place where no one seems to notice. I want to encourage you - God sees your faithfulness. He is with you, and He calls you successful as you serve Him there. Then Joseph's situation goes from bad to worse. He's falsely accused of sexual assault and thrown into prison. Again, what kind of success is this? (Genesis 39) 20 Joseph's master took him and put him in prison... But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22 ...the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. This doesn't really look like success: Joseph is still a slave, and now he's in prison. He is even more hidden from view than he was before. Some of God's most faithful people labor all their lives in hidden places. There is no earthly glory where they serve. We met some of them in Nicaragua. We met Roberto, a faithful man who has now started three different churches. He's in his mid-40s and has never had a bank account. If his parishioners can find work, they earn a dollar or two a day. He will never be seen as successful by the Trumps and Kardassians of the world. But God is with him. God sees him, and calls him a success. As followers of Jesus, we are citizens of this kingdom. It's a spiritual kingdom, and it takes awhile to get our bearings in this upside down world. God wants to reproduce the character of Jesus in us. He wants to change our way of thinking. He wants to change our attitudes. He wants to live within our spirits, changing our very nature so that we are available to iHimmHim and useful for His kingdom purposes. How will we learn to live as God's people in this Upside Down World? We need all the help we can get! God has provided a powerful blueprint for us in the life of Jesus. And the Holy Spirit of God is our living and active teacher. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth. It will help us if we take some time at the beginning of every day to listen to what God's Spirit is saying to us... Right now I'm working on GENEROSITY. I'm a miser by birth, but I want to be a generous man. God has given me several friends who model generosity well. My friend Chris tells me about a man: when he eats at a restaurant, the amount of his tip for the waitress is the same amount as his meal. And my friend Dan tells me about a young couple: every time they go to buy groceries, they buy an equal amount of groceries to give away. That challenges me! This young couple is also saving money to buy a house. Their plan is to buy 2 houses, and give one away to a needy family. This is one example of the kind of radical living that God may call us to when we really take up our crosses and begin to follow Jesus. Are you ready for it? God help us! Each Sunday, we pray the Lord's Prayer together. There's a phrase from it that I want us to pray together right now, as we think about the place God has for us in His kingdom: "Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven!" WHY GOD DELIGHTS IN SAVING NOBODIES 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 ________________________________________ Intro. This morning I want to share the Scripture passage that had a major impact upon my life. When I was about 17 years old, I began to sense that God was calling me to preach the gospel. But in my mind I had a major problem, for I could not speak without stuttering, especially when speaking in public. You think YOU have a fear of public speaking, imagine MY fear! Getting up in class to give a report just terrified me! Some of my classmates would make fun of my stuttering. So I just dismissed the thoughts about becoming a preacher from my mind. Surely, I thought, I was just misunderstanding God's call. But the call and the impression about preaching did not go away. For months I struggled with God's will for my life. Finally, I went to a young preacher friend of mine and talked with him about it. After a while he thought of a sermon that he had on tape. He pulled it out for me to hear. It was by Dr. Adrian Rogers, based on this passage of Scripture. As I listened to that message, I finally understood why God wanted ME to preach. Looking at myself from the viewpoint of the world's wisdom, I could not understand why God wanted me to preach. Surely God would only choose someone who had great speaking ability; someone outgoing and popular. But when I heard the message of this text of Scripture, it was as if a light came on in my mind. I understood, from the viewpoint of God's wisdom, why He wanted ME to preach. And I am going to share with you this morning what I learned. What about you? Do you sometimes feel so lacking in what you need in life? You try to live right, and so often you mess up. You try to succeed in various endeavors, and so often you fail? Is your self-esteem about this big [show on fingers]. Then this message is for you. Or am I speaking to some here today who have the opposite situation. You're smart, strong, and capable? Perhaps you come from a prestigious family. To be honest, you are proud of your accomplishments and heritage, and you tend to look down on others. Well, this message is for you as well. This morning we are going to look into this text of Scripture and see God's wise plan for ordinary people. I want to show you how you can find wisdom, strength, and all the resources you need to face the challenges of life. Then we will also see God's wise plan for extraordinary people. So first of all, let's see from our text: I. GOD'S WISE PLAN FOR ORDINARY PEOPLE Most of us fall into this category. Paul says in v.26, "For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called." Note that Paul modifies the word "wise" with the words, "according to the flesh." In other words, he is talking about wise men according to human standards. This would refer to philosophers, the highly intelligent, and the well educated. The strong would include military leaders and great athletes. The noble, or well-born refers to the aristocracy of birth. Most of us would not fall into these categories. The reality is, very few Christians are among the intellectual, strong, and well-born of society. I'm sure that is true of our church as well. Do you see anybody here this morning of international fame? Do you see someone that if they died tonight, that there would be a big picture of them on the front page of all the newspapers? We may not have anyone that would make the front page of our local paper! In the world's eyes, few of us count for much. Yet in God's eyes, we are very special to Him. And we are in good company. After all, His disciples were common, ordinary people. Now based on vv. 26-28, I want to share with you 4 truths about ordinary people: A. God Delights in Choosing Ordinary People -In vv. 27-28 Paul says, "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are." This fact has always been characteristic of Christianity. Christianity has always been most successful when it has spread among the common people. Notice in particular whom God delights in choosing. He chooses those whom the so-called wise of this world calls foolish. Jesus prayed on one occasion, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes" (Mt. 11:25). The intellectual elite of Israel did not receive Jesus, but the common people did, and God saved them. Notice also that God chooses the weak of this world. Most of us are weak in comparison to the strong and mighty. And finally, he chooses those of common birth. When Paul says that God chooses "the base things of the world." The word "base" (_eckfs) literally means "of no birth," or of low birth. It is opposite of the word translated "noble" (creckfs), literally meaning "well born." They have no social standing. This would include people born on the other side of the tracks, so to speak. In v.28b such people "are despised." Oh, how the elite of this world often despise certain people. They look down noses on them with disdain. Well, whom the world rejects, God often chooses. Matthew, the tax collector, was despised by his fellow Jews, but Christ chose him to be one of His 12 apostles! In v.28c Paul even adds, "the things that are not." This is one of the most contemptible expressions in the Greek language. These are the people who are reckoned as nothing; the nobodies of the world. The phrase may have been used of slaves, who were regarded as nothing more than property. In fact, from this text and other evidence, we know that many of the Corinthian Christians were slaves. Some of you probably have had the painful experience of feeling like a nobody. Have you ever been in a crowd of people, and it's like no one even knows you're there? And do you know what really bad? It's when you stand around waiting on a salesman to help you, and he walks right past you, not even noticing you? Now you may feel that you are a nobody, but you are special to God. Does vv. 27-28 describe you? You're not among the intellectual elite. You're not strong and capable. You were not born into an aristocratic family. Well I have good news. You're the type of person that God chooses the most! I also want to challenge you not to overlook the type people mentioned in vv.27-28 in our outreach efforts. These are the very people God can often use the most. So God delights in choosing ordinary people. Secondly, though you are lacking: B. God Will Provide What You Need for Salvation -The world assumes that salvation should be by your good works, or bestowed upon certain people groups of noble standing. Some feel they are too sinful, and too far from God to be saved. But I want you to know that salvation is not by human birth but by the new birth. Salvation is not by your goodness, but by God's grace. It is not by character, but by Christ. John 1:13 says that we are born again, "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." V.30 tells us of God's way of salvation, "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from Godand righteousness and sanctification and redemption." The main emphasis is on "of him" [by position in Greek]. He is the source of everything that we need. The spiritual blessings that we need are not abstractions that elude our grasp; they are all in a Person, Jesus Christ. The Corinthians were saved and transformed wholly by the work of God. Eph. 2:8 says that salvation is "not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." Furthermore, Paul says here that we are "in Christ" because of the work of God. We are saved by being in union with Christ. When that happens, the exchanged life begins. We exchange our sin, ungodliness, and inadequacies for the divinely bestowed aspects of salvation mentioned in v.30. First, we can gain: 1. His Righteousness Man can draw near to the holy God only if he himself is holy and righteous. Righteousness has to do with our standing before God. By union with Christ we are justified: His righteous becomes our righteousness. You see, we lack righteousness on our own. Isa. 64:6 says, "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags." But Christ becomes for us the righteousness which otherwise we do not possess. When God sees us in Jesus Christ, He no longer sees our sins. He sees the righteousness of Christ imputed to us (cf. Rom. 4:5). 2 Cor. 5:21 says, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." When you trust Christ as Savior, you exchange your sin for His righteousness. Pretty good deal! And now when God looks at you and God looks at me, He doesn't see all of our sins. He sees that we are covered with the robe of righteousness provided by Jesus Christ! Indeed, Christ has become our righteousness. Not only will God provide righteousness, but also: His Work of Sanctification -This also is mentioned in v.30 (HAGIASMOS). God's work of salvation is not just in forgiving our sins and getting us to heaven. God wants us to become morally pure. Heb. 12:14 says, "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." But we lack holiness on our own. In fact, you can't live the Christian life on your own. Sin is too strong, and you are too weak. And when you admit that you are too weak, then you are ready to receive the sanctifying work of Christ. By the Word of God and by the sanctifying influence of the Spirit of God, we can become the Christians God wants us to be. As we mature spiritually the frequency of sin decreases. The righteousness we have in Christ by position becomes more and more ours by experience. Redemption This word (APOLUTROSIS) refers to setting somone free by paying a ransom. God by Christ has purchased us from the penalty & power of sin. We are freed from being slaves to sinful desire (Tit.3:3). I believe the word also refers to our final redemption (Luke 21:28; Rom. 8:23; Eph. 1:14). Nothing less than this entire blessedness of our state of salvation is made ours in Christ Jesus. It embraces earth and heaven, time and eternity. So, in one sense, we have the three tenses of salvation given here: we have been saved from the penalty of sin (righteousness); we are being saved from the power of sin (sanctification); and we shall be saved from the presence of sin (redemption). And every believer has all of these blessings in Jesus Christ! What do you need today? Do you need forgiveness? You will find it in Jesus. Do you need strength to overcome temptation and sin? You will find it in Jesus. Salvation is of the Lord, and not a work of man. Some of you need to turn to Jesus, and receive the salvation He is offering. Will you do it today? So God delights in choosing ordinary people. He provides what we need for salvation. Thirdly: C. God Will Provide What You Need for Service I believe this is implied primarily from v.27. We have learned recently that one of God's 5 purposes for your life is to serve Him. Now if God chooses the foolish, the weak, the nobodies of this world, how is He going to get anything done? Have you heard someone say, "It's hard to soar with eagles when you work with turkeys." Well listen, God can make up for any deficiency that you feel you have. Do you lack wisdom? Notice in v.30 that Christ "became for us wisdom from God...." The moment we are saved our minds are enlightened to the wisdom of God. Then, day by day our minds are renewed, as Rom. 12:2 says. In Eph. 1:17 Paul prayed that we would be given by God "a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him". And so, though God calls the ignorant, it is not His will for us to stay ignorant, but to filled us with true wisdom and understanding. That should be an encouragement to some of us. James 1:5 says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally...." It is interesting how God has so often used those who were foolish in the world's eyes. In Acts 4:13 we read that the disciples were considered "unlearned and ignorant men." And yet God used those disciples to change the course of human history. They were used of God to help write the best selling book of all time, the Bible. The great preacher of the 19th century, D.L. Moody, was a man who murdered the King's English and had few educational advantages. Yet he was used mightily by God. Hundreds of thousands were won to Christ through his ministry, and a great church and a great Bible college were founded by him. And so if you do not feel you are talented enough, and smart enough to be used of God, think again. Look to Jesus to give you the wisdom you need. Do you need strength for service? Then God will bestow the strength you need. Isa. 40:29, 31 says, "He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength.... those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint." So when God chooses the weak, He knows that their weakness is no liability, if they will only believe in His promise to give strength. Someone said, "The task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us." It is interesting how God has so often used those who were weak in the world's eyes. Speaking of some of the saints of the OT, Heb. 11:34 says some, "...out of weakness were made strong." One of the greatest examples of this is the story of David and Goliath. When the Philistines selected a man to fight in a one on one battle against any man from Israel, they chose a giant, Goliath. He was over 9 feet tall. Israel kept looking for a man mighty enough to face the giant, but couldn't find one. But God sent out a young teenage shepherd boy who believed that God was bigger than the giant. And with a complete confidence in God, he slew the giant. Weakness and insufficiency are the climate in which God's strength is made manifest. In 2 Cor. 12:9 the Lord said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness...." Now how is that? When we recognize our weakness, then we are in a better position to trust in God to supply the strength we need. Now listen, God doesn't want you to serve Him in your weakness or ignorance. Some dear soul says, "Well, I'm going to serve God in my little 'ol way." Don't do that! Serve God in His strength. Don't minimize God's potential in your life. God can do amazing things with our lives if we let Him. If you pray and trust God, He can exchange your weakness and fill you with His strength. He can take your ignorance away and fill you with His wisdom. Do you feel like you are a nobody and God can't use you? Well think again. When you become a Christian, you are born again, and you are now of noble birth! You are a child of the King. You're not a nobody. You're a somebody! It's amazing how God will repeatedly take someone from lowly circumstances and use him. For instance, God wanted to use Gideon to gain victory over the enemies of Israel. Gideon wasn't of noble birth, but of low birth. And yet He addressed Gideon as a mighty man of valor. Gideon must have looked around and said, "Who, me?" Then he said, "O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house" (Judges 6:15). But God said, "Surely I will be with you." With just 300 men and a wise plan from God, God used Gideon to defeat an entire Midianite army of tens of thousands. Dear Christian, God often chooses the foolish, the weak, and the nobodies of this world. But He wants to exchange your foolishness with His wisdom. He wants to exchange your weakness for His strength. He wants you to understand that you are no longer a nobody, but you are a somebody. He wants you to say with the apostle Paul, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13). You can serve God in a mighty way if you will only trust Him. And that leads to my 4th thought about ordinary people: D. God Wants to Use You to Confound Those Who Rely on Human Resources -I believe that God has made this very clear in vv.27-28, "But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are." Job 12:21 says of God, "He pours contempt on princes, and disarms the mighty." There is a most beneficial purpose that God should expose them in their vanity and non-value lest men go on relying upon them to their everlasting disappointment and loss. As long as you are trusting in your goodness, or your family connections, or your church membership, you will not be saved. Now this leads to the second group of people I want to address this morning. I have been talking about God's plan for ordinary people. Next, let's see from our text: II. GOD'S WISE PLAN FOR EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE Now when Paul says in v.26, "For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called," he did not say, "not any." The Corinthian church had some described in v.26, and thank God for them. Lady Hamilton, who was a beautiful Christian, was born of royal blood. She said she was saved by an "M." She said if Paul had said not "any," she would have been excluded, for she was born of nobility. Well what is God's plan for such people? He certainly loves them, and He wants to save them as well. A. Recognize the Spiritual Problem You Must Overcome -We might want to see the successful, the talented, the good looking, and the intelligent come to Christ and join our church, but the fact is, they are often difficult to reach. One main reason most of the world's great and prominent people do not become true Christians is because of their own self-sufficiency. You see, the first step to becoming a Christian is a sense of need. You will never be saved as long as you are self-sufficient. Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Mt. 5:3). Until you see your own spiritual poverty, you cannot be blessed of God. But so often, the intelligent man believes that he is too smart to believe the simple gospel. The moral man believes that his morality is enough. The wealthy tend to trust in their wealth, not God. All too often, great influence and great strength keep people from admitting their need of God. In the days of John the Baptist, many Jews were trusting in their birth. They thought that just because they were Jews, they were automatically God's children. But John the Baptist boldly preached in Mt. 3:9, "and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones." I was born into a 5th generation Christian family, but I still needed to repent of my sin and be saved. And this leads to my next point: B. Cast Off All Confidence in the Flesh Paul said in Phil. 3:3, "For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Paul refused to put his confidence in the privilege of being born into the Jewish nation. He placed no confidence in his circumcision. He gloried (KAUCHAOMAI) only in Jesus Christ! C. Rely Wholly Upon God for both Salvation & Christian Service Good genes and a good family upbringing can provide you with many advantages. You will tend to be more moral, and more obedient. But your goodness cannot save you. Titus 3:5 says, "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit." Furthermore, you must rely wholly upon God to enable you to serve Him effectively. For if the strong, the capable, and the talented only trust in your own strength and abilities, then that is all you will have. God will not be involved. You leave God out of the equation. Listen, your human wisdom may be great, but God's wisdom is far greater. Your human strength may be great, but God's strength is far greater. Now please do not misunderstand me here. We have some talented people in this church. I'm not saying that God doesn't want to use your talent and abilities. He does. We learned that during our 40 days of Purpose. But what I AM saying is, don't serve God ONLY with your natural abilities. You must still trust Him to elevate those natural abilities into supernatural blessings. III. GOD'S ULTIMATE PURPOSE FOR ALL PEOPLE This is stated in our text both negatively and positively. First of all: A. Negatively: Don't Boast in Yourself God's plan of choosing the nobodies of this world is found in v.29, "that no flesh should glory in His presence." Here in this world men strut in high honor, but this strutting is all a hollow show, about to burst like a bubble. As we shall see later, the Corinthians had a tendency to be "puffed up" with pride (1 Cor. 4:6, 18-19; 5:2). The lost world admires birth, social status, financial success, achievement, power, and recognition. But God is not impressed with such things. In Judges 7:2 He explained why He wanted Gideon and such a small army to bring deliverance, "lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me.'" No flesh really has anything in which to glory; it only thinks it has. As Paul later said in 4:7, we have nothing that we have not first received. Are you boasting of your degrees, wealth, power, position, or talent? Then God can't use you because the glory for it all is being misdirected. Although IN CHRIST we can become wise, righteousness, and strong, we have no grounds for pride or boasting, because we did not deserve, earn, or produce any of this. If God has given me any ability to preach and teach, I know that I can't brag, for my ability is of God. All that we have comes from God! Rom. 3:27 says, "Where is boasting then? It is excluded...." Listen, the next time you get a little prideful and puffed up, you need to remember this text of Scripture. Paul reminds these believers in vv. 26-28 of who they were BEFORE they were saved. Don't ever forget who you were before Christ saved you. Furthermore, you can't boast about your salvation. You can't say, "I was so smart that I wrote down all the different arguments about God and examined all the religions in the world, and I came out on the side of God and Jesus Christ." Salvation must be wholly of grace; otherwise, God cannot get the glory. The Gospel of God's grace leaves no room for personal boasting. In fact, Paul said in Eph. 2:8-9 that salvation is by grace, "lest any man should boast." So you can't say, "I worked hard to earn my way to heaven." The only way you and I get to heaven is through the cross of Jesus Christ, the call of God, and by simple childlike faith. So I call upon you to heed to frequent appeal of Scripture, and walk humbly before the Lord your God. B. Positively: Only Brag about God Paul reaches a climax in v.31. He concludes by saying "as it is written, 'He who glories, let him glory in the LORD.'" Paul's final conclusion is inevitable. If there is any boasting, it must be in praising the Lord, who alone was able to provide wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. In this text Paul quotes in abbreviated form Jer. 9:23-24, "Thus says the LORD: 'Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me...." When God takes a weak person and fills him with His power, the glory of His power is manifest, and HE is to be praised. When God took a nobody and used him to conquer the giant, the Israelites gave the glory to God. All the praise goes to God, for every good and perfect gift comes from God (James 1:17). Later on this epistle Paul said, "I am what I am by the grace of God" (15:10). And so, we must say with Paul, "May it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal. 6:14). If you are going to brag, be sure to brag on Jesus! When you get up and give your testimony, I hope you brag on what God has done in you, rather than what YOU have done for God. A converted Hindu once said to his countrymen, "I am by birth of an insignificant and contemptible caste, so low that if a Brahman should touch me he must go and bathe in the Ganges River for purification. And yet, God was pleased to save me, and even call me to the high office of teaching the gospel to others. Do you know the reason for God's conduct? It is this: If God had selected one of you learned Brahmans and made you the preacher, when you were successful in making converts, by-standers would have said it was the amazing learning of the Brahman and his great weight of character that were the cause; but now, when anyone is convinced by my instrumentality, no one thinks of ascribing any praise to me; and God, as is His due, has all the glory." Yes, and when God uses me to preach the gospel, and when people are saved, and when the church grows, I take no credit for myself. In my own flesh I cannot even speak. All the glory goes to God. And when God uses you to do something for Him, be careful to give all the glory to God. Conclusion: God has a wonderful plan for your life. He wants to help you do things for Him that you never thought possible. You may start teaching a SS class. You may get up and sing a solo, or give a testimony, trusting in God to help you. For the first time you may become a soul winner, witnessing for Jesus, and leading others to Christ. Your life can make an eternal difference in the lives of others. So whether you are humanly smart, or not so smart, strong or weak, rich or poor, talented or not so talented, God can enable you to effectively serve Him, if you will only rely wholly upon Him, and if you will give the glory to Him. Rise up, oh church. As the great William Carey said, "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God." There are probably some here today who have not yet received God's gift of salvation. You can exchange your sin for His righteousness and holiness. You can exchange bondage to sin to freedom from the power of sin. You can exchange hell for heaven. Look to Jesus. Salvation is not by your goodness or righteousness or good works, but salvation is all from God. Trust in today! ________ Sources: C.K. Barrett, THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS (New York: Harper & Row, 1968). Oliver B. Greene, THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS (Greenville: The Gospel Hour, Inc., 1965). R. C. H. Lenski, THE INTERPRETATION OF ST. PAUL'S FIRST AND SECOND EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1937). John F. MacArthur, Jr., THE MACARTHUR NEW TESTAMENT COMMENTARY: 1 CORINTHIANS (Chicago: Moody Press, 1984). J. Vernon McGee, THRU THE BIBLE, Vol. 5 (Pasadena: Thru The Bible Radio, 1983). Paige Patterson, THE TROUBLED TRIUMPHANT CHURCH: AN EXPOSITION OF FIRST CORINTHIANS (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983). Larry Pierce, ONLINE BIBLE [CD-ROM] (Ontario: Timnathserah Inc., 1996). Jerry Vines, GOD SPEAKS TODAY: A STUDY OF I CORINTHIANS (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979). Warren W. Wiersbe, BE WISE: I CORINTHIANS (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1983). Dr. Ed Young (notes from his sermon on 1:26-2:5 dated 11/10/85). Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1982). Does He Want To Use Me? Read: 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. --1 Corinthians 1:27 The work of God is not done by great people but by ordinary people who are committed to Him. We may say to God, "I am nothing. I have no gifts. I often fail miserably. Do You really want to use me?" The answer to that question is found in God's Word. He used the hesitant, inarticulate Moses to lead Israel to freedom (Ex. 3:13; 4:10). He used men of the herds and flocks, as well as fishermen and farmers to accomplish His work and record His words. A simple carpenter and a peasant girl raised His Son. That's still the way God works. Although we have "mega-methods," mass media, and superchurches, it is ordinary people who do God's extraordinary work. A grandmother prays faithfully for her 14 grandchildren and talks to each one about trusting Christ. A clerical worker witnesses to everyone in his office. A Christian takes a meal to her unbelieving neighbors when their baby is hospitalized and assures them of her prayers. When we ask, "Does God really want to use me?" the answer is clear. God chooses "the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty" (1 Cor. 1:27). God has been using ordinary people like you and me for thousands of years. Why would He stop now? --DCE Though oft our spirits long to rise And bask in heavenly realms above, The Lord has placed us here on earth To live for Him--to serve, to love. --DJD Wanted: Ordinary people to do extraordinary work. In the Dec. 11 edition of his Turning Point Daily Devotional, David Jeremiah writes: "A gospel group called The Williams Brothers had a hit with their song, 'I'm Just a Nobody.' It was about a down-and-out man who lived on the streets and spent his days telling people about Jesus. He was laughed at and harassed by passersby, but that didn't stop him. The chorus of the song was his life message: 'I'm just a nobody trying to tell everybody about Somebody who can save anybody.' "The shepherds in the fields outside Bethlehem might have felt the same way when the angels from heaven appeared to them: 'Why did God choose us, a bunch of nobodies, to be the first to hear of the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem?' They were just a bunch of nobodies who probably later told everybody about the Somebody in Bethlehem who could save anybody. Why did God reveal Himself to shepherds instead of to important royal officials? Perhaps to signal the kind of king who was coming into the world: gentle and humble, a servant-Shepherd who came to tend to God's flock. "If you sometimes feel like a nobody, rejoice! God seems to gravitate to the nobodies of this world when He wants them to meet Somebody who can save everybody" ________ www.davidjeremiah.org Bessie Shipp was spending Christmas in jail. A slender black woman, Bessie was watching her life slip rapidly away. Though she had not been sentenced to death by the state, she was under a different death sentence: Bessie had AIDS. [This happened in 1985, eleven years before the highly effective HAART treatment was introduced for AIDS.] I met Bessie that Christmas Day in a North Carolina prison for women. I had come to give a Christmas message to the inmates there. The atmosphere was glum. The small crowd that gathered to hear me preach was somber and subdued. After the service, a prison official said, "Do you have time to visit Bessie Shipp?" "Who's Bessie Shipp?" I asked. When they told me, I confess, I was taken aback. This was several years ago, and I had never visited an AIDS patient. And yet, just the night before, I had seen a television story about Mother Teresa and the AIDS patients she was caring for. How could I do anything less? "I'll go," I said. We walked down a narrow corridor, and a heavy door was opened to reveal a small, dark cell. There, sitting in a hard-backed chair was this tiny woman, wrapped in a bathrobe, shivering in the cold. To my surprise, I saw a Bible on her lap. After chatting a few minutes, I came right to the point. "Bessie," I said, "Do you know the Lord?" "I want to," she replied softly. "But I don't always feel like He's there." And her voice trailed off. "Would you like to pray with me to know Christ as your Savior?" I asked. Bessie looked down, twisted a Kleenex in her thin hands, and finally whispered, "Yes, I would." So we prayed together in that cold, concrete cell. And Bessie made a decision that would change the rest of her short life: She gave it to Jesus Christ. Only days later Bessie was paroled. Friends and prison officials had been trying to get her released for a long time. But the timing was providential. She stayed long enough to meet Christ, and then she went to her home as a new Christian. A short three weeks after her release, Bessie contracted pneumonia and had to be hospitalized. A Prison Fellowship area director visited her and found her spirit strong to the end. "These are the happiest days of my life," she whispered. "Because now I know Jesus loves me, and you all love me, too. I'm in the Lord's hands." Two days later Bessie died. She went to meet the Savior she had accepted only a short time before, on Christmas Day, in a cold prison cell. When Jesus came to earth, He wasn't born in a grand palace. He was born in a dirty stable that reeked of animals, with mice scurrying underfoot. And Jesus still comes to us wherever we are. Not only to warm, well-lit homes, but also to run-down tenement buildings and gray prison cells. So wherever you are, why don't you ask Him to come to you? And He will do it. Just like He came to a young woman dying of AIDS in a North Carolina prison one cold Christmas Day. ________ (This commentary originally aired December 25, 1995) Copyright (c) 2014 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries. Just as Jesus came to a stinking stable, Jesus still comes to people's stinky lives to give them life The Foolishness of God I Corinthians 1:18-25 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous 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 man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. (I Corinthians 1:18-25) In my text there is one word that occurs five times in several different forms. You can hardly miss it when you read the text, but I want to highlight that word so you can see it clearly: v. 18 "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." v. 20 "Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" v. 21 "For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe." v. 23 "But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles." v. 25 "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." It will help you to know the basic Greek word is moria. In verse 25 it appears as an adjective-moros. We get the English word "moron" from this Greek word. It has the idea of something that is ridiculous, ignorant, stupid, contemptible. The American Heritage dictionary says that the word "moron" is considered offensive. If someone were to say, "You moron!" we would be insulted, and properly so. But that is the very word that Paul uses here-and not just once, but five times. It is the way he uses it that catches our attention. First, he says that those who are lost consider the message of the cross as foolishness. It is "moronic" to them. They do not understand it; it makes no sense that a Savior should die for them. Second, he says that God has turned the wisdom of the world into foolishness through the cross of Christ. He turned the tables upside down and shows the intellectuals that they weren't so smart after all. Third, God was pleased to save anyone who believes in Jesus through the foolishness of the preaching of the gospel. When the "moronic" message of the gospel is preached, the world laughs at it, but God saves those who believe it. Fourth, in all of this God's power is displayed through what men consider weakness, and the "foolishness of God" turns out to be smarter than the wisdom of this world. In his sermon on this text, William Willimon, Dean of the Chapel at Duke University, makes a striking observation: "One of the dangers of being in church as often as I am is that it all starts to make sense." He's right, of course. If you come to church long enough, if you sing the hymns and pray the prayers, and if you listen to enough sermons, you start thinking to yourself, "This stuff really makes sense." And eventually we forget how radical the message of the gospel really is. That's Paul's point in this passage. Flat-Out Brilliant The gospel is radical. It's out of this world. It's contrary to the wisdom of this age. In fact, Paul flatly says that "the world through its wisdom did not know him" (v. 21). That statement by itself is very powerful. The people of the world are very smart in their own way. We all know people who are extremely intelligent. That is, we all know someone (probably more than one person) who strikes us as flat-out brilliant. There are people all around us with incredible intellectual powers that leave us in awe. From time to time, I meet people who know so much and who operate at such a high level that I can do nothing but stand back and admire them. And these people have a true "wisdom" about them. That is, they possess true expertise in a given area of life and they have truly "mastered" that subject matter. So there are smart people all around us. That's just a fact. And the world in all its wisdom can do great things. It can dream, design, create, build, produce, improve, engineer and reengineer. We're a generation of technological geniuses. We can do things with computers that our grandparents never dreamed of. We can split an atom, and we can peer inside the deepest recesses of the human body to discover a renegade cancer cell. We can listen to radio waves from the edge of the universe. We can take the entire text of the encyclopedia and shrink it to fit on a computer chip so small the eye can hardly see it. I can sit at my desk, type on my keyboard, hit the "Send" button, and my e-mail will arrive seconds from now in Jos, Nigeria or in Singapore or in a New Tribes Mission jungle camp in Irian Jaya. Exactly how that happens I could not say. But it does, and it is so commonplace that I long ago ceased being amazed by it. E-mail is just a routine daily miracle of modern life. The wisdom of the world is great in its own way. Terror at Maxim Restaurant But that is only part of the story. Our great knowledge can easily be put to evil uses. Terrorists use the same e-mail system to alert each other that the time has come to strike again. Yesterday a female suicide bomber blew herself up at the Maxim Restaurant in the Israeli port city of Haifa. The bomber was a 23-year-old law student. Concealing the explosives under her clothes, she talked her way past security, entered the restaurant, and then detonated the explosives. At least 19 people died, including the young woman. The victims were literally blown apart. In a supreme irony, the restaurant was a symbol of Arab-Jewish cooperation. For four decades it has been owned by two families-one Arab, one Jewish. The grandson of one of the founders said, "We never thought that this would happen to us." But it did, and it is not an isolated incident. After 9/11, it's hard to say what would surprise us anymore. Exactly what would qualify as "unthinkable" these days? We are intellectual giants and moral pygmies. The world through its wisdom does not know God. That's what Paul says. But he adds an important phrase that we might overlook. "For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe" (v. 21). Let's break this down into a series of simple statements: 1) The world cannot know God through its own wisdom. 2) God set it up this way to demonstrate the wisdom of his own plan. 3) The world considers the preaching of the gospel to be foolishness. 4) But God saves sinners through what the world considers foolishness. 5) The best thing we can do for the world is to preach the gospel. 6) Those who believe the gospel will be saved. 7) But we shouldn't expect the world to be happy with us. The Scandal of the Cross This is what Paul plainly says in verse 23: "But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles." The Jews "stumbled" at the cross because most of them were looking for a political leader who would deliver them from the heel of the Roman Empire. They simply could not imagine a crucified Messiah. It is difficult for us to understand what crucifixion meant to the Jews. We've sanitized the cross and domesticated it. We gold-plate it and wear it around our necks. We put it on earrings and on our stationery. We hang ornate crosses in our sanctuaries and on our steeples. We build churches in the shape of the cross. All of this would have been unthinkable in the first century. So terrible was crucifixion that the word was not even spoken in polite company. If we want a modern counterpart, we should hang a picture of a gas chamber at Auschwitz in front of our sanctuary. Or put a noose there. Or an electric chair with a man dying in agony-his face covered, smoke coming from his head. The very thought sickens us. But that's what the cross meant for Jesus. And that is why the Jews were scandalized by the cross. They could not conceive of a God who would allow his Son to die that way. The Greeks were another matter. They didn't practice crucifixion so they didn't have the problems that the Jews did. They looked to philosophy as the answer to the deepest problems of life. The notion of a man hanging on a cross to save the world was utter nonsense to them. How the Cross Offends Erwin Lutzer points out that the cross offends modern men and women in three ways. First, it offends our pride. The cross was and is a sign of weakness in the eyes of many people because it was a method for executing criminals. Only the worst of the worst, the dregs of society, so to speak, or the worst enemies of the state, were crucified. And we are called to follow a man who died on a cross! The thought is revolting. Yet that is exactly what God asks us to do, which in the mind of some people is like being asked to follow a loser. Second, it offends our wisdom. The cross spells an end to salvation by education, as if we could gain merit with God by sharpening our intellect so that we can answer the cosmic questions. This offends certain people who prefer to believe that the problem today is not sin, but ignorance. But they are wrong. Education is good and necessary, but it can never open the door of heaven. God purposely made the way of salvation simple so that even young children could believe it. Third, the cross offends our values. It extends an equal invitation to the powerful and to the weak, it welcomes the flight attendant and the aborigine, it transforms the drug addict and the debutante. Everyone is invited into God's family on exactly the same basis. There are no favorites and no special deals for those with money or power or worldly position. Those things that matter so much to us simply don't matter to God. This is a shocking affront to the way the world does business, but it is also the way of the cross. After 2,000 years the cross still sparks controversy and opposition because it points to a truth that many people do not want to hear. This is what Paul means in verse 25 when he speaks of the "foolishness of God." Christians worship a God who died on a cross. How can this be? When a familiar gospel song speaks of the "old rugged cross, so despised by the world," it is sober truth and not mere sentiment. If we dare to venture beyond the stained glass, we discover that not everyone views the cross of Christ with favor. During a debate between a Muslim and a Christian, the Muslim apologist tried to ridicule the Christian faith by saying that Christians are riding on the back of a crucified man. The Christian gave the proper response: "You're right. We're riding on the back of a crucified man and he is going to take us all the way to heaven." That illustrates a crucial difference in perspective. To the world the cross is a symbol of shame; to those who believe it is a symbol of salvation. Not Peace, But a Sword Jesus spoke of this truth when he declared, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Matthew 10:34). These words shatter the popular notion that Jesus came to make us feel better about ourselves. The exact opposite of that statement would be closer to reality. Jesus is the great divider of humanity. He came to turn a man against his father and a daughter against her mother (Matthew 10:35). As hard as those words sound, they come from the lips of Jesus himself and we dare not ignore them or water them down. The cross judges the world-and every one of us individually-by confronting us with our sin, calling us to repentance, and challenging us to a higher allegiance than anything we have known before. And then to top it off, Jesus calls us to "take up the cross" and follow him. Those who will not do it are not worthy of him (Matthew 10:38). These are strong and even troubling words and most of us will spend a lifetime trying to understand what they mean, but those who choose the way of the cross, though it be filled with pain and difficulty, will save their lives. Those who reject the way of the cross will in the end lose all that they have lived for. Jesus calls us from the cross and he calls us to the cross. Those who will not heed his call will hate him all the more. And they stand condemned by the very cross that would have saved them. Called to Believe According to verse 18, the message of the cross is "the power of God" to those who are being saved. What men call foolishness, God ordains as the instrument of salvation. What men mock, God raises up as the only means of salvation. How do we obtain God's salvation? Verse 24 says it plainly: "But to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." Our passage explains the offer of salvation two ways: Verse 21 says "those who believe." Verse 24 says "those whom God has called." So which is it? Is salvation for those who believe or for those whom God has called? The answer of course is yes. It's both-because both are entirely biblical. Those who believe are those who are called by God. But then the question comes-Does not the Bible say "whoever" believes may be saved? Yes, it does. While hosting a national call-in program, I spoke with a woman from Virginia who asked a good question. She wanted to know how we can know who the "chosen" of God are. My answer was very simple. We can't. Only God knows who the chosen (or the elect) are. Our calling is to preach the gospel to every man and woman on the face of the earth. We are to invite them to trust Christ and be saved. We aren't supposed to worry too much about who is elect and who isn't. God can take care of that himself. Our job is to preach the gospel and trust God to use the gospel to draw many people to faith in Christ. When I preach, I never know how people will respond or who will respond. I'm in sales, not administration. But that's true of all of us. We do the preaching and God does the drawing. When we do our part, God always does his. Imagine the gates of heaven with a sign over it reading, "Whosoever will may come." As you pass through those gates, you look back and the sign reads "Chosen from before the foundation of the world." I think there is good biblical balance in that illustration. We are not called to "reconcile" predestination and free will. Only God can do that. Let us preach the gospel with confidence knowing that anyone who trusts in the Christ who died on the cross and rose from the dead will be saved. God has no other plan of salvation-and he doesn't need one. There is no "Plan B" for those who don't want to be saved by the cross of Christ. If people will not have Jesus, then they won't have salvation either. What does all this mean for us? Let me suggest a few things very briefly. First, we must continue to preach the cross of Christ boldly and aggressively. This is our only message. It is the "Good News" the world needs to hear. So let us go from this place and preach the cross. Go back to your office and preach the cross. Go back to your classroom and preach the cross. Go back to your factory and preach the cross. Go back to your neighborhood and preach the cross. Go back to your apartment building and preach the cross. Go back to your university and preach the cross. If we believe in Jesus at all, then we must preach the cross because it is the only way to heaven. Second, we should not be surprised that as we preach Christ, the world rejects us and our message. This should not discourage us, but it should be a bracing dose of reality. If we're waiting for the world to give us a merit badge for preaching the cross, we're going to wait forever. Third, we should reject any attempts to water down the gospel or to shy away from the message of the cross. We need to tell it like it is, and let the chips fall where they may. Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said it this way: "Remove from Christianity its ability to shock and it is altogether destroyed. It then becomes a tiny superficial thing, capable neither of inflicting deep wounds nor of healing them." Christianity is not reasonable (in the way the world counts reasonableness) and should not be made to sound reasonable. It is revolutionary and radical and that's why the world rejects it. It stands apart from all that the world has to offer. In this life there are many roads a person may travel, but only one that leads to heaven. The road to heaven starts at the cross where Jesus died for you. Just keep walking in the blood-stained path of the crucified Savior and that road will take you safely home at last. The people of the world consider the cross foolishness. They're right. It is the "foolishness of God" that destroys the wisdom of the world. And we are fools in the eyes of the world when we preach the cross. Let's preach it anyway. That's my whole sermon right there. Amen. 4 Comments Do you have any thoughts or questions about this post? If you have a Facebook account, you may comment below: (c) Keep Believing Ministries Permissions and restrictions: You are permitted and encouraged to use and distribute the content on Keep Believing Ministries free of charge. If you choose to publish excerpts from a sermon or article, please provide a link or attribution back to KeepBelieving.com's version of this article. The content of KeepBelieving.com must not be redistributed at a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. If you wish to support Keep Believing Ministries, your prayers and donations are appreciated, and further enable this worldwide ministry to distribute all materials free of charge. The World 1. Self is its Centre. "You... walking according to this world" (Eph. 2: 2). 2. Pleasure is its Pursuit. "Having loved this present world" (2 Tim. 4: 10). 3. Lust is its Food. "Corruption that is in the world" (2 Pet. 1: 4). 4. Applause is its Aim. "The world wondered after the beast" (Rev. 13: 3). 5. Money is its God. "Them that are rich in this world" (1 Tim. 6: 17). 6. Satan is its God. "The God of this world" (2 Cor. 4: 4). s Foolishness? Key Verses: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 1. The Logic of the Cross 1. What is translated as "the preaching" (v. 18) in Greek is ho lógos, the word. That is the same word we find in John 1:1, "In the beginning was the word," etc. Lógos means intelligence and its expression. Thus the first declaration Paul makes is that there is nothing illogical or irrational about either Christ or the cross. 2. We humans recognize that since there are evil people exist, a method must be devised to punish them. The behaviorist system of punishments and rewards is certainly considered an intelligent system, and its practice is acclaimed as part of civilized humanity. It is wise not to let the evil person go unpunished and unchecked, and not to leave the good and benevolent unrewarded. When God does the same thing, why call it foolishness? C. The cross indicates the necessary punishment for man's sins. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15). The cross is the punishment that God planned and demanded for man's sin. D. Why did God choose the cross as a means of man's salvation? 1. Because He had already established the system of sacrificing animals whose blood was sprinkled by the high priest on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. It was an objective sacrifice to satisfy God's justice, that sin may not go unpunished. But this propitiation (hilasmós, 1 John 2:2; 4:10; or hilasteṜ́rion, Rom. 3:25) was an objective provision for pity or mercy. However, the blood of animals could not convert the sinner. Even the high priest himself had to sprinkle animal blood for his own sins (Heb. 5:3). The high priest, through his sacrifice, could not change the sinner to make him a friend of God, because he was a sinner himself. 2. In order to satisfy God's justice it was necessary to have blood shed, for "without shedding of blood is no remission" of sin (Heb. 9:22). But this sacrifice and sprinkling of blood had to be done by the high priest every year on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16:15, 16, 21, 22). 3. It was not the blood of animals, but of the sinless Son of God who became flesh with blood to shed once and for all for our sins, and thus satisfy forever the justice of a Holy God. Because he continued to sin, man could not be reconciled to a Holy God on his own. But the blood of Jesus did more than satisfy God's justice. It takes away man's sin from him. It cleanses the hearts of those who believe (1 John 1:7, 9) and implants in them God's nature or His righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21; 2 Pet. 1:4). Now man, being cleansed and made holy, can be separated not only away from sin but unto a Holy God. This is called atonement or reconciliation, katallageṜ́ in Greek, and it involves a radical change in the sinner (Rom. 5:11; 11:15; 2 Cor. 5:18, 19). The verb "to reconcile," katallássō, occurs in Romans 5:10; 2 Corinthians 5:18-20. We are reconciled to a Holy God by the death of God's sinless Son called the Word (Lógos) who became man so that He could die for us. Romans 5:11 states: ". . . but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." This atonement took place through Christ's death as Romans 5:10 clearly states: ". . . we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son." Both the shedding of His blood when blood and water came forth as His side was pierced (John 19:34) and His death (John 19:30, 33) were represented at the cross. The cross therefore means the shedding of the blood and the death of Christ, and that, Paul declares, is logical and it is worth preaching. It is "the word of the cross." To God it made sense because it was the only perfect sacrifice that could be made the way that He had foreordained to punish sin and to liberate man from sin who, as a changed, saved, and converted person, could then be brought to God. God, the Creator of man, knew that he can never be what God created him to be unless man is in fellowship with Himself. Therefore this plan of salvation through the cross and the ensuing resurrection was the only way whereby this restoration of man could be accomplished. It is logical, not illogical. II. Man's View of the Logic of the Cross Depends on His Condition A. To them who perish it is foolishness. B. To them who are saved, it is the power of God. C. There are only two classes of people-the lost and the saved. It makes absolutely no difference what race or social class one belongs to. III. The Lost-Who Are They? A. To be lost means not to be found where one or someone ought to be. In the three parables of Luke 15, we see a sheep that was lost because it was not in the fold, a coin that was lost because it was not in the owner's purse, and a son who was lost because he was not in his father's house. B. Man was created by God to enjoy a filial relationship with Him, but having created man in His image, God gave him the privilege of choosing. He did not want to create a robot. No one finds satisfaction in the obedience of subjection and slavery, but because one wills to obey. God knew that this kind of willing obedience was the ultimate happiness. Thus God gave man this initial opportunity, but he rejected it. He became lost to God and this intended state of bliss. Man in this state of disobedience and alienation is selfish. He does not consider an attitude or act of altruism as wise. His philosophy is: "Why die for my enemy? He chose to disobey, let him suffer the consequences of his own disobedience. It would be utter foolishness for me to die to rescue him." When, therefore, man in his fallen, selfish state thinks of the cross of Christ which is an entirely unselfish act, he thinks of it as foolishness. C. Who then is lost? 1. All who have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and allowed Him through the shedding of His blood and death on the cross to save them are lost (Acts 4:12). 2. The lost here stand clearly in contrast to the saved ones. If a person is not having fellowship with God as His child, then he is lost. If a person has never received Jesus Christ who died on the cross for his sins, then he is lost (John 1:12). 3. Out of fear a person may perform certain religious acts, but that should never be mistaken as salvation. Salvation is the acceptance of what Christ did for each individual on the cross, not what the individual does to save himself. D. The expression "to them that perish" in Greek is toís apolluménois which is in the present tense, a participial noun. The literal translation is "to them who are losing themselves." 1. God must never be held responsible for one's lost estate. Man is responsible for his own lost condition. 2. God never gives up on a man or woman. He is not put in the position of being hopelessly lost unless he dies without believing, "for it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Heb. 9:27). God holds out open arms for each and every one to return at any moment while he still has breath. IV. In Salvation There Is a Beginning but No Ending A. The expression "unto us which are saved" in Greek is the participial noun toís sōzoménois, to the ones being saved. It is in the present tense meaning that there is a beginning and a continuing salvation. It is He who rescues us and He who keeps us. Salvation is in three tenses, the past: we have been saved from the guilt and penalty of sin (Rom. 5:1-were justified); the present: we are now saved from the power of sin (1 Cor. 15:1, 2); the future: we shall be saved from the presence of sin (Rom. 13:11). When the Lord saves us, He does not abandon us. B. The tense is passive, we are being saved by Him. We don't save ourselves. C. Paul included himself and all other believers who are saved and know they are, "but unto us." We should always be cognizant of our own individual salvation: ". . . for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day" (2 Tim. 1:12), but we must never lose sight that the same salvation is the share of others also. V. There Is Power in the Cross A. The cross is considered a symbol of defeat by those who are lost. It seems to them that Christ died a helpless death on the cross. This is because they have never experienced the power that is in the blood of Christ to cleanse them from all sin (1 John 1:7). B. Once a person experiences this dúnamis, power, he will not only know that the cross is not foolishness, but will not be ashamed of it. He will be proud of it as Paul was (Rom. 1:16). 52 New Testament Sermon Starters - 52 New Testament Sermon Starters - Volume Four. 34