The Preaching Of Christ And Him Crucified Is The Power Of God, Christ Brings Us Life!

1 Corinthians 1:18-31, 2:1-5

I have preached from here before, but I have been inspired to draw from this overflowing well again!

The apostle Paul is about to deal with this church at Corinth very harshly! A lot of things were wrong in this church, worship wise, as well as, Christian conduct outside of church gatherings. There was also division in the church.

1. Paul was sent a letter about with questions about certain abuses in the church.

2. This church was struggling with their environment, their were overwhelmed with Greek culture (philosophy), idolatry, immoral behavior, and so on and so forth.

3. Also there was some Jewish folks there trying to pull this church back to the old way! Therefore, there was some that questioned Paul’s authority. It got worse after they received this letter and a “scathing” letter.

a. They questioned Paul’s authority because of his appearance and also because he wasn’t as fancy as others. He wasn’t an eloquent speaker!

So now, let’s read some of the introduction of this letter already in progress, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31........

We have all been invited to come back to God through the Person & Finished Work of Jesus Christ and to those who have accepted that invitation, by believing in Jesus Christ and Him Crucified, this Gospel that is preached is the Power by which we live!

That word “live” has just a mere waking up every morning on this planet, that word means an unending life, a life that is continued after the ending of this earthly shell, and is lived in the presence of God!

John 11:25-26 “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

This is our power!

This “LIFE” also has a power that exists while we are living out this earthly life, it is the Holy Spirit, in which God’s Spirit guides us into the Truth of Jesus Christ, causes us to remember everything about Jesus, convicts us when it is not about Jesus!

This LIFE is unmatched by human effort and IT stands by itself and doesn’t need our help! However, the world tries to figure it out by human reasoning and it cannot be done!

This message, must be believed, instead of human reasoning! The only power of life in this Gospel of Jesus Christ comes by faith!

Verse 21, Paul tells us that the world tried to figure out the Gospel through human reasoning only to come to a point where they knew not God!

They either created their own or preached a different Jesus!

Paul calls the preaching foolishness, because everyone thought that if this Gospel was so powerful and that if Jesus was the mediator if this New Covenant, why did Jesus end it with dying a criminal’s death!

What did that have to do with this powerful life?

They could dig the resurrection, because of the power and the flash! The resurrection is the guarantee for us that believe in eternal life with the Father!

Still, those smart Greek philosophers could not figure out the cross! The Jews were even confused about the cross!

If this was the Son of God and if He was the Messiah prophesied to come, why was He humiliated, beaten, and put to death as a criminal?

It caused the Jews to seek after a sign, something physical that they could, something that was prophesied about many years ago! It was prophesied about and was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, but that did not suit there human reasoning!

The Greeks could not figure out the worship of one Who was treated the way Jesus was, “explain it to me”, they would say, but their ears would consider it foolishness!

It was said that there was a group that mocked Christians because of their worship of Jesus Christ! The mocking was so bad that they drew a picture of a donkey on a cross. They used the other word for donkey in mockery of their worship: “You worship a J--- A—, on a cross, how stupid”

Actually, the word foolishness used here in King James translation, is translated in the Greek: “Moria”, in which we get our word for “moron”! So, this group would say: “what a bunch of morons!”

What is missing from this? Why is the cross such an offense to people? Why is it foolishness to the human understanding?

Sin is the answer to that question! The human psyche “the flesh” does not want to be labeled a sinner nor does not think itself to be sinful!

Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin! John the Baptist came preaching repentance, turning from the sinful fleshly life, turning to Jesus Who takes away the sins of the world!

I believe some of that comes from a shallow understanding of God, His Holiness, His Purity, and His Lordship over all things!

We are not sorry for none of our sins, if we do not truly believe we have sinned against God!

I will say that we are not truly sorry of we do not believe that we all come from a Holy and Pure God!

This understanding has to go beyond human reasoning and believe in the Spiritual, rather than what we can see!

Humans didn’t bring this life, they had no hand in making this message! We believe and then we declare (preach)

As I said this message of the Cross goes beyond human reasoning, so that is why we have verses 26-31....

Not many wise after the flesh, not many strong, not many important,.........This Gospel of Jesus Christ is believed by the humble: Matthew 5:3-6 “3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. 5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”

God chose this Gospel message to come out of the weak and unimportant people! Why? This Gosple message is not about this world! It is about God and His creation and a New Home prepared for us!

This message is a calling out from and into a greater life!

I was just thinking the other day about all the troubles that are present in the world today! My mind carried me away into thoughts on how to counsel? The message that we are going through today was the answer......If I could just get Jesus right, then all the things needed for true life would be in Jesus!

Look at verse 30....... “God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Jesus to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; Christ made us pure and holy, and Jesus the Christ freed us from sin.”

Looking at Jesus and believing past our human understanding, past human effort, relieves the burden from us! Jesus has it and will live within us!

This message is foolishness to folks because they are still in their human understanding, this is why God didn’t choose the sharp, fancy, strong folks to preach the Gospel! All throughout the Bible He chose the weaker, smaller ones to deliver His Word! Why?

So no man can glory (boast) before God! This is God’s doing! if there is True boasting then let us boast in the Lord!

If you continue with me into chapter 2 verses 1-5, you will hear Paul tell this church that he did not come to them with fancy words that would entice them, he just preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified!

Actually, he was with them in weakness! It has been reported by some historians that Paul’s appearance was unimpressive and his speech was not that great either!

One writer wrote, that Paul and the other apostles were “unremarkable”!

That seems to go against the way we want to see this Gospel, we look for the remarkable in the presentation of this Gospel, instead of the remarkable nature of the message of the Cross!

If that is our view then we are seeking this out with human reasoning, with human accomplishment, and there is no of that to be had or found! Only Jesus! Remember back in verse 30....Jesus is our wisdom (we have none), Jesus made us right with God (we have no avenue other than Christ to be made right with God), Following Christ by the Holy Spirit is the power the makes us holy and pure (we are defiled), We have no way of washing ourselves clean from sin.....Jesus did that!

This is not a fancy Gospel, it is a powerful Gospel if human reasoning is removed and this message of the Cross is believed!

As God asked Ezekiel in chapter 37 of his book.....God carried Ezekiel out to a valley of dry bones, bones that had not had any flesh on them in a long while, bones that hadn’t saw life in a long while, God showed this valley to Ezekiel and asked can these dry bones live?

The dry bones represents our dead spiritual condition......He told Ezekiel to prophesy unto this deadness and the deadness will live!!!

As we read, the Word of God caused life to come back to the deadness! It wasn’t any human effort it was the Word of God!

The Lord has spoken it and performed it!

The preaching of the Cross is not foolishness to those who are saved, why? Because we believe and know that Christ and Him crucified has brought us back to life! That is why it is the power of God to us!!!