5d The Christian Life Means Repudiating the Myth of Influence

The Unremarkable Evangelists

It’s not merely the facts of Christ’s death and the theological realities of the gospel that the world finds offensive. As Paul explains, sinners are just as likely to be offended by the messengers of God’s truth— what we’ll call the shameful society. He writes,

1 Corinthians 1:26–28 ESV

26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,

Not only do we have a message that is hard to believe, but we also have a message that is delivered by people the world can fins hard to respect. The Lord didn’t put His gospel into the hands of the most famous, the most notable, or even the most well spoken. He didn’t leverage social influencers or pop culture icons to proclaim His truth. He chose us. And that lack of star power and name recognition can be offensive to the world.

Paul delineates just how unimpressive God’s people are in the world’s eyes. He says there are “not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble”— that is, not many intellectuals, not many who wield power and influence, and not many highborn aristocrats. Rather, God has chosen the foolish, weak, base, and despised things of the world. The Lord is pleased to use the nonintellectuals, the unimpressive and insignificant, the unremarkable, and the forgettable to spread His truth. Paul even says He chose “the things that are not”— literally, the nobodies.

Why wouldn’t God use famous people as His spokesmen?

Why wouldn’t He employ royals and monarchs, political heavyweights, or the most popular talking heads and taste-makers to promote His gospel?

Paul tells us in verse 29:

1 Corinthians 1:29 ESV

29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

What does this verse tell us as to why God chose who he chose?

Salvation isn’t accomplished through the force of personality, and the gospel isn’t made more powerful by clever words or a silver tongue. God specifically chose His unremarkable evangelists so that they would never be the explanation for the work of the gospel. He doesn’t want His people to get confused about who is performing the transforming work of salvation in sinners’ lives.

2 Corinthians 4:5–7 ESV

5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

Again, we see that God wants to glorify Himself. There will never be a human explanation for any effective advance of the gospel. There cannot be a human explanation because we are nothing but “jars of clay.” What do you think of when you think about Clay Pots? What are the characteristics of Clay Pots?

Clay pots were cheap, unrefined, breakable, ugly, replaceable, and valueless. We are clay pots. The glory of the gospel is indicated in verse 6 as light shining out of darkness— the light of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ. And we carry this gospel revelation to the world. God has determined to put the glorious message of salvation in a dingy, nondescript pot.

That idea is extended in 2 Timothy 2: 20 where Paul says,

2 Timothy 2:20 ESV

20 Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable.

Gold and silver vessels were those on which food was served— they’re the honorable vessels. On the other hand, clay pots were used to dispose of garbage and excrement. The Apostle Paul is essentially saying, “We have the glory of God in a privy pot.”

Why did Paul use such language? What message was he trying to get us to understand?

Paul understood that messengers of the gospel must never overestimate their importance. From the founding of the church, it was never God’s plan to leverage worldly influence for the work of the gospel. The early preachers of the gospel were not the elite intellectuals of Egypt, Greece, Rome, or even Israel. The greatest scholars of the day were in Egypt, the most distinguished philosophers were in Athens, the powerful were in Rome, and the biblical scholars were in Jerusalem.

Lets think about who Jesus chose to carry his message. What do we know about the disciples?

By comparison, the disciples were painfully ordinary men. Not one was a priest; not one was a scribe; not one was a ruler of a synagogue. Not one was a Pharisee, and none of them had any educational credentials or occupied a position of influence. Up to seven of them may have been fishermen who made their living with their hands. One was a terrorist; another was a tax collector. From the world’s perspective, it was not an impressive group.

But for the true servant of God, the esteem of the world is unimportant. Paul’s priority was preaching Christ, and the progress of His kingdom depended on the Holy Spirit’s implanting the gospel in hearts.

1 Corinthians 4:10–13 ESV

10 We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, 12 and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.

It is a wonder of God’s sovereignty that He uses those that the world views as the scum and the dregs to deliver His gospel of grace. And we can preach His truth with confidence, knowing that no one’s salvation depends on us. We cannot empower anyone to new life. We are just the clay pots who enjoy the immense privilege of a high calling in the household of God.

The Humbling Truth

Finally, Paul identifies one last source of offense that the world cannot tolerate— the shameful sovereignty of the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 1: 30, he writes,

1 Corinthians 1:30 ESV

30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

There’s no room in God’s plan of salvation for man’s effort or merit. It’s not about a decision the sinner makes or a change he initiates. Paul says God’s people are saved “And because of him.” The NASB says “by His doing” alone.

The Lord’s sovereign work of salvation is on display throughout His Word. Paul puts it succinctly in his second letter to the Thessalonians when he writes,

2 Thessalonians 2:13 ESV

13 But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.

He expands on the same reality in his epistle to the Ephesians.

Ephesians 1:3–6 ESV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

But the heart bent by sin and rebellion cannot tolerate a sovereign Savior. Sinners can’t stomach the idea that

Psalm 115:3 ESV

3 Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.

Their false sense of autonomy demands that they have some say in their eternal destiny and that they get some of the credit for “inviting Christ into their lives.” That’s why it’s so easy for people to reject the fundamental truth of the gospel— that

Galatians 2:16 ESV

16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Instead man chooses a false religion of works-righteousness, one that soothes their burning consciences by stroking their egos.

Ultimately, the unrepentant heart will not accept what the Bible says about its lost condition. Sinners refuse to believe that they are truly

Ephesians 2:1 ESV

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

They want to believe there is still some life in the wretched corpse, that they still possess the means to reach out to God whenever they decide to. More than that, they want God to grade all mankind on a curve. Sinners excel at favorably comparing themselves to one another— they can always find a worse, more egregious example to point to, as though the righteous and holy Judge was moved by excuses and exemptions. And when they finally realize that they can’t plead down their sentence, they make a vain attempt for a mistrial by questioning God’s right to judge them in the first place. The Apostle Paul has an answer for that rebellious gripe too:

Romans 9:20 ESV

20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?”

The tragedy is that the eyes blinded by sin cannot see the all-sufficient grace and mercy in God’s sovereign work of salvation.

Ephesians 2:4–12 ESV

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. 11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

The only hope for any sinner is the pride-slaughtering, paradoxical shame of the gospel. He must embrace the shameful stigma of the cross and the ignoble horrors of Christ’s death on his behalf. He must accept the shameful simplicity of the gospel and his inability to reason his way into heaven. He must acknowledge the shameful singularity of the gospel— that there are no other options for the salvation of his soul. He must agree with the gospel’s shameful sentence, acknowledging the dire consequences of his sin. He must embrace the shameful society of the gospel, that they are the lowly and those whom society does not respect. And he must submit to the shameful sovereignty of the gospel, surrendering his self-righteous works and clinging to the Lord Jesus for justification by grace alone through faith alone in Him alone.

Why are sinners irrevocably offended by the gospel? Why aren’t the church’s attempts to accommodate and curry favor with the world leading more people into God’s kingdom? How do we know the myth of influence is really a myth? Paul’s testimony to his own gospel ministry gives us the answer:

1 Corinthians 2:1–5 ESV

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

If we truly want to be instruments God uses to bring sinners to salvation, we must follow the Word of God and pray for the Spirit of God to give repentance, faith, and eternal blessing to those who hear the truth.