The Church: Gospel Power

Introduction

What is the church?

ekklessia - “Called out ones”

The church, then, is neither a place nor programs, it is not a service on Sunday. Instead, the church is the community of believers who live and worship as those called out from the world.

This is important because when we speak about the foundation of the church we are not referring to the bylaws of Granger MC; we are speaking about the foundation of your faith.

The church is not simply a concept you can take or leave, it is a community with whom you walk.

Sermon in a Sentence:

God chose the opposite of the cultures’ standards to be the very things our faith stands on, so we might have assurance of faith and worship of God.

Few themes / observations:

“Wisdom / Wise”

v 19 - wisdom of the wise

v 20 - one who is wise? wisdom of the world

v 21 - wisdom of God God through wisdom

v 22 - Greeks seek wisdom

v 24 - wisdom of God

v 25 - wiser than men

v 27 - shame the wise

v 30 - wisdom from God

2:1 - lofty speech or wisdom

v 4 - words of wisdom

v 5 - wisdom of men

(We will come back to some of these next week as Paul expands his thought on spiritual wisdom or mind of Christ)

Paradox

“Power of God”

1:18 = salvation

1:24 = Christ

2:5 = validation and foundation of our faith and the church

1 Corinthians 1:17 (ESV)

17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

1 Corinthians 1:18–25 (ESV)

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

“word of the cross” = gospel

Cross was symbol of shame to 1st C.

not like with the sentiment we sing about today:

“And I love that old cross. . . “

“So I'll cherish the old rugged cross. . . “

“will cling to the old rugged cross. . . “

Nobody boasts in their shame (“Look! I got an ‘F’! What do we call that person? DESERVING)

Cross = shame, guilt?, weakness

Cross is viewed in two totally different perspectives by two different groups:

folly / power of God

are perishing / are being saved (gospel divides)

Cross is seen as folly to the perishing, why?

“Not surprisingly, the cross looks like the height of folly to those who are self-absorbed. They reject it because it challenges the cherished value of personal gratification, whose currency is wealth, fame, and power. From a human perspective, God’s ways look foolish and weak, and no more so than in the crucifixion, where God offers salvation to the world by means it loathes and spurns. The world, however, perishes with its worldly wisdom.”

— D. E. Garland, 1 Corinthians

20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Everyone is looking for something that will bring meaning and purpose to life, and they generally chase it down two paths: wisdom and power.

20-21 - the wisdom of the culture doesn’t really work - it doesn’t satisfy

Paul lists three groups of people who would be considered the “expert”

ILLUST - today people are less concerned with the “expert” and more concerned about what really works - where truth and power really lie. (perhaps part of the reason why such animosity re: COVID)

cf 1:19

Paul puts an exclamation point on his argument by citing Isa. 29:14: God destroys the wisdom of the wise.. . Isaiah mocks the failed machinations of the worldly-wise Jerusalem politicians who sought to ensure Israel’s safety. Their clever statecraft came to nought because their alliance with Egypt so alarmed Assyria that it sparked the invasion they sought to avoid.

Garland, D. E. (2003). 1 Corinthians (p. 64). Baker Academic.

22 - Jews - signs (power)

Greeks - wisdom

Orators would frequent cities like Corinth and would practice specific and polished rhetoric in order to convince their hearers.

Paul sees the Corinthians allowing the culture’s pursuit for meaning and purpose leak into the church.

25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

God is not the extreme of what we could do, he is categorically different than all we could ever be.

There two groups following two ways to find two things.

1 Corinthians 1:26–31 (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. (Ha! you weren’t special) 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, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

“Not many” which means some were

This should do two things to you:

Make you humble

you aren’t special.

You can’t save yourself with your own (or culture’s) wisdom or power.

Make you bold

Just because you aren’t special doesn’t mean you can’t be used of God.

God chooses the foolish (Amen!)

God chooses the weak.

You don’t need to be wise and powerful to be used by God — you simply need to be humble and faithful.

So that HE gets the glory.

Pauls says the reason God did this is to point back to God and not to man.

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.

God used what the world called foolish and weak to display ultimate wisdom and ultimate power. This paradox makes it the humanly untouchable foundation of our faith that gives God the glory alone.

A summary:

Everyone is chasing something to bring meaning and purpose to their lives. The culture around us offers us many different options that generally fall along two lines: wisdom or power.

Natural wisdom and natural power do not satisfy - bring meaning and purpose. They last at best for this life.

Paul says we need the wisdom of God and the power of God both of which are found personified in Christ and given to us through the message of the cross — the gospel.

Herein lies a paradox. God chose to use something which the world called “folly” to answer life’s deepest questions, and to use the actions of a man who looked powerless to put into effect a power so profound that literally nothing can stop it.

This message of the cross and the transformational power it bears on our life is validates our faith — personally, and as a church.

You may have believed the message of the cross but do you live a cross-centered life?

(as opposed to a world- me-centered life)

Remember Corinth was in the church.

How is Granger in the church?

Elkhart

Edwardsburg

Mishawaka

South Bend

Cassopolis

What things do your neighbors chase after for meaning and purpose? What wisdom? What power?

Luke 9:23 (ESV)

23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

The application of the gospel is not a one-time event.

The gospel is not a one-time decision, it is a decidedly different life.

Are you a faithful and fruitful believer?

Are you a full-time or part-time Christian?

In what does your faith rest?

Presupposes three questions:

Do you have faith?

Is it at rest?

I’m not asking if you ever doubt.

In what?

In man’s wisdom or God’s power?

family faith

one-time decision

men’s words

“If your Christianity depends upon a pastor’s preaching, then you’re a long way from being where you should be.”

— A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

ILLUST - Ravi Zacharias

Pastor Didden - is my marriage still legal?

Do you boast about your relationship with Christ?

Sounds like sinning

Why don’t we? afraid we may sound foolish?

It is foolish (by world’s standards) but it is the power of God!

Our fear of man will hinder our ability to point to the glory of God.

Surely Paul had on his mind Jeremiah:

Jeremiah 9:23–24 (ESV)

23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”

“Boast” = root for praise - הלל = hallelujah

Boast here means “glory in” “Rejoice in”

ILLUST - Boasting in something I really think everyone should have

Boasting in your wisdom, wealth, or power attempts to bring glory to yourself, but boasting in God puts glory where it belongs. And that’s your purpose.

In the “foolishness” of the cross is the power of God. Interesting that Paul did not focus on the resurrection as the power of God — indeed, it is powerful, but in the cross we see the salvation of our sins.

This is why we celebrate it.