1 Corinthians 2:6-3:23

We’re reading a letter…BIG PICTURE,

A recap:

“Dear Corinthians,

Hi! It’s me, Paul…the APOSTLE. Been thinking of you and the blessings God has given to you, so I thought I’d drop you a line.

I’ve been hearing some things that bug me a bit. I’m getting some reports that you guys aren’t getting along the way you’re supposed to, that you’re dividing into camps and hurting the unity you’re supposed to have as a church. Sound to me like you’ve got some personality cults developing…guys, that just won’t do.

You need to remember, people, that the Christian faith is never supposed to be about charismatic personalities or trendy teachings. It’s always about Jesus, always about his death on the cross and the salvation God gives through him. Some people don’t get it, and some people think it’s crazy talk, but we know differently. We know that in Jesus God displays his power and wisdom in ways mere human minds can’t fully grasp.

In fact, God always seems to work in ways that are contrary to human wisdom, which is why we should never get too caught up with human teachers—the people we might consider wise, in the end, count for nothing next to God’s wisdom. I mean, remember for example where you came from. You didn’t come to God with an amazing resume yourself, so remember that none of us have any reason to feel superior to anyone else. Despite our weaknesses and brokenness we’ve all been shown amazing grace and mercy, and it’s God who deserves the credit for that.

Nobody knows this better than me. That’s why when I first met you I didn’t care if you thought I was eloquent or erudite. I kept my message plain and simple—telling you about Jesus and who we was, and most importantly what he did. Truth be told, I was really scared when I came to you, I felt totally inadequate to the task. But God’s Spirit showed up and did amazing things in my time with you—which is the way it should be, so that you didn’t attribute your salvation to me or anyone else, but to God alone, who should get the credit anyway.”

That’s where we left off last week, with Paul’s first mention by name of the Holy Spirit.

Right at the beginning of chapter 2:

“My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”

I wonder what comes to your mind when you hear the words “demonstration of the Spirit’s power.”

In today’s culture, that can mean a lot of different things.

In America, for example, you can find a lot of folks on Christian TV who claim to be demonstrating the Spirit’s power.

Depending on what channel you’re watching, you can see them:

Handling poisonous snakes and dancing around the pulpit,

Blowing on people, waving their hands and arms over whole crowds of people while yelling at them to “receive the Spirit!”

Calling people forward for healing, and telling you at home that you too can have that same healing for just a small donation to their ministry.

It seems that “demonstrations of the Spirit’s power” have become, in recent years, the place where all sorts of weirdness prevails, and that’s a real shame.

Because it can leave you very jaded and cynical about the movement of God’s Spirit, to the point where you can become suspect of anyone who claims to have seen the Spirit of God at work.

I know because I’ve been there.

There was a time in my own life where I was so put off by my experiences with overly demonstrative expressions of faith …that I just shut down to the idea of God’s Spirit doing hardly anything at all.

That’s not a good place for a Christian to be. That’s not a good place for the church to be.

Because Paul says it right here: a huge part of our experience of faith is rooted in what the Spirit does in our midst.

And it boils down to an important question: how can we, mere humans, mere morals, how can we possible come to understand God without the Spirit’s work?

And the answer is simple: we can’t.

That’s what Paul is saying in our passage for today: that by ourselves we can’t explain the Creator of the universe, no matter how hard we try.

My preacher-hero Peter Marshall said it best over 60 years ago:

“How can my tiny mind prove God? What kind of God could my tiny mind prove?”

What Paul is saying… is that on our own we don’t have what it takes to fully grasp the ways of God.

The ways of God…are a mystery.

“We declare God’s wisdom,” he says in verse 7 of chapter 2, “a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.”

Now I don’t know about you, but here those words, “hidden” and “mystery,” and I start to get a little perturbed.

It’s part of my nature, it’s part of human nature.

We don’t like a mystery, and we don’t like people who hide things from us.

Unsolved mysteries can bring out the worst in us.

[DAVID ESCAPE ROOM]

The escape room community is filled with all kinds of horror stories—people punching holes in the wall, throwing things through TV screens, even threatening violence against the employees simply because they can’t find the next clue.

This from people who paid money for the entertainment of being locked into a room with puzzles.

We don’t like when mysteries stay hidden and unsolved.

The whole idea of something being hidden is that moment of discovery, that moment where what was in darkness comes to light, and we celebrate finding it.

And now here is Paul saying that God has hidden has wisdom from us?

Does that make sense? Or is that cruel?

It would only be cruel if he never provided a way to discover it.

But he has.

And what he has provided for us…is his Spirit.

Verse 10:

“The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.”

The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to the church to help us know him.

“These are the things God has REVEALED to us by his Spirit.”

That word revealed is so key…so important for us as Christians.

When someone who isn’t a Christian asks me what makes Christianity different from other religions, I often respond by saying “Christianity is not a discovered faith. It is a REVEALED faith.”

As Christians we don’t claim that we somehow got it right and every other religion got it wrong.

What we claim is that God has revealed himself to us in the person and work of Jesus.

In Jesus the hidden wisdom of God becomes known.

In Jesus the mystery of God’s ways becomes unveiled.

But here’s the thing—we can’t grasp that apart from the Spirit’s work in our midst.

It is the Spirit who draws us to Christ, it is the Spirit who reveals Christ to us, it is the Spirit who shows us the meaning of the cross, it is the Spirit who leads us to repentance and faith in Jesus, and it is the Spirit who builds us up in that faith as we mature.

And Paul talks about maturity here in chapter 2.

It’s actually one of his favorite words in his letters. Maturity.

And what is maturity for the Christian?

Is it understanding the Bible better than anyone else? Is it praying more? Is it sinning less?

I don’t think Paul is thinking of those things, although they are worth examining to be sure.

Maturity, for Paul, means growing in the knowledge of who Jesus is, it’s growing in intimacy, of knowing the depth of Christ’s love and sacrifice.

He says it so succinctly in Philippians 3: “I want to KNOW Christ.”

That’s maturity for Paul…it’s a maturity of RELATIONSHIP, not experience or knowledge.

And that is what the Spirit of God imparts to us…relationship.

We dare never forget that the Spirit of God is a person, not a thing, the Spirit is God present to us, living in us, teaching us and drawing us closer to Jesus.

Verse 13:

“This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.”

Paul is saying that the real teacher is the Holy Spirit.

Again, drawing us away from any unhealthy attachment to our human teachers.

Paul says the Spirit searches all things, even the very depths of God, and then reveals these things to us.

I hope you’re starting to see a little bit of why this is such an important concept for us to grasp.

Because what Paul is teaching here has profound significance for every aspect of our life and witness as the church.

It shows us what it means to live for Christ, to grow in our faith.

Plain and simple, we cannot grow as Christians without an openness to the Spirit.

Any effort to grow in faith that is rooted in human strength will fail.

Verse 14:

“The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”

We need a robust understanding of the Holy Spirit to discern what God is up to in our midst, to discern the direction he would have us go in our lives and in our churches.

We also need a vibrant, living experiences of the Spirit to fully understand what it means to witness for Christ, to share that faith with those around us.

Because just as our Christian growth is not rooted in our own effort, neither is our Christian witness.

We don’t have it in ourselves to impress someone into the faith, any attempt to do that is already a failure.

I think Paul’s words here make it clear that it is the Spirit’s work to reveal Christ, not ours.

Our role is simply to share how Christ has been revealed to us.

Remember what Paul said in last week’s text:

“My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.”

And friends, there is no greater demonstration of the Spirit’s power than a changed life.

To say to someone, “Let me tell you what a relationship with Jesus has meant for me.”

And then trust the Spirit to draw them, and to reveal Jesus to them.

Because when the Spirit of God is at work among us, and through us…dwelling in us and speaking to us in rich and transformative ways…our thoughts, our understanding, our lives…begin to reflect Jesus himself.

So how does that happen?

How do we cultivate this mind of Christ? How do we open ourselves to the Spirit’s work in a deeper way?

Here’s the beautiful and amazing part…we simply ask.

In the eleventh chapter of the gospel of Luke, right after teaching the Lord’s prayer, we find Jesus saying this:

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

It begins with some self-examination.

We look inward and examine the ways we’re responding to the Spirit in our own lives, looking for those places of openness…but also the places of resistance.

We lay out the question, and then…listen.

Because I believe “Lord show me how to be more open to your Spirit” is one prayer God is always thrilled to answer.

So we’re going to ask for it…

In fact, we’re going to take a wee break from 1 Corinthians to do so, because next Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, a perfect week to focus on how we become Spirit-filled people who God uses to change the world.

Then on the 12th of June we’ll come back to the Corinthians, who I think still have a lot to teach us.

[TRANSITION TO SONG AND PRAYER]