God's Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit

Introduction: Although the comparisons will be made for many years into the future, Ice Storm 1994 still seemed to be a greater event than the recent ice storm we had this past year. I know the data states that more people lost power this year than in 1994, but 94’s storm seemed more chaotic on this city.

I lived in the country back then so we went almost two weeks without power. But one particular memory that I always return back to is working at Kroger during the aftermath. You can imagine trying to keep a grocery story open during an ice storm was madness. They had cold food crammed into freezers and fridges running on generators. Because keeping the food cold was the greater priority, customers had to navigate the store with flashlights.

My job at that time was to go around and help customers see with a store issued flashlight. It was pure madness trying to shop in the dark. Of course the evil of this world took full advantage of the disaster outside and they used the natural disaster to steal for themselves. I remember one day, in the pitch black, that we suspected a certain woman of stealing. We followed her and watched as she made her way around the store without using a flashlight. The darkness was her cover.

Finally, casting light on her in the meat department, we exposed her shoving chunks of meat into her pants and shirt. Once the light exposed her criminal activity, she took off running, meat and all until she was apprehended by some agile Kroger employees.

This story reminds me of the way in which the Holy Spirit inspired the authors of God word to draw attention to the aspect of the light of the God’s word and the darkness of sin.

Solomon writes

Ecclesiastes 2:13 ESV

13 Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness.

Isaiah 9:2 ESV

2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.

Matthew 4:16 ESV

16 the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.”

Colossians 1:13 (ESV)

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

1 John 2:9 ESV

9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

These verses along with countless more relate the idea that a relationship with God is represented by the light and darkness is the state of sin in which we all live and dwell outside of a relationship with God.

We can say that Paul’s message thus far to the Corinthian church has been a stark contrast of the relationship with God. The contrast is that we are rather fools with the world or we are wise in Christ. There is no middle ground in these ideas.

Today, Paul uses a similar contrast of the contrasting realities of a person’s relationship with God. There exists in the world a contrast of those who have received the message of Christ that has been delivered to them or they have rejected it. Outside of children yet to understand the gospel concepts and unreached peoples who have yet to hear of Christ, we can say that in the percentage of the global community of people who have heard of Jesus, there are clearly recipients and rejectors of Christ.

Paul then makes it clear that those recipients of Christ have received the light of the truth of God’s word while those reject Christ are still living in darkness. Paul will begin the path of making that illustration of light and darkness by referring to the hidden mystery of the gospel message in comparison to that which has been revealed to those who love Christ. In other words, if you are in the light, it is because God has revealed his truth to you and you believed. If you are reject Christ, the truth of God is still a mystery hidden from your eyes.

Paul’s focus of this passage is to help us see how and why a believer in Jesus Christ has received the gospel message by God’s Spirit so that we clearly see and understand the wisdom given to us!

1. Spiritual Realities about God’s Wisdom (vs. 6-10)

A. Reception of God’s Wisdom

Mature Recipients

Paul begins by carrying over from his defense of his preaching to state that his preaching is imparting wisdom to the mature. What does he mean by mature? Is he referring to those mature in the church and if so, is he making classifications of maturity among believers?

Paul’s use of “mature” is a shot at the Corinthian elites would have used that term mature to label themselves. They considered themselves mature because of the wisdom that they possessed. But this maturity was self appointed because their wisdom was man made and therefore they didnt receive it from a higher authority. Calling themselves mature based on their own human wisdom is like giving yourself a promotion at work that hasn't been approved by any higher authority over you. Its simply madness.

Paul’s redefines the term to state that the mature are given wisdom from God and they receive it. He qualifies the wisdom as distinct from the wisdom of this age or the wisdom that belongs to its rulers. Therefore as a believer in Jesus who is called mature, we should not consider ourselves better than anyone else. Instead, we are humbled that somehow in God’s great love and grace, he allowed us to have the light instead of living in the darkness of human sin. Being mature in God’s wisdom is a gift that he imparts alone to His elect when he saves us.

1 Corinthians 2:6–8 ESV

6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

A Mystery Revealed

Paul calls this wisdom from God a mystery and a secret because it baffles the minds of the lost. As we have considered Paul’s argument, the good news of Jesus Christ is a bizarre message to the lost. They cannot see its value nor are they drawn to it.

They cannot appreciate the thread of redemption that is woven throughout the entire story of Genesis to Revelation. They cannot see Jesus promised in Gen 3:15 when God curses Adam and Eve for their sin. They cannot see Noah, Abraham, Moses, David as shadows of the true Messiah, Jesus Christ who has come to this earth. They cannot see the promises of salvation to God’s chosen people as a reoccurring promise of the Scriptures. They cannot see the Promised Land is a more than just a geographical plot for a certain nationality, it is a eternal home for all who believe.

Instead they see a divided and disjointed collection of fables and letters that have no unity in themselves. These in darkness look for holes in the story of the Bible, being critical of its historicity and its REVELATION of God himself. One of the most vocal critics in the last 50 years is Richard Dawkins, celebrity atheists who stated in his book God Delusion,

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal bully.”

Therefore the invaluable price of forgiveness, grace, and a relationship with our Creator through the Lord Jesus is a puzzle that unbelievers will not solve.

1 Corinthians 2:10 ESV

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

But thanks be to God that you and I can see and understand God as more than Mr. Dawkins. God has so allowed us to comprehend and understand the revelation of God’s grace that we might see God as good, just, kind, and gracious in every way.

Paul’s main point in this section of verses is that our capacity to understand the gospel is given to us by God’s Spirit. He reveals to us what was hidden. He exposes to us what was once secret. The power we have to understand comes from the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. He gives us our understanding.

John 14:26 ESV

26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Predestined

God predestined or decreed before the ages began that Jesus, the Son of God, second person of the Trinity, would come to earth, put on human flesh, live a perfect life, teach and display the love and truth of God to the world, he would give his life as a ransom for sin by dying a humiliating death and rising victoriously from the grave. This was the plan of God to bring glory to his name and there is message of God’s wisdom was predestined.

Not only is the plan of redemption through Jesus a work of God’s sovereign faithfulness, but your reception of his great work is an act of his predetermined grace as well. Eph 1:3-5

Ephesians 1:3–5 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,

For our Glory (Romans 9:23)

Paul also states that this wisdom is for “our glory” and here he is contrasting the glory of the intellects of Corinth, these elites who considered themselves wise and full of glory to the actual glory of God that he reflects on those who worship him. In the end, when Jesus returns, the glory of those on the earth will fade and the glory of the Son will shine brightly as Jesus is worshipped and Hs people are saved from the wrath of God.

You and I are mature in God’s eyes when we hear and see God’s wisdom and we receive it. Our maturity is nothing to boast about when we consider the remaining point that Paul will make - our reception of God’s wisdom is wholly a result of the gift of God’s spirit that allows us the receptive capabilities. As Paul stated in 1 Cor. 1:29

1 Corinthians 1:29 ESV

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

B. Rejection of God’s wisdom

Rulers of this age (doomed to pass away)

Secondly, he contrasts the mature or those who receive the wisdom of God with those who reject it. He describes the wisdom as not coming from the “rulers of this age.” He describes those rulers in verse 8 as those who “crucified the Lord of glory” and therefore these men, these leaders represent a people throughout history who reject Jesus Christ and the salvation that he provides.

He tells us that these rulers are ignorant of the truths of God’s wisdom, that they were unable to see and understand the message of Christ and they are compared to those who receive the message of the gospel. Their action in crucifying Jesus were fruit of their rejection of him and his claims to be the Messiah. The irony as Gordon Fee points out is,

“the very ones who were trying to do away with Jesus by crucifying him were in fact carrying out God’s prior will.” (Fee, 1 Cor, pg 106).

Notice with me that the apostle Peter tells the Jews at Pentecost,

Acts 2:22–24 ESV

22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

While each individual Jews wasn't guilty of hammering the nails into the wrists of Jesus, and pressing the crown of thorns on his head, their is an individual responsibility that each person has of rejecting Jesus as their Lord. We all might not crucify Jesus, but he strive to dethrone him in our sin. This is the weight of sin that we bear and this idea of sin is represented in the “rulers of the age.”

Did not understand this

Paul is not stating the obvious in v 8. He is going deeper than observation. He is relaying the reality of the inability to understand because God had not allowed them to remain in their ignorance of sin and allowed them to wallow in their rejection of him. He makes his point from a quotation of the OT.

The reason for that rejection and the introduction to the explanation in the following verses, Paul loosely quotes Isaiah 64:4

Isaiah 64:4 ESV

4 From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.

1 Corinthians 2:9 ESV

9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—

Isaiah writes from the perspective of a people who are humbled by the God of creation who has revealed himself to them and how he stands incomparable to the false gods of this world.

The idea that Paul is communicating in these quotes is that the faculties of the eye, the ear, and the heart does not have the capabilities to understand the wisdom of God in their own strength. While the eye, ear and heart are all amazing creations of God, with astonishing physical abilities, they are incapable to discern or detect the spiritual realities that exist in the world.

Only angels appearing to man on earth allowed angels to be seen with human eyes and only the human eyes so encapsulated by spiritual power they can see Jesus and cherish him as Lord

Only God choosing to enter the audible range of man by speaking audibly at Jesus’ baptism saying “behold my Son with whom I am well pleased” allowed the human ear to hear the voice of God. So only by the power of the Spirit can the human ear hear the word of God and understand it

Only the human heart has a love for God when God so open the heart to believe like Lydia when Paul explained the gospel.

Doomed to pass away

Paul describes these rejectors of the wisdom of God as destined for destruction. The GK language highlights that their destruction is not a natural consequence of hard living, but a supernatural destruction by God himself. He brings them to nothing by his wrath upon sin and rebellion against him. This destruction is first realized when Christ dies upon the cross, defeating sin and death. All that evil doers of the world stand for was defeated when Jesus gave his life. Therefore, even know, because of the work of Jesus, the evil people of this world are being shamed and the work of Christ and his church is being glorified over them.

But in the end, when Christ returns, these rejectors of the gospel, these living in darkness will face their ultimate end-eternal separation from God.

1 Corinthians 15:24 ESV

24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.

Jesus comes again in the future as a valiant warrior who will lay waste to all who denied him. He will bring judgment upon all human rulers and authorities that are still alive and they will face his most vicious wrath for their sin.

Therefore, once again the line has been drawn by the apostle Paul as to where humanity stands in relationship to God. You have received or you have rejected the message of Jesus Christ, as it has been delivered to you. For us believers, we rejoice in the great gift of grace, whereby God so allowed our human faculties to receive spiritual truth by His holy Spirit. I will expand on this point in my continuation of this sermon next week.

But we also looked at the rejectors of God’s wisdom as lacking the understanding and spiritual faculties to see and understand the truth. This means that for Christians, we know how to approach God in prayer on behalf of our lost family and friends. We should not pray…Lord help me be persuasive enough that they might know you. Instead, Lord help me equipped with the right Scripture to share and the rest depends on the you. You have to open their eyes and hearts to the reality of their sin and destruction. Only you can give them eyes to see and ears to hear the glorious truth of God’s word.

2. Spiritual Reasons about the Mystery (10-16)

1 Corinthians 2:11–16 ESV

11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

The existence of Spirit 11

Paul states in verse 11 a reality about the essence of humanity - we are more than flesh. When God created man, he created us with a spirit

The Spirit is Given 12

The Spirit is our Instructor 13

we teach what was taught

The Spirit’s Presence is Evident 14-16