1 Corinthians 1:26-31

Introduction

-Now, let me ask you a question

-If you were tasked with bringing the world to Christ and seeing the Gospel go forth every to every nation, and you could pick 20 people in the world to see them come to Christ, who would you pick?

-Which people do you think that their salvation would influence the most people for Christ?

-Who might you pick?

Maybe some world leaders:

-Joe Biden

-Xi Jinping

-Putin

Maybe some actors:

-Denzel Washington

-Leonardo Dicaprio

-Merryl Streep

Maybe some sports figures:

-Lebron James

-Tom Brady

-Cristiano Ronaldo

Maybe some billionaires that could use their money to send the Gospel around the world:

-Elon Musk

-Jeff Bezos

-Bill Gates

I mean, don’t you think these people’s influence and resources could really draw a lot of people to Christ??

Paul is going to tell us today the kinds of people that God chooses to save, and why he chooses them

Background

As we looked at last week, the city of Corinth had it all!

-Often called “wealthy Corinth”, the city was a thriving city full of wealth and opportunity

-In the same way that many aspiring artists, actors, journalists, and people desiring to be rising stars go to LA or NYC, so people during this time went to Corinth to seek opportunity and “make it big”

-And because of it, the city was full of talented, wealthy, hard-working, self-made people!

-In their own minds, they were winners!

-And so the city became a breeding ground for materialism and competitiveness

-Everyone was jockeying for position and power and wealth

-Everyone was looking to push to the forefront and come out ahead

-The city also had the Isthmian Games every 2 years in which people would come from miles around to compete against each other

-The event was huge, and the entertainment was awesome!

-The Corinthians also placed a high value on something called rhetoric

-This was the ability to speak eloquently and powerfully

-And professional public speakers would wow the crowds with their powerful oratory skills

Furthermore, religious pluralism, (where everyone worships who they want and how they want) was the norm

-Differing gods and religions were accepted as normal

And so we see here, as we noted last week, that there are a lot of similarities between our own culture and the culture of Corinth

-Wealthy, competitive, materialistic, entertainment, sports, religious tolerance . . .

And unfortunately, some of the sinful aspects of this culture had begun to infiltrate the church

-The people of the church were allowing the arrogant, competitive, materialistic, immoral way of thinking and acting to infiltrate their assembly, and it was wreaking havoc

And really the theme of this letter that I’ve borrowed from a pastor who’s preached through this series would be “called to consecration in our culture”

-Called to Consecration in our Culture

-Even in the midst of the cultures in which we live, we are called to live in consecration to God

-And this means that we must reject and deny and mortify the sinful parts of our culture that can infect our minds and actions if we’re not careful

-We are to reject these things that oppose God and His Word, even if it has us looking like weirdos or idiots

Run-Up

And that’s why Paul starts of the way he does in verse 2

**verse 2**

-We’ve been talking about this in Sunday School

-Who’s church is it?

-Is it your church?

-Is it your pastor’s church?

-Is it your community’s church?

-Is it your culture’s church?

The answer to all of those questions is a resounding no

-It’s God church

We are God’s church at Lake Wylie

And the first issue that Paul wants to deal with in this church is the way that they had become divided over their ministers

-You see, Paul had planted this church and pastored it for a year and a half before he finally moved on to a different missionary endeavor

-For Paul, that was a long time!

-Sometime later, it seems that Apollos came along and pastored the church in Corinth

-And what we know about Apollos from the Scriptures is that he was an eloquent man who was mighty in the Scriptures

-And so it’s not hard to see how many in Corinth would have really liked Apollos a lot, especially in a culture that really placed a high emphasis on public speaking skills

And so people in the church had become divided over there ministers!

-Some people were saying “we’re on team Paul!”

-Others were saying, “well we’re team Apollos!”

-Some were even saying that they were with Peter or with Christ!

-You see, their culture has affected their view of their ministers and their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and Paul comes in and pastorally corrects and rebukes them for this

-Paul tells them that he’s aware of these rivalries and factions going on, and that they need to be united

-He says that he’s thankful that he didn’t baptize more than a handful of these believers, lest this problem be even worse

and notice what he ways in vs. 17

**vs. 17**

And with that, Paul launches into an issue that is absolutely central to everything else that he says in the rest of the Epistle

**vs. 18-25**

Paul here shows the Corinthian believers that we do not go around giving people the message that they want

-Even in a culture like the Corinthian culture which was steeped materialism, competitiveness, and wouldn’t be easily impressed, the message of the cross must be preached!

-And Paul acknowledges, “Yes! There will be those in your culture and community who reject this message as foolishness!”

-Those who are perishing find the message of the cross as nonsense or offensive

But . . .

-To those who are being saved, the message of the cross is the power of God!

And Paul shows here that contrary to what we might desire, both of these responses to the message are God-ordained responses!

-God desires to flip the wisdom of the world on its head and show up those people who hold to it!

-And God desires that some will accept this message and find the Gospel to be the power of God

And the Corinthian believers, and our church, and you and I individually, are not authorized to change the Gospel message

-We often don’t want to sound foolish to the culture around us, or to the person we’re witnessing to, so we’re often tempted to change things around a little bit in order to avoid people thinking that

-but we can’t do that, because God intends that those who hold to worldly wisdom find this message foolish!

-So we can’t change the message!

-And we can’t seek to disguise the message or dress it up with clever words according to vs. 17

Paul says that Jews want signs!

-They want some incredible display of power or miracles!

-They don’t want a crucified and slain Messiah

And that Greeks want wisdom!

-They want awesome displays of rhetoric and philosophy that excite the mind and tickle the ears

So what does Paul give them?

Vs. 23 — “We preach Christ crucified”

that’s it!

And yes, it’s a stumblingblock to Jews!

-It’s offensive to them!

-The message that they’re wicked sinners, deserving of God’s judgment and only the death of a crucified Messiah (who also died for Gentiles) will save them is offensive!

-So much so that they stoned Stephen for giving them this message!

And yes, it’s foolishness to Greeks!

-They just think it’s dumb and it’s nonsense

-A crucified and resurrected Jew doesn’t impress them in any way

And yet, this is the message we are commanded to preach

-And for those who are being saved, this message is the power of God

-Because Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom!

-And ultimately, God’s foolishness of wiser than human wisdom and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

But Paul wants them to notice that it’s not only the message that isn’t very impressive to the surrounding culture of lost people, it’s also the people whom God is called that aren’t very impressive

**vs. 26**

Now, the first word I want to talk about here is “calling”

-This word is used of people who are called by God into salvation

Ephesians 4:1 NKJV

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,

2 Timothy 1:9 NKJV

who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,

So, Paul here is talking about people whom God has effectually called!

-He has drawn them effectively from death into life by His Sovereign grace

-And he’s taking them back to when they were called, when they put their faith in Jesus Christ

Second, I want everyone to notice a very important word that’s used in this verse 3 times

-It’s the word “many”

-Now, I’m gonna come back to that word in just a minute, but I want everyone to at least see that

-Paul doesn’t say “not any wise”, he says not “many wise”

-I’ll come back to that in just a second, but just note that

1. But here’s what Paul is saying:

“look around your congregation!”

-Not a lot of wise people from a human perspective!

-Here, Paul is being clear he’s using wisdom in the worldly sense of the word, not the spiritual sense that we’re used to in the book of Proverbs where it’s shown that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom

-From a human perspective, there’s not a lot of geniuses or intellectual proteges in this Corinthian church

Now, Paul is not calling anyone in the Corinthian church stupid or calling them idiots

-We’re not told that’s the case

-But what he’s saying is, when it comes to the super elites of society as far as intelligence goes, that’s not what the Corinthian church is made up of

-And you know what, that’s the case with us, and with other local congregations as well

-I, thought about doing this, but decided against it, but if we were to take a show of hands on any given Sunday, and ask the question “who in here has earned a PhD, how many people would raise their hands?

-Would any of us be shocked if only 2 or 1 or not any person raised their hand?

-I was looking up the other day what some of the highest IQ scores in history were

-The average IQ is between 85 and 115. What is considered a “very high IQ” is 130 or above.

-There was a guy on this list who is an Australian-American named Terrance Tao

-His parent emigrated from Hong Kong to Australia

-And he’s a mathmetician

-He has an IQ somewhere in between 225 and 230

-As far as I can tell, there are only 2-4 other people who have ever scored higher than him

-He was taking college-level mathematics classes at age 9

- And he earned a PhD at the age of 21 from Princeton

-He was a full professor at UCLA at the age of 24, the youngest person ever to be appointed to that position at that school

-He is sometimes referred to as the “Mozart of Mathematics”

Now, would anyone consider themselves close to that when it comes to intellect or IQ?

When we look around our congregation, there aren’t really any prodigies here

-Not anyone receiving Nobel Prizes or winning Nationally recognized Academic Awards

2. Notice next what Paul says: not many mighty

-The word here has the idea of influence

“not many influential”

-Not many of the Corinthian believers held a lot of clout in this city

-Most weren’t movers or shakers in their own city

And guess what?

-That’s often the case among God’s local churches today

-This past week, I looked up Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” and here are a few of the names that I found that you may recognize (not in any particular order):

-XiJinping

-Joe Biden

-Oprah Winfrey

-Vladimir Putin

-Joe Rogan

-Keanu Reeves

-Zendaya

Many of these people are household names:

-They rule entire countries

-They have millions of followers and subscribers on social media

-They are icons in their industries

-When they speak many people listen

-When they make decisions, the ripple effects are felt

I’m not sure if any of us would even crack 100 most influential people in Lake Wylie, or Clover, or wherever you live

3. The last phrase Paul uses is “not many noble”

-the idea is similar to the previous phrase

-This denotes social status, often obtained by being born into a certain family or family group

-Not many in this Corinthian congregation were members of the elite families in the city

-No one would probably be impressed by their family standing in society

And the same is true in God’s congregations today

-I’m guessing that no one here is going to wow anyone with who their mom or dad is

-I don’t think that many people here are part of an elite family

Now, let’s go back to this important word I mentioned earlier:

-Paul says not MANY wise, not MANY mighty, not MANY noble

-Aren’t you thankful that God says “many” and not “any”?

-Because God absolutely can, and sometimes does, save people who are like this!

There was a woman who lived in the 1700’s named Selina Hastings

-She was the Countess of Huntingdon

-She’s famous (you can look her up on Wikipedia)

-And she was IMMENSELY wealth, and someone of noble birth in England

-And she came to a place where she put her faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, and she used her immense wealth to help fund the great revival that England experienced under the ministries of John Wesley and George Whitefield

-She helped fund the building of chapels, a hospital, and missionary work all for the furtherance of the Gospel

And she said this about this verse we’ve looked at so far in 1 Corinthians 1:26:

Blessed be God, it does not say ‘any mighty,’ ‘any noble’; it says ‘many mighty,’ ‘many noble.’

I owe my salvation to the letter ‘m.’

If it had been ‘not any noble,’ where would the countess have been?”

So we see that God can and does save wealthy, influential, powerful people, but that is not usually the way God operates.

Look at vs. 27-28:

**vs. 27-28**

-These verses aren’t exactly going to help our self-esteem and build a better self-image are they?

-Instead of wise, mighty, noble, people . . . God has chosen people like you and me

And even though in these verses, the word “things” (foolish things, weak things) are used, in context, Paul is clearly talking about the people that God calls and chooses

1. God has chosen foolish people:

-The word “foolish” here is the Greek word moros, from which we get the word “moron”

-It has the idea of stupid, foolish

-Compared to the intellectual elites out in the world, the Corinthians were not all that smart or intelligent

-And we’re not either

And God chooses people like this to shame the “wise”

2. God has chosen “weak” people

-In contrast to hugely influential people that we talked about earlier, God has chosen people who are not all that influential or well-known

-People who don’t have a lot of clout

-People who are not movers and shakers in society

-I went to school at Bob Jones University

-And BJU is structured very interestingly at times

-there’s a decent bit of rules there

-And so, if you want to get special permission to go somewhere or do certain things, it can be very very hard to do

-Most of the people who work for BJU don’t really have the authority or the know-how in order to get things done

-And there was one occasion I was trying to go on a trip over the weekend out of state, and I was trying to get this trip approved in order to be gone

-And no one seemed to be able to help me

-No one was willing to make an exception for me to be able to go

-And I tried and tried, and went to several different people in the authority structure, and just couldn’t get this approved

-But thankfully, the vice-president there at the time, Sam Horn (who’s been to our church before), he’s a family friend

-He worked at a college with my grandfather and loved him very much, and so he knows my family

-So I go to him and lay this out, and he immediately gets it done

-No problem!

-He was a mover and shaker at BJU and held a lot of clout and influence

-If you wanted something done, you could go to him!

-But when it comes to the people God calls in salvation, they’re not usually the movers and shakers of society

-They’re the opposite

-They’re people like those in the Corinthian church who don’t have a lot of clout or influence in the big picture of their culture and world

-And it’s the same with us

-God calls “weak” people like us

-And he does it to shame those who are considered “mighty”, those who have that kind of influence

3. God calls the “base things of the world”

-the idea is literally the “nothings” of the world, the lowly, the insignificant

-And Paul even goes on to clarify further: the “despised”

-it has the idea of contemptible, looked down upon

-Many of these Corinthian believers were the dregs of their culture, those who were on the lower rungs of society (as one commentator put it).

-And there are those of us here who might be looked down upon as lowly, undesireable, the bottom rung of society

And notice 2 things:

-First of all, God has “chosen” these people (vs. 27)

-It’s not like it’s some coincidence that a lot of God’s people are the weak, foolish, insignificant people

-It’s not like God is somehow stuck with the leftovers and He’s just got to make it work somehow

-No, God has gone to “the back of the line” so to speak, and chosen these lowly people, people like you and me

Matthew 11:25 NKJV

At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.

To do what?

-That’s the second thing:

-To shame the wise and strong, and to bring to nothing those that seem to be important

-God is out to bring low those who think that they are something

-God desires to put them to shame

-These people will ultimately be humbled when they are rejected by God

And why does this happen??

**Vs. 29**

-As I was thinking about what this is like, an illustration came to mind, and I hope it’s helpful

-It’s a sports illustration, and I know that not everyone here loves or plays sports, but I think it will still be very easily for you to understand and picture

-I go at least once a week to the YMCA down the street in Lake Wylie to play basketball

-That’s really the only cardio I enjoy, and so once a week I’ll go play ball for a couple of hours give or take

-Now, at the Y, there’s a lot of players that come through there and play, and after a while, you come to find out who the good players are and who are the not-so-good players are

-When we start playing full-court games, usually what happens is you have 2 people be captains

-These 2 captains begin to pick players

“I’ll take Jon”

“I’ve got Alex”

“Well I’ve got Jay-jay”

. . . and so on.

And you want to get the best team possible, because the winning team gets to keep playing!

-Whoever wins the game, usually to 16, gets to stay on the court and keep playing, and the losing team is off

-Whenever there is a game being played, someone claims “next”

-That means that “I’m going to play against the winners”

-And so they will begin to go up and down the sidelines and recruit the best players

-Sometimes they’re even on their phones, calling or txting people to see if they’re coming

-Sometimes they’re like “i’ve got 3 players on my team already, and I’m holding that final spot open because this guy said he’s on the way, and he’s really good!”

So when you get your team of 5, you’re on next

-It’s all about getting the best players

-Now, let me give you a purely hypothetical situation

-Let’s say that I go to the YMCA to play basketball, and it’s packed!

-There’s almost every person who plays at the Y there, all on the same day!

-There’s a ton of talented players, and plenty of not great players

-The really good players expect to be asked to join a team

-And the not-so-good players, they know that they probably won’t get picked up

Now, into the gym walks a guy named Kevin Durant

-Kevin Durant plays professional basketball in the NBA

-He is 7ft tall, and one of the most talented basketball players in the history of the world

-He can dribble, shoot, pass, play defense

-He is an incredible player, and MVP, a 2 time champion, and will easily be a hall-of-famer

-He is easily 5 times better than the best player at the YMCA

-He comes in and everyone is blown away

-There’s an excited buzz in the gym, people are taking pictures

-And he says that he’s going to play next, and everyone lets him

-The best players at the gym glance over at him expectantly, hoping he’ll pick them up

-And as he walks down the sideline, he walks right past all of the tall, athletic, seasoned, skilled basketball players

-And the first person he comes up to is a slightly overweight, rather uncoordinated, unathletic looking 14 year old.

-And Kevin Durant says, “i’ll take you”

-And the boy turns behind him to see who he’s pointing at because he hardly ever gets picked up

-And then Kevin Durant turns to a guy in his 50’s who’s about 5’5, looks like he has 2 bad knees and one bad ankle, and like he hasn’t played competitive basketball in the past 30 years.

-And Kevin Durant says “I’ll take you”

-And all of us looking on watch in astonishment as Kevin Durant picks 4 of the worst players at the Y, while completely passing up all the good players

-All of us are just stunned

This rag-tag team of the most unimpressive, unathletic looking people you’ve ever seen assembled at the YMCA walk onto the court behind Kevin Durant

. . . And then, the show begins

And Kevin Durant runs all over the court, dribbling in and around 3 people at a time.

-He rises up with his arm 2 feet above the rim to throw down a dunk

-He’s shooting shots from nearly half-court and making them

-He’s running around, blocking shots, stealing the ball

-The 4 guys he chose can’t guard anyone, but it’s ok, because Kevin is there behind them to help out

-On offense, they just pass him the ball and get out of the way

-And he and this group of misfits win 10 straight games in dominant fashion, absolutely crushing all competition

-And at the end of it all, everyone there at the Y is just watching in pure amazement, blown away by the ridiculous display of talent and athleticism and pure basketball greatness of Kevin Durant

-No one on the sidelines, no one on the opposing team, and no one on Kevin’s own team is boasting about themselves

-Everyone in the gym knows that he just picked 4 of the worst players there, so that when he wrecks all the other teams, everyone will know that it was all because of him

-Even his own teammates know that!

-They understand they weren’t picked because of their basketball greatness

-It’s all about Kevin Durant, and no one can boast

And that is EXACTLY what God does

God “comes in” so to speak, and everyone lines up

-And God passes right by the Elon Musks, and the Vladimir Putins, and the Bill Gates of the world

-and he goes to the back of the line and says “I’ll take Braden’s of the world, and the Melody’s and the Kwa’mon’s . . .”

-And he puts together this rag-tag team that looks something like us, and like other local churches

Why?

-So that no one can boast in His presence!

No person, whether saved or unsaved, has anything to boast about before God!

-When God accomplishes His purposes of building His church and spreading the knowledge of His glory across the earth like the waters cover the seas, no one is going to say anything other than “God did that!”

Look at verse 30:

-it’s only of God that we are in Christ Jesus

-Amen?

-Anyone here this morning, if you know the Lord, if you have a relationship with God this morning through faith in His Son, it’s of Him, and Him only that you in Christ Jesus

-Amen?

And in salvation, Christ has become for us wisdom from God

-contrary to the world’s view of wisdom, wisdom is found in the message of the crucified Messiah, and here is identified by Paul as the crucified Messiah Himself!

-Though we’re not really many of the world’s wise people, Christ has become wisdom for us!

-We are not wise in and of ourselves, but in Christ, we have the wisdom from God!

-And that wisdom is a Person

The next 3 adjectives probably unpack and describe the word “wisdom”:

1. Christ is our righteousness

-this is a right standing with God that we could never attain or earn, but in Christ, we’ve been made righteous!

-He is our righteousness, our right standing before the Father

2. He is our Sanctification

-This has the idea of being holy or set apart

-And this speaks not to the progress of being sanctified, but to the position of sanctification

In Christ, we’ve been set apart and made holy

-And this is apart from our works!

-This is the work of Christ that sets us apart at the moment of salvation

-We are sanctified in Christ, regardless of our performance

3. And He is our redemption

-We owed a debt to God that could never be paid

-And yet Jesus Christ stepped in and paid the debt through His bloody death on the cross

-And one day, we will enjoy the finality of our redemption when we’re with Christ forever!

Vs. 31 shows the purpose of all of this!

**vs. 31**

-The verses that Paul had in mind were more than likely from Jeremiah

Jeremiah 9:23–24 NKJV

Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord.

What do we have to brag or boast about except Jesus?

-We are called not to trust in, not to boast or glory in ourselves or our possessions, but to boast in Jesus Christ

There was an orchestral performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony led by famous Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini

-And when they had finished, the crowd just erupted in applause

-And they kept clapping and clapping and clapping

-And Toscanini leaned over and whispered to his orchestra:

“I am nothing. You are nothing. But Beethoven — Beethoven is everything!”

-Brothers and sisters, I am nothing, you are nothing . . . but Christ . . . Christ is everything!

Application

-So brothers and sisters, consider your calling!

-Let us be so thankful that God chooses nothings like us for his own purpose

-Let’s worship Him for choosing the weak and foolish to shame the wise and the strong

-Let us worship Christ for His marvelous grace in choosing people like us

And also brothers and sisters, what are we boasting in?

-Are there ways in our lives where pride has crept in and where we are boasting and glorying in something other than the cross of Christ?

-Are we finding our identity and sufficiency in our gifts, in our abilities, in our possessions, in our career, our relationships, what others think of us?

-Let him who boasts boast in the Lord!

-Let us repent of our pride and arrogance, and turn our focus where it should be

As Robert Murray M’Cheyne once said:

“For every [1] look [you take] at yourself, take ten looks at Christ!”

Amen?

Amen, let’s pray