Sermon Tone Analysis

1. Spiritual Realities about God’s wisdom

1 Cor 2:6-10

Those who receive the message of Christ

mature

predestined (work of redemption and its recipients)

for our glory (in Christ, we are elevated as world, in Adam is decimated)

Those who reject the message

do not understand the mystery (eyes do not see, ears do not hear)

doomed to pass away

Application:

This reveals realities about our disciple-making efforts (in the church and outside of it)

This reveals realities about our sin-laden culture ( how it behaves and how we should pray)

WHY IS THIS RECEPTION OF THE GOSPEL THIS WAY?

2. Spiritual Realities about God’s Spirit (10-16)

A. Behold the Unseen

God is Spirit

1 Corinthians 2:10–16 (ESV)

10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit.

For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

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.

I believe v 10 is as much a good starting place for the verses that follow as a good ending to the preceeding verses.

But v 10, because it begins with God, is a great place for us to start.

Let’s look at our statement of faith, article 2:

2. God: There is but one God, the Maker, Preserver and Ruler of all things, having in and of Himself, all perfections, and being infinite in them all; and to Him all creatures owe the highest love, reverence and obedience.

First of all, we are monotheist in that we worship one divine being who is God.

God has revealed himself as one being, not three beings and therefore we worship one God and believe that only one true God exists above all false gods.

This is important to the Christian faith but Jews and Muslims are also monotheists as well.

So there requires more specifics.

God reveals himself to us as one God, one being in three persons.

Our belief about our Triune God as Evangelical Christians sets us apart from all religions of the world.

On aspect about the Trinity is that God has revealed himself as a spirit.

He is immaterial.

If you have ever read or studied catechisms for yourself or with your kids, you know the question is asked:

Q.

What is God?

A. God is a Spirit (John 4:24), infinite (Job 11:7, 8, 9), eternal (Ps.

110:2), and unchangeable (Jas.

1:17) in his being (Ex.

3:14), wisdom (Ps.

147:5), power (Rev.

4:8), holiness (Rev.

15:4), justice, goodness, and truth (Ex.

34:6).

OR

Q.

Who is God?

A. God is a Spirit, and does not have a body like men (Jn 4:24; 2 Cor 3:17; 1 Tim 1:17).

To be a spirit, is to NOT contain within your being material qualities.

God consists of immaterial qualities alone and therefore God does not have a body like us.

As a spirit, God can be eternal, infinite, and unchangeable.

God as a spirit (lower case) is the concept of the immaterial nature of God while man is material for we are made of matter.

Some of us are more material than others.

This does not at all mean that God cannot reveal himself to human beings in a material state, because there are numerous passages in the OT that state that He did. .

The overall idea that we need to understand is that God as a being is spirit and therefore not like us.

Jesus taught

Are there spiritual bodies?

In other words, does God exists in a spiritual body since the bible refers to his hands, feet, ear, arm, etc.

Jesus answers this question after his resurrection when the disciples asked him if he was a spirit?

Jesus answers them that “a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

Jesus is not distinguishing between fleshly and spiritual bodies.

Instead, he is making the distinction that a spirit being does not have a body like flesh and bones.

To read about certain material qualities of God like his arm, or his breast are what are called anthropomorphisms.

Its a big word that simply means man qualities that are ascribed to God to illustrate a characteristic of God metaphorically.

In other words, the arm of the Lord speaks of his power, not his spiritual body.

Paul further makes the point in 1 Timothy 1:17 that God is “immortal and invisible” which lends to the argument that as a spirit, he cannot be seen with the visible human eye unless he reveals himself and gifts that ability to for those to see or hear him.

John Feinberg comments,

“although God’s essential nature is spirit, that does not preclude him from making his presence known through some physical phenomenon that manifests his presence to those who see or hear it.

This shouldn’t be entirely surprising, for God, as creator of matter and spirit, certainly ought to be able to supply whatever matter he needs on any occasion to manifest his presence”

John S. Feinberg, No One Like Him: The Doctrine of God, The Foundations of Evangelical Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2001), 220.

God’s Spirit is God

Paul first mentions the Spirit, in chapter 2:4 regarding his preaching and how it came forth in power of the Holy Spirit.

Now Paul is making his case about preaching the wisdom of God and its reception.

In 2:10, we writes,

Paul is referring to the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.

The Holy Spirit is often referred to as the neglected and forgotten person of the Trinity.

He praise the Father, worship the Son and yet sometimes forget about the Holy Spirit.

The charismatic movement led many Christians to misunderstand the work and power and person of the Holy Spirit.

Paul wants the Corinthians to see that the person of the Holy Spirit is the key to understanding the work of God’s mystery in Christ.

Understanding the work of the Holy Spirit, the 3rd person of the Trinity, is foundational to Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth.

In understanding what we have previously discussed, the Father and the Holy Spirit are Spirit, while the Son, who was Spirit, incarnated upon the earth and put on flesh.

As the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is God 100%.

He is not a lesser person of the Trinity but instead plays a major role in the work of redemption.

He makes small appearances in the OT, at creation “hovering over the waters, empowering key figure of the OT like David (1 Sam 16:13), but it is not until during the ministry of Jesus and after his ascension does the great work of the Holy Spirit get the most attention in God’s revealed word.

What is important for us to understand in Paul’s writing here is the work of the Spirit in relationship to redemption.

Paul is making the point that the mystery that is hidden from unbelievers and revealed to the church is the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit is the revealing agent of that truth and also agent of application of the work of Jesus Christ.

In other words, the Holy Spirit applies the redemptive work that the Son accomplished, that the Father instructed and then the Spirit teaches those to whom it is applied all about its glorious truth.

This makes us understand that our salvation was delivered to us via the railway of the Trinitarian Express.

The Father sent the Son into the world (1 John 4:14).

The Son performed all the work that was necessary for our salvation—living a life of perfect obedience and dying to make a perfect satisfaction (Phil.

3:9; 1 Cor.

15:3).

But none of these things avail for our benefit until they are applied to us personally.

Therefore, the Father and the Son send the Holy Spirit into the world to apply salvation to us (John 15:26; Gal.

4:6).

The role of the Holy Spirit chiefly p 13 and principally in the New Testament is to apply the work of Christ to believers

What is key in Paul’s argument in verse 10 is that the Spirit is the key for the church and the therefore as wisdom is heralded about knowing God, Paul states that only God knows God.

The second half of verse 10 is a riveting statement that Paul will use to make his most profound argument of this section.

He begins with stating that the message, is revealed by the Spirit BECAUSE only God knows what God is like.

Since the Spirit is God and he searches the depths of himself, and therefore reveals portions of the depth of God to man.

Paul exclaimed in Romans 11:33

Paul is praising God and yet announcing man’s limitation to truly searching the wisdom and knowledge of God.