Joe's Sermon Starter Workflow | 1 Corinthians 1:18–2:5 (2)

WELCOME and RECAP

Good to see everyone and to open up God’s word with you all today. My name is Joe Riccardi and I have the joy of being on the pastoral team here at Park Lincoln Park and every 4 weeks or so I get to open the Word with you all. If you are brand new to Park, an especially warm welcome to you. If you were here with us last week we kicked off our new series in the book of 1 Corinthians that will take us through May 21, 2023. Pastor Jon did a great job of opening up the book and preaching on the 1st 17 verses of chapter 1, talking about identity and how we are in the battle everyday to have our identity shaped either by God and his word or by culture and its practices and how as a church we must fight for the unity that our God calls us to!

Today we will cover the verses that were just ready to us by Jessika.

BACKDROP TO 1 CORINTHIANS

For a way of reminder for some or new information for many, I want to give some backdrop to 1 Corinthians. The Jewish Apostle Paul planted a church in the city of Corinth during the end of his 2nd missionary journey (go to the book of Acts, chapter 18 to read about it) which the remains of the city today can be found some 50 miles west of the city of Athens, Greece. After some time had passed for Paul he got word that the church he planted there was having all kinds of problems which we will read about as we make our way through this book. So he writes a letter, 1 Corinthians, around 55 AD from the city of Ephesus to address the problems happening at that church.

The city of Corinth would have many similarities to our city of Chicago. It was wealthy, people were from all over, it was a center of commerce and trade. You went there to make money and be rich. As the wealthiest city in Greece in Paul’s day, it was host to the Isthmian games, second only to the Olympics in popularity and in the trade that it brought to that part of the Greek peninsula.

It was also known as well for it’s vices, especially it’s sexual ones. you go be you in Corinth!

Like our city, the city of Corinth needed a people who were distinct from the culture. A people whose identity was shaped by Christ who would then influence the culture they were a part of.

The verses we come to today as we walk through this book chapter by chapter are so wonderfully clear on what ultimately unites us as a community of Christ followers. There are a lot of things we can get wrong, the donuts, the slide deck, the lights, even my microphone which I don’t you all to get wrong, but if we don’t get right what Paul puts before us today, the rest of the book is useless. For that matter, our faith might be useless. Paul wants to drill down into our hearts the centrality of the cross in the Christian faith. He didn’t want his original audience some 2000 years ago or those here to have any vagary on the essence of the cross of Christ. We can’t be confused here. This is critical friends to your ongoing faith in Christ as I know many here come born again and it is equally for those who come here outside of Christ. The is the MAGNUM OPUS OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH. And in particular he will put before us THREE TRUTH every Christ follower must know about THE CROSS

The 3 TRUTHS OF THE CROSS:

1-The FOLLY

2-The BOAST

3-THE POWER

THE FOLLY THE BOAST and THE POWER;

Let me pray first before we dig in.

Folks more of a dense message, little heavier on the theology side. not that we ever have theology light messages.

1st the FOLLY of the cross from verses 18-25:

Before we got to where we see the folly of it, we first need to understand two things.

Paul says in v. 18-, for the WORD or others translations have, the MESSAGE of the CROSS.

1-What is the message?

Well we get clues from what Paul is referring to from v. 17-

Christ did not send me to baptize but to PREACH THE GOSPEL

Or in v. 23-we preach Christ crucified

THE GOSPEL. THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS, CHRIST CRUCIFIED Paul uses interchangeably to communicate the same truth.

which is that JESUS CHRIST, born of VIRGIN, some 2000 years ago died the most horrific death ever imaginable by humanity in being hung on a cross, tortured, humiliated, enduring excruciating pain, and crucified in order to pay the penalty GOD THE FATHER DEMANDED for our sin. In our place condemned he stood,

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

1 Peter 2:24 “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

The forgiveness that we now experience, the peace we have, the joy of eternal life and every blessing we experience as Christ followers was purchased for us by the cross of Christ. That is the essence of the GOSPEL. That is the message of the cross. Many implications to it to which Paul will get to in this letter and does in his other letters, but what he is drilling down here is the atoning death of Christ to pay our ransom......

2-What are the two categories of people?

And what Paul goes on to do is to break humanity down into two groups of people, and the groups are broken down in correlation with how they respond to the message of the cross.

You see that in v. 18-

The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing….that’s one group….

But to us who are being saved……that’s the second group…..it is the power of God.

That is objectively how Paul, how our LORD sees all of humanity, how the Bible breaks down.

Those who embrace, those who believe, that’s the word he uses at the end of v.22, versus the those who thinking the message is foolish.

And if you are here today thinking, that sounds like folly to me, like Joe you all really believe that the SAVIOR of the world died an ignominious death 2000 years ago so that whoever believes in him has eternal life and those who do not perish, that’s exactly what Paul’s originals readers thought.

3-TheFOLLY OF THE CROSS!

v.18-The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing.

v.27-But God chose what is FOOLISH in the world to shame the wise;

What he does in the rest of this 1st section is address his two primary objectors: the Jews and the Greeks or Gentiles.

JEWS DEMANDED A SIGN-they wanted to see a conquering Messiah, not a defeated one.

In v.23 we read the cross is a stumbling block.

What does he mean by that?

Well, he’s talking about how any first century Jewish person would have thought about crucifixion. They just can get over how Jesus, if he really was the promised Messiah the whole Old Testament was pointing forward to…they can’t get over how God would allow Jesus to go through such a horrific death! Not only that, but Old Testament Law, in the book of Deuteronomy, directly spoke of people who died like Jesus

Deuteronomy 21:23 (ESV)

23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

If anything, the cross showed how Jesus was cursed by God! He wasn’t a person to follow…and if those who did follow him weren’t careful, they would probably suffer the same fate and curse Jesus did!

That just couldn’t be good news to them. which goes against all expectation of a conquering king.

And in a similar way, the Gentiles (or everyone else) would naturally see the cross as foolish. In verse 23 he says it is FOLLY TO THEM. That if you just took the facts at face value, the only conclusion you could draw was that Jesus was a common criminal. A nobody! Who was disposed of by the powers that be. And that this whole business of a crucified ‘god’ was absurd.

It’s foolish.

It’s a waste of time.

Move on.

And I would suggest that, in many ways, we live now in a cultural moment that views the message of Jesus and the cross just as out of touch with reality!

In a city like Chicago, it’s not uncommon to find people who are, at best, completely indifferent to the message of Jesus…at worst, seeing it as leading cause of oppressive values in the wider world. You can test this out to see if this holds in your sphere of influence. Go to your neighbors, your colleagues, your family, tell them the message of the cross and see how they react. See if any an unbeliever says, “That is just brilliant by God.”

What Paul is communicating in these verses is that there is great chasm between the wisdom of the world and of the wisdom of God. The wisdom of the world is not going to lift up the cross of Christ. If anything it will oppose it and vehemently oppose it. But oh for the wisdom of God-v25-for the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

This is where – God’s shows us – a deeper wisdom and greater power.. Because the cross – is the great reversal – of the ways of the world.

It is God’s counter-intuitive and counter-cultural way - of redeeming sinners - and renewing His creation.

It’s in God’s kingdom we see – (everything gets turned upside down).

exaltation. Glory. Victory. Triumph.

 Exaltation comes through humiliation

 Glory is revealed through shame

 Victory is accomplished through surrender

 And the triumph of the kingdom - comes through the suffering of the servant

ROMANS 11:33-36 “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”

Let me end this first section with a quoteI I found in my study:

There is a contrast between those who are perishing and us who are being saved (cf. Luke 13:23; 2 Cor. 2:15). Ultimately all must fall into one of these two classes; there is no other. Those being saved have not yet all the wisdom of heaven, but their newness of life enables them to weigh spiritual things. They perceive the greatness of the gospel, whereas those who are perishing are blind to it. The opposite of foolishness is ‘wisdom’ and we expect Paul to speak of the gospel as ‘the wisdom of God’. Instead he says it is power (cf. Rom. 1:16). It is not simply good advice, telling us what we should do. Nor is it information about God’s power. It is God’s power.

Morris, L. (1985). 1 Corinthians: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 7, p. 49). InterVarsity Press.

The text begs of me to ask before I continue on, which class do you fit into?

Let’s continue with the BOAST of the cross and we get that from verses:26-31

Not much of a pedigree:

Here Paul highlights the fact that many though not all had much of pedigree when God called them to CHRIST-see where Paul writes, “NOT MANY WERE WISE, NOT MANY WERE POWERFUL, NOT MANY were of noble birth…..” v.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, God chose what is low and despised in the world to bring to nothing things that are.

And here in lies the purpose in GOD DOING ALL THAT:

v.29-SO THAT NO HUMAN BEING MIGHT BOAST IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD

EXAMPLE OF BOASTING: knowing KENT:

I know what it is to boast. I like for people to know I know the President of my alma mater the University of Florida,on a first name basis! he knows my name. I like when I go around the campus like I did 2 and half weeks ago and flash my University of Florida credentials and it pops up to the student worker, “DISTINGUISHED GUEST”, I love saying I am guest of the PRESIDENT.

And you all like to boast too!

Whether it be your education, your work, your real estate portfolio, your INSTAGRAM posts, I think instagram should be called BOASTAGRAM;

What is boasting? Boasting is essentially saying LOOK TO ME, look at what I am, or what I have DONE!!!!!!

When you come to the cross, and you face what CHRIST HAS done for you, you lose all your grounds for boasting. It doesn’t matter whether in this room you have the ability to pay everyone’s mortagae or rent payment, or you can’t even pay your own. Whether you completed an IRONMAN, or if you can’t even walk a mile. When the cross is put before the eyes of your heart even if you are wise, or powerful or of noble birth, I am mindful that many in this room have been saved from more of that type of background, when we look to the cross, we are quickly humbled. We are not able to say, look at me any longer, look at whatever credentials I have.

WHERE THE CROSS BECKONS US TO LOOK TO HIM and WHAT HE HAS DONE tO SAVE US.

What’s so hard about this, is that in the depth of our hearts we want to SAVE OURSELVES! Whatever we may appeal to, we don’t want to be humbled and admit we need a SAVIOR. We are a PRIDEFUL people, a self-made people and to be stripped of that is impossible apart from the work of the HOLY SPIRIT.

God chooses who he wills. It’s all GRACE. A strong pedigree may get you a lot of things in life, in just will not get you right w/ GOD. That’s always an act of His choosing and HIS GRACE.

So if you must boast outside of the cross of Christ follower, PAUL gives an allowance for that. For he writes:

2 CORINTHIANS 11:30

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

2 Corinthians 12:9-10

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

When we grasp the grace of our LORD, understand what he did for us, understand what he purchased for us-v. 30-he has become to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption all we are left to do is BOAST IN HIM!

We would only have judgement apart from the cross. Every blessing from heaven in your life that you have was BLOOD BOUGHT! Don’t boast in the blessing boast in the BLOOD!

WHAT THAT WILL RESULT IN, IS THAT what Paul writes in v. 31, LET THE ONE WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.

That’s a quote from the OLD TESTAMENT prophet Jeremiah,

Jeremiah 9:23-24

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, 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.”

Before I move on, let this quote serve as the application for this point of the message:

The purpose of God in the creation of man and the salvation of sinners is that we might boast in HIM. This is God’s will for you this morning. God is speaking in these words very clearly. And what he is saying is this: turn this very moment from all boasting in your self. Don’t seek your pleasure any more in your own wisdom, or your own strength, or your own looks, or your own achievements. Look to Christ crucified and see what becomes of it all.

Paul said in Galatians 6:14, “Far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

So I call you to come to Christ and die this morning—and to live. And the promise of God is this: there is no greater life, no greater joy than to boast in him!

Piper, J. (2007). Sermons from John Piper (1980–1989). Desiring God.

First the folly of the cross, then the boast of the cross, and now finally we see the POWER of the CROSS as seen in chapter 2 verses 1-5.

2:1-5-the POWER OF THE CROSS

Lastly Paul wants to put before the church at Corinth and today now the church in Lincoln Park the power of cross. This is unlike any other message that can ever be proclaimed, past present future. Paul wasn’t looking to come with eloquent words of speech so that you might hear him speak and be like, WOW, this guy is sharp, man he is good, that was just brilliant. So that you could leave hearing Paul speak or any other preacher and have your faith tied to the brilliance of his exposition. In fact it was just the opposite. Paul from what we know was not an impressive man even in and of himself. He would not have garnered a lot of looks. And though brilliant, his message was not geared towards the elites of society. The message he brought rested upon a demonstration of the power of the HOLY SPIRIT and the POWER OF GOD!

my prayer today and Jon would say the same thing and I pray everyone of us who by faith take the opportunities to share CHRIST is that we rely on the power of GOD in bringing the message of salvation to all who hear, not caring about our names at all! I need to be reminded that all we do rests on HIS POWER not on a decorated stage, or flashing light, or FOG MACHINES, that’s a big thing w/ a lot of churches. We get all that going, we are going to start seeing things happen…..NO NO NO. LOOK WHERE WE MEET. We don’t have a stage set.

.THERE IS NO POWER IN FOG MACHINES. THERE IS NO POWER IF I WEAR EXPENSIVE SKINNY JEANS. THE POWER IS THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST AND NOTHING ELSE. AND SO PAUL JUST MADE SURE HE GOT OUT OF THE WAY of everything else.

Now I have to confess this is not always easy. I read Paul’s words, “my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom”…. And on the surface of that I think, or wonderful that’s something I have in common with Paul b/c my preaching is not often accompanied by people saying, WOW, Joe you are just so wise, ooh man, can you come to U of C and do a lecture there……… But I think back in particular to Thursday as I was beginning my preparations for this message and wondering why I am having such a hard time getting this thing going. It seemed like such a straight forward simple passage which it is. And therein my heart idol got exposed. It was too simple of a message to bring. It didn’t feel like I had any loftly speech or wisdom. there were no plausible words. It seemed so basic and I wasn’t trusting the power of the message but the power of JOE. And how often is easy for me to fall into that lie, that I can save people, that my polished and profundity of speech can save. It’s can’t THE CROSS IS THE POWER OF GOD for salvation!

Do we know the power of the cross in your life? Do we desire to know more of it? We can. All of us here as Christ follower can.

You want to experience God’s power at work in your life, pray for it, just like Paul did in Ephesians 3:

Ephesians 1:18-19

having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe,

GOD do this in my life, awaken me to all that you would have for me in Christ. HOLY SPIRIT fall fresh me, expose sin in my life and help to walk even today in the fullness of your POWER! AWAKEN me from my SLUMBER and pour in my heart an unquenchable fire and passion for the cross of CHRIST........ And see how he answers that prayer in my life and yours. And see what happens in our church, in our small groups, in our city.

You see the Christian life is one of daily dying to self and carry the cross God would have for each of us. It’s the cruciformed life! That’s what our LORD said to any who would come after HIM, discipleship 101 lest any of us thing this is for a certain kind of Christian.....

Luke 9:23-24

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

God help me and each of us here to do so.

The. Folly. The boast. The power.

STORY OF SAM:

Let me end with a story from last Sunday when I was at my home at my kitchen table, Sunday night football in the background and doing some prep work for my sermon. I took a mental beak and checked out the local ABC7 website and my eyes were drawn to a story on a 44 yr old biker named Sam who was hit and killed on Thursday September 8th riding north on the 700 block Milwaukee Avenue by an erratic driver. I read the article and I couldn’t help but think how I have used an electronic bike before and how brief life is and looked for something on his faith and didn’t see it. Immediately took another mental break and looked on Instagram and the top post on my feed was by my buddy Cam who is a member here and it’s a tribute to his friendship w/ SAM and the kind of person he was and other kinds of nice things. So I text Cam right away and mention the article I just read and Cam told me that Sam had actually been to a LP a few times.

And it was in the moment as I was beginning sermon prep there was like a fire put in my heart and how critical this message of the cross is. I couldn’t help but wonder how clearly did Sam hear about crucified Christ for his redemption and righteousness. And so as I hope this message has already done and I want to one more time put Christ before all gathered here in this space or even watching on-line-God’s love for you, his desire for you to be counted amongst those who believe . VERSE 21. THAT TODAY you would believe in CHRIST, you would have SAVING FAITH. That you would see in Christ, no longer on a cross but reigning at the right hand of GOD in HEAVEN, full of GRACE and MERCY, eager to forgive if you would just RECEIVE HIM TODAY. If you would acknowledge your sin, repent of your PRIDE, your WISDOM, your POWER, whatever it may be that keeps you from turning to HIM and cast yourself at His feet, and receive HIM by FAITH so that you too can become a child of GOD, know HIS POWER, and now HE CAN BE YOUR ONE GREAT BOAST. THAT YOU KNOW THE LIVING GOD, and JESUS CHRIST WHOM HE SENT to rescue you for all of eternity. BELIEVE IN HIM TODAY!