“Leaders” 1 Corinthians 3:1-23

March 30, 2008

First Church of the Brethren

H. Kevin Derr

1 Corinthians 3:1-23  

“Leaders”

 

¹ Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. ² I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. ³ You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere human beings? ⁴ For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

    ⁵ What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. ⁶ I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. ⁷ So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. ⁹ For we are God’s co-workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

    ¹⁰ By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. ¹¹ For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ¹³ their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. ¹⁴ If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

    ¹⁶ Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

    ¹⁸ Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; ²⁰ and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” ²¹ So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, ²² whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, ²³ and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

As we move into the third chapter of 1 Corinthians, we continue to see the underlying issue of unity in the church.  I don’t think that it is possible to overstate the importance of unity in the church, so that we can properly understand the whole of this letter.  Here is the crux of unity in the church, all of the additional issues that Paul address are secondary to unity.  The point is to settle these secondary issues in order to maintain the unity of the whole church.  This is the very point where the protestant reformation fails, rather than working to settle difference, groups simply started new churches.  The end result is a massively fragmented church.

 

Prayer

 

I.                   Paul begins this section of the letter with what at first seem like unkind words, but it is likely that they are honest and spoken with affection, even if there is also remorse because of their state of maturity.

a.       Paul writes, ¹ Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. ² I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.

                                                              i.      Paul is speaking of  a previous correspondence or conversation, the context is not clear or specific.  Then the situation was, you were “mere infants in Christ.” 

1.      The understanding being that they are given the basics until they mature.

2.      He says “I gave you milk, not solid food”

3.      As the situation demanded, he provided

                                                            ii.      But, what is their present condition or level of maturity?  Have they progressed?

                                                          iii.      The sad reality is that they have not, the divisions and infighting among them are marks of their immaturity.  They still cannot deal with anything but basic instruction in Christ Jesus because they are still infants in Christ.

b.      If Paul could say this in a more direct fashion I would be shocked.  He writes, ³ You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere human beings? ⁴ For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

                                                              i.      He says, “You are still worldly”  In other words you are not living or acting like Christians, you are not Christlike!

                                                            ii.      Here are the traits that show their maturity: they are jealous, they quarrel with each other, they act like the rest of the world, like mere human beings.

1.      The continue to promote divisions among themselves

2.      I follow Paul, I follow Apollos. . ., It sounds much like the modern western church, I am a conservative, I am a liberal, I am a . . .

3.      Our attempts to prove our points, at times displays our lack of genuine spiritual maturity, and we promote divisions and act as mere human beings.

c.       This is the part where it may get difficult for us, troubling even.  Paul writes:   ⁵ What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. ⁶ I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. ⁷ So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. ⁸ The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. ⁹ For we are God’s co-workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

                                                              i.      Paul says, “What is Apollos, what is Paul?  Only servants of God, through whom you came to believe.”

1.      Our allegiance is not primarily to any one person, theology, or one denomination

2.      We owe our allegiance primarily to Christ Jesus.

a.       Here is the reality:

                                                                                                                                      i.      One plants a seed

                                                                                                                                    ii.      Another waters the seed

                                                                                                                                  iii.      But it is God who makes it grow

b.      These others are not our enemies, our completion, they are fellow laborers in the Lord.

                                                                                                                                      i.      We do not labor for ourselves but we labor for Christ Jesus

                                                                                                                                    ii.      The point in all this is not to honor Paul or Apollos, or substitute any modern counterpart you like, but to honor God through Christ Jesus.

3.      Yet, when we become preoccupied with our own allegiances, with those things that should not come before Christ, but we put them ahead of Christ Jesus.

a.       There is a long list of our allegiances, pick an issue or a topic and you will find one, as long as they remain secondary and not primary they are fine, and at points we will have to disagree, but our disagreement should never cause detriment to the body of Christ.

b.      When we insist on our way, on our privilege, on our esteem, we are not following Jesus example and washing the feet of our brothers and sisters.

                                                            ii.      Now we come to a point that is central to Paul’s argument, the efforts of all believers should be to work to build up the body of Christ, to display Christ to people through their living, through their work, through co-operation with other believers.

1.      Paul talks about it this way: ¹⁰ By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. ¹¹ For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ¹³ their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. ¹⁴ If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. ¹⁵ If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

a.       Paul says, I started this building here in Corinth, by the grace that God gave me.

                                                                                                                                      i.      He says specifically, “I laid a foundation as a wise builder. . .”

                                                                                                                                    ii.      The enterprise began rightly, righteously, and with good work and effort

1.      But others have been building on that foundation

2.      Every builder, every believer must build wisely upon the foundation that is already laid

3.      That foundation is Christ Jesus

b.      Jesus is our foundation, our starting point, our primary allegiance.  Everything else is secondary!

c.       Paul assumes that others will build on the foundation, the only question is what kind of work will they do?

                                                                                                                                      i.      He says people will build with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw

                                                                                                                                    ii.      How do we know what people are building with?  Knowing what others are building with is not our primary concern, knowing what we are building with is:

1.      The works of each believer, each builder, will be judged by fire

2.      You could claim that this is a reference to the fires of hell, but I think that is poor choice

3.      The implication of fire really seems to be the notion of the refiners fire, or trouble and tribulation.  They may be some sense of eschatology present here, but it seems more that this is an ongoing process not a final judgment scenario

4.      It is not a question of salvation, but one of reward.  The one whose work is suspect, that does not survive the test of scrutiny will suffer loss, but not the loss of salvation.

2.      Not everyone will want to be a builder, but the truth is, all believers are responsible to contribute to the Kingdom, to the whole, so the question is not, do I want to be a builder, but what kind of builder will I be.

II.                It would almost seem that Paul is transitioning here to another subject, but he is only changing his metaphor.  He states, ¹⁶ Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.

a.       Paul is not speaking of the body of one individual believer here, he is speaking of the church as a body.  God’s spirit dwells in the body of believers, his temple.  Just as the Ark of the Covenant signified God’s presence in the Temple in Jerusalem.

                                                              i.      So, the warning is not for those who might persecute the church, “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person.”

1.      This is still in keeping with the internal conflict and divisions, if you destroy God’s temple God will destroy you.

2.      Because God’s temple is sacred, and the body of Christ, the church is that temple.

b.      Paul is stating very plainly that there can be no divisions in the church, he is very serious about this, no divisions based on personality or wisdom of the wise of this age.  He writes, ¹⁸ Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; ²⁰ and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”  

                                                              i.      Do not deceive yourselves.

1.      That divisions are fine

2.      That we should be like the rest of humanity and break up our solidarity over personality or some bit of sophistry?

3.      Don’t think that you are wise by the standards of this age

a.       They were living in a time of technological advancement, wonders and travel and trade and the Roman peace

b.      The wisdom of that age crashed and broke and became nothing, it was eventually overrun

c.       The same will happen to our age

d.      We cannot depend on the wisdom of this age to make us holy, righteous, or Christ-like

4.      We need to forget the wisdom this age and become fools, here is the issue:

a.       We have a tendency to take whatever works in business and culture to make this popular and apply the to the church.

                                                                                                                                      i.      But, let me ask you, do you really want church to be like McDonalds?

                                                                                                                                    ii.      Come get the goods or services you want and then pay and go home.  Is that what church should be like?

                                                                                                                                  iii.      I think Paul would say, No! 

b.      The Church is to be the Body of Christ, the Temple of God, the place where God’s spirit dwells, a quick marketing solution may increase attendance, but will it make mature, connected disciples or just people consuming religious goods and services?

                                                            ii.      Remember, ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; ²⁰ and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”  

1.      Part of the problem is that we let church become so many other things that what it is at is core, the body of Christ the place where the Spirit of God dwells.  Our primary allegiance is to Christ Jesus and everything else comes after that.

a.       And it is not say that these other things are bad, because they are not.  The problem is when you and I make things that are essentially secondary issues and place them above Christ Jesus.

b.      This is the same thing that happened at Corinth

2.      People were willing to sacrifice the unity of the body of petty personal issues of pride and position.  What have been our own points of willingness to sacrifice the unity of the body for our own pet issues and desires?

III.             I love this last portion of the text: ²¹ So then, no more boasting about human leaders! All things are yours, ²² whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, ²³ and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

a.       Put this issue of divisions to rest, be done with it!  This is not to say that there are not points were we are called to render discipline, and withhold fellowship from people who claim to be believers. 

                                                              i.      But it is a last resort, in order to keep unity in the body.  It is not an excuse to form a new fellowship or sever a limb from the body of Christ.

                                                            ii.      Paul says, don’t you realize, “All things are yours. . .”

1.      Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life or death, the present or the future, all are yours

2.      You’ve got everything at your disposal and if that is not enough, you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.

3.      Paul is trying to help the church at Corinth and you and I to get the big picture, not to fight over petty little items but to embrace the bigger picture and see what God has for us.

Palm Sunday, 2008 Matthew 27:11-54

Matthew 27:11-54

“Palms & Kings”

 

¹¹ Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “You have said so,” Jesus replied.

¹² When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. ¹³ Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” ¹⁴ But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor.

¹⁵ Now it was the governor’s custom at the Festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. ¹⁶ At that time they had a well-known prisoner whose name was Jesus Barabbas. ¹⁷ So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” ¹⁸ For he knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him.

¹⁹ While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”

²⁰ But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed. ²¹ “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor. “Barabbas,” they answered.

²² “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked.
They all answered, “Crucify him!” ²³ “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

²⁴ When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!”

²⁵ All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!” ²⁶ Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

The Soldiers Mock Jesus

²⁷ Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. ²⁸ They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹ and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. ³⁰ They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. ³¹ After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

The Crucifixion of Jesus

³² As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. ³³ They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). ³⁴ There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. ³⁵ When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. ³⁶ And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. ³⁷ Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

³⁸ Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. ³⁹ Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads ⁴⁰ and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!”

⁴¹ In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. ⁴² “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. ⁴³ He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” ⁴⁴ In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

The Death of Jesus

⁴⁵ From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. ⁴⁶ About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

⁴⁷ When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”

⁴⁸ Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. ⁴⁹ The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”

⁵⁰ And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

⁵¹ At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split ⁵² and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. ⁵³ They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

⁵⁴ When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

 

What does it take for us to realize who Jesus is? It is a rather odd question isn’t it? But it is an important question. When we consider the events of Jesus life, culminating in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and his subsequent arrest, torture, trial and execution, it includes many indications of who Jesus is, but does it still reach us? When we begin to look at the account of Jesus last week of life it is one goes from the highs of triumph to death on a cross, acclaim by the crowd to abandonment by the crowd. It sees the death of Jesus and the tombs of the holy dead opened with them being seen by many. It is a time of change and transition, one of doubt and hope, one of death and the promise of life.

Prayer

 

I. Matthew’s account includes the entry of Jesus in triumph, but this year we look beyond the palms of acclaim to the passion of the Christ, his trial and execution.

a. Matthew writes, ¹¹ Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” “You have said so,” Jesus replied.

i. Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” He does not ask if he is a descendant of David, a rightful heir to the throne, he asks presently, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Is this a spiritual question or a political question?

ii. Jesus reply to this question is, “You have said so.” In his answer, Jesus does not say yes or no to his question. He says, This is what you say.

1. This does not answer our question, is this a political or spiritual question? Or does it?

2. Perhaps it is best understood as both. To be a follower of Jesus, to submit to Jesus as our Lord, our King, our Cesar, is both a spiritual and political decision.

a. It is first and foremost a spiritual question, but in answering yes to Jesus, it becomes a political issue as well.

b. Our faith, following Jesus, claiming Jesus as King, implies that it will influence all that we do and say. If we segment Jesus to just spiritual matters we are not really his followers, because following Jesus includes all of our activities.

c. In the contemporary world we divide things into spiritual, scientific, political, economic, etc… but in the ancient world such things did not happen. Government was assumed to have religious content, as did economics and the philosophic as well as scientific.

d. Yet, Pilate is asking a question, that is significant, “Are you seeking to undermine Roman rule and authority?”

i. Jesus answers, “You have said that I am.”

ii. But he says nothing more on the subject.

b. Pilates question is asked, now come the religious questions, ¹² When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. ¹³ Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” ¹⁴ But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor.

i. Jesus does not respond to these questions at all. This astonishes Pilate, he Jesus is he has heard and understood what they are saying, and still Jesus says nothing.

ii. Why? Because their minds were already made up about Jesus. He was a threat to them, and so had to be dealt with.

1. Pilates concern was protecting Rome and perhaps his own place in the empire

2. These men, be they Pharisees or Sadducees, were either, in their own minds, protecting the state, the people or the temple or on the worst side their own wealth and position.

3. Jesus was a threat to both Pilate and these leaders of the people.

a. To Pilate, so as to protect the civil order and his place

b. To the leaders to protect their place or the people and state

c. Pilate, attempts to secure the most public good will: ¹⁵ Now it was the governor’s custom at the Festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd. ¹⁶ At that time they had a well-known prisoner whose name was Jesus Barabbas. ¹⁷ So when the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, “Which one do you want me to release to you: Jesus Barabbas, or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” ¹⁸ For he knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him.

¹⁹ While Pilate was sitting on the judge’s seat, his wife sent him

this message: “Don’t have anything to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered a great deal today in a dream because of him.”

²⁰ But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed. ²¹ “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” asked the governor. “Barabbas,” they answered.

d. Pilate’s Scheme: To secure good will of the populace, to keep them happy.

i. To this end he brings Jesus to the crowd to set him free, which he sees as being the best solution. He doesn’t create another martyr out of a man who had people chanting in the streets as he came in to the city, he keeps them happy.

ii. So he offers the choice of Jesus or another hardened criminal Barabbas.

iii. Pilates wife comes and says stay away from this man, he is dangerous. Have nothing to do with him.

1. So he makes the offer to the people, Jesus the Messiah or Jesus Barabbas?

2. They wanted Barabbas, now we are told that the Chief Priests and the elders, persuaded the crowd to answer this way.

e. Now Pilate talks to the crowd: “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” Pilate asked. They all answered, “Crucify him!” ²³ “Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”

i. The crowd chooses Barabbas, now I don’t know what Pilate is attempting here, but he asks the crowd what he should do with Jesus.

1. What are his motives, part of me want to say he was beginning to understand who Jesus is.

2. Another line of thinking pushes me to think that Pilate thought Jesus innocent

3. Still another pushes me down the road of Pilate’s self- preservation, in other words being a skilled politician.

4. Pilate had people executed before:

a. But he had never dealt with someone who had the whole city in an uproar.

b. He never faced someone like Jesus, and Jesus forced him to make a decision.

c. Jesus did not absolve Pilate of his predicament.

ii. The crowd says “Crucify him!”

1. Rather than make decision, Pilate is now forced into a place where his hands are tied, he gave control of this issue, of Jesus to the crowd. His wife was right, Jesus is dangerous.

2. So, he tries to take the easy way out, a cowards way.

3.

II. Pilates undoing: ²⁴ When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” he said. “It is your responsibility!” ²⁵ All the people answered, “His blood is on us and on our children!” ²⁶ Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

a. Pilate couldn’t satisfy the crowd, so he has one choice to give them what they want.

i. But, he tries to deny his responsibility for the action.

1. He took water and washed his hands of t he matter in front of the people, so as to say, this is not my decision.

2. The crowd said they would take responsibility:

ii. But verse 26 tells the story as it is, ²⁶ Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.

iii. It took Pilate to release Barabbas, it took Pilates order to have Jesus crucified. Ultimately he is responsible for the action. He was a man with little courage. And Jesus was dangerous, dangerous to the status quo, to the normal way of life, to established patters of religion and society, to the fabric of family and honor, to the world as it is ordered.

b. No matter what we say, the soldiers listen to Pilate, not the crowd. It took his order for these things to happen. Matthew writes, ²⁷ Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. ²⁸ They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹ and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. ³⁰ They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. ³¹ After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

i. The governor’s soldiers took Jesus, they stripped him, put a scarlet robe on him, made a crown of thrones and put it on his head, put a staff in his hand and they knelt in front of him and mocked him.

1. “Hail, king of the Jews!” the Jews would not challenge their power, their right to rule the world. And not this one man.

2. The spit on him, beat him, and then took him away to be crucified. Pilate did not hand Jesus to the crowd to be stoned, he ordered his soldiers to do the work. The responsibility is his.

ii. It only gets worse from here: ³² As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. ³³ They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). ³⁴ There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. ³⁵ When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. ³⁶ And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. ³⁷ Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

1. Jesus was so weakened by his ordeal at this time, he was unable to carry his own cross, a typical custom of the Romans, carrying the instrument of your own death.

2. They get to the appointed place where the crucifixion is to take place, and offer him wine mixed with gall, Jesus refuses:

a. Why? What was the gall?

b. It may have been a poison to kill him quickly?

c. It may have been a narcotic to numb the pain?

d. It may have been mixed with bitter water?

e. More than this I cannot tell you.

3. Then they crucified him, divide up his clothes by casting lots, and then sat down to watch the proceedings.

4. Above his head they placed a sign, Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.

c. More Mocking: ³⁸ Two rebels were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. ³⁹ Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads ⁴⁰ and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!”

⁴¹ In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the

elders mocked him. ⁴² “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. ⁴³ He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’ ” ⁴⁴ In the same way the rebels who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

i. Jesus is not alone, there are two other men being crucified, rebels, political prisoners.

1. Those who came to see the spectacle, mocked them, taunted them

2. To Jesus they said things like, “You were going to destroy the temple and raise it up again in three days, were you”

a. Little did they realize in three days he would be rise again on the first day of the week.

b. They missed seeing who Jesus was

ii. There were those of the local political and religious authorities too, they said, . ⁴³ He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’

iii. Eventually, the rebels on the crosses next to him said the same things…

III. This brings us to the point, Jesus death: ⁴⁵ From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. ⁴⁶ About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

⁴⁷ When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.” ⁴⁸ Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. ⁴⁹ The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”

⁵⁰ And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. ⁵¹ At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from to to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split ⁵² and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. ⁵³ They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

⁵⁴ When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

a. From noon until three in the after noon Jesus was alive on the cross. At three he died. For that time, darkness covered the land.

i. At three Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

ii. Many though he was calling Elijah, what the Romans thought at this point we have no idea.

1. Someone ran to get Jesus a drink of vinegar/wine, filled a sponge and put it on a poll to offer it to Jesus to drink.

2. them people said leave him alone and see what happens

3. then Jesus cried out in a loud voice and died.

a. At that moment, the veil in the temple that divided the holy of Holies from the Holy Place was torn in tow from the top to the bottom

b. The earth shook, rocks split

c. Tombs opened up and holy people who were dead were up and walking around

d.

IV. All that brings us to this point: Matthew writes, ⁵⁴ When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

a. What those of a Jewish background thought of the whole series of events we do not know, we only know what a group of Romans said.

i. “Surely he was the Son of God.”

ii. They were terrified, they realized that this was indeed God’s son, and dangerous. But they understood.

b. Do we understand who Jesus is?

i. Do we realize that Jesus is still dangerous

ii. That Jesus is working to bring about radical transformation in men and women, and in our culture and in our world.

iii. Do we realize that this Jesus, the Lion of Judah, is waiting and will eventually judge the quick and the dead.

1. We will not be able to wash our hands of him, no more than Pilate did

We must decide if Jesus is indeed who he claims to be, the Messiah, the King, and then to live accordingly?

“Revealed by the Spirit” 1 Corinthians 2:1-16

March 9, 2008

First Church of the Brethren

H. Kevin Derr

1 Corinthians 2:1-16

“Revealed by the Spirit”

 
¹ And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. ² For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³ I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. ⁴ My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵ so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

God’s Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit

    ⁶ We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷ No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸ None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived—
these things God has prepared for those who love him”—

    ¹⁰ for God has revealed them to us by his Spirit.

    The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹ For who knows a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit within? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 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. 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. ¹⁵ The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, ¹⁶ for,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”
But we have the mind of Christ.

 

Paul was a trained rhetoritician, a speaker, a thinker, a person who knew how to make a persuasive argument, and get the results he desired.  This was part of any classical education in the ancient world.  Yet, Paul tells his readers that this is not the means by which they were drawn into the body of Christ.  It was not the speakers power, argument or brilliance that won them over, rather it was the revelation of God’s power in their midst, through the preaching of the Cross.

 
Prayer

I.                   I find Paul’s opening in the second chapter so powerful.  He is working to bring first unity to the church, now he is working to build that unity into maturity. 

a.       He states openly: ¹ And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.

                                                              i.      Paul did not use the typical rhetorical forms to make an impassioned speech to these people at Corinth, he did not dazzle them with his logic or reason or wisdom.

                                                            ii.      It was not the power of his voice or the poetic fashion of his language that shook them and caused them to follow after Christ.

                                                          iii.      He says, “I proclaimed to you the testimony about God”

1.      The Kerygma, the core preaching of the early church that we talk about last week.

2.      It was not my wisdom, preaching or skills as an orator that had a effect it was this testimony about God.  About Jesus the Crucified.

                                                          iv.      Paul was a scholar, he was educated and a Roman citizen as well, he could have used all these things to persuade these people into believing, into following Jesus.  He writes, ² For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

1.      I resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

2.      Paul has taken steps to make sure that this does church in Corinth does not become a cult of personality centered around him.

a.       I doubt his website address was www.paulsministry.org

b.      This was not about him.  It is about Jesus, it is about people following Jesus and not Paul.

                                                                                                                                      i.      This was not Paul’s church, it is the body of Christ

                                                                                                                                    ii.      So, he does not employ the powerful tools of rhetoric and logic and wisdom to sell them Jesus.

                                                                                                                                  iii.      He speaks rather the message of the church, Jesus Christ and him crucified

1.      He asserts that the efficacy to his work is not in his oratory skills

2.      But rather in the word of God the message of God’s action, of Jesus crucified.

                                                            v.      Listen to the way that he says this: ³ I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. ⁴ My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵ so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

1.      He came in the fashion that he describes in the previous chapter, in what God uses to nullify the things that are, the weak, the powerless, the shamed.  So, he comes in weakness, in great fear, in trembling.

2.      The results are not a based on his preaching:

a.       Not on: human wisdom,

b.      But on a demonstration of the Spirit’s power

                                                                                                                                      i.      So that their faith may be built on God’s power, not human wisdom

                                                                                                                                    ii.      It starts me wandering, how much of our faith is built on “human wisdom,” how much is our construct and how much of our faith is based on an experience of the Spirit’s power.

b.      Now is Paul saying that there is no wisdom in the message of the cross, of Jesus crucified?  Not at all.  In verse six he writes, ⁶ We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

                                                              i.      There is a message of wisdom that is spoken among the mature, but it is not the wisdom of this age, of human manufacture.  It is interesting in what he says of the wisdom of his age, and I suppose the wisdom of any age, it is coming to nothing.

                                                            ii.      Now it almost begins to seem like Paul is telling us that there is secret information for the initiated.  He writes, ⁷ No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

1.      God’s wisdom is a mystery that has been hidden

2.      That God has destined for “our glory” before the creation of the universe

3.      He then turns the focus on the powerful, the wise of the age, he writes, ⁸ None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

a.       The wisest of this age, didn’t understand, the simple, foolish, message that you and I did.

b.      The proof that the did not have the wisdom to comprehend the wonder before them, they crucified Jesus, if they understood they never would have.

c.       The proof of the folly is in their actions.

4.      But for the foolish that are in reality the wise, the last who became first, we find these words, . ⁹ However, as it is written:
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived—
these things God has prepared for those who love him“—   ¹⁰ for God has revealed them to us by his Spirit.

a.       Paul in quoting Isaiah 64:4 tells us that those who  understand are in for more than any one has seen heard or conceived, because for those that love God, he has prepared some wonderful and inconceivable things.

b.      But they will only be reveled by his spirit, and this is the hard part for us to get at times.  It is not by our knowledge, wisdom, intellect, insight or strength, this is a gift of God, given via his spirit.  We are not in control of this revelation.

II.                Now Paul tells us about the Spirit, the one who brings us the revelation of God.  He states: “The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹ For who knows a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit within? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”

a.       The spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

                                                              i.      There is nothing beyond the scope of the Spirits knowledge.  This is illustrated for us in Genesis 1:1-2 ¹In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ²Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

                                                            ii.      The Spirit knows the universe, the chaos, the order, the whole of God’s creation.  The Spirit is present in the created order, and the Spirit knows the universe as well as God.

1.      The Spirit knows…. And reveals the universe to God’s people.

2.      The Spirit knows the deep things of God, just as we know our own hearts and minds.

a.       We may not acknowledge what we know of ourselves

b.      But who knows us better than we know ourselves?

b.      Now he tells us about the Spirit we have received.  The Sprit is the Holy Spirit, and is given to us, those who believe in Jesus, along with forgiveness, the gift of the Holy Spirit.  He says, “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 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.”

                                                              i.      In Christ we do not receive the spirit of the world, the wisdom of the world or the values of the world

                                                            ii.      We receive the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit who is from the Father, enables us to understand what has been freely given to us.

1.      It is because of this that we don’t use the world’s patterns of knowledge and wisdom to explain what has been revealed to us.

2.      He says we explain “spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words” or philosophy or wisdom.

3.      In other words, what is revealed to us is from God and we do not depend on the traditions of the world to convey the gospel, the good news.

                                                          iii.      This is the reason that we can never reduce the gospel to a simple set of propositional statements that make faith in Jesus the only logical, reasonable choice, and thus everyone becomes a follower of Jesus.  Paul says, 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.

1.      Without the Spirit, people will not understand, want or accept the things that come from God, rather they will be considered foolishness, superstition and comic.

2.      The appeal of the cross, the beauty of the gospel, the logic of Jesus are only understood or discerned through the Holy Spirit.

III.             The Mind of Christ: Paul continues with this thought, ¹⁵ The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, ¹⁶ for,
“Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”
But we have the mind of Christ.

a.       Here is the crux of this the follower of Jesus, who is endowed with the Holy Spirit, will make judgments about all things, we already make judgments about all things.

                                                              i.      But what are our judgments based on:  In Christ, we have the mind of Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to instruct us, to lead us to all knowledge as the scriptures say.

                                                            ii.      Does this mean that we become infallible?  No, not at all.  Just because we have the mind of Christ does not mean that we pay any attention.

1.      Church history is filled with bad judgments and poor choices

2.      but, we have the potential to make judgments or decisions based on a new set of values, Kingdom values, the mind of Christ.

                                                          iii.      No longer are we bound to or controlled by the values and patterns of our culture.  We know that there are other choices, and we can now choose those better things.

Reflections on life, fatherhood and wanting to be parents

    I was going through some files and found a file that I had written some years ago.  Years before my son was born, when my wife and I were first attempting to have children.

My First Father’s Day

 

My First Father’s Day

 

After preaching almost every Sunday for a decade I had a Sunday I will never forget. It was not my best Sermon, nor was it an outstanding high mark in worship. It was Father’s Day. A day for me that was filled with many different emotions. Thanksgiving for the wonderful father I have; he is a true gift of God in my life. I was also filled with hope, for I knew that Pat and I could conceive a life. I also knew pain, sadness and death, for the life we had conceived, our first child, was now dead even before this new life had an opportunity to draw a first breath.

     I have prepared sermons and worship for all sorts of special Sundays. On these occasions I find myself looking at special days like Mother’s Day and Father’s Day as a need to honor and respect our parents but also with both concern and suspicion. I have often had a concern about the culture superseding the message and mission of the church. While I find times to honor and respect our elders, our parents and the ideas of family important and necessary, it seems to me that it should never equal or match Easter, Christmas, Ascension Sunday or Pentecost Sunday. So I have typically keep Mother’s and Father’s day fairly low on the priority list and have not typically even prepared special sermons for the occasion.

     As I now reflect on my First Father’s day, it was a day I could not name. I had it printed in the bulletin, in my sermon notes and yet, through it all I was unable to put that name on this particular Sunday. I never acknowledged it during the service.  Pat told me just a few weeks before that she was pregnant. We were parents. It was an exciting time.  We were adjusting our lives to this new reality that was growing within Pat. We began to make plans for the nursery and preparations for a new addition to our family.  We had started to make plans to equip the house and ourselves for this exciting change. On the Friday evening of the week before Father’s day we meet my parents for dinner. After a couple hours in the car and we got the Restaurant where we were meeting them to tell them that they would be having their third grandchild. It was exciting. It was fun. The evening was filled with hope and promise.  We were enjoying the anticipation of the arrival of our baby. Then Tuesday evening came and Pat began to experience some abdominal cramping and a little bleeding. We called our doctor and he saw us at 9:30 that evening. He was helpful, caring and kind. He told us that it was most likely implantation bleeding. When the fetus implants itself in the wall of the uterus, at times a blood vessel is severed and some mild bleeding occurs. To be safe he arranged for an ultrasound to be scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.

     Wednesday morning I came to the office and was a bit distracted. Even after the reassuring words of the Doctor, we still were concerned. We arrived at the hospital for the ultrasound and Pat found she was having some additional light bleeding. The Ultrasound produced no evidence that she was pregnant, no evidence of a tubal pregnancy. The opinion of the radiologist was that the pregnancy had terminated and Pat was in the process of having a miscarriage. He told us that 1 in 6 pregnancies end in miscarriage and that the percentage was even higher for first pregnancies.

     The doctor made it sound painless, clinical, and as if it was a natural thing. He was compassionate and kind, gentle in his tone of voice, almost soothing. Yet, behind the carefully constructed facade of language was the ugly truth. Our baby was dead.

     In the space of a few sentences, in the breadth of a few phrases our hopes and dreams had turned to ashes in our hearts. Possibilities had ended.  Dreams died. Gone was a child we would never hold. A voice we would never hear. A pair of hands we would never hold. A set of legs we would never see walk. A child we would never put to bed. A child we would never take to school.  Even the very simple things parents remember fondly would never become memories for us.  A life we would never know. It was a change that happened so quickly that the weight of the words did not hit us full force for at least a half an hour. We were now in the parking lot, sitting in our car holding onto each other and weeping. Death had replaced dreams. Hope who had died was now dead in our hearts. Pat and I both responded in different ways. Pat spoke to friends and family on the phone and I retreated to the piano. We, Pat and I, are very similar in many ways, but we are also different in some important areas. Pat is an extrovert, she processes things with people. I am an introvert and process things internally in solitude. We began to grieve.  We grieved together and with friends and family and we grieved alone.

    Grief is an odd thing. Our culture is not comfortable with grieving. We do not know what to say or what to do.  We are like adolescents on our first dates stumbling through the social conventions we have only seen but never understood. We are overly concerned with how we will appear to others and what they will think. So we are with grieving, we are unsure of how to handle pain. We desire to be insulated, anaesthetized to our feelings of lose and sorrow. We want a quick pill to make everything nice and easy again. Yet, there is no mourning pill. There may be a morning after pill, but there is no pill to ease mourning. As Pat talked to people at work, she found people who had lost a child like we did.  Their emotions were still just under the surface as they appeared to never have truly grieved the loss of their child.  Some entered into Pat’s grief very quickly.

Sermon: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 “Power and Wisdom”

March 2, 2008

First Church of the Brethren

H. Kevin Derr

1 Corinthians 1:18-31

“Power and Wisdom”

¹⁸ For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

²⁰ Where are the wise? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. ²² Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

²⁶ Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸ God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹ so that no one may boast before him. ³⁰ It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. ³¹ Therefore, as it is written: “Let those who boast, boast in the Lord.”

Paul is addressing those who form the church in Corinth. At this point it may be one fellowship that gathers in one house, it may be many house church in the city of Corinth. The number of the followers of Jesus at the time of the writing of this letter is not known. It is by the evidence in the text itself comprised of both Jewish and Gentile converts. It also seems to be formed of both the wealthy and influential as well as the poor and slave classes. The number of each of these socio-economic groups is unknown, but it is assumed that the majority were slaves or poor. Just as a side note here, the number of slaves in Corinth at the time of the writing of this letter was probably double the rate of the free persons.

Corinth is an extremely important trading city of the day, the leading city for the region, wealth and power are held by many, traditional Greek philosophy and wisdom traditions are very important. The Jewish community of Corinth was likely Hellenized, Greek in culture and language, but Hebraic in religious tradition.

Prayer

I. This section follows directly on Paul’s warning about divisions or schisms in the body. There is something unprecedented here, Jews and Greeks abandoning their traditions to become followers of Jesus.

a. There are some key ideas that surface in this and really display how easy it would be to see fractures form in the church at this point.

i. Paul writes in Galatians 3:28 ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

ii. That may not sound revolutionary but consider its impact in a world divided by race, wealth, status and gender.

1. You can’t convince me that in the modern world we live like this, not even in the church.

2. The most segregated hour in North America is Sunday Morning at about 11:00 AM. Churches!

3. Most churches are centered in on socio-economic group, with a range of about one half from the median.

4. In Paul’s world, Women were often treated as property, if they were included in society at all.

iii. But in the church, Paul is following Jesus tradition of preaching to the whole spectrum of society.

1. Here is a group of people, wealthy to poor, free persons to slaves, educated to illiterate, Greek and Jew, all in one body.

2. The tensions must have been high at points, but consider the impact this kind of example could have on a culture.

iv. With that as the background Paul writes, ¹⁸ For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

1. What is the message of the Cross? Acts 2:22-24, 32-33, 38-39

2. ²² “People of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. ²³ This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, ^[a] put him to death by nailing him to the cross. ²⁴ But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. . . . ³² God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. ³³ Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. . . . ³⁸ Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

3. Is this the whole of what Paul preached, no. This is the core, the central message of the early church, it is recorded in a variety of places both in the scriptures and in the literature of the church.

a. Central to this is Jesus death and resurrection, that make makes repentance and forgiveness a possibility, and the gift of the Holy Spirit

b. Now we also see here the practice of Jesus to speak to women, the sinner, the outcast as well as the rich and the religious, Paul incorporates these into the message.

v. The preaching of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing:

1. At first glance what does Jesus dying and being raised to life have to do with forgiveness? To those who are bound in sin and pain and suffering this seems like utter foolishness.

2. How could being baptized in Jesus’ name have any impact on a persons life?

a. Sin is like putting on weight it happens slowly, and you don’t realize the effects until well after it’s a problem

b. Forgiveness does not take away the consequences, but it does remove the guilt, and the penalty of separation from God.

i. The convicted felon who repents and is baptized is still in prison, but he or she has started a new life. The consequences of his or her actions do not go away

ii. The guilt and separation from God do become a thing of the past.

vi. Paul continues, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

1. To those who understand what this means, what the cross does, this foolishness becomes the very power of God to transform lives and hearts.

2. This becomes the controlling idea for the next few lines, foolishness and power.

b. We see Paul’s background and training displaying itself, Paul references Isaiah 29:14 to make his point: . ¹⁹ For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

i. Paul is reaching back to Isaiah to drive home the point, for those of Jewish heritage it will speak even more loudly, because the context of God’s word’s through Isaiah are about the renewal of God’s people.

ii. In a very real way that is exactly what we are talking about here.

1. God will do away with the wisdom of the wise, the wisdom of human invention, and the intelligence of the intelligent he will frustrate

2. This is exactly what the preaching of the cross does.

II. We start to look at some of the meat of Paul’s message: He writes, ²⁰ Where are the wise? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

a. Paul asks in essence what all the wisdom and knowledge and achievements of humanity have brought.

i. Through our wisdom we are on the verge of destroying the world, either through our ability with nuclear weapons, our consumption of natural resources or the destruction of our ecosystems.

1. Yes we have done marvelous things, a man on the moon, instant communication, via so many means, advances in medicine

2. And the whole time we race to our own destruction.

3. That’s human wisdom.

4. Human wisdom does not lead us to God. That is not to say that the natural world does not point us to God, it is to say that our endeavors have not brought us to God.

ii. So we live isolated in our ability for almost infinite connectivity, often living in a voyeuristic fashion rather than actually participating in life.

b. So, since the wisdom of the world was not to take us to God, God is pleased to use foolishness, the preaching of the cross, to save those who believe.

c. Now Paul pushes this just a bit further, he tells the church at Corinth, ²² Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

i. In the Jewish tradition, people looked for signs. . . In the Greek tradition people wanted wisdom, but God gave them, and us, Jesus Crucified.

1. This was not a sign that was appreciated by Jews, in fact, crucifixion was seen as a sign of disgrace and shame.

2. It was not wisdom that was appealing to the Greek mind, it didn’t advance a system of thought, it was educated, eloquent or sophisticated

3. preaching Christ or the Messiah Crucified was a stumbling block to both Jews and Greeks:

a. Yet, those that hear, those that understand, it is the very power and wisdom of God revealed to both Jews and Greeks.

b. It does not make any sense. Common sense tells us that if you want something to attract people, you make it sweet and nice, bold and flashy… not ugly, painful and foolish.

c. Here is the underlying secret, ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

III. What has God done: Paul reminds the church at Corinth of its history, brief as it is, ²⁶ Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

a. Look back, not many of you were wise, influential, or of noble birth:

i. It does mean that there were people who were considered wise by human standards, and people who ere influential, and others that came from noble families. The majority were not from these classes. It depicts the varied socio-economic make up of the church.

ii. The majority of the people were common, unnoticed and strangers to the halls of power and influence.

b. Now we look to see where this line of thinking is taking us: ²⁷ But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸ God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹ so that no one may boast before him.

i. A bizarre thing happened in the ancient church. There were times and places were a slave may be an overseer or bishop in the church, and his owner was a member of that church.

ii. The weak, the powerless, the foolish shaming the strong, powerful and influential.

1. God using crucifixion, a means to execute criminals in the Roman world to be the bridge that brings life to many, both Jews and Gentiles.

2. Things that are despised, things that are not to reorder the world and way that people live.

iii. All this so that people may not depend on their own wisdom, strength and ability to know God. We know God, not because of our efforts, but because God has made it possible.

IV. One of our chief mistakes in the church, in theology, in cosmology, in any way that we evaluate our world, is this that is all about me, or you. Listen to Paul again, ³⁰ It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. ³¹ Therefore, as it is written: “Let those who boast, boast in the Lord.”

a. It is not about us or about what we can do, it is about God. Because of him, God, we are in Christ Jesus. Jesus has become for us our wisdom, righteousness and our redemption.

b. So, our boasting should not be about, “This is what I have done.” But rather about, “This is what God has done.”

i. One of the issues that is splitting the church today is music:

1. I don’t like this kind of music

2. I like this kind of music

3. So, I won’t worship if I don’t like the music

ii. Worshiping God is not centered in what music we like or don’t like, because worship is not about us:

1. Any joyful noise that glorifies God we should welcome and participate in whole heartedly.

2. Because worship is not about us!