Our hope is that each of us would learn to rest in God's power and wisdom, revealed to us in the gospel, instead of boasting in our own power and wisdom.
Our hope is that each of us would learn to rest in God's power and wisdom, revealed to us in the gospel, instead of boasting in our own power and wisdom.
Well, good morning Westtown Church. It is awesome to be with you again this morning and I just want to thank you for coming and joining us to be part of the body of Christ today, on the Lord's Day, to worship Him. I want to do some audience participation real quick, so don't be shy. You can shout out something. That is okay in church, depending on what you shout out, if.
Speaker 1:You've probably heard this question a thousand times and thought about it before. So if you could have any superpower, what would you choose? Just call a few things out Teleportation we got that one first service too. That's a good one. What else? Flying Flying we also got that one first service. What else? What was that? Invisibility another good one. Yeah, teleportation Think about. You would never have to worry about being delayed in an airport again or going through security. You would never have to buy gas again or you would never have to plug your car in again, whichever one you do. There's so many awesome, powerful things that could happen, that could be at your fingertips if you had a superpower. That's why we like superhero movies.
Speaker 1:So today we're going to be talking about power and wisdom and boasting. We're doing that because Paul in 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, seems to think that there's a connection between power and wisdom and boasting and the reason why the church in Corinth is a divided church. Remember, last week we talked about how the church, there are all these divisions, and Paul is, of course, saying divisions bad, unity good. Well, the reason why he brings up these topics of power and wisdom this week is because he's trying to tell these Corinthians listen, the reason why you are so divided is because you have bought into worldly notions of power and wisdom. You are living your life according to worldly wisdom, seeking worldly power, and this is why you're okay with dividing your church, because these notions of power and wisdom are causing you to think the gospel of Jesus Christ is foolish and weak. If you thought the gospel of Jesus Christ was wise and powerful, you would seek unity in the church. So that's sort of what he's doing here and what he's going to do in this chapter 1 Corinthians 1, 18 through 2, 5, is he's going to give us some contrasts between what is worldly wisdom look like versus what does godly wisdom look like. What does worldly power look like versus what does godly power look like? So, as we go through these contrasts today, our goal, at least what I hope will happen, is that we will make 1 Corinthians 2, 5 sort of our MO for our lives. Never says that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. That's what we want. That's what God wants for us is that our faith would not rest on anything other than the power of God and what God is able to do and what God has already done, and so that is our hope and our prayer for today.
Speaker 1:Let's look just to start out, at 1 Corinthians 1, verses 18 through 25. All rights for the war of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning. I will fork. Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God, through the folly of what we preach, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men. So the first thing we're going to see out of this passage is that if we buy into the world's wisdom, we'll think the gospel is foolish. If we buy into the world's wisdom, we'll think the gospel is foolish.
Speaker 1:Going back just one verse, to verse 17,. Remember last week we saw how Paul told the Corinthians I was sent to you by God to do one thing, and one thing alone, and that is preach the gospel. I don't want to distract you with any other fluff, anything else. I'm preaching the gospel, I'm telling you about Jesus. That's what I'm all about. That's what he came to do.
Speaker 1:And then, in chapter two, verses one, and then three and four, he tells us more about the way he preached the gospel when he came. He says when I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom, and I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling in my speech and my message were not plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power Paul's saying I came to you and I didn't use big words when I preached, I didn't use eloquent speech, I didn't use flowery language, I didn't use alliteration and all my main points, I didn't use cool illustrations. I just came and I gave you a very simple message here's the gospel, here's what Jesus, or here's who Jesus is and what he's done for you Amen. The reason why he did that? Because I want to make it clear he didn't that wasn't necessarily always his style, right? If you read Paul's letters, he is incredibly profound in the things he says, he has great wisdom. And even Peter, when first Peter talks about how there are a lot of things in Paul's letters that are really hard to understand, right? So Paul's not Paul's, no dummy. But he came to Corinth and he intentionally spoke.
Speaker 1:Simply, why? Well, because in Corinth it was popular for people to go and listen to philosophers, not for what they were saying, not for the content of their messages, but for how they were saying it. They came to be entertained by a style, a speaking style. Right? It's kind of like when I was a teenager, I kind of rebelled in small, safe ways. So one of the ways that I rebelled was listening to music. I probably shouldn't be listening to Like that. I knew my parents didn't want me to listen to, right. I'm sure there's no teens here who can understand that. But so I like to listen to edgy stuff and my mom would be like you can't listen to that stuff, I don't want you watching MTV, all that. And I would say, mom, I don't listen to it for the words, I listen to it for the music, right, which was kind of true. I didn't care what the words were, I mean, who could understand what Nirvana is saying anyway? But, like I, that was also sort of an excuse, right. But that's kind of what was going on here is they didn't care.
Speaker 1:The Corinthians didn't care what people were saying, they just liked the way they talked. So Paul didn't want them to come listen to him speak and just like the way he talked. He wanted them to have no distractions so that they could hear the message of salvation clearly, so that it would be abundantly clear to them who he was talking about. Because, remember, as a preacher, it is not our job to get up here and talk about ourselves, it is not my job to get up here and tell you what I think. It's my job to get up here and tell you what God's word says. To the best of my ability, I'm a messenger. Do not make me the point ever. Paul is saying I don't want you to think. Paul is the point, jesus is the point, and so he was like whatever I can do to make sure you understand that that's what I was going to do. So then, though, he says even if I come and speak, simply, there are still people who are going to think the message of the gospel is foolish. They're going to hear it and they're going to think that sounds like hot garbage.
Speaker 1:Because, you see, the gospel is completely different. It's unlike any wisdom that the world values. The world values self-exaltation. The gospel begins with the fear of the Lord. That's what godly wisdom is. It begins with the fear of the Lord, looking to God alone as creator and sustainer and the author of life and the sovereign one who rules over all. But again, worldly wisdom says no, humanism is the way. Exalt mankind, follow your heart, do what makes you happy, do what you desire. Like whatever you desire. You should have that. Reject all restraints. Don't get tied down by anything. God well, what about God? Well, god's offensive. At least the God of the Bible is offensive. Or God's not even real. We can't prove he exists. So why should we believe he's real? Or how about my? God would never require me to do something that makes me unhappy. These are notions of worldly wisdom. We only think that way if we are bought into worldly wisdom. And do you see, like if we have bought into worldly wisdom, we will reject godly wisdom. The two cannot coexist. They cannot coexist, especially when we consider what the gospel is saying.
Speaker 1:The gospel is that God has redeemed his people through his son Jesus. We read about this in the cult of worship earlier in Philippians 2, that Jesus came down and took on flesh. He became a man. He became a Jewish man oh, by the way, a Jewish man from a backwater town in a backwater country. Basically, he became kind of a nobody. He didn't come as a powerful person, but he came and he obeyed the law perfectly. He claimed to be the Messiah, the Savior, not just for the Jews, but for people from every nation. And then he, what does he do? He dies. The hero dies on a cross. It's basically like he went to the electric chair but, even more shameful, like he died in the same way that the Romans would execute slaves and traders on a cross. That's what the cross was for. So to think that this is the way that God is saving the world is utter foolishness to some people. And Paul says particularly it's utter foolishness to Jews and to Greeks. He says Jews, it's foolishness to them because they demand signs.
Speaker 1:If you think about in the gospels and Matthew, mark and Luke and John, there are some times when Jewish leaders will come to Jesus and they'll say, hey, can you give us a sign? Like, in other words, they're saying can you give us a sign that you're the Messiah? All right, and in one particular instance, someone asked him this. The day after he fed the 5,000 with two fish and five loaves of bread and, like, multiplied all of the food miraculously. And they're like hey, can you give us a sign? And I'm what, what more do you need? Right, but you see, that's not what they were looking for. They weren't looking for that kind of a miracle. They were looking for some show of power, like are you gonna ride in and are you going to, you know, displace the Roman government and set up the new Israeli government. Right, that's what they were looking for. And so, because he didn't fit their mold of wisdom, they thought he was foolishness.
Speaker 1:And then, in particular, when it comes to Jesus dying on the cross, they especially stumble over this. Paul says this is a stumbling block to them. Why? Well, because in the Jewish law, in Deuteronomy 21, it actually says that anyone who has hanged on a tree is cursed by God. Anyone who has hanged on a tree is cursed by God. So they thought how in the world could this guy be the Messiah if he's been cursed by God Cause he's on a tree? That's what the cross is. It's essentially a tree.
Speaker 1:But here's what Paul says in Galatians 313. He says that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written cursed is everyone who has hanged on a tree. Paul quotes that, or paraphrases that verse in Deuteronomy 21 proudly. He's saying yeah, he was cursed, yes, he was cursed by God. That's how we're saved. If he's not cursed by God, we are not saved. We have no hope, because Jesus Christ on the cross took our cursed status, the curse that was upon us because of our sin, and he took it on himself and put it to death. That is the only way you or I have hope of salvation is through something foolish, apparently, that God has done. But you see, the Jews could not see that. They stumbled over that. They could never understand how a Messiah could also be a cursed one. But that's the wisdom of God.
Speaker 1:What about the Greeks? Well, they seek wisdom, he says. You see, the Greeks, especially at that time, valued wisdom over all things. They're heroes were guys like Socrates and Plato and Aristotle. These philosophers right, they're kids wanted to be philosophers when they grew up. Can you imagine that today, like your kid comes to you and says, hey, mom, dad, I'm gonna major in philosophy. You're like, enjoy your career as a waiter. Right, I mean, nobody does that. I mean nobody really aspires to that today. It's a totally different set of values, but that's what they value. And so in Greek philosophy they saw life as this kind of dualism where the material was evil, so anything you can touch or taste or smell, it's all evil or corrupt, and the spiritual is good and pure and incorruptible.
Speaker 1:So Paul comes along preaching this message that a God, or the God, jesus Christ, came down and took on flesh, and what do you think they think about that? That's rubbish, that's utter foolishness. God would never take on flesh, god would never inhabit a material form or body, but the gospel depends on it. John 1.14 says the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory. Glory is of the only son of the father, full of grace and truth. The gospel depends on Jesus, the son of God, becoming a man, because only then could he succeed in every way that every man and woman has ever failed, only then could his perfect record count as our record, only then could his death count as our death, only then could he rise again from the grave. And he has done it. But that is foolishness to Greeks. There it was then, and it's foolishness still today to many people for many other different reasons.
Speaker 1:If you think about some of the things that people, the way that people view the world today, what is wisdom to people right now? Well, wisdom is, you know, to again to pursue my desires at all costs. Let me have no restrictions to pursuing what I want. If I desire something, I ought to have it. In fact, I maybe deserve it. That's sort of the way people think in our world today. And yet Jesus is saying no, come after me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me, deny yourself. That's the exact opposite of what our world preaches.
Speaker 1:Or maybe it's something completely different. Maybe you believe just enough about Jesus and just enough about the gospel to stumble over him. Maybe you think that Jesus is sort of like a superstition, right Like he's there to help you get what you want. He's there to help you meet your goals and get what you desire, and really the only time you pray to him is like when you're in a really tight spot and things are going wrong. Or maybe you see it where, like if things are going wrong, you're going through something difficult, you think, oh, I've offended him, I need to appease him. That's a superstitious way of viewing Jesus and in viewing him that way, he becomes a stumbling block to you because you can't really see him for who he is. He's not a genie in a bottle. He's the king, he's Lord, he's Savior. His goal is not to give us what we want. His goal is to change our hearts so that we want what he wants. It's a completely different way of looking at him.
Speaker 1:Some people, you know they think I can't believe in God because I can't see him, I can't sense him with my five senses, or they think I can't believe in God because I can't completely understand why he does what he does or how he thinks. But I just want to say to that I mean, isn't it logical that if we have a God who's claiming to be God, who's claiming to be Creator of all things, who's claiming to be the one who made us, shouldn't he be too high for us to comprehend fully? If he's not, then he's just like us and he's not a God. So if you can't understand God fully, that's okay, that's how it's supposed to be. And yet in our human wisdom we can't get our minds wrapped around that.
Speaker 1:We've bought into human wisdom even though we know that human wisdom is limited, it's finite, it's very short-sighted. I mean, just go look up stories about Florida man and you'll know. You'll know Right. If we have Florida man I'm not saying that Florida man is like the apex of humanity or anything like that but if we have Florida man and we know that every human being is capable of foolish things, then why do we think that human wisdom is trustworthy and the gold standard? Why do we judge everything by our own wisdom, if we know the Florida man is out there lurking somewhere, right?
Speaker 1:That's what Paul's trying to get us to see. Is that you think you have this great wisdom and yet the most foolish thing God has ever done is wiser, infinitely wiser than the most intelligent, wisest thing man has ever done. That's what verse 25 is saying. Do we see that? Do we believe that, as much as we try to transform our world and our lives by our own wisdom, we will never, ever fully realize that, and that God, by one act of foolishness supposed foolishness in the gospel is able to transform all of His people in the entire universe? So Paul's trying to get us to see here.
Speaker 1:He's also trying to get us to see that we have, in addition to wisdom, we also have a faulty view of power. Let's look at we're going to read verse 24 again and then look verses 26 through 30. He says but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, for consider your calling brothers, not many of you are wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth, 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, even things that are not to bring to nothing, things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God and because of Him. You are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification and redemption. So the next thing I think Paul's trying to say here is that if we pursue the world's power, we'll think the gospel is weak. If we pursue the world's power, we'll think the gospel is weak.
Speaker 1:Looking back to the Corinthians, you know this was a very prosperous city, full of elite type people, and yet the Christians in Corinth were apparently not among those elite. They were weak, they were despised, they were not of noble birth, they didn't have much worldly power. But this is exactly the type of person that God loves to use. Right, he loves to use quote unquote. Nobody's.
Speaker 1:Think about David from the Old Testament. There was Saul, who was the king of Israel at the time, and Saul was bigger and stronger and better looking than anybody else in Israel and that's why they chose him as king. But God said no, I've rejected him. I'm choosing David, this little shepherd that his, his dad and his brothers was like. They're so ashamed of him. They didn't even like tell Samuel that he existed when Samuel came to see him. And that's who God chooses to work through. That's who God chooses to make King. Why? Because, again, he wants it to be abundantly clear that salvation and that transformation come only through the power of God and not through the power of a man or a woman. And we see this most clearly in the gospel, of course. This is why, in chapter two, verse two, paul says I desire to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Jesus Christ, crucified on the cross, is the power of God. It is the power of God.
Speaker 1:Think about Jesus again on the cross, what he had gone through, that his body had been torn, that he was in excruciating pain. The word excruciating, by the way, if you think about that, the root it comes from the word crucifixion. It's the most excruciating way to die in the Roman world and it's meant to shame you. It is meant to shame you. It killed you slowly, but it also killed you in such a way where you were on like your shame and your weakness were on full display to the whole world, to everybody who could see it. And so we actually see this. There were people that mocked Jesus as he was on the cross. Matthew 2742,.
Speaker 1:A guy says he saved others. He cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel. Let him come down now from the cross and we'll believe in him. If he had come down from the cross, do you think they'd have believed in him? No, I don't think so. Their hearts weren't ready for it. But he doesn't come down from the cross, he dies Again. This is God's plan to save the world. This is Jesus, who is so weak and so helpless in this moment, who gives up his life. This is how God saves the world. We'll think that's foolish If we buy into the world's notion of power, if we see power through the lens of the world. If you're a Harry Potter fan, you'll I think you'll understand this illustration Voldemort, who is the dark lord, the evil wizard.
Speaker 1:He says there is no good or evil, harry, there is only power and those two weak to seek it as an evil, the antagonist in the story. Voldemort just wants power, he just wants to rule over everything and he does it by fear. He enslaves people, he murders people and he all he wants is power for himself. He just wants to control things and he wants to be immortal. He wants to. He's very clear about that. I'm gonna live forever, right.
Speaker 1:And his lust for power causes him to value only his own strength. He does not value love, he does not value friendship. He thinks they're foolish. And so the way that JK Rowling writes this story is so brilliant, because it is love that allows Harry Potter to stand up to Voldemort. It is love that protects him when Voldemort kills his parents when he's a baby, but his mom dies sacrificing herself for Harry. And this love sacrifice quote unquote essentially creates like a protective barrier around him where Voldemort can't touch him. And Voldemort just can't. He can't see it, he can't understand it. Like it's so beneath him, this idea of love. It's so weak in his eyes that the only thing he can think to do is just try to overcome it with more strength. And in the end, well, I won't give away the end. But you see, like that, his own power, his own notion of power, makes him blind to what's really powerful, which is, in this case, it's love. In our case, it's the gospel Power.
Speaker 1:In the Greek is the word dunamis, which is where you get the word dynamite. So you think dynamite, like you think explosion, explosive power. It's this if you walk into a room and you got dynamite, you've lit the fuse, you are in power, my friend, like you like it or not, you have the power, and then that's what the idea we're supposed to have is that it sees this ability to control things. That's why we think you know, we love superheroes and superhero movies. That's why it's so fun to think about what superhero power would you have, you know, teleportation or flying, or whatever the case may be, because we look at these superhero movies and they're like these myths where we can dream about what it would be like to have this control, this power, this ability to rise to the top of humanity and in our world, in the way that the world views power. That's what we want to achieve. We want success, we want achievement, we want status, we want wealth. We want to be the strongest, the most powerful, the best looking. You know we boast about this too.
Speaker 1:It's like if you've ever seen Napoleon Dynamite, there's the character Uncle Rico right who, back in 82, he could throw a football quarter mile. You know, like that's pretty impressive. You can throw a football quarter mile. I could throw a football maybe like 50 yards on a good day If I warm up a lot, but he's got a quarter mile. That's pretty awesome and that's power to him right. There's something powerful about that.
Speaker 1:But you see, like, what I'm trying to say is that the world, viewing power that way, is always going to think the gospel is just weak, weakness. You're following the savior who's you know from some backwater country, who's a nobody, who let people kill him, who let himself be put on a cross and be ashamed. He calls himself gentle and lowly. That's who you follow. That's so weak. You're missing out on so much.
Speaker 1:The world is blind to the power of the savior and we can do all kinds of clever and powerful things. Like I cannot wait to watch us build this bridge. Like when those cranes show up, my office is going to be like out there in the road. I'm going to have a chair, I'm just going to sit and watch the cranes because that is awesome. And like those guys are telling us this is basically the smallest bridge we've ever built. They're like we build bridges that are 20 times bigger than this and we can do some really powerful things, but you know what we can't do and never will we be able to do? We will never be able to change a human heart. We will never be able to transform a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. There's no human being that can ever and will ever do that. Only by the weakness supposed weakness of the cross of Jesus Christ can a human heart be changed. This is why Paul says the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
Speaker 1:Gospel is the power of God, the power that raised Jesus from the dead, the power that raised Lazarus from the dead, the power that raised Euduchus from the dead when Paul was preaching so long and he was so boring that the little kid fell out the window and died. That's a great story in the book of Acts, if you ever wanna go look that up Is the power to raise the dead, is the power to transform us, to be more like Jesus Christ every day, to have a heart that actually desires to obey him and follow him and can have faith in him. And it is the only power that can actually change our world. It is the only power where we know there's a future, where, like Paul talks in 1 Corinthians 15 about how, in the end, when Jesus returns, he will raise everyone from the dead, some to shame and some to glory. And those who are raised to glory will live forever in the new heavens and new earth, with God, in a perfect world. Only the weakness of God can do that.
Speaker 1:The Gospel Andrew Wilson sums this up. He says the cross presents us with the most extraordinary inversion in history. It pits the epitome of weakness against the epitome of strength, and weakness wins. So what do we do with that? Well, 1 Corinthians 131, paul says so that it is written let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. So the last thing I wanna say is that we boast in what we rest in. We boast in what we rest in. I said at the beginning that I want our goal, our MO, to be 1 Corinthians 25, which is that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God, and I hope that every day we will learn more and more what that means to rest in the power of God.
Speaker 1:Does your faith rest in his power? Does your faith rest in the fact that your salvation depends 100% on him and what he's done, and 0% on you and what you've done. Do you rest in that, or is that troubling to you? Do you believe that God is in control, like no matter what crazy stuff's going on in our world? Do you believe that God is in control, no matter what trials you are going through, no matter how difficult the trial is? Do you believe that God is still in control? Can you rest in him? At the end of the day? If we can rest in him, if our faith rests in him, then I mean Psalm 118, 6 is a great expression of that. It says the Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Man can do all kinds of things to us, but if we have the Lord on our side, in the end we can be at rest, we can be at peace.
Speaker 1:And one way to know where you are resting, where your faith rests, is to just look at what you boast in. What do you boast in? Do you boast in Jesus and in his gospel? Do you boast in the power of God? Do you boast in the fact that Jesus has changed you, that Jesus has transformed you, that Jesus has made a way for you to have a relationship with God in a very bright future. Or do you boast in what the world boasts in? I mean, I know a lot of times I'm boasting in what the world boasts in. If you think about this, think about as long as I have blank, I can rest easy what's in the blank?
Speaker 1:It's a great question for each of us to think about. What's in that blank? Is it success? Is it possessions? Is it achievement? Is it status? Is it your good looks? Is it grades? Is it your wealth? Is it your football team? Is it your kids and their successes, your kids' potential future successes?
Speaker 1:I'm trying to think about this. I'm trying to say, like, none of those things are necessarily bad, right, I mean, we want to have success, we want our kids to do well, but what I'm trying to say is that banking on those things, banking and resting on those things, is just as imaginary as the things that our old friend Uncle Rico hoped in, right? I mean, if you don't know Napoleon Dynamite, I'm sorry You've missed out, you should go watch it. But Uncle Rico said I bet I could throw a football over the mountains. That's a really silly illustration. I'm sorry, but I'm trying to make the point that our hopes.
Speaker 1:When we hope in any of those things that I just mentioned, they're just as imaginary and just as weak as what Uncle Rico hoped in, that the only real thing that we can reasonably rest our faith in and expect to have any kind of peace, in any kind of future is Christ and Him crucified. That's it, and it seems weak to the world, it seems foolish to the world, and if you go around boasting about Jesus Christ and Him crucified, you are guaranteed to have someone tell you that you're a fool and that you are weak. And that is okay, that is absolutely okay. That means you're doing it right, honestly. But you're also gonna have some people hear your story and think, oh wow, I want that, I need that, and God may use you to change a person's heart.
Speaker 1:Just know Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen from the dead. He now reigns as King over the entire universe. He sits at the right hand of God in power and in glory, and His power is unlimited. He can do anything. Nothing is impossible with Him. If he is on our side, if he is for us, then who can be against us? And we will never be put to shame. Let's pray.