Sermon Tone Analysis

Authentic Wisdom and Power

*1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5*

*Communion Service*

*December 3*

\\ \\ I will never forget that college basketball game.

The competition was intense.

The fans on each side were cheering with a deafening roar as our two schools battled back and forth up and down the court.

One team would gain the lead only to lose it seconds later to the other.

The intensity built until suddenly one of our players grabbed the basketball and, with a supreme burst of energy, dribbled out of the crowd of players, broke into the open in his own fast break, and perfectly executed his lay-up.

Then suddenly it dawned on him what he had done.

In stunned disbelief, he cradled his head between his hands as his elation instantly turned to despair.

He had gone the wrong way and scored for the opposition.

Some still affectionately refer to him as "wrong-way Lindberg."

Many of us have been involved in situations where we had two facts in common with “wrong-way Lindberg”.

One, we were totally sincere.

Two, we were dead wrong.

Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter one and follow along as I read verses 18 through 25 from the English Standard Version

\\ ” /For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it 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 thwart."

\\ 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./ /” /

The Apostle Paul fingers the church at Corinth as one that was totally sincere but dead wrong .

He acknowledges them as brothers and sisters in Christ, but he alerts them to the fact that they held something in common with Lindberg and me.

They were totally sincere but dead wrong.

They had divided into cliques.

They were quarreling.

They were prideful.

All of this came out of their determination to be super Christians.

But they were going the wrong way.

Paul straightens them and us out with frank confrontation.

I have on many occasions asked a person whether or not they were a Christian.

I no longer do that.

I've discovered that if I ask simply, "Are you a Christian?" the answer is quite predictable.

It's an immediate, "Yes!

What do you think I am?

A Jew? A Muslim?

An atheist?"

Some even say, "Sure, I go to church."

Or some say, "Certainly I am, although I don't go to church very often.

You know, you don't need to go to church to worship God.

In fact, I feel closer to Him on the beach or when I am skiing than at church."

The passion of my message today, taken directly from Paul's letter to the church at Corinth, is that human wisdom and the authentic divine wisdom, at which we're going to look, are quite different.

Also, human power and divine power are quite different.

The Apostle Paul emphasizes and again reemphasizes that /authentic wisdom and profound power is found only in the cross of Jesus Christ/.

*I.* /Many people cannot comprehend the cross of Jesus Christ/.

Paul states it in this sequence of comments.

He writes in verse 18, "For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" .

He goes on to write, ". . .

but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Cor.

1:23-24).

He writes on, "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified" (1 Cor.

2:2).

Why is it that many people cannot comprehend the cross of Jesus Christ?

Why is it a "stumbling block" to some and "foolishness" to others?

It is because the cross and all it stands for runs so contrary to our human understanding.

Somewhere along the line, you and I confronted the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all of its simplicity.

Our hearts were moved to repentance and trust in the Savior.

We become Christians, true followers of Jesus.

My walk began with a Billy Graham crusade on TV.

Your experience may be one of dramatic encounter with the Risen Christ at a camp, an evangelistic service, through the personal witness of a friend, perhaps through faithful preaching.

You initially begin to grow in your relationship with Jesus.

Then time goes by, and you become part of a Christian community.

You hear other believers talk about preachers they like and preachers they dislike.

Your own particular personality and perceived needs direct you to a particular kind of church and preaching.

What emerges is a situation today quite similar to what was faced in Corinth.

Some end up claiming to belong to Paul and others to Apollos, while others claim to be followers of Cephas.

And some exclusivists attach themselves to a somewhat self-centered version of Jesus Christ.

It is not likely that our first church choice was based on godly wisdom on our part.

If we were following closely, listening to the nudging of the indwelling Holy Spirit, then we were guided to a Bible-preaching church.

If we were not listening to the Holy Spirit, we may have been attracted to an “ear tickling” church – one that preached what you wanted to hear.

For without the Holy Spirit’s guidance it is likely we would look to be entertained or wowed by excellence or elegance or eloquence.

But, there is an excellence and elegance and eloquence of language that deprives the Gospel of its power & effect.

It is the wisdom of words that has a destroying impact on the message.

It may sugarcoat unpleasantness and dwell on man’s inherent goodness instead of man’s inherent sinfulness.

Or it may wrongly preach the health and wealth doctrine to the exclusion of suffering and refining.

The truth ends up veiled.

Why?

The proud human mind resists spiritual reality.

The more sophisticated we are the less we want to hear about our need of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The idea of the blood atonement makes us nervous.

We'd rather be involved in self-sacrifice.

That's a bit more palatable.

The wisdom of words can explain the Gospel away.

The eloquence of words can adorn the gospel, romanticizing what it is to be a Christian.

Some of us don't like the bluntness of the statement that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses to them.

Let's cut out everything that takes our eyes away from the cross of Jesus Christ!

Some Bible translations distort the true meaning of 1 Corinthians 1:18.

They translate it to read, "The preaching of the cross is foolishness."

The most exact translation is that which I read.

It is the New American Standard Version, which reads, /"For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."/

Paul is not writing about the act of delivering a sermon on Sunday morning.

Preaching is part of the "message about the cross," but it is not all of the message.

The fact is that the cross of Jesus Christ has its own eloquence.

It makes its own statement.

Those of us who are preachers must be careful that we do not make statements so ornate that we decorate the cross with that which subtracts from the simplicity and power of its own message.

The gospel message is this: Christ came to die for our sins!

The message of the cross is that there is a God.