Useful to God

Ryan C. Reed

Pulpit Fill • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

1 Corinthians 2:1–5

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Being 'Useful to God' requires these three elements: Humility, A Simple Message, & a Desire to Glorify God.

Notes

Transcript

Text: 1 Cor. 2:1-5

Introduction:

Good Morning. I want to thank Geoff for giving me the opportunity to bring a message from God’s Word. Having stepped out of full time ministry I have found that I truly miss the regular occasion to preach. So, thank you.

As I was preparing for this message I was convicted with the reality that I am a broken individual and unable to bring forth a proper message on my own. Any words that I would use, any phrase that I might craft, any thought that I may generate is corrupt and full of iniquity when crafted in my flesh. It is only when I rest on the Spirit of God and the power of His might and the surety of His Word that this message will have any vitality. Understanding that, let us go to the Lord in prayer.

Heavenly Father, Creator God, I come before you now asking that you would give aid and provide your Spirit to use this broken vessel as a means to convey the truth of you Word. It is only by the Holy Spirit that your Word of Truth can be understood. It is only by the Spirit that we are drawn to you. Not by our own power or our desire, for our hearts are drawn to wickedness; but only by the prompting of your Spirit can we respond in faith to Word made flesh. Lord Jesus, it is through your death and resurrection that we may find life everlasting, as you call us unto yourself. Please, use me today to share the message of Truth. Amen.

Let’s step back in time. It is the first century, a sunny day in Jerusalem, the “City of Peace” as its name implies. The apostles had recently been arrested for preaching to the crowds that Jesus it the Christ. [Acts 6} The apostles, upon their release, devoted themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word and appointed seven elders (men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom [6:3] to care for the flock. You can hear the murmurs of ill contempt spreading through the fringes of the crowd as Stephen, one of those appointed elders, proclaims a message, for which he is arrested. Having been accused of blasphemy he addresses the council: [Acts 7:2-53]

Beginning with Abraham, describing his faith in Jehovah God to provide, guide, and protect, he walks through the patriarchs of the Old Testament explaining the same faith.

Stephen shows them Moses and how he trusted the Lord for the deliverance of Israel from the tyrannical reign of the Pharaoh. He told them Moses prophesied the coming of a prophet like him that would deliver them all, a Messiah. Stephen preached that Israel has turned away from all of the prophets that God has sent. They have turned to their own understandings and false gods for security and strength, and rejected the one true God and his prophets. He was accused of blasphemy, of disgracing the tabernacle of God.

Stephen sought to show them that they missed the point entirely, God was so much bigger than a tabernacle, Heaven was His throne and He desired to reside in their hearts. The way to their hearts was through Jesus, the One they killed. When Stephen spoke of Jesus the people began to gnash their teeth and plug their ears to what he was saying. The mention of Jesus stirred a violent response from the crowd, but from heaven a vision came to Stephen of the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Praise and worship was the only response Stephen could give to what he was seeing from heaven. With the outrage and swiftness of a demonic response Stephen is grabbed and dragged out of town thrown to the ground by the angry crowd.

Outside of the city as the crowd grows ready to stone the preacher, one man stands guard over the coats, he does not pick up a rock, nor does he stop the process. His silence is a blessing on the proceeding. Saul watches as the rocks are hurled at Stephen, his only crime preaching Christ to a lost and dying world. Stephen spends his last breathe praying to God for mercy on the ones guilty of his death. Saul witnesses the unselfish act of a man giving his life that someone might know Christ, a man preaching nothing more than the message of Christ.

Nothing but Jesus, that is the basic need of a lost soul. Peter knew it, John knew it, Luke knew it, and all the disciples knew it. Stephen gave his life demonstrating his belief in this truth. Saul would later encounter Jesus on the road to Damascus and come to understand the need of nothing but Jesus. Without Jesus, nothing else matters. All of life’s problems are academic if a person does not know Jesus. For without Jesus your destination is the same rich or poor, famous or inconspicuous: eternal separation in hell.

This morning’s message entitled “Useful to God” comes from I Cor. 2 1-5 . We will look at Paul’s desire to deliver the message of Christ to those who had never heard it and how he would present himself.

There are 3 questions I believe this passage will answer for us:

1. What does God want from us when we share the gospel with others?

2. How much do we have to know?

3. Is there a gift to sharing with others? A gift maybe some of us do not have?

These are questions we will answer in the text today. We will look at Paul’s example preaching and sharing and learn from him.

1 Corinthians 2:1–5 ESV

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Humility Paul was a man well educated. He studied under the Rabbi Gamaliel. He quoted Greek poets so he possibly studied the Greek philosophy and literature. He was a Pharisee and a Jew. All of this training and knowledge meant nothing to him now.

Don’t get me wrong education is necessary and a useful tool. We need to take every opportunity to learn as much as we can and to never stop learning. I have gone back to school to finish my college education and get a seminary degree, but without God in the middle of it I waste my time.

The realization to which Paul came was his knowledge of worldly things and his intellect was of no consequence compared to Gods divine wisdom. Paul was humbled by God in that he understood the knowledge he obtained over a life time was but a drop in the bucket compared to God’s infinite wisdom.

Paul said in verse 1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. And in verse 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, With all of his training and all of his academic learning he is humble before God.

USEFUL TO GOD

HUMILITY

And I, when I came to you, brothers, 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,

You see what he was preaching he did not learn from a book, or from the Pharisaical Institute of Higher Learning, he learned from God. Galatians 1:11-12 “For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”

The doctrines Paul preached God gave to him through divine revelation, Paul did not have the New Testament to pull out and study. He did not have God’s word to run to for study time and devotion. The doctrines of the New Testament had not been written. The majority of them were written by him. Knowing that his knowledge was not the source of the message was very humbling to Paul; the source was the throne of God. I Cor. 2:10 ‘For to us God has revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.’

We have all, at one time or another, met someone who was full of themselves and you cannot stand to be around that kind of person. Someone who no matter what happens they don’t make mistakes. Those people are not easy to be around and if you have to work with them every day it is even more difficult. Just a couple of verses back in I Cor 1:27 ‘But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are strong.’

I Cor. 2:14 ‘But the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually appraised.’ God will not use a prideful person. A prideful person does not acknowledge their sin. A pridefull person does not see their need for a Savior. Pride says ‘I can save myself through my works.’ A prideful person will not acknowledge the power and control that Jesus has in their lives. This is why the bible says ‘pride comes before the fall.’ [Prov 16:18] If we want to be useful to God, we must first lay aside all our pride. We must see ourselves as God sees us, “dead in our trespasses” and sin. We have rebelled against a holy God and we must realize Jesus is our only means of salvation “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” [Ac 4:12] You must be humble before the Lord as Paul was humble.

A SIMPLE MESSAGE Paul says in verse 2 “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” I am a student of preaching, I enjoy listening to messages of all types. My enjoyment is on several levels. I want to pick up any pointers I can on how to assemble a message. I listen for illustrations I can use in my sermons, but I never seem to be able to remember them. I am always open for sermon topics branching off from something I hear in another preacher’s sermon.

Most of all I like to listen to preaching because I like to be in the word of God. I like to be fed and need to be fed by the Word, and I know that need exists in the hearts of others. There are those out there who need to be fed the word of God but have no idea they are hungry. They need the message of Jesus Christ. They don’t need a perfect three point message with a tidy opening and a closing. They just need the simple message of Jesus Christ. The simple message is the gospel. Throughout Paul’s inspired writings and those of others, we are provided a full explanation of the message:

Man sins, [Rom. 3:23], sin requires judgement [Rom. 6:23], Jesus took our place on the cross [Rom. 5:8], Jesus died and rose again [Acts 10:39-40], man is unable to earn salvation [Eph 2:8-9], salvation comes through Jesus and no other [Acts 4:12, John 14:6], in Christ we are made new and reconciled to God [2 Cor 5:17-19], Jesus stands as our advocate before the Father [1 John 2:1], and for those in Christ there is no condemnation [Rom 8:1]. Finally, we have a pulse, therefore we have a purpose [Eph 2:10, 2 Cor 5:20-21].

This is the simple message Paul refers to in verse 2, it does not mean Paul refused to learn anything outside of the crucifixion as I have illustrated. He was determined to preach to them what they needed. Because he was a humble man before the Lord the Holy Spirit would speak through him and words would be exactly what needed to be said. At no time did Paul try to persuade anyone into believing in Jesus, he never preached over their heads and used big words they could not understand. Paul had a simple message and that message was Jesus Christ.

Sometimes preachers feel the message has to be spectacular or it will be ignored. If we cannot get somebody’s attention with polish and a high shine then we give up. The simple message of Jesus has all the power it needs. Paul was never known to be a big speaker or a great orator before he came to know Christ, but after he met Jesus his courage and delivery style changed.

He relied on the message he had to spread, the message of Jesus Christ, and the power was supplied by the Holy Spirit. I Cor. 2:12 ‘Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.’

The fact that Jesus took my sin upon himself as if it was his own (He who knew no sin, became sin for us… [], died in my place and calls me to repentance is overwhelming. He not only died, he rose again and conquered death giving me life everlasting if I only respond to the call of the Spirit to believe in Him.

One passage of scripture that is a sum of the simple message of Jesus Christ is I Cor 15:3, 4 ‘Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.’ A passage that explains how to receive the gift of salvation from Jesus is Romans 10:9 ‘If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised. Him from the dead, you will be saved.’ These are Paul’s words plainly speaking the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The simple message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, as Paul puts it, is the message that will cut to the heart of man. Our deepest need is the need for a savior, anything else is second to that need. Until that need is met we have no hope. Paul understands this and heeds the Lord’s words ‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ [John 12:32].

Paul lifts the message of Jesus high. There is no requirement for dramatic, awe inspiring, entertaining presentations. Just tell them about Jesus and the Holy Spirit will do the rest.

GLORIFY CHRIST After Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus he was given a job by God to go to the very people he was persecuting and tell them of his salvation. God wanted to use Paul to reach the Gentiles, the Jews, and the whole world with His message, but the disciples were afraid of him. Remember Paul was the one who stood by and watched their friend Stephen murdered and did nothing. Not only that, he was guilty of going out and hunting down other Christians and having them killed for believing in Jesus.

Now here Paul stands saying he is a Christian himself. The disciples knew the ability of Jesus to change people was powerful but it was a scary thing to stare your pursuer in the eye and welcome him in. It was through the strength of God they were able to accept Paul and overcome their fears.

The same power that changed Paul from the man that the Christians feared to the man that was on fire for the Lord is the power that is talked about in verses 4 and 5 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Paul wants the Christians at the church at Corinth to understand that the power in his preaching is not his power but it comes from the Holy Spirit.

All that Paul has learned, all that he has experienced, all that he has accomplished before the Damascus Road experience, does nothing to draw him closer to God. Working on your own you can achieve nothing. Your faith should not be in the wisdom of men. Paul knew men would try to figure God out on their own. Man’s wisdom will never figure out God and man’s wisdom will never work out his own salvation. Don’t glory in the wisdom of man. Glory in Jesus and the power of the cross.

The power of God is far reaching I Chr. 29:12 says “Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.”

We cannot succeed in our own power; we must glorify Christ in all that we do. John the Baptist said of this situation ‘He must increase, but I must decrease.’ [John 3:30].

The Holy Spirit is the one who supplies you with the words you need in times of trouble. The Spirit gives you the courage you need to accomplish the task at hand. The Spirit is always there with us in our hearts, as Christians we have a Constant Companion, a Helper in the time of need. His power never leaves us, for that He deserves all the glory. I Cor. 1:31 ‘that, as it is written, "He who glories, let him glory in the LORD."

The last verse of a familiar hymn ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross’ comes to mind as fitting expression of how Paul feels.

Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Conclusion:

In closing, I want to answer the questions I asked in the beginning. Questions maybe you have on your heart. Questions we could ask of Paul this morning and hear his response.

1. What does God want from us when we share the gospel? A. God wants a humble person, a person who is willing to be used, and a person who is listening for the direction of the Spirit of the Lord. A prideful person seeking to do things his way will not be listening to the Lords direction.

2. How much do we need to know to be able to share with some one? A. You do not have to be a professor in biblical studies to tell someone about Jesus. You do not need to explain the theological complexities of the bible to insure their salvation. The only thing Paul said he wanted to know was Jesus and the crucifixion. Tell someone how much Jesus loves them and tell them about how He died for them and let the Spirit do the rest. One of the best things to share is your own salvation testimony, I bet if you haven’t told them they have never heard it before.

3. Is there a gift to sharing Jesus with others? A. Yes, there is a special gift everyone needs. That gift is the Holy Spirit. If you do not have that gift then you do not have Jesus in your heart and you may be hearing of Him for the first time this morning or you have just never responded to the call on your heart before. That gift empowers you, He strengthens you, and He walks with you throughout lives trials. The spirit is the one who gives you power to witness to the lost. He gives you the words to say to the grieving. He gives you the strength to overcome your battles. Anyone can share Christ with the Holy Spirit by their side.

PRAY

Heavenly Father, I pray you would be glorified through this message. That your Spirit would use this broken man’s words to speak into the hearts of this congregation and that each would respond as you so prompt them. Amen.