Get Out of Your Own Way

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We remember that God graciously, powerfully brings us into faith in a crucified and risen Christ. We are encouraged to overcome obstacles that we put in front of our faith and witness.

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I actually preached on this text already, not here, but at the Seminary in chapel. This is a much more friendly environment. Something about preaching to a room of experts in the Scripture, theological geniuses, and trained preachers is just a little intimidating. But I have to tell you, this message and that one are two radically different sermons. And as I sat and read through my notes from that message, it struck me how incredible the Word of God is. I can preach through this text twice, less than a year apart, and the focus of the message is radically different. It’s evidence for me on how critical it is to be constantly going back to the Scripture, because it’s a well that never runs dry. God’s always got something more to say to us. Now the focus of the message isn’t the only thing that’s different, the structure is different. In fact, this morning we’re going to approach this text in a way that we haven’t together yet. It’s five verses and we’re just going to walk through them verse by verse, step by step through what Paul says here. And we’re going to see how incredibly Scripture is connected, in fact Scripture is one of the best tools for interpreting Scripture, and that’s going to give even more depth for God’s Word to us in these verses. So we start here, in 1 Corinthians 2:1.
1 Corinthians 2:1 ESV
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
Now, right off the bat, Paul says something that totally goes against the grain of what our world wants, what our nature demands. We want proof, we want to be convinced with lofty speech or wisdom. With all sorts of things, we want proof. With the pandemic, whether it has been lock downs or masks or the vaccine we have demanded proof - proof that they’re necessary, proof that they work, we need evidence! That’s just one example, another comes in sports. If you’ve watched the NFL lately, they have cameras everywhere! They capture footage of each play from a dozen different angles to try and prove that Dez dropped it, or that the ball crossed the plane, or that the runner was down short of the line to gain. And even more recently Amazon’s been advertising the #StatThat, because we even want proof that the plays we think are incredible really are incredible.
Or maybe the “lofty speech and wisdom” is talking about our desire for things to be marketed well. Slick commercials, effective branding, just the right balance of social media presence.
And our faith is not exempt from these temptations. We have people who are outside of Christianity demanding that we prove that God exists, demanding that we prove He is what we say He is, prove that He created the world. We have people who are inside Christianity who make the same demands, pursuing ways to somehow prove that God exists, prove that He created the world, prove that He did what He said He did. Two groups of people who idolize that same pursuit from two different sides. Or we have people who want the church to market well, to hide the difficult things we have to say, to brand well, to look like successful influencers in the rest of the world. And what Paul has to say is this.
1 Corinthians 2:2 ESV
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Because we can’t prove it, no amount of marketing can do it justice. Our incredible message is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And we say “that can’t be it” and when we’re talking to our friends, our family, our neighbors we know that the faith we share is more than that. And you’re right, it’s more than that, Paul’s using a rhetorical device called synecdoche - where you use one thing to refer to a greater body. Another example might be we say “we have boots on the ground.” That’s not it, we have more than just boots sitting on the ground, we’re referring to the people that wear those boots and frequently the larger task they’re there to do. So when Paul says he knows nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, you’re right, that does refer to more. I mean, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:17 “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.” But Christ is the horizon for our faith, His life, ministry, death, and resurrection are our starting point. So when we think we can’t share the faith because we don’t know enough, or we don’t have the marketing skills - Paul pushes back and reminds us “you know Christ, you know what He did for you and for the people you’re talking to, and that is enough!” You know that Christ was born, lived, died, and rose from the dead. You know that He has forgiven you everything and that you will spend eternity with Him in His new creation. That is enough! So not only are you adequately equipped to share the Gospel, you are uniquely situated to speak it to people in your lives, people you have a relationship with, who know you care about them. Because you don’t have to be an expert, you don’t have to have a super polished, perfect witness. Paul says this.
1 Corinthians 2:3–4 ESV
And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
And we hear these words and the natural question is, how do we bring people to a demonstration of the Spirit and of God’s power? And I want to tell you a story.
A man was desperate, he felt the broken world around him crashing in. He was surrounded by faithless people, persecuted on all sides, hated for his faith in God. And in his despair, God speaks to him. God says, go and stand on my mountain. So the man stood on the mountain, and a tornado whipped by. It dragged down trees and shattered rocks - but God wasn’t there. Then an earthquake shook the mountain and split the ground - but God wasn’t there either. Then a wildfire burned the land all around the mountain - but God wasn’t there either. Finally, in the quiet wake of these disasters, the world around the mountain seemed to hold its breath. And in the silence, there was a quiet, low whisper. And God was in the whisper, and comforted the desperate man, sending him out again on mission.
That’s the story of Elijah from 1 Kings, and I think there is profound truth there. The Spirit is demonstrated, God’s power is often revealed in quiet whispers that don’t look like power, but impact the heart and mind far more than any grand demonstration or elaborate argument. The Spirit can use us in those quiet moments, and our low proclamation of Christ can profoundly impact hearts, minds, and lives. Because the reality is this, Paul reminds us that
1 Corinthians 2:5 ESV
so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
And God gives us a characterization of what our faith looks like here. Jesus says
Matthew 18:3 ESV
and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
We are called to a childlike faith. Think of a child’s faith in their parents. Their Dad is a superhero who can make anything better, their Mom is the best person they know, their parents are going to take care of them. They don’t need proof, they don’t need a degree, they don’t need a resume - they simply trust in their parents.
And we’re called to that kind of faith in our God. We don’t know how Christ’s sacrifice worked exactly, we don’t know why He loves us so much, we cannot prove He is there and hears our prayers. But we trust that He loves us, we trust that by His death and resurrection we are promised an eternity with Him. His Spirit has worked in your lives, your faith rests on His power, and He has promised incredible things for you. Amen.
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