The Church Built Up (3) - Foolishness or Wisdom?
The Church Built Up • Sermon • Submitted
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Today we continue our message series from the book of 1 Corinthians. We’ll finish up chapter 1 and start on chapter 2. This letter to the church not just at Corinth, but the church everywhere. The purpose is to help the church be built up in their faith and in how they collectively are following Jesus.
Last week we talked about unity in the church and its importance. I think we all related on some level to the lesson in the passage last week. Whether we have been the victim of church division or the cause of church division, we all need to be aware of the need for unity in the body.
We ended with verse 17 and that is a great introduction to today’s message:
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
Our message today is about foolishness and wisdom. Paul says in this verse that He preaches the gospel not with wisdom and eloquence. Well, if not with wisdom and eloquence then....foolishness and stuttering? In a way, yes. That might sound strange to hear, but Paul would rather choose foolishness than human wisdom. He would rather stutter and stumble over his words than use the methods of those who boast of how well they speak.
We are going to take today’s passage in 3 major chunks. Let’s start with the first chunk…verses 18-25 let’s continue reading...
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 is the wise person? 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.
Here Paul lays out what effect the message of the cross has on those who don’t get it and those who do. For those that don’t get it, they fall into two categories - the Jews and the the Greeks or Gentiles.
Have you ever expected something to be one way only to have it be another? That is what happened to the Jews. The Cross/crucifixion is a stumbling block because they expected the Christ to come and rule in power. Their image of the Christ did not fit the one of Jesus dying on the cross. Dying wasn’t what they expected from their Messiah.
These same Jews needed to see signs and wonders in order to believe. All through the gospels, we see the Jews following Jesus around as he performed miracle after miracle. When it became inconvenient to continue to follow Jesus, these signs and wonders didn’t help keep them following Jesus. They were very easily discouraged from following Jesus.
Watching someone perform miracles will not help you follow Jesus. Having Jesus impact your life through what He did on the cross will.
Then the Gentiles…they valued and sought worldly wisdom. When worldly wisdom is what you value, the cross is foolishness. The cross was a symbol of humiliation. It represented an assault on a person’s power, honor, success and glory. To even talk about the cross in a positive way was foolishness to the Gentiles.
In verse 24, we see the flip side. Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God for those whom God has called. I want to make sure we catch this…those who see the cross as power and wisdom are those who have first been called. God does that work, not us.
And when we have been called, we begin to see human wisdom as inferior. The least of God’s wisdom…is wiser than any wisdom we can come up with and likewise, our strength doesn’t even begin to measure up with the weakness of God.
To clarify, this is not saying that God is foolish or that God is weak. I’ve told this story before, but it fits...When I was 13 or so and I knew it all, I was helping my uncle take apart my bed and move it. He grabbed 1 socket and wrench. I knew he was wrong and told him that he was grabbing the wrong size. I thought he was being foolish for not bringing other sizes. He told me to grab the size I thought it was and in my wisdom, I picked 3 or 4 different ones. When we got to room where the bed was, guess which one fit?
We think we know and God is foolish, but that foolishness is greater than our wisdom.
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 the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
Here we have an example of God’s foolishness at work. Paul says look at you…did you deserve to be called? You fools and have nots have been chosen by God to confound the wise and be those who now have. None of it because of you, but because of Him.
I don’t know about you, but I can relate to this. I look at who I was and what I’m capable of and I am constantly surprised that God would entrust me with this responsibility of preaching. You should have seen me in my 10th grade speech class. I wish I had the video of my end of class presentation…it was awful.
Yet God in his infinite wisdom calls and then he equips. HE EQUIPS - I can’t boast about my abilities, but I can boast about what God has done in my life.
Let’s look at verse 30 again…It because of God that we are in Jesus. And it is through being in Jesus that we have godly wisdom - not human wisdom.
Then it uses 3 words that are what we’ve received: righteousness, holiness (or sanctification) and redemption.
Righteousness in regards to God’s law. In Jesus, we are in right standing with the law of God. There is nothing held against us that we are guilty for.
Holiness or in some translations sanctification speaks of our special place. Things that are holy or sanctified have been set apart for a special purpose. You and I in Christ have been set apart, not because of our own value, but because of our value in Christ.
Redemption is what Jesus did in paying for our sins on the cross. The verb form is redeemed or set free. We have been set free from our sin and from the consequence of that sin.
Let us boast about that!
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.
Paul, the most educated of the apostles was humbled one day by God. Everything he had given his life to was challenged by God in that one moment.
Over the course of time, Paul realized that all that education and studies and knowledge meant nothing when compared to the experience of encountering God. Paul’s faith did not rest or come from all that knowledge. Paul’s faith came from a powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit.
It is his recognition of this that causes him to preach and teach the way he does. He recognizes that what he is teaching doesn’t make sense from a human logic point of view. If our faith is built on human logic, our faith will not stand tests from the enemy.
The enemy would love nothing more than to poke holes in our logic that sounds really good. This tactic started in the garden with Eve…Eve tells the serpent that if they eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that they would die and the serpent says this:
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
This sounds logical from a human perspective. *sarcasm* God is just being foolish not letting us eat that fruit. Surely that was just a mistake. This sounds like a good thing to have…let’s eat the fruit.
**Title Slide
Paul wants us to recognize that if our faith rests only on human wisdom, we are in trouble. Instead, let the testimony of Jesus Christ and his crucifixion be what we talk about. Then watch as the Spirit moves people to respond in faith. That is the demonstration of the Spirit’s power.
How else would anyone respond in faith? This was contrary to the wisdom of the time that requires a wise and eloquent speaker to impact people.
I was having a conversation with Guy about a national church leader who looks at patterns in the American church. One observation he made was that evangelism in the American church is dying. I think that’s true.
I don’t know the full answer or solution, but I can point to 3 reasons why I think this is the case.
The church as a whole does not fully grasp what Jesus has done for us. Paul grasped it so much…That was all he wanted to talk about and teach. Jesus and him crucified. Why? Because it meant so much to him.
Until we can grasp the depth of what Jesus has done, we will never make evangelism a priority.
The church cares more about what it can do for it’s members than helping the millions of people that are going to hell. That’s harsh…I know. Let me ask this…when was the last time a suggestion was made on how to reach our community versus a suggestion on how to improve how we interact with one another?
The church in America is now a training place for missionaries who are living in a mission field - their own hometown.
The culture saying God is not logical has silenced most believers. We think we need to be eloquent and have all the answers. Paul had all the answers and he just wanted to give his testimony. Look how God changed me. Jesus. The Cross.
We are all called to be evangelists - enthusiastic advocates for Jesus. We don’t need to have all the answers, we just need to talk about what God has done, what He is doing and what eternity holds.