"18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is God’s power to us who are being saved. 19 For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and I will set aside the understanding of the experts. 20 Where is the philosopher? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish? 21 For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached. 22 For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. 24 Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom, 25 because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength."
I Corinthians 1:18-25
As we know, I Corinthians is divided basically into Paul's discussion of the various problems that existed in the Corinthian church. And, up to this point in our study of the first chapter of I Corinthians, we have been discussing the division within the church at Corinth. Beloved, I can assure, that there is really ever one answer to a divided church and that is The Cross!
As we know, I Corinthians is divided basically into Paul's discussion of the various problems that existed in the Corinthian church. And, up to this point in our study of the first chapter of I Corinthians, we have been discussing the division within the church at Corinth. Beloved, I can assure, that there is really ever one answer to a divided church and that is The Cross!
First, let's bow our heads in prayer.
Heavenly Father,
Lord, we thank for our message today. Amid all the chaos and confusion of the present day, we give thanks to You, for a message that is to be so clear to us. Father, thank You, we're grateful that our confidence is not in this world, nor in human philosophy but in You alone. We give You praise for that. And Lord, if there would be some present today, who do not know yet know You, who are still holding to the materialism, things of this world and human philosophy, Lord, we pray that Your Spirit would break the chains of bondage, the ties of modern philosophy and make their hearts free, to seek Your Son, Jesus Christ. For those of us who are already in Christ, help us and make us pure, that we would respond to Your Word, in obedience. Giving You alone all praise, and all the glory
in Christ's name we pray
Amen.
So, as you may have probably guessed, that is going to be our focus our study of this portion of Scripture today. Paul emphasizes in verse 17 that words of human wisdom are not the answer for a divided church. Why can’t human wisdom solve the problems of a divided church? Because love among all persons is the only remedy for division, and the greatest demonstration of love ever witnessed on this earth is the cross of Christ. It is the cross that reveals the love of God.
Today's Message: Spiritual Wisdom In A Foolish World
Open your Bibles to the first chapter of I Corinthians, verses 18-25. I Corinthians 1:18-25.
Follow along with me if you would as I read.
"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is God’s power to us who are being saved. For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and I will set aside the understanding of the experts. Where is the philosopher? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish? For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached. For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom, because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength."
Now I'd like you to remember that the Corinthians had written a letter to Paul asking for his help in bringing this divided church back together. In the first four chapters of this letter Paul gives eleven answers to uniting a divided church.
The first and foremost answer for any division is the Cross.
The message of the gospel is the Cross of Christ.
The content of preaching should revolve around the cross.
All the other subjects of the Christian life are due to the fact that we have been reconciled to God and brought near to Him by the Cross of Christ.
The minister should never let the religious rituals of the church or a denomination to take the place of the cross in his ministry, no matter how important they may be! It is all too easy to let ritual, ceremony, and form replace the cross in the church. It’s also much easier to administer rites and ceremonies than to spend hours in diligent study and to preach the cross to a selfish world.
The demands upon a minister’s time by other functions of the church are often so consuming that he finds himself slipping from his primary call to study, pray, and preach the gospel. The minister has to keep his priorities straight because no one else will do it for him. He must make the cross the primary subject of his life and preaching.
We have to be careful with this because the cross can be emptied of its power. How? Paul says by preaching the gospel with "words of human wisdom." Preachers can become more concerned with eloquence than with the cross. This happens when they focus on flowery speeches to impress, their appearance, persuasive words, or maybe even too much charisma.
There is certainly no end to the mass of verbiage regarding human philosophy, philosophy of life, meaning of life, destiny of life, what life is all about. How we are to live. What we're for. What we're to do. Where we're going. Where we came from. It literally goes on and on. In fact, I believe that we have made a god out of education and a god out of human perspective and opinion. So, I know that this may come a shock to some, but in many ways, we are really not any different than the Greeks.
The preacher can become more concerned about the content of his message and its points and arguments than he does about proclaiming the cross. He can get off on tangents—too many illustrations, too many jokes and funny stories, sharing his position on an issue, or allowing worldly readings to take the place of the cross.
The man who preaches the gospel with “words of human wisdom” makes the cross of Christ of no effect. He empties the cross of its power. When the preacher strays from the cross, people leave the service and their attention is not upon the gospel and the cross, their attention is on the preacher. A preacher should never set out to impress people with his style, delivery, fluency, charisma, ideas or anything else. He should keep the focus on the cross.
I'd like to just say, that I come to preach the Gospel. I did not come to teach human wisdom
Doctrines of human wisdom are opposite the truth of God. They are opposite the gospel.
Allow me to read to you, verse 18: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is God’s power to us who are being saved."
"The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. The world’s wisdom includes many words, many ways to find the truth and meaning to life. But the Word of the cross is the only way to the truth and meaning of life."
In contrast, the message of the cross is the power of God to those who are saved. No other message can reconcile man to God. No other message can give men the perfect blessed assurance of God’s daily love and care and of living eternally with God. Allow me to make this as plain as I can, No other message!
Verses 19-20 says, "For it is written: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the understanding of the experts. Where is the philosopher? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish?"
The preaching of the cross destroys the wisdom of men and makes foolish the wisdom of the world.
Preaching of the cross destroys the wisdom of men and makes foolish the wisdom of the world.
This verse is quoted from the book of Isaiah 29:14. How does the cross destroy and make foolish the wisdom of men and their world? At least three ways:
The cross exposes the fallacy of man’s reasoning and wisdom. Man tries to conquer evil through science, technology, and the religion of human effort. He tries to use everything at his disposal to conquer nature, disease, suffering, corruption, and death. Man wants a life that is full and free, but he wants it on his own terms. He wants to do his own thing, to live as he wishes, to gain position and power, to gain recognition and fame and to be comfortable. Man wants acceptance and recognition for his achievements.
What the cross does is shatter this reasoning. It exposes the problem of sin. Man is not willing to live as Christ said so he put Christ to death.
Secondly, the cross also exposes the fallacy of man’s search for love, joy, peace, and all the other fruit of the spirit. Man cannot produce the fruit of the spirit on his own. But the cross gives this assurance of living eternally with God. The cross destroys the idea that the fullness of life comes from science, technology, education, and even good works.
And thirdly, the cross shows that the answer to man’s problems is the way of sacrifice. No one can reach God and find truth or solve the world’s problems without love and total sacrifice. That is what the cross is all about. Man is not righteous or just, and man, despite his overstated, elevated opinions of himself, is certainly not perfect. So there is no way, apart from Christ, that man can ever be acceptable and be good enough, be worthy to live in the presence of a perfect God.
To put it very simply put, we are not Him. The only way we can ever become acceptable to God is that God will have to love us enough to provide a perfect sacrifice for us and that is exactly what He did through Jesus Christ.
However, the cross is not the way that world wants to approach Christ. They want to approach Him on their own terms. But men fail. Every human effort, other than the cross, no matter how great always has and always will fail. Human wisdom and philosophy changes the truth of God into a lie and it worships the creature more than the creator.
The cross destroys the wisdom of men, in that it shows that the way to solve the problems of the world is the cross and nothing else. Just imagine what the world would be like if all men loved and sacrificed all they were and had to solve the problems of the world—that they loved and sacrificed just as Christ did.
"For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached."
The cross is both the wisdom and the power to save those who believe. The cross is the wisdom of God. It’s the way God chose to save the world. So man is saved not by the wisdom of man but by the wisdom of God, which is the cross. It’s the person who believes the preaching of the cross that is saved. The cross is the power of God to save those who believe.
Paul, in Romans 1:25 says, "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen."
What Paul is really saying is, "The knowledge of God was there. You had the knowledge of God. You had the revelation of God. It was all there. You imposed human philosophy upon it and you turned the truth of God into a lie!"
Then Paul says, in verses 22-24, "For the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom,"
The cross answers man’s search for God. But the world has made three mistakes in looking at the cross.
First, the Jews or religionists of the world feel they are the chosen seed of God, that they reach God by having a godly heritage and by being religious and good enough to be acceptable to Him. The emphasis of the religionist is his works and labor for God. The religionists think that it is man who prepares the way for the Messiah’s salvation on earth, rather than the Messiah who prepares the way for man to approach God. They think it is man who brings the glory of God and utopia to earth rather than the Messiah who ushers in the kingdom.
The cross is bound to be a stumbling block to the religionists. The ideas of the cross are just foreign to a religionist. When the religionist looks at the cross, he is repulsed by the torture, the pain, the blood, the agony, and the death. He doesn’t see the glory and majesty, the triumph and victory. He doesn’t want to think about the negative factors of sin and death, instead he wants to focus on ritual, ceremony, religion, works and benevolence just so he’s not expected to give everything.
Secondly, the Greeks thought of God as being too far away and uninvolved in human affairs to feel. So to think of a god who became a man and felt the pains of death on a cross was foolishness to a Greek mind. It was nonsense. The Greeks also admired the wise man. This was a man who could speak persuasively with flowery speech about earthly affairs and human wisdom. So the preaching of the cross with its message seemed crude and uncultured.
Then, Paul mentions this in verse 24 that the called of God find Christ. There are some who pay attention to God’s call. They heed and obey. And when they do, these things happen:
They discover that Jesus is the power of God.
They discover that Jesus is the wisdom of God.
They discover that Jesus delivers from sin and that God will guide and direct them through the trials of life day by day.
Verse 25, "because God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength."
In Closing...
The cross proves that God’s way is far wiser and far stronger than man’s way. In fact, the cross could save the whole world, if only all would surrender themselves to it.
Just think of this; What would really happen if only one million people within one nation bowed before the cross, surrendering all they were and had to Jesus Christ. What would happen if they really sacrificed themselves totally to Christ, just as Christ did for them?
And what would happen in this church if every single person did the same?
One thing is for certain, it would take care of any divisions within the church.
And, that is exactly the point that the apostle Paul was making in this portion of his letter.
Turn to the cross. Turn to the cross!
Then, preach the Word of God, so that others, from around the world, in every nation might also turn to the cross!
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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