MPC
10th April 2016.April 10 - 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5 - "Power of the Gospel Pt 2"
MPC
10th April 2016.
Pier Franchini
Ok we need to be honest about something from the beginning. The Gospel, the message of Christ crucified, will never be our culture's idea of wisdom. This world will never view the gospel as the epitome of wisdom. It will never trend on Twitter, have the most likes on Facebook, be plastered on the front page of newspaper or magazine. So we need to be honest. The message of the cross is foolishness to this world - it is foolish to those perishing. Read with me... v18-19
18For 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. 19For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."
So we need to be honest about what we believe. We believe in and worship a Jewish man who walked this earth over 2000 years ago. Yet we claim he wasn't simply man but fully God as well. We believe that Jesus taught and performed miracles that show us that He is the Creator of the universe. We believe that He died a horrible death on a wooden cross. We believe that the unjust jury that condemned him and the government that carried out the act of his death was all part of God's plan. We believe that His death deals with the brokenness of this world, deals with the wrath of God, deals with the requirements of the law. We believe that through His death we have life. We believe that He did not stay dead, but three days later he rose again from death to life. We believe that He ascended into heaven. We believe that He is coming back again. We believe that in Him we have the promise of Heaven and the promise of a new body that will never die or perish. I mean it sounds crazy right?
So we need to come to terms with the foolishness of our message. Now please don't misunderstand me I don't think the message is foolishness. But rather that in light of our world the message of the cross will never be the wisdom it wants but rather the wisdom it needs. Because the assumption made by this world is this - man is the epitome of wisdom. That we know better. That we hold the answers. That we make better "gods" than God. That God is no longer needed. Yet it is the Gospel itself, the message of the Cross, that God will use to destroy the wisdom of the wise and frustrate (or bring to nothing) the intellect of the intelligent.
Read with me...
20Where 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? 21For 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. 22Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
You see with all man's brilliance we have done away with God and turned mankind into a mutated single-celled organism thats run amuck - a glorified ape. We have turned our world into a cosmic accident with no real rhyme or reason. In wisdom at least 20.9 million adults and children are bought and sold worldwide into commercial sexual servitude, forced labor and bonded labor. In wisdom we spend billions of dollars on pornography world wide which sees the degrading of human life and we call it entertainment - in other words we are more likely to spend money on pornography than use it to free a child from poverty or slavery and we call it entertainment. In wisdom since 1973, 55 million American babies were aborted. The majority just for convenience. More lives lost than the Holocaust of World War II. More than the communist regime of Stalin in the former Soviet Union. In wisdom we call it pro-choice. In wisdom we crucified the King of kings.
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Because there is only so much you can blame on religion before you are confronted the with the vivid and stark reality that is humanity! I'll take the religion argument: there is no denying the atrocities committed in the name of God. But the common denominator in all this is mankind. We in our power and wisdom have committed these atrocities. We in our wisdom and power have allowed these things to occur.
So God is pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. The Jews demanded signs and what they got was a crucified messiah. The Greeks sought wisdom and what they got was the message of a resurrected King. But friends, this is the wisdom and power of God - this is the power of the Gospel. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. Christ is not dead. He is risen. Christ is not a religious leader. He is God become flesh. Christ is not a myth, He is the best recorded historical figure of all time. God would make us. He would endure us. He would promise us. He would become one of us. He would love us, engage us, suffer for us. He would die for us. He would rise for us. He would transform us. He will come back for us. He will make all things new. He would do it through the foolishness of the Cross.
So why do it this way? Why is this the power of the Gospel? Why does God display his wisdom and power in this way? Its because, and I want to break this to you politely, it's because not many of us are particularly impressive, have a look at what it says from v26...
26Brothers 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. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are.
So if you're wise and strong and think you're really something, this is bad news. Because God displays His wisdom and power by shaming the powerful and bringing to nothing the things that are. To turn this world on its head and show a greater reality.
So if you're religious. Someone who thrives on following rules of do's and don'ts while looking down on others, someone who thinks that all God wants is your highest achievements and can simply ignore your failures. You who think yourself better than other Christians who fail. God chose to display His wisdom and power by bringing all your efforts to nothing.
Or if you think you're powerful or really something. Someone who thinks you have no need of God, or who thinks life is in their control. Someone who thinks that there is no greater philosophy or ideology than self. That life revolves around yourself and people are only a means to your own grandeur. Someone who demands to be in control and to be heard because of your status, popularity, greatness. God would bring your power to nothing and expose the shameful pursuit of self.
Yet if you are broken here today, a nobody, a reject. Someone who understands with a heartbreaking clarity the reality that this world isn't right. You know the heartache, pain and suffering of this world we live. And you yourself aren't any better. Well, God chose to display His wisdom and power by seeing everything you hate and despise about yourselves, all the ugliness and darkness and he willingly gives up His life for you on a cross.
If you are weak here today, someone who knows the reality of your own limitations and frustrations. Someone with the inability and exhaustion of trying to overcome your physical and emotional struggles. Who understands what it is to be dependant on others or perhaps someone in your care is heavily dependant upon you. God chose to display His wisdom and power in you. By exchanging His life for yours, by giving you the promise of full restoration, that one day this fleeting body will be made new, that this hardship and exhaustion you endure will not have the final say.
You see our boast is not in ourselves but in Jesus. So yes God displays His wisdom and power by bringing to nothing the wisdom of this world! Yet it doesn't end there. He does it this way so that our boast would be in Jesus Christ and in Him alone. Which is what we saw Paul saying in v29...
29so that no one may boast before him. 30It 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. 31Therefore, as it is written: "Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord."
I know we live in a culture where boasting is wrong or at least in appearance we say it's distasteful. I mean especially in Australia. We call it tall poppy syndrome. We don't love the successful, we love the underdog. So how is boasting in Jesus a good thing? In every way. Jesus doesn't show His greatness by becoming the tallest poppy but rather by becoming a lowly weed. Boasting in Jesus is different and liberating because it removes the focus off ourselves. Jesus is the greatest underdog story. We aren't the stars of the show but that doesn't mean the show isn't worth seeing. Far from it. Because Jesus fights for the underdog, He gives up His life for the underdog. Jesus is the underdog's boast.
And so Jesus becomes our wisdom. A wisdom that engages every facet of life, every nuance of its brokenness. And He'll transform it. Not only showing us how to engage with our world but how to live life to its fullest.
Jesus becomes our righteousness. We know we can't live a perfect, sinless life. We know that it's utterly unattainable. He knows the guilt and separation we face before God. So Jesus would live the life we couldn't live, so His life becomes our life. He'd deal with our brokenness by becoming that brokenness and nailing it upon a cross. Jesus becomes our right standing before God. Jesus becomes our right standing in this world. Jesus becomes the right standing in our lives because of His life, death and resurrection. Removing the consequence and judgement of sin. And gives us his life and holiness instead. Which is why Paul says in v30, he has become our righteousness, our holiness, our redemption. Which means we have a God who would come down, engage our messy lives. Get his hands dirty and say, "Lets start from here and take those small, small steps of renewing and transforming you".
The night before Jesus was to die. He told his closest friends what was going to happen. He told them how it was going to unfold. He tells them details which after the event makes them think "Oh yeah right, Jesus said that would happen". He tells them they were all going to abandon him in his greatest time of need. He tells them quite clearly one of them will betray Him to this. So what does Jesus do that night? The one they called the King of kings. He bends down and washes their feet. Jesus' death isn't arbitrary. It was planned. He knew what was going to happen. So he gets down and washes the very feet that would flee from Him. And tells them that He loves them.
Therefore, as it is written: "Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord."
There is beauty in our boast, friends. Because if we are honest in our weakness and frailty, even in our strength and power it becomes quite clear that there isn't very much we can do.
Read with me 2:1...
1And 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. 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power.
I love this little note Paul gives us. You see when he came to the city of Corinth with its bustling trade and culture. He didn't do it with an air of arrogance or naive optimism. He came into this city with fear and trembling which means exactly that. He came scared. He came uncertain of himself. I love his honest fear and weakness because it shows us that Paul wasn't some sort of super-Christian freak that didn't struggle with life. Far from it. I mean if you were to go into seediest or dangerous parts of the city to start sharing the Good News of Jesus and if you feel scared and inadequate then you're in good company. Paul would have felt it too. So then why do it? Why go to Corinth if you feel like this? Why would we try and engage those in the city, or our neighbours or workmates or beyond? Because of the Gospel.
Because our boast and our confidence is in God. It isn't us that makes the Gospel great, it's Jesus. It isn't us that transforms people, it's Jesus. It isn't us that engages the heart, it's Jesus. You see the beauty of what Paul has just shared is that it doesn't become about us but Him. Our boast is in God. The mighty and glorious God who can save us, transform us, unite us. The mighty and glorious God who loves us, dies for us, and is resurrected for us. The mighty and glorious God who would look foolish for the sake of displaying his wisdom, the mighty and powerful God who would look weak for the sake of displaying His power. For in God's wisdom He doesn't terminate life He saves and preserves it. For in God's power He doesn't crush humanity rather He is pleased to be crushed for our sake.
The other night our friend Ellie dropped in with her boyfriend and sister. We'd pastored them in our last church. And she stopped by to tell us she got engaged. Now what makes this so remarkable is that Ellie and her sister came from such a challenging background. Yet over the years I had the incredible blessing of seeing the Gospel transform their lives. It was gradual and hard but incredible. Because just the other night I had this girl who felt so lost and confused share with us that she is getting married to who a guy who loves Jesus and who both want their marriage and lives to be about Jesus. A girl who has been studying for the past year at bible college wanting to know more and more about Jesus. Her younger sister is just the same, just entered uni, is studying science and has a fire and passion for Jesus that just humbles me. And can I tell you I did not come with a fancy show of words or eloquence when I met them but rather with the Gospel. The power of our message is not with wise and persuasive words but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power - a saved, transforming, ever growing life.
So preach the Gospel with knowing that God is at work.