Introduction
How do we learn things? If you want
to learn a new language, what is the process? You would need to memorize words,
learn how they are pronounced, learn the grammar and ideally have an
opportunity to speak with a native speaker. It takes memorization, diligence
and repetition. Do we learn spiritual truths in the same way or is there more
to it?
Last week we talked about what God
wants. We talked about the sacrifice which He has provided in Jesus to give us
forgiveness and that God wants us to accept that sacrifice. We talked about the
life that God wants us to live as those who belong to Him. How do we come to
understand the gospel message and how do we come to understand how to live in
God’s way. Is it simply a matter of diligence in studying the Bible and
repetition to make the truths part of our life or is there more to it?
First Corinthians 2:1-16 addresses
such questions and teaches us some important truths about being taught by the
Spirit of God.
The Corinthians had become
followers of Jesus following Paul’s visit to Corinth as recorded in Acts 18. After
he left that city, he continued to correspond with them. In this letter, he was
addressing a problem in their relationship with him. It seems that even though
he had brought the gospel to them, they were not that impressed with Paul.
Other teachers had come who were stirring things up with false teaching. The
Corinthians listened to them because they were impressive and could excite them
and stimulate their minds and imagination with wisdom.
Paul addresses this concern and in
the course of doing so teaches us important things about how we come to understand
God’s way.
The things
he teaches are relevant to our time as well. This week Bill Nye debated Ken Ham
on topic of the origin of life. I am quite sure that no one was convinced to
follow Christ by the brilliance of the arguments presented. Why am I convinced
of that? Paul’s answer to the Corinthians helps us understand that the gospel
is the simple message of Christ crucified and that it is only by the Spirit
that anyone can understand God’s wisdom.
Let’s examine the text and then
consider its implications.
I.
Salvation by the Spirit
A.
The Weakness of the Message
When Paul came to the city of
Corinth, he tells us that he had decided before hand the kind of approach he
would have. Whether this was always his strategy or whether he knew something
about the Corinthians that caused him to choose this strategy we don’t know,
but we do know that when he went there, he decided to give them a very simple
message. In fact, to them with their desire for wisdom, it was a very
unimpressive message. When he came to them he came preaching two things. He
preached Jesus, telling them the story of Jesus coming and ministry. He also
preached the central truth about Jesus which is that Jesus died on the cross to
accomplish God’s plan of salvation.
I Corinthians 1 speaks about the
impression the gospel message would leave on anyone from a Greek background.
They considered this message foolishness. Among the Greeks, the study of
rhetoric was a highly revered study. Augustine was one who had studied this
topic and was sought out as a speaker because he could put words together in
such an impressive way that everyone wanted to listen to him. In the age before
TV, being a public speaker was a highly respected occupation. If you could
deliver significant thoughts to people, they would be impressed. But Paul had a
message that did not impress most of them. They saw it as gibberish. In Acts
17:32, we read about how some of them scoffed at the message Paul proclaimed in
Athens. Yet this was the message which Paul preached over and over again.
B.
The Weakness of the Messenger
The message was unimpressive and
Paul was also aware that he himself as the messenger was also unimpressive. When
he came to them, we read in verse 3 that he came with weakness, fear and trembling.
What was this weakness with which he came to them? We are not told. Was it
because of a physical illness that limited what he could do? Was it because he
was not a skilled orator who would be able to “wow” them with the way he put
words together? Was his weakness caused by the persecutions he suffered, or was
it even his own sins. There is certainly something to that. Every messenger of
the holy gospel is a flawed human begin who has sinned and could sin at any
time. When he was in Corinth, God came to Paul and we read in Acts 18:9 that
God told him “do not be afraid…” Perhaps it was fear that limited what he could
do.
In any case, the message which the
Corinthians heard was not a brilliant discourse containing words of wisdom and
it was not delivered by a polished orator who could hold the audience in the
palm of his hand. The message was that of Christ crucified and that message was
delivered by Paul, an ordinary human being.
C.
The Power of the Spirit
In spite of the weakness of the
message and the messenger, something happened.
A number of them became believers. Paul attributes this to
one central fact. The Holy Spirit showed up. When Paul preached, God’s Spirit
took the words he spoke and applied them to the receptive hearts of those who
heard and they accepted the message and followed God’s way.
Although
Paul’s speaking was not impressive, the presence and power of the Spirit was. Verse
4 says that the message was accompanied by “a demonstration of the Spirit and
of power.” The Holy Spirit’s presence and activity were evident. How was He
present? Was it through signs and wonders? These certainly accompanied Jesus
when he preached the gospel and contributed to the authority with which he spoke
the good news. Yet signs in themselves are not enough to convince anyone of
God’s way or to persuade them to follow His way. The Pharisees and others saw
the signs and yet did not believe. Although these were likely present, the
power of the Spirit was clearly present in the fact that conversions happened. Scripture
teaches us is that each person needs to make a decision to follow God on their
own. But we also know that unless the Spirit of God is involved in drawing,
convicting and converting, no one is able to believe. That is why I believe
that the Spirit’s power was present and evidenced in the conversions that
happened.
The
weakness Paul manifested in his own person and even in the “foolishness” of the
message did not mean that there was an absence of power. The presence of the
Spirit of God made the message effective and people became followers of God,
understanding the message of the gospel and responding to it, by the power of
the Spirit.
D.
The Purpose of Weakness
Why did Paul chose this strategy?
The final part of verse 5 helps us understand when it says, “so that your faith
might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.” What a significant
statement. When they believed it was not because Paul had been impressive or
because the message was so intriguing. He did not convince anyone! When they believed,
it was because of something that God did.
We began by asking how we come to
know God’s message and God’s way. The answer is that this happens only by the
power of the Holy Spirit. And when it happens by the power of the Holy Spirit,
God’s power is demonstrated and He gets the glory. At the end of the message, I
want to think with you about some of the implications of this truth.
II.
We Have the Mind of Christ
Paul states that his proclamation
was not made up of “lofty words or wisdom” and were given “not with not
plausible words of wisdom.” He described his presentation of the gospel as
given in “weakness, fear and trembling.” Does that mean that what he spoke was
actually foolishness? Does the message contain anything of value?
A.
True Wisdom
In the next section, he goes on to defend
the message he preached. There is indeed wisdom in what he speaks. He says,
“…we do speak wisdom.” But what is the nature of this wisdom? How is it wisdom?
Why do so many see it as foolishness?
He speaks of
this wisdom as “God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the
ages...” This tells us some important things about the wisdom of the gospel
message.
For one
thing, it is not some new teaching. It seems that in the world, in Paul’s day
and still today, there is a constant seeking for something that is new and
exciting. It seems that people have a great curiosity about the latest thing. In
contrast, the wisdom of which Paul speaks is an ancient wisdom. It is something
that God has thought about and purposed from the very beginning of time. The
plan of God was considered before the world began. 1 Peter 1:20 speaking about
Jesus says, "He was destined before the foundation of the world..."
God has always had the plan to restore humanity through the death of Jesus on
the cross.
Yet this
plan has not been known. It has been hidden with God. It is not a secret in the
sense that it cannot be known. It is not a mystery in the sense that no one can
understand it. It is God’s mystery because until the appropriate time it was
not revealed to people. Yet it has now been proclaimed in the world. Paul has
already indicated that the mystery of God is the wisdom of what Jesus has
accomplished. It is the message of Jesus crucified for the sins of the world.
It is wisdom because it has the power to save, the power to introduce people
into a new kingdom and the power to bring them to the eternal kingdom.
We also
notice in these verses that it accomplishes wonderful things for those who
believe it. In verse 7, the message is declared to be “for our glory.” That
means that by it we are brought into the glorious presence of God and we
experience glory like we have never experienced on earth before. In verse 9 it
promises that those who accept it will experience “what God has prepared for
those who love him.” Verse 12, tells us that this wisdom of God promises “…gifts
bestowed on us by God.”
So the
message which Paul preaches, the gospel message, is indeed God’s wisdom that is
amazing and accomplishes amazing things.
B.
Not Understood by This Age
Yet the text also tells us that
this gospel is not understood by the people of this age. We read in verse 8,
“None of the rulers of this age understood.” Those who lived in the time when
Jesus was on earth did not understand what Jesus was doing. They were in the
very presence of the God of the universe who had come to deal with their sins
and they didn’t understand what was going on, so they crucified Him. Which,
ironically, accomplished God’s purpose but which they also did not understand.
A similar message is found in verse
9 where a partial quote from Isaiah 64:4 and a partial general Old Testament
comment, declares that the human eye, ear and heart cannot conceive of what God
is doing. Verse 14 puts it very succinctly. "Those who are unspiritual do
not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and
they are unable to understand them..."
So what this text is saying is that
there is a huge divide between God’s wisdom and the understanding of it in the
world. God’s wisdom stands as having power and effectiveness but the world has
no clue about that! The people who do not know God may be able to parrot it, often
mock it, may be able to state it clearly, but they don’t get it. It is
foolishness to them.
C.
God’s Wisdom Revealed by the Spirit
Yet in spite of this gap, the way
of God can be understood. How?
Paul uses an illustration from
common human understanding. We can keep secrets from other people, but most
often we know what is going on within our heart. Our own spirit understands
what is going on within us. If, in response to the question “How are you doing”
I respond, “just fine.” You will never know if that is the truth, but I know
within myself. In a similar way, the Spirit who comes from God knows what is
truly in the heart and mind of God.
The good news is that God’s Spirit
has been given to us. This means that we also can understand the things of God
because God has given us His Spirit. Once again we come to understand what we
already saw in verses 1-5 and that is that the wisdom of God which is the
message of Jesus crucified can only be understood by those who have the Spirit.
This is the core message of this entire passage. In verse 10 it tells us that these
things “God has revealed to us through the Spirit.” Verse 12 tells us that
since God’s own Spirit knows what is in God, we also understand the mind and
heart of God because God has given us His Spirit. Verse 13 reinforces this
thinking when it says that the wisdom of God is known by those who are “taught
by the Spirit” because spiritual truths are available only to those who are
spiritual. Verse 16 furthermore affirms that “we have the mind of Christ.”
Earlier we
spoke about the gap between the wisdom of God and the failure of the people of
this world to understand God’s wisdom. The only way it can be known is by the
Spirit. Those who trust in the death and resurrection of Christ are enabled to
understand and to follow God’s way because they have been given the Holy
Spirit. The distinction in this passage is not between normal Christians and
super-spiritual Christians. It is between God’s followers and those who do not
grasp the gospel. The point of all this is that it is the Spirit of God who
reveals God’s wisdom, the wisdom of Jesus who came to die for our sins. Apart
from the Spirit of God we cannot know spiritual truth, but thank God that He
has given His Spirit to reveal the wisdom of God.
Conclusion
These verses speak about God’s
message which is the message of the gospel, the message of Jesus crucified.
They tell us that only those who have the Spirit have any hope of understanding
this message. The implications of this message are far reaching and critical.
Let’s consider some of them.
These truths have implications for
the way in which we do evangelism. It means that we don’t have to know all the
answers nor develop a brilliant argument to persuade people of God’s message.
We can simply, clearly and lovingly tell people about Jesus in our words. If we
were brilliant, engaging or entertaining enough to persuade people to accept
the gospel or even if we could scare them into becoming Christians by our
powerful words, what would we accomplish? They would believe because of us and
if they believed because of us, they would come to doubt when the arguments no
longer were convincing or if we failed them in some way. Thousands of people
have become followers of Jesus through the ministry of Billy Graham. He would
be the first to tell us that it was not him but rather the work of the Spirit. This
allows us to relax about proclaiming the gospel. Not in the sense of failing to
proclaim, but rather in the sense of recognizing that all we need to do is love
people and tell them about Jesus. The Holy Spirit does the work of convicting,
convincing and converting. Are we relying on Him as we tell people about Jesus?
What are the implications of this
for our relationship to the world? The wisdom of the world is “doomed to
perish” as verse 6 says. The world can never understand the way of God yet we
understand the way of God. Far too often we are intimidated by the world’s lack
of understanding of spiritual truths and tempted to use the world’s wisdom
instead of living by God’s wisdom. Fee says, “Since they have the Holy Spirit,
who is not of this world, they should desist thinking like this world.”
What are the ways in which we are
tempted to think like the world? One way may be when we buy into the wisdom of
this age that entices us to collect as many material possessions as possible,
instead of generously investing in eternity.
Another way is in the strategies we
live by in this world. For example, Winnipeg’s Chief of police is seeking to
live by the wisdom that is from above. The worldly wisdom says that the police
would be more effective if there were more officers patrolling our streets.
Chief Clunis probably considers that as one of his strategies, but he has also
called on the churches of Winnipeg to another strategy and that is to pray. For
2014, every week of the year one church will be praying for the police and for
victory over crime in our city. Our turn will come during the week of June 2-8.
He has been criticized by some who do not understand the ways of God but we
need to support his efforts to live by and lead by the wisdom of God. We should
not be intimidated by the thinking of the world.
I think
there is another tremendous encouragement in this passage. If we are followers
of Jesus, having become one not by agreeing to a dogma, but by being converted
by the Spirit of God, we have the Spirit of God living within us. Repeatedly we
are told in this passage, “…we have received…the Spirit that is from God…” and
“we have the mind of Christ.” What do those truths mean for how we process
truth, make decisions and walk following God? Fee says, “Being spiritual does
not lead to elitism; it leads to a deeper understanding of God’s profound
mystery – redemption through a crucified Messiah.” Since we have the Spirit,
let us rejoice in what He has already done in us and rely on Him and listen to
the voice of God given to us by the Spirit. Living by the Spirit means not
bending our mind to the wisdom of the world. Rather it means hearing the voice
of the Spirit in God’s Word, through the voice of God’s people and through His
still small voice. Since God’s Spirit is present within us, how will we learn
to be taught by God so that we follow God’s way?
May we
rejoice in the presence of God’s Spirit with us and learn to be taught by the
Spirit.
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