SPEAKER_00: Please turn in your Bibles with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: That can be found on page 1131 in the Church Bible if you're using the Pew Bibles.
SPEAKER_00: We will be working through verses 18 through 25 this morning.
SPEAKER_00: And this passage focuses heavily on the cross, the cross of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And I thought it appropriate and helpful to choose this passage because we've just recently gone over the account of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection in our Gospel of Luke series.
SPEAKER_00: In the passage before us, there is a depth of meaning.
SPEAKER_00: There is a deep and rich understanding of the significance of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: In this passage, we will see that the message of Jesus' death baffles, frustrates, and ultimately destroys the wisdom of the world.
SPEAKER_00: God takes what the world thinks is wise and reveals it to be foolish.
SPEAKER_00: God takes what the world thinks is strong and reveals it to be useless.
SPEAKER_00: How?
SPEAKER_00: He invests his saving, redemptive power in something that the world thinks is weak and foolish.
SPEAKER_00: A crucified Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I think at one time or another in our lives, I think we all may have thought about how we would save the world if it were up to us or in our power to do so.
SPEAKER_00: I can certainly remember being in fourth grade and uh being in a social studies lesson talking about different world-saving philosophies and which one would you do?
SPEAKER_00: And I totally bombed by answering, I think I would save the world by getting bitten by a radioactive spider and becoming Spider-Man.
SPEAKER_00: That's how I would save the world.
SPEAKER_00: And I I completely got a big red pen F across my paper.
SPEAKER_00: But how would you do it?
SPEAKER_00: How would you save the world if it were up to you, in your power, to execute?
SPEAKER_00: Or at least which world salvation philosophy would you be more prone to get behind?
SPEAKER_00: Saving the world through technology, technological advancement and protection, you know, one AI robot per household to serve and protect kind of a thing?
SPEAKER_00: Political and law reform?
SPEAKER_00: If it were in your power to just get the governments of the world to shape up, the world would be just fine.
SPEAKER_00: Would you enforce less rules and more individual freedom, or would you enforce more rules and less individual freedom?
SPEAKER_00: What team would you be on there?
SPEAKER_00: Economic reform, perhaps?
SPEAKER_00: Religious reform?
SPEAKER_00: Or perhaps my favorite evolution through conflict.
SPEAKER_00: Just let the world powers duke it out and the best and strongest will obviously survive and create a utopia from the ashes.
SPEAKER_00: In thinking through all of these hypothetical options, one might hesitate to believe that one man suffering the death penalty as a condemned criminal would be the way that the world is saved.
SPEAKER_00: And yet that is exactly what we have in the gospel of God: Jesus Christ, condemned and crucified.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation for those who believe.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look to our passage this morning and see what God has to say to us.
SPEAKER_00: First Corinthians chapter one and starting at verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.
SPEAKER_00: Where is the one who is wise?
SPEAKER_00: Where is the scribe?
SPEAKER_00: Where is the debater of this age?
SPEAKER_00: Has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world?
SPEAKER_00: For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
SPEAKER_00: For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray that God would give us a believing heart this morning as we consider his word.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Our great God and Father, would you even now fill us with your Spirit who gives us wisdom and revelation?
SPEAKER_00: Would you clear away whatever may cloud the vision of our hearts and minds and grant us to know, believe, rejoice in, and obey your word for the sake of your glory, and in Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We have amazing, amazing words written here by the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: On the back of your program, as you know, there is a short outline of the sermon and space to write notes.
SPEAKER_00: And if you look there, you will see that the main idea of this passage is that in the good news of the cross, God destroys the wisdom of the world.
SPEAKER_00: In the good news of the cross, God destroys the wisdom of the world.
SPEAKER_00: But the question for us here is why?
SPEAKER_00: Why is Paul making this point to the Corinthian church?
SPEAKER_00: Why do the Corinthians need to be reminded that the gospel overturns the wisdom of the world?
SPEAKER_00: And in seeking the answer, we are going to ask ourselves, why do we need to be reminded of this?
SPEAKER_00: That the gospel frustrates worldly wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Looking at our passage in its context is a proper start.
SPEAKER_00: One of the reasons why the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthians in the first place was to respond to reports that were being brought to him.
SPEAKER_00: And it was reported that there were divisions in the church.
SPEAKER_00: Look back at verse 11 of chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 11 with me.
SPEAKER_00: For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.
SPEAKER_00: What I mean is that each one of you says, I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow Cephas, which is Aramaic for Peter, or I follow Christ.
SPEAKER_00: One of the Corinthians' many issues, one of their many issues was their division according to church leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Getting behind prominent, influential people with skills and credibility was and is a very earthly way of trying to position yourself for success.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be thought of more highly if I'm associated with X, Y, or Z influential leader.
SPEAKER_00: We do that all the time.
SPEAKER_00: People will think more of me if I am associated with X university or career path or mentor or country, you name it.
SPEAKER_00: You name it.
SPEAKER_00: This revealed a problem and a misconception for the Corinthians.
SPEAKER_00: The problem was they were looking for occasions to boast in themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They were looking for occasions to boast in themselves, and the misconception is that they thought they would be able to gain influence in the city if they had enough to boast about.
SPEAKER_00: That was their problem.
SPEAKER_00: If we do things the world's way, if we're good at things that the world likes, then the world will take us seriously.
SPEAKER_00: That was their idea, that was how they were thinking.
SPEAKER_00: And in response to this, the apostle Paul intended to humble the church by reminding them that the gospel of Jesus frustrates this very worldly way of thinking.
SPEAKER_00: And to remind them that the wisdom and power that they wanted and needed are found in the simple message of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: The wisdom and power that we want and need are found in the cross.
SPEAKER_00: We need this as well.
SPEAKER_00: We are just as prone to want to boast in ourselves, the people we're associated with, our skills, our merits, our credentials and achievements.
SPEAKER_00: And corporately, as a church, we are just as prone to believe the lie that if we meet all of the world's standards of success, then the world will accept us and take us seriously, and we will grow and have influence in this city.
SPEAKER_00: We have to remember that the wisdom and power of God is in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Let's work through this text together, considering our first point, which is because the wisdom and power of God are in the gospel, we must always boast in God and never in ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We must always boast in God and not in ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me at verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18 both sets up and summarizes the entire section.
SPEAKER_00: For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: For the Apostle Paul, the essence of the gospel, the essence of the good news of God is the cross of Jesus Christ, the death of Christ, the sacrifice that paid for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: And we can see that Paul thinks this way in a few different places.
SPEAKER_00: Look back with me at verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: At verse 17, Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you could see there that for Paul, the gospel and the cross of Christ are being used interchangeably.
SPEAKER_00: They're virtually synonymous.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 18, Paul defines the gospel as the word of the cross, the word of the cross or the message of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: What did all of the apostles preach as they traveled from city to city?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: Crucified.
SPEAKER_00: Even look a bit ahead to chapter two.
SPEAKER_00: Look at chapter two and verses one and two.
SPEAKER_00: When I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ crucified.
SPEAKER_00: This is the essence of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And now, of course, the other elements of the gospel have all their great importance, right?
SPEAKER_00: The birth of Jesus being the incarnation of God, Jesus' life and teaching and miracles, his resurrection from the dead, all of them have their great place of importance.
SPEAKER_00: And you would think, right, that if Paul's gonna mention the power of God, you would think he would be referring to Jesus walking on water or multiplying food or being raised from the dead, but no.
SPEAKER_00: He says the power of God is seen in the cross of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It is in the suffering and dying of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This is how God saved the world.
SPEAKER_00: This is where God stretched forth his mighty hand to deliver his people.
SPEAKER_00: It was at the cross where atonement for your sins was made.
SPEAKER_00: It was at the cross where Jesus wore your sin so that you could wear his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: It was at the cross where Jesus was declared guilty on your behalf so that you could be declared innocent, just, righteous.
SPEAKER_00: It's the cross, the gospel, the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: It truly is a paradox.
SPEAKER_00: It is a paradox of power through weakness.
SPEAKER_00: That's the paradox of the entire New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what confounds the wisdom of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Look again at verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at it a little more closely.
SPEAKER_00: Paul describes unbelievers as those who are perishing.
SPEAKER_00: And he describes believers as those who are being saved.
SPEAKER_00: The Christian is the one who can see, the one who can recognize, who knows the power of God in the cross.
SPEAKER_00: You've experienced it.
SPEAKER_00: He's grasped it, he's being changed by it.
SPEAKER_00: He lives by faith in Jesus who died for him.
SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, the unbeliever is in a constant state of perishing.
SPEAKER_00: He is someone who has his back turned on God, and with every day he is walking farther and farther away from him.
SPEAKER_00: And the longer and farther he walks in his unbelief, the more and more does he perish.
SPEAKER_00: He is gradually withering away with every passing day.
SPEAKER_00: This person hears the gospel of the crucified Jesus and thinks this is a joke.
SPEAKER_00: This is a joke, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00: You're telling me this is how God saved the world?
SPEAKER_00: A Jewish peasant hung up on a criminal's cross?
SPEAKER_00: You've got to be kidding me.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't make any sense.
SPEAKER_00: The world has been divided this way ever since Jesus was crucified.
SPEAKER_00: Between those who see the cross as the saving power of God and those who see the cross as utter foolishness.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's just as much our experience today as it was 2,000 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: You obviously must know both kinds of people.
SPEAKER_00: Faithful Christians in your church and in other churches all over the world who treasure the cross, who treasure it, and then you know others who think of you as a fool for believing in this.
SPEAKER_00: It's just as much our experience today.
SPEAKER_00: Consider this contrast.
SPEAKER_00: Consider this.
SPEAKER_00: On the one hand, we have someone like C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis, the great Christian author, right?
SPEAKER_00: The one who wrote mere Christianity and so many beautiful Christian works.
SPEAKER_00: At one time in his life, the man was an atheist, walking along that path of perishing.
SPEAKER_00: But by the grace of God, he was captivated, captured by the beauty and power of the gospel, and was transformed into a man who is able to say, I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen.
SPEAKER_00: Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
SPEAKER_00: What once was foolish to C.S.
SPEAKER_00: Lewis became the ultimate expression of wisdom, power, and beauty.
SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, there's Ted Turner, who just recently passed away, the famous businessman, philanthropist, TV producer, and founder of CNN.
SPEAKER_00: Turner became infamous among Christians after a 1990 interview with the UK newspaper The Guardian.
SPEAKER_00: In the interview, Ted Turner said point blank Christianity is a religion for losers.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want anybody to die for me.
SPEAKER_00: So what?
SPEAKER_00: I've had a few drinks and a few girlfriends, and if that's gonna put me in hell, then so be it.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know anybody like that?
SPEAKER_00: What I've done in my life is harmless, and if I'm going to hell for it, then fine.
SPEAKER_00: Think of the arrogance behind those words.
SPEAKER_00: To need someone to die for you is to be a loser.
SPEAKER_00: To need saving is to be a loser.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because it means you couldn't do it yourself.
SPEAKER_00: It means you weren't good enough, you weren't strong enough, you weren't smart or successful enough.
SPEAKER_00: You are weak if you need somebody to save you.
SPEAKER_00: He would rather go to hell than to accept Jesus dying for him.
SPEAKER_00: It's the epitome of boasting.
SPEAKER_00: The arrogant, boastful heart sees the cross as foolish.
SPEAKER_00: And again, ironically, God overturning the wisdom of the world, what Turner thinks is weak, is the essence of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You and I are weak.
SPEAKER_00: We need saving.
SPEAKER_00: If there is one thing that the Christian can boast of, it is in our own weakness.
SPEAKER_00: Because when we are weak, that is when God is strong.
SPEAKER_00: See, the gospel is the opposite of what the world thinks is wise and powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Let's see more from the text.
SPEAKER_00: Unbelievers don't merely find the gospel to be foolish.
SPEAKER_00: God actively takes the world's wisdom and reveals just how useless it is.
SPEAKER_00: Looking at verse 19, the Apostle Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah, a prophecy that a day would come in which God would destroy and thwart the wisdom of the so-called wise.
SPEAKER_00: So what happens in the cross already is prophecy fulfilled.
SPEAKER_00: God has been true to his word.
SPEAKER_00: And as Paul says in verse 20, God has made foolish the wisdom of the world.
SPEAKER_00: In making the cross the means of salvation, God makes the wisdom of the world completely powerless, ineffective, good for nothing, and therefore foolish.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 21 with me.
SPEAKER_00: In God's wisdom, I'm gonna paraphrase here, in God's wisdom, in God's wise ordering of things, the world did not know God through its own wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: The world did not know God through its own wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: So, in context, for all of the great philosophical strivings of the Greeks and the Romans, none of it brought them to the knowledge of God, be it the forms of Plato, the ethics of Aristotle, the self-knowledge of Socrates, or the discipline of the Stoics, none of it brought them to salvation.
SPEAKER_00: None of it brought them to the knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_00: None of it freed them from their sins.
SPEAKER_00: None of it gave them eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: All of it, useless, powerless to save anybody.
SPEAKER_00: Still looking at verse 21, it's noteworthy to see that being saved in the second half of the verse is paired with knowing God in the first half of the verse.
SPEAKER_00: It's important for us to see that to be saved is to know God and not just know about him, but to know him as people know one another.
SPEAKER_00: To be saved is to be in relationship with God.
SPEAKER_00: It is to come to know God as your father and to know yourself as his beloved child.
SPEAKER_00: This salvation has come, Paul says, through Christ and through Christ crucified.
SPEAKER_00: He is essentially saying, if you want to know God, if you want to be counted among those who are saved, it is not going to happen through all of your frivolous philosophical strivings.
SPEAKER_00: God, in his wisdom, has made the crucified Christ the means of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: You will have to humble yourself, believe, and submit to a gospel that your very this worldly mind finds foolish.
SPEAKER_00: That is God destroying the wisdom of the world.
SPEAKER_00: For those who boast of wisdom and philosophy and intellectualism, you will not know God unless you meet him at the foot of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: You will not know God unless you meet him at the foot of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And now let me just apply this quickly to a bunch of us here.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what your philosophical pursuits are, but I know in this church there is a good deal of us who love to study.
SPEAKER_00: We want to know our Bibles front to back.
SPEAKER_00: We want to know all of the counter-arguments to objections to Christianity.
SPEAKER_00: We want to know all the church history.
SPEAKER_00: We want to know all of the great theologians and all of their theologies and all of the great arguments.
SPEAKER_00: But the ultimate question is not how much we know about God, but the ultimate question is: have you come to know God through Jesus Christ and through Christ crucified?
SPEAKER_00: Because if you're focused too much on learning and storing a lot of biblical information in your brains, you may fall prey to the anxiety and lie that God will somehow love you less if you know less, or love you more if you know more.
SPEAKER_00: God is gonna somehow judge you based on how much theology you know, or how many theologians you've read, or how many arguments you know about God's existence.
SPEAKER_00: All of that stuff is very helpful, but you will be judged on whether or not you have come to know God through Christ and Him crucified.
SPEAKER_00: Let me make another point of application about boasting.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: The second half of verse 21 says that it pleased God to save those who believe through the folly of what we preach.
SPEAKER_00: And key word here, it pleased God to save the world through a means that the world counts as foolish and weak.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Why did it please God to save the world in a way that we think is powerless and foolish?
SPEAKER_00: Because now you have no cause to boast in yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You have no cause to boast in yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Boasting in the self is a desire and temptation that is common to us all.
SPEAKER_00: It is one that we must fight on the daily, and we do so by daily, constantly reminding ourselves of this gospel that salvation is all of grace.
SPEAKER_00: It is not our own wisdom or power that can save us.
SPEAKER_00: We can't do it no matter how much we want to be able to say, I did it, I found God, I philosophized myself all the way up the ladder to heaven, I was strong enough in myself to meet all of God's requirements, or I made it so big in this world that God has no choice but to pick me.
SPEAKER_00: God is doing himself a favor by picking me.
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
SPEAKER_00: You have to believe in the crucified Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You have to be humble enough to receive a free gift.
SPEAKER_00: Humble enough to be, in Ted Turner's book, a loser.
SPEAKER_00: In Christianity, there's no room for boasting in yourself.
SPEAKER_00: The Corinthians needed reminding of it, and so do we.
SPEAKER_00: On your very best day, when you are most holy, or when you are most good and loving and kind and generous, you need to take a step back, humble yourself for a second, and remember that the only possible way for you to have been saved was that Jesus Christ had to die for you.
SPEAKER_00: And on your very worst day, when you have fallen back into some kind of sin, when you are most anxious, when you are most ashamed, when you are feeling most guilty, lift up your head.
SPEAKER_00: Be encouraged and remember, Jesus Christ died for you.
SPEAKER_00: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Either way, good day, bad day, you can never boast in yourself, only in him.
SPEAKER_00: Look at how Paul reinforces this in the verses following our passage.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 26.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 26 and following.
SPEAKER_00: For consider your calling, brothers.
SPEAKER_00: But think about what you were before you were a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.
SPEAKER_00: God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
SPEAKER_00: And why did he do this?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 29, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_00: The good news is that God chose you and Jesus died for you despite your unimpressiveness.
SPEAKER_00: Despite your lack of wisdom, your lack of power, your lack of nobility, despite your sinfulness, God chose you and Jesus died for you.
SPEAKER_00: You're not a Christian because you're smarter than other people.
SPEAKER_00: You're not a Christian because you're stronger or more successful or more impressive than other people.
SPEAKER_00: You are a Christian because God chose you and Jesus died for you.
SPEAKER_00: We don't even have, we don't even have the boast of saying, hey, at least I made the right choice.
SPEAKER_00: I chose better than all of my friends and family members who don't believe I'm better than them.
SPEAKER_00: I have positioned myself for the future, for eternity, better than everyone else.
SPEAKER_00: You can't even do that.
SPEAKER_00: You can't say, I saw things better, I understood things better, and therefore I chose better.
SPEAKER_00: You don't even get that boast.
SPEAKER_00: God chose you, and Jesus died for you.
SPEAKER_00: We need to hear and believe Paul's words that he wrote in verse 31.
SPEAKER_00: Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Moving on to point two.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is the power of God known in that central gospel event of Jesus' crucifixion, but the power of God is known in the preaching of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The preaching of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: God acts in power to save when the gospel of the cross is preached.
SPEAKER_00: Let's see how the text brings this out.
SPEAKER_00: Firstly, looking back at verse 18, just note that it is the word of the cross that is the power of God to those being saved.
SPEAKER_00: It's the word or message of the cross that is preached, and through such preaching are people saved.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel has to be announced, it has to be proclaimed.
SPEAKER_00: It was this word that Paul brought to Corinth, and it was through his preaching that the Corinthians believed and were saved to begin with.
SPEAKER_00: Paul has to remind them of this.
SPEAKER_00: Look ahead to chapter 2, verses 3 and 4.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter 2, verses 3 and 4.
SPEAKER_00: And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling.
SPEAKER_00: And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is saying, guys, don't you remember how you got saved?
SPEAKER_00: I came into town weak and trembling, preaching the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And you believed.
SPEAKER_00: That's how you got saved.
SPEAKER_00: Not because I was impressive looking, not because I was a great public speaker, but because the message of the cross is the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: Paul might have spoken in fear and in trembling, but the Holy Spirit was active in power to save as the gospel was preached.
SPEAKER_00: Second way the text brings this out.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 21.
SPEAKER_00: The world did not know God through its own wisdom, and it pleased God to save those who believe through the folly of what we preach.
SPEAKER_00: Through the folly of what we preach.
SPEAKER_00: I think this is an appropriate time to mention the Greek text because the Greek literally says that it pleased God to save through the folly of preaching.
SPEAKER_00: Through the folly of preaching, not through what we preach.
SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, the content, the what is no doubt implied, but Paul is talking about the mode of preaching itself.
SPEAKER_00: God loves to save people, and he does so through preaching.
SPEAKER_00: The simple proclamation of the cross may have seemed foolish to the Greeks who love storytelling and dramatic oration and argumentative rhetoric, but God saves through preaching.
SPEAKER_00: The simple proclamation of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: You may or may not be familiar with the famous phrase from St.
SPEAKER_00: Francis of Assisi.
SPEAKER_00: Tell me if you've heard this before.
SPEAKER_00: Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.
SPEAKER_00: In short, he's saying you shouldn't have to open your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Your life should say it all.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a lot of truth to that.
SPEAKER_00: There's great sentimental value to that phrase, and there is some truth in that phrase.
SPEAKER_00: The way we live our lives as Christians should be evidence of the gospel's power in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: It should communicate something of the gospel to the watching world, but our living as good examples of Christians saves nobody.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: No unbeliever is saved by merely looking at someone else's good Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now a good Christian might inspire an unbeliever.
SPEAKER_00: A good Christian might cause an unbeliever to want to seek out Christianity a little bit more, maybe go to church, and that is good.
SPEAKER_00: But at the end of it, the gospel is an announcement.
SPEAKER_00: It is a word, a message.
SPEAKER_00: It must be preached, heard, and believed.
SPEAKER_00: That is how God saves people.
SPEAKER_00: It must be preached, heard, and believed.
SPEAKER_00: Now let's contextualize this a little bit so we can properly apply it.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is responding to that report that the Corinthians were divided, grouping themselves according to different leaders, right?
SPEAKER_00: Peter, Paul, Apollos.
SPEAKER_00: They were trying to commend themselves to the world.
SPEAKER_00: They did want to win the world, but they decided to play the world's game and try to satisfy all of the world's demands and standards of success.
SPEAKER_00: They thought if they did things the world's way, the world would take them seriously.
SPEAKER_00: So some Corinthians side with Apollos.
SPEAKER_00: He was the most skilled and gifted preacher.
SPEAKER_00: And the Greeks, they love skill of speech.
SPEAKER_00: So let's put him out there and I'll stand with him.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter and Paul have performed signs and wonders, and we know that the Jews won't believe unless they see some kind of miracle.
SPEAKER_00: So let's get them out there and we'll side with them.
SPEAKER_00: And now you've got Corinthians that are like, I'm with Apollos, and I'm with Paul, and I'm with Peter, and then you've got the little group in the back that's like, we follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There's always that group in the back that's like, Yes, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But unlike the Corinthians, God won't satisfy what the world demands of him.
SPEAKER_00: Look at how the text brings this out in verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: The world lays their demands on Paul as the preacher.
SPEAKER_00: That was his experience.
SPEAKER_00: And by extension, they lay their demands on God.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews demand signs.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, Paul, you claim that Jesus is the Messiah?
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is come, the kingdom of God is come, all of our hopes and dreams fulfilled?
SPEAKER_00: Prove it to me by showing me a sign.
SPEAKER_00: Show me some miraculous display of power.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, didn't God split the sea through Moses?
SPEAKER_00: What can you do, Paul?
SPEAKER_00: The Greeks demand wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: They demand that Paul astounds and dazzles them with rhetoric and philosophy.
SPEAKER_00: Does Paul capitulate to the world and give them what they want?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: What does he do?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 23 We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks.
SPEAKER_00: He preaches the simple gospel of the cross, no matter how it may frustrate the demands of the world.
SPEAKER_00: And that is what has saved people for 2,000 years.
SPEAKER_00: The simple message, Jesus Christ died for your sins.
SPEAKER_00: Now we interact with people who hold those same two views today, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Don't we, if you think about it?
SPEAKER_00: We deal with people who say, I'll believe it when I see it.
SPEAKER_00: Show me something.
SPEAKER_00: Show me the power.
SPEAKER_00: Show me a sign.
SPEAKER_00: I have to see a concrete miracle take place right before my very eyes, or I won't believe it.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is gonna have to appear right before me or in a dream something.
SPEAKER_00: You know those kinds of people.
SPEAKER_00: Then we also deal with people who challenge us to prove Christianity to them intellectually.
SPEAKER_00: They demand that we satisfy whatever standard that they deem worthy of intellectual satisfaction.
SPEAKER_00: If I don't feel like your gospel has blown my mind, stimulated enough interest, or reached the pinnacle of what I think is smart, then I won't believe it.
SPEAKER_00: It's often how the unbelieving world thinks.
SPEAKER_00: We probably know both kinds of people.
SPEAKER_00: But this could be you too, couldn't it?
SPEAKER_00: This could be you or I too.
SPEAKER_00: Just as we take for granted the air we breathe, so we can be blind to just how familiar we are with the world and its ways of thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Even as Christians, we can approach God with these rather skeptical standards.
SPEAKER_00: God, if you don't answer my prayer in this way, I will find it hard to believe you.
SPEAKER_00: Some stuff in the Bible doesn't make sense to me or say what I would like it to say about God.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm skeptical.
SPEAKER_00: Or, God, show me a sign, something, please.
SPEAKER_00: I'm having a tough time.
SPEAKER_00: How can I know for sure that you love me unless you give me some kind of visible proof?
SPEAKER_00: But God won't play our game.
SPEAKER_00: God won't let us call the shots or stand in judgment over him.
SPEAKER_00: He won't satisfy our arrogant egos.
SPEAKER_00: Has he given us a sign?
SPEAKER_00: Has he showed us his power?
SPEAKER_00: Has he transcended our human standards of knowledge?
SPEAKER_00: Has he given us visible assurance of his love?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Where?
SPEAKER_00: The cross.
SPEAKER_00: And how is the power of the cross communicated to our lives?
SPEAKER_00: Preaching.
SPEAKER_00: To frustrate and humble our desire to boast in ourselves, God has saved us in a way that is weak and foolish to us, but magnifies his greatness.
SPEAKER_00: Strength through weakness, wisdom through foolishness, life through death, victory through defeat.
SPEAKER_00: As Paul says in verse 24, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: As I prepare to close, let me make another application.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen that God has invested his power and wisdom in the death of Jesus and in the preaching of it.
SPEAKER_00: And let me just say, we really need to believe this.
SPEAKER_00: We really need to believe this.
SPEAKER_00: We need to trust in the power of the preached gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Because we typically don't tend to see the power of God in the cross or in the act of preaching.
SPEAKER_00: When we think of the power of God, we likely tend to think of miracles, super preachers on TV, speaking in tongues and other spiritual gifts, perhaps practices like fasting and maybe even power channeled through the sacraments.
SPEAKER_00: There's always some new book hitting the Christian or spirituality section in bookstores, promising to give the world, promising to show you new secrets of gaining and wielding spiritual power.
SPEAKER_00: But where is the power of God?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: Now, is there power in the things I've just mentioned?
SPEAKER_00: Is there power in miracles and spiritual gifts and the sacraments and spiritual practices?
SPEAKER_00: Of course there is.
SPEAKER_00: But just like a good Christian's example, those things do not save anyone.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And as Paul said in Romans chapter 1, verse 16, Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation for those who believe.
SPEAKER_00: Very similarly here in 1 Corinthians, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Only this word of the cross is satisfactory to save anyone's soul.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to believe in the powerful working of God in this gospel, or we will fall subject to some of the same temptations as the Corinthians.
SPEAKER_00: We will think that the only way for us as a church to be successful in ministry is if we try to capitulate to all of the world's different standards of success.
SPEAKER_00: Just try to be good at all the things that the world likes.
SPEAKER_00: We will believe so many bad lies.
SPEAKER_00: Just a couple, for example.
SPEAKER_00: Our church must have the most dynamic and charismatic speaker in town, or no one will come here.
SPEAKER_00: They will think that we are boring.
SPEAKER_00: We have nothing to say to them.
SPEAKER_00: For a church to be successful, the speaker must be the best.
SPEAKER_00: That's a lie.
SPEAKER_00: And I say this as someone who could be rather charismatic and dynamic when I want to be.
SPEAKER_00: But if I or Pastor Brandon or anyone is not preaching the word of the cross, then any skill of speech that we have means nothing.
SPEAKER_00: If you lose the gospel, you lose your power.
SPEAKER_00: It is as simple as that.
SPEAKER_00: Water down the gospel, you lose your power.
SPEAKER_00: The cross of Christ must be preached.
SPEAKER_00: If we don't have the greatest worship team on the East Coast, no one is going to come here.
SPEAKER_00: We will be seen as irrelevant and boring.
SPEAKER_00: If we don't have the fog machines or the Holy Spirit glitter coming out of the vents, then nobody is going to show up here.
SPEAKER_00: That's a lie.
SPEAKER_00: We must preach the gospel of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: We must have an awesome podcast, successful YouTube channel.
SPEAKER_00: We have to be up to date with all the TikTok trends, or no one is gonna find us to be relevant.
SPEAKER_00: Can these things be helpful?
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely they can.
SPEAKER_00: But only the gospel is sufficient to save.
SPEAKER_00: Divorce any of these from the gospel, and it means nothing.
SPEAKER_00: It's powerless.
SPEAKER_00: So God has given us all we need for effective ministry because He's given us the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Has everybody here seen The Wizard of Oz?
SPEAKER_00: I know it's old, but it's like the number one prime example of a movie that has stood the test of time.
SPEAKER_00: Has everyone seen The Wizard of Oz?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I better not have hear one no in the building.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, that means I don't have to spend five minutes giving you a plot synopsis.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be right.
SPEAKER_00: Oh no.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you're moving to Florida.
SPEAKER_00: Unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00: I love you, Connor.
SPEAKER_00: I had to show him it's a wonderful life for the first time in my house at Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: He'd never seen it before.
SPEAKER_00: Wizard of Oz.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, a twister blows Dorothy Gale from Kansas into the land of Oz.
SPEAKER_00: And upon entry, Glinda the Good Witch equips Dorothy with a pair of magical ruby slippers, sends her on a journey to the Emerald City where the Wizard of Oz will give her the ability to go home back to Kansas.
SPEAKER_00: On the way, Dorothy meets a few friends, also has a wicked witch to contend with, and after defeating the wicked witch, the wizard, prepares to fly Dorothy home in a giant hot air balloon, but it accidentally blows away before Dorothy could get in, dooming her to be trapped in Oz forever.
SPEAKER_00: And then quite conveniently at the end, Glinda the Good Witch comes back and is like, hey, by the way, you've had the power to get home the whole time.
SPEAKER_00: You've had the ruby slippers.
SPEAKER_00: All you need to do is click your heels three times and say, There is no place like home, and back to Kansas you go.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you see the point.
SPEAKER_00: Dorothy on a perilous journey, the entire time she had what she needed.
SPEAKER_00: The whole time Dorothy had all that she needed.
SPEAKER_00: So as you wade through the journey of the Christian life with all of its ups and downs, I want you to know that you have all that you need if you know, believe, and preach the gospel of the crucified Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You want to grow in holiness individually?
SPEAKER_00: Preach the gospel to yourself every day, on a good day and on a bad day.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus died for your sins.
SPEAKER_00: It is the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: For the friend or family member that you want to see saved, preach the gospel of the crucified Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It is the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: Is it good to know counterarguments?
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: But all you need is that very simple yet powerful message.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ died for your sins.
SPEAKER_00: For us as a church, if we want to make an impact, let us do what God's people have been doing for the last 2,000 years in here and in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It is the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Our Father in heaven, we give you thanks for your word and thanks for the reminder that you have given us all that we need.
SPEAKER_00: You have given us your power in the good news of Jesus Christ crucified for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: May we never grow tired of hearing this simple message because it is your power.
SPEAKER_00: May we never grow tired of speaking it, meditating on it, praying about it.
SPEAKER_00: May we trust in the gospel of God.
SPEAKER_00: And may we trust that you are active in power to save when we preach this gospel to others.
SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.