“The Wisdom of the Spirit” – 1 Cor. 2

Everybody likes an underdog, right?  People love to cheer for someone that beats the odds and becomes the champion of something when logic and wisdom seem to say that they cannot do it.  Many of you have probably heard the name Rosie Ruiz before although it has probably been a few years.  Rosie came out of complete marathon obscurity to do so well in the 1979 New York marathon that she qualified for the 1980 Boston marathon.  And to the surprise of everyone, she won the Boston marathon with a record-breaking time.

 

She had no world-class trainer.  She didn’t have any sponsors.  She didn’t even have top notch equipment.  All she had was the will to win and…the subway.  Yes, when people started to talk about how they didn’t see her running and when she got to the finish line she wasn’t out of breath or even sweaty, then they started to check out her story.  Come to find out, she rode the subway for at least half of both races.

 

That’s a crummy story, isn’t it?  We all love underdogs but when one cheats that just ruins it.  It ruins it because we see real athletes sweat and sacrifice and work so hard to finally earn their reward and we know that is how it works in this world.  You don’t get something for nothing.  You have to work for everything you get.  You have to “pay your dues” in this world.  And that’s true but here’s the catch.  This world is a physical world.  In spiritual matters, it doesn’t work that way.

 

In anything spiritual, we cannot work hard enough or be good enough or claim enough success to reach our goal.  When our goal is to have a relationship with God, every physical attribute we have is worthless because God is spiritual.  And as physical beings that can be hard for us to understand.  It doesn’t make sense.  It’s not fair.  Why would God do that?  Why would He create us without the ability to know Him?  Why would He keep secret the way to have a relationship with Him?  Why would He make it so difficult to understand how to get to Heaven?  How can we as physical, created beings know how to get to where the spiritual Creator is?

 

Well, the answer to those questions is the same as it has been since the disciples were told by Jesus that He was leaving them.  You remember the scene in John chapters 13-17 where Jesus and the disciples are sharing a meal and Jesus tells them He is about to leave but that they know where He is going.  I can just hear Thomas doubting that as he says, “Lord we don’t know where you are going.”  And Phillip says, “Lord, just show us the Father and that will be enough.”

 

But Jesus says in chapter 14, “If you love me, keep my commands. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to help you and be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.”  Later He goes on to say, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”  In John 15, “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me.”  Then again in chapter 16, “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”

 

I often think that I don’t know how people get through this hard old life without having a relationship with the Lord.  It’s just too difficult.  I don’t think I could do it.  I would be a mess if I had to go through some of the things people have to endure if I didn’t have God to lean on.  And do you know what?  That’s how God intended it.  That was His plan from the beginning.  His plan was not to make you strong enough to be able to endure this life.  His plan was to be your strength.

 

In fact, that is the job of the Spirit that Jesus was talking about to His disciples.  When you have questions, the Spirit that lives inside us as Christians will help answer those questions.  When we don’t have the energy to go on, the Spirit is there to carry us.  When you don’t know what to do or you don’t know where to go and ultimately, when you need the wisdom to get to Heaven, that’s when the Spirit comes in and says, “Here, let me help you.”

 

I hate to put it like this but it’s almost like cheating.  Rosie Ruiz got dressed and went to the starting line and took off running but pretty soon she caught the subway to the finish line.  That’s basically what we do in this life.  We do what we are supposed to do but everything we need to finish the race comes from the Spirit of God Himself.  And that is how God intended it.  That is His plan because if we ran the race; if we were good enough to get to Heaven we would brag about how good we were.

 

Somebody asked me this week, “How do we know when we are good enough to get to Heaven?”  I’m so glad to be able to tell you that you will never be good enough to get there.  You will never deserve Heaven.  You will never be worthy to be able to talk to God.  We talked last week about how Jesus is our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  He died and was resurrected to be our substitute for those things.   We don’t have to be good enough. But it is the Spirit of God that helps us while we are here on this earth.  The Spirit helps us live our lives in such a way that it almost feels like cheating because He basically does all the work.

 

Let’s continue our look at the wisdom of the cross.  This is our 4^th of 5 sermons on what the world calls foolishness but the Bible says is wisdom in 1 Corinthians.  When you tell people that the Gospel is simply the fact that Jesus died on the cross to be the blood sacrifice that we couldn’t be and to pay the price for sin that we couldn’t pay, and that He then rose again after 3 days and that we can now have a relationship with Him, people will hear that and call that foolishness.

 

But 1 Corinthians 1 and 2 talk about the wisdom of God and the wisdom of the world and the huge gap that is between them.  And today we will look at the wisdom of the Spirit in chapter 2.  It’s a short chapter so let’s read the whole thing to keep it all in context.

 

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.  ⁶ We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. ⁷ No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. ⁸ None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ However, as it is written:  “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” the things God has prepared for those who love him—¹⁰ these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.  The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. ¹¹ For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ¹² What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³ This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. ¹⁴ The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. ¹⁵ The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, ¹⁶ for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord
so as to instruct him?”  But we have the mind of Christ.

 

There are only 16 verses in that chapter but, as Paul usually does, he packs it full of wonderful insights, including speaking of the Spirit or spiritual things at least 14 times.  And while we could camp out here for a while, I want to focus on only 2 things about the wisdom of the Spirit.  I want us to see that the Spirit empowers testimony and the Spirit empowers maturity.

Paul starts out in a way that I would imagine everybody who has ever preached has felt.  He said I came to you in weakness and in fear and with much trembling.  If you have ever done any public speaking at all, you can appreciate what he felt.  But this was more than just an admission of having some butterflies before he spoke.

The Corinthians were very proud of their eloquence and oratory.  They felt that if a man could speak well and persuasively that he must be close to God.  And lots of people still feel that way but just because a person can speak well is no measure of his spirituality.  There are plenty of powerful, persuasive preachers, both men and women, who are not necessarily speaking the word of God.

But Paul is not just talking about his preaching in the synagogue.  The words he uses mean more than that.  It includes that but also means the way he lived and his speech outside the synagogue.  It was his testimony.  It was the Good News.  It was what the Lord had done in his life.  And instead of trying to impress them with flowery speech and powerful oratory, he left it to the Holy Spirit to demonstrate power.

And that, again, was God’s plan all along.  I know I have told some of you this story but if you have heard it I know you will nod politely as I tell it once more to illustrate how the Holy Spirit empowers testimony.  Some years ago I worked for an outfit that customized trucks, duallys mainly and some 18 wheelers.  I had been burdened for one of my co-workers for a while that I didn’t believe was a Christian and was looking for a chance to witness to him.  And one day I saw my chance.

I had to do something underneath a truck one day and I saw that Rick was already under there doing something else and so as I gathered my tools I asked God to give me just the right words to be able to witness to Rick.  But as I continued to get what I needed, the only words that were coming to me were, “Say something about church.”  And, no, I was not hearing audibly from God.  But I knew I was being spoken to but I wasn’t hearing what I wanted to hear.

“C’mon God.  Tell me what to say.  I’m about to get on the creeper and I’ll be next to him for a while.  Now’s our chance.  Just tell me what to say.”  “Say something about church” was all I was getting.  God and I continued this way for a while and finally I got under the truck and I’ll admit I was a little put out with God.  I was ready.  I had the time.  But all God would say is, “Say something about church.”

“Ok, fine.  I’ll show you, God.  I’ll just do it.”  And so as I crawled under that truck I turned to Rick and with a bad attitude and no enthusiasm, I simply said, “We had a good day at church yesterday.”  And I promise this is the truth.  Rick put down his tools, propped himself up on an elbow and said, “Really?  Tell me about it.”  And for the next 30 minutes Rick and I talked about not just church but Heaven and Hell and what sin is and the Trinity and what Jesus had done in my life and so much more.

And do you know what I had to do with it?  Nothing!  I even had a bad attitude but I said what I was supposed to say and then I laid there and watched as the Spirit demonstrated His power.  Talk about not having eloquence or superior wisdom!  And if I had used eloquence and my own wisdom, I might have something to brag about but as it was, verse 5 was proven to me and to him.

Rick and I both saw that our faith was not based on man’s wisdom but on God’s power.  And that’s exciting!  It’s exciting to see God at work and so comforting as well because we know that the responsibility of a person’s eternity does not lie in our hands, but in God’s.  All we have the responsibility for is to speak up and God even provides the opportunity and the boldness to do that.  Like I said, it almost feels like cheating when the Holy Spirit does all the work.  But that is God’s plan and the wisdom of the Spirit.

The Spirit empowers our testimony and He also empowers our maturity.  In verse 7 Paul goes on to speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden.  Shhh!  Don’t tell anybody.  It’s a secret.  Actually, I don’t think it is a secret that we are to keep but rather it is a secret that not everybody can understand.

Have you ever been asked how you know that the Spirit is talking to you?  It’s usually asked by someone with skeptical eyes squinted and their head tilted forward and their arms folded across their chest.  And when you tell them that you just know and you can’t really explain how (because you know they won’t understand) they look at you and they might as well have a neon sign over their head that says, “That’s foolishness.”

Or what about answering the question of why bad things happen to good people?  The world says either God is unable to stop it or He just doesn’t care.  And trying to explain that God is all-loving and all-powerful is foolishness to them because they don’t have the Spirit in their lives to make them understand.  In fact, even Christians have a hard time with things like that and will until they mature.  And Paul says that maturity comes from the Spirit.

He says that the Spirit searches all things even the deep things of God.  He is not saying that the Spirit searches trying to find those things.  The Spirit is God and knows the mind of God and as we mature and spend time with Him, then the Spirit empowers our maturity and we are able to understand the deep things of God.  We start to understand the wisdom of God as the Spirit reveals it.  We start to get wisdom.

In James chapter 1 it says that if anyone lacks wisdom, he should ask God.  Paul tells us specifically that it is the job of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  That’s one of the reasons why Jesus told His disciples that it would be better for them when He left because He would send the Counselor.  That is the difference that you see in Peter, for instance, who, while with Jesus, did foolish things like chopping off the guy’s ear and saying foolish things like, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

But after Jesus went back to Heaven and the Spirit came at Pentecost we see Peter emerge as a great and powerful leader of the first church, making wise and mature choices to lead in godly ways all because he now had the Spirit living inside him.  And it wasn’t because Pete had all of the sudden gotten smarter.  It wasn’t because Pete had done anything except be obedient.  It was the Spirit living inside him that empowered his wisdom and maturity.

In Acts 2:38 Peter is preaching and says, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  He saw the Spirit for what it was: a gift.  And he wanted everybody else to have it as well and so he spoke boldly and with confidence about it.  And do you know what happened?  It says in Acts 2:41 that about 3,000 people were added to their number.

Not only had the Spirit empowered Pete’s maturity but it also goes to show that the Spirit had empowered his testimony.  3000 people were not added to the Kingdom that day because of Peter’s eloquence or superior wisdom.  It was not about Peter.  In fact, it is sort of like Peter cheated, isn’t it?  He spoke the words in obedience but the Spirit did all the work.  And that was God’s good and perfect will.

“The Wisdom of Christ” 1 Corinthians 1:30

How many professional golfers do we have here today? None? Nobody on the PGA or LPGA? How many of you are semi-pro golfers? How many would consider yourself to be very good golfers? How many don’t even like golf? But you do know what it is, right? This illustration will be perfect for us today then.

 

Here’s the scenario: You have been chosen to play in the World Cup of golf. It’s the championship of the sport, whatever you call it. Yes, you, with the talent you have for golf, have been chosen to play and if you win you will be a millionaire. The catch is, if you lose you die. It’s just an illustration. It doesn’t have to be plausible. It just is supposed to help you visualize something. So, work with me here.

 

So, you borrow some clubs and go the first hole and just as you are about to tee off, somebody taps you on the shoulder. You look up and it’s Tiger Woods. He says, “I’m sorry to bother you but I see the predicament you are in and I’ve seen how you play golf. I would like to play the round for you just because I like you. You can have the money and the fame. I just want to do this for you,”

 

What do you say? Of course you let him play for you, right? But then you tell him that he can putt but you are going to do the driving. He nicely convinces you that would not be wise. So you then tell him that you will do all the pitch shots. He advises against it. You tell him that you are pretty good with a 7 iron. No, not a good idea. “Can I carry the bag?” He says, “No, I can do even that better than you. And no you can’t tee the ball up because you might even mess that up. Just sit over there and be still and know that I am Tiger.”

 

And of course he goes on to win the contest and you get all the money and all the glory and you didn’t do a thing. Tiger even gave you a ride to the course that morning and brought you some coffee. All you did was agree to the deal. He did everything else. Winning the tournament had nothing whatsoever to do with you and yet you got all the benefits.

 

How does that sound? Pretty ridiculous, right? Sound crazy? Does it sound foolish? That may be typical of most of my illustrations but I chose to make this sound foolish because that is what the world thinks about the Gospel. When you tell somebody that Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for sin that we could not pay and that if we just believe on Him then we will have everlasting life in Heaven with God, people will think that is foolish. They always have and they always will.

 

And just like Tiger Woods didn’t need to borrow your clubs or wear your spikes, Jesus needs nothing from us to provide the way to eternal life and glory other than you agreeing to the deal. Our passage in 1 Corinthians this morning tells us that Jesus did everything necessary to provide eternal life, no matter what the world says.

 

And He did it all so that there would be no way we could boast about having any part of it. If you loaned Tiger a couple of tees to use and he won the tournament while using those tees, you would be up at the clubhouse making sure everybody knew that those were your tees. Those tees were really good tees and you’re pretty sure it was the tees that sealed the win. Oh, sure, that Tiger has talent but look at these tees!

 

Let’s look at what the Word says about it in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Our focus verse will be verse 30 but let’s read 26-31 to get the overview.

 

Brothers, 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. 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.”

Like I said, I want to focus on verse 30 as we continue our look at the foolishness of the cross. This is the 3^rd of 5 messages on what the world calls foolishness and what Paul is calling wisdom. We saw the week before last the wisdom of the world that has such a hard time believing that Jesus is the only way to Heaven and that we get there through Him and by grace. They feel there must be something more because that is too easy.

 

Then last week we saw the wisdom of God which is to use all of us as His preachers of the Gospel and how we are to preach Christ and to preach Him crucified and to preach Him risen. And this week we see the wisdom of Christ, Who, it says became our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

 

So let’s go back and focus on verse 30 where it says that. ^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.” It says it is because of God that we are in Christ Jesus. What does it mean to be in Christ?   Plywood

 

Plywood is basically a couple of sheets of thin wood pressed together to make one piece of stronger wood. And you would think that it would be pretty easy to just pull the two pieces apart but when you try, it doesn’t work.  This piece of wood is “in” that piece of wood just like we are in Christ. It’s similar to the way that 2 people become when they are married. The Bible says in Genesis, Matthew, Mark, 1 Corinthians and Ephesians that when 2 people come together, they are one flesh.

 

That’s why God hates divorce. It also says all through the Bible that we as the church are the body of Christ. We are in Christ in much the same way that 2 married people become one.  But this verse isn’t about marriage. It’s about how we are in Christ and we are there because God has allowed us to be and He wanted us to be. We can’t even do that on our own.

 

The verse says that we are in Christ Jesus who has become, through the wisdom of God, our righteousness, our holiness and our redemption. Paul emphasizes that it is through the wisdom of God that we are in Christ because it is important to see that the wisdom of God is foolishness to the natural man. It makes no logical sense to think that Jesus would do that for us, especially when you explore what it truly means to have righteousness, holiness and redemption.

 

Righteousness, believe it or not, means to simply be right. It literally means to be correct in what you do, to do life in the right way and without error. Have you ever been in an argument or a debate with someone and you just know you are right until that moment you realize…that you’re not. You realize half way through that the other person is right and you are wrong. Oh, that’s a bad feeling. And some of you may never admit to having been there but most of us know that feeling.

 

In fact, it is the realization that all of us must come to when we come to Jesus. We have to admit that we have been doing this thing called “life” the wrong way and turn to Jesus. The problem that most people have is that they think that turning to Jesus will make them a better person and as a better person they will be more acceptable to God. That is untrue. God’s not in the business of making bad people good. He makes dead people alive!

 

Trying to be a better person so God will accept you is like trying to give Tiger Woods your golf clubs. He doesn’t want to play in this tournament with your mismatched, garage sale clubs with broken handles and cracked heads. And Jesus didn’t die on the cross to make you into a good enough person to go to Heaven. We have no righteousness of our own. We have to get to Heaven; we have to have a relationship with God, not on our merits, not on our righteousness, but on the righteousness of Jesus.

 

 

 

 

 

And when we accept the fact that there is nothing about us that can be called anything close to righteousness then the wisdom of the world would be to think that since we don’t have to be righteous to get to Heaven then I can do anything I want and jump around and act the fool. But we as believers, who are “in Christ”, understand that it works just the opposite. Understanding the righteousness of Christ and that it is the way to relationship with God actually makes us want to conform to the will of God. We understand a little better about the sacrifice that God made and how unworthy we are and we love Him and want to serve Him because He first loved us.

 

The Chinese character for righteousness is very interesting. It is composed of 2 separate characters, one standing for a lamb and the other for me. When the lamb is placed directly above me a new character is formed: righteousness. This is a helpful picture of the grace of God that between me and God there is a Lamb and when God sees me He sees the righteousness of the Lamb. (Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, Green)

 

So, not only is Jesus the righteousness we need to get to have a relationship with God but He is also the holiness that we need. Some of your translations may say sanctification. Speedy at the Biker Church was just talking about the definition of sanctification and how it means to be separated to God. It doesn’t just mean to be separated from the world. You can go live in a cave by yourself and be separated from the world but you are not holy or sanctified. You’re a hermit or a unibomber maybe but not holy.

 

We have talked many times about how we are to be holy.  The Bible is full of scripture telling us that we are to be separate, set apart, different and sanctified.  God commands us to be holy and as we learned last week, when God’s Word says to do something, not to do it is sin.  The problem is we can never be holy enough on our own.

 

Yes, we are supposed to try to be different from the world.  They should be able to see at a glance that we are different.  We handle stress differently and we handle happiness differently.  But this is where my stupid illustration about Tiger Woods breaks down.  Because even Tiger doesn’t play golf all day every day.  He’s not perfect at golf.

 

When it comes to holiness, we can’t get it done good enough to have a relationship with God on our own.  God demands perfect holiness.  He demands complete separation and we will never be able to do that and so this passage says that it pleased God; it was His wisdom to allow us to use the holiness of Jesus in the place of our holiness.

 

Monica just had surgery this past week and she seems to be doing well.  She had a good surgeon evidently.  Monica, how would you feel if you found out that that surgeon used a scalpel to cut into your back and that scalpel had not been cleaned since the last surgery?  Would that be ok?  What if it just had a little spot of blood on it?  What if it looked clean but had just a little bit of bacteria; just one little germ?  That wouldn’t work would it?

 

It’s the same way with holiness.  God can’t have a relationship with you even though you have tried to be holy.  Even though you have made a valiant effort, you still fall short.  God demands holiness because He is holy.  And if it were not for Jesus, we would die in our unholiness.  But it says that Jesus has become our holiness.

 

Again, the wisdom of the world would be to hear that Jesus is holy for us so we don’t have to be and they would think that means we have a free pass to do anything we like.  In fact, in 2^nd Corinthians Paul even says that where the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.  So, why should we even try to be holy if our holiness is not what gets us to God?

 

Because we are in Christ.  Because we have a relationship with God through His Son Jesus and because we have that relationship, we want what God wants.  We want what is best for the Kingdom.  And yes, when we are holy we see God’s blessings poured out on our lives in ways that the world will never know.  We see blessings here in this life and, more importantly, we will see blessings in the next life.  But ultimately we are holy because we are in Christ, even though it is the holiness of Christ that provides that relationship.

 

 

So, we see that Jesus is our righteousness and our holiness.  He is also our redemption.  Redemption means to be purchased or bought for a price.  It even can mean to pay a ransom for deliverance or to be set free. 

 

A little boy was walking down the street with a bird cage with 3 birds in it.  His neighbor saw him and asked him about the birds.  The boy said, “Aw, they’re just sparrows that I caught in a trap.  They aren’t worth anything.  I’m taking them home to feed to our old cat.”  The neighbor told the boy he would give him $2 for the birds and the old cage but the boy tried to explain that wasn’t a good deal for the man because they didn’t sing.  They weren’t pretty and they weren’t good for anything.  But the man insisted and the boy went off happy with his $2.  As soon as the boy got around the corner the man opened the cage and let the sparrows fly out.  That is the picture of redemption.

 

Ephesians 1:7-8  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

 

We see in this verse and in the verse we have been looking at that it was the wisdom of God that we should have redemption through Jesus.  If not for the sacrifice of Jesus we would be in the same situation as those 3 birds.  We would be doomed with no hope.  But because God decided that my penalty of death for sin could be paid by Jesus and because Jesus was obedient to the Father, I can have a relationship with God here on earth and for eternity in Heaven.  And today that makes me want to say “amen”.  That makes me excited and I am glad to share that excitement with my family here today.

 

And do you know what that is going to mean to me tomorrow?  Tomorrow I am going to wonder what’s on TV.  Tomorrow I am going to complain about traffic and I’m going to gossip and have a bad attitude.  Tomorrow I am going to worry about if my salvation is secure and how I am going to pay the bills and everything else Satan wants me to think about UNLESS I remember that I have been redeemed.

 

If I leave this place and fail to remember what God has done for me through His Son Jesus then I could very well look like everybody else in this world.  But if I remember that I have been bought for a price by a loving God Who wants more than anything for me to be like Him, then that will change my whole outlook.  That will make me grateful.  That will keep me from sin.  That will keep me from worrying about my salvation or anything else and it will motivate me to tell others about this relationship I have with the Creator of the universe.

 

And do you know what I am going to brag about?  Well, since I had absolutely nothing to do with it, the only thing I can brag about is Christ.  And that is what Paul is saying in that last verse.  ³¹Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”  I can leave here and brag about what Christ has done for me and through me and around me and I can boast about Him because it had nothing to do with me.  All any of us have done is agree to the deal.

 

It is not through my righteousness.  Jesus became my righteousness.  It is not through my holiness.  Jesus became my holiness.  And I sure didn’t redeem myself.  Jesus became my redemption.  And while that is foolishness to the world, it is the wisdom of God through Christ.

 

“The Wisdom of God” – 1 Cor. 1:21

The Fox and The Crow

A Fox once saw a Crow fly off with a piece of cheese in its beak and settle on a branch of a tree.

"That's for me, as I am a Fox," said Master Reynard, and he walked up to the foot of the tree.

"Good day, Mistress Crow," he cried. "How well you are looking today: how glossy your feathers; how bright your eye. I feel sure your voice must surpass that of other birds, just as your figure does; let me hear but one song from you that I may greet you as the Queen of Birds."  The Crow lifted up her head and began to caw her best, but the moment she opened her mouth the piece of cheese fell to the ground, only to be snapped up by Master Fox.

"That will do," said he. "That was all I wanted. In exchange for your cheese I will give you a piece of advice for the future: "Do not trust flatterers."

 

I can't stand fables. I never have liked them. I remember being in grade school and the teacher made us read these and even as a little kid, I didn't like them. I didn't like them because they weren't believable. Oh, sure they had a good lesson to be learned but that was lost on me as a 10 year old. I liked to read but back then I wanted to read about things blowing up or about dogs or something funny. Come to think of it, I guess not much has changed.

 

But because I knew that crows and foxes couldn't talk, I didn't want to read it. I didn't want to read about the boy who cried wolf because it wasn't believable to me that the boy didn't get a spanking the first time he cried "wolf". That's not believable. Or the tortoise and the hare, completely unbelievable. #1, call them a rabbit and a turtle. #2, rabbits and turtles can't talk. #3, do you know what happens when you line up a rabbit and a turtle for a race? The rabbit runs off into the woods and the turtle doesn't move. There is no race! There's no racing turtles and rabbits. Completely unbelievable. Just stop.

 

Or how about the wolf in sheep's clothing? Don't insult me. Then there is the fable about the guy in the Bible who had to build an ark big enough to put 2 of every kind of animal. Do people really believe this stuff? C'mon. Do you know what I read the other day? I was minding my own business reading through the book of Joshua and it said that the Israelites crossed over the Jordan River on dry land. That's bad enough. But then it says that they conquered the city of Jericho by walking around it and hollering. Give me a break. You can't do that, right?

 

The Bible is full of this kind of stuff. Moses banged a rock with a stick and water came out of it. An axe head floated. Samson killed a thousand men with a donkey jaw. Daniel was thrown into a den of lions and lived. I could go on and on. And it's not just Old Testament. In the New Testament, Jesus heals all kinds of people, even bringing them back from the dead. But the biggest story of them all is that Jesus, who lived a perfect life, was hung on a cross and killed but then rose again after 3 days, paying the debt for sin that we could never pay.

 

That's a story that even the Bible itself calls foolishness. It makes no sense whatsoever. It makes as much sense as a crow and a fox talking about flattery. Aesop may have been a wise man to come up with all those fables, but even he couldn't come up with a story like that. And that is exactly what our passage in 1 Corinthians is saying this morning. It says that the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisest man. (1:25)

 

The people in Corinth thought they were pretty smart and pretty wise. They loved nothing more than to just sit and talk about how they would solve all the world's problems. Again, I guess not much has changed in all the years. But in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul spends some time talking about what is wisdom to the world and what is wisdom to God and the huge gap between the two. We saw last week the wisdom of man in this chapter. This week we will see the wisdom of Christ and the cross as we look specifically at 1 Corinthians 1:21 but we will read verses 18-21.

 

“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.”

 

As immature Christians it is not uncommon for us to want to do the bare minimum to stay in the good graces of God. We have made some changes in our lives and it wasn’t easy but we have also seen or heard about God’s wrath so we don’t want to make Him mad but we don’t want to have to do a whole lot either. But as more mature Christians, we see the benefits of pleasing God and that becomes our goal. We see not only the blessings of peace and joy that it brings (and how much is that worth?) but we also know that we are laying up treasure in Heaven when we please God.

 

And if you ever wonder what you can do that will please God, Paul tells us here one way that we can do that. It says that God is pleased through the foolishness of what was preached. And some of you are thinking, “Well he must just love you since you are about the biggest fool who ever preached.” And that may be true, but the good news is that this isn’t just talking to me. It’s not intended for just those people who stand in the pulpit on Sundays.

 

The word “preach” means to declare or proclaim and can and should be done by everyone. In fact, everyone who is a believer must preach. We talked last week about being able to call a sin “sin” and not water it down. Some people think that if it’s not in the 10 Commandments then it doesn’t really mean we should or shouldn’t do something. If it doesn’t say, “Thou shalt not…” in front of it then it’s ok to do it. But when the Bible says something, and it doesn’t matter if it was written by Paul or David or Moses or Jude, not to do it is a sin.

 

When the Bible says we are to forgive, then not to forgive is sin. When it says to love your neighbor as yourself, then not to is sin. And even in this verse this morning. It doesn’t say in so many words that we are to preach but it says that it pleases God. And not to please God is sin. James 4:17 says, “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” And as Paul would say, we must preach the foolishness of the cross!

 

We talked last week about what Paul meant by the cross being foolishness to the world. It might as well be an Aesop’s fable to people in the world. They just can’t believe that it could be so simple. This week we will see that the foolishness of the cross must be preached and that we must all preach Christ, we must all preach Christ crucified and we must preach Christ risen.

 

I have heard it said that the true function of preaching is to disturb the comfortable and to comfort the disturbed. And that is exactly what preaching about Christ will do. And while I love to stand here and do my best to disturb and to comfort, who is going to do it to your neighbor when they get a bad report from the doctor? Who is going to disturb your spouse when they get lazy? Who is going to tell your friend about the only way to Heaven if you don’t do it?

 

Because your neighbor, spouse and friend may all be smart and wise in the ways of the world but if they don’t have a relationship with Jesus Christ then how are they going to make the wise decisions they need to make at these times?

 

This might be a good time for me to try to guilt you into telling your neighbor about Jesus. I could make you feel bad for not doing it. I could try to bribe you, although I don’t have much with which to bribe. I could challenge you to a soul-winning contest. How about that? I’ll double-dog dare you to do it. Let me just tell you a story that is told of Harry Winston, who was one of the world’s greatest jewel merchants.

 

It is said that he was watching one of his employees talk to a man about a big, beautiful diamond. The employee talked all about the 5 C’s - it’s cut, clarity, certification, color and carats. He mentioned all the great technical aspects of the diamond but in the end, the customer said he wasn’t interested.

 

Winston then asked the customer if he could show him the diamond one more time. And Winston simply talked about how the gem was such an object of deep beauty. Abruptly the customer changed his mind and bought the diamond but asked Winston why he was able to change his mind. Winston simply said, “That salesman is one of the best men in the business. He knows diamonds – but I love them.”

 

 

 

I understand that none of us preach the cross of Jesus like we should and God, please forgive us of that. And I understand that none of us always feels secure about what we are supposed to say. We don’t know the right words and we don’t know the right scriptures to use. But when you see Jesus as an object of deep beauty; when you see not only what he has done in your life but in the life of others and even in the life of this church, you can’t help but love Him.

 

When you understand what He has done in this life and what we have to look forward to in the next life, you will be obedient. John 14:21 says, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.” And here we are told to preach Christ. And when you don’t know what else to say; when the verse won’t come to mind and all the training goes out the window, just fall back on the beauty of Christ. Fall back on what He has done in your life and the changes that He has made. It’s ok to tell somebody you don’t know the answer to their question but you do know what Jesus has done in your own life. Preach that.

 

A young pastor was driving home from church one Sunday morning with his wife and he was thinking about the service they had just left. He asked his wife, “Honey, how many really great preachers do you think there are?” She just replied, “Well, I don’t know, but it’s probably one less than you think.”

 

You don’t have to be a great preacher. You don’t have to preach in front of a lot of people. You just have to be obedient to preach when, where and what you are supposed to. And in fact, when fishing for men, you are probably better off with a pole than with a net, if you know what I mean. So, just preach. Preach Christ. And preach Christ crucified.

 

Why preach Christ crucified?  Why can’t we just preach His love and His teachings and His healings?  There is plenty there to preach.  He still gets all the glory that way, right?  Why do we have to get into all that gory, bloody story of Jesus dying on the cross?  I just told you to preach about how Jesus is the object of deep beauty and surely the cross would not come up if we are talking beauty.

 

Well, let me ask you this.  Why do you have it around your neck?  Why do you wear it on your t-shirt and put it on the bumper of your car?  Why do we have 3 of them above the baptistry?  I’ll tell you why.  Because it’s beautiful.  Oh, sure, some people wear them around their neck only for the beauty and they don’t even realize what they are doing.  But for us who know what it represents, it is beautiful.

 

Do you realize how absurd that is?  The cross was a method of torture and death.  It is comparable to wearing a guillotine or a whip or chains.  It was, in fact, horribly ugly and yet it is THE symbol of Christianity.  No other religion uses a symbol of torture and death.  I have to say that no business would start up and use a method of torture to represent their business.  Dr. Pepper didn’t put a big skull and crossbones on their bottles.  And for Christians to do it is just…foolishness.

 

To the world, the cross is a pretty piece of jewelry but its message is pure foolishness.  I admit that I hate to think about what actually happened to Jesus on that cross.  I don’t want to watch “The Passion of the Christ” because I can’t bear to watch anybody, much less a character representing Jesus being tortured and dying like that.  It was gruesome, animalistic, humiliating…and beautiful.

It was beautiful in a way that is foolishness to unbelievers.  It was beautiful because never has one person lived their life with such focus on being Who they were supposed to be.  It was beautiful because it was God’s perfect plan that came together.  It was beautiful because it was God’s way of providing a way to relationship with Him for me and for you.

 

Selah has a song with these lyrics: 

There is a beautiful terrible cross
Where though You committed no sin
Savior, You suffered the most wicked fate
On the cruelest creation of men

Yet on that beautiful terrible cross
You did what only You could
Turning that dark inspired evil of hell
Into our soul's greatest good

We see the love that You showed us
We see the life that You lost
We bow in wonder and praise You
For the beautiful terrible cross

There on that beautiful terrible cross
Though darkness was strong on that hill
You remained sovereign, Lord, still in control
As Your perfect plan was fulfilled

We see the love that You showed us
We see the life that You lost
We bow in wonder and praise You
For the beautiful terrible cross

We preach Christ crucified because, even though it is foolishness to the world, we know that it is beautiful.  Christ is beautiful and so we preach Christ.  Christ crucified is beautiful and so we preach Christ crucified.  But the reason, the way, the purpose of the cross would be wasted without Christ being risen.

And of all the “foolishness” of everything in the Bible, this takes the cake.  Almost everybody believes in Jesus.  They don’t have a problem believing that he lived and that He was a good man and that He died.  But come on, resurrected?  That’s just too much for most people.  And do you know what?  I think we could get more people to believe that our religion was the right one if we didn’t talk all that resurrection foolishness.  Don’t you?

In no other religion does the god die and come back to life so maybe we shouldn’t preach that so much.  Maybe we should take our religion more mainstream.  Maybe we should tone down the foolishness of the cross and talk more about the things people like to talk about; you know, love and peace and such.  That makes a good religion.  What do you think? 

Or…maybe…we can be more like Paul, who talked very little about religion but a whole lot about relationship.  And maybe we should preach how we can have a relationship with our God because our God is alive and active in our lives and in our church.  And we can preach how God is pleased when we preach such “foolishness” because if it were any other way then man would be able to say he found God.

If man could find God in man’s own wisdom, then He wouldn’t be much of a God, would He?  But when God reveals Himself to man on God’s own terms by showing grace then we see the beauty of God and we see the beauty of Christ.  We see the beauty of Christ crucified and we ultimately see the beauty of Christ risen.  It’s not a fairy tale or a fable.  It is the wisdom of God.