Today’s message is from 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5. This passage is about men’s wisdom and God’s wisdom. Men’s wisdom rejects God. There is absolutely no salvation in men’s wisdom. God’s wisdom, on the other hand, brings salvation. There is no salvation—not even the remote possibility of salvation—except through God’s wisdom!

As we read the passage, remember as always, that we are reading the word of God. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16, 17)

And I want to remind you about teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. The purpose of teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness is for you to put into practice what you’ve been taught and trained in. That’s the purpose of teaching and training. The holy Scriptures are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. (2 Tim. 3:15)

²⁰Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

²²Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

²⁶Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. ²⁷But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹so that no one may boast before him.

^2:1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. ²For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. ⁴My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. (1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5)

In the old days at LHF, when we studied a passage or taught or preached about it, we used to assign a “key verse”, a verse from the passage that summarized the main point of the passage or maybe the main point we wanted to make. In the case of today’s passage, I’d pick verse 1:29 for the key verse—“ so that no one may boast before him.” In fact, to make a complete sentence, I’ll have to include verse 28: “He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” (1 Cor. 1:28, 29)

Before I go on to today’s passage, I’m going to read the last verse from last week’s passage, verse 17. This is Paul speaking. Here’s what he says: “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” (1 Cor. 1:17) “Not with words of human wisdom...” Paul may have been a persuasive orator. He probably was. But now he was relying on the power of the Holy Spirit to change people’s hearts and minds. Later he says that he had come to them with fear and much trembling, not with persuasive words (1 Cor. 2:3). And I might add that “fear and much trembling” (and much prayer) is the way that we ought to approach people with the word of God, too.)

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” You see, God deliberately frustrates men’s intelligence. He deliberately prevents them from knowing him through the wisdom of the world. The wisdom of the world, by the way, has everything to do with selfishness. If you see everything through the eyes of selfishness—through the eyes of “What’s in it for me?”—you will never know God, because God is love and mercy and unselfishness. The way of the world, I heard someone say along time ago, is the way of get. But God’s way is the way of give. God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Why is it foolishness? Why does it sound like foolishness to the world? Let’s look at the next four verses, verses 22 through 25:

Both Jews and Greeks (those who rejected God) loved the world and hated God. Paul says the Jews demanded a miraculous sign. But the message that Christ died for their sins and rose from the dead was a stumbling block to them. They just didn’t want to accept it.

The Jews knew the Old Testament and the Ten Commandments and all of God’s law. They knew that God did give miraculous signs to convince people that he would do what he said he would do. But do you remember in Luke, the story of the rich man and Lazarus, what Abraham told the rich man when he asked for Lazarus to be sent back from the dead to warn his five brothers who were living the same sinful life that he had been living? He told the rich man that his five brothers had Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them. (And we have the Bible, too, by the way. Let’s read it.) The rich man insisted his brothers would repent if someone came back from the dead to warn them. But Abraham told him that if they didn’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they wouldn’t listen even if someone came back from the dead. (And someone did come back from the dead! We have Jesus who died for our sin and rose from the dead!)

I remember reading somewhere a quote from an atheist who I think had unusual insight into his own thinking. He said that he believed that if some giant being appeared to him and told him “I am God and you’d better repent,” he would find some way to explain it away. Isn’t it true? We tend to ignore the evidence and believe what we want to believe rather than to change our thinking to conform to what the evidence is telling us is true. (The word repent, by the way, means to change your thinking.)

And there’s more about the Jews. The cross was a stumbling block to them. It was a stumbling block because they wanted to do it themselves. They wanted to be able to say that they were saved by their own righteousness. It has to do with pride. “God has given his laws and I want to be able to prove that I can obey them without his help. I want to be able to boast: ‘I did it myself and didn’t need any help from God.’” You know, you start out life serving the world—yourself, in fact. Then you are convicted by the word of God and you try to obey it...and you find out that you can’t seem to do it (and you know that God holds you accountable).

The Greeks look for wisdom, but the message of the cross is foolishness to them. The rich man said, “If only someone would come back from the dead...” We (the Gentiles) say, “If only someone would give me a persuasive enough argument...” (And I say these things about us, but they really apply to people who have not accepted God’s salvation through Jesus. For us who believe, we know Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. But even as believers, we need to be reminded continually to trust him from moment to moment.)

Paul is reminding them that not many were what the world considers great. Maybe no stars or celebrities. None that were very rich or powerful. (Maybe a few. He says, “not many.”) Most were weak and foolish. (Does it encourage you to hear that—that God called the weak and foolish? You know Paul, himself, had been great in the world of Jewish society. He could boast about his pedigree (a Hebrew of Hebrews...of the tribe of Benjamin) and about his status in the Jewish religion (a Pharisee...and as for righteousness under the law, perfect—although, after he accepted Christ, he admitted that he hadn’t been perfect). Paul could boast about these things (and maybe did before he was a Christian). But after Christ, he said that he considered them to be rubbish compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ. Let me read some of what he wrote. This is from Philippians 3:7-11:

⁷But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. ¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:7-11)

Paul says (in today’s passage) that there were all kinds of people in the Corinthian church. Maybe a few that had some sort of status in the world, but most didn’t. In chapter 12, Paul compared the members of the church with the members of a human body. All members have a function and all are necessary for the body to function properly. He pointed out that the weaker members of the body were indispensable, that the unpresentable parts needed to be treated with special modesty and that God had given greater honor to the parts that lacked it (honor is the same word as value, by the way). These days, congregations tend to be made up of similar people—the same ethnic group, the same race, the same social status. But I don’t think that’s the way God intended. He wants all kinds of people to make up the body of Christ.

“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. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” “...so that no one may boast before him.” That’s the key verse. Remember that.

And speaking of key verses, you know, we used to do what we called annual key-verse testimonies. At the beginning of the year each of us would pick a verse (or verses) from the Bible that we believed God was giving us to live according to. At the end of the year, each of us would tell about how God worked in our lives through the verse that he had given us. (Frequently, the testimony would start out, “Well, I forgot about my verse after the first month and a half, but as I look back, God worked in my life through it anyway,” and then the person would go on to explain how.)

Anyway, the reason I brought that up is that we also had life-time key verses. I have a life-time key verse, myself. I think Kim has one, too. (Maybe it’s “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.”) Here is my life-time key verse. It’s Luke 10:21:

²¹At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.” (Luke 10:21)

Isn’t God wonderful? “...you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.” That’s God’s wisdom, not man’s wisdom. (I didn’t read what came before Luke 10:21, why Jesus praised God, but it was after Jesus had sent out the 72 and they had come back. They were all excited about casting out demons. They said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” Jesus told them, “Do not rejoice because the spirits submit to you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” We need to remember that, too.

And here’s something else. At one point, the disciples came to Jesus and asked him who was greatest in the kingdom of heaven. The disciples were wanting to know which one of them would be the greatest. Here’s what Jesus told the disciples: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 18:3) (Their names were written in heaven, but they had to become like little children before they could enter the kingdom of heaven.)

What does it mean to become like a little child. I’ve heard some people say that little children are innocent. Little children are innocent?! Really?! Well, maybe they are more innocent than adults, but I can remember when I was a little child sitting in my high chair. I remember that it looked like a mile down to the floor. My mom put a bowl of cooked cereal on the tray in front of me and I thought—and I’m not sure I was even old enough to think in words and sentences then, that’s how young I was—I thought wordlessly, “I ought to stir up some trouble or rebellion.” And I threw the bowl of cereal on the floor face down—intentionally face down. I had no reason except the thought that it would be good to stir up some trouble. And I don’t remember that my mom was too upset. She may have rebuked me mildly. She cleaned up the cereal. If she had only known.

Mooma, I think, has suggested that little children are more trusting. And I think that’s right. Little children are more trusting. And trusting in Jesus is our salvation. But here’s what I really think. Little children know that they are absolutely dependent on someone outside of themselves to provide for them (and being sinners, they generally try to manipulate that someone to get what they want when they want it).

Here’s the bottom line: To enter the kingdom of God, we have to understand that we are absolutely dependent on God. (And we had better learn not to try to manipulate him either). God does things the way he does so that no one can boast before him. (Can you imagine standing before God and telling him, “Don’t you think I’m great.” I don’t think so.)

It’s not our own wisdom. (We didn’t figure out the way to save ourselves. We had it offered to us.) It’s not our own righteousness or holiness. (Our righteousness is like filthy rags. – Isa. 64:6) And we didn’t redeem ourselves. There’s no way we could have redeemed ourselves. God redeemed us through the blood of Jesus—through his sacrifice. Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.

You know, I mentioned that Paul probably was a good speaker. He could have come with eloquence and superior wisdom. But all he talked about was Jesus Christ and him crucified. He says that he resolved to talk about nothing else. Paul had to purposefully reject trying to use persuasive words. He wanted to be sure that their faith rested on God’s power, not on his persuasive words. And isn’t that amazing? People (churches) pay lots of money to hire persuasive preachers, but it just depends on talking about Jesus. I imagine Paul told them who Jesus was—how he went around doing good, how he healed the sick and cast out demons, how he taught about love and forgiveness and about the kingdom of God. (Do you think it would have caught people’s attention to hear that someone was teaching you to love your enemies as well as your friends.) And I would imagine that Paul told them about how Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, whom God had promised to send, and how he was God’s own son who took on flesh and offered himself as a sacrifice for their sins. (And offering sacrifices was not a foreign concept to the Corinthians. They had worshipped pagan gods and sacrificed animals to them. But how many of their pagan gods had sacrificed themselves for the Corinthians?)

Paul wanted the faith of the Corinthians to rest on God’s power, not on his persuasive words. He knew that convincing arguments can fade out and he wanted all the glory to go to God. (Actually, Jesus gave Paul a “thorn in the flesh” to be sure that he would continue to think that way—continue to be humble.)

Well, what do you think the demonstration of God’s power was? Paul may have healed some of the sick, but I don’t recall that it says that anywhere. But here’s what I think. The demonstration of the Spirit’s power was that simply by hearing about Jesus, the Corinthians believed and were saved. What Paul had told them was foolishness according to the thinking of the Greeks. It would not have made any sense to them at all. But they were not saved by persuasive words but through the power of the Holy Spirit. Their salvation was the demonstration of the Spirit’s power. And the power of the Holy Spirit is the only way that hearts and minds can be changed.