Wisdom That Actually Delivers

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[0:00] We are continuing our study of 1 Corinthians today, and I'm going to pick up where Hans-Erik left off last week, and I'm even going to backtrack a little bit for a little bit of time and then move forward. So let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, and I'll be reading from NLT today also, starting in verse 6. Right here in verse 6.

[0:56] this world have not understood it. If they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love everything and shows us, sorry, for those who love him. But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit, for his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets. No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own spirit. And we have received God's Spirit, not the world's spirit, so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. When we tell you these things, we do not use words that are not true. We do not use words that are not true. We do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths. But people who are not spiritual cannot receive these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them, and they can't understand it. For only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves

[2:21] cannot be evaluated by others. For who can know the Lord's thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him? But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. Let's pray. Our good and gracious God, we ask for your blessing on your word. God, would you speak to us, to our hearts and to our minds this morning. These things we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

[2:54] I didn't know, I didn't really know how I felt about doing this, but I think you'll get the, I mean you will get the point. I'm thinking of a man who is known for being truly captivating and a dynamic speaker. This man possessed a unique ability to connect with his audience. He used his powerful, oratory skills to enthrall them, and some of his followers described him as the greatest speaker they had ever heard. This man used his incredible speaking ability to even address social issues like racism and inequality, aligning himself with progressive causes and attracting a diverse following. He sounds like a stand-up guy. Brian's smiling. Does anyone know who I'm talking about?

[3:57] Oh, Pam does. Maybe. I think you, I think you said your mother knew this guy. Oh yeah, so you do know who I'm talking about. Yep, that man was Jim Jones, the cult leader and mass murderer. As it turns out, a flowery speech conceals a lot of hazardous weeds. And who else was a really good speaker? I feel worse about this one. Adolf Hitler. And that's uncomfortable, but Hitler created an entire group whose sole job was to make movies and provide propaganda to persuade people to join his cause. And it worked. And what resulted was one of the worst and most devastating events in the history of American history. The first was the first atrocities ever committed and he nearly swept the world. But both Hitler and Jones succeeded by using their worldly wisdom, by using their incredible power over oration to make themselves seem respectable. They fooled the masses by taking the focus off of the evil that they were forcing through beneath the surface. Because they used the power of the law, they were able to keep the world alive. They used their worldly wisdom. And people thought they were wise. And people followed them. And people thought they were wise to follow them. We like good speakers. We like to be entertained. This was also true back in the days of Corinth. The problem then,

[5:42] like it is now, is that oration can get in the way of true wisdom. And worldly wisdom can get in the way of God's wisdom. So today you're not going to hear fancy oration. Sometimes I wonder if I can get words out at all. But you will hear truth. And I don't want to focus our thoughts on a good speech, but instead on our good Savior. And so actually that's what we see in 1 Corinthians 2. We'll start way back with what Hans-Erik already covered in verse 1. It says, When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom, as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. To understand what Paul is saying, we'll look back at Acts chapter 17, verses 16 through 18. Paul came to Athens and gave a very famous speech to a group of seasoned wise orators who were used to the law. And they were very good at it. And they were very good at it. And they were very good at it. And he talked to them in the homes he talked to them in who rejected him. So finally he left the synagogue and went and rented a hall and preached the gospel for a year and a half. And you've got to think that Paul was pretty fed up with the rhetoric of Athens. And so he determined not to use eloquence or superior wisdom with the Corinthians.

[7:42] And we saw some of this last week. Verse 2 says, For I decided that while I was with you, I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified. Paul was a brilliant man and very well educated. And yet instead of showing off his wonderful intellect, he resolved to know nothing. That's how a lot of translations say it. And I like what it implies. That he had to force himself to be empty of all knowledge. The NLT says it well in this case that he had to forget everything except the story of Jesus Christ's crucifixion. We have an intellectual group here. We have very smart people.

[8:36] Do you ever get caught up in intellectual debates about your faith? Or get frustrated? And then you get focused on trying to persuade people by trying to tell them this is wise and this makes intellectual sense.

[8:53] Debating is not bad. And intellect is not bad. It's definitely not. But when the focus of the debate is to show off how much you know instead of pointing to Christ, then something is wrong. And sometimes we need to show our intelligence. We need to show our intellect and knowledge when talking to people about Christ. We just can't let our intellect become the focus and crowd Jesus out.

[9:24] And we shouldn't get sidetracked when sharing the gospel with someone. So not only did Paul put aside intellectual arguing when sharing the gospel at Corinth, he did something more. Verses 3 to 5 say, I came to you in weakness. Timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would not trust in human wisdom, but in the power of God. Paul ended chapter 1 talking about how it's not through the powerful, but through the weak that the gospel came. God chose the foolish to be the weak. He chose things of the world to shame the wise. He's making the same argument about humanity's intellect. It's not the dynamics of the speaker, but it's in the truth of the message that people will ultimately see Christ.

[10:29] Some might think that they are unable to be persuasive or speak up. Unless they've gone to Toastmasters or taken a speech class. I actually only heard about Toastmasters. I was terrified to speak to people, even in group conversations when I was in junior high and high school. I was so terrified that my mother had me take a speech class in high school. It didn't help. And unfortunately, people think the same thing when the topic is the gospel of Christ. If they haven't had certain training, then they feel unqualified to talk about it. And I have to tell you, as someone who's gone through seminary, I think you always feel unqualified to talk about Christ. I can ask Hans-Erik if that's true. I think you will always feel unqualified to talk about Christ. But the funny thing is that he qualifies all of us.

[11:32] Paul says he came in weakness, timid and trembling. And why was he trembling? It wasn't because he was shy. It was because he was a man of faith. He was trembling at the importance of his message. The key wasn't in Paul's ability to impress, but in the Spirit's ability to bring the life to the words he was speaking. He brought a demonstration of the Spirit's power. Think about Romans 1.16. It says, I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, and for the Gentile. Just sharing the good news that Jesus paid the penalty for our rebellion against God, so that through his death and resurrection we can have a relationship with God, that carries a power like we've never known before. And what is that power? It's just the ability to change a heart through faith.

[12:37] Paul is not arguing that there's a lack of wisdom in the gospel. He's just saying, it's just a different kind of wisdom. Verse 6 says, Yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world, or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten. It's true. You have to have spent some time in God's company to really understand and begin to appreciate what he's done. And that's what Paul is talking about. In the beginning, at the beginning of your faith, all you need to realize is that you've sinned, and it's only through Jesus as your Lord and Savior that you have a way out of that sin. That's all I needed as a baby Christian, was to know that Jesus had paid the price for my sin.

[13:36] Then as you begin that relationship, you read the word, and you learn about why God sent his Son, and the prophecies spoken about Jesus, and the deep theological implications behind it all. These days, I'm far from when I was a baby Christian, and now, when I read something deep and theological, that's how my faith grows. It used to be kind of the touchy-feely, speak-to-the-heart moments, and those still hit me, but now it's when I am really challenged in the way that I think about God. I'm not just in my intellect about Christ, that I'm like, oh yeah, that makes sense, and my faith grows deeper. So it's a different kind of wisdom now than when I was first walking with Christ.

[14:24] Paul gets into it in more detail in a moment, but here's another reason not to get caught up in deep theological arguments with someone who doesn't know the Lord. You stick to the basics. Verse 7 says, No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God, his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began. And then verse 8 says, But the rulers of this world have not understood it. If they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord. So the rulers of Paul's age, and even those who lived under the old covenant, knew the secret of the gospel, that God would send his own Son as payment and sacrifice for our sins once and for all. They knew a Messiah was coming, and those that clung to that hope are saved, but God shouted the secret far and wide when Jesus came on the scene.

[15:28] And while humanity was busy messing things up, we still are, by the way, God was busy preparing wonderful things for those who would trust their lives to his care. And then he revealed to his people, verse 10 says, God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

[15:49] And that's why it's so hard for someone who does not yet know Christ to accept the things of God, because it has to specifically be revealed by his Spirit. So when I was a baby Christian, I understood things differently than I do now, because I have a relationship with God, and he has given me his Spirit to help me understand things as I grow. You aren't going to find God's Spirit in the world's systems around you. You aren't going to find the Spirit or this wisdom by worldly wealth or by positions of power, and you're not going to find it by gaining the wisdom that man created. There's nothing wrong with the wisdom of man, it's just not the wisdom of God.

[16:43] And we need the wisdom of God, and to be fair, to live in this world we also need the wisdom of man. But we need the wisdom of God to understand the wisdom of man. I honestly think that it has driven some people crazy over the years, trying to fulfill themselves with the quest of power and wisdom and wealth.

[17:08] But the quest to find all this earthly knowledge has never fulfilled them. Then Paul talks more about the role of God's Spirit in all of this. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own spirit. And then 12, we have received God's Spirit, not the world's Spirit, but we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. The world doesn't understand God, but that's not the Spirit God has given us. Jesus said in John 16, 13, When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak his own, but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.

[18:07] So we need to ask God for his Spirit to give us understanding. Not from the human point of view or a worldly point of view, but from a spiritual point of view. And then back to 1 Corinthians 2, 13. When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths.

[18:35] So you're not going to grow in Christ, by reading seven habits of successful people. And you're not going to understand God by applying the wisdom of Buddha. Are these terrible things to read? Some might be questionable, but they're not terrible. It's not terrible to want to have seven habits of successful people.

[19:00] But, you will not gain the wisdom of God with them. Verses 14 and 15 say, but people who are not spiritual cannot receive these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them, and they cannot understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. So once we have the Spirit of God active and living in us, then we can apply the spiritual truths that we have learned in all areas of our lives.

[19:41] But until then, it just won't make sense. That's why it doesn't work to take the Ten Commandments or the Beatitudes and say, I'm going to live by these things. First of all, it's impossible apart from the salvation of Jesus. But second of all, you won't understand them until you have God's Spirit to teach the real meaning to you, then give you the power to live. In godly play, we often talk about mysteries of God, and how things are a great mystery. And all things of God are a great mystery until God helps us to enter into them.

[20:27] For who can know the Lord's thoughts who knows enough to teach him? This is quoted from Isaiah 40, 13. He's reemphasizing that only the Spirit can reveal what is God's, and he has. But we have the mind of Christ. We need to act on this. You have the mind of Christ if you are a Christian. I don't think any of us can forget the WWJD movement.

[21:00] What we need to do is WWJT. What would Jesus think? If you think that you are a Christian, then you are going to act like Christ. You are going to learn about his character. Learn about his character and his values, and pray for God to give you insight.

[21:22] Then you will think and live like him. The wisdom of this world would lead us to despair, but God's wisdom lets us have hope. That's what we want. This world leads us to foolishness. But this is what I want to end on today. When we live with God's wisdom, we live with a certain hope for the future.

[21:52] We look back to Jim Jones and Hitler and what did their wisdom get us but a mess and pain. That's what the worldly wisdom leads us to, foolishness, ultimately, that brings us pain. God's wisdom gives us hope for a future, a future where all things are right and whole and well. That's the thought I'm going to leave us on today, is that with God's wisdom we have hope. Let's pray.

[22:25] God, thank you that you give us hope, but you also give us wisdom. Wisdom to love each other, wisdom to love you, wisdom to make this world, a better place ultimately. God, would you help each of us to live by your wisdom. These things we pray in Jesus' name.