Everything Is About Jesus

1 Corinthians 2: 1 – 16

Everything Is About Jesus

1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

I would like you to join me in prayer for Pastor’s who have been tirelessly preaching the Word of God in small churches. The superstar preachers of mega churches already are lavished with praise for their wisdom and charisma. The men who have been faithfully serving small flocks of God’s sheep are the ones I want to say, ‘Thank you! - For your faithfulness in serving our Master, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Today’s message from the apostle Paul speaks about these faithful men of God. Paul now stresses his own example to demonstrate that the Gospel in its successful presentation by him had not been with eloquence and wisdom, but in power.

1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

In accordance with what he has said Paul reminds them of how he himself approached them with the Gospel. He did not come as a teacher using flowery words. He did not put on a show of wisdom pretending to, and expanding on, special knowledge. He simply and straightly preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He is not here attacking eloquence or true wisdom. He is attacking preaching which gained its sole impact through eloquence, and depended on eloquence for its effect, and wisdom which was wisdom in men’s eyes, but not in God’s, as described in the previous verses, both of which could blur the essential content of the message.

This fact hit home directly just the other day when I was in a staff meeting with other Pastors. This one young Pastor, sadly, let everyone in the room know how amazed he was as to how he is anointed every time he teaches. The braggart apparently didn’t check God’s Scriptures such as new will find out later in chapter 4, “For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?”

I want to give you a couple of words that the apostle frequently uses. Here they are;

. Wisdom = philosophy or explanation

. Perfect = fully grown, mature, and completed

. Mystery = hidden or unseen

. Ordained = intended or designed for a purpose