Title: How to not love God
Text: 1 Cor 1:17 – 31
MP: As unreasonable as it is, the cross is still more powerful than any sign or logic
It’s always dangerous to use a Monty Python sketch to bring out the truth of a Scripture, but in this case, you’ll see, the shoe fits. But, seeing as this morning, my aim is to show you two ways by which you won’t find God, in order that I might hope to point out where is, maybe I’m on safer ground.
In the movie, The Life of Brian, the Monty Pythons make an entire movie out of the premise of following someone who most definitely is not the Christ. Oh, he may have been born in Bethlehem, and at the end of the movie, he will in fact be put to death on a cross, all the while singing, “Always Look on the bright side of life,” but make no mistake, Brian is nothing but a man who is mistaken for a Messiah. Still, in between those two points, people looking to make a Messiah out of their own desires will turn Brian into their Messiah.
At one point, eager to escape the crowds that would make him king, Brian runs away so fast that he loses his shoe. The crowd running after him stops and seizes upon the forsaken sandal. Immediately the crowd divides into two groups.
The leader of the first takes the sandal and loudly praises the shoe. “Behold, the sacred sandal. We shall worship this sign of our Messiah!” But the more learned logicians in the crowd disagree. “No, this isn’t a relic,” they say. “Rather, it is a sign for us to follow. Like Brian, we too must shoeless and go barefoot as he.” Thus begins the first and most lasting schism in the church of Brian.
<
Obviously there is no implication that similar disputes are the cause of division in the real church. No, after all, churches are way too sophisticated to argue over shoes. The color of the carpet? Well, that’s a different issue. But we would never let silly things like that divide us, eh? Let me also suggest that there are good and serious reasons to argue. Division from sin is a necessary thing.
Oddly enough, the Pythons seem to have hit exactly on our text this morning. Paul is addressing a divided Corinthian Church. In the coming weeks, we’ll be learning more about this little country church by the sea, but this morning I want to focus on the different ways that people think we should find God. Both sides are convinced of their method in understanding how you would know God. Both have precedent on their side. Both sides even make sense. But sadly, like the sandal, I think both sides really miss the point.
Paul is being straight up about what world thinks of us. He knows that both sides think we’ve missed the point. You will notice in the clip I showed you, nobody seemed to get it. But that’s normal, Paul is saying – the Gospel is veiled to those who are perishing. If you get it right, it is going to seem like foolishness.
But, the power of cross revels in that foolishness. It overcomes a foolish world. Think about it for a minute – we know this world is backwards. We know that we live in a world where people made in the image of God abuse each other, hate each other, and kill each other. If people made in the image of God do not live in the power of God, why should anything make sense to them?
Have you ever tried to precisely cut off a hair while looking in a mirror? You know that when everything is backwards, you almost have to disbelieve the mirror to get the scissors where they need to go. If everything is backwards, going in the right direction seem unnatural. So to it is with the power of the cross. In a world focused on doing the right thing or understanding how it’s all supposed to work, believing that your salvation is dependent solely on the love of one person – Jesus Christ – that’s foolishness.
But that’s foolishness that’s right. That’s the foolishness that will save you.
The Jews
I want to look at what’s really foolishness for a moment.
On the one hand, it is very easy to become enamored with our own idols. We can worship the outwards trappings of Christ. We can easily fall into worshiping his rules. We can easily fall into worshipping his house or his people. We can worship just about everything around Christ, but fail to worship Christ.
Look with me at verses 22, 23, 24 for minute. He has some parallel talk going on here, so I want to put in order for a second. You’ll notice he says, “Jews demand signs,” but we preach Christ crucified – and for the Jews, that’s a stumbling block. Christ crucified is the power of God! But they want Signs.
So, what is a sign? Well, think about a stop sign for a second. There is absolutely no power in a stop sign. But, if you’re driving out in the middle of the Sahara desert, 500 miles from the nearest town, and you see a stop sign, what are you going to do? You’re going to stop. Okay, if you’re in DC, you’ll probably blow right through it, but at least mentally you’ll stop and look for the cop, right?
Why do you do that? Because a sign is a physical manifestation of authority. We fear the law, and rightfully so. I personally do not want a ticket, and I do not want to go to jail. But tell me, why should we love the law? On July 4th, we do not celebrate the traffic ticket. We may love the order and the freedom that the law gives us, but we don’t worship the signs.
God’s law is a lot like that. Because God is so holy, it’s really easy to confuse his law with who he is. But that’s a mistake. Because God loves us, he gave us some really good laws to live by. Breaking any of those laws hurts us as much as it hurts him. But if we would understand what this God-thing is all about we must not confuse his laws with who he is. The law draws us near to God; it is not God in and of itself.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying the law isn’t good. In fact Jesus told us, if you love me, you follow my commandments. Just understand why you’re following his commandments – it’s because you love Him!
The Greeks
But, let me show you there is a danger on the other side. Going back to the text, you’ll see that the Greeks love wisdom. Probably the word ‘philosophy’ would capture the thought just as well, because we’re not talking about the wisdom of God. No, Greeks love understanding the principles behind the thing, even if they might have lost the point.
The text says, Greeks seek wisdom, but the cross is folly to them. And here’s what they miss – Christ is the wisdom of God.
When we love our mental models more than Christ, we are practicing folly. Truth is that in every age, we think we’ve arrived at the truth. When we think it’s just about following this rule or saying those words – we’ve missed out the person of Christ & we’re engaged in folly.
In the Life of Brian, Brian is called on to give some advice to the crowd. He ends up exhorting them – ‘You are all individuals. You need to learn to think for yourselves!’ to which they all respond in unison – “Yes, we are all individuals.” Every bit of human wisdom does that. It sounds so good, but it only goes so far.
Again, I’m not saying that wisdom is bad – just that it misses out on the person.
Now, you know that I love a good philosophical argument as much as the next guy. And, frankly I’ll tell you that as I look back on the time we’ve had together, I think one big mistake I may have made is to give you the impression that God is strictly logic – that we can know him according to the logic of our world. Sometimes, I want to turn God into a clock. Insert prayer or good deed here, get result.
I fear sometimes I may have given the impression that we love Christ because it’s illogical to do otherwise. That may be true, but it misses out on the fact that Christ is wonderful in and of himself.
God isn’t necessarily logical, at least according to our logic. There is a reason why Paul says we proclaim the * mystery * of faith. God is a person. He does not operate on our rules.
I know guys like to joke about there is nothing harder to understand than a woman, but let me suggest to you that this may be intentional! If a woman seems irrational, just see that God is modeling the fact that he is a person who wants to be loved, not just understood. And guys? Trust me when I say women sometimes think the same things about us and just don’t say it.
If you ever thought that complete understanding was necessary for romance, you’re off your rocker. You know clichés like ‘Opposites attract?’ You’ve seen relationships where you wonder how they work? Well, that’s true of God too. Our love for him need not be strictly rational. Mary wasn’t particularly rational when she poured a full year’s salary worth of expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet. But she loved him, in the same way that we are suppose to love him.
We love him. Not his rules, not his rewards – just him.
The Power of the Cross
You’ll see in verse 30 that Christ is what we follow. Now, make no mistake – there is great reward for following him – it’s just that the reward isn’t a shoe, it isn’t wealth – the reward is Christ. And Christ is our wisdom. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our redemption and our salvation. In other words, Christ is how we find God.
The power of the cross may seem arbitrary, but the power of the cross is what enables us to overcome our division. The cross transcends our sin; it transcends every single thing that divides us. It does way more than just ignore sin, it covers it.
Some of you may remember May 13th, 1981. Pope John Paul II was out in St. Peter’s Square when Mehmet Ali-Agca shot him 4 times. The people in the crowd subdued and held him, and he went to jail. Assignation attempts seemed to be common that year.
But what was uncommon was the Pope’s reaction. Two years later, he went to go visit Agca in prison. The conversation was tense, but Agca opened up, and began to love him. For the rest of his life, they stayed in contact – to the point where Agca wept when John Paul finally died a natural death.
That act of radical, arbitrary, and complete forgiveness – of a Muslim no less – is what the cross is about. There is no law and no logic in forgiving the one would kill you. It seems foolish, and frankly wrong.
But you know what? We were Jesus’ assassins no less than Agca. We know that it was our sin that put Him there on that cross. By law, we owe Jesus our lives. By any worldly wisdom, we deserve his wrath. But the power of the cross is this: While we were yet sinners, Christ willing died for us.
Thank God Jesus does not operate on my logic.
Would you pray with me?
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On the other hand, you have the Greeks. Now, this is going to be a little more controversial, because, when push comes to shove, most of us are probably a bit more Greek than Jewish. Paul says that Greeks love Wisdom, and who wouldn’t? Now, by wisdom, I think he’s meaning more philosophy & logic, that sort of thing. He’s talking about knowing God through speculation and the mental powers of logic. If you can just know the right thing, have the right belief, these Greeks think, you can know God. And surely, if you know God, he’ll do right by you.
But Paul has a rude awakening for both groups in our text. You see, it isn’t the sign and it isn’t the wisdom that lets us know God. It’s the cross. It’s that love over which we have no control, no power, not even a precise understanding of how it works. But it is the love evident in the cross that changes everything. But before we get there, I want to get back to what isn’t going to do it. We aren’t going to know God through signs; We aren’t going to know God through our own understanding. We are only going to know God through the Cross.
In our culture, we caught up in some great debate as to whether its rules for living or what you believebelief that save you, faith or works, traditions or doctrine, take your pick. Faced with a God who is pleased both by our acts of worship and our cries of belief, sometimes it hard to know what exactly saves us. And, when in good conscience we seek to optimize what it is we think God wants, we lose sight of the real power that saves us – the power of the cross of Christ.
But as followers of Jesus, we should have a simple means of knowing what’s worth fighting for. Unlike the Jews, we do not worship Rules. Unlike the Greeks, we do not worship Wisdom. We worship, we follow Jesus Christ, the person who loved us, who forgave us, and who willing gave up himself for us.
This morning, in our text, Paul is going to suggest two groups that just don’t get it. On the one hand, there were the Jews. Those Jews, they were always looking for a sign, some power, a ritual or a talisman that if only you could properly work it, would get you into God’s good graces. But that’s the religion of works, and that isn’t our God.
Long Branch Baptist Church
Halfway, Virginia; est. 1786
Sunday, August 19th, 2007
Enter to Worship
Prelude David Witt
Meditation Romans 5:2 – 10
Invocation Michael Hollinger
*Opening Hymn #329
“There is Power in the Blood”
Welcome & Announcements
Morning Prayer
*Hymn #335 (Tune #11)
“Cross of Jesus, Cross of Sorrow”
*Responsive Lesson [See Right]
*Hymn #323
“At the Cross”
Offertory Mr. Witt
*Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow / Praise Him all creatures here below
Praise him above, ye heavenly host / Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
*Scripture 1 Cor 1:17 – 25, 30 – 31
Sermon
“How Not to Love God”
Invitation Hymn #319
“Near the Cross”
*Benediction
*Congregational Response
May the grace of Christ our Savior / And the Father’s boundless love
With the Holy Spirit’s favor / Rest upon us from above. Amen.
* Congregation, please stand.
Depart To Serve
RESPONSIVE LESSON
“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.
I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience—
By word and deed, by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God
But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches.
Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;
He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments.
For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.
Jn 5:25;Ro 1:16;Ro 15:17-19;Ga 6:14;Je 9:23;Is 8:14-15;
Mt 11:25;2 Co 12:9;Col 2:2-4;2 Co 4:5;1 Co 2:14;Jn 11:25
ANNOUNCEMENTS
We have a homecoming speaker! Jeff Coleman, the missionary in Kazakhstan who is going to be handing out the reading glasses we are collecting, will be joining us September 16th at 11am.
PRAYER LIST
Cindy & Lee Thompson, Martha Puryear, Susan Schulz, Warren Lee, Irene Griffith, Cory Keely, Debbie Grigsby, Jeff Coleman
1 CORINTHIANS 1:17 – 31
17 For 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.
18 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. 19 For it is written,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 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. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
