Intro: Remember what we have learned about the Corinthians. They were arrogant and prideful. They tucked their thumbs under their suspenders and bragged about things they had no control over. Who baptized them, what their gifts were. We must always remember that as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15.10 “I am what I am by the grace of God.” When we truly mean this we live it.
The words of your lips will be much more powerful if it is backed up by the work of your life. Paul is trying to teach us that the message or word of the Cross results in drastic life transformation. The word of the cross is counter to everything human that rebels against and resists God’s rule in our lives.
I. The message of the cross is counter intellectual
This does not mean that you have to check your mind at the door. It does mean that you will never think you way to God. What we often do when we try to understand or come to God on our own terms instead of being transformed by God we make Him in our image. The Jews and the Greeks had an idea of what God was supposed to be like and Jesus didn’t measure up. There are really on two responses to the Word of the cross
A) Laughing at it as foolishness
Proverbs 14.12, 25 “There is a way that seems right to a man but the end of it is death.”
As humans we always think our ways are right. Eve thought he way was better than God’s, the builders of the tower of Babble were going to show God by getting to heaven on their own, the Israelites recorded in the book of Judges were doing what was right in their own eyes.
I hear people day after day saying, “I just hope my good deeds outweigh my bad.” They won’t.
Why was the word of the cross such stumbling block to the Jews? They looked for a conquering God to make everything easy for them. They saw Jesus on cross cursed and conquered. What they missed was that Jesus conquered self, sin, and Satan. They looked for God who was a cosmic vending machine in the sky. They wanted someone to crush their enemies and give them comfort. Jesus came to crush their sin and give them Himself.
Why was the word of the cross such foolishness to the Greeks? To man’s way of thinking a suffering God is foolish. He is born a Jews lives mostly unrecognized and for three years speaks mysterious parables and heals all kinds of illnesses. He caps His brief ministry off with a crucifixion, executed as a criminal by capital punishment.
B) Looking to Him in faith
CS Lewis in Mere Christianity said, “That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion you could not have guessed. If it offered us just the kind of universe we had always expected, I should feel we were making it up. But, in fact, it is not the sort of thing anyone would have made up. It has just that odd twist about it that real things have.”
1 Corinthians 1.18 “To us who are being saved it is God’s power.”
Genesis 1.16-18 “ And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden, 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”
There are three tenses to salvation
1) I have been saved from the penalty of sin – Life does not have to be hell on earth
2) I am being saved from the power of sin – If I daily surrender my mind, emotions and will to the power and word of the cross.
3) I will be saved from the presence of sin – One day Jesus will return and set me free from this old nature that only wants my desires and appetites to be satisfied.
Salvation is a crisis followed by a process. The crisis will I bow my mind, emotions and will before God. The process of salvation is a lifelong transformation of my desires, and decisions. This process stands against every form of human wisdom.
II. The message of the cross is counter cultural
Jesus was not a cultural icon. He was not a good person or a great teacher. He was and Is God in the flesh. Chuck Swindoll said, “Christianity does not flatter humans nor does it make God easy to swallow!
A cultural cross or church will simply mirror the culture that they are in. A Cross centered Christian, Church, or Message will transform the person, place, and community they are in.
The message of the Cross, The word of the Cross, Jesus is the power of God.
God is not out to make us comfortable. He is out to conform, transform us to the truth of a humble crucified savior.
Ephesians 8.28-29, Romans 12.1-2, 2 Corinthians 2:18
Time magazine had this to say several years ago. "The truth is that modern man is over impressed by his own achievements. To put a rocket into an orbit that is more than a hundred miles from the surface of the earth takes a great deal of joint thought and effort, but we tend to overstate the case. Though men who ride a few miles above the earth are called astronauts, this is clearly a misnomer. Men will not be astronauts until they ride among the stars, and it is important to remember that most of the stars are thousands of light-years away. The Russians are even more unrestrained in their overstatements, calling their men cosmonauts. Someone needs to say, 'Little man, don't take yourself quite so seriously.'"
1.20 “Where is the philosopher? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish?”
The Greek word kosmos, meaning 'ornament, decoration, arrangement' gives us our English word 'cosmetics.' Hence a concern for external appearances more than inner content and quality. As used in the New Testament, the word does not refer to nature, but to the world-system, to society and human culture. The world system is outwardly religious, scientific, cultured, and elegant. Inwardly it seethes with national and commercial rivalries.
What does the wisdom of the world do?
1) It produces conformity to cultural norms or traditions and stifles individuality
2) It encourages uses of force, greed, ambition and warfare to accomplish objectives
3) It offers financial gain but spiritual loss
4) It devalues the uniqueness and worth of the individual soul
5) It promotes myths and legends that appeal to human appetite, vanity and pride
6) It distracts our attention from spiritual values by appealing to pleasure
7) It promotes promiscuity, low or non-existent moral and ethical values for self- indulgence
8) It promotes immediate satisfaction over long-term transformation
9) It ignores eternal realities and invisible realities
10) It offers false philosophies and value systems to support its goals
11) It exalts man, his abilities and supposed evolution or progress. Myth of social evolution
12) It teaches human progress through better education or socialistic society
The Word of the cross is counter to the kosmos or culture or world system. Jesus as the word of the Cross challenges us to face the truth of what we believe and how we behave.
The word of the cross is concerned with the content of our character. I have a dream, “That one day we will agree with God and be concerned with the content of our character not the acceptance of culture.”
III. The message of the cross is counter individual
1 Corinthians 1:21 “For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached”
God chooses to save us by the Word of the cross in a way that absolutely insults human wisdom and pride.
Look at what Paul says in 1.26-31
God choose, so that no one can boast, It is for Him that you are in Christ.
If you can be argued to the cross you can be argued from it – Human Wisdom
If a sign can bring you to the cross a sign can drag you from it—Human Wisdom
If God reveals Himself to you through the Word of the Cross, and by faith you believe nothing can separate you form the person, presence, and love of God.
If we have the Word, Wisdom, and power of God talked about in this passage then we learn to live according to God’s word and will.
Conclusion: What is so important about this portion of Paul’s writing?
1) 1.26-28 Everyone is invited to this salvation
2) It is a gift given to you by God not because of your wisdom or power
3) We must guard against pride. Watch out for those that think to highly of themselves.
How do I get this? Receive it. Trust that God sent Jesus to live and die on the cross and rise from the grave so that you could know Him. Not for a comfortable life but for a meaningful life. Humility and a cross centered gospel will deflate our pride and encourage unity.
