Introduction:
1. Russell Christoff is not a familiar name. He was an unknown actor and model whose only success in the modeling industry was his image years ago on cans of Taster’s Choice instant coffee. He was the guy smelling the aroma. If you’re old enough you probably remember the picture.
Cell #1—
2. In 1986, when he took those photos, he was given $250 & promised if the photos were used they would pay him an additional $2,000 and an agency commission. Nothing came of the picture until it was used in 1997. It was used for the next 8 years in 18 different countries. Christoff wasn’t aware his image was on the coffee until a stranger in a hardware store told him he looked a lot like the guy on the Taster’s Choice Label. For 8 years his face sold their product and because neither he nor other family members drank instant coffee he never knew his picture was being used.! When he realized that Nestle hadn’t kept their end of the bargain he called his lawyer and the rest as they say is history. A jury awarded him over $15 million.
3. Who would have ever dreamed that there was that much of a story behind the Taster’s Choice coffee label? The same could be said of the series I’m beginning this morning on the book of 1 Corinthians.
Cell #2— I Corinthians 1 is found on page 870 of the Bible in your pew.
4. It’s one of the Apostle Paul’s longer letters. His message stretches over 16 chapters; some of them quite lengthy. What makes the letter particularly interesting is that it was written to a church that was known to be ungodly and spiritually immature. In it Paul deals with a lot of thorny issues. He helps this church figure out how to deal with a general lack of godliness.
5. While some churches didn’t respond very well to Paul’s message, the church in Corinth wasn’t one of them. The book of II Corinthians, written years later, has a quite different tone, one that demonstrates this immature church had grown a lot and probably took to heart Paul’s challenging message. I hope we will be challenged and grow through it as well. Let’s read part of chapter 1 together this morning.
1 This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, & from our brother Sosthenes.
2 I am writing to God’s church in Corinth, to you who have been called by God to be his own holy people. He made you holy by means of Christ Jesus, just as he did for all people everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord & ours.
3 May God our Father & the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace & peace.
18 The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.
19 As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise & discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”
20 So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, & the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish.
21 Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.
22 It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom.
23 So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended & the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.
24 But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews & Gentiles, Christ is the power of God & the wisdom of God.
25 This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, & God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.
26 Remember, dear brothers & sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you.
27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.
28 God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, & used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.
29 As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.
30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, & he freed us from sin.
31 Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the LORD.”
6. Let’s pray and then we’ll begin digging into this fascinating passage this morning. PRAYER
TS— Let’s start with this fact…
Cell #3—
I. We’re Called to Be GOD’S FAMILY 1 Cor. 1:1-3
1. Corinth was a giant cultural melting pot that was characterized by a diversity of wealth, religions, & moral standards. It had a reputation for being fiercely independent & was as sinful as any city in the ancient world. By Paul’s day, the Romans had made Corinth the capital of present-day Greece. It was a large city with a lot of rich people. But the city's prosperity made it ripe for corruption. Idol worship flourished there as well; in fact there were more than 12 pagan temples.
2. One of those was the Temple of Aphrodite. The worship of Aphrodite was carried out by sleeping with one of 1,000 temple prostitutes. It wasn’t the only temple in the city that used highly questionable practices. The Temple of Apollo employed young men whose job it was to fulfill the sexual desires of both male & female “worshipers.”
3. Corinth was famous in the ancient world for immorality that often made the citizens of other pagan cities blush. To call another person a sinner, one merely needed to call that person a “Corinthian.”
4. The United States today is anything but identical to ancient Corinth, but there are some definite similarities. That ancient culture also denied moral absolutes and emphasized personal rights. Here is the reality…
Cell #4—
The book of Corinthians is especially practical for us today because it was written to Christians who were living in a pluralistic society that rejected Godly Values.
5. How were the believers in Corinth to live in their highly immoral city? Paul begins the letter by reminding them of who they were. Look at the beginning of verse 2. He says he was writing to, “God’s Church in Corinth.” That’s an interesting phrase because the word church comes from the Greek “Ekklesia.” It literally means, “Called out ones.” Look at the verse again, He tells them they’re God’s called out ones in Corinth. Then as if that wasn’t a clear enough call to godliness, he says, “to you who have been called by God to be His own holy people.” The word “holy” means to be completely separate from anything evil.
6. It was difficult to be godly in Corinth, but as members of God’s family that was precisely what God expected of them. The book of Corinthians is especially relevant for us as well because today right and wrong are no longer determined by moral standards but by personal rights.
7. It’s a challenging time to have any kind of moral standards because many in society expect us to be okay with just about anything regardless of what scripture says. Society’s standards are changing rapidly, & there is more & more pressure to accept anything that anyone else wants to do, unless it directly harms someone else. That flies in the face of what Paul wrote to the Corinthian church. He told them…
Cell #5—
We are to live Godly regardless of pressure from Society.
8. All of that goes to show that God’s family must be especially close to God when we are living in a culture that denies right and wrong and adopts an “anything goes” mentality.
9. It’s easy when dealing with those realities to fall into the trap of focusing on the bad going on around us, but that’s not where Paul begins. Look at verse 3. There he encourages believers to rely upon God’s grace and peace. It’s easy to be disheartened, but while there are many bad things going on around us, God is as good and as close as He’s ever been. Paul begins by encouraging the Corinthians to focus on God our Father and on Jesus Christ.
TS— And that brings us to the passage’s second point…
Cell #6—
II. We’re Called to Trust GOD’S WISDOM 1 Cor. 1:18-25
1. “The message of the cross,” is a unique phrase that picks up on Paul’s central message, in fact the central message of the entire New Testament, the cross. For Paul, the cross was no mere message; it was the most important event in human history by which God has now divided people into two groups, the only two groups that ultimately mean anything; those who will be destroyed & those who will be saved.
2. In case you think I’m making too much of this, let me show you how Paul makes the point that those who dramatically reject the message of the cross view it as foolishness. The Greek word used in verse 18 for “foolishness” is the root word from which we get an English word that we’ve all used at one time or another. It’s the word, “moron.” When many people look at the story of the cross, it seems ridiculous and absurd; in fact downright stupid.
3. Over the last few years I’ve corresponded with a number of people online who don’t have any interest in faith and who are offended by the fact that I have faith and would suggest it’s valid. Their attitude could perhaps best be captured by the question, “how could you believe something so stupid.”
4. To be honest, their lack of tolerance, which is ironically the thing which Christians are often accused of not having, was offensive and frustrating. What I found interesting was that while I wasn’t insisting that they had to believe the same thing I believed & in fact wasn’t offended that they didn’t, they didn’t extend me the same right. When Paul writes “the message of the cross is foolishness to those headed for destruction” let me show you at least one reason why.
Cell #7—
Many people will never understand God’s Grace. God’s mercy will never make perfect sense to our Natural Reasoning.
5. Does it make perfect sense to you that the Creator of the world would send His only Son to die for us? It doesn’t make perfect sense to me, but that is precisely what the Christian faith says happened. Most of us have experienced God’s grace. We have been forgiven and enjoy a new beginning; not because we’re perfect, but because God’s kind to us and better to us than we deserve.
6. If someone doesn’t want to believe, they will always find a reason not to. In verse 20 he mentions that philosophers, scholars and brilliant debaters viewing God’s message of salvation through the cross as being foolish, or moronic. It’s not that these people aren’t smart, many of them are incredibly smart, but what they are not, is open to God’s message. They want to make sense of God’s message through their own reasoning and understanding.
7. I want to show you why that doesn’t work. Look at verse 21. It says God knew the world would never know Him through human wisdom. The point isn’t that wisdom is worthless, it’s not, but the point is that human wisdom isn’t sufficient. He certainly wasn’t saying that you need to turn off your brain if you’re going to trust God, but He is saying that you aren’t going to fully grasp God’s kindness and the reality of the cross through your own intellect either.
8. Look at the progression of thought in verse 22. He says the Jewish people demanded signs or miracles before they would believe. He says the Greeks thought the message of the cross didn’t make enough sense. The idea that the Creator would send His Son to be put to death by His creation so they could be right with Him didn’t make good sense to them.
9. God has shared His message and scripture is clear that He wants everyone to come to the knowledge of repentance, but He’s not going to meet anyone’s demands either. Why did the Jews think it was foolish and the Greeks think it was too? Because while God’s message does make sense and while Jesus did many miracles, He’s not going to cater to human demands when His message is clear if you’re open to hearing it. Let me say that a slightly different way…
Cell #8—
God has revealed the truth about His plans in scripture, but He doesn’t cater to anyone’s demands to Prove Himself.
10. Here is the point. If you sincerely want to know God and want to make sense of the message of the cross, God is more than willing to help you in your search to understand it, but He won’t respond to anyone demanding that He prove Himself. The reality is that He’s God; we are not and we answer to Him, not visa versa.
TS— The final section of chapter one shows one more lesson that I think you will find fascinating.
III. We’re Called to Welcome GOD’S CHOICE 1 Cor. 1:26-31
1. You may not see this at first glance, but stick with me for a few seconds and I think it will become clear. I suspect our church is bit like the church in Corinth in another way that I haven’t mentioned before. You will see it introduced in verse 26. He says not many of them were very impressive when they came to faith. He said they were not wise in the world’s eyes, they weren’t powerful, and they weren’t wealthy. His point was that God rarely chooses the most accomplished members of society on which to build His kingdom. Let me be clear, there certainly have been wealthy people. There have been very smart people. There have been very educated people but those aren’t the most common people in God’s kingdom. God normally uses “regular everyday people.”
2. From a human viewpoint; wisdom, influence & influential families were apparently in short supply in Corinth. They’re not the typical group that God uses. If God had chosen on the basis of such criteria, He would have passed them by. When God called them, He turned the world’s standards upside down & typically chose very ordinary people instead of the outstanding members of society.
3. This isn’t unique to Corinth either. When God sent His Son to earth, He was born to a poor peasant girl and a carpenter. King David, arguably Israel’s greatest king was called to lead the nation from the shepherd’s field. In fact, when the prophet showed up at his father’s house and asked to meet Jesse’s sons his father didn’t even call him in from the field. The only Canaanite we know who was specifically spared when the Jews invaded Canaan was a woman and not just any woman, but a woman who was a… prostitute. Again and God demonstrates that He rarely calls those who are impressive. He frequently chooses to use those everyone else writes off.
Cell #10—
God often uses the least impressive people because no one Impresses Him.
4. God often uses the foolish and weak to carry out his agenda. That was true time and time again. Lest you think I’m making too much of this look at verse 28. It says God chose the things that are 1) despised by the world, 2) the things which count as nothing, 3) God has used the most unimpressive people to accomplish more than those who are much more impressive.
5. The focus isn’t on us and how awesome we are but on God and how incredible He is. Our greatest to Him isn’t based upon us, but on Him. In fact, Paul used the words, “God” or “Christ” nineteen times in verses 18-30.
6. This fact has several important implications. It means that none of us has any right to think we’re great on our own or that we have a right to be arrogant because this passage makes clear that we don’t. Notice, the final verse of the passage says that if we’re going to boast it should be about God, not about ourselves. But it means something else. You’re wrong if you think God couldn’t possibly be interested in you, because He is. In fact, the more ordinary and messed up you are, the more likely He is to be interested in you. That’s true of every person here this morning. I like the way one anonymous pastor put it.
Cell #11—
“Preach out of your brokenness, and you will connect hurting people with
The Only Source of Healing.” (Anonymous Pastor)
Conclusion:
1. God can and does do the unexpected with regular people. I had to smile when I came across an interesting fable about a man who got a reputation as the town fool. The townsfolk would play a game to show how foolish he was. They would approach him with a nickel in one hand and a quarter in the other. They would hold out both hands, open them and offer the town fool his choice of one of the coins. The man always chose the nickel, much to the amusement of everyone watching. One day a newcomer asked him, “Why do you always take the nickel when you could take the quarter? Don’t you know that a quarter is worth much more than a nickel?” The man replied, “Of course I do, but if I took the quarter, people would have stopped playing the game and I would have ended up with only one quarter instead I have been given hundreds of nickels over the years.”
2. Here is the point. God often does things and uses people in ways that we don’t fully understand, that doesn’t mean He’s not at work in the lives of people that surprise you and me. We are called to trust God whether we understand all He’s doing or not. We’re called to follow Him because He’s God and we’re not. Will you commit yourself to doing that this morning? If you’re not a believer would you invite Christ into your heart? If you’re not following God as closely as you should will you commit to following Him more closely? Let’s pray!
Warren Wiersbe, Be Wise: 1 Corinthians, (Colorado Springs, CO: Cook Communications) 2001.
John Walvoord, Roy Zuck, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: 1 Corinthians, (Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor) 1983.
Jack Cottrell, Tony Ash, Richard Oster Jr., The College Press NIV Commentary: 1 Corinthians, (Joplin, MO: College Press) 1995.
William Baker, Ralph Martin, Carl Toney, Philip Comfort, The Cornerstone Commentary: 1 Corinthians, (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale) 2009.
Frank Gaebelein, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: 1 Corinthians, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan) 1981.
Bruce Barton, Greg Asimakoupoulos, Jonathan Farrar, Linda Taylor, Dave Veerman, Neil Wilson, Life Application Bible Commentary: 1 Corinthians, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale) 1999.
Alan Johnson, Grant Osborne, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: 1 Corinthians, (Downers Grove, IL: IVP) 2004.
William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible: 1 Corinthians, (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster) 1975.
Jason Freeman, Building Community, (Arlington, TX: Bible Church) 2006.
James Galbraith, The Foolishness of God, (Port Alberini, BC: Baptist) 2007.
Melvin Newland, Foolishness or Stumblingblock, (Brownsville, TX: Christian) 1994.
Jerry Shirley, The Power of Foolishness, (Decatur, IL: Baptist) 2009.
Michael Milton, How I Want Our Beginning to be Remembered, (Chattanooga, TN: Presbyterian) 2002.
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/08/17/a-man-a-coffee-label-and-a-lawsuit/ http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/08/17/a-man-a-coffee-label-and-a-lawsuit/
