This sermon (1 Corinthians 2: 6 -16) was preached at West Ewell Evangelical Church, Surrey, on Sunday 12 July 2015.
Introduction
Where do you go for wisdom? answers can include e.g. radio, television, internet, snippets from Facebook, Twitter.
In a survey in the UK, involving 1,000 mothers, it was discovered that mothers are the most quizzed people on the planet. On average, from breakfast to afternoon tea time, the average stay-at-home mothers face one question every 2 minutes 36 seconds. That adds up to 105,120 questions per year.
The questions spike during mealtimes. Girls aged 4 years-old are the most curious, asking an incredible 390 questions per day. On the other end of the spectrum, boys aged 9 years-old asked the least amount of questions. According to the survey, the mothers claimed that these were the top five toughest questions (in order):
1. Why is water wet?
2. Where does the sky end?
3. What are shadows made of?
4. Why is the sky blue?
5. How do fish breathe under water?
I am reminded of the following illustration: Donna the computer programmer worked in an office with two other programmers, Tom and Phil. One day she asked Tom to help her implement some new software applications. Tom sat down with Donna to show her how to make the changes to the files then she said, “I’m so glad you’re teaching me instead of Phil.” Surprised, Tom asked why, as Phil was far more experienced than he was. “Yes,” Donna said, “but I feel much more comfortable with you. I get nervous around really smart people.”
As we mature in the Lord through the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, we realise more about the uniqueness of Christianity – God dying for His glory (as we talked about in the previous sermon) – so wisdom of the Holy Spirit not about us.
1. Wisdom for God’s glory
As we learned from last time that ultimate reason for Jesus dying on the cross was for His glory, which we can see in verse 8, where the passage refers to the Lord of glory.
Emil Brunner stated: ‘There are, even today, a great many people who understand that man needs salvation, but there are very few who are convinced that he needs forgiveness.’
This divine wisdom is opposite to human. Colossians 2: 8 says: ‘See to it that no-one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.’
Last time we saw that there are modern versions of Greek and Jewish thought in our society today – thoughts or philosophies that exclude God, or wanting Him to act in their lives without accepting Him as Lord – these attitudes block the activity of the Holy Spirit, so cannot receive from Him and thus cannot act according to His wisdom.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in Ethics about the way people worship success: ‘In a world where success is the measure and justification of all things, the figure of Him who was sentenced and crucified remains a stranger and is at best an object of pity. The world will allow itself to be subdued only by success. It is not ideas or opinions which decide, but deeds. Success alone justifies wrongs done…With a frankness and off-handedness which no other earthly power could permit itself, history appeals in its own cause to the dictum that the end justifies the means…The figure of the Crucified invalidates all thought which takes success for its standard.
‘God was not interested in success, but in obedience. If one obeyed God and was willing to suffer defeat and whatever else comes one’s way, God would show a kind of success that the world couldn’t imagine. But this was the narrow path, and few would take it.’
Jesus calls us to take the narrow path. Malcolm Muggridge reminded us that only the fish that are not swimming against the tide are dead ones. We will not take on commission that Jesus gave by ourselves, otherwise we will fail; but we will achieve it through the mighty help of the Holy Spirit.
Mystery was not inaccessible, but things that had been hidden through the ages although now revealed so it would be understood.
The passage quoted from Isaiah 64: 4 (in verse 9) starts ‘Since ancient times no-one has heard’ – but now it has been revealed in and through Jesus.
This wisdom is not perceptible by the natural (our eyes, ears, hearts) for we cannot know how much or understand what God has in store for us, such is the wideness of the scope scope of salvation and the impact of it.
I am reminded of an old song by the Joystrings (a Salvation Army band):
‘It's an open secret that Jesus is mine,
It's an open secret this gladness divine.
It's an open secret I want you to know,
It's an open secret, I love my Saviour so!
And you can seek Him, find Him, share this secret too
know His loving kindness in everything you do.
It's an open secret I want you to know,
It's an open secret, I love my Saviour so!’
The mystery was only accessible by the Crucified One – as He was glorified on the cross – as the Romans and Jewish authorities carrying out God’s plan.
Only the Holy Spirit can reveal the mind of God as He is all knowing, truth and holiness, greater than anything known to man – as well as showing His grace and peace.
How much are you glorifying God in your lives by allowing the Holy Spirit to take over with no room left for anything else?
2. Wisdom impacting on our lives
In verse 6, Paul is not denigrating natural wisdom (that, for example, discovered DNA or painted the lilies in Givenchy). Incidentally, it is interesting that science in universities came out of theology studies. However, only the Spirit of God can reveal His mind.
In verse 7, ‘mystery’ means that man is unable to wholly understand except what God has revealed. It is hidden because, apart from God, man in the dark.
The first impact is God’s peace and grace being inputted into our lives. It is of first importance, as without being recipients of His salvation, we cannot receive wisdom from the Holy Spirit.
God wants us to spend time with Him so that we will get to know Him and be filled with the wisdom He has in store, so we can face situations knowing His mind and will. When we do not spend time with Him, we should not be surprised that not knowing what He wants us to do.
An illustration demonstrates this: An angel appeared at a university faculty meeting and told the dean that in return for his unselfish and exemplary behaviour, the Lord will reward him with his choice of infinite wealth, wisdom or beauty. Without hesitating, the dean selected infinite wisdom.
“Done!” said the angel, and disappeared in a cloud of smoke and a bolt of lightning. Now, all heads turned towards the dean, who was surrounded by a faint halo of light. At length, one of his colleagues whispered, “Say something.” The dean looked intently at his colleagues gathered around him and said, “I should have taken the money.”
The Holy Spirit does not leave us disappointed or shortchanged – He wants to walk with us on an incredible journey with us.
In verse 13, ‘interpreting spiritual truths to spiritual men/in spiritual men’ literally means ‘to fit pieces together perfectly’ – He wants to puts us to live whole lives.
Without the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to take over every part of our lives, we are like jigsaws with missing pieces.
N T Wright wrote: ‘Without God’s Spirit, there is nothing we can do that will count for God’s kingdom.’
God is not obscure but is easily understood (verse 12) as God wants us to apply His truth to our daily lives.
We need to act in light that saved through the Good News – the wisdom of God inevitably means that act differently from the rest of the world.
In verse 13, the Holy Spirit explains and reveals the ways of God to people – we are only the messengers (‘apostles’ – sent ones) to explain and demonstrate God’s glory in and to the broken world, which only God can restore.
We need to be expectant. Charles Stanley wrote: ‘If we walk in the Spirit daily, surrendered to His power, we have the right to expect anything we need to hear from God.’
Holy Spirit freely is given (verse 12), which is part of the grace package that God gives to us – how often do we use the grace package? How many times do we say ‘thank you’ to God for it?
3. Wisdom leading to maturity
A W Tozer stated: ‘The Spirit-filled life is not a special, deluxe edition of Christianity. It is part and parcel of the total plan of God for His people.’
There is no such thing as grades of Christians. In Hebrews 6: 1 where author exhorts ‘let us leave the elementary teachings and go on to maturity…’
We need to ensure that walking in step with the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5: 25).
In the Great Commission (Matthew 28: 18 – 20), Jesus states that we are going into the world (no stepping back) and to make disciples. We remain disciples (apprentices, learners) to the end of the journey when we reach heaven - it does not stop before then.
Holy Spirit wants us to be committed to CPD (Continuous Professional Development = continuous personal development). It could be in prayer (e.g. Moses holding up hands in prayer when Israelites fighting Israelites).
Through wisdom from the Holy Spirit, we can:
- Understand the enormity of the glory of God.
- Embrace the need and requirements of our salvation - our inherited sin and the sufficiency of Jesus on the cross.
- Be certain in an uncertain world – like the Corinthians, we live in a society with no moral compass as postmodernism (everything is right to each person) and where religious maelstrom is evident.
We need to be dependent on the Holy Spirit – through reading the Bible, prayer, reading what God is saying through other people (e.g. London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, Evangelical Alliance, good books and other publications). As a word of warning: we need to weigh up the words (discernment) and to apply them to society around us.
Titus 2: 11 – 12: ‘For the grace of God that brings salvation to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age.’
In context, 1: 3, we were reminded that the church should be calling in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to be in tune with the Holy Spirit in order to speak to us – how much do we listen to the Holy Spirit?
There is the need for all of us to step out of the boat, to take the hand of Jesus, to be guided of the Holy Spirit - it applies to those paid by the church, those in leadership, to all of us.
Conclusion
Lawrence E Toombs stated: ‘Wisdom is to found with God and nowhere else, and unless the quest for wisdom brings men to his knees in awe and reverence, knowing his own helplessness to make himself wise, wisdom remains for him a closed book.’
Questions:
a) How much is the wisdom in our lives reflecting on the glory of God? – it could be that still relying too much on own wisdom or wisdom of the world.
b) How much is the wisdom from the Holy Spirit impacting on our daily lives? – it is not just on Sundays, but on our frontlines (e.g. shops, neighbours, work, friends, family)
c) How far down the road are we to spiritual maturity? – we need to have fresh experiences of Holy Spirit in our lives every day, not to have same experience time and time again, God wants us to move on in Him.
Philippians 1: 9 – 11: ‘And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.’
