The Foolishness Of Christ
24 “Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. 25 Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock. 26 But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn’t obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. 27 When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.” - Matthew 7:24-27
UNDERSTAND – there are a lot of things that you could attempt to build your life on (IN FACT – our world will encourage you and is counting on you to build your life on them)…
acquiring possessions (having a bunch of stuff),
experiencing pleasure (good times, party and rock and roll),
and gaining power and prestige (through success, position, recognition).
BUT LISTEN – there is only one thing (one solid foundation) that is guaranteed to stand up against the floods, wind, and rain of this life. There is only one solid rock, Christ!
ON APRIL 22nd we at The Grove began a journey…
THE MOST – important journey any of us will ever take… The journey of a lifetime.
A journey that is to be our perpetual (constant and foremost) pursuit as long as we breathe air on this planet.
A journey to KNOW BETTER the One… who:
• put on flesh/made know the Father
• existed in the beginning/who is and was and is still to come
• sits on heaven’s throne/parts rivers, calms storms, slays giants, conquers problems, defeats powerful enemies, AND…
• multiplies whatever we GIVE to Him…
YES – we are on a journey to embrace Paul’s cry in Philippians 3 as our own:
7But whatever was to my profit… QUESTION – what is of value or profit to you? What do you really think matters?
I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ…
MAN - do you sense the passion in those words… “I want to know Christ”
• there’s nothing GREATER/when compared to it – everything else is garbage
• even if I have to suffer for it…
I want to know and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
QUESTION: Do you want to:
• know who you ‘really’ are?
• get out of the boat/walk on water?
• Finally and fully overcome… fear, doubt, sin and worry?
• become a new creation?
• live bold lives?
• pray bold prayers?
• take huge risks?
• live the life you were created to live?
UNDERSTAND – there is but one path… ‘knowing Christ.’
NOW so far in this journey WE – have looked at:
• The person of Christ…
• The passions of Christ
• The emotions of Christ
• The miracles of Christ…
AND EACH WEEK – we have taken the King of Glory out of the box of our current understanding and came to know Him better… IF – you were here for those messages continue to chew and meditate on them… AND IF – you missed any, I encourage you to check them out on our website.
THIS MORNING – in our effort to know better THE ONE – we have chosen to follow and have given our lives to… We are going to talk about ‘The Foolishness Of Christ.”
AND – I want to set the stage for this conversation by doing 2 things…
FIRST – I want to look at an event in the life of David…
AND SECOND – I want to read some God breathed words that Paul put on paper 2000 years to the church in Corinth.
OKAY… 2 Samuel Kings chapter 6…
• David has just been crowned king
• He has defeated the Philistines and recaptured the Ark of the Covenant, where the presence of God dwelt between the Cherubim.
• It’s a big deal
• The King is jacked up to the max
• Thousands of Israel’s leaders and hundreds of priests and musicians are in this procession.
• Think of it as an inaugural parade full of pomp and circumstance.
13 After the men who were carrying the Ark of the LORD had gone six steps, David sacrificed a bull and a fattened calf. 14 And David danced before the LORD with all his might, wearing a priestly garment.15 So David and all the people of Israel brought up the Ark of the LORD with shouts of joy and the blowing of rams’ horns.
16 But as the Ark of the LORD entered the City of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked down from her window. When she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she was filled with contempt for him…
20 When David returned home to bless his own family, Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet him. She said in disgust, “How distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do!”
That’s no way for a king to act? Kings don’t disrobe and dance in public! And no one knew better than Michal, growing up as a KK (king’s kid).
BUT DAVID – was not concerned with his image, his reputation, OR – what anyone else thought… Because he did not find his identity and security in his position as King of Israel…
BUT RATHER – in the God who anointed him as King.
21 David retorted to Michal, “I was dancing before the LORD, who chose me above your father and all his family! He appointed me as the leader of Israel, the people of the LORD, so I celebrate before the LORD. 22 Yes, and I am willing to act like a fool in order to show my joy in the Lord. Yes and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes!
“Part of spiritual maturity is caring less about what people think about you and caring more and more about what God thinks about you. It’s taking Him more seriously than we take ourselves…
Paul writes the following to the Church in Corinth…
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
and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”
20 So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and 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 and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.
24 But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.
26 Remember, dear brothers and 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, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.
Prayer
I. The Foolishness Of Christ...
NOW UNDERSTAND – when I say the FOOLISHNESS of Christ…
I am not saying that Jesus is foolish or that (He did or said) foolish things…
NO – what I mean by ‘Christ’s foolishness’ is that a lot of stuff about Jesus, when viewed by those in the world then (and even now for that matter):
• look foolish
• don’t make sense…
• seem unwise to: the intelligent, the scholars – the philosophers of the day.
WHY – is that?
BECAUSE – ever since the garden we have lived in an upside down, inverted world…
DURING – my research for this message I came across an experiment that was done by a guy named George Stratton…
NOW – he was the first but a lot of people have done it since…
HE - invented a pair of glasses that when you put them on inverted everything – turned everything upside down… and he would wear these glasses for weeks at a time.
NOW - that had to be crazy to…
• have the sky at your feet and the ground over your head
• see trees hanging down from the sky and birds flying on the ground
• pour a cup of coffee and see it go up into your glass
• jump down – but go up…
HE SAID - at first it was difficult…
BUT THAT – eventually his eyes adjusted… and he didn’t even notice it anymore…
YEAH - He actually learned to live in an upside down world and to be pretty okay with it…
I MEAN – this guys was able to read, to write… and even ride a bike… that had to be INSANE!
HERE’S MY POINT: people have been wearing the ‘upside down glasses’ of this world for so long… that they’ve adjusted and now believe that what they see through these inverted lenses is NORMAL.
AND THEREFORE - to them, the wise is foolish and the foolish is wise!
UNDERSTAND – when God the son put on flesh 2000 years ago, the world was already upside down…
MAYBE – not as bad as today… but they were still pretty inverted.
THAT’S WHY – Luke records these words of Jesus in Luke 12:50…
I've come to change everything, turn everything rightside up--how I long for it to be finished!” Lk 12:50 (Msg)
The Foolishness Of Christ
NOW – the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there are tons of examples of Christ’s ‘apparent’ foolishness throughout the Gospels…
Things He said and things he did that left the world: scratching their heads, pointing their fingers and snickering in condescension…
touching lepers,
healing on the Sabbath,
defending adulterers,
befriending prostitutes,
washing the feet of his disciples,
throwing temple tantrums,
talking with Samaritans,
partying with tax collectors,
eating with sinners,
valuing woman,
playing with children,
offending the religious leaders and those in power
and dying naked on a wooden cross.
NOW WE - don’t have time this morning to talk about all of them…
SO – I will just give you 5 quick snapshots of things that looked pretty inverted and foolish to the upside down world The Savior King found Himself in…
BUT – before we go there… I want us to answer a simple question.
WHY – was Jesus okay with looking foolish?
BECAUSE – Jesus (like King David the dancing fool in 2 Samuel 6) did not care about what other people thought.
The Father who sent Me has testified about Me Himself… your approval means nothing to me. – John 5:37,41
Snapshot number 1:
A) His Incarnation
Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges…and was born as a human being. Phil 2:6,7
UNDERSTAND – in our upside-down-inverted-world, the incarnation is absolutely INSANE! FOOLISH. IT – makes no sense at all…
I MEAN – really think about it… for a minute.
The idea that God… The One Who:
• created all things
• is before all things… over all things… and hold all things together…
• who has all power, all authority
• The One who is the king of kings and Lord of lords…
• The One – who is: infinite, omniscience and limitless
WILLINGLY… - putting aside all of that and more… and becoming a human… born to a poor blue collar worker from Nazareth - is totally inverted and upside down to our world… Foolish. GOD – depending on one of His creations to feed Him and change His diapers… entering the muck and mire of this world… living in it… for 33 years…
LISTEN - ‘The Greatest’ – the KING of kings and LORD of lords… living (like-where-and how-He did) to our inverted world is PURE INSANITY! QUESTION – if a world leader or a great and famous person in our culture… GIVE UP all the power, wealth, and authority they had to live the rest of their lives in the middle of the much and mire – would anyone think they were wise?
NO – they would think they were insane… certifiable!
B) His Teaching
UNDERSTAND – the scholars, the intelligent, the philosophers of any day or age would laugh at anyone who would teach let alone LIVE OUT these: counterculture – counterintuitive - FOOLISH principles…
Jesus taught that…
• The way up is down
• The way first is last
• The way of success is service
• The way of attainment is relinquishment (letting things go)
• The way of strength is weakness
• The way to deal with your mistakes is not to hide and conceal them, but admit and confess them
• The way to overcome hurt is forgiveness
• The way of life is death – death to self, stuff, wants, desires
• God’s power is made perfect…where? In our weakness.
• Want to be free? Give complete control to God.
• Want to become great? Become least.
• Want to find yourself? Forget yourself.
• Want honor? Think of others more then yourself
• Want to be lifted up – humble yourself
• Want to ‘get even’ with your enemies? Bless, love and pray for them
YES – the things that Jesus’ teaches are… crazy, insane, inverted!
C) His Networking
UNDERSTAND - so much of what happens in our world today is all about networking… (knowing the right people, and getting the right hook ups)…
HERE - is a definition of ‘networking’…
to ‘cultivate’ people who can be helpful to one professionally, esp. in finding employment or moving to a higher position: His business lunches were taken up with networking.
NOW – with that definition in mind, I think you would agree that Jesus’ networking, was upside down and inverted as far as the world was concerned…
I MEAN – instead of working with, building rapport, doing lunch, wining and dining those who held all the (power, position, influence, and wealth)…
JESUS – constantly and consistently:
• Ticked them off… Criticized them
• Rebuke them… Embarrassed them publicly
AND CHOSE INSTEAD – to network with people who had no (power, position, influence, and wealth) in that culture… sinners, the poor, tax-collectors, prostitutes, fisherman, woman, children, the sick and the demon possessed. YEAH – talked about an inverted… FOOLISH, ‘networking strategy…’
D) His Leadership Style
Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. 28 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” - Matthew 20:26-28
AND UNDERSTAND – for a leader to not merely ‘appear’ to be but actually be a servant 24/7 like Jesus - is totally inverted and FOOLISH to our upside-down world.
AND – we saw a powerful example of this on April 2, 2009… when President Obama met with the Saudi King and did the unthinkable… He bowed before the King… I MEAN – He is the leader of the free world – He doesn’t have to bow to anyone…
QUESTION – do you think King Jesus (the Alpha and Omega) would have bowed? DO YOU KNOW – what I think? I THINK – that King Jesus would have not only bowed but grabbed a towel and basin and offer to wash the guys feet…
Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant…
E) His Cross
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God… – 1 Cor 1:18
Now a crucified Savior might not sound unusual to us, but for a Jew in Paul’s day – it was a total contradiction of terms. It is like saying “icy cold flames or hot ice.”
A crucified Messiah defied all Jewish reasoning. Every hope they had in a Messiah was a strong and powerful king coming to defeat their enemies. They wanted powerful conquering hero and instead they got a stumbling block.. Yes to the Jewish mind the cross was a contradiction and to the Roman mind a crucified God was just plain ridiculous
IN FACT - A cartoon has been found in the ruins of ancient Rome showing how crazy the Christian message seemed to the people of that time. It’s a caricature of Jesus’ crucifixion, showing a man’s body hanging on a cross – but the body has a head of a donkey. Standing to left of this cross is a man with his hands raised in worship. Underneath is the inscription, “he worships his God!”
UNDERSTAND – the concept of a crucified God was deemed so offensive, so crazy that Christians were accused of madness for even suggesting the idea. That’s why it wasn’t until the 5th century that images of Christ on the cross began to appear.
II. The Foolishness Of Christ-Followers
Don't fool yourself. Don't think that you can be wise merely by being up-to-date with the times. Be God's fool--that's the path to true wisdom. What the world calls smart, God calls stupid 1 Cor 3:18,19 (Msg)
Our dedication to Christ makes us look like fools… - 1 Corinthians 4:10
13If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. – 2 Corinthians 5:13-15
AGAIN - everything that Jesus taught goes against how ‘normal’ people see and function in the world. Turning the other cheek, going the second mile, giving the spare coat, washing someone’s feet, heaping blessings on those who curse you, selling your possessions and giving them to the church, living without anger, denying your self, doing nothing out of selfish ambition… THESE – are things that ‘normal’ people (the people in the world) have a hard time understanding much less thinking and living…
LISTEN – the truth is, Jesus stood, ‘normal’ wisdom on it’s head. AND CHRISTIANS - are called to be ‘abnormal’, they are called to see the world through the eyes of Jesus, and not from a ‘normal’ or inverted point of view… UNDERSTAND:
• To a world obsessed with power, the gospel is nuts.
• To a world obsessed with success, Jesus’ teaching is nuts.
YEAH - Nietzsche was right. To a people clawing there way to reach the top of the their dung heap, this is nuts. The gospel presents crazy ways of thinking about power, crazy definitions of success, crazy ideas and images about the meaning and purpose of life, crazy story-lines that no author would plot…
UNDERSTAND – Christ invites his people…
IN FACT - He commands his people to live in ways that don’t make sense…
To live in ways that when the world sees us – they think we are Crazy!!! Out of our minds. Fools. Or as I like to to say sometimes…
N.U.T.S. - Now under the Spirit.
MGCC - never underestimate what the Spirit can do in the life of someone who still lives in this upside-down-inverted world
YES – we are called to live a life just like Jesus, the most FOOLISH ONE of all… THE CREATOR – who left heaven to become one of us… THE KING - who came to serve and not be served… THE GOD - who died for a sinful people…
OKAY – we are about done… BUT - there is a verse I need you to check out.
YEAH - some of you may have heard it before.
BUT – I learned something just this past week that is really awesome…
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. – Acts 4:13
NOW – the bible translators were being very polite when they translated the word ordinary in that verse. It is the Greek word ‘idiotes’ (id-ee-o-tace)…
It means – an ignoramus, an ignorant or unlearned person, a fool, an idiot.
MAN – this is great stuff but here’s the problem… The church has been in a return to normal mode for decades. WE – define success, seek meaning, determine worth and value… the same way our inverted world does… and when we see ‘true’ normal we respond just like the world does…
• To give more blessings than you receive? You must be nuts!
• To define success in life, not as the real estate of property, but as the real estate of people and relationships? You must be nuts!
• To judge ourselves, not by wealthy North American standards, but by global standards? You must be nuts!
• To (really and fully) put Christ and His church before ALL things – you must be nuts, an idiot.
BUT LISTEN – once you really encounter and know Jesus, you can never return to normal again. UNDERSTAND - authentic discipleship is an (all-of-life) spirituality that interrupts (ALL of life) and interprets life on God’s terms…
Christian spirituality is anything but sane if ‘sane’ means logical, predictable, serious or safe. Christian spirituality is highly illogical, paradoxical, volatile, playful and dangerous. The world of faith is freakish and unpredictable.
- Sweet (Jesus Drives Me Crazy)
LISTEN – the more we live life on God’s terms, the more the world will see us as foolish and abnormal.
QUESTION – if Christians don’t do normal what do they do? Abnormal? Paranormal? Supernormal? Exceptional?
I prefer N.U.T.S. = Never Underestimate The Spirit…
MGCC - never underestimate what the Spirit can do in the life of someone who still lives in this upside-down-inverted world.
UNDERSTAND – when you flip through the pages of Scripture you see a lot of crazy people… abnormal people….you see a lot of nutty Christ followers!
• The disciples were nuts! They were not normal as far as the world was concerned… Mark 10 says that left everything to follow Jesus… They left their; houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, wives, children, careers, and property to follow Jesus - that’s nuts! That’s not normal…
• The apostle Paul was nuts! (certifiable!)… Paul traded in a great career as a respected teacher and Jewish leader… FOR – shipwrecks, stonings, hunger, thirst, beatings with rods, muggings, thieves, betrayal, being lost at sea, being cold and naked and on 5 separate occasions receiving 39 lashes with a whip… what a NUT… A man this wild and crazy even sang in prison while in chains after being beaten.
• During His final week, Jesus meets a couple of women who were nuts! One is a poor widow… this widow walks over to the collection box in the Temple… and she drops in all the money that she has (her checking account, savings account, and 401 k) as an offering to God… that’s nuts! And in Bethany while He is at the home of an x-leper named Simon, a lady comes in and pours a whole bottle of perfume worth a years wages (how much do you make in a year?) on the head of Jesus… She nuts!
• In the book of Acts – nuts are everywhere!! In chapter 4 Luke tells us that… ALL the believers (a church in the 1,000)… felt that the things they owned were not really theirs… and they kept selling land and houses and bringing the money to the church to help people and spread the good news… what a bunch of nuts!
• Everywhere you look – all you see is nuts; Luke – nuts! Timothy nuts! Barnabas – nuts! Lydia – nuts! Silas – nuts! Aquila and Priscilla – nuts!!!
AND – do you want else you see as you flip through the pages of Scripture? YOU SEE – that God doesn’t use perfect people, that he doesn’t use normal people… INSTEAD – you see that God always uses nuts… LISTEN – you don’t have to be perfect to be used by God, you just have to be nuts!!!!
• Abraham wasn’t perfect – but he was nuts!
• Jacob wasn’t perfect – but he was nuts!
• Moses wasn’t perfect – but he was nuts!
• David wasn’t perfect – but he was nuts!
• John, Peter, Paul, John Mark - again not perfect – but nuts! Certifiable!!
AND – do you know what I have had the privilege of meeting many nuts over the years…
Judy my first wife who died of cancer was nuts…
had all her prayers for healing turned down…
had all her dreams for the future taken way from her..
yet as cancer ravaged and her body and took her physical life…
She had a joy and peace that was unmistakable and she brought glory to God…
Judy was nuts!
AND – from where I stand – I see a lot of other nuts starting to pop up around here…
People who...
(examples)
Let's Pray
LISTEN – there is only one proper response to the foolish of Christ – Go Nuts!!!
Be an idiot… release your inner fool!
NOW – I want to warn you… of something… I have prayed over this message…(hard, real hard) AND – especially over our response to The Foolishness Of Christ (maybe more than I prayed for any other message I have ever preached here)
DO YOU – want to know what I was and continue to pray extremely hard for? That Christ would begin a movement at The Grove Bridge – so that N.U.T.S., FOOLISHNESS - becomes our norm…
YEAH – I want the world to look at us and say those people – at Maple Grove…
ARE …a little off, odd, kooky, whacked, insane, crazy - they’re NUTS!
AND REMEMBER… “If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God…” 2Cor 5:13
YES – there is only ONE response
that YOUR
crazy, abnormal, insane, inverted,
foolish Lord and Savior
Is looking from YOU today…
Go Nuts! Be a fool…
NOW – to go nuts… May mean…
That you have to change you spending habits so you can start giving God what’s belongs to Him.
It may mean that you have to re-organize your day planner so you have more time for the Christ…
It may mean that you totally change the direction in your life and go over seas to become a missionary…
Going nuts may mean that you have to change some of the things that you are doing and the places that you go.
It may mean you have to break off some realtionships
UNDERSTAND - going nuts may mean all kinds of different things… BUT – one thing going nuts means for all of us is… what ever we do it is no longer about us…
NUTS wisdom says it’s not about me. And it’s not about you, either. “It’s all about you, Lord,” as the praise chorus says. The gospel is not about you. The cross is not a big plus sign for your life. God didn’t send Jesus to please you, God sent Jesus to help you please God. Normal people define the good-life in self gratifying ways. NUTS people define the good-life in God pleasing ways… - Sweet
