Corinthians Series (Part Two)
Text: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31
OPEN WITH PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING
We are going to continue on with our series in 1st Corinthians today. If you remember from last time, we looked at Paul’s introduction to the letter, and we looked a little bit at the historical background of the city, and Paul being sent there by God. We talked about how the church got started there through the preaching of the Gospel, and about how all of us who are believers have been called saints BY God, and called into fellowship with Jesus Christ our Lord.
So today, let’s go ahead and open up our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 1:18-31and if you would, follow along with me as I read through that passage. (READ).
Paul begins this section by saying, “The Word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing.” In the original Greek it says, “For the ‘Logos’ of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” And “Logos” means more than just simply “the word”, or “the message”. It has to do with the Word of God, the Logic of God, the concepts, the precepts, the reasoning… So we might say, “God’s reasoning for the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” Some Bibles translate it as “The Message of the Cross”, and I think that’s a pretty good translation, because that encompasses much more… or at least I think it helps us see it more clearly. The reason God sent Jesus to die on the cross… the reason the cross brings about our forgiveness and reconciliation, what the cross accomplished for us, all of those things are intended when Paul writes, “The Logos of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.”
Now Paul goes on and says, “But for those of us who are being saved, it’s the power of God.” So for us as Christians… we see the reason for the cross, we understand what Jesus has accomplished for us by dying on the cross… but for the perishing, it seems foolish. It doesn’t fit with worldly wisdom. And I’ll try to explain that a little more when we get down to verse 22, but before that, let’s look at those verses in between. Verse 19 – “For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ 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?” Now let me stop there… Paul is calling folks out!
Remember; Paul is in Greece. He’s just come from Athens, the ancient worlds center for philosophical thought. The birthplace of philosophy. And he’s basically saying, “Listen, there’s a lot of worldly minded folks out there who think they’ve got it all figured out. They think they are wise.
I have met over the course of my lifetime, numerous people with amazing educational credentials. Ph.D.’s and Th.D.’s, people who were very educated, and at the same time, some of those Ph.D.’s and unfortunately a couple of those Th.D.’s were fools according to Scripture.
We went over that the other night – Psalm 14:1 – The fool says in his heart there is no God. And so education alone isn’t enough. I’m not against education, but it can’t change your heart. If you educate an un-repentant sinner, all you’re doing is creating a more clever sinner, some of the most educated people in the world are lost. That’s why verse 21 says, “The world did not know God through wisdom.”
The world CAN NOT know God through wisdom. Faith comes by hearing, and the hearing that produces faith comes as God speaks to you through the preaching of His Word. That’s in essence what Paul is saying here in verses 20 and 21. And then he expounds a little more on it as well… look at verse 22, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom…”
In today’s language we might even say, “Charismatics seek signs and traditionalists seek wisdom.” Verse 23 – “BUT WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.” Of course it’s a stumbling block to Jews… most Jewish people of the time, believed that their Messiah would come and throw off the yoke of Roman rule. They believed all the Messianic prophecies concerning a triumphant king, a king who would rule and reign and be victorious… and they tended to ignore all the prophecies about the Messiah being a suffering servant, and humble and who would be crucified. Just like today, they would pick and choose what Scriptures they wanted to believe and hold fast to, and they interpreted the Scripture based on what they wanted to happen rather than based on what Scripture actually said. And to the Greeks, the whole thing seems folly… it didn’t fit their “wisdom”… How does one be a Savior, when that Savior dies a criminal’s death? Doesn’t make any sense to them.
And let me just throw this out as well… this will get your brain juices flowing…
Here in the western world… in the United States, and Europe, we come out of the Greek culture… we have historically and traditionally been a logic driven culture. Initially; the western world was never a mystic driven culture. We’ve never been prone to magic, or super-natural phenomena. Instead we’ve looked to science, and facts, and logic. And I’m speaking as a whole. Every once in a while, you’ll have a few things pop up here and there, but as a whole, we’ve been very facts driven, logic based, and scientific culture. However, the non-western-world has historically and traditionally been more into the mysticism, and super-natural, and unexplained phenomena. In Africa, and Asia, the Middle East, and even the America’s BEFORE the Europeans came, you’d find things like shamanism, and mysticism…
And Christianity developed within that Logic based system… Why? Why is that? Well because our God is a God of logic. And our God did not send Paul to Asia, even though Paul wanted to go that direction, God did not permit him to do so (Acts 16:6)… and so by God’s providence Christianity developed in the Hellenistic / Roman world. And now we see that eastern thought, and that eastern mysticism, and eastern kind of world view being transplanted into the western world at great speed.
Which may be why the Bible warns us that in the last days we’ll see a huge increase in lying signs and wonders.
I’m not being dogmatic on that… I’m just trying to get your wheels to turning.
The point is – using our own, natural understanding, and our own, natural reasoning, and looking to worldly things, OR… looking for signs, and wonders, and super-natural miraculous things… none of those are going to by themselves lead us to Christ. None of those things are going to accurately point us to Christ, or show us Christ, or help us to come to faith in Him.
The logic of God is found in the Logos of God, rightly exposited and proclaimed. Not in an emotional song, or so called “worship experience”, not in a philosophical or scientific lecture. Through the preaching and teaching of the Word!
And Paul gives them evidence to this fact. Verses 26-28, “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. 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; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are…” GODS WAYS ARE NOT OUR WAYS!
Why did God do it like this? I mean… God could have easily said, I’m going to make the Savior of mankind a greater earthly king that Alexander of Macedonia. Greater than Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, and Caesar of Rome combined. God could have also just as easily said, “I’m not going to save anyone – they all like sheep have gone astray… there are none who seek Me, no not one.”
So Paul says, “Consider your calling…” What makes you worthy of salvation? Would being born wise according to worldly standards make you worthy to stand before a Holy and Righteous God? Would be being born into a powerful family make you worthy to stand before the Creator of the universe who has ALL POWER? What about being born of noble birth? Does that make one worthy to stand in the presence of the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS? I can promise you this… as the Queen of England passed away a few weeks ago, as she stepped into eternity – she bowed before the One True King
Let’s look at verses 30 and 31 and then we’ll close… “And because of Him (Because of God) you are in Christ Jesus…” You didn’t save yourself. And I didn’t save myself. We owe our salvation to the Lord – to God – to Jesus Christ. For we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, all to the glory of God alone. “So that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’”
Is your boast in the Lord today? Is your eternal destination secure? Have you bowed to the one true King?
CLOSING.
