If you're like me, a lot of you guys still have some playground memories from when you were on recess in elementary school. Do you remember how you would choose up teams for pick up baseball or basketball games. Generally, two of the "cooler dudes" on the playground would somehow be nominated as the captain of each team, and then the captain would alternately choose from the crowd of assembled kids who wanted to play the players they wanted on their team.
And, of course, the first guys chosen were the absolute best players—if you wanted to win you absolutely wanted them on your team. And then you got down to the average guys, like me, and eventually you got to the players whom no one really wanted—the people who were slow, or small, or scrawny, or uncoordinated, the people who were known to be the worst "athletes' on the playground, and these folks would eventually rather disdainfully waved onto the team.
And, of course, it was always a pretty humiliating process for those who were among the last to be picked.
Well, that's just the way the world works, even as adults. We choose the best and the brightest, and the most capable for success, for winning. But do you know what? That's often the opposite of how God works. When God chooses people for his team, He most often chooses the least likely, the least capable, the least talented to be the people on His team. You know why that is, because God wants to get all the glory. God often best demonstrates His power and his ability through servants who can't take any credit for what God does through them, because it was obviously Him rather than them.
And as we come again to the first chapter of I Corinthians, that's the lesson that Paul is attempting to teach the Corinthians in verses 17-31. Why? Because the Corinthians had a problem with pride. It was the reason the church was divided and about to split. As we observed last week, the church of Jesus Christ was becoming fragmented as its various members became part of cliques or divisions that were taking pride in their particular preferred spiritual leader or teacher over against other cliques whose devotion was to a different leader. Their divisions or disputes were based on the sinful desire to compare themselves favorable to other members or groups within the church. They, in their own minds, had to find a reason to consider themselves superior or better than some other group or some other group's leader in the church. This tendency was a clear sign, according to the Apostle Paul that they were living according to their sinful, fleshly nature which is ruled by pride and selfish ambition, rather than the love of Christ.
And what He's going to tell them is a radical message in this world which is ruled by pride and selfish ambition. He's going to tell them that God doesn't work through prideful people God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, as James 4:6 says. Specifically, he's going to teach them that God works through a single "foolish" message and nobodies like you and me for His glory.
Now as we come to verse 17 this morning, the Apostle Paul has identified problem #1 in the church at Corinth, a church plagued by many problems in the first century. It was this matter of divisions that seemed to be fueled by what might be called the worship a various personalities in the church. And in his zeal to reverse the trend, He actually comes to the point of thanking God that he had only baptized a few people in Corinth, otherwise, many folks in Corinth might be attaching themselves to Him, rather than Jesus Christ, as the one they would be following.
And so after making this rather surprising statement in verse 14, "I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius" and he then goes on to mention few others he baptized, he makes a rather surprising statement in verse 17, "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void."
Now at first, it sounds like Paul has changed subject very quickly, from divisions to the Gospel. But the truth is that the real underlying subject is pride in men and human accomplishments and abilities which had fueled the divisions in the first place. And His goal is to demonstrate how God works—that He does not work through human wisdom or cleverness but through the foolishness of a message called the Gospel, and not through the wise and mighty among men, but through humble men who are simply faithful to Him and His message.
First, He mentions that God works powerfully through a single "foolish" message—the Good News of Jesus Christ, rather than human wisdom or cleverness. What each of us needs to know here is that God does not work through human wisdom or cleverness, but through His divinely ordained special message to mankind, called the Gospel, or the good news of Jesus Christ.
And of all things on this day when we have a water baptism scheduled, the Apostle Paul deemphasizes the importance of water baptism in comparison to the message that actually saves people—the Gospel.
He says, "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void."
The thrust of what Paul is saying here is that the single most important thing that God had called him to do in his ministry was to proclaim the Good News, or the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now the word Gospel, as many of you know, literally means Good News. And the message is Good News for all mankind. The message is that anyone and everyone who simply puts their faith in Christ, and in His death as payment for their sins and resurrection, can be assured of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life in heaven. It does not depend on their good works. It assumes all of us are sinners and don't deserve to go to heaven. And heaven is given as a free gift bought and paid for by the death of Jesus Chris ton the cross as payment for our sins. All it takes is personal trust or faith in Christ as your Savior and Lord.
Now, again, a very important question to answer is precisely what is the Good News or the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And it just so happens that that question is precisely answered later in this same letter, along with the reason why it was such a priority to proclaim it in Paul's ministry. The passage I'm referring to I Corinthians 15:1-4. You can turn to I Corinthians 15 and find the precise definition of the Gospel of Jesus Christ there. It reads, "Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast [a]the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you ]as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve." The core of the gospel message is that Christ died for our sin and rose again. Why is it so important? That question is answered as well. It is of first importance, as the passage says, because it is the message by which you are saved. It's the difference between life and death and heaven and hell for eternity for the person who believes. So no wonder, Paul says it was the absolute #1 priority in His ministry—it was how people were assured of heaven, the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.
And, yes, because of that it is more important than water baptism. Water baptism, though important, merely demonstrates outwardly the inward change that has taken place in a person who was saved through repentant faith in Christ.
Now it's a small point, but I actually believe that Paul engages in a bit of exaggeration or hyperbole here in verse 17 to make his point. He acts like Christ did not send him to baptize. However, I'm sure the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20 when Christ commissioned the 12 apostles to "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit" applied to the Apostle Paul as well. I'm sure he, like the other apostles, made sure that those who believed through His ministry were baptized, though not necessarily by Him, in obedience to Christ's command. However, the importance of water baptism paled in comparison to the importance and priority of preaching the Gospel, because it was by the proclamation of the Gospel that people actually got saved.
But the clue that Paul's concern about pride and the divisions in the church at Corinth is still the subject of His discussion is evident even in this verse, in the little phrase that indicates how he preached the Gospel, or rather how he did not preach the Gospel: "not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ world not be made void."
Now you might wonder what in the world Paul means here. How could the cross of Christ or Christ's death on the cross possibly be made void by preaching the Gospel in cleverness of speech? To understand this, it's helpful to understand that the Greek culture to which Paul was writing in the first century took great pride in the world-renown orators that it had produced, such as Demosthenes, and more than that, the Greek educational system put a great emphasis on training people to be great orators. However, Paul was not at all concerned about being a great orator, or preaching the Gospel with great oratorical skill, because he was concerned that then the proclamation of the Gospel would become all about how it was communicated, rather than what was communicated—that it would become all about style rather than substance, and that people would be impressed with the skill of the messenger, rather than the incredible plainly spoken message of God's love demonstrated through the death of Christ as payment for our sins.
In other words, even in the manner in which Paul proclaimed the Gospel, he wanted to make sure that man did not get the glory or the credit, but all glory was given to God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ—that the men who heard the Gospel were not impressed with Paul but with the Lord Jesus Christ and His loving sacrifice for our sins.
Otherwise, the greatness of the message might be eclipsed by the greatness of the messenger and his oratorical skill.
And then in verse 18, he mentioned an important fact, one that he experienced over and over again in his ministry: "For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ""I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside."
The sad fact of the matter was that for those who were perishing, for those who would reject the Gospel anywhere and everywhere this simple message of the cross, Christ's death for our sins, was considered foolishness. That's the world's perspective of the Gospel—unbelievers regard it as pure folly. One liberal unitarian minister, the founder of Unitarianism in America, William Ellery Channing, for instance, called the Gospel "absurd." The same thing was happening in ancient Greece—those who rejected it called it foolishness. But those who received it, those who are being saved by it, as Paul put it here, it is the power of God unto salvation. It accomplishes for each man who believes what we cannot accomplishes for ourselves—the impossible—it takes away the guilt and the penalty and the punishment of our sins. And this was achieved by the power of God at the cross of Christ when the Son of God atoned for our sins by his death for us on the cross.
Paul then in verse 19 quotes from Isaiah 29 about God's disdain for the wisdom and cleverness of mankind—the pride of mankind in his own abilities, wisdom and achievements. And God says He will ultimately destroy it. "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside."
So then Paul asks a series of rhetorical questions with regard to the matter of salvation and eternal life in verse 20. He asks this question to make a point—that the wisdom of mankind has never done anything to prove that it has accomplished salvation or brought how a man can have eternal life to light.
He says, verse 20: "Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe (the educated man)? Where is the debater of this age?" Now, mind you he's talking to Greeks who were world famous and are world famous to this day not only for their oratorical skills but for their wisdom. To this day we celebrate the wisdom of Greeks like Plato, Aristotle and Socrates, and so the Greeks and their philosophers and wise men were renown in that day. And Paul's point here is that when it comes to a message that had proven to give life to the dead, that promised the forgiveness of sins and eternal life, none of these wise men, none of the great philosophers like these men, had ever come to a certain knowledge of how men can be saved from sin and death. They all died without hope.
Now I'm certain that what he says next is a reflection of what he had learned when he was in Athens, on Mars Hill, the world famous Areopagus where the Parthenon and other monuments were located, as he debated with the great philosophers of that day and age in Greece, just before he had arrive in Corinth in 50 A.D. What had he encountered there? We read in Acts 17 that He had encountered an altar erected to an unknown God. And there he had it, the clear demonstration that the Greek philosophers, for all their pride in their wisdom and accomplishments, were just like all other men, they had not discovered the way to eternal life or righteousness with God.
Verse 21: "For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preaches to save those who believe."
And it didn't matter whether the message was preached to Jews or Greeks, who were seeking different things. The message remained the same, and it was powerful for the salvation of those who believed, because it was authorized, sanctioned and empowered by God Himself to bring people to salvation.
Verse 22; "For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom,; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." The message was unchangeable, it was the divinely-ordained and divinely-empowered message of God for salvation, regardless of whom the audience was regardless of what they demanded, whether signs or wisdom, it was the sign or the power of God for the Jews—the resurrection being that ultimate sign of God's salvation, and it is the wisdom of God for the Gentiles, for it manifested the wisdom revealed through the God-man Jesus Christ Himself.
So Paul's point is that the success of the Gospel of Christ did not depend on human endeavor, wisdom or ability or cleverness, but it depended on the power of God associated with the divinely ordained message—that Christ died for our sins and rose again. God Himself has determined that He will call people of all tribes and tongues the world over to Himself through this Gospel, this word of the cross.
So, the application for you; You proclaim the gospel faithfully and God will bless, no matter who you are. It does not depend on whether you are eloquent, or wise, or capable, but only on whether you are faithful to communicate the plain and simple message of the cross of Christ. In other words, you can tell it too! And God will bless!
And that message is only further emphasized by the rest of the passage. For in verses 25-30, Paul reminds the Corinthians and us, that God works through the nobodies, not the somebodies for His own glory, rather than for their pride. Remember, God works through nobodies like you and me, rather than those who are somebodies according to the flesh or the world's standards.
Verse 25; "For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh—that is according to the world's standards "not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are." so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God." He dos so that the ground and reason for any human pride in our own accomplishments might melt away in God's presence!
Verse 30; For by His (God's) doing you are in Christ Jesus (you are a saved and born again Christian), who (Christ) became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that just as it is written, 'Let him who boast, boast in the Lord.'"
So, Paul reminds the Corinthians of how we came to this blessed state in God's sight—that we have been given great wisdom by God, that we have been reckoned as righteous in God's sight despite our sins, that we have been set apart for God's glorious purposes, and that we were purchased not by our own blood, but by the blood of Christ for all these wonderful and glorious experiences.
Was it by our own achievements? Was it by our own wisdom? Was it by our own righteousness? Was it by our own redemption? No, it was all done by God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ as a gift to us. So we deserve no honor. There should be no pride in human ability or achievement, but simply thanksgiving and honor and boasting in the Lord and what He has done for us.
And in saying this, He has just eliminated and destroyed any reason for prideful comparisons to other believers, or thinking any of us is somehow superior to anyone else, reminding us that we are merely objects of God's grace, saved not by our own wisdom or power, but by the power and wisdom and grace of God, and God alone, who deserves all the glory.
So it's by God's work for, to and through nobodies that we come to this position in which we stand. There is no place for boasting about ourselves, no place for taking pride in our human accomplishments over and against others, but only a place for giving thanks and glory to God. For He saves undeserving nobodies, not somebodies, for His glory, and He uses nobodies, like the Apostle Paul, who regarded Himself as a nobody, to bring this salvation to us through the simple and faithful preaching of the word of the Cross, the Gospel, which saves those who believe.
So is there a place for pride in the Christian Church or Risen King Community Church? Absolutely not! Remember, that God works through a single foolish message to save and use undeserving nobodies like you and me.
Let's pray.
