Resting on God’s Power
(1 Corinthians 2:1-5)
I. How Paul Came
A. Not…
1. Eloquence
2. Superior wisdom
B. For I resolved…
1. To know nothing
2. Except Jesus Christ and Him crucified
C. I came to you…
1. In weakness
2. In fear
3. With much trembling
II. Paul’s Message and Preaching
A. Not with…
1. Wise words
2. Persuasive words
B. But with…
1. A demonstration of the Spirit’s power
C. So that…
1. Your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom
2. But on God’s power
Introduction
Prophetic statement: “The winds of revival have begun to blow. Mark this date on your calendars as the day when the winds of revival began to blow.”
How do I know? What are the signs? Where does my confidence to make such a statement come from? I’d like to mention two reasons why I believe that the winds of revival have begun to blow:
1. True revival always begins in the hearts of individuals. It begins as an individual flame and then grows to be an inferno as the flames of others are joined together. I have heard the wind with the ears of my spirit and I have begun to feel the fire of revival burning in my soul. Whenever the fire of God starts burning inside you, it comes with a purpose—to refine. I’ve shed many tears this week as the Spirit has been purging and refining me. I find that I am currently less aware of the shortcomings of others and more aware of the areas in which I am falling short of the glory of God. I praise God for His mercy and grace in my life. I praise Him that He is still at work conforming me to the image of His Son. I praise Him that He has not grown weary of my many shortcomings, but is diligent in disciplining me like a good father. And I cry out for His continued refining work in my life. I want to be holy, even as my Father in heaven is holy.
2. True revival always meets opposition from the enemy of revival. Satan would like nothing more than to see the Church remain ineffective and content with a mediocre spiritual fervor. He hates it when we begin to get in step with the Spirit, so he throws all kinds of things our way to discourage us or sidetrack us from moving deeper into the things of God. I have been under a tremendous amount of spiritual attack this week. Judy can testify that she has also felt the attacks of the enemy in her life and in our relationship. I’ve shared the struggles I’ve been experiencing this week with the elders Wednesday night when we gathered for prayer. At the time, I didn’t call it by name, but this has been a week of massive bombardments from Satan. Though I do not enjoy these assaults from the devil, I can consider it pure joy (as we read in the book of James) because it reinforces my belief that the winds of revival have begun to blow. Satan is afraid because a revived Church will do him much damage.
Because the winds have begun to blow and the embers are beginning to glow, I have a sense from the Lord that He wants me to preach some revival messages. I don’t have any idea how many there will be. I’m not entirely certain as to the direction these messages will take. But I’m confident that I am to preach messages focusing on revival.
So I begin this morning to bring you a message of revival. It is a message birthed out of my own experience with God’s refining work in my life. So the message is one that has first hit me right between the eyes, but it is one that I am confident has application to your lives as well. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches (Rev. 3:22).
Please turn with me to 1 Corinthians 2:1-5. (p. 848)
How Paul Came
Not with Eloquence or Superior Wisdom
“Eloquence is rational talk” (R&R, p. 390)
“Wisdom is wordy cleverness” (R&R, p. 390)
“Paul does not deny that he tried to present his message in as compelling a form as possible, merely that by the world’s standards he was at best ordinary” (NIVAC, 1 Corinthians, p. 54)
Does not mean that Paul did not employ reason or soundness of argument in his discourses, rather he placed no confidence in such methods to bring about life change. He clearly understood that in order to bring about spiritual ends, one must rely upon spiritual means and the Holy Spirit Himself.
Let’s contrast this with how we generally go about the task of exposing people to the gospel or how we go about conducting “church.”
I believe the greatest sin of the Church today is its passion for the accumulation of information and the dissemination of that information. We have convinced ourselves, in both subtle and overt ways, that the mission of the Church will be accomplished through giving people the right information. If we can just do a better job educating people, fill them up with more information, then we will complete our commission. Church, we have bought the devil’s lie and have settled for eloquence and superior wisdom as our methodology. And the truth is, we are proud of it. This is just one of the ways in which we have allowed the world system to suck us in and hold us captive and ineffective.
It is the philosophy of this age that says what we need is more information and better education to solve the ailments that plague our society. What’s the world’s answer to the problem of drug abuse, violence, teen age pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, or hunger? Isn’t the world’s answer: education? Daniel prophesied that the last days would be a time in which people would be rushing here and there to increase knowledge (12:4).
As the Church, we’ve adopted this paradigm as normative for the Christian faith. We have convinced ourselves that the way to transform lives is by giving people more information about God, or to teach them proven methods or steps to victory over temptation and sin, or explain to them why it is reasonable to believe the Christian faith, or give them tips on how to study the Bible, or we talk to them about prayer. I’m not against these things; they are good things, important things. But what I am against is the belief that these good things are it—if we just do them, we’re done. The problem is that we’ve reduced Christianity to just another educational program geared toward the improvement of mankind through the accumulation and dissemination of information.
The result is that we have produced a whole generation of “Christians” whose lives woefully reflect the Bible’s description of genuine, authentic, impactful Christian living. Rather, the average “Christian” is experiencing an aberrant form of the faith walk. Like Jesus’ description of the Phari-sees in Matthew 23, many of us who claim allegiance to Christ have a head full of knowledge, but that’s the sum of our Christian experience.
Ecclesiastes 5:7 tells us, For in many dreams and in many words there is emptiness. Rather, fear God. We are desperately missing something in the Church today, and by God’s mercy and grace, He is calling us back to effectiveness in the building up of His Church and for the advancement of His kingdom. We must return to God’s methods and means of bringing this about.
Resolved to Know Nothing
Greek = determined
“It emphasizes a deliberate act of the will” (R&R, p. 390)
This does not mean that Paul did not take time to study, prepare and seek the Lord before standing up as God’s ambassador. It does not mean that he merely spoke “off the cuff” or that he “shot from the hip.” Again, he clearly understood that in order to bring about spiritual ends, one must rely upon spiritual means and the Holy Spirit Himself.
“It reminds us that homiletical techniques alone do not prepare us to preach with spiritual power. Only when the Spirit first convicts us from a given text do we have the right to preach it to others” (NIVAC, 1 Corinthians, p. 58)
Except Jesus Christ and Him Crucified
“Refers…to its centrality in his preaching” (NIVAC, 1 Corinthians, p. 54)
Came in Weakness, Fear and with Much Trembling
“The words point to the anxiety or solicitude of mind arising out a sense of his insufficiency, and of the infinite importance of his work” (R&R, p. 390)
He clearly recognized his own inadequacies and inability to carry out the work to which God had called him without God’s empowering. There is some indication in 2 Corinthians 10:10 that Paul may have been less than spectacular by worldly standards in both appearance and speaking ability. There we read the arguments of some of his critics: For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.”
Paul’s Message and Preaching
A distinction is made between Paul’s message and his preaching. Message = everyday conversations with people. Preaching = proclamation specifically as God’s spokesperson. This was how he operated in all of his encounters with people. His life, whether purposely proclaiming the gospel through preaching or as a byproduct of his everyday living, was a declaration of the life of Christ to the world.
Not with Wise and Persuasive Words
“Refers to worldly wisdom and persuasion” (NIVAC, 1 Corinthians, p. 55)
Reliance upon finely crafted arguments.
But with a Demonstration of the Spirit’s Power
Demonstration = “means to show forth with the most rigorous evidence and proof. The idea is that the evidence is presented so strongly that the truth is clearly seen” (POSB-WS)
We find a similar description of Paul’s practice of ministering the gospel in 1 Thessalonians: For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake (1:4-5).
Paul may have been unimpressive in how he looked and spoke, but there was an element about him which no one could deny or refute. When Paul ministered, it was with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.
God’s has been working on my heart, especially this past week, and in His mercy He has shown me that I am guilty of settling for and propagating a form of godliness but denying its power (2 Timothy 3:5). That is not to say that I do not believe in the power of God or even want the power of God, but I have been content to settle for less than the power of God. I, too, have bought the lie about information and education. Consequently, I have not seen the demonstration of the Spirit’s power as the norm. Quite honestly, there are times when I do not even expect a demonstration of the Spirit’s power as an exceptional occurrence.
So that Your Faith Might not Rest on Men’s Wisdom
Rest = being
Why do so many fall away from the faith? Why do so many live substandard, abnormal Christian lives? I believe the answer lies in the foundation or resting place of their faith. Is it based on human intellect and ability or on God and His infinite power? Is the source human or Divine?
But on God’s Power
Conclusion
