The Power And Wisdom Of God Series

The church has been plagued by divisions, with groups taking sides and pledging their support for various leaders.

• This competitive and partisan spirit was tearing the church apart. They pride themselves on men and not on Christ.

• They were boasting in human wisdom, eloquence and influence, and not in Christ and what Christ has done for them.

• Paul sought to direct their attention back to Christ. We are to pledge our allegiance to the Lord and stay focused on Christ.

Pride in human achievements led Paul to the talk about human wisdom.

• Last week we read in 1:17 Paul said that he “preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” (1:17b)

• From here onwards until the end of chapter 2 we see him talking about human wisdom. The word wisdom appears many times.

• Paul contrasted the wisdom of men with the wisdom of God, and highlights to the Corinthians the folly of exalting human wisdom.

1 Cor 1:18-25

18For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. 19For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” [Isaiah 29:14]

20Where 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? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Don’t exalt human wisdom. We did not come to believe “the word of the cross” or the message of the cross because we have been very wise.

• It was not human wisdom that led us to salvation but the power and wisdom of God.

• To many people the message of the cross is foolish, Paul says.

• For those who believed, it is the power of God for a changed life. It is not because of our wisdom or effort, therefore there is nothing for us to boast about.

God showed wisdom in saving the world through the cross where Jesus died. Many failed to see this, including the Jews and Greeks.

• FOR JEWS DEMAND SIGNS (1:22). They wanted to see miraculous signs to believe, despite the words of the prophets.

• This was how Jesus answered them when they asked for it - Matt 12:39-41.

“39But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”

Jesus referred to himself as the sign. The clearest and only sign of God’s salvation is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

• But this message of the crucified Messiah was a “stumbling block” to the Jews. It was an “offence” to them.

• They expected a deliverer of a different kind. They misread Christ’s deliverance as a political one, from the clutches of the Romans and not from sin.

• How could they put faith in the son of a carpenter from Nazareth who died the shameful death of a common criminal?

Paul knew such a sentiment himself. He was previously a fanatical Jew who was appalled by the idea of a crucified Christ.

• He persecuted the church before being confronted by Jesus himself on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). Now he preaches Christ crucified!

What about the Greeks? GREEKS SEEK WISDOM (1:22).

• Their culture values the pursuit of wisdom usually expressed in highly academic and philosophical terms. They loved knowledge.

• We read in Acts 17 that the philosophers would gather in a place called Areopagus and share their knowledge and philosophy.

• When Paul was in Athens, the Greeks invited him there because they were fascinated by what he had to say. Acts 17:20-21 “20For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.