Epiphany 4 (30^th January 2011)

Theme: Called to live by godly wisdom (1 Corinthians 1: 18-end)

Last Sunday I spoke about our need to have unity in Church and I pointed out a few ways on how we can achieve and maintain this unity. We have seen last Sunday how groups of people in Corinth have aligned themselves to certain leaders based on their personal perceptions of these leaders.  They were not concerned about the message that these leaders were trying to get to them: they were obsessed by the personalities of the leaders – their capabilities or their intelligence.  

So Paul goes on to explain to them that Christians are not to judge things based on human wisdom and capabilities.  If they are to continue to do so, they will not be able to stay united because each person thinks and sees things differently.  So Paul tells them to forego their human wisdom or the human way of judging things, and try to see things from God’s point of view. If they can do that, they will have a common mind, and they will be able to see things from the same perspective.   

This morning I want you to see how Paul expresses the difference between human wisdom and the wisdom of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31.  Paul tells the Corinthians to abandon their “wise-guy” attitude, and really grow to become wise men.  Now, what is the difference between a wise man and a wise guy?

When we speak about a wise guy we often refer to a person who is out for himself. He tends to look down upon other people’s ideas.  He always has something to criticize. Wise guys tend to use their intelligence in a way that destroys, rather than to build up; to discourage rather than to encourage.  On the other hand, wise people know how to use their intelligence to serve others and to help those around them. They are constructive in their way of thinking and they are willing to listen to what other people have to say.

In this passage Paul addressed those in the church at Corinth who claimed to be wise. These people initially started their like anybody else.  They had humbly submitted themselves to Christ, and had not put trust in human wisdom for their salvation.  However, as they grew in faith, they began to take pride in human wisdom and emphasized such wisdom over the gospel itself.  And in their pursuit of wisdom, they became arrogant wise guys, using their “wisdom” in a way that divided the church and set themselves in opposition to Paul.

Paul told these groups of Christians that they had moved back to human wisdom and this was causing great disunity in the Church in Corinth.  Paul told them to heal their divisions because they were contrary to the unity that exists in Christ’s body.  And to do that, they needed to understand that their so-called wisdom was worthless. Such wisdom could not save anyone; it could not further the cause of Christ. All it did was to create frictions among the believers, and if it were allowed to prolong, it could eventually destroy the Church.  So he urged the Christians in Corinth to recognize the folly of human wisdom and to embrace the wisdom of the gospel.

Let us look at how Paul set up his argument here.  First, Paul speaks about two kinds of people in the world: those who are perishing and those who are saved (v.18). Those who are perishing are the unbelievers who live according to human wisdom.  They were those who claimed that the message of the cross is foolishness.  On the other hand, those who are saved are those who believe the gospel, that is, they accept the word of the cross and perceive it to be the power of God.

Paul then points out that human wisdom will be destroyed (v.19).  Paul said in verse 19: “For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’”  He was quoting from Isaiah 29: 14, where the prophet rebuked Israel for going against God by relying on the wisdom of the wise of the so-called wise advisors. He told them that God would destroy human wisdom and do things to frustrate the philosophical and religious teachings that humans put up against his revelation.

Paul’s then goes on to say that not only will human wisdom be destroyed: it has been made foolish (v.20).  He asked in verse 20: “Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”

Paul uses quotation from Isaiah 29:14 to illustrate his point.  When Isaiah made his prophecy, Sennacherib (King of Assyria) was planning to conquer Judah. The Lord told Isaiah not to worry – not because of the strength of Judah’s army, or King Hezekiah’s strategy.  God promised that Judah would be saved solely by God’s power, with no human help. All Israel had to do was trust and obey. If you read Isaiah 37:36 and 2 Kings 19, you know that God destroyed 185,000 Assyrians with just one angel!

Another way to ask the three questions Paul asks would be to ask, “Where are all the smart people who seem to have the answers?”  How much closer are we to eliminating poverty, hunger, ignorance, crime, and immorality than they were in the days of Paul?  You look throughout history and you will find that human wisdom has never been able to solve the basic problems of man. We may be more educated than our forefathers, but we are not much better off morally. We have more means of helping each other, but we are more selfish. We have more means of communication, but we do not understand each other any better. We know more about psychology and human behaviours, yet we have more crime and more wars. No, we have not changed.

It is natural for us to try to solve our own problems, fight our own battles in our own strength. In terms of salvation, it does not work that way: instead, we are called simply to believe in the message of the cross – the simple gospel.

Let us move on to look at verses 21-25. They read: ²¹ For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. ²² Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

With all the human wisdom and knowledge we have today, we should have solved most of our problems.  But that is not the case. Man’s increased knowledge tends to increase problems, not solve them. Hatred increases, misunderstandings increase, and so are the increase of mental breakdowns, wars, crimes, addictions, and family problems. They not only increase in numbers, but the problems are getting more serious.  Man can’t solve his problems because he won’t recognize the source of his problems, which is sin.  And the solution to sin is Salvation from God, and not more human wisdom!

The Church brings a simple message – the message of Christ who was crucified on the cross. By his death on the cross He took our sin on Himself. And on the third day, He rose again to prove who He was. We can respond to it by turning to Christ by faith.  When we do that, He can exchange our poverty for His riches, our sin for His righteousness, our despair for hope, death for life. That is the gospel. It is so simple, but that message is unacceptable to many people.  The Jews understood the cross of Christ as a demonstration that Christ was cursed of God (see Deuteronomy 21:23), not blessed as they expected the Messiah to be.  For the Gentiles, the cross is foolishness. They asked: “How can a person be saved because he believed in one man who died on a Roman cross? And how could one trust a God who allowed his human enemies to crucify him like a common criminal?”

Are we going to change the message just because many people see it as foolishness? No. Paul said, “Indeed the gospel of the cross was a stumbling block to Jewish listeners and foolishness to Gentiles, but I’m not to reduce it into something acceptable either of them.”  And God would not stop doing something simply because the most Jews and Gentiles rejected the gospel. He is going to call people, both Jews and Greeks, and he would touch them with his Holy Spirit and they would joyfully accept the gospel of the cross: these were people who had been touched by the power of God’s Spirit.  And finally, human wisdom is outclassed by God’s foolishness. Paul said in verse 25: “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

The message of the cross may be a stumbling block to some and foolishness to others, but we are not going to preach other message, because this is the power of God to us who believe.

The amazing thing about this is that God uses simple people like you and me. Isn’t that something? God is not looking for the very rich and famous persons to do his work.  How nice would it be if God were to convert and use famous TV personalities like Oprah Winfrey or Larry King to spread the Good News? But that is not to be the case.  You just look at who Jesus chose for His disciples – simple fishermen, tax-collector and people of the street. And this is the real paradox of God’s wisdom: that God can make a simple, uneducated, untalented, clumsy believer who trusts Christ and humbly follows Him to become a wise person. 

Today we don’t have Jews in our Church, but we do have people who think like them.  We have people who are like the Jews. They read the Bible, they attend worships in church, but they think it is commitment to their tradition and their sets of religious rules that save them. 

We don’t have Greeks in our Church but there are irreligious Christians everywhere. They sometimes sit in the Church Committees, and they run the church like they run their companies. You can’t talk to them about trusting and having faith in Jesus because they only listen to logical arguments. You can’t discuss with them spiritual matters because they only understand material and tangible things. 

But we also have gospel people. I want to tell you that only gospel people are saved.  If you are Gospel people you are saved because you believe in the word of the cross, that is, the gospel.  Gospel people believe that they are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.