| I Corinthians 1:20-2:5 - 31 January 2010
Andrew Lim
God created human people with a deep desire to boast in something
to glory in something / some one
On what is my boast?
When I glory / on whom / or on what / do I glory?
When it comes to our boast / our pride
how are we different from the world?
What is my ultimately pride? / What is my ultimate boast?
This passage we are looking into / has been written
to give us an answer to all those questions I’ve just asked
The Corinthian church was a messy church
It was plagued with all kinds of problems
but there was one single problem
which was the root of all her problems / pride
The greatest problem of the Corinthian church / was her pride
There are heaps of verses / both in 1st and 2nd Corinthians
that validate that for us / but I’ll just list three of them for now
1 Corinthians 1:31
“Therefore as it is written 'Let him who boasts boast in the Lord”
I Corinthian 5:3 / “And you are arrogant!”
1 Corinthians 3:21 / “So let no one boast of men”
As a city / Corinth was big / and progressive / rich / proud
As a city / it was a fiercely competitive / high-energy place
But unfortunately / the church began taking her cue from the world
The Corinthian Christians began depending on themselves
and their own resources
Instead of being models
of how Christians should live in a decadent society
they were infected with the virus of worldliness themselves
Pride / was at the heart of this church in Corinth
What is pride?
- pride is boasting in self / instead of boasting in the Lord
- it is imagining that we can do / what only God can do
- it is putting confidence on yourself / and not on God
Pride is the soul suffering from amnesia
Pride is the amnesia of the soul
- it is forgetting who God is / it is plain forgetting God
Through the prophet Hosea / God said rather grievously
“When I fed them / they were satisfied
when they were satisfied, they became proud
then they forgot me” / Hosea 13:6
Pride is affirming to our own heart / whether explicitly or tacitly
that we have no need of God
Pride is not simply an inflation of the ego / it is an inflation of the soul
Pride is arrogance toward God
In fact the word “arrogance” / is most accurate word for pride because the root word is in the verb “to arrogate”
which is to claim for ourselves what is not rightly ours
Pull out your thesaurus / put your finger on the word “arrogate”
and you get words like
colonize / confiscate / grab / hog / infringe / invade / jump
a claim / monopolize / mount the throne / seize the throne
seize power / play God / pre-empt / take over
take possession of / trespass / usurp
So / to “arrogate” / is to claim for ourselves what is not rightly ours
To be arrogant / is to “seize the throne” / and “play God”
When I graduated from the seminary about thirty years ago
I aspired to be the pastor of a huge church
I had huge dreams / to make it big for the kingdom of God
to be able to make an impact for the kingdom
to be a great preacher / a competent teacher
I was filled with self-confidence / conceit
I was proud / self-reliant / self-sufficient
Little did I know that in aspiring for what God may not want for me
I was pre-empting what God was planning for me
I was / by sheer definition / “arrogant”
I arrogated what God had meant for me
And all my life / God has not given me what I aspired for
And all my life / I have led small churches
Because all this time / till today / God had been more interested
in what He will make out of me / than what I can do for Him
And all of us fall into the same danger
because today we live in a culture / that’s so much like Corinth
- self-sufficient / proud / competitive / high-energy highly materialistic
We live in a culture
where wealth / and financial & political power-play
seems to be what it is / that calls the shots
And we can fall into the danger
of thinking that our own power and intellect
will be the sufficient to build God’s kingdom
This is why this corrective letter / that Paul wrote to the church at Corinth
is so very valuable for Christians today
It tells us
that beneath all that veneer of intellectual and cultural sophistication
our culture is really dying
and we should never place our trust
on anyone / on anything / except on God
Paul tells us / quite clearly in this letter
that he isn’t interested in pinning his hope and trust
on any of the human power or ingenuity
Now Paul himself was now slouch
He was a gifted rabbi / One of the greatest minds of his age
He probably knew four or five languages
He was capable of sparring with the Stoic and Epicurean philosophers
and showed himself conversant
with the stuff that was found in their philosophical textbooks
But he will not rely on his intellectual prowess
Neither will he allow the Athenians to pin their hopes
on their philosophical reasoning to save them
You’ll remember what his enemies said of him in 2 Corinthians 10:10
“His letter are weighty and strong
but his bodily presence is weak and his speech of no account”
He would have never made it / on the major networks
Perhaps he would never pass any interview for a pastoral position
“What good can he do?” / we’ll probably ask
We’ve been subtly groomed by our culture
to look to education / status / image / flair / power
We’re easily mesmerised giftedness and glamour
We’re fascinated by natural endowment
We’re dazzled by pageantry and panache
We go for the sparkle and the spectacular
We’ve been subtly persuaded that we need to “sell” Jesus
and for that / we’ve got to be polished!
And yet this is what Paul says of himself / 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
“And when I came to you
I did not come with superiority of speech / or wisdom”
In others words
I didn’t use eloquence to persuade you
I didn’t come with any accredited credentials
I didn’t philosophise /or intellectualise
Then he says
I was with you in weakness / and in fear / and in much trembling
And my message and my preaching
were not in persuasive words of wisdom
But I came / and I spoke in the power of the Holy Spirit
What Paul is saying here
is that he will never resort to any technique
he will not use any emotional manipulation or theatrics
He will simply put himself completely at the disposal of God
and allow God to do what he pleases
Remember 2 Cor12:8 / when Paul talked about that thorn in his flesh
“Three times I sought the Lord about this / that it should leave me
But He said to me / ‘My grace is sufficient for you
for my power is made perfect in weakness’
I will all the more gladly boast in my weaknesses
that the power of Christ may rest upon me”
If there is a key verse for us this morning / it’ll have to be I Cor 1:25
“For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom
and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength”
This is so different from the spirit that we observe today
Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones / the great bible teacher in London / says this:
He says / that we Christians often quote
‘not by might nor by power / but by my spirit says the Lord’
and yet in practice we seem to rely upon the mighty dollar
and the power of the press / and advertising”
This passage we’re looking into is so needful
for the Church as a whole has been caught up with the spirit of the age
We seem to think that our success in the ministry will depend
on our techniques and cleverness
We seem to have forgotten / that throughout history
God has always done most of his deeds in the church
not through human power / but through divine sovereignty
We seem to have forgotten the great story of Gideon
how that God reduced his 32,000 men down to 300
before he would make use of them
We have been deluded that if we could be clever enough / rich enough
we’ll be able to do so much more for God
In a most subtle way / we are putting our confidence
on human ingenuity and power
but that / is not how God chooses to work
Drop your finger down to verse 22 / I Corinthians 1:22
“For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom”
“Signs” / are the display of power
“Wisdom” / is the display of intelligence
The Jews wanted an amazing display of power
They expected a Messiah who would come in political power
But instead / what did they see in Jesus?
They saw one who came as a servant to serve
and ultimately / hand himself over to his enemies to be killed
The Jews / looking for a political Messiah / couldn’t take it in
To them / a crucified Messiah was an impossible contradiction
The Jews were looking for a Messiah who would come
in a display of pomp and power / but God does not work that way
The Greeks / on the other hand / craved for a display of intelligence
They took great delight / in spinning out clever / cunning logic
delivered with great words of wisdom / with great eloquence
To them / the idea of saving the world
through a Jewish peasant / dying as a convicted criminal
was just too silly / to even entertain
A crucified Messiah was a stumbling block to the Greeks
And today / it is still a stumbling block to most people in our world
The Greek word for “stumbling block” is skandalon
from which we get the word “scandal”
Now / you put the two kinds of people together / a Jew and a Greek
and you’ll find / that one man will say to you
“Satisfy me intellectually / that your God is God”
and another man says
“Impress me through a display of power / that your God is God”
But no one ever says / “Reveal God to me / for I am a sinner”
But God is not about to pamper us / by giving in to our immature demands
He will not put on a powerful display of power
to convince us that He can save us
Neither will He satisfy your intellect fully
so that you will have no need to put your faith in Him
No! / He will not cave in to our demands for “signs” or “wisdom”
He will not indulge Himself
not in a display of power
neither a display of intelligence
He will not give in to our demands
And this / is what Paul says: / 1 Corinthians 21
“It pleased God through the folly of what we preach
to save those who believe” (ESV)
Now you pull that verse apart and this is what you’ll find God doing
We are trying to make it through life
by our own power and intelligence
And God is going to frustrate those plans
He’s going to throw a stumbling block in your path
He does that / by coming up with
what may be construed / as the most silly sounding plan
He says / “You want to make it through life
I give you a man who will help you make it through life
Go out to the hills / you’ll see a bloody man
nailed on the cross / and dying
Now He / is the One who will save you
not your power or intelligence
Now that / graphically / is the meaning of verse 21
“It pleased God through the folly of what we preach
to save those who believe”
He tells us that Christ crucified is the only way to Him
He disqualifies the wisdom of the wise
the strength of the strong / the might of the mighty
And this so utterly humiliates the powerful and the clever
Isn’t it so utterly humiliating to throw yourself
your future / your reputation / your hope / on a bloody man on a Cross
but that / is what v. 21 says / “It pleased God
through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe”
Picture a dignified well-dressed / highly respected businessman
a CEO / an air-line pilot / a doctor / banker / lawyer
he’s dressed in his three-piece suit / a Rolex watch round his wrist
And in his attaché case there’s a document waiting to be signed
that will close a 6 million dollar deal
And you taken him down this dingy alley / and beside the skip-bin
you show him a half-naked man
hanging by a some strands of wire
looped through his wrists
he’s covered with blood / gasping for air
and you say to him / “This / sir / is the hope of your future
Will you kneel down before him
and cast yourself on him for mercy?”
You don’t have to think very hard
how that businessman will response
The cross is the end of the line for human pride
God has chosen a way of salvation that dismantles human pride
“We preach Christ crucified
a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” / verse 23
“The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing” / verse 18
God wants to frustrates our reliance on human power and human wisdom
He offers a way to God / that to the average man and woman
is absolutely repulsive / namely / the way of the cross.
But why? / Why should God do it this way?
Because He hates pride
* Proverbs 6:16-17 “There are six things which the Lord hates
seven which are an abomination to him"
and the first one in the list / “haughty eyes”
* Psalm 101:5 says “The man of haughty looks and arrogant heart
I will not endure”
* Proverbs 16:5 / “Every one who is arrogant
is an abomination to the Lord”
* Isaiah 2:11 / “The haughty looks of man shall be brought low
and the pride of men shall be humbled
and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day”
* Jesus said in Luke 16:15 / “What is exalted among men
is an abomination in the sight of God”
The purpose why God created us and saved us
is that we might boast in Him
And this is God’s will for you / that you may boast in him
Jer 9:23, 24 / This is what the LORD says:
“Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches
But let him who boasts boast in this
that he understands and knows me”
Galatians 6:14 / “Far be it from me to glory
except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
by which the world has been crucified to me / and I to the world”
In God’s scheme of things / many things appear paradoxical to us
To us strength is strength
weakness is weakness / intelligence is intelligence
But in God's scheme of thing
- those that seem the strongest are the weakest
and those that seem the weakest are the strongest
- those that seem the wisest are the most foolish
and those that seem the most foolish / are the wisest
This is no accident / God planned it this way
The most simple / uneducated believer
who puts his trust in God to deliver him
is immeasurably more powerful
than all his unbelieving educated friends
The most untalented / believer
who faithfully and humbly follows the Lord / is immeasurably wiser
The world measures greatness by many standards
intelligence / wealth / prestige / position / power
But repeatedly God has demonstrated that it's the world's nobodies
who place their confidence on Him / that are the truly great
You’ll remember the story of Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles
The city is totally surrounded by foreign armies
and the enemies are taunting God
and mocking the king and making him look like a fool
Hezekiah / reaching the end of his resource
cries out to God to deliver them
and when they wake up the next morning
the entire Assyrian army is totally destroyed
Without lifting a finger / God gives the victory
And 2 Chronicles 16:9 says:
“the eyes of the Lord search back and forth across the whole earth
to strengthen those / whose hearts are fully committed to Him"
This promise of God’s strength is for us here at Christ Sanctuary
But there is a condition
Strength comes only to those
“whose hearts are fully committed to Him” 2 Chron16:9
That means making God our confidence
Can you get your heart to have God as your sole confidence?
If you make God your confidence
then / in spite of the odds / His strength will be there for you
John the Baptist / is another model for us on this point
In Matthew 11:11 / Jesus tells us
that among all of the people born of women
there hasn’t been one / that’s greater than John the Baptist
Then he add these words:
“But he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John”
John had no formal education / no professional training
no money / no political clout / no social pedigree / no prestige
no impressive appearance / no eloquent speech
He met none of the world's standards
But he met all of God's standards
And Jesus promises us that we too
if we put our confidence on God / and choose to depend on Him
He will make each one of / us greater than John
in terms of spiritual impact
Makes you think of Mother Teresa
that diminutive figure
that became familiar to the people of the slums of Calcutta
and to the rest of the world
She was truly diminutive / ninety tiny pounds / that’s all
- quiet / and meek / a little hunched over
She had no political power / she had no perks whatsoever
She was invited to speak at the National Prayer Breakfast
in Washington in the 3rd of February 1994
(that’ll be 16 years ago / four days from today)
Here she was / this powerless nun from the slums of Calcutta
right there in a room / filled with all the pomp and power
among some of the world’s greatest / most powerful people
She spoke on the subject of abortion
and she spoke with incredible moral authority and compulsion
And every ear was riveted / to what she had to say
- they lapped up every syllable that fell from her lips
and when she was done / the applause seem quite unending
Her authority did not come from worldly power
it came from her submission to God / her holy life
and her confidence on a dependable God
Just when will we ever learn
that the wisest thing to do / to place everything into God’s hands
and then go for broke
When will we ever learn that all true power comes from God
When will we become daring enough / prepared enough
to get own egos / out of the way
so that God may do His work unimpeded
The absolute truth is this:
“The foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom”
and the weakness of God / is stronger than man’s strength” 1 Cor 1:25
This is the Word of God
It is not a wisdom of this age / that’s doomed to pass away
It is the rulers of this age / who are doomed to pass away
- 1 Cor 2:6b
In every generation / God delights to prove the truth of this verse once again
- that it is the weak and the obscure / who will be used in great power
- that what brings spiritual success
it is not status / prestige / bigness / or money
but rather obedience / holiness / trust and dependence
I want this to be a great core-values of Christ Sanctuary
To be a people / who will resolutely not buy into the world’s idea
of what will bring success
We must have no time for the slick preachers
for whom / the verses of the Bible / serve only
as a peg to help them launch their own motivational speech
for whom the Cross of Christ is only a mere token symbol
for whom the depravity and sinfulness of the human hearts
is never honestly acknowledged & taken with utter seriousness
We must have no time for those slick preachers
who manipulates with human power / wisdom / celebrity status
who keeps assuring the proud and the rich
to consider themselves saved
at no cost whatsoever / to his pride and self-sufficiency
Rather lat us here at Christ Sanctuary / remain humble before God
Let us throw ourselves at His mercy
for we are sinners / in grave need of His daily grace
and unless He saves us / we are doomed
I want to close with two verses:
2 Corinthians 4:7
“We have this treasure in earthen vessels
to show that the transcendent power
belongs to God and not to us”
2 Corinthians 12:9
“I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses
that the power of Christ might rest upon me”
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