Bulletins - Parish of Holy Trinity

The Cross: God's Unexpected Power and Wisdom

Last week we began our focus on Paul’s first letter to a young church he planted in Corinth around 50 AD.
A community he had invested some 18 months of his time, teaching, loving and nurturing.

Perhaps four or five years after this church began, Paul, probably now in Ephesus, has received reports that all is not well.

As Paul addresses some of the issues that have arisen in this church community, we get a clearer sense of the things that matter to God when it comes to being the church.

The fact that the church in Corinth, the church here in Launceston, Windermere, Evandale and Franklin Village Youngtown, is God’s church - is the basis of all considerations as we build community and live for the one who calls us together.

Last week, as Paul focused on the divisions that have emerged - he reminds his sisters and brothers in Corinth not to forget that they have been called by God, set apart for his purposes, gifted by him for His work among them and in the world around them.

It seems that they have forgotten that fundamentally their unity comes not from rallying around one agenda over another, one person over another - no, their unity comes in their belief and allegiance to Jesus Christ.
How they behave towards one another should be motivitated by a mutal love and respect that is founded on their calling.

Paul says, they are to be united in their diversity, with one mind and judgement, around the gospel - that is, they are to have the same convictions about the primacy of this gospel over secondary issues.

The wholeness of Christ, the cross of Christ and the Lordship of Christ, is to be at the centre of their hearts and affections. No less than Christlikeness, in the way they conduct themselves, will be the essential thing that will enable them and their mission to flourish.

As we left the body of the church last Sunday, one member of our church reflected on the role, influence and impact our society has had the church.

She is absolutely right. And I would say that is exactly what Paul seeks to highlight to the church in Corinth and to us, the church today as he writes to them in his first letter.

Of course, Paul is not opposed to engaging with culture.

We know that it is really important to listen well and to respect those around us.

Paul is also not opposed to using persuasive argument.

We see it in the way Paul speaks to a diversity of crowds, from fellow Jews - to those gathered in Athens as he stands up to preach in the Aeropagus.

We could benefit greatly from this emphasis on listening, as we seek to engage others with the good news of Jesus.

But listening, is not the same as embracing.
Being respectful, is not the same as embodying the prevailing culture as it relates to who we are as the church, our behaviours and how we relate to one another and our neighbours.

You see friends, what Paul is really clear about, as he builds his argument and response to what is going on in Corinth, is that we need to understand where true power and wisdom come from.

We need to have the same mind around the gospel, as we as the church seek to be faithful to our calling and mission; and by extension, as we interact with and serve each other.

It seems that in Corinth, worldly power and wisdom has taken a grip - is exercising an influence over the church, and this influence has been to the detriment of this church family.

As God’s church, they have moved away from the central message and source of God’s power and wisdom.

Following after personalities or personal agendas was just one of the symptoms of a deeper issue.

Christ-centredness was no longer the glue that held them together - the power and wisdom found in the message of Christ crucified was being dismissed, in favour of other wisdoms and philosophies.

1 Corinthians 1:17 NIVUK84
For Christ did not send me to baptise, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

Paul could not be any clearer - a radical shift was needed in understanding the nature of power and wisdom in the Kingdom and economy of God.

1. Foolishness of the Cross
1 Corinthians 1:17-25

From chapter 1 verse 17 through to 2 verse 5, Paul sets up an argument that he hopes will help realign the priorities of Corinth and any church of Christ.

Any attempt to establish salvation except on the foundation of Jesus Christ and him crucified, is complete foolishness.

It is foolish, Paul asserts, because it flies in the face of what God has already determined and planned as the only way in which sinful humanity can be restored and saved.

More than that, it rejects the very substance of what God has determined will be the source and basis of that salvation: Christ crucified.

We don’t have time to look closely and follow Paul’s argument here.

Simply put, there are three groups of people Paul presents.

Jews, he writes, seek after a sign:

they will be convicted, only as they determine whether such conviction is appropriate as they themselves assess whether the sign provides irrefutable and tangible proof.

Greeks, on the other hand, prefer to speculate their way towards God through their own reasoning and arguments:

Through their own intelligence and their wide learning and reading of the philosophers of the day, they create god in their own image - a god they can deem worthy of their attention and devotion.

For Jews, a crucified Messiah was a contradiction in terms.

For Greeks, who found it difficult to conceive of a personal god, one who suffers was also a contradiction in terms. The Greek mind would have found in the preaching of the cross, that is…
a God who was in Christ reconciling the world to himself,
both incomprehensible and ridiculous.

Both these groups, though culturally different, shared the same sin: pride and rebellion.

The question friends for us at this point is this,
is God and his word alive and active - speaking wisdom and truth into our life, through the good news of Jesus Christ - as revealed by God in his word?
Or are our thoughts and time spent on endless debates that seek to create a god in our own image, that better fits the cultural and worldly agendas of our day?
Building a religion that is more about myths and speculation, vain discussions and godless chatter, quarrels and controversies that divide rather than unite us under the plans and purposes of God in Christ Jesus?

As I said earlier, Paul would not have rejected all knowledge, wisdom and philosophy of the non-Christian world. I am sure for many reasons he probably recognised its merits within its inevitable and considerable limitations.
It would certainly have helped him to get a temperature of the audience to whom he spoke to, it would have provided for him a way in to further discussion.

The point is - when he spoke - what did he speak?
On what basis was his hope and what did he urge his listeners to put their hope and trust in?

I wonder how Paul’s convictions expressed in this letter, compare to much of the Christian Church’s proclamation today, as we desperately seek acceptance and kudos from our worldly peers and those we seek to impress.

In his work ‘choruses from the rock’, TS Elliott writes:

All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
but nearness to death, no nearer to God.
Where is the life we have lost in living?

In God’s wisdom, the very truth (or foolishness) that is rejected by Jews and Greeks concerning the cruicifed Christ, is also the same truth (or foolishness) that God uses to save those who believe it.

Jews want signs, Greeks seek wisdom, but Paul suggests; until they give up on their reliance on their own insight and understanding, they will never be able to receive the wisdom of God in Jesus Christ.

I wonder, which of these three groups represent us?
Jews seeking signs and wonders that meet their own determined criteria?
Greeks seeking after wisdom - a wisdom more akin to that of our world and rejecting the wisdom of God around the crucified Christ.
Or those being saved.

1 Corinthians 1:18 NIVUK84
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Having compared the deficiences of human wisdom against the wisdom of God, Paul moves to the wisdom of God in action.

2. The way of God
1 Corinthians 1:26-2:5
For God’s wisdom is also seen in the way he operates.
God overthrows all the false standards of this world - for the Corinthians these standards would be difficult to throw off - but our God cares not who are wise by worldly standards, who are well-bred, articulate, gifted, wealthy, wielders of power and influence.
You see, no matter our particular intelligence, the level of our tertiary education, those we follow on twitter or podcasts, our social status or our personal gifts and abilities; in God’s wisdom, God has decided to save those who believe the gospel - who respond to the message of the cross.
That is the great leveller of the gospel and as we jostle for position, as we seek to assert ourselves and our agendas - Paul would have us remember that we are all, as Christians, starting from the same point.

The only special provision and honour God gives, is to his Son, Jesus.

But in doing so, Paul can assert that through Jesus God has given those who believe in him and follow him - everything that truly matters:

1 Corinthians 1:30 NIVUK84
It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

To truly know and put our trust in this fact, is where true wisdom lies.

In all that Paul writes in this section - may we see in it simply a call to be humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God as we recognise in the words of Isaiah 55:8-9
Isaiah 55:8–9 NIVUK84
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Finally, Paul seeks to present himself as an example.
3. The ministry of the Spirit
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Paul's message and method rely not on persuasive words but on the Spirit's power.

Paul emphasizes through his own ministry as an Apostle.

As a humble servant, contrary to all that they prized, he did not come to them with high sounding rhetoric or eloquence, neither did he rely on cleverness or some form of superior wisdom.
No his testimony about God was exclusively focused on Jesus Christ and him crucified.
Without confidence in his own abilities, he was confident in the Holy Spirit’s power to convict, transform and sanctify the people God called.
Any success that may be attributed to his ministry was not due to his speech or intellect, but was a demonstration of the Spirit’s power among them.

For Paul, Christ represents the ultimate fulfillment of God’s wisdom and power, it is He that transforms death into life and weakness into strength.
Paul was convinced that only as we embrace the unconventional wisdom of the cross will we find a life transformed by God's power.

There’s an interesting quote from the Old Testament within our passage - did you notice it? In fact there are quite a few, about 14 Old Testament quotes in the letter as a whole.

But in this section at verse 19, Paul quotes from Isaiah 29

It comes from a section of Isaiah that is refering to the choices Judah makes when up against the Assyrians.
Without labouring it too much - effetively the people of God face a choice.
Will they rely on the Egyptians or the Lord?
The wise are probably the kings advisors.
History will show that their plans to form a treaty with Egypt will come to nothing.
God’s salvation comes through a plan that seems weak by worldly standards.

As Paul writes in verse 19, the tense he uses suggests that though this is a past event, the same issue faces the Corinthians and faces us.

What will we rely on as we seek to navigate the future?
Where will we seek wisdom and power?
In ourselves and our own understanding?
Paul suggests that it is only the grace of God, seen in his wisdom and power through the cross of Christ, that will ultimately bring rescue and deliverance.

Will that same grace be the unifying force for his chruch today? For this church?

The Cross: God's Unexpected Power and Wisdom

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1. Foolishness of the Cross

2. The way of God

3. The ministry of the Spirit