New Life Bible Fellowship Church
1/25/2026

      • Psalm 92:12–15KJV1900

  • My Hope Is In The Lord
  • O Happy Day

      • Proverbs 10KJV1900

  • Introduction:

    Two weeks ago, we began this journey through First Corinthians. In that first sermon, we bathed in the warmth of Paul's thanksgiving. He reminded the church at Corinth—and us—of who we are in Christ. Saints. Sanctified. Enriched. Sustained. We are not scraping by, hoping God will accept us. We stand complete in Christ, awaiting His return, kept by a faithful God.
    Last week, the temperature changed. Paul turned from thanksgiving to correction. "I appeal to you, brothers," he wrote, "that there be no divisions among you." The Corinthian church was fracturing into personality cults: "I follow Paul," "I follow Apollos," "I follow Peter." And Paul exposed the absurdity of it all with three piercing questions: Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into Paul's name?
    He ended with a warning that should haunt every preacher and every church: "Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel—not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power."
    Lest the cross be emptied.
    That phrase hung in the air. How do you empty the cross? Can anything drain power from the death of God's Son? And why would eloquent wisdom—of all things—pose such a threat?
    Today, Paul answers those questions. And his answer is nothing short of revolutionary. He doesn't just say, "Don't rely too much on human wisdom." He says human wisdom and the cross are fundamentally opposed. They operate on different logics, different values, different standards. To mix them is not to enhance the gospel but to destroy it.
    So as we look this morning at 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, be warned: this passage is meant to offend. Not to offend you—not if you belong to Christ—but to offend everything in us that still wants to be impressed by worldly credentials, still wants to earn God's favor, still wants a gospel that makes sense on human terms.
    Paul is about to dismantle all of that. And in its place, he's going to show us something far better: the foolishness of God, which is wiser than men, and the weakness of God, which is stronger than men.

    Text: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

    1 Corinthians 1:18–25 ESV
    18 For 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. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Where 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? 21 For 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. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

    Main Idea: The message of the cross exposes the bankruptcy of human wisdom and reveals God's saving power.

    Background:

    The Wisdom Culture of Corinth

    To feel the force of Paul's argument, we need to understand what "wisdom" (σοφία) meant in the Greco-Roman world.

    The Sophists

    Traveling teachers called "sophists" were celebrities in the ancient world. They:
    Competed for students and patrons
    Gave public demonstrations of rhetorical skill
    Charged fees for instruction
    Built personal followings based on eloquence
    Were evaluated by their ability to persuade and impress
    Corinth, as a cosmopolitan crossroads, would have been full of such figures. The educated elite prized rhetorical ability as the mark of wisdom and status.

    Rhetoric as Power

    In a world without mass media, public speaking was the means of influence. Rhetorical skill determined:
    Political success (persuading assemblies)
    Legal outcomes (swaying juries)
    Social status (impressing patrons)
    Intellectual reputation (winning debates)
    To be "wise" in this culture meant, in large part, to be persuasive. Wisdom was demonstrated through eloquent speech.

    The Corinthian Temptation

    The Corinthian Christians were immersed in this culture. When they evaluated teachers, they naturally applied the same criteria:
    Who is more eloquent?
    Who is more impressive?
    Who has the better rhetorical style?
    This explains the Apollos faction. Acts 18:24 describes Apollos as "an eloquent man" (ἀνὴρ λόγιος) and "mighty in the Scriptures." He apparently had rhetorical gifts that Paul lacked (see 2 Cor 10:10, where Paul acknowledges that some say "his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account".
    Paul isn't jealous of Apollos. He's alarmed that the Corinthians are using the wrong criteria to evaluate ministry—criteria that belong to the wisdom of this age, not to the gospel.

    Jewish Expectations: Signs and Power

    The other half of Paul's audience had different but equally problematic expectations.
    Jewish messianic hope looked for a conquering king who would:
    Overthrow Israel's enemies
    Restore the Davidic kingdom
    Perform mighty signs and wonders
    Vindicate Israel before the nations
    A crucified Messiah was not just unexpected—it was a contradiction in terms. Deuteronomy 21:23 declared, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree." How could God's Anointed One die under God's curse?
    Jews sought σημεῖα ("signs")—demonstrations of divine power that validated a prophet or messiah. The cross looked like the opposite: powerlessness, defeat, divine abandonment.
    So today, we start with the foundation: the cross itself. What it means. Why it offends. And why its foolishness is wiser than all the wisdom of the world.

    I. Two Responses to the Cross (18)

    18 For 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.
    For - The coordinated conjunction γάρ ("for") is crucial. It connects verse 18 to verse 17. Paul had said he was sent to preach the gospel "not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power."
    the word - Here it means the message or the proclamation—the content of what is preached. Paul is not referring to Christ as the Logos (as in John 1) but to the message about the cross.
    of the cross - Literally: "the word, the [one] of the cross."
    The cultural weight of this word cannot be overstated:
    To Romans: Crucifixion was the slave's punishment. It was reserved for the lowest classes: slaves, pirates, enemies of the state, and criminals without citizenship…the very word 'cross', to the Romans, should be far removed not only from the person of a Roman citizen but from his thoughts, his eyes, and his ears.
    To Greeks: The cross represented barbaric foolishness. Greek culture prized beauty, proportion, and dignified death. Crucifixion was grotesque—the antithesis of the "noble death" celebrated in Greek literature.
    To Jews: Deuteronomy 21:22–23 “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.” A crucified Messiah was not merely unexpected; it was accursed.
    Paul chooses the most offensive word possible. He doesn't say "the word of salvation" or "the word of redemption" or "the word of Christ's death." He says "the word of the cross"—the instrument of shame, torture, and curse.
    This is deliberate. Paul refuses to sweeten the message. The message is not merely about redemption in some abstract sense; it is about redemption through crucifixion. The method is part of the message. Thus the message is about the cross, flows from the cross, and bears the character of the cross.
    One message. Two audiences. Two radically different receptions. The difference is not in the message but in the recipients. The grammar works together to set up a contrast or comparison
    is folly (mōria [noun] - foolish, dull, stupid, english word “moron”, in their estimation, from their standpoint) to those who are perishing (apollymenois [pre, mid/pas, par] - to destroy, ruin, lose) -
    The present tense of the participle is significant. Paul does not say "those who will perish" (future) or "those who have perished" (aorist/perfect). He says "those who are perishing"—a present progressive sense. This indicates an ongoing process. The perishing is not merely a future destiny but a present reality. Those who reject the cross are currently in a state of destruction—even if the final outcome is not yet realized.
    Middle or Passive Voice?
    The form ἀπολλυμένοις could be either middle ("destroying themselves") or passive ("being destroyed"). The ambiguity may be intentional:
    Middle voice - would emphasize human responsibility: they are bringing destruction upon themselves by rejecting the cross
    Passive voice - would emphasize divine judgment: they are being destroyed as a consequence of their unbelief
    John 3:18 ESV
    18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
    to us who are being saved (sōzomenois [pre, pas, par]) it is the power of God (dynamis [noun] - power, ability, might, strength, english words, “dynamite” and "dynamic")
    the present tense indicates an ongoing process. Salvation is not merely a past event (though it has a past dimension: "you have been saved," Eph 2:8) or a future hope (though it has a future dimension: "we will be saved," Rom 5:9-10). It is a present reality: "we are being saved."
    This is the dynamic, progressive nature of salvation in Paul's thought:
    Past: Justified, reconciled, redeemed (accomplished at the cross)
    Present: Being sanctified, being transformed, being saved (ongoing work of the Spirit)
    Future: Glorified, resurrected, finally saved (consummation at Christ's return)
    The passive voice is significant. We are not "saving ourselves"—we are "being saved." The agent is God. Salvation is something done to us and for us, not something we accomplish.
    power of God - When Paul says the word of the cross is δύναμις θεοῦ, he is making an extraordinary claim: the cross is not merely a message about God's power—it is God's power itself.
    Summary - 1 Corinthians 1:18 is a watershed verse. It introduces the fundamental contrast between human wisdom and divine wisdom, between perishing and being saved, between foolishness and power.
    The word of the cross is:
    Foolishness: to those who are perishing (and they are not wrong by their own standards)
    The power of God: to those who are being saved (and this is the deeper reality)
    The implications are vast:
    The cross cannot be improved by human rhetoric
    The gospel will always offend the natural mind
    Those who believe do so by grace, not intelligence
    The power that saves us is the power of the cross itself
    The word of the cross is not just one message among many, one in which we shop around for the best word, but we will see next that Paul now continues in his explanation to greater depth and detail, as we see:

    II. God's Destruction of Human Wisdom (19-20)

    Paul begins with an example from Israel’s history, in particular Judah…
    19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” - taken from Isaiah 29:14
    The context of this verse fits right into our discussion: Isaiah 29 addresses Jerusalem during the Assyrian crisis (late 8th century BC). The leaders of Judah were pursuing political alliances with Egypt rather than trusting in YHWH. They thought they were being shrewd—practicing sophisticated politicking. But God says through Isaiah, adding verse 13 also:
    Isaiah 29:13–14 ESV
    13 And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, 14 therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”
    The pattern is crucial: Human wisdom that operates independently of God—even religious human wisdom—will be destroyed when God acts in His unexpected, sovereign way.
    Paul sees the cross as the ultimate fulfillment of this pattern. Just as God confounded the wise counselors of Judah by acting in unexpected ways, so God has confounded all human wisdom by accomplishing salvation through a crucified Messiah.
    The wise of this age—Jew and Greek alike—could not have predicted or approved of the cross. Their wisdom has been exposed as foolishness, in essence as an example from Judah’s past, God will do two things:
    I will destroy - the wisdom of the wise - The speaker is God Himself ("I will destroy"). This is not natural decay or historical accident. God actively destroys human wisdom. He acts against it in judgment.
    I will thwart - the discernment of the discerning - The word implies that human discernment makes claims—claims to understand, claims to guide, claims to judge rightly. God rejects those claims. He declares them invalid. He sets them aside as inadmissible evidence in the court of ultimate reality. This is stronger than simply saying human wisdom is limited or incomplete. God actively nullifies it. Human wisdom is not an insufficient foundation for salvation; it is a rejected foundation.
    Paul now moves from Scripture to pointed rhetorical questions. Having cited God's verdict from Isaiah, he applies it to the present situation:
    20 Where 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? - This is not a request for information but a challenge: "Where are they? Let them come forward! What have they accomplished?"
    Paul identifies three types of "wise" figures:
    Where is the one who is wise? - This likely refers primarily to Greek philosophers—the lovers of wisdom, the seekers of σοφία.
    Where is the scribe? - Jewish scribes—the experts in Scripture, the theological scholars of Judaism. These were the men who knew the Bible better than anyone. They could parse Hebrew verbs and debate, yet they crucified the Messiah. Their scriptural expertise did not lead them to recognize Jesus.
    Where is the debater of this age? - This word occurs only here in the New Testament. It comes from συζητέω ("to seek together, to discuss, to dispute, to debate"). The συζητητής is the skilled debater—one who wins arguments, who can out-reason opponents, who excels in dialectical combat. This could apply to both Greek and Jewish contexts:
    Greek rhetorical culture prized public debate
    Jewish culture involved vigorous disputation over Torah interpretation
    The debater (συζητητής) represents intellectual combat—the person who can always win the argument. Paul asks: What good is winning arguments if you miss the cross?
    Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? - The irony is sharp: the world judges the cross as μωρία (foolish), but God has turned the tables—He has made the world's wisdom into μωρία (foolish-ness).
    Let’s trace the flow of argument in Verses 19-20::
    Step 1: Scripture Pronounces the Verdict (v. 19)
    God declared through Isaiah that He would destroy human wisdom. This is not Paul's private opinion but divine revelation, recorded centuries earlier.
    Step 2: Paul Applies the Verdict to Contemporary "Wise" Figures (v. 20a)
    Where are the philosophers, the biblical scholars, the skilled debaters? Let them step forward and demonstrate their wisdom. They cannot. The cross has silenced them.
    Step 3: The Verdict Is Confirmed as Accomplished (v. 20b)
    God has made the world's wisdom foolish. The cross was the decisive event. What Isaiah predicted has come to pass.
    Now let’s finally view this whole argument from God’s perspective in:

    III. The Wisdom of God's "Foolishness" (21-25)

    These verses are the climax of Paul's argument. Having stated the thesis (v. 18) and confirmed it from Scripture and rhetoric (vv. 19-20), Paul now explains why God chose this method (v. 21), what the world seeks instead (v. 22), what we preach in contrast (v. 23), who finds it to be wisdom and power (v. 24), and why God's "foolishness" surpasses all human wisdom (v. 25).
    21 For 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.
    For since - further, deeper explanation.
    in the wisdom of God - two interpretations:
    "In [the midst of] the wisdom of God [displayed in creation], the world did not come to know God..."
    "In [accordance with] the wisdom of God [i.e., God's wise plan], the world did not know God through wisdom..."
    The point is that despite God's wisdom being available—whether in creation, providence, or revelation—the world did not come to know God through its own wisdom.
    Romans 1:18–23 ESV
    18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
    it pleased God through the folly of what we preach -
    The word emphasizes divine pleasure and sovereign choice. God was not forced into this method. He was not reacting to human failure with a Plan B. He delighted in this approach. It pleased Him to save through the foolishness of preaching.
    The cross is not a concession to human weakness or a second-best option. It is God's joyful, sovereign, eternal purpose. The "foolishness" of the gospel is precisely what God wanted.
    to save those who believe -
    The word to save (σῴζω -“ to save, rescue, deliver, heal"). This is the purpose of God's choice: salvation. God's delight was to save—not to impress, not to satisfy intellectual curiosity, but to rescue perishing sinners.
    The grammar presents salvation as a decisive act. God resolved to save, and the cross accomplished it.
    We see this in light of what the world seeks:
    22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,
    Both approaches share a common flaw: they put humanity in the position of judge. God must meet their criteria before they will believe. God must perform according to their expectations before they will submit.
    The cross refuses both demands:
    Jews demand signs - It is not the kind of sign Jews expected (a display of conquering power)
    Matthew 12:38 ESV
    38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”
    Greeks seek wisdom - It is not the kind of wisdom Greeks sought (a rationally impressive philosophy)
    The cross is anti-sign (it looks like weakness and defeat) and anti-wisdom (it looks like foolishness and absurdity).
    23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
    but - in contrast to what the world wants
    we preach Christ crucified
    The perfect tense is crucial. It indicates a past action with ongoing results. Christ was crucified (past event) and remains the crucified one (ongoing state).
    This is not merely historical information: "There was once a man who was crucified." It is present reality: "The one we preach is the crucified one—that is His permanent identity."
    The perfect tense also suggests that the effects of the crucifixion continue. The cross is not merely a past event but an ongoing reality with present power.
    a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles - the result of our preaching to the natural man.
    There is no natural audience for the gospel. No one, operating from human expectations, would welcome the message of a crucified Messiah. The gospel is humanly impossible.
    Yet Paul preaches it anyway. "We preach Christ crucified." Not "we preach Christ victorious" or "we preach Christ wise" but "we preach Christ crucified." The offense is the message. We do not soften it.
    24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
    but - in contrast and a purposeful element of hope among the hopeless
    to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks - This is the crucial term. The adjective κλητός means "called, invited, summoned." Used substantively with the article (τοῖς κλητοῖς), it refers to "the called ones"—those whom God has called, note that this call of God crosses ethnic and cultural boundaries (Jews and Greeks - represent the whole world).
    In scripture, "calling" is more than invitation; it is effectual summons. It is God's powerful, sovereign work that brings people to faith.
    Romans 8:29–30 ESV
    29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
    Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God -
    Note that Paul does not say the cross demonstrates God's power and wisdom, or contains God's power and wisdom. He says Christ is God's power and wisdom.
    This is a personal identification. Power (that what the Jews desired in the signs) and wisdom (that what the greeks desired and sought after) are not abstract concepts; they are embodied in a person. To have God's power is to have Christ. To have God's wisdom is to have Christ.
    25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
    For - the final explanation, bringing this to its logical end.
    the foolishness of God is wiser than men - The meaning is clear: Paul refers to God's action in the cross—the thing that looks foolish to human wisdom.
    Important: Paul is not saying God is actually foolish. He is using the language of human perception. From the human standpoint, God's way looks foolish. Paul adopts this language ironically to make his point.
    The comparison is actually an understatement. God's "foolishness" is not merely slightly wiser than human wisdom; it is infinitely wiser. But Paul makes the point by way of concession: "Even at its apparent worst, God's way is better than humanity's best."
    the weakness of God is stronger than men - What is "the weakness of God"? The cross. The crucifixion looked like total defeat—God's champion hanging lifeless on a Roman execution device. What could be weaker than death?
    Yet this "weakness" is God's strength. Through apparent defeat, God won the decisive victory. Through death, He conquered death.
    In Summary: The Great Inversion - Paul's argument in 1:18-25 rests on a fundamental inversion of human values:
    Human Evaluation…Divine Reality:
    The cross is foolishness….The cross is God's wisdom
    The cross is weakness…The cross is God's power
    The wise are wise…The wise are fools
    The foolish are fools…The foolish are truly wise
    Setting Up What's Coming
    Over the next two weeks, Paul will press this even further. Next week, in verses 26-31, he'll point to the Corinthians themselves as evidence: "Not many of you were wise... not many were powerful... not many were of noble birth." God deliberately chose the foolish, the weak, the despised—so that no one could boast.
    And then in chapter 2, Paul will get personal. He'll describe his own ministry among them: "I came to you in weakness and in fear and much trembling." This wasn't failure; this was strategy. He wanted their faith to rest on God's power, not on Paul's performance.

    So What?

    Do we understand that we are to stop trying to make the cross palatable, and trust the message, not our presentation?
    The gospel will always offend the natural mind. Our job is not to remove the offense but to proclaim the message faithfully.
    God saves through the foolishness of preaching, not through our eloquence. The power is in the cross, not in the preacher.
    Do we understand that we must examine our expectations with regard to the cross and its message?
    Are you demanding "signs" (experiences that validate your faith)? Are you seeking "wisdom" (intellectual systems that satisfy your mind)? The cross subverts both demands.
    Do we understand the power and wisdom in the cross?
    Thanks God, you are among "the called." This is not your achievement but His gift.

      • 1 Corinthians 1:18–25ESV

      • 1 Corinthians 1:18ESV

      • John 3:18ESV

      • 1 Corinthians 1:18ESV

      • 1 Corinthians 1:19ESV

      • Isaiah 29:13–14ESV

      • 1 Corinthians 1:20ESV

      • 1 Corinthians 1:21ESV

      • Romans 1:18–23ESV

      • 1 Corinthians 1:22ESV

      • Matthew 12:38ESV

      • 1 Corinthians 1:23–24ESV

      • Romans 8:29–30ESV

      • 1 Corinthians 1:25ESV

  • Glorify Thy Name
New Life Bible Fellowship Church
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