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1 Corinthians 2:1-10
And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”--
the things God has prepared for those who love him-- these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first thing to note is this, knowledge is not wisdom. The easy way to back this up is with this scripture,
Proverbs 8:12
“I, Wisdom, live together with good judgment. I know where to discover knowledge and discernment.
It is wisdom that discovers knowledge. Today the world does not lack knowledge, but there is a famine of wisdom, seen easily in this scripture…
Proverbs 9:10
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.
The lack of fear and reverence of God today is both alarming and absurd. And that is just in the church.
Verse 2 Paul shows us something. That he determined in advance that he was not going to defend or illuminate, or color the gospel in flowery words or court room like presentations of evidence, as they were accustomed to. In short, Paul decided in advance that he was going to rely on the Holy Spirit to preach not on human ability. I think he's on to something here.
Your gospel presentation of the King of Kings, the Savior of the world, better be steeped in the head waters of the Holy Spirit. In that same verse he starts off with a reference to the most unpleasant of all subjects, the crucifixion.
It is so tempting as an evangelist, (and that is what you are anytime you speak
about Him), to want to present Jesus in the best light possible. The gifts, the joy, the power, the best life now…and like all temptation, it is tempting because it is appealing. That is what Christ meant when he said, "this is the spirit of the antichrist that is in the world."
Everywhere you turn someone or something is telling you that your whole world can change by using this product or visiting this tropical resort. And to prostitute Jesus in this fashion is not only wrong, it is a lie.
C.S. Lewis once said “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
If you seek Jesus or present Jesus for the sake of gain, you'll get nothing. If you seek him or present him for the sake of the kingdom, if you aim at heaven, if you will be willing to live on the street and die for your faith, well then, this is the secret back door to true peace, happiness and blessing.
Someone says, "But that doesn’t make sense…" now your getting it! The wisdom of the world is foolishness to God. Here in Corinth it was the same thing. People exploring and exploiting. Lewdness and crudeness, master debaters and masterbaters. This is why Paul made up his mind in advance that he was going to tell it like it is. The unpleasant, unpopular truths about Jesus. But why? Look at the next sentence.
It is the cross of Christ that brings judgment upon man’s wisdom.
It is the unpleasant, unpopular cross that does this. I have always said the cross was meant to be offensive. People reject Jesus not because they do not believe in what he represents but because they do believe it. and that belief brings judgment. “No thanks!” goes the cry of the masses.
In Verses 3-4 we see a uncharacteristic Paul of simplicity. Not a mistake or an accident. Again Paul deliberately came to preach unimpressively. We know it was deliberate because Paul could debate with Greeks, Jews, Pharisees basically he was equipped to give the gospel to anyone…
Here is the encouraging part. Paul may have brought forth a plain and simple gospel on purpose, but for many of us, a plain and simple gospel is the only presentation of the gospel we have got. But it is the only one we need…
Maybe you are not well versed in the scriptures. Maybe you don’t speak well in front of others. You are not poetic, not a strong speaker. Maybe all you got is “Jesus loves you” good! Fine! Because all you need is the “demonstration of the spirits power.”
In verse 7 Paul talked of a secret wisdom…now in v.10-11 we see the benefit of allowing the Spirit to do the speaking and just getting out of His way when delivering the gospel. The Spirit knows God, the Spirit knows men, and thus He knows what needs to be said. That will be discussed in the next study.
Be blessed.
We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written
“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”--
the things God has prepared for those who love him-- these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first thing to note is this, knowledge is not wisdom. The easy way to back this up is with this scripture,
Proverbs 8:12
“I, Wisdom, live together with good judgment. I know where to discover knowledge and discernment.
It is wisdom that discovers knowledge. Today the world does not lack knowledge, but there is a famine of wisdom, seen easily in this scripture…
Proverbs 9:10
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.
The lack of fear and reverence of God today is both alarming and absurd. And that is just in the church.
Verse 2 Paul shows us something. That he determined in advance that he was not going to defend or illuminate, or color the gospel in flowery words or court room like presentations of evidence, as they were accustomed to. In short, Paul decided in advance that he was going to rely on the Holy Spirit to preach not on human ability. I think he's on to something here.
Your gospel presentation of the King of Kings, the Savior of the world, better be steeped in the head waters of the Holy Spirit. In that same verse he starts off with a reference to the most unpleasant of all subjects, the crucifixion.
It is so tempting as an evangelist, (and that is what you are anytime you speak
about Him), to want to present Jesus in the best light possible. The gifts, the joy, the power, the best life now…and like all temptation, it is tempting because it is appealing. That is what Christ meant when he said, "this is the spirit of the antichrist that is in the world."
Everywhere you turn someone or something is telling you that your whole world can change by using this product or visiting this tropical resort. And to prostitute Jesus in this fashion is not only wrong, it is a lie.
C.S. Lewis once said “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
If you seek Jesus or present Jesus for the sake of gain, you'll get nothing. If you seek him or present him for the sake of the kingdom, if you aim at heaven, if you will be willing to live on the street and die for your faith, well then, this is the secret back door to true peace, happiness and blessing.
Someone says, "But that doesn’t make sense…" now your getting it! The wisdom of the world is foolishness to God. Here in Corinth it was the same thing. People exploring and exploiting. Lewdness and crudeness, master debaters and masterbaters. This is why Paul made up his mind in advance that he was going to tell it like it is. The unpleasant, unpopular truths about Jesus. But why? Look at the next sentence.
It is the cross of Christ that brings judgment upon man’s wisdom.
It is the unpleasant, unpopular cross that does this. I have always said the cross was meant to be offensive. People reject Jesus not because they do not believe in what he represents but because they do believe it. and that belief brings judgment. “No thanks!” goes the cry of the masses.
In Verses 3-4 we see a uncharacteristic Paul of simplicity. Not a mistake or an accident. Again Paul deliberately came to preach unimpressively. We know it was deliberate because Paul could debate with Greeks, Jews, Pharisees basically he was equipped to give the gospel to anyone…
Here is the encouraging part. Paul may have brought forth a plain and simple gospel on purpose, but for many of us, a plain and simple gospel is the only presentation of the gospel we have got. But it is the only one we need…
Maybe you are not well versed in the scriptures. Maybe you don’t speak well in front of others. You are not poetic, not a strong speaker. Maybe all you got is “Jesus loves you” good! Fine! Because all you need is the “demonstration of the spirits power.”
In verse 7 Paul talked of a secret wisdom…now in v.10-11 we see the benefit of allowing the Spirit to do the speaking and just getting out of His way when delivering the gospel. The Spirit knows God, the Spirit knows men, and thus He knows what needs to be said. That will be discussed in the next study.
Be blessed.
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