Divine Power Divine Wisdom

So, Sean's out of town for his two-week vacation for the year.

And for those of you who know Sean, he works very, very hard.

So I literally prayed over him last week that he would rest,

which seems weird to pray for somebody for a vacation.

But he's in Seattle enjoying time off, which is really good.

And so I'm preaching this week.

I'm Steve, if you don't know me.

I'm on the pastoral leadership team at the church.

I'm under evaluation to become a pastor,

along with Taryn and Ray, who you saw up front,

as well as Matt, who's downstairs helping with the kids.

So we'll be filling in for him for the next couple weeks.

So I just want to get my video game illustration out up front

and get it over with for those of you that don't like video games.

So for those of you who know, I've worked in web technology for the last few years,

and video games have been a hobby for me for a long time.

My wife likes to point out that I spend all of my waking hours in front of a screen,

which may or may not be true.

But for both web technology in general and video games specifically,

a really big thing is the next big thing, right?

Knowing what's going to come and what's going to happen.

So, you know, what's going to do well?

What will fall flat?

30 years ago, there were a bunch of tech guys sitting around saying,

what's this internet thing?

Is it going to go well?

I don't really know.

Some people said this is useless.

It's never going to take off.

And here we are today.

The modern thing is, you know, what's going to happen with Bitcoin?

It keeps going up in price.

You know, is that going to go well?

Is it going to fall flat?

Everyone's kind of holding their breath.

It's fun to speculate on things moving forward.

It's kind of funny to look back when people got things wrong.

One example of this is from video games in the mid-80s.

Not long after Nintendo, a big video game company,

released their first console in North America.

It was one of the first systems ever to not use, like, a joystick.

If you've ever seen it at the arcades,

it used a little directional pad thing, like, up, down, left, right.

And so, you know, one tech columnist seeing this new thing said this.

Of the new game systems out, Nintendo's is the worst.

The controllers are the most important part of the game system,

and Nintendo's controllers are the worst controllers I have ever seen.

Because there's just such a big shift from what people were used to.

So this was written in the mid-80s.

By 1990, the worst console had a 90% market share.

More households had these consoles than had personal computers at the time.

And Nintendo Corporation surpassed Toyota as the most successful company in Japan.

And that controller also became the basic design for every controller,

for every video game system from then on.

So it's funny to look back and read a column.

I have, like, the screenshot of this column because I thought it was so funny.

It's funny to look back and be like,

wow, that guy was really wrong in retrospect, right.

Looking back, it's really obvious.

I think that that's a bit what it's like when you become a Christian,

and it's a bit what this passage is about as well.

Before believing in Jesus,

Christianity probably seems, like, totally foolish to people.

And so maybe even the idea of religion itself looks foolish.

But once you become a Christian,

your whole mindset changes, and now it looks obvious, right.

Following Jesus seems like the obvious choice at this point.

And I think that feeling of, oh, this is obvious now,

is tied to verse 25 in the passage,

when Paul says,

the foolishness of God is wiser than men,

and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

And he's really saying, you know,

to those who don't believe in God, God looks foolish.

But sitting on the other side,

it's clear that God is the wise one in the situation.

And he uses,

that's kind of the main thrust of the argument throughout this passage.

And Paul uses a couple arguments to point to this.

He says, you know,

God's wisdom and power are revealed through two foolish choices,

the cross and his people.

And that's kind of how Paul structures this argument.

So the first foolish choice that God uses,

where he reveals his wisdom,

is in the cross.

And so in verse 18,

Paul says,

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.

And now,

just looking back to last week,

Paul has just said in verse 17,

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.

So that's kind of the lead-in verse.

This eloquent wisdom sits in contrast from verse 17

to the word of the cross in verse 18 here,

which is displayed as foolishness.

And so this is kind of where the illustration

of predicting the future rings true, right?

There are two groups of people here,

and one of them are blind to what's coming,

the perishing, right?

And then there's those who are being saved

who see clearly the power of God.

And note that both of these are present verbs, right?

You're either in the state of perishing

or falling away from God,

or you're in the state of being saved,

God working in your life.

And this is presented as something

that's mutually exclusive too, right?

There's these two groups of people,

and that's all that there is.

Paul frames it this way,

I think particularly in context

of the Corinthians squabbling over their leaders, right?

He's saying, you know,

you were saved originally by the cross,

and you were being saved,

and now you're following down this path

that's associated with perishing, right?

Squabbling over leadership.

So come back, come back to the cross,

come back to what originally saved you.

And I think that this is designed both for us

and for them as a sense of urgency, right?

Which path are you on?

You're either being saved or you're perishing.

And the choices you make

in the way that you live your life

aligns you with one or the other of those more.

And so Paul's throwing this out here

as a warning for people to hear.

And so the question that comes from this is,

why does the cross look foolish, right?

If you've grown up in church,

maybe it doesn't feel like that.

You know, Jesus makes sense.

This is what you've heard your entire life.

So to explain why the cross is foolish,

Paul pulls a verse from Isaiah

and then kind of fleshes it out.

And so in verse 19, Paul says,

it is written,

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise

and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.

Where is the one who's wise?

Where's the scribe?

Where is the debater of this age?

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

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.

So the answer to why is the cross foolish?

It's because God has made foolish

the wisdom of the world is what Paul says.

In context of Isaiah, where he brings this up,

says, you know,

I'm destroying the wisdom of the wise.

This is a woe passage,

one that's predicting judgment upon people.

And these people are described in Isaiah

as those who give lip service to God,

but do not follow him in their hearts.

And so these people that pose as wise,

who speak well, end up having their wisdom,

their well-saying destroyed.

Here it seems that this judgment is fulfilled, right?

So in verse 21, Paul kind of asks the where is,

where are these people?

It's sort of like, you know, where,

it's sort of mocking almost,

like where have they gone?

Like the question you ask to someone who loses

and in a game, and then you're saying,

you know, what happened to you?

Where'd you go?

Kind of thing.

Like this is over at this point.

And so these groups,

the question kind of arises,

who are the losers from these groups?

Who are the people that have been judged?

It seems to be, you know,

first, where's the one who's wise?

Just kind of generally addressing people considered wise.

And then narrowed down to the Jewish

and the Greek description

of what would be considered wise.

So there's the scribe,

who would be like the teacher of the law,

someone who would understand the Old Testament

extremely well and teach on it.

And then there's the debater of the age.

So the philosopher, the sophist,

or someone that would contest in the public area

and speak wisely.

And it says, you know,

has not God made these things foolish, right?

That's kind of the breadth of the wisdom of the world.

One commentator states, you know,

ironically, those who think they are in the know

may miss out on the truth in matters

theological and ethical,

where knowing is less a matter of intellect

than of a humble character and pure motives.

And so God subverts the wisdom of the world

by making it not just about knowledge,

but about character.

And so as we look,

we note that God has subverted

the wisdom of the world, right?

This is something I want to point out.

It's not like God just said,

okay, you know,

all these ideas were really smart at one point,

and now they're just dumb.

I'm just making them this way,

and so we're just changing everything.

God's not kind of like fiatting

into existence intelligence to dumbness.

He's actually working around the intelligence,

the common sense that we have,

to say, you know,

I'm going to subvert this in a unique way

through the message itself.

I'm not going to alter the wisdom of the world.

I'm going to show that there is a wiser way,

essentially.

So this kind of leads to the question,

what is the wisdom of the world?

Because this is something that's brought up,

wisdom's brought up a lot in this passage.

It's brought up in the passage before.

It's brought up after.

So if we kind of trace all the points together,

verse 17, as I mentioned,

Paul contrasts words of eloquent wisdom

with preaching of the gospel,

and it's contrasted again here in verse 21.

The wisdom of the world's contrasted

with the folly of what we preach.

And then in chapter two,

Paul talks about how he brought about

a message in plain words

versus in eloquence and sophistication.

So the wisdom of the world

seems to be contained in two separate ideas, right?

There's the form,

like the way that it's presented.

It seems to be part of the wisdom of the world.

And then there's the content too.

There's something uniquely different

about the message of the cross

and the message of Jesus

than what the world teaches.

So looking at the form first,

it's quite likely that Paul's taking a swing

at like a particular popular rhetorical school

at the time,

or people that would go up front and speak.

And they were called the sophists.

And so they made speaking like an end in itself,

as if the phrasing and the words

and the way you said things was the art

more than the content.

Isocrates, who is a Greek philosopher

and critic of this school of thought,

says this about them.

They transmit the science of words

as simply as they teach the letters of the alphabet

without bothering to examine the nature

of each kind of knowledge.

But thinking that because of this extravagance

of their promises,

they will command admiration

and that teaching of discourse

will be held in high esteem.

So because of their flourish

and because of the way they present things,

that's really what they're aiming for.

It reminds me of like the modern TED Talks.

I don't know if anyone's seen

or watched any TED Talks.

Not that TED Talks are bad.

I think that they're well done.

But the goal of a TED Talk

is more to present an idea

that you could find elsewhere

in an eloquent and persuasive way

to the modern mind.

So you could digest it in a textbook

or classical literature,

but instead there's someone

who's gone up and iterated it for you

and presents it to you

in a really nice package.

Preaching sits in contrast

to this mode of speaking.

And I think a lot of people today

view preaching like a TED Talk

or an inspirational speech.

And so you might not value it

as much as a mode of discourse in itself.

And I've personally thought about it

this way previously.

Like why does someone come up here?

Why do I come up here

and just say things to you?

Why don't I come up here

and just ask questions?

Or why doesn't Sean just come up here

and ask questions or present ideas

and like do a discourse?

That's a very appealing idea

to like our time particularly.

One person telling another

like what is true about life

is not typically how we do things.

We have discussions.

We enter into a relationship.

Which makes a lot of sense

if preaching fits that framework.

But the thing is that's not preaching.

Preaching is heralding, right?

Preaching is the passing on of a message

from one person to another.

And so preaching is coming up front

to present as accurately as possible

the story of Jesus and the Bible

and what that means.

And so it feels weird

and it feels like it doesn't fit

in our society.

But I can think of one other role

where we actually do want people

to come forward

and tell the truth consistently,

present a story from another angle.

And that's journalism, right?

When I read a news article,

I don't want a slant.

I don't want a hot take.

I want the honest truth

presented concisely.

I'm impressed when a journalist

goes and conducts interviews

and talks to primary sources

and relevant people

and comes back

and presents it

in a digestible format.

And then I receive that as truth

and I say,

this is really good, right?

Now I feel like I understand

the news and what's going on.

That's more what preaching's like, right?

The idea was that Sean goes

and he studies the word

or I or whoever's preaching,

digs into it,

determines the truth,

looks at the primary sources

and comes and says,

this is what God says

in his word, right?

Preaching's more like journalism

than it is like persuasive discourse.

And so I think that

that's a small point

that Paul's making here

when he talks about

the folly of preaching

versus the wisdom of the world.

Another part of this,

like I said,

is the content of the message, right?

So it's not just

the eloquent wisdom

versus preaching,

it's also through the folly

of what we preach.

So there's something

in the actual words

or the message itself

that's foolish

or considered foolish.

And this should feel weird, right?

If God is God

and Jesus is God

and Jesus did amazing things,

then it should feel like,

you know,

why wouldn't the wisest people

in the world

all equally perceive

Jesus as wise, right?

If this is from God.

But Jesus literally

in Matthew praises the Father

in the Gospels saying,

Father,

you have hidden truth

from the wise

and revealed it to children, right?

So what's going on here?

Why would it be chosen this way?

And I think that

this is part of the wisdom of God

is that he shows no partiality, right?

God is not attained to

by human wisdom.

It's by revelation from God.

He reveals himself.

He shows himself.

He calls individual people.

And this should be

kind of encouraging, right?

There's not a level of knowledge

that you have to maintain

or ascend to

or come to

to be like,

oh, God makes sense now.

Okay, I can be a Christian.

And there's not some level of that

that you have to continue

to maintain

while you're a Christian.

God is showing no partiality.

It's him reaching out to you

and revealing truth to you.

To some extent,

it is beyond even human reasoning.

And so the content

of this message

that is foolishness

to the world

is presented in verses

22 through 24.

Paul says,

Jews demand signs

and Greeks seek wisdom,

but we preach Christ crucified,

a stumbling block to Jews

and folly to Gentiles.

But to those who are called,

both Jews and Greeks,

Christ the power of God

and the wisdom of God.

So the foolishness

of the message

at its root

is Christ crucified, right?

This is the stumbling.

This is the scandal.

This is the foolishness.

For the Jews,

this would be,

you know,

a crucified Messiah

or a savior

or someone that was coming

to deliver Israel

from oppression

makes no sense.

It's an oxymoron.

It's a contradiction in terms.

For the Greeks,

there's actually

a famous character,

like crucifixion itself

was a shameful punishment.

There's actually

a famous caricature,

like drawing,

like a comic,

almost mocking Christians

found in Rome

on the Palantine

that shows a slave

falling down

before a crucified donkey

under which there are

the words,

Alex Amenos

worships his God, right?

So it was open ridicule

to like worship

someone who was crucified.

That doesn't even make sense.

I think it's kind of

buffered for us, right?

We have like cross necklaces.

There's a cross

at the front of the church.

Like it's just kind of

within the culture.

It just stands

for Christianity now.

So a Christian scholar

that I read

uses the analogy

of picturing like

a painting of a concentration

camp in a church.

Like that's the sensation

and the feeling

that's going on, right?

We're talking about

Christ gas chambered.

We're talking about

Christ beheaded, right?

This is gruesome, gross stuff

that feels foolish

to the world

that makes no sense.

And so in contrast, right,

he's saying

here's Christ crucified.

This is the meat

of the message.

He's saying that Jews

demand signs

and Greeks seek wisdom.

And so the sign

that in obviously

neither of these things

are exactly met

in Christ up front

is what Paul's saying, right?

You know,

they demand signs

but they get a stumbling block.

They demand wisdom

but they get foolishness.

And so for the Jews,

the sign demanding

appears to be more

of the like,

hey, do this

and I'll believe you

kind of thing

than it is like

a legitimate request

of faith.

And if you look

in the Gospels,

there's a couple times

where Jesus actually

refuses to do miracles

because of lack of faith.

And there are times

that God does miracles

to restore faith

or in answer to prayer.

So I'm not saying

this covers it entirely

but there seems to be

some demanding attitude

of hey God,

if you do this,

then I'll follow you

and believe you

that God does not appreciate

because it's almost

mocking him.

D.A. Carson,

a biblical scholar,

describes it this way.

The demand for signs

becomes the prototype

of every condition

human beings raise

as a barrier

to being open to God.

I will devote myself

to God

if he heals my child.

I will follow this Jesus

if I can maintain

my independence.

I will happily

become a Christian

if God proves himself

to me.

I will turn from my sin

and read the Bible

if my marriage

gets sorted out

to my satisfaction.

I will acknowledge

Jesus as Lord

if he performs

the kind of miracle

on demand

that removes all doubt.

In every case,

I'm assessing him.

He's not assessing me.

I'm not coming to God

on his terms.

Rather,

I'm stipulating terms

that he must accept

if he wants the privilege

of my company.

So that's the kind of

Jews demanding signs

that's going on here.

Similarly,

Greek seeking wisdom

is sort of a self-justifying

seeking of wisdom

as well.

He describes it,

you know,

it says,

they create entire

structures of thought

so as to maintain

the delusion

that they can explain

everything.

They think that they

are scientific

and control,

powerful.

God,

if he exists,

must meet the high

standards of their

academic and philosophical

prowess

and somehow fit

into their system

if he is to be given

any sort of

respectful hearing.

So God,

unsurprisingly,

does not fit into

either of these boxes

or demands neatly.

And so he becomes

a stumbling block

to these people.

And so you might fit

into one of these boxes too.

You may,

like right now,

feel like I could

really trust God more

if he did one of

these specific things

for me or answered

this prayer that I've

really been praying

or that I'm leaning into.

Or you might be

in strong doubt,

right?

You say,

okay,

I found this one

intellectual idea

and God doesn't

meet it

and so I can't

believe in him

until he meets that.

And so I see

both Christians

and people who

don't believe in Jesus

could fall into

this situation.

And there's

an encouraging

aspect to this,

right?

If this is you,

know that Jesus

is not just

a difficulty

to your system

of thought

or the way

you perceive things.

He's also the answer,

right?

Paul does not

just leave it as,

okay,

so Christ is foolishness

and that's all

that there is

to say about it.

He says at the end

of verse 24,

to those who are called,

Christ is the power

of God

and Christ is

the wisdom of God.

And so it might not

be the message

that you want to hear

or the one

that you're bringing

to God,

but God is approaching

you within both

power and wisdom,

providing a better way,

an ultimate satisfaction

to what you really want.

Tim Keller,

who's a pastor

in New York,

says this about this passage.

He says,

notice while the gospel

offended each culture

in somewhat different ways,

it also drew people

to see Christ

and his work

in different ways.

Greeks who were saved

came to see that the cross

was the ultimate wisdom,

making it possible

for God to be both just

and the justifier

of those who believe.

And Jews who had been saved

came to see

that the cross

was true power.

It meant that our

most powerful enemies,

sin, guilt,

and death itself

have been defeated.

It is striking then

to see how Paul

applies the gospel

to confront

and complete

each society's

baseline cultural narrative.

He does this

both negatively

and positively.

He confronts

each culture

for its idols,

yet he positively

highlights their aspirations

and ultimate values.

And I think that that

saying like,

you know,

Paul says this,

Jesus stands as a front

against this part

of what you want,

but Jesus is also

ultimately what you want

in himself

because he's delivering

something even better

than you imagined

in himself crucified.

And this is why Paul

can say in verse 25,

the foolishness of God

is wiser than men

and the weakness of God

is stronger than men.

God in his wisdom

gave the greatest

act of power

in Jesus' death

and resurrection

that sets us free

from sin

and guilt and shame

and the greatest

turn of wisdom

in offering a relationship

directly with himself.

I don't think that it's,

just as a side note,

I don't think it should

surprise us too much

that God,

who is a being

who created everything

and knows everything

and is beyond us

to an extent,

acts in ways

that might seem foolish

to us, right?

God may not answer

directly the demands

that we have

because we might be

the foolish ones.

We're the ones

sitting without

the entire picture.

And as a note,

I think that this

is a framework

of the gospel

both offending

and confirming

desires of individuals

that fits really well,

right?

Like Paul's using

Jews and Greeks here

to talk about

how Christ crucified

stands as a front

and a comfort to them.

But I think of

like something that

my generation

particularly struggles with

is,

or particularly desires,

is the totally

autonomous life,

right?

These are phrases

that I hear regularly.

People want to lead

a balanced life,

plan out career development

and map out

like a five to ten year plan.

Have full flexibility.

Live for and only act

on the goals

that we set

for our lives

specifically.

Make sure that we're

following things

that we're passionate about

and shed relationships

and jobs

and anything

that stops you

from achieving

any of those things,

right?

So that drive

for independence

is kind of idolized

and held high

in our culture.

And I think that

some of these things

on their own

are admirable

to an extent.

But I picture

this verse reading

to me,

you seek independence

but we preach

Christ crucified

and enslavement

to you

but to those

who are called

the true freedom

of God.

Jesus does not

call us to

independence,

right?

He calls us

to dependence

on himself.

He calls us

to give up

ourselves

and deny ourselves

and follow him.

And there are

things along the way

that might not

fit exactly

with our goals

or our passions

or what we want

to achieve

in that moment.

But he gives us

more than that.

He gives us

the ultimate satisfaction

that we're desiring

out of that,

right?

He calls us

into relationship

with himself.

He calls us

into community.

In this,

we find freedom

in structure,

right?

In the structure

of church.

We find maturity

and growth

in prayer

and the word

rather than

in our specific

development

that we've defined.

And we find

the support

and love

and purpose

and passion

that we really want

in following

after Jesus.

So I think

that this,

you can think

about this

in a lot

of different ways

but our culture

will,

there will always

be something

in our culture

that is offended

by something

Jesus has to say

but beneath that

there will always

be an ultimate

satisfaction

that Jesus

has to offer.

And so hear that

today and hear it

for what you,

if you fall

into the camp

of, you know,

I need God

to perform a sign

or I need God

to fit my

intellectual structure

or I need God

to fit my schedule

and my time

and my independence.

Hear that Christ

is an affront

to that

but also that

he is a satisfaction

to that as well.

So this is one part

of Paul's argument,

right?

He's saying

that the message

of the cross

subverts human wisdom,

right?

It seems foolish

but it ultimately

gives what we desire.

The next example

that he uses,

he's going through

the argument

basically of saying

world's wisdom

is nothing compared

to God.

He says,

oh, you know,

a good point of argument

would be the Corinthians too.

So he says

in verse 26

talking about

how God's wisdom

is revealed

through his people,

consider your calling,

brothers.

Not many of you

were wise

according to worldly standards.

Not many were powerful.

Not many were of noble birth.

So I picture Paul

like sitting there

dictating to a scribe

and he's thinking through,

okay, so I've got to prove

that God works

through foolish ways.

Okay, so we've talked

about the cross.

What else can we talk about?

Oh, you know,

the Corinthians,

they're kind of morons.

I could use them

as an example

of how God working

through foolish things.

So I don't think

that it's quite that arbitrary

of what Paul was going through

but it is a bit

of an affront, right?

He's coming out

and saying,

hey, you know,

you were not of great means.

You were not of noble birth.

And I think that

from what we can tell

in the letter

and from context,

it's likely that there were

like a minority

in the church

that were powerful,

a minority that would fit

this description.

It doesn't seem like

there were a lot

in the church

that were absolutely destitute,

like in desperate need.

But the majority of people

would kind of fit the,

you know,

not very powerful,

not super influential,

not from a super notable family.

Just kind of falling

into that comfortable

middle bucket

of lack of worldly influence.

And Paul goes on to say

that this isn't a bad thing,

that this is actually

a good thing.

And so in verse 27,

he says,

God chose what is foolish

in the world

to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak

in the world

to shame the strong.

God chose what is low

and despised in the world,

even things that are not,

to bring to nothing

things that are,

so that no human being

might boast

in the presence of God.

And so the first thing

to note is that

Paul might have actually

been kind of underhandedly

directing this passage

at the people

who were something

because he's saying

that that's not really

what matters, right?

And the reason I think this

is because the powerful ones

seem to be the troublemakers

throughout Corinthians.

We'll see a few other issues

come up where believers

are taking each other

to court in chapter six.

There seems to be

this group of stronger believers

who are like strong-arming

weaker believers

in chapters eight through ten

in regards to eating meat

offered to idols.

Paul chastises some believers

for eating too much

of communion essentially

and leaving others hungry

in chapter 11.

These are all probably

directed at people

who are powerful enough

to do those things,

to bring people to court,

to bring their own food

and eat whatever they want to.

And so this passage

is a reminder

to level the playing field

for the ones

who are better off, right?

God has chosen

specifically the weak

and the poor

and the things that are nothing

to shame the rich

and the wise.

And keep in mind

that God has regularly chosen

those of lower regard

to do his work.

I feel like our series

in Genesis showed

this week in and week out.

It was often the discussion

of, well,

there's this older sibling

and they should have gotten

the power and the respect,

but actually the younger sibling

got it.

Or, you know,

there's this great person

over here

that could have done

good things,

but instead this person

who really messed up a lot

ends up being really important.

And so this is kind of

God's MO, right?

This is how he works typically.

And let me not mince words here, right?

I'm not talking just about

like spiritual poverty.

I think there's a fine line

to walk here.

I think that some people

will say, oh,

like the poor by material poverty

are saved, right?

I don't think that that's right.

I don't think that that's something

that our church

particularly struggles with.

I think that when we sit

in a more affluent area,

it's easier to say,

oh, God's just talking

about spiritual poverty

in a poor in spirit aspect.

I think that there's

some real status going on here.

I think of just with Christmas

coming up soon,

I was thinking of the Magnificat

that Mary speaks.

It's in Luke 1,

and I'll just read

a few verses from it,

where Mary praises God

for giving her Jesus.

And she says this

inside of this prayer.

He has shown strength

with his arm,

speaking of God.

He has scattered the proud

in the thoughts

of their hearts.

He has brought down

the mighty from their thrones

and exalted those

of humble estate.

He has filled the hungry

with good things

and the rich he has sent away.

He has helped his servant Israel

in remembrance of his mercy

as he spoke to our fathers,

to Abraham,

and to his offspring forever.

And I think that the framework

that's given in the Bible

regularly for people

that are well off

and of good means

is to be extremely generous.

Zacchaeus,

the second he becomes a Christian,

goes and not only

doubly repays everyone

that he's ever offended,

but gives away

a lot of his money as well.

Joseph of Arimathea

gives his entire tomb

for Jesus' burial,

a very luxurious gift.

The believers in Jerusalem,

when they become a church

at first,

they all sell

all the extra things

that they have

so that they can give

to the poor in their midst.

There's a real framework

where the poverty

and being of lesser means

is a way that God

is literally working

to fulfill his glory.

And so hear that

as we look at this passage.

God's using those

that are foolish,

those that are weak,

those that are low,

and he's using them

specifically to shame

those who oppose him

and who are in a higher position.

Keep in mind that,

you know,

the whole,

this whole first chapter

of Corinthians,

the Corinthians who are lower

are kind of latching

onto these leaders

and saying,

you know,

I follow Apollos,

I follow Paul.

They're siphoning

some wisdom and power

off of who they follow,

basically.

They're trying to scramble

through this rat race

of becoming something better.

And so Paul is warning them,

basically,

like,

hey,

just so you know,

that's exactly what God

is targeting

and bringing to nothing.

So if you're trying

to climb up this ladder

of wisdom and influence

and being something,

that's who God's going after

in this instance.

So you might want

to move out of the way.

I feel like climbing the ladder

is an easy game to play

both inside

and outside of the church,

right,

of, like,

trying to gain social influence

and power and wealth

and whatever it might be.

It's an extremely freeing game

not to play, too,

just as a note.

I'd say thinking,

like,

inside of the church,

one of the biggest dangers

as regards status

is it's a place

you can come

and siphon off

affections of people,

basically,

by making yourself useful.

So I think of this

particularly because

we're a church plant

and church plants

have a ton of volunteers,

essentially.

A lot of people here

do a lot of stuff

for the church

and I'm super thankful

for that.

But I'll just use myself

as an example

of things I've done

at the church.

You know,

I've helped make

administrative decisions.

I've done Sunday morning setup

and help with sound some.

I lead a small group.

I've literally been part,

I was just thinking of this,

I've literally been part

of this church longer

than anyone here

because Sean's not here

right now

and we were the first

two couples to meet.

So there's a lot of places

I can just pat myself

on the back, right?

And it's easy for me

to slip from showing up

to worship God

to showing up

to feel good about myself

for what I've done

and what I can do

and what this church

means to me

and the things

that I've poured into it

and all of a sudden

it's about me.

Not only can this lead

to division

and me being bitter

against people

who might step into

something that I was

doing before

or, you know,

the church growing,

there's a million things

I can think of ways

that could go wrong

for someone

who has helped out.

It also literally,

you know,

if I'm scrambling that ladder,

like if I view those things

in that way,

I'm literally putting myself

in the target sights of God,

right?

I'm asking to be brought

to nothing

because God is saying

this is how I'm working.

I love all the volunteers here,

like literally

I love all of you,

but I honestly think

that part of keeping

each other accountable here

is watching for over ownership

and being willing

to call each other on it.

I don't want anyone here

to literally be on the path

to perishing

because they're serving

church too much, right?

That's absolutely ridiculous.

And I don't want anyone here

to feel overly burdened either.

This passage is freeing.

There's no ladder

to climb in church.

Don't feel that way.

Everything you do here

is a reflection on God,

not on yourself.

If you feel like,

like honestly,

if you're helping out

with church

and you feel like

you're overly burdened

or something's going wrong

or like you feel that,

like come talk to me

or Taryn afterwards

and we'll pray for you

and we'll talk with you

because we don't want you

to be in that position.

We want church to be a place

where you come to worship God

and we want you to be free

of anything like that

that's dragging you down.

Outside of church,

I mean,

there's plenty of places

to climb for status

and influence and wealth

and for many of us,

like we have to play that game

to some extent, right?

Like I have to do well

at my job

so that I can get a raise

so that I can provide

for my family

as prices go up around me.

So these need to be goals

for those of us

who need income.

I totally get that.

The passage gives freedom though

and maybe even responsibility

to not seek these things

as an end

in and of themselves.

So I'd encourage you,

if you feel like you're exhausted

from working

and you don't know why

or you're chasing excellence

at work

or like chasing a promotion

or a new position

and you don't like have a reason,

like you haven't really

thought through it

or if that reason is,

oh yeah,

I want to look good for people

or I want to make a lot of money,

be wary, right?

You may have fallen

into the trap

of seeking wisdom

and power

in the world's eyes.

That's not what's going

to save you

at the end of the day

even if it feels like it

in the moment

when you're putting

in the extra hours at work.

What saves us

at the end of the day

is not this social status

but Jesus, right?

Paul says in verse 30,

because of him

you are in Christ Jesus

who became to us

wisdom from God,

righteousness,

and sanctification,

and redemption.

And so Paul literally

says in this verse,

you know,

social status,

he matches wisdom,

influence,

noble birth,

and replaces it

with three things in Christ.

He says righteousness,

redemption,

and sanctification,

and the wisdom

of living in God

versus the foolishness

of chasing after

social status.

And these three words

kind of encapsulate

all the blessings

of being in Christ,

the things that we get

when we're saved by him.

So righteousness

is looking at

legal justification,

right standing before God,

that we're able

to stand in him,

not accused of anything

essentially,

because Christ has taken

our sins upon himself.

Sanctification is talking

about being holy

and set apart,

like the ability

to approach God

in the first place.

That we are pure

and clean

and not going

to be smited down

instantly for being

unclean and approaching him.

And then redemption

is being brought

out of a bad situation

into a good one.

When you redeem something,

if you redeem time

or you redeem a situation,

you're saying,

you know,

this was going really poorly,

but I've adjusted this

and now it's going well.

And that's something

that we experience

in Jesus, right?

He turns our lives around.

So the whole point

of this is that

our value is not

in what we do,

right?

Our original value,

but in what Christ

has done, right?

It's not in the social status

we gain,

but in what Christ

has provided for us

in his wisdom.

Ben Witherington,

who's an ancient

Near Eastern scholar,

notes that this chapter

basically calls us

to evaluate

our entire value system

that we live with

implicitly.

What, you know,

the question basically

is what do we do,

or the question

for each of us

is, you know,

what do I do

specifically

because I'm a Christian

and what am I doing

just because it's

part of the culture

and I haven't even

stopped to think

about it before.

It's just how I've lived,

how I've been raised,

whatever that looks like.

He says this,

or Ben Witherington

says this,

Paul requires

that we ask

how much of our sense

of self-worth

and identity

is grounded

in our culture's

evaluation of us

in terms of wealth,

education,

and the like,

and how much of it

is grounded

in our identity

as sinners

saved by grace.

It also requires us

to ask how much

of our values in life,

what we really long for,

are dictated by culture

and how much by the gospel.

Christian attitudes

about wealth,

family,

country,

and other things

held dear

are often more grounded

in certain cultural assumptions

than any Christian teaching.

Demographic studies

of Christian congregations

show that race,

class,

occupation,

and numerous other factors

often determine

where one goes to worship.

Whatever else one might say

about Corinthian Christianity,

it was not ethnically,

racially,

sexually,

or socially monochrome.

And so,

Wutherington and Paul

are asking the hard questions here.

Why do I go to church?

Am I at church

just because I was raised that way?

Is it because it's comfortable

or a habit for me?

Or am I here

because I really think

that my value

is in Jesus Christ?

What about political views?

What are those influenced by?

How about I handle my money?

Who I spend my time with?

Are these things influenced

by my social background

and standing

or by Jesus?

And I think that the Bible

as a whole

helps us walk through

and discern those things.

And I think that

the believers

that you're sitting around

help you walk through

and discern those things.

I think that's part of why

community group

and discussion are important

because you sit together

and you flesh out things

with people that don't have

the same experience as you

or the same background as you

and you answer questions

and you work through

the word together

and you disciple one another.

And I,

like,

there's no way for me

to give all the answers

about all these things right now

and I don't think

I have all the answers

about most of these things.

But I think that this passage

does a good job

raising the question

of where are you

really getting

what you think from?

What's,

you know,

cultures like swimming

and fish in water,

right?

Fish don't realize

that they're in water.

It's just the air around them.

What are you swimming in

and are you aware of it

and where does it come from?

You know,

this passage

doesn't really stop there

and Witherington's commentary

on it doesn't either.

He says,

once we realize

that we're living

for a different value system,

we'll see an area

where we,

just like the message of Christ,

contrast with the culture,

right?

Being the life of living

as a Christian

will naturally be

an offense at some points

and an encouragement

at some points

to the culture around us too.

There were consequences

of Christ crucified

to these Corinthians.

Lays it out this way.

It threatened to level

a carefully built up system

of social stratification

not only by creating

a new diverse community

but also by refusing

to participate

in certain parts

of the old social system

in crucial ways.

So Corinthian Christians

wouldn't participate

in pagan worship

which was pretty much mandatory

and they wouldn't participate

in the military.

An early Christian apologist,

Minucius Felix,

I haven't read that out loud yet,

that's interesting,

expressed the average

Roman citizens view

of a Christian this way.

You do not go to our shows,

right?

So a Roman would say

to a Christian,

you don't go to our shows,

you don't take part

in our processions,

you're not present

at our public banquets

and you shrink in horror

from our sacred games,

right?

So there are going to be areas

where you living as a Christian

are going to rub up

against the people around you.

I know that people

in our church

for a fact

have disrupted

their social status

in the name of Jesus,

right?

They have not showed up

at particular work parties

where they knew things

were going to get too crazy.

They've quit jobs

that have demanded

idolatrous amounts of work.

They've turned down

crass talk and gossip

when everyone else

around them is doing it.

They've taken time

to rest personally

or taken time

to care for family

when they could be

taking time to climb

the social ladder

of status,

right?

And I want to encourage you

that every time

you make one of those choices

that God sees that,

right?

God sees that

and it's for his glory

in that moment

and that's the thing

that you're living for.

You're living for

the status of being in Christ

and the freedom

that's in that

rather than social status.

And so I think

that's why he says

in verse 31,

you know,

as it is written,

let the one who boasts

boast in the Lord.

This is a reference

to Jeremiah 9,

23 through 24,

which I'll read

because it matches

this passage so closely.

I think Paul's

taking some ideas from it.

Jeremiah says,

thus says the Lord,

thus says the Lord,

let not the wise man

boast in his wisdom,

let not the mighty man

boast in his might,

let not the rich man

boast in his riches,

but let him who boasts

boast in this,

that he understands

and knows me,

that I am the Lord

who practices steadfast love,

justice,

and righteousness

in the earth.

For in these things

I delight,

declares the Lord.

I don't particularly

love sports illustrations

for church,

mostly because they're overused

and usually they're not

directly applicable,

but this one's perfect

and it fits really well,

right?

Whenever I think of boasting

in the biblical sense,

I think of cheering

for a sports team,

right?

So when you align yourself

so closely with a sports team

that you say we won

when the team wins

at the end of the day,

you know you had nothing

to do with that,

right?

They won.

You watched and yelled

really loudly at your TV.

You're fully aware

you didn't contribute at all

but you revel in that victory

anyways because it's so exciting

to you because you've aligned

yourself so closely,

right?

That's the sensation

of this passage as well.

We boast in God

when we acknowledge

Christ crucified,

right?

It's his power

and Jesus' salvation

is our wisdom and status.

When we align so closely

with these things

that are foolish to the world,

we're just,

we rejoice in them.

So if you're not

a Christian today,

maybe you're a skeptic,

maybe you're not sure

what you believe,

maybe you realize

you've been going to church

for a while

and you're not sure

why you're here,

you know,

Jesus being God

who died,

this Christ crucified,

should be your main holdup.

That's what I would advise you on,

right?

If you're considering Christianity,

consider this,

consider that Jesus is Lord

and Savior

and whether that's true or not.

There are a lot of other questions

around religion

and faith and Christianity

and I totally acknowledge that

and I'd love to discuss

some of those with you

but I think if you,

the hardest thing

you're ever going to wrestle with

is that Jesus is Lord,

right?

He's a God who died

and rose again

and believing in him

is essential to your life

and if you can wrestle with that,

a lot of the other questions

that you have

are going to fall into line

because a lot of them

are tied back to that,

honestly.

And so if that's where you're at,

like I'm happy to talk with you,

I'm happy to pray with you.

I know Taryn and others here

are happy to talk as well.

You can just turn to the person

next to you probably

and strike up the conversation.

I'd encourage you

to really laser in on that,

right?

That's going to be

the stumbling block

for anyone who's not a Christian yet.

That's going to be

the hardest part,

I guarantee it.

If you are a Christian,

I want to give you

encouragement here to end.

This doesn't hinge on you,

right?

That's the whole point

of this passage.

All this does not depend on you.

Your value and worth

is in Jesus himself, right?

He is your wisdom

and your power,

not your own wisdom

or your own status, right?

You're not living this life

to make yourself look good.

You're living this life

to make Jesus look good

and he's working through you.

And so find rest

and assurance in that today.

Let me pray for us.

Lord, we thank you

that you are our righteousness

and sanctification

and redemption.

And Lord, we thank you

that we live to boast in you

and not in ourselves.

And Lord, I just pray

that you would strip back

the ways that we do boast

in ourselves.

Lord, it feels good

in the moment

but it's ultimately