I Corinthians 1:18-31 - The Foolishness of God
By James Galbraith
First Baptist Church, Port Alberni
April 22, 2007
Text
1Co 1:18 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. 19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
1Co 1:20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
1Co 1:26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 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. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”
Introduction - Who’s the fool?
There was once a man that was considered the town fool. The townsfolk would play a game to show how foolish he was.
They would approach him with a penny in one hand and a quarter in the other. The towns-person would hold out both hands, open them and offer the town fool his choice of one of the coins.
The man would always choose the penny, much to the amusement everyone watching.
One day a newcomer to town asked him, “Why do you always take the penny when you could take the quarter? Don’t you know that a quarter is worth much more then a penny?”
The man replied, “I understand the value of the two coins. But if I took the quarter, people would stop playing the game…”
***
This story may seem like a fable, but it is lived out on a daily basis in the places we work, play and live.
There is a certain way of doing things that people tend to follow, and if someone operates outside of it they can be set apart as fools or worse.
Let me give a few examples:
If you can legally buy an item for $20 instead of $50, you do it.
Saving money is good, and the best price is the best price.
If all other considerations are equal, and you are offered a promotion, you usually take it, especially if it is sure to advance your career, increase your salary and generally improve the quality of your life.
If something is good to eat, and it is offered to you, and you are hungry , and there is no risk to your health or anyone else’s, you eat.
In the above situations, to act contrary to the actions I explained would be considered foolish by many, if not most, people.
Most of the time, it is healthy to avoid foolishness,
but the message of the passage before us today is that
there is a time and place to act in what may be considered foolish ways.
We see the writer addressing what he calls “the foolishness of God”.
In two paragraphs, he explains that most people consider the work of Christ and those who follow him to be foolish.
The first paragraph addresses the perceived foolishness of Christ’s own work on the cross and the gospel message.
The second paragraph turns to the perceived foolishness of who God is working through to advance his Kingdom on this earth.
VERSES 18-25
The focus of the first paragraph is to contrast the work of Christ on the cross with the wisdom of the worldly powers, both Jewish and Greek.
Those who are called ‘perishing’ here are soon divided into two groups, both of which consider the story of Christ and the cross to be foolish.
Those who are called ‘Greeks” here are actually Romans, the Greeks, and any who are not Jewish by birth. The thought of a executed carpenter in a remote, troublesome province of the mighty Roman empire being the salvation of the world was simply too much for them to take.
They lived in a culture which exalted the achievements of men. The Olympics stemmed out of their fascination and respect for the physical potential of men.
The original athletes competed naked to show off their physical form,
and their acts of strength and endurance were the stuff of legend.
The Romans celebrated the power of the state to bring peace and a type of unity to so many diverse provinces. They ruled with an iron fist, and their influence did bring peace the lands they controlled.
The rule of the day was that might was right, and the mightiest ruled over those who were weak. To accept an act of apparent weakness as the saving event of the entire world simply did not mesh with their thinking.
Furthermore, Both Romans and Greeks were also famous for the wisdom of their “high thinkers”. The writing of Plato, Socrates, Cicero and other Greek and Roman thinkers are still considered to be the most intelligent writings by mankind, ever.
They knew they were smart, and they made it very well known to all that they considered themselves the wisest race of people in the known world.
If anyone was going to save the world, it was them, and the world had better listen.
The Jews, on the other hand, knew that salvation would not come from man, but from God through a promised Messiah.
They looked for someone who would shake up the world’s way of doing things and take over, establishing Israel at the centre of a world brought under control by the Messiah.
The powerful, awe-inspiring words of the prophets who predicted the Messiah were interpreted a promise of a great, down-right miraculous, military take-over.
The Jews were captives of the Romans, so a military take-over would have to be miraculous - an intervention of God upon the world as it was known at the time.
These Jews could not reconcile the work of Jesus on the cross to what they expected of the promised Messiah. They considered him a failed attempt at a Messiah, a charlatan who professed to be the Messiah but couldn’t deliver on the expected holy war.
His death was an act of weakness, whereas the Messiah was to operate in strength.
The crucifixion of Christ therefore offends the sensibilities of both parties, one who sees his work as foolish compared to the wisdom of the world, and the other who sees him as weak compared to the strength of the world
What neither group is ready to see is that God works in ways
that the world may consider foolish and weak
and brings salvation to the whole of mankind!
Christ’s work on the cross goes straight to the root of the world’s real problem, the sinful nature of humans past, present and future.
He attacks and defeats the root of what causes the world’s trouble,
sin, evil, rebellion and deceit,
and in doing so, he allowed people to be free of the evil which encumbers them and live under the love and in the light of the God who created them.
Jesus didn’t simply think and write about the solution to our peril,
nor did he lead armies to fight a temporary foe,
he rescued us by undermining the sin upon which evil is built.
The foolishness of God brought sin it’s death blow, allowing us to be free.
It also led God to use those who the world looks down upon to change the world forever. This is the focus of the next paragraph.
VERSES 26-30
Now that we’ve talked about what Christ has done, we now look at the people through whom he’s chosen to spread the news of his work through.
Those who followed someone considered weak and foolish would naturally be considered weak and foolish themselves.
Furthermore, many of those who were attracted to the message were those who were considered the outcasts or “undesirables” by the dominant social structure.
To these whom the world would write off God says,
I will use you to achieve my great purposes.
I have found a story which portrays how God takes those who are seen as less than significant to do the most significant things imaginable.
THE WATER BEARER
A water bearer in India had two large pots, each hung on each end of a pole, which he carried across his neck.
One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master’s house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.
For two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots of water to his master’s house. Of course, the townspeople laughed every time they saw the old man spilling water all the way home.
The perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect to the end for which it was made.
But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. He felt even worse that the water bearer was mocked due to his inadequacy.
After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologise to you."
"Why?" asked the bearer. "What are you ashamed of?"
"I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master’s house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you suffer such mockery from the others," the pot said.
The water bearer felt sorry for the old cracked pot,
and in his compassion he said, "As we return to the master’s house,
I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path."
Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again it apologised to the bearer for its failure.
The bearer said to the pot, "I hear the laughter of the others, but I want you to notice something. Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your path, but not on the other pot’s side?
That’s because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you’ve watered them.
For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master’s table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house."
***
Each of us has our own unique flaws. We’re all cracked pots. But if we will
allow it, the Lord will use our flaws to grace His table. They can appear as foolishness to the rest of the world, but God knows what he’s doing.
CONCLUSION
Mankind likes to tell God what to do and how to do it. People do it all the time. They did it in the time of Christ, and will continue to do it as long as they have the breath required to form words.
The work of Christ on the cross did not fit into any of the directions that God was being given at the time. But you know what? It worked!
It worked despite the scorn of the powers of the day, and it still works today.
Those who, like the Romans and Greeks, seek salvation based on their own ideas of what salvation should be are bound to be disappointed,
since the gospel negates their efforts and requires only faith and obedience in Christ Jesus.
Those who, like the Jews of Christ’s day, seek salvation from the hands of a physical enemy by the hands of a warrior Messiah are also bound to be disappointed.
Their eyes are on the outworking of sin in the world, and the battleground they see is only the froth generated by the real war sin wages on a helpless world.
If you’ve regarded the work of Christ as foolish in the past, may you see that his is indeed the only way that the battle against sin in this world will ever be won.
I encourage you to re-examine the gospel and it’s author, Jesus Christ, and experience the true wisdom and love of the Saviour who knew exactly what he was doing and why he was doing it.
And may those of us who have already chosen to accept, believe in, and be obedient to the foolishness of God, never lose sight of the greater wisdom of the cross of Christ.
And may we never short-change ourselves, for God in his wisdom as chosen us put the wisdom of the world to shame, and to bring the strength of the strong to shame.
Finally, we must never, ever, forget that those who oppose us also need to hear the message that we have been given to share, and that they too can come to put their trust in the foolishness of God.
BENEDICTION: 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.
