This sermon (1 Corinthians 1: 18 - 2: 5) was preached at West Ewell Evangelical Church, Surrey, on Sunday 31 May 2015.
Introduction
The Corinthian church was very much like us – within a society that had no moral compass and experiencing a religious maelstrom where it seemed as though every thought was considered valid.
We are looking at this letter through the prism of grace and peace (verse 3) which only comes from the Father and the Son.
Opening question: Why did Jesus die on the cross? Discuss.
In this passage, Paul deals with some of the issues raised by that question.
The wrong answers include: a tragic end to a good life, as an example to us.
The right answers are: to save us from our sins, conquer sin and death, bring us into relationship with God, fulfil the Old Testament scriptures.
However, the ultimate answer was so God would be glorified.
The Church has managed to corrupt the Gospel so conforms to the viewpoint of the world as Richard Halverson has commented: ‘In the beginning the church was a fellowship of men and women centring on the living Christ. Then the church moved to Greece where it became a philosophy. Then it moved to Rome, where it became an institution. Next, it moved to Europe, where it became a culture. And finally, it moved to America where it became an enterprise.’
We will unpack these thoughts as we go on.
We will see:
1. The Modern Greeks
2. The Modern Jews
3. The Wisdom of God
1. The Modern Greek
The Greeks were well-known for their philosophies. Prior to Paul visiting Corinth, he had been to Athens (Acts 17: - ‘All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.’)
Main philosophies that people automatically think about: Epicureans (living for pleasure) and Stoics (self-discipline), which have their equivalents today with the get-rich crowd and the emphasis on yoga among other examples.
In midst of their thinking, the Greeks had stories of gods and goddesses performing mighty deeds, often replication of human actions. They had sense that more than their thoughts, that there was something/someone out there greater than them.
This philosophising is seen in modern atheists, such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris or the late Christopher Hitchens where there is no room for love but they do not acknowledge that there is Someone beyond their minds and experiences.
I once heard about an atheist funeral where, as the crowd made its way out of the crematorium, a comment was made that it was hoped that the deceased person was looking down on them.
There is no room for love in equation for the philosophers as it is (for them) just academic, which negates the fact that God made us to holistic.
A four year-old girl asked her father, a surgeon, how the heart worked. He drew with pride a diagram with the veins and arteries. At the end, she asked: ‘Where does all the love go in?’
The Gospel is truth, but it is also love which is shown in Jesus.
N T Wright wrote: ‘Logic cannot comprehend love, so much for logic’
We can fall into a similar trap when listening to sermon, where we are ticking off the theological niceties and not applying it to our lives.
2. The Modern Jews
We have looked at modern Greeks – those who lay great store by philosophy.
The next group want great things to happen. The sad thing was that the Jewish people still wanted political leader even after Jesus taught them that it was not the role of the Messiah: Gamaliel in Acts chapter 5 mentions Theudas and Judas the Galilean.
People today want Christ to solve every possible human ill – economic, natural (such as famines, floods or earthquakes), personal (e.g. illness, family breakups) - without Him impacting on their lives in any meaningful way.
In the rock musical ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Herod is given the lyrics: So if You are the Christ / You're the great Jesus Christ /Prove to me that You're no fool / Walk across my swimming pool.'
Jesus stated : ‘A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign.’ (Matthew 12: 39) – many people are wanting to ‘bargain’ with God but wanting their own way.
The Jewish people wanted works out of strength, and they were not prepared for the seemingly weak despite being told of the Servant King in Isaiah chapter 53.
People nowadays want God to come into their lives on their own terms – and it is not just those outside of the Church, as we can limit the role of Jesus in our lives in that we may want our lives to be sorted out without God necessarily getting the glory.
Verse 19 quotes Isaiah 29: 14, which starts ‘Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder’ – God works on His own terms, we should come before Him on bended knees.
At a funeral, a relative stated that the vicar had talked of the Lord Jesus Christ when many present did not acknowledge Him as such. Aside from the inappropriate time and the supposition, she was right on the whole. However, Jesus is not always Lord for many Christians as they are content for Him to be Saviour then leave it at that.
We need to open up our lives so that we are not looking for miracles per se, but seek to glorify God in all things – although He will perform miracles in our lives in order that, again, His name would be glorified in all things.
Thomas a Kempis wrote: ‘Love all for Jesus, but Jesus for Himself’
This is another elephant trap for Christians mentioned in this passage where we can expect Gospel to meet our needs rather than for the glorification of God.
We can be so centred on ourselves that forget that we are redeemed so our lives would be centred on Christ – so many of our conversations with God tend to be pleas and petitions, looking around us instead of looking up to the King of the Universe.
3. The Wisdom of God
There is the amazing paradox (1: 24 – 25) – God’s wisdom is also powerful.
There is the contrast in 2: 18 between ‘those who are perishing’ and ‘us who are being saved’ – Romans 1: 16: ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.’
Paul does mention salvation once (1: 18), but most of the passage is about God – it is not about you. For example, Paul proclaims the testimony about God (2: 1) and resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified (2: 2).
There is nothing that we can do – ‘lowly things of the world’ (1: 28) notion ‘morally worthless’ – we are completely at the behest of God so that we would worship Him.
The Church has brought into ‘all about me,’e.g. songs about my salvation. I am not advocating that scrapping them as they contain the truth that Jesus saved us but it is not the whole truth.
This is not to take away from the exclusivity of Christianity, as we are reminded of Peter’s words: ’Salvation is found in no-one else; for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.’ (Acts 4: 12)
In those familiar words (Philippians 2: 6 – 11): Jesus ‘Who, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’
Note: the passage in Philippians says nothing about Jesus dying for our salvation, all about the glory of Jesus.
Repeatedly, in gospel of John, Jesus spoke of his crucifixion as the time when he would be glorified, e.g.
John 7: 39 – ‘Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.’
John 12: 16 – Disciples did not understood Jesus’ words as he entered Jerusalem. ‘Only after Jesus had been glorified did they realise that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him.’
Jesus referred to his own death in John 12: 32 ‘But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself,’ explanation in verse 33 that to demonstrate what type of death – it was not just the physical act of being lifted up (incidentally, people who were crucified were only lifted 12 – 18 inches off the ground so could look in their faces), but the actual glorification of the God-man in the cruel death.
In the book Planet in Rebellion, George Vandermen wrote: ‘It was May 21. The place – Los Angeles. A young and daring scientist was carrying out a necessary experiment in preparation for the atomic test to be conducted in the waters of the South Pacific atoll at Bikini. He had successfully performed such an experiment many times before. In the effort to determine the amount of U-235 necessary for a chain reaction – scientists call it the critical mass – he would push two hemispheres of uranium together. Then, just as the mass became critical, he would push them apart with his screwdriver, thus instantly stopping the chain reaction.
‘But that day, just as the material became critical, the screwdriver slipped! The hemispheres of uranium came too close together. Instantly the room was filled with a dazzling blueish haze. Young Louis Slotin, instead of ducking and thereby possibly saving himself, tore the two hemispheres apart with his hands and thus interrupted the chain reaction. By this instant of self-forgetful daring, he saved the lives of the seven other persons in the room…As he waited for the car that was to take him to the hospital, he said quietly to his companion, “You’ll come through all right. But I haven’t the faintest chance myself.” It was only too true. Nine days later he died in agony.’
2000 years ago, Jesus came down to break the chain reaction of sin as it was detrimental in that prevented Him from demonstrating His glory as sin destroyed all that was good made by God, so Jesus was touched by its curse and it caused Him to die – but He rose again, broke the power of sin and was glorified for His own name sake.
Brennan Manning observed: ‘My deepest awareness of myself is that I am deeply loved by Jesus Christ and I have done nothing to earn or deserve it.’
The uniqueness in Christianity is that God was glorified by the cross.
He does everything because of His character.
Jonathan Edwards wrote: ‘The apostle tells us that “God is love;” and therefore that He is an infinite being, it follows that He is an infinite fountain of love. Seeing that He is an all-sufficient being, it follows that He is a full and overflowing, and inexhaustible fountain of love. And in that He is unchangeable and eternal being, He is an unchangeable and eternal fountain of love.’
Conclusion
The whole passage is centred on God – His magnificence and glory.
In 2: 4 – 5, the word ‘demonstration’ means ‘most rigorous proof – the centre of the Gospel is God, not man.
St Bernard explained that: ‘The reason for loving God, is God.’
We need to recognise that we have nothing to contribute to salvation – ‘no-one may boast before Him’ (1: 29)
The whole emphasis of this letter is on Christ – He is mentioned nine times in the first nine verses of this epistle. We need to get our eyes off ourselves and up to Him.
His death on the cross demonstrates His glory:
- Over sin and death
- Over Satan
- Bringing people into His family, under His kingly rule, in order that we can praise Him
God gives us the invitation to stand before the cross and worship Him, glorify Him as the start of the process when we will praise Him in heaven
As John Piper reminds us, God glorified Himself regularly by setting aside human power to magnify His own and sets aside human wisdom to magnify His divine wisdom.
As we have said before, the key to this letter is God’s grace and peace (1: 3) – not for our gratification, but that we should exalt Him.
Where are your eyes – on the exalted Saviour or just concentrating on our being saved?
