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Kingdom And Chaos - David And His Misfits
Contributed by Brady Boyd on Mar 15, 2019 (message contributor)
Summary: Paul warns us that human strength and wisdom cannot be elevated above the wisdom of God.
Kingdom and Chaos
David and His Misfits
March 17, 2019
1 Samuel 22:1-2 NIV
David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and his father's household heard about it, they went down to him there. 2 All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around him, and he became their leader. About four hundred men were with him.
Rahab the Prostitute
King David the scoundrel
King Solomon the Polygamist
King Manasseh the Pagan
For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." 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, …”
Paul was not despising wisdom, scholarship or philosophy. He was a scholar.
Paul was warning us that human strength and wisdom cannot be elevated above the wisdom of God.
Remember the strange reversals Jesus spoke of in the Beatitudes. The Corinthian people were hoping for something more triumphant like:
“Blessed are the smart and savvy”
“Blessed are those who help themselves”
“Blessed are the ambitious and strong”
• Instead, what Jesus said must have sounded foolish to these successful people:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit”
“Blessed are those that mourn”
“Blessed are the meek”
“Blessed are the merciful”
We cannot come to Jesus except through the cross.
If we do, we will eventually believe that following Christ is simply another way to get power.
It will reinforce the idea that the world revolves around us.
Christ died on the cross to show us a new use of power.
The world says power is to be used “over people”
Christ humbled himself to the cross “for people”
“Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. 27 Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, 28 chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"? 29 That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. 30 Everything that we have — right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start — comes from God by way of Jesus Christ.”
Because Jesus became low, there is no one who is too low to be saved.
Because Jesus became a nobody, all the nobody’s in the world can be saved.
On the cross Jesus did for us what we could have never done for ourselves.
