The Wisdom Of The Cross
Text: 1 Cor. 1:18-25
Introduction
1. Illustration: Jesus Christ is the only who lived who claimed to be God and proved to be God. When I compare this to all other claimants of all other religions, it is like the poet who said, 'The night has a thousand eyes and the day has but one, The light of the whole world dies with the setting of the sun.' At the midnight of human ignorance, there are a lot of lights in the sky. But at noon time there is only one, and that is Jesus Christ, the Light of the world. So I cast my lot with Him, not with Confucius who claimed wisdom, or the one who claimed enlightenment like Buddha, or the one who claimed to be a prophet like Mohammed, but the One who claimed to be God in the flesh…and proved it" (Norman Geisler).
2. There are so many similarities between the world we live in and the one that Paul lived in.
A. Immorality was rampant.
B. Pluralism was the religion of the day.
C. Being a Christian was life threatening.
3. Yet he stood with the wisdom of the cross.
4. According to Paul...
A. The Cross Is The Power Of God
B. The Cross Is Offensive
C. The Cross Is The Plan Of God
5. Let's stand together as we read 1 Cor. 1:18-25.
Proposition: God's wisdom is far superior to the wisdom of this world.
Transition: First, Paul says...
I. The Cross Is The Power Of God (18-20).
A. The Message Of The Cross
1. If you confess to be a Christian in our society you are looked upon as intellectually inferior.
A. Our educational system is increasingly hostile towards Christians.
B. Recently, I read a story where a young man was dismissed from school because he dared to challenge his Muslim professor who insisted that Jesus didn't die on the cross and that his followers never claimed his divinity.
2. Look at what Paul tells the church in Corinth, "The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God."
A. He says that the message of the cross is foolish.
B. The word foolish means, Foolishness, silliness, absurdity. Moria is rare in the New Testament, where it occurs only five times, all in 1 Corinthians (1:18,21,23; 2:14; 3:19).
C. It is set in striking contrast to sophia (4531)—the world’s “wisdom.” To those who are perishing (the unsaved) the message of the Cross is “absurd” (moria).
D. However, God chose this means to confound the “wisdom” of the world, because God detests the arrogant know-it-all attitude of men that prevents them from knowing God.
E. It is utterly foolish from man’s perspective that the death of a state-executed criminal was really the death of a powerful Messiah (to the Jews), or in fact the plan of the supremely wise God (to the Greeks).
F. To those who are perishing—on their way to hell, spiritually dead and thus controlled by the sinful nature (Rom. 8:8), blinded by Satan (2 Cor. 4:4)—the message of the cross (and therefore, the whole doctrine of the atonement) is absurd.
G. They think it foolish to believe that the Roman execution of one declared to be a guilty criminal and enemy of the state could be used by God to bring salvation.
H. But to those who are being saved—who have accepted Christ as Savior and Lord, who have a present relationship with God, who are living for Him, and who are on their way to heaven—the message of the Cross, the message that has at its center the death of Jesus on the cross and the shedding of His blood, is the power of God.
I. They know it is, because they have experienced its power to save them.
J. God's power is still necessary not only for salvation, but for sanctification, peace, spiritual blessing, and hope (cf. Rom. 15:13).
K. His power is available also for healing and casting out demons.
L. The cross of Christ is full of God's power, for it was the means by which Jesus accomplished our salvation when He shed His blood and died for us.
M. To try to explain the Cross or deduce its importance in terms of human wisdom and philosophy would rob it of its power, that is, of its ability to transform sinners into saints.
N. That is exactly what liberal theologians are doing today. But Paul proclaimed its power to save, to deliver from sin and Satan, to heal, to restore fellowship with God—and so must we.
O. The Holy Spirit will make the Cross and its power real to hungry hearts (cf. Rom. 1:16) (Horton, I & II Corinthians: A Logion Press Commentary, 2nd ed., 27).
3. Paul then declares what the Scriptures say about God's view of this world's wisdom. "As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”
A. Probably because Paul recognizes that the divisions in the church are the result of human thinking and human wisdom, he goes on to make a strong contrast between God's wisdom ("it is written") and human wisdom, the latter of which we might call "worldly common sense."
B. Most of this comes from human philosophies that take God off the throne and put self or human reason on the throne.
C. Then because human wisdom has treated the Cross as something absurd,
D. Paul refers to Isaiah 29:14 where God declares His purpose to destroy the "wisdom of the wise" and frustrate or set aside the "intelligence of the intelligent," causing it to vanish in the light of divine truth.
E. Paul tells us that people of this world professed themselves to be wise, and in pride lifted themselves up. That very act was the beginning of their downfall (Romans 1:22).
F. Romans 1:22-23 (NLT)
Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. 23 And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.
G. James tells us that true wisdom cannot be manufactured on this earth. It must come from above (James 3:17).
H. Repeatedly Proverbs reminds us that real understanding and applicable knowledge is found in a proper attitude toward and fellowship with God (Hamar, 269-271).
4. Paul then challenges the wise of this world by saying, "So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish."
A. When Paul asks where is the wise man, the scholar (the expert teacher of the law of Moses), or the philosopher of this age, he is emphasizing the futility of human wisdom.
B. It has no ability to meet the real needs of people or to help them find God and salvation.
C. We can see this in the writings of the ancient Greek philosophers that Paul must have read, since he was educated as a Roman citizen before he came under Gamaliel. (Gamaliel did not forbid the reading of Greek authors, and Paul refers to Greek writers in Acts 17:28.).
D. When Paul asks where is the wise man, the scholar (the expert teacher of the law of Moses), or the philosopher of this age, he is emphasizing the futility of human wisdom.
E. It has no ability to meet the real needs of people or to help them find God and salvation.
F. We can see this in the writings of the ancient Greek philosophers that Paul must have read, since he was educated as a Roman citizen before he came under Gamaliel.
G. The same thing is true of most modern philosophies, especially the humanism and the atheistic existentialism that dominates much of education today.
H. They portray the universe "as totally lacking purpose and ultimate destiny," and therefore without room for God or for any meaning or hope.
I. They all end up on a dead-end street. Their naturalistic philosophies are truly foolish, truly absurd. We must avoid them and the secular worldview that depends on them (Horton, 27-29).
B. God's Power
1. "Supposing there was no intelligence behind the universe, no creative mind. In that case, nobody designed my brain for the purpose of thinking. It is merely that when the atoms inside my skull happen, for physical or chemical reasons, to arrange themselves in a certain way, this gives me, as a by-product, the sensation I call thought. But, if so, how can I trust my own thinking to be true? It's like upsetting a milk jug and hoping that the way it splashes itself will give you a map of London. But if I can't trust my own thinking, of course I can't trust the arguments leading to Atheism, and therefore have no reason to be an Atheist, or anything else. Unless I believe in God, I cannot believe in thought: so I can never use thought to disbelieve in God."
-C.S. Lewis
2. Human wisdom is no comparison to the the power of an almighty God!
A. Ephesians 1:19-21 (NLT)
I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power 20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. 21 Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come.
B. People today from Stephen Hawking to any local community college professor will tell you that to believe in God is absurd.
C. You will hear it from the media, politicians, entertainers and TV personalities make fun of Christians and our Savior Jesus Christ.
D. But in reality they are the foolish ones. To believe that this world came as the result of a cosmic explosion rather created by an intelligent creator are the absurd ones.
E. It is far more intelligent to believe in an all powerful all knowing God.
F. To me it takes a lot more faith to believe that we came from a cosmic explosion or evolved from a lower species.
G. It makes much more sense to me that we were created by a loving and merciful God who loved us so much that he sent his Son to come and die on the cross for our sins!
Transition: Not only is the cross the power of God, but to unbelievers...
II. The Cross Is Offensive (21-23).
A. We Preach Christ Crucified
1. Next Paul talks about how God chose to reveal his truth to the world.
2. In v. 21 he says, "Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe."
A. God deliberately chose a way that would confound man's wisdom and reason.
B. Man in his wisdom could not discover what God is like. He has never discovered his duty to God without revelation, and that is part of God's wise providence.
C. God deliberately chose the "foolishness of preaching." It is possible that Paul was referring to content, the foolishness of the thing preached (the Cross) (Hamar, 271).
D. God, however, knows that human wisdom could not know Him.
E. Therefore, in His wisdom, He was pleased to use the preaching of what the world called foolishness in order to save those who believe.
F. The preaching of the Cross, along with the declaration that the crucified and resurrected Jesus is Lord and Savior, is still the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, that is, who keeps on believing and obeying the gospel (Rom. 1:16) (Horton, 27-29).
3. Then Paul says in vv. 22-23, "It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. 23 So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense."
A. Paul knew the Jews came to Jesus demanding a miraculous sign from heaven (Luke 11:16, 29-30).
B. This was characteristic of them. They knew from the Law and the Prophets that God is a miracle-working God. But they were not convinced by the miracles of Jesus.
C. Jesus told them that the only sign that would save them would be the sign of the prophet Jonah—fulfilled in His death and resurrection. But even this sign would fail to convince them if they did not accept Jesus as the fulfillment of the prophetic Word (cf. what Abraham told the rich man in hell: "'If they [the rich man's brothers] do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"
D. The Greeks, on the other hand, were not concerned about miracles.
E. They loved to speculate and wanted to satisfy their intellectual curiosity. They exalted their philosophers and kept seeking human wisdom, exalting themselves and their own human reason as they did so.
F. The only wisdom that could save them was a faith that accepts God's judgment on human wisdom and accepts the apparent foolishness of the Cross as truly wise.
G. Paul kept preaching Christ as the crucified One even in the face of the opposition of Jews and Greeks, for those who respond to God's call, whether Jew or Gentile, find in Christ the power and wisdom of God.
H. What the Gentiles thought was the crazy foolishness of God, that is, the Cross, proves to be wiser than any human wisdom.
I. What the Jews thought was weakness when they saw Jesus hanging on the cross and dying proved to be stronger than any human strength.
J. No human wisdom has been able to transform lives the way people are transformed when they come to the Cross.
K. No human power has been able to raise the dead and give a new life to believers.
L. Human wisdom cannot help us to know God. But we can all receive the answer to Paul's prayer that "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better" (Horton, 29-30).
B. Speak The Truth
1. Illustration: In the 18th Century, Selina Countess of Huntington invited the Duchess of Buckingham to come and here George Whitfield preach. The Duchess wrote to the Countess of Huntington about the Gospel that Whitefield and his fellow "Methodists" preached as follows:
"It is monstrous to be told that you have a heart as sinful as the common wretches that crawl on the earth.
This is highly offensive and insulting; and I cannot but wonder that your Ladyship should relish any sentiments so much at variance with high rank and good breeding.That letter tells us a lot about her and even one of her easy going acquaintances found her obnoxious.
Her pride closed her ears to the Gospel. For it is only when we realise that we are as "sinful as those common wretches" that we are open to the Gospel.
2. People find the Gospel offensive because it sheds light on their sin.
a. Matthew 15:12-14 (NLT)
Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you realize you offended the Pharisees by what you just said?” 13 Jesus replied, “Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be uprooted, 14 so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.”
b. There is a very dangerous ideal in our society that has crept into the Church. It's the concept of not offending anyone.
c. It causes us to water down the message of the Gospel in order to make it palatable for our society.
d. But all we have to do is look at Jesus himself to see that he never danced around the truth for fear that he might offend someone.
e. He did this because he knew that anytime you confront people with their sin they will get offended.
f. However, he also knew that if we do not confront people in their sin they will remain lost and without hope.
g. He told people if they give up their lives for the Gospel they will find it but if they hold on to their lives they will lose it!
h. His disciples after him did not shy away from preaching the message of the Cross with boldness, and as a result, they turned the world on it's ear.
i. They did so because they defeated the devil by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die (Rev. 12:11).
j. And when we worry more about what other people will think of us than the Great Commission we are not being disciples of Jesus!
k. It's time to stop worrying about what people in our society think and start concerning ourselves with what Jesus has commanded us!
Transition: The cross is the power of God, it is offensive, and...
III. The Cross Is The Plan Of God (24-25).
A. Foolish Plan Of God
1. There is an old saying that says, "if you fail to plan you plan to fail." When we fell away from God because of our sin, God had a plan to bring us back.
2. Paul says in v. 24, "But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God."
A. The preaching of the cross of Christ has great effect. It changes people, calls them to faith, and unites and crosses all manmade boundaries, for it is the direct revelation and plan of God.
B. Man, with his highest achievements, cannot touch God; he cannot find Him; he cannot exhaust Him; he cannot understand Him.
C. The gospel, which speaks so eloquently of Jesus Christ, reveals God and demonstrates His power to every generation.
D. To those who accept, it is power and wisdom (Hamar, 273).
3. Paul goes on to say in v. 25, "This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength."
A. The reason the Cross is so powerful to those who accept is because of the nature of God in comparison with man.
B. It is difficult, even impossible, to believe God could do anything foolish or weak. That is not the point. The point is twofold.
C. If God ever did anything foolish or weak, it would still far exceed man's capabilities.
D. Yet even that falls somewhat short of Paul's point. Man often views something that God does as foolish or weak because he is too frail to understand God, too weak to see the power of His purposes.
E. Therefore, even though God appears foolish and weak in the eyes of men, it is because God's work is so much higher and better than men can grasp with their limited perception.
F. So, in pride and weakness, they reject the program of God (Hamar, 273).
G. However, if we accept that we don't know everything and submit to God's plan we find new life at the Cross.
B. Plan Of Salvation
1. C.S. Lewis wrote in his book, The Screwtape Letters, There is a legend about Satan and his imps planning their strategy for attacking the world that's hearing the message of salvation. One of the demons says, I've got the plan, master. When I get on earth and take charge of people's thinking, I'll tell them there's no heaven.
The devil responds, "Ah, they'll never believe that. This Book of Truth is full of messages about the hope of heaven through sins forgiven. They won’t believe that. They know there's a glory yet future."
On the other side of the room another says, "I've got the plan. I'll tell ‘em there's no hell."
"No good," he says. "Jesus, while He was on earth, talked more of hell than of heaven. They know in their hearts that their wrong will have to be taken care of in some way. They deserve nothing more than hell."
And one brilliant little imp in the back stood up and said, "Then I know the answer. I'll just tell them there's no hurry." And he's the one Satan chose."
2. From the very beginning God had a plan to save us and it involved the cross.
A. Isaiah 53:5-6 (NLT)
But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all.
B. From the time that Adam and Eve sinned God had a plan to bring us back.
C. He said to the devil that the woman's offspring would crush his head, and he was talking about Jesus.
D. There are over 300 prophecies about Jesus death and resurrection.
E. The cross was a part of God's plan of redemption.
F. Jesus knew from the very beginning that this was his destiny because it was God's plan.
G. He told his disciples many times that it was the plan for him to be crucified but that he would rise on the third day.
H. After the resurrection he went through the Scriptures and explained to his disciples that this had been God's plan.
I. The question that you must ask today is have you accepted God's plan?
J. Have you accepted what Jesus did for you on the cross?
Conclusion
1. There are so many similarities between the world we live in and the one that Paul lived in.
A. Immorality was rampant.
B. Pluralism was the religion of the day.
C. Being a Christian was life threatening.
2. Yet he stood with the wisdom of the cross.
3. According to Paul...
A. The Cross Is The Power Of God
B. The Cross Is Offensive
C. The Cross Is The Plan Of God
4. Are you willing today to stand with the wisdom of the cross?
5. Are you willing to share the wisdom of the cross regardless of what they think about you?
6. Are you willing to take up the power of the cross?
