MPC, 6th April 2003.1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5 "It's all about Jesus"
Matt Rowson MPC, 6th April 2003.
There was a Sunday School teacher who had a class of 5 year olds, and she thought she was becoming a bit too predictable for her kids, and they were getting a bit bored of her style so she thought she would try a different approach one Sunday morning to break the cycle of predictability.
So one morning after she marked the roll she asked the class...
"Who can tell me what is grey and fury and lives in a gum
tree?"
The children were all taken by surprise by this totally
unexpected and new approach
"Come on" she asked "someone must know!
What is grey and fury and lives in a gum tree? It has a black
leathery nose and beady eyes."
Still no response from the worried looking 5 year olds.
"Surely you know." She said. "It eats gum leaves and has fury
ears"
Well a small girl slowly raised her hand in the air with much
hesitation and said
"I know it's Jesus... but he sure sounds like a
koala."
I think this story highlights that, even from a young age, as church goers we know that Jesus is at the centre of what we teach and what we do. I don't care what it sounds like, the answer has to be Jesus as that girl in Sunday School thought.
We're going to be looking at the first few Core Values we have as a church this week and next week as we lead into Easter. And so it's no surprise of course that the message of Jesus' death and resurrection and the teaching of that message is at the heart of what we do and is at the top of the core values we have as a church.
It's good as a church to refresh ourselves on what our core values are, and to remind ourselves of the things that should be shaping what we do. You'll find that most companies and businesses have a set of core values these days, because they're a useful tool. Having a set of Core Values is a way of formalising how you value things. It shapes what you do, what you don't do, where you focus your time and energy and resources.
And so they're good things to have as a church as well, so that we know what's important for us as a church, so we know why we're doing what we're doing and how we go about things. And so today we're looking at the first couple of Core Values we have here at MPC.
Now usually you would expect a core value to be something impressive and "wise"
But in the case of our top core value, it's about a message that - in the world's eyes; in the eyes of your friends, your workmates, and even maybe your family - in the world's eyes it's a foolish message.
You'll find it on your order of service you received this morning. Have a look at it with me.
We value the good news that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, gave up his life for the sins of the world, and rose from the dead to rule the world. We seek to share this news.
The message we seek to share, our core value at the top of the list, is about a crucified Christ. But as Paul says in verse 18, "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing."
God's people, the Jews, had been waiting for the Christ to come for centuries. The coming of their great and powerful King sent from God to free them from their enemies!
What would the wise tell us how things should have been? A great King coming to power - amassing wealth, respect, kingdoms, armies, and then conquering all enemies with a swift display of awesome power to make a US lead "Shock and Awe" attack look like a schoolyard fight.
But that is worldly wisdom, that's the way the world would expect the story to go - it's not what God had planned - it's not what God in his wisdom decided should happen
When the one who claims to be the one sent from God, the long awaited Messiah comes, what happens?
He travels around with a relatively small following for a few years before he is finally arrested and nailed to a cross, humiliated, despised and rejected with all his followers and friends deserting him and leaving him to die a cruel and painful death alone at the hands of the Romans. How could that possibly be God's powerful Christ?
That couldn't be the Christ, surely not, there's no wisdom in that!.
Paul says in verse 22-23:
Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles...
The Jews wanted to see a display of power and triumph over their enemies.
And for the gentiles as well, the Greeks, the message was foolish to them also with their quest to find God through their own human wisdom and philosophies.
The message of the cross, of a Crucified Christ, was foolishness.
But for all its impressiveness, human wisdom fails because by human wisdom we cannot know God.
First half of Verse 21, "In the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him."
And it's always been human wisdom that says "I can find my way to God"
It's typical of most religious thinking in the world today that you can do something in order to attract God's favour - to earn God's grace.
In Rome there's a well known landmark known as Pilate's Steps, they had been brought there from Jerusalem and were supposedly the steps where Jesus had passed on his way to be tried by Pontius Pilate before his crucifixion.
And they are now in this place of relics and there's a sign next to the steps which says that if you get on your knees and pray a special prayer on every step then God will be more lenient on you on judgment day for doing that.
And tourist coaches drop off crowds of people every day and they start at the bottom step and move up one step at a time and on their knees praying this prayer. There's about 60-70 steps and when they reach the top they go into a special booth for a special confession. The whole thing takes a couple of hours.
When people look at that they might think that it is quite impressive or that it is very wise, very humbling thing to do.
But in reality it's nothing more than great pride and foolishness. Foolishness to think that, without the cross, we can earn our standing before God and avoid God's judgment.
Human wisdom is not the way to know God.
So what was God's plan then?
Look at verse 21 with me...
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.
The world through its wisdom did not know God, it could not know God but through the message of Christ crucified we can know Him. The foolish message of the cross is actually a powerful message. And in God's wisdom, it's the only way to be saved.
And it turns human wisdom on its head...
Paul says from verse 19, "For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.' 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?"
Not in human wisdom but only in Christ Crucified - he is the only way to know God.
It's an exclusive claim isn't it - and it's at the heart of true Christianity. That's why it's at the top of the list of our core values. Because there is no other way to be saved - no other way to know God. Not because that's what I may think, or you may think, but because that's what God, in his wisdom, has decided.
And it's an unpopular message - an unpopular exclusive claim of Jesus that he is the only way. And it doesn't sit well with the wisdom of the world.
I heard of a group of Christian young people who were holidaying at Byron Bay, and they were sitting around and got talking with some people who were also in the place they were going to eat. These people found out that these kids were Christians and they said...
"That's good. Everybody ought to have religion. It's good that you're Christian. There's lots of religious people up here at Byron Bay" they said "and it doesn't matter which religion you have because it all leads to the one God."
And then the foolishness of the cross was revealed.
These Christian kids said "No, all the other religions won't lead to the true God, they might lead to some who are called god's but not the true God - that's the exclusive claim of the Lord Jesus. He alone is the way to know the God."
And these lovely, friendly people they were talking to just got up and left muttering something about arrogant, intolerant Christians.
The foolishness of the cross!
Maybe you have friends who feel this way, work colleagues, family members, maybe you used to feel this way, maybe you still feel this way, that the message of the crucified Christ is foolishness.
Don't be surprised when people say that it's a foolish, intolerant, wrong message.
In Verse 18 Paul says, "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."
And for that reason Christ-centred Bible teaching is at the top of the core values here at MPC. The message of Christ crucified is and always will be the message that the world needs to hear.
Paul goes on to say that it's not only the message that is unimpressive in the world's eyes. The people who believe it are also unimpressive by worldly standards.
In verses 26-28 Paul says,
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. 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. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things--and the things that are not--to nullify the things that are...
God's chosen people, those who believe the foolish message of the cross are by and large just ordinary people. It's usually not the wise, powerful and influential people who accept the message of Christ crucified.
You see, if we could strive to know God by our own cleverness, by our own wisdom and greatness, our impressiveness and importance - then where would our boasting lie? In ourselves. "Aren't we great, we've discovered the mysteries of God, we've found God!"
But that's not how God designed things. It's not in the wisdom of impressive people that God is known, but it's through the foolish message of a crucified Lord, to a far from impressive rabble of ordinary people. It's not because of us but it's because of God that we are saved.
This means that there is no room for boasting in human achievement when it comes to salvation - it is a gift from God and verse 31 sums it up perfectly, Paul quoting from Jeremiah: "Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.'"
In the Gospels, it's usually the oppressed, the sick, the disliked people who follow Jesus. Of course there are exceptions, but generally speaking, it's not the wealthy, or the important, or the impressive who follow him.
So let me just say that if you think you don't mount to much in the world's eyes, and as far as impressiveness, influence and wisdom, remember that God uses people like us to shame the wise.
Now I'm not talking about having it in for those more impressive than ourselves, like some kind of tall-poppy syndrome, but on the day of judgment, God's wisdom in calling you will show up the worldly wisdom of all those who thought that they were self-sufficient and didn't need God, or all those who thought they could do something by their own efforts to impress God.
Remember, it doesn't matter how smart people are, how many degrees they have, how big a following they have and how influential and respected they are. If they haven't put their trust in Jesus as their Saviour and submitted to him as Lord, then in God's eyes they will actually be great fools on the judgment day and will be put to shame by the nobodies, they'll be put to shame and their wisdom overturned by the little Sunday School kids who trust in Jesus as their Saviour and Lord, and who will enter eternity with him.
There's a big bike race in India. They hold it every year. There's a large circular track. Gun goes off. And half an hour later it goes off again. But the winner is not the person who's gone the most distance, but the least.
When the starting gun goes, you have to be up and balancing on your pedals. Your feet aren't allowed to touch the ground. You can creep slowly forward, or even balance on the spot. As long as you don't go backwards.
But imagine if you didn't know the rules. The gun would sound. And off you'd go like a flash. You'd look over your shoulder and laugh. Everyone miles behind. Clearly you were winning... But when the final gun goes, the opposite is true. Instead of being first, you'd actually come last.
That's what God's Kingdom is like, it's an upside down kingdom. It's an unimpressive message and an unimpressive people in the eyes of the world, but when the finishing gun goes off, when Jesus returns, those who thought they came first, who thought they were the impressive, wise winners, will realise that they got it all wrong.
But it's not only an unimpressive message in the eyes of the world, and an unimpressive people, but according to the Corinthians, Paul was an unimpressive messenger - a below par preacher. He says in verse 1 of Chapter 2, "When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God."
You see, the Corinthians were hung up on human impressiveness when it came to preaching. Those days public speaking was like a sport, you'd take your picnic basket and go and watch it on the weekends. And it was done with a lot of flare and eloquence and trickiness. It was very showy and clever. And from what we read in 1 and 2 Corinthians, it's clear that the Corinthians strongly valued this eloquent style of speaking and they looked down on Paul because of it. They thought that what he said mustn't be worth listening to because he wasn't a fancy speaker by the standards of the day.
But Paul would have nothing to do with that. He didn't want to impress on a human level, he wanted to do one thing and one thing only.
Verse 2 he says, "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified."
He didn't want there to be any gloss and frills and hype - he wanted simply and clearly to present the message of Jesus and his death.
That's what our second Core Value is on about. Let me read it...
We value clear, Christ-centred Bible teaching that leads to trusting in Jesus as Saviour, and obeying him as Lord.
For Paul, what was more important than being fancy and clever was being simple, clear and Christ-centred.
Far from being impressive Paul says in verse 3 that when he preached the gospel to them, he came in weakness and fear and with much trembling (a verse that's been a great comfort to me at times).
He says in verse 4, "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power."
If Paul had used trickery and fancy, impressive techniques to win people over to the gospel, then you might say that the only reason they believed was because of Paul's cleverness as a preacher. And that would not be where people's faith should lie.
But as it is, those who believed his message did so through the clear, simple preaching of Christ crucified, and therefore those who believed did so because of the power of God through the gospel and their faith would rest on God, not on a clever salesman.
Back when I was at uni, I was on the train with a uni friend one day. He wasn't a Christian but we got talking about Jesus and the gospel, and he said he wasn't interested in becoming a Christian unless it meant he would be able to have some of God's power.
He told me, "What's the point of being in a personal relationship with the Creator of the universe if you couldn't have some of that power - something that ordinary people don't have?"
The kind of thing he was looking for was the stuff from the movies, to be able to move objects telepathically and have all these other supernatural powers.
But that's not how God's power is displayed, is it? God's power is demonstrated by people hearing the gospel and believing - people being saved, and the evidence of the change of life in those who have turned away from their old way of life to follow and obey the true and living God.
And with Paul's preaching to the Corinthians, people weren't tricked into it, they weren't talked into it by the impressiveness of Paul himself, or the impressiveness with which he spoke.
The message was simple, plain and clear. Jesus Christ and him crucified so that their faith wouldn't rest on human wisdom, but on God.
So how will these core values affect what we do?
Well, let me encourage you, first of all, to make sure that you never move on from the simple message of Christ crucified as your core value, for us as a church and individually. Human wisdom will get bored of it and want to move on to something else, maybe something that has the veneer of Christianity but is actually seeking something more impressive. Remember that God's power and wisdom is in the foolish message of the cross.
As a church, we need to make sure that what's being taught up the front at church, in our growth Groups and in all our other ministries, is Christ-centred Bible teaching because that is how God brings people to trust in Jesus as Saviour and obey him as Lord. Test what is said and keep each other accountable.
And encourage those who teach you, encourage it when you see Christ-centred Bible teaching happening in the various ministries of the church. Whether it's Phil and Maurie or Kidzbiz and Youthworks leaders, WOW leaders, Growth Group leaders. We need to encourage it and value it.
And when as a church we are doing things that come from our core values and in particular these first two, get behind it and support it.
Let's actively show that...
We do value the good news that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, gave up his life for the sins of the world, and rose from the dead to rule the world. And that we seek to share this news.
And that's why...
We value clear, Christ-centred Bible teaching that leads to trusting in Jesus as Saviour, and obeying him as Lord.
As a church we aim to be like Paul whose message was simple, plain and clear. Jesus Christ and him crucified. And it was through this unimpressive message, to an unimpressive bunch of people, by an unimpressive preacher that God's great power was demonstrated as people believed and were saved.
And that's what we pray God would be continuing to do here at Mitchy as well.