1 Corinthians 2:6-10 Wisdom of the Spirit!

1 Corinthians 2:6-10  We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.  No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.  None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.  However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” — but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

What is Paul talking about when he says that God has revealed it to us by his Spirit?  What has been revealed?  Why Jesus Christ?  Why the resurrection?  Why this new creation idea?  Paul is talking about salvation: his firm belief that the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.  (Titus 2:11)   Salvation from sin, from finiteness, from eternal damnation, from nothingness after death.  This salvation brought true life, eternal life, to all people who are found in Christ, trusting in his works, not their own works.  We who were once lost, away from God, are now found.  This is the mystery, a wisdom that has been hidden.  In this temporary existence, we function by using our human thought processes, the wisdom of this age.  We depend on the brain's ability to function in this world.  The brain's chemical/electrical system identifies life's necessities and also provides us with the necessary skills and components to navigate life successfully.  The brain exposes life to us, allows us to interact with life, provides knowledge about where we are in our existence: our history, our future.  But this thinking system will physically fail at death.  The brain's usefulness to us will cease: this elaborate, delicate system of thinking will disappear, die with our earthly body.  Then what will happen to us?  Our cognition?  Will we merely become hosts to the elements of decay?  Is that all there is to life when we breathe our last breaths and our brains shut down?   Paul knew that each believer was a host of the Almighty God through the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.  We are not finite: our spirits will live on.  Not only will we live on, we will be glorified, known forever as children of God, at home with the Lord.  That is why Paul so emphatically repeats what has been written: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.  Why does he say this with such passion?  He says it with total determination because God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.  He believed in the words of Jesus, who said, In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  (John 14:2-3)

In today's passage, Paul speaks a message of wisdom among the mature Christians.  He describes a spiritual reality: a life cannot be measured by the methods of the world, with an empirical understanding of existence.  He talks about a life that does not have its dependency on the existence of the flesh, for the flesh will die; brain activity will cease.  But there is a world that exists beyond those realities, and that existence is a spiritual one.  Whether in the body or out of the body, we will know the God of existence.  All we see alive around us is a reflection of God.  Every bird flying through the air, every animal bounding over the land, every insect crawling along the earth's surface, every reptile, every living organism reflects God.  All life cries out there is a God, a living force that occupies this world.  All the vegetation that carpets this world cries out God amongst us.  He has revealed himself to us through the life He has created here on earth.  But this life is but elementary to the fantastic life of the everlasting God.  The Bible says: The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  (Psalms 19:1)  We see life on earth as complex; we analyze it, inspect it, tear it apart; sometimes with the intention of knowing enough about our surroundings that we can replace the Creator, so that we can become God.  But we will never find the Creator with that mindset.  We might alter the DNA of organisms, even our human DNA, supposedly to make better creatures, immune to disease and dysfunctions.  But we will never become God or bring him down from his exalted position as Creator God.  Paul says that man's wisdom, his knowledge, his ability to comprehend existence with his brain will always fall short of knowing God: we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.  To know the reason for man's existence depends on God's wisdom that has been revealed through Jesus Christ alone.  Knowing Jesus is the mature Christian's wisdom and knowledge.  Salvation, real life, is found through Christ alone: not in the facade of life, not in finite life, not in the life of troubles and pain; but in real life, life forever in the kingdom of God.  Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  (John 14:6)

How often as believers do we function as immature Christians with futile and carnal thinking.  We try to find meaning in this life by getting the most out of what the world offers.  Our endeavors are focused on the activities and realities of this life rather than eternal life.  When difficulties hit us, we wonder where God is, but we have not walked closely with the Lord every day.  When we do not get all that we desire out of life, we wonder why God hasn't provided more success for us.  When we feel sick, when events transpire in ways we do not desire, we complain.  We forget while experiencing the vicissitudes of life that God exists all of the time, and He is in control of those who love him.  Paul told the church in Rome that we have the Holy Spirit to intercede for us when we do not know how to pray.  He goes on to say: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.  (Romans 8:28)  This does not mean all things are good, but that God will use everything that we yield to him for our good in the long run, for He is the blessed controller of all things.  The glorious message that we have to tell is what Paul expresses so well in our focus today: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.  This is the message God wants us to embrace.  Drop your intentions to comprehend spiritual existence through the chemical/electrical impulses of your mind.  Of course, God uses our minds, but there is another reality beyond our human ability to think: the voice of God, the still small voice of the Spirit.  If your brain ceases to function today, the Spirit will remain, talking to your spirit.  His reality is that true, that evident in us.  We are alive because He is alive in us.  We will be resurrected because the life in us is not our own, but is Christ Jesus' life through the Spirit of God.  God will never leave us or forsake us.  The Spirit says to us, "I will lift you up just as I delivered Jesus from death and the grave."  Because of Jesus' resurrection, we too will be resurrected from our lifeless bodies.  Paul told the Colossians this was the mystery God had made known: Christ in you, the hope of glory.  (Colossians 1:27)  Amen!  

1 Corinthians 2:1-5 Demonstrate God's Power

1 Corinthians 2:1-5  When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.  For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling.  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.

Paul came to the church with a message of power, not merely of words.  Today, we often hear a message of words and not of power.  What power is Paul talking about?  He is talking about the power to transform lives.  Also, he is talking about God's direct intervention in lives through miracles, dreams, prophetic words.  His message of God with us is a message of transforming power that changes the lives of fallen men and women.  We, who are IN CHRIST, are changed from earthly creatures to heavenly creatures, alive in Christ.  But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.  And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.  (Romans 8:10-11)  Our minds are changed, our attitudes about life change, our desires change.  Our wills are dedicated to Christ and not to our own desires.  The power Paul talks about in simple terms, without eloquence or superior wisdom, is the power that changes lives: the Holy Spirit.  Man's words without the Holy Spirit's transforming inspiration and work are just good words, portrayals of man's earthly wisdom and knowledge and descriptions of his good deeds.  But the inspired words of God come with the punch of the Holy Spirit, the holy anointing of God.  These divine words convict men of sin, of unrighteousness; they reveal clearly the hopelessness of life without God.  The Holy Spirit draws men to God, persuading them to commit their lives to God, to die to their own wills, placing God's will foremost in their hearts and minds.  This is the message of power that Paul was talking about, a power that enables him (Jesus) to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.  (Philippians 3:21)  Paul knew, without salvation and the Holy Spirit's presence in people's lives, nothing will change.  Life will go on as it has always gone on with human beings struggling in their own strength against the powers of sin and darkness. 

When Jesus was on Earth, He taught the disciples many things.  He demonstrated the power of God by performing many miracles.  He lived intimately with the disciples.  As John reveals, Jesus did many other things as well.  If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.  (John 20:30)  The disciples had seen and knew more about Jesus than any other group of people.  They had seen him perform more miracles than have been recorded.  They heard his wisdom, knowledge, and spiritual insights on many subjects, more than they had written down.  Yet, even though they had this expansive walk with Jesus, they did not understand fully his message of salvation.  They did not comprehend the depth of Jesus' work and God's plan for mankind until the Holy Spirit fell on them on the day of Pentecost.  We must remember the prophecy from Jesus' lips concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit just before He was taken up into heaven: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.  (Acts 1:8)  After they were filled with the Spirit, the Spirit brought them into the knowledge of God's plan to save his creation from eternal damnation.  This plan is centered upon the cross.  For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  The cross is the power of God.  In the King James Version of the Bible, the Romans 8 verses we read earlier say the Spirit will quicken your mortal bodies.  This image seems more powerful that merely giving us life.  We can see the dead instantly rising up, quickened by the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit.  We who believe in the cross have the power of God in us, the same power that did not leave Christ in the grave but conquered death and the grave forever.  We have the constant companionship of the Lord because of the cross.  We have the power of God in our lives, at our mouths.  Paul quotes from Deuteronomy to the church in Rome to encourage them in the Spirit: The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart.  (Romans 10:8)  Miracles happen because we believe God is, and He will do wonderful things for us.  Our belief and faith in God rests in the cross and its power to redeem and to empower the church of the living God.

As Paul reveals so clearly in his teaching, the power of God does not come to us in our strength, but in our weaknesses.  When we give up living our lives in our own strength, God takes over.  Paul said at another time that the Lord said to him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  (2 Corinthians 12:9)  When we see clearly that we need to be "saved," that we need a Savior daily, then his power becomes our resource.  We who are IN CHRIST know who we are: For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  (Ephesians 2:10)   We are no longer our own: we are new creatures, known as the children of God.  Without his transforming power in our lives, we are just people of words.  We are like those who talk a good game, using eloquent words, abstractions upon abstractions, making people think they are expositors of light, but in reality they are expressing darkness.  We see these people on our television screens, philosophers of darkness:  These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm.  Blackest darkness is reserved for them.  For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.  They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity — for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.  (2 Peter 2:17-19)  What masters us?  Have we committed our whole life to God?  Did we repent of our old life or did we just add Christ to our present life?  Repentance is necessary for real life--turning away from sin.  We are new creatures, not just refurbished old creatures, adding Christ to our lives as a vaccination.  We are not vaccinated Christians: we are new creatures with a new design.  Christ is our life!  The cross is the power of this new life.  We are dead to this world, but alive to Christ, EMPOWERED TO DO HIS WILL.  As with Paul, our lives do not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.

1 Corinthians 20-31 Seek God's Wisdom!

1 Corinthians 20-31  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?  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.  Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.  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, so that no one may boast before him.  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.  Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things of the world to shame human understanding.  God's emphasis on the foolish, the weak, the lowly, and the despised things of the world embarrasses man's understanding of life through rational thinking.  Man wants God to prove his existence in some measured or pronounced way, maybe through miracles that prove He exists or through man's natural thinking processes.  Humans want God to come out from behind the curtain, to manifest himself in some special way, to answer our prayers when we congregate in his name or to solve Earth's problems such as wars and conflicts.  We want him as the panacea for all our problems, to come to us when we need him: then He would be God to us.  But if He is reluctant to expose himself on demand in a direct way, according to our wishes, perhaps He should let us discover him through our philosophers and deep thinkers, by revealing himself to them.  Then these men of wisdom and knowledge would help all of us know and appreciate this "unknown God."  Why does not God manifest himself in some reasonable or rational way?  Does it not seem sensible that God would perform marvelous acts here on Earth if He really existed, or that God would give certain learned individuals or wise men the ability to expose the living God--the entity behind the heavenly curtain--if He really exists.  Paul says, Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom.  In our carnal thinking, we say, if God is God, He must expose himself in a way that allows us to understand who He is.  He must reveal himself to us in our context of reality, through our human thinking processes, according to our perspective.  Do not give us this Christ, the wisdom of God, explanation.  We do not and cannot understand such talk.  This Christian idea of life through the cross has no validity for us; it is foolishness.  Who can believe that in one man, a dead man, new life, eternal life, came to all people.  NONSENSE !  As we read in the last breakfast, 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.  (1 Corinthians 1:18)

Yes, Paul tells the Corinthians again, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.  We must be saved to understand Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.  The cross of Christ is beyond the understanding of the unredeemed.  The natural mind does not want to die to self and become alive to God through the power of the risen Son of the living God.  A rebellious sinner without the call of the Holy Spirit does not want to admit, "I am lost and I need a Savior."  We read in Acts that Paul preached to a group of people, and although some believed, many would not.  He saw the hardness of their hearts and used these words from Isaiah: You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.  For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.  Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.  (Acts 28:26-27)  Through the indwelling Holy Spirit, we have the power to receive Christ, have our hearts cleansed from sin and our ears opened to the voice of God.  We can begin to see clearly the truth of God and to understand his will for our lives.  Outside of Christ, we are lost in a world that lifts up all that is contrary to God and enslaves us to a life of darkness.  In today's verses we read, Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  We see this in Jesus' ministry by the people He interacted with daily: He usually chose ordinary people.  One day Jesus saw a beggar, blind since birth.  Jesus made mud from saliva mixed with dirt.  He put it on the man's eyes and told him to go wash in Pool of Siloam.  When the man was healed, there was much amazement and concern about his healing.  Both the man and his parents are questioned at the temple, but the parents did not want to tell about Jesus for fear of being put out of the synagogue.  Finally, when the Jews wanted the healed man to denounce Jesus as a sinner, the man says, One thing I do know.  I was blind but now I see!  At the end of the interaction, when Jesus hears of the man being thrown out of the temple, He finds him and asks, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”  The man asks who he is and how to believe.  Jesus tells him and he says, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.  (See John 9)  This is faith in action: I believe in the wisdom of God rather than in the wisdom of men.

As newborn men and women of God, we no longer follow the precepts of this world:  We live by faith, not by sight.  (2 Corinthians 5:7)  Walking by faith is not always easy.  We cannot see the path clearly at times, and we must depend upon the Holy Spirit for guidance and wisdom on our journey.  We read in the Word: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  (Hebrews 11:1)  This seems paradoxical: a substance is something we can hold onto, take into our hands; evidence is something real and tangible that holds up in a court of law.  Yet here we are talking about something we cannot see, touch or substantiate: faith in God.  So God asks us to have a belief in him that is as real as something we can actually hold onto and prove to the whole world.  When Paul describes his former life to his spiritual son, Timothy, he goes on to give his testimony.  Every believer can declare today with our brother Paul: Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — of whom I am the worst.  But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.  Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever.  Amen.  (1 Timothy 1:15-17)  Jesus came into the world to save sinners.  We will not find him in a miracle, although the miracle may open our eyes to the reality that He is alive; and we will not find him in the mysteries of the scholars of all the ages.  But we will find him in the simple faith of a child who sings with eyes toward heaven: Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so!  This is our anthem.  Jesus loves ME!  I was blind but now I see.  I was lost but now I am found.  Lift up your heads, brothers and sisters of faith; for you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God — that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  Rejoice in him, rest in him, go forth in his name.  You are his witnesses.
     

1 Corinthians 1:17-19 Christ the Hope of Glory

1 Corinthians 1:17-19  For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel — not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.  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.  For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

These are beautiful verses, explaining Christianity in its fullness.  The message of the cross is foolishness to the world, but to believers it is the missing piece in a puzzle.  The cross brings all of life into focus.  God is love and He wants to restore us unto himself as his prized possession of all that He has created.  He wants us near him, to see him, to know him.  All of this comes through the cross.  The death of Christ brought all of us who believe to the grave, but the resurrection of Jesus brought us to life in him, the Creator of all things.  In the death, we became literally nothing, without life; yet without the death, we could not be recreated.  But IN CHRIST, when He arose, we arose with him as new creations.  Before the cross, we were enemies to God in a dark world as Paul describes so well: As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  Then he goes on to say: But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  (Ephesians 1-2 & 2:4-7)  No longer does this world hold us captive; no longer will we die, as all flesh does.  No, our earthly bodies die, but our spirits will live eternally in the bosom of the Lord.  We who once were captives to sin are now alive IN GOD: We IN HIM and HE IN us.  What a miracle!  We cannot preach or proclaim any other gospel.  Paul says he preaches not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.  No answers of eternal life with God will come through the world's knowledge or wisdom.  He dared not use human wisdom or worldly understanding for fear of affecting the power of the cross, but he would preach in the power of the Holy Spirit despite the rejection of the world.

We who are IN CHRIST have the Holy Spirit in us to bring an understanding of God and his domain.  We believe there are more chapters in our book of life that will be written by the Holy Spirit in us.  Paul wrote to the Corinthians with confidence because he believed in the Holy Spirit's work in every Christian's life.  He knew the Spirit was alive and active in the church, for God had fulfilled the prophecy of the prophet Joel: “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions."  (Joel 2:28)  The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead now lived in men and women, giving them power to overcome the evil one and to show the works of God.  All of us who know Christ have the Spirit resident in our lives.  As truly as the cross saves, the Spirit exists and resides in those who believe in the work of the cross.   We exist eternally because the Spirit is eternal and He exists in us.  We who are alive IN HIM have many questions about the meaning of life and our place in God's plan.  These questions make us passionate about the Word of God.  We seek the Word for our daily existence.  The Bible, inspired by the Holy Spirit, helps us understand who we are and who God is.  But questions and answers are never enough for our daily lives; we need more to exist happily in this life; and that comes through the infilling of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit plants Christ, the living Word, deeply inside us.  Christ's spirit inside our minds helps us to overcome every day.  When we feel lonely, He is there; when we fear, He is there; when we need hope, He is there!  The Spirit reminds us of the truth and directs us to the comfort of the Word: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.  (Psalm 46:1-3)  We traverse life successfully in all situations because God is there.  He will never leave us or abandon us.  He will always be there when we need him.  Without him, we are a puzzle with a missing piece, incomplete, unfinished, unable to display its full beauty. 

In the middle of the night, Dad heard this thought from the Spirit: "Questions asked, answers shared."  As members of the body of Christ, we all have questions for God.  We are really pilgrims in this land.  Peter called us aliens and strangers in the world.  (1 Peter 2:11)  The answers the world has for us about existence and eternity depend on man's limited knowledge and wisdom.  Paul rejected human understanding, casting it aside to gain the wisdom and knowledge of God from the Spirit.  He considered what he knew before Christ as dung.  Paul was not like the other apostles who lived and walked with Jesus for three years.  They had heard Jesus' words and listened to his teachings.  They knew him as a man and as the healer, performer of miracles, God on Earth.  They had seen it all, heard it all.  Yet they were not the powerful instruments that Paul was in passing on the words of God to generations of people.  Paul had to learn everything from God through the voice of the Holy Spirit.  Yes, he conversed with the apostles at times, but mostly his teaching comes from his communion with the Spirit.  In the body of Christ, we must also commune with the Spirit hourly, daily, minute by minute, if we are to grow in our knowledge of Christ and in our faith.  In those times of communion, we will have questions about life that only God can answer satisfactorily.  We will want the sustenance for our eternal lives that only God can give.  Our eternal lives depend upon Christ in us.  Paul called this the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations:  Christ in you, the hope of glory.  (Colossians 1:26-27)  At times Paul describes our Christian journey as the growth from infancy to adulthood.  On this journey of maturing, we require daily food from God.  That is why we pray, read the Word, and seek God for answers.  If we are alive in Christ, we will have answers from God for our questions.  Let us share WHAT WE HEAR with others in the body of Christ, so that we all will live more abundantly IN CHRIST.  Paul said he would rather have people prophesy than use any other gift, sharing what God has revealed to them.  To the world, it is foolishness, but to believers in the cross it is the power of God.  For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”  Bless you as you share the Lord.