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.