Feb 9, 2020  SERMON ARCHIVE

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

The text for our meditation today is the Epistle Lesson for this 5th Sunday After Epiphany 1 Corinthians 2:1-12. There we read these words:

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him," these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

We begin in the name of Jesus, Amen

It’s really all so simple. You are sinful. You do things and say things that are wrong. You have got thoughts bouncing around your head that are no good at all. But worse than that, it is not just that the things you do are wrong. There is something wrong about you. You don’t even need someone to tell you that. Your conscience does just fine. It’s that simple.

But so is this. God loves you so much that He sent His Son to save you. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became man. He was born of Mary, with flesh and blood. He saved you because He died on a cross in your place. God judged His Son, instead of you, for your sin. Now that the price is paid, God does not hold your sin against you. He forgives you. You don’t earn this forgiveness. He gives it to you. He speaks it to you in His Word. He gives it to you in Holy Baptism, by means of water and the Word. He delivers it to you in the Lord’s Supper, where He gives you His body and blood—in, with and under bread and wine.

Because Jesus died that death for you, you have eternal life. It’s really that simple. God’s plan of salvation for you is that simple. The words are easy, too: the only words that topped two syllables in that explanation are forgiveness, eternal life and Baptism. Not only is it simple, but it’s powerful. It’s the Gospel, the power of salvation to all those who believe.

So when Paul preached the Gospel to the Corinthians, he kept it simple. He didn’t have to: if you read through Romans or Ephesians, you know that Paul could very easily construct a thorough argument and address complex situations. He was by no means a simpleton.

But in his preaching to the Corinthians, he said "I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." He went on to say why: the Corinthians were Greeks in a happening city. Greeks were all about philosophy and debate and discussion.

Think Plato, Aristotle, Socrates. They liked complex intellectual discussion: they liked to be wowed by a speaker who could tie their minds into pretzels. It was standard operating procedure to be awed by the wisdom, to respect the clever, to reward the engaging speaker.

Paul did not want them to go home talking about his oratorical skills, his funny anecdotes or the program he’d put together. He wanted them to leave knowing that they had heard the Gospel.

So he kept it simple: he knew nothing among them except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But besides making sure that the style did not hide the substance, he had another reason: "I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God."

He wanted to make clear that faith doesn’t come by knowing or understanding, and that salvation doesn’t come by creating some intellectual ladder to God. He wanted faith to come, and faith is the work of the Spirit. Faith comes by hearing, Paul notes in Romans 10—hearing the Word of God.

So Paul spoke to them the simple Gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, so that the Holy Spirit might work through that Word of God with power. And, he was dismissed by many for the "foolishness" of his message—that’s why he wrote in chapter 1 about how the wisdom of God—the Gospel—was folly to those who are perishing. A lot of people wrote him off, dismissed him as a fool.

And yet, many people also believed: Paul wrote this letter to the Church at Corinth, to those who had heard that simple Gospel and believed. You know, there is a huge lesson here for the Church in our present time: salvation is about hearing the Word of God and believing it.

It’s not how clever the sermon or how witty the preacher. It’s not about how good is the band or how lively is the music. It’s not about how stylish the sanctuary or how well-crafted the mission statement on the sign. It’s about preaching Christ and Him crucified. It’s me telling you that Jesus died to take away your sins. It’s you telling others the same. You are not doing the convincing. You are not doing the saving. Nor am I. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit: you are just the mouth, so don’t go stepping on His toes.

If you feel like a fool speaking the Gospel, it probably means that you are doing it right: because the Gospel sounds foolish to those who do not believe. But to those who do, it is Christ the power of God and Christ the wisdom of God.

Evangelism is not about programs and emotions. It’s not ambience and atmosphere. It’s words and water, bread and wine. It’s that simple, that blessedly simple. This will lead the world to scoff that it’s just too childish or easy; of course, if the Lord made it a high-filootin. intellectual exercise, then the world would whine that it was just too hard.

It is about faith in Christ and Him crucified, not wisdom. That’s how Paul began, and then he switched gears. The Gospel isn’t foolishness, though he had called it that because that is how the world views it. The Gospel is actually wisdom—it i the wisdom of God.

In fact, we should probably note here that Paul wasn’t anti-wisdom by any means. He was not saying that people must surrender their brains at the door in order to believe in God. In fact, once or twice in his epistles, he quoted a secular Greek philosopher.

You sometimes, the wisdom of man is very wise: there is a lot of Greek philosophy in the founding documents of our nation. But while a lot of the wisdom of man can be very helpful, it can never give anyone eternal life.

Christians would do well to keep this in mind. On the one hand, there will be a few Christians who seem to consider any knowledge outside of Scripture to be a worldly assault on faith: they might, for instance, consider science to be a dangerous topic because science is misused by the world to claim that the Bible is wrong.

But science is the study of God’s creation, one of the means by which God enriches and sustains our lives. If I need information on proper diet, I’d rather read a book on nutrition than the Bible: the Lord provides one for my temporary well being here and the other for my salvation.

Both are gifts of God, just for different purposes. As Christians, then, you don’t want to shy away from the arts or the sciences. Rather, you want to make use of them in God-pleasing ways.

On the other hand, there is the very-real temptation to think that the wisdom of man will do the job of building up the Church. In its crassest form, you see this when people say, "Let us change the Gospel so it is no longer that mysterious "Christ and Him crucified." and let’s say it is about liberating the poor and oppressed in this world."

So often, though, Christians fall into the trap of believing that the Church grows because of their clever programs and sociological studies. In other words, they outsmart themselves and persuade themselves that the Gospel isn’t enough to do the saving.

Every single preacher is tempted to believe that the Gospel works because of his effective speaking techniques and quick turns of phrase. Christians are often tempted to believe that they should not speak the Gospel to others because they are just not good enough at speaking. We all think the Gospel needs our help.

But the Gospel is sufficient to save. It is just that the Gospel is not like the wisdom of men. Those who are mature in their faith understand this: they are not new believers who are struggling with the basics, though they are certainly justified already by faith. They would be those who understand sin and grace, who know they have been set free to do good works, who realize that the life of the Christian is one of ongoing repentance, set free to do good works.

Having the opportunity to mature, they understand that the Gospel, though simple, is at the same time deep and powerful. A bride and groom are fully married on their wedding day, but then there are years of discovering each other more and more.

So it is with the Christian: the Lord reveals much about Himself and His mercy, and you have the privilege throughout your lifetimes of learning more and more of Him from His Word.

But this is a wisdom that is revealed only to faith: it is not a matter of intellect, but trust in Christ. As Paul says, "it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."

At the time of Jesus. crucifixion, the rulers of the age included Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod. They were all well-educated, smart enough to rise to power. They had the brains, but they did not have faith; and because they did nothave faith, they condemned Jesus. If they believed Him to be the Son of God and the Messiah, would they have called for His death?

Of course not, and this illustrates the valuable lesson: the wisdom of God is grasped by faith, not by intellect. There are plenty of people with doctorates in theology who have outsmarted themselves right out of believing in Jesus; before God, a three-year-old who believes in Christ-crucified is far, far wiser.

This is all the work of the Holy Spirit: that is why each of you know and believe the wisdom of God. Paul says that "The natural mind does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him." You and I, with our finite sinful minds, cannot know the mind of God. The Spirit of God does, though, for the Holy Spirit is God Himself.

And knowing the mind of God, He comes to you by the Word. He tells you the wisdom of God, delights to speak to you the news of Christ crucified. Those who don’t understand it will dismiss it as folly; but because of the Spirit’s work, you have the mind of Christ. You know the wisdom of God. You believe in Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

It’s that simple. You are sinful and cannot save yourself, so Jesus became flesh and died in your place, then rose again three days later. It is that simple; and because it’s the wisdom of God, the world can’t understand it and will dismiss it as folly.

But you don.t believe it because you are simple. You believe it because you have faith, faith worked in you by the Holy Spirit. All the wisdom of this world is doomed, but you are not; for you know that in the simple wisdom of God.....

Christ is risen.