In 1 Corinthians the kingdom of God consists of Christ’s empowerment of the Corinthians’ present existence. The church is the visible power of God in the World. They now already have all that they need in Christ. Now their lives are hidden with Christ in God. Now they have the Spirit.
Last time we spoke about the person and the content of preaching. Now I want to delve a little deeper in what is happening in preaching. Preaching as one pastor defines it is, “is God speaking in the power of His Spirit about His Son from His word through a man.” This preaching is received by those who have the Spirit. Or as Paul says, “are spiritual.”
Just a quick word about spiritual. When Paul uses this word, he is not using it so much in contrast with what is physical, but rather using it to contrast that which is not from God. That is why when Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, “it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.” He is not talking about a disembodied Spirit body that we receive, but a real body, but received from above – no longer made from the dust of the earth.
The wisdom of God revealed by the Spirit to Spiritual people.
- The wisdom of God.
- Revealed by the Spirit
- To Spirit-filled people.
The wisdom of God:
“Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the ruler of this age, who are doomed to pass away.” Who are these mature? Are they a group of first-class Christians? A sort of inner-elite circle? NO! Not at all. These are all who have received the wisdom of God which is Christ and him crucified. The mature are those who are under the influence of the Holy Spirit. As Carson says, “The Spirit opens up entire vistas of understanding that would otherwise remain opaque to us.” The Spirit gives wisdom, but not the wisdom of this age, or of the ruler of this age. Indeed the rulers of this age are ignorant of this wisdom.
You don’t have to look very far to see the wisdom of this age. It is about self-fulfillment. It is about expressing yourself. It is about being yourself. It is about finding yourself. It is about you. The individual. It’s about our group think, and identity. Where the tribe becomes the idol. It’s all dependent on humanity. Our knowledge, power, wisdom.
On this day of gewas en arbeid we pray. The wisdom of this world says, work harder. That is how the crops and finances are gained. They see all things as earned, we see all things as a gift. Including a bountiful year.
It is a dog-eat-dog world. Do whatever you can to get to the top. But at the end of the day this wisdom is doomed to pass away. The verb here is present tense which means they are now passing away. With each passing day the worlds wisdom is being shown for what it is. Empty. Immature. Unspiritual. The worlds wisdom separates people by strong and weak. Important and unimportant. Beautiful and not. Charismatic, and not. That is not the wisdom of God. and by their boasting and dividing according to the folly of the world, they lived and thought like immature children.
So, what kind of wisdom is Paul imparting. Well at its most basic level it is the wisdom of God.
As the text says, “But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.” Its not about getting to the top, its about being the least. It is not about your own interest it is about the interest of others. This is the wisdom of the cross.
It is not what you have but who you have. Do you have God? Has God revealed himself to you? God has decreed this wisdom for our glory! It is nothing less the sharing in the Work of God in the coming age – which has broken into this present age already through the Spirit.
What makes it secret and hidden? Well, there is one way it is secret and hidden because of man’s sin. What seems glorious to us and wise to us is actual foolishness. But even if it was not for sin, it would still remain hidden unless God revealed it.
You see if I have a secret, no one will know it until I reveal it. I must reveal my secret. That is infinitely truer of God. Only God knows what God knows. Only God can therefore reveal to us what God knows.
But the fact that Paul says, “we impart” means that it is no longer secret. The secret and hidden wisdom of God is the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ who was as the Bible says, “decreed before the ages for our glory.” Or as 1 Peter 1:20 so beautifully says, “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” What was secret and hidden in ages past has now been revealed for our salvation – for our glory!
Obviously, none of the rulers of this age could have understood this. Herod Pilate, and the Romans were blind fools because if they had this wisdom, they would have never crucified the Lord of glory.
. They could never have imagined that some religious fanatic from Nazareth, from a family who had nothing to their name was the son of God and Savior of the World! If they knew it they would have never crucified the Lord of Glory.
Paul is dealing the pride of churches that have bought into a worldly value system. Of individuals that are all about the newest and the best, the strongest and most persuasive. And he strikes a severe blow by telling them that their pursuit of human wisdom places them in the same company as the people who crucified the Lord they claimed to worship.
But as it is written “What no eye has seen, nor ear hear, nor heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.” No eye has seen. No hear heard, nor heart of man imagined. In other words you cant even imagine what God has prepared it! You can’t perceive it with your natural eye, or ear, or natural imagination!
The ordinary ways of understanding (eye, ear, mind) cannot perceive the mysteries of God did not originate with man, it was not devised by man, it was not implemented by man. And it was far beyond what man could have ever imagined. These are things into which even “angels long to look.” Does it look glorious to you and I, here? Does it seem like this is the wisest way to spend our time? Not from worldly perspective. It seems weak. Ordinary. Downright foolish from a worldly perspective.
Yet it continues to dramatically change the most broken lives. And gives places the hope of an eternal kingdom in us! Who would of ever thought that this group of people sitting here would be united. It is only a work of God through the preaching and Spirit to make a new humanity. Because God uses the foolish, the low and despised, and the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are. If you do not have a Spirit wrought faith you cannot see anything special happening here. You will be focusing more on how something is said, and the eloquence of the message rather than on the content. You will see me and not see the wisdom of God embodied in Christ and him crucified.
But what is being imparted to you who have the Spirit is beyond your imagining. It should humble you. It is the message of God himself preparing a way to be reconciled and to make a new united humanity in the cross.
Revealed by the Spirit
This is from God. As we read in verse 10, “These things God has revealed through the Spirit.” Without the spirit you can’t see it or hear it. Like a tone-deaf man cannot appreciate a Bach concerto, or a blind man can’t appreciate a beautiful Rembrandt painting. it is a gift of God. The Father Sent the Son, and the Father and the Son sent the Spirit so that we might know God. The fact that God is Trinity is amazing! Because it means he can make himself known.
Without a robust view of the trinity everything falls apart beloved. Don’t ever let anyone tell you the doctrine of the Trinity. Without God the Holy Spirit you could never come to know God the Father through God the Son. Although Jesus might have died on the cross, we would still be lost in our sins and transgressions if it was not for the Spirit first revealing it to us through the word, and then at the same time also applying that to us.
Only the Spirit of God reveals this wisdom. “For the Spirit searches everything even the depths of God. For who knows a person except the Spirit except the Spirit of that person which is in him.” The Corinthians, of course, took credit for their understanding of the gospel and other spiritual things, thinking they had attained them through human wisdom. We can easily do it. Credit all our knowledge to ourselves, and our great learning – rather than receiving what we have in our confessions as a gift of God. We can boast and think we did this and this. But dear church anything that we know of God was revealed to us by him through the Word and Spirit.
.If the Spirit does not reveal God to us, we are hopelessly at a loss of ever getting to know him. We can read our bibles, and go to church for a lifetime, without the Spirit we will not come any close to knowing God.
C.S Lewis gives an illustration he says, “If you are a geologist studying rocks, you have to go and find the rocks. They will not come to you, and if you go to them, they cannot run away. The initiative lies all on your side. They cannot either help of hinder. But suppose a zoologist wants to take photos of wild animals in their native haunts. That is a bit different then studying rocks. The wild animals will not come to you, but they can run away from you. Only if you stay very still, they will come. There is beginning to be a tiny little trace of initiative on their side. Now suppose you want to get to know another person. If he is determined not to let you in, you will not get to know him. The initiative comes from both sides and that is what we call friendship. But when you come to knowing God, the initiative lies on his side. If he does not show himself, nothing you can do will enable you to find him.”
That is what Paul is getting at when he says, “So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.” And what has happened? He has revealed himself to us. As Paul goes on, “Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.” Isn’t that interesting. We have received the Spirit from God. Freely. The Greek verb for this idea (charizomai) generally conveys the thought of giving without regard to merit. This is mind blowing. It means the one who knows God and is himself God is the one who reveals God to you without any regard to how sinful or broken you are. There is hope for the worst. If you are among us today for the first time and think there is no hope, I am hear to tell you there is. If you have given up after being here for years thinking God cannot save me. Stop it. Don’t blaspheme God. He gives freely
And Anyone that is in this building today that believes the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and lives in obedience to that gospel is doing so under the influence of the almighty omniscient Spirit of God. It was not human ingenuity that brought you to this place of faith. It was not worldly wisdom. It was not a system, or a tradition, it was not me or any man that came before me. It was God.
What Paul is sharing came from God. He is the Spirit empowered messenger. And the Spirit uses that message to affect the heart. The message itself comes from God. I am only a mouthpiece. And the message will only hit home, to those who also have the Spirit – or are Spiritual.
To Spirit-filled people
Paul writes, “And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.” When we read the Bible. When I preach. When you listen, we are dealing with God? what we are reading is direct from the Spirit of God. It is authoritative, as if God himself was speaking. Would you listen even if you didn’t like it? Would you listen even if it humbled you? Would you listen even if it means suffering? Would you listen even if God revealed it? Now you wouldn’t unless God revealed it to you. This is where prayer and preparation for Sunday is so important to Ask god to prepare you for the message.
Paul is challenging the Corinthian church and us to look in the mirror. “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” It is not that a non-Christian cannot understand it, sometimes they might know it better then others, but they are unable to discern its value. Its seems like senseless message. It does not change the way they look at the world.
“The Spiritual person judges all things, but is himself judged by no one.” Dear church – we are the temple of the Holy. We are filled with the Spirit. As believers’ minds are influenced by the Spirit, they themselves take on the mind of Christ. They think as he thinks; they evaluate life as he evaluates it. They look at all of life differently not in terms of stuff, or prestige, or importance, but in terms of relationship. In terms of love for God and neighbor. And if they are truly united to Christ and his death and resurrection life, then they can judge and discern what is right and wrong. The Spiritual person judges discerns all things correctly. The are judging each other according to worldly standards. Without saying it outright, Paul is insinuating that he is not afraid of their judgement. He knows Jesus. That is whose judgement he care about. That is ultimately what any Christian most cares about.
Paul continues, “For who can understand the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him.” This is from Isaiah 40:13 where Isaiah starts the chapter off with the preaching of the gospel of comfort that Jerusalem’s sins are paid for. Paul then goes on to describe the awesome extent of Gods power. And at the end of the chapter asks, “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, ‘my way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God.” Why are you saying this Isaiah asks? Why are you saying Gods ways are hidden, that there is some secret knowledge. Special power? NO! God has revealed himself! He has revealed himself! His way is no longer hidden!
We have the Mind of Christ! Present tense. They needed to apply what they already had. They needed to live out what they already knew. This is often true of the church. There is often a disconnect between what we believe and how we act.
Corinthians had been living as if they did not have the Spirit. They were following worldly wisdom which amounts to a self-centered, at times childish, attempt to manipulate things to one’s own advantage. True wisdom from God, however, is sought by those who are sufficiently adult (τέλειος) to exercise it responsibly for the good of all.
We should consider this passage carefully, making certain that we base our life choices on God’s true wisdom. If we fail to do so, our best intentions may take us far away from the right path. As one theologian so aptly states, “The lame man who keeps the right road outstrips the runner who takes a wrong one. Nay, it is obvious that when a man runs the wrong way, the more active and swifter he is the further he will go astray.” In other words we can be working so hard, do everything with great gusto, but if we have lost the way we are just going hard in the wrong direction.
First, we need to admit that Paul’s outlook is so radical that it is difficult to maintain on a daily basis. It takes constant dependence on the Spirit in unity with Christ. We live in a world where the truth of Christian faith is questioned and mocked every day. Television, books, magazines, ordinary conversations—you name it—we find that people whom we respect for their learning and skills scoff at the claims of Christ. As a result, we begin to think that Christian perspectives are inferior, immature, and unspiritual.
Paul is saying that cannot be farther from the truth. It is in fact far superior, it is the wisdom of the mature, it is from Above. For the wisdom of God is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being called, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God! Jesus is the wisdom of God! Jesus is the power of God! This is revealed to us by the Spirit. Let us live out of that reality.
Amen.