First Corinthians 2:4-6 The Purpose of the Preaching of Paul
1 Corinthians 2:4-6 · Roger Henderson · May 24, 2020
Letters to the Corinthians, No. 09
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926191856724

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, well today we're going to, as I said, continue on in 1 Corinthians. So today we're going to look at verses 4 through 6, and I've labeled this, The Purpose of Paul's Preaching, kind of taking off Macaulay's outline. So here's Macaulay's outline. You know, we're working through the book of 1 Corinthians, and Paul addresses the divisions in the Corinthian church there. So we're down to this section here on the nature of true wisdom, which starts in chapter 2 and goes through chapter 3 verse 4 and So Paul talks about we started got in last week talking about his preaching the nature of Paul's preaching and then today we're going to look at in verses 5 and it was going down 5 through 6 we're going to look at his content and source and we're going to look at that True wisdom is not found in the following. He's going to contrast man's wisdom and God's wisdom he's going to contrast it with God's power and And it's a really interesting section, and I'm going to go back and first review some of the things from last week. So let's get into the text here.

So let's just review the first three verses, which say, And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come to you with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and fear and in much trembling. So we'll look at those, we'll review those first three verses and then we'll talk about the last three. Okay?

So as I mentioned last week, verse one kind of follows Paul's pattern where he'll talk about, he wants to make a point. His point is that when I came to you, brethren, I came to you proclaiming to you the testimony of God. But he also wants to point out what he did not come to do. And that's kind of the middle part of the verse. So we'll look at the positive part, or what Paul's mission was in coming to the Corinthian church. And that's an Aristans past point fact. He did come to them, and it was a point in time.

And he was proclaiming to declare or preach. And it talks about proclaiming a testimony. And actually, Jim Russell pointed out to me, and I actually had noticed it before, the word mysterion. It appears in the interlinear, but there are some other words, especially the word martyrion, that's another word for testimony that shows up, but I'm using this word, they're very close. So mysterion is the idea, it's the truth that was not previously revealed.

And so the point here is that the good news about Jesus Christ, if you remember what Paul said, remember he said in Galatians, he said in Galatians 1.11 The gospel which I preach to you is not according to men. And he said, I received it through a direct revelation of Jesus Christ. So this would fit into the testimony of God. And it's something that was previously not revealed. So Paul's pointing out that he's presenting to them the testimony of God. And this is the good news about Jesus Christ.

So that's a positive part of that. That was his mission in coming to the Corinthians. And the negative part, he wanted to make sure that they didn't misunderstand that he did not come with a superior speech or wisdom. And it's with or according to a superior speech or an excellent speech. Macaulay kind of says this is the rhetorical skills that have to do with a method of preaching. You know, we've all kind of seen different people maybe on TV or different places that You know, have elaborate styles or elaborate things. They like to prance around. They like to do things spectacularly. You know, they like to present a show.

Well, Paul wasn't presenting a show. He was presenting who Christ was. And also, he wanted to point out that it wasn't in man's wisdom. He wasn't using man's wisdom to present the good news. And actually, it's pretty detrimental. As we saw back in verse 17 of chapter 1, which says, not in cleverness or in wisdom of speech so that the cross of Christ would not be made void actually adding something to the gospel message you have another gospel that that only can be detrimental it only can make the cross of Christ void and that was the point and so he wants to make sure they understand he's not presenting some fancy method of preaching and he's not using man's wisdom we always think that I know I could that person might understand better if I gave them this, I don't know, life example. And sometimes it's valuable, but sometimes it's not helpful. It's helpful to present the truth as God has told us in his word. So let's go on. In verse 2, it says, For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. So let's look at the first phrase there.

So this is where Paul's focus was at. This is this is what he and he determined to do that and determines the idea to resolve to decree He did that based upon what was happening in Corinth, you know, it's interesting There were divisions in Corinth, but he didn't get out and it didn't initially read them the riot act So to speak he didn't list all their issues. He will eventually he will point out some of the issues in Corinth, but here he points out that the Savior and what happened on the cross. That's his approach. Let's come together and understand that as a point of reference so we can come together and have our focus on our Savior.

And then Constable O'Connor points out, as far as Paul's preaching went, Paul only spoke about Christ crucified. This was his regular practice. He left all other knowledge aside. And so we're going to see. So the focus here is except to know Jesus Christ and him crucified.

You know, when you look through scripture, you'll see this phrase quite a few times, Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now I've come to expect there are certain little neon bulbs in scripture, if you will, at least I'll call them neon bulbs. You'd have like that or so that, and that's going to tell us a purpose. Well, when you see Jesus Christ and Him crucified, that's going to point, and I did this last week, that's going to point to the person and work of Jesus Christ. So I thought it was helpful to just reiterate, and I had more last week, but the person of Christ can be described in various passages of Scripture, in the Gospel of John and Colossians and other places.

Christ is both with God and is God. Christ is creator of all things. In Christ is life, and that life is the light of men. Christ is the image of the invisible God. And there are more, obviously. I just kind of shortened the list down since we're reviewing today. And then the work of Jesus Christ. You know, crucial, the person and work.

That's actually what the gospel is all about. You're asking a person who doesn't know Jesus Christ to believe that he really is God with all his wonderful attributes, and that he really did a work, and the work in scripture is defined as his death on the cross.

So that death on the cross, he died for all sins. And we see that in the passage in 1 John. Christ is the propitiation or satisfaction for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. And then secondly, which is often overlooked sometimes, Christ died unto, unto the sin nature. So think about this. It's wonderful. Christ has died for all the sins, plural, of the entire world.

But what about the source of sins? What did God do about the source of the sins? And many people don't even want to talk about that or don't want to even think about that. They say, well, done deal. God paid for all my sins. I'm good. But what about the engine? What about the source? The thing that's cranking those babies out, that won't stop dancing, as brother Mike will use sometimes. What about that?

Well, God dealt with that too. And in Romans chapter 6, He said He died with respect to our sinful nature. So the wonderful news is that our sinful nature was not removed, but we were separated from it. So we can act. We can act and we can walk with God. We can abide with Him. We can rest in Him. And we don't have to follow the dictates of our sin nature.

But the sin nature was condemned, as it says in Romans 8. For having sent his own son as an offering for sin, he condemned the sinful nature in the flesh. So we have the person and the work of Jesus Christ. That's what a person needs to know for his salvation, to come to know Christ. And actually, the work of Christ, we study the rest of our Christian lives. There's so many wonderful aspects to that. with his death for sins and death unto the sin nature, and then all the ramifications of that. So that is the key part that Paul determined to know and determined to present to the Corinthians. So now, this wasn't without a cost, so to speak. Because Paul, it says, I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling.

You know, as we talked last week, Paul, before he got to Corinth, he visited Athens. And he preached the right message, I believe, for the Athenians there, for the Stoics and the Epicureans, for the intelligentsia, if you will. And he showed them about what they call the unknown God. And he showed them wonderfully. We had that whole passage last week.

But then when he arrives in Corinth, times are tough. His practice was to go into the synagogue, and he would go in and he would preach about Christ. Severely got rejected and then so eventually Paul says I'm done with you with you Jews I'm going to the I'm going to the Gentiles and that's one of kind of a watershed moment as they call it I'm going to the Gentiles and then he he has success as you read on in in Acts 18 He had difficulty too. So so constable says and I agree with him here Paul felt weak and fearful and trembling was probably because of his personal and inadequacy in the face of the spiritual needs he faced when entering Corinth and Then I like that the Lord was so faithful to him that after these events. I mentioned he appeared to Paul Paul was burdened and Here in Acts 18 verse 9 it talks about that and particularly note the this phrase here I'll show you in a second and the Lord said to Paul in a night in the night by a vision Do not be afraid any longer Go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no man will attack you in order to harm you.

For I have many people in this city." So first of all, he wasn't alone. If you read the text there, I mean, the other verses in 18, it'll show that many joined him. It was a fruitful ministry. He stayed there for a year and a half. The Corinthian church was founded. But what I thought was kind of struck me, do not be afraid any longer.

And aren't we there many times in our Christian lives? We'll be afraid. A situation will come along. Boy, today is certainly this day and age. There are many people that are very fearful, very fearful about the virus. But he says, Paul, don't be afraid any longer. And we can say that same message. We're not to be afraid any longer. Yes, we may go to be with the Lord. That's a wonderful thing. There are possibilities that things will happen. The believer is in Christ. He's in union with our Savior. And he doesn't have to be afraid any longer. I read that last week, and I thought, wow, do not be afraid any longer.

So that meant Paul is just like us. Paul got afraid. Hey, the guy who knew all this stuff, he got afraid. Well, wow. How about me? I only know a tenth, a hundredth of what he knew, maybe, or whatever it is. So anyway, that was a neat point I thought about that.

Okay, so now, let's go on to the verses New verses here, four through six. So now he's going to talk about his message. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power, so that, there's one of our neon words, so that, with a purpose that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Yet, or but, we do not speak wisdom among you, among those who are mature, As wisdom, however, not of this age, nor the rulers of this age, who are passing away. So the first part of this. My message and my preaching, they were not. So he's going to tell them what his message and preaching were not. So let's just look at message and preaching. The message is the word logos, a very familiar word. It's a statement, a saying, a statement, an expression of thought. And preaching. To preach, to discharge the herald, It's a crying out.

And actually, just a sidelight here. Actually, Vani and my son, my older son Mark, back when he was just a little guy, they visited Vani's home in Pennsylvania. And their mom invited them to a home church, Vani's mom. And it was one of those ones where it was kind of different. Different probably from here. A lot of interesting things.

And actually, the gentleman who was speaking His method of preaching was to yell. So he would yell at the top of his lungs what God might do to you. It wasn't comforting, it was challenging. She was reminding me, I was preparing for the lecture, she said, Roger, what about the time, tell this story, what about the time when, and she was afraid she was going to lose her hearing, she was sitting in the front row, And our son was going to lose his hearing.

So anyway, that's an approach to preaching. Probably not the best. Anyway, enough said about that. So Paul's preaching, he says, and he's going to tell you what his preaching and his message were not in the next phrase here. They were not what follows.

They were not in persuasive words of wisdom. And this idea is the word to persuade. He didn't want to have, you know, some people can persuade you, it's amazing, certain people can persuade you almost any topic out there. They can persuade you their way is right. But he didn't want to use persuasive words of wisdom.

Wisdom here is human wisdom. And we see here, we're going to see this verse later on, in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 13a, it says, Not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit. So our method, our wisdom is God's wisdom, which is taught by the Holy Spirit.

Quite a difference than what we see in the world. But in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. So the contrast is between the persuasive words of wisdom of the world and the demonstration of the Holy Spirit and of power. Demonstration literally is to show forth, to point out, and it's of the Holy Spirit, and it's of this word, Deuteronomy, spoken of God and His great power. That's like a dynamo or dynamite. And so the reason was, okay, my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of power.

So that, with a purpose set, Your faith, Corinthians and us, would not rest. And this is kind of a cool thing. The word rest is the verb eimi, the state in which something or someone continuously exists. So Paul's saying here that your faith should not continuously exist or rest in the wisdom of men. But because it's that subjunctive mood there, that I have in the brackets there, it's present tense. subjunctive mood. This could happen. It's a possibility.

But he says, your faith should not continuously rest in man's wisdom. Just like we learn in preaching the gospel. We put man's wisdom into it. It makes it void. So our faith is not to rest in man's wisdom either. And the contrast here is, but rest in the power of God. That's a strong contrast again. Your faith should continuously rest or exist in the power of God. So a really interesting contrast. So the contrast here, as Macaulay points out, the contrast here is not between the wisdom of men and the wisdom of God. And actually, he's going to talk about that, the wisdom of men and the wisdom of God, but rather between the wisdom of men and the power of God. Think about this.

God didn't remain inactive in our salvation. He sought us out. He took the first step. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He took the first step. He takes the first step in our salvation. He takes the first step in our Christian life. He asks us to believe that and rest in that. And He takes the first step in our eternal rest, too. So what does this tell us about our faith? So the point here is that as we walk by faith in the truth of God's Word, we trust God to carry out what He has promised.

And that demonstrates His power. You know, and here's some verses that kind of occurred to me. There are many other verses that you can use here. So the contrast here is between the wisdom of men and God's power. You know, wisdom of men. Isn't it amazing? The wisdom of men, they can tell you...

I mean, today's world, we see it in stereo. They can tell you so many things that turn out not to be the case. And we see that today. So many things. They think they've got a handle on it, and they really don't. And they'll tell you with a straight face, you know, I got this figured out. And they don't. But God damn it, what does God do? He just doesn't say it. He demonstrates it.

So here's some verses that demonstrate God's power in Christian life. Very familiar. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. So look what he's saying. Look at the promises and the power that he's He says, I'm preparing a place for you. The God of the universe is preparing a place for every believer. I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. So God has the power to make that happen.

Men can say many things, but they have no power to truly make it happen. In John 11, 25, He who believes in me will live even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe that so what once again our part? You know our part is simply to believe what he says trust him what he said and he will he will perform that his power will perform the action and he will carry his and Accomplish what he wants for us, and this is a wonderful promise about being him never dying into being with him and Then this is the last one I put a little about the Holy Spirit in here.

I So first of all, for all who are being led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. So first of all, many places we're called sons of God, and that's not by our doing. We're sons of God because of our faith in Christ. And we're being led by His Spirit. So God is a God of action, a God of power. So the contrast is between men's wisdom and God's power. Quite a contrast. So now verse 6, which I found verse 6 a little challenging.

Yet, or but, we'll see here. Yet we do not speak wisdom among those who are mature. A wisdom, however, not of this age, nor the rulers of this age, who are passing away." So actually, the interlinear I liked a little bit better. It said, but we speak wisdom among the mature.

So several words. What's he talking about the mature? That's pretty key. Figuring out what he's talking about in terms of the mature. What does that mean? And then what kind of wisdom is this? Okay, so here we go. We speak, and it's actually present tense. We continually speak. So he's talking about himself. Paul's continually speaking, and it could be us as we speak about the Lord.

Wisdom here is Sophia. Speaking of God's wisdom, and mature is this word teleos, of persons, meaning full grown in mind and understanding. So I think a couple of points, Paul is speaking here about a spiritually mature person, and we see that in various parts of scripture. A person mature in Christ, he will accept this wisdom, this wisdom from God. And then Kostel points out, I hadn't thought about this, all Christians are mature in the sense that they have They have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ and the message of the cross. So they're mature in that sense. They may not be mature in living the Christian life, but they're mature in that sense.

So I think that hopefully helps you there in that part. Yet we do not speak, but we speak wisdom among the mature. So Paul's talking about other believers will accept what you say in the Lord. Then he's going to do a contrast here. And actually, we kind of summarized that. I got a little ahead of myself. We summarized that.

It says, there is a wisdom, however, which we are in the habit of speaking among those who are spiritually mature. So that summarizes the first part of that verse. So people who are pursuing wisdom cannot perceive it except for the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. And that's what the believer has. He has the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit as he walks in the Lord. So now the contrast. So the contrast contrasts God's wisdom with the wisdom of this age. So part of the issue here is what is age? What is age talking about here? Age talks about the present world, which is cares and temptations and desires.

The idea of evil, moral and physical being everywhere implied. And sometimes it's called, in Galatians we saw it called this present evil age. And once again we get to see it in stereo in these days. This present evil age is ever before us, ever. Every moment of our waking lives, it seems like the evilness of this age is on display.

So here's what Paul is going to talk about here. So he's going to contrast God's wisdom with this present evil age. So here we go. First, God's wisdom is not of this present age. God's wisdom is eternal. And this is outstanding. I like this definition. Macaulay just does an outstanding job in definitions here. The wisdom of this age is the sum total of man's learning that differs from God's word. And man has a lot of wisdom that way. So here's some examples. You could fill in a ton more. Evolution. Man's big on evolution. He hangs his hat on evolution. Mother Nature. This happened because of Mother Nature. Abortion. Terrible thing. Man, you know, many men, our country has bought into that, which is terrible. So that's man's wisdom. God's wisdom is totally opposed to that. So it says, God's wisdom is first, not of this present age. Second, not of the rulers of this present age.

And rulers here is the idea of a ruler, a chief, a prince. A ruler here is one who does not know Jesus Christ, since they are passing away. You know, I was tempted here to think about listing some, and I decided not to. I'll let you just think about the rulers of this age. Okay. And thirdly, whose rulers are passing away.

Here's a pretty dire testimony about them. Passing away is to cease, to cease to be done away with. It's a present passive, continuously action in the present. So Macaulay brings us across, whose rulers are in the process of being liquidated. Pretty heavy stuff there.

So those rulers out there who do not know the Savior, not a pretty picture. Not a pretty picture for anyone outside of Christ. So this verse seemed to be appropriate. We'll see it later on. 1 Corinthians 15.24. Then comes the end. And he, Christ, hands over the kingdom to the God and Father. He has abolished all rule, and I would say, and rulers, and all authority and power. So Christ will take care of this in a day yet coming. So we've gone through that. I just wanted a few closing thoughts here. And I got these from Macaulay, and I added a verse here with it too.

Human wisdom is viewed as temporally significant. Of this age and this source, rulers of this age is destiny and passing away. I don't think I read that exactly right. Let's read it again here. Human wisdom is viewed as to its temporal significance. Of this age, that's wisdom. Its source, wisdom's source, is the rulers of this age. Not good. His destiny is passing away. Paul rejects this wisdom as temporal, human, and doomed.

But what's wonderful is God's wisdom stands in total contrast, indicated by the first words of the following verse, which we're going to study next week. Verse 7. The first word is a but again, a strong contrast. But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery. The hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory. So that's a wonderful message of God's wisdom, which is in total contrast to man's wisdom.