Jeffrey C. Long

This sermon was preached was preached extemporaneously from the following notes 1corinthians 1:18-30. I believe these notes will convey the message that was preached though in skeletal form.

Judging speech and debate. Debate: Everyone takes their turn debating the same topic. Prepared to argue both sides. I had the chance to see someone debate twice taking the same side. The first time she won hands down. I judged her second time and while she did a good job, her opponent won. Same content different setting different audience. You can never guarantee the results you are going to get when you are public speaking.

The same is obviously true in preaching.

Stories:

a). after graduating, invited to speak in my home church. had gotten into mennonite things through the more with less cookbook. preached about how our consumption as americans impacts people in other countries. This was not a common sermon to be heard in an evangelical charismatic church. I got lots of polite nods and good jobs at the end.

b). after starting a youth group i was asked to preach at baccalaureate. i am really big on people owning their faith themselves, rather then following it because that was how they were raised. comfortable. safe. i mentioned that people needed to search the scriptures themselves. start from square one. when students leave home they go and build their own homes and own families. i said you need to go out and build your own faith. not simply live in the faith of your parents and home church. but figure out for yourself what you believe.

a few months later a student came into the 10,000 villages store we ran and just raked me over the coals. she wanted me to be absolutist.

preaching is hit and miss.

even for paul.

Acts 18:1-6 After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. 2There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to see them, 3and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them. 4Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

5When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.[a] 6But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

Paul later explained to the corinthians in a letter what was going on. Turn to 1Corinthians 1. We will be reading verse 18 and following.

18For 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.

Just as my sermons on simple living and taking ownership for your faith were foolishness to some of my hearers, the message of the cross is foolishness to people who are perishing. This explains why we get the reaction we do from some people when they hear the gospel. Whether they hear it from us in conversations, or on the radio, on television, at an outreach event, or from a pulpit. They shake their hands, sometimes their fists and they wonder aloud how anyone could believe such nonsense.

Preaching and its impact were so important to Paul that he mentioned it 4 times in 6 verses.

verse 17 17For 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.

verse 18 18For 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.

verse 21 21For 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.

v. 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

Preaching is going to have a different impact depening on who the hearers are.

first, verse 18 Preaching to those who are perishing.

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,

What are they looking for?

Some signs. verse 22: “he Jews request a sign”

Matthew 12:38Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a miraculous sign from you.”

39He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Some wisdom verse 22 “The greek seek after wisdom”

16While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.” 21(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

To both of these it is foolishness.

verse 23 But we preach Christ crucified, to he Jews a stumbling block and to the greeks foolishness.

Jews: A stumbling block an offense because they expected a political deliverer

greek: The cross was foolishness because criminals died on a cross and the cross did not provide them with any moral philosophical standard to help them toward salvation. Furthmore the greeks and romans looked on one crucified as the lowest of criminals so how could such a one be considered a savior?

Foolish that he would die since by the standards of the wise he could not have been God.

Christ was either a liar, a lunatic or Lord.

Thus to the wise by the world’s standards he seems a fool.

Foolish that he would die for sinners

6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Preaching to those who are being saved.

second part of verse 18 says but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

I believe there are three types of people in the world. Those who are saved. Those who reject the gospel. And those who have not yet accepted the gospel but are seeking God. We generally think that when we are preaching the gospel, it is going to be rejected by the world. But we always need to remember that in our audience are people who have not yet chosen to follow Jesus but are seeking truth. Who are hungry for the gospel. To these, the gospel is not foolishness.

Christ is power

24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men._

The cross is the power of God.

Utilized for redemption. Victory over death. A new heaven and earth.

We need to be encouraged that it is not the world we have to please, because they won’t be pleased.

26 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence.

vv. 26-29 So, you may not be wise, may not be mighty or noble by the worlds standards but he has chosen you to put to shame those who are strong. The recipients of the message of the cross have been chosen to put to shame the supossed wise so that those who boast will only boast in the Lord.

We become like him. Foolishness to the world. Because not only do we follow someone who died on a cross. We take up our own cross. Foolishness to the world.

Matthew 10:38 He who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Matt 16:24 If anyone wishes to come after me let him deny Himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

The world wants to boast in itself. It its own wisdom.

v. 31 Summary. Let us boast in the Lord.

31 that, as it is written, “He who boasts, let him boast in the LORD.”