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1 Corinthians Part One

Lesson 3 – 1 Corinthians 1:1-24; 2:1-5

The Story of Dwight

He was a four-year-old boy who loved his daddy. He loved to follow his daddy out to the fields to work. They were poor but it didn’t matter to him; he didn’t know the difference. He wasn’t lonely because he had six brothers and sisters. Then, at the age of four in 1841, he saw his mother fall apart because his daddy had gone out into the field, had this horrible pain and was now dead. The people in the city came and took away every possession that they could find that that woman owned. When the father dropped dead in the field, she called to the children and said, “Go and hide these bits of equipment,” because she knew they were in great debt. She knew that she could never keep that family together if she couldn’t till the land. She gave birth that year to twins. Now she had nine children.

The day came when, because of poverty, the 13-year-old boy left home and she would never see her son or hear from him again for a number of years. Then little brother Dwight found himself coming to that age of greater responsibility. One day his mother looked at him and said, “Dwight, honey, you’ve got to leave and go stay with your brother because we cannot keep us all together and survive. I don’t want you to leave. I love you. But you’ve got to go.” So Dwight packed his bags and went to this other city. There, with his brother, he tried to make a go of it.

He was so lonely, sad, and poor that he looked at his brother one day and said, “I’ve got to leave. I’ve got to go back home.” His brother said, “Don’t leave. I’m so lonely without you.” Dwight replied, “I’ve got to go.” His brother said, “Come on, let’s go to town.” So they went into town and looked in a store window and saw jackknives. The brother said, “Look at those jackknives. Maybe someday we can buy a jackknife.” Dwight said, “I don’t even have a cent to buy a jackknife with and there’s no way I could ever get it. I’m going home.” Then his brother looked up and saw an old man coming. He thought, “Every time that old man sees a new boy in town he always reaches into his pocket and pulls out a cent. Maybe he’ll do that for my brother and my brother will stay.”

Sure enough, the old man came down the walk. The brother grabbed Dwight and introduced him to that man. The man reached in his pocket and said, “Oh, you’re a new boy in town, aren’t you? Here, I have something for you.” He took the cent and put it in Dwight’s hand but didn’t let go of the boy’s hand. He said, “I want to tell you, Sonny Boy, about God—a God that loves you so much that He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for your sins. God took all the bad things that you’ve ever done and He put them upon His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was nailed to that cross for you. The nail prints were put in His hands. He hung on that cross, and He, who knew no sin, was made to be sin for you. He was buried, but He rose again from the dead and He lives. He wants to be your Lord. He wants to be your Master. He wants to be your Savior, Sonny Boy. Don’t forget that God loves you.” The old man left that cent in the hand of that little boy.

Dwight looked at him and thought, “Surely, that man had to be God,” because he sensed the love of God for him. As a result of that British cent in his hand, Dwight decided to stay with his brother. At the age of 17 he said, “I’m never going to get anywhere. I’m going to the city.” He went to Boston, saw the people there and how shabbily dressed he was [in comparison]. He felt his poverty like he had never felt it before. He had only had four years of formal education. When he wrote, it was hard to read because everything was misspelled. He never used a period or a comma, and he capitalized words at random when he wrote.

He walked the streets trying to find a job. People would turn him away, sometimes harshly, but those who were kind to him built up hope in his heart. He went from one place to another but couldn’t find a job. Finally he went to his uncle and begged for a job in his shoe store.

He went into a Sunday school class because he was required to go to Sunday school. He sat down and the teacher, Edward, said, “Open your Bibles to John.” He fumbled through his Bible while the other boys snickered. He felt so embarrassed, so the teacher said, “Here, use my book,” and handed him the Bible. That teacher one Saturday was preparing his Sunday school lesson and he couldn’t get Dwight off his mind. All he could think about was that boy who was embarrassed, that boy who didn’t know where the gospel of John was. He knew that the boy worked at a shoe store and felt compelled by the Spirit of God to go to that shoe store to present the gospel to that young man. He was so intent on how he would do it, how he would say it in the store, how he would interrupt the work, that he walked past the store and had to come back. He just prayed then found Dwight in the back room among the shoe stock. There he told Dwight about Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

Once again Dwight heard the gospel. All of a sudden the passion of his heart to be rich seemed like poverty in the light of the good news of Jesus Christ, crucified for Dwight L. Moody. From that time on, Dwight L. Moody became a brand plucked from the fire—an uneducated man, an unlearned man, an unconventional man, a man who came from a background of dirt poor poverty. But a man who would stand before queens, a man who would traverse the United States and England with the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. When he brought the gospel, revival came. What was his message?

The Three R’s of the Gospel Message

1. Man was ruined by the fall of Adam.

2. Man was redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

3. Man was regenerated by the Spirit.

This was Moody’s message and this was what made him such a mighty powerhouse. He was called to be an evangelist. His one message—his one passion—was Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

1 Corinthians 15:3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

What was DL Moody’s first R? That man was ruined by the fall. It means that man is a sinner, that man is separated from God, that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), that “the soul that sinneth, it shall surely die” (Ezekiel 18:4), that “there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God” (Romans 3:10-11). “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned each one to his own way; God has laid upon Jesus Christ the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6). So man is ruined by the fall. This is the first point of the gospel: that Jesus died for our sins. How do we know that’s true? It is “according to the Scriptures.” What Scriptures is Paul talking about? At that time the Scriptures were Genesis through Malachi—the Old Testament. It was sealed and, in a sense, canonized. It was adopted, believed, and proclaimed by the Lord Jesus Christ. It was in that Old Testament that we see man ruined by the fall, that we see that man is a sinner and that the wages of sin is death. But it is also there that we see that Christ died for our sins and that we are redeemed by the blood. For in Leviticus it was laid out that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.

Leviticus 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.

Hebrews 9:22 And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

In Hebrews 10, Jesus said that with the blood of bulls and goats God was not satisfied, for the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin. They simply provided a covering for sin until, as he says, “Lo, in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I come to do Thy will O God.”

Hebrews 10:5-9 (quoting Psalm 40:6-8) Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired, but a body Thou hast prepared for Me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast taken no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (In the roll of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God.’” After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast not desired, nor hast Thou taken pleasure in them; (which are offered according to the Law), then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Thy will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second.

He was “the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). He was the Lamb of God who would die for Dwight and would die for you and for me—those who are ruined by the fall. Shedding His blood on Calvary’s tree, He redeemed you and me. He paid the price for our sins. He paid the price to redeem us out of the slave market of sin.

John 8:34-36 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. And the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”

Paul Preaches the Gospel

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 For I delivered to you as of first importance (What first importance? “First importance”: it is the most important thing. It is the primary thing. It is the foundational thing…) what I also received, (We know from studying Galatians that Paul received this message directly from Jesus Christ) that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, (Buried shows that He was dead because you don’t bury live men. He didn’t swoon—he died. Deaddeaddeaddead.) and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

“According to the Scriptures”: The Bible tells us in Psalm 16 about His resurrection. The Bible shows us, in the picture of Jonah, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why? Because God’s holiness, God’s righteousness, was propitiated—was satisfied by the payment of Jesus Christ’s blood for our sins. So when you look at Moody’s success, he knew he was ruined by the fall, he was redeemed by the blood, he proclaimed it, and he was regenerated by the Spirit. You’ll pick that up more in next week’s lesson when the Holy Spirit is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 2.

First Corinthians 2 shows what Paul’s strategy was, and what our strategy is always to be with those who are lost, to those who are ruined by the fall (which is all mankind): That we are to proclaim to them that they are redeemed by the blood. Paul said:

1 Corinthians 2:1-2 And when I came to you, brethren, (referring to the church at Corinth) I did not come 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.

Ruined by the fall. Redeemed by the blood. Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures.

1 Corinthians 2:3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.

You say, “I can’t believe that Paul was like that when he was with them.” Not Paul, who so proclaimed the gospel that he was beaten yet didn’t shut up. Not Paul, who was so brash that he was left for dead one time and they had to lower them over a city wall in a basket. Not Paul. Yes, Paul. He said, “Yes, I was with you in weakness. I was with you in fear. I was with you in much trembling.”

So many times, when Kay comes to teach or goes to speak, she thinks she’s going to have a heart attack or that her heart’s going to fall out of her body. She’ll be sitting at the head table and worries that her head’s going to fall into her food and she’s going to die. Sometimes she is so frightened and scared because she wants so badly, so desperately, for God to speak.

DL Moody nearly had a nervous breakdown when he was preaching in a church during the time of the great Chicago fire. He was preaching in the church when someone yelled that there was a fire. As a result of that, people were trampled to death trying to get out of that building. He became a basket case because a number of people died in that church while he was preaching and bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ. All he could think of was that they went to hell because he didn’t have an opportunity to give the gospel at that meeting. His theology at that point was immature. Later he would discover that no man goes to hell because another man fails to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to him, because God loses none of His sheep. Just know that this man had such a heart for people and he knew that apart from Jesus Christ that they were going to perish. That’s the gospel.

When Paul went into Corinth, he walked in the midst of this sin-sick city. A city so bad that the word “to Corinthianize” meant that you went into the bowels of moral debauchery and that you had sunk down to the very lowest of sin, getting caught in the web of all this sexual promiscuity and perversion. Paul walked into a cosmopolitan city that had every wind of doctrine coming into it with men from all over the world bringing their religious beliefs. Paul walked into that city knowing this: he had the treasure of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He had the treasure of the good news. It was as if, if you can imagine today, you and I discovered a cure for cancer, a cure that would cover any form of cancer that any human being might ever have. We had the cure for it. Would we hold it for ourselves? Would we hide it? Would we conceal it or keep it from others? No. Why? We would know that we had what would keep people from death.

What do we have? The glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek—the Gentile. When Paul went into Corinth, he went with one purpose and one goal, one overriding consuming, constraining purpose and that was that he had the cure in his hand, in his heart, in his mouth, in his mind. It was the cure that would save and rescue men from eternal death. As he went it was in much fear, in much trembling, in much weakness.

1 Corinthians 2:4-5 And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

Kay was on a book tour for As Silver Refined and when they got to Dallas early, a friend of hers needed makeup so they decided to go shopping. A woman at the Bobbie Brown makeup counter started to put makeup on Kay. She didn’t know how the girl put it on but Kay knew that the girl putting makeup on her needed to know the good news of Jesus Christ. When she got through the girl forgot to give Kay the instructions but Kay had her name, her address. She had cried and Kay had embraced her. Kay was going to get her into the Word of God.

Kay left Dallas to go to Atlanta where she met Robin, who does her makeup. She wanted to take Kay to the Bobbie Brown cosmetic counter. Kay told her that she had new makeup but wasn’t sure it was what she wanted or even what to do with it. So they went back to the Bobbie Brown counter. This time Kay was going to listen and watch how they take a sow’s ear and make it into a silk purse.

Once again, as she walked up, she prayed. There were all these women standing around so she said, “God, You know which woman You want to have put on my makeup.” Robin was praying, “God, You know which woman needs to hear about Jesus Christ.” Once again Kay left without learning how to put on the makeup but she shared the gospel with a woman who just asked her what she was doing in Atlanta. Kay told her she was doing a book signing. Sometimes she says that because it impresses people, just like Paul putting out his credentials in order to get a wedge in for the gospel of Jesus Christ. As she sat there, the woman began to ask Kay, “What is your book like? What kind of books do you write?” Kay answered, “This one is called As Silver Refined, Learning How to Handle Life’s Disappointments.” The woman was very interested, “Then it’s a spiritual book.” Yes, Kay thought, very spiritual—straight from the Spirit! The woman asked if it was a self-help book because she is married, divorced, and just broke up the day before with a man. She was in Christian Scientist and interested in other philosophy and was involved in a spiritual group which discusses spiritual things. When Kay got up the woman looked at her and said, “I know God put you in my chair today.” Why? In much weakness, fear, trembling and prayer, Kay shared the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is what we have. It is the power of God. We do not need to come in persuasive words of man’s wisdom. Why? The word “power” in the Greek is “dunamis” [“dynamis” (the υ in Greek usually translates to ‘y’ in English)] (δυναμις). What word do we think about when we see that word? Dynamite. This word does not mean dynamite but it is dynamite. If you take the Bible physically and let it represent the gospel—the message of Jesus Christ—it is power. So when you deliver this message and deliver it forth you have power. This message is the power of God.

Romans 1:14-16a I am under obligation (literally in the Greek: a debtor) both to Greeks and to barbarians, (A barbarian was anybody who wasn’t a Greek. The Greeks looked at the rest of the world and said, “They’re a bunch of barbarians.”) …both to the wise and to the foolish. Thus, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel (What’s the gospel? That Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised again on the third day according to the Scriptures and the evidence of that was that He was seen by many.) Thus, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God…

This is the gospel. This is the message and in this message there is power, there is dynamis. It is the power of God for salvation. It brings a change in man. It saves man and turns him from darkness to light, from the power of darkness and brings forgiveness of sins and brings an inheritance to those who are sanctified.

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Acts 18 gives an account of Paul going to Corinth:

Acts 18:1 After these things he left Athens and went to Corinth.

He left this wonderful city with all this idol worship (It wasn’t wonderful in that way) to go to this sin-sick city.

Acts 18:2-4 And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome, He came to them, and because he was of the same trade (tent-makers), he stayed with them and they were working; for by trade they were tent-makers. And he was reasoning in the synagogue every Sabbath and trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

What are Greeks doing in there? They came into the synagogue because there is a spiritual hunger for God, to know God or to investigate these claims. Paul’s modus operandi—his method—of bringing the gospel was to go to the Jews first and then to the Gentiles. When the Jews resist his message, he reasons with them from the Scriptures. He shows them from the Scriptures that we are ruined by the fall, that the Law can’t save us, that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin, that we are redeemed by the blood [of Christ]. Without the shedding of [His] blood there is no remission of sins and then they need to be regenerated by the Spirit. He brings this message, the Jews reject it, so Paul shakes the dust off and moves out to the Gentiles. How is he doing this?

1 Corinthians 2:3-5 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

In chapter 2 we will look at the word of the cross.

The Word of the Cross

1 Cor 2:2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

Where was Jesus Christ crucified? On a cross, so the word of the cross that Paul says he is going to bring to them is a very simple message but a very profound message. The word of the cross shows you that when God was at His weakest He was stronger than all mankind. God was at His weakest when He was hanging on the cross. Who did they nail to the cross? The Lord Jesus Christ who was the Son of God, who was one with the Father, who was God in the flesh.

What man could not do with all of his wisdom and religion, God did. God saved man from death, regenerated him by the Holy Spirit, and made him a brand new creature in Christ Jesus.

What brings Paul to this point in his message? We’ll review it all in context.

Paul opens his message to the church at Corinth by saying:

1 Corinthians 1:1 Paul, called as an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God,

When he says he is “called”, he’s showing us that he is called just as they are called and that he is part of the “ekklesia”, the church, the body of Jesus Christ. But he is also called as an apostle. The word “apostle” comes from two words: “apo” (from) and “stello” (to send). It basically means “to send someone as a messenger; to send forth; to do some business as a messenger.” So Paul is sent forth as a messenger to the church at Corinth. From the very beginning when he says “Paul, called as an apostle”, he is establishing his authority to this group of people who are his children in the Lord. These are people that he begot through the gospel.

1 Corinthians 4:14 I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

Paul is their father in the gospel. He is also an apostle of Jesus Christ who carries authority. He has been called by God. He has been put in the church. He has been given this commission by God as an apostle of Jesus Christ. He is one who is sent forth with the message that he will deliver in fear and in trembling, a message that he knows contains the power to transform men. He is going forth from city to city. (When he goes to Corinth the first time he is on his second missionary journey.) He will bring this glorious gospel that can change men’s lives: the word of the cross that shows that when God was His weakest, He was stronger than all mankind.

Paul is establishing his authority because there are people in Corinth questioning his authority.

1 Corinthians 9:1-3 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. You’re my children in the Lord. My defense to those who examine me is this:

There are some who were questioning Paul’s authority and some who plain didn’t like him.

2 Corinthians 10:10 (This is Paul’s third epistle to the Corinthians because he wrote one before 1 Corinthians.) For they (Paul’s critics) say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive, and his speech contemptible.”

In Corinth they loved the body. The Greeks were enamored by men who had muscles and wonderful forms, with wonderful Greek and Roman noses. You see that because they paraded the body and had their athletics. They were enamored by the external appearance of a person.

They were also enamored by speech. Lots of philosophers, debaters and scribes would give forth their opinions, standing and delivering their messages with great eloquence. Apollos, who would come along after Paul, went to Corinth to work with the church there. Apollos, before he was even saved, could pontificate from the Scriptures in great eloquence. But these Greek people looked at Paul and they despised him: “His speech is contemptible.” So they put Paul down: His appearance is not good and his speech is contemptible. Now he’s writing to the church in Corinth. It’s not his first letter as you know, but he’s writing to them because he must deal with the issue of divisions. There are divisions in this church. What are they and why are they there?

Divisions in the Church

1 Corinthians 1:11-12 For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas (Peter),” and “I of Christ.”

We know of at least four divisions that they were falling under.

1 Corinthians 1:13 Has Christ been divided? (In Greek, “divided” means this: Have you cut up Jesus Christ in pieces and sent a piece here or there? Can Jesus literally be cut up and portioned out? No!) Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

Apparently, they were coming along and saying, “I’m of Peter, and when I was with Peter he baptized me.” Or “I’m of so-and-so,” or “I was baptized by Paul—I’m with Paul.” Paul’s reply was to say, “Look, I wasn’t crucified for you; I wasn’t the one who baptized you.”

1 Corinthians 1:14-15 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, that no man should say you were baptized in my name.

Paul knows that there are problems, divisions, in that church at Corinth. He wants them to be of the same mind, the same heart. He wants them to be about the business of the gospel, not divided and fighting among themselves. The problem is that they are fleshly, they are babes who have not grown up, they have not gone on to maturity. As a result they are followers of men and impressed by who got baptized by whom. Paul says, “I am so thankful I didn’t baptize any of you except him, him and him.” Thus, he confronts the issue, hitting them on the divisions and baptism. He then moves right into their other problem: That they are caught up with the wisdom of men because they are babes in Christ and not able to take strong meat. Because they are still on the bottle they are caught up in the wisdom of men. Paul will deal with the issue of the wisdom of men versus the wisdom of God. The wisdom of God is the message of the cross.

1 Corinthians 1:17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, This is the issue. Baptism is for believers, not unbelievers. Paul was sent to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, They were caught up in the cleverness of speech (“cleverness” can be translated as “wisdom” (Greek : “sophia”)) that the cross of Christ should not be made void.

What does he mean that “the cross of Christ should not be made void?” In other words, that Paul would influence them by his speech instead of by the message. The problem with many of us is that we feel inadequate because we look at ourselves as the messenger and we forget that it’s not the messenger, it is the message. And the message is dynamite. The message is power. The message will transform so it doesn’t matter who brings it—only that the message is brought.

1 Corinthians 1:17-18a For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void. For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness,

They were possibly going out and giving the gospel but the Greek people were saying, “That is absolutely stupid! That one man would hang on a cross—a horrible means of death only belonging to criminals. (No Roman citizen will ever die that way.) That a man would hang on a cross, shed his blood and I can be changed? I could have eternal life and move from death unto life from the power of Satan to the kingdom of God? It’s ridiculous. Ha! That’s the most stupid message I’ve ever heard.” So the believers in Corinth thought possibly that they had to couch it and deliver it in a different way and put it in cleverness of speech and wisdom of words. But Paul says, “No, you don’t have to do that. You simply deliver the message.”

1 Corinthians 1:18b But to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

It is the power of God. It is inherent power. Just give forth the message: that we are sinners and Christ died for us and that God loved us so much that He crucified His Son. Give it. Try it. See what happens. He was raised from the dead, never to die again and you and I can have eternal life because we are united with Him in His death, burial and resurrection. If Christ lives, we shall live also! Give it! Try it! Just give it!

You say, “But I’m embarrassed.” A sailor who was an officer, was giving the gospel to a man. This man argued with him and debated him. In a sense, he wore him right into the ground but all the sailor could keep saying was, “But Jesus died for your sins and you’re a sinner.” He kept giving the gospel. In several days the man was broken down because the sailor stuck to the one and only message that that man needed. Every lost person needs this message but every lost person is not going to believe it.

1 Corinthians 1:18b-19 It is the power of God. For it is written (God is speaking), “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, All these eloquent professors who sit in these religion classes and pooh-pooh your faith in Jesus Christ—He is going to destroy their wisdom. …and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.” “All their manipulations and words and arguments I will set aside.”

1 Corinthians 1:20 Where is this wise man? Where is this intellectual man? Where is the scribe, the one that writes down the Word of God then takes that Word and proclaims it, yet doesn’t know the power because all he knows is the Word without the relationship. He says, “Where is the power?” Where is the debater of this age? They would come to Corinth and debate as they did on Mars Hill. They would debate and debate. Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

1 Corinthians 1:21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message… It is not a foolish message, but it is foolishness to those who hear yet do not believe. …preached to save those who believe. They hear the message. Some say it’s foolish, it’s tommy-rot, it’s ridiculous. It’s for the ignorant. It’s for those who need a crutch. Yes, that’s right—and you need a crutch that no one can kick out. It’s a crutch that will stand. That’s what they say it is for. But you say, “Oh, to those who believe it is the power of God unto salvation.

1 Corinthians 1:21-24 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; but we don’t give them signs, we don’t give them wisdom, instead we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, (but you have to let them stumble) and to Gentiles absolute foolishness, (and you let them think it’s foolishness) but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

What kind of power is this? As shown in the beginning of chapter 1, it is the power of God which brought these sinners, who were homosexuals and lesbians, adulterers, murderers, whoremongers, thieves, to Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:2a to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, What is this message? You deliver this message and what does it do? It is such power that it takes you out of the world with its system and its philosophy and it sets you apart unto God. It takes you, who are sinners and makes you saints—holy ones set apart belonging to God—saints by calling. It is that which enriches you in everything. This is the power of the gospel:

1 Corinthians 1:5 that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge,

You’re caught up with the speech of the world. You’re caught up in the knowledge of the world. When you come to know Jesus Christ—when you believe that gospel—that power comes in and enriches you in all speech and knowledge.

DL Moody, who only had four years of schooling, was a mighty man of God. Although he couldn’t write, he couldn’t capitalize, he didn’t punctuate, he was a mighty man of God. He was a brilliant man because he was enriched in all things because he believed that glorious gospel of Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:6-8 says it is the power of God which will confirm you until the end. It is the power of God that will save you and pull you out of the pit to guarantee that you will be confirmed until the end to be presented before the God of all creation, blameless before Him in great joy and great glory.

1 Corinthians 1:9 Finally, it is the power of God that calls you into fellowship with Jesus Christ. It unites you with Jesus so that you have Christ in you and you’re in Christ. You have the hope of glory. So why preach anything else? Only one message is necessary and that is the word of the cross. “I determine to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified”, dying because God loves you and because He wants to turn you around. He wants to take you to live with Him forever. This is the power of God unto salvation. Give it! Give the message! You need not be ashamed. It’s power and it doesn’t matter who the messenger is, it only matters that the message gets out. Get it out.

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