The Power Of The Cross - [1 Corinthians 2:1-5]

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This, the power of the cross, Son of God, slain for us.
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What a life, what a cost, we stand forgiven at the cross.
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For us, as Christians, these words cut deep into us, the mix of feelings that we feel when we hear them and when we sing them, for sure, thankfulness, grief, amazement, unworthiness.
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There's something about music in general that I think it pierces us in it and it brings out raw emotions, but in this case, it isn't the music that has such an effect on us, it's the message within it.
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The picture is painted of the single most important moment in the history of the world where the power and the wrath and the justice and the goodness of God were revealed in the crucifixion of His Son.
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The turning point of history was on one day on one hill where one man was crucified for the sins of all of His people.
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We marvel at the cross, we stand in awe of the power of God on display on the cross.
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When we look to share the word of God with other people, when we look to preach the gospel, we can get bogged down.
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We can get stuck talking about the pre -flood water canopy or whether Adam and Eve had belly buttons or where the
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Garden of Eden was or, you know, maybe it's just our eschatology, but we get bogged down in these things when we're seeking to preach the gospel.
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It's not to say that they're not important. They could be very important things, very interesting things to talk about, but what it isn't is preaching the gospel.
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When we get caught up in our co -workers' questions about how Sarah could bear children at such an advanced age or whether Goliath was really a giant, as we're looking for answers to these questions and trying to explain how things in the
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Old Testament work, we're not preaching the gospel when we engage in sporting debate about, you know, the feasibility of creationism versus evolutionism.
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You know, we're not preaching the gospel. We're not revealing the power of the cross. We're not revealing the power of God.
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So how do you share the Word of God? How do you preach the gospel? How should we preach the gospel?
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If you open your Bibles this morning, this evening, this morning, evening, to 1
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Corinthians chapter 2, we're going to see a picture of Paul the Apostle.
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This is an autobiographical description. In Acts 16, Paul receives the Macedonian call and a vision and immediately sets sail and leaves for Philippi.
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He travels through a number of different cities in Macedonia preaching the gospel, finds himself in Athens.
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By the end of Acts 17, Paul addresses the Areopagus. And finally, chapter 18 of Acts, we read of Paul arriving in Corinth.
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I'm going to read from Acts 18. You don't have to turn there, but just listen. After this, speaking in the
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Areopagus, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. He found a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, recently come from Italy with his wife
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Priscilla because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. And he went to see them.
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And because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for they were tent makers by trade. And he reasoned in the synagogue every
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Sabbath and tried to persuade the Jews and the Greeks. When Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the
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Jews that the Christ was Jesus. When they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garment and said to them, your blood be on your own heads.
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I am innocent. Now on, I will go to the Gentiles. And he left there and went to the house of a man named
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Titius Justice, a worshiper of God. His house was next door to the synagogue.
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Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord together with his entire household.
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And many of the Corinthians, hearing Paul, believed and were baptized. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you and no one will attack you to harm you.
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For I have many in this city who are my people. And he stayed a year and six months teaching the word of God among them.
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As was his custom, when he arrived in Corinth, he first reasoned with the Jews in the synagogue. And only after that did he go on to preach the gospel to the
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Gentiles. Paul got himself situated with Priscilla and Aquila, staying with them and working with them as tent makers, because that was the job that he had and that was what he was good at.
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And he began an 18 -month mission to build a body of believers in Corinth. So let's take a look at 1
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Corinthians chapter 2, starting in verse 1, where Paul describes this mission. This is what he says, and I, when
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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.
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And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.
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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.
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Paul came to Corinth to do one thing, to spread the gospel. And in doing so, he provided for us an example of the focus that we are to have when we do the same.
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If you're taking notes, we're going to break this passage down and look at five attributes of a godly preacher or five ways to effectively preach the gospel, which is how
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I'm going to frame them. And the first one of these is to preach without worldly motives, to preach simply, to simply preach.
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And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
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Now some of you may know a little bit about Corinth. Corinth was a product of its culture in many ways. It was a city that was kind of situated on an isthmus.
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So there was a stretch of land in between two bodies of water. And so it was kind of a sailor town, which you can use your imagination, it was not a great place to be.
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But it was another thing. It was also very close to Athens, which is the capital of Greece.
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And therefore it was the center of Greek thought and philosophy. So many philosophical schools were in this area or they were either in Athens or maybe some of them might have even been in Corinth because, you know, it's the suburbs so the schools are less expensive there or something like that.
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But this Hellenistic pagan theology was all over the place. Greece was very well known for their philosophers.
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You may have heard of some of them, Sophocles, Plato, Aristarchus, Hippocrates. Even now we've heard some of these names,
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Hippocratic Oath, some of these things. These philosophers were very well known for their debating skills.
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And the Greek culture was really big on this. They held good orators in high esteem.
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The more eloquent of a speaker you are, it would be considered that you were carrying a greater message.
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Your message was more important because you could speak it or present it well. And some people were actually even just to make a living thinking and talking about it, being philosophers.
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They were highly regarded because of their perceived wisdom. And that's actually what the word philosophy means.
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Philo means love and Sophia means wisdom. And so philosophy by its definition is what?
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The love of wisdom. So here in verse 1, Paul is disputing the necessity of that personal wisdom or superior speech in the presentation of the gospel.
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He says what? He did not come with lofty speech or wisdom, which stands in contrast with the standard practice of the era.
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If you had a new idea or sort of a different take on something and you wanted to really come in with a bang in ancient
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Greece, you'd have all your arguments prepared and you'd come in with, you know, loctite arguments and all this evidence and you'd dazzle everybody with your elegance.
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But that's not what Paul did. That's not what he did at all. So why is this important?
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I mean, wouldn't you think that Paul's sound reasoning would be something that the Corinthians would appreciate?
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Right? If they're used to this, if this is part of their culture, it would be something they'd like. Wouldn't they like the sport of debate? Isn't that something that they would do?
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Especially if Paul could win the debate, right? So you get into this little back and forth and how would people be able to refute
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Paul's claims? This was an era where public debates were very common. You can imagine what it would have been like.
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A debate would begin in a public setting. They had an open area where you could speak and there would be kind of a crowd and you go back and forth.
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And I went to public high school, sorry, but I kind of think about, you know, if there's a fight in the hallways, right, what happens?
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All the people kind of gather around and there's an opening in the middle where the two people are going back and forth and nobody can get in and, you know, everybody is paying attention to what's going on in the middle and I almost imagine that this public speaking and the two people going back and forth, you know, might get kind of a little heated like, you know,
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John McCain and Barack Obama and some of those presidential debates where it was getting really heated between the two of them. But it didn't happen like that.
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But surely you would think that you'd get the maximum number of people sort of paying, who's this Paul guy? What is he doing? What's going on here?
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But he didn't do that. He didn't come to debate with the Gentiles in Corinth. Unsurprisingly there's a few reasons for that.
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I have three. So, the first reason why he didn't come with this lofty speech or wisdom was because he was following his command.
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He was commanded to do a certain thing. If we flip back one chapter, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 17, he says,
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For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
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Paul was sent to preach the gospel of Christ in a way that would show the power of God when his listeners would repent and believe.
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It would be evident to those who witnessed that this conversion experience had something else beyond the incredible words coming out of the mouth of the speaker, the mouth of Paul that was affecting the hearts of his audience.
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The first thing, he was commanded to do this. The second one, he was differentiating himself from everybody else.
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He wanted to stand out. With Paul's actions, he's deliberately differentiating himself from the
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Greek orators and the philosophers of the time and the excesses to which they went with their speech.
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This idea of Greek debate became this almost like ceremonious, self -effusing thing.
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I talk to people who don't like professional sports but like college sports, and they talk about the difference between presentation and substance and how when college sports are doing it because they really want to do it as opposed to professional sports where they're just doing it to look good and whatever.
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That's what this Greek debate culture became in the big cities, this idea where it's all about the look and it's this snazziness and big, complicated $25 words or whatever.
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In talking about the distinction Paul makes between his presentation and that of the Greek debaters, there's something Matthew Henry said that I like.
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He did not affect to appear a fine orator or a deep philosopher, nor did he insinuate himself into their minds by a flourish of words or a pompous show of deep reason and extraordinary science and skill.
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He did not set himself to captivate the ear by fine turns and eloquent expressions, nor to please and entertain the fancy with lofty flights of sublime notions.
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I love Matthew Henry. Neither his speech nor the wisdom he taught savored of human skill.
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He learned both in another school. Divine wisdom needed not to be set off with such human ornaments.
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One can only imagine that Paul had the desire, he certainly had the ability to use persuasive speech to preach the gospel, but as he said in chapter one, and he reiterates it here and later, he did not use persuasion or eloquent speech to share the word because it wasn't necessary and it would in fact take away from the glory of the scriptures themselves.
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Of course, there is plenty of evidence to support that Paul was skilled in the practice of debate.
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We just talked about in Acts 17, Paul was in the Areopagus back in Athens, so he was reasoning in the synagogue with the
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Jews and the God -fearing Gentiles and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present, and he went to the
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Areopagus and made another presentation there. Later on in Acts, in Acts 26, you hear
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Paul speaking and this is what he says, For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly, for I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner.
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King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe. And Agrippa said to Paul, In a short time would you persuade me to be a
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Christian? Paul said, Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am, except for these chains.
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Paul was a brilliant theologian in his days as a Pharisee, he still was a brilliant theologian, but he was bred for it.
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This is something that we just heard about in Philippians 3. We heard about Paul and the pedigree that he has.
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He had the ability for sure to teach as the Greeks do, but here in Corinth he opted not to do that. And as Paul has exemplified, this is a key to godly preaching.
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The gospel of Christ is not intended to be weaseled into the minds of an unbeliever by a clever preacher, but it is to be plainly presented by us.
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When we share the word of God with our friends and our family, we must remember that we are nothing but heralds of a greater message.
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There is nothing that we can add to the miracle of salvation for sinners. It is not a gospel of works.
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Number one, he preached this way because he was commanded to. Number two, he differentiated himself from the others.
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And the third reason Paul did not come to Corinth with an intended debate is because Paul didn't want to be factious.
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Paul did not want to be factious. For the Greeks, I mentioned this already, debate was a sport.
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Fans would unite behind a philosopher and cheer for them, much like tonight as soon as I go home and take this suit off,
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I'm probably going to put on my Red Sox pajamas and cheer for the Red Sox and hope for good umpiring tonight.
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Paul was wise enough to know that if he engaged in debate, which was common at that time, people might seek to follow him and unite under Paul and listen to him and not the message that he was called to preach.
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We see this happening in chapter one. This is something Paul tried to avoid, but we see him addressing it because it happened in this church.
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Chapter one, verses 12 and 13. What I mean is that each one of you says, I follow
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Paul or I follow Apollos or I follow Cephas or I follow Christ. Is Christ divided?
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Was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul? Even though Paul is trying not to be factious, he's trying not to split these people up, it happened.
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People followed other leaders, not because of anything that those leaders did most likely, but it's just, it's something that they tended to do.
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So the first thing, that was the first attribute of a godly preacher, is to preach simply, to preach without worldly motives.
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The second attribute of a godly preacher is to preach all of the scripture with a singular focus, or to preach what the scriptures mean.
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Verse two, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. What we know is that Paul didn't just kind of drop into Corinth and preach a five or ten or twenty minute message about Christ and then leave.
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We see it in Acts 18. He spent 18 months in Corinth and he settled there, a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
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So what does that really mean? I mean, it's obvious that Paul didn't just every day get up and say, so, you know,
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Christ died on the cross for our sins, okay, I'll see you after lunch. That's not what he did, right? This morning we read from John chapter five.
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We saw Jesus witnessing to the Pharisees. What did he say then? You search the scriptures, at this time he's talking to the
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Pharisees, so he's referring to the Old Testament, because you think that in them you have eternal life. And it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
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The scriptures, the entire corpus of scriptures, talks about Christ. On the road to Emmaus, Jesus taught his apostles that the entire
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Bible spoke of him. Luke 24, 27, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
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Paul's witness to the Ephesians shows his willingness to teach all the scriptures. Acts 20, 27, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
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So when Paul refers to the testimony of God in verse one and Jesus Christ and him crucified in verse two, he's talking about the whole person and work of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for the redemption of sins makes no sense to one who doesn't understand why that sacrifice was necessary.
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This is why it's so important to teach the whole person and work of Jesus Christ and by extension all of the theological implications of that perfect sacrifice.
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We are charged to preach Christ. And this includes helping our audience to understand why his sacrifice was necessary and the benefits to the redeemed because of that sacrifice.
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The message of Christ's crucifixion appears to be straightforward and simple, but both
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Jews and Gentiles rejected Paul's appeal to believe in a crucified Christ as an offense or as foolishness.
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Therefore Paul had to go beyond the historical details of the crucifixion and teach his audience the theological implications of this redemptive event in human history.
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He taught not only the reason for Christ's death on the cross, but also the eternal benefits for every believer, forgiveness of sin, eternal life, and the resurrection of the body.
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It was necessary for Paul to work through all the scripture to paint this full picture, but all of the time his focus was on one thing and that was what
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Christ and him crucified. So those are the first two characteristics of a faithful preacher, preaching simply without worldly motives, preaching all of the scripture with a singular focus, preaching what the scriptures mean, and the third one is to preach with humility.
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Verse three, and I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling.
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As we seek to grow as Christians and preachers of the word of God, we find men and women in the Bible that can stand as truly awesome heroes of the faith and Paul is no doubt one of those heroes.
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There is no doubt the persecution that he suffered at the hands of the Corinthians in the synagogue and the sicknesses that he endured and being thrown out of cities and stoned and all of those things that he lists in his letters, they affected him in a way that was probably meaning he wasn't in the best of health,
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I would imagine. Think about this situation, we know that Paul was, what, a Pharisee before he came to saving faith in Christ and so that means that while he was on his missionary journey, he probably was not a very young man,
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I mean he had already become a Pharisee, I mean even if he became a Pharisee at a younger age, he still was probably not in his sporting youth.
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So I was thinking about how to explain that and the thing that came to mind was the presidential campaigns where they have their plush motor coaches and they go around the country and they talk about how exhausting that is and you think about the fact that Paul had to pretty much walk and sail everywhere and just how much of a toll that would have taken on his older body.
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He had been solemnly charged by Christ directly, how's that for motivation, to establish a church of God in Corinth with the
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Macedonian call, probably the most corrupt city in the known world. He suffers from physical ailments and people are constantly trying to assault him and bring him before the courts to stand trial.
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It's not an easy place to be but throughout the entire thing he perseveres. Kistemacher talks about this fear and trembling, he says the terms fear and trembling occur often in Paul's epistles as an expression of anxiety.
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Fear is a debilitating force used by Satan to hinder Christ's servants and to distort their perception.
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Paul gives no details but confesses that during his stay in Corinth he experienced what fear and trembling.
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Here these terms relate to numerous social and political threats Paul had to face.
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And then back in Acts 18 which is that narrative of this time we know from scripture that God supernaturally comforted
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Paul. Soon after Paul arrives in Corinth the Lord spoke to him in verses 9 and 10, and the
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Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, do not be afraid but go on speaking and do not be silent for I am with you and no one will attack you to harm you for I have many in this city who are my people.
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So no doubt there was some fear because the Lord was addressing that directly, do not be afraid.
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Paul was one of the greatest theologians to ever walk the earth and he proved it time and again in his ceaseless ministry.
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If anyone who has ever served Christ had the right to boast it would be Paul but we know that that's not the case. Paul spent some time in some of his letters describing himself in a very loving way.
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I have three, Romans 7 24, wretched man that I am who will deliver me from this body of death.
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Any of you write that in your self -evaluation before your review? 1
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Timothy 1 15, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
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I am the foremost. And Ephesians 3 8, to me though I am the very least of all the saints this grace was given to preach to the
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Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. This is the autobiographical description that Paul the apostle shares with us.
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With the awesome weight of his divine charge bearing down on his shoulders Paul still stood bold in his ministry and proved to be immeasurably humble.
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We would do well to keep in mind the words of John Stott who said, at every age of our Christian development and in every sphere of our
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Christian discipleship pride is the greatest enemy and humility is our greatest friend.
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It is this humility that we should always strive for as we meet an unbeliever and begin to share the gospel with them or we meet a brother and sister in Christ and we begin to teach them or share with them we must remain humble as Paul demonstrated time and time again.
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The first thing is to preach simply, preach without worldly motives. The second description of a preacher or a method for preaching is to preach all of the
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Bible. The third is to preach with humility. Number four, the fourth characteristic of a faithful preacher is one who will preach with dependence on the spirit.
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Verses four and five, 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.
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Much like verse one, Paul stresses the importance of presenting the gospel simply and without corruption from worldly influences.
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He goes further here and he tells us that the gospel message driven by the Holy Spirit is a demonstration of divine power.
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This is exactly the same idea that Paul uses when he writes to the church in Thessalonica in chapter one of first Thessalonians verses four and five he says, for we know brothers loved by God, great description by the way, wouldn't you like to be called a brother loved by God especially from someone like the apostle
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Paul, for we know brothers loved by God that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word but also in power and in the
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Holy Spirit and with full conviction. Paul knew the church in Corinth was of God because it wouldn't be there if God didn't want it to be there.
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Just like the Thessalonian church is there because God has chosen them, these are the chosen people of God in Corinth.
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This is for Harry. The word that Paul uses here for demonstration is the same root word that's in Acts 25 verse seven which is talking about when the
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Jews are bringing evidence against Paul in court. It's a legal term that basically means irrefutable evidence.
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It's like DNA evidence. There's nothing that you can say to counteract that, to be against that or anything like that.
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What's presented there is no alternative, this demonstration. The evidence of the
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Holy Spirit working in someone's life and transforming them into a new Christian serves as irrefutable proof of the power of the gospel message.
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That's a relief. When I think about the fact that it's not just up to me to convince someone to become a
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Christian, it's a huge load off of my shoulders. We have been charged to present the gospel to others, absolutely.
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But beyond that, there's not a lot that we can do. For that,
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I praise God. If I share the gospel with one of my friends, with an unbelieving friend, and they're not willing to accept it, it's not because I failed, it's not because I did something wrong.
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I don't have to live in shame thinking that I wasn't able to convince someone that they needed to become a
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Christian or anything like that. God is in control of who will and who will not come to faith. It doesn't mean
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I shouldn't continue, it doesn't mean I should stop preaching the gospel, but I can rest easier knowing that it is
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God that turns the heart of man and not us. We don't have notches in our
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Bibles with converts that we make or anything like that. It's God's grace that saves people, not us.
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Commentator, notice that Paul uses the plural noun men to illustrate that in Corinth, many people are dispensing their own insight and wisdom when he's talking about the wisdom of men.
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Man's discernment is temporal, faulty, and subject to change.
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God's wisdom is eternal, perfect, and unchangeable. When a
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Christian in faith asks God for wisdom, he experiences the working of God's power.
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He rejoices in the salvation God has provided him. James 1 verse 5, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask
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God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.
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It is such a blessing that our faith rests righteously upon God.
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God is our eternal father and is never wrong, and he can never be wrong.
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It is good and it is right for us to place our faith in the one that embodies perfection.
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If we were to place our faith in another, it would be in a front of the gospel that we preach. So, that's four characteristics of a faithful preacher, preaching simply, preaching without worldly motives, preaching all of the
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Bible, preaching with humility, preaching with dependence upon the spirit, and finally, we are to preach in obedience.
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Jesus Christ charged the apostles to do what? To go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations.
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Throughout the book of Acts, we see that charge being carried out in the planting of numerous churches.
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Paul planted the church of God at Corinth. In this passage, we are looking at Paul recollecting some of his time in Corinth.
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Paul is a wonderful example of obedience to Christ regarding the charge of the
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Great Commission. We likewise are to preach the word of God to the body of Christ and those outside the body as well.
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Since preaching the gospel is a commandment from God, when we fulfill that commandment, we are honoring Him. God is our audience above all.
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It is not the people that we are preaching to that are our primary audience, but it is God and we should strive to honor Him in everything that we do, especially in teaching
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His word. Every Christian should strive to become a godly preacher.
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Whether you're teaching your children or you're standing on the corner of an intersection on a
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Saturday afternoon, God's standards are the same for each and every one of us. We are to preach
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Christ and to preach Him crucified. We are to reveal the glory with which
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God the Father has redeemed sinful men. We are all sinners, the
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Bible tells us, and we desperately need a Savior, whether we know it or not. The Bible tells us that God is the author of all things.
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He is the creator of all things. God made us in His image and charged us to tend to the world
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He created. But Eve was tempted and Adam ate the fruit, just as we would have done.
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He thought himself smarter than God, something that we all would have done and we probably have done sinfully in our lives at some point.
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God, as our representative
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Adam, sinned in the Garden of Eden. And so here we are. We're infected with this virus.
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We're unable to cure ourselves from this stain of sin that we have. Mankind is a fallen race.
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We're shaking our fists collectively at the God who created us. It is only perfect obedience that would bridge the gap between created and creator.
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It is only perfect submission that would mend the fellowship between God and man.
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It's a perfection that we cannot obtain. We are dead in our trespasses and sins,
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Ephesians tells us. We're unable to do anything about our state. And so God sent
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His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus came as a man so that Jesus could die for men.
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Jesus came as God so that He could be perfect and die for many. Christ came to this place.
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He came to us because we were wholly incompetent before Him and before the
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Father. This is the Christ preached by Paul. When the time was right, as we know,
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Christ submitted Himself to His Father's will and He was crucified and He was killed.
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He didn't deserve to die because He was perfect, but He did. This is the crucified
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Messiah that Paul preached. A perfect, sinless man hung on a cross.
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But the story does not end there, of course, with a dead Messiah on a tree. The Father accepted the sacrifice of the
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Son and raised Him from the dead, defeating death what once and for all for all of His chosen.
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So how do we respond to this? What do we say? What do we do? How can we, as finite men and women, comprehend this sacrifice, this incredible outpouring of grace that is something that we don't deserve and it's something that we can never deserve?
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What do we do about this? For my birthday this year, my wife bought me something that I was really impressed and amazed that she got for me.
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I kind of couldn't believe it. I almost, almost wanted to say, take it back, I don't deserve this, but I didn't.
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But here's the thing. How much more incomprehensible is the gift of life given to us by Jesus Christ?
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How much more so? How can we respond by doing anything but proclaiming His name from the rooftops?
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We can respond by obeying the commandment of Jesus Christ, John 14, 15. If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
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Acts 2 .38. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the
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Holy Spirit. The more that we cherish Christ, the more that we are amazed by Him.
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The more we clearly recognize the incredible chasm we have crossed by receiving forgiveness through Jesus, the more tightly we cling to Him.
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This is the power of the cross. Christ became sin for us. He took the blame.
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He bore the wrath. We stand forgiven at the cross. Father in heaven, you are so good to us.
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You have given us more than we could ever imagine in your Son, Jesus Christ. Even so, you still bless us even more.
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Thank you, God, for showing us how to love you, Father, by loving us first. Thank you for giving us your word that we might plumb the infinite depths of your grace.
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Help us, Lord, to rest in your grace and give us the desire to preach your word to all who would hear that they might come to know you through the power of your gospel.
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Thank you, Father, for entrusting us with the message of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.