February 5 2023 1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16)
I had a professor in seminary who confessed to some of us over coffee one day that he frequently came home from church and was so frustrated he had to go out and dig in the garden, even in the middle of winter.
Robert Louis Stevenson once recorded in his diary, as if it were a surprise, "I went to church today and am not depressed."
Someone has said, "I feel like unscrewing my head and putting it underneath the pew every time I go to church." Thoughts like these are often expressed by people who have dropped out of church, especially youth and young adults. Many people assume that Christianity is dull, boring, and for the mindless.
Unfortunately, like portions of 1 Corinthians we have already examined, today's chapter has been used to support an uneducated, unthinking approach to Christianity that Paul clearly did not intend.
Recently I saw a poster that shows the head of Christ with the caption, "He came to save your soul, not your mind." Perhaps Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish philosopher, got it a little more correct when he said, "Christ doesn't destroy reason; he dethrones it." Today's reading really teaches that a maturing Christian, rather than dumbing down, actually becomes wiser: wiser not in the way of the world, but in the ways of the Spirit.
Wisdom is not always knowing every answer, but knowing where to find the answer is true wisdom. Our society is not the only one that pines for wisdom. The ancient Greeks valued it as well. And yet when the Apostle Paul visited the church in the Greek city of Corinth he didn’t put on a dazzling display of intellectual acumen.
Paul confesses: “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words” (1 Corinthians 2:4). But lest the Corinthians not take him seriously Paul went on to say in today’s text: “We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom” (1 Corinthians 2:6, 7a). Do Paul’s words sound a bit like a tabloid headline? “God’s Secrets Revealed!” But Paul isn’t a reporter for the National Enquirer who’s making stuff up to sell newspapers. He really did have a secret wisdom from God revealed to him by the Holy Spirit.
Paul explained: “God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God... 13 This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words” (1 Corinthians 2:10, 11, 13). No one besides God, not even your spouse or a sibling, knows what you’re thinking right now. You would have to enlighten us.
In the same way, there is no way for us to know what God is thinking unless he tells us. Thankfully he does that through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit hasn’t spoken directly to us but he did somehow communicate with people like the Apostle Paul who then wrote those words down in what we today call the Bible. Do you want to gain real wisdom? Real wisdom comes from the Spirit. And the Spirit speaks to us through the pages of the Bible. This is why confessional Lutherans treat the Bible with such respect. When we come together to study the Bible we’re not just examining an ancient text; we’re reading God’s mind!
Reading and studying the Bible leads to an eternally secure future. That secure future comes to us only by believing the Bible’s main message. What is that message?
A number of years ago someone published a cookbook based on healthy recipes from the Bible. Bible recipes? I think you’ve read the Bible enough to know that it’s not a cookbook.
Nor does the Bible teach you how to build a successful business. Yes, it does explain what makes for happy homes, but even that isn’t the main purpose of the Bible.
Real wisdom, Paul explains, concentrates on Christ. Paul tell the Corinthians, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). I am nearly 40 years in ministry and I am still telling you about Jesus dying on the cross to pay for our sins.
Perhaps you are saying to yourselves, seriously, can’t we focus on something else for a change? When you think about a new home, or a new church building everyone has different ideas, dreams, goals, decorating ideas. How many of you think about what is involved with the foundation? I doubt that anyone thinks about the foundation. And yet if we didn’t get the foundation right, the whole building is doomed. Likewise, Jesus Christ is the foundation of our faith. Therefore, real wisdom concentrates on Christ because without a proper understanding of who Jesus is and what he has done for us, we’re building our eternal future on sand instead of solid rock.
We need constant encouragement to concentrate on Christ because we’re like Jesus’ first disciples. It takes only minutes for us to become drowsy, spiritually cool, and careless. We forget how extraordinary it is that God has miraculously invaded our world to speak to us. And so we fail to honor the Word with our full attention when it is spoken or preached about. I bet some of you have already checked out of my sermon and thinking about something unrelated to being here to worship God. We are so easily distracted in our so sophisticated and technical world.
Instead, we pay closer attention to our Facebook feeds and phone texts. But that’s like failing to keep your eyes on the road while trying to navigate rush hour traffic. Sure, it’s “boring” keeping your eyes on the road when there are so many other things to look at, but if you don’t concentrate on the road, you won’t make it safely to your destination. Likewise, if we don’t continue to concentrate on Christ and what he has done for us, we won’t make it safely to heaven. Concentrating on Christ will culminate in glory.
Listen again to the Apostle Paul. “…we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began” (1 Corinthians 2:7).
Did you hear that? Real wisdom is ancient. It’s been around since before clocks started ticking on earth. But real wisdom doesn’t just speak about a past, it also points to the future—a future that will culminate in glory!
In eternity God already knew that Adam and Eve would fall into sin. Not only that, but He also already knew how he was going to save mankind from their sins. His plan is not one we would have dreamed up. We would have sent in the angels to take care of Satan. But God came himself, though not many realized it because he hid his majesty in swaddling clothes and put his love on full display with a crucified carpenter.
No, very few saw divine wisdom in that. God still hides His glorious wisdom. He meets us in the message of law that points out our sins, and in the gospel that declares how Christ paid for those sins. This message is proclaimed on the pages of a book and through the words of a pathetic preacher like myself. It’s hidden in a handful of water, and in pennies’ worth of bread and wine, what we call the Holy Sacraments. The world doesn’t see wisdom there. But by the Holy Spirit’s gracious working you do.
Believing what God has to say about our sin and what Jesus has done for us to take those sins away will lead to glory in heaven that will far outshine and outlast the thrill of a trip to the beach in the middle of winter. Don’t despise this wisdom.
We should push our children and each other to learn as much as we can about this world God created, but not at the expense of forgetting what real wisdom is. Real wisdom isn’t knowing how many beats an eighth note gets in 6/8 time, or remembering the names of Canada’s first four Prime Ministers. Real wisdom comes from the Spirit, it concentrates on Christ, and it culminates in glory. This wisdom only matures when we are in the Word, not talking about the Word, or carrying a Bible around on your phone, but being in the Word, studying it regardless of your age. True Wisdom only comes from God Almighty! Marvel and rejoice at how God has given you this wisdom. Amen.