神的智慧 The Wisdom of God
哥林多前书 1 Cor 1:17–25
Remember these points
I put these points at the top of my sermon-prep template to remind myself every week:
- Show that main point of passage relates to Jesus and his saving work
- (1 Cor 1:18) A truly gospel-centred message will not be acceptable in a synagogue or mosque
- Did I proclaim the gospel as the headline news of the sermon, rather than as a “by the way…”?
- Unbelievers are called to repent, believe, and be saved
- Believers are encouraged to abandon their old self, renew their minds, put on the new self in Christ
- Preach simple sermons, so that God’s people can see Christ more clearly and love him more dearly
News
Hook
Subject here
Contents here
Passage
Today’s passage is part of a bigger structure, from 1 Cor 1:17–2:2.
The chiasmus centres on v. 23a, “We preach Christ crucified.”
Next month (final Sunday of July when we study 1 Corinthians again), we’ll look into this structure a bit more.
Paul’s purpose in Corinth was to preach the gospel, not to baptise people.
Baptism isn’t important, but don’t think that we don’t have to be baptised. It’s our Lord’s command to be baptised.
This passage compares wisdom to the cross. But it’s not just any wisdom; Paul is talking about the wisdom of this world.
Salvation doesn’t come from the world’s wisdom.
Paul divides people into two groups: those who are on the road to destruction, and those who are saved.
To be saved means to be right with God, to be able to avoid the wrath of God.
To the people who are perishing, the way of the cross seems stupid. Why?
Paul is quoting Isa 29:14. The context of Isaiah 29 is about the insincere worship of the Israelites.
In the same way, people use their own wisdom to look for God. This will never work.
The CUV translation of this part isn’t all that clear. Other Chinese translations are better, as in slide 41 below.
It’s impossible to depend on our wisdom to find or know God.
Instead, God used the rather stupid idea of a saviour dying on the cross. This seemingly stupid idea is the wisdom of God. All who believe in this supposedly stupid idea of the cross will be saved.
Jews ask for miracles. Why? Because they need proof that Christ is who he says he is. They need physical evidence of God.
This is one of the inappropriate ways of finding God.
We preach a saviour that’s nailed to the cross. Jews can’t accept this, and Gentiles (Greeks, Romans, etc.) think this is stupid. Whoever heard of a saviour being killed? How can Jesus be a saviour if he’s killed, and killed on the cross at that?
God is far superior to anything human wisdom can come up with.
Humans will never be at the level of God, not even close.
The other inappropriate way to find God is to see ourselves as God.
与我有什么关系? So What?
- It’s not a problem to look for wisdom. Problem is when we try to replace God’s wisdom (in the Bible and in Christ) with human wisdom.
- Worldly wisdom won’t save us. The only way for us to be saved, for us to be right with God, is to put our faith in Jesus Christ.
- We’re all looking for God; don’t think that you’re an atheist. There are no atheists, we all believe in something, whether you realise it or not.
