Transcription
[Music] Well, the Lord be with you. If you have a Bible, and I hope that you do, would you turn with me? We are going to be looking at the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 2 this morning. We're actually going to cover the entire chapter, Lord willing. And this is an epistle, or a a letter, that has been written by the Apostle Paul to a church in Corinth.
Now, the Church of Corinth was a church that was founded by the Apostle Paul on his second missionary journey. And now, at the time of this writing, he's writing on his third missionary journey while he's in Ephesus. And so, while he's in Ephesus, he's been hearing a report of what's been going on in this church, and he's been actually getting some letters written to him by some of these church members. In fact, 1 Corinthians is actually a little bit of a misnomer because this is actually probably his second letter that he wrote to the Corinthians in response to some of the things that are going on here.
But what's going on in the church specifically is that they are allowing the culture of Corinth to infiltrate their church. The city of Corinth was a massive city, think 200,000 plus individuals, not counting all of the individuals that are traveling through the region for business and for trade purposes. And this was a multicultural area where a lot of different schools of philosophy are being uh uh propagated and promoted, in which many of these individuals in the city of Corinth are starting to really seek elevation in their social status. They're really starting to um emphasize and prioritize to value their social status, their wealth, their intellect. Who were they um following? Who are they um being taught by? Instructed by? What is their affluence that was being the priority within the city of Corinth? And this is actually starting to infiltrate the Church of Corinth.
And so, what Paul does at the very beginning in his greeting is he wants to encourage and actually challenge these Corinthian Christians. And what he's calling them to do is he's actually calling them out of the culture and back in into their identity found in Christ. And so, if you notice at the very beginning in chapter 1, what he does is he says that they have been sanctified, that they are set apart as saints, they are called to be holy. And though they aren't living up to their identity in Christ, he is calling them to live up to the identity, to what Christ has already accomplished for them.
And then, after he gives them that greeting and encourages them to identify in Christ and to recognize that they are saints because they are now in Jesus, he then starts to address some of the concerns. One of the main concerns being all of the divisions that are um prop uh propping up within the church themselves, where we see factions begin to form because once again, there's all of this spirit of competition within the church of of who is of higher status and and who's more intelligent and who should be um elevated in these political parties within the church. And so he starts to address these different groups, and some were claiming to follow Apollo, some were calling um Paul or Cephas parties. And so what he says ultimately is that the church is not to be divided because Christ is not divided. And the only way that we are to find true unity within the church, if we want to be a united body, we must get the gospel at the center of our worship. The gospel must be central in our lives. And so the gospel is the unifier.
And then last week, if you remember, what we then saw as he calls them to sainthood, as he calls them to live in their identity, and as he is encouraging them to be united around the gospel message, he then makes this comment about the culture because many are starting to question the wisdom of the gospel. The one thing that would unify them, the one thing that makes them holy, that makes them saints, many of them are starting to say, is this really, really that important of a message? And that's where he then says that the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but for those who are being saved, it is the power of God.
And so, what Paul began to do was encourage us to live like fools for Christ. He was showing us that the wise are actually fools, and it's the fools who are wise because God, in his wisdom, in his power, has chosen the weak things, the foolish, the insignificant things in this world to show his glory. And that ultimately, if we want to receive power, if we want to receive wisdom, we must look to Christ. We must look to Jesus, who actually, he says in the text, is the power and wisdom of God. And so you must have the gospel, you must have Christ to receive this true heavenly wisdom.
Well, now as we move into chapter 2, Paul's going to continue this thought, specifically looking at his approach to ministry and how he actually came to the Corinthians. And he's kind of wanting them to reflect back on whenever he founded the church and whenever he came there, how did he approach ministry? And how did he preach to these Corinthians? What was the message and what was the style in which the message message was presented that they received? And so, what we find in verses 1 to 5 is that when we look to Paul in his ministry, is we see that the gospel is actually viewed as a humble message.
In verses 1 to 5, it says, "And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."
So, you see that Paul wants them to REM you to reflect, to be reminded of what happened when they first believed, when Paul first introduced The Gospel to them. And he explains that his preaching was not marked with eloquence or persuasiveness. He wasn't like the sophists of the day, the philosophers of the day, trying to give them this really, you know, new, sparkly message. He wasn't trying to give them something that would just tickle their ears. He wasn't trying to use these, you know, flowery words to just impress them. But rather, Paul came preaching the gospel message, and it says with weakness, with fear, and much trembling.
Now, sometimes we don't think of Paul like that, you know, the writer of majority of the New Testament, one who goeth on all of these missionary journeys, was willing to be imprisoned, to suffer many things, and even to die a martyr for the faith. But here he says, when he came to Corinth, you know, he's he's in this new region. He came not as a, you know, boastful, "I'm the Apostle, listen to me," but rather he came in humility. And he even is admitting that there was probably some degree of of fear that he kind of was recognizing that what he was doing in his ministry, when he was preaching this message, it wasn't because he was super wise in his own wisdom, or that he was greater than all of these Corinthians. But rather, what he's saying is that he came not to elevate himself in his wisdom, but to elevate the wisdom of God.
And so, what he does is he preaches a humble message in humility. That's what we're called to do. Once again, this message, a a crucified Messiah, it was foolishness to the world. Remember, the Jews, it was a stumbling block because their Messiah had to be this great military leader. He was going to destroy Rome, not be killed by Rome. And for the Greeks, who viewed the deities to be so above the human and the the material world, they could not conceive of a God becoming flesh and then dying on a cross. Which, by the way, the cross would not even be mentioned in polite conversation. Romans were not even allowed to use that term when it came to the crucifixion because it was so beneath them.
And so, Paul then says, he comes in hum, preaching this very humble message that there was the Messiah who came, he suffered, he died on a cross for our sins. And so he doesn't use, as he says, this eloquence or or this persuasive language. He doesn't try to to butter up or or to make the gospel more palatable for people. And I think what this is reminding us as believers who were called to the same message and and that have been bestowed the same gospel is that we are not salesmen. We are ambassadors for Christ. We are ambassadors for Christ to herald this humble message.
And I think it's important that we see this because sometimes I think there might be a tendency or maybe a temptation to try to manipulate methods of evangelism. We think that maybe we can somehow trick people into the kingdom. You know, maybe I can get them to believe in Jesus before they really realize that that's what I'm trying to get them to do. Or we might try to be like, we're going to downplay the wrath, we're not going to talk about the sin issue, we're not going to talk about judgment, we're not going to talk about hell. You know, we'll get to the cross later. We just really want to affirm them, we want them to know God loves them, but we're not going to talk about this part for maybe the first couple of years of them being in the church.
Paul wasn't like that. The very first thing he says is that I I basically didn't try to know anything but Christ crucified. So the very first thing that he's giving you is the fact that Jesus had to die. And for Jesus to die, there had to be a reason for it. And that was because there was judgment, there was the there was a need to propitiate sin. And so, what we see here is that Paul was not afraid of being controversial or even sharing a message that may be offensive or or or deemed as foolish to the world.
Once again, he came lowly and in humility. And I'm reminded, as I think about Paul saying this, how he wasn't just trying to to just convince people. He wasn't just trying to to trick people and to use whatever words possible to get them to say a quick prayer, to get them to the altar, just to get them into the water. Rather, he wanted them to truly understand what it is that he was offering. And did they really want to take part in What Christ offers?
I think of Jesus's words in John 6, verses 51 to 53. He says, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you."
So, you see the gospel is already being presented in some capacity to them here. And this is very familiar language to what we just partook of in the Lord's Supper. But it's interesting that Jesus is giving them this hard message, telling them he is the living bread after he has just fed the 5,000, and they're starting to question. And it says that the Jews are quarreling because they're like, "What does he mean? He's telling us that we need to eat his flesh, drink his blood? What exactly are you talking about here, Jesus?" And rather than Jesus just be like, "Oh, no, guys, I'm just, it's just symbolic," rather than just letting them off the hook, he wanted them to wrestle with this message. And he wanted them to trust him despite how foolish or outlandish it may seem to them at this moment.
Now, of course, he goes on to explain that it's spiritual what he's teaching, that ultimately it's having faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ, that he is come to be that provision for the world. But he wanted them to trust him in the message even when they didn't understand it. And I think that's exactly what Paul is doing here. This message of Christ crucified, a suffering Messiah, it might not seem glorious to the world. And by the way, there are many today with all of the resources, all of the books that we have, the the podcasts, the different social media outlets, there's so many different worldviews, philosophies, religions out there. And there are going to be many that are enticed to go after something that's new, something novel, something that's exciting. It's like, "Oh, I've never heard of something like this before. This is really cool. This is a different concept. This is unlike other people's religion." And that's what Paul is seeing in Corinth right now. They're seeing all of these sparkly, flowery other philosophies, worldviews. They're thinking, maybe, "Is Christ crucified? Is that the best message? Is that the best thing that we could that we got?" And Paul's saying, "This is the most important thing. It's a humble message, but it's the best message that we could possibly ever received."
And so, Paul became nothing, even though he's an apostle, even though he was very wise, he was a a Pharisee of Pharisees. Paul became nothing so that Christ might be everything. When we come to share the gospel message, we need to recognize that the power is in the content of the message, not the delivery of the messenger. It's so much more important not who is up here speaking, or how intelligent they may seem, or articulate they may be. The most important thing is what is coming out of their mouth. So many people today are choosing churches, going to different religious organizations, and they are not taking time to truly consider, "What is the message? Are they preaching the gospel?"
Romans 1:16 says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek." Paul understood that there was no power within himself, in his wisdom. Power came from the good news of the Gospel that there is salvation in Christ. Because here's the thing, if there is no gospel in your pulpit, there is no Christianity there. If you do not hear the gospel being presented and proclaimed regularly within the church, you need to avoid those churches because they have left the Savior. The gospel is what promotes and elevates and exalts Jesus above personalities and these different parties and factions and cultural preferences. The message must always remain the same. It is Christ crucified.
The gospel is simple, yet deeply profound. Just that message that Christ was crucified, that we have salvation through this name. It's simple enough for an illiterate pagan to understand the concept, but it's profound enough for the most brilliant theologians and philosophers to meditate and reflect on for the rest of their lives. That's what's so amazing about this message. Is that you probably came, many of you were probably raised in the church, and many of you probably came to understand the simple gospel at a very early age. But I know many of us can attest on how the gospel is living and active and continues to apply and relate to all the many facets of our lives.
And now, as we think about Paul saying this, that he he didn't come with these um persuasive or eloquent speech, or he didn't come to boast in knowing anything but Christ crucified, I do think that we need to understand that there is a caveat here. Because some, I think, can read Paul here and maybe mistakenly believe that spirituality requires being anti-intellectual. Paul is not saying be dumb. Paul is not saying don't be well-read or don't study and show yourself approved. Paul isn't teaching that.
In fact, when Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, I'm sure many of us could probably quote what Jesus says in Mark 12:30. "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment." See, the point here is Jesus says that we are to love God with all of our being, including our minds. And so, to give God glory is to use our cognitive faculties. We are to use our intellect. But we aren't to depend on our intellect above all the other things that God has given us, that we submit our intellect to God's grace and his revelation. And so, that is what he is getting at here.
Because we do not honor Christ with poor preparation or poor presentation. I would not be giving Christ Christ glory and honor if I came up here this morning and I hadn't been studying, I hadn't been preparing, praying over what I might say. I actually have a friend at one point, they came and spoke at a conference, um, I don't know where they what church they were at, but they were speaking at a conference and they said something at the very beginning and said, "I was thinking about working this out and writing some notes and and organizing my thoughts, but I just decided that I was going to let the Spirit lead me this morning, and so I was going to say whatever the Spirit said." And that doesn't give glory to Christ. The Spirit doesn't honor being disorganized and unprepared. Now, the Spirit can work despite our imperfections, but to give God glory is to do all things to the glory of God to the best of our abilities. And then we depend on his power.
In fact, Charles Spurgeon, he's someone that many are probably familiar with, uh, sometimes coined as the prince of preachers. He was someone that would spend hours in the word preparing sermons and studying. But every time as he would walk up to pre preach a sermon, he would always be saying to himself, "I believe in the ministry of the Holy Spirit," reminding himself that it is not his words ultimately that save, but it's the work of the Spirit in the hearts of men and women. And so, we need to see this for what it is: that there is power in the gospel message, and that ultimately it must be elevating the message over the messenger. And that we should never do anything to hinder the message, whether we take things away from it or we add to it.
And so, our call then as Believers, as we see Paul's example, I believe here, is we are to preach the simple gospel humbly to those we encounter. That is an application for us this morning. You, as a saint set apart for the purposes of God, are called not only to unify around the gospel, to live like a fool for the gospel, but you are to proclaim the gospel. Don't feel the temptation to to trick people with flowery words, but give them the simple message and trust that God's power and his wisdom will work in the lives of others.
Now, for those who are like, "I just, I'm kind of shy. I I'm afraid to to share the gospel. You know, that's not really my, you know, my comfort zone." Once again, look to Paul here. He explain La that he was a little maybe weak in the knees sometimes. Just because he was bold and courageous doesn't mean that he didn't ever experience fear or anxiety. In fact, true bravery encourages whenever you are willing to do something despite the fact that you're afraid. Sometimes. So, my call for you is, don't feel the temptation to need to always have all of the answers. But rather, just say, "I trust the work of God, and I'm going to share the good news that He has given me."
And so, I just want to share with you just a few verses to to give you the gospel message. If you're like, "Where do I go? What is something I can just share if I want to give the gospel to somebody?" Many of you probably have this already, uh, memorized. John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have an everlasting life." So, what does that tell us? It tells us God, one, God loved the world. He didn't despise the world. He loved the world so much that he gave us Jesus. And that what we are to do then, believe in Him, believe in His work, believe in His word. And it says that you shall not perish but have everlasting life. That is a a perfect verse that you can memorize, commit to memory. And if someone is asking you about Jesus, or if they want to know what the gospel is, or if you ask them, "Have you ever heard the gospel?" and they say, "I'm not sure," you can share this word: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever would believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."
Another one you can think of is Romans 5:8: "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." One other one I want to share with you was in the same letter that we'll be looking at later in this book, 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 to 4. It says, "Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preach to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preach to you unless you believed in vain. For I deliver to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures."
So, Paul is reminding them of the Gospel message. And what does he tell us? He says that Christ, that is Messiah, came, he died for our sins on the cross, and that he was buried, and that he rose again. In fact, Paul then goes on and explains all the different people that that saw him appear to them after afterwards, postmortem. And so, what we see here is that we see the death, the sacrificial death of Christ, and we see the resurrection of Christ here. And so, these are the fundamental elements of the Gospel message that we have been entrusted to proclaim.
And so, we see here with Paul's example, we see the gospel is a humble message. But then we see moving forward in verses 6 to 9 that God's wisdom, that is God's plan for salvation found in Christ, found in this humble message of the Gospel, God's wisdom had been hidden from the world.
Verses 6 to 9: "However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would have not crucified the Lord of Glory. But as it is written: 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.'"
Paul is once again showing us that our wisdom is limited when it comes to the wisdom of God. Our wisdom is limited both in scope and power. That is, the things that you can know and the things that you can accomplish or the things that you can do with what you know. Just for a moment, just ponder how many books exist in the world. Have you ever thought about that? How many books exist? I just checked AI just to see, and and they said, "We don't know." Basically, they said that it was definitely over hundreds of millions. Now, these are just individual copies. These are not copies of the original author, right, of the book. So, just think about that for a moment. How many of those hundreds of millions of books have you read? Probably not very many. Probably less than 1% of all of the books in the world. Now, if we have only read less than 1% of all of the books in the world, just imagine in compar into the wisdom of God, how far we fall short.
See, our wisdom is limited in scope to what God and his wisdom have. Likewise, our wisdom cannot save us. Our wisdom cannot bring us to God. Our wisdom cannot get us to Heaven. Our wisdom cannot make us healthy again. There are many things that just having knowledge, having information, it won't accomplish things that God can do. And so, that's the point that he makes here is explaining that the wisdom of this age, not only our age, but the age that they were experiencing, is passing away. There will be people that are wise, people that will rise up in prominence, but they are ultimately all passing away because God's wisdom is superior and lasting.
And Isaiah 55:8-9: "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,' says the Lord. 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.'" See, we read that and sometimes we like to share that on Facebook. That's a that's a good verse to highlight. But when it comes to our daily lives, sometimes we don't really believe this or want to live this out in practice. God's wisdom is greater than our wisdom. And without God and His grace revealing this to us, it would have been hidden from us.
In fact, that's what he goes on to explain here is that God's Plan of Salvation had been a mystery to the world since the beginning. See, this wasn't God's like Plan B, Plan C, Plan Z. From the very beginning, he knew it would be Christ crucified. He knew that the lamb would be slain before the foundation of the world. He knew that this was true wisdom, this was true power found in the humble message of the Gospel. But he says, "But they're not going to understand it." And so, what we see Israel constantly missing the mark, not seeing what God is intending for them. And then we see all of these different religious figures, we see these uh political kings and leaders, they're not understanding. They keep trying to elev themselves. Even Jesus's own disciples, moments before the cross, are still debating who is the greatest in the Kingdom. They aren't seeing the wisdom of God found in the gospel.
And so, that's why he points to the rulers of that age. They crucified the Lord of Glory. Now, the Lord of Glory, some actually argue that this might be the highest title that Paul ever gives Jesus in all of the New Testament, that he would call him the Lord of Glory. And it says that these rulers rejected Him, they crucified Jesus. Now, we don't know what 100% the the certain individuals that are coming to his mind. And there's some even debate on whether he's thinking about human leaders or spiritual beings, maybe some demonic forces here. But I, at least in my mind, I can't imagine him not thinking of the Sanhedrin here, these religious authorities that claim to know God, they claim to have the wisdom of God, but they rejected their Messiah. I'm sure that they, he probably had to think about Herod, the one who was claiming to be king of the Jews and couldn't see the king standing before him, or Pilate, this Roman authority, this Gentile asking, "Are you a king?" asking him, "What is truth?"
See, we see the Jews and the Gentiles were missing out on the significance of who Jesus was because in their wisdom, humility wasn't power. But in Christ, we see true wisdom and true power. And so, he goes on to explain that the natural person, that is the unregenerate, those who don't know Jesus, those who haven't been responding to His grace, it says that the natural person, the the materialist, does not accept or appreciate the things of God. And that's the issue. It's that they don't appre appreciate the gospel. They don't appreciate what Jesus has done for us.
Now, he's not saying here that the natural person can't have a certain awareness of what we're talking about when we talk about the Bible. There's a lot of people that can tell you the the general story of the Gospel message. They could tell you Jesus died, rose from the dead. That's what Christians believe. But they don't have an actual relationship with Jesus. So, I think what he's talking about here when it says that the natural person does not accept or or or appreciate or cannot um understand or know the things of God is he's making a distinction between knowing and experiencing.
See, they could know something on an intellectual level without actually having an experiential knowledge. For example, there could be blind individuals who have never actually seen before, never seen color. But you couldn't tell them about seeing. There's actually someone that's popped up on my YouTube feed recently that I've I've watched a few of his videos. He's a blind guy, and he just talks about his experience. And he actually shares many things that he understands, that there's things you can see through, like a window, there are things that you can't see through, there are things that that light will reflect off of. And so he can kind of describe these things, but he's never seen color. And so people can kind of try to describe it to them, like, "Well, you know, red is like hot, it's like the sun, it's like when it feels on your face." But you can't truly have an experiential knowledge of color or sight. That's what's going on for these natural individuals, for those who were lost, those who have who have not appreciated the things of God, the gospel message. They they can intellectually understand what you're talking about, but they don't really see its value. They don't see its worth.
So, there is a difference. Or or one other example is, you may have a lot of understanding about how a surgery is performed. Maybe you've studied a textbook before, how how you are to perform a surgery. But that's very different than actually grabbing the utensils and actually starting to perform. You probably wouldn't want someone that's never touched the utensil before, but, "Well, I've read the book though. I I know all the answers. I got 100% on the test." But you've never touched the utensils before. You've never done the surgery. No. All of us can see the difference between, you know, intellectual knowledge and experiential knowledge. And that's what's going on with these individuals.
And this is also, I think, the challenge for us: that we can know a lot about God without ever knowing God. I've heard sermons before that, you know, they'll ask you, you know, "What's the greatest distance in this room?" And they'll say, "Is it from wall to wall? Corner to corner? From ceiling to the floor?" And they'll say, "It's actually from your head to your heart." Because there are so many people that will come to church, that'll hear the gospel preached every week. They'll maybe even have highlights in their Bibles. They maybe even said some prayers. Maybe even have a baptism certificate. But they've never let it translate to having a relationship with the Living God. And that's what he's challenging this Corinthians here. He says, "Don't be like the rulers of this age. Don't be like those who are high and mighty and value their own wisdom and their own power, but rather submit yourselves humbly to the gospel message and encounter the Living God."
Because that's the final thing that we see in in verses 10 to 16 is that God has made himself known to us, and that is through the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enables us to know God, not on an intellectual level, but personally, intimately. You can know God. Just can we just take a moment to just appreciate really what that means? God is not just a distant deity that we kind of think about in the heavens. This is a personal being who we can experience in our lives. Through the incarnation, we now have a transcendent God who has now become imminent to us. That is because of what Christ has accomplished on the cross. When he rose from the dead, he says, "I will send an advocate, the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to come to you." So, because of what Jesus did, we now have a transcendent God immediately accessible to us.
And in verse 11, he goes on and explains that in our personal day-to-day lives, we can never truly understand the thoughts of another person. Isn't that another interesting concept? That we all have our own thoughts right now. Some of you are thinking, "He's going a little too long this morning." Maybe I got some people. There's some other people that are that are right in, that have been tracking along. But the thing is, unless you actually verbalize it to me, I won't actually know what's going on in your heart and in your mind right now. And that's what Paul was saying here is that that's our day-to-day experience. I can be thinking about a certain thing right now, and guess what? None of you guys are going to guess it. I have two thoughts. I'll let you all guess and talk to me after the service if you can get them. My point is, you can never get the thoughts from me unless I verbalize them.
But what we find here is that the Spirit knows the mind of God. The Holy Spirit comes and reveals, it says, the deep things of God to us. So, that means that he actually has all the resources. He has what is God's will, what is His character, what His purposes. And then he actually says, "And the Spirit comes and gives them to us." So, because of the Holy Spirit, we can know God. We can know His will. And we can actually start to experience the deep things of God.
Now, by the way, this doesn't mean that just because you're a believer that you are learning and experiencing these things. You have to yield to the Spirit. He's making them available and accessible, but you have to take part in it. You have to enjoy the things that God has made available.
In John 14:26, Jesus says, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you." Likewise, John 16:13: "However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come."
See, the Holy Spirit, that's why He's here: to search the deep things of God and to give us revelation. It's available, but we have to spend time in His word. The Holy Spirit carried along holy men to write this book so that you would hear His voice. And you have to spend time with God in prayer and and seeking the Spirit's presence in your life, recognizing that He is available to you, that He will guide you, that He will convict you, that He will comfort, encourage you. These things are available to every believer.
And that's also what I love here, as he's talking to a lot of messed up saints right now, a lot of Christians who have a lot of problems, but he's still saying that every single one of you, if you have trusted in the good news of the Gospel, if Christ is your Lord and Savior, you have the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Luke 11:13: "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: "Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are Gods."
Not only is the Holy Spirit come, is he accessible, but he indwells you. You are the temple of God. This is the most intimate relationship that you can have with any other being, more intimate than your spouse, than your children, than your friends, than your co-workers. The deepest relationship, the most intimate relationship you can have is with God because He's given us His Spirit. The deepest things God wants you to know Him. We can be known by God personally in relationship. That is what Christ has accomplished for us.
And so, we are to rejoice in Christ crucified because it results in the Spirit coming to our lives and giving us the deep wisdom of God, which he then closes with saying, "The Spirit gives us the mind of Christ." That's true wisdom. That we now, not that we are omniscient like Christ, but that we start to see things like Christ. We start to look more like Christ. We have the perspective of heaven. And now we can see the highs and lows of this world from God's wisdom.
And so, I pray that this morning that we would do as Paul does in this text, that we would remind ourselves of the good news of this humble message, that we would preach it out in in simplicity, in humility, that we would recognize that God's wisdom, though it was hidden in the past, it has now been revealed to us through the Holy Spirit. And now, what we are to do is seek the Spirit in our lives, to recognize He is here, and that He will cultivate in us the mind of Christ. And let us every single day pursue to think and to look more like Jesus, because that is where true wisdom, true life, is found.