Transcription
[Music]
Well, 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 First Corinthians chapter 1 this morning, and we'll be covering verses 18 to 31. 1 Corinthians, chapter 1, verses 18 to 31.
And this is, is an epistle, or a letter, that has been written by the Apostle Paul. And he is writing to a church in the city of Corinth. Now, this church was founded by the Apostle Paul on his second missionary journey. And now, Paul, while in Ephesus, now on his third missionary journey, is hearing what's been going on in the Church of Corinth. And though the church started out well and received the gospel and heard Paul's instructions and encouragement, it seems as if the Church of Corinth has allowed culture to infiltrate their church.
Where the CH, uh, the city of Corinth was a massive city, think around 200,000 plus individuals that are living in this region. On top of that, with its location being perfect for travel and for trade, we have tons of different individuals coming to and fro this city. And what we see is that there is a lot of different philosophies, cultures, art being influenced and brought into this region. And because of that, you see a lot of people starting to boast in themselves and starting to boast in their identities and viewing themselves as being more cultured or more educated. And then because of that, they're competing for status in this community.
And what we're seeing is that this is actually infiltrating the church, where now the Corinthian Christians are looking to culture. They're seeing what their valuing with these different philosophies, the different cultures, the statuses. And so they are themselves competing with each other and fighting with one another. And though Paul, initially in his greeting, is trying to encourage them and call them out of the culture of Corinth, and he is trying to call them back into their identity rooted in Jesus Christ, he reminds them that they are meant to be set apart, that they are to be sanctified as saints.
So he actually, though this church has a lot of problems, and as we work through this series, we're going to see some of these problems being addressed, as we look at lawsuits taking form in the church, as we see sexual immorality taking place, we see confusion around the Lord's Supper, around the resurrection, the misuse of spiritual gifts, we see a lot of different issues. But Paul starts out his letter reminding them who they are in Christ. And that is, they are set apart saints. They have been called for the purposes of God. And so he gives them that encouragement.
And then last week, we see he then starts to address some of these issues. And that first thing that he mentions is that there are these contentions or these divisions that are taking place within the church. And what he specifically points out is that there are these factions that are forming, these different political, if you will, parties within the church. And some are, are saying, "Well, I'm of, I'm of Paul," because Paul was our founder. Others were saying, "Well, I'm of Apollos," because he's like the smartest, most eloquent speaker that I've ever heard. Others are saying, "No, I'm of the, the Cephas," or that would be the, the party of Peter. And then there's even some that are saying that, "We're part of the Jesus party, the, the Christ party."
And so you have these different groups all competing for influence and for status within the church because they're like, "We have this leader, he is our guy, this person baptized us." And so they start competing and trying to say who is more valuable within the church. And so what Paul starts to address is that Christ is not divided. If you try to divide the church into different personality types, you're missing the purpose of the gospel, which is to bring people together. It's to unite us in one body under one Lord, in one baptism.
And so he was emphasizing this to these Corinthians. And if you notice at the very end of this last section, in verse 17, he says, "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect." And so this is great to read and remember as a springboard into what he's about to say here. Because what he points out at this very last phrase is that he says that the messenger should never take the place of the message. That is, we should never focus on how charismatic or how eloquent or how, how wise the speaker is. Ultimately, it comes down to what is the content of the message.
And these individuals were being tempted to forsake and abandon the message of the gospel for these other speakers, and they were valuing the personality rather than the proclamation of the gospel. And he says that if you do that, if you emphasize Apollos over the gospel of Jesus, then what you're doing is that you're going to make the gospel of no effect. And so what he does is he says that we must have the gospel centralized. We must be a gospel-centered church if we want to find unity and if we want to glorify Christ.
And so moving from that, then he's going to then discuss the two different perspectives on the gospel, the two different perspectives on the cross, for those who find it to be foolish, and those who find it to be wise, to be valuable, to be, to be powerful. And so I've entitled this message, "Living Like Fools." And it's kind of going directly from what Paul does in verse 18 this morning, where he says, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God."
So what you notice is Paul begins this next section with a, a stark contrast. And I think what he's showing us here is that the cross of Christ divides all humanity. Every single person is going to take a side when it comes to their understanding and view of the cross. And what I think he's showing us in this text is that the wise are fools, and the fools are wise. Once again, he says that the message of the cross will seem foolish to some, but then for others, it will be power. For those who are being saved.
And so what we see here is that there's, there's this contrast between the wise fools and the foolish wise. And we, as the, the reader, as the listener, have to discern for ourselves which one are we. Are, are we going to go with the world, those who would say, "This is what wisdom looks like," who are actually foolish? Or are we going to go with Christ? Are we going to embrace the gospel and look like fools to the world, but we will receive true wisdom? That's the contrast that Paul is making for us here. And that's what he's challenging these Corinthians.
Because once again, the Corinthians, they were considering abandoning this simple message of the gospel for these more eloquent alternative philosophies. They're hearing a lot of these smart philosophers, right? Remember, think about the Greek philosophers around this time frame that they either would have either been contemporaries or they would have already been aware of from their legacy. And now they're hearing these different teachings and they're like, "Wow, that guy is super smart. I've never heard of this type of logic and metaphysics and the way that they're, they're looking at the world and our relationship to, to one another and to, to, to the deities." And and and they're hearing all of these different things and they're just being a struck. They're being fascinated by these other messages.
And what Paul is saying is, you can go with them. You can go with the world. You can go with their wisdom, their philosophies, or you can stick with the simple gospel message. And so he's wanting them to think about this. And he's saying that he, he's putting it straight out there. And he says, "God's wisdom will seem foolish to the wisdom of a lost world." He says, "Of course, God's wisdom is going to look foolish to a world that is lost, to a world that is blind."
And by the way, as we look to Paul saying this, we, we shouldn't take Paul as he starts to question the wise and the wisdom of the world. He, Paul isn't rejecting human reason altogether. He's not saying we should be illogical, we should be anti-reason. He's not saying that. But rather, what Paul is wanting us to do and see here is, is he is highlighting the limitations of worldly wisdom. That is, that logic, rationality, empirical science, these things that we can do here on the earth, they can only get us so far. And God is going to be beyond our human understanding. He's going to be beyond our wisdom that we can attain by ourselves. And in fact, ultimately, our wisdom can't get us to God. Our wisdom can't save us.
And that's the whole point that he's getting at is, is that our logic, our, our understanding, they, that won't get us into heaven. Your intelligence won't save you. And I think that King Solomon is kind of getting to this point in the Book of Ecclesiastes when he says in chapter 1, verses 17 to 18, "And I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is grasping for the wind. For in much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow."
So what Solomon is saying here is, this is a guy who was more wise than any other king. He had all of the riches, he had women, he had all of these different things that you would have thought from the world's perspective, is he had it all. And what he says as he pursued wisdom, he says, as he got more and more understanding, it also brought with it vexation, grief, sorrow. Because what he saw is that all of this information ultimately won't get him to heaven. It won't get him to God. And just having a lot of knowledge isn't going to bring you true satisfaction and fulfillment in your life. You can have a lot of knowledge, but that isn't going to make you have the joy of the Lord.
And so Solomon, he, he pursued this. He, he let us learn from his bad example of someone who tried that and it didn't work out for him. And so he's showing us that that that human wisdom, that the world's wisdom, it's good, but it has limitations to it. And if we try to find our fulfillment, if we try to find God just solely through rationality, we won't find it.
And I think ultimately, it's because what worldly wisdom is designed to do is it aims to glorify the self. You notice that's the difference between worldly wisdom and biblical wisdom. Worldly wisdom aims to glorify the self, while while biblical wisdom aims to glorify God. Just for a moment, spend some time thinking about why do you gain the knowledge that you gain? Maybe you go to school right now, maybe you're learning, maybe you're working on the job and you're trying to learn a new profession, a new skill. Maybe you're someone that likes to spend time reading books or listening to lectures, podcasts. Maybe you're on social media, you like to scroll, you like to see what's going on in the news or in other people's lives. Ask yourself this, what was the ultimate goal of this? Why are you pursuing this knowledge, this information?
See, typically, what the world is doing, they're wanting to utilize that information to exalt themselves. "How can I use this information to promote, to look intelligent, to gain another open door in my life?" See, that's counterintuitive, ultimately, to biblical wisdom. Because what we see in Proverbs 9:10, it says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding." See, what we see in Proverbs, which is also, by the way, written by King Solomon, is he says that how do you, you achieve true biblical wisdom, godly wisdom? You must cultivate the fear of the Lord. That is, you must recognize who God is, you must give him reverence, and you must humble yourself.
You see the difference between the world's wisdom of, "I'm using this knowledge to puff myself and exalt myself," rather than saying, "I don't have the answers, Lord, you have the answers, and I want to know you." So what we see is that the beginning of wisdom is knowing the Lord, and the goal of wisdom is to know and glorify the Lord. And so what we're noticing here is that in this Corinthian culture, as well as what's infiltrating the church, is that their goal with all of this philosophy and this knowledge is to just make themselves more glorious. And so that they were missing the purpose of wisdom.
Are we seeking to glorify God with wisdom? Are we seeking God for wisdom? Or are we getting caught up with these temporal, you know, sparkly facets of of wisdom? And that's why he points to these two examples of the Jew and the Greek. He says both of these groups have denied the cross to some degree. And he says the reason that the Jews view the cross to be foolish, or or they actually view view it to be a, a stumbling block, it says because they requested signs. What does that mean?
Well, think about Jesus's life and ministry. Do you remember this? Whenever there were some religious leaders that came to Jesus and they say, "If you are the Christ, you know, do a miracle, show us a sign." And then Jesus rebukes them and says, "An evil generation seeks after a sign." And he says that you won't receive a sign, but the sign of Jonah, where he was foreshadowing his future resurrection, that he was going to die and rise from the dead. But he wouldn't just give them a miracle just for them to see.
But this was a stumbling block for the Jews specifically, because they had in their minds a specific expectation of what Messiah, what the Christ would would do. They say, "This is going to be a great military leader. He's going to be like King David. He's going to take over. He's going to conquer Rome. He's going to have his throne here in Jerusalem, and we are going to be on top of the world once again." Think about what they're doing. They're viewing themselves as being promoted, exalted in front of these other individuals, these other cultures. So that's what they were seeking. They wanted a powerful Messiah.
They also probably had in their minds thinking of Elijah and Elisha. Remember, we just worked through this series. They're thinking about all of these miracles that they performed, how whenever there was these Syrian raiders coming in, and then Elisha is able to stand before them and say, "Strike them with blindness." They were wanting something powerful like that. They wanted a sign. But Jesus wouldn't give that to them. Rather, he gave them an anti-sign. He says, "Rather than coming conquering Rome, performing blindness over Rome and destroying all of our enemies, I'm going to go, I'm going to suffer, I'm going to die on a cross."
And the people you want me to conquer, I'm going to let them kill me. And to be crucified on a cross, in the Jews' mind, was to be cursed, that you were cursed by God, rather than having God's favor on you. And of course, we know that's because Christ takes, this takes the sin of the world on the cross. He is taking the wrath of God on the cross for us. And so what they were seeing was the fact that he couldn't be Messiah. Whereas what we're seeing is he is saving the world from their sins. And so these Jews, they just couldn't fathom that their Messiah would die on a bloody cross.
Likewise, when it comes to the Greeks, they had a high view of wisdom and of philosophy and of these different deities, and how the deities are, are so much beyond us, they're greater than us. And they just could not imagine that a deity would come and dwell physically on the earth. And not only would he dwell physically, but he would come as kind of a, a hillbilly redneck from Nazareth, and that he wouldn't be schooled as the rabbis, he wouldn't have a lot of these degrees that they would have respected. And that he is then going to be crucified. Which, by the way, it says that the Romans wouldn't even have the term crucifixion on their mouth. That's how repulsive that term would be. In fact, a Roman couldn't even be crucified, they weren't allowed legally, because of how morbid, how grotesque it was.
And I know that we, you know, we have our churches sometimes decorated, we have crosses, people wear jewelry that have crosses on them today. But once again, for these individuals who are hearing this message for the first time, that's like us having dinner, and I start talking to you about the facets of of the electric chair and telling you a story about this person that was that was that was killed through capital punishment. You'd be like, "Why are we talking about this over dinner? This is a little awkward." Or if I started to describe how the noose works, you'd be like, "Why are you talking about this?" That's what's going on here. They're hearing about the most grotesque, most excruciating way to be punished and to be killed. And the Greeks are saying, "That's not for us. That, that is foolishness."
So it's a stumbling block to the Jews, and its foolishness, foolishness to the Greeks. And though we don't have the exact same culture and climate of what's going on with the Jews and the Greeks at this time, I think we still see these two responses to the cross today. Think about it for a moment. There are some people who won't come to Christ unless they have this overwhelming emotional experience. In fact, I had a conversation with a Muslim friend of mine, and we've talked over multiple different conversations about Christianity, matters of the faith. And he has, he had actually attended, while he was in the states for over a year, he had gone to a church. He would go to a mosque for for one service, and then he would go to the church on a Sunday service. And and he was talking to me about the merits of Christianity. But the big hang-up that he had, and the reason that he said that he just would not place his faith in Christ as both Lord and Savior, as he says, "Well, I'm just waiting for the Holy Spirit to come and just, just give me this amazing sign." He says, "I'm going to pray, and the Holy Spirit's going to come and give me this amazing, magnificent sign." And unless I just know for a fact, and I just see this magnificent sign, I'm just not going to become a Christian because I've heard people have had something like that before. And I'm going to just wait for that.
And so do you see him being kind of like the Jew? He says, "Unless I have this supernatural emotional experience where it's just like the wind is shaking the building, and there's this voice from heaven, I'm not going to be a Christian." We have some people that are like that today. And then on the flip side, like the Greeks, we have those who are the empiricists. They say, "Unless I can test it in a tube, science, logic, unless there is a, a premise, a premise and a conclusion that that just proves with certainty like a mathematical proof that God exists, or that Jesus is Lord, I'm not going to believe it."
See, what we find is this hubris. We say, "God must work within our expectations, our parameters." Rather than saying, "I humbly approach your throne. I fear you, God, as the creator of all. And if you are true, if you sent your son, I want to trust and obey." How do we approach God? Do we say, "God, you got to give me a sign. God, you got to give me a proof"? Or you say, "God, you are God, and I trust you." That's what Paul is challenging these readers about.
And I think it's so profound too, that Paul, he was a multicultural guy. He was someone that went all over on these different missionary journeys. Once again, he founded this church on the second one, and he's already on a third missionary journey right now. So he was around these different cultures, these different customs. And what's so profound is that he never alters his message. Now, that doesn't mean that he might not share the message slightly differently depending on the culture. He says, "He was a Jew to a Jew, a Greek to the Greek, a slave to the slave, a free to the free." But ultimately, he keeps the simple gospel message the same because he knows that there is power in the message.
So he would preach, preach to the Jews and to the Greeks, this simple message that would have looked foolish to the world. But he understood what he says here in the text is that, "The foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men." Do you believe that the things that seem foolish to God are, are foolish to the world about God? Do you view those things, even those foolish things, think about Jonah being eaten by a great fish, people being raised from the dead? The world's like, "That's just foolish. You really believe that could happen?" Do you believe that even these things that the world would call foolish, do you think that these are actually wiser than the things of this world?
Because when I think about the two options on the table of God's existence, of Jesus being Lord, or there not being a God and Jesus not being Lord, I think that true wisdom is found in the message of the gospel. Because the thing is, if you deny a creator, you must embrace that this world, that this universe came from nothing. So you still believe in a miracle. You have to believe that everything was resurrected from nothing. You also have to think about consciousness coming into this world, that there was enough order from this cosmic accident to create conscious, intelligent, intentional life. See, you have to deny that if you are a skeptic. If you deny the existence of God, you have to deny objective morality. That there really is right and wrong, good and evil. You have to see these wicked things that we see on the news, all of the things going on in politics, and you have to say, "Ultimately, there's nothing right or wrong about either one." You have to deny objective morality.
When you deny the existence of God, it's all personal preference, subjective morality at that point. Or even meaning itself. If God does not exist, you have no meaning. Life is absurd. You are a cosmic blip, or cosmic accident, a a byproduct of nature. Can anyone truly embrace that in good conscience? That we are cosmic accidents with no morality, no meaning, everything came from nothing? Or does it make more sense to see, "In the beginning, God," that the, the cause of the universe that was spaceless, timeless, immaterial, enormously powerful, and personal? I think it makes more sense. I think true wisdom is found in trusting in the Bible, what God's word says.
Likewise, when you look at the evidence of the crucifixion and the resurrection, all the naturalistic explanations for it fail. You see time and time again that hallucinations don't work. Them coming up with a story to lie and then suffer and die for it doesn't make sense. The empty tomb existed. No one refuted that fact. See, I think it is more foolish to deny the things that God has done than rather to embrace them with humility. And that's what Paul is getting at here.
I think he's showing us that salvation is more important than your social status. He knew that in Romans 1:16, it 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 says, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm not ashamed of the cross of Christ, even if it, you know, it negates my social status, if it makes me look foolish, I'm unashamed because I know that it brings salvation." My salvation, your salvation, is a lot more important than what others think about us in this cultural context. Do you understand that? It's not going to matter what other people think about you right now. In a thousand years, what's going to matter is what did you do with Jesus? What did you do with the gospel message that offers you life, that offers you salvation?
And so I think the challenge that we're getting from this this morning, as we think about the wise are fools and the fools are wise, is let's live like fools. Live like fools for Christ, because that's where true wisdom is found. Matthew 5:11 and 12 says, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." See, Jesus knew that we would be mocked, that we would be reviled, that there would be those in the church who were being persecuted for their faith. And what Jesus says is, "Keep going. Live for me. Live like fools before the world, because great is your reward in heaven."
Likewise, in Luke 9:26, it says, "For whoever is ashamed of me and my words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when he comes in his own glory and in his Father's and of the Holy Angels." Are you ashamed of Jesus Christ? And maybe you would never say that out of your mouth, but are you ashamed of Christ by the way that you are living your life right now? Are you afraid to talk about Jesus with others? Are you afraid to live radically for him? That people are like, "You're really going to give up every single Sunday morning to be in worship? You're going to go to Bible studies? You're going to spend hours in prayer? You're going to go and spend your weekend serving the poor? You're going to go on mission trips, endangering your life for this cause of the kingdom?" Yes, we are going to live like fools, and we don't care if people will mock us.
Because here's the thing, as I share my sermons online, there are a lot of hostile people that will mock. I get the, the laugh emojis all the time whenever I share my belief in God, God's word. Are you okay with people not liking you? Once again, what happened to Jesus? Sometimes we forget, Jesus died. People killed him because they didn't like the message. They thought he was a fool. They thought he was a devil. But he continued to proclaim the good news of the kingdom. We must live like fools. If you want to live like Jesus, if you want to be set apart as saints, as he says that the church is called to be, we have to live like fools. Stop trying to be liked by the world. Of course, we're not trying to be mean or cruel to the world. We go there because we love them. But ultimately, we're not trying to make people like us. We're trying to get people saved. We're trying to get people to know Jesus. We know Jesus, and we are to make Jesus known.
So the wise are fools, and the fools are wise. Which leads then to the fact that in verses 26 to 29, we see that Paul shows that God chooses the these weak or or these foolish things to show his glory. Why does God do some of these things that seem so just counter to our daily life, to, to what we would expect? He wants to use these weak things to show his glory. Because it's not about how strong we are. It's not about how smart or successful we are. It's about how glorious God is.
God deliberately uses the weak, the foolish, the insignificant to shame the strong and to confound the wise. The Jews, the Greeks, they didn't know what to do with Jesus and this message because God says, "You have to humble yourself in faith. You have to trust in me, not in yourselves." And so he does all of this to reveal his glory. And just think about all of the examples throughout scripture. Even the Jews should have known this, how he chooses these weak things. Think about Israel itself, the nation. Israel exists still to this day, 2,000 years after Paul was talking about them. And we see that God continues to provide, preserve, and protect. Why does he do that? It's not because of how great they are as a nation. We know Israel messes up a lot. They have a lot of issues. Their religious leaders literally led to Jesus being crucified. They rejected their own Messiah. But God says in Deuteronomy, he says, "I didn't choose you because of your greatness. You were small among the nations, but I did it because of my own glory, because of my power and my loving kindness."
Or you think about Moses. Moses, whenever he encounters God at the burning bush, what does Moses say? "Not me. I'm not the guy. I, I'm not, I'm not eloquent." Once again, he doesn't have the wisdom. He says, "I, I'm, I'm slow to speak." And God says, "I am. It is I am who is sending you. It's not about you." That's the purpose. I want you, the exile, the one who murdered the individual, the Egyptian, and now has fled into the wilderness as a shepherd, doesn't have all of the eloquence. I want to use you so that they see I am. See, that's what he's getting at.
Or David, the shepherd boy. The father says, "I got all these sons. Surely not this one." He says, "No, this is going to be the king, and he's going to be the one that kills Goliath." God chooses David. God chooses Mary. Mary's this, this young virgin Jewish girl who's going to be the one responsible for bearing the King of Glory. The Ancient of Days comes as a child and is breastfed by Mary, who has to take care of him, change him. That is radical. That is foolish to the world.
Or even all of the disciples that followed Jesus. You wouldn't pick these as your disciples if you were a rabbi of the day. You wouldn't pick some fishermen. You wouldn't pick a tax collector, for sure. They were synonymous with the sinners, the prostitutes of the day. You don't call them to be your students. Jesus says, "I'm calling all different types of people." And also, he brings women to study under him, to sit at his feet. He allows them to learn.
So what we see here is that the world's expectations are counter. And God does it intentionally. He didn't accidentally pick the weak things and say, "Oh, I didn't know they were going to think those were insignificant." He did it deliberately. And he, and he says that's why God called you, Corinthians. See, you see this in the text in verses 26 to 29. "For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. And the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence."
He says, "I don't want anybody else to glory in their skill, their wit, their, their successes. I want them to glory in me." The glory goes to God and not us. And that's what the Corinthians were missing out on. They were thinking that really their status was based on their identity and their culture, their philosophy, all of these things. He says, "Once again, it's not you. It's in spite of you that you were called. God called you because you were weak, because you are insignificant, because you can't get yourself to heaven." And so he, he's kind of smacking them in the face of their own logic and expectations and their own value of themselves, assessment of themselves.
And I think that it's also convicting for us. God didn't save us because we are great. God saved us because he is great. The Corinthians, once again, they admired social status, success, power, intelligence. And I think that we idolize these same things today, do we not? Do we not start to value certain people and individuals based on some of these things in our world today? And here's just a couple of examples that we don't always maybe think of them as idolizing these things, but I think they, they ultimately are.
There's many here that are probably afraid of public speaking. Is there anyone here that would be maybe uncomfortable coming up here and kind of doing what I'm doing right now? Why is it that people are afraid of public speaking? In fact, I've even heard that some people are afraid of public speaking more than even death itself, which, which is really odd to think about. That some people would rather die literally than than than public speak. Why is it? Why are you afraid? You don't think someone's actually going to come hurt you. It's because you're afraid that people might view you to be unintelligent or not very articulate. That's really why. Think about it. Why are you afraid of talking before people? Because you're afraid they might not value your intelligence. You're idolizing your intelligence, cuz you think that's where your value is. You're putting your identity and how smart you are, how well you can speak. But that's not where your value is.
But we can idolize that in just one specific area or another. There are some of you out there that are achievement addicts right now. You're constantly on the move, you're constantly on the goal. You're like, "I got to be a doer. I got to go. I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna grind. I'm gonna, I'm gonna do this with my job. I'm gonna do this with my family. I'm gonna do this with my finances, with my fitness." You're just thinking all of these things, achievement, achievement, achievement. And then you're going to get status, you're going to have value. Once again, an achievement addict is just as bad as any other addict. Because once again, you're idolizing something that you should never be worshiping. You should be worshiping God.
And that's why he calls these lowly things. God uses the hopeless, the broken, and weak to show his strength. And this should free us, by the way. This shouldn't burden us. This should free us from feeling the need to prove our worth through achievement and performance. The gospel is a gospel of grace, not of works. It's that God loves us, he offers us salvation. All we have to do is place our faith in him. I know that not that might not be super amazing or profound to some other philosophies out in the world, some other religions. Maybe you're thinking, "Oh, there's some really cool things in Buddhism or Hinduism." This is a simple message. God loves you. He's made a way for you to know him. He saved you through his son. Just receive it. Trust in him. You don't have to climb a mountain to get to him. He's already come down the mountain for you. That's the simple message of the gospel. It should be liberating for us.
So we see that God chooses the weak things to show his glory. And then finally, the last couple of verses, in 30 to 31, we are reminded that Jesus is the power and wisdom of God. The wise are fools, and the fools are wise. God chooses the weak things to show his glory. And ultimately, it should bring us to the fact that Jesus is the source and the standard of God's power and wisdom. Do you want to experience the wise life? Do you want to have true wisdom, true power? It is found in Jesus, both in the way that he lived his life and the way that he makes his life now available to us.
Philippians 2:5 to 8 says, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross." See, we are to cultivate the same mind of Christ. That we see Christ, who was equal with God the Father, and then made himself of no reputation. He humbled himself. He became a servant to the world. And he suffered and died on a cross. Once again, that is weakness. That is foolishness to the world. But what we see here is that this is what brought his exaltation, and that's what results in our salvation.
Jesus modeled for us how to live a foolish life that glorifies God. He shows us how to do it, and then he enables it to be lived out in us because he gives us his Spirit. Through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, you now have the Holy Spirit living in you if you trust in Christ as your Lord and Savior. And now the more you seek Jesus, the more you experience his power and wisdom. If you want true power, true wisdom, all you must do is seek after Jesus. Pursue him relentlessly. Put Jesus above all else. Because once again, the Corinthians, they were missing that their identity was not in Jesus, but that's where it should have been. Our identity is in Jesus, what he accomplished for us, and what he's going to do for us.
And that's why at the end of this section, it says, "But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." I think this is actually kind of giving us the whole spread of the gospel's salvation for us. What we see here is past, present, and future. We see salvation has now come to us and saved us from the past, the penalty of sin, which is justification. He saved us from the power of sin in the present, that is our sanctification, our growing holiness. And he saves us in the future from the presence of sin, that's glorification. There will be a day where sin will no longer reign. So we see that Jesus saves us from the penalty, the power, and the presence of sin. And all we are called to do is pursue him.
And that's why it says that no one should boast in anyone but Christ. It says, "He who glories, let him glory in the Lord." We don't need to boast in our power, in our, in our wisdom. We are to boast in Christ, in him alone, because he alone can save us. I'll close with Galatians 6:14, "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." And that's what we're going to do at this time as we gather together and we partake of communion. If I could have a couple of the servers to come.
And this service is open to all baptized believers in Jesus Christ. We come to the Lord's table, and it says that we are proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes. We are boasting in Jesus, who is the power and the wisdom of God. We are saying that we are living like fools for Christ, that we believe in what this signifies. We believe that God, God truly came to the earth, that he really lived a perfect life as a human being, that he suffered for our sins and he died on the cross, giving his broken body and his shed blood. And that if we would just believe in him, we would be saved, have eternal life, and be partakers of the kingdom of heaven. Because he rose from the dead on the third day, and he's coming again.
And so we commune together, remembering what he did, looking forward to what he will do, and we experience him right now as we partake of this together. We commune with one another, and we commune with the one who suffered for us on the cross. And once again, the world uses this probably to be foolish that we would say that we partake of our Lord and Savior. But once again, I say, let us live like fools. Let us boast in Jesus Christ.
So I'm going to lead us with a word of prayer, and then you are free to partake. Father, we thank you so much for this morning to gather in your house to worship you, to experience you, to commune with you, and to hear your word. Lord, I pray that we would be unashamed of the gospel. That we wouldn't look for anything else, because we know that in you, you have the words of eternal life. And that only through you and your sacrifice can we have salvation, forgiveness of sins. Lord, I pray that we would humble ourselves before you. That we would seek after your wisdom and your power, rooted in the person of Jesus. I pray that you would bless the elements, both the bread and the cup, and that we give you glory and you alone. We love you. We give you praise. In Jesus name, amen.