Our passage this evening is found in 1st Corinthians, 1st Corinthians chapter 1, 1st Corinthians 1 beginning at verse 18. Keep in mind that what you're about to hear is the word of God, 1st Corinthians 1 verse 18. 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. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. The intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate. Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know him. God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs, and Greeks look for wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. But to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength. Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many of you were influential. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast before Him. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus who has become for us wisdom from God, that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power so that your faith may not rest on men's wisdom but on God's power. There ends the reading of God's word. 1 Corinthians is a letter that Paul wrote to the believers who were living in the city of Corinth. Now the city of Corinth is a unique city for the Mediterranean area at that time And it's important to have an idea of what this city was like so that we understand what Paul is writing to, the situation that he's approaching. Corinth was the center of many trade routes in the Mediterranean world. Many of the trade routes passed through this major city. And so if we were to compare it to one of our American cities, it'd be very much like Denver. Whenever I travel from here to the Midwest, driving or flying, I usually end up going through Denver. Corinth was also a popular place for immorality and debauchery. It was a place known for its sin and its corruption. So if we were going to compare it to an American city, you guys are probably thinking Las Vegas. it was also a multicultural city because of the trade routes and because it was connected to all over there were a lot of different kinds of people who lived in Corinth similar to the way New York has people from all nationalities living there and because of its trade and because of its many people it was a very wealthy city and so think of Los Angeles with the wealth of Beverly Hills and Bel Air and so this gives us an idea of the city that Paul is writing to but the people who live in Corinth are there to make money they're there to rise in power to rise in wealth and honor and to climb that ladder of success Paul is writing this letter to those Corinth Christians because they didn't make a clean enough break from the way they lived before they experienced the gospel to the way they were living as Christians. They were letting the attitude and the influence of the pagan society of Corinth affect the way they lived. And Paul and the Lord is giving this letter to us today because we too don't make a clean enough break from the society around us. We can often consider Christianity foolish. We let the seeming power and authority of the world affect us more than the power and the authority of the cross. So Paul and the Lord is calling us to change our lives. Our theme tonight is since the cross of Christ is the power and the wisdom of God, we find our strength and our power and our wisdom in Christ instead of ourselves, instead of the world. It's all about Christ, not about us. And so tonight we're going to look at God's power and wisdom as he shows it to us first through a foolish message. First, a foolish message. Secondly, a foolish people. And third, God's power and wisdom will be shown through a foolish apostle. And so first, a foolish message. If we look back into our Bibles at the position of our text tonight, if we look before it in 1 verse 10, Paul is addressing divisions in the church. Some of them are following Apollos. Others are following Caiaphas, and others say, I follow Christ. Paul is dealing with divisions. And then we have our text this evening, and then after that, in chapter 3, he's talking about divisions in the church again. The people of Corinth are emphasizing and following men, following their wisdom, following their authority. And Paul hits right at the heart of the issue when he says quit depending on yourselves, quit following men, you need to be following the Lord. It's not about man, it's about God. And Paul goes on to preach this foolish message. What is this foolish message that Paul is preaching? It's the fact that we are all sinners separated from God because of our sin. And the God who demands perfection looks at us and he gives us what we don't deserve. He gives us grace. He gives us Christ. Christ came, obeyed the law perfectly in our place, and died in our place. We deserve that death, but Christ took it for us. And God, in his grace and mercy, offers salvation to us. gives us this salvation. And if we believe in Christ and confess our sins to Him, we will be saved. Because there is also forgiveness for the sins that we've committed. Because of what Christ has done. This is the message of the cross. But as our passage this evening says, it's foolishness to those who are perishing. Those who are dying and are not Christian don't understand this message of the cross and to them it's foolishness. The Jews wanted practical and concrete evidence. They were always asking Jesus for miracles or signs to prove that he was the Messiah. They wanted a Messiah who fit their human idea of what power and what authority and what dignity was. And so a humble lamb that was led to the slaughter, a crucified Messiah, a humble Messiah, was not what they had in mind. And so in verse 23 we see that Christ, this message, is a stumbling block for Jews. The Greeks also had a problem with this Messiah. The Greeks emphasized the wisdom and the public speaking and the speculative thought of the time. The lofty thinking. Someone who spoke according to the rhetoric of the time. And so, for them, Christ was simply a teacher who explained things to little children and said, let the little children come unto me. He was a teacher who was rejected and killed. And he was not their idea of what a wise and a powerful teacher was. And so for the Greeks, he was just foolish, as we see in verse 23 again. And what we see here is the appearance of weakness. For the world on the outside looking in, there is an appearance of weakness. In the southern states of America, in the swamps and the bayous, there lives the alligator snapping turtle. And this is probably one of God's uglier creatures, covered in brown algae. And what it does is it buries down in the bottom mud of the swamp or the river that it's in. And it opens up its mouth, and its tongue looks like a little pink worm. And so all the fish see when they're swimming by is this little pink wiggling worm. So the fish thinks it finds dinner and it goes for the worm and the snapping turtle goes for the fish. And its powerful jaws, powerful enough to bite off our fingers, close down onto that fish. It wasn't a little worm, it just appeared to be weak. Or take the stars in the sky for an example. On a clear night, we look up and we see all these little glimmering stars. We sing the song, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. When in reality, these stars are enormous. And we could fit multiple earths inside of these stars. But yet from so far away, they seem so small and so weak. And that's what the cross of Christ is to those who are looking in from the outside. From the outside in, it looks like we're worshipping some crucified leader. That we need a crutch to make it through this world because we're not strong enough to do it on our own. But as we see in verse 24, for those who are called, the cross is the power and the wisdom of God. for those who are called those who are called by God know this power and know this wisdom because when they are called by God God is graciously extending his invitation to accept the salvation offered in Christ Jesus salvation given to those who believe this foolish message who believe the foolishness of the cross and repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ and know that their sins are completely forgiven. But this invitation isn't just some invitation, birthday card announcement you receive in the mail and you can take it or leave it. Because when God calls us, when He extends this invitation of salvation, He also fills us with His Spirit. And His Spirit regenerates us. It changes our souls from an inclination to evil to an inclination towards holiness. We are no longer the same when God calls us and fills us with His Spirit. We are a new creation. We have been given new life. We understand that the seemingly weakness of someone dying on a cross is actually God showing us his wisdom and power and perfection in glory in the utmost. The cross is the power and the wisdom of God. And when we believe this foolish message to the world, we seem like a foolish people. So secondly, a foolish people. Paul pairs verses 26 and 27 together in our passage this evening to show the power and the wisdom of God. And as he does this, he's making the point, don't boast in yourself. It's not about you, it's not about me, it's about God. And so he says, brothers, think of who you are when you were called. And he gives us three ways. Not many of you were wise by human standards, but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. Secondly, not many of you were influential, but God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. Boys and girls, think of the story of David and Goliath. David was just a boy facing the warrior Goliath. And it was only because God was working through David that he was able to kill the Goliath David. That same God is working through each and every one of us. Third, not many of you were of noble birth, but he chose the lowly things of the world, the despised things, the things that are not, or the nothings of the world, to nullify the things that are. Why? So that no one may boast before him. No one may say, God, I really didn't need you. I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps. I did this on my own. Thanks anyway, God. No. God chooses us, who are weak and nothing in the world, to display his power, to display His wisdom. By ourselves, we have nothing to boast about. We don't boast in ourselves. We boast in Christ. It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us the wisdom of God, that is, our righteousness, our holiness, and redemption. In Christ, we have righteousness, we have been made right with God this is a law thing God's justice demanded perfection we couldn't do that we can't ever do that but Christ did Christ accomplished the righteousness and the perfection that God demanded and he did it in our place and so our debt is cancelled in Christ we have righteousness we also have holiness sanctification the spirit that God has given us is purifying us from our sin it's making us more and more like the image of God and enabling us to do good works and we also have redemption because Christ took our place He met the demands of the law and he saved us from the death that our sins deserved. That's why it's written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. This is the only command of this passage. Boast in the Lord. If you're going to boast, you should boast in the Lord. The passage that Paul is quoting here is Jeremiah 9, verse 23 through 24, which I'll read for us tonight. This is what the Lord says. Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, or the strong man boast of his strength, or the rich man boast of his riches. But let him who boasts boast about this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice, righteousness on earth. For in these I delight, declares the Lord. And so where does our power come from? Where does our wisdom come from? The Jews thought it was in visual miraculous signs. The sign-seeking Jews were blind to the fact that the greatest miracle and the greatest sign was standing right there in front of them. The Greeks were all about wisdom, all about intelligence. And these wisdom-loving Greeks weren't wise enough or smart enough to see that the very wisdom of God was right there in front of us, in front of them. We as Americans love the power that comes from money. We are a wealth-driven nation. And too often, we miss the fact that the greatest treasure of all is right there in front of us. This is why we turn to Christ. The power and the wisdom is not found in ourselves, it's found in Christ. and so we depend on his power and his strength. This is the foolish message that Paul preached, the foolish people that believe that message. And so our third point is about Paul, a foolish apostle. 2 Corinthians 10, verse 10 says, His letters are weighty and forceful, But in person, he is unoppressive and his speaking amounts to nothing. Paul wasn't a very impressive man. About 50 years after Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthians, there was a man who wrote a book called The Acts of Paul and Thecla. And he describes what Paul looked like. And so I'll read this little quote for you guys. Take it for what it's worth. Paul was a man of small stature with a bald head and crooked legs in a good state of body with eyebrows meeting and nose somewhat crooked. And so Paul was a short-headed, bald man, bow-legged, unibrowed with a crooked nose. Nothing in his physical appearance said, we should listen to this guy. This guy is someone who comes with authority, someone I should give attention to. God chose the weak things of this world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are. Why? So that no one may boast before him. It's not about Paul's good looks, but rather, it's about the power of God. The power of Jesus Christ working through Paul, displaying the wisdom and the power of God. And so physically, Paul wasn't much, but also, his speaking didn't amount to much. In the first century A.D., when Paul is writing this letter to the Corinthians, the city was full of skilled public speakers. This was the entertainment of the time. These men, who were very skilled and could string together eloquent, wise sayings, would give public speeches. And people would come and flock all around them. They would have students who were trying to learn to talk just like them, according to these strict and legal rules. If we were to compare it to speakers that we know today, it would be like the TV talk show hosts, the Oprahs and the Dr. Phills, the Jay Leno's, all of these people who can string together nice phrases, make things sound good, but really be twisting the truth. And so Paul says, I came to you, brothers, and I didn't come with eloquence. or superior wisdom as I proclaim to you the testimony about God. Paul wasn't there to show off. He wasn't there to show off how wise and how smart he was. He was there to preach Christ. He came in weakness and trembling because God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. Paul's not depending on his own strength here. It's the power of the Spirit working within him. It's not about Paul. It's about the message of salvation. And it's not about the man preaching. It's about the gospel message that is being preached. And so always make sure that the foolish messenger up front preaching is preaching the foolish message. Because it's not about the man preaching, but about the message that's being preached. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 5 says, to make sure that you're not resting on men's wisdom. Because we don't want to end up like those Corinthians who were dividing over who they were following. But make sure that you're here tonight to hear the Word of God and that you're relying on His wisdom and you're resting on His power. That's what Paul is preaching. It's not about Him. It's not about His abilities. It's not about what we can do or our abilities because it's about Christ living in us and working through us with His power and His wisdom. This is good for all of us to hear because Paul is telling people about Christ. Paul is proclaiming this foolish message and he's not using eloquent wisdom to do it. He's not using skill to do it. He's witnessing out of his fear and out of his trembling. He comes to this city of Corinth, this grand city. He comes to this city with speakers who are practiced and polished and know exactly how to say what needs to be said. And he comes there with fear and trembling and says, I don't know anything except that Christ died for my sins. Too often we say, but I'm not trained in seminary. I can't tell others about Christ. That's not for me. I can't do that. But it's not how trained you are or how eloquent or smart or wise you are because God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. But I don't know what to say. Luke 21 verse 15 says, For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. But I'm not smart enough. I can't go there and tell people about Christ because I just don't know what to say and I'm not smart enough. God uses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. What if they think I'm weird? Which they probably will. Because the message you are preaching is foolishness to the world. But when they have been saved from the judgment of God, they won't think that you're weird. and so are we willing to be a little bit uncomfortable a little bit awkward a little bit foolish to tell someone this foolish gospel message is there anything in your life that god is calling you to do but you're holding back because you're judging yourself by the power and the wisdom of the world instead of the power and the wisdom of God. I'm not good enough. I can't do it. Are you depending on the power of God working through you more than you're depending on your own abilities? So you're not the smartest. So you're not the best looking. So you're unsure. You're not a good public speaker. You don't have much to offer good. That's exactly what God wants. Because He uses us who are weak and nothing in the world to display His power and His glory working through us. It's not about you. It's about God and what He has done. It's about His message of salvation. Just like Paul was foolishly preaching this foolish message of the gospel to a foolish people, I hope that we will all make complete fools out of ourselves telling others this foolish message. Because we know that this message is really the power and the wisdom of God working through us. Let's pray. Father in heaven, it's so easy for us to doubt. It's so easy for us to focus on what we aren't, what we can't do, and how weak we are, Lord. And in those moments, help us to turn to you. Help us to rely on your power, which is at work within us. Help us to cling ever so tightly to the gospel message that it's not what we do, but it's what Christ has already done. Help us to live out this gospel every day of our lives. In your name we pray. Amen.