1 Corinthians 2:6-16 - “The Gift of the Holy Spirit”

1 Corinthians: 1 Faith, 1 Love, 1 Focus (2nd Sunday after Epiphany – B)
Sunday, January 15, 2012

• Have volunteer come forward.
• “No eye has seen” – put blindfold on person
• “No ear has heard” – put headphones on person
• “No mind has conceived” – put hardhat on person
• We just don’t know what God has prepared for us.

• Ask for a second volunteer
• Put a sign on person that says “Spirit”
• Tell person to remove items from first volunteer in backwards order.
• But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.

• Let’s hear it for our volunteers.
• Let’s hear it for the Spirit.
• Volunteers sit down.

• The Spirit has revealed the plan of salvation to us
• Revealed it to us through the Word—the Bible
• The Spirit has come into our lives by Word and baptism
• Revealed that we were created by God to be in relationship with Him
• Revealed that that relationship was broken by sin
• Revealed that Jesus came, died, and rose again to heal that relationship and bring us back to God the Father.
• Those are things that weren’t revealed to you by man
• Those are things that were revealed to you by the Holy Spirit.

• Here in the second chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul is developing even more the idea that the wisdom we have isn’t a natural wisdom, a wisdom the world recognizes.
• It’s a spiritual wisdom; it comes from the Spirit.

• But like Paul says in chapter 1, all of this Christian stuff just looks foolish.
• Without the Spirit, we call the cross foolish.
• Without the Spirit, we call Jesus foolish.
• Without the Spirit, no eye can see, no ear can hear, no mind can conceive—can realize what God has prepared for us.
• Without the Spirit, we’re wearing a blindfold, headphones, and hardhat.

• When I was in college at Northwestern and had decided to become a pastor, I started taking a bunch of Religious Studies courses.
• Those Religious Studies Department professors really knew the Bible—they could quote it, they knew its background, they knew how it connected to other parts of Scripture
• But they didn’t believe
• They said it clearly, almost proudly—they didn’t believe in Jesus, maybe didn’t even believe in God.
• They were curious about religious things but they themselves weren’t religious.
• They could handle the Word of God every day, they could know it so well—on one level,
• But really it remained a closed book to them.
• Because they didn’t have the Spirit.
• Or maybe better yet—they were resisting the Spirit.
• Because I am confident that the Spirit works through the Word of God.
• Therefore, those professors were in contact with the work of the Spirit every day.
• But they resisted the Holy Spirit.

• But how do you know if you have the Holy Spirit?
• How do you know that you’re not resisting the Holy Spirit?
• Your faith.
• If you believe in Jesus as Savior, as the One who brings you back into relationship with God the Father, that’s because the Holy Spirit is in you and with you and working in your heart.
• Even if your faith wavers sometimes, you struggle to believe, still if you believe in Jesus and the cross and the resurrection, that’s because the Holy Spirit is with you.
• In order to know that the Spirit is with you, do you have to have some grand experience or great awakening?
• You might have had that experience.
• You might be able to point back to a moment in your life when you realized your faith in a very real way.
• That is the work of the Spirit.
• But many of us don’t have that single moment, that single moment of recognizing the work of the Spirit.
• Rather, we have many small moments, many ways that the Spirit has worked in our lives.
• We can point back to our baptisms as a time when we’re sure the Spirit began working in our hearts, but otherwise, there’s just a series of ways that the Spirit has come to us through the Word of God.

• So how do we know that we have the Spirit?
• Our faith in Jesus.
• We cannot believe in Jesus without the Spirit.
• If we feel like our faith is weak and small, well, even so, that weak and small kernel of faith was planted by the Spirit.
• And if I believe in the Lord, the Spirit gets all of the credit.
• If I don’t believe in Jesus, if I reject Him, I am to blame. That’s to my own damnation. I’m resisting the Holy Spirit.

• Of course, you may feel as if you’re struggling to believe, as if you’re unsure about this whole Jesus thing.
• You may be here because you’re curious, you’re wanting the spiritual in your life, but a part of you remains skeptical, aloof, can’t quite let yourself go whole hog for Jesus.
• I was studying this week for a class I’m taking through the Seminary
• The book I was reading tells this story:
• Theologian/evangelist Michael Green was at an evening hosted by Christians to reach out to the community.
• At one point, a woman professor leaned over to Michael and whispered: “You know, I don’t believe any of this.”
• Michael then replied, “Yeah, I know, but wouldn’t you like to?”
• With that remark, tears welled up in the woman’s eyes. Her head told her no, but her heart yearned to hear. (Preaching to a Postmodern World, p. 136).


• Her heart was yearning for the Word of truth.
• In fact, I’d say that’s even evidence of the Spirit working in her, awakening her to the yearning inside of her, awakening her to her need for a Savior who brings grace and forgiveness and love.

• So when we struggle to believe,
• When we wrestle with our doubts and thoughts all day long,
• We rejoice that the Spirit steps up His game
• We rejoice that the Spirit comes into our lives full of grace and truth, full of the power of God to restore us to God the Father.
• When we say, “I don’t know if I believe any of this,”
• When we say, “I’d like to believe,”
• The Spirit comes to grant us faith.
• The Spirit wades through our doubts and struggles, wades through the mess to get to our hearts and work faith in us.

• And you may be here today, rejoicing in the fact that the Spirit has come into your life, but you’re saddened and concerned about family and friends who aren’t believers.
• What does this passage tell you about your loved ones who don’t believe?
• They need the Spirit.
• Pray that they receive the Spirit.
• Pray that the Spirit works through you to share God’s love and forgiveness with them.
• Pray that the Spirit would remove their blindfold and headphones and hard hat.
• Pray that they wouldn’t resist the Spirit but receive the gift of faith.


• As we move forward in this series on 1 Corinthians,
we remember that a theme of the letter is the unity we have through the cross of Jesus.
• The Church is one in Jesus.
• To us who are being saved [the cross] is the power of God for salvation.
• How does this chapter fit into that theme?

• Well, in chapter 2 Paul is continuing to remind the Corinthians and us that we cannot be puffed up, we cannot think we’re here because we’re so great, we’re so wise and sophisticated.
• That’s not why we’re here.
• We’re here through the power of the Spirit.
• It’s the Spirit that has revealed these things to us.
• The Spirit gets all of the credit.

• So our unity is preserved.
• This isn’t a contest to see who is the wisest or smartest;
• this isn’t a competition to see who figured it all out by themselves
• This gathering of believers, this fellowship of the faith, this congregation is brought together, unified by the power of the Spirit
• The Spirit is the One who draws us to the faith.
• The Spirit is the One who keeps us in the faith.
• The Spirit is the One who gets all of the credit for us being here.
• Our unity is preserved; our unity is in the Spirit.
• So there’s no reason anyone should be puffed up, should brag, should boast in their own spiritual abilities. The Spirit gets all of the credit.
• I think that was the toughest part about figuring out what to say about chapter 2 today: How to tell you that you have the Spirit without making it sound like we’re cocky about having the Spirit.
• I don’t want you going out bragging about the Spirit as if you’re doing that old cheer:
• “We’ve got Spirit, yes, we do, we’ve got Spirit, how ‘bout you?”
• Do that to someone who is outside of the faith and they’ll see it as bragging?
• Do that to someone who is struggling spiritually and it’ll cause to them question and wonder if they have the Spirit?
• Brag about having the Spirit, and we’re likely to alienate those who aren’t believers in Jesus.

• So I want you to rejoice in having the Spirit.
• I want you to know that the Spirit is with you and in you.
• I want you to praise God for the Spirit who has created faith in your heart.

• But then go out quietly into your world
• Go out humbly, remembering that the Spirit is a gift
• Go out to your family and friends who need to know Jesus, go to them prayerfully, asking the Lord to send His Spirit into their hearts
• When you realize that God wishes to take up residence in every single person’s heart, you realize God aches to be in relationship with all people
• God ached that my professors resisted the Spirit when they were so close to His Word.
• God aches for our family and friends who don’t know Jesus.
• God aches for them—and continually is looking for ways to bring His Spirit into their lives.
• God wants to remove their blindfolds and headphones and hardhats.
• God wants to work faith in their hearts
• And when He does, the Spirit will get all of the credit.

• You’ve heard that the right answer to any question the pastor asks is probably Jesus, right?
• Today, though, the right answer is the Spirit.
• So let me ask you:
• Who put faith in your heart? The Spirit.
• Who helps you when you struggle in the faith? The Spirit.
• Who do we need when we resist faith? The Spirit.
• Who can help our family and friends believe? The Spirit.
• Who unites us as a fellowship of believers? The Spirit.
• Who gets all of the credit for our faith? The Spirit.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25 - "But Hey, At Least We're in This Thing Together"

1 Corinthians: 1 Faith, 1 Love, 1 Focus (Baptism of Our Lord – B)
Sunday, January 8, 2011

• Fools.
• Freaks.
• Insane.
• Dim-witted.
• Hopelessly misguided
• Uninformed.
• Naïve.
• Out of touch with reality.
• Not firing on all cylinders.
• That’s how the world sees us.
• Fools.
• That’s what the world thinks about people who take Jesus seriously.
• Fools.

• They think we’re wasting our time.
• They find it extremely strange that we decorate our buildings, decorate ourselves with the cross—a sign of an execution

• Of course, calling us fools, that’s nothing new. It started with Jesus Himself.
• One time Mary, the mother of Jesus, and his brothers come to where He’s preaching and try to stop Him, they figure Jesus is “beside Himself,” not well, not thinking straight (Mark 3:21).
• Another time, after Jesus says that He’s the Good Shepherd, well, the Jewish leaders don’t embrace Him and paint portraits of Him with sheep. They say he’s demon-possessed and raving mad. (John 10:20).

• People who become followers of Christ, they, too, are labeled as fools.
• Paul, the apostle, the great missionary, the writer of 13 books of the New Testament, well, he was told that he was “out of his mind” when he was on trial.

• Then later as the Church grew, the critics continued to call it foolish. In the second century, a philosopher named Celsus said that Christianity is absurd because they are “actually worshipping a dead man.”

• Absurd.
• Foolish.
• Insane.
• Crazy.
• Woo-hoo.

• But hey, at least we’re in this thing together.
• If you’re going to be a fool, at least you’re not alone.
• We’re all considered fools for taking our faith seriously.

• Yet, what unites us is that we don’t consider Jesus to be a foolish belief.
• What unites us is that we believe that Jesus is the power of God for salvation.


• That’s what Paul’s saying in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians.
• When Paul says that the world thinks believing in Jesus is foolishness, when Paul says that, he means to unite the Corinthian church.

• Paul 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.”

• “To us who are being saved,” to us who believe in Jesus, to us who believe in the cross—the death of Jesus, to us who believe in the resurrection—Jesus rising from the dead, to us—this is not foolishness. This is the power of God for salvation.

• So the world may call us fools, freaks, or clueless,
• but hey, we’re in this thing together.
• We’re united by the power of God in the cross.

• That verse in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, it’s verse 18, that verse is said to be the theme of Paul’s letter.
• And if it’s the theme of Paul’s letter, well, then it’s the theme for our series on 1 Corinthians, these 13 weeks before Easter where we’ll take one chapter a week through the 13th chapter of this letter of Paul.
• And so that’s the meaning behind the series title:
1 Corinthians: 1 Faith, 1 Love, 1 Focus.
• We are united by this one faith in Jesus.
• We are united by this one love of Christ.
• We are united by this one focus on Jesus and the cross.
• That faith, love, and focus may seem like foolishness according to the world’s standards, but for us, for us it’s the power of God working in our world to save us, to forgive our sins, to give us new life, to rescue us from eternal death.
//
• Now maybe you’re thinking: Christianity doesn’t seem so foolish. Christianity seems pretty normal.
• If so, it’s probably because we’re just so used to it.
• We spend so much time in the church and around Christians that it’s hard for us to realize what our faith looks like from the outside.

• But think of how strange it seems to those outside of the faith.
• Like I said, we decorate our buildings with the cross.
• We wear the cross as jewelry and on our t-shirts.
• And in the process, we’ve forgotten that the cross was a tool for execution, a tool for a gruesome torture and death, a tool to make an example out of the worst criminals, the lowest of the low.
• The world looks at us and sees us rallying around a symbol of death.
• The world sees us stating our belief in a Jewish manual laborer from Galilee who was killed on the outskirts of Jerusalem among the lowest criminals.
• The world sees this, and well, it’s no wonder they think we’re fools.
• It’s no wonder they think that God’s plan of salvation in Jesus sounds pretty weak, like a failed enterprise, like something completely powerless.

• Yet, we know through faith that the cross is the power of God.
• Through faith, we know that the cross is empty, the tomb is empty, Jesus lives and reigns and rules over all things with grace and love and forgiveness.
• Through faith, we don’t see the cross as a symbol of death. It’s a symbol of life—Jesus dying and rising again. It’s a symbol of life—putting our sinful lives to death and bringing us new life.
• Through faith, we don’t see this as foolishness; we see it as the power of God for our salvation.
//
• But what’s this have to do with unity—bringing a congregation together?
• What’s it have to do with encouraging the Corinthians—and us—to have one faith, one love, one focus?

• Well, it seems that the Corinthian church was arguing about which leader to follow—Paul or Apollos or Peter or just simply Christ.
• They were arguing about which way was wiser.
• They were arguing about who was right.
• Their unity was being torn apart because each faction was trying to outdo the other, trying to be the smartest, wisest, most well-spoken.
• So Paul reminds them of who they are:
Think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.
• In other words, God called fools to the faith.
• God’s building His Church with fools.
• Freaks.
• Dim-witted.
• Uninformed.
• Naïve.
• Not firing on all cylinders.

• But hey, at least we’re in this together.
• Unless we’re not.
• Unless we’re not sticking together.
• Unless we’re arguing over following Paul or Apollos or Peter or Christ.
• Unless we’re trying to outdo one another.
• Unless we’re trying to be seen as wise according to the world’s standards.
• And then, well, then we’re just pulling away from each other, we’re competing, we’re losing sight of the unity we have in the power of God.
• We’re thinking that our power unites us.

• That’s the situation the Corinthian church found themselves in about three years after Paul had founded the congregation.
• So word got to Paul about these troubles, and he wrote this letter (and eventually 2 Corinthians) to address these issues and encourage the Christians in Corinth to remain focused on Christ and Him alone.

• And so through the centuries this letter from Paul comes to us, comes to address issues we might face, comes to encourage us to remain focused on the cross, comes to unite us in the power of God.

• Now the first reason I picked 1 Corinthians for our theme these weeks is because readings from 1 Corinthians appear anyway in the lectionary during this time of the year, the lectionary—the assigned readings for each Sunday in the Church Year. We would’ve been covering part of the letter already, so why not expand it and cover 13 chapters of it.


• So that was the reason initially for picking it
• But then as I started to study for this week, I realized God had led me to the right book for our fellowship of believers, the right book for us to study.
• I say that because we need the encouragement to be united.

• I don’t mean that I’m concerned that we’re not united now, or that there are factions, or that we’re pulling away from each other.
• I don’t mean that at all.
• I think Bethel is in a great place—what with a real missional energy in this place, an eagerness to reach out to our community.
• What with the reFocusing process helping us to discover who we are as individuals and as a congregation.
• I can see God’s power at work in this place.

• So what do I mean that we need the encouragement to be united?
• We need it, because as we move forward, as God’s Spirit moves in this place, as the energy builds, as we step forward into the community, we’re going to be under attack—spiritual attack.
• The devil would love to see us fail.
• The devil would love to see us get tripped up.
• And a great way to trip us up would be to get us to do it to ourselves, to get us to go against one another.

• It’s not so much that the world’s going to call us foolish—that’s not the first danger.
• The first danger is that we’ll call one another fools.
•
• Fools.
• Hopelessly misguided.
• Uninformed.
• Wrong.

• Have you ever been a part of an experience in a congregation when people have been picking at each other?
• Have you ever been called a fool by a fellow brother or sister in Christ?
• Have you ever watched as people pulled away from one another, took positions of being right, and calling everyone else wrong?
• Have you ever run away or been tempted to run away from the church because you couldn’t stand how people were treating each other?

• Well, that in-fighting, what’s it really about?
• Isn’t all of that in-fighting about trying to be the wise one, the smart one, the one who has it all figured out?
• Isn’t it about calling someone else foolish?

• That’s what seems to be happening in the Corinthian church:
• “You’re foolish for following Paul because Apollos is the right one.”
• “No, it’s not Paul or Apollos, it’s Peter.”
• “You’re all wrong, We should only follow Christ, and I, of course, am doing just that.”

• Pride was rearing its ugly head.
• Pride was pulling apart the unity of the congregation.

• But before we’re too quick to set ourselves above the Corinthian Christians and start calling them fools, let us remember how pride comes to play in our lives together as well.

• Have we ever acted out of pride in the church?
• Have we ever closed our ears to someone else because we were trying so desperately to be right?
• Do we need to confess to a brother or sister that we were wrong to treat them like a fool?

• And when we realize this, when we realize our own pride, our own temptations to pride,
• That’s when we realize how much we need the power of God for salvation, the power of God in the cross.
• The very thing that seems so foolish
the foolish word of Christ crucified
comes to forgive us for our pride.
• Christ forgives us and restores us and sets us back in His grace and brings us back to others with love.

• That experience of being restored to a brother or sister in Christ. . .
• Admitting a sin to a fellow Christian and having them forgive you. . .
• Seeing the hurt and anger melt away because there’s power in God’s Word of forgiveness. . .
• There’s nothing like that experience.
• I experienced that with a dear friend, and it’s remarkable—remarkable to be forgiven for my sin, remarkable to be back in relationship with him, remarkable to see God’s hand at work, His Gospel coming to work in my day-to-day life.
• And it was only the power of God that could do this.
• This is the hope that Paul has for the Corinthians.
• He’s writing to them about lots of things, but the theme is restoring their unity, helping them to set aside pride, and rally around the foolish word of the cross.
• And hey, we’re in this thing together.

• This is my hope for us as well.
• I pray our unity will be strengthened, that we’ll all see ways we might need to set aside pride, and that we’ll rally around the foolish word of the cross.

• Together we are fools.
• Freaks.
• Insane.
• Dim-witted.
• Hopelessly misguided
• Uninformed.
• Naïve.
• Out of touch with reality.
• Not firing on all cylinders.
• That’s how the world sees us.
• Fools.
• That’s what the world thinks about people who take Jesus seriously.
• Fools.

 
• But hey, no matter what, we’re in this thing together.
• We’re in this together because the cross of Jesus brings us together.
• We’re in this together because we’ve been forgiven by the death and resurrection of Christ.
• We’re in this together because we realize we’re not any better than anyone else—we need Christ for salvation.
• We’re in this together, together with Christ.

• So, Fools, rally around the foolish word of the cross.
• Rally around the cross and be united in Christ.