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.