Episode 266: Made Foolish | +Quigg Lawrence

Introduction

God, we know that you have chosen the weak in the world to shame those who think they're strong or even in fact strong. Father, you have chosen what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. Father, we pray you open your word to us. Open us to your word. Holy Spirit, speak to us in Jesus' name, amen.

Alright. First, I thank you. Big thank you. Let me just give you a little context. December 1, Tim and I are in his office and we're looking at how many dollars we're going to need to do the ministry and mission of this church, and to finish December 1, it was a half a million dollars. That's a lot of money, y'all. That's a lot of money. I'm like, we're in deep trouble.

What I want you to understand is the reason we did all those videos that wore you out asking for end-of-the-year gifts was not for us. Our salaries were fine. We were great. It was for mission, mission. Particularly, I believe the Lord has called our church to stand with Ben and Mama Gloria Kwasi, as they give away the house they paid for, to leave it to the next bishop, and the one after that, and the one after that, to build a home for 500 orphans. And they aren't just orphans stuck in an orphanage; they're kids they adopt in their name. The ones that are able to go to college, they discipline them, they love them, they worship together in the morning and the evening.

I know as a kid, we always prayed for the starving kids in Africa, but in this case, we have a chance to make a real difference. So, I'm glad to announce to you, not an exact figure because we're still doing some things, but we have at least a $150,000 overage, and I'm going to beg, ask, and plead our vestry to give the entire amount as a matching gift so that we can build the entire house for Ben Quashie and Mama Gloria, and let them do what they're awesome at, to raise up kids in the admonition and fear of the Lord.

So thank you so much for being part of that. Don't they just make you happy? Like, if you could just go see, go on Facebook and look up Zambieri School, look up Diocese of Joss, look up Mama Gloria or Ben Quashi, look at their websites, look at what they're doing. You guys are going to be a big part of that.

The Context of the Passage

Alright. So, we're starting a series in 1 Corinthians, and we're actually beginning at verse 18, but let me just give you the lay of the land. The Corinthians, Corinth was a city that was very wealthy. It was on a trade route. I kind of, I don't know, I don't know what the perfect analogy would be. Maybe it's Miami. Maybe it's New York, but it's a city that's big and powerful and rich. And like many places where there's trade, you're going to have all kinds of belief and non-belief and weird belief, all kinds of practices.

Corinth was a wicked city. It was a pagan city. And yet, in the midst of this, God raised up a church for his glory. And so we see in this letter that God loves the church in Corinth, and because he loves them, he's willing to take them out behind the woodshed and address hard things. He's not that nice Episcopal Rector who says nice things and drinks sherry with you. It tickles your ears. He's telling them because he loves them, "Hey, you guys got a problem." You know, there's pagans that are in your city. They're affecting you. They're affecting your view of Christ and of the gospel.

And so I want to dig into the text itself. If you open your Bible, page 952 in the Pew Bible. It starts out and it says this. It says,

For the word of the cross is folly. It's folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

So, let me set the bookends. I'm sorry. I forgot to do that for you. Didn't you like to have the bookends? Look at verse 17. Paul says very clearly that God sent him to preach the gospel not with eloquent wisdom. Isn't it ironic to the church in Corinth who so prized the wisdom? Think of MIT, think of Harvard, think of Princeton, think of Yale, think of UVA; think of whatever school. People that prize wisdom. He said, "But God didn't send me to preach the gospel with words of eloquent wisdom." No, because if I do, the cross of Christ would be emptied of its power.

So, that's Paul. On the backside, the back of his page, verse 26. Paul's telling them the truth. He goes, "Hey, you guys who prize wisdom and intellect and all these things, let me just remind you: not many of you were of noble birth. Not many of you are powerful." And he goes on in verse 27, it says,

God has particularly chosen the foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chooses what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. It says, God chooses what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chooses what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are.

Verse 29 is the one you want to circle. So that no human being may boast in the presence of God. And so you see on the front end and the back end, Paul speaking of himself and his own call, but also telling the Corinthians about themselves. Wisdom and all that—it's great, you know, wisdom. It's good. But when you put that in the place of what God has done and his wisdom, then you're off track.

And so this passage is going to lay out for us what God focuses on. It says in verse 18,

The word of the cross.

If you notice in our church, what do we have front and center? What do we have on the outside of the building? The cross. It's a weird thing to put. The cross was a cruel instrument of death, like the electric chair. Wouldn't it be weird if you had an electric chair up there? Wouldn't it be weird if you had one out there or around your neck? And yet, for the Christian church, that's the symbol. An empty cross—that God loved you so much that he was willing to crush his beloved Son so that you might be washed and cleansed and become a son or daughter.

And so he says, the word of the cross—that's it—that Jesus came. He came not just simply because he loves you, but because you have a problem you cannot fix. And the only way out of that problem is the Lord himself has to fix it. You can't fix it with all your worldly education and wisdom. You can't fix your problem of sin. Even Saint Paul says, the good I want to do, so often I do not do. So he says,

The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing.

Now, I've been trying really hard not to get on Facebook posts. I think I've gone 179 days without flaming somebody. I'm really proud of that. Hi, I'm Quigg. I struggle with flaming people on Facebook, especially ignorant fools who say stupid things on Facebook. But I realized that it doesn't honor Christ for me to flame people, and it never works. But I have read multiple posts where they go, "Stop quoting me about your fairy tale god. Your make-believe fairy tale god." That just makes me want to throw up when I read it. The arrogance of that. The ignorance of that.

And so we read:

For the word of the cross, it's folly to those who are perishing. They think this is stupid. They think it's a joke.

Right? And so he presses on. The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing. People are perishing, but to us who are being saved—for those who've put on the Lord Jesus and are being saved by his righteousness—this message, this event of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, is actually the power of God.

It's the power of God. The thing that looks so foolish to the world is actually God's power. He does what no man can do. We can't find our way to God. We can't make ourselves clean. Our hands are all dirty, and there is no soap to get our sin off of us.

He picks up in verse 19,

For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,"

He's quoting Isaiah 29 here.

I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.

So there, Paul's looking back to Isaiah 29:14, paraphrasing it. Again, the main point is, God is destroying all human pride. He's destroying all so-called wisdom for true wisdom—his wisdom. He's disarming the arrogance of man.

Verse 20, we pick up. Paul kind of I don't know if he's being sarcastic here, but he's sort of digging on them a little bit. He goes,

So where's the wise? Where are the wise? Where's the scribe? Where's the debater?

Like all these people that you prize, Corinth. All these men that are erudite in their knowledge—1,600 on their SATs, not really—they didn't take those. 1,600 on their SATs, they went to the finest schools. They're smart. Their brains are sharp as attack. And yet, they cannot solve the basic human problem of our human sin and being cut off from the Father. They can't solve the basic human problem that we fail. We sin. We fail. We sin. And we have no way to help ourselves.

In Corinth, they think, well, if you just have enough wisdom, that'll solve the problem. And he's like, no, it won't. How many people have multiple PhDs and yet go to their grave, lost as they can be, miserable people? So he asks,

Where is the wise? Where is the scribe—the scholar? Where is the debater of this age?

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

Verse 21, it says this:

For since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God.

See, everybody thinks that they know the Lord. Everybody thinks they're right. That's the problem with Facebook. Everybody thinks they're right, and everyone else is wrong. And yet, the verse says here, in God's wisdom, the world was unable. They did not know the Lord. They did not know God. And that's sad.

Isn't it sad? I think of what I want for my kids and my grandkids. Do I want them to be doctors and lawyers and Indian chiefs? Yes. But you know what I really want for them? Really, really? I want them to know the Lord. Really. Because if they inherited the whole world but forfeited their soul, what good is it? And Paul is saying much the same thing. He says,

The world did not know God, even with all their wisdom and all their abilities and all their epicurean, whatever, whatever. The world did not know God, not through wisdom.

And it says, it pleased God—through the folly of what we preach—to save those who believe. Do you know why the cross is such a scandal? Do you know why wise people talk about your fairy tale god, your make-believe god? That they scoff at this? Do you know why? I mean, look at it. It's a cross. And on that cross, we're faced with the very fact of our own sinfulness. Much like Paul, the good we want to do, we do not do it. The bad things we shouldn't do, so often, those are the things we do. Wretched men and women, who can save us from this life of death?

And yet, see, at the cross, the Lord is saying, you are unable to save yourself. You're unable to fix yourself. You're unable to fix the world. But I, in my wisdom, have sent my Son, my beloved, to rescue you. And the cost of that is crushing him. I crushed my Son on your behalf. And yet, to those who are so caught up in their own wisdom and their own erudite, whatever, they think it's folly. They think it's foolish. You can see that in the exchanges on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter.

It says this,

For the Jews demand signs.

First of all, let's don't bust on the Jews because God did a lot of signs. Think back to a time maybe 400-some years before this where God did a lot of signs. Go. It's only the biggest event in the history of the world except for the resurrection. Yeah, he got his people out of bondage, out of slavery in Egypt. Right? And so, as God was breaking Pharaoh's will, what did he do? What did he do? Shem. Plagues and plagues are in fact signs. So God did many signs, even through the prophets. He did signs. And so it's not bad that the Jews were looking for a sign. However, it went too far. It says,

For the Jews demand signs.

They demand it. It's like, God, sit here, God. We're going to put you in the dock, and we're going to ask you questions. Right? We're going to judge you. Okay? And so, we see over and over in the Gospels, the Jews demanding signs. Matthew 12:38 says:

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Jesus saying, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you."

But Jesus answered, "An evil and adulterous generation, you seek for a sign, but no sign will be given to you except for the sign of Jonah." I'm going to be in the grave three days and three nights, as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights. It's the only sign Jesus said he's going to give you.

Matthew 16 says this:

The Pharisees and the Sadducees came to test Jesus, and they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. Sign, sign, sign.

There are many of these verses. John 6:30 says:

They said to Jesus, "Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe? What work do you perform?"

Interestingly enough, the last one I’ll share is John 12:37:

Though Jesus had done many signs before them, he did, in fact, do many signs. Name them. Go, go, go. Water into wine. Great, first one, go. Raise from the dead. Last verse, "Come forth." Eyes of the blind, deaf—he gave them not hearing aids, he gave them ability to hear. Little girl, I say to you, "Arise." Calm the storm. Any other signs, signs, signs? All those.

Perfect. One thing I’ve learned is my hearing is deteriorated. Sometimes I just go, yeah. Yeah. So, all those things. So, the Lord had given signs, but it says, the Jews demanded signs. They demanded it. And we go back and it says, and the Greeks—they want wisdom. In other words, if you're going to validate yourself, Jesus, we want to see your wisdom. You followers of Jesus, if your message is true, we want to see wisdom. The Jews wanted signs. In other words, God, you do this, like for Jews, you do this, and we'll know you're the Messiah. You do signs for us. Dance, Jesus. Do signs for us. Heal people. Do this, this, this, this, we'll believe. But in fact, the Scriptures say that even though Jesus did do signs, they didn't believe. Most of them didn't believe. And so signs aren't enough. They're not effectual.

Verse 23, he says:

We preach Christ crucified.

What a strange thing to say to a Jew. You know, Messiah that you've been waiting for for hundreds of years? He's here. And in fact, the Messiah who's here to save you is going to be crushed and put to death. Well, oh no, Lord. No, that doesn't really work for us. We want our Messiah to be strong and powerful and annihilate our enemies and do good. And yet, what Jesus did was in fact good. He went to the cross to pay for the sins that they could never pay for, to break the bondage that his people were in.

I'm so glad that God didn't listen to the Jews. It goes on, it says,

We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ—the power of God and the wisdom of God.

It says, we see the next line:

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

I think what the Lord is trying to do is this. We, like the people in Corinth, we prize wisdom. I want my kid to go to the best schools, so he can go to the best university, so he can go to the best graduate program, so he can get the best job, or she can get the best job, so she can or he can make lots of money and be important and have value. We prize wisdom. We prize signs. We'll worship you. Hey, Jesus. If you'll heal my friend who's sick, I might worship you. You see what we're doing? We're putting God in the dock, and we're putting ourselves as the judge and saying, "Dance for us, Jesus. Do what we want you to do." And God says, "I'll have none of it. I'm not, as Bob Dylan said—I forget the exact line—but he's saying, 'I'm not here to do everything you want me to do.'"

I'm here to do what must be done. And what must be done is to free you. To free you. You think you can free yourselves by studying philosophers and quoting these great things? Do you think you can free yourselves by seeing signs? No, you're all going to perish. The only way for you to be a son or a daughter, the only way for you to have life and escape the bondage that we're in, that we're drowning in, is to cling to the cross, to receive this gift I have given you.

Application

And so the question is this: what do you make of the cross? What do you make of the cross? I mean, really. I don't really care right now what they made of the cross. I care about what you make of the cross. There's only two choices. What do you make of Jesus dying on the cross for your sins? There's really only two choices. Like the world, you can say, "That's crazy. That's foolish." Or for those who actually believe and trust, that cross is not folly. We cling to it because it's our only hope. The Father gave His Son in love at a terrible cost so you could be washed and cleansed and have life and be free from the bondage of sin.

What is the cross to you? One last time. What is Jesus' sacrifice to you? In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Today would be a fantastic day to say it's everything that I've ever needed, even though it's so completely bizarre and nobody saw it coming. Everything in Christianity is backwards. Have you noticed this? The way up is down. You defeat the devil by dying for your enemies. The way that you lead is by serving. Everything is backward.

And if the forward way of doing things is not working out as you had hoped, perhaps try this absolute inverted kingdom. This morning, if you'd like to, you can come down. You can be all by yourself here at the curved rail. You can meet with folks that will pray with you at the straight rail. And we just invite you, whether it's the totality of your life or just some element of it, and you want to find what does the way of the cross have to say to the particular circumstances in my life, we invite you to come down and meet with this God who does everything backward that no one saw coming and find that he loves you.

We'll take a minute for you to pray, and then we'll join together in confession.