1 Corinthians 1:1-31

The Message Of The Cross
1 Corinthians 1:1-31 Lesson 2
Key verse 1:18 Shp Kevin Jesmer NIU UBF 9-13-09
“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.”
I have been looking forward to beginning our study of 1 Corinthians. There is much to this book that applies to our lives today. Like the Corinthians, we live in a sophisticated, cosmopolitan culture. The abundance of differing philosophies has made this century “the age of uncertainty” for most. Postmodernists have tried to debunk the idea of absolute truth. So everyone seems to live in their own way, without asking the big questions of life…even thinking there are no answers. Because of this we can also say that it is the age of confusion. However, one unchanging and absolute thing remains: the message of the cross. We must hold on to the message of the cross. Then we can create a new culture, a culture based on gospel faith. As we study the book of 1 Corinthians, let’s learn how to apply gospel principles in our lives, our family and community, and even in our nation challenging godlessness with gospel faith.
Part l: Paul’s Appeal For Perfect Unity (1-17)
Paul identified himself as an apostle, not by his own will or the will of people, but by the will of God. As an apostle of God, he wanted to reveal the many mysteries of God imbedded in the gospel. Let’s see what he has to tell us.
Paul reveals three characteristics of a church. Let’s read verse 2 together, “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours.” First, “the church of God in Corinth.” The church is not a building. It is a group of people who call on Jesus Christ. In China there are over 90 million house churches with no central church building. In America many are learning that the church is not a building. There are congregations meeting in homes, coffee shops, movies theaters. The DeKalb Church meets at “The House” in downtown DeKalb. There are members of the church of God in every congregation.
Second, the church is a fellowship of forgiven sinners. Look at verse 2a, “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy,…” Though they were sinners, Paul calls them “sanctified in Christ Jesus...called to be holy.” They were being made holy by the grace of God.
Third the church is universal. Look at verse 2c. Paul includes “all those everywhere who call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ....” The church is universal. It is everywhere. I can see this when we read the articles about our UBF ministries around the world (off the UBF.org website). It is clear that though we are scattered around the world and come from other cultures and speak other languages, we share a common faith, possess a common hope and participate in a common mission. We are one in Jesus. I can feel this “oneness” with Christians from other churches as well. Indeed the church is universal.
Paul greeted them warmly, “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (3) Though Paul had many problems to deal with, he did not begin with a harsh word. Rather, Paul thanked God for the great work he had done among them. When they heard the gospel through Paul, the Holy Spirit worked mightily in them. They were saved and they received abundant spiritual gifts. This was nothing but the grace of God.
Paul wrote with the conviction that they would be blameless when Jesus came again (8). How could Paul have this conviction? Look at verse 9. “God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.” Paul knew that God is faithful. He also knew that God, who began a good work in them, would carry it on to completion. (Philippians 1:6) This was the source of his great hope for them. When we, or our Bible students have problems, sometimes we lose hope. But when we know that God is faithful, we can live in hope.
Paul appeals for the Christians to have perfect unity. Let’s read verse 10. “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.” The phrase, “the Lord Jesus Christ” is repeated many times in verses 1-10. Paul did not command based on his own authority, though he could have because he was a great apostle. Rather, on the basis of Jesus’ Lordship, Paul appealed for perfect unity (10). How can they be perfectly united?
In order to understand the Corinthians’ need for unity, we must consider their cultural background. They lived in a society dominated by philosophers and academic schools, such as those of Plato, Aristotle, the Epicureans and the Stoics. It was natural for them to align with one school or teacher and argue with the others. This spirit had crept into the church. The Corinthians treated Paul, Apollos, and Cephas like competitive philosophy teachers. (12) Some said, “I follow Apollos because he is most eloquent.” Others said, “I follow Paul, because he has a great shepherd heart.” Still others said, “I follow Cephas, because he is Jesus’ top disciple.” Humanly this may be understandable. But spiritually it had led the Corinthians to division. They were no longer Christ-centered, but man-centered. This was the root problem. When this happens, the church cannot stand. Satan exploits divisions to destroy the church. Even today, people do this today when they uphold certain pastors of churches because of their charisma rather than because of the word of God or the will of God. Maybe it is the will of God to be led by a pastor that is boring and not so eloquent. Think about it.
There is a saying, “United we stand, divided we fall.” Jesus really wants us to be united as his people. To accomplish this he gave a command in John 13:34-35, which reads, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” All Christians must obey this command. We must practice the unconditional love of Christ, remembering how he has loved us first. Then we can be united in mind and thought through the work of the Holy Spirit. Then people will be attracted to Jesus when they are around us.
Paul wanted them to realize the seriousness of their division. So he rebuked them in verse 13. “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?” Some were boasting that Paul baptized them. Paul said that he could not even remember this. (16) Then Paul cut straight through all the confusion to the core issue: the cross of Christ. Let’s read verse 17. “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” Paul believed that only when they came back to the cross of Christ could they all be united in mind and thought and could solve their division problems completely.
Humanly speaking it is impossible to be united. We have all different characters, Tim is thoughtful and quiet. Andrew is gregarious. I am forceful and brass. Jenn likes to read. Augustine loves to spend time on his i-pod. (I wish I could mention you all.) We have grown up in democratic societies where each of us has learned to express their own opinions boldly. We are different. We value our differences. How can we have the perfect unity that Paul is espousing? Though we are different, we can be perfectly united in mind and thought when we obey the command of our Lord Jesus Christ to love one another. I thank God for our growing unity these days. We all want to get to know Jesus and serve him together. Many of us are ready and eager to meet for Bible study. Julie has opened her Thursdays up to go to the campus with me. We were all committed participate in the upcoming Praise Concert, co-working with two other UBF chapters. May we grow in perfect unity this year.
Part ll:Christ Crucified: The Power Of God And The Wisdom Of God (18-31)
Paul understood the wisdom of staying true to the gospel in his preaching. He faithfully stuck to the message of the cross through out his ministry. According to Acts 18, when Paul pioneered the city of Corinth he devoted himself exclusively to preaching and testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. Especially he focused on the message of the cross (2:2). There were two responses to his efforts. Some accepted the message and others became abusive, and began to persecute him. Paul was afraid. Then the Lord spoke to him in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city” (Ac 18:9,10). So Paul kept on speaking. Then God worked through him and there was a great revival in the city of Corinth. Lives were changed. God raised up many disciples. Many husbands and sons became excited about Jesus, much to their wives surprise.
Even for us, sticking to the message of the cross is of upmost importance, for it has eternal consequences. Let’s read 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.” How one responds to the message of the cross may seem to be a light matter to some. It is just exercises your freedom of choice. However, there are consequences to every choice and the result is very serious. We will bear the responsibility for our choices before God. Those who regard the cross as foolish will perish. According to the Bible, that means that they will live in bondage to sin their entire lives until they find themselves in the fiery lake of burning sulfur for eternity. (Rev 21:8) However, those who receive the message of the cross are saved from their sin. They no longer live in their sin. They become children of God with eternal life in his kingdom. They receive healing in their heart, mind and soul. They are fruitful, happy and victorious in Jesus. The message of the cross is the power of God for salvation of anyone who believes. (Rom 1:16) As Jesus was crucified, two criminals hung on crosses nearby. One rebuked Jesus in his pride. (Lk 23:39) We can imagine what happened to him. The other confessed his sin and guilt. (Lk 23:40-42) He believed that Jesus was innocent and was being punished unjustly. He heard Jesus’ prayer on the cross, “Father, forgive them.” (Lk 23:34) He saw God’s love in Jesus and appealed to Jesus to remember him. Jesus promised that he would be with him in paradise. Immediately, all his sins were forgiven and he became a citizen of Jesus’ kingdom. (Lk 23:43) God is pleased to save people who receive the message of the cross. That is the secret.
To some people, the message of the cross sounds just too simple. They think that salvation is so precious that one should attain it only after much study and intense discipline. But at the bottom of this thought is the belief that people can save themselves. It is an exaltation of human reason and effort that displeases God. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6b). In verse 19, Paul quoted Isaiah to explain how God deals with worldly wisdom. God destroys the wisdom of the wise and frustrates the intelligence of the intelligent. Paul asks rhetorically, “Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age?” (20) There are so many wise men and women, famous scholars and philosophers, even today. They say many good things, but they do not show us the way of salvation. They cannot solve the problem of sin and death, even for themselves. Karl Marx made a fascinating ideology with the phrase, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” But now that ideology has been shown to be completely empty. In the same way God will destroy all the ideas of wise people without Christ.
On the other hand, when we simply preach the message of the cross, God works. Paul was highly educated and eloquent in speech. But he did not depend on this to attract listeners. He depended on God humbly, and God worked. John Wesley, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, D.L. Moody and Billy Graham all preached the message of the cross, very simply and God used them greatly. When Moody began to speak at Cambridge, students did not open their hearts. They sat with arms crossed, thinking, “Let’s see how he does.” But when Moody preached the message of the cross, their hearts opened. Many repented and were changed into new creations. Among them were the Cambridge Seven, representatives of the student movement. Later some of them went to China, others to Africa, as missionaries. Billy Graham always says in his messages, “the Bible says.” Some intellectuals have criticized Billy Graham’s message as too simple. However, God has used him to bring many people to God through the message of the cross. During the European 40th Anniversary Summer Bible Conference, when messengers preached the gospel simply, God worked mightily in the hearts of 1200 attendants. The spark of spiritual revival was kindled. So let’s keep sharing the message of the cross.
The simple Gospel message competed with two other streams of thought of the day. Look at verse 22. “Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom....” There were two streams of culture flowing: Hebraism and Hellenism. Hebraism came from the Jews, Hellenism from the Greeks. Hebraism sought God through religion. Hellenism looks for wisdom through human reason. It eventually led to the development of the scientific method. Jews demand miraculous signs. They valued miracles and divine visions as superior to reason. They wanted to be persuaded by miraculous signs without repentance. They demanded Jesus to prove himself by doing miracles, if he were really the Messiah.
Greeks developed a dominant philosophy and culture. Alexander the Great conquered the world with his army. Then he forced Greek culture on others. It is interesting to know that his teacher was Aristotle. Through Greek culture, the world was “civilized.” Later, Rome occupied Greece and conquered the world. However, Greek culture conquered the Roman Empire. The Roman elite always wanted to hire Greek tutors for their children. Western culture has been derived from Greece. There are many good elements passed onto us. But the problem is that proponents of Greek culture did not accept that they were sinners. They tried to reach God through reason. They thought the message of the cross was foolish. The cross of Jesus is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. (23)
Paul stuck to his guns in verse 24. “...but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Here we find two aspects to the message of the cross. First, the cross of Jesus is the power of God. Sin holds a certain power over us. Therefore, we need power to save us from the power of sin and death. Otherwise, we will perish. So many students are living under the power of sin. They despair because they cannot overcome the hard challenges in life. They incur greater debt. They have little hope for the future and try to overcome despair through living a hedonistic lifestyle. This drives them deeper into sin. Many are slaves of lustful desires, anger, bitterness, pride, or selfishness. No one could save them from this misery. But they can be saved by the power of God. Jesus can save us. He solved our sin and death problem through his death and resurrection. God forgave all our sins and brought us back to the kingdom of God. Through Jesus’ cross we have eternal life and eternal victory. The cross of Jesus is glorious. The cross of Jesus is the power of God.
Second, the cross of Jesus is the wisdom of God. We also need divine wisdom to be saved. So many people don’t know who to turn to and how to live. They do not know what to hope in or where to find a source of unconditional love. They don’t know where to go to be forgiven. They need wisdom from on high. The cross of Jesus reveals God’s wisdom. Let me explain. God’s character includes both love and justice. God is love and God is holy. How can God balance love and justice? God hates sins but loves sinners. How can he save sinners? Many people kill sinners to solve the sin problem. We need wisdom in order to save sinners from their sins. And that wisdom is found in Jesus’ Gospel. God satisfied his love and justice perfectly on the cross. God punished sin to the full measure in Christ and then raised him from the dead. The cross of Jesus saves sinners. This is God’s wisdom in the cross. This is the wisdom that saves.
Paul reminded them how they were saved in verses 26-29. “Brothers, 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. 27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him." They had been lowly, weak, foolish, non influential and despised people. But God called them and saved them through Christ Jesus. God raised them up; gave them new strength; imparted his wisdom though his word and Spirit; and made them history makers and shepherds. It was nothing but God’s one-sided grace. Through their changed lives that power and wisdom of God was revealed the pagan world around them. That is why a Christian’s life testimony is so important. The Corinthian Christians had nothing to boast about in themselves. It was all because of Jesus. So Paul concludes, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” (31)
In this study we discovered some of the characteristics of the Christian church. The church is universal and it is made up of people who have been forgiven and sanctified by Jesus. Through his people God wants to reveal the way of salvation. The way of salvation is synonymous with the message of the cross. It seems foolish to the people of the world. But to those who receive it, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God. God is pleased to save those who believe. When we stand united in our hope and faith and mission, and decide to preach the message of the cross simply, God will work through us. So let’s pray that we may keep on preaching the message of the cross simply, believing that God will work through us when we do.
Part 1: GREETING AND THANKSGIVING (1-9)
1. Who wrote this letter, and to whom is it written? (1,2) Why does Paul introduce himself as an apostle of Christ Jesus? According to verse 2, what are the characteristics of the church of God? Why does Paul emphasize these things? What was his greeting to them? (3)
2. On what basis does Paul give thanks for the believers in Corinth? (4-7) How did they receive their spiritual gifts? (6; cf. Ac18:8-11) Read verses 8,9. What does he believe about their future? How could he believe this? (9)
Part 2: PAUL’S APPEAL FOR PERFECT UNITY (10-17)
3. What is Paul’s appeal to them? (10) Think about the degree of unity Paul urges. What contradictory report had he heard about them? (11) Over what were they quarreling? (12)
4. In what sense was their quarreling so serious? How did Paul bring them back to the proper perspective? (13-16) What was the focus of Paul’s ministry? (17) Why did he emphasize the cross of Christ here?
Part 3: CHRIST CRUCIFIED: THE POWER AND WISDOM OF GOD (18-31)
5. What are the two responses to the message of the cross? (18) How does God deal with human wisdom? (19,20) How does God work to save people? (21) Why does Paul talk about human wisdom and God’s wisdom here? (17)
6. Read verses 22-24. What characterized Jewish and Greek culture? Despite this, what did Paul keep doing? (23) What was his confidence? (24,25)
7. What kind of people were the Corinthians when they were called? (26) Why did God call people like them? (27-29) How and by whom had they been changed? (30) Why did Paul mention these things to them? (31)