If fear, my friends, that we are both far too much and much too little. We claim a knowledge and wisdom that we are not given to hold, thereby promoting a human-ceentered, prideful gospel. We are far too little in that we have no sought or seen enough of God’s power to give our hearts the glorious fire that will spread to light hearts with the word of Christ. We are cast too much on our own strength and have too little a view of the might of our God.
Paul pours out a mind bending description of God’s work on earth in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians, declaring things like, “has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” and that God chose what was not to nullify the things that are. Have we understood the massiveness of these verses? That God himself purposefully took up a path of action that would be a stumbling block and appear foolish to the world. He chose to take what is despised by earth and make it glorious. All that for what reason? “So that no one may boast before Him.” Yet I look and listen and hear Christian after Christian attempting to present a gospel that is not foolish and does not cause men to stumble. Is it any wonder that there are so many who claim the name of Christ but do not have the heart or life that show His power? If we have not spoken the full, foolish-to-men council of God, how can we expect the human heart to be what God has called it to be? It is by the truth of God that we are set free to live to God in Christ, and the truth of God is something that is more often looked down upon.
What is more ridiculous than God himself becoming a homeless man and living a servant’s life, then dying willingly at the hands of those He had saved from utter destruction time and again? Wh would believe such a thing? Yet the tale gets even more preposterous; add to it the ressurection three days later and a dead man rising to heaven, the thousands of years it has been with people all the while striving to proce that “the kingdom of heaven is near” and the wildly described end of the world, oh, this is a word that is believed only by fools!
Yet behold the glorious audacity of Paul when he spoke to the Corinthians “not with wise words, but with a demostration of the Spirit’s power” having “resolved to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified.” And even that he preached in weakness, fear, and with trembling. How is it that Paul saw such mighty transformation in the people who he preached to that their faith and love was spoken of across the world when he spoke only of Christ and His death? How is it that in this world where preaching can be broadcasted worldwide instantaneaously we do not see or hear word of faith like that in Christians? We have missed something. Or, perhaps better said, we have attempted to add something that was not meant to be added.
My brothers, preach this Gospel! Preach this Gospel alone. Tell the world only the foolish things of God; those things that are foolishness to those who will perish but are mighty in God’s power for those who are to be saved.
Paul says his preaching came not with eloquence or excellent oratory or well thought out conclusions. Instead, in fear and trembling and faith, there came power of the Spirit to confirm the truth, transforming utterly the lives of those who where called of God.
How often in preaching and teaching do we cut off the work of the Spirit in our attempts to speak with wise words? Preach, yes, by all means preach, plan, ponder, and study. But above all and in all speak of the things of God unreservedly, though you be called bigot, heretic, slanderer, liar, and fool, even by those who claim to be God’s people. Tell men of Christ crucified for the sins they have done and risen for their justification. Tell of suffering and hope in life; poverty and riches in earth and in God; of mourning and joy in their brilliant intertwiningl of all that the Gospel draws into, around, and from Christ.
That is God’s word to men, through men. Let no one boast, save in Him.
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