This is a lightly edited transcript of what I actually said when I delivered this message at Calvary Baptist Church in Findlay, Ohio, in 2003, as the morning message before a summer mission trip. It differs from what I planned to say; for the audio and manuscript, see the entry on the Messages page.
What is the task of missions when you boil it down—and, for that matter, your task in fulfilling the Great Commission, which belongs to every one of God’s people? I’d like to consider the two primary tasks of missions, one this morning and one this evening. The first is gospel proclamation—the preaching of the Word, testifying of Jesus Christ crucified. The second is prayer—praying that God would cause that message to succeed. It’s hard to call one primary and the other secondary. Gospel preaching without the prayers of God’s people is likely to fall on dead ears; but praying people with no one going to take the message leaves no means for people to hear and believe. So the two go together. This morning we’ll consider the first—the proclamation of the gospel—from 1 Corinthians 1:17–2:5, which our team chose as this year’s passage.
Paul writes that Christ sent him “to preach the gospel, not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God”; God will “destroy the wisdom of the wise”; “since…the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” “Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called…Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” God chose “what is foolish…weak…low and despised…so that no human being might boast in the presence of God”; “he is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom…righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that…‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’” And “I…did not come proclaiming…with lofty speech or wisdom….I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified…that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (2:1–5). Father, thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ. By your Spirit, help us understand this passage, apply its truth to our hearts, and give us fresh passion to live in light of it and proclaim it. In Jesus’ name, amen.
At the heart of this passage is the motive behind the gospel—why God provided it to save. And the answer is that the gospel is about the glory of God; his glory is at its very heart. This runs contrary to the average Christian’s thinking. When we consider the gospel, we often put man at the center—“Look how much God values man; look how much he was willing to pay for us”—and we come away with a high view of man. But God intends the opposite: not high thoughts about man, but high thoughts about God. We shouldn’t look at the cross and say, “See how much God values man,” but, “See how much God desires to glorify himself by displaying his wisdom, power, and grace to save.” The passage breaks into three paragraphs, each showing a way God glorifies himself through the gospel: the message (vv. 18–25), which people regard as foolishness; the recipients (vv. 26–31), who are unworthy; and the messengers (2:1–5), who are weak. From every angle, God designed redemption to reverberate with his glory. Why does this matter? First, because it’s biblical—Scripture emphasizes it repeatedly. Second, because only as we grasp the God-centeredness of the gospel will we truly appreciate it, be humbled by it, and overflow with gratitude. And third, only as we see it’s about God and his ability to save will we proclaim it in a way that brings him glory. This passage calls us to a God-centered view of the gospel—to transform both our lives and our evangelism.
The Message of the Gospel Glorifies God (vv. 18–25)
Have you ever considered the gospel message from a purely human perspective? We proclaim that a Jewish man came to earth claiming to be the promised Messiah, was rejected and hated by his own people, and was killed on a cross—and that this is the message offering people eternal salvation. Stated that way, it sounds foolish. Why would God save the world like that? And that’s exactly what Paul says: to the unsaved, “the word of the cross is folly” (v. 18). But notice—this is by God’s own design. Verse 18 is followed by verse 19, beginning with “for”: the cross is folly to the perishing because God has said, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise.” And verse 21: “in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom.” It was God’s own wise plan that people would not come to know him by their own wisdom, so that he might be pleased to save them through faith. Why design it this way? So that the wise would have no ground to boast in their own ability. When you ask, “Why am I saved?” the gospel makes it impossible to answer, “Because I was smart enough to figure it out.” It removes every ground for boasting in our cleverness—we could never have thought of this message on our own.
The message was regarded two ways: the Jews, expecting a political Messiah to conquer their enemies, took a crucified Christ as a stumbling block; the Greeks, lovers of philosophy and wisdom, took it as foolishness. So the unsaved, left to themselves, regard it as folly. Yet we have come to see it as the power and wisdom of God. How does that transition happen? Faith plays a role—“it pleased God…to save those who believe” (v. 21)—but faith can’t be the whole answer. How does one put faith in what he regards as foolish? There must first be an internal change. And could a person simply decide to change his mind about the cross? Paul rules that out in chapter 2:14: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” The unsaved man cannot change how he regards the cross—in his fallen state, folly is all it can be to him. And even if he could simply decide to, we’d be back to boasting—“I made a wise choice.” So the answer is in verses 23–24: “we preach Christ crucified…but to those who are called…Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” What ultimately changes how we regard the cross is the call of God—an effectual, saving call to some out of both Jews and Greeks (“not many wise…were called,” v. 26). The message removes all boasting: people regard it as foolish, and it is God who must change the heart before anyone sees it as wisdom and power.
The Recipients of the Gospel Glorify God (vv. 26–31)
Paul turns from the message to those saved by it. First, God has not chosen seemingly worthy people: “not many wise…not many powerful, not many of noble birth” (v. 26). God doesn’t pick out all the smartest and richest and say, “I’ll save them,” lest people think he saves them for what they can offer him. It’s simply a fact that not many of the wise or noble are called. Why? Partly because it would seem to put the credit on man—and partly because such people are often puffed up in pride and don’t see their need; a person must be humbled before God before he can be saved. Instead, God has chosen the unworthy—“the foolish…the weak…the low and despised”—so that all the glory goes to him, and no one can imagine he contributed to his own salvation, magnifying the sheer undeservedness of grace. And the purpose is stated plainly: “so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (v. 29). Not one person here has any ground to feel an ounce of pride in being saved; we should be humbled, knowing it was all of grace. And on the flip side (vv. 30–31): “by his doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom…and righteousness and sanctification and redemption”—so that, if we boast, we “boast in the Lord.” A twofold purpose: that we not boast before him, and that our only boasting be in him.
The Messengers of the Gospel Glorify God (2:1–5)
Finally, the messengers. They must not rely on their own abilities but see themselves as weak. “I…did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom” (v. 1); “I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling” (v. 3); “my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom” (v. 4). This is the apostle Paul, used to see thousands saved—yet he didn’t rely on persuasive, crafted words to win people; he recognized his own weakness and fear. As he said in 1:17, he preached “not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” The messenger simply proclaims the crucified Christ, relying on God’s power—“I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (v. 2)—“that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (v. 5). This should give great comfort. Few of us feel confident, quick, and persuasive in sharing the gospel—and it doesn’t matter; in fact, relying on such things would diminish the message of Christ and his cross. All we’re called to do is faithfully proclaim a crucified Christ and ask God to use it. As a team, we can take confidence when we don’t see results: rather than getting discouraged and thinking we need to be more persuasive or clever, we simply proclaim the message faithfully and pray for God’s power to change hearts—and we can rejoice whether one is saved or a hundred.
To sum up: this passage is about why God designed the gospel as he did. From the message, to the recipients, to the messengers, it is God’s design to humble man, to give him no ground for boasting, and to glorify himself alone. The message is foolish, the recipients unworthy, and the messengers weak—but we know we have a powerful God who can change the hardest heart, and that is where our confidence lies. So if you are a believer, the only reason is God and his grace. That should humble us, fill us with overflowing gratitude, and—constrained by the love of Christ—move us to give our lives to proclaim this gospel to others, doing so with great confidence that God is powerful to save.