Living Stones – Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Preaching foolishness

1 Corinthians 1:21

For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

The Apostle Paul could not be serious! I have a real problem with preachers who preach foolishness. I believe that if people make the effort to get up, get dressed, and come out to a church service or other church event, the preachers have a responsibility to study diligently, prepare properly, and deliver eloquently so that people would hear and understand the word of God being preached. Anything less is disrespectful of the people and unacceptable.

Recently, a young preacher was given an opportunity to preach at a church where the main preacher is well known for challenging the hearers with erudite and scholarly presentations of the message that educate, entertain, edify, and engage. As the young preacher began to speak the congregation, including visitors, took out their notebooks and pens ready to write. The youngster didn’t deliver much by way of things that should be written down to be remembered, and while the members admired that he had started out on the road to becoming a preacher, some visitors, who don’t share the church’s development goals, looked disappointed.

Now, we have to contend with Paul’s declaration about preaching here in his first Corinthian letter in the canon of scripture. The King James Version is very direct in its rendering of the verse, “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” 1 Corinthians 1:21 (KJV). More recent renderings of this verse, like the New King James Version (NKJV) quoted above, say that “it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” 1 Corinthians 1:21 (NKJV). Emphasising that its not preaching that is foolishness but that it’s the message that is foolishness. That distinction, by itself, doesn’t help.

Before we give up on preachers and preaching let us go back to the context of Paul’s disturbing declaration. There are two elements that form the backdrop for this comment. The first is an earlier declaration by the Prophet Isaiah, “For the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, And the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.” Isaiah 29:14. The second was the reality that people who heard the message of Christ had two very different responses to it. “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.” 1 Corinthians 1:18

The thrust of Paul’s comments is that men who are focused on religious tradition, like the Jews looking for signs, and others who like the Greeks are steeped in the philosophies of the day, miss the essence of the simplicity of the Gospel message. The message of Jesus and the cross, when contrasted with the philosophies of the time, appear wanting. He is contrasting God’s wisdom, which seems simple to the point of foolishness, with the high-sounding declarations of men caught up in their own wisdom.

The Apostle put it this way, “Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:22-24

To really grasp this, we must go back to a point we started making yesterday. We are surrounded by people who have lost hope, for one reason or another. Like the intellectual whose reasoning can’t help handle the loss of a loved one; or like the abused child who can’t trust any adult; or like the battered woman who can’t seem to think that there is a way out; or like the young girl who gave in because she thought he loved her and now he’s gone and she feels spoiled; or like those in a marriage gone bust; or like the suicidal child in a broken home. All of these people want hope or want out.

It is at this point we see the power of the rhetorical questions the Apostle asked, “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” 1 Corinthians 1:20. When people are in deep and painful and sometimes hopeless valleys of life it is the word of God, it is that message that may otherwise seem like foolishness, that meets them at the very point of their need and gives them hope.

The only way to confront the age-old problem of evil, the only way to bring true comfort to the grieving, the only way to give hope to the hopeless, the only way to cope when bad things happen to good people is to go back to the message of the cross. This may seem like foolishness until you experience the comfort that reaches those who mourn through the word of God. This may seem like foolishness until you experience the suicidal child finally putting down the blades. This may seem like foolishness until you see the broken-hearted being able to love again. This may seem like foolishness until you experience a passion for life in the eyes of the wounded child.

All of this happens when we preach the message of the cross, “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” 1 Corinthians 1:25

Think on these things:

1. Are you regularly challenged by the preaching that you hear at your church?
2. Do you have confidence that the message of the cross is helpful to those looking for hope?
3. If you know someone who is in difficult circumstances can you think of how you could use the message of Christ to minister to them?

Prayer focus:

Let us pray today that our ministry would be focused on those who need hope in what seems to them like hopeless circumstances.

In His Grace

Pastor Alex