A Spiritual Service of Worship

If you would, please take your
Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, where
we find that Paul has, at this juncture, made it clear that
God is destroying man’s wisdom, and he’s doing so by way of the
exercise of his own wisdom. which the world in turn calls
foolishness. God’s wisdom was seen, as we’ve
already observed it, was seen in contrast to that of the world’s
so-called wisdom in the message of the gospel. Faith alone in
Jesus Christ alone for salvation That rebuke of the world’s wisdom
is also seen, as we observed, in the savior of that message,
that he was a weak, suffering, crucified man, not the conquering
liberator for whom the Jews hoped. Thirdly, we saw that the weakness
of God’s message is seen in those whom God has chosen for salvation,
the foolish, the weak, the base and despised. And Paul is still
here in chapter two addressing the heartbreaking division that
existed in that church. And it’s made more troubling
because it was a division that centered in part around him. There were Paulites, Apollosites,
And one of the several things that those who were not on Paul’s
bandwagon were critical about was evidently his style of preaching. Really petty when you think of
it. It seems that he didn’t fit well
the mold of the typical Greek orator. He wasn’t flashy. He wasn’t erudite. He didn’t
use a lot of big words. He didn’t utilize the many rhetorical
tools and devices and gimmicks that contemporary teachers so
often used. Paul’s style must have been very
plain. And yet, Paul argues, his ministry was, in the end,
attended by the very spirit of God. This entire chapter is a
declaration of that very truth. Over and over again, Paul deliberately
mentions the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. And in doing so, he declares
that his ministry, unlike the teaching of his contemporaries,
was a ministry that was permeated by God’s own Holy Spirit. Would you read along with me,
beginning in verse 1 of chapter 2? We’ll take it in its entirety,
all 16 verses. And when I came to you, brethren,
I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming
to you the testimony of God, for I determined to know nothing
among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with
you in weakness and in fear, and in much trembling, and my
message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom,
but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith
would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Yet we do speak wisdom among
those who are mature, a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor
of the rulers of this age who are passing away, but we speak
God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined
before the ages to our glory, the wisdom which none of the
rulers of this age has understood. For if they had understood it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But just as
it is written, things which eye has not seen and ear has not
heard and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God
has prepared for those who love him. For to us, God revealed
them through the spirit. For the spirit searches all things,
even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts
of man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so,
the thoughts of God, no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now,
we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit
who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given
to us by God, which things also we speak, not in words taught
by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining
spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does
not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
to him. And he cannot understand them
because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual
appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one.
For who has known the mind of the Lord, that we will instruct
him? But we have the mind of Christ. I want you to just ponder the
overall structure of this passage for a moment, the entirety of
the chapter, and I want you to notice this. Seven times in this
short chapter, 16 verses is all, seven times Paul identifies the
Holy Spirit. I mean, just note it. verse 10
twice, verse 11, 12, 13, and 14. And so it’s no stretch to
say that this, the Holy Spirit, is Paul’s focus in this chapter. He’s aiming to show that his
ministry was different from the teachers of the world because
his ministry was empowered by the Holy Spirit himself. And
so Paul is outlining what I’ve entitled a spiritual service
of worship, a phrase borrowed from Paul’s Romans chapter 12. And here Paul in this chapter
is providing evidences of a ministry that is permeated by the Holy
Spirit. He’s showing proof that his was
no ordinary ministry. And that this is not out of pride,
personal pride for Paul, but it’s in concert with the direction
that he’s already established. That God is making foolishness
out of the world’s so-called wisdom. And here, Paul will demonstrate the proof of such a claim. And
he provides three different pieces of wisdom for the reader’s consideration. In verses one through five, he
says that the spirit attended his ministry with spirit-empowered
words. They were powerful words. We
might say, observing it from afar, that it was the gospel
and even the gospel merely. But the spirit attended the preaching
of the gospel and it became the very power of God. In verses
six through 11, we see that Paul’s ministry was attended with a
spirit imparted wisdom. A spirit, pardon me, spirit empowered
words, a spirit imparted wisdom, and then in verses 12 through
16, spirit enlightened minds. By the world’s standards, Paul’s
preaching didn’t measure up. But in the end, Paul’s preaching
bore all the marks of God’s own endorsement of his ministry.
This morning, I want to look just at that first section. That first section, verses one
through five. In a ministry that was permeated
by the Holy Spirit, Paul’s foundational ministry there in Corinth was
also marked with three things. In verses one through five, Paul
says that it was not by elitist discourse that his ministry was
conducted. Rather, it was by the simplicity
of the Spirit of God. It was not conducted in a smug
self-confidence, verse three, but by an unmistakable humility. And thirdly, it was not with
manipulative oratory, but according to God’s marvelous power alone. Let’s begin this morning by looking
at the marks of Paul’s ministry there. Paul’s foundational ministry
there in Corinth, it was his initial ministry because that
ministry is still going on as he writes not one but two epistles
at least. But his foundational ministry
in Corinth was marked first of all by the fact that it was not
by elitist discourse, but rather by the simplicity of the gospel.
Look at verses one and two. And when I came to you, brethren,
I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming
to you the testimony of God, for I determined to know nothing
among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Paul begins
by discussing the Spirit’s ministry through him, recalling his initial
visit to Corinth. And he calls to their mind this
memory as well, but we have to observe that first little word
that connects this chapter with the previous, chapter one, that
little word and. You see what Paul’s doing is
building on the argument that he’s already laid and he’s adding
to it. Paul had already established
that God had chosen the message of the gospel. faith alone in
Jesus Christ alone for salvation, which the world saw as weak.
He had also established the savior of that message as a weak, suffering,
crucified man, not the conquering liberator for whom the Jews longed
and for who the Romans were all too ready to conquer. Not only
the message and the savior, but also those to whom this salvation
came, the foolish, the weak, the base, the despised. But in addition to all that,
with that little word and Paul ties in his own ministry and
says that his own ministry did not rise above those other elements,
the message, the Savior, those who were saved, the messenger
himself. was the same week, by his own
admission, even boring messenger. It was Paul himself. Paul says
that God is shaming the wisdom of the world with his own wisdom,
and he basically says, look at the Savior. Look at the message
of the gospel. Look at the cross. Look at yourselves,
the people saved. And finally he says, look at
me. God is shaming the world’s wisdom. These things individually
and collectively shame the world’s wisdom. Paul himself was every
bit as much a sign of the shaming weakness of the gospel as the
Savior, as the people who were saved. Why would the preacher
himself be anything greater? He says, when I came to you,
brethren, and he remembers it well, he wants them to remember
it also. Not unlike the approach that
Paul took when he addressed the Thessalonians, remember? He asked
the Thessalonians to think back to those days when he first came.
You yourselves know, brethren, that our coming to you was not
in vain. We had the boldness in our God to speak to you the
gospel of God amid much opposition. God used Paul there in Thessalonica
and he wants them to recall it. And likewise here with the Corinthians,
remember when, he says, remember when I came, he prompts them. His visit to them was not merely
social. But just as with all of the cities
where Paul was so magnificently used, the primary feature of
his presence there was to proclaim the testimony of God. This is
now the third different word that Paul has used to refer to
his articulation of the gospel. If you need to flip the page
to do so, look at verse 117. He told his readers there that
Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, not
in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not
be made void. That word, from which we get
our word apostle, means sent one, a messenger, In 123, look at that, Paul uses
a completely different word, translated probably by the same
English term, preaching. There he told the Corinthians,
we preach Christ crucified. That word just means to herald
or proclaim a message, and it’s a powerful proclamation. Sometimes
even a regional edict that was declared. But here in 2.1, Paul uses a third different word
for preaching the gospel. He says that we are proclaiming
to you the testimony of God. And this word is perhaps the
least dramatic of the three. It’s almost a matter of fact
form of articulation. It just means to announce. And that is a very important
distinction given Paul’s purpose here in this verse. Because the
success of Paul’s ministry really had nothing at all to do with
his gifted oratory, his capabilities, his shrewd ability to debate. It had nothing to do with Paul,
especially in the area of his preaching. It’s not that Paul
was such a popular speaker that if we had radio that he would
have been the most listened to preacher on the radio. And it
isn’t merely ardent memories of that fond meeting that Paul
seeks to stir. He came there not for sightseeing,
nor for a family visit, nor checking off a bucket list item, as if
he had to see Corinth before he died. He came there to preach
the gospel. That was it. And when he speaks
here of the testimony of God, he speaks of his own testimony
concerning God. What God had done in and through
the person of Jesus Christ. was a witness, nothing more. He was a witness to what God
had done and what God was doing. In essence, Paul is referring
to the good news, the gospel, what God had done for sinful
humanity by sending his son. In that final epistle that he
wrote, 2 Timothy, He said there to Timothy, to his young shepherd
friend, do not be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord or
of me, his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the
gospel according to the power of God. The testimony that Paul
gave, the testimony about which Paul speaks is the gospel, but
it was of the power of God in the gospel. Paul testified to the love of
God and to the nature of God and the character of God in his
sovereign goodness and mercy. Paul was a witness, nothing more. And he patiently, plainly, carefully,
simply, and deliberately bore witness to the truth of what
God had done and what God was doing. Fancy, flowery, elevated
rhetoric would have actually detracted from his message. It would not have enhanced it. But as a noble purpose, as noble
as the purpose was for Paul in visiting Corinth, he acknowledges
that there were two very significant things that were lacking. Glance at the first one. He says,
I did not come with superiority of speech and then secondly,
or of wisdom. I didn’t bring those. We’ve already
dealt much with the prevailing ideas about wisdom, wisdom of
these days. The Greeks only wanted to dialogue
about life’s great questions. They wanted to philosophize without
ever landing on a particular position. It was all fluff and
polish and talk. creative and entertaining oratory
and nothing more. It was immediately evident that
this was not Paul’s approach. Paul wasn’t about to offer up
flowery speech to soothe the consciences of his hearers. Paul came bearing the truth. And Paul’s aim was the heart,
not the ear. He was not the polished, flowery, passion-filled orator
of the day. The superiority of speech here,
logos, refers to the rhetorical skills that were so prevalent
among the Greeks of Paul’s day. Paul would take a different style
of communication. The wisdom, sophia, refers to
the philosophical ideas that the Greeks bandied about. Neither
would that be Paul’s message communicated. Paul says that
neither of these, whether oratory or philosophy, were the means
that he used to communicate Christ. Nothing elaborate, nothing fancy. He says, not excellence of speech,
as the older translations have it, Not lofty speech as the ESV
says it, not brilliance of speech as the Holman has it. His speech
was plain, even dull by men’s standards. By this word superiority here,
Paul alludes to the tendency of that men have to rank the
available speakers. at least in their minds, both
the speakers and the hearers feed into this practice. Speakers end up seeking preeminence
because hearers bestow preeminence. It wasn’t Paul’s goal, however,
to become the chief orator of Corinth or to win some regional
preaching contest. The people of that day even had
a phrase for this practice in which they engaged. They called
it Corinthia Verba. Elegant, pleasant oratory to
hear. That didn’t change the heart.
That wasn’t Paul’s purpose at all. And so he didn’t come armed
and prepared for a contest. He proclaimed what his God-given
message was in its purity and its simplicity. But why, you
wonder, why wouldn’t Paul play along? Why wouldn’t Paul give
the people that for which they longed? Why wouldn’t Paul flower
it up? Why wouldn’t he enhance his ministry
in that way? It wasn’t accidental. Look at
the verse, he says here that he had long since determined,
verse two, he determined that his approach was going to be
different. That verse there basically ends up being the explanation
of all that he says in verse one. With that word for, he’s
giving us the reason why he didn’t come with superiority of speech.
This particular word indicates, this word determination, that
he actually thought about it. Should I maybe rework my outline?
He thought about it, he pondered the options, maybe observed what
was going on in the Corinthian culture there locally. He thought
about it, he pondered the options, and he made a deliberate determination
to take a different approach. This is the positive accompaniment
of the negative statement that is made in verse one. Not that,
but this. He made a personal resolution
to take a particular course of ministry. He wasn’t going to
wallow in the unfruitful wisdom of the day or the vehicle of
that wisdom, the flowery rhetoric by which it was delivered. He
didn’t bother learning or concentrating on any of that. If anything,
he put all of the world’s learning aside rather than trying to somehow
integrate it into what God had called him to do. For Paul, he
purposed to focus on the one message of God, Jesus Christ
and him crucified. Paul reduced the extent of his
message to Christ alone, and not merely to Jesus Christ in
general as the subject matter, but to Christ crucified, that
which was at the very heart of the gospel. Paul didn’t focus
on Jesus as a great teacher, although that was true of him.
He didn’t focus on Christ as a godly or moral example, though
that was true of him as well. Nor did he even focus on Jesus
Christ glorified, although that was absolutely true. The focus
of Paul’s preaching was the suffering servant of Isaiah 53, the crucified
Savior, the one who had died for the sin of the world. That
was his focus. That doesn’t imply that this was the totality of
Paul’s message, that the cross was the only thing that Paul
ever talked about, but it was the focus. He wasn’t ashamed
of it. It’s just that Paul was not ashamed
of the reality of a crucified Christ. It was part of God’s
message that shamed the world’s wisdom. And it’s not that Paul
did not know or esteem a glorified Christ, but according to God’s
design, Paul was to herald the humiliation of Christ as a means
of shaming the world’s wisdom. And as a result, his message
ended up being a declaration of God’s love for mankind. This
was Paul’s great announcement to the Romans, remember? that
God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. That’s the same testimony
recorded in John’s gospel. Chapter three, God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in
him shall not perish but have eternal life. The same declaration
given in the first epistle of John 4.9, by this the love of
God was manifested to us that God sent his only begotten son
into the world that we might live through him. That is infinitely wise, to preach
the message that God had given you to preach. The love of God by sending Christ
to die on the cross. Paul was in on God’s plan that
God was shaming the world’s foolishness in calling sinners to humility
and to repentance from sin that he had forsaken the presumed
strengths of the world and opted instead for weak and despised
things. Friends, we don’t have to be
polished speakers. in order to communicate the gospel
to our friends and neighbors. We need only to open our mouths
and to tell them about God’s love for the world in sending
his son to pay for sin. In Jesus Christ, there is forgiveness
and reconciliation with God. A person doesn’t have to be a
world-class orator to do that. Paul’s ministry was an example
of simplicity, not elite speech making. It was the simplicity
of the gospel message clearly and faithfully articulated in
the ears of sinners. That was it. One engaging question that I’ve
used and recommended is this. When you interact with someone,
just say, do you have a place of worship? They can’t not answer
it. No matter what they say, it will
be an answer to that question. And once they give their answer,
you’re in. It’s not a hard sell method for
Providence Bible Church. I’d rather have them saved and
go somewhere else than to be unsaved and come here. It’s a
sure entry into a discussion about spiritual things. because
it presumes that there is a God. It presumes that there is a God
who deserves and expects to be worshiped by every person, including
the individual with whom you’re talking. Do you have a place
of worship? How much more simple could that
approach get? And as soon as they begin to
answer, you’re in a dialogue. And so Paul’s first argument
here of a ministry that was permeated by the Holy Spirit is that his
ministry there in Corinth was marked not by this elitist discourse,
but with the simplicity of the gospel. But there’s more. Look
at verse 3. Not only did Paul not come with
this elitist discourse, he didn’t come in smug self-confidence. But instead he came with an unmistakable
humility. Look at verse three. I was with
you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. He’s reminded
the Corinthians already of his visit to their cosmopolitan city. He’s already reminded them of
his ministry practice, that it was unique and even direct contrast
to the popular methods of the day. But there was something
else that set Paul apart from the other influential people
in that city. It was his demeanor. His demeanor
was different. Most of the teachers with whom
Paul would be compared were super confident, even arrogant. Their pride was their calling
card. That is what opened doors for
them. That’s what established them as somewhat credible. That’s
what created an appetite for what they had to say. Doesn’t
even the business world promote this assurance, bold confidence
in a job applicant. That’s what you want. from the
first firm handshake to the glowing resume to the sure belief in
an individual’s training and abilities and accomplishments. And they tell you as well to
dress for success, poise, assurance, confidence. That’s what the world
tells us. Have a diploma from a solid institution,
a good GPA, all of it. Paul had none of it. Although those are the things
for which the world looks, Paul came with none of it. Not only
was he not eloquent, he was literally battered and bruised at this
juncture. He had just come to Corinth from
Athens where, although he saw a few people converted to Christ,
he was generally disappointed in the reception. Looking back
over his shoulder, his time at Thessalonica had been downright
tumultuous, a riot which ran him out of town. He was only
there for three weeks until his detractors took action. That
followed on the heels of his time in Philippi, where he was
not only beaten, but imprisoned. And now he waits nervously at
Corinth for whatever news Timothy and Silvanus might bring. Just
a few years before this, in the midst of his first missionary
journey, he had been dragged out of Pisidian Antioch and stoned
to the point where everybody around him believed he was dead.
Those episodes are hardly the matter of success. Those are
hardly the things that breed confidence. in one’s ability
to go into a new city and preach the gospel. But Paul didn’t need
it. He was content, as he says here
in verse three, with weakness, fear, and much trembling. That’s
who he was. That’s how he operated. Paul’s
confidence was not in himself. Paul’s confidence was not in
his accomplishments or his achievements, and so neither were his failures
in any way able to detract from his confidence. Paul’s confidence
in God was independent of all of that. Paul’s demeanor was
the very antithesis of self-confidence. Paul’s prevailing attitude was
more out of distrust for himself He was plagued with anxious thoughts. He knew himself to be utterly
unworthy of so grand a calling. And then we add to that, add
to all that backdrop, a consideration of Paul’s physical infirmities.
He speaks of a thorn in the flesh at the end of 2 Corinthians. When he wrote to the Galatians
initially, he alluded to, and very vaguely, to a bodily illness. He doesn’t elaborate on it, but
it was something so significant that it relocated and dropped
him in providentially to the region of Galatia. He had to
stay put. When Paul writes back to the
Corinthians in 2 Corinthians, he details those physical trials. In 1010, he speaks of his physical
presence as unimpressive. He wasn’t much to look at, a
puny guy. In 1130, he speaks of an unidentified
physical weakness. And in 1207, he gives this cryptic
description of that physical weakness, that it was purposeful. God gave this to him. He says
that God gave it to him to keep me from exalting myself. There
was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment
me, to keep me from exalting myself. But he was weak. You might remember from our preliminary
study in Acts 18 that God had to actually calm Paul’s heart
so that he could have ministry in Corinth. And he said to him
in Acts 18.9, do not be afraid any longer, which can only mean
that Paul had been fearful up to that point. Here in chapter two, rather than
detailing any specifics, he points really to the results. What was
the end result? Weakness, fear, and trembling. His weakness need not be understood
exclusively of those physical weaknesses. After all, he was
in a constant spiritual battle and he was, after all, only human. He was a mere man. He certainly
must have known that he was not the foremost preacher of his
day. And on top of all of that, there
was the loneliness that is endemic to ministry. Paul knew weakness. But the progression of these
descriptives here, weakness and fear and trembling, the progression
is that this weakness led only to fear and the fear produced
the physical effect of trembling. Fear and trembling is a familiar
phrase for Paul. It wasn’t so much fear and trembling
for fear of man, But it’s an inward emotion that bubbles to
the surface with physical effects. He uses it in second Corinthians
in regard to the Corinthians reception of Titus, that it was
to be in fear and trembling. He used it to speak to the Ephesians,
and he used it there to urge slaves in their response to their
master, that it should be with fear and trembling. And to the
Philippians, he admonishes them with regard to working out their
salvation with fear and trembling. In all of these occasions, the
fear and trembling is done before God, not men. What one described this demeanor
as an anxious solicitude that feels it can never do enough.
That’s Paul. Anxious that he could never do
enough. Anxious that the gospel won’t take root. Paul wasn’t
ashamed of the gospel, nor was he fearful of men. His fear and
trembling stem from his desire to see the gospel flourish, and
his solemn desire was to not hinder it in any way. Paul knew
in himself that he didn’t have the means to conquer the world. And the sheer enormity of the
task, coupled with his own personal limitations, led to fear and
trembling before God. And so you say. Maybe you’re not the most. Outgoing,
outspoken person that you know, you’re shy. Maybe you’re just
afraid of engaging somebody in a spiritual conversation. Maybe you’re not confident, not
confident enough in your Bible knowledge. Maybe you’re afraid
that someone is going to ask you a question that you can’t
answer. If any of those or all of those things are true of you,
maybe, just maybe, God has you right where he wants you in order
to use you. that instead of self-confidence
and self-assertiveness, the Lord desires to use those who are
humble and meek. God desires to use you. So Paul’s ministry to the Corinthians
was not marked by elitist discourse, but by the simplicity of the
gospel. It was not marked with self smug self-confidence, but
by an unmistakable humility. But there’s a third mark of Paul’s
ministry there. A ministry permeated by the Holy
Spirit. Thirdly, it was not by manipulative
oratory. but by God’s marvelous power. Look at verses four and five,
where Paul says in my message and my preaching, we’re not in
persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit
and of power so that your faith would not rest in the wisdom
of men, but on the power of God. As part of the memory of his
initial ministry among the Corinthians, Paul seeks to elicit not only
a memory that he came humbly and preaching the pure gospel
when he did come, but also that he did not stoop to manipulative
tactics in his preaching. He names them here persuasive
words of wisdom. The world would tell us that
we need to employ hard sell strategies in order to convert people. That
we need to have an answer for every possible objection. That
we need to stir basic human emotions and then milk them for all they’re
worth. There was an example in our American
history of a man who did just that, a preacher by the name
of Charles Finney. He bought into this whole idea
of persuasive words of wisdom. He was a captivating, engaging
guy and a gifted speaker, very capable. Finney’s popularity
began to skyrocket almost immediately And eventually that unbalanced
view of himself and his role in God’s economy began to take
a toll. The young evangelist who was
so full of new theological views and opinions, new ideas, new
methods of ministry, he began to make quite a commotion in
the church. In short, his theological views
are what produced new methods, which in turn led to an entirely
new understanding of the Christian ministry. It soon became clear
that Finney did not believe in the doctrine of original sin.
He believed that the only thing that stood between a sinner and
their conversion was the human will. That basically an individual
could even choose when and whether to be regenerated. And so, as a preacher, he believed
that he must make an all-out effort to impact the will of
his hearers in order to get them to make a decision. And to Finney, anything was fair
game in order to make that happen. All manner of novel approaches
and maneuvers began to be employed, including what we now know as
the altar call. So in the end, Finney’s legacy
is really one of the greatest negative impacts on the Christian
ministry that was ever inserted by a man. Paul has already
given plenty of indication that he did not employ the world’s
methods. He didn’t. If you need to flip
the page, do so. Look at 1 Corinthians 1 17. For
Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not
in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not
be made void. Paul didn’t want to be in the
way. Look at chapter two, verse one,
which first is formed the beginning of our study. When I came to
you, brethren, I did not come to you with superiority of speech
or of wisdom. And so this argument, the statement
in verse four is really a summary statement. My message and my
preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom. God, Paul knew. as the creator of every human
soul, was perfectly capable of converting even the most hardened
sinner without any tricks, without any gimmicks. He differentiates
between his message and his preaching here. His message is just more
generally the overall subject matter of the gospel. By preaching,
it’s the actual articulation of that message. But Paul knew
that salvation by means of the preaching of the gospel was ultimately
bound up. And determined by the sovereign
will of God, and so he knew that no amount of cajoling or needling
or exploitation could ever usurp God’s plan and power. Paul’s
duty was simply to preach, not to convert. Isn’t that liberating? Conversion was and is God’s prerogative. And so instead, Paul preached
and the Spirit demonstrated his almighty power, the passage says. And by power there, the word
is used in many different ways and many different contexts,
but here it isn’t talking about mighty miracles. but rather the
dramatic conversion of souls. You see, because the greatest
demonstration of God’s power is not some fantastic show of
divine force against the powers of nature. That’s what we tend
to think of when we think of a miracle. The sun standing still,
a great flood, a pillar of fire. The greatest demonstration of
the Spirit’s power is the exercise of that power to save and give
new life to a sinner. We sometimes forget that the
salvation of each and every soul is a miracle of God. While some believers might be
quick to forget, Paul never could. Not the one who had been so dramatically
converted himself, After all, Jesus himself had told his apostles
to expect such miracles, that they would be a regular feature
of their ministry. In John’s gospel, Christ told
them of the miraculous ministry of the Holy Spirit, that when
he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness
and judgment. That is miraculous work. And
Paul saw similar miracles in those who came to faith in Christ
when he preached. Paul acknowledged such among
the Thessalonians when he wrote that our gospel did not come
to you in word only, but in power and in the Holy Spirit and in
full conviction, 1 Thessalonians 1.5. It was a miracle whenever someone
would get saved. So why would Paul condescend
to using his own human devices? Why would he want to bring in
the world’s tricks? Paul closes this section with
a solemn assurance that the whole purpose of the exercise of the
Spirit’s miraculous soul-saving power is to ground the believer
in faith in Almighty God. Look at what he says in verse
five, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men,
but on the power of God. Paul’s point is that experiencing
God’s great and transforming power in their own lives gives
believers confidence. It’s faith in God himself, not
in some popular theory, not in some polished speaker, but in
the life-changing power of God. Paul can say this because this
was his own life experience. His personal faith was established
forever when Christ met him on the road to Damascus. And immediately
for Paul, faith was a forever thing. This is what he attributed
to when he spoke to young Timothy in that final epistle. There
in chapter one of second Timothy, Paul said, for this reason I
suffer these things, but I am not ashamed for I know whom I
have believed. And I’m convinced that he is
able to guard what I’ve entrusted to him until that day. Paul’s experience was one of
God’s saving power that grounded his faith in God forever. One
faithful preacher of a bygone day put it this way. While faith
rests upon nothing stronger than the eloquence of a preacher or
the attractiveness of a system of thought, other teachers and
other systems may draw us away. Did you hear what he said? If
all that your faith rests in is the particular oratory of
a particular preacher or In the system that an individual promotes,
you can always be drawn away by something more fantastic.
But he closes with this. It is when we have felt the power
of God at work that we can doubt no longer. When we can acknowledge
God has done a work in me. We have seen the spirits power. The Corinthians knew who they
were, past tense, who they had been. They knew that their hearts
had been turned. They knew that they were not
in themselves inclined to God until God came into their lives. In fact, they loved their sin. But suddenly, even beyond their
perception, God’s spirit began to move in them. And with the
hearing of the word, even some small portion of the word, God
began to bring them and us to conviction, didn’t he? Until
such was like a mighty flood pouring over us, even as Jesus
told Nicodemus, the wind blows where it wishes. And as such, we found ourselves
in time converted. Born again. Friends, we don’t have to twist
any arms. We don’t have to hold anyone
down when we preach the gospel to them. We don’t have to convince
anyone or convert anyone or save anyone. That’s the Holy Spirit’s
work. All we have to do is tell them
the good news, that God sent his son to make payment for sin,
that faith alone in Christ alone will save them. In the end, a
sinner’s conversion will never be because of the awesome ability
that you bring to the equation because of your excellent method
or because of some skillful debate. It will always and only be because
of the awesome power of God alone. as manifested by the Holy Spirit
working in their life. And the most powerful evangelistic
tool that you will ever have is your own testimony. It’s the story of God’s marvelous
power as you have experienced it in your own life. Would you humble yourself before
him in prayer? Oh, merciful God, we thank you
for this section of scripture and we thank you for Paul’s example
even here. It’s an example to us. It’s a
roadmap, if you will. For how we can share our faith. That we can come with the simplicity
of the gospel and we don’t need some 50 cent words and great
big long terms and many seasons of training. We just need to
share the pure and simple gospel of Christ. Lord, we come. As you have made us to be humble
as you work to make us humble. We come in that humility when
we share we don’t come. In any kind of self confidence.
We acknowledge that we did not save ourselves. And we can certainly
not save anyone else. Father, we come knowing firsthand
of your marvelous power. Because of that, we don’t need
to descend astute to some employment of worldly methods and trying
to trick people into a quick and easy response. We preach,
we share, and we pray. May the Holy Spirit save souls. We pray this in Jesus’ name,
amen.