Sermon Tone Analysis

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson went on a camping trip.

As they lay down for the night, the fire dwindling nearby, Holmes said: "Watson, look up and tell me what you see".

Watson said "I see a fantastic panorama of countless of stars".

Holmes: "And what does that tell you?"

Watson: "Astronomically, it suggests to me that if there are billions of other galaxies that have roughly similar stellar population densities as represented by my view, that, potentially, trillions of planets may be associated with such a galactic and, therefore, stellar population.

Allowing for similar chemical distribution throughout the cosmos it may be reasonably implied that life-and possibly intelligent life-may well fill the universe.

Also, being a believer, theologically, it tells me that the vastness of space may be yet another suggestion of the greatness of God and that we are small and insignificant.

Meteorologically, the blackness of the sky and the crispness of the stellar images tells me that there is low humidity and stable air and therefore we are most likely to enjoy a beautiful day tomorrow.

Why? - What does it tell you, Mr. Holmes?"

Holmes: "Someone stole our tent".

We often miss the obvious and the obvious teaching of this passage is God will have nothing to do with human pride and arrogance.

We get pride and self-sufficiency out of our status, our money, our toys.

We are funny people like that.

Somehow what we wear or what we own or who we know makes us important and gives us a feeling of self sufficiency.

The Corinthian disciples were beginning to get a feeling of pride and self sufficiency from human standards and Paul does not mince words at all.

He says, do not boast in mere men, boast only in the Lord who graciously called you and gave you Jesus Christ!

If it was not for him, you would have and be nothing.

The emphasis placed on pride, and its opposite humility, is a distinctive feature of biblical religion.

Rebellious pride, which refuses to depend on God and be subject to him, but attributes to self the honour due to God alone, figures as the very root and essence of sin.

Pride was first revealed when Lucifer attempted to set his throne on high in proud independence of God (ISA.

14:12-14).

Adam and Eve in pride sought to be like gods with the result that man’s entire nature was infected with pride through the fall.

Pride was the undoing of Satan and of all humanity!

Pride continues to be the prime means by which we rebel against God.

Hence we find constant condemnation of human arrogance in the Scriptures.

In Proverbs 8:13 it says, “To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.

Proverbs 16:18 says, “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Psalm 10:4 attributes pride to atheism, “In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.” Pride is the downfall of King Nebechadnezzarer of Babylon when he dares to utter, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?”

God is said to scatter the proud and we learn from this passage of Scripture how God does that, through the message of the cross and through choosing the foolish things and weak things and the lowly and despised things.

Pride is eradicated and crushed in the person of Jesus Christ.

There is no room for human boasting in the cross.

In the message of the cross there is only boasting in God who displayed his wisdom in the perfect work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In the message of the cross and in his choosing of us, God has taken those things we humans like most to brag about and made them nothing.

How true it is God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

The cure for such pride is to consider your calling and your Savior!

Boast in God!

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*I.

Consider Your Calling*

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Paul tells the Corinthian disciples to “think” or “consider” what they were when they were called.

This is the fourth time we have encountered this word, once in verse one (called to be an apostle), once in verse 2 (called to be holy), once in verse 9 (called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord), and once in verse 24 (to those whom God has called).

Here, just as in every other instance, it refers to God’s act of calling people to salvation.

“It is shorthand for God’s act of calling them purely on the basis of grace, without regard o their moral worthiness or their status as gauged by human standards.

In choosing them, God overlooked their lack of spiritual merit and flouted [defied, ignored] all worldly measures of human worth” (Garland, 73).

The church is composed of called out ones.

God has called us out of our sinfulness into the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ and hence we have been enriched in every way.

What Paul tells them to consider about this calling of God to salvation is “what they were.”

It says “not many” not “not any” of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.

The wise are the learned, clever, and experienced.

The influential are those whose wealth gives them social and political levers of power.

Those of noble birth are the well born who have a proud lineage and belong to the wealthy ruling class.

/So the first thing I want to point out about this calling of God is it disregards earthly status.

The Corinthians church needed to be reminded of this precious truth.

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Consider the society and culture of the city of Corinth.

Garland says, “Unless something quite exceptional happened to an individual, persons living in this era did not rise up the social ladder but remained within the confines of the social class in which they were born.

Prestige belonged only to those of noble parentage.

All the terms Paul uses here overlap and refer to the privileged elite as opposed to the plebeians” (Garland, 73, 74).

Murphy-O’Connor puts it this way, “They [that is the wise, influential, and of noble birth] run the economy.

They set the standards.

They determine who succeeds and who fails” (10).

Beacham observes, “Rome was a highly stratified and therefore immensely self-conscious society characterized by complex systems for defining, signifying, and acknowledging status” (34).

This is a society where money and status were worshipped as goddesses.

Many are caught into this vicious cycle of constantly clamoring for prestige and honor through the right friends, having a lot of money, and saving face.

The citizens of Corinth are obsessed with exalting themselves and trying to leapfrog over others to attain honor and prominence (Garland, 75).

We are not to imagine that none of this infiltrated the church in Corinth.

The Corinthians put a great deal of emphasis on status also and Paul is quick to remind the disciples of their calling.

Not many of you were, by human standards, anything special and now that you profess faith in the foolishness of the cross, what little status you may have had, is gone by worldly standards!

Additionally, if Scripture teaches anything it is that we are all equal and one in Jesus Christ.

It is important here to notice the phrase “by human standards.”

Paul is laboring to get the Corinthians to have the right perspective – God’s perspective.

They are guilty of judging things by human standards and such standards have no place in the kingdom of God’s church.

Human standards are that which foster boasting and self-reliance, self reliance and boasting is ungodly and absolutely opposed to the gospel.

Consider this fact, Paul says, when God called you, not many of you were the cream of the crop!

Paul is pointing out that being wise or influential or well born cannot possibly be a criterion of being a Christian or being spiritual.

God’s grace can reach anyone.

But being well regarded in the surrounding pagan society is in no sense an advantage.

If God accepted people on such grounds, he would compromise himself.

He would be a snob, the kind that is impressed by superficial advantages.

God is not impressed with human standards.

Gordon Fee paraphrases it this way, “Look at what was involved in the fact of /your /being called by God; who you were when he called you.

His point in getting them so to consider themselves is that in calling out a people for his name God showed no regard for their present values – worldly wisdom or merit.

Indeed, in calling them he chiefly chose those who are a living contradiction to those values” (Fee, 79).

When Paul proclaimed the message of the cross, it did not attract the wise and powerful.

They certainly are not excluded, but most tend to exclude themselves by rejecting the wisdom of the cross as foolishness.

This is a truth all too relevant for us today!

We put a lot of emphasis on status.

It is very important to us.

We want people to see by how we dress, or walk or talk or by what we drive or own that we are desirable.

We confer great status on those with education from superior schools, with those who have certain jobs, and with those who have a lot of money and power.

We want the honor and prestige that comes with status.

We want people to say that we are socially acceptable.

Very true is the statement –

 The trouble is that too many people \\ Are spending money \\ They haven't yet earned \\ For things they don't need \\ To impress people they don't like.

Those whom James wrote to were guilty of this greed for status and were showing favoritism.

It says in James 2:1-5 My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

5 Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?

God is not impressed with human standards and success nor should we.

/The second thing I want to point out about this calling of God is its purpose.

God chose to do it this way to “shame the wise” to “shame the strong” to “nullify the things that are” so that “no one may boast before him.”

/

 

Instead of taking advantage of what the world esteems as wise, strong, and significant and exalting it, God took the foolish, the weak, and the lowly and despised things and exalted them.

What madness and folly to the world!

“God chose the foolish because the wise thought the cross was sheer folly as a means for saving the world, the weak because the strong thought they were powerful enough without God, and the low and despised because the high and mighty did not care to debase themselves by attaching themselves to a crucified Messiah.