Power Struggle
Christ at the Crossroads of Conflict & Community • Sermon • Submitted
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Christ at the Cross Roads
We’re going to be looking at what it means to follow Jesus Christ as we study the letter to the church at Corinth that challenged them on how they had developed a culturally captive Christianity based on things that they were believing about God, others, and themselves that weren’t based on Truth. The letter is filled with encouragements and challenges, and throughout the series we may say things that challenge you…it may stir up strong emotions in you. I want to ask you to stay with us through the possible conflict and to lean into it by talking with one of the Pastors or Elders if there is something that comes up that needs more conversation or context…we are here to grow together. Don’t just disconnect during that message…jot it down and grab someone afterwards or set up a time to talk & pray together to make sure that we’re really hearing each other.
Conflict & Community
I. - Caught between two sides that are each trying to prove that they’re right?
Who is the GOAT of Basketball? Tennis? Football? MMA? Etc.
Best soccer team...
Often have groups of people who are believing certain things and ignoring evidence that doesn’t support their side…maybe things have changed and new discoveries made…or maybe they’re so post-modern that the player’s statistics don’t matter in the argument about who is the GOAT...
People will argue and be divided over things without truly hearing each other:
GMO vs Organic...Pro-Life VS Pro-Choice/Anti-Abortion VS Pro-Abortion…even the words that they use to speak of their adversaries can be divisive…Tolerant VS Intolerant (because they don’t tolerate the same things that the other ones do)...Democrat, Republican, Independent (Anti-Vax, Pro-Vax, Pan-Vax)
Lots of things to argue and take sides on...
Power Struggle
II. -
The same thing can happen in relationships where people are focused on proving that they are right, winning an argument, or doing what’s necessary to end up being the ones with power, position, or privilege at the expense of others.
This can happen in our personal relationships or even within the church, there can be power struggles…who is more spiritual? (sprinkled or dunked?) Who is more orthodox (predestination vs free-will)? Who is more anointed (tongues or prophecy)? Who is more powerful (deacon, elder, pastor, apostle, bishop)?
Paul was writing to a church that was actually believing and acting in ways that looked more like their cultural context than what they had received about Jesus…they were divided and were competing for power and to be proven right in various ways.
They were trying to “be right” because they believed right or had done right…were part of the better team (Peter, Paul, Apollos, etc.)…and yet, the condition of what they had going on was not the type of Community of Christ Followers that Jesus had in mind.
III. -
1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5
1 Corinthians 1:18–2:5 (NIV)
18 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. 19 For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
1 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
18 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. 19 For it is written:
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
Wisdom of the Wise & Intelligence of the Intelligent
+ There are things that are part of the common knowledge…that aren’t exactly true...
A watched pot never boils...
The customer is always right...
There are no stupid questions...
+ There are things that have been believed that seemed like scientific truth at the time, but that were later discovered to be incomplete or completely false:
The earth is at the center of everything...
The earth is flat...
Drain some bad blood if you’re feeling sick...
Hair is an essential part of procreation...
Spontaneous Generation…that life could develop out of nothing as long as there was heat...embraced from the time of Aristotle until disproven in the 19th Century by Louis Pasteur.
Or some more contemporary examples of the last 200 years:
Nothing exploded into everything...
Humans use only 10% of their brain
Eating Fat is bad for you…or salt…or artificial sweeteners are good for you...
Humans descended from apes...
Sociologically:
You can determine intelligence and sociopathic tendencies based on the shape of ones skull...
Eugenics…justifiable to eliminate those considered to be of weaker races or abilities (Hitler...Margaret Sanger, Eugenicist and founder of Planned Parenthood and activist that pushed for birth control and Abortion access for those deemed unfit for reproduction was a Eugenicist and strategically located near historically black areas).
Philosophically:
A leopard cannot change it’s spots… (denies the ability to grow and learn…deterministic/fixed mindset)
Everyone is entitled to their own truth...
Love is love…what they really mean is that sex is sex…because there are actually multiple words for love and they don’t mean the same thing.
Right along with that mindset: Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free...
Be true to yourself...Follow your heart...
Only God can judge me...
Personally:
Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me...
Time heals all wounds...
There were things that the Church at Corinth was believing that were wrong…fundamental assumptions about how things work in the world and therefore how they should work in the church!
+ Paul is saying that it’s NOT that way in Christ...
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God
+ You ultimately have to decide who you’re going to trust as the Authority on the topic: The government, the experts, the Bible, or yourself…most of us end up actually trusting ourselves…which statistically doesn’t turn out great. We’re about as likely to be right in our guy responses as we are to be wrong.
+ Christ is the Wisdom of God...
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
Not Measured by Human Standards
+ Knowledge is power…nobility…heritage…physical strength…money…power
+ God didn’t come that way…He brings Righteousness, Holiness, and Redemption in an Unexpected way…Mercy and Grace…so that there’s no boasting and showing of rank.
And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
+ Christ Crucified is not human wisdom or intelligence...
+ If Jesus the Messiah had not come no one would have made Him up!
+ There is wisdom from God and there is power from God…that’s the message…that’s what gives us security and significance…gives us direction for life.
What do you trust in? What do you lean on for security and significance?
+ Where do you get your rightness? Your security and significance? Your acceptance?
We have all been invited to find our power and purpose in the promises of God’s word, and the confirmation of the presence and power of God’s Spirit working in us and through us to will and to do according to His good pleasure...
Not human standards, knowledge or wisdom that give power…but embracing the mercy and grace of God and inviting Him to transform us from the inside out in ways that could only be accomplished by His great power at work within us…and through us using the weak things of the world to confound the wisdom of the world around us.
Invitation:
+ Receive what Christ has done for you...
Challenge:
+ Reject lies that you have believed about yourself, about the world, or about God AND Believe the Truth about Jesus…put your trust in God as the ultimate Power