Tag: foolishness

OFFENSIVE FOOLISHNESS: CHRISTMAS 2023

On By Pastor TomIn Christmas, Podcast, Religion, Sermon1 Comment

The heart of the Christian message has always been foolish and offensive. God enters the world as a baby? The victorious messiah conquers by being tortured to death? It sounds nuts. But there is a deeper wisdom here, a strength that is beyond comprehension. For those who receive it, the benefits are beyond comparison.

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CHRISTMAS 2023. MATTHEW 2:1-20. LUKE 2:34-35. 1 CORINTHIANS 1:18-31.

At Christmas time we like to have warm cozy feelings about stars and mangers and babies. And those feelings have their place. Childbirth is a natural time for tender feelings. I believe the power of our feelings at Christmas is an echo of the incredible power of the moment when God took on human flesh. But sometimes, we use those warm cozy thoughts to affirm our own self-oriented ways. Christmas becomes a moment each year when we feel good and peaceful, regardless of the state of our souls.

I’m all for feeling good and peaceful, but let’s feel that way for the right reasons. If they are true Biblical reasons, we can feel peaceful at any time of year, not just Christmas. If they are the wrong reasons, it will be a false, deceptive peace. The angels declared “Peace on earth,” to the shepherds. but it wasn’t a general peace. It was peace specifically among those with whom God is pleased. In other words, peace among those who have received the Messiah as the Lord.

The fact is that baby entering the world helplessly was the opening salvo of a tremendous spiritual battle. Responding with “Aww, how sweet,” is not really an option Jesus gives us. Simeon puts his finger on the heart of the matter: We stand or fall based upon how we react to him.

When we look at the whole Christmas story, told between both Matthew and Luke, we get a snapshot of how different people responded to God’s unfathomable appearance as a baby born in poverty and humility. We have Mary, Elizabeth and Zachariah, Joseph, Simeon and Anna. We also have Herod, the leaders in Jerusalem, the Magi, and the shepherds. I want to look at how some of them responded to Jesus, and then think about our own response to him.

Even before he was born, Jesus shattered and reoriented the lives of the people around him. It is virtually certain that almost no one believed Mary when she claimed to still be a virgin. By accepting Jesus into her body and her life, Mary lost the respect of her entire town, and probably also many friendships.

Joseph also lost the respect of the town. He had to give up his business in Nazareth, and later, he and his family had to flee for their lives.

When he was eight days old, Joseph and Mary took Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem, which was about five miles away from Bethlehem. While they were there, they encountered an old man named Simeon. The Holy Spirit revealed to Simeon that the little baby was the promised messiah. Simeon praised God, and then:

34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, “This child is the reason that many people in Israel will be condemned and many others will be saved. He will be a sign that will expose 35 the thoughts of those who reject him. And a sword will pierce your heart.” (Luke 2:34-35, GW)

Simeon didn’t see only a sweet little baby. He saw in Jesus the crossroads of life. He understood prophetically that the way people chose to respond to Jesus would become the most important thing.

When Jesus himself grew up, he made it clear, over and over again, that he agreed with Simeon. He plainly thought the fate of every human being would be determined by how they responded to him.

32 So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

MATTHEW 10:32-39, ESV

Listen to him. He’s saying: “You must love me more than anyone else in the world. You must be ready to choose me over even your own family. You must be ready to die for my sake.” These aren’t the words of a mellow “everyone get along” type of spiritual guru. This is someone who clearly believes that he stands in the place of God. He might be a egomaniac, or he might be God in the flesh, but he doesn’t leave us the option of seeing him as some sort of metaphor of love, or the goodness of all mankind. We must either condemn him as a dangerous sociopath, or worship him as God.

The point I’m getting at here is that even when he was a baby, people were forced to make that choice. From his very conception, he was the reason people were either saved or condemned. The way others responded to him exposed their inward state of mind. Hundreds of years before the day of Jesus’ birth, the prophet Isaiah spoke about the coming messiah:

12 Do not call everything a conspiracy that these people say is a conspiracy.
Do not fear what they fear; do not be terrified.
13 You are to regard only the LORD of Armies as holy. Only he should be feared; only he should be held in awe.
14 He will be a sanctuary;
but for the two houses of Israel, he will be a stone to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 Many will stumble over these; they will fall and be broken; they will be snared and captured. (Isaiah 8:12-15, CSB)

He will be a sanctuary to those who receive him. The center of joy and peace. But he will also be “a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,” who rejected him. We find that this is quite literally true not only when Jesus was grown, but even when he was first born. Herod, king in Jerusalem, heard of this child in the most unsettling way possible. Magi came from a far country, seeking to worship a recently-born king. Matthew 2:3 says: “When King Herod and all Jerusalem heard about this, they became disturbed.” Herod and his cronies saw this only as a threat to his own power (a conspiracy?), and to the future of his dynasty. The innocent child, simply by being who he was, provoked Herod to immediate contempt, fear and hatred. Herod’s malice failed to eliminate the threat. Instead, he perpetrated a horrible atrocity to no purpose.

Herod fell in relationship to this Baby. When the Baby had grown into a child, Herod died. Even those who eventually succeeded in killing the messiah are long dead, while the messiah himself lives.

These days, we think humility is good. We think it’s cool that lowly shepherds were given the good news while princes were ignored. We think it’s wonderful that in the birth of the messiah, God honored the poor, while leaving the rich to their own devices. But we only think this way because of the Baby Himself, and we don’t always realize that.

People in those days honored noble blood and wealth. The idea that God did not was unthinkable. God, born in a stable? Ridiculous! The messiah part of a poor family? No way. God, dying for his enemies, killed by his enemies, rather than he killing them? Never!

That little stable 2,000 years ago turned much of what was believed to be true on its head.

Let’s be honest. Even today, the idea that God came into the world as a human baby sounds incredibly far-fetched. The claim that he obtained victory by being publicly humiliated and killed is ridiculous. To insist that we will stand or fall based upon how we respond to him is offensive. It’s foolish to worship one little baby from one poor family. The apostles of this messiah agreed:

18 The message about the cross is nonsense to those who are being destroyed, but it is God’s power to us who are being saved. 19 Scripture says,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise.
I will reject the intelligence of intelligent people.”
20 Where is the wise person? Where is the scholar? Where is the persuasive speaker of our time? Hasn’t God turned the wisdom of the world into nonsense? 21 The world with its wisdom was unable to recognize God in terms of his own wisdom. So God decided to use the nonsense of the Good News we speak to save those who believe. 22 Jews ask for miraculous signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but our message is that Christ was crucified. This offends Jewish people and makes no sense to people who are not Jewish. 24 But to those Jews and Greeks who are called, he is Christ, God’s power and God’s wisdom. 25 God’s nonsense is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
26 Brothers and sisters, consider what you were when God called you to be Christians. Not many of you were wise from a human point of view. You were not in powerful positions or in the upper social classes. 27 But God chose what the world considers nonsense to put wise people to shame. God chose what the world considers weak to put what is strong to shame. 28 God chose what the world considers ordinary and what it despises—what it considers to be nothing—in order to destroy what it considers to be something. 29 As a result, no one can brag in God’s presence. 30 You are partners with Christ Jesus because of God. Jesus has become our wisdom sent from God, our approval, our holiness, and our ransom from sin. 31 As Scripture says, “Whoever brags must brag about what the Lord has done.” (1 Corinthians 1:18-31, GW)

It is foolish. It is offensive. And God made it that way deliberately. God chose an ordinary poor family, the kind of people who are despised by elites. He chose a humiliating death to bring about eternal abundant life. He chose to be a baby in a stable, to be part of a family with no home of their own, so that we could have an everlasting home. There is sweetness and tenderness to the scene of Mary, Joseph, and the little baby. But those things are just extras. The magnificent power of God was infused into that simple, humble moment. And the way we respond to that baby means everything to our future.

She never knew it during her earthly life, but even though Mary lost the respect of the people of Nazareth, she gained the respect of untold millions throughout all generations since then. So did Joseph. Herod, however, rightly went down in history as the murdering despot that he was. We celebrate the wisdom of the Magi, and shake our heads at the Jerusalem rulers. But for all of us there comes a moment when we become aware that we are asked to take a leap of faith. There’s a moment when we realize, “This is offensive. This is crazy. This turns the wisdom of the world on its head.”

What could give us the strength to choose this weakness, this foolishness, this offensive trust? The certainty of God’s love. He came as that little baby and died for all of us long before we were even born. Knowing the times we would reject him, knowing the ways we would hurt him, he went through it all any way. He willingly suffered to save us. Knowing that can give us the courage to choose him, even when we feel foolish, even when it might offend those around us. He loved us first. He loves us still, whether or not we know it.

So, I pray that when we experience those moments of opportunity to trust him, we will not be like Herod, having contempt for this child, despising and fearing him. Instead, let’s be like Simeon, who rejoiced, and who recognized that what is most important is how we receive the incredible gift of this child. Don’t worry about the times in the past we’ve ignored him. Trust him now. Receive him now. Let his grace cover the times we have failed.

This isn’t a one time thing. Over and over in our lives, there are moments when we can receive God’s will and work in our lives, or turn away from it. Let’s make it a habit to receive the wonderful gift of this child, over and over again, now and every day.

Merry Christmas

1 Corinthians #3. Upside Down World. 1 Cor 1:26 — 2:16

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Corinthians, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment


Download 1 Corinthians Part 3

C.S. Lewis writes about heaven in his little book, The Great Divorce (the book is not about marriage or divorce, it is about heaven and hell). The main character arrives in heaven and witnesses many different interesting, joyful and fearful things. At one point, he sees a procession coming toward him. Angels are dancing around a person who is approaching, throwing flowers on the ground as they go. A choir of boys and girls stride alongside, singing the most beautiful music ever heard. Dozens of bright and beautiful animals also attend this celebrity. The person is a woman, clothed in brilliant light, beautiful beyond imagination. The main character in the book immediately assumes this must by Mary, mother of Jesus.

“Is it?…is it?” I whispered to my guide.

“Not at all,” said he. “It’s someone ye’ll never have heard of. Her name on earth was Sarah Smith, and she lived at Golders Green.”

“She seems to be…well, a person of particular importance?”

“Aye, she is one of the great ones. Ye have heard that fame in this country and fame on Earth are two quite different things.”

This is one of the points that Paul is making as he writes to the Corinthians. Apparently the Corinthians were proud of themselves spiritually, and they were drawn toward things that looked good on the outside. That was one reason that had begun to follow human leaders – they liked the way it looked to be associated with people they felt were successful or of good reputation.

But Paul is reminding them that God doesn’t work the world does, and he doesn’t evaluate things the way the world does. As the Holy Spirit said to Samuel:

Do not look at his appearance or his stature, because I have rejected him. Man does not see what the Lord sees, for man sees what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart. (1 Sam 16:7)

This is a major theme throughout the entire Bible, and Paul is reminding the Corinthians of this. Throughout Biblical history, God chose differently than most people would have. He used Jacob, the second born (and in those days the first born was considered to be most important, while other siblings were mere accessories). He chose Judah, not Reuben the first born of Jacob. He also chose Joseph, the 11th of twelve brothers. He chose Moses, the youngest of three siblings, a man who was not much of a speaker, to lead the people of Israel. He used a prostitute, Rahab, to help the invading Israelites, and she became an ancestor of the greatest king of Israel, who was himself the eighth brother in an ordinary family. He chose a teenage girl to be the mother of messiah. He chose a bunch of under-educated, thick-headed fisherman to bring to the world the eternally significant news of salvation through Jesus Christ. As Paul writes, God has consistently chosen the foolish, the weak, the despised and the things of no account. Jesus himself painted the same sort of picture of God’s kingdom:

At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to infants. (Matt 11:25)

But many who are first will be last, and the last first. (Matt 19:30)

The greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. (Matt 23:11-12)

In addition, the Corinthians themselves were not much account, when you got right down to it. Paul reminds them of this. He may be trying to poke a hole in their pride, but I think he was also encouraging them to put their confidence in God’s work, not in outward appearances, not in human leaders, and not in themselves.

Paul does not exclude himself from all this. In chapter 2, he says that he belongs in the category of foolish, weak and despised in the world’s eyes. If you remember from the first message on 1 Corinthians, Paul did in fact, arrive in Corinth shaken by his recent experiences in Macedonia. He isn’t just being polite – from all that we know, he would have been physically weak from travels and beatings, and emotionally fragile from the rejection and hatred that had been directed at him almost everywhere he went. Paul is reminding them that it was not his preaching or wisdom or impressive personality that led them to Jesus – it was the power of the Holy Spirit.

I think all this is very important to us in America in the 21st century. In America, we love winners. We love success. We often think that bigger must mean better. Let’s be honest here. Don’t you believe that the CEO of Wal-Mart is doing better than the owner-operator of a local appliance-repair store with two part-time employees? And by “doing better” don’t we really mean running a bigger operation, and making more money? But the small-time owner might be much happier than the CEO. He might have a better marriage, and have better relationships with his kids. He might have more significant positive impact on the lives of those around him, than the CEO. But we are inclined to judge only on external successes, and those are mostly judged on size and money.

Some of you have become aware that your pastor now drives a clean, nice-looking Mercedes-benz. People might observe that and say “He must be doing all right.” I hear people make those kinds of judgments about others all the time. But think about it – what kind of conclusion is that? Does the Mercedes say anything about my marriage? Does it say anything about my happiness, or how close I am to the Lord? Plus, most of you don’t know how much or little I paid for it. As it happens, the car is 16 years old with 142,000 miles. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy with it, but as measure of how anyone is really doing in life, a car is flat-out ridiculous.

I’m tempted to do the same thing as a pastor. I can start to think big churches are doing well, just because they are big, and I wonder about small churches – just because they are small. The church that Jesus left behind him was small. Paul started a bunch of churches, but most of the evidence suggests that they were all quite small.

Sometimes we get ourselves a tiny bit of depth, and we go beyond what looks good and start glorifying what sounds good. I think this is why so many people are led astray into the prosperity gospel. It sounds good to say that following Jesus is a way to get health and wealth in this life. You can build a big following quickly that way. Others sit and listen to preachers or mentors who put on a great show, but when it’s all over, there was very little substance to it. People in Germany used to say that when they listened to Adolf Hitler, they were mesmerized, but if they were told in cold factual, unemotional terms what Hitler actually said, they were appalled and repelled.

I take two things from this. First, I should be encouraged if I feel sometimes like I am of no account and insignificant in this world. God uses people like that. The world’s evaluation is meaningless. If I am small, weak, foolish, no-account, then I just might be useful and important in God’s kingdom.

Second, I need to learn to evaluate things the way God does, not the way the world does. Paul talks about this in chapter 2, verses 6-16. Paul says we can’t understand God’s way of thinking through human wisdom and learning and logic. He says instead, that we need revelation. Revelation is simply God revealing his Truth to us. Paul says this happens through the Holy Spirit. We can’t get it for ourselves by logic or judging with the world’s standards and tools. We need to ask for it and receive it from the Holy Spirit. We need to ask God to show us his way of looking at things. And we get that perspective because the Holy Spirit lives inside of us, and reveals spiritual truth to us.

There are many things we can learn without God’s revelation. We can learn the laws of gravity, and calculus1 and how to make soup without special revelation from God. But if we want to see ourselves and others the way God sees us, we need revelation. If we want to know what God is up to in our lives, we need it. If we are to be effective in blessing others with God’s love and grace, we need His revelatin through the Spirit.

Now, I want to make some things clear. God’s ultimate, special-revelation is the Bible. He revealed his truth to the human writers of the Bible, and they wrote it down. All other revelation must be judged by the Bible. In other words, if you have a revelation that adultery is not sinful, it is not a revelation from God, because God’s ultimate revelation, the Bible, already tells us that adultery is wrong.

But we are supposed to live in a daily relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit. We should expect the Spirit to speak to us and reveal truth to us. (John 14:25; 15:26; 16:13-15)

When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak whatever He hears. He will also declare to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, because He will take from what is Mine and declare it to you. Everything the Father has is Mine. This is why I told you that He takes from what is Mine and will declare it to you. (John 16:13-15)

The bible and the daily interaction with the Spirit work together. According to Paul in this passage, without God’s spirit, we wouldn’t really even get what the Bible is saying. We need the Spirit in us, doing what Jesus said he would do, which is to explain and teach us all that Jesus said. Without the Spirit, and His revelation, the Bible won’t make much sense to us.

As we consider these things today, let the Spirit reveal his truth to you. Maybe he is calling you out for judging by outward appearances and getting caught up in the standards of the world around us. Maybe he is speaking to you about feeling small and insignificant. Maybe he is just encouraging you to get closer to Him, so that you will know him better.

1Actually, I’m not sure that I could learn calculus without God’s special revelation.