Foolishness and Nonsense

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on the first Sunday morning following Holy Cross Day, the 19th of September, 2021, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is:  http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.  Look for the video of our recorded services on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

This past Tuesday marked a holy day few of us know much about.  September 14th each year is Holy Cross Day, which honors and commemorates the sacrifice that Christ Jesus made on the cross for our salvation.  Today is the first Sunday after Holy Cross Day, so I thought it fitting that we remember that great sacrifice.  After all, we really should think about what Jesus did for us more often than just at Easter.

So take a moment and look at our cross.  What message do you see written there?  What meaning does it truly hold for us?

Please listen and follow along to how the Apostle Paul describes the message that God sent all mankind through the cross when he wrote to the church in Corinth.  This comes from the 1st chapter of Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians, verses 18 through 24, and I’ll be reading from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible this morning…

18 The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. 19 As the Scriptures say,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise

and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”

20 So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. 21 Since God in His wisdom saw to it that the world would never know Him through human wisdom, He has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. 22 It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. 23 So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.

24 But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

--1 Corinthians 1:18-24 (NLT)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for calling us to salvation through Your Son Jesus.  You have made the wisdom of this world - human wisdom - look foolish.  Only Your wisdom is true and in Your wisdom only by faith can we know You and Jesus.  Thank You, Father, for giving us the faith to believe.  Please help us not give in to what the world calls wisdom.  Help us to not suffer shame when the world calls our faith sheer foolishness.  Help us to do as You will and not just whatever it is we want to do.  Please keep us strong in our faith and of one purpose in our service to Christ Jesus.  Please keep us healthy and safe through these trying times.  And Father, please guard us from Satan and those who blindly do his work for him.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit and better understand the message You have for us this morning.  Remind us that we are Yours, bought and paid for by the blood of You Son Jesus.  This we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

Sam Goldwyn, the movie producer, used to mangle the English language so badly that his malapropisms and mixed metaphors came to be known as “Goldwynisms”.  Here are some that have become classics:

A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

Every Tom, Dick, and Harry is named William.

Now, gentlemen, listen slowly.

For your information, I would like to ask a question.

Include me out.

Don't talk to me while I'm interrupting.

I may not always be right, but I'm never wrong.

I am sure that Mr. Goldwyn considered each of those to be pure nuggets of wisdom.  And maybe the thoughts behind them really were wise, but when he tried to apply words to them, they came out sounding a little foolish to us.  We couldn’t see into his head, but these gems come out sounding very close to being nonsense.  After all, if I’m not always right, I have to be wrong at least some of the time, right?  But to Sam, they all obviously made perfectly good sense.

So it is with human wisdom: in the final analysis, it’s all just foolishness.  Of course, the world sees things differently.

Paul says that God sent us a message.  When He allowed His only Son to be sacrificed upon that cold, cruel cross, God sent a message for all mankind to see.  For the story didn’t end there.  Jesus’ life did not end on that cross.  He was resurrected on the third day, brought back to life in the flesh, before returning to heaven.

So what is that message God wrote on the cross?  It is that we are washed clean by the blood Jesus spilled there.  It is the promise of our own resurrection to new life eternal in heaven.  It is the symbol of all that Jesus did just for us, that we might be saved.

This is the message that we preach.  This is the message that we share with the world as we carry out our Lord’s command to tell all about Him and make more disciples.  And this is what the world considers nothing more than foolishness and nonsense.

Too many people want proof.  They want to see it with their own eyes or have their science prove it for them.  Many are even offended by God’s message, calling us closed minded in our belief.  And then there are those who say that just being a good person, doing good works, will result in a life in paradise.  They don’t understand how we can believe something that we have no real proof of.  That’s just crazy thinking, they say.

But this is how God, in His wisdom, intended it.  He wants us to believe based on faith, not on proof.  He wants us to know, without a shadow of a doubt, based on faith and faith alone.  This is all in God’s plan, and the world calls it foolish.

I’d like to continue with today’s scripture, going back to where I left off.  Paul has a little more to say about this foolish message from God, and our belief in it.  Please listen as I continue with chapter 1 of Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians, verses 25 through 31…

25 This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.

26 Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. 27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And He chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. 28 God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 29 As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.

30 God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; He made us pure and holy, and He freed us from sin. 31 Therefore, as the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”

--1 Corinthians 1:25-31 (NLT)

God’s wisdom is far greater than man’s.  His foolish plan is wiser than even the wisest of man’s plans.  And His weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.  I mean, after all, God created everything there is.  Could any man do that?

I’m reminded of the old joke where a non-believer is standing before God and saying he can do all those fancy things God can do.  God replied, “I made man from nothing more than dirt and spit – can you do that?”  The man says, “Sure”, and reaches down and grabs up a handful of dirt.  “Wait a minute”, God says.  “That’s My dirt.  Make your own.”

God is wiser and stronger, and His plans are far wiser than anything man can even imagine.

Paul goes on to talk about God’s choices, specifically those that He chose to carry His message into the world.  Now I don’t know about you, but I can’t recall ever being considered wise before.   And I’m certainly not powerful or wealthy, not as the world measures wisdom, power, and wealth.  Yet God chose you and I – the nearly powerless of this world – to be His messengers.  He chose the despised of the world, what the world considers as less than worthless, to bring to nothing that which the world considers important.

For what is truly important in this world is to be united with Christ Jesus, to be one with our Lord.  For Jesus is wisdom itself.  Christ made us right with God, He made us pure and holy, and He freed us from the bonds of our sin.  We owe everything to Jesus.  So if we feel like boasting, may we boast only about our Lord and Savior.

Jesus said that in this world we will face trials, we will suffer through troubles.  When we profess our faith, our belief without proof, when we share the message of the cross with an unbelieving world, we will be laughed at, ridiculed, even persecuted and scorned.  The world rejects that message and it will reject us, calling it nonsense, calling us foolish.  The world will hate us because it hated Jesus.

But God called us to carry that message to the nations.  He chose us to bring the world’s wisdom and power to nothing.  For we who are called by God to salvation know that Christ is the power of God, and Christ is the wisdom of God.

In the blessed name of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for calling us to salvation.  Thank You for allowing us to see and share Your great wisdom.  Father, please help us as we try to carry Your message of the cross to an unbelieving world.  Sometimes, Father, we fall victim to human wisdom, thinking maybe we know best.  Sometimes we let that human wisdom keep us from fully trusting You.  Sometimes we’re just too timid to share Your truth with others.  Please help us overcome our fear and temerity.  Remind us that You own us, that we are Yours, we were bought and paid for at a great cost: the very blood of Your only begotten Son.  Give us the full conviction of our promise to serve You.  Encourage us and strengthen us as we strive to obey and serve our Lord Jesus.  Please keep us strong in our spirit, in our faith, and in our service to You and Jesus.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You from our hearts through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more faithful and true, putting all our trust in You and Jesus, and seeking Your help as we do so…

Lord Jesus, You are God and You are God’s wisdom and God’s power.  Through You alone may we come to the Father.  Thank You, Jesus, for suffering our punishment, for taking our sin upon Yourself.  Lord, we ask You to help us be obedient servants.  Help us share the message of the cross to others.  Help us try to tell them all about You, what You did for us, what You mean to us.  Strengthen our will to do what our Father God wills us to do.  Help us to be more loving, more understanding, kinder to all we encounter each day.  And please help us as we try to show Your love in this dark world while we still tread this path.  All this we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.