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INTRODUCTION
As a Christian church we are faced with one question that our forefathers were also faced with. That
question is how will the church survive? Is the future for the church not bleak? The facts and figures show annually that there is a decline in church attendance, congregations are ageing and many churches are
closing or are just run down. Then we have the social trends that appear to be going against the church.
Trends such as: rising crime, marriage breakdown, immorality, children growing up with no Christian
influence at all. We are so used to all of this that if we see a drop in crime figures we are ecstatic as a result.
It seems that our whole nation is completely ignorant of Christian truth ask someone in the street what is
the message of the church and there would hardly be anyone who could give a good answer to that question. In our schoolchildren the average child knows little of the message of the church, our young people want
nothing to do with it and our young couples look at us as if we had two heads if we attempt to talk to them about the Lord. On top of all this we live in a land where the emphasis is on more and more entertainment
and excitement. We live in a nation that is proud and self-confident it has all the answers and it claims it has no need for the church, the bible or God or at least so it thinks. I think I am right in saying that
we live in an almost pagan society. It might be full of religion but little real meaningful biblical Christianity.
The state of the world leaves the church worrying about its very future and the church is facing an enormous
question. The question is how is the church of Jesus Christ going to reach the people of our generation with the message of Jesus Christ?
The danger for the church is to see our generation as unique and our problems as special, we can think that
no other generation has faced the hardness and indifference to Christian truth that we face. It might be true that we will have to go back some time in our church history to find our nation at such low
spiritual ebb but our situation is not new for Paul found himself in Corinth in a very similar situation.
Corinth was just as hard in fact it was probably harder than many of our own towns and cities in our
generation. Corinth was full of false worship, the people worshipped all sorts of gods and they even worshipped Caesar. The city was corrupt and immorality was rife, let us ask ourselves a very important
question as we continue to work our way through this book.
1. HOW DID PAUL REACH THE PEOPLE IN CORINTH?
Now in order to put this in the context of the passage we are considering, we must remember that Paul is
dealing with the superiority of God's wisdom over the wisdom of this world. We have seen God's superior wisdom in a number of ways starting from chapter 1:18 and now in these verses that we are looking at tonight
Paul sees God's superior wisdom in the way that the wisdom of the gospel is presented.
Now we have the answer to this question that I posed in verse 2. In the midst of all the great philosophies
that existed in Corinth Paul preached the simple message of Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now in the context of Corinth which loved talking about the many philosophies that existed by the so called wise men Paul
was determine to make known the simple but great truth about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul was convinced about his message he was convinced that the only thing that could change Corinth was this
message. Now to everyone else in Corinth this message was foolish, simplistic and not worth listening too but Paul knew it was the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. Now what about our own modern
world how can this land of ours be rescued from its terrible moral and spiritual decline?
I trust that you are convinced; as Paul was that it is only by proclaiming the simple message of the cross
that this nation can be changed. Paul could have debated with the so-called wise men in Corinth about the latest philosophy that was doing the rounds but he knew that the city of Corinth would remain in its sin
unless he preached the message of the gospel, that message consisted of two things.
Paul told the people who Jesus was and what he did. He told the people what he saw and heard and what had
been revealed to him by God (v 1) and why Jesus came. Now this message is the same message that God's true church preaches today, it is the message that we must preach and proclaim to our town and to our
generation. People sometimes ask what our church offers people. My reply is always the same we offer people the gospel we offer them Christ and Him crucified. If people come back and ask what else does our
church offer, then my answer is the same for outside of this great and glorious message we as a church have nothing else to offer to this world of ours. If people reject this offer then we have nothing else worth
offering them.
The temptation that the church faces today and as the decline in people attending church continues the
temptation is to preach a message, which is more acceptable, more appealing more entertaining more light and welcoming in order to make it more popular.
But that is a mistake because the message of the church has always been unpopular Paul's message was
unpopular and unacceptable to the people of his day and his generation (1 Corinthians 1:21-23). People didn't want to here this message they were just as hard in Paul's day as they are today.
Our message will become increasingly more unpopular as we stand up to the trends within our nation. On the
religious front the pressure on the church is to say that all roads lead to God. But to say that is to deceive people for it is a lie, the truth is there is only one way to God and that is through Jesus Christ the
Son of God. To claim that Christ is the only way to God will increasingly make us more and more unpopular in the religious world and in the world in general. But we must be like Paul and have the determination that
is needed because Paul was not giving an opinion but he was saying what God says and so are we when we proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and him crucified.
This message is not the message of any preacher therefore we cannot just take it or leave it but this is
God's message to our town and our world, this is what God says therefore to reject it has far more serious consequences than many people actually think.
2. WHAT IS IT THAT MADE SUCH A SIMPLE MESSAGE SUCCESSFUL IN CORINTH (vs. 1 & 3-4)?
We are told that Paul's success was not based on his own words alone it didn't depend on his own great
oratory skills or his wonderful ability to persuade people (v 1). Paul did have many gifts in preaching but he did not depend on those gifts to make his ministry successful. Nor did he try to impress people with his
excellent use of words. In fact Paul says that he came to Corinth in "weakness, fear and with much trembling" (v 3).
Paul came to Corinth in weakness even though he was very gifted and could probably hold his own when
debating with the wise people of Corinth. Paul had an intense sense of his own inadequacy. He came to Corinth in total dependence upon the Lord to use his preaching to convict and convince the Corinthians of their
need of salvation. The Lord did not disappoint Paul for his words were accompanied by the God's power (v 4).
It was God who convicted people, convinced and converted them through the words that Paul preached. In fact
no one can be a Christian, no one can be changed by the message alone, no one can be persuaded by the speaker alone but only by the power of God as he reveals His truth to us through the preached word (vs. 8-10 and
13-14).
You see when this simple message is preached in total dependence upon the Lord to work through his word;
then there is a power that accompanies the preaching God does something through his word as it is preached. Christian people this evening just think about your own conversion experience. How many sermons did
you hear before you came to faith in Christ. What was it that made you decide to follow Jesus Christ?
It was not the preacher but God's power at work in you implanting new life within you as you listened to his
word (Acts 16:11-15).
Why is it that we know so little of God's power within our churches today? Why is it that we are affecting
so few people with the gospel in our own town? Is one reason to do with the fact that we are preaching the gospel in our own power, is one reason the fact that we are depending upon our own abilities and gifting to
convince men and women of the truth? Is it possible that we who are preachers think that we have all that it takes to convert people?
We might never say that but perhaps the way we prepare and preach is actually showing how much we are
depending upon ourselves and how little we are depending upon God. Perhaps most preachers today spend hours on their sermon construction and rightly so but yet we spend so little time praying and seeking the Lord's
help in preparation and in preaching. As congregations we are not much better than preachers are we?
How often do you pray for the preacher during the week? What do you pray for when you do pray for him? Do we
pray consistently and constantly that his preaching will be accompanied by the power of the Spirit and every sermon will be a demonstration of the Spirit's power? Perhaps one reason why we are seeing so little
accomplished spiritually through our preaching today is that we do not expect much to be accomplished.
Perhaps we are not desperate enough for God to come and work in our own congregation. Perhaps we have become
content with sermons that are helpful but not really powerful. I am not pointing the finger at anyone but myself for so often I have spent much time in study and little time in prayer, seeking God and his blessing
through the preaching of his word.
More than that by the size of our church prayer meetings you are probably in the same boat as I am.
So how can we return to that much needed power in our pulpits again? Surely the first step is acknowledging
our need for it. That will involve humility on the part of every preacher and every member of the congregation. It will involve serious prayer asking God to burden us with a desire for power in our preaching.
Secondly powerful preaching will involve the preacher and the listeners getting back to making living holy lives a priority.
It involves daily study of God's word, daily praying and daily application of God's word into every area of
our lives. Perhaps if we get back to the two priorities of acknowledging our desperate need for power and in making holy living a priority then perhaps God will come in power in our churches through the preaching of
His word.
You know churches today seek much time looking for better methods to reach our world but God is simply
looking for better men and women. God is looking for prayerful men and women holy people who humbly depend upon God to help them live consistently holy lives in this world or sin and darkness.
3. THE RESULT OF POWERFUL PREACHING (v 5)
Paul knew what was at stake here. If people were persuaded by Paul's words and abilities then the people
would rely upon human wisdom and ultimately human wisdom does not save you. Two Pastors were speaking one day when a man in one of the pastor's church passed by. The pastor said to the other Pastor "do you see
that man he is one of my converts." He then went on to explain that he is only a convert of the Pastor but he is not a convert to Christ. He was a disciple of the Pastor but not of Christ. That is what happens
when men and woman are impressed with certain preachers. They will travel miles to hear their preacher but they might not know anything about the grace of God in their heart. To be fair it is often not the
preacher's desire to have people rely upon him or follow him.
They long for God to move in power but for some reason the personality or the style of the preacher attracts
the person and they become committed to the preacher without being committed to Christ.
However the result of preaching, which is truly accompanied by the power of the Spirit, is that people are
converted and know God's power in their lives. As a result they will depend daily upon God's power and grace and long for His power to touch the lives of others. Is it no wonder that Paul felt so inadequate when
preaching at Corinth?
Is it any surprise that he was desperate not to impress the people with clever words but longed for a
demonstration of the Spirit's power in the lives of the Corinthians?
So as I conclude what is it that will change this nation and bring growth to the church? The answer is very
simply. We must preach clearly the truth of the gospel. We must do so with a very real sense of inadequacy and with a realisation that the success of the gospel depends upon the Spirit's power and not the abilities
of the preacher.
C. H. Spurgeon captured this well with his immortal words "The power that is in the gospel does not lie in
the eloquence of the preacher; otherwise men would be converters of souls. Nor does it lie in the preacher's learning otherwise it would consist in the wisdom of men. We might preach till our tongues rotted, till we
should exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless there were the mysterious power going with it – the Holy Ghost changing the will of man."
Let us be men and women who understand this need for power and let us pray until God sends his power upon
the preaching of the gospel in this church and in our town and in our nation.
Amen
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