A Sermon Series on 1 Corinthians (Part 3) – The Mystery of God and the Works of the Holy Spirit

1 Corinthians 2:1-5 – And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

Continuing our sermon series on 1 Corinthians, Paul’s letter continues to address the church of Corinth. For context, the Corinthian church is geographically close to Athens, the capital city of Greco Roman culture which fostered and valued famous great philosophers like Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle who thought they understood and knew what God should be like and should do. Instead, Paul appealed to the testimony of God in contrast to the lofty speech or wisdom that the Corinthian church valued. However, to the Corinthian church and to us, the testimony of God may be considered mysterious as it is something that we can neither fully or logically understand or reason through. Instead, it is something that we can only understand through divine revelation.

We may have encountered things in our life that we find mysterious. We may appeal to science in certain expectations in our life. Many cases, we think that if we input A, we get an output of A. However, many times, life gives us an output of X, Y, or Z instead. To truly understand the mystery in our life, we must understand God’s mystery.

Then, what is God’s mystery?

1 Corinthians 2:6-8 – Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

1 Corinthians 2:10-11 – these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

Understanding the verses above, to understand the mystery of life, we must understand God’s mystery, and the mystery of God is Jesus Christ crucified. He is our wisdom, power, glory, redemption, righteousness, and our sanctification. To the Corinthian church, which valued knowledge and wisdom, they could not understand God’s humiliation suffered through Jesus Christ’s crucifixion. They could not understand how God could be mocked, despised, or how God could be powerless as Jesus, who suffered as a sacrifice for our sins.

The reason they could not understand God’s mystery is because they had not fully experienced the power of the Holy Spirit working in their heart, which works beyond our reasoning and our logic.

The Holy Spirit helps us:

Understand the mystery of God

Even if we become great scholars with great knowledge of theology and great speech, we cannot make someone believe in Jesus. In Hyde Park in London, many eloquent Christian and Muslim speakers gather to discuss, yet despite logic and reasoning, there have been few conversions witnessed through debate. This can only be done through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

1 Corinthians 2:12 – Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

See and understand the gift and blessing of God in our life

We often think that we have not received anything from God. However, instead, we may be blind and deaf until we experience the work of the Holy Spirit. Additionally, the source of love is God and we may struggle with love in our life for others without Him. Through the Holy Spirit, we will come to realize that although our prayers may not materialize the way we want or expect, we will see instead that God has given us more than what we asked for. Thus, we need to rely on God more to realize the true blessings we have received from God.

Understand the spiritual truth in our life

1 Corinthians 2:13-14 – And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

In the verses above, there are two types of people: people who are natural and people who are spiritual.

A person who is natural is someone who relies on wisdom and eloquent speech, the wisdom of this age, boasts of status wisdom and power, and perishes. They experience all these things because they do not experience the works of the Holy Spirit

A person who is spiritual is someone who, through the works of the Holy Spirit, is a demonstration of spirit and power, whose faith rests on the power of God, understands all things and discerns spiritual things, and is saved.

When we follow the lives of the twelve apostles who had lived under the tutelage of Jesus for 3 years, they were still spiritually blind and deaf. Time and time again, Jesus admonishes them for still failing to understand His teachings when He was with them. However, after Jesus’s death and resurrection, they had received and experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives and experienced a dramatic change.

1 Corinthians 2:15 – The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

The spiritual person can understand the true value of all things when they experience the power of the Holy Spirit working in their heart. Everything will change. However, people who live a natural life cannot understand why a spiritual person lives their life a certain way for God’s Kingdom.

1 Corinthians 2:5 – so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

So, let’s live our lives not resting our faith on the wisdom of man but on the power of God.

Richard’s Reflection:

If I look at the descriptions of the natural and spiritual person, I can see myself having some characteristics of each. However, I think recently heart has started to open up more and I feel like I’ve experienced more change as it pertains to trusting in God. Yet, again, there is still a lot of room for me to change in my heart and my life to rely more on Him and the Holy Spirit to change and mold me in His image.

Reflection Questions:

• What was your main takeaway from this week’s message?

• Have you experienced the work of the Holy Spirit in your life? How so/what changes have you experienced?