The best kind of preacher is the kind you forget

1 Corinthians is a simple book to understand, as it just deals with issue after issue—Chapter 5 about immorality and the need for church discipline, Chapter 6 about law suits, Chapters 8&10 about food sacrificed to idols, Chapter 11 about gender roles, head covering and so on, Chapters 12-14 about spiritual gifts with the chapter on love, Chapter 13 sandwiched in between, Chapter 15 about the resurrection, and Chapter 16 with closing remarks and the collection for Jerusalem.
But the first four chapters do not seem to fit with this scheme. But on a closer look, one issue is there—Pride in one’s choice of leader—How great I am as I have chosen the right leader to follow. |||||
I appeal to you, brothers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” (1Cor 1:10-12) But I, brothers,  could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ.  I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready,  for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?  For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul?   . . . (1Cor 3:1-5, ) And the thread continues to the end of Chapter 4. |||||
Corinth church has had the blessing of high-profile teachers, and they have divided themselves up into warring parties, each one saying, “My group is the smarter group, more spiritual group, we wont follow your leader.” This was in keeping with the context of Corinth. They had fallen into the pattern of the city. There would be travelling philosophers and writers coming through the city and they would speak in the markets etc. Their job in coming there would be to gather a following. Corinth sits in the middle of the isthmus so people had to pass through it. It wasn’t the ideas of the philosophers that mattered to the listeners but their rhetoric and the pesuasiveness. Not what they said, but how they said it. When Paul and Peter came, althought they preached the same message, people were puffing themselves up in favour of one leader over the other. We know that this was a big deal in Paul’s mind. Why would this be worth four chapters to Paul? It is because Paul knew that it was so destructive, and counter to the gospel. That is why ‘We preach Christ crucified’ is mentioned twice. This impacts the very gospel. The reason the Christians had believed was not because the preachers were great or eloquent but because of the power of God working through them. By themselves, the preachers were nothing.
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[c] but in the power of God. (1 Cor 2: 1-5)
Paul wants to say four things about how he is very different from the philosphers, all these points are concerned with the gospel of Christ. Paul is a gospel-shaped preacher with a gospel-shaped message. Paul, when he speaks about himself, does so in a way that it speaks more of the Lord than himself. |||||
MODE—The way he preached: And I, when I came to you, brothers,  did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. I did not try to sound anything like these secular philosophers. All I did was to deliver the gospel. Paul was relying entirely on the power of God. He is not saying that he intentionally preached something foolish and silly. What he saying is that he did everything he could to point away from himself and promote the message. Not wanting to gain followers for himself. He wanted to win people to the Person of the message. Winning crowds through eloquence and rhetoric empties the cross of its power. For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.(1 Cor 1:17).  Faithful preaching is not to do with getting someone to agree with you because of wit or passion. Then you have not saved anybody. No one is saved by the articulate speech of a man. Even making someone to believe that Jesus died and rose in history does not save anyone. Even the devil believes these things. To cause conversion, it needs something else. Conversion is a work of the heart over which we have no control. Charles Finney thought you could somehow get people to believe. We should be slow to criticise other preachers, but we must be wary about how we preach.|||||
MESSAGE—What he preached: For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. This is an unpopular message that should not have led to the rivalry that they were experiencing. No Greek philosopher would boast of a crucified hero—about Christ who gave Himself in this humble way.  Why would you use that message to get puffed up. The fact that God poured His wrath on Jesus is offensive. It shows that God is wrathful. It shows that our sin causes His wrath, and it shows that we could not save ourselves. The gospel is the power of God to save. “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor 1:18).  “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Rom 1:16). If you forget the cross, then other things get forgotten. The centrality of the gospel is vital. It should not have led to the pride they had but should have humbled them and made them repent. |||||
MESSENGER— Himself as the preacher: And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. We sometimes think of Paul as being strong and confident. But here we see how he really felt. We know Paul was an academic. He had been injured many times. We can imagine an ordinary-looking man making his way to the front to preach. For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.” (2 Cor 10:10)
In Acts we read about how God told him not to be afraid. And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent,  for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.” (Acts 18:9). This shows that he was probably fearful that someone would attack him. Yet still he took the beatings. A wonderful man, but just a man with a not-so-impressive appearance. Paul wants us to look at him and see that he is not impressive. It helps to overcome our own sense of inadequacy in sharing the gospel. The reason we do not do this more is not that we want people to go to hell. Maybe some laziness, but usually it is a feeling of inadequacy. But if this beaten-up ordinary Paul could preach we can know that the Lord will be with us too. |||||
MIRACLE— Miracle of believing: 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 me but in the power of God. Why did anyone believe this message? Their faith is based on the power of God and not in the wisdom of man. What is demonstration of the Spirit’s power? Some say that the demonstrations could be the miraculous – signs and wonders. Paul did miracles. But he is not referring to that here. 1. Because he is talking about preaching. He is talking about his speaking. In the preaching was the demonstration of the Spirit’s power. 2. We see how Paul rebukes the Jews for asking for signs. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom.(1 Cor 1:22). Then why would he say that these signs were the demonstration of the Spirit’s power. Why would he base his whole ministry on signs. 3. In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, we see the rich man asking for someon to be sent to his family to warn them, but he was told that it was enough that his brothers have Moses and the prophets. This verse about the demonstration of the Spirit’s power is talking about the demonstration of the Spirit’s power in regeneration. The miracle took place in the hearts of the people he spoke to, and they believed in Jesus. The context shows that regeneration is what he means by demonstration of the Spirit’s power. 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. (1 Cor 2:14). That is the only type of preaching that does not empty the cross of its power, and that truly converts the listeners. |||||
SOME APPLICATION: 1. If you want to be a better preacher, better husband, better father—think less of your ability but rest on the power of God. What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. (1 Cor 3:5) 2. Our Christian calling is to be faithful and not successful. God gives the success. God gives the growth to the faithful farmer. In the Parable of the talents, God does not say “Well done, good and successful servants,” but says “Well done, good and faithful servants.”