Psalm 89: 7, 8									Rev. S. de Marie
Psalm 14:2, 4
Psalm 94: 3-7
Psalm 68: 6, 8, 9								Reading:	1 Cor. 1:17-2:9
Psalm 25: 5, 6								Text		1 Cor. 1: 21-25

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
As a believer you will be faced with the question: why do I believe and my neighbour not? Why do I go to church and the whole street stays at home? How is it that I regard the Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour, and that so many millions of people have no interest in Him at all?
Those questions may even make you upset: Why do I see it rightly and the vast majority not? Should I not be thinking, maybe I'm completely wrong? Maybe I am imagining everything.
But congregation, the Lord does not let us continue to worry of these kinds of questions and doubts. He Himself gives us the answers to these questions.
I may proclaim to you the Gospel from 1 Cor. 1:21-25 under the theme:

God determines how the crucified Christ is received by people
1. to the world that is lost, He is a stumbling block and foolishness
2. to those who are called He is the Power and Wisdom of God
3. to the believers He is thus their Saviour

1. Congregation, our text speaks of extreme opposites: wisdom and foolishness, of strength and weakness. Salvation, redemption on the one hand, and ruin and destruction on the other. All this in connection with the Lord Jesus Christ and his crucifixion. 
It is clear that the view of Christ and His suffering on the cross is of decisive significance for your existence and your destiny. How woefully poor is the world without God and how unbelievably rich, then, is the church!
Now it is striking that Paul is not addressing people outside the church who do not know God's Word and Christ, but rather to the congregation of Christ in Corinth, Greece. That is not without reason. In the church at Corinth there is division about the appreciation of their ministers. This is mainly because they place great value on a person's reasoning, speaking skills and preaching proficiency. As if those are important things.
More serious, though, is that this controls them so much that the gospel itself is pushed into the background. The people look up to ministers who use many wise words. And so they have their preferences and even become divided by party factions - I belong to Apollos, I to Cephas, I to Paul.
But Paul states in verse 17, I was sent as an apostle by Christ to preach the gospel, but not just with wisdom of words. For thus the cross of Christ could lose its importance. It would result in having a hollow sound. Nice to listen to, but without blissful content.
In the Greek world at that time, you were highly regarded if you could reason well. Good orators were examples to follow. The hearer thinks that there is something to gain by it. But Paul says, that content is wisdom of the world, as if God and His Word stand outside. Paul then warns against applying some of that wisdom in preaching. For the wisdom of the world is human wisdom and it takes you away from God. The human being with his rights, with his satisfaction, and his being, stand central.
Human wisdom knows no sense of its own sinfulness, of its own depravity and its own weakness. Human wisdom does not see the need for forgiveness and reconciliation, let alone a Savior who gives His life. It speaks from within itself and is focused on its own profit and benefit. Human wisdom by definition excludes God from the picture. It is therefore a form of pride, which rises up against God.
In our time, in the wisdom of the world, the tone is set by championing human rights, equal rights, and anti-discrimination. The man of today sees in it his progress, his prosperity, his future. But in the meantime God is denied His worship.
Examples of this are the way people talk about the origin of life through evolution, the right to end your own life or that of the unborn child and the improvement of life through genetic manipulation. Science, under the spell of the wisdom of the world, wants to exclude God. She thinks she can provide solutions for all issues in life herself.
Now congregation, you understand if such is the view of your life, you do not need a Saviour. Then you do not see why Christ had to die on the cross. Yes, perhaps as an example for someone who stood for his ideals, as someone who could not bear the violence, or as one who has shown his love with zeal. Yes, He can still be considered as an instructive example to the person who seeks his wisdom in himself.
But that Christ offered the sacrifice of his life on the cross cannot be placed in the wisdom of the world before the spread of the Gospel. That He was forsaken by men and his own God and Father, to save men from eternal death, cannot be harmonized with the wisdom of the world. Not in the time of Paul, but also not in our time of de-Christianization.
The wisdom of the world does not speak of sin, it does not speak of eternal judgment, and therefore there is no room for atonement by satisfaction. No place for a Christ who gave the sacrifice of his life by conquering Satan and hell. It means nothing to people.
The Greeks said: what can you expect from a crucified one? He is not capable of anything. He failed and was punished. The cross is for them a sign of powerlessness. It is foolish to put all your trust in such a person.
Foolishness here does not mean ignorance, as if you have no understanding. But foolishness means: not using your mind well. Like people say: surely you should know better! A crucified Christ coming to redeem people?: foolishness!
Paul says more about that. He says in verse 21:
In the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God.
That means: the world, the people who do not believe, the world comes into contact with the wisdom of God, but has not yet come to know God!. Certainly the world still sees the works of God, or not? In Creation, in history. If you study all that, you will have to acknowledge the existence of God! Yes, in that, you will even have to acknowledge the wisdom of God.
Brothers and sisters, Boys and girls when you look around in nature, when you examine tissue through the microscope, when you look at the clouds in the sky, and admire the stars at night, then you see in them all the work of God. That work shows great divine wisdom.
Psalm 104: 24 says about Creation
How manifold are Your works, O LORD, In wisdom You have made them all, the earth is full of your possessions.
Psalm 19: 1 and 2 says:
The heaven declare the glory of God; the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speach, and night unto night reveals knowledge.
Jeremiah says of those works of the Lord (51:15):
He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.
No, even man without a Bible is inexcusable if he does not honour God as His Creator. But what if he now hears the gospel? Then Paul says: 
In the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God.
If you stick with human wisdom, expecting it from man, you will not get to know God. The wisdom of the world prevents you from getting to know God. You then continue to see the gospel as foolishness, if God does not convert the heart.
In addition to Greek wisdom, Jewish wisdom also stood in the way of belief in Christ. The Greeks desire wisdom that befits their wisdom, the gospel is, to them, foolishness, something ridiculous.
But for the Jews who do know God's Word, the gospel of the crucified Christ is also an obstacle, a stumbling stone, an annoyance. Something standing in their way. They say: how can a convicted murderer, a person that is cursed, be the promised king of the Jews? Neither do the Jews, like the Greeks, see the need for a saviour. Their view of their own sins and the deserved judgement on it, is darkened. They also think humanly, namely that they are able to earn their salvation by their own good works. With the Old Testament at in hand, they thus reject the Christ announced therein.
Congregation, the sad thing is that Jews and Greeks, yes the whole world that does not believe because of their own sinful thinking, remains under God’s eternal judgement.
Yes, that also applies to God's own people. Paul's quote, in verse 19, is directed precisely at the Jews in Isaiah's time. Jews who lead a pseudo-pious life, with outward religion without true faith. Jews who were also wise in their own eyes. Isaiah is quoted in verse 19: 
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
That is a word of judgement, but also of promise. Because God in Christ will also overcome the foolishness and absurdity of the world and remove it from the hearts of those for whom the gospel of Christ crucified is destined. 
This brings us to the next point.

2. God determines how the crucified Christ is received by men.
1. to the world that is lost, He is a stumbling block and foolishness
We now see the second point: but to those who are called, He is the power and wisdom of God.
Paul has exposed the so-called wisdom of the world as foolishness, to the congregation of Corinth. God has proven, through His Son, that He posses true wisdom. A wisdom that is not of the world. For no one, no one at all, could have perceived what God in His wisdom has conceived and incorporated into His counsel. Namely, to send his own beloved Son into this world to pay the debt of our sins. That is ultimate wisdom, in which divine power shines.
Compared with this life-saving wisdom of God, the wisdom of the world is true foolishness. It leads to nothing but the misery of eternal destruction.
That goes for Greek wisdom which looks down in mocking pride on the sacrifice of Christ. This also applies to the Jewish self-will which expects it from its own strength.
In verse 20 Paul challenges all proclaimers of worldly wisdom. What can they contribute?
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where the disputer of this age? 
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
Yes, God has shown by His wisdom that worldly wisdom leads to nothing.
The claim of the wisdom of the world is a better world, but without the gospel it will end in eternal destruction. Therefore this wisdom is deceptive foolishness. Men do not use their mind. Instead of allowing God's Word to rule their mind and heart, and submit to it, they follow their own lust.
But now Paul opposes this with the glorious gospel, which people find foolish. Verse 21b:
It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save them that believe.
It all comes from God. It pleased him, that is, he determined who shall hear and receive the preaching of the Christ. It pleased God. That points to his election before the foundation of the world. Yes, the elected people will hear it and accept it, no matter how foolish the world thinks it is.
Congregation, if we see that the world is not willing to believe and there are few who accept the gospel, then it is not happening without God's government. No, then that is included in His counsel. He has chosen his own to whom the gospel of the crucified Christ should come. He thus calls you, great and small, to faith. That is why Paul also says in verse 23 to the Jews and Greeks who are stuck in their own systems:
But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and the Greeks foolishness.
But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Congregation, do you again hear that radical contradiction? In the face of the world's opposition to Christ, we may know that He is the power of God and the wisdom of God. We here hear about the content of Paul's preaching. His preaching is not a story of yet another kind of wisdom. It is not a better story of good works, but preaching about Christ in person. Christ is proclaimed as the power of God and the wisdom of God. Nothing beats that. Nothing can be compared with that.
Christ is not a variant of Greek or Jewish wisdom. He is the only Truth, He is the only Way and He is the only Life. He is Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.
But Congregation, what does this mean concretely for you if you are called and may hear this gospel? Then you may see that Christ, in all his helplessness, affliction, reproach and being cursed, has overcome the power of sin and the power of death with His divine power. He has dethroned the devil. It is He who, by emptying Himself unto death, was able to pay for your immense debt of sin. He bore God's wrath as the crucified one. He thus came alive again. For He arose from the dead and ascended to heaven where He received all power. It is also He who transforms your hearts with the power of His Spirit and gives eternal life to you who believe in Him. 
Congregation, see how the Lord Jesus exercises His great divine power! He Christ is also the Wisdom of God. He did all this for you. While you and I deserved eternal death, He was cursed for us, in our place, to fill us with His blessing. While He has been forsaken by God for our sake, we who believe, will never be forsaken by Him.
Brothers and sisters, this plan of God has not been conceived by any human being. It is indeed the great mystery which the Lord has kept hidden for ages, but which has been revealed after the resurrection of Christ. And now this gospel is being preached all over the world. For everywhere among Jews and Greeks God has called men to be his children.
Yes, that too is a miracle of God's wisdom. For who are we, that we might believe this?.
Congregation, never think that this is normal. Behold, here, the great wonder of God's wisdom whereby you may be saved: Jesus Christ crucified, the power of God and the wisdom of God.
The world does not know Him, it does not accept Him as He is revealed in God's Word. 
The world therefore does not see in Him the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. But you hear this gospel. Do you still have doubts?

3. The theme is: God determines how the crucified Christ is received by men. We saw: to the world that perishes, He is a stumbling block and foolishness, but to the called, He is the power and wisdom of God. We now see the third and last point: 3. To the believers, He is their Saviour.
Congregation, now that you have heard how God in his eternal wisdom has ordained to redeem his own by his Son, this gospel now comes to you also. This gospel requires from the preachers to leave it unaltered. Not to mix it with words of human wisdom. It will have to remain a gospel to which we add nothing and take nothing away from it.
But then the preaching is not yet toward man. It does not flatter man and it does not make fun of the hearer. The preaching calls, as the word of the cross, sin that which is sin.  This preaching does not conform to worldly practices. It But will continually call for faith in the crucified Christ; and repentance to God.
Congregation, can you handle that? You are privileged to hear the gospel of God's power and God's wisdom, as often as the Christ is proclaimed as the crucified one. Do you see this as an undeserved privilege? Do you heartily accept the word of the cross in faith? If you do so, verse 21 says, you will receive salvation. That is the redemption of all sins and miseries, the redemption that will soon continue in eternal bliss, the eternal glory.
As a church you might have doubts because you are small, with so few. You might think, with so much disbelief around you, is what I believe true? But Congregation, also consider what Paul writes in verse 26:
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.
Brothers and sister, is it not the same in our time? So do not be fooled. You might be impressed by the education of the people of the world, by the power that some exercise. And you might therefore think: what does the church represent? Are we not, as a church, also fools in the eyes of the world? A ridiculous bunch of conservatives, or a silly bunch of fanatics? But Paul then continues:
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world (and congregation, that is you!) to shame the wise, And God has chosen the weak things of the world (that is you!), to put to shame the things which are mighty.
Congregation, consider that the wisdom of God is beyond all human reasoning, even our human reasoning. God determines whom He will save from destruction, and He determines how He does it. As a believer you have no reason in yourself that you should be redeemed. It is the Lord who in His wisdom chooses and saves His children according to His good pleasure.
Congregation There is yet another temptation that comes upon us as a congregation. We see in other churches sermons that are much more attuned to the hearer. Yes, sermons that who wants to take into account the brokenness of the world and the wisdom of the world. Sermons that are much more about a loving God than about a wrathful God. Sermons in which sometimes even the sacrifice of the Christ is explained away as an example. In them men turn back to the wisdom of the world. In that way, the offensiveness of the crucified Christ is removed to make it a Jesus that fits in with worldly thinking.
Congregation, man, and therefore also ourselves by nature, will only listen if the message conforms to our own ideas. Thus the Jews, in the time of the Lord Jesus and Paul, want to see a miracle, a sign as proof that the Saviour really comes from God. A sign that fits their ideas. Namely a Messiah who will come to restore the kingdom to Israel on this earth. But not a Messiah who gives His life for your sins.
And the Greeks, in the time of Paul, did want to be convinced, but only if proof with their wisdom was provided, so that they could understand it.
But in either case, you will never come to true faith that saves you. Because then you expect it from yourself, from people.
The Jew does not want to repent, but only wants a confirmation from Above, matching his Messiah idea. And the Greek wants to see proof that fits his rational thinking. Both, then, show no faith. Faith requires that you deny yourself. Faith requires belief in what you cannot see. Faith requires that you forsake your own darkened and sinful mind. Faith requires that you realize how much you, as a sinful man, need the Lord as your Saviour, and that you surrender yourself to Him. By expecting everything from Him and from God the Father.
Congregation, also we are sensitive to the adjustment in our thinking. We also appeal to “first see and then believe” in the same way as Thomas.
We also like to believe in our own way, with what we think is responsible. And which also fits with what others think about it, and what science says about it. There is also now a great temptation, especially for our young people who, as students, are going to study.
Let us not think that the influence of the wisdom of the world will remain outside the church walls. That was not the case in Corinth, neither is it now. In our time we see Christians making compromises with the theory of evolution, we see them open up to all kinds of teaching which are contrary to the teaching of Scripture. We see many thousands getting caught up in a new interpretation of Scripture that aligns with the wisdom of the world when it comes to divorce, the man-wife relationship, or even Christ's atonement on the cross.
But brothers and sisters, boys and girls, it is part of the wisdom of God that we must believe without having seen. And that you will believe contrary to your own sinful thinking. By placing God's Word above all so-called scientific human ideas, however profound or plausible they seem to you.
Let us beware, with the apostle Paul, that the gospel is not preached in the church with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ loses its content even now. But then be happy and grateful if you can see that the Christ is always proclaimed to you as the power of God and the wisdom of God. With Him all human wisdom then fades, yes, all our worldly thinking and objections are also overcome.
Congregation, then, as those who are called, accept the pure Gospel of the crucified Christ from your heart, and live from it. Show this gospel to your children and spread it. Whatever people may think.
See also how rich you are in Christ through God's glorious good pleasure and calling: Everything that is needed in life with the Lord then comes to you in Christ. Everything He has earned for you through His death on the cross and resurrection.
Verse 30 sums it up. True wisdom. Your righteousness, that is your obedience to the Lord. Your sanctification, that is your heartfelt devotion to the Lord. Yes, your complete redemption, that is your eternal salvation. 
Everything is thus from God, in Christ.
That as it is written: He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.

Amen