Power through weakness by John Stott

foreign well good morning everybody our second corinthians study was the passage read to us by david josner i hope you have your bible open at first corinthians chapter one and you may like also to turn to the outline on the convention program which is on page 32. our topic this morning is power through weakness now at first sight as we read these verses you would think that they all had to do with power especially the power of god consider these five verses quickly chapter 1 verse 17 lest the cross of christ be emptied of its power next verse 18 the message of the cross to us who are being saved is the power of god verse 24 to those whom god is called christ is the power of god chapter 2 verse 4 my message in preaching where with a demonstration of the spirit's power and verse 5 so that your faith might rest on god's power and for the sake of completeness i think we could add a couple of verses from 2nd corinthians that is chapter 4 verse 7 to show that the all-suppressing power is from god or again chapter 12 verse 9 said that christ's power may rest upon me so here you see a seven references to power the power of god the power of christ the power of the cross and the power of the holy spirit and this concentration on power makes an immediate appeal to us at the beginning of the 21st century because we live in a society which positively worships power indeed the three major human ambitions the pursuit of money fame and influence are all a concealed drive for power we see this thirst for power everywhere in politics and in public life in big business and in industry in the professions in primitive societies in which the shaman or witch doctor trades secret power for money and unfortunately we also see it in the church in top level ecclesiastical power struggles in denominational disputes in some local churches in which the clergy hold all the power the reigns of power in their own hands and refuse to share it either with lay people or still less with young people we see it in para church organizations which dream of expanding into world empires and we also see it here in the pulpit which is a very dangerous place for any child of adam to occupy power it's more intoxicating than alcohol and it's more addictive than drugs i think it was steve brady the other night who quoted that well-known epigram of lord acton power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely now lord acton you may know was a 19th century british politician a friend and advisor of prime minister gladstone and he was very disturbed in his day to see democracy being undermined by this lust for power you may not know that lord acton was also a roman catholic and in 1870 which was the first vatican council he opposed the decision of the council to attribute infallibility to the pope he saw it as power corrupting the church now moving from the roman catholic scene to the evangelical scene i want to tell you frankly that i'm scared of the contemporary evangelical hunger for power even the quest for the power of the holy spirit be honest why do we want to receive power is it honestly power for witness power for holiness power for humble service or is it really a mask for personal ambition so that we may boost our own ego minister to our own self-importance extend our influence to impress to dominate to manipulate the lust for power is a very dangerous thing i go further and say that even some evangelism can be a disguised form of imperialism because it can build human empires instead of building the kingdom of god friends there is only one imperialism that is christian and there is a concern for his imperial majesty our lord and savior jesus christ and all other imperialisms are sinful so the bible contains clear warnings about the use and abuse of power and one of them is our text for this morning but before i come to it i just mention that in the old testament we read of isaiah or azariah king of judah do you remember this he was greatly helped until he became powerful and after azar became powerful his pride led to his downfall and in contrast in the new testament our lord jesus christ is the perfect symbol of humble weakness the weakness of humility of course he said you know that those who are regarded as rulers over the gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercise authority over them not so among you that everyone who wants to be great among you be your servant and whoever wants to be first among you be the slave of all because he went on even the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many in other words jesus came not to wield power but to renunciate not to be served not to serve and to give tell your friends that at no point does the christian mind come into more violent collusion with the secular mind than in its insistence on the weakness of humility the wisdom of the world does not greatly value power it does not i'm sorry greatly value humility we've drunken more than we realize of the power philosophy of that german philosopher nietzsche nietzsche dreamed of the rise of a ruler race an aryan race that would be tough masculine brash and oppressive nature worship power nature despised jesus for his weakness the ideal of nature was the uber mensch the superman the ideal of jesus was the little child there is no possibility of a compromise between those two images we have to choose between them i'm sorry for the long introduction i thought it was necessary again to see what we're going to study and the light of the contemporary lust for power so the central theme of the corinthian correspondence is not power as i may have seemed to indicate so far but power through weakness divine power through human weakness that is the major theme of the corinthian correspondence and particularly of the text in front of us this morning the apostle paul brings together three striking illustrations of this very same principle first in verses 17 to 25 power through weakness in the gospel itself because the weakness of the cross is the power of god secondly in verses 26 to 31 of the first chapter we see power through weakness in the converts because god has chosen the weak people to shame the strong and then thirdly in chapter two verses one to five we have power through weakness in paul the evangelist verses three and four i came to you in weakness looking to a demonstration of the spirit's power thus the gospel the converts and the preachers or if you prefer it the evangel the evangelized and the evangelist all exhibit the same fundamental principle god's power operates best in human weakness weakness is the arena in which god can most effectively manifest his divine power that's the theme god help us to absorb it and to live it out in our lives so we look at the first example power through weakness in the gospel itself verses 17 and 18 to verse 25. well every communicator every christian communicator and every non-christian communicator has to answer two questions what have i got to say and how am i going to say it the first is the message and the second is the method of communication where we need to know that in the first century a.

d of greek roman culture these two questions were readily answered the what of communication was philosophy the how of communication with rhetoric an elaborate ornamentation of language and style but paul immediately renounced both he refused to preach the gospel as we saw yesterday verse 17 in the in wisdom of word place of human philosophy he put the cross in place of human rhetoric the power of the holy spirit and the cross was both the wisdom of god and the power of god paul enlarges on this position twice over first in verses 18 to 21 and then in verses 22 and 25. it's the same message repeated the hammer blows of repetition that is so important in all our communication even today i'm going to take verse 21 only in the first example because it's a beautifully chiseled sentence the summary of it is this that whereas the world the non-christian world the secular world failed through its own wisdom to come to know god it pleased god through the folly of the gospel of the kirugma to save those who believe we could meditate on that for a long time so beautifully is it chiseled and constructed but i want to go on to the repetition of it in verse 22 to 25 here paul elaborates the same thesis namely wisdom through the folly of the cross and power through the weakness of the cross and to do so he divides the human race into three sections jews gentiles or greeks and christians and he pinpoints the essential difference between them first verse 22 at the beginning jews demand miraculous signs they were expecting a political messiah who would drive the roman legions into the mediterranean sea and he would re-establish israel's lost national sovereignty and so from every revolutionary every messianic pretender the jews demanded appropriate evidence give us a sign of power to indicate to us that you are able to do what is expected of the messiah and drive the roman legions out of the country so jews demanded miraculous signs they demanded appropriate evidence they wanted signs of power in order to give plausibility to the messianic pretender that's why the jews kept asking jesus what signs do you do that we may believe in you if you are the messiah we need these signs of power to indicate and give evidence that you are so that's the first thing the jews demand miraculous sign secondly the greeks look for search for wisdom well we all know that greece had a very long tradition a brilliant philosophy the greeks believed in the autonomy of the human mind they listened eagerly to every new idea every speculation so long as it seemed to them to be reasonable so the jews demanded power and the greeks were in search of wisdom now over against them there is a third category of christian believers whether jews or gentiles we preach this is verse 23 if you're following christ crucified so notice the contrasting verbs the jews make demands the greeks are seeking and searching but we proclaim somebody we proclaim the messiah crucified for us on the cross so there the contrast is very clear in the three verbs what is characteristic of christian preachers is that they're not demanding something they're not seeking something they are proclaiming someone but a crucified messiah was a contradiction in terms if he was going to drive the roman legions out of the country how could he be crucified on the cross the very word messiah meant power splendor majesty triumph victory all those involved in the word messiah the crucifixion was the very opposite the word crucifixion meant weakness humiliation and defeat so the message of christ crucified prevent different reactions to the jews first he was a stumbling block they were expecting this military messiah riding on a war horse at the head of an army and what were they offered instead they were offered a pathetic crucified weakling why it was an insult to their national pride how could god's messiah end his life under the condemnation of his own people how could he end his life under the curse of god on a cross it was impossible it was inconceivable a crucified messiah you can't put the two words together they make a nonsense the cross was an absolute stumbling block to those who worship power now secondly to the gentiles christ crucified was foolishness crucifixion in the ancient roman world was not only a painful execution it was also a public humiliation it was reserved for the dregs of society it was reserved for slaves and criminals no free man or citizen was ever crucified was inconceivable to them that the son of god should end his life on a cross cicero the great roman orator said on one occasion the very name of the cross the very word of the cross is absent not only from the body of roman citizens because they're never crucified but also from their mind they wouldn't even think about it or imagine it from their eyes they would never watch a crucifixion and from their ears they would never listen to talk about it so horrific with the concept of crucifixion to them but thirdly to those who are called verse 24 that is to god's own people irrespective as to whether they were jews or gentiles ethnically christ crucified is not weakness but the power of god it is not foolishness it is the wisdom of god verse 25 for the foolishness of god is wiser than human wisdom and the weakness of god is stronger than human strength now let me pause a few moments for some application friends this whole text is embarrassingly relevant to us today to be sure there are no first century jews or no first century greeks who have survived to today but there are many modern equivalents first the cross is still a stumbling block to all those who like nietzsche worship power who are confident in their own ability to get to heaven under their own steam they are confident of themselves or at least if they cannot earn their salvation they're convinced that they can contribute to it we have to say no eternal life or salvation is a totally non-contributory gift of god do you know the great saying of william temple archbishop of canterbury until he died in the forties he said this the only thing of my very own which i contribute to my redemption is is there anything we can contribute to our redemption the only thing of my very own that i contribute to my redemption is the sin from which i need to be redeemed that's all otherwise it's a non-contributory gift of god and we have to humble ourselves to receive it as a free gift i remember trying to explain it to a fellow undergraduate in cambridge he was very smooth and aristocratic and i was trying to humble him tell him that he couldn't do anything to earn his own salvation and suddenly without warning he shouted at the top of his voice horrible horrible horrible do you know i was quite surprised i denied said anything horrible but i've often thank god for that experience it gave me a glimpse into the arrogance of the human heart because we worship power we want to get there ourselves make our own contribution but the cross tells us it's impossible christ came and died to save us because we cannot save ourselves so the cross is a stumbling block to the morally proud but secondly it's a stumbling block or it's foolishness to the intellectually proud it makes no sense to them the best example i found in our own day is aj air author of that uh the oxford philosopher author of a book called language truth and logic one of the pioneers of so-called logical positivism who became sir alfred heir before he died and here is he hated christianity he lost no opportunity to be rude about the gospel and this is sir alfreda he said of all the historic religions there are good reasons for regarding christianity as the worst why because it rests on the allied doctrines of original sin and vicarious atonement which are intellectually contemptible and morally outrageous that's our precious gospel intellectually contemptible morally outrageous that's the wisdom of the world but to god's people the cross is not weakness but power and it's not folly but wisdom it's the part of god because through it god saves those who cannot save themselves and it's the wisdom of god because through the cross god has solved not only our problem of sin and guilt but his own problem and it is not wrong to speak of a divine problem or a divine dilemma we cannot avoid doing so it arises from god's character of holy love god's dilemma was how could he express his holiness in judging and punishing sin without compromising his love for sinners but again how could god express his love in forgiving sinners without compromising his justice in the judgment of sin how could god be at one at the same time a just god and a savior and god's answer was and still is the cross because on the cross he took our place bore our sin died our death and so paid our debt and on the cross god demonstrated as we read in romans 3 and 5 he demonstrated his justice romans 3 25 and he demonstrated his love romans 5 verse 8 and in their double demonstration of love and justice the wisdom of god is displayed wisdom his wisdom in the foolishness of the cross and his power in its weakness well all that is power through weakness in the gospel itself now our second example more briefly power through weakness in the converts verses 26-31 born had been inviting the corinthians to reflect on the gospel and its weakness and now he invites them to reflect on themselves and their weakness consider the situation in corinth verses 26-28 not many of you were wise by human standards of education that is not many were influential in the community not many word of noble birth in other words wisdom and power were not conspicuous among the corinthians indeed the opposite had been the case verse 27 god chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise he chose the weak things to shame the strong and he chose the lowly things of the world the despised things the nothings the things that are not to nullify the things that are it's the same theme wisdom through folly and power through weakness so what was the purpose of god in this action why did god choose the weak and the foolish and the non-entities well we're told the answer verse 29 to 31 he did it so that nobody might boast in his presence so that it might be clear beyond any doubt that the credit for their salvation belong to god and to god alone they couldn't strut around heaven like peacocks displaying their plumage that they'd got there under their ends no it was god chose the weak and the foolish to demonstrate that no human being may boast in his presence and say verse 30 it is because of him god that they the corinthians were in christ jesus they hadn't put themselves in christ jesus god had put them in christ jesus and that's where they were consequence christ jesus has become for us on the one hand the wisdom of god and on the other the power of god implied namely our righteousness which is justification our holiness which is sanctification and our redemption which is the redemption of our bodies or our glorification so all three tenses of salvation past present and future justification sanctification glorification are all found as being due to god's sheer grace to his wisdom and power displayed in and through the cross it's wonderful therefore i hope you always notice that their force of scripture verse 31 therefore he quotes jeremiah 9 let him who boasts no man best in his wisdom that the strong man not glory in his strength or the rich man glory in his riches but that everybody boasts in the lord for all other basting is excluded well it's evident isn't it from this paragraph that most of the corinthian converts were drawn from the lower ranks of society mostly they belonged neither to the intelligentsia nor to the city's influential leaders nor to its aristocracy on the whole they were uneducated poor socially despised and probably most of them were slaves the fact that the gospel reached saved and changed them was a dramatic illustration of this principle of power through weakness god's power displayed in human weakness and what's the application of that what is paul implying is paul saying that god never calls and saves those who are clever and wealthy and influential or socially prominent no i hope you'll agree it can't mean that i mean saul tarsus himself was a notable exception he had a powerful intellect and personality and yet he'd been saved and even in corinth luke tells us in acts 18 crispus was converted and he was the ruler of the synagogue and in romans 16 we read greetings from gaius who was wealthy enough to accommodate and give hospitality to the whole church in his house and then there was erastus who was the city's director of public works and both letters imply that some corinthian christians were wealthy because paul appeals to them to give generously to the impoverished church in judea so we can't say that god never calls and saves these people now the key to the interpretation of these verses is that verse 26 paul writes not that not any of you but that not many of you selena the countess of huntingdon the 18th century evangelical aristocrat the personal friend of john wesley and george whitfield used to say because she was trying to introduce the british upper classes to the gospel she said i thank god for the letter m in the word many i hope you get the point so what do we conclude from this is it wrong to take the gospel to such elitist groups as students and professional people no paul's emphasis is that god's power operates only in the salvation of the weak and therefore if the strong hope to be saved they got to become weak first they got to acknowledge their inability to save themselves or they may be influential in the community they may have wealth they may be very clever but they've got to humble themselves and admit their weakness in this area that they cannot buy anything they do or contribute save themselves otherwise god's grace will never reach them as jesus put it the kingdom of god belongs to children and therefore if you adults want to get into it you've got to become like a little child because the only citizens of the kingdom of god are children and the child like it's exactly the same message luther understood it listen to this only the prisoner shall be free only the poor shall be rich only the weak shall be strong only the humble shall be exalted only the empty shall be filled and only nothing shall become something well so far we've looked at the two illustrations that paul gives us power through weakness in the gospel itself power through weakness in the corinthian converts and his third example is power through weakness in the evangelist verses one to five not only where the corinthian converts weak and feeble but the apostle was himself weak and feeble too as the great hudson taylor sometimes said all god's giants have been weak people and this was in contrast to the false teachers who like to think of themselves and call themselves super apostles they were nothing of the kind they were proud arrogant conceited self-confident they boasted of their wisdom and their authority and their power so notice the cultural background to this situation rhetoric which i've already mentioned with a systematic academic discipline taught and practiced throughout the greek roman world i'm quoting from an authority i don't need perhaps to give you the references but in fact in the first century a. d rhetoric had become the primary discipline in roman higher education in public debates in the law courts and at funerals the rhetoric of display and ornamentation was tremendously popular as a form of public entertainment dr donald carson well known in keswick circles has written it is difficult for us at the beginning of the 21st century to appreciate how influential was this allegiance to rhetoric ornamentation of speech gradually it became an end in itself mere ornamentation with a desire to please the crowd but without any serious content and without any serious intent a sophist was an orator who style over substance and form over content that was a situation in corinth the corinthian christians had assimilated the rhetorical culture of their day and they were evaluating paul's speech according to the commonly accepted criteria but paul was resolved not to use ornamental rhetoric lest the audience focus on form rather than on content and in this situation paul made that double renunciation that i have already mentioned he said not with words of human wisdom chapter 2 verse 1 not with eloquence of superior wisdom so in both texts he uses the same vocabulary sofia wisdom is human philosophy logos utterance is human rhetoric and he renounced the philosophy and the rhetoric of the greeks but the corinthians loved both while paul rejected both in place of philosophy nothing but the cross in place of rhetoric i came to you in weakness as jb philip puts it nervous and rather shaky so he relied on the demonstration the apodixus which the holy spirit gives to words spoken in human weakness well i don't know about you but i think that these words would not be a very accurate description to many of us contemporary evangelists weakness is not an obvious characteristic of ours no and in theological colleges homiletics classes classics in the topic of preaching aim to incarce inculcate self-confidence in nervous students reported enrolled in one of our bible colleges or theological colleges today he would have been regarded as very unpromising material and since he was supposed to be a mature christian we might even have rebuked him and said paul you've got no business to feel nervous don't you know what it is to be filled with the holy spirit you ought to be strong and confident and bold but paul was of a different opinion listen paul was not afraid to admit that he was afraid he came to them in weakness and fear and trembling true he had this massive intellect and strong personality but he was physically frail we've not forgotten his thorn in the flesh and he was emotionally vulnerable second century tradition says that he was unattractive small and even ugly with a head beetle brows bandy legs and a hooked nose that second century tradition his critics said that his bodily presence was weak and his speech contemptible chapter 10 verse 10.

so he was nothing much to look at and he was nothing much to listen to and these disabilities would have disqualified him from succeeding in rhetoric so consequently in his human weakness he relied on the power of god he called it a demonstration of the spirit and the power which seemed the commentators seem to think that really means a demonstration of the power of by the power of the holy spirit because every christian conversion involves a power encounter between christ and the devil in which the superior power of jesus christ is demonstrated and the holy spirit takes our words spoken in human weakness and carries them home with power to the heart the mind the conscience and the will of the hearers in such a way that they see and believe this is the apodexis the demonstration by the holy spirit and his power now don't misunderstand this it's easy to un misunderstand this is not an invitation to suppress our personality it is not an invitation to pretend we feel weak when we don't it's not an invitation to cultivate a fake frailty or to renounce arguments luke tells us in acts 18 that the apostle continued to argue in corinth and in the following cities that he visited look the holy spirit brings people to faith in jesus not in spite of the evidence but because of the evidence when he opens their eyes to attend to it argumentation and the work of the holy spirit are not mutually incompatible the holy spirit uses the truth of our argumentation to bring people to christ and we mustn't give up that thoughtful kind of proclamation of the gospel so it isn't those things what it is rather is an honest acknowledgement that human beings cannot save souls whether by their own personality or their rhetoric or any other power besides only the power of god can give sight to the blind and life to the dead and he does it through the gospel of christ crucified proclaimed in the power of the spirit so the power in every power encounter is in the cross for content and in the holy spirit for communication i still have a little time so before i conclude i think i want to take the liberty of giving you and example from my own experience i don't like speaking about myself but perhaps you'll understand that this is intended to illustrate what paul writes here in his letter it's many years ago must be around about 1958 before many of you were born that i was leading a mission in the university of sydney in australia it was a whole week-long student university mission it began one sunday it finished the next sunday and on the final sunday afternoon i lost my voice entirely and suddenly i wasn't able to speak i didn't know what to do but in the end it was decided that i would do my best the meeting was in the great hall of the university that seated more than a thousand people and just before it began we were in the side room and i invited the student leaders to come round me and lay their hands on me and pray for me along the lines of second corinthians 12.