I preached my very first sermon almost 30 years ago at Stop 9 church of Christ in Byesville, Ohio. The title of the sermon was “The Foolishness of Human Wisdom” based on I Corinthians 1:18-25. Woody Biggs was, and still is the preacher at Stop 9. He is the one who convinced me to preach. I remember him telling me that this could be a difficult sermon for my first one, however, God was leading me to that passage. Under my friend and mentor’s Woody’s guidance, I put together the sermon. It took me several weeks (months maybe?) to be ready to deliver my message. I thought it turned out well and have preached a couple times since.
I think about that sermon from time to time because first of all, that was when I discovered that I loved preaching. I believe God called me to this using Woody Biggs as a messenger. God, in His wisdom, used Woody to reveal a gift in me I didn’t know I had. Before I met Woody, I was not inclined to preach a sermon. Shortly after I met him, he said, “I will have you preaching in a month.” Well, it was more like a year, but here we are. Secondly, I think about the sermon because it seems that human wisdom has become more apparently foolish since the first time I preached that sermon.
As Paul was addressing the Corinthian church, he spoke of how the message of the cross was foolish to Greeks. The Greeks could not fathom a God that become just like His worshippers, let alone die for them! It was a stumbling block to the Jews because the Messiah they envisioned was going to be a warrior who was going set Israel free from Roman rule.
God has revealed everything we need know to live a full life and inherit eternal life. Human wisdom, however, often leads people down another path. Too often, people, and sometimes even Christians, feel that they know better than God and try to live according to their own plan. This will never turn out well. Since God is the Giver of life, it stands to reason that He would know how best live that life.
Some people today are just like Jews and the Greeks of the first century. Some people are still waiting on a sign that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus performed many miraculous signs in the presence of many, yet Paul spoke of Jews still wanting to see miraculous signs. The Greeks were seeking for logic in Jesus dying on the cross. To them, there was no wisdom in that. Some people today doubt that Jesus was who He claimed to be. They don’t see the wisdom in loving God and loving their neighbor. They allow their own wisdom to cloud the truth.
Friends, God has given us the ability to think and reason. He has also given us free moral agency. We have the capability to choose. Our society today is overrun with information on just about everything. The problem is, not all the information is true and accurate. It is then we must decide what to believe. Some people gather all the information they can and make what they call and educated choice. Some people choose to believe whatever they want to be true. Human wisdom can be very undependable.
Proverbs 1:7 says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. I believe this reveals that if we want true knowledge and wisdom, we start by turning to God and accepting His word as truth. Sometimes His word convicts and sometimes His comforts, however, it is always true and full of wisdom. Remember, the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom!
Read I Corinthians 1:18-31