THE SIMPLICITY OF THE GOSPEL

1 CORINTHIANS 2:1-5

The Corinthians believers had been very much impressed by secular philosophy. They had been raised on Plato and Aristotle. They loved nothing better than to argue for their different points of view. This argumentative spirit had infiltrated the church at Corinth. As a result, the church was in danger of being split by warring factions.

That is what always happens when God’s people get their eyes off the basic truth of the gospel. The simplicity of the message of the cross does not split Christians apart. To the contrary, it binds them together. It is the glue that unites the church.

Therefore in order to heal the hurts of the church at Corinth, Paul set out to show the superiority of the gospel over man’s philosophical systems.

In 1 Corinthians 1:26-31, Paul used the experiences of the Corinthian believers to show that it was not secular wisdom that brought them to God. Instead, God chose the weak and the foolish and the base and the despised.

Now in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, Paul will turn to his own personal experiences with the Corinthians to show that it was not the discussing of philosophy that saved them, but the preaching of the gospel.

Paul was the first to bring the gospel to Corinth. Up to that point, none of the philosophy or the learning or the education of the Corinthians had been of any use in bringing them closer to God. The Corinthians worshiped gods of their own making, but they were totally ignorant of the God of the universe. That only changed when Paul arrived on the scene preaching to gospel of Jesus Christ.

He first tells us how he did not come and then he tells us how he did come. I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom (2:1). Paul was a down-to-earth preacher. He did not use big or impressive-sounding words when he spoke. Neither did he attempt to impress his audience with philosophical terms. Instead, he spoke a simple message. It was the message of the gospel.

For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified (2:2). This is the message of the gospel. It is the message of Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. This is the center of Christianity.

There are many who have tried to take the moral teachings of Christianity and to divorce them from the message of the cross. It doesn’t work. Such teachings are meaningless and powerless. There can be no Christianity without the cross.

What is so special about the cross? What makes it so significant?

1. Christ Bore our Sins on the Cross.

2. The Demands of the Law were met on the Cross.

3. The Cross was Designed to Bring us to God.

This is the message that Paul preached in Corinth. He did not lecture on future events. He did not try to get people to speak in tongues. He did not campaign against godless government. He proclaimed the message of the cross.

We often think of Paul as some great powerhouse for God. But he was no super saint. He was probably not much to look at. He was not necessarily an eloquent speaker.

A second century description of the apostle refers to him as "a man small in size, with meeting eyebrows and a father large nose, bald-headed and bow legged."

This is important for you to know. I used to think that there was someone out there who had it all together. His family didn’t have arguments. He never became impatient with his co-workers. When a car cut him off on the Interstate, he merely smiled and said, "God bless you!"

I’ve come to learn that there is no such thing as the super saint. Even the Apostle Paul did not have it all together. What he DID have was the gospel. That gave him the greatest message of all time. He had the message of the power of God.

You have the same thing. You may not have a Ph.D. You may not be eloquent. You may be nervous about sharing your faith. You may not come across as cool, calm and collected. But you do have the greatest message of all time. The resources that were available to Paul are also available to you today. God has not changed. His message has not changed. It is still the same gospel that is preached today.

Throughout chapter one, we have seen a continuing contrast between the wisdom of the world as opposed to the foolishness of the cross. The point was not to say that the cross was in any way foolish, but to show that the methods utilized by the world are at contrast with the way in which the Lord works.

Now the contrast continues between the world and the Lord.

Paul did not resort to gimmicks to try to win the Corinthians to Christ. He did not impress them with big words. He did not attract them with a contemporary music program. He did not try to motivate them with calculated theatrics. These things did not fit his purpose. To have used such means would have negated the purpose that he had in coming to Corinth.

What was Paul’s purpose. It was that the faith of those who believed should not rest on the wisdom of men -- that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God (2:5).

The church today has gotten away from this basic concept. In this age of the mega-church, how many people have their faith based on the wisdom and the understanding of a single man? We in the Protestant and Reformed churches are quick to point out finger accusingly at the Roman Catholic Church for having a trinity that is too crowded. But we are often guilty of raising our own leaders to a pedestal that ought to be reserved for Christ.

When I was a student in Bible College, there was a scandalous affair in which the president of the college left his wife and ran off with a young girl. As a result of this scandal, quite a number of the students were spiritually uprooted. To this day, there are people whose spiritual lives have been shipwrecked by that affair. This was a direct result of holding a man in an exalted position. Many of those students had based their faith on the persuasiveness of a man’s preaching rather than on the power of God.

Our faith is to have a stronger foundation. It should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God (2:5). This brings us to a question. What is the power of God? Paul has already answered this question here in this epistle. The power of God is seen in the cross.

The crucifixion of Christ is the ultimate manifestation of the power of God. It was there that sin was conquered. It was there that Satan was defeated. It was there that our redemption was obtained.

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