The Foolishness of Preaching
Written by Sam Sullivant
1 Corinthians 1:18-24
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
When the Lord calls for a recovery of the foundation of Christ in His House, it is a very narrow calling. This is not a calling just to individual vessels but for the whole of God’s people. This is not only an invitation but a mandate, although both an invitation or a mandate can be overlooked, missed or even denied. This call to recovery is a mandate in our time. It’s about recovering Christ’s testimony, not just saving me, but that is certainly a starting point.
God chooses preaching to confound the wise. It’s not a model of preaching He has chosen, but it is the message of the Cross that is foolishness to the hearer. So He chooses people to preach His message, not a system, formula or model. The goal is not to convert the preacher alone, but to reach the hearts of real people, sinners and saints alike. In the heart of the Jew and Gentile is the longing for a witness of God prior to having faith. Even deeper, man wants the things of God for himself, but very often outside of God’s parameters. The longing to see the power of God and know His wisdom is not new to man, but God always leads people to the Cross instead to sift our hearts and find out who really wants Him for His sake rather than the desire for activities surrounding His mind and presence. For the Jew and Greek, all the power and wisdom they long for is consummated in Christ alone.
It is easy to seek the activities of God’s presence, but it is another matter to seek God on His terms. In the New Covenant, His terms are right here in 1 Corinthians 1, the Cross of the Lord Jesus. The message of the Cross does not satiate the natural man. The message of the Cross directs people to the remedy for the corruption in our hearts, which is death to our self nature. The Lord calls us to true crucifixion with Him (Gal 2:20) that we may be saved from the power of self, sin, the world and the devil. So the natural man must be crucified, which demands something of us.
So in the midst of much knowledge, ascendence, soul power and all other kinds of noise in our world, Jesus is calling to His people, “Come to the Cross.” Until I yield completely at the Cross, I cannot know God, and I can not see Him in power. So God chooses preaching as a function of His Voice in the earth to confound the wisdom of men and the power of the soul, that perhaps a few would respond in humility. Only here at the Cross, can a people come onto an eternal foundation, which is Christ. Only through a deep work of humility in response to hearing can the House of the Lord be rebuilt. In our time, the House of God is much in ruins, but there’s a question to my heart and the hearts of God’s people, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” (Isaiah 6:8). This sending and going is not to preach a message that feels good or bad. This is not a message coming from theological acquisition, but is only a message preached by the revelation of Jesus Christ to the sent one, who is a bondslave of Jesus. This is unto the building of His House. The vessel is not the point, it is the message of the Cross and the preaching of the mystery of Christ that matters.
Why does that matter? Because the Lamb of God is not only real from eternity-past, but has been slain to deal with, pay for and remove the sin-sick system of this world from the hearts and souls of humanity. He has been buried, resurrected and ascended anew to then reveal His eternal heart, mind, and will to a yielded creation… to give of Himself. But we must be humbled. If we say yes to the Cross in faith, then we will enter the narrow path of true humility. The problem in the western culture and in the church is that we are far too proud, my self included. Theological, psychological and soulish axioms mean nothing in matters of spiritual life but only increase pride. “‘Knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up” (1 Cor 8:1). Only through the hearing of the Gospel of Christ and the foolishness of the Cross can we have a chance of being confounded, disrupted and awakened to the Living God. This message is a matter of spiritual life and death, and a matter of eternal life and death.
Remember, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6), so then grace is not given to christians or unbelievers based on name, membership, or predestination. The Grace of God is only a free gift based on the yielded-ness of people to the work of the Cross in their lives to lead them to this predetermined Life… Christ. Jesus paid once and for all, but we must yield to the Cross or else we will never yield the fruit of His nature. Christ is the Life that fills people, who are the House, but we are only a habitation of God by entering into Christ through crucifixion, burial and resurrection… that is Christ arising not self.
It is the fervent desire of Jesus to conceive His Life in a people, but the Life of Christ will never come forth if we continue to feed the natural mind on spiritual things, even theological. Conception will never occur through a pursuit of the supernatural, the intellectual or through the willfulness of man. Only in a hearing of the “word of the cross” and a turning in humility will there be an authentic, spiritual conception. The work of true transformation is a God-initiated and human-reciprocated process, meaning Jesus calls and we answer like Mary, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). So in this heart, God accomplished His will.
So that is my prayer, Father help me to hear the word of the Cross, to respond on a heart level that your Life may be implanted in me unto a fullness of your Life arising inside and out.