•I Corinthians 2:1-5
•In Fear and Trembling
•The Wide World
•Corinth
•1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
(I Corinthians 2:1-5, ESV)
•And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
(I Corinthians 2:1, ESV)
•For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
(I Corinthians 2:2, ESV)
•And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,
(I Corinthians 2:3, ESV)
•and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
(I Corinthians 2:4, ESV)
•so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
(I Corinthians 2:5, ESV)
•Main Point
•These verses conclude Paul’s argument concerning the power of the cross of Christ
• Paul shows that it is not rhetoric but the power of God which saves
•That any believed is the evidence of God’s power in the cross
•Application Points
•In Fear and Trembling
•While the orators and those speakers would come in their own power and grandeur, Paul did not
•When it comes to the culture outside of the Church, the sway is very much the same as ancient Corinth
•The goal is to proclaim the agenda
•We have seen the rise of promoting the talking point
•It only seeks to sound appeasing to the eyes and ears
•Unfortunately this had bled into many congregations
•The question was not, “Was this true?” But “how engaging was the sermon?”
•
•Application Points
•In Fear and Trembling (2)
•There is something missing when we have relied on the method rather than the truth
•By conceding truth we have opened up the door for many false beliefs
•Too many Christians are bowing to whatever the culture decides rather than resisting it with the truth
•Paul is not saying rhetoric bad and the Gospel good
•Nor is he saying we reject wisdom and philosophy
•Paul is saying when we decouple truth from our rhetoric, our philosophy, our wisdom, our reason, then we fall prey to whatever the cultural winds are of the day
•We must have our foundation set before we build anything else
•
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”
-Matthew 7:24-27, ESV
•
•Application Points
•In Fear and Trembling (3)
•So it is with every society which rejects the basic teachings of the Gospel
•Any congregation…any family…any person
•When we reject the Gospel we find ourselves adrift in a sea of ideas
•Are we capable of answering the questions of meaning, purpose, and value on our own?
•If we have what is true, then we can begin to understand the rest
•Then we will find ourselves able to withstand the cultural tides that flow
•The cross of Christ is such a foundation as this
•
•Application Points
•In Fear and Trembling (4)
•Paul, when arriving in Corinth, proclaimed Christ crucified
•That which we would call the truth
•Paul, also, came with fear and trembling
•Isn’t God on his side?
•For the past almost 9 years I can attest to the fact that there is often fear and trembling when it comes to the proclamation of the Gospel
•Sometimes this fear and trembling comes from what is read in James
•
1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!”
-James 3:1-5, ESV
•
•Application Points
•In Fear and Trembling (5)
•There is a responsibility I, or anyone else, comes up here to teach
•To fail, to, dishonor God weighs heavily on the soul
•Some fear is good, though it is exhausting
•There is fear and trembling to honor God rightly
•To proclaim the truth is both positive and negative
•In saying there is good and evil
•This stands firmly against the cultural norms of the day
•Those who proclaim heave to deal with the reality that to proclaim the truth that God has given is to stand in opposition to the world
•There is the present reality that the Gospel is becoming increasingly hostile to the message of Christ
•
•Application Points
•In Fear and Trembling (6)
•Finally, there is fear and trembling in a spiritual sense
•The devil hates what is true
•We know we have an adversary who would rather us follow him than God
•To not fall into the temptation brings its own problems as well
•There is a spiritual struggle to let the fires burn
•It would be far easier for the heart, the mind, the body, and the soul to do so and there is a world to be gained by giving up the truth
•
•Application Points
•In Fear and Trembling (7)
•To recognize the way Paul feels many feel every week
•Though Christ is our comfort and our hope, it weighs heavily on the soul to do what is necessary
•The struggle increases the more we see teachers rejecting the truth for what the world offers
•Pray that they would be humble before God
•The wiles of the world are many, and our preachers and teachers need wisdom to discern
•There is much to fear, and much to tremble over
•Though the devil shoots his arrows at us, though we all may be bloodied and bruised
•Continue to watch over your preachers and teachers and each other to remain faithful to the very Christ who saves
•
•Application Points
•The Gospel of Christ
•Origins
•Where it begins
•Fall
•What went wrong
•Redemption
•How it is fixed
•Glorification
•Where it at leads
