Reformed Church, Bellville: Sunday 1 December 2002, Evening Service

Our help is in the Name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Psalm of praise: 25:1+2
Prayer
Psalm: 119:7+39

Scripture reading 1 Corinthians 2

Text: 1 Corinthians 2

5: "... so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power."
9: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him ..."

We want to have communion with God in a very special manner, but nowadays there is so much difference about what we must believe and how the Lord is to be worshipped!

This causes many believers to become confused about the matter of fellowship with God. In this text the Lord makes a most important statement: Faith does not consist of the wisdom of people but of the power of God.

Let us consider the following two issues:

1.    God reveals the mystery of His presence with us.
2.    The Holy Spirit works the true faith.

1.    God reveals the mystery of His presence with us

The truth is that the true believer experiences the fellowship of God whereas the unbeliever or the false believer do not experience it - but nevertheless often claim knowledge of what the contents of faith is and who God is and how He is Redeemer!

The basis of our faith and adoration is not founded on human discoveries and human needs, but it comes through/out of the power of God who works it in us.

Therefore we must out of the Scriptures reflect on what faith is and how communion between us and the Lord occurs. Then we shall know what values in life are correct and worship the Lord as He desires.

From His side the Lord uses several means to continuously reveal Himself to the true believers in that they may truly know Him.
One of the matters which He reveals to them is that they may know to their comfort that the Lord makes them acceptable for His Kingdom.

Let us see how the Lord reveals Himself to us.

The Lord reveals Himself in nature. But He reveals Himself more directly and personally through the preaching of the Word.

Many people underestimate the power that is to be found in coming to Church and listening to a sermon.
Because of this it occurs in a number of Churches that the sermon is replaced with other things such as singing.

But look at verse 1 again and you will note that it contains a striking statement: the main point of that verse is that Paul came to proclaim the testimony about God.
In the original language it is written that he came to proclaim to them God's mystery. Our new translation (Afrikaans) uses "the mysterious truth".

This chapter is about this:

The Lord's world is too large and too deep for mankind to understand.
It is also a world which, because of our human limitations, lies beyond our reach, because we live in a creation where everything can be seen, can be touched, but the Lord is untouchable and invisible because He is Spirit.

The Lord does not leave us in a condition of ignorance and uncertainty. He reveals Himself to us. A glance at all the various matters which the Lord in Jesus Christ reveals of Himself through the letters of Paul show us the following:

Jesus acts prophetically in His words and His deeds (He preaches and works miracles).
Jesus has absolute power over demons.
Jesus rules over life and death and confirms this with His resurrection.
He is elevated to Kurios (a name of God for Jesus in the Greek New Testament which is translated with Lord. This is an event-word which describes Jesus in His Kingship).
In addition the Lord Jesus reveals Himself also in His glorious second coming.

The one event which summarizes - thus, the heart of the Gospel - is the crucifixion of the Jesus Christ.

This is also written here by Paul.
This is what has been preached through all the centuries - read how the Epistle to the Hebrews commences:

In the past God spoke through the prophets but in the last days He speaks through His own son.
Thereafter it deals with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

This is exactly what Paul tells us in this chapter we read.

What Paul preached was that the Lord Jesus was God who did great works of love for the faithful - He did all the deciding work on the cross but he shall complete it the day of the second coming.

He is the eternally reigning King Jesus Christ. Why? Because in the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus the unique nature of God's reign of grace becomes in abundant measure a visible reality.

Jesus went down the depths of pain and humiliation and thereby demonstrated His greatness as King of Mercy.
On the cross the Lord Jesus revealed that He asks nothing for Himself and that He gives His life for His subjects in that they may live forever.
Here the Lord Jesus made true what is written in 2 Corinthians 8:9 - that He became poor to make us rich.

He experiences all these terrible things in order to liberate His elect from them forever. And He does not do this in secret or in the invisible world. He does it on our earth and before our eyes.

2. The Holy Spirit works in true faith

The preacher stands rather thin in these matters as it is written in verses 3 and 4:

The apostle goes to the congregation in fear and with much trembling, but the powerful working of God the Holy Spirit lets the believers hear, understand and see.
The Spirit of God is an Almighty and Working Person who works in the believers.
He also comes from the Crucified Jesus because Jesus sent him.

In this way the Lord Jesus teaches and rules His congregation through the Holy Spirit and through the preaching.
The Lord works through His Spirit and with His power. By the preaching of the Gospel the Lord reaches the heart of people who listen to it.

For this reason attending Church is so important for your growth in your faith.

When we deal with an issue of this nature in the Bible we must always see what the Bible says of it elsewhere.

Here, in 1 Corinthians 2:4 it is only stated that the preaching comes to us with a demonstration of the Spirit's power.
There are commentators who say that it means that Paul had so much spiritual power that it is of him that the Bible speaks here.
The new translation (Afrikaans) clearly takes a different view because it translates this section with "the mighty working of the Holy Spirit".

This is the true meaning of the Bible, as in Thessalonians 1:5 the Lord teaches us that the gospel comes to us not only with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction.

When we read this together with 1 Corinthians 2 it can be understood only in one way - the Spirit and power are the Spirit and power of God.

The Lord Himself takes us with power and He does this by the work done by the Holy Spirit. The Lord lets simple words spoken by the preacher fall into the depths of our soul where repentance is born in that we may arise from our sins into a new life.

Verse 5, our text, therefore is the conclusion to which the Lord leads us.

Our faith does not exist in men but in the power of God.
Brothers and sisters, this is a dynamic sentence!

What is written here means that our life is perpetually fed by and that it grows each day out of the power of God.

This is a process that never ends!
God Himself steps into your life with the preaching and He daily changes you in your repentance and the growth of your faith.
This is what happens to you when you sit in Church and listen to the sermon. Is it possible to preach God's grace more clearly?

Verse 6 contains a key-word that unfortunately is intranslatable in Afrikaans.

In the old translation it said "Still, we speak of wisdom among the mature".
The New Translation makes it "Still, what we preach is wisdom, but only for those who are ripe for it".

The word employed by the Lord in the original text generally means "those who are suitable for the end" referring to the Second Coming.
In the Septuaginta (Greek translation of the Old Testament) this word is used to translate two totally different Hebrew words:
the one is to describe animals which are completely perfect, which are suitable as sacrifices, (such as the Pass-over Lamb) as in Exodus 12:5.
the other means full, complete, something which is completed.

When you combine these matters, it appears that the word used in 1 Corinthians 2:6 refers to people who to the Lord are suitable for His Kingdom. These people are made suitable by Jesus Christ. This is what this sermon is about.

Should a total unbeliever be here and watch how we celebrate Holy Communion, what would he see and think?

He sees the minister breaking a piece of bread and a number of people eating it off a plate.
Afterwards they all drink wine from an obsolete kind of wine cup.
They read from a book, sing and go out.

When a baby is baptised: What does a complete heathen understand of the sign of the covenant of redemption and of man's responsibility to raise for God this baptized child with the guidance of the Holy Spirit?

You who are believers experience much more than this. Because the Lord reveals much more to you.

You experience the presence of the Triune God Himself with you.
You know that the bread and the wine are only elements that open a vast invisible world to you to see with your spiritual eye.
You realize how the Lord Jesus bore the punishment for your sins before God the Father to reconcile you with His wrath.
With this you experience how the Lord Jesus destroyed the powers of Hell to liberate you from eternal death.

Then you see the words of 1 Corinthians 2:9 and you understand what the Lord means when He says:

"What God has prepared for those who love Him."

Brothers and sisters, when in the next weeks we remember the birth of our Lord Jesus, remember then the comfort the Lord teaches here in 1 Corinthians 2:5.

Our faith does not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
Our joy is more than the presents that people give one another.
We do experience things that the eye cannot see and the ear has not heard and no mind has conceived and we know: these things God has prepared for those who love Him.

Beloved, be deeply grateful and know that the Lord loves you.

Jesus Christ was born to renew you by the power of His Word and Spirit to live in His eternal Kingdom.
God the Father has elected you in Jesus Christ - for this He was born for your salvation.
Know that you are ruled by the eternally reigning King Jesus Christ.
Serve Him, therefore completely with all you have.

Amen

Closing prayer

Hymn 33:1, 2 & 3

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Amen

Dr MJ du Plessis
Reformed Church Bellville
1 December 2002
Scripture quoted from NIV