2-2-2020 Grace-Benson/Vail Sermon

Pastor Tim Patoka

4th Sunday after the Epiphany February 2, 2020 Boast in the Lord’s Strength and Wisdom 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 1) God’s Strength Shames Sinful Boasting 2) God’s Wisdom is Worthy of Boasting

Later this afternoon, millions of Americans will turn on their TVs and watch the San Francisco 49ers take on the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV. Whether you’re doing so to watch the game or simply for the commercials, you can be sure that we’ll see football at its highest level. For the 49ers, you have quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo armed with strong running and passing options. For the Chiefs, you have legendary Andy Reid coaching their MVP quarterback Patrick Mahomes on offense and their cornerback Richard Sherman on defense. It’s no surprise that these teams have made it to the Super Bowl given their rosters and performance this past season. What would have been surprising is if you had someone else in the Super Bowl, especially if it was a team with a no-name roster and a losing record.

Whether you’re excited for this afternoon’s Super Bowl or not, a football team’s leader and players provides a context for us to look at our verses for this morning from 1 Corinthians chapter 1. God is the leader and we are the players. Now, we would probably God to pick the best of the best to be on his team as we would expect a football team in the Super Bowl to be top-notch. But as the Apostle Paul tells us, and as we learn is still true today, God surprises us in who he chooses to be on his team. This isn’t accidental or God making the best out of a bad situation. It is intentional so that we may learn to boast in the Lord’s strength and wisdom.

1) God’s Strength Shames Sinful Boasting Paul’s letter to the Christians in ancient Corinth must have hit close to home as Paul is calling them out for the embarrassing situation their congregation was in. There were divisions among them because of who they followed. As Paul wrote earlier in his letter, “For the news I heard about you…is that there are rivalries among you. What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul,’ or ‘I belong to Apollos,’ or ‘I belong to Cephas,’ or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:11-13) Not only this, but their church life was a mess. Worship services were full of people talking over each other in all kinds of languages and sounds. (1 Corinthians 14) When they ate together, some got stuffed and drunk while others went away hungry and hurt. (1 Corinthians 11) It’s for this reason that Paul cuts the Corinthians down to size in our verses by reminding them of the reality of who they are. Most of them were not impressive from a human point of view. While there were some exceptions, they were not wise or powerful or coming from families with a high status. They were regular people and relative nobodies in the grand scheme 1

4th Sunday after the Epiphany February 2, 2020 of things. Yet God chose them to be on his team to teach them “so that no one may boast before God.” (1 Corinthians 1:29) There was nothing these Corinthians could offer or do for God to gain a favor from him. There was no way they could boast about anything before God. Pastor Tim Patoka

That’s a reminder that we too need to hear, for we too can be tempted to boast before God for what we’ve done or endured for him. For 2+ years we have faithfully endured a vacancy at our Benson and Vail sites of Grace. We have patiently been in a holding pattern while waiting for God to send the man he has in mind who we’re sure will be a great fit.

Vacancy or not, we’re tempted to boast about our relative importance in what we do for God whether it’s related to a worship service or behind the scenes. Because our Vail and Benson sites are smaller (and that’s not a bad thing), whatever we do is going to have a more visible effect and be easier to notice. Or perhaps we’re tempted to boast before God because of what you’ve done in the previous decades of your lives or, if you’re like me, what you can potentially do in the coming decades of your life.

No matter how or why we boast before God, it is a problem. Because such sinful boasting robs God of his almighty strength. It asserts that God had to choose us to be on his team because there were some missing gaps that he needed to fill like how a coach will sign a player on in the middle of a season to fix a problem. Such sinful boasting overestimates our value because it makes us comparable to God in some small way. It has us fall into the trap of the Corinthians that, although our worship lives are a lot better, we are not exceptionally wiser or more powerful or well-born than they were. Like the Corinthians, we too need to remember that God has chosen us to be on his team not because of who we are, but in spite of who we are so that we may remember that “no one may boast before God.” (1 Corinthians 1:29) While we cannot boast about our strength before God, that doesn’t mean we have nothing going for us. Scripture shows us God’s strength and how he shares it with us. As we read in our 1st Lesson from Daniel chapter 3, it was God’s strength alone which saved Shadrak, Meshak, and Abednego from King Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace. While we don’t expect God to use his strength to save us from a fiery death, he has shown his strength in a far greater way. That’s by saving us from the fires of hell through the strength of his Son. Jesus willingly gave up his home in heaven to come down to earth and live in the early 1st century Roman world which lacked many of the creature comforts that we take for granted. He lived a nomadic life throughout Israel. He corrected those who would later put him to death because he rubbed them the wrong way too many times too many. He allowed himself not only to die, but to die in one of the worse ways humans have ever devised – crucifixion. He did all this so that he could use his almighty strength to pay the price that our sins demand – death itself. Even though this is only one facet of God’s strength, it’s more than enough to shame us away from every form of sinful boasting.

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4th Sunday after the Epiphany February 2, 2020 But God’s strength is not just something for us to marvel at. In addition, God blesses us by sharing his strength with us. As we read from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5, Jesus says that those who trust in him are blessed even when this world says otherwise. Listen to what Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit…those who mourn…the gentle…those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…the merciful…the pure in heart…the peacemakers…those who are persecuted because of righteousness…Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.” (Matthew 5:3-12) Pastor Tim Patoka

Those are not things the world would say. Typically those who are nice and persecuted finish last. But with our God and the strength that he shares with us, it’s all different. He says we are blessed because we have an eternal home waiting for us in heaven. We are strong because it is his almighty strength that is standing with us. We are saved from the fires of hell because our sins have been paid for. We are his in spite of who we are. Not only does God’s strength shame us from sinful boasting, it encourages us to look to God alone for our strength.

2) God’s Wisdom is Worthy of Boasting And it’s not just God’s strength that we get to boast about. It’s also his wisdom which he makes known to us in Jesus Christ. We hear how Paul describes this wisdom from our verses, “you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us the wisdom from God, namely, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” (1 Corinthians 1:30) Righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. You could preach a whole sermon about each of those words. Now I won’t do that.

Rather, I’ll explain each of these biblical concepts with a single sentence. Righteousness is to be right with God because our sins have been removed from our permanent record. Sanctification is to be set apart as a child of God from this unbelieving world which in turn implies that we also live for him in a way that’s different from unbelievers. Redemption is the ransom price that Jesus paid with his sacrificial death on the cross. We see these three concepts given to us in Jesus who makes us righteous, sanctified, and redeemed.

But at first glance, these 3 words may not seem the best metric for God’s wisdom.

Instead, we look to how this world usually measures wisdom. I’ll mention the three that Paul refers to in these verses: intellect, wealth, and status. Getting an education is one of the best things a person can do for themselves whether it’s going to college or learning a trade. With wealth comes power because money talks in every language and provides a security blanket in almost every situation. Having a high status in society is a definite plus because it sets you up to meet the right people in the right places and helps make sure people will listen to what you have to say.

While we might want to measure wisdom in those three ways, they mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. No matter how smart you are, there will be new fields of studies and eventually our minds will get fuzzy. Chasing after wealth and its power will only put us on an 3

4th Sunday after the Epiphany February 2, 2020 endless cycle that will leave us worse off in the end. People with high social standing can so easily lose it all with one accusation or mistake. And on top of it all is the truth that these things don’t matter in God’s sight.

Pastor Tim Patoka

What matters to God is what he sees in us. And we’re told how he sees his believing children. Righteous – right with God because of his forgiveness. Sanctified – set apart as his children in the midst of this sinful world. Redeemed – freed from our sins because Jesus has paid our ransom price. While we may not typically measure wisdom in these ways, there is indeed no better way.

Filled with God’s wisdom as made known to us in Jesus, let us listen to what the Apostle Paul says, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:31 quoting Jeremiah 9:24) Let us boast in what the Lord has done for us. For choosing us to be his in spite of how weak we are and how famous we are not. Even though God could have chosen people who are better and stronger than we are, it is us he has chosen to be his believing children. Let us boast in the Lord for sharing his almighty strength with us to save us from the fires of hell. Jesus willingly left his home in heaven so he could die on the cross for our sins and pay the price that we couldn’t. Let us boat in the Lord for making God’s wisdom known to us so that we may be called righteous, sanctified, and redeemed. While we rightly refrain from boasting about ourselves, it’s alright to boast in the Lord. Because when we do, we fix our attention on him instead of on ourselves and also publicly bring him glory for all that he has done.

No matter what your plans are for this afternoon concerning the Super Bowl, we all can remember Paul’s point with how sport teams are picked on the grade-school playground. The team captain stands there and chooses who will be on his team. God is the team captain and we expect him to choose the tallest, fastest, and most athletic people to make his team as strong as possible. But that’s not what God does. For the most part, he surprises us by choosing people you wouldn’t expect. He does this to remind us that there is no way we can boast before God. He doesn’t need us. Rather, it’s us who need him. After the teams have been picked, we then go out on the field. Now, this is where the illustration limps a little bit. But with God on our side, we are assured the victory because of his sheer power and unsurpassable wisdom. And as players on his team, we can boast in him as much as we want. We have the victory through him no matter how what setbacks or opposition we may face. And as Paul closed out his verses to the Corinthians by encouraging them to boast in the Lord, so are we encouraged to do so. To boast in his strength which saved us from the fires of hell. And to boast in his wisdom which assures us a place in heaven. Amen.

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