Preface “Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” (1 Cor 1:20- 21)
Introductory Remarks
“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.” (Prov 4:7) This means singular distinguishing feature of a wise Christian is that they will be constantly in prayer about the wisdom of the cross.
One of the great wisdom books of the Bible is James, he says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given him.” (1:5). He is convinced God will richly poor out wisdom on you because he knows, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17) When the Father looks down from above into your life as a follower of Jesus, he sees reflected back to him the fruit of the cross, he sees a stunning display of his own wisdom.
There is no shame in confessing that we have a history of foolishness and the wisdom of the cross is strange to us. We confidently pray with Paul , “17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,” (Eph 1:17)
When we ask God to teach us about his own wisdom (John 6:45) this is something he loves to do, he revels in the goodness of his own wisdom, he is infinitely attracted to it.
The Wisdom of God is a Beautiful and Joyful Thing
First of all he exalts in his wisdom in creating the world and humanity, “The Lord fathered me (wisdom) at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. 27 When he established the heavens, I was there;….when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 30 then I was beside him, like a master workman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, 31 rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man. (Prov 8:22- 31)
The Father delights on the marvel of your created humanity, according to him, you are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (139:13). This is God speaking, not the most influential spiritual leader in the world self- esteem movement, Oprah Winfrey.
No human being can know who they are in the sight of God until they know how he is impacted by the wisdom of the cross. Unless you hear directly from God that your existence – no matter what you are going through – is a glorious manifestation of his wisdom you can never believe this in your heart. The test of the reality of this in our experience is how we feel about ourselves in the midst of suffering.
Amongst Western Christians there are many “fine weather worshippers”. Many “contemporary churches” are becoming a combination of “therapy and entertainment” which lacks the wisdom to speak deeply to believers when suffering strikes their lives. Some examples come to mind of the deaths of believers, the families and churches believed that God had promised the person would not die; they were just devastated when they did. They lacked the power of the Word of God, of the word of the cross to make sense of what was happening.
The apostles are so different, [(after a beating Peter and John rejoiced “that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” (Acts 5:41).)] Paul commands the Philippian church with a tremendous authority free from hypocrisy, “Rejoice in the Lord always…in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (Phil 4:4,6), all the Philippian Christians knew that in their city that after being beaten with rods and placed in the dungeon in stocks, “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God” (Acts 16; v.25). The apostles life is a manifestation of the wisdom of God. [“We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair” (2 Cor 4:8)]
Christian faith is not positive thinking, it is not, as some young people in this city have been advised, “fake it until you make it”, faith is being able to receive what it means to be a new creation in Christ (2 Cor 5:17).
Luther rightly said there are only two kinds of spirituality, “glory spirituality” which emphasises impressive things, prosperity, influence, power, prestige, and numbers, or the “spirituality of the cross”. The two types of spirituality are reflections of two types of wisdom.
Wise in One’s own Eyes
Evil has its own wisdom, represented by the crafty serpent in the story of the Fall (Gen 3:1). He claims to be able to impart to humanity something that God either cannot or will not, immortality. ““You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”” (Gen 3:5) . In a flash of insight, Eve is transformed into a “street wise” babe, she “sees it”, this wisdom is “good”, God’s wisdom is “evil”. “when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” (Gen 3:6)
We have all exchanged divine wisdom for the satisfaction of being “wise in our own eyes”. We all want to make something out of our own lives that we can be proud of, like the popular song played at my sons High School Graduation – “You are Amazing”. Naturally speaking, races, nations, sports teams, individuals, denominations, churches, families and individuals find so many ways of telling themselves, “I am the greatest” (Isa 47:8; Zeph 2:15; 2 Thess 2:3; Rev 18:7).
The scripture solemnly warns us- “Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.” (Prov 3:7). “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!” (Isa 5:21) (Compare Prov 12:15; 26:5, 12, 16; 28:11.)
I want to use Ted Haggard as an example. Ted was pastor of one of America’s largest evangelical churches (14,000 in 2006, it started in his house), a consultant to the White House, President of the National Association of Evangelicals (30 Million) and a well known author. He has been dismissed when outed by a gay drug dealing prostitute and found guilty of “sexually immoral conduct” by his church board.
What was Ted’s real problem, or Jimmy Swaggert’s or Brian Baker’s or Paul Cain’s or Roberts Liardon or Pat Misiti or….These are Ted’s own words, “Because of pride, I began deceiving those I love the most because I didn’t want to hurt or disappoint them.”
The real problem is that Ted believed his own publicity that he was a “great man.”
“God opposes the proud” (James 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5). “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”(Prov 16:18). The self – confidence of our culture and its mimicry in the church shows no wisdom. ”. When I go to a Christian meeting and there is self –promotion in terms of numbers or dollars or ministry that focuses on any name other than the name of Jesus I am filled with fear.
Let us hear from James, the Lord’s brother (Matt 13:35; Gal 1:19). In his letter he says, “14 if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, …This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. …17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere.” (James 3:13 – 17)
James is an expert on the “earthly, unspiritual, demonic” form of wisdom that breeds in the atmosphere of “jealousy and selfish ambition” because this is where he has come from. The Gospels tell us his attitude to his older brother (Jesus) was not pure or peaceable. “After this Jesus …would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. 2 Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. 3 So his brothers (of whom James is always mentioned first) said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. 4 For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” 5 For not even his brothers believed in him.” (John 7:1 -5) Like Satan in the wilderness, James tries to provoke Jesus to perform some showy miracle to impress the multitude. Jesus pays no attention to such demonic wisdom because he has no personal ambition – he will not, to quote a head of one of our local denominations, “profile his ministry”, his only desire is to please the Father.
Some of us are old enough to remember a TV show called “Father Knows Best” (1954-1962). But deep inside when it comes to the knowledge of what is good and evil for me (Gen 2:9, 17, 3:5, 22) I think I know better than even God.
There is a simple practical test of how much we truly believe in the wisdom revealed in the cross. [(Paul says Christ is “the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Cor 1:24), “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:3). (Compare 1 Cor 1:30))] A church that does not feel the need for prayer and searching the Word is a church that does not believe the cross is the final revelation of both divine goodness and human evil (wisdom reveals good and evil).
Wise in the Eyes of the Father
If being wise in our own eyes is at the root of evil, seeking wisdom in the Father’s eyes is godly wisdom. In Proverbs, wise instruction is always given by a father (Prov 4:1, 4 -5; 13:1 etc.) and the importance of wisdom is that it gladdens the father’s heart “My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad.” (Prov 23:15). Compare 10:1; 15:20; 23:24; 27:11. [The true son rejoices in the image of the Father.]
Jesus knew he was living in the wisdom of God because of his experience of the gladness of the Father. This is what poured out on Jesus at his baptism, ““You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”” (Luke 3:22). [(Compare Romans 14:17.)] The Father’s joy pours into Jesus because he is stepping out on the way of the cross to finally reveal the true knowledge of good and evil.
Luke 10 takes us deeply into the realm of the two wisdoms. “The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” 18 And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. …do not rejoice…that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”21 In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 22 All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”” (17 – 22)
Jesus’ heart is thrilled and amazed at how the wisdom of the Father kingdom turns the world upside down (Acts 17:6). Proud Satan, who sought to exalt himself above God (Rev 12:7 -9) (Compare Matt 11:23; 23:12; Luke 18:14; 2 Thess 2:4), and with him all who think they are wise and understanding, are cast down from the realm of access to God in heaven (Job 1:6; 2:1), but Jesus’ disciples, the humble “little children”, have their names lifted up to heaven in the pleasure of the Father. Those who are wise in their own eyes are irretrievably ignorant, those who confess their ignorance receive the revelation of the Father and the Son – this is the wisdom of God.
The Cross and the Experience of Wisdom
Isaiah prophetically speaks of the cross with a humility (recognises he has been wrong) that is born of wisdom, “he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”(Isa 53:2 -3)
There is nothing naturally attractive about the cross. In our ignorance we cannot resist the temptation to follow the church in Laodicea, “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” (Rev 3:17). The church in a city tends to take on the characteristics of a city, in this case much of the church in Perth is clean and prosperous on the outside but defiled on the inside. (I have “seen” the church clothing itself with many garments that are not from Christ.)
Two opposing words stand out as claimants for supreme wisdom, the Word of God “the soul who sins shall die” (Ezek 18:4) and the word of the devil ““You will not surely die.”” (Gen 3:4). The wisdom of God says, no matter how attractive the temptation, no matter how costly the consequences, NEVER disobey your heavenly Father.
When I look back on the circumstances of my own conversion (and I was a very emotionally confused person) I remember two great fears, the fear of man and the fear of divine judgement. I knew a fear so great that I could not even walk down the street, and a fear so paralysing, afterwards I knew it was demonic, that I could not walk through the door into a Christian meeting. Yet the fear of hell I woke up with each morning got the upper hand, and in the end, whatever the cost – foolishness, rejection, family misunderstanding, I had to come to Christ .
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Prov 9:10) We are all immersed in a spiritual environment that permeates this city. I really think I have lost something and need a fresh baptism in the holy fear that the wisdom of the cross imparts- this time, not for myself, but for others.
The cross does not look wise in the eyes of man. Everyone involved in the execution of Jesus thinks they are wise, the high priests will preserve their power base and keep the Romans happy, the crowd will rid itself of a Messianic impostor, Pilate will keep his political enemies pacified. The only person who looks like a fool is Jesus.
This seems to be the meaning of his terrible cry, ““My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”” (Mark 15:34). He is utterly unbearably crushed and despairs of life itself (2 Cor 1:8). “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.” (Isa 53:5)
According to the scriptures “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. (Ps 34:18)” and the Bible confidently states, “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.” (Ps 34:15) If Jesus spirit is crushed and he fears God with an absolute fear, isn’t this what Gethsemane is all about, shouldn’t he be fully aware of the wisdom of his own death (Prov 9:6)? If he is empty of all pride (Phil 2:7 – 8) shouldn’t his insight into the wisdom of God be absolute?
But the cross is an entry of a spotless soul into our condition. He tastes the death of the wicked (Heb 2:9), he plumbs the absolute depths of the serpent’s deception that sin can lead to deathlessness, because he is deprived of the one thing which has always conveyed to him the wisdom of God, the presence of the pleasure of his Father. Jesus’ life is his Father, for Jesus to lose his life for our sakes is for him to lose communion with his Father.
Unlike us, Jesus has never been either good or evil in his own eyes, he has only ever listened to the verdict of his Father. The cross means for Jesus an entry into a sort of moral limbo, a vacuum of understanding, he cannot and will not declare himself to be good or evil because he has no witness from his Father. This is the condition of a soul that feels it lostness more than any soul in hell.
How can God do this to his Son, what sort of a Father is this? I will tell you what sort of a Father this is, a Father who is birthing in the humanity of his Son a new creation (2 Cor 5:17) that unlike the first cannot at all (1 Pet 1:3 -5) be touched by evil and suffering and death. For what comes out of Jesus when he is “crushed for our iniquities” is a love for God, and for us, of such purity that it ascends to heaven and fills the throne room of God with such a sweetness that the throne of judgement (Ps 9:4; Matt 25:31; Rev 20:11) becomes the throne of grace (Heb 4:16).
“Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God”. (Eph 5:1)
Because Jesus lost his very human and mortal soul for the sake of the gospel he saved it (Mark 8:35).Now, we are “ Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”(Heb 12:2). The resurrection and exaltation of the humanity of Jesus, and us in him (Eph 2:6), to a place beyond all evil is the vindication of the wisdom of the cross for us all.
Do you sense the joy of the Father in the faithfulness of his servant (Matt 25:21, 23)? Are you grasped by the infinite pleasure of this Father in the obedience of this Son to the requirements of the heavenly wisdom? The more we experience these things the less we pull back from the cost of the way of the cross.
Wisdom relates to suffering
In every crisis of life learn to discern the cross. William Carey, the father of the entire western missionary movement said “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.” So what did Carey do when on March 11, 1812 a fire engulfed his print shop in Serampore, India causing £10,000 in damages (7 million dollars) It destroyed years of work, Carey’s massive polyglot dictionary, two grammar books, sets of type for 14 eastern languages, and whole versions of the Bible. Undaunted, Carey said, “The loss is heavy, but as traveling a road the second time is usually done with greater ease and certainty than the first time, so I trust the work will lose nothing of real value . . . Then he quotes from 2 Corinthians 4:8, We are cast down but not in despair.” . He had learned that no suffering was meaninglesss, but that in everything God was working the fruit of the cross into his life. In fact, news of the loss catapulted Carey to fame, bringing in funds and volunteer labor.
Did people feel sorry for Carey or was something deeper at work? In John 10:17 Jesus says, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.” What he is explaining is that the more he as a frail human being sacrifices for the Father the more he is like the Father and the more the Father is able to actively love him. The more Carey suffered for the cause of Christ, the more the third world Christians are persecuted, the more we walk the way of the cross, the more we are dynamically be touched by the love and power of God, this is the wisdom of the work of the cross.
It is not wise to avoid suffering (> death Rom 8:36) for Jesus. Live in the wisdom of the cross and you will be persecuted [(“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,”2 Tim 3:12)], misunderstood, maligned by those with the most to lose in this world, but through your pain God’s powerful, joy filled love will flow.
“the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ….Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men…” (1 Cor 1:18 -25)
When was the last time we so identified with the cross of Christ that we thought utterly foolish by others (even Christians) and utterly gladdened the heart of the Father? Remember the famous saying of the missionary pioneer Jim Elliot who was speared to death in the jungles of South America, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” What is it that you cannot lose- the immortality of living in the joy of the Father.
Application Perth 2006
At this present moment the Father is applying the work of the cross in a special way. He, is indwelling the painful circumstances of life to crush the spirits of the saints so that what comes out of them is the aroma of Christ – “a fragrance from life to life” (2 Cor 2:14- 16).
With some reluctance I use my wife as an example. As she has gone through her surgery, chemo and radio therapy different people have said things like “we are proud of you”, “you are an inspiration to us”, teachers have given her hugs in the school quadrangle and such things. They don’t know what is touching them, but it is the outflowing of the beauty and sweetness of the wisdom of the cross in the eyes of the Father.
I believe that God is on the move in Perth, but one particular sin stands to undermine his work.
In 2003 a lady called Jenny Hagar came to Perth to speak to the prayer movement in the city. In the middle of the night God began to speak to her about something that would undermine his work. In particular he gave her the word “sandgroper”. She had no idea what it meant, but when a friend she was staying with looked it up on the internet they discovered it was a usually invisible burrowing insect that at times eats the roots of cereals and damages the harvest. After I heard this warning I prayed about what it meant. I believe I received an answer from James 3:16, “selfish ambition”. This is all something we are deeply prone to.
In her prophecy about the birth of Jesus, Mary said, “”He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away. (Luke 1:51- 53). Let us pray that we have the wisdom to fear pride and seek lowliness.