2008 Mid-America Conference on Preaching, Part 2

General Session 1: The Wisdom of God vs. the Wisdom of This Age

1 Corinthians 2:6-16

The opening session of the conference began simply with prayer, two hymns, and a musical ensemble. Dave Doran delivered the first address.
Dr. Dave Doran is senior pastor at Inter-City Baptist Church and president of Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, both in Allen Park, Michigan. He serves as chairman of the Practical Theology Department and teaches the core pastoral theology courses in the M.Div. program. He received his education at Bob Jones University (B.A.), Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div., Th.M.), and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (D.Min.). The following is a summary of his presentation:

The conference theme is “Culture, Contextualization, and the Church.” Hearing this theme engenders lots of reactions, some of confusion and some of rejection. There are about as many definitions of “contextualization” as there are people talking about it. For some it means applying the Scripture. For others it shapes the very message they are going to proclaim. The term is only about thirty-five years old, but it’s not going to go away.

In this passage Paul argues that the gospel and the wisdom of man are incompatible, not because the gospel isn’t wise, but because it is not wise according to the standards of this world.

This Wisdom Is Contrasted with the Wisdom of this Age (1 Cor. 2:6-9)

There is no dichotomy between the gospel and wisdom per se; it is contrasted with the wisdom of this world, which is “passing away,” as does everything that is apart from God.

The gospel message manifests “God’s wisdom,” the kind that opposes the wisdom of the world. It is also a mystery. Here “mystery” probably means that apart from the counsel of God, this message would not be known. God has to reveal it and communicate it. It was “hidden,” but it has not been revealed (10).

How this wisdom is received is critical. It is not esoteric knowledge that people can climb up to, but is spoken to those who are “mature”—those whose eyes have been opened by God and are mature in the faith.

By crucifying the Lord of Glory, the world showed that it does not understand God’s wisdom. Despite all Jesus did in front of them, they didn’t understand who He was. This is where we encounter the problem for those who don’t know Christ. They have a heart that will not accept the truth of God even though it is set plainly before them. They are alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them (Eph. 4:18). “Seeing they do not see. Hearing they do not hear” (Matt. 13:13). Only those who love God and have a relationship with Him will accept these things. A radical distinction exists between those who know God and those who do not.

This Wisdom Is Communicated by the Spirit through Messengers (1 Cor. 6:10-13)

The way that this wisdom is communicated is through the Spirit of God. We would not know it any other way. This is not wisdom that is accessible apart from the Spirit’s revelation. General revelation alone would not adequately communicate this. It was given to Paul and the apostles and then passed on to others. This is “special” revelation, given to specific people. It is not accessible to all.

This Wisdom Is Comprehended through the Spirit (1 Cor. 6:14-16)

It is not that the natural man will be able to comprehend the wisdom of God if we can just make it more accessible to him. We cannot break down certain barriers so the natural man can accept this wisdom. This is what the Corinthians wanted to do. For the Jews, they wanted to remove the scandal of the cross. For the Gentiles they wanted to use the wisdom of the world. But the natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God. Depravity has so affected the unbeliever’s mind that he is unable to understand the truth of the gospel. Two categories exist here—natural and spiritual. The spiritual man is one whose eyes the Spirit has opened.

Applications

These truths directly oppose much of the mindset that drives contextualization today. Many operate on the premise that unless we can recontextualize the message into categories that fit the way unbelievers think, they will not be able to understand our message.

We grant the necessity to move the message from the sender to the receiver. We’re not talking about that. We’re talking about, for instance, the claims that how we’ve been preaching the gospel has been totally shaped by modern thinking and that preaching must be reshaped into postmodern categories to reach today’s hearers. These claims assume that how we structure the message is key to its acceptance.

Many have believed for many years that if we can simply repackage the message properly, we can convinced people to accept Christ. According to Rick Warren, if we find the “key to their heart,” they will believe. This is a shallow, unbiblical view of depravity that adversely influences ministerial strategy. If you’re constantly looking for the next way to package the gospel, you don’t understand that doing so is trying to borrow from man’s wisdom to make the gospel more attractive. When we do so, we are leaving God’s path for us.

The wisdom of God must stand in judgment over the wisdom of man if we are going to have the kind of powerful ministry that Paul had in Corinth.

Scott Aniol received a bachelor’s degree in church music at Bob Jones University. He has taken seminary classes at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary and did graduate work in choral conducting and church music history at Concordia University in River Forest, Illinois. He earned a master’s degree in Musicology at Northern Illinois University and is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Theology at Central Baptist Seminary in Minneapolis, MN. Scott speaks on the subjects of music and worship at various churches and conferences. Check out his Web site at Religious Affections Ministries.