The Bliss of Extra-Gospel Ignorance (Part 1 of 2)

1 Corinthians 2:1-5

And when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. And my speech and my message were not plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

The Problems in Corinth Demand a Return to the Gospel

The goal here that the apostle Paul is now turning to—if you'll remember the issue that we've been in in the previous weeks—is that there are problems that the Corinthian church is experiencing that can only be corrected by a return to the gospel. They can only happen as a result of an emphasis and a focus upon the gospel.

Now the apostle Paul is going to create a rather extreme view where he essentially states that anything that is outside of the gospel is not necessary to know. In fact, what he is demonstrating here is that there's an example of an extra-gospel kind of ignorance that is actually the correct place to be—extra-gospel meaning that which is outside of the gospel.

The apostle Paul is clearly stating and clearly emphasizing the reality that if I am ignorant of non-gospel things, that's perfectly okay. In fact, to do so and to know nothing except the gospel is one of the greatest places that any Christian could be: to know nothing except the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's the idea of this passage and that's what I mean when I say that this is an example of an extra-gospel ignorance that is one in which we should indeed follow—to be ignorant of anything outside of the gospel.

Knowing the Gospel is Knowing Everything Essential

Now if you heard me say that and you heard me say that you would be deficient, then there's a misunderstanding of what I'm talking about and what the apostle Paul is presenting here. Because the fact is that this is a significant reality: knowing the gospel is actually knowing more than you could ever deal with or that you could ever handle. To be so thoroughly knowledgeable, so thoroughly equipped, you would not be deficient in anything whatsoever to know nothing except the gospel.

Of course there's a point of clarification: we're not talking about not knowing physics or not knowing chemistry. So once again, what we shouldn't do with this message is take it, run home and say, "Mom, Dad, Pastor Jeremy specifically said that the only thing that we should focus on in our studies is the gospel—which in some ways is true—and now as a result of that this stupid math stuff that you're talking about that's totally anti-biblical. You are such a heretic, Mom, such a heretic, Dad, to try to bring forth studies so beneath me as English."

It's exactly how we should not respond to what I just said. The reality is that everything outside the gospel—pertaining to the lifestyle that we live, pertaining to what is most important to God and indeed as we think—we've even talked about this before: what would give value to learning math? What would give value to learning physics? It is what the gospel teaches us so that that way when you examine the realities of God as Creator, the realities of God as the totality of everything that is summed up in Christ, that is worth learning. That gives value and meaning to all these other subjects. That's where you begin to recognize that anything outside of the gospel is totally pointless. It doesn't bring anything to it.

A good example of the comparison here would be to compare the gospel with Aristotle, to compare the gospel with Socrates, to compare the gospel with modern-day psychology or even modern-day philosophy. And philosophy in and of itself would not be bad. In fact, the term here for wisdom that is used within our text is sophia, the Greek word sophia which means wisdom. But as we understand from the context, there are multiple kinds of wisdom that we can experience: a worldly kind of wisdom, a demonic kind of wisdom, and biblical wisdom that gives meaning and value to the things that we understand.

So if philosophy is determined from our theology, then it is good philosophy. But if philosophy is determining our theology, then that's when you have entered into that which is extra-gospel, extra-biblical, and totally pointless.

Paul's Simple Proclamation of the Gospel

So when the apostle Paul launches into this discourse now within chapter 2, when he is saying, "I came to you, brothers," and when he did, "I did not come to you proclaiming the mysteries of God"—the Greek root of mysterion, the mysteries of God, the things that were not known about God—"I did not do so with speech that was over your head, with arguments or terminology that were difficult to understand."

He came to them not with something that was difficult, that was deep, that was moving, that was the kind of terminology that made you go, "Whoa, I don't understand what you just said, but whoa." That's not what he's saying. "I didn't come here with any of that. I didn't come here with this lofty speech, with this lofty knowledge. I came to you and I proclaimed to you the gospel in terms in which you could understand it, in which you could know it, in which you could see it, and in which case I would not detract from its ability to revolutionize your life, to change the very fabric of your nature and the very fabric of your life."

"I didn't come here with some kind of fantastic argumentation to try to persuade you, to try to show you that what I was saying was good because of what I was ultimately saying, but I allowed the content of what I was saying to speak for itself."

Now you might say that if you read through the book of Acts, there's probably a little bit of a contradiction immediately because it seems that the Apostle Paul here in 1 Corinthians 2 is saying that he didn't reason with them or he didn't try to persuade them. But isn't that what he did in the book of Acts? Like in Acts 18:4 where it literally says,

And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and he tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.

Verse 12 of chapter 18 of Acts:

But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal... [saying] this man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law.

The reality is what verse 5 says in Acts 18: when Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.

So the content of his persuasion, the manner in which he tried to persuade people, was proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in its entirety and in its integrity. And that was actually what was effective to the point in which he's brought before officials saying, "Stop talking about Jesus, otherwise you're going to persuade me to believe."

It's the content of the gospel, the reality of the gospel, the significance of the gospel. The focus is on the gospel, and that's the way of persuading people to the truth—and in fact, that's the way of being persuaded yourselves to the truth.

The Gospel Solves Every Problem

When you recognize any of the significant issues that go on with your life, all of the problems that are there—every single problem that is associated with either the sins that we're committing or the suffering that we're going through or the difficult circumstances or whatever it is—the gospel is always the solution. But it's not trying to figure out certain kinds of terminology or certain kinds of argumentation to present the gospel. It's just simply the gospel.

So for the church at Corinth, it wasn't about this whole "I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos," I'm of this superior position, I've been baptized and trace my spiritual lineage back to certain spiritual leaders. Not about tracing my lineage or tracing my apostolic authority or anything of that effect. But to just simply begin to recognize the significance of the gospel.

And that's the issue about correcting this church at Corinth from their divisions, correcting the issues that take place: when they begin to recognize the significance of the gospel as the power of God,

For the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16).

Then a lot of these other secondary, tertiary, and insignificant issues go aside, and we can begin to come together as a community of people believing in Jesus Christ, recognizing our own weakness—that's what the big theme was last time. You came from a position of weakness, you came from a position of spiritual poverty. There wasn't anything significant about you. And in fact, now that we get into it, arguments that are left, you are all about the significance of me and winning a debate or winning an argument or trying to demonstrate myself as superior. But when you see the gospel for what it actually is, the gospel is what is superior, and that's the focus of our Christian fellowship and our Christian worship: nothing but the gospel.

I determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And in fact, that didn't create a deficiency; that created power because that's the reality of the gospel. So when I'm not trying to add to it or take away from it, it's nothing but the gospel, it's nothing but the power of God to change me, to change my experience of circumstances, to change my experience of things, to do so in a meaningful and qualitative fashion so that that way I can experience things unto the glory of God and not just simply go through and figure out what works.

That I could experience things in a meaningful fashion, a meaningful God-honoring, God-glorifying, eternal significance, eternal value: power of God. I determined to not know anything, didn't want to know anything, didn't want to have a conversation about anything, didn't want to show up and discuss the ins and outs of this or that except within the reality of the gospel.

And as mentioned a moment ago, it's not that again that we embrace some kind of weird ascetic attitude where we all put on camel hair robes and eat locusts and honey... but that we would start with the reality of the gospel and we would let the gospel determine the meaning of things. And if there is no meaning within something in comparison to the gospel, then I determined to not know it. That's what the Apostle Paul is saying here.

Weakness, Fear, and Trembling Before the Gospel

Now, of course, the significance of what he is saying is not just simply the reality of not determining to know anything except the gospel—in other words, that he embraces some kind of an intellectual exercise. He just simply memorizes certain things and he's able to recite it in catechism or something like that. But that there's a significant element to not knowing anything except the gospel that's presented within our text.

Notice what he says here, starting again in verse 1: "And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." And here it is, verse 3: the difference between just simply knowing it and being impacted by it. "And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my message were not plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power."

Twice within this passage, he talks about the power of God, and then he sees the recognition of its impact upon his life. It freaks out in relationship to the gospel when I was giving it to you. I didn't just simply say, "Here's the gospel: Jesus crucified for your sins," but I presented it to you and I was in much weakness. I understood the limitations and the fallibility and the weakness of this human flesh and this human nature that I have to be communicating such divinely amazing and divinely magnificent principles as God Almighty sending his Son to be crucified on our behalf to save us from our sins—recognizing what the gospel is and who God is.

I saw my limitations in being able to present that, and I was afraid of it and I trembled, and I couldn't even say lofty speech, but I was embracing the reality of the power of the Holy Spirit. In other words, given the reality of not knowing anything except Jesus and Him crucified, it impacted Paul to the point in which he had a respectful and reverential and committed attitude towards it, and it was so true that he feared it, that he physically trembled before it.

Of course, this is a description of what happened with Paul and not necessarily a prescription of what needs to happen within our lives, but I think it's important, I think it's significant to emphasize that reality. He didn't just simply know nothing, totally ignorant on anything except that which is in the gospel and that which the gospel teaches. But he knew it and was as committed to it and as devoted to it that it caused a physical response within his life.

I question, I wonder even in my own life, the life of anybody within the church these days: how cliché is the gospel? How many times have we just heard it over and over again that for us it's just sort of like, "I get that, I understand that." But there it is. Or maybe it hasn't been presented enough within our lives to have it before our eyes so much that we would be impacted to such a significant degree as having a significant respect for it.

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared (Psalm 130:3-4).

There's a fear in what he is saying there. There's a respect for God's sovereignty over everybody, and everybody is sinful even to the degree that they have nothing to present before God that would allow them to stand in his presence. Then he says, "But with you there is forgiveness"—and of course that's where there's the rejoice, that's the magnificence behind that, that's the significance of God in his salvation. But he says there's a specific result of that forgiveness, and it's that in his life: "that you may be feared."

In other words, he starts with a fearful recognition of the reality that God is completely in charge and sovereign and in control over his very fate, his very destiny, what it is that would happen with him in every single human being. There's a particular degree of fear of respect for that God. He rejoices in worship of the reality of forgiveness that God gives for those that are his people, but then he says that the result of forgiveness was in order that he may be feared—so that you would circle back to the starting point of reverence and fear for God.

One significant thing is to recognize that if I understand that God has forgiven me of my sins, it does not create within me a desire to keep sinning. Recognizing that's the power of God. Recognizing what God has done on Christ, judged our sin on Christ—that's the good news. That he did not spare his Son, that he killed his Son so that we would be forgiven of our sins. That's not something that creates within me an attitude of flippancy or disregard for his character; that's something that should motivate me in fear and trembling to want to not sin.

Theology Matters: Knowing Christ Crucified

Theology matters, folks. Biblical doctrine matters, and it is found in nothing else other than knowing Christ and Him crucified. That's exactly where it lies.

So with all of that specifically in mind, the recognition that we have to come to the point in which we need to come to is: do we understand the gospel? And do we have it before our eyes so much?

One of the criticisms that the Apostle had of the church at Galatia was,

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

Now some of them probably weren't even there for the crucifixion of Jesus, so how could he say that? It's because the gospel was so well known and so well presented that it was as if they stood before Christ witnessing Him upon the cross, seeing the gospel happening exactly as how it was. And the reality of the biblical text is that it legitimately presents the gospel so well that it's as if you would be seeing Jesus crucified upon the cross.

When you go through those stories, when you go through those gospel accounts of Jesus upon the cross, do you see that as a mere historical account or do you see yourself traveling back in time, witnessing your sins upon Jesus? And being impacted by the reality that this innocent, sinless Son of God is being considered guilty so you could be considered innocent. What has that done for you?

Not Missing Out: Faith in God's Power

So within that specific reality: if all I know is Christ and Him crucified, I am not missing out on anything. And why is that? It's because Paul doing this and saying this would enable us to have our faith rest not in words of wisdom from men but in the power of God.

You see, one of the significant problems with ways in which we try to get people into a church, ways in which we try to attract people—one of the things that I've always thought was interesting that my father-in-law has told me from previous denomination being involved in, and the ways that they would try to get people: they would give away things on Sundays and they would draw people into the congregation. Sunday would be booming, and in fact they even told him that every Sunday needs to be knocking it out of the park, doing something exciting, something amazing. Problem is when they didn't do that, people weren't attending as much.

So you see, when you're building things within a church that are not about the gospel of Jesus Christ, you're attracting people into the church that are not about the gospel of Jesus Christ. That simple math: when you're attracting somebody into the church or you're attracting somebody into Christianity when you're doing it with things that are not the pure, unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ, then people's faith is resting on something other than the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's a very important, a very sincere consideration: be saying that I don't want the reality of you as a Christian, the reality of your faith to be resting upon the truth or the efficacy or the fantasticness or the startlingness or the instrumentalness of what somebody is specifically saying. In other words, that it would not be built around the personality of somebody. So that way you would not be saying, "I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas, I am of Christ." It would not be built around the personality of somebody, but that it would stand firmly fixed in Jesus Christ.

So when you're in that position, you're not missing out on anything. You're exactly where you need to be. You have the power of God within your life. It was confirmed by Paul's demonstrations with the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the reality and the significance of what can radically alter and change the landscape of your life.

You don't need helpful examples of things that seem to have worked in other people's lives. You don't need some kind of absolute; you need the absolute guarantee of what will change your life for the better permanently, and that's the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When you look at the Jehovah's Witnesses website, it's a very fantastic and spectacular display of the lack of gospel. You click on links, you click on articles, and you follow through a lot of their teachings, and it's just sort of like, "Here's a helpful way of improving some things within your marriage. Here's how to be a better employee." And of course, the reality and the significance of the gospel is it will affect those areas of your life. But what they present is devoid of the gospel; it's just nice little practical steps, and much of it is psychology-driven.

One of the things that I rejoice in and that I'm excited about in the reality of being a biblical counselor is the fact that I don't have to go through and figure out a Rogerian method of counseling or a Freudian method of counseling where somebody comes in and they're struggling with their past, and I have to do emotional archaeology to try to dig up the issues way back in the day, and if they had daddy issues that I have to assume the role of their daddy and try to recreate and reconstruct their experience with their dad. That's Freudianism. The Rogerian method might be a little bit nicer because you just sit there and let them talk and then hopefully it just fixes itself. But I don't have to try to come up with some kind of a method.

And in fact, the reality is for those that recognize the significance of the gospel, those are individuals that can expect to come in for counseling and not get Jeremy. You don't want Jeremy. Trust me. I've got a fantastic track record of thoroughly messing things up... You want the gospel.

You should come to youth group because there's the gospel here. You should come to heritage because there's the gospel here. Or you should even go to other churches because the gospel is there. That needs to be the number one consideration because nothing else will change your life—or nothing else will change your life in a permanent or meaningful fashion.

Paul has demonstrated the reality of the gospel, the reality of the gospel's ability to change our lives because it does not rest in what men have said. It does not rest in the wisdom of men or in sophistry or in anything in that specific vein of thought. It rests in the power of the gospel, what God can do within your life.

True Wisdom Flows from the Gospel

Now of course, it doesn't mean to throw out wisdom because that's going to be next week. He's going to say, "We do impart a kind of wisdom." And of course true wisdom, true biblical wisdom is looking at things from God's perspective, seeing reality for how God sees it and how God demonstrates it. The reality is that if it is found outside of the gospel—and he's going to give us the basic framework for the gospel.

And again, if there's any kind of a concern that if all I do is focus on the gospel, then I'm not going to spiritually grow. If all I do is focus on the gospel, then I'm not going to get into some deep things within Scripture, then recognize the fact that we're only in chapter two of a 16-chapter book. Where the apostle Paul is going to go into spiritual gifts, where he's going to go into marriage, where he's going to go into food sacrificed to idols, where he's going to go into all sorts of various different topics, all of which don't detract from what he's saying here: that I determined nothing except Christ and Him crucified.

Here's a fantastic illustration of this reality. The fact of the matter is that when Jesus came upon the scene, he called a bunch of individuals—a bunch of goofs in a way—to be his 12 disciples, one of them a devil, Judas. He brought all these dudes together and he would expound and he would explain deep and fantastic mysteries to them. And sometimes it was sort of like, "Okay, we get it," and other times they didn't. And in fact, when it came down to Jesus being crucified, he was abandoned by all but one. One dude even denied him three times—good old Cephas, Peter.

You had all these guys that came together. But once the gospel was finally and officially accomplished and they received the confirmation and the receipt of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, these individuals then opened up the Scriptures and they saw Christ, they saw the gospel, and they were radically changed, radically revolutionized.

Some people only attribute it to the Holy Spirit. Of course, it's the reality of the gospel, as Paul is saying here. The Holy Spirit came and gave them the reminder of the gospel. That's what Jesus had promised. And so once that took place and they were standing before the very individuals that crucified Jesus—they already demonstrated that they were able to put somebody to death with the help of the Roman Empire—but that they were able to put somebody to death, and they stood before them and accused them of killing Jesus, accused them of killing the long-awaited Messiah. They ran around with acts of power. They ran around with wonderful and magnificent spread of the gospel. They even were so committed and so devoted to it that they gave their lives for it, with the exception of John who was tarred and feathered and abandoned upon an island in a prison.

Is There Enough Gospel in Our Lives?

Your faith does not rest in what intelligent individuals assume about reality, but it rests in the power of God. Is there enough study? Is there enough gospel in our lives throughout the week to impress us, to wow us, to win us, to woo us, to convict us, to convince us, to impact our lives? If this is true, it should do something within our lives.

Roman Catholics typically accuse us Protestants of our doctrine of Sola Scriptura, which is the doctrine that the Bible is its own best interpreter and the Bible was so useful for maintaining the sole and infallible rule for all of what we believe and what we do that it could even refute the Pope in which cases it did. They say that all this Scripture alone stuff—just look at all the individuals whose lives are a mess, their lives are in disarray. So the Bible alone is just not doing it.

Of course the reality is not the power of the Scriptures failing or not doing it, but of people not being willing to adhere to what the Scriptures have to say. That's the same that is true with the gospel: if I am not experiencing the realities of the gospel and being impacted by it, it's not because the gospel is failing; it's because I am fundamentally ignoring the power of the gospel and refusing to experience it. And that happens with a complete and total lack of gospel throughout my life during the week in my study, even in the times where it means the most and even in the times where it doesn't seem to mean the most, that it is the very power of God.

Is there enough gospel within my life that it impacts me, that it impresses me, that it convinces me? What is needed is the power of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Is there enough that's there?

Closing Considerations

Here are a few closing considerations. The first one is the fact that the testimony of the Apostle Paul has proven trustworthy and that God is powerful for us in the gospel. That's one of the primary emphases of this passage of Scripture. Not just simply, here's a good example to follow, which the Apostle Paul said, imitate me as I imitate Christ. So we should imitate him. We should imitate him in the realities of what he is expressing here, but it's also the significance that what he has presented is valid and trustworthy. It's not tainted by Greek philosophy, it's not tainted by pagan myths, it's not tainted by anything that would discredit it from being the reality of what it actually is: the power of the gospel of God unto salvation for everyone who believes.

And when he came, there is a historical account of how he presented that to the Corinthians. This is a valid and trustworthy example of the gospel. You can trust what Paul is saying here in the book of 1 Corinthians, because he did not come with a sophisticated way of coming with things. He did not align himself with other religions. The fundamental facts of what is being presented here are totally different than other religions. This is the unique reality, because God is real, and his gospel is real, and that's what the Apostle Paul had proved. It's proven.

The second thing, therefore, is determining to know, and following his example, nothing except Christ, and him crucified, and the fact that that increases your knowledge, that increases the impact of the gospel upon our lives and changing the areas of our ways, and revolutionizing our lives in ways that we could not imagine if we were to know something except the gospel. Again, he's going to go into detail about various different things. 1 Corinthians 15 is specifically even devoted to the gospel, to the resurrection, to the power, and the significance of what that means for us, and the hope that we're going to have in Christ Jesus.

So, be gospel-centered, be gospel-focused. Compare whatever it is that we're experiencing, whatever it is that we're believing to the gospel. Is this something that coincides with the gospel? Does it help in my understanding of the gospel? Does it help in the advancement of the gospel within my life? Or is this something that hinders from the gospel? Is this something that detracts from the gospel?

For example, if all of the activities that I do throughout the week prevent me from standing in awe of the gospel, then I am determining to know something in addition to the gospel. But if the gospel is affecting and permeating every single area of my life so that my activities are being sanctified, and whatever it is that I believe is based upon the gospel, then I am determining to know nothing except Christ.

If I believe something about my life—classic example is homosexuality, the understanding in our day and age, one of the big understandings in our day and age of the fact that people believe that they can be gay and Christian at the same time. That's fundamentally opposed to the gospel because the gospel is not come just as you are, and we're going to leave you exactly as you are, but it's come exactly as you are, and be transformed and conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. To be like Him, and like 1 Corinthians 6 is going to tell us:

Such were some of you, but you’ve been washed, you’ve been sanctified, you’ve been justified, you’ve been changed.

So if what it is that I believe detracts from, does not add to, takes away—whatever it is that I am not determining to know nothing except Christ and crucified.

And then lastly is the fact that not only should I know it, not only should I be putting the gospel before my life as much and as often as I possibly can, but I need to have a healthy and significant respect for the gospel. Are you deeply impacted by who God is and what God has done for you? And if the answer is no, the solution is more gospel. The solution is fundamentally needing more gospel.

I mean those individuals that physically saw God in the Old Testament like in Isaiah chapter 6 where Isaiah himself was before God and he says,

I am undone.

Those individuals that truly have an encounter and experience with God end up having a significant and a healthy respect for God to the degree in which they don't want to sin before his presence; they want to be corrected to their sin. So the less that I am before the presence of God, the less that I am before the gospel, the more sinful I am prone to be. Again, just simple math. More gospel means less sin. Or at least more gospel means a greater attitude against sin, a greater hatred of sin and a greater motivation and desire to change and glorify God because the fact is we're all going to be sinners the rest of our lives.

So we need to have a healthy and a significant respect for the gospel, being deeply impacted by what it is and by what it does and to not let our faith rest on anything other than the power of God in the gospel.