As a Dying Man to Dying Men
September 29, 2024
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
Scripture Reading
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
We don’t talk about Midtown Church every week or even every month, but on this one-year anniversary weekend, I wanted you to know that, by God’s grace, they’re doing well. One year ago this weekend our church didn’t meet in this building. We all met at a nearby school as two different churches and left as three churches. We gathered with Liberti Church so that together we could celebrate and commission the launch of Midtown Community Church in the city of Harrisburg.
A few of us sit on what we call the Midtown advisory team and Pastor Ben sends us a written report with updates. I asked if I could share two of the items from the last report. “On Sunday, October 6,” he writes, “we will celebrate our one-year anniversary as a church! We have a lot going on in the service this Sunday. We will be welcoming 12 new people into membership as well as baptizing 4 people, 2 of whom are new believers! Then after the service we are having a big lunch together as a church family.” When they add those twelve members, Ben told me it will bring them to ninety-two members with dozens more regular attendees.
They are also doing meaningful work in the community. They collected over one hundred backpacks and tons of school supplies for the students at Ben Franklin Elementary School, which is a block away from their building. “We were able to hand out the backpacks to families,” he writes, “and talk with them outside during student pick up the first day of school. This was a great way to kick off what we hope is a meaningful partnership that will bless our neighborhood.” They’re doing so well.
As we turn our attention to 1 Corinthians 2, I’ll mention that the church in Corinth was a newish church plant. As far as age is concerned, they were probably somewhere between a brand-new plant like Midtown and more of an established church of twenty-five years like this one. In the passage today, Paul will remind us that whether a church is new or established, and whether a person is a new Christian or an established Christian, there is only one way our souls can truly rest in such a crazy world.
Let’s pray as we begin. “Dear Heavenly Father . . .”
As I mentioned, we recently celebrated our twenty-fifth anniversary as a church. I’ve been here for not quite half of those years. Some of you have been here all twenty-five years, some of not even a full year. I would say that you’re not that hard of a church to pastor. As far as churches go, you could be a lot worse.
I would tell you, though, it’s not really when you are the worst and I’m the worst, that it is the hardest to be a pastor here. When there’s conflict and people are mad and the budget looks rough and marriages seems to be imploding and no one’s getting saved and leaders are in conflict—or whatever you think might make my job hard—that’s not really when I would say my job is the worst and I have the least rest.
It’s when I begin to think that all those issues hang on me (which I’m tempted to do all the time). That is the worst and when I have the least rest, confidence, and joy in God.
When I begin to believe that I need to be an all-knowing spiritual guru, when I believe that I need to put on a super slick service, to have us start on time and end on time, having the perfect, just-right service length—not too short and not too long—and when I think I need to pray just right and preach just right and be funny but not too funny and I need to talk about giving so we know we can honor the Lord with our money but not talk about giving too much so that we don’t offend visitors, and when I think the front yard grass must be perfectly manicured and when I think that it’s my job to make sure we don’t park in front of any neighbor’s driveways or I must have our coffee perfectly hot, even for second service, and, oh, for sure I need to be the perfect boss and wise leader who has encountered every conceivable ministry situation before and has learned from this extensive experience and figured everything out and now always knows what to do whenever there is something to do…
It’s when I begin to believe that all that hangs on me—what I bring and how I perform—that is when it is the worst to be your pastor. And so it doesn’t have much to do with you, actually. It’s the circumstances that expose what our hearts truly believe.
Most of you are Christians, but most of you are not pastors. But I bet, whether you are a pastor or not even a Christian, I bet the most anxious times in your life are when you feel like the weight of the world hangs on your shoulders. Your job, your career, your relationships with family and friends, your health, your finances, your caring for aging parents, your caring for newborn children, your struggle against sin, and your growth in spiritual maturity all hang on you. I’d bet that is when it is the worst to be you, when you have the least rest, when you feel like your soul is the most restless. That was true for those in the church in Corinth in the first century and it’s true for us in Harrisburg today: when we understand our salvation and our rest as hanging on anything but Christ, we can never rest.
In this passage, Paul talks about how he preached and why he preached how he preached. Which we’ll get to in just a moment. But on the surface, that might not feel like a very relevant sermon passage for us as a group. Perhaps, it relates to pastors. Sure, it does that. And, I guess because all of you are making choices about where to attend church, maybe this passage relates to you even if you’re not a preacher.
I don’t think we need to do that. This passage is Paul’s way of saying on God’s behalf that God wants your soul to have a rest that is sure and sturdy even when life is crazy. The only way to do that is to remind people again and again—forgetful people that we are—that this kind of rest only comes from knowing Christ and him crucified. We sang an old hymn two weeks ago that has the line, “When all around my soul gives way, he is all my hope and stay.” That’s what this passage is about. It’s about howPaul preached, but it’s more about why Paul preached how he preached. So let’s talk about that.
1. How we preach (plain but powerful Christ-centered sermons), vv. 1–4
Let me walk through the first four verses. Paul’s going to explain how he preached. Let me offer you my paraphrase of how Paul preached and how we want to preach: we preach plain but powerful Christ-centered sermons. Let’s see this in the passage, starting in v. 1.
And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.
Paul reminds the church that he didn’t come with fancy preaching. He came with plain preaching. And what did he preach? Here he says that he preached “the testimony of God.” In other words, “When I preach to you, I don’t preach Paul. Just as Apollos doesn’t preach Apollos. And Peter doesn’t preach Peter.” If you remember back to chapter 1, there were massive divisions in the church about who their favorite was, even though none of the preachers were actually in competition. “I preach the testimony of God,” Paul says. “I preach who God is and what he has done, is doing, and will do. And when I do,” he says, “I do not use lofty speech.”
You have to remember that in Corinth the biggest celebrities were those who could command an audience with their words. It was a whole competition. Imagine a high school debate team where no one really believes anything that they debate about, they just learn the skills of debate and rhetoric. It’s a show. Now, imagine there is no TV, no radio, no internet, or no media except live performances. In that context, as it was in Corinth, perhaps the high school debate champion is more like the high school quarterback, the one who gets all the girls and whatnot. I’m told they even had fancy dinner partners, where the wealthy hosts hired speakers to present between courses for entertainment (see Thiselton in The New International Greek Commentary, 205).
To this, Paul says, “No. I’m not doing that. I’m going not going to give you exactly what you want from a speaker.” He hasn’t answered why yet. That comes at the very end. But let’s explore this a bit more in our context.
We probably don’t value rhetoric in the same way. We have TED Talks and Toastmasters and all of that. But generally, the high school debate champion is not as popular as the high school quarterback. So we might not value lofty speech, but we certainly have tastebuds for certain kinds of speaking. We often have taste buds for junk food from presenters. If Paul were here in Harrisburg, what would he say he wouldn’t do here? I’ll give you a few ideas.
I believe he would say, I’m not going to fill my sermons with frivolity, like stupid, slapstick humor. The most popular Youtubers, people like Mr. Beast, are not so wrong in what they do. It’s not terrible any more than the eloquent orators in Paul’s day were necessarily wrong. It’s probably all fine. But to the tonnage of frivolity and cheap humor and standup comedy that we so love, Paul would say, “I know that gets lots of clicks, but I’m not going to preach like that.”
And he would add, “I’m not going to use attractiveness to sell the gospel.” There is a kind of church culture where every leader has to be pretty and handsome and if we are just fashionable enough and attractive enough and our singers on stage are pretty and blond and the preacher has to be super strong and can’t be too old, then the gospel will go forward in power. To that, Paul says, No.
You realize that the actor who places Jesus on The Chosen is far more handsome and attractive than Jesus actually was, right? You know this, don’t you? I’m not mad that he is a handsome guy and that Peter looks ripped in his tunic. That’s fine. But remember that when Isaiah prophecies about the coming savior, he says that Jesus will have “no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Isa. 53:2).
And now think about the speed of sermons, especially Paul and his run on sentences. Paul would say, I’m not going to appeal to you like a TikTok video that last fourteen seconds.
And I believe he would say to us, Your culture values strong, muscular language; you love The Daily Wire and strong leaders who tear down their opponents and show others their stupidity. Paul would say, I know if I preached like that, it would draw a bigger crowd both in person and online, but I’m not going to do it.
Maybe you’ve heard this quote before: “What you win them with, you win them to.” And Paul is not going to win them by giving them what sinful hearts want: mere frivolous entertainment, attractive people, clever branding, or strong biting words.
How I’m going to preach, he says, is preaching the plain testimony of God: who God is and what God has done. This sentiment gets more clear in v. 2.
For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
You’ll notice the conscious choice on his part. “For I decided,” he says. I won’t point out each instance, but over and over in this short passage, Paul stresses his deliberate and intentional choice of how to preach.
Now, this phrase about knowing nothing doesn’t actually mean he knew nothing except Jesus Christ crucified. Paul was there for eighteen months when he planted the church. He talked about other things. Even in this letter, he’s going to talk about sexual immorality and lawsuits among believers and meat sacrificed to idols and spiritual gifts and a dozen other things. And right here he’s talking about preaching.
What he means is that he did limit some of what he said. He didn’t talk about the latest Roman emperor and the latest scandal in the palace, and he didn’t talk about the gladiator games and how ungodly they were. He expected people to connect the dots from what he did say. When Paul says he only knew Christ crucified, he means that he did seem to limit some of what he talked about. But when he says that he decided to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified, the fuller meaning is that he decided that when he did talk about other issues, he would only talk about them in light of the person and work of Jesus. He was what we would call a gospel-centered preacher.
This is why we, too, try to make it our aim to have every topic in every sermon from every passage understood in light of the gospel. When we do that, when we see every topic in light of the person and work of Jesus, that’s not an unnatural thing to do. Sometimes, preachers who are trying their best might “see Jesus” in a passage in a way that is a bit clunky and odd. Be gracious to us. We’re trying. But just because a preacher might make a clunky connection to Jesus from a passage, that’s not the same as doing something unnatural with the text. Jesus is always there. We don’t have to put him there. So, for example, when Paul talks about sexuality in chapter 6, he says what he says and then adds, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19b–20). This is an example of his knowing nothing but Christ crucified. He talks about God’s standards of sexuality. But he talks about it by saying that Jesus’s death has covered our sin and now we should live in light of the gospel. I could give you example after example. And we will over the next thirty-five sermons.
We’re still talking about how Paul preached. We’ll get the why in a moment. I’ll read vv. 3–4 together.
And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power . . .
When you look at the context of Acts 18, Paul had been through a lot before and during his time in Corinth. He has been stoned and persecuted; he had fled a city in a basket over a wall at night. He had people try to offer sacrifices to him because they thought he was so awesome. He spoke to a massive crowd of intellectual elites in Athens who made fun of him. And I could say more. But he was in rough shape. Some of his letters indicate he had a physical ailment, perhaps something wrong with his eyes. In 2 Corinthians, Paul actually includes one of the critiques of his opponents and how they were saying about Paul, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account” (2 Cor. 10:10). Again, it wasn’t easy for Paul to be there. He was in weakness and fear and trembling.
In v. 4 he comes back to the idea of lofty, wise speech. It’s not that his preaching wasn’t intelligent and even clever or persuasive. He was very persuasive and clever. In fact, chapter 13 of this letter, the love chapter, is probably the most well-known and well-loved piece of ancient Greek writing. It’s beautifully written.
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude . . .
And so on he goes. Paul can be good with words. What he means by saying he didn’t come in a show of faux-bodily strength, and he didn’t preach in merely plausible words of wisdom, is that he didn’t want the main takeaway to be that Paul is really awesome. He actually limited himself so that if people were changed, he wanted them to know that the power came from God.
So, in summary, we (hope to) preach plain but powerful Christ-centered sermons.
2. Why we preach how we preach, v. 5
But why do we preach the way that we preach? Let’s read the last verse.
5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
“So that,” he writes. “So that” is a purpose statement. I’m doing all that I do so that something will happen. What does Paul want to happen? Do you see it? He wants your faith to rest. He wants your soul to find rest.
We preach plain but powerful Christ-centered sermons. Why? So that our souls can rest in the right place and not in the wrong places. We preach this way so that we know that it all doesn’t hang on us. This is where I began the sermon. Let me illustrate.
Over here I have a stack of books. They are, incidentally, all commentaries on 1 Corinthians. We’ve been consulting them here and there. Imagine, though, that each one of these books represents a different part of your life: your job, career, relationships with family and friends, health, finances, caring for aging parents, caring for newborn children, struggle against sin and growth in spiritual maturity.
Each week, they sort of get slammed about—maybe as you try to progress in a certain area, maybe as you mess things up, maybe as others mess things up for you. But your life gets messed up. Your life becomes a little unstable. And when you come to a good church each week, it should be a time to confess sins and renew your faith in Christ. We need to gather with other sinners and remind each other, through songs, through prayers, preaching, greetings, and so on, that Jesus loves us, that he was crucified, dead, and buried, and he rose again. That brings an alignment. We center once again on Christ.
Then we go out, and next week we get out of alignment again.
In other words, most of the time, nothing crazy crazy happens at church. It looks unremarkable. Now, some of you, when you don’t come for weeks and weeks and weeks, you get a lot of alignment. And you either get used to being unstable, or you realize you need to come to church again.
But what if your life is really crazy? What if I take the small book and try to stand it here? Then I spin this? This is some of you when you come to church. Your life is very not aligned. Great, we’re here for that.
But again, in the final part of the sermon, I’m asking the question why Paul does what he does and does not do what he doesn’t do when he preaches.
When your life is basically okay, and you think you just need a little alignment, well, I guess if the preacher is good looking or if the preacher is funny or if the church has super cool graphics and if the church has strong, confident language and the whole presentation just feels really compelling, then I guess that is nice. Great.
But when your life is unstable and spinning, you start to care a little bit less about how polished the preacher is and what he’s wearing and whether you like all the people there, and how comfortable the pews are and how good the coffee is. Those things start to matter a little bit less.
Now, go with me one more step. I won’t do this. But imagine that every book is on the floor. Imagine you’re in the hospital, and the doctor says the bone scan means it’s cancer, the other imaging says it’s inoperable, it’s stage four, and you have five months to live. When what? And what if persecution is such that in fifteen more years, some of the believers in this church in Corinth will be fed to the lions? Then what? How much does it matter whether Paul is funny or has lofty language or clever branding? Those things will actually, in the end, detract from the helpfulness.
Paul is looking forward to these moments, hospice moments, persecution moments. Again, v. 5 says, “so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” Paul knows that in those moments, you’re going to what to know in your heart of hearts, in the depth of your soul, that you didn’t get won to Christ with a clever speaker. When you’re lying on a gurney, when you’re getting a divorce, when your child is sick, when you lose your job, you’re going to want to know that there was more to the power of God than some attractive pastor who could string together clever jokes. You’re going to want to know that Christ was crucified in weakness for your sins, and he rose again in power on the third day, and he is coming again. And if you know that then, then your soul might rest in the power of God when it matters most.
I titled the sermon “As a Dying Man to Dying Men.” It’s an allusion to a quote from an English pastor from a few hundred years ago named Richard Baxter. In a book about pastoral ministry, he wrote, “I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men” (The Reformed Pastor). Rightly understood, I think that captures what Paul was trying to do and, if you permit me to say, what we hope and pray to do.
As we end our service, we’ll share in the Lord’s Supper. I’ll pray and invite the worship team to come up, then give some instructions. “Dear Heavenly Father . . .”
Sermon Discussion Questions
What responsibilities and circumstances bump up against you that cause you to believe “everything hangs on you”?
How would you put in your own words the kind of preaching that Paul wanted to do? How would preaching to the “junk food taste buds” of Corinth have undermined their rest in the gospel?
What kinds of speaking do you enjoy most? Why is it okay to have these preferences if, at the same time, we recognize that preaching requires something (perhaps) different than our expectations?
Looking at the whole of Paul’s ministry, what did it mean for him to know only Christ crucified
Regular church attendance can be very helpful in re-aligning on the gospel of Jesus. How have you seen this work for you in your Chrisitan life? How has irregular church attendance created challenges?
