The Right-Side-Up Kingdom
September 22, 2024
Preached by Noah Gwinn
Scripture Reading
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
18 For 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. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 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. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Many of you have watched the hit Netflix series, Stranger Things. In this show, there is something of a parallel dimension called “the upside down.” It got this name because it is a dark mirror of the world we live in. In some ways it resembles the world we live in, yet the upside down is cold, dead, dark, and overgrown. It’s the place where monsters come from, and in many ways is a horrible dystopian nightmare. But what if, in reality, you and I actually live in the upside down? What if we are living in the dark mirror of what life is supposed to be like, but we don’t realize it? If this was true, it would change everything about everything, wouldn’t it?
In our passage this morning, we are going to see that humanity has indeed been plunged into the world of the upside down, and that the Kingdom of God is coming to flip our fallen world right-side-up.
Let’s pray before we get started.
Heavenly Father…
INTRODUCTION
Well, this morning we are continuing our series through 1 Corinthians, seeing how the crucified Christ shepherds a fractured flock. And this morning, as we study the end of the first chapter of this letter together, we are going to look at this reality of the right-side-up kingdom. From this passage we are going to see that everything about the Kingdom of God subverts the way we naturally think. Specifically, we are going to see this reality in the message of the kingdom, the people of the kingdom, and the king of the kingdom.
THE MESSAGE OF THE RIGHT-SIDE-UP KINGDOM
So first, let’s take a look at the message of the right-side-up kingdom. I’m not sure if you find optical illusions to be awesome or headache-inducing, but I find the concept of optical illusions to be fascinating. Like, the idea that an image can trick our minds is baffling. And I’m especially impressed by the optical illusions in which two people can see completely different things. Here are some examples:
This first image is a cylinder that looks kind of like a slinky. Now, how many of you initially see this cylinder from the bottom looking up through it? What about from the top looking down through it?
This second image is getting a little bit more advanced. For this one, how many of you are seeing the face of Taylor Swift? How many of you are seeing a man playing a saxophone?
Last one. This one is a classic. How many of you initially see an older woman? How many see a young woman looking away over her shoulder?
Optical illusions are often a matter of perspective. Depending on the framework from which you’re looking at something, you will see it differently. And this is exactly what Paul is getting at in verse 18 of our passage. He says, “For 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.” Seen from one angle or perspective, this message of the right-side-up kingdom, a message that Paul calls “the word of the cross,” is foolishness. Seen from another perspective, though, it is the power of God. I’m sure you’ve encountered this, right? This is so much of the reason why so many of us are scared to death to share the gospel with unbelievers, because they will think that we are foolish for believing such a thing. “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing,” Paul says, “but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Paul tells us that there are two perspectives because there are two types of people: those who are perishing and those who are being saved. And this changes everything. Let’s see how Paul continues on, starting in verse 20:
20 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. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
What Paul is saying here is that part of living in an upside-down world is that apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, it is not just hard, but impossible for people to see the central message of the Kingdom of God for what it is. Every part of the message of the Kingdom of God that we preach sounds like total foolishness to the world. But to fully grasp just why this is, we’ll look at how the world saw the cross as foolishness at the time of Christ and then think about why the world sees the cross as foolishness today.
The Cross as Foolishness in the Ancient World
So how did the ancient world see the message of the cross as foolishness? Well, we need to reckon with the fact of just how much Christianity has influenced the world we live in today. I mean, especially for those of us who are Christians, the cross has not only become a commonplace sight marking the victory of Christ on church steeples, but has become domesticated to hobby lobby wall decals, Pinterest-inspired tattoos, and pieces of jewelry hanging around our necks.
But in Jesus’ day, a cross was a symbol of a torture device so grotesque that it was reserved for only the most heinous criminals deserving of the worst form of capital punishment. And while we typically think of the physical pain of crucifixion, in ancient times it was not so much the physical pain that was highlighted as the social shame. People who were sentenced to death by crucifixion would often first be whipped and beaten and then nailed to a cross completely naked, often along the busiest roadways, with rush hour traffic mocking them and spitting at them. All the while dying a slow, agonizing death. It was so shameful and horrifying a death that crucifixion wasn’t even spoken of in polite company.
Consider the strangeness of the cross then becoming a symbol of victory like this: rather than a cross wall decal, imagine going over to someone’s house and seeing a noose hanging from their wall, or instead of a cross, looking at the top of a steeple and seeing an electric chair.[1] It’s a jarring image, right? The idea that a Jewish man sentenced to a shameful death penalty would become the message preached by this new religious sect sounded foolish to so many people.
Look again at verse 23, “but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. The word that is translated here as “stumbling block” is the Greek word, “skandalon,” where we get our word “scandal.” The idea of Christ crucified was folly to the Gentiles, but to the Jews, this wasn’t just a foolish idea, this was a scandal. For the Jews, the phrase “Christ crucified” would have been an oxymoron. You see, to say the word “Christ” is another way to say the anointed one, the Messiah that had been promised to the people of God for centuries. And what they expected was a strong military leader who would conquer their enemies. Not a gentle and lowly rabbi who laid down his life in the most shameful way imaginable. Bible scholar Gordon Fee says it this way, “‘Christ crucified’ sounded to them about as much a contradiction as ‘fried ice.’ One may have a Messiah, or one may have a crucifixion, but one may not have both – at least not from the perspective of merely human understanding.”[2] This is especially true because Jewish people had been taught from their youth what it says in Deuteronomy, that anyone who hangs on a tree is cursed by God (Deut. 21:23). Surely that couldn’t be true of their deliverer, could it? Christ crucified was foolishness to gentiles and a scandal to Jews.
The Cross as Foolishness Today
But people having trouble accepting the message of the cross wasn’t something that we’ve grown out of since the time Paul wrote this letter to the church in Corinth. No, the message of the cross is still seen as foolishness and scandalous today. I mean, consider some of the core doctrines of the faith and teachings of Jesus that we hold to: a virgin birth, radical love for our enemies, a call to care for people who can do nothing for us, an expectation that suffering for the sake of Christ means we’re doing something right, a deity who is one God and three distinct persons, a physical, bodily resurrection not only of a God who died, but also for all who believe in him… all of these things make no sense to those who are perishing. But for these people, all of this comes to an apex of absurdity in the message of the cross of Christ. The single most foolish thing to the world is the idea that an almighty God would take on flesh, be born not in a palace but a food trough, live not as a King but a carpenter, hang out not with the religious or political elite but with sinners, prostitutes, and tax collectors, and ultimately accomplish the greatest victory the world has ever seen not by dominance on a battlefield, but in submission and death on a cross. And that somehow this gruesome death is the thing that somehow pays the penalty for the evil that we commit? Sound foolish? Maybe to some.
Paul writes in verse 22, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom.” People today still demand signs and seek wisdom. I mean, just consider how many times you’ve thought or heard someone say, “if only I had a sign, then I would believe… If only God would answer my prayer, heal my family member, find me a spouse, then I would trust him.” But Paul is reminding us that God has already given us the greatest sign of his love for us that we could ever ask for! The thing God most treasured – his only Son – was given so that you and I could know the depths of his love for people who could do nothing for him!
People today still seek and demand wisdom as well. Think of all of the people who live and die by science, for example. Don’t get me wrong, science is great. I’m so thankful for science. But people today have put far too much weight on science than it was ever intended to bear. Science is really great at telling us about what exists, but it isn’t at all good at telling us how things should be. What I mean is this: science is really good at telling us about the observable universe, because that is, by definition, science. But science can’t tell us about things like morality and ethics.[3] It can’t tell us right and wrong. Science can tell us why an apple falls from a tree to the ground, but it can’t tell us why we should care for widows and orphans, or why cheating on your spouse is wrong like the Bible tells us.
And I’ll just say as an aside, just as our world has been Christianized so much that we see the cross as a normal fixture in our culture, we should also recognize how the spread of Christianity has shaped our general sense of morality. The fact that any amount of the Christian ethical system has made its way into the public square is remarkable. I mean, in the Roman empire, when Paul is writing, it was commonplace for men to have as many sexual partners as they wanted. Marriage was for building the family line, but it was not seen as a place of love and safety and security. But Christianity came in and told husbands to love their wives. Seems so normal to hear now, but it was radical at the time. And that’s just one example. I could go on with a number of ways that Christian morality and ethics have shaped the things we take for granted as common virtues today. The message that is being proclaimed from the cross has changed the world. In the wisdom of God, the cross – this symbol of Roman power and Christ’s weakness – is the very thing he has used to turn the world right-side-up. The way we think about infanticide, spousal abuse, giving to the poor, caring for the weak, living a life free from violence, etc., these are all only commonplace standards of ethics as a result of the spread of Christianity. Author and historian Tom Holland (not Spider Man) has written a book about the way that Christianity has changed the world (written from an atheist’s perspective), called Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World. And in the book, his central thesis is that whether or not we realize it, nearly all of the values of the western world have been shaped by Christianity. It is a fascinating read. But hear how he ends the book: he says, “to be a Christian is to believe that God became man and suffered a death as terrible as any mortal has ever suffered. This is why the cross, that ancient implement of torture, remains what it has always been: the fitting symbol of the Christian revolution. It is the audacity of it – the audacity of finding in a twisted and defeated corpse the glory of the creator of the universe…. All are heirs of the same revolution: a revolution that has, at its molten heart, the image of a God dead on a cross.”[4]
And I think this beautifully captures what Paul is saying in verse 25 of our passage: “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” He’s not saying that God is foolish or weak by any means, but he is saying that what we perceive to be foolish in the plan of God or weak in the power of God is wiser than anything we could dream up and stronger than anything we could muster up.
Consider your own life. How often do you feel in your life like God has no idea what he’s doing? Or that he’s powerless to change your circumstances? This passage tells us exactly why it feels that way! God acts in ways that make no sense to human wisdom. Yet this passage also reminds us that in the crucifixion of Christ, God’s wisdom, which makes no sense to us, is the way that he works all things together for good. And that God’s power, which seems like weakness and defeat to us, is exactly where victory comes from. The cross is a reminder to us that what seems like foolishness and weakness, when in God’s hands, is wisdom and strength. This is the message that an upside-down world struggles to accept, but a right-side-up kingdom is pleased to proclaim. So when you are tempted to doubt the plan or power of God, look to the cross as a reminder that what makes no sense in an upside-down world is exactly where God is most often doing his best work.
THE PEOPLE OF THE RIGHT-SIDE-UP KINGDOM
So, we’ve seen that the message of the right-side-up kingdom makes no sense apart from the eyes of faith. Let’s take a look now at the people of this right-side-up kingdom, and how the people that make up this Kingdom defy the natural way of thinking as well. Look at verses 26-29 with me.
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
November 9, 2020 is a date that will be forever burned into my mind, and this is because it is the date of probably the most intense job interview I’ve ever had (and it may or may not have been for this job). I remember sitting across a table from two of our pastor-elders at the time, my palms sweaty, a chipotle bowl in front of me, trying my hardest not to freak out. One of the main reasons I was so nervous is because the elder leading the interview had two decades of military service under his belt and was currently an attorney… and had children in the youth group… and would be grilling me for an hour and a half. I knew it was probably going to be intense. And it was. It seems that things went well because I got the job. And honestly, I have such deep appreciation for those men and our church and how our leadership takes seriously the call to high character. I’m thankful our hiring process was more intense rather than less intense. But so much of that experience, and pretty much every other job interview that I’ve had, as I’m sure is true for you as well, has been driven by two realities that seem to be constantly in tension in those moments: (1) being honest about who you are, and (2) presenting yourself in the most positive light possible so that these people like you and think you’re the one for the job. Right?
Although our job interviews are often experiences of showing people why we think that they should think that we’re the best and brightest, what Paul is saying here is that when it comes to the Kingdom of God, we have not been chosen because of anything particularly interesting or impressive about us. We have not been chosen because of any power or pedigree that we come to him with. We do not come to into the Kingdom of God because of a killer resume or a well written cover letter. We are chosen based only on the goodness and grace of God. This is why Paul writes in verse 26, “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.”
Of course, the Kingdom of God is big enough to welcome in those who are of noble birth and are wise and powerful according to worldly standards. Praise God for that. But Paul is reminding the Corinthians and reminding you and I that most of us are not among the world’s elite. I hate to break it to you, but you and I are not that impressive, and that is exactly the point.
He continues in verses 27-28,
“27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are”
God employs weak, wounded, and wayward people in his purposes of redeeming the world. He does not typically work through worldly power structures like politics and celebrity – he instead most regularly and radically changes the world and saves sinners by way of unimpressive people proclaiming an unimpressive message of a man who died on a tree. And this is to highlight the fact that he is the powerful one. Not you, not me, God. He does this, verse 29, “so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”
Is this what you would have expected of the most powerful Kingdom in history? The Kingdom that will never fall? Would you expect it to be made up of the broken, the wounded, the weak, the outcasts? Of course not! This is not way the world we live in operates. This is why the political mudslinging going on right now is basically just each candidate doing their worst to call the other one weak. In the eyes of the world, weakness is not a recipe for success. At least not in our upside-down world. But in the right-side-up kingdom, the weak are exactly who God wants in his unshakable dominion.
Once again, consider your own life – God has taken you, weak and broken as you were, and promised to transform you into the image of Christ himself! And he has done this not because you are particularly impressive or have anything to offer him. He has chosen you out of sheer grace and love. Receive the grace of Jesus. Stop treating your relationship with God like a job interview where you feel like you need to convince him you are worth loving. Rest in the fact that this grace is free, and that our God has lavished his love upon you not because you are lovely but to make you lovely.
THE KING OF THE RIGHT-SIDE-UP KINGDOM
And this brings us precisely to our final point. What kind of God, what kind of King would rule his Kingdom like this? We’ve talked about the message and the people of the right-side-up kingdom, now let’s look at the King of the right-side-up kingdom.
In 2005, novelist David Foster Wallace gave a commencement speech at Kenyon College and famously began his talk with this parable: “There are two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, ‘Morning, boys. How’s the water?’ And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, ‘What the heck is water?’”[5]
Let me remind you of the image I started with, and mix metaphors for just a minute. You and I are living in the upside down, but we don’t recognize the water we are swimming in. Although we’ve become comfortable with our surroundings, things are not as they should be. And while we are often blind to this reality of swimming in the upside down, I think few places is the brokenness of our world more clear to the average person right now than in the realm of leadership, both religious and political. To put statistics behind this, a 2019 study conducted by Barna Research Group found that 82% of young adults believe that our society is currently facing a crisis of leadership.[6] We don’t have to look too far around the world or too far back in history to see horrific examples of depravity in the halls of power. From abuse at the hands of men who were supposed to be trusted with the care of souls, to a 20th century marked by genocide, there have been significant failures of leadership within the lifetime of many people in this room. While we joke that with great power comes great responsibility, it’s not a joke when we’re responsible for real people. And it seems like far too often, the more power someone has, the more corrupt they get. As my high school history teacher said often, “power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” So, what makes us think that an all-powerful King or an everlasting kingdom would be a good idea in the first place? Well, according to human wisdom, it probably isn’t. But again, that’s exactly the point. Let’s read the final two verses of the chapter.
30 And because of him [God] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
The Kingdom of God is ruled not just by anyone, but by the Lord Jesus, who is both powerful to the core and loving to the core. And that is why, although 82% of young adults believe our society to be in a leadership crisis, this cannot be said of the Kingdom of God. This King does not rule with harshness, heavy-handedness, vitriol, and vindictiveness, this King rules with grace and truth, love and justice, mercy and compassion. Notice that verse 30 does not say that Christ Jesus gave to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, but rather that he is our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Our King is not primarily good because he gives gifts, he is the gift. He is our wisdom. He is our righteousness. He is our sanctification. He is our redemption.
While this King had all that he ever needed in heaven, he willingly took on flesh, becoming like you and I, stepping down from his throne and into the servants’ quarters, as it were. This King spent his time on earth not looking to be served, but serving. Teaching. Healing. Restoring. Giving dignity to those who lacked it. In fact, his healings, teachings, and parables are not random. They are windows into what this Kingdom looks like.
And this is the King we put our hope in. So as November creeps closer and closer, is this the leader your hope is in? Because let me tell you, this King rules over a Kingdom that will not be shaken. This King does not need to be voted back into office, and this King has no term limits. This King’s policies are for our good and his glory. This King shows his strength by laying down his life – the only King we pledge our ultimate allegiance to. If you’re in Christ, this is your King!
CONCLUSION
As we draw this to a close, just for a moment, consider again the idea I started with at the beginning about optical illusions. The thing about optical illusions is that there is no right way to see them. They are intended to be seen both ways. The message of the cross, though, is no optical illusion because there is only one right way to see the cross – not as foolishness and weakness, but wisdom and power. As our salvation.
Look back up at the beginning of verse 23, “but we preach Christ crucified.” What does it mean to preach Christ crucified? It means precisely this: if you are in Christ, the King of the universe has been crucified and died in your place for your sin. Although we are not impressive people, the King set his sights on us in love and purchased the cost of our redemption. If you are not a Christian, preaching Christ crucified is a call to you. Consider the King of the Universe, the creator and ruler of all things. Not wanting to leave us broken in our sin, he took on flesh, becoming like you and I, dying on a Roman cross so that he could bear the wrath of God for his people so that they would never receive a drop of the cup of the wrath of God. On the third day, Jesus rose again from the grave, victorious over sin and death. By trusting that this sacrifice was for you, this story can become your story. This King can be your King. And we can celebrate together the good news of the right-side-up kingdom – that there is a powerful King who saves an unimpressive people by laying down his life on a criminal’s cross.
Let’s pray…
[1] I got this image from Jeremy Treat’s May 3, 2022 sermon, The Foolishness of the Cross.
[2] Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1987, 78.
[3] Tim Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, 89.
[4] Tom Holland, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, 541.
[5] https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/this-is-water
[6] https://www.barna.com/research/leadership-crisis/
Sermon Discussion Questions
What are ways that you have seen, in your own life or others, people treating the cross as foolishness or weakness?
Who would you expect to make up the strongest kingdom ever? How is the reality of the people of the right-side-up kingdom an encouragement to you?
What would you expect the king of the strongest kingdom ever to look like? How is the reality of the King of the right-side-up kingdom an encouragement to you?
What aspect of the message of Christ crucified is most precious to you personally?
