Third Presbyterian Sunday Morning Bible Study - June 7, 2020

Below is the Bible Study written by Jim Rudiger for his Sunday School Class which meets at Third Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia. It's based on 1 Corinthians 2:1, 6-16.

If you really think about it, our lives are always involved with signals.  From our childhood, signals have been coming and going.  As a little boy when I wanted to cross Hampton Boulevard and looked over at my grandmother, a nod meant it was OK, but wagging her finger meant, “You do it and you get a switching.”  School was full of signals, too.  If the teacher asked a question and you knew the answer, how did you signal you knew?  You raised your hand.  A clear signal to the teacher that you didn’t know the answer was if you tried to avoid eye contact with her or tried to scrunch up and become too small for her to see you.  Now, raising your hand in class gave signals other than knowing the right answer.  What did it signal if you raised your hand with the index finger pointing up?  An important physical need demanded immediate attention and the teacher would excuse you to go to the bathroom.  Now, if two fingers were held up, the teacher not only excused you but accompanied you to make sure that there were no delays along the way.

As I grew older and sports came along, so did a variety of new signals.  The third base coach would touch his hat, his leg, his right shoulder and then his nose.  He wasn’t having some sort of a fit.  He was signaling whether I had to take the pitch, swing away or bunt.  Umpires signaled balls, strikes, outs and whether a ball was fair or foul.  I’ll bet that it won’t be too long before the batter will be allowed to take his cell phone to the plate and the third base coach will call him and tell him what he wanted you to do rather than having to go through all of those weird gyrations. Anyway, the game of baseball wouldn’t be the same without signals.

When you got old enough to drive a car, a new set of signals were waiting for you. How did you signal a right turn?  Hand out of the window pointing straight up.  A left turn?  Hand straight out.  A stop?  Hand straight down.  Now that you have remembered back to that far off time before lighted turn signals, what did it mean when a women put her hand out of the window at a 45 degree angle?  She was drying her nails.

Then you grew and recognized that there was another softer prettier gender which called for new  interpersonal signals.  How did a guy signal to a girl that he was interested in her?  He winked.  Now this kind of signal always had the potential for unexpected results.  If you just happened to get a cinder settle in your eye at the wrong time, you had a girl giving you signals that she either responded positively to the wink by standing there and giggling uncontrollably or, as in my wife’s case when we first met, saying, “No way, Jose.” 

So you see, we owe a lot of our cultural growth to the acquisition and understanding of signals.  But for signals to work, we have to have some inside knowledge.  We not only have to know their meaning but others who are to receive the signal has to know them too.  A third base coach can scratch, pat and gesture all he wants, but if the batter doesn’t know the signals, then he isn’t going to do what the coach wants.  In today’s study, Paul tells the Corinthians that they can’t get God’s wisdom if they don’t know what the signals mean.

Paul is writing to the Church in Corinth because there are problems there.  What problem do we already know about, so far?  The church was being split up among groups who followed different leaders - Paul, Apollos and Peter.  The leaders weren’t causing the problem.  They were each giving the same Gospel, but, to different groups of believers with different cultures and backgrounds.  Some were Greeks and Romans, some were Jews, some were intellectuals and some were fundamentalists.  They had heard the Gospel in terms that they could understand from one of these leaders.  Now they wanted everybody to be just like they were and accept their teacher as the only true messenger of God’s word.  The “My daddy can beat your Daddy” syndrome.

As we learned last week, Corinth was a cosmopolitan city.  There were retired Roman soldiers, Greek philosophers and Jewish business men from all over the world living there.  It was a wealthy city and the pursuit of luxury rivaled Beverly Hills.  Since they didn’t have Mexicans coming across their border to do the work they didn’t want to do, they used as many as 400,000 slaves.  But, above all, it was a place where new ideas were discussed and explored.  That had an advantage for Christianity because there were people who would listen to Christians only because they were saying something brand new.  But, it had it’s dangers too, because these same people would try to change Christianity by including popular pagan beliefs.

If you remember, Paul had come to Corinth on his second missionary journey.  Corinth wasn’t where Paul initially wanted to go to plant a church.  He had gone to Athens and it was there that he had one of his few failures.  Athens was the acknowledged home of philosophy.  All the great thinkers of the Greek world came to Athens to debate the great questions of life.  A lot of these men were professional speakers.  They made a living from talking and giving lectures like politicians do today. Now Paul was no slouch when it came to learning and speaking.  He had been given the best education possible.  Not only in the study of the Torah but in Greek philosophy as well. 

When Paul got to Athens, he recognized that he was dealing with intellectuals, so, he tried to argue Christ from a philosophical position rather than from a spiritual position.  He learned pretty fast that you can’t reduce Christ to philosophic terms.  Standing there on Mar’s Hill with the rest of the Greek philosophers, he tried to speak to them in their own language.  Paul was unable to argue the Greek philosophers into believing in Christ.  He learned from that experience  that you can’t intellectualize Christianity by making it a complex theory.  It is almost as if Paul, after Athens, decided that he was never again going to try to intellectualize Christ but to simply introduce Christ and a Christ who had been crucified.  That is where we find Paul as he starts the second chapter of 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 2: 1 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom.

What didn’t Paul do?  Speak in lofty terms or wisdom.  What does he mean “lofty words”?  High faluting fifty cent words.  Words thrown in to let everybody know just how smart you are. What’s wrong with that?  It is done to impress the reader or hearer.  In other words, it is done to point to the speaker and not to Christ.  Christ spoke to the people and talked in a language the people could understand - simple and clear. As a result of what had happened in Athens, Paul tells the Corinthians that he came to them with a simple message.  Not a message full of flowery oratory and big words like he tried in Athens.  It is almost like Paul was saying to himself that he wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. 

What did Paul mean when he said he didn’t come proclaiming “wisdom”?  Last week we met some people in the Corinthian church who really put wisdom on a high desirable level.  After all, these were for the most part Greeks and Romans who had been brought up with believing in the importance of wisdom.  This was part of their background.  Their heritage.  Maybe some of them were trying to turn Christianity into just another philosophy or tried to change it to suit themselves or too make it more in line with their personal background. 

Are there people in today’s church who want to change the Gospel so that it is more acceptable to today’s intellectual culture? We have seen in our time, the church try over and over to change the truths of Christianity to make it more acceptable to today’s thinking.  The attempt to reach the unchurched by presenting to them a church that is unchurched is a blue print for disaster.  In some churches, the service has begun to resemble a fraternity toga party rather than a quiet respectful worship of our Lord.

Paul was facing people so steeped in philosophy that they couldn’t see how anyone who dies on a cross could possibly save anyone else.  Logically, it just didn’t make sense to them.  If Christ couldn’t save himself from death on the cross, why should we think he can save us?  To them it was the height of foolishness to accept that proposition.  It just wasn’t very smart.  The truth of the Gospel would always be lost on these people because they didn’t know the signals.  They didn’t know the wisdom of God.  Those who truly heard the Gospel saw in Christ the power and wisdom of God.  You see, that is the wisdom of God which the world then and now doesn’t understand.  That wisdom is understood when you know the signals and the signals are understood through faith.

1 Corinthians 2: 6 Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish.  7 But we speak of God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.  8 None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

For some in the Corinthian church, they saw seeking wisdom as a good thing.  The problem was like the song “Looking for Love in the Wrong Places”, they were looking for wisdom in the wrong places.  They were looking to the world’s idea of wisdom.  Now Paul contrasts these people with another set of folks.  Who are the “mature”?  Is he only talking about senior citizens on Medicare?  Paul is talking about Christians who have moved past that initial acceptance of Christ to learning what that acceptance means in their lives.  It means getting into seeing Christ’s vision for the world - making disciples - and then joining that mission.  The Christians looking for wisdom in the wrong places are the spiritual infants.  They aren’t crawling, sitting up and then walking, but, are remaining crawling babies in Christ.  Some want to stay that way, but, if they do, they miss out on the strength and security that comes from putting your faith in action.

A lot of the people did not understand that Christ was God’s wisdom working in the world.  The politicians were particularly threatened by this wisdom.  They believed in a wisdom that was of this world that considered power and control as the essence of what was true and right.  To them a wisdom based on love and forgiveness was foolish at best and weak at worse.  How can anyone think that it is wise to turn the other cheek?  How weak can you get when you are told to love your enemies?  It is absolutely ridiculous to ask that you forgive others seventy times seven times.  That would be a grand sign of weakness.  And what about the idea that you should love your neighbor as yourself?  Just plain foolishness.  My neighbor isn’t as smart or wealthy as me so why should I love or respect him?  No gain in that.  You see this is the world’s wisdom.  It was then and it still is.  The world couldn’t understand the way that Christ lived.  If they had, Christ would not have been crucified.  But Christ took that rejection and gave the world the most eloquent example of love and serving others.  But the world still didn’t see it.  They still did not understand the signals.  So then, how does this understanding come about?  How do we get this wisdom?

1 Corinthians 2:9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him”— 10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.  11 For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God.  12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.  13 And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting things to those who are spiritual.

In verse 9, Paul quotes from Isaiah 64:4.  It hits right at the heart of Christian wisdom.  It is a wisdom that we can't develop by ourselves.  It has one source, one truth and is found only in God.  But what is the link between us and God that will convey that wisdom?  He follows this quote with the secret - our third base coach.  How is the secret revealed?  Who is our third base coach? The Spirit.  The truth Paul gives us is that the only way we can know what God is all about is to talk to someone who really knows God.  And who would that be? The Spirit!

Think about it this way.  Jesus asked his disciples who the people said he was.  What would you answer if I asked you who the people say I am?  Who Jim Rudiger is? If you wanted to know me - what I was like - what would you do?  Come to our  Sunday Morning Bible Study.  Watch how I act in church or on Moose Avenue.  Talk with people I work with.  If you ask some people who I work with, you might be surprised at how they see me.  Not a lot of joking when I’m in a business meeting or on the phone discussing a problem.  All of these things will help in knowing things about  me.  But, would you really know me?  If you want to get the inside skinny on me, who would you go to? 

People who have lived with me - my wife, my children, my brother, Jack.  Jack might describe me in terms of how we grew up.  That’s ingrained in his view of me.  If you had of asked Jackie, she could've given you some insight into how I tick.  If you ask my children, you might think I was still living in the fifties claiming things were so much better then.  All of these people can give you glimpses of who I am.  You would gather a lot of facts about me that they alone know, but, are there unknown things that even they don’t know?  Even these people won’t know the secrets in my heart.  There are things that I know about myself that the world will never know.  There are things so private, so intimate, that they are held within my deepest being.  So, to have a complete unedited book on me, you have to go to the one who lives in my heart, who knows my deepest feelings, and knows ALL of my secrets - the Spirit.  Only that Spirit can see into my inner heart and knows what is there. And that Spirit is the same one we go to to know God because he lives in God too.

That is what Paul is driving at.  If we really want to know the wisdom of God and understand God’s signals, our best bet is the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit has been there with God in all of what God has been through.  He, above everyone else that we know, knows God the best.  Through the Holy Spirit we are given insight into the very heart and mind of God.

1 Corinthians 2:14 Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.  15 Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny.  16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?”  But we have the mind of Christ.

Paul contrasts the spiritual person with the unspiritual person.  How would you describe the unspiritual person?  An unspiritual person is a guy who sees nothing beyond this physical world.  He sees only his needs.  He lives for the moment.  Get as much as you can while you still have the time.  Taste every pleasure.  “Make hay while the sun shines” kind of mentality.  A person who has this mind set can’t understand sacrifice or doing something only for love.  All of the things that strengthen us spiritually are a waste of time for the unspiritual.  A man who believes that getting as much materially as possible cannot understand generosity.  A man who glories in his appetites can never understand sacrifice.  A man who has never held a thought past this world may never understand the things of God.  To him all of these things are foolishness.  No man needs to always be like this, but if he stifles every attempt to let the light into his heart then he will remain like this.  In all of this, the Spirit isn’t silent.  The Spirit of God will speak, but the unspiritual guy will not be able to hear.  It is so easy to fall into that trap.  To be so absorbed with the world that we begin to think that nothing exists outside of that world.

These are the unspiritual people.  But what about the spiritual people?  What defines them?  They are sensitive to the voice of the Spirit dwelling in them.  We are the be all and end all.  There are others seeking the question of life and we may have their answer.  We just have to look toward being used to bring the Good News to someone who is searching for answers.  The spiritual person doesn’t live in a narrow little world cluttered with things to bring pleasure but in a world full of the opportunity to serve.  The mind of the spiritual person hears the call of the Spirit and eagerly learns more truths and wisdom about God - more of God’s signals.  But it isn’t because of anything that the spiritual person has done or is.  This gift to understand the wisdom of God is a gift from the Holy Spirit.  A gift that they openly receive, daring to hear and trusting in the Good News about Christ and Christ crucified.

Paul may be telling the Corinthians that they are living and thinking like unspiritual people because of the divisions  among them.  Aligning themselves with religious leaders and not with Christ demonstrates that they don’t understand the wisdom of God.  People who accept the crucified Christ just don’t act that way.  Part of what they should have learned is that it was better to serve than to lord their position over others, to be self sacrificing and not self centered, having humility and thankfulness for the saving knowledge of Christ and not claiming knowledge that others do not have.

Christ was there in the beginning with God.  He knows God’s nature and will perfectly reflect God’s nature.  The Spirit is our avenue for knowing Christ and God.  In fact, Paul says that the Spirit gives us the mind of Christ.  With this mind we can see things that others cannot see.  We see what Christ sees - God at work in our lives and in the world.  We have an understanding that the unspiritual will never have.  Because of that, they cannot sit in judgement of us.  They simply don’t have the wisdom required to sit in judgement.  You see, to judge us is to judge God because the wisdom we have seen and proclaim comes from the very mind of God.  To say that we are foolish to accept a crucified Savior is to pass judgement on God, and no human being can presume to do that.

All right.  You’re in the batter’s box and looking down at the third base coach.  He is giving you the signals.  You have the knowledge and understanding about what those signals mean.  All you have to do is carry out the command.  We don’t have to be at home plate at Harbor Park to get the signal.  Paul is telling us in these verses that the Spirit is there flashing the signals every minute of the day.  You only have to see those signals to know what God would have us do.  It is up to us now.  Hit away or take the pitch.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, give us the wisdom to live in this world and to be a beacon to those lost and lonely.  May we be the ones to share God’s signals with a waiting world.  We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our precious Lord and savior.  Amen.