Sermons
Making Wise The Simple
MAKING WISE THE SIMPLE
Sermon Outline By Terry Siverd
Cortland Church of Christ / October 08, 2017
Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb.11:6).
Without HUMILITY it is impossible to have faith.
All throughout the Bible, we sense a strong antipathy between God and “the intellectual elites”.
This is especially noticeable in the New Testament as one observes a steady clash between Jesus and the Pharisees.
As we noted in last week’s sermon (today’s essay), God is not impressed with those who boast of being big and strong.
The severity of God seems to be reserved for those who conclude that their own strength is sufficient.
Yet for those who are weak, poor, sick, repentant and despairing, the Lord has only tenderness.
In a similar way, God is not impressed by our intellectual self-sufficiency.
This observation is borne out in the text of Mt.11:20-26 (NIV) - -
(Jesus) began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles were performed, because they did not repent.
‘Woe to you, Koraazin! Woe to you Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed
in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable
for Tyre and Sidon oin the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies?
No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that we performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment, than for you.
At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise (thank) You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
Because You have hidden these things from THE WISE AND LEARNED, and revealed them to little children.
Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.
One could ponder this morning’s subject by asking this question:
Why did Jesus seem to have an axe to grind with the scribes and Pharisees?
As we’ve pointed out on numerous occasions, Jesus’ most strident and censorious words were directed at them.
Mt.23 records Jesus’ most scathing rebuke and those on the receiving end are the scribes and Pharisees.
Since Jesus was God in the flesh, we can ask, “Why was Jesus/God so condemnatory of the scribes and Pharisees?”
The answer comes in words that many of us have heard in our growing-up years.
THEY WERE TOO BIG FOR THEIR BRITCHES.
They deemed their own intellectual prowess to be bigger and better than God’s.
To denounce all of the scribes and Pharisees would be to painting with a brush too broad.
There were certainly exceptions, but those exceptions appear to be few and far between.
Jn.3:1-2 records, Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;
this man came to Him by night, and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You have come from
God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.
Lk.23:50-51 tells of another: Behold, a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council,
a good and righteous man (he had not consented to the plain and action), a man
from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God.
The books of Acts also tells of a humble Pharisee named Gamaliel (Acts 5:34).
So, in all fairness, it would not be correct to say that all scribes and Pharisees were arrogant beyond measure.
Among thousands (Josephus estimates 6,000), we only read of humility among three: Nicodemus, Joseph and Gamaliel.
That’s precisely the problem - - to speak of a humble Pharisee would be to coin an oxymoron.
Regarding the scribes and Pharisees, in 900 cases out of 1,000, humility was pretty much non-existent.
Scripture resounds with this truth: God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
cf. Ps.138:6; Prov.3:34; Mt.23:12; Js.4:6 and 1Pet.5:5
Now, I want to be clear on this point. I am not anti-intellectual. My study, my house is crammed with books.
Like many of you, I am constantly in a learning mode. It is not sinful to say without apology that one
has a genuine thirst for knowledge. There is nothing wrong with having a desire to expand one’s mind.
God does not call us to live in ignorance, but rather to live a life that is governed by the wise counsel of the living Lord.
I play sprint scrabble almost on a daily basis. It’s a mental exercise that helps to ward off alzheimer’s.
As an added bonus it helps me predict the future. One day last week I played myself a best-of-five series
(a “sprint” round using all 100 tiles only takes two minutes per game).
I was the Indians and my alter-ego was the Yankees. I won!!
To confirm that I was not cheating, the Yankees did win two games in the best of five.
Our midweek Bible group has just begun a new study of Great Chapters Of The Bible.
Stephen Flask did a superb job this past Wednesday, opening the series with a study of Proverbs chapter three.
Prov.3:5 states - - trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
He spent a little time contrasting Proverbs with Ecclesiastes - - both books were written by Solomon.
He noted that in Proverbs, Solomon is more upbeat (happy), whereas in Ecclesiastes he seems more grumpy.
The book of Ecclesiastes illustrates this very point.
Eccl.1:12f is subtitled, “The Futility of Wisdom/Learning”.
Translators struggle with how to translate the word “wisdom”.
A more suitable word to define the “wisdom”, of which Solomon speaks would be “knowledge” or “learning”.
I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom/learning concerning all that has been done under heaven…
I set my mind to know wisdom and to known madness and folly; I realized that this also is striving after the wind.
Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain (Eccl.1:13 & 17-18).
Solomon confesses (1:13b) that such an undertaking was a grievous task. He is unable to do what only God can do.
There is a significant difference between human knowledge and Divine wisdom.
We are all acquainted with a few really smart people who seem to lack “wisdom from above”.
When we de-throne God and Christ as the true fountain of wisdom, we’re headed for ultimate disaster.
Vance Havner offers this explanation - -
If you lack knowledge, go to school. If you lack wisdom, get on your knees.
Knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is the proper use of knowledge.
This was precisely the problem with the scribes and Pharisees. Although they were quiet learned
and highly intellectual, they lacked two essential pre-requisites for Faith: Humility and Wisdom.
When we saturate our minds with the wisdom from above, it keeps us humble in the sight of God.
This saturation of our minds derives from a constant and continual exposure to the Word of God.
This is why daily Bible study in some form or fashion is so vital.
Stephen Flask mentioned that he tries to read a chapter from Proverbs every day, which is a smart strategy.
John’s gospel tells the story of Jesus healing a man born blind. The man was asked, “How were your eyes opened?”
He told them, “the man who is called Jesus did it” (Jn.9:10-11). The blind man was then interrogated by the Pharisees.
They asked him, “what do you say about Him?”. He answered, “He is a prophet” (Jn.9:17).
The Pharisees proceeded to quiz his parents and his parents responded by saying, “Ask him, he is of age.”
A second interrogation occurs. The story concludes with a stinging rebuke by the once-blind man to the Pharisees:
- - Here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes (Jn.9:30).
In Lk.18:9f Jesus told a parable - -
to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and viewed others with contempt.
Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-gatherer.
The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, ‘God I thank Thee that I am not like other people:
Swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’
but the tax-gatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven,
But was beating his breast saying, ‘God be merciful to me, the sinner!’
I tell you this, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other;
For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted.
Proverbs 6:16f declares six things (yea, seven) that THE LORD HATES:
At the top of the list is HAUGHTY EYES.
Let’s begin our conclusion by re-reading our opening Scripture reading - - 1Cor.1:25-31 (NIV) - -
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards;
Not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong, He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that no one should boast before Him.
It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us WISDOM FROM GOD - - that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.’
1Cor.3:18-19a emphasizes this same point - -
Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age,
let him become foolish that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God…
In the days of Noah, the world viewed the word and works of Noah to be foolish and foolhardy.
Sadly, as a result, only eight souls were saved from the flood.
In our day there yet remains many, like those in the first-century, who deem the word of the cross to be
foolishness (1Cor.1:18). They may not dare to say it aloud, but their actions spoke louder than words.
If we reject the word of the cross, we like those in the days of Noah, will be lost.
The apostle Paul was a bright man - - a rare learned intellectual among the apostles.
Yet Paul was utterly humbled by the message of the cross.
In 1Cor.2:1-2, Paul writes to the church in Corinth which resided in a cultural that was mesmerized by so-called “wisdom” of: Pythagoras…Hippocrates…Herodotus…Archimedes…Socrates…Plato…Aristotle…Seneca…etal.
Listen to what Paul writes - -
When I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you
the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
