By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
February 8, 2026
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1 Corinthians 2 (ESV)
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. 6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, 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. 9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, 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 who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. 13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. 16 “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
I was a little heavy handed last week. We spoke about the concept of the stumbling block that the gospel caused for the people of Jewish heritage, and the foolishness or folly the gospel appeared to the wise philosophy minded Greeks. The stumbling block was that the people of faith needed signs to be swayed. And for the wise, they needed logical arguments.
Our contemporary era of history is not much different. When I was in Ukraine twenty years ago I heard similar arguments. One of the students we were talking to was meeting with my roommate demanding one of those signs while I was out shopping. The student said that he would believe if God would fill a glass with water. My roommate said that just as the student said those words I opened the door and announced that I found the good water and asked if anyone would like a glass. My roommate did not know I was out shopping, I did not know there would be water at the store, most of the water there was carbonated or mineral water so we did not like it, so when we found distilled water we bought it. And the timing was precise. Was it a sign? My roommate believed it was. The student did not think the same. In his mind, it did not count because I brought the water, not God.
That is the stumbling block of wanting signs. How do we determine if it is a worthy sign?
Today in the second chapter of this letter to the people of Corinth, Paul continues this thought. “When I came to you, brothers, [I] did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.” When I read Paul, I do not quite understand what he is talking about here. Of all the writers of the New Testament, Paul is considered the most educated and the one that presents the most well formed theological thoughts. He speaks well, he has wisdom, and yet he says he did not come proclaiming the testimony of God with lofty speech and wisdom. Is he a liar?
This is why it is important to study context. And when I speak of context I am speaking not only of the words before and after this chapter. This is usually what we mean when we use the word context. When I speak of context we also need to account for the history, geography, and society surrounding the words written. Paul speaks with wisdom, he speaks with clarity, but he does not use the same methods as the philosophers. He would go to the places where the philosophers spoke and he would speak. He would say things like: to the Jews, I became a Jew, to the Gentiles I became a gentile. He became all things to all people for the hope to save one. But what does he mean in this instance when he says that he did not proclaim the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom?
He is not using the arguments of the philosophers. He does not use the wisdom of humanity.
“I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Paul says.
This statement reminds me of interview that Karl Barth once gave. I mentioned it in passing last week. Barth wrote one of the most intense theological libraries in the church. His church dogmatics is something like twelve volumes, and in it he challenges most theologies formulated prior to the 1930’s. When giving this interview he jokingly said, “the answer is Jesus, now what is your question.” The answer is Jesus.
What this means is the beginning point of our understanding of God must start in the revelation of Jesus. Our understanding of life, the universe, and everything begins not with Genesis 1 but with John 1. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. All our understanding of God comes through Jesus, because of the incarnation. God came to live among us, God taught us, and through Jesus we gain the wisdom of God. But that vicarious life is not one way. Christ was not only God coming down to man, but he is man lifting humanity to God. Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus humanity is lifted back to the place we were created to dwell. Through Jesus humanity is restored to a right relationship with God. Not by our works but by the works of God himself.
This is what Eric has tried to put in a lot of his music, and why I appreciate his attempt at writing music. At times yeah it seems weird. To think that God the Father is with us in hell seems far fetched, but it comes through the works of people like Barth and CS Lewis. They speak of hell as the place of darkness within us all, that place where we are afraid to let God in, but God is already there. God already knows what we are thinking, what we feel, he knows, because Jesus was buried in that separation. But a loving God will not force us. He will not force us to believe, he will not demand of us any more than he is willing to endure. And so the gate to hell is locked from the inside. We reject life with God, even though God came to us.
It is foolish to the world’s mind. We cannot fathom the incarnation. This is the stumbling block to many. One of the greatest hurdles for Islam is the incarnation. How can Jesus be God’s son? Because God cannot procreate like us. We try to explain God using our wisdom, our understanding and we fall short. We fall short because we have no frame of reference, except Jesus.
Paul understood this. He says, “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, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
Paul had weakness, fear, and trembling. I could say that Paul was a Quaker, but that defeats the point. Paul knew his message seemed weak and foolish in the mind of the world. The testimony of Jesus tells us to love our enemies, to do good for those who persecute us. The teaching of Christ is to turn the other cheek, when someone strikes you. How many of you have made these claims on social media lately? I have. And immediately, I am bombarded with comments from all sides telling me how stupid I am. I am told that I do not support military families, I am told that I am weak, that if we do good we will only get taken advantage of. And you know what they are all right. It is foolishness if we look at it through the wisdom of mankind.
If we were to get rid of the military, those that seek to destroy us would just walk in and conquer us, then what would we do? I understand the foolishness of the Gospel. If we do good to those that would cause us harm what is stopping them from taking everything we have? Yet this is what Paul went out to teach. It is foolishness to the world. To stand in front of people saying it is difficult, because I know that each of us have opinions. I understand the weakness, the fear, and the trembling. I have stood up and voiced these sorts of things even when everyone was in opposition, and I thought every day I would lose my position. And I have lost a job because of stances I have taken. I have been overlooked for promotions because of my stances. I have been completely misunderstood and wrongfully accused. There is fear when we speak, because the world does not understand. Paul does not stay with the fear, he then says he did not use plausible words of wisdom, but demonstrations of the Spirit and of power.
I want us to stop for a moment with this. Demonstration of the Spirit and of power, what is Paul speaking about? The Jews demanded signs. They wanted tangible proof right before their eyes, like the student in Ukraine. Paul had just said that desire was a stumbling block, yet here he says his message was demonstrated in the Spirit and of power. Is he speaking of signs? Of miracles?
One could say that, yet Paul calls that a potential stumbling block. This entire chapter is filled with irony. Its filled with things that are and are not. It is confusing.
Miracles did occur throughout Paul’s ministry. I will not deny that they happened. Miracles still occur all around us. At times we are able to recognize them and at other times they can become stumbling blocks to our own faith.
The mysteries of God are revealed in demonstrations of the Spirit and of power. The mysteries are revealed in the lives of those that are willing to let the Spirit work through them. Paul was able to convince the people of Corinth not through his dramatic speaking ability, not through all the miracles, but it was his life lived within their view.
This is the vicarious humanity of Christ. It is what the Orthodox call the dance of the Triune life.
Life lived in mutual joy and profit. Life lived, in serving others. Life lived loving our enemies doing good for those who persecute us, and turning the other cheek. Paul lived. Paul faced ridicule, he faced pain and persecution and yet he lived.
The people of Corinth watched Paul, they saw how he lived. They listened to his seemingly crazy words, and they saw something they could not explain. They saw a mystery and it drove their curiosity.
I have been told on multiple occasions, that I live with my head in the clouds. That the things I hold important are foolish. I see it in many areas of my life. As a pastor, I have been asked to perform weddings and officiate funerals, when I do these I always say the same thing when I am asked how much I charge for the service. I do not charge. I do not have a set rate. People pay me what they feel led to pay. And I have been paid nothing, or a thousand dollars, as far as I am concerned I am adequately paid. I even do this foolishly in many of my business endeavors. People will ask me how much one of my 3D prints will cost, I will tell them what it costs me, and then give them a suggested. In every case I have made twice as much as I would have had I given the price worldly wisdom would dictate. This has happened just this week, I quoted a reasonable price that would cover the materials and time, and they willingly paid me five times what I quoted. This has happened multiple times and I am not giving you financial advice, because that would be foolish. You cannot build a business on that model. What I am saying is that God has a way of making things work out. It is a mystery. It often flies in the face of the wisdom of the world. Would I like to see miracles? Would I like to see many things, sure. But this is something I have learned from experience and faith. People will try to take advantage of us. They well try to get power over us, they will attempt to control and rule us. But when we stop the fight, when we speak the truth and just live the life we are called to live, we survive, and we have a joy and peace that remains a mystery.
Scripture tells us, Jesus tells us “do not be anxious about you life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?… But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
We cannot argue people into faith, we cannot argue people into believing anything. We can see miracles all around us and people will scoff and poke holes in what we have seen with our own eyes. We can use lofty words, we can design the greatest programs, we can do so much and it will mean absolutely nothing to the world. But what we can do is live the life we are called to live.
Barth said the answer is Jesus, now what is your question. It is through Jesus, his life, his teachings, his interactions with those around him, his suffering and his death, his burial, and his resurrection that we have true life with God. The answer is Jesus, because when we consider what Jesus would do, when we seek to understand how Jesus would react in our situation, we find that we can know. We can have his mind and know his ways. And when we live that life in and through him, people will see the mystery. People will wonder why and how, they will ask and they will scoff. They will poke hole and they will wonder. But we are not called to save their souls, that is God’s job through Jesus. We are called to make disciples, we are called to saturate everyone around us with the grace and mercy of God, we are called to provide an answer to the life we have, not with well formulated augments, but with the truth as we have lived it. The answer is Jesus.
Previous Messages:
Endure
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 26, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Query 4 (Faith and Practice of EFC-MAYM pg 61) Do you provide for the suitable Christian education and recreation of your children and those under your care, and…
Ransomed to Love
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 19, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Peter 1:17–23 (ESV) 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time…
Born Again to a Living Hope
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 12, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili 1 Peter 1:3–9 (ESV) 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born…
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