Sermon

“You happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of Spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed. But I don’t consider myself inferior in any way to these “super apostles” who teach such things. I may be unskilled as a speaker, but I’m not lacking in knowledge. We have made this clear to you in every possible way.”
2 Corinthians 11:4-6 NLT

Regarded as one of the toughest memory and navigation exams in the world, the “Knowledge” is a test every London black cab driver has to pass. London is a complex matrix of streets and roads with traffic considerations and restrictions, and yet it requires detailed knowledge of the city by London taxi drivers to efficiently navigate the streets and conditions that change almost daily, and sometimes even hourly. While a student, I took a similar, but much simpler, test in Southampton to obtain a “Hackney Carriage” licence from the authorities, enabling me to drive a minicab. But all employment requires some form of knowledge to do the job properly. It is rare to find an occupation that requires no experience or knowledge at all.

But a taxi licence was obviously not the sort of knowledge that Paul was talking about. Paul’s knowledge was far more important because it not only enabled him to live his life in the Kingdom of God while he was alive, but it also gave him insight into the life to come. Paul’s knowledge was based on the Jewish Bible, broadly similar to our Old Testament, and enhanced by his encounter with the risen Jesus on the Damascus Road. The Holy Spirit did the rest, because “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me” (words of Jesus recorded in John 16:13-14).

Paul declared that he was a rubbish speaker. Fair enough, because oratorical skills are not available to everyone. But being able to communicate is important because all the knowledge in the world is useless unless there is a way to convey it to the listener. I have an external hard drive in a drawer somewhere that contains backups of old files and photos, but in its current state, it is useless and will remain so until I plug it into a computer, at which point its treasures become accessible. Paul’s head was full of knowledge, as recognised by Governor Festus in Acts 26:24, “And as he was saying these things in his defence, Festus said with a loud voice, ‘Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind'”. Paul wasn’t out of his mind at all, but instead he had a mind full of knowledge.

But perhaps Paul’s speaking skills were illustrated when he visited Troas. There, Paul and his companions gathered with the local believers, shared in the Lord’s Supper, and then “… since he was leaving the next day, [Paul] kept talking until midnight” (Acts 20:7b). Tragically, “As Paul spoke on and on, a young man named Eutychus, sitting on the windowsill, became very drowsy. Finally, he fell sound asleep and dropped three stories to his death below” (Acts 20:9). That probably said it all about Paul’s message delivery, because I’m sure we have all been in a pew listening to a long sermon and have struggled to keep awake, even if the subject matter was of great importance, possibly through the poor speaking skills of the preacher. To complete the story, though, regarding Eutychus, “Paul went down, bent over him, and took him into his arms. “Don’t worry,” he said, “he’s alive!”” (Acts 20:10). But there was no relief for the Troas believers because the next verse reads, “Then they all went back upstairs, shared in the Lord’s Supper, and ate together. Paul continued talking to them until dawn, and then he left”. That must have been quite a sermon! In fact, it must have amounted to a “brain dump”, where Paul shared all his knowledge.

What knowledge do we pilgrims have, and how have we acquired it? Obviously, it comes from a number of sources, depending on what sort of knowledge we are considering, but for Christians, the knowledge about God and His Kingdom comes from the Bible and through the Holy Spirit, through study and prayer. To assist with interpretation, knowledgeable men and women share their insights from the pulpit, and we can pick up a book or watch a Christian video, but the Source of all knowledge is God Himself. Proverbs 2:6, “For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding”. Do we have ears to hear what God is saying to us? So often, we have filters in place that process what we are hearing in a way that either helps us forget what was said or translates it into something that it wasn’t. At the end of the parable of the sower, Jesus said, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand” (Matthew 13:9). The problem in Isaiah’s day, and it is still a problem, today, was the situation we find in Isaiah 6:9-10, “And he said, “Yes, go, and say to this people, ‘Listen carefully, but do not understand. Watch closely, but learn nothing.’ Harden the hearts of these people. Plug their ears and shut their eyes. That way, they will not see with their eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts and turn to me for healing””. The devil is good at doing just that.

We pilgrims require knowledge to help us in our own walk with God and also to be able to communicate with the needy people who live around us. We must never neglect our Bible Study or times of prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for revealing to us the truths about You and Your Kingdom. Give us open minds, we pray, to receive all the knowledge that You have for us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.”
1 Corinthians 3:11-15 NLT

Paul wasn’t a builder by profession, although his job as a tent maker was close. In his life, he had probably seen buildings erected, and he knew the importance of foundations that would stand the test of time. And he also knew that, then, as now, society had a building industry that sometimes used cheaper and inferior materials, cutting corners and generating more profit for the builders. In the analogy that Paul was using, he was the one who laid the foundations for the Corinthian church. He came to Corinth in about 51AD and started to tell the Jews there about Jesus when he attended their synagogue. “Each Sabbath found Paul at the synagogue, trying to convince the Jews and Greeks alike” (Acts 18:4). But in the end, he gave up because of their hard hearts and left to start the church in a home next door to the synagogue. “Then he left and went to the home of Titius Justus, a Gentile who worshiped God and lived next door to the synagogue” (Acts 18:7). It was here that Paul laid the foundation for the Corinthian church, “So Paul stayed there for the next year and a half, teaching the word of God” (Acts 18:11). What did he teach? 1 Corinthians 2:2, “For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified“. This is important in terms of foundation laying, because building on anything other than “Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified” would have been like building on the sand we considered yesterday in the parable of the wise and foolish builders.

But over the years, there have been many churches, fellowships, groups, sects, and ideologies that all claim to have been founded on Jesus, but many have introduced a subtle change or interpretation that ignores the central facets of the Foundation and have built on something else. It started in the early church days with, for example, movements like Gnosticism. This centred on the idea of gnosis, or secret knowledge, that could liberate individuals from the material world and connect them with a higher spiritual realm. Key to Gnostic thought was the belief that the material world was inherently flawed or evil, created by a lesser deity, while a higher, transcendent God existed beyond it. This movement clashed with Jewish and Christian believers, who considered it for what it was – heresy. Then we have Marcionism, which believed that the God of the Old Testament was different from the God of the New Testament, and its followers rejected the Old Testament. And then we have the Montanists, which was a movement emphasising prophecy and the direct experience of the Holy Spirit, believing their revelations superseded existing Christian teachings. Many others flourished in those early days, and they all were marked out by their false foundations.

In modern days, some sects that call themselves Christian have attracted followings and have established their own denominations and churches. For example, we have the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who believe that Jesus was not God, and the Mormons, who claim to be Christian but aren’t. Both of these have one thing in common, in that they claimed to have divine knowledge imparted to them by their own founders. And there are other sects that have emerged over the years. Such groups and sects have confused and misguided people into believing something untrue.

In yesterday’s blog, we considered Jesus, the only true Foundation. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). A bold and unequivocal statement that has been the true foundation of the Christian church ever since, and is something central to our faith. After Paul had established the Corinthian church, other men of God built up the believers there, men such as Apollos. What building materials did they use – “gold, silver, jewels?” or “wood, hay, or straw”? The precious metals and gems were an analogy of the truth about Jesus and what He taught. In those days, there was no availability of the New Testament as we know it today, so the quality building materials used would have been through Godly men and women who knew the Truth. Paul gave a clue as to how when he wrote, “And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:4). The quality builders like Paul and Apollos had one thing in common, and that was the revelation of Jesus through the Holy Spirit within them. We know this from John 16:13, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future“. Truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Truth in building the foundations and truth in building the Church.

What would the “wood, hay or straw” have been? Teaching that distorts the message of Christ or waters down the truth. Such a definition fits very well with the JW and Mormon sects we have with us today. As another example, I was once in a church that decided to preach a series of sermons based on a popular Christian book. I can’t remember which one, but the issue for me was that the preachers were being a bit lazy in taking ready-made sermon material from a book rather than seeking the Holy Spirit for “gold, silver and jewels” to include in their messages. Another danger is with AI-based applications, such as using ChatGPT, which will provide a sermon outline very easily and plausibly. Did I use this when writing this blog or any other? No, I prefer to set down thoughts inspired by the Holy Spirit and God’s Word, the Bible. But back to our Corinthian builders. Did they end up building wood, hay or straw in the lives of their audience? As a warning, Paul went on to write what will happen on Judgement Day. On this terrible day, fire will destroy what is of no value, but more on this tomorrow.

In the meantime, are we pilgrims in a place where we are being built up by the washing of the Word? Ephesians 5:25-27, “For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault“. We need to be in a place where we can read, believe and apply God’s Word in our lives. Through personal study of the Bible and through listening attentively to the preaching of a Godly “builder” from the pulpit. There is no other way to be built up in our faith. We are built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, and our lives since have been built by following His truth, and none other.

Dear Lord Jesus, only You have the truth that leads to eternal life. Only You are the One who is the correct foundation for Your brothers and sisters in the faith. And we pray for our leaders, that You will lead and guide them in Your ways and in Your truth. In Your precious name. Amen.

The “Knowledge”

Jesus Christ the Foundation (2)