The Wisdom of God

1 Corinthians 1:26-2:5

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;

Sermon Transcript:

All right, well we are going to continue our study this morning, not though in the Book of Acts, but somewhere close to it. So turn in your Bibles this morning to First Corinthians. We’re gonna be in chapter one again, deviating from the Acts series this morning, but not too far because actually First Corinthians is a letter written by Paul to the Corinthian church and it so happens that Paul wrote this letter during his second missionary journey.

Right around Acts chapter 20. We were just there last week. And so, uh, to kind of catch you up, uh, some of you’re gonna groan, but we’re gonna bring back the map this morning. Okay, so we are not done the Book of Acts, so this is not the last time you’re gonna see it either. But, uh, Paul’s second missionary journey, the top left of your screen there, you’ll see Philippi.

And he moved from Philippi to Thessalonica to Bea, he preached to the men of Athens, and then was in Corinth. And while in Corinth, Paul met, uh, two people named Priscilla and Aquila. They were Jewish believers who began then preaching in the synagogues with Paul, Silas and Timothy. You know, they were kind of left behind in Athens and then caught up to Paul and Corinth and the preaching ministry grew, began proclaiming the gospel with boldness.

And so in the midst of that boldness, opposition became more bold as well. Many Corinthians Jews believed in Jesus, even Crispus, one of the synagogue leaders in Acts chapter 18, Paul was there in Corinth for about a year and a half preaching. And so, uh, during this time, some of the religious leaders kind of drag Paul and sent him into this Roman tribunal where they were gonna try him for a religious crime, which the Romans said we could care less.

Sent him out. And so then eventually Paul, Priscilla Aquila all set sail for Ephesus. That’s that scoop there under into Asia. And then they would take the longer sail all the way back into Palestine, strengthening the churches along the way. So a man emerged in this whole process. We heard about Apollos.

Apollos was the second pastor of the Corinthian church. If Paul was the first, Apollos was the second guy. He was eloquent, mighty in the scriptures and had some doctrinal deficiencies. Pastor Joe talked about the way, uh, Priscilla and Aquila gently came alongside of him correcting some of the things, rebuking him in private, uh, as he’s, as he’s preaching.

And meanwhile, as Paul is traveling and taking these sail trips around, word came to him through the spirit of God, through the people in a woman named Chloe’s house that evidently in the Corinthian church, as Paul has left, what’s happened is there started to arise some difficulty, some division. And that’s where we are in chapter one, verse 10.

So we’re gonna look at this letter that Paul writes to the Corinthians this morning. Read with me. I appeal to you brothers by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment for it’s been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.

What I mean is that each one of you says, I follow Paul, or I follow Apollos, or I follow Cipha, which is Peter’s name in Aramaic, or I follow Christ. Is Christ divided. Was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gais so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name.

I did baptize also the household of Stephanus. Beyond that, I don’t know who, whether I baptized anyone else for Christ, did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. And not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved that it’s, it is the power of God.

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning. I will thwart. Where is the one who is wise? Where’s the scribe? Where’s the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world for sin 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. For Jews, demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we, we preach Christ crucified. A stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. We’re gonna camp out right in this section here 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, 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 God, chose what is low and despised in the world, even the things that are not to bring to nothing. Things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us. Wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling and, 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.

Thanks for bearing with me this morning. It was a long passage to read and some of you, when you got to chapter two were like, oh no. Here he goes into chapter two, and you did great. The public reading of God’s word is something we are encouraged to do, but I get it. It’s a long passage, so we’re gonna play a game.

Okay? Uh, some of you were already struggling with a standup sit down method of church. We’re gonna do that again this morning because you know what? There were some divisions in the Corinthian church and so in good fun, we’re gonna create a little bit of division, innocuous division this morning in the church.

Okay? Some of you were like, this is a bad idea. It might be, I actually wrote down this could be a bad idea. Um, but here we go. So I’m gonna ask you to stand not yet. I’m gonna ask you to stand if this is something that you like, and stay, stay seated if it’s something that you do not like, okay. Simple as that.

Stand if you like it, sit if you do not like it. And stay seated. If you are just too cool for this game. Okay. Stand if you are a big fan of thunderstorms. Okay. Anybody thunder, fan of thunderstorms? Okay, good. Okay. All right. Have a seat. Okay. Stand up if you enjoy, you’re, you’re a fan of the taste of cilantro, cuz that’s a dividing one.

Some people think it tastes like soap. All right. Good. Have a seat. My people. Okay. Okay. Stand if you are, uh, someone who likes the beach. Okay. And you’re all like, it’s the Sure. Okay. Okay. Have a seat. Stand if you are part of the crazy people that like Hawaiian pizza, fruit on your pizza. Right. Look at this division.

Isn’t this great? Okay. Have a seat. Okay. Stand If you are, uh, in the majority or minority who like olives, you’re an olive lover. Wow. More than I expected. Okay. All right. How many of you? And this might be tough cuz it’s, it could be still early, if you like, early mornings. Okay. And they’re all like, yes, and I’m awake.

Okay, great. Have a seat. Okay. Last one here. I’m just curious. This might be the stand if you like, blue cheese. Just a few people. Oh, it’s way more than I thought. Okay. All right. Two hands up on the balcony. Wow. Wow. All right. Okay. Everybody can have us. Good. You’re, you’re good. Well, there were some divisions among the church and it wasn’t about the food that they ate.

It was around the people, the teachers, they followed. The Greek word is schiz mata. We get this schism, this tearing apart or ripping into of the church factions developed. Some people were loyal to their current pastor Apollos. Right? He was a great help to the church. He was knowledgeable. He was a smart guy.

He was eloquent. Some were loyal to the og. Pastor Paul. He began the Corinthian church, right? He was there for a year and a half. There was great loyalty to him and others claimed Peter as their guy. Evidently, a small group of Jews in the church came to faith through Peter’s ministry. And then there was this other group, another group claimed exclusive loyalty to Christ.

There’s no need for human teachers. Jesus plus nobody. And though they were following Christ, the spirit in which they did, it was divisive. And so even the people that proclaimed Christ were included in this list of divisions, we’re not that much different today, right? We rally around leaders and theological heroes of the faith, propping up pastors to lead the charge of the movement, creating lines in the sand based on the teachers that we follow or their doctrinal positions.

Apollos Paul, Peter, Jesus, to human tendency to wanna give our loyalty to men. A spirit of pride and division centered around, oddly enough, Jesus, the division centered around the wor words and the ways of Jesus, and it was polluting the church. And so Paul writes to combat this division. His purpose was creating unity because among the Corinthian church, there were all these people, Jews, gentiles, slaves, free, wealthy, poor.

They were to be united in Christ. And so as he’s writing here, he’s proclaiming this wisdom of God in his purpose, his plan, his direction, and the ways he goes about organizing his kingdom. There’s really one main idea. Get your pencils, your pens, whatever out. Here’s your first fill in the blank. It’s actually your first like six, fill in the blanks, but I’m gonna hit all six right now.

Here’s the the summary main idea. God’s divine calling invites strangers into his family, unites them in Christ’s identity and enlists them. To testify in the spirit’s power, his divine calling invites strangers into his family, unites them in Christ’s identity and enlists them to testify of the spirit’s power.

Gonna look into this passage. The first part here, the, the paradox of God’s wisdom. Why would God do it this way? And Paul begins by asking the brothers there to consider their calling. H how did they even come to faith in Christ? This calling refers to their salvation. And so salvation we know is always first God’s movement towards us.

Salvation is God’s movement towards us. He’s always been calling out Romans one. We, we find that all of creation is declaring leaving all people without excuse. The prophets were used as God’s mouthpiece through the generations in order to bring a prophetic word to his people, who oftentimes would air in different directions.

Second Timothy, God calls, uh, us to himself by his grace, sending Jesus wrapped in human flesh and continues to call us through his written word today, living and active. So it is. Jesus says in John 6 44, listen to these words. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him want that for theology 1 0 1.

No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him later in a John 15, six, he says, you didn’t choose me. I chose you. Salvation is always first. God’s movement towards us. And he says, consider your calling. That’s what they just did, and he calls them brothers. This language that’s unifying, that’s family, it’s, it’s to put the divisions away.

You weren’t called because you were something special. He says, not many of you were wise. Not many of you were powerful or of noble birth. Some of you were possibly, but as a whole, it was a very plain church. Or to say it a different way, you were a bunch of foolish, weak, nobodies. Paul says it more kind, but that’s what he’s saying.

God doesn’t choose people based on their worldly greatness, their wisdom, their power, their nobility. It’s not really attractive to God. He doesn’t need us to further his kingdom. He doesn’t pursue people because they have great means, or he’s not drawn to fame as we are. He isn’t more gracious to influential leaders.

His grace invites us to follow him with, oddly enough, the exact same faith requirement for you and you and me and you and everybody. And he expands on that question, that kind of paradox that why God would choose this with kind of a contrast here in verse 27 and 28. Look at this. But God chose what’s foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, what is low and despised even the things that are not to bring to nothing. Things that are the draw to celebrity and to kind of power was present then and probably even more so present today. News and sports outlets are a dominated with celebrity buzz.

Rumors of celebrity happenings are the, the stuff that makes social media go wild. In fact, now college sports formerly prohibited athletes from making money as an amateur, at least legally. But in recent laws, athletes can now sell the rights to their name, their image, and their likeness, whatever the heck that means, allowing them to earn money for their fame as an athlete.

And as of today, in more than 30 states, you can even do it in high school. Partaking in this celebrity influence, monetizing your fame. And in today’s economy, strength is strength. Power begets power, worldly wisdom, it is wise, and wealth provides happiness, influences monetize. But in God’s economy, it seems to be different.

Worldly wisdom teaches us how to get ahead, but Jesus says a seemingly foolish thing, seek first God’s kingdom. This earth will pass away. It’s just a breath. Strong leaders in our world can climb the corporate ladder, but God’s encouragement is to embrace weakness. Life in the kingdom is this downward mobility.

You wanna be the greatest learn to be the least, and your weakness, I will be strong. Well, wealth brings power and just maybe, you know, makes things better. But in fact, Jesus said it’s harder for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. The road is narrow. Brothers and sisters, God chooses the fools, the weak, the low, and the despise.

And it was so with the Corinthian church, actually many of them were slaves or freed slaves, lowly people, potentially at some time in their life, they were called inferior, the opposite of nobility. The Corinthians referred to such of people like this as nothings. And this is. The team that God chose. And why does he do this?

He shames the wises, the strong, the noble, and not in sort of a negative shaming sense, although there’s clearly humility that exists when you see, uh, those people going before. The Greek word here is best translated confound, kind of this, this idea of God choosing what is weak in the world, to confound the strong, to amaze or astonish or to wow them.

It was truly the case with the disciples as they walked into certain towns here and there, and, uh, they, they weren’t the people that came in waving to nobility and dressed in the finest threads. The disciples walked in and confused people, astonished them that these people would be closest to Jesus.

Often they were cast out because they didn’t measure up to society’s standards. God’s divine choosing takes weak, lowly, nothings and creates a family of brothers and sisters, strangers, and outcasts. No more. Possibly you’re feeling one of two ways right now. Maybe some tremendous agony because you do have some money.

Maybe there is some influence that has worked its way into your life and you’ve spent your whole life stuffing your brain with wisdom and knowledge and education. I mean, can’t God use someone like me in his kingdom? Are you telling me this is all worthless? Or maybe you have this like sneaking elation inside of you because you are always, and you always have been, the weakling, the outcast.

You feel like you’re a nobody. I’m smiling, but your bank account is drained. And you’re like, God loves and wants me. He picked me for his team. This is great. Well, I’d invite both of you to continue listening because the purpose of God’s wisdom, why he does this, continues on in verse 29. Listen to what it says so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

God chooses, God invites people regardless of a particular skillset or societal standing. We’re invited to embrace the same and similar humility that we find in the end, in Revelation what’s happening right now in the presence of God. Pastor Mark often talks about this greater than less than scale. I’d encourage you just to take yourself out of the equation of this, I’m rich, or I’m poor, or I’m weak, or I’m strong.

Whatever it is, it’s. A comparison trap. He draws us with his grace so that no created being would stand in his presence and boast. But in the presence we cry out in worship and surrender. I want you to just come with me for a minute. I’m gonna ask you to close your eyes. I’m gonna read out of Revelation this morning.

Revelation chapter four. Consider the presence of God and his throne. See if you can imagine what’s happening. From the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peels of thunder. And before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there it was as it were, a, a sea of glass like crystal.

And around the throne on each side of the throne are four living creatures full of eyes in front. And behind the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man and the fourth living creature like an eagle and flight. And the fourth living creatures.

Each of them with six wings are full of eyes all around and within and day and night. They never cease to say Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is, and is to come. And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor, and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, picture this who lives forever and ever.

The 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him, who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne saying, worthy, are you our Lord? And God. To receive glory and honor and power for you, created all things. And by your will, they existed. And were created.

Okay, you can open your eyes. All parts terrifying, all inspiring, exciting, God focused. I mean, in God’s presence, there are no titles. Uh, drop your titles, drop your achievements, drop your loyalty. Drop your buffs. You are merged. Anyone survivor, one family of God, one. And in his presence, it’s not about us, but his glory.

And so Paul writes that no one would be in the presence of God and boast. Corinthian Church, American Church, fellowship Community Church. We are invited by faith to receive Christ a new identity, not defined by the stuff of this earth, but defined by Jesus. Okay, letter. Be here. Once we have this humility, we’re invited to also receive the identity we have in Christ.

This imputed identity, it’s a short word, but a strong word. A big word. So I’ll give you the verse 30 here. And because of him, God’s grace calling us to respond in faith, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us. Wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The imputed given to us identity of Christ.

It, it just simply means that we’ve been given the identity. It’s not something that we conjured up on our own. It’s been given to us In a similar way, this concept has been true since the beginning. In the garden, when Adam sinned in the garden, we were all imputed or given the sin nature of Adam. Now we are born into sin.

The rescue of Jesus comes with two parts of this imputation. The willing. Jesus died in our place for our sins. Our sin was given to him. And what we get is his identity imputed to us. Wow. Do you get that? Given the sin nature to him now, now we have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. So these words that Paul writes give us a new identity in Christ, it’s unifying.

And what are we gonna be unified on these? These words. Maybe you’re here this morning and identity’s kind of been something you struggled with. Who am I? What defines me? Um, confused about your identity. Maybe you have a low sense of self-worth, down and out. Maybe the identity that you have right now is just characterized by a season of cyclical struggle.

Recently given into sins of the flesh and guilt and shame the chains around your neck. But if you are in Christ, listen closely to your identity this morning. In Christ, we receive the wisdom of God. Not only are we saved by God’s wisdom, his wisdom replaces my old way. If you abide in my word, Jesus says in John eight, then you are truly disciples of mine, and you shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

That is the wisdom of God to know what really is true in Christ. We not only receive the wisdom of God, we are given the righteousness of God. His record is now our record. He became sin who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God. We not only receive the wisdom of God, the righteousness of God, we receive God’s sanctification in Christ.

His spirit lives inside of us Now, we are now made of incorruptible seed. That means it cannot be destroyed. Growing in holiness and Christlikeness was, let’s just pause for a minute. To recognize our role in sanctification, God’s role in sanctification. He is changing us. He is not content to keep us as we are.

He’s bringing us along in this process, and though I’m part of it, it’s God’s doing that. We would bear much fruit. And you might pause me and say, ma tree ain’t growing fruit so well these days. Mike, I wanna read to you a, a quote from a book that was given to me many years ago. It’s been an influence to many of us here at Fellowship.

I’d love to give you a copy. I have none for you today though. Um, it’s from the principles of spiritual growth. Listen to this idea of, uh, what true growth looks like. Growth is not a uniform thing in the tree or in the Christian fruit Ripens. Slowly days of sunshine and days of storm each add their share.

Blessing will succeed. Blessing and storm will follow storm before the fruit is fully grown or comes to maturity. God’s method for true spiritual growth involves pain as well as joy, suffering, as well as happiness, failure, as well as success, inactivity, as well as service, death, as well as life. And so we open our hands even in this season of our lives and say, Lord, you are sanctifying me.

I can’t change that. I’m confident. That you who began a good work in me will complete it at the day of Christ Jesus, Philippians one, six. It’s happening in your life. In Christ. We receive also finally, hear God’s redemption. Redeem means to, to buy back. We’ve been purchased from the power of sin and death.

The price of our redemption is not with perishable things like silver or gold. The precious blood of Jesus is the price of our redemption, our sacrifice, and so in Christ, we have much to boast in his new identity. That’s unifying family language and it’s all for his glory. Verse 31, that the one who boasts, boasts in the Lord.

Okay, finally here, the proclamation of God’s wisdom. When Paul came, when Paul was gathering together and writing this letter, here’s how it happened.

Chapter two, verse one, an I when I came to you, brothers did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in a demonstration of the spirit and of power. He first started by calling them back to the beginning when they were called into salvation.

It wasn’t about them. Here’s your new identity and, and just remind you, I didn’t come with some sort of magic power to make you all do these things. I came with the spirit and the power. My words are not what save you. And so his delivery method is one of the things there that we’ll look at. Don’t misunderstand what Paul is saying here, that he didn’t come using those methods, but Paul probably could have used those methods.

He could have spoken with lofty speech. Why? We know he studied under the San Hera leader Galio. He wasn’t just some uneducated, worthless dude. He could have tried to debate with them using earthly wisdom, but he didn’t. This wasn’t the place or the time for gimmicks. He knew that public speaking abilities were not something that received the same power as the spirit, but rather he came armed with what the testimony of God, the testimony of God witnesses can only testify to what they’ve seen.

Paul’s testimony is the story of God’s work and think back through all of our study in the Book of Acts, it’s been quite a testimony of what God has done in Paul’s life, from salvation in his life, all the way through on this journey. Paul has quite the testimony of what God has done. There’s this tendency that we have.

Maybe as we approach a difficulty or a project or a thing, we’ll, we’ll try to navigate all the possibilities of how we’re gonna go about it and maybe adding up all of our worth, uh, earthly knowledge. We assess, we calculate, we do the math, we work this thing. And maybe you thought, if you go into the Corinthian people, this is how we’re gonna come and we’re gonna bring God’s word in this way and it’s going to impact them in that way.

If it kind of, you bring the proper tools needed, you count the cost of the project and where needed, maybe you just kind of sneak in a little bit of human ingenuity to make things work. Or if you’re like me with projects, you jump in too fast, you find the tools you need halfway through, you pray a lot, and then you call your skilled friends to come help you because you have no idea what you’re doing.

But Paul didn’t. Take human wisdom into this process of preaching the word in Corinth. Why? Because Paul came to know that God doesn’t work like us. God destroyed Israel’s enemies with trumpets, clay, pots and choir music. God does not work like us. He creates the whole universe and uses his breath.

God doesn’t work like us. God defeats giants by sending a lowly shepherd with a slingshot. God doesn’t work like us. God builds his church by bringing Jesus back to heaven and sending his spirit. Instead. God doesn’t work like us. When God wants to make a missionary, he chose Saul, the one who is persecuting Christians.

God doesn’t work like us. God destroys the enemies of sin and death by crushing his son Jesus. On the cross, God doesn’t work like us, and that’s a good thing. And so Paul comes armed with the testimony of God and a confidence in the spirit’s power. The, the final part here is just his posture. He came knowing among them, Jesus and him crucified.

He, he joined with them. He, yes, was teacher pastor, but he was a fellow learner and a worshiper. His goal was that the Corinthian faith would rest upon God’s power, not upon his words. The application today, as we just wrap up, sits at the top of your paper this morning. Hopefully it’s something you can get behind and explain the strategy, the wisdom of God.

His divine calling invites strangers into his family. Unites them in Christ’s identity and enlists them to testify in the spirit’s power. Simple questions for you this morning as we, uh, apply this truth, and maybe you’re here and you’d ask these questions. Have you responded to God’s divine calling? He’s gathered us in a variety of places.

I have no idea if the prayer garden people are dry. Maybe you were just wandering by and you took a seat this morning. Maybe you’re here in Mount Laurel for the very first time because you came to a vacation Bible school or a soccer camp, and now you find yourself back in this place, maybe in Collingswood.

You’ve been part of these first couple weeks of the Leader Up summer camp, and now you’re attending a service on a Sunday morning. However you arrived, we’d love to welcome you into a personal relationship with Jesus. The weak, the lowly, the outcast, the poor, the sick, the wealthy, the famous, the influential person.

Without Christ, we are all sinick and need of a rescuer. So I encourage you, come talk to me, talk to one of the pastors. Heck, if you heard any part of my sermon, you realize it’s not about my words or his words, or your words or anybody’s words. It’s about the spirit. Talk to somebody this morning. God’s divine calling brings strangers into his family.

The second question, if you know Jesus as Lord, do you know today that you are redeemed, sanctified, righteous saints? This is your identity more than anything else. And in Christ, we are a family. So look around the room, wherever you are, out in the prayer garden here in Mount Laurel, in Collingswood. Turn your head.

Go ahead. Look around. Look around the room. Brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers. Remind someone today as you’re greeting after the service with family language families pursue healing. We, we do our best to live at peace. We engage in fellowship. We encourage and consider others better than ourselves. We don’t divide God’s divine calling, invites strangers into his family and unites us in the identity of Christ.

And so, third question as we go. How will we testify? Honestly, for me, there’s, there’s a piece of this passage that speaks directly to me as a preacher. It’s easy to sell out to artfully crafted phrases and witty illustrations. Polishing delivery methods, wordsmithing to my fingers are numb, but there’s no power in what I’m saying.

If it’s not of the spirit, it will not last. And so you junior high students and high school students, next week, some of you’re gonna be going on the mission trip. You testify of the work that God is doing in your life. You present the truth of the Bible, plain and simple. Don’t try to convince people of God’s love.

Don’t force them into believing you can’t do that. But do watch for the way the Spirit might show up and surprise you in these next couple weeks. Spend as much time praying for the Spirit to work as doing the work yourself. It’s his work. After all. Those of you here with family or friends or coworkers in need of Jesus, keep praying.

But if anything that you might hear from the text this morning, open your mouth. Your fear in speaking of talking about Jesus may say a lot more about you than it does about the other person. Your trust maybe is in yourself or your words. I, I love the way that Mary Magdalene and the, the chosen series, the way that her testimony is given.

It’s just a few simple words. I was one way and now I’m completely different. That’s it. It’s not your words. But in a demonstration of the spirit’s power, God’s divine calling brings strangers into his family, unites us together in Christ’s identity and enlists us to testify of the spirit’s power. What a gift it is.

We get to celebrate communion this morning, and we’re gonna do, so. The ushers are gonna, our section hosts are gonna come and gather the elements here and we’re gonna begin distributing them. I just wanna read to you kind of out of the passage this morning in First Corinthians chapter 11, what happened?

This family meal. For those that know Christ, you guys can start passing out. I’m gonna talk and pass. If you’ve made a profession of faith, if you know Christ, this is a time to remember God’s faithfulness in pursuing you to proclaim God’s faithfulness. As often as we eat and drink of this cup, listen to one Corinthians, for I receive from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed, took bread and when he had given thanks, he broke it.

And said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, also, he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

It’s in remembrance of Christ’s blood shed on the cross in the proclamation of Christ’s death to all who would hear,