Blessed Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church
500 Upper Bukit Timah Rd, Singapore 678106
The Apostle Paul is a witness to the glory and power of the gospel. He was blinded when he first met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Jesus restored his sight (Acts 9:1-22). He beheld the power of God to give and to take away in those three days of blindness. Frightening to experience that momentary wrath of God.
The Apostle Paul preaches the gospel of the crucified Christ. This is the power of God unto salvation. This is the only message that he proclaims. He did not embark on the evangelistic mission that Jesus has called him to do by declaring his own wisdom or his eloquence of speech.
In other words, the Apostle Paul relied upon God, abiding in Christ, through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit to take the Word of God preached to convert souls.
All that we have comes from our gracious God who freely bestows upon us all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. As such, the believer’s response must only be one of gratitude, giving glory to God. There is no room for any pride or boasting for all that we have received comes by the grace of God.
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
The believer has much to give thanks. He has much to give praise to God for all the is freely bestowed by God in Christ Jesus. He is exhorted to give all worship to the Lord. What are the benefits in Christ Jesus? God’s peace!
Indeed, from salvation to glorification, it is all of God through Jesus Christ. Causes us to bow in humble adoration and praise for all the good that we have received and will continue to receive. We are a privilege people with the message of salvation, that only Jesus saves.
May the good Lord help us to proclaim this message far and wide. Amen.
The king Nebuchadnezzar thought he was the greatest power on earth and in heaven when he was king over the vastest empire on earth – The Babylonian Empire. In the height of his glory, God humbled him by consigning him to live like a beast for 7 years. At the end of the 7 years, his senses returned to him. He made this testimony – Daniel 4:37 “Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.”
The word “despised” is a compound word consisting of the preposition “from” and the noun “to bring to naught”, meaning “treat with scorn, jeer at, look down on”. Those whom the people in the world disregarded, God regarded them. They are precious in God’s sight.
The National Geographic magazine July 1997 in the article “The Power and Glory of the Roman Empire” written by T.R. Reid, it is observed interesting the spread of the Christian faith throughout the Roman Empire, “In the empire where human life was held so trivial, we should perhaps not be surprised by the rapid growth of a new religious cult centering on a young man executed as a criminal in an unimportant province. When Jesus of Nazareth and a minor procurator named Pontius Pilate came face-to-face in the basilica of Jerusalem – it was around A.D. 30 – all the power lay on Pilate’s side. But Jesus had the power of an idea. His message, that every life was precious, addressed a human need that the caesars could not fill. Assisted greatly by the ease of travel and the general tolerance of new religions within the empire, the early Christians gradually converted the entire Roman Empire. The historian Eusebius tells of the civil war of A.D. 312, when two Roman leaders, Constantine and Maxentius, battled for control of the empire. Gazing up into the noonday sky, Constantine saw a brilliant flaming cross above the sun. Emblazoned on it were the words “In hoc signo vinces” – In this sign you will conquer…Emerging victorious, Constantine issued his famous edict of toleration. Much later, as he lay on deathbed, he was baptised, becoming the first Christian emperor of Rome.”
The foolish, the weak has nothing inherently to boast because they are generally overlooked in a world where the wise and mighty rules the roost. It is interesting, the Apostle Paul observes, the vessels of God’s saving grace come upon the foolish and weak. Jesus gives us a clue in the Beatitudes how a man finds blessings with God when He teaches in Matthew 5:3-4 “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.”
The foolish and the weak realizes their inability and inadequacy. God is able to mold and reshape such to conform to His image. They are yielded to His molding hands. When God commands Joshua to enter the Promised Land, He instructs Israel to first conquer Jericho. And God’s strategy for tearing the fortress of Jericho is laughable to the army of Jericho. And the army of Israel is ill-equipped and hardly pose any threat to the great armour and strength of the army in Jericho.
The message of the gospel is God’s infinite wisdom presented in an infinitely logically and simple way so that men can be saved from sin and misery and death. It is a message that has brought comfort, strength, joy and peace to the seeking soul, distraught and at its wit’s end. The power of God shown through in the heart of such bringing healing to the aching soul.
The gospel is the power and wisdom of God to save. Despise not the gospel for it is the only hope, the only cure for sin and death. The Apostle Paul is exhorting the church in Corinth to press on in sowing the seed of the gospel. He made a relative comparison driving home the point that even the least of God’s wisdom bordering upon “foolishness” as fallen man would interpret God’s ways, is still superior to man’s wisdom.