Sermon: Names of Jesus: Wisdom of God

This evening we'll be reading from First Corinthians one verse 18 to 31, which can be find in your pew Bibles Found in your Pew Bibles on page 9 52. That'll be our jumping off point and our landing point for this evening as we consider the name of Jesus, the wisdom of God. We'll start there, make a few comments about the text and then we'll jump to a number of texts starting with a book of Proverbs, some in the New Testament.

Then we will draw some conclusions about what the name of Jesus means returning to one Corinthians one at the end, before we read God's word, let us look to him in prayer.

Heavenly Father, deal bountifully with your servants that we may live and keep your word open our eyes that we may be hold wondrous things out of your law. We are sojourners on the earth, so we ask that you would hide not your commandments from us. Our souls are consumed with longing for your word at all times. So open up that word to us and please send your spirit that we might receive and come to know and love Christ as our wisdom this evening.

We ask this in your son's holy and precious name and by the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen. One Corinthians one beginning at verse 18. This is the word of God For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, 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 is the scribe?

Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world for since 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 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 for consider your calling brothers, not many of you are 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 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. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God is forever. Amen. Well, my hope this evening is that after this sermon,

when you think about the biblical concept of wisdom, your mind will run to Christ. And when you read the book of Proverbs, you read it and realize that it points to Christ and that if nothing else, I hope you come out of here knowing, delighting in glorying in our Savior, just a little better in your minds and in your hearts. So in our passage in one Corinthians, Paul is contrasting worldly wisdom with God's wisdom, worldly wisdom.

In this passage we could say refers in general to the cleverness of man, to search into things and to discover ultimate truth. You could say it refers to our best attempts to discover truth and meaning about ourselves and about God. And what Paul says here is that unaided human reason and ingenuity won't get you all the way to God. Which isn't to say that God doesn't value wisdom, but it is to say that God's wisdom is of a different sort.

True wisdom Paul says is found in Christ crucified to live wisely or to put it in another way, to live well is to believe in and follow Christ crucified. The wise of the world reject this message as folly, but those who are called by God know better. We know that Christ crucified is the power of God. And what I wanna focus on tonight, the wisdom of God, I want to do a deep dive into that name. What does it mean that Jesus Christ is called the

wisdom of God? To do that, we're going to do a, a brief survey of scripture at the start. I don't think this is a more common name that we think of that we associate with Christ. So I wanna show the biblical warrant for understanding that yes Christ, we should associate him with this name, the wisdom of God, this title. So first we're going to flip back to the book of Proverbs and we're going to see what biblical wisdom is

and we're going to see that there's this character wisdom personified. And when wisdom speaks, wisdom sounds an awful lot like God. And then we'll see wisdom sounds not just like God, but like the son of God. And then we're going to see the way that the New Testament writers connect Jesus in wisdom. After that, we're going to draw three conclusions about what this title of Jesus Christ means. And with each of those three conclusions,

we'll have an application. So we're going to have a scripture survey, proverbs, then New Testament and three conclusions with three applications. That's where we're going this evening. So please if you could turn to the book of Proverbs, not all scriptures that I cite this evening will um, be effective for you to turn and follow along. But we're going to be in Proverbs a little bit. So if you'd like, you could just turn to

that book right after Psalms. Now when you think of Proverbs, you probably think of the wisdom sayings, all those wise short sayings that are in uh, chapters 10 through 31. But the first nine chapters of Proverbs are something of an apology for the life of wisdom. First nine chapters basically say, here's why you should pursue wisdom.

Now in life and in Proverbs when we talk about wisdom at the most basic level, we're talking about the ability to apply knowledge to all of life circumstances so that you generally live a better life. Say that again. Wisdom at its basis. Basic level is the ability to apply knowledge to all of life circumstances so that you generally live a better life. Other people will say it's the skill of living well, um, or as I said earlier, to live wisely is to live

well usually it's helpful to understand what wisdom is by contrasting it with knowledge. So I'll use a couple examples. One from the SCF retreat. I wasn't there but I saw a video. So knowledge is knowing that the black furry animal in front of you is a bear. Wisdom is not going closer to the bear so you don't get eaten.

Another example, perhaps the class example that I think of knowledge, knowing that a tomato is in fact a fruit, but wisdom is not putting a tomato in a fruit salad. So if you are wise, you will live better. You may have the knowledge of what a bear is, but if you don't have enough wisdom or if you have a severe lack of wisdom, you may get eaten by a bear if you know what a tomato is, but you put it in a fruit salad, you're not living

as well as if you didn't.

So there is wisdom. It is the ability to apply knowledge to circumstances in such a way that you generally have a better quality of life that's at its most basic level. But then Proverbs adds this extra component to its definition of wisdom. Biblical wisdom Proverbs says, involves the fear of the Lord. You see that in Proverbs one, verse seven. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Knowledge. Here he is equating it with wisdom saying

true knowledge is applied knowledge, knowledge that leads to living well. Or Proverbs nine 10, he says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy one is insight. So Solomon wants to press home to us. Wisdom in its truest sense can only be gained when your heart is rightly oriented to God. There must be that reverential humble posture to God in order for you to truly live well. Solomon says Wisdom is God-centered,

which means the good life is the God-fearing life, the God-centered life. So that's what wisdom is in the book of Proverbs. Now as I said, when you get into Proverbs one through nine, you meet this character. This character's name is most people call her lady wisdom. She is wisdom personified and you see her standing at the street corners calling to men to come to her and enjoy a better life. Enjoy life. And fruitfulness

Chapter nine, you see wisdom setting a banquet and inviting people Come everyone, whether you're wise or whether you're even a fool, come enjoy this banquet and taste of wisdom. And this sort of female personification of wisdom was used in other ancient near Eastern wisdom text. It's a, it's a common trope in wisdom literature to personify wisdom as a, as a woman. But when you get to the biblical description of wisdom,

what you, what you start seeing is that wisdom says a lot of things that in other parts of scripture we see this is what God says. Let me list some examples. Wisdom says in chapter 1 23, I will pour out my spirit to you. God says that in Isaiah 44 and Joel two wisdom stretches out her hands to those who will not listen. God does the same in Isaiah 65. Wisdom laughs at the calamity of the fools who reject her. God does the same in Psalm two.

Wisdom says to those who continue to reject her, then they will call upon me but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently but will not find me. God says similar things in one Samuel eight and Hosea five wisdom enables rulers and kings to rule. You see that in chapter eight verse 15, God does the same as we saw in our call to worship in Daniel two. Wisdom loves those who loves her. Chapter eight 17, you see the same principle in of San

of God in Psalm 91, in John 14, those who seek wisdom find her. God says that in Jeremiah in 29 13, Isaiah 55, 6 and Matthew seven verses seven and eight, wisdom grants an inheritance to those who love her. God says the same thing in Psalms 1 0 5 verse 11, 111, 6 Acts 20 verse 32 and the list goes on. And chapter nine, it culminates, you could say with wisdom says, come eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed leave your simple ways

and live sounds so much like what God says. And Isaiah 55 where he says, come all who are hungry, come buy wine and milk. Come buy these things without money. Calls them to bring eat bread and to find life in him.

So we, we see that wisdom makes a lot of the promises, extends a lot of same offers as God does. And even rejecting wisdom has the same dangers as rejecting God does. And then we get to Proverbs eight, verse 22 to through 31. And here you see, and I'm going to read these soon, these verses soon and Christian theologians have seen from the earliest days of the church onwards after Christ that wisdom doesn't just sound like God Now

that Jesus has come, wisdom sounds a lot like the pre-incarnate son of God. Let me read these verses. The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old ages ago. I was set up at the first before the beginning of the earth when there were no depths. I was brought forth when there were no springs abounding with water before the mountains had been shaped before the hills. I was brought forth before he had made the earth

with its fields or the first of the dust of the world when he established the heavens. I was there when he drew a circle on the face of the deep when he made firm the skies above when he established the fountains of the deep when he assigned to the sea its limit so that the waters might not transgress his command. When he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him like a master workman and I was daily his delight, rejoicing

before him, always rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man. Again, these are the words of wisdom. And we see her wisdom has apparently been around a very long time.

And like I said, at the coming of Christ, Christians have heard the voice of the Son of God speaking through these words. They saw that through this personification of wisdom that Solomon composed, that the spirit communicated greater things than even Solomon knew. And this text has been used from the earliest days until now as a proof text of God's, the son's eternal generation, his eternally existing as the Son of God proceeding from the Father.

I just want to show you a little bit of this text why people have come to this conclusion. First off, in verses 22 to 26, there's a lot of language related to the metaphor of birth. You see that clearly in verse 24 through 26 where twice wisdom is described as being brought forth and that's that's typical birth language in Old Testament. And verse 22 actually also has this language. You see the word possessed, it doesn't sound like it's maybe referring to the metaphor

of birth, but uh, you see this in connection with uh, Genesis four verse one. It's actually the word that we get the name Cain from. Um, Genesis four verse one. Now Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived in bore Cain saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord and it's from that word I have gotten conti that they named their son Kane. And so the same verb is used here and it's not just the sense of possession

or having, it's the sense of possessing through fathering, possessing through begetting.

And so Yahweh possessed through beginning wisdom. And this happened, it says at the beginning of his way or you could say before his acts of old or at the four of his acts of old. So the idea that wisdom is begotten from before this world came into being, that becomes clear because in verse 27 through 30 when he describes the creation of the world, wisdom is already present there. Wisdom has already come about as the earth is being created.

So you have wisdom being brought forth from eternity. And now you have to ask as you read this passage, what then is wisdom? Is wisdom some other ancient creation that God then used to create? Well no, that goes against everything we read in the Bible. There's only two categories in scripture. There is creator and there is creature. God doesn't create a creature to then help him create. God creates and things are created.

So wisdom isn't really a creation. And if you step back and think about what wisdom is and what God's wisdom is, it it, it can't really refer to a creation because God has always been wise. He didn't create his wisdom at some point he didn't bring it forth at some point this place is not saying, this passage is not saying that there was a time when divine wisdom was not to quote one theologian.

What we do see here, it's that wisdom is presented as a person who is closely associated with God and yet is distinct from God. And you see that they verse 30, they mutually delight in each other. How is daily his delight rejoicing before him? Always God is delights in wisdom. And wisdom is rejoicing before God always. Wisdom has a special role in shaping and forming creations referred to as a master workman. And then there's also clearly wisdom has a special

rejoicing in the created world and you see a particular delight in the children of man.

So now Jesus comes and he lives on this earth. He dies, he is raised, he goes into heaven and the apostles are given eyes to understand their Old Testament scr, given minds and hearts to understand the Old Testament scriptures And realize God, Jesus is God. Jesus is also distinct from God. He was, he must have been 'cause He is God. He must eternally have been, God must have eternally been the son of God, the Father. And as Proverbs eight hints at he is eternally being brought

forth, he is eternally the son of the Father. He has always been the son. The Father has always been the Father. There was never a time there was a father without a son or son without the Father. And then of course the New Testament writers also realized, well Christ is the agent of creation. We'll talk about that in more in a minute. He's also the agent in redemption. He has a particular eye towards the children of man

as their mediator and redeemer. So we look at this passage and we say something more than just a personification is being described here. And because we believe in the divine author of scripture, we can say the spirit inspired Solomon to compose this such that in shadowy form we see the eternality of the Son of God. I think the way Matthew Henry described it as helpful, he says, if Solomon himself designed only the praise

of wisdom as it as it is an attribute of God by which he made the world and governs it, so to recommend to men the study of that wisdom which belongs to them, yet the spirit of God who indicted what he wrote carried him as. David also is carried to such expressions as could only agree with no other than the son of God and would lead us into the knowledge of great things concerning him.

So there's Proverbs A and now we turn to the New Testament. We see the some writers reflecting on this relationship between Jesus and this wisdom figure. In Proverbs eight, pat mentioned a couple of weeks ago when, when John in John one verse one is reflecting on the word of God who was in the beginning with God and who was God. Of course that points to Genesis one, but also that phrase in the beginning it brings to mind Proverbs eight, Paul

says as he's reflecting on Christ's role in creation, that he is the firstborn of his creation. And by him all things were created. That's Colossians one 16. He says, through him all things including us exist. Verse Corinthians eight, six

New Testament writers looking back on Proverbs eight, recognize Jesus is here. He is the fully divine agent of creation.

And it's not just those, but it's not just those couple of places. It's not just reflection on Proverbs eight that leads us to connect Jesus to wisdom. You see this actually often in the gospels. You see in the gospels Jesus is presented as someone who says the good life, the the wise life is a life of following him. So in the Sermon on the Mount he begins that with beatitudes and Beatitudes. That is a category from wisdom literature.

Blessed are you if, if this is true of you. And he says at the end of those, blessed are you if you are persecuted on my account. He says, the the the blessed life, the happy, the wise life is for those who follow me

Sir, sermon of the Mount, he says Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you'll find knock and the door will be open unto you. And it sounds an awful lot like wisdom's. Call to those to seek after her. And at the end of the sermon of the Mount, Jesus explicitly states that the wise person is the one who follows his teaching. He says, this is the end of the sermon of Mount Matthew seven verses 24 and following everyone who hears these words of mind

and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And then he says, the foolish man is the one who hears these words of mine and doesn't do them. So he says, we're, we're now completely. Yes. Wisdom has always been about having a God oriented life. Jesus says now. Now wisdom is about having a me oriented life. He says about having a Jesus oriented life. You want the good life. Follow Jesus here and do his words.

He says elsewhere it seems that Jesus particularly specifically does connect himself with the wisdom figure in verbs. See this, if you look at Matthew 23, you compare it to Luke 11, Matthew 23, he's proclaiming these woes on the Pharisees and the scribes. And in Matthew he says at some point he says, therefore this is Jesus speaking. Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes Matthew 23, Jesus is the one who says,

I send prophets. You look at Luke 11 verse 49. Jesus says, therefore also the wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles. Jesus says in Matthew, I send you prophets and apostles, Luke says, the wisdom of God says this very clear reading one in light of the other, Jesus seems to have equated himself with wisdom.

So you see John Paul and even Jesus himself identifies himself as the wisdom of God.

So there's the biblical basis for this title.

Now what do we make of it? What does it mean that Jesus is the wisdom of God? Wanna do have? We have three points here, three conclusions we can make. And again, I said each point has an application with it. So the first point, we'll draw this particularly from Proverbs eight, Christ as the wisdom of God reveals God's manifold wisdom in creation and redemption Christ as the wisdom of God reveals God's wisdom in creation and in redemption.

So this means that the second person of the Trinity, particularly as he is revealed to us in Jesus Christ, he manifests to us the perfect outworking of God's plan in creation and redemption.

And the application of this is to marvel at the wisdom of God in creation and in the person of Christ. So first we ought to marvel at God's wisdom in creation. Again, Paul says, of Christ by him all things were created, things in heaven and things on earth, visible and invisible. Creation itself displays God's wisdom and and the son of God, Paul says he's the agent, he's the one who is creating. And as the one who executes God's plan in creation,

he reveals just how wonderful God is in his wisdom. And you see this when you just look anywhere in our world, think of uh, fine tuning arguments for life in this world, the fact that the force of gravity is such that it is that if it were a little bit stronger or a little bit weaker, life wouldn't work. We are and our planet earth on in the exact perfect distance from the sun to make life sustainable so that we don't freeze or burn up.

We have a perfectly composed atmosphere. We have a magnetic sphere that makes life possible. God uses CO2, God uses plants to take away CO2 and produce oxygen. God has designed this world so that He provides water that flows down. And even though it flows down, you'd think that means that there's only a short amount of time we actually have any water anywhere. But he designed this world so that tons of water gets evaporated, goes into the sky, floats over,

condenses, and then falls back down. And we have plants and vegetation.

God designed this whole world so that it would work. And that is all reflecting the wisdom of God. And I'm sure that many of you, if anyone has a science background, I have a literature background, so I don't study these things. Any of you who have a science background in any of your fields, you can. You come into contact with these things all the time just seeing, wow, this is created so intricately and it works. Sometimes we often get fixated on where things don't work.

We say, well maybe that's proof that God doesn't exist. But the reality is, is we can notice where things don't work reflects that God created such a wonderful world that it still reflects his wisdom even in its current fallen state.

And again, Christ is the agent of that creation. We marvel at Christ who created this wonderful world.

Now, if we're supposed to marvel at his wisdom and creation, how much more do we marvel at his wisdom and redemption? I love what one one a Puritan Stephen Char said, he said, if the work of creation are the footsteps of God's wisdom, the work of redemption is the face of God's wisdom. You see footsteps, you can figure out some things about a person you want to know a lot about A about who a person is. Look at their face. When we look at the face

of God's wisdom, we see he is a loving God who in his wisdom has redeemed us.

And in Christ we see that face of God's wisdom. And for now, I just want us to reflect briefly on God's wisdom displayed in the person of Christ.

Jesus Christ is eternal God and a hundred percent a human being. Many of us probably just grew up hearing that week in, week out, right? Fully God, fully man, that reality is astounding. It is unthinkable. The eternal enters time. The infinite God joins himself to finite man. The immortal becomes mortal. The invisible is visible.

The unchanging wisdom of God becomes a man who it says specifically in Luke two, Increased in wisdom.

That's what God did in the person of Jesus Christ. God the son became incarnate, not by ceasing to be what he was, but by becoming what he was not. He remained fully God, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable yet truly becomes a full body and soul human being. And he did it because his delight was in the children of man. He delighted to save us. He delighted to unite our nature to his

God took on flesh so that he could deliver us from death.

And 2000 years of church history testifies, it's still a mystery. How is this possible? We just know it's possible because God's word says, but that's the wisdom of God.

No human being could come up with that, could make that work. There is God's wisdom on display in the person of Christ. How unfathomable is his wisdom?

So there's the first thing we learn about Jesus as the wisdom of God. As a second person of the trinity, as he's revealed to us in Jesus Christ, he manifests to us the perfect outworking of God's plan in creation and redemption. We are to marvel at it. Second conclusion, see this mainly from the gospels As the wisdom of God. Christ reveals to us what it means to live the good life as the wisdom of God. Christ reveals to us what it means to live the good life.

As we saw Jesus comes and the gospel, he defines wisdom by one's response to him. Do you hear and do his words? That is the way of wisdom. He stands and he calls to people to come to him, to take his yoke upon them and learn from him just as wisdom calls us to come and enjoyful life. And so if living wisely is living well, well then the good life is found and following Christ. And so the application for us for you is let Christ define what the good life is for you.

Let Christ define what the good life is for you. I specifically wanna say this to our students, to college students, to high school students. You are going to hear or you are hearing countless ways from countless sources, people telling you this is what the good life looks like. This is what it looks like. And it's often some form or another of self-actualization, bringing pleasure to myself. Whether that is short-term pleasure

or long-term pleasure

Bombarded from every corner saying this, this is what it looks like to live the good life.

But Christ calls you to the good life and he tells you where happiness is found.

It is the good life. But I want to say it is not the easy life. If wisdom we see is Christ shaped well then wisdom is cross shaped.

The call to follow Christ is a call to deny yourself, to take up your cross, to lose your life, that you might find it. And that is not easy, but it is wise.

It is wise, not because it is pain-free, but because Christ is so worth it.

Again, wisdom says in Proverbs eight verse 10 11, take my instruction instead of silver and knowledge rather than choice. Gold for wisdom is better than jewels and all that you may desire cannot compare with her. And and those words are ultimately true of Jesus. I want you to hear that He is worth more than silver. He is worth more than gold. Precious jewels, any fleeting happiness you can find for yourself right now, all that you desire

cannot compare to him.

Let Christ define what is the good life

That comes to our, we come to our third conclusion then and our final conclusion and we draw this from one Corinthians one ending where we began, Christ crucified is the wisdom of God because in Christ crucified, God reveals to us the only way to know God. As I said at the beginning, the wises in this world have tried to reason their way to God and ultimate realities. They've been doing it for thousands of years or they've tried to throw God outta the way

and come up with something else that they can have as their ultimate. But they've been trying. And whatever they try, worldly wisdom has not, does not, will not lead to the true knowledge of God. How do we get to God? Paul makes clear the only way is through Christ crucified.

And it sounds like foolishness. That's what Paul Paul's sort of willing to say, okay, you think this is foolishness? Well, the foolishness of God is wiser than men. It sounds like foolishness. If you think that your God is the creator and sustainer of all things, the God of all glory, why would he enter the world as a man at all? And if he did, why would he pick Galilee and Judea? Not Rome, not Athens, not Alexandria, not even Jerusalem,

but Bethlehem, Nazareth. And God could choose to do anything on earth, but he doesn't just come and die. He comes and he chooses to die in the most horrific way as a criminal.

That doesn't sound like wisdom. The world says.

But Paul here says there's a, there's a reason why God designed things this way. Why did God design salvation to look like foolishness to the wise? He gives a two part answer. You see it in verses 28 through 31. The first part, God chose what is low and despised in the world. Even things that are not to bring to nothing. Things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. That's the first part of the answer. Why did God do that?

So that no human being will boast in the presence of God. Second part of the answer, why did God make this seem like foolishness to the world? Verse 31. So that as it is written, let the one who, one who boasts boast in the Lord.

He saves this way. So that one, we don't boast, we don't get glory. And he saves this way so that two, When we do boast, it's in him so that he gets all the glory.

God and his wisdom designs all things to their best end. And the greatest end is his glory.

And so here's the application for us. Lay your wisdom down at the foot of the cross and embrace the wisdom of God.

Paul is saying here, it is impossible for the wise to get to God on their own. Because if in your wisdom you could get to God on your own, you won't ever humble yourself enough to receive the God you get to you boast of yourself for getting there. And that's the very problem. God is delivering us from our boasting, our pride, our setting ourselves up as God. So God makes the way of wisdom, a way of humiliation so that those who find Christ their wisdom boast in God alone

because they know the only reason that I found Christ, that I find him to be worth more than anything in the world, it's not from me,

it's God.

He became to me wisdom, not from my natural insight, he became to me wisdom from God

my friends has Christ become your wisdom from God, your righteousness, your sanctification, your redemption. If he hasn't, please lay down your pride and self-sufficiency at the foot of the cross. Confess it as foolishness. Lay down your wisdom. Embrace the wisdom of God. Pray simply what we just sung. Be thou my wisdom. Embrace Christ crucified. Make him your wisdom and glory in God and God alone. Amen. Let us pray.

Lord God, you are the only wise God. You are glorious and you're perfect, arranging and appointing all things. We wonder at your wisdom, your wisdom and creation. You wonder at how wonderfully wise your gracious plan of salvation is that God would become man, the wisdom of God would become flesh and grow in wisdom that he would suffer, be crucified and died, be buried and rise. And all this to redeem deem proud, foolish sinners.

God, let us receive him as our wisdom, as our way of life. And let us boast in you alone. We ask this in the name of Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.