Please join with me in taking your copy of God's Word and opening to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. For those of you who were not in Sunday school, my name is Ben Killian. I work at African Christian University in Lusaka, Zambia. And what our family does there is we support missionaries for the churches in Zambia. It's not through a mission organization sent from America, but rather we were called and sent by churches in America, but we are supporting the African church in their ministry at the university. My background is in science. I have a PhD in molecular biology. But what I'm doing there is helping lead academically, but also from a Christian worldview perspective. And that's kind of what I want to talk about a little bit today, kind of weave that into what we're going to be, the passage that we're going to be looking at. So 1 Corinthians chapter 1, starting in verse 18. Before we read, let's have a brief word of prayer. Lord, I pray that as we look at your word this morning, that we meditate on your goodness, on your wisdom, on your truth, and the person and work of Jesus Christ. We pray that you would be in our midst, that you would give me the words to say, the thoughts to communicate, and pray that your will would be done and that you will be glorified today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Verse 18 starts, 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, a 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 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 things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 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. Amen. One of the things that I do at African Christian University, and I have the privilege of doing, is teaching a course for the first year students. So at the end of the first year, the third term of the first year, We have a course called Foundations of Science. And so this is a course where all the students at ACU, all the students who are in various programs, whether it be theology or business or agriculture or education, they all come to this class. where we really talk, it's not a biology class, it's not a chemistry class, it's really a class where we talk about truth and where does truth come from and how do we know true things. So it's a philosophy of science, a foundation of science. So we talk about scientific principles, we talk about the history of science, but really when it comes down to it, we're talking about Christian worldview and how we can know anything. How do we know that we know anything? And so that's kind of the direction of the whole course, but in the first week of that course, one of the things that I like to do is, a couple things, I like to go through a real definition of science, not just what people have commonly thought of as science, but I also like to take this passage and work through it with the students, this passage along with others. Scripture are very helpful for setting the foundation for what it means to gather wisdom, to gather knowledge, true wisdom. And what is the source of that true wisdom? Obviously the title of the message this morning is The Wisdom of Jesus, so we know that we'll be coming back to that over and over again. Christ Jesus our Lord is the source of true wisdom. This passage talks about that several times. But one of the things that we look at when we're just trying to define science is trying to distinguish it from a secular naturalistic perspective when it comes to scientific principles and the scientific worldview that is so common in the Western world, but the Western world influences even Africa. So the students have been brought up and educated in thinking a certain way about how the world works, about how science And scientism has become an idol really in many of our minds in the West, but also even in Zambia. So trying to like draw the students back to a biblical understanding of what it means to know true things, to know truth in general, to know, to be able to know truth and knowledge and even science and what those things are. If you think back to your high school days or If you're a scientist, maybe you're a teacher or a high school teacher or a college professor, what comes to your mind when I say the word science? Some of you might come to mind thinking about dissecting frogs in biology class in high school or making explosions in chemistry lab. A lot of fun things we get to do in the name of science, right? But a lot of us also think about science in our culture, too. We are inundated with scientific ideas. In the news, it's constant, we're hearing from experts in various areas, medical professionals, experts in various scientific fields. I don't know if you caught the news this week even, but there was an announcement from the field of physics having to do with potential fusion advancements in energy production. So these things are important and they're valuable, and we'll talk a little bit more about why that is, even from a Christian worldview. But we have an idea of what science is. We hear about it all the time. One of the main goals that we have at ACU and what I want to communicate even briefly this morning is to teach science, and at ACU teach all of our courses really, but we want to teach science in such a way that the truth of the scripture and the gospel flows through what science is, what truth is, and how we interact with the natural world. So one of the things that a predecessor of mine at ACU, he wrote a paper talking about these ideas. And one of the things that he wrote is a definition of science. And I want to read that to you, a definition of science from a Christian worldview perspective, a general idea of science. He says, the science is the process of applying our created faculties as image bearers of God in discovering and imitating details and aspects of the Creator and His work in creation, for advancing knowledge and grace in the reconciliation of everything to the Father through the blood of the cross of Jesus Christ. It's a mouthful. There's a lot going on in there. And what I do in the classroom the first week is I take that passage and I break it down into all the important words in that definition. We talk through all of them. We look at passages like this one, like other passages in the New Testament also that are describing these ideas. And we break that all down so that we have that foundational understanding of why do we even do science? Why do we even as human beings, why do we even want to discover things about the natural world? What's the point of doing those things? And this definition, the process of applying our created faculties as image bearers of God and discovering and imitating details and aspects of the creator and his work in creation for advancing knowledge and grace in the reconciliation of everything to the father through the blood of the cross of Jesus Christ. So Christ is central, and really this points us to the gospel message. And today, as we think about the advent and incarnation coming up, the celebration of that, it points us to that aspect of it as well, which we'll talk about. I only have a couple of points to bring before you today. From this passage, I want to look at contrasting wisdoms that we see here. We see contrasting wisdoms, and I want to show how they relate to the idolatry that we have in modern science. We idolize scientific principles, scientists are the priests of that religion, and we do tend to set up science as a new religion, as it were. But more importantly, what I want to do is show how these wisdoms that we see in this passage, the wisdom of Christ and the wisdom of the world, how they relate to the person and work of Christ. So I'm not exegeting the whole passage. I'm not doing a full word study on these things with you this morning. I just want to look at some big picture worldview implications for these ideas about wisdom that we see in this passage that it lays out to us and to its initial readers as well. So what we have is a contrast between worldly wisdom, on one hand, and Jesus as wisdom, on the other hand. Jesus is wisdom, on the other side. So we want to see that contrast. And reading through this passage repeatedly, you see it come out over and over again. What we see from a world's perspective and even from our modern kind of approach to wisdom and knowledge, we've elevated our human wisdom and our human understanding of the world to a degree of idolatry, really. But that worldview is like a general naturalistic worldview. There's no room for not only the supernatural, but specifically for the God of the Bible. There may be room for other supernatural events or other kinds of religions, but general naturalism, when it comes to modern science, tends to exclude biblical Christianity very often. I know many of you probably read through Proverbs monthly, and when I was reading Proverbs 18 this morning, I just saw a verse that I just wanted to show you, verse 15. I wanted to point out that even in Proverbs, obviously it talks about wisdom throughout, but even in chapter 18, it wasn't really about wisdom, but it said, an intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. So when I was reading that this morning, it just struck me that, again, that this is, knowledge is something that, and wisdom, all these things are something to be desired. They're not necessarily in and of themselves some things to be avoided. So we don't reject the idea of science. as Christians. We don't throw that out. But we need to have the correct source of that knowledge, of that wisdom. And that's what I want to focus on this morning with you. Human wisdom that is apart from God. Human wisdom is what we see in the worldly wisdom in this passage, in the philosophy of the Greeks that sought after wisdom in the world. sought after being able to explain their world from a naturalistic perspective or from the perspective even of their gods in the original Greeks who were near the Corinthians. But that's that human wisdom. And that's in contrast with the truism that we see also here in this passage, true wisdom of Christ. So first point I want to make is that worldly wisdom is fleeting. And in contrast with that, true wisdom lasts. Verse 20. If you look at verse 20, 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? This foolish wisdom of the world does not last. It is not permanent. It is something that is fleeting, it's like a vapor, just like our lives. When we think about this, even from a modern scientific perspective, what I think of is the fact that people are making new observations all the time. New observations lead to more data that's being collected, and more data leads to new hypotheses that are being tested. And those are all good things. That allows us to even develop technology and tools to better serve God, to glorify Him, and to make even more observations. For example, think about the development in technology and tools, even when something simple, what we think of as simple as observing the sky, right? For many centuries, people looked at the sky with their eyes, and they saw stars like the sands on the seashore, right, like Abraham. Then we developed, using scientific method and principles, developed aids to our eyes, telescopes, optical telescopes, things like that, and then developing even further aids, radio telescopes, and then putting things into the sky to make further observations, right, with, like, the Hubble telescope, And now, I'm sure you've seen the news, the pictures of James Webb Telescope, right? We're seeing, we're making observations about the natural world and able to take in information, data, and to take that in as human beings. Then from a Christian perspective, we're able to glorify God, we're able to honor God, we're able to see the beauty of God's creation, and we're able to glorify him and and how we interpret those data and how we are are working to then uh... produce even more uh... even make me even more observations about the world and make new discoveries about the universe that god has created why do i give this example the wisdom of the world that worldly wisdom that we see here the author paul is asking Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of the age? Where's the one who was wise? They don't have all the answers. They don't last. These individuals do not... continue on, and do not have perfect, infallible, eternal wisdom. And that's the contrast that we see here in the next verse for in the wisdom of God. And it talks about how God, through wisdom, made folly, through the folly of what we preach, to save those who believe. So it's applying that idea to salvation message of the gospel, the gospel message. But what this means from a perspective of those who are working in science, for instance, those Christians who are scientists, who are looking to serve God with the abilities that he has given them, that may be many of you here. We can use the scientific method. We can use tools that God has graciously given us to make observations, to incorporate new data into how we view the world, how we understand God's goodness and God's creative power in the world. And this is a good thing. We are using our creative abilities as individuals, creatures who are made in God's image, we're using these creative abilities to figure out what God has done, what he has made, who he is, really, in that book of nature. But, as human beings, we reject the God of the Bible, we do get a distorted understanding of the world. We cannot, without a true biblical understanding of who God is and who we are in relation to him, we will never get a true, real understanding of the world and the world that God has created. Because we are looking at creation and the natural world from foundationally different perspectives, foundationally different assumptions about where things come from, and where things are going as well. And this is the thing that I want to encourage you with today, but also what I encourage our students with at ACU, is to really understand that these are the foundational assumptions about the world that allow us to understand what's going on in the world, not just politically, but also even just the trajectory of world events and what we're looking forward to with Christ's return and the eternal state. What we see, I mentioned the book of nature just a little bit ago, that general revelation, that idea of general revelation. We see the world as it is, but we also know that without that special revelation of Jesus himself, the word of God, Jesus is the word, Jesus is the wisdom that we see in this passage, we will, because of the fall, we will be distorted in our understanding of that first book of nature. We will not understand it truly. We will not understand it fully, and we will always be making it into an idol. People groups have done that for millennia. But Jesus, on the other hand, Jesus is eternal, and his wisdom is eternal as well. So from our human perspective, what this means is that we ought to be seeking truth on his terms. We ought to be seeking truth not based on those assumptions of the world, but seeking truth based on what we see in scripture and how we view the world through that lens of scripture. So we can't look to other human beings, scientists, experts, whoever they may be, for ultimate truth and knowledge. When we do that, we tend to make science into an idol. We tend to make science and technology really into an idol. We might think that computers, and I'm sure you guys have seen the latest thing about the artificial intelligence stuff that's going on recently. Many of you probably have seen that. We think of technology as being able to bring us comfort, being able to bring us ease and leisure, and in many ways it has freed us to do many things as humans, but if we don't see it from the perspective that we ought to through a biblical lens, we're going to twist it. We're going to make it into not only an idol, but we're going to make it into something that is anti-God in many ways. So we do need to be careful with those things as well. Even though Christians, and this is the thing that I love to emphasize with our students, Christians ought to be at the very forefront of using our creative powers to create, to research, to understand the world that God has given us, we don't need to be afraid of doing those things. Because, like that definition said, we are imitating the Creator. As image bearers of God, we are imitating Him, but not at the expense of truth and righteousness. So, that first point, is that the worldly wisdom is fleeting, but the wisdom of Jesus is what lasts for eternity, and we'll talk a little bit more about the implications of that. Second point, though, in verse 25, the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. One of the points I want to make here is that worldly wisdom is really inferior in every way. It's inferior to true wisdom, the wisdom of Christ, the wisdom of God. True wisdom has power, it has action, it works. Worldly wisdom is foolishness. It does not accomplish what people think it will. This is where I like to talk about the idea of the creator-creature distinction. This is foundational for all Reformed theology and for true understanding of scripture that God is not us. We are not like God. There is a deep divide between the creation and the creator. And that is the ultimate divide, really, in the world. It's the main thing that we come back to over and over again in that foundations of science class, because it reveals, I think, the difference between secular naturalism and a biblical Christianity view of how the world works, what the world is. It's a foundational worldview divide that separates everyone, really. We know that God, the God of the Bible, is beyond natural comprehension, but not beyond knowing. We can't comprehend God or he wouldn't be God, but we can truly know him. And we know him through the person of Christ that we see here in this passage even. And that's really what we're celebrating this season of the incarnation. We see, we recognize, and we celebrate that incarnation of Christ as God reveals Him to us, His people. One of the things that I also like to talk about is that when we explore the world that exists and that is, and we tell other people about that world and we are witnessing what we're really doing, when we're sharing the good news of Jesus, what we're really doing is we're showing a combination of that cultural mandate that we see in Genesis 1 and then the redemptive mandate or the Great Commission that we see in Matthew and throughout the New Testament. So when we are celebrating this year, this season of the year, What we ought to be also thinking about is, as we are interacting in the world, as we are taking in information, but we're also doing our jobs, whatever they may be, serving the Lord in gladness in many different ways, We are combining these two mandates that God has given us in scripture, that dominion mandate, the cultural mandate, and the redemptive mandate. So we need to keep those things clear, but not separate. Those things work together in a very real way. And it is wise to do so. Verse 30 in this passage, look at the verse 30. Verse 30 says, Because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. We've seen in this passage already that worldly wisdom is foolish. Worldly wisdom does not last. It is inferior. Here we see that true wisdom is Jesus, is Christ. The whole passage really is setting up that contrast between the perceived foolishness of God by the world and the perceived wisdom of man, and it flips those things. It flips those things on their heads. So what we ought to see from this passage is that worldly wisdom is foolish. It doesn't last. It's not going to bring happiness. Jesus is the one that defines wisdom. He's the source of wisdom. When we pursue things that are not Jesus, when we ultimately pursue things that are not Jesus, when we look to ourselves, look to others, look to scientists for answers, that's not gonna bring us joy in this season. That's not gonna bring us true wisdom, really, either. So Jesus is that source of wisdom, of true wisdom. Academic success in your life, if you're intelligent and you have academic success, that's not going to bring true wisdom, this wisdom that we see from the source of wisdom. Business success and financial success, that doesn't bring true wisdom and true knowledge either in and of itself. even something like that the world pursues and sees as something of value like emptying yourself and emptying your mind in meditation or something like that uh... the bible tells us very clearly that we ought not to be emptying ourselves our minds but we ought to be filling our minds with true things we ought to be filling our minds with truth and goodness uh... so in every aspect of these things not only are they insufficient the academic success, the business success, anything that you can think of. They're insufficient for bringing true wisdom. We need to be filled with the Spirit. We need to be filled with Christ. Not just emptying ourselves, but being filled with that true source of wisdom. Jesus being that true source of wisdom. He's the only one who can reconcile the creation with the Creator. If we don't understand that, if we don't understand that Gospel message of Christ reconciling people, His people, to the Father, then we'll not be able to understand and to make any sense, really, out of the broken world that we see around us. Without that true knowledge of the Gospel of Christ, of the good news that Christ is the one who reconciles us to the Father, through the cross. Without that, none of this makes sense. None of the world, none of the things that we see in the world, none of the scientific advancements, none of these things that we see in the world really make sense. The gospel truth of Christ's reconciliation is what is essential for all of life, including science. We've mentioned and we've been going through this idea. That's why that definition is so important, that definition that I read earlier. Science is the process of applying our creative faculties as image bearers of God in discovering and imitating details and aspects of the creator and his work in creation for advancing knowledge and grace in the reconciliation of everything to the Father through the blood of the cross of Jesus Christ. So that's that ultimate point. All of this is leading to that reconciliation that we have in the Father. The good news of the Gospel. What we do in science is just an expansion of that. What we do is a reflection and imitating God in those areas, and we cannot truly do that without being reconciled to the Father through the Son. So as men, as human beings, we are the creature. the recipient of God's wisdom, we are to receive that wisdom, we are to steward the wisdom of God in the person of Christ. When we think about science specifically, we know that it's not derived by man's wisdom. We don't define truth. We can't define reality. We need to look to scripture for that definition of true reality. We discover truth in the world by imitating God in our creative abilities, but we don't define it. When we are reflecting God, when we are imitating God, when we are leading to true knowledge about the world that God and Christ has created, then we are actually doing true science and gaining true wisdom. True wisdom isn't just coming from observing the natural world, looking to answers from scientists and the experts. but rather true wisdom comes from the union that we have with Christ. So I implore you today, even as we look at this Advent season, come to Jesus. Look at John chapter 17. This is one of my favorite passages of scripture. John 17, the high priestly prayer. that union that we see with Christ throughout this passage. It's just a beautiful picture of what I'm really talking about here, of having the union with Christ is where we can access that source of true wisdom. So we see in verse 21, when Jesus is praying to the Father, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you loved me." Now obviously you're very familiar with that passage, but that speaks to that unity and that oneness we have in Christ. When we are one with Christ, when we are accessing the wisdom of Christ in the Word, when we are doing these things, this is when we can truly celebrate this season, this Advent season, this season where we're celebrating the Incarnation. Jesus is the Creator. We know that from Scripture. The Creator became incarnate, took on flesh, became fully man. And it's not just so He could be an example to us, or start a religion, or something like that. But He's wisdom. He's true knowledge. He's the way, the truth, and the life. All of these things. He's the prophet, priest, and king, the Redeemer. But He's also the wise ruler over all, for all of eternity. So when we look at this time of celebration of celebrating the advent and the incarnation. Think about that as well during this time, that Christ is the source of our wisdom, source of all wisdom and true knowledge. And if you don't know him, come to him today. He is a gentle, and easy master. He is the Lord of all and the ruler of all. He is the source of wisdom. He is the source of life for all of us. So let's cling to Jesus at this time of year. Let's pray. Father, I pray for this congregation that you would go before each one of them and allow them to see the truth of your word, truth of scripture. As we looked at the wisdom of Jesus today, that you would take it, take that understanding of your word and apply it deep in their lives. Lord, I pray that you would you would apply it in my own life as well, that as I seek to honor you, that you would be glorified. And as we go out this week, that we would share that good news of the wisdom of Christ, the one who is incarnate, the one who is eternally ruling all. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.