The Mind of Christ

1 Corinthians 2: 10-16

“The Mind of Christ”

Sermon by

Mark A. Horne

Edmund Clowney wrote these paragraphs in his book The Church:

“ In the heart of London’s financial district, dwarfed by the soaring towers of the city, nestles St. Helen’s Church, Bishop’s gate. How did this church survive the bombs of Hitler, of the Irish Republican Army, and the bulldozers of progress? Sheer glass walls surround it, the faces centers of banking and business. A programmer peering down at the quaint church from his thirtieth-floor office smiles over his coffee at this lonely monument to an implausible faith.

Christianity, of course, has never lacked prophets of its demise: among the more recent Nietzsche, Feuerbach, Marx, Gide, and Satre. Yet since the Second World War the culture of the West, profoundly influenced by Christianity, has been undercut, not so much by the process of urbanization or globalization, as by a ‘systematic dismemberment, a “trashing” of out culture’. Leaders in education, in the media, and increasingly in government, have attacked Christian faith and values, claiming that they oppose both individual liberty and global unity.

A Tuesday visitor in the nave of St. Helen’s takes advantage of the quiet to reflection the church in modern life. A young businessman appears, takes a seat and begins to pray. Fair enough. A small percentage of Britain’s population still does this sort of thing. But then another young man appears, and another. Soon they come streaming into the church from the surrounding concrete canyons. Financiers and office staff, men and women, young and old, they crowd in by hundreds for the lunch-hour Bible exposition, famous at St. Helen’s for more than a decade. Dick Lucas, pastor of the church, climbs into the pulpit, announces a hymn, then asks the audience to open their Bibles. With startling clarity and force, he explains just what the passage says about Jesus Christ, and why men and women before him need to know the Lord.

Remarkable as such services may be in a secular age, do they really affect our estimate of the church? It is ‘not the New Moon or the Sabbath’, but the lunch hour when these people gather. No doubt many are not church members at all. Some will appear for congregational worship on Sunday morning, but office workers cannot create a neighborhood church. Does the Tuesday-noon gathering at St. Helen’s only reinforce the impression that the institutional church is indeed a relic, whatever may be the remaining attraction of the gospel message? After bomb damage in 1991 and 1993, St. Helen’s sought permission to renovate so as to provide more seating. Societies dedicated to preserving period architecture vigorously protested. The wanted the church restored as a monument, not as a center for gospel proclamation to the city.”

I read this to you this morning for several reasons. First, it gives a good illustration for studying our passage. Second, it asks some good questions that I think our passage can answer. But most importantly, the illustration serves as a good bridge between what we studied last time and what we are studying today.

Remember last time we learned: 1) we need to have confidence in Jesus Christ 2) human wisdom is not enough to get to heaven 3) the wisdom we do have for salvation was predestined before time began for our glory 4) this wisdom is powerful 5) our wisdom is not chance ideas but prepared gifts.

This morning our passage teaches us three things in a sandwich like style. First on the mayonnaise side, we learn that the Holy Spirit has given us knowledge that is incomprehensible by the ways of the world. Second, in the middle where all the meat is, this understanding allows us to speak truth. Finally on the mustard side of the sandwich, what the Holy Spirit teaches us is that of the mind of Christ.

After Paul compacted so much information in the previous passage by shutting out all mankind’s sight, taking away its intellect and power of attaining knowledge of God by its own resources; Paul now shows what ways believers are exempt from this blindness. The Lord honors us with a special illumination of the Holy Spirit. Paul is saying to his readers that what he taught them was inspired by the Holy Spirit just as the Old Testament was inspired. And then to us today, in our study of the Scriptures the Holy Spirit allows us to understand what the world can’t. The knowledge we gain is special because it comes from God. This knowledge is divine. It is more than theological issues and Bible memory - which those things are important and have their place - but this kind of knowledge protrudes deeper than the person’s own spirit.

Here we see the greatness of God, we see His omniscience. We think learning about things farther out than the moon or the deepest parts of the ocean are accomplishments. They are little nothings when compared to God. For whom and what does God search when he has to search - Himself! It is an intimate thinking. The Holy Spirit is one with God because He is God. There is nothing too profound for Him to reach.

We see again how much we rely on God’s provisions for life in verse 12. He doesn’t just sit up there holding the worlds in place. He doesn’t just keep breath in our body or place a hand in front of us as we cross the street. But he provides he children with a knowledge of their salvation. And that knowledge can’t be understood without the freely given testimony of the Holy Spirit. And those who have this testimony have an assurance beyond belief.

Notice what Paul states in verse 13. He and the other teachers, including Apollos, didn’t teach more than what was taught to them. They did not add any elegance to it. There wasn’t any laser shows or glitter to what they taught. They plainly declared the doctrine of Christ and they did only by what was taught to them by the Holy Spirit.

Is what Dick Lucas is doing at St. Helen’s just a relic of what the church is? I don’t think so. You see it isn’t because the attraction to the gospel message isn’t show. There is not any dress to preaching Christ. We humans think we have to add garnishes to everything. My golf bag has several towels hanging on it from certain courses I have played. The case that I carry my rifle in has a picture of a deer printed on it. All to make a statement. You do it too - it just may not be done in the way I do it.

But when we speak the words of the Holy Spirit we speak truth. The Holy Spirit gives us a simple style of speech. The truths illumined to us by the Spirit is explained in ways that are harmonious with the Spirit. The language of the Spirit is so truthful that it is the most proper way to convey his meaning. And it is only those who are God’s children that can understand the truth. These truths are foolishness to those of the world. Yet it is the quickening of the Spirit that opens the mind to discern God’s excellent mercy.

III

Through the Holy Spirit working in us and sanctifying us we are able to make judgments because we have a relish of divine truth. We are subject to this understanding because the truth of faith, which depends on God alone, and is grounded on His word, this faith does not stand according to the words of men. There are those who try with all their might to have a foundation of truth based upon the principles of science. There are those who reason everything and have a philosophy of life. There are those who look for counsel in man. But by grace we have been given much more. We have been given a glimpse of the counsel of God. John 16: 5-15 says this...

Are such services like the ones held on Tuesday at St. Helen’s church affect our estimate of the church. I believe they do. For in them there may be one person whom the Holy Spirit is dealing with. He may be turning their world upside down. Yes, it may even be one of those who don’t want to allow renovation for historical reasons. However it may be, the estimation of the church is being affected. The Counselor of truth is present - and someone’s eyes are being opened to Christ.

Yes, the Holy Spirit working in us gives God’s chosen knowledge that the world can’t understand. This knowledge allows us to speak truth in a world where truth is relative. And the more we study the Scriptures - the more our minds are illuminated by the Holy Spirit - the more we have the mind of Christ.

Let us pray: Dear Jesus, thank you for the work of the Holy Spirit in our life. As we are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit and our minds are becoming more like you - use us in ways that are imaginable. Help us to see clearly our purpose in your time. And when we can’t see clearly, help us to have faith that the your timing is perfect.