Sermons1

Text Box: People can be so foolish. There are many examples from which to choose. In 1984 the Eldorado Daily Journal, based in Illinois, announced a contest to see who could save the most daylight for daylight savings time. The rules of the contest were simple: beginning with the first day of daylight savings time, contestants would be required to save daylight. Whoever succeeded in saving the most daylight would win. Only pure daylight would be allowed—no dawn or twilight light, though light from cloudy days would be allowed. Moonlight was strictly forbidden. Light could be stored in any container. The contest received a huge, nationwide response. The paper's editor was interviewed by correspondents from CBS and NBC and was featured in papers throughout the country.
Stories about foolish people quickly make the rounds. The people in Jerusalem must have been talking a few years back. “Did you hear what some foolish person did in the temple yesterday? This crazy guy makes a whip and drives all the cattle and the sheep out of the temple. He pours out all the money on the ground, turns over the money-changers tables, tells those selling birds to get them out of here. Not only that, but then this strange guy says ‘quit making my Father’s house a business.’” How weird is that!?
What Jesus did seemed so strange. It surely was not the norm. That’s not the way normal people act. He was guilty of disturbing the peace. He made a scene. He could probably have been arrested for property damage because He drove out the animals. What a foolish act it seemed to so many people. And what a foolish thing He said when He said “My Father’s house.” How crazy can you get? Unless... Unless He really is God. Then what He did would not be so crazy. As a matter of fact, what Jesus did makes a lot of sense. It would be natural for Him to want to protect His Father’s house, to make it pure and clean. You can understand that “Zeal for God’s house would consume Him.”
But the next thing Jesus says at the temple, when challenged about what He did, goes way over the top. This is just completely crazy, people might have reasoned. Jesus says, destroy this temple, and in three days I’ll raise it. Now how crazy a statement could you ask for? It took a huge number of workmen working over the period of 46 years to build the temple. And one guy is going to rebuild it in three days?! Yeah, right! But hold on a second. There’s a misunderstanding. By “temple, Jesus was referring to His own body. He didn’t mean the building. He meant His own body. Does that help, or make it crazier? Which is easier to believe: that Jesus would in three days do what it took thousands of people to do over 46 years, or that He would bring Himself back to life on the third day. Either statement seems completely foolish to those who hear it.
“For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.” (1 Cor. 1:21) What seems to us as foolishness, is really great wisdom, God’s wisdom. What foolishness, it seems to us, that Jesus would claim that after He had been killed He could raise Himself from the dead on the third day. What foolishness to think that God would become a human, and die for our sins. Why would He do that? It seems to us so foolish. But it’s God’s wisdom. Because God loves us so much, it was a very wise thing for Him to die for our sins. His wisdom was shown to be just that when Jesus actually did rise from the dead on the third day.
What is wisdom we can mistake for foolishness. On the other hand, what is foolish, we can mistake for wisdom. What I’m about to tell you is considered to be one of the best April Fool’s jokes ever. In 1957 the respected BBC news show Panorama announced that thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spaghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in, and many called up wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. To this question, the BBC diplomatically replied that they should "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best." What passes as wisdom, is really foolishness.
We hear what sounds like wisdom: those ten commandments are awfully hard to keep, goes the supposed wisdom. Wouldn’t you be happier if you just sinned all you want? What difference will it make, anyway? Just keep on sinning. You’ll be happier if you do. Such is Satan’s deception, and the deception of our own sinful flesh. But it seems to us as wisdom. “I really will be happier if I listen to my desires rather than God’s desires for me,” we think. “I’ll be happier if I decide what I want to do. Why should I listen to God’s commandment. I don’t want anyone telling me what to do. I and only I know what’s best for me. Not even God knows me as well as I do. What seems like wisdom, is such folly, such foolishness. We truly are deceived when we think we know better than God. We truly are foolish, when we follow the desires of our flesh, rather than God’s wisdom. And we cause ourselves much hurt.
But God in His wisdom, calls us to turn from our foolishness to His wisdom, to His love, to His forgiveness. He calls us to quit living lives of foolishness that hurt ourselves and others, and turn to Him and His wisdom.
The Lord God who did the apparently foolish thing of leading the nation of Israel to get caught between the army of Egypt and the Red Sea, but by His wisdom brought them through the sea and destroyed the evil army, will also by His wisdom give us forgiveness, life, and great happiness. Don’t be a fool. Live in God’s wisdom.

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