J-Curve Classes, Chapter 31: The Spirit at the Center: Learning Wisdom Down Low

Class Description: Session 31, Chapter 31

Chapter 31: The Spirit at the Center: Learning Wisdom Down Low

Unless the Spirit repeatedly brings the mind of Christ into our hearts, our ever-present flesh will recoil from the wisdom of the cross. Only the Spirit can continually make the cross fresh.

Class Notes:

1. Let’s refresh our memories. What kind of culture was Paul writing into in the first letter to Corinth? Look at the top of p 258 first paragraph to get another dimension of the church culture in Corinth.

2. P 259 Notice the capital “S” above in Spiritual (1 Cor. 3:1 AT). A Spiritual person is not someone who is religious or who prays easily. A Spiritual person is in step with the Spirit and led by the Spirit... The Spirit carries the mind of Jesus into our lives, allowing Jesus’s fruits (Gal. 5:22-23) to become our fruits. Dropping the “S” depersonalizes the Spirit.

a. Perhaps especially in our reformed faith tradition, we struggle to speak often and actively about the personal nature of the Holy Spirit. Why is it important to recognize and remind ourselves that the Spirit is God himself no less than Jesus? (Look at the bottom of p 259).

3. P 260 The Spirit himself is a gift - “the Spirit who is from God” (1 Cor. 2:12). He’s not part of a world soul - he’s a person, a personal gift from a personal God. So at every level, gifts lie at the heart of the church (1 Cor. 4:7). With the gift of the Spirit, we can “understand the things freely given us by God” (1 Cor. 2:12b). That’s why “the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God” (v. 10b). Only God can reveal God. So wisdom comes from outside us. The wisdom of the cross is so alien to our spirits that we need his Spirit to talk to our spirits.

a. Let’s have a discussion about the kinds of things that the Holy Spirit does in the lives of believers. What does he do in us?

4. Look at the chart on the top of p 261.

a. Every one of us has at one time or another attempted to climb the failure/boasting chart. Can we recognize ways even in this chart that we’ve abused the Spirit’s power for selfish gain?

5. P 262 The Spirit helped me to shut my mouth. Plus, I’d recently noticed in the Gospels how much Jesus looked at people. The Spirit didn’t operate in a vacuum; the body of Christ and the word were his language, helping me to listen.

a. If the Spirit was active in the life and ministry of Jesus himself, we certainly need him no less. Can you relate to PM in this interchange with his daughter Courtney? Do you recognize the Spirit’s work in causing him to be quiet? Discuss.

6. P 262 Unless the Spirit repeatedly brings the mind of Christ into our hearts, our ever-present flesh will recoil from the wisdom of the cross. Only the Spirit can continually make the cross fresh. Now look at the chart on p 263.

a. How do PM’s actions under the Spirit’s influence demonstrate the wisdom of the cross?

b. This kind of Spirit led ministry requires that we’re not attempting to design and control what resurrection might look like. What do we need to believe in order to actually let the Spirit lead through conversations like these?

c. It’s much messier and costlier to live this way. What is to be gained?

7. P 264 Staying in step with the Spirit is not nearly as complex as we might think. We aren’t trying to read the spiritual the leaves - as we embrace Christ in the dying and rising, the Spirit always shows up!

a. I really appreciate what PM is saying here. Essentially, we don’t need to guess what it looks like to keep in step with the Spirit. He has a predictable gait which is always in step with the revealed will of God in Christ Jesus, namely, that if we’ll model Christ through dying and rising - that’s the stuff that the Spirit can use to propagate really neat resurrections!