Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Can you hear me? Audio's okay. Ohayou gozaimasu. Thank you. Good morning, everybody. Let me start by acknowledging and celebrating the first Australians on whose traditional lands we meet, and let us pay our respects to their elders past and present. So welcome to this year's Japan update, themed Peak Japan. So I'm Shiro Armstrong. I direct the Australia Japan Research Centre here at the Crawford School at ANU, and I'm really pleased to co-organise this one-day symposium with Fujiwara Ipe from Keio and ANU, who is the Japan Director for the Australia Japan Research Centre, and Professor Veronica Taylor, who's the Director of the Japan Institute here at the ANU. So as with the Japan update each year, we have a panel on the economy to bring you up to date on some of the latest thinking and research on the economy, a panel on politics and foreign policy, and also a panel on society, an aspect on society. And this year, that panel will focus on the demographic challenges that Japan faces. That's part of the reason behind the theme, Peak Japan. Japan's population peaked 10 years ago. Working-age population peaked earlier than that, about 20 years ago from today. And some might think that Japan's economic strength peaked with the asset bubble bursting at the beginning of the 1990s. It didn't. And the theme we're discussing today isn't peaked Japan, it's peaked Japan. So what we're thinking with that is really Japan at the top of its game. In many ways, Japan is in peak form. So as we all know, or most of us probably know too well, Japan's very prosperous and secure society. It's one of the most technologically advanced, cleanest and rich countries in the world, including being very culturally rich. So Japan has escaped deflation and its economy has become stronger. Japan has had stable political leadership now for close to six years. Before that, there were six prime ministers in six years. So we seem to have caught Japan's disease and Japan's gotten rid of itself of that disease. And Prime Minister Abe has managed the U.S. relationship under Trump, as well as any foreign leader has. He's been very active diplomatically. He's also laid the groundwork for improved relations with China. And as due to visit China and visit Beijing in October with a large business delegation. But also Japan's shown leadership in trade in holding the line on the global economic order against the protectionist threat from the United States and elsewhere. And for us in our region, that's the basis for our prosperity. Japan, with some help from Australia, of course, led the conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement without the United States. And that's the TPP-11 or the CP TPP. Japan also concluded an EPA Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union. It was also the first non-Azian country to host the ministerial meeting for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, ASAP. Now, the second worst acronym behind CP TPP. But of course, all these successes, Japan still has challenges. It's not so much that the population is peaked. That is, presents some problems. But more importantly, it's that the population is aging. So we'll hear a lot about that this afternoon. But how Japan manages this demographic transition matters, of course, for Japan, matters for us here in Australia, matters for the region, but globally as well. Japan is systemically important in the global economy. But also, South Korea and China and other countries will be watching how Japan handles this transition and learning from Japan's policy innovations and the transition. But this will involve big social changes. They'll be at the forefront of this transition. One of them will be the equal treatment of women in the workplace and in society. You'll notice in the program today, two of our panels, we have men in the minority. So that's all too rare in Japan. Japan will have to manage the unprecedented government debt of 240% of GDP. That'll be a big challenge. And the close relationship that Prime Minister Abe has with President Trump may not count for much at the end of the day, given the randomness in policy direction out of Washington. And moving beyond a temporary repair of the China relationship will be a big challenge for Japan going forward. So things have calmed down a little bit from last year when North Korea launched missiles into Japanese airspace. But the underlying crisis has yet to be resolved. So these are some of the issues that we'll be talking about today. And we're joined by an expert group flown in from the United States and Japan and around Australia as well. So we're really delighted to have our guests, expert guests joining us today. And we'll notice we've got a mixture of academics, think tankers, people from the media, and practitioners. So I think it's a good mix and hopefully will mean a good discussion. I just want to thank the Australia Japan Foundation for the funding support as well as the Japan Foundation, which makes this possible. It makes it possible on this scale that we want to run it at. I acknowledge the presence of Ambassador Kusaka and Mrs. Kusaka here who are very strong supporters of our Japan update, but our ongoing work on Japan and the Australia Japan relationship here at the ANU. So we have a magazine, East Asia Forum Quarterly, which we launch every year at the update. That's titled Peak Japan. That's almost just in time delivery. It's coming from the printers as we speak. So we'll be here in the morning tea break. But for now, let me welcome the chair of the Australia Japan Foundation, former ambassador to Japan, Myra McLean to introduce our keynote speaker. Thank you. Thank you very much, Shiro. And let me acknowledge Ambassador Kusaka and Mrs. Kusaka. It's a wonderful pleasure once again to be here on behalf of the Australia Japan Foundation at this Japan update. The Australia Japan Foundation, which for those of you who may not be aware, is a government-funded body that provides grants to encourage non-official contact between Australia and Japan. Has been a founding partner of the Japan update, and we have in each year been very pleased with the tremendous variety and expertise that has been on display and the fruitful discussions that have been held each time. So the Australia Japan Foundation is obviously very pleased to once again be here to support this event. Let me very briefly introduce our very distinguished keynote speaker, Dr. Sheila Smith, who told me when we were sitting down earlier that she was born in Scotland, which I'm very pleased about because a lot of Scottish heritage is here in Australia, not least in my own family. But of course she's an American through and through and very much a central part of the Council on Foreign Relations where she is the Senior Fellow for Japan Studies. Director of the Japan Studies Programme and the project of the Asian Nationalisms and the U.S.-Japan Alliance. She's a contributor to the Council on Foreign Relations .org, and the CFR's blog on Asia, Asia Unbound and Author of Intimate Rivals, Japan's Domestic Politics and the Rise of China published by Columbia Press in 2015. I understand she shortly will be publishing her latest book Japan Re-Armed The Politics of Military Power which will be published by Harvard and that will be a book that will be very timely indeed and I'm sure will to a certain extent or in fact quite a significant extent will probably be the theme of her discussions today in part at least. She is an extremely knowledgeable expert on Japan's Foreign Policy and Security Policy and at a time where the region is so unsettled if I can put it that way with the growth of China, with the North Korean crisis and with the doubts pervading about Trump's foreign policy in the region this conference and her address I'm sure will be extremely timely. Let me please join me in welcoming Sheila. Thank you very much. Thank you for that lovely introduction. It's great to be here in Australia. It takes a long time to reach you but I have been looking forward to reaching you for some time now. I want to thank Professor Armstrong and Professor Drysdale who is somewhere there you are. And also to the Australian Japan Research Center everyone here for making my trip and my visit and today possible. I'm particularly honored to be partnered with Ambassador McLean, chair of the Australia Japan Foundation and also to see Mr. and Mrs. Ambassador and Mrs. Kusaka again. If our conversation at the Ambassador's residence last night is any indicator of today's conversation we are going to have a very lively exchange. I was asked to come and talk and I wasn't quite sure what peak Japan meant. So I was on my long airplane drive thinking peak Japan what does that mean and I understand the demographic reference but I was starting to think as an international relations scholar is apt to think about peaks and valleys and topography and landscapes and terrain and uncertainty. So I'm going to talk a little bit today about what I see as Japan's challenges going forward. I don't think Japan actually is as challenged as some writers think but it does have some significant new challenges that I think will ask new questions of Japanese decision makers but also of the Japanese people as they attempt to devise their own well-being prosperity and safeguard their security in the years to come. It is a difficult landscape here in the Asia Pacific not least of all it has been made more difficult in the last year and a half by the unpredictability of my country and I apologize for that but as you know democracies are unpredictable and I've been watching the Australian conversation about your democracy with some interest so to each their own I can't take full responsibility for mine but I will attempt to at least try to explain it but I think there's every reason to feel confident that Japan will demonstrate the skill that it has always demonstrated diplomatically and I think it's one of the underestimated aspects of Japanese foreign policy is the skill to which not only the diplomats Ambassador Kusaka among them but the Japanese politicians are able to adapt and reform and meet the new challenges in the international environment but there are some things we can talk about today and I'm going to talk about five of those. We have policy reform issues at home of course, how Japan manages its demography, how Japan sustains its economic growth, how it basically thinks about its political system how it deals with leadership challenges all of these matter in terms of how it will implement some of the things that I'm about to talk about but we have a full day of conversation and other experts to grapple with that what I thought I would do this morning to start us off is to talk about Japan. Japan can't control like any other nation even the United States, can't control everything that comes its way the question is what is coming its way what is different, what are the instruments it can bring to bear and where do I think there is maybe some need to reconsider some of the supports that Japan has had in the past one of which is the alliance with the United States so I have five priorities that I considered really important for Japan's future I have four of them, the last one is really about economics trade the global liberal order and I think we're going to get into that in more detail later and I am not an economist so I will leave that to others but let me share with you the five priorities that I think may be the most important for Tokyo. The first is will Japan and China manage to stabilize their relations sufficiently so that the balance of power between them doesn't become the underpinning of crises distrust and suspicion we could easily imagine and several years ago we did imagine that this was a relationship that was fairly doomed to recurrent crisis but I think we're on a little bit of steadier footing today I don't know that we know yet whether that steady footing will hold whether the foundation of Japan-China relations will remain stable and predictable or whether we're going to see just in and out phases of manageability and crisis so China-Japan relations I think are one of the hugest priorities I think for Japanese decision makers the second is clearly the North Korean missile and nuclear threat it goes without saying and we say it in Washington all the time that if you are looking for any situation that might result in military conflict in Asia it's most likely to be on the Korean peninsula post-Singapore summit I am not relieved of the anxiety I'm not sure we have solved the problem unlike President Trump who thinks that the nuclear threat has been diminished I think it has been temporarily receded we are in a better place than we were in 2017 when the missiles were flying but I'm not sure we've solved the problem and so for Japan it's two-folded one is obviously the missile threat every other country in Northeast Asia has the capacity to retaliate except for Japan and that was a deliberate choice by the Japanese I'm not sure that choice is going to hold and I'll leave that discussion to our Q&A session the missile threat is one piece of the puzzle but the other piece is obviously the nuclear threat and that gets at the heart of the extended deterrent of the United States again something that we're going to have to think carefully about something that Japanese decision makers and policy makers have been engaging US policy makers with now carefully for a number of years whether or not they are comfortable with the extent of American capability to exercise the nuclear deterrent so there's two facets of the North Korea challenge one is the immediacy of the missile threat the second is this longer term structural question about whether extended deterrence is sufficient the third priority I would suggest for Japan is can it build partnerships across Asia that will help it manage along with others and it will also include regional relations in a way that mitigates at least the impact of China's rising influence I'm not saying contain China obviously but I'm thinking that there is a need for regional government structures be they in the economy be they in security or in the diplomatic sphere and we have relied largely on the ASEAN centric notion of multilateralism for the region I feel that the ASEAN is weaker today it may not be up to the challenge of major power competition in the Asia Pacific it may not and we have to at least openly talk about what is to be done if it is not and one of those pieces of the puzzle and I think it has been very well articulated in the Indo-Pacific strategy by Japan embraced now in Australia especially out in western Australia yay Gordon but and also now being initially embraced by the Trump administration as the framing of Trump's Asia strategy I wrote very early on at the invitation of ANU that I wasn't quite sure Trump was ever going to have an Asia strategy and I am changing my mind we have seen now I think in Secretary of State Pompeo's articulation a fairly clear American engagement with the idea of an Indo-Pacific strategy and I am not an Indian specialist by any means but clearly Prime Minister Modi has embraced an Indo-Pacific concept they may be slightly different visions but I think this is where the Japanese initiative on the Indo-Pacific could really bear fruit but I think we have two competing visions here of what kind of structures we are seeing emerge to deal with the myriad challenges in the region fourth and this is the one where I am sure you want me to talk most about and that is whether the U.S. Japan alliance is up to the task this is a very difficult challenge for our policy makers at the moment but it is a very difficult challenge I think for our alliances in general in the region there is a lot of pressure being put on the U.S. alliances be it the U.S. alliance with Japan or even more visibly with the U.S. alliance with South Korea and there is some new intellectual thinking that needs to go into those alliances should we actually see a negotiation with North Korea bear fruit I think the U.S. Australia alliance is on very firm terms so I am not worried I don't know if that is good or bad for this audience I am not worried about our alliance but I think in Northeast Asia there are significant changes here that need to be accommodated by our alliance the flip side of this for Japan though is will America is changing political understanding of its obligations abroad especially its commitments through article 5 protection of its allies are these fundamentally altering in the United States and if so that raises some very significant challenges, problems, questions of decision makers and then finally and I am not going to belabor the point we all understand it here the global trading order global liberal economic order maybe deeply threatened by economic nationalism led by none other than us I am not going to get into that too much here we can talk about it if you would like to in the Q&A I am happy to do that but I will leave that to our economists to discuss later so let me focus a little bit on the first four and share a couple of thoughts in the idea that we will talk about more openly together in a few minutes with Ambassador Murray here with Murray rather I am sorry I wrote a book a couple of years ago on Japan-China relations mostly from the perspective of looking at domestic politics in Japan and how that was shaping the perceptions of China I think we have seen a fair amount of policy adaptation in Japan and I got the book was translated last spring into Japanese and I went and I had a lovely book launch in Tokyo and many Japanese academics were there to help me celebrate the book but every one of them said to me why are you so critical of Japan I talked about policy adaptation and I was talking about it's not accommodation it's not confrontation it is what we would expect when power relations shift it is adaptation and it's the same thing the United States is doing you have a new significant center of economic and political and now military power you will adapt you have to so for me that was a neutral term but in Tokyo it was viewed with criticism that I was saying that Japan was adapting and that was a bad thing just so we all are clear here I think it's a positive and I mean it in a positive but neutral sense the adaptation in Tokyo though has been ad hoc it's been issue by issue and I think you're only now beginning to see strategic underpinnings of a fairly significant shift of Japanese thinking about how it's going to live in the region how it's going to build relations with China as much as possible and it's how it's going to think about the military implications of China's military power I think military tensions worried both Xi Jinping and Abe Shinzo which led to their meeting at the APEC and led to the discussion that was ongoing for years on risk reduction in the East China Sea that conversation in and of itself is positive it's not necessarily going to avoid tensions or military crises but it is a better place than where we were in 2012 I think the Prime Minister of Japan has also been very adroit and astute in making sure that the economic underpinnings of the relationship got back on track to embed the relationship and the economic benefits of both countries I think as Shiro said in October the Prime Minister visited Beijing and I think again you're going to see a reassertion of the economic interest the common interest, shared interest between the Japanese and Chinese that has been the steadying force I think in that bilateral relationship but other things have changed too both President Trump and President Obama have reasserted American Article 5 protections that they extend to the Senkaku Islands and that has helped Beijing achieve some clarity on the military pressures that they may put on the islands in the East China Sea so the alliance has also adapted and we have now a fairly good conversation not possibly as good as it could be but good conversation on how do we de-escalate crises before they reach the level of military tensions and so the alliance now is not just about defense and deterrence it's also about making sure that crises don't rise to the level that they rose in 2012 where we were seriously concerned about some kind of miscalculation again I won't belabor the point here but I'm looking forward to the October visit of Prime Minister Abe to Beijing to see also how China and Japan talk about the region how Obor or the the Belt and Road Initiative meets the free and open and reciprocal Indo-Pacific and so I think all of us should listen to the rhetoric and listen to the statements and I suspect we'll hear slight dissonance we might have a very friendly meeting but a very different interpretation of the economic potential and the roles of both countries in the Asia Pacific and I'm looking forward to hearing that so second challenge North Korea I don't know what to say about North Korea I lived in Washington throughout the 2016-2017 iterated accelerated missile tests we could talk all about reactions to that but you lived in the region you know them as well as anybody so I won't go over that history we all know that the bulk of those missiles were aimed in Japan's direction and they were no longer pseudo civilian tests of satellite launches they were clearly missile tests they were military tests and they were designed in a way to make Japan very aware of the fact that North Korea not only had one or two missiles and I think that message was received loud and clear I think our government decided that it was not to be accepted as did the Japanese government I think we had an interesting moment in the fact that the South Koreans didn't have leadership on the ground at that time so Japan-U.S. conversation was the preeminent response by the alliances to that initial testing of Kim Jong Un I think what we've got now is what we saw on display in 2017 was an unprecedented level of synchronized military signaling by both alliances you saw military exercises being conducted in Korea in response to a launch over Japan you saw Japanese missile defense exercises synchronized by the U.S. ROK missiles on the second long-range test so it was an interesting moment I think U.S. and Japanese forces were trying to push the envelope a little bit with their South Korean colleagues more explicitly together but as we all know here that's a tender topic for South Koreans and so we didn't see that move into a full trilateralized military demonstration of the alliance response then we had the surprise of the Singapore summit I'm not here to say it was wrong of the president to meet with Kim Jong Un I in fact thought that was not a bad idea we have had every kind of negotiation with North Korea except at the leadership level it was worth a try in my book what came out of it though from the very initial statement by President Trump after the meeting with Kim Jong Un what came out of it was alarming to me and I suspect it was deeply unsettling in Tokyo and that was the statement by our president that war war games war games were provocative and not only that they were expensive so you had two messages from the United States to its ally in South Korea one the North Koreans had it right we didn't have a legitimate right to do these exercises and two the burden sharing argument was front and center after diplomacy immediate diplomacy with Kim Jong Un bad mistake both of them in my view we can certainly debate that more alarming though was the president's statement that the nuclear threat was taken care of and what I think you've had since the Singapore summit till now is I think you've had a very serious effort by Secretary of State Pompeo to make Kim Jong Un make good on his promises but it has not reaped much benefit so we now have a situation in which there's no immediate military threat but there's no resolution of the military problem and I suspect the longer that goes on the more uncomfortable it will be in Tokyo and I hope that somewhere along the way we'll start to see something the gears mesh the president has announced that he's not going to really take it on now until after China in the United States resolve their trade dispute so it has become a very complicated story it is no longer a story of defense and deterrence which is in my view what it should be it is now a very difficult story embroiled with the US relationship with China again if I were sitting in Tokyo I would be uneasy we can talk about the what ifs there's several scenarios we can spin out from here on North Korea none of them I think are particularly positive for Japan but we can let's save that for the discussion Japan and the regional order number three and I'll be very brief here because it's well known in this audience the competitive vision with China's rise may on the surface today be dissipated somewhat in Tokyo but I don't think it's gone and this is where we're on the this is where we have to think about the Asia Pacific in a very concrete sort of way it may now rest on the powers in the Asia Pacific Japan, Australia India and maybe a little bit the United States to lead a conversation about how to avoid that competitive dynamic from becoming the norm I'm hoping it will happen I think Japan has been I think Prime Minister Abe and his team have been exceptional on TPP I was quite happy to see TPP-11 continue and now the CPTPP I was very happy to see the Japan EU trade agreement I think now you're seeing also infrastructure talks with us for the region as well as with Australia and others Japan as I mentioned earlier the Japan India conversation is very constructive as well so I think we're seeing signs here of fairly dynamic and adaptive and positive diplomacy and I hope I'm looking forward to seeing its results I think now we're acting on maritime presence issues with us and with you and with others also very positive I think the largest destroyer is out in the South China Sea today the Kaga, the Izumo was out several months ago I think this is positive for Japan that collective action on maritime security in Asia is the way to go and so I'm looking forward to continuing to watch Japan develop that capacity vision and Japan's framing of it gives us a lot to think about and I will look forward to hearing from those of you here in Australia about what you think of Australia's vision and how we can in the United States continue to articulate that as a priority for the United States there is always that subcurrent of historical memory in the region I see South Korea and China have stepped back a bit from their pressure on Japan it helps that we are somewhat distant from the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II I don't underestimate the power that that kind of diplomacy has however in weakening the region's ability to work together let me then conclude with a few thoughts about the US-Japan partnership I've probably spoken for too long but I will try to make it brief or I could go on about it forever it's a little bit of a handy gap at the moment but the US-Japan alliance of course has been the foundation of Japan's post-war strategy not only in military terms but in economic terms as well and the surface story of the moment of course is the relationship between Prime Minister Abe and President Trump I wrote about it I continue to write about it when invited and so I recognize that's a critical part of Japanese management of our political transition and I appreciate that but I do not think however that that personal relationship is sufficient to ensure that the alliance is strong and so I think we should be realistic and clear about it that it is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a strong US-Japan relationship I think that this is the best and I think I wrote about it in the EFQ it's about to come momentarily it is the best example of alliance management that we've had and I don't say that with any kind of cynicism I think Prime Minister Abe deserves an awful lot of credit it was a risky maneuver it could have gone badly but it didn't it redounded to Japan's benefit and so he deserves credit for that I think it also is to be noted that Prime Minister Abe continues to make sure that that is the mechanism through which he articulates Japan's needs in the alliance and I think that's the right strategy for that process we don't have a normal alliance management structure we have a lot of positions unfilled they are gradually getting filled so we are getting back to what you would normally expect in terms of the way our government works but it is important that that leader channel gets Japan's interests and priorities communicated clearly to the President but the story I think is not all about Trump so if you'll bear with me for a second I'm going to take a step back and take a sweep on the U.S.-Japan alliance over the post-war period and I'll do it very quickly so we won't bore you too much but this is not the first time the United States and Japan have talked about military burden sharing it's not the first time we've talked about our trade deficit we've had moments where that has created deep tensions and frictions in our political system in the United States and likewise in Japan we have weathered them we have adapted on both sides and we have managed to figure it out this time there were two things in the past those moments of tension those claims that the alliance is unfair or inequitable have largely come from our legislative branch they've come from our Congress where the politics of the trade competition or the politics of burden sharing have seen imperative to our elected officials now it's coming from the executive branch and that's important to recognize because it has different implications for how the alliance is managed I think what I feel in Washington is in fact a little bit of pushback from our Congress this is a little footnote I spend more time briefing congressional representatives in the Senate in the House today than I ever had in my 10 years at CFR we get asked by all Republicans Democrats it doesn't matter they ask for us to come and talk to them about Japan and I do it a lot so there's a lot of demand from the Hill on some of these issues and I think that's an interesting engagement because I think our Congress is worried about the state of our alliances but back to the burden sharing and trade we have done this before it's been unpleasant and uncomfortable but the alliance has not ended we've negotiated our way through it we can do it again if we have to I think the 1980s era which was the most uncomfortable was what's still stuck in President Trump's mind he still remembers that era economically in particular and you'll hear it in his references but I think he also has a vision of Japan and its military capability that is lodged in a different era as well so last November when he visited Japan he asked the Prime Minister why he didn't just shoot down those North Korean missiles right okay then this is also not the first US President to deal out shocks to Japan right we can go back to the Nixon administration right one of the things that I think is uneasy even for the Prime Minister is that there were no consultations on Section 232 steel and aluminum there were no consultations on the Singapore summit right and that's very reminiscent of the Nixon shocks we are not calling them the Trump shocks although I did sort of satirically say that in one of my essays and my Japanese colleagues said we don't see it like that we don't see it like that I've said this before and the thing is that we are going to have to be here again the one piece of the puzzle where I feel that we have a lot more homework to be done is if we have a real crisis if we have real military pressure from North Korea and if we can look at last year as some insight into how that would be managed I am actually more positive than you might think because we have such deep integration of our military forces and our security planners but I don't think you would have a situation where the alliance would fail fingers crossed but we are going to have some ugly politics I'm afraid in the fall and maybe into the spring and largely this will revolve around trade but it could also revolve around the North Korea issue what is different I think for Japan today is that episodes like this in the past where the alliance has come has been shaken where confidence in the alliance has been shaken they have usually been in periods of reduced threat they were after the Vietnam war the Guam doctrine Jimmy Carter trying to draw down troops in Korea they were not moments of explicit threat to Japan they are now and so the geopolitical temperature and the American response is very disconnected from these episodes that we've watched the alliance navigate in the past and then about and I'll be looking forward to the conversation we're going to have with our Japanese colleagues in a few minutes I worry then about Japanese anxiety about the predictability or the unpredictability of the United States I worry then that there are serious thinkers in Japan that are beginning to say I'm not sure we should have all our eggs in the US basket and so we've got some real traditional kind of questions about hedging we've got questions about Japan's capacities we've got questions about Japanese military power I think on the horizon that it would be wise for serious thinkers in Tokyo to grapple with and to grapple with out loud because I think it is it is almost it is probably likely that many people in Washington will take for granted that Japan is not worried because Japan doesn't have other options so I think there is some serious thinking to be had in Tokyo I see some of that thinking beginning and I'm hoping that we can talk more about that in the later discussion so let me offer you three basic conclusions about how I look at Japanese foreign policy and its particular challenges it has today there is a question about how much flexibility Japan does have my colleagues in the Japanese government have often said to me we don't have a choice we only have the alliance but I don't think that's true I don't say it in a black and white kind of way I say it is there is a lot of room here for collective action with other partners and I think that's what you're seeing with the Australia-Japan relationship I think that's what you're seeing in other aspects of the Japan-European relationship at the moment and I think that it would be wise for Tokyo to create opportunity for flexibility because I think there is a little bit of a question about the predictability of my country going forward I don't call that hedging I don't call it diversification Japan is very good at diplomatic diversification it always has been whether it's the post-war period or the pre-war period for that matter I think more successful in the post-war so I think that's a good strategy for Japan the second conclusion I'll offer for discussion is Japan is developing more instruments of statecraft and by that I, that's what my subject of my book is and that is the military instrument for the decision makers and it has been in the past that's not to say Japan is turning to the right or Japan is about to attack its neighbors please don't misunderstand me Japan has deployed its military in collective activities that it sees as necessary to sustaining the peaceful order in the Asia-Pacific it has donated those services to the United Nations peacekeeping it understands the importance of having that instrument to communicate its investment regionally and globally I think that's a good thing diplomacy is a skill the Japanese have had in abundance collective action with new partners as I said is the best road I think the economic influence of Japan that economic instrument is the one that is going to be more difficult to wield and that is not because the Japanese are not good at it it's because they have competition China has a lot more economic resources we're watching it, unfold and they are not shy I was watching the leadership meeting with the African nations we all think that actually could be a positive development conversation but we're leery about the way in which China is going to deploy those resources and that influence Japan can't compete with that I'm not sure we can either collectively maybe we can and again those that recalibration of Japanese strategic instruments is probably important to recognize as we move into a potential phase of major power competition let me just conclude on something that is obvious to this audience and that is regional partnerships with or without the United States as an American I believe strongly that with is better but I think for those of you here in the region I understand that with or without these regional partnerships are going to be a priority and so that is not only in bilateral terms that is one of the key differences I think of the increasing closeness of Japan and Australia in terms of how you think and speak and develop opportunities for collaboration across the Asia Pacific it matters it matters particularly given our politics but it matters more importantly for the future peace and stability of the region so thank you very much for having me thank you so much Dr. Smith it's a really fantastic tour de raison we will say and flagging all the major issues and obviously you could have given a keynote speech on all of the points that you made and I think it's very good that this session will be followed immediately after as we are broadening out some of the points that you've been making so we only have 10 minutes for Q and A's before morning tea I wonder if somebody would like to ask the first question please yes Peter thanks very much Sheila for a real tour de force a comprehensive review of where the Japan-U.S. relationship is at as you said the questioning of the alliance relationship and the fussing about the trade deficit is not new but the circumstances under which this is taking place now are really fundamentally different from anything that we've had in the past and one of the circumstances I want to highlight is one that you didn't mention and ask you about is that in which the assault on the trade side is not just an assault on Japan but on the whole system economic security system within which Japan has been nested in the post war period and threatens to bring that down already the trade rules have been broken in this respect and 232 does it again so this is a deep security issue it's not just an economic security issue for Japan and I wonder what you think is the comprehension of that in Washington because at times there seems to be no comprehension of that and what it means for Japan not only managing its relationships with the United States but also its relationship, big relationship extant relationship with China not its potential relationship with China so reflection on that would be most helpful the second question is Indo-Pacific is and you know we all sort of scratch around and think about what our idea of the Indo-Pacific is but I'd like you to spell out a little bit more what you think Washington's idea of the Indo-Pacific is is it principally a maritime security framework arrangement or has it much substance beyond that the substance that Pompeo outlined in Singapore was not much substance really of hard cash on the table and so on and instruments defining instruments for action on the Indo-Pacific so I wonder if you could tell us what Washington's idea of the Indo-Pacific strategy is as always very great question so let me deal with the liberal trading order economic order first and so I think you're right it's not just the U.S. behavior that's challenging the liberal order right and from Japan's perspective in a devastating kind of way I would say it's China but it's both and so one of the things I'm going to be interested in hearing about when Prime Minister Abe goes in October is whether Xi Jinping tries to court Japan as a fellow partner in sustaining the liberal trading order we all watched Xi Jinping speak at Davos about China being the great champion of the liberal trading order but I suspect there will be a little bit of a campaign there on the part of the Chinese to at least rhetorically continue that thrust but I ended my intimate rivals with a couple of paragraphs about what this is really all about for Japan and it is really all about the order within which Japan reasserted its interest in the world stage without the post war order as you point out the way it is Japan is deeply challenged and I don't see and again I'm looking for maybe our colleagues in the next session can address this more directly than I I know that that anxiety exists Peter I don't know and hear much of a debate about well what if what if that's what happens because I think many people don't want to recognize not only in Japan but in Europe as well the thing about Japan though it doesn't have the protection of the European Union right it doesn't have the comfort even though the European Union is under stress there's a partnership there's an economic partnership and Japan would be hard pressed to create a new one that's why I think CPTPP is important that's why I think some of the regional initiatives that the Japanese are pushing for in the region along with Australians and others are so important because that framework of a sturdy regional economic order is probably the right way to think about the what if now I we could spend a long time thinking about the Chinese challenge the post war order I suspect although I can't with great confidence predict I suspect that President Trump will be given a great run for his money if and when because I think it actually is going to be when they announced the 232 application on autos there are so many interests inside the United States that will respond to that and again there are others on the panel today who may have a different view of this so that inside the United States let alone the devastation it would do to our economic relations across Canada, Mexico, Asia will be will be strong and the consumers in the United States will have will feel it fast it may take us years to undo the damage of the imposition of 232 on the auto industry so I think the Americans will rectify this I don't see us going full on economic nationalist beggar neighbor purge but I can't say that with great confidence because I don't think any of us could know exactly how this conversation inside the United States is going to emerge but there will be pushback for sure on autos in a way that there weren't for steel and aluminum one more very brief question we have time for yes thanks again for your comments very interesting you mentioned that you don't think ASEAN would have the might or the ability to assist the regional players in creating a new regional order that could both accommodate or as you would say adapt to the rise of China given if that is the case and Japan's strained relationships with historical reasons with China and South Korea what other option do they really have India I don't think well you said that you think India had a vision of the Indo-Pacific which aligned somewhat with the Australian Japanese and US but my reading of Modi's speech from the Shangri-La Dialogue was a little bit different and we obviously know that they have a long history of non-alignment and whether they help ASEP or make it worse is up for debate so I would like to hear your thoughts on whether Japan should put a full press into the ASEAN region or whether they should prioritise as we all need to other players and if so who would they be and why would be better than ASEAN since time is short I'll try and be very brief no no no no it's me I think I'm answering in a way so let me try to answer succinctly and also in the same way address Peter's question about Indo-Pacific I don't mean to suggest that it's an either or so the ASEAN Japanese commitment to the ASEAN is deep and has been long-standing you can go back to the 1992 support for the ASEAN regional forum Japan has deeply engaged and invested and supported in ASEAN based multilateralism so I'm not saying that Japan is not I think we have to recognize so that the major power competitions that are emerging are putting some strains on the ASEAN especially on the they're dividing maritime from continental there's other kinds of strains afoot it will be very hard for the ASEAN going forward to feel the full brunt of major power competition and again you know better than I that ASEAN was formed to protect the Southeast Asian nations from major power competition right it will be all that they can do to do that I think without taking on the mitigation of the tensions between major powers right so that's the context within which I was talking about ASEAN's challenges Japan I think will continue to play a very strong role in supporting the Southeast Asian nations and in ASEAN institutionally I don't think the Indo-Pacific is an either or either it's in the eye of the beholder the Modi-Abe dialogue is not a complete integration of their visions of an Indo-Pacific overlap there that I think it's constructive I think there's also what's different from Japan's articulation from the United States which is underdeveloped to say politely where we are at the moment in Washington is that Japan looks to Africa I mean the Indo-Pacific has two oceans three continents in the Japanese you know if you look at the MOFA website they're very explicit it's very expansive it's not major powers necessarily it's functions and oceans and continents but it has a very deep resonance Japan's entry into Africa on the other side of the Indian Ocean or the other side of the South Asian is also a very important part of its strategic play with China so connectivity infrastructure development all of these economic components of the Indo-Pacific strategy for Japan have a very significant strategic value I think in terms of Japanese presence the United States doesn't have that we have a very narrow rendition of Indo-Pacific and I think Secretary Pompeo's speech was welcomed because it was it happened and I was happy to see it not be about the South China Sea to be it about our economic interests he didn't use the word connectivity but he talked about digital energy and infrastructure so we're starting to scoot over a little bit to that economic conception of a space in which we can work with Australia and India and Japan across this vast region the strategic vision is not there the closest I heard of a strategic vision was Rex Tillerson's speech early on and as we know that is not the game plan that I hear coming out of Secretary Pompeo so I think it's okay Peter that it's still focused on economics I wouldn't want it to get over abrasive at this point given everything else that's going on Thank you very much Sheila and before I close I just wanted to throw in one little additional issue which perhaps could be discussed in the next session that is Taiwan is really mentioned these days but Taiwan is always there as an issue and could be the touchstone of well it would bring it would draw in the United States back into the region again it would be a move not necessarily a classic invasion by China but perhaps a pressuring of Taiwan and to what does the United States do in that situation and of course what does Japan and Australia do in that situation I'm not expecting you to respond now but perhaps that's something we can talk about a bit later but thank you very very much for your wonderful opening remarks and keynote speech it's really set the tone for the rest of the day again for coming all the way to Canberra, thank you


Right, let's pray and then we'll start. Okay, let's pray. Father, we thank you. Thank you for this day, Lord. Thank you for this time of worship that we have this morning. Thank you for speaking to us, Lord. Thank you for drawing us, Lord, to yourself, Lord, through your presence, through your word, through your love. Lord, we just want to honor you this morning. We just want to give you praise. Yes, Father God, we want to say that we love you, Father God, and Lord, I pray that our obedience God will reflect that, that we will to demonstrate, oh God, in our lives, Lord, through our actions of Father God, what we sing and say with our words, Father God, I pray that we will show that through our lives, Master, that through our obedience, through our character, Lord, through the way we live our lives, Father God, that we will show, Lord, that our lives itself, Lord, will be an act of worship, will be a demonstration of worship, Father God, enable us to live that way each and every day God. Yes, Master, we thank you. We give you all the praise and all the glory. In Jesus' matchless name, we pray. Amen. Right. Okay, so let's start. One Corinthians and hope you're able to go back and read through the notes. It'll be good if you can do that every time we finish the class, just to go through the notes and to see what we studied in class. It'll just come back, whatever we learned, whatever we studied will just come back to us. I just want to encourage you to also make notes what the Lord is speaking to you, even as we go through certain scriptures, certain scriptures, as we study Corinthians, I'm sure the Lord will reveal certain things and speak to you specifically about certain areas of your life, maybe about ministry, and maybe it's something new that you're learning that you can apply in your own lives, apply in church, apply in ministry, and so on. So make a note of that. And so that you don't forget that. Okay, so last class we started with, we looked at Corinthians, we looked at the geographical background of how the city was established, and we also looked at what kind of city it was. We saw that it was economically, commercially, it was a very, very vibrant city, and spiritually also, it was, we see that it was a hungry city spiritually. The people were hungry spiritually, and therefore they were going after these kind of deities, they had Apollo's Aphrodite, and they also were involved in a lot of things, especially if you see they had this temple, and we saw that all kinds of things were going on in this temple. And the historians say that they were also like, you know, temple prostitutes, and the worship was, you know, it was like that. So you can imagine the kind of values which were there. So socially, value-wise, morally, they were very corrupt. And so that's the kind of setting into which Paul went. So where did Paul write one Corinthians from? Any idea? Anyone? Anyone here? Sorry? Yeah, Prince? From Ephesus, yeah. So Paul wrote this epistle to the Corinthians while he was in Ephesus. So in which of his missionary journey did Paul go to Corinthians? Like he had some two or three missionary journeys, like three. So in which of his missionary journeys did Paul go to Corinthians, to go to Corinth and establish the church at Corinth? Anyone? You can either put it in the chat or you can tell me which missionary journey of Paul in which missionary journey was, you know, visit Corinth and the established church in Corinth? Anyone? Was it his first missionary journey? Was it a second? Was it his third? Okay, Prince, it was actually the second, right? So second missionary journey. So first missionary journey, Paul goes with Silas, with Barnabas, sorry, and then they come back to Antioch. And then Paul tells Barnabas, and we read that in Acts chapter, I think 15, yeah, Acts chapter 15. So there Paul says, you know, he tells Barnabas, let us go back to some of the places that we went and ministered, and let's go encourage them, and let's just see what is happening. And then they had that, they hadn't had that argument, that discussion about John Mark, and then they go their separate ways. Barnabas takes John Mark and goes and Paul takes Silas and they go.  Okay, so that's what we see. Okay, another question. So who else did Paul meet on this second missionary journey, who became a part of his team? Another person who was part of Paul's team, a young man, who is who also, you know, to whom also Paul wrote it, John. Okay, so we read with that Paul went to Derby, Lystra, okay, and this is an Acts chapter 16. He came to Derby and Lystra, and behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, right, the son of a certain Jewish woman who believed, and his father was Greek. So Timothy, you know, Paul takes Timothy also, so gets him circumcised and so on, and then Timothy also travels with them. So Timothy joins them, okay, from this place called Derby, and he's well known in Lystra and Iconium and other places. Like people have a good opinion about him. He has a good testimony with them, and then that also, you know, he comes to know and then we do that. He travels on. Okay, so he comes to Corinth, so how long did Paul stay in Corinth and minister in Corinth when he established this? How long was it a month? Was it six months? Was it a year? How long did he, okay, two years? Okay, so we know that he was there for about one and a half years. Okay, so that's what we see. Let's look at Acts chapter 18, okay, Acts chapter 18 and verse 11. So Acts chapter 18, the whole chapter is actually, you know, after his in reaching Corinth, right? So Acts chapter 18 and verse 11, we see, and he continued there a year and six months teaching the word of God among them. Okay, so continued there referring to Corinth. So he was there for a year and at least a year and six months. And then he, because the verses after that, it says verse 18, so Paul remained a good while, still remained a good while, then he took leave of the brethren and sailed for Syria and so on. So maybe a little more than a year and six months. So, but we know for sure that he was there for a year and six months or 18 months, right? So, okay, one last question. So who brought news about the church in Corinth, from whom did Paul receive this news about what was happening in Corinth and because of which he writes this letter? Okay, anyone? So he gets gets some information about Corinth that things are not okay, right? Both good and bad, things are not okay. And then so he chooses to write this episode in order to set certain things right. So from whom did he receive that information? God himself reveals, okay. Okay, I'm sure that would have happened also. But we see a specific name mentioned there. Okay, look at Corinthians, first Corinthians, let's look at verse 11. Chapter one, verse 11. Okay, chapter one, verse 11. For there was ten non-words in this read. Now I plead with your brethren by the by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all speak the same thing that and that there be no divisions among you but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. Verse 11. For it has been declared to me concerning you, my brethren, by those of Chloe's household that there are contentions among you. Okay, so you're saying Sosthenes. So Sosthenes is actually with Paul as he writes this letter, verse one. Paul called to be an apostle through the will of God and Sosthenes our brother. So Sosthenes actually is with him in Ephesus. He obviously he meant he, this is the same person whom he met at Corinth because in Corinth in Acts chapter 18, Sosthenes is mentioned there as a ruler of us. Anyway, so we see here that Chloe's household. So Chloe was a believer and the household of Chloe obviously they were very involved in the church and they see all these things happening and they decide to inform or get help from Paul to set these things right. Okay, what should we do to set these things? So it's Chloe and the household they send this information. So this is how he comes to know and he begins to write. Okay, let's move on to the second chapter and let's see what we can learn from the chapter two. So chapter one we saw Paul's greetings about grace and peace from the Lord. We see that that is a standard greeting and then he actually commends them in the sense he recognizes the grace of God that is on the believers in Corinth and he also tells them that you are enriched in everything in all utterance in all knowledge and also he acknowledges the fact that the social gifts are very much there in that church. So he says you come shocked and no gift. And so that's what he says in verse seven and then he goes on to the problem they are facing and the problem is division. So some people are saying I'm of Paul, I'm of Apollos and so Paul addresses that he's saying was Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Did I baptize you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? So he says all that and then he talks about the cross. That's the important thing, the message of the cross. And even when I was there he said I preach the gospel not with wisdom of words but I don't want to take that focus off the cross knowing that something happened on the cross and it was the Lord who died for them on the cross. So he says this is the message, this is the gospel, the message of the cross. It is the power of God. So the message of the cross, the cross of Christ, it is the message of power. Verse 18 he says to those who are being saved it is the power of God. This message is the power of God and we'll also look at Romans chapter one where Paul says I'm not ashamed of the gospel of God because it is the power of God for salvation. So he's not ashamed of this and this is the message that he shared to them and he talks about the power of the cross. He talks about how it seems to be foolishness to the Greeks and it seems to be even for the Jews who are seeking after a sign or for the Greeks who want the wisdom, it seems to be foolishness. But to both this is what we share and he says that the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men and the reason he shares all this and he also says it looks for them and says look at your own lives, how you were called. It's not based on people's personalities or backgrounds or giftedness or performance but everything is off God that he called and he did this work that no man should glory in his presence. So the glory completely goes to him, goes to God and him alone. So no human being can glory in his presence and therefore he's saying you cannot say, in other words you cannot say that I'm of Paul or I'm of Apollo. There's no point in you saying this because it's about the cross and who died on the cross and the message of the cross which is the power of God. Let's look at chapter 2 and read through a few verses. And I brethren, when I came to you did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear and in much trembling. In my speech and my preaching we're not with human, sorry we're not with persuasive words of human wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and of power that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. So what is Paul saying? Paul saying that when I came to you, when I visited you, when I was there with you, I did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. And the testimony of God is what the gospel message. So I did not come with what was actually there. In those days the Greek philosophers they had this way of speaking, they had this way of eloquence and they had this oratory methods or great orators, they had this dramatic way of speaking and communicating. So Paul saying I did not come like that or with what you can call as wisdom, excellence of wisdom. I did not come with that, I did not come like that. Verse 2 is saying I determined, I decided that you should not receive or know anything except Jesus and Him crucified. So while ministering here, see Paul actually chose that they should know about the cross and they should know about the power of the cross and Him crucified. We see that this is central to the ministry or the message of anyone. So we learn from that that we cannot go away from this message if you want to be true ministers of the gospel. This is central and this is the one that changes lives and which might seem to be illogical or might seem to be foolishness according to the world, but this is the one which changes or transforms lives. So Paul saying that I determined when I came to you, I intentionally chose not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified because Paul actually was a very learned man and for him it would have been easy for him to talk about philosophy, to talk about wisdom, to talk about the ways of the world and all that. But then he chose to do this. He chose to share this and we also read during in several other places about Paul's ministry that he reasoned with people. He reasoned with people meaning that he chose to present his argument, present the facts and the evidence and so on. He reasoned with people what do you think and this is what scripture says. Acts chapter 18, he goes there and then he goes to the synagogue with both the first way the Jews and Greeks and from scriptures. But we see that everything that he reasoned was focused on the Lord Jesus, focused on the crucifixion, focused on the death burial resurrection and what that accomplished, what the Lord accomplished, it was focused on that. So it's an example for us as well. So Paul 3 says, I was with you in weakness, fear and in much trembling, which means that the people were actually, if you read Acts chapter 18, we see that there was a lot of persecution there. We see that especially from the Jews there was a lot of persecution. Let's go to Acts chapter 18. Acts chapter 18 verse 8, we see that many of the Corinthians believed and were baptized through the ministry. They heard the message, many of them were baptized. And verse 9, now Paul spoke, so the Lord spoke to Paul in the night by vision, do not be afraid, but speak and do not keep silent for I am with you and no one will attack you to hurt you for I have many people in this city. So obviously, there was a lot of opposition from the religious leaders because they saw that many of them were coming to Jesus through the ministry of Paul. And so they were, if you read earlier also, you know, verse 4, you see that he reasoned in the synagogue verse 6, they opposed him and blaspheme. So this kind of opposition was there.  So the Lord strengthened him. And he says, verse 4 and verse 5, my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. The reason, let's look at that persuasive words, persuasive words of human wisdom. So he's saying it is not with the human wisdom. It was not with earthly wisdom that I came and spoke to you. And he says not with those persuasive words, persuasive words meaning it could be, you know, manipulative or enticing words that cause a person to be trapped maybe. You know, entice, that's what it means, entice to trap, to ensnare. So I did not come with those kinds of words. Now, when we see, let's say, you know, somebody wants to sell something, they might be using certain words, you know, I'm sure you would have seen people selling things and they would be very, very persuasive, very, very forceful. I remember, you know, there was one person, I think we were on the street and there was one person selling some books. Okay, so selling some books and he would come, he was very, very, he just came behind and said, so just listen, just give me two minutes. I just want to tell you something. And I knew that it was about those books and I didn't want those books. But then he kept saying, you know, just listen to me and just give me two minutes. And then he, you know, he put the book in my hands, he said, you know, just see it. Okay, so he just wants you to get involved, right, wants you to examine the book, to hold the book, open it and see if it is good. And in some way, if you will be convinced that that is what you want, a very, very persuasive. Okay, and using all those techniques, you know, smiling and so hello, how are you, and so on. So Paul used none of that. In sharing the Gospel, he used none of that. He didn't want to entice them to the Gospel. He didn't want to manipulate them into obeying Christ. Okay, so that's a lesson for us as ministers of God. And like we might seize, you know, look around and see, okay, that person is actually using these things and using these tricks, like using these methods in order to, you know, get people to believe or get people to receive Christ. Now, the Lord does not want any of that, right, no gimmicks, no tricks, no, you know, none of these things, no manipulation, and no enticement, right. The Lord wants nothing of that. So, and Paul employed nothing of that. He says, my speech and my preaching. Okay, it was no tricks. None of these things. I didn't want you to, you know, come to the kingdom that way, right. So how was it? If it was not with human wisdom, if it was not with words of enticement, then how did he preach? He says, it was in demonstration of the spirit and power. It was in demonstration of the spirit and with power. So he preached about the cross. He preached, he presented the truth about the gospel. This is what happened. And this, this is what the Lord Jesus did. He took your sin upon the cross and he, you know, took it out of the way so that you could have new life and so on. And the power of the cross is available for you. And it was in demonstration or a display of the power of God. It was in display of the spirit. Okay, which means it could have been display of the gifts of the spirit, maybe in healing and and signs and miracles and wonders and the power of God and changed lives, maybe addictions breaking off, changed lives, lives being changed, addictions, you know, everything being broken and lives being changed. So it was the power of God. It was in demonstration of the spirit. It was not something manipulative. It was not something to trap the people. So the thing is this that, you know, it was not about for us to learn, right. We don't, we learn, okay, how not to do ministry and how not to do ministry, like our speech need not be to trap people, methods need not be to, you know, you do something and then you have hidden agenda. Okay, I'm going to do this and then they will, you know, get to hear the gospel. There's no hidden agenda. It was very, very open. And it was with demonstration of the spirit and with power. Okay, so, so he did not depend on his, you know, on his charisma or his human personality. Like we see, he says, I was with you in trembling. I was with you in weakness. I was within fear. And I ministered, right. So, so, you know, the in your notes, you know, there is this saying, right, what you draw them with is what you draw them to, meaning the method that you use or the things that you use in order to draw, right. The very things is what you draw them to actually, right. So, we don't want to, you know, use any, we should not, you know, use an entertainment or anything to draw people because you're actually drawing them to that entertainment, you're drawing them to that very thing that you're using. Okay, if it is some kind of a human philosophy, you're actually drawing them to that and not to Christ and him crucified. Okay, so, so that is something that we see. Okay. Any, any doubts, any questions here? And we can look at, before we look at verse six onwards. Okay. Okay, let's look at, let's read verse six onwards. Okay. However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age who are coming to nor of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew, for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, I have not seen nor your heard nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed them to us through his spirit, for the spirit searches, all things, yes, the deep things of God. Okay, so look at verse six. So he's saying, you know, but however we speak wisdom, till now he said, you know, it was not with, you know, wisdom of man, it was not with all these things that he came and preached. Okay, but maybe he came to, I just wanted, I decided not to know anything, not to know, not to present anything to you except the power of God, except the power of Christ and him crucified. So here he says, however we speak wisdom, we do speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age. So it is not the human wisdom. It is not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, like people who are in some kind of leadership or ruler, maybe, you know, people who are chiefs and rulers and kind of wisdom that they use, earthly wisdom. Now, we know that this kind of wisdom cannot draw us to God. So we do not, we do not use that wisdom at all. Right. Because that wisdom is actually coming to nothing. It cannot help us to know God. Chapter one, you know, all writes that. He says, you know, about that kind of wisdom that, I'm sorry, I'm just trying to find that verse. So, yeah, in verse 18 and so on, in verse 17, so the wisdom of words. And he's saying, I'm not drawing you to that wisdom. We speak the wisdom of God. And we speak in, it's in a mystery, which means that things that are hidden, but these are to be revealed, to be revealed. And, which was actually hidden for, for a long time, right, the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which means that these, this message of the gospel, it's at this time, it is revealed. Okay, the message of the cross and what this is at this time, it is revealed. It's a mystery that was concealed, which people did not know, people before the cross, yes, they knew a little bit of it. They prophesied about it, but they did not see it. Right. And even during the earthly ministry, they did not know it, but now it has been revealed. This mystery has been revealed for our glory. And it says that we speak this wisdom, we communicate this wisdom of God, this message. And it's the, in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the ages for our glory. Verse eight, there's none of the rulers knew about this. Okay, all those who were there, they did not know about this. And they did not engage in this, because if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord. They did not know about this. And in verse nine, it says, I has not seen nor hear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him. Amazing verse. He's is not quoting, but actually is paraphrasing from Isaiah 64. He's saying, I has not seen, year has not heard, which means that, you know, for a human being, how do we receive information through our eyes, through what we hear, through what we touch and feel, right? Physically, we look at the world around and then we engage with the world with our physical senses. The Lord is saying, you know, Paul is referencing to Isaiah 64 and is saying, I has not seen, years not so had nor have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared. And then he goes on to say, but God has revealed them to us. So it comes by revelation, not through physical means, or even through human wisdom, but it comes by revelation. How? But God has revealed them to us through his spirit. He says, this whole message and this mystery of the kingdom of God, this mystery which is hidden to be revealed in this age, which was not revealed, which was concealed in all those ages, which was prepared before. Now this, God has revealed them to us. So it comes by revelation of God. How? Through his spirit, for the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. So he's saying, through the work, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, we receive it. It's not by what I see, what I hear, but through the ministry, there is the revelation. So we understand this that God has these, God reveals these things which are hidden. God reveals these mysteries to us. And it comes by revelation. And it's not by what we, you know, we may not have, we don't receive it by what we see, the natural, we don't receive it in natural means, but by spiritual means, by the revelation. God unveils this, discloses these things by his spirit. And the Holy Spirit knows all things, the deep things of God. The Holy Spirit is God. He has infinite knowledge and understanding and wisdom, and he reveals to us. And he goes on to say, right, in 1 Corinthians 14, we're talking about the gifts of the spirit. Again, Paul writes, and he says, you know, he prays in a spirit, praise, he who prays in tongues speaks the mysteries of God. He speaks edification. He's personally edified. And he who prays in tongues, he, he says he, in the spirit, he speaks mysteries. So those mysteries of God, the things that are hidden, we speak, you know, to our spirit, or these are revealed to our spirit, as we pray in tongues by the Holy Spirit. Right. So, so this is what we see, that we, this is how we receive. This is how one receives the revelation. And why is he saying all this? He's actually referring to the fact that this is how we minister. Okay, we did not minister with human wisdom. We did not minister with words, persuasive words, and words that were meant to entertain, words that were meant to, you know, just to make you feel good, words that were meant to trap you or ensnare you. Right. These are not the words that we use. We use the wisdom of God. We did speak wisdom, but we spoke the wisdom of God, because this is how God reveals these things, you know, and it is by the spirit of God that God reveals these things. And therefore, we came and ministered in the demonstration of the spirit, right, in the demonstration of the power of God. Okay. So, what man knows verse 11, what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of man, which is in him, even so no one knows the things of God, except the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. Okay, so he's saying, okay, here's another thing, this revelation, this mystery, you know, this is revealed to us by the spirit and no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. He knows all things, he reveals all things. And he says, guess what? You and I, we have received this spirit. We have not received the spirit of the world. It's the wrong kind of spirit. It's the wrong wisdom, it's the wrong spirit which leads to carnality, but we have received this holy spirit. We have received him who has been sent from God, the spirit who is from God, that we might know. What is the objective? What is the reason? The Lord himself said, the Lord Jesus, when we read John chapter 14, 15, 16, when he's talking about the Holy Spirit, I go to the Father that I might send him the comforter that he might come and lead you into all truth.  So he has come to show us that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. So as believers of the Lord Jesus, we have, you know, we have, as people who are one spirit, in one spirit with him, we have received many things from him and we have been born again, we have received the gift of salvation, we have received justification, we have received, you know, we have access to the wisdom, we have all these things, access to the wisdom of God and the Holy Spirit has been given to us so that we might know these things that have been freely given to us, that have been given to us by the grace of God. So he reveals these things to us. Okay. Let's look at verse 13 says, so these things we also speak not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So we speak this, we teach this, we communicate this, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, not in the words of philosophy, not in the words of, you know, a natural man, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Okay. So we have, not only do we have the access to the wisdom of God, but not only, you know, do we have the Holy Spirit teaching us, revealing, showing us the things that we have received freely from God, but when we teach, we teach in the manner which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. So he teaches us the spiritual things. He, how does he teach us? He shows us things in the word. He pickens the word to us, things that were, you know, that were maybe previously hidden to us. He reveals them to us. He compares spiritual things with spiritual things with the spiritual and we have, we receive that and we teach that. Right. Verse 14 says, the natural man does not receive the spirit, things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. So natural man, I could refer to a man who is depending only on his natural senses. Okay. Saying only if I touch feel, only if I see, only if I, you know, understand or only if it makes logical sense, only if it's scientific enough, then I will, I will prove it or I will deceive it. Okay. It can refer to a man who is just depending only on the natural senses. Okay. It can also mean a man who is not born again. Right. The natural man. One, it says here, they are foolishness to him. It does not make sense. So it's like, it's illogical, it's foolishness, nor can he know them. In a sense, see, first of all, he does not receive it because he thinks it's foolishness. Then the second, second part of it, he says, nor can he know them. He does not have the ability to know them because these are spiritually discerned. His spirit is unable to receive this. Right. So, so that's, that's, that's what he says in verse 14. These, these truths, these deep truths, they are received spiritually discerned spiritually. The Holy Spirit teaches to our spirit. But now this person is not, you know, his spirit is not born again, first of all. And he does not, you know, for him, he does not make sense at all. Okay. Now, the other thing that we need to understand is that, okay, let me just, the other thing that we also need to understand is that, that that God has given us our mind. God has given us the ability to think, to reason, to imagine, right, to, he's given us our natural abilities. So there's nothing wrong in using our natural ability.  But it comes under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Right. It comes under the wisdom. It's, it is submitted to the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. It is submitted to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. And our mind is renewed to the thoughts of God or the words of God. Mine is submitted. Right. So that takes the words of God, the thoughts of God take precedence over what our fleshly mind can actually come up with or imagine or, you know, reason. So our reason, our power of reasoning, our mental faculty, everything comes under submission to the leading and of the Holy Spirit. Under submission to the leadership or the authority of the word of God. Right. So, so we need to understand it and, you know, apply the truth in the right way. So we can't say that I cannot use our mind. I will not use my mind. Right. If my mind is renewed to the word of God, then there's, you know, it's very powerful. Right. If my thinking is renewed, if I'm thinking the thoughts of God, then my mind is very powerful. I'm able to decide as God would, I would do things because my mind is very important. It enables me to do those things. It enables me to make choices, righteous choices or unrighteous choices, wise choices or foolish choices. Right. So mind is very important. So we should not do away with the mind, but the mind needs to be in submission or renewed to the word of God. Okay. So here he says, you know, this is how they are, they are for the natural man. However, it doesn't make sense because his mind is not submitted. Right. His, he's ruled by his senses. Okay. Verse 15, but he who is spiritual judges all things yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. So the spiritual man or one who engages with the Holy Spirit, one who, one in whom the Holy Spirit dwells and one who is empowered by the Holy Spirit. Now he is able to examine and judge and discern by depending on the Spirit. Okay. So that's why he says the spiritual judges all things. Okay. What does judge mean? Judge mean I judge means that I consider and I come to a conclusion. I come to a decision. Okay. This is right. This is wrong. That is judging. So judging, of course, you know, we have this understanding that it's condemning. It's not just that it's to judge. It's to come to the place of deciding what is right and wrong. So a spiritual man judges. One was spiritual, one was empowered by the Spirit, one of the engages with the Holy Spirit, one in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. He judges all things yet he himself is rightly judged by no one meaning by a natural man by a carnal person. He is not, he cannot be rightly judged discerned. Okay. So the spiritual man's life, lifestyle choices cannot be rightly judged by the person, you know, who is not, who's not actually led by the Spirit. Okay. Verse 16. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him. He's again referring to Isaiah 40. But we have the mind of Christ. Who knows God? Who knows his ways? The natural man will not know. The carnal man will not know. Who knows? I have, I'm finite. Even as a believer, I'm finite. I do not know everything. Who has known the mind of Christ, but he says, but we have the mind of Christ. We who have submitted to God, to the authority of God, we who have submitted to the teaching and the leading of the Holy Spirit to receive that revelation from the Holy Spirit, we have the mind of Christ. Okay. So that's something that we need to, we need to renew our minds to this. This is the truth to say that, you know, I cannot understand. Yes, you know, but we come to God and we say, Lord, I submit to you, to your teaching, to your leading, for I have the mind of Christ. So we have the mind of Christ in order to, in other words, it means that I have access to the wisdom, the way God thinks, the wisdom of God, I have access to it. Right. But why? Because I'm spiritually one with Christ. Right. The Holy Spirit dwells in me. I'm united with Christ spiritually. So I have the mind of Christ. I have access to the mind of Christ. Okay. So it's wonderful to know that we have so much in Christ. Okay. So Paul talks about all this and he starts by saying in chapter two, this is how we ministered. And so that you will know your dependency will not be in the wisdom of man, wisdom of man, earthly wisdom of man. You should not be dependent on that. You should not be, you know, be in awe of that. But in the power of God, right? Because so that you might depend on the power of God. Okay. Okay. So we'll stop here and take a quick break and come back and we'll continue.


Hi, my name is David Rosales. I'm the pastor of Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley, California. There is so much confusion in our world today, and many are growing frustrated. Even the church is filled with confusion, and is once again becoming divided. In a time when we should be joining together to oppose evil, many are giving in to it. As uncomfortable as this may be to hear, racism is not our greatest problem. Sin is. And sin infects every human being regardless of their declared race. As I mentioned recently, I'm of Mexican American heritage. My mother and my father were both first generation Americans. They were both raised to see themselves as Americans first, and that's how they raised me. When I got saved in 1970, I began to see myself as a Christian, first belonging to something greater than a nation or ethnic group. This is not to say that I stopped valuing my country or my heritage, because my country and heritage became even more important. It wasn't that I no longer knew or valued my ethnicity. It is that I came to believe I belonged to something greater. I began to see that I now belong to a family that was bigger than my nationality or ethnicity. I belonged to a family made up of every person who called upon the name of the Lord and was saved. I was a pilgrim, a sojourner, and I was just passing through while on my way to heaven. I belonged to the body of Christ, the family of God. Paul told the Galatians, there's neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free. There's neither male nor female. You are all one in Christ Jesus. This means that there is no Jewish church. There's no white church. There's no black church, brown church, Native American church, or Asian church. There's one church, Jesus's church. As Paul told the Ephesians, there's one body. There's one Lord, and there is one faith. We belong together because we, who are Christians, serve the same Jesus, worship the same Father, and are joined together by the same spirit. There is a difference in the way we celebrate our faith and our church gatherings. I appreciate this, and thank God for the diversity that's found in His church. But at the core, we are one, and we need to remember this today. We have different orders of service, different songs that we sing, different styles of preaching, teaching. This is all wonderful. It's great. As long as the center of it all is Jesus and His word. What isn't wonderful and what isn't great is the angering cries of racism that's being stoked by people with bad intentions, and it's dividing the church. We all agree that the death of George Floyd was terrible. Justice must be served. What I have a problem with this, how this terrible event has been used to foment hatred and divide our nation on the basis of emotion. As uncomfortable as it may be for some to hear, perhaps we need to consider some facts. The FBI crime report, as well as the Washington Post, reported that in the year 2019, there were approximately 10 million arrests. Within those arrests, there was 1,004 police shootings of which were 41 shootings of unarmed people. Of those 41 unarmed people who were shot by police, 19 of them were white, nine were black. Where was the outrage? Where were there no riots over this kind of injustice? During the same year, 89 police officers were killed in the line of duty. Nobody seems to care about this. Nobody reports about it. Just last weekend in the span of 48 hours, 82 people were shot in Chicago, resulting in the death of 19 people. Where are the reports and riots over these deaths? The press is remarkably silent because it just doesn't fit in with the current narrative narrative of racism. The church has also grown strangely silent. Perhaps it's because many churches don't teach the whole council of God when you teach the whole council and address the evil in our hearts. We discover that the problem isn't racism or social inequities or financial inequality. The problem at its core is sin. You don't agree. Then remember what Jesus said in Mark chapter seven when he said there's nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him. The things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man. Jesus said that it's from within the heart of man that evil proceeds and defiles. It is right that we should mourn the death of George Floyd. But who is mourning the death of the over 300,000 babies that were aborted last year through Planned Parenthood?  What is happening now is the result of rejecting the Christian message. We have sown to the wind. We are reaping the whirlwind. We Christians need to remember that the problem is one of the human nature that the gospel promises a new life. We pastors need to return to preaching the remedy to hate and racism. It's forgiveness. It's love that comes by the spirit of God which is declared in the gospel. We need to remember that when all is said and done, there's one race, the human race. Paul told the intellectuals of Athens that God had made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth. We believers must once again preach the remedy to sin and that is forgiveness through Jesus Christ. Simplistic? Perhaps. Effective? Yes. If we actually do what God says. This is David Rosales, pastor of Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley, California.


While with Christmas Day falling on a Sunday this year, some churches are struggling with scheduling options. Our Josh Peterson visited with some local churches to see if this nationwide scheduling conflict is a problem here at home. For some, Christmas just became more complicated. With this holy day landing on a Sunday, some parishioners may need help from a shepherd, or maybe will need to find a star to follow to be able to find a church that will be open on Sunday. Some churches across the country are cancelling their Christmas Day services so that their parishioners can be at home, focusing not so much on filling the pews, but on families. It's a debate across the nation. Should there be Sunday Church services on Christmas Day? At First Lutheran Church in Bemidji, a special holiday schedule was designed so that the importance of family and the Christmas season can be shared. Back in October, we had the conversation, you know, what do we do about Sunday? Typically, we do do a Christmas Day service at 10 o'clock, or an 8.30 and 10.45 is our normal Sunday worship schedule. So we decided to change and do the 10 o'clock. Many of the churches we contacted in the area also have adopted special holiday schedules, most having regularly scheduled Christmas Eve services on Saturday and one service on Christmas Day Sunday, leaving to question why some churches are cancelling their Sunday services. For Crossroads Church, this is an opportunity to reach out to new people. Christmas Eve has traditionally always been an outreach service, and so we really gear that service towards an outreach. And Sunday morning is going to be an outreach too. There'll be people that come to church that normally would not come. Over at First Lutheran, Christmas services tend to reach a different audience of non-regular churchgoers, meaning extra attention is being paid to the message presented. It takes me the longest to prepare those messages because you are, you're speaking to folks that aren't typically there. In Bemidji, Josh Peterson, Lakeland News. And we've posted links to area churches and their Christmas schedules on our website. Just visit lptv.org slash news for more information. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.