MELVIN NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(PowerPoints used with this message are available for free. Just email me at mnewland@sstelco.com and request #287.)
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
A. I thank God for this congregation for what you mean to me & for the privilege I have of serving here. I hope that you realize what a special blessing we have to be with each other, & to worship the Lord together.
Recently I was talking with a coworker & the subject of my father's death in an airplane crash came up. That raised some questions in his mind about God.
Why did that accident happen? If God is so good why didn't He step in & keep it from happening? God has the power to do it, doesn't He? If He has the power to do it, then why didn't He? Does God really care about us?
B. That brings up another question. Over the years I have visited many churches. In them I have seen dedicated Christians people really trying as best they know how to do the work of the church people who are praying who are concerned about the lost who want to teach God's Word & preach it with conviction.
Yet at the same time I have heard stories about church members who are causing the work of God to be damaged because they are angry at themselves & evidently at everybody else around them. And their church suffers as a result.
When I hear about a situation like that I wonder why God doesn't do something about it. I think that if I were God, I would grab those disgruntled, aggravating people, slap them across the face & say, "Now, straighten up, because we're going to get on with the business of being the church & reaching out to the lost."
I wonder why God doesn't do that? After all, God is all powerful. He could do it if He wanted to, couldn't He?
C. Then I see all the evil in the world - children starving, hardships & poverty & I wonder why God doesn't intervene. Why doesn't God do something?
There is our dilemma. We believe that God is good so good that He loves every one of us even if we don't love Him back. And He wants the very best for us.
Yet, bad things do happen. Is it possible that they happen because God can't do anything about them? Is it possible that God doesn't have the power to do anything about all the evil in the world?
But on the other hand, if God does have the power to sweep from the face of the earth all of the evil & injustices that are here, & He doesn't do it then surely, He doesn't love us, & He isn't really concerned about goodness.
That is tough, isn't it? You & I love goodness. We want good to triumph over evil. If we want that, then surely God wants that, too. But if God doesn't do anything about it, how can we worship that kind of God?
D. Obviously, something is wrong. And I'm convinced that the "something that is wrong" is not with God, but it is in our understanding of what God is seeking to accomplish in our lives & in the world today. Our problem must be that we have not understood the purpose & nature of God's power.
PROP: So, this morning I would like for us to think about God's power, & His goodness, & what He is doing in the world today. Hopefully, we will come to recognize God as He really is the loving, all powerful God of the universe.
As we consider this matter, there is a scripture passage that comes to mind. It is 1 Corthinthians 1:18-25. Listen as I read a part of it to you.
Vs. 18, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."
Vs's 21-24, "For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
"Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."
I. WHAT DOES THE WORD "POWER" REALLY MEAN?
How do you define "power?" What does the word "power" really mean? The best definition of "power" that I have ever seen is, "Power is the ability to accomplish what you want to accomplish."
Think about that. "Power is the ability to accomplish what you want to accomplish to do the things you want to do." If you have a goal, & you have the ability to reach that goal, then you have "power."
On the other hand, if you have a goal & you do not have the ability to reach it, then you do not have "power," at least not in that area.
ILL. A jet airplane has power to propel our bodies from one city to another in a matter of minutes, but it has no power to teach a child the alphabet.
ILL. The story is told of a wife who had been sick for quite some time, & whose doctor had prescribed absolute rest. So her husband, being strong, carried her. Whenever she wanted to go from room to room, he carried her.
Finally, after prolonged treatment, the doctor said, "She is strong enough to walk again, but she will not walk unless you stop carrying her."
So the next time his wife asked to be carried, he refused to do it. She had a wheelchair but she just didn't want to use it. So he stood there & watched her move her legs, weak from disuse, put them on the floor & struggle to stand up. Finally she took one feeble step, & then another.
It was very difficult for him during the next few days to stand back & witness her pain, & watch her struggle to learn to walk once again.
I ask you, was he being cruel? I think that he was demonstrating a greater love for her by withholding his strength than by using it.
ILL. Every parent has had the same experience. When our children began to walk it would have been so much easier & faster just to pick them up & carry them.
It is hard to watch them fall down & skin their knees, & agonize over them as they learn how to walk. But we realize that we can't carry them forever.
So, the best thing we can do is to stand back & let them develop their strength & coordination until finally they can walk successfully on their own.
II. WHAT IS GOD WANTING TO ACCOMPLISH?
A. If "power" is the ability to accomplish what you want to accomplish, then what is God wanting to accomplish? What is God's purpose? What is His goal?
I want to make this as simple as possible. God's goal is to save us. God's goal is to express His love in such a vivid way that it can bring all of the people of the world together into a family red & yellow, black & white, men & women, old & young all of us.
In John 6:38 & 40 Jesus said, "I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of Him who sent me. ... For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life...."
That is God's purpose. He wants to put His arms around all of us & make us part of His family.
ILL. Ideally, a family gets along. Ideally, brothers & sisters, mothers & fathers, aunts & uncles, love each other. There are some situations, of course, where that doesn't happen. But ideally, we do.
I wouldn't steal from my children & grandchildren. I hope they wouldn't steal from me. I wouldn't try to hurt them, & hopefully, they wouldn't try to hurt me. Because we are family. We belong to one another.
And when God brings us together as His family, that same kind of love ought to be evident.
B. God decided to accomplish His goal by giving us the freedom either to accept His will or to reject it. That is the part that is hard.
It would seem that if God were all powerful then He would simply say, "You either love me or else." But God didn't do that because He knew that if He forced our love then that would be an artificial love.
ILL. I suppose that I could line my grandchildren up against the wall, point a gun at them & say, "You either love me or I will shoot you." And I am sure that they would quickly say, "Oh we love you, grandpa."
But I don't want them to love me out of fear. I want them to love me because I am their grandfather, & because I love them.
B. I believe God feels the same way, too. So He allows us freedom to choose to make mistakes, to sin freedom to accept or reject His love. And the results of some of our choices - hardships, trials, & worries - often seem overwhelming.
Sometimes we cry out, "God why don't you do something about my problems? Why don't you just take them all away?"
ILL. I think there is an illustration in nature that will help answer that question.
A man was watching a butterfly break out of its cocoon. He watched as it pushed against the threads of the cocoon, trying to break out into freedom.
The man felt sorry for the butterfly, going through all that trouble, so he took out his knife & carefully cut the little threads of the cocoon, & freed the butterfly.
But to his surprise & sadness, he discovered that when the butterfly was free, it couldn't fly. Because, you see, in God's infinite wisdom, He makes butterflies break out of cocoons so that they develop the strength to spread their wings & fly.
When that process is by-passed, the muscles go undeveloped, & the butterfly doesn't have the strength to fly.
I wonder, sometimes, when we want God to intervene & take care of all our problems, if we are asking for the wrong thing. God's wisdom is so much greater than ours. He doesn't always think the way that we do.
Some of the things that we consider to be tragedies in life can become blessings. God is working through them as we struggle to get out of our cocoon to develop our muscles & give us the strength to walk on our own two legs.
III. CHRIST CRUCIFIED IS THE POWER OF GOD
A. Finally, do you understand what Paul is saying here? Paul says, "Christ crucified is the power of God." That didn't make any sense to the Jews because Christ crucified to them was a stumbling block. They were looking for an all-powerful, conquering Messiah.
It didn't make any sense to the Greeks because Christ crucified to them was foolishness.
The Jews were convinced that if Jesus was really the Messiah, the Christ, then God would intervene. So while Jesus hung on the cross they shouted insults & said, "Save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God." (Matthew 27:40) To them that would have been the ultimate expression of power.
Did God have the power to do that? Certainly He did! God could have said the word & Jesus could have come down from the cross. He could have called down legions of angels if He wanted to, but don't forget His purpose.
Power is the ability to accomplish your purpose. God's purpose is to save us. How is He going to save us? Through the sacrifice that Jesus made for us, & our response to Him.
B. Let me ask, if you were God & you wanted to show someone that you love them, how would you do it? Jesus answered that question. In John 15:13 He said, "There is no greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
So what God did on Calvary's hill was saying, "See how much I love you. I love you so much that I give my only begotten Son." And the greatest demonstration of God's power is the fact that He didn't take Jesus down from the cross, but He let Him die there for your sins & mine.
Therefore, Paul could write, "Christ crucified is God's power." It is true because when sin has done all of the evil it can do when sin has nailed its final nail, there is still the power of God's love to convict us of our sins to love us back into the family to give us the promise of everlasting life. Christ crucified is God's power!
ILL. There is an old hymn that we sing, "Power in the Blood," & we sometimes add extra "powers" as we sing the chorus. But no matter how many "powers" we may add, we still haven't exhausted the power that is there. There is power in the blood!
There is power to save us, & when we come to that cross God promises to save us, to redeem us, to give us everlasting life, to sanctify us, & to fulfill the promise that He will come again & we'll live with Him forever.
I don't know if you get discouraged like I do from time to time. But I needed this sermon, so I preached it to me. If it said anything to you then I praise the Lord for that, because I needed it to realize again that God is all powerful, & yet His purposes don't always coincide with the way I think & the way I plan.
He does have a purpose. That purpose is to save us all. I know this morning that if you need a Savior that He is here. I know that whatever your need is that He is powerful enough to meet that need.
So it is a time of decision for you. I hope that you will listen carefully to the words as we sing, because the Savior is waiting. He has waited before, but right now He is waiting for you.
INVITATION
