“WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED” (Outline)
March 22, 2009 -- LENT 4 --
1 Corinthians 1:18-25
INTRO: Being smart does not necessarily make one wise. Wisdom and being intelligent (smart) are very often quite different. Even more different is being wise in this world compared to being wise in God’s Word. The wisdom of this world runs contrary to the wisdom of God’s Word. Thus the importance of the words that serve as our theme: “WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED”. "Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding" (PROVERBS 9:9,10). Today these words are addressed to you who are wise and righteous: to those who have an understanding of the Holy One. This is the beginning of wisdom. May the Holy Spirit add to our wisdom today.
“WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED”.
I. This cross / message is neither foolishness nor weakness.
II. This cross / message is God’s divine wisdom and power.
I. THIS CROSS / MESSAGE IS NOT FOOLISHINESS NOR WEAKNESS
A. Remember that Corinth was one of the wickedest cities of its age. It was also the second largest city.
1. More slave lived in the city than free people. People worshiped by having sexual relations.
2. Aphrodite (Venus) had a temple with 1,000 prostitutes. People ate, drank, and were merry.
B. Verse 18a. The message of the cross would only seem foolishness to all those perishing.
1. Verse 19. Paul quotes Isaiah. Paul’s was not a new message. God’s wisdom was far greater.
2. Verse 20. Paul extends the challenge to all those considered wise in the world.
C. Verses 22. No matter how many miracles Jesus did the Jews still demanded more.
1. The Greeks = Gentiles = unbelievers trusted and sought salvation by being wise in the world.
2. Verse 23. Jews stumbled at the cross. Gentiles thought the cross message was foolish.
D. Certainly we live in a more enlightened society today. Our intelligence has progressed light years compared to Biblical times. But the more our scientists examine life and nature the less they can really explain. No one has counted the stars. No one can create life. No one can really explain the mysteries of the building blocks of life. God’s divine mysteries are greater than nature’s mysteries. To truly, com-pletely comprehend salvation is a mystery. "Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory"(1 TIMOTHY 3:16). Why would God sacrifice his Son for us, others, and even enemies. The world thinks God is foolish and weak. A mystery.
E. What is faith? Defined simply, faith is trust. Our Christian faith is our trust and confidence in the Lord God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. Do we always fear, love, and trust in God above all things? Sadly we do not. Our sins reveal our evil hearts. "This is what the LORD says: ‘Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD’" (JEREMIAH 17:5). This is one definition for sin. Whenever we trust ourselves more than God we sin. Whenever we sin are all those times that our hearts turn away from God. Our sins make the message of the cross seem foolish and weak. This is the testimony of our lives whenever we sin against God.
F. The people at Corinth rejected the Savior because the message of the cross appeared to be foolish and weak. Who would want to follow a man that was put to death as a criminal? It is no different today. The world rejects that cross and its message. Worse, some churches also reject the very saving message that is found in the cross of Christ. The largest evangelical church in our country does not have a cross. The leader of that church says that a cross is too controversial. Reject the cross and one rejects the power of the Savior himself. Once, again this is nothing new. "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not" (ISAIAH 53:3). Our sins also reject the Savior and value him as nothing.
“WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED”. God’s message of Christ’s cross is NOT foolishness!
II. THIS CROSS / MESSAGE IS GOD’S DIVINE WISDOM AND POWER
A. Paul returns to the basics of Christianity, verse 23a. Christ nailed to the cross is what saves!
1. Verse 21. The world’s wisdom would not discover God. God’s wisdom is not man’s wisdom.
2. God’s wisdom and power comes through hearing the message. That message is God’s word.
B. The message might seem to be foolish, verse 18. Believers discover the cross to be God’s power.
1. At the cross of Christ the Roman centurion confessed that Jesus was truly the Son of God.
2. On another cross next to Jesus the criminal confessed Christ. He went to paradise that day.
C. Verse 24. The cross of Christ is the power and wisdom of God: pure and simple and forever.
1. Verse 25. Jesus dies on the cross. This seems to be an act of weakness and foolishness.
2. By that death Christ gained life for the world. By that death sins are cleansed by his blood.
D. “We preach Christ crucified”. This is God’s divine wisdom and power for us who are lost and condemned creatures. It is by grace that each of us has been saved (cf. Ephesians 2:4-10). God’s gift of grace has come and been given to every believer. Here is another mystery of Christianity. Believers are born again. But who can truly explain this miraculous process? Nicodemus came as a secret disciple of Jesus during the night. Nicodemus wanted answers. Jesus told him about being born again. Impossible!?! "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit"(JOHN 3:8). God’s Spirit changes us.
E. What a privilege to gather around the saving, powerful word of the Lord our God. It is by this word of God and God’s word alone that we are saved. All too many today consider God’s message and the cross of Christ to be a foolish and weak message. This is nothing new. Only by grace do we come to hear and study God’s word together. God has graciously called us out of darkness into his marvelous light in spite of our wicked, sinful nature. "Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them "(HOSEA 14:6). God’s ways are right – not man’s wisdom, visions, or dreams.
F. “We preach Christ crucified”. It is this simple, saving message that we truly need to hear, know, believe, and confess every day right into eternity. “We preach Christ crucified”. We have heard these sav-ing words a million times. But to hear them a million and one times is even better. God’s message of the cross of Christ and his resurrection is what we desperately need in this sin-darkened world. "God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,…And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross" (COLOSSIANS 2:13b, 15). Once dead in sin we are now alive in Christ, only through Jesus’ life, suffering, death, and resurrection. The death of Christ on the cross destroyed the power of sin, Satan, and even death itself: God’s power!
CONC.: “WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED”. We do not have to add anything to this pure, simple yet powerful and wise gospel message of God. Nor do we dare subtract anything from God’s message of the cross. God’s gospel demands nothing. The door to heaven is open to all. The message of the cross is God’s wisdom and power for all of us who believe. Only one conclusion is left. "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!" (ROMANS 11:33). Who can really know the mind of God? Our plans for salvation would be far different than God sacrificing his only Son. "Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” “WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED”. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
SERVICES: 1:00pm @ NCF Min.(Sat) / 12:00pm @ NCF Medium (Sun) / 9:30am @ Redeemer (Sun) / 7:00pm @ Living Savior, Hays, KS
/ Sunday radio broadcast @ 9:05am on KQNK 106.7FM or 1530AM
LENT 4 readings:
NUMBERS 21:4-9;
EPHESIANS 2:4-10;
JOHN 3:14-21;
(PSALM 38)
