How many of you have read “Hatchet” by Gary Paulsen? It’s a young-adult novel about a boy’s quest to survive in the Canadian wilderness after his plane crashes. He’s only armed with a hatchet, and yet that’s all he needs to survive for over a month before he’s rescued. It’s a familiar storyline isn’t it? Survivors of plane crashes and ship wrecks have to make do with the bare minimum. No matches? No problem. Just strike your hatchet against rock with iron in it and you’ll get sparks with which to ignite tinder. No fish hooks? Use your hatchet to sharpen branches into spears. You’re only limited in what you can do by your creativity, or so the story goes.
What does this have to do with the church in Corinth we’ve been studying? I thought we’ve been saying that the Corinthian church was fully equipped, unlike the boy in the novel who only had a hatchet? Yes, the Corinthians were fully equipped spiritually speaking, but how had they become that? Through the seemingly simplistic message of Christ crucified. This is the message that we have received too—a message, however, that we might take for granted because we hear it so often. But without the message of Christ crucified we’d be worse off than a hatchet-less boy lost in the wilderness. Let’s come to appreciate again how we are fully equipped for life now and hereafter through the message of Christ crucified.
It was a miracle that there was a Christian congregation in Corinth. You may remember from our first sermon in this series how the city of Corinth was considered to be “sin city” in Paul’s day, much like Las Vegas is today. Just as anything seems to be permissible and even encouraged in Vegas, so it was in Corinth. In fact sexual immorality was promoted at one of the pagan temples. The temple of Aphrodite which stood on a lofty rock overlooking the city was said to have employed 1,000 men and women for the purpose of sleeping with worshippers as a way for them to get closer to the divine. On top of that, Corinth was a well-to-do city. What would the people there need with Jesus? They had it all already—or so they thought. Besides that, Paul came to Corinth from Athens where his message about Jesus had received a lukewarm reception by the intellectuals of that city. And before that he had come from Berea, Thessalonica, and Philippi—all towns he had been run out of for preaching about Jesus. Would his reception be any better in Corinth, which seemed like it could be the city with the toughest audience of them all? Paul even admitted to the Corinthians: “I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling” (1 Corinthians 2:3).
Do you feel the way Paul did when you think about witnessing to friends? Sure, the newcomer to Canada might be interested in learning about Jesus because they never had the chance before, but what about the friend whose family stopped going to church a generation ago? What about the science teacher who promotes evolution, or your neighbor, the bank rep who seems to have it all? What about the musician whose goal it is to make it big? Do you get nervous when you think about telling people like that about Jesus? I do because I doubt that they will believe what I have to say or even care to listen. So I hesitate, telling myself that I’m waiting for a more “appropriate” time. Then I search for eloquent words and irrefutable arguments to lay before them. But compare that with Paul’s approach. He told the Corinthians, “When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:1, 2).
Why was Paul determined to keep sharing a message that had already been rejected by many of his other listeners? Paul explained in verses before our text. “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” (1 Corinthians 1:18). No, not everyone is going to welcome the message about the God-man Jesus dying on the cross to pay for the world’s sins. But that’s the only message that saves us from hell. It’s the only message the opens the door to heaven. AND it’s also the message that unleashes the Holy Spirit to melt stubborn hearts so they come to confess Jesus as their God and Lord. If Paul didn’t share this message, his listeners wouldn’t have a chance of getting into heaven—unless another Christian shared Jesus with them.
As he always did then, Paul preached boldly about Jesus and didn’t worry whether or not he was speaking with the kind of eloquence the people of his day celebrated. And what was the result in Corinth? People listened. They believed. And they gathered together to form a congregation that was fully equipped with spiritual gifts. Yes, it was a miracle as Paul would later remind the Corinthian Christians: “Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
It seems that some of the members in the church at Corinth would have at one time lead the gay rights parade. Others would have used their computer skills to rip people off by hacking into their bank accounts. Still others were the known office gossips. Yet look at what the simple message of Christ crucified had done. It had not only brought them to faith in Jesus, it had also changed their attitudes and behaviors so that they were now trying to live as God’s holy people.
Do you despair when you look at our society and think, “They’re so far gone in their sin. They’ll never believe as I do. They’ll never want to change their lives. What’s the point of telling them about Jesus?” Paul could have said that about the Corinthians. He could have written them off. But he didn’t. Nor did he suppose that he needed a silver tongue to convince them of the truth of the Bible. He knew that he just needed to tell them about Jesus and what he had accomplished with his life, death, and resurrection. No, not everyone believed Paul’s message, but many did.
God’s Word about Jesus still works today. Look at what it has done and is doing in your lives. I see people who take time out of their schedules to check up on one another. I see people who take their hard-earned money, put it into the offering plate and confess: “This is not mine, it’s God’s. He’s just letting me use it and now I want to give a portion of that back to him so more people can learn about Jesus.” I see the Spirit at work in our confirmation children who ask insightful questions in class because they want to know how to best apply God’s Word in their lives. I see couples who keep working at their marriage so they can better practice Christ-like love with one another. What has made the difference? Eloquent preaching? Hah! The sermons that I get the most comments on are not the ones I’m most “proud” of. They are the ones that I struggled to write and to learn. They are the sermons where I feel like I haven’t told you anything you don’t know, and instead have shared the truth about Jesus in words I’ve used a dozen times before. But it’s often those sermons that you thank me for because apparently they pointed you to Jesus more clearly than the other sermons.
I should never apologize for preaching about Christ crucified Sunday after Sunday. Nor should you ever get sick of hearing the message. We should be like that boy in the novel “Hatchet.” Did he ever get tired of carrying his hatchet around? No. Without that tool he may not have survived. In fact at one point in the book when he accidently dropped his hatchet in deep water he didn’t just shrug his shoulders and move on. He made multiple dives in cold water, putting up with extreme pressure on his ears, and fighting to see through muddy water until he found the hatchet again.
You have not lost the message about Jesus, but has it started to bore you? If so, let me encourage you to stay for Bible class. There is only so much I can say about Jesus in a twenty-minute sermon. And so if this is the only time in the week you’re hearing about Jesus, it probably feels like eating at the same fast-food restaurant week after week. But Bible class is like eating at an ethnic restaurant where you get to sample food you normally don’t eat. Oh, you’ll still hear about Jesus. In fact in our Bible class right now we’re studying the book of Isaiah which is often called the “Fifth Gospel” because it has so many references to Jesus. You’ll get to see Jesus in a different light. And you’ll appreciate more and more how deep his love is for you that he gave his life on the cross. You’ll also be empowered through the message to not just limp through another week, but to stride boldly through it because you do so with Jesus at your side. Paul told the Corinthians the same thing when he wrote: “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Corinthians 2:4).
We need God’s power because life isn’t easy. We might not quite struggle like the boy in the “Hatchet” novel to feed ourselves every day or to keep warm and safe from bears. But maybe we would do well to view our life like that, for when Adam and Eve disobeyed God, humanity crash landed into a wilderness of sin. We became lost and were without hope. To make matters worse a powerful enemy started stalking us. And what do we have for survival? Nothing but a hatchet—the simple message of Christ crucified. But it’s all we need to sustain us. For with this message we know that God still cares about us. We know that his Son is on his way to rescue us. And so armed with this message of Christ crucified we will persevere until he returns. Amen.
SERMON NOTES
(2 questions) Why was it a miracle that there was a Christian congregation in Corinth?
(not covered in the sermon) Why is it also a miracle that there is a Christian congregation here in St. Albert?
(2 questions) Explain how Paul approached his preaching assignment in Corinth by answering the following questions: What was his attitude? What was his approach?
Paul said that his message was “Christ crucified.” If a friend asked what Paul meant by that, what would you tell them?
What are some things you can point to as evidence that the message of “Christ crucified” still works today?
Every Sunday in church we should hear about Christ crucified. What can you do when you start to feel that this message is “boring”?
