Title: The Message Of The (Old Rugged) Cross
Text: 1 Cor 1:18-2:5
Subject: What is the message of the cross?
Complement: Salvation – Christ (!) is the power of God and the wisdom of God to save & bless and reconcile sinners to God.
Idea: “I will cling to that old rugged cross… i will proclaim that old rugged cross – until I exchange it, someday, for a crown.
Introduction - Does The Christian Gospel Get Lost Among The Religions Of Our Day?
Afterall, “religion” is viewed by most as a negative thing… a very unattractive thing… the source of so much corruption and so many scandals… so many are turning away from the gospel.
Indeed it's also the case here in Newfoundland too.
What can be done to change this? T. Keller said the choices of religion or irreligion – are both equally flawed – and the proper approach is to focus on the gospel.
Read text: 1 Corinthians 1:18 - 2:5
1 Cor 1:18 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. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 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 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. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Chapter 2:1 And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
1. Paul tells us - Many Have Regarded The Cross As Foolishness: 18-22
a. Stalin/Marx
In 1867 Karl Marx wrote a seminal book critiquing capitalism and—human greed called “Das Kapital." In 1917, Vladimir Lenin took these ideas, known as communism, and said to re-create a new society we must remove the idea of God and place our faith in Marx and in ourselves.
Down with the cross... away from mother Russia. - The cross is foolish they thought.
But this ruthless atheism brought death to millions. Marx and Vladimir Lenin carried the stain of sin in their ideas of power – and so, corruption followed, and utopia was never realized.
Then followed the Gulag – forced labor camps.
• 18,000,000 people taken captive
• 423 labor colonies
• 1.6 million people died there – if you can believe the numbers.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, who survived 8 years of Gulag incarceration, wrote of his experience in “The Gulag Archipelago” in 1973. He compared the camps to "a chain of islands", and a system where people were worked to death.
Churches in the Soviet Union were bulldozed. Christians were killed and many sent to Siberia.
But Stalin has fallen ...the Soviet Union has unravelled ---and the cross still stands - Today, we have churches in Siberia!
Communism fails to address the fundamental human flaw – the depravity of the human heart. And so, greed remains under a veneer of equality… corruption, murder and exploitation increase in a godless society.
b. In 600 AD another religious figure appeared named Mohammed .
He said by his actions - the cross was foolish – Jesus was not the final revelation of God - and his death wasn’t sufficient....The cross was nothing special – and he tried to replace the cross with himself and with the sword.
By fear and threat he forced people to reject Jesus and listen to him – “I am the new voice of God. I am the great prophet.”
But Mohammed has died and Christ is alive.
**Today all around the world Muslims are believing in Jesus.
c. Humanism – which is a form of idolatry - has tried to replace Christ with self-salvation - but Paul reminds us “the world - through its wisdom did not /does not know him” v. 21
i
Proverbs offers us the alternative – confirming Paul’s words – it says – “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”
... I was in a coffee shop recently – and there was a business card for psychic… a humanistic answer to the human dilemma ... beyond humanism, its actually demonic - and scripture warns us of its danger.
*** Paul writes ..."the intelligence of the (so-called) intelligent, I will frustrate." ...When intelligence becomes arrogance, we are on dangerous ground.
What is God asking for here? – mindless submission – No! – check your brains at the door? – No.
He is asking that before the Sovereign Lord – the king of all kings and all kingdoms - and creator of the cosmos - we show proper respect and humility… and in fact, bow before him in worship.
2. Paul reminds the Corinthians - and us too - Think Of What You Were When You Were Called: 1:26-29
This is such an important part of Paul's desire to focus on Christ.
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. (1 Cor 1:26-30)
Jeremiah 9:24, is being quoted here.
and follows a verse 23 , “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches” (Jer. 9:23).
And those are precisely the three categories Paul has enunciated in 1 Corinthians 1:26.
How would you answer that question?
Where - and what did God bring you from?
Verse 24 says, “to those whom God has called…"
yes, Salvation is God-centered…but it also demands a response of faith
Salvation is God’s plan to rescue and save us…it means we cannot save ourselves.
God must call us! And he does and he will – then we decide to believe and repent or resist the call.
I don’t believe in limited atonement - I don’t believe that God calls some to salvation and some to damnation.
The cross is about Jesus dying for the whole world… “God so loved the world…”
Now, look again at this phrase “think of what you were when you were called… v. 26
Think of where you would be if you never heard the gospel…
i. If you never drank the living water
ii. If you never met the good shepherd
iii. If you never saw the light of the world
Lost.
Searching.
Reaping the wages of sin…
Its hard to live without Christ!
one of my son's lived in rebellion to Christ for 15 years.
...like these Corinthians - we are just ordinary folks…trying to find our way in the world
Not many wise
Not many influential
Not many of noble birth
John Stott “Jesus Christ is indeed a crutch for the lame, to help us walk upright, just as he is also medicine for the spiritually sick, bread for the hungry and water for the thirsty. We do not deny this; it is perfectly true.
But then all human beings are lame, sick, hungry and thirsty. The only difference between us is that some know and acknowledge their need, while others either don't through ignorance or won't through pride.”
so then - God made the ostensibly foolish choice when he chose you!
Thankfully… the “foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom!”
God chose the weak… is that you?
God chose the lowly … is that you?
God chose the despised…is that you?
Is your life broken…are you living with the baggage of past sins?
I have good news for you – Jesus died for you – to rescue and redeem you!
Example - Dalit people of India.
the lowest class of people – yet they are coming to Christ…Christians are reaching them…because God has not forgotten them.
We are no better.
Why did God do this?
The broken and the despised know that they need God… by contrast its hard for the rich and successful to see their need for the cross.
Just ask the rich young ruler…Jesus said its easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle...beware of pride…beware of success… beware of prosperity.
…Think also about your family of origin…
In my family… I remember Dad saying at times when he was really upset…or felt mistreated…”it’s a good thing I’m saved…”
Where would I be today without the old rugged cross?
Angry?
Selfish ?
Sinful habits aplenty…
Chasing money…possessions…
Isaiah 59:9-11 describes the human condition with this lament…
We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows.
Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way - like people without eyes.
At midday we stumble - as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead.
We all growl like bears; we moan mournfully like doves.
We look for justice, but find none; for deliverance, but it is far away.
My wife's family…
Heading for divorce...Alcoholism was a dark shadow – there is family history of this addiction in the family tree.
So then, we are saved by grace – and human boasting is impossible…pride is out of place… it is a lie of the highest order. All of the self-glorification of our society is not only misleading – its heresy – and an a-front to the cross.
Positive thinking and possibility thinking perhaps have a limited place for people with an overly poor self-image, but they do not adequately substitute for repentance and trust in Jesus.
Chad Bird writes-
The cross is not a ladder by which we climb up to heaven; Jesus came down from heaven and climbed onto the cross to give us everything we need and more.
The cross is not a pair of crutches by which we hobble our way toward salvation; on the cross, Christ won our salvation perfectly.
The cross is the cross. It will be nothing else. It cannot be improved. For on it the Lord of life gave us himself, and gives us to himself forever.
Paul says – that no one will boast before him! – but that’s what our culture is doing today – self-glorification…positive psychology is good – better than negative psychology – but its not ultimately good… it cannot change you…
“You” - cannot save you.
3. The Means of this Call to Salvation Is gospel proclamation - Preaching.(1 Cor 1:23)
a. “The foolishness of what was preached”
b. We preach “Christ crucified…”
c. See also Romans 10: “how shall they hear without a preacher?”
d. Preacher…witness…this includes you too - all of God's people are to bear witness to his saving grace.
R. Lischer: Preaching that is true to the gospel of Jesus Christ does away with two contemporary fictions:
(1) that God has quit judging sin; and (2) that men and women find peace by learning how to feel good about themselves.
4. Our Preaching – Our Message - Is Stubbornly & Unapologetically Centered On Christ And His Death And Resurrection: 1:23
a. Jews want miracles/signs, says Paul – v. 22
...in fact they saw many miracles – yet for them the cross was a stumbling block
b. Greeks are looking for wisdom – as per their intellectual heritage – Plato…Aristotle…Socrates…
The bible is indeed full of wisdom!
Human wisdom is not enough to satisfy worldly desires – greed…pride…deception…exploitation of the poor…and the weak and the foreigner…
The Corinthians – and the dominant Greek culture - had developed human oratory & rhetoric as an art form – and Paul knew he could use this to his advantage – but he resolved to never corrupt or compromise the gospel…he didn’t need to adorn the gospel with human wisdom – that would be a betrayal of the wisdom of God.
When it comes to the cross - Let’s be clear – no one, cornered and killed Jesus – though this narrative is recorded in scripture – we don’t only read the surface of the narrative. The real narrative is that Jesus surrendered his life to rescue and redeem us sinners.
• Jesus calmly predicts his own death 3 times – to prepare his disciples (Mark 8-9-10)
• When the woman anointed Jesus feet, he said …”she has done this for my burial” (Mark 14)
The Last Supper isn’t held in a panicked atmosphere … its planned…its personal and unhurried – Jesus takes time to wash the feet of his 12 disciples …and he doesn’t skip over Judas.
• In Gethsemane where he was arrested - when Peter in an act of resistance slices off a soldiers ear – Jesus restores it and says to Peter, “put away your sword.”
“I am the good shepherd, he declares;
…"I lay down my life for the sheep…No one takes it from me – I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This command i received from my Father.” (John 10:17)
The Romans were experts at crucifying people …the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth- ostensibly by the Romans – for alleged insurrection - is a fact of history
But you may ask …it happened 2000 years ago ! What does the death of a Jewish peasant from a backwater village mean to you and me?
Afterall – other people were crucified.Many people have died needlessly and innocently
The popular answer is absolutely nothing !
Jesus of Nazareth was merely another victim of Roman cruelty - but that hardly makes him unique, people say…
Therefore, he is worthy only of our pity – but certainly not our worship.
Crucifixion was intended to be a gruesome spectacle: the most painful and humiliating death imaginable. It was used to punish slaves, pirates, and enemies of the state. Victims were stripped naked and put on public display while they were slowly tortured to death so that they would serve as a spectacle and an example.
"The Roman guards could leave the site only after the victim had died, and they were known to precipitate death by fracturing of the tibia and/or fibula, inflict stab wounds into the heart, make sharp blows to the front of the chest, or even build a smokey fire at the foot of the cross to asphyxiate the victim." Sometimes – as a further act of cruelty - the crucified one was often deliberately kept alive as long as possible to prolong their suffering and humiliation, so as to provide the maximum deterrent.
…Corpses of the crucified were typically left on the crosses to decompose and be eaten by animals.
“...but we preaching Christ crucified…” a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to the gentiles…
The nails pierced his hands… his feet… in mockery of his kingly claims they made a crown of thorns for his head. His back was already lacerated from the scourging.The blood slowly drained out of his body…Blood, that essential element of human life... The blood must flow though our veins… carrying oxygen and nutrients
• The blood must be pumped under the proper pressure.
• A wound that causes blood pressure to fall is often fatal – if not repaired.
Blood is the most donated substance in all the world…Blood donor clinics happen everyday all around the world….Once the body loses blood it immedialtely begins a process of generating more blood!
The blood of Jesus still does its miraculous life-giving and life-saving work.
Romans 5:9…Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
And here we are today …2 millennia later... (2020 minus 33 = 1987 years ago)
...That Blood-Stained Cross Seems so Foolish ...And Shameful ...And Embarrassing – A Failure... Only A Myth Continued By Simple Minded Peasants – Then - And Even Now.
The paradox - or foolishness of a pitiful, abandoned, spat upon crucified Savior lies at the heart of the Christian story.
It was a public spectacle accompanied by torture and shame – one of the most humiliating and painful deaths ever devised by human beings. That Jesus died this way seems tragic and even foolish. It made no rational sense to say that hope came out of a place called Golgotha … a place of the death.
For the Jews crucifixion held special contempt, gives their belief that “anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse” (Deut 21:23).
And so Paul acknowledges that narrative in his letter to the Corinthians ...that the “word of the cross is foolishness“ to the well read and well educated -- and was a profound stumbling block to established religious ways.
Who wants to follow your leader right into the gallows?
Aren’t religious figures supposed to offer hope?
The cross is a paradox because it says that evil, suffering and death do not have the last word.
Many today commit this same error – the gospel is watered down and the personality cult is ratcheted up. Churches are bowing down to the culture. Biblical Truth is being compromised to accommodate sinful habits…the re-definition of marriage…the confusion of gender…sexual morality...abortion…euthanasia…
Canada is now loosening the original euthasasia legislation – opening the door wider.
Last year (2022) 10,000 people in Canada choose “medically assisted suicide.”
Our culture is morally and spiritual adrift.
The dominant moral compass of today’s culture is “emotivism” – the notion that says, “if it feels good – do it.”
Example – and I reference a book called “Love Thy Body” by N Pearcey:
One’s biology is denied simply because – though I have male biology - I "feel" like a female.
That’s the triumph of emotivism….but that’s a very flimsy and subjective moral compass.
We live in a society that fails to acknowledge God and fails to realize that one day you and I will stand before him and we will be judged. This fact alone should give us moral pause and alter our behaviour.
Paul could hold his own among the elites and the intelligentsia – just read Acts 17 when he speaks to the philosophers of Athens.
Yet Paul declares - “I resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified…" (1 Cor 2:1-5).
Paul says in 2:1 I didn’t come with human wisdom – that can be found anywhere- rather, I proclaimed – and gave testimony about God - Paul himself had his own testimony about God – God’s grace and the mercy of God toward him… though he was a violent man and a persecutor of Christians.
John Stott writes:
“I could never believe in God, if it were not for the cross. …In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And I turn instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty…
He laid aside his immunity to pain.
He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death.
He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his.
There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross that symbolizes divine suffering.
"The cross of Christ ... is God’s only self-justification in such a world as ours....' to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak, And not a god has wounds, but thou alone.” ? John Stott
5. The gospel of the old rugged cross includes his resurrection, ascension and his coming in glory.
Yes, many others have been killed…martyred – even crucified… but Jesus was different.
He was and is God – divine…holy.He was tempted and tested – and never once sinned.And then – to prove and authenticate his divinity – 3 days later he rose from the grave – this means of course he defeated death… he did what no one else has done.
Paul makes the fact of Jesus resurrection abundantly clear in all of his letters
1 Corinthians 15 of this letter being one of the clearest texts.
Paul writes...
He appeared to Peter
He appeared to the 12
He appeared to James
He appeared to 500
He appeared over a span of 40 days
and the disciples witnessed his ascension from the Mt of Olives.
Paul says if Christ is not raised – our preaching is useless and we are to be pitied.
1 Cor 15:14 - And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
Speaking of preaching – listen to Peter’s first sermon –
Acts 2:32 ...God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.
After the 40 days… there on the Mt of Olives they disciples witnessed his ascension – and then 2 angels appeared and stood beside the 11 and spoke these words – “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
And now we await his 2nd coming in glorious triumph.
1 Thess 4:16 “ ...for the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet call of God – and the dead in Christ will rise.
Acts 17:31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
6. Application - We also must carry our cross for Christ.
To the old rugged cross I will ever be true... it's shame and reproach gladly bear...
“Jesus never concealed the fact that the gospel included a demand as well as an offer. **Indeed, the demand was as total as the offer was free.
When he offered us his salvation, he also demanded our submission.
The rich young ruler (Luke 18) …moral, earnest and successful, wanted eternal life on his own terms, but Jesus told him to sell everything and follow him …he went away sorrowful, foolishly clutching to his investments .
… thousands of people still ignore Christ’s call to carry the cross… The result is the great scandal of “nominal Christianity.”
In countries to which Christian civilization has spread, large numbers of people have covered themselves with a thin, veneer of Christianity. They have allowed themselves to become associated with Christ - enough to be respectable - but not enough to be uncomfortable.
No wonder the cynics speak of hypocrites in the church and fail to take the gospel seriously.
Make no mistake - in these days we are going to have to take a stand for Christ or against Christ.
There’s no longer a fence for us to sit on.
Jesus never lowered his standards or modified his conditions to make his call more readily acceptable. He asked his first disciples, and he has asked every disciple since, to give him their thoughtful and total commitment. Nothing less than this will do. (J Stott)
Matthew 10:38 - Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
**Will you kneel before this crucified Christ and ask him to remember you - as he remembered the thief on the cross?
Will you bear his shame and reproach, gladly?”
For 2 millennia now disciples of Christ have also given their blood... “martyrs” we call them.
In 1597 twenty-six Christian Martyrs were nailed to crosses at Nagasaki, Japan.
The executions marked the beginning of a long history of persecution of Christianity in Japan, which continued for 300 years.
Should Jesus bear the cross alone and all the world go free?
No, there’s a cross for everyone and there’s a cross for me.
Amy Carmichael wrote these words…
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no scar?
No hidden scar on foot, or side, or hand?
I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,
I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star,
Hast thou no scar?
Hast thou no wound?
Yet, I was wounded by the archers, spent.
Leaned me against the tree to die, and rent
By ravening beasts that compassed me, I swooned:
Hast thou no wound?
No wound? No scar?
Yet as the Master shall the servant be,
And pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole.
Can he have followed far
Who has no wound nor scar?
Amy Carmichael
Foolish say some…
A stumbling stone say some more…
But I love that old cross, where the dearest and best for a world of lost sinners was slain…in that old rugged cross stained with blood so divine, a wondrous beauty I see… for the dear lamb of God left his glory above, to pardon and sanctify me.
it's old and it's rugged
and it's still blood stained.
Yes, the old rugged cross of Calvary is old.
It's old...like the mountains
It's old like the ocean.
It's older than the foundations of the earth
In fact Revelation 13:8 tells us he was slain before the foundations of the world were laid…
And it's going to be around a whole lot longer than any of us. The cross will endure and stand the test of time…
Some 2000 years old ... and counting.
In 1517 Martin Luther tried to turn the catholic church back to the cross - and the finished work of Christ – he was excommunicated and hunted.
But Luther’s voice did indeed turn us back to the old rugged cross. His message was … “the just shall live by faith” - faith in that old rugged cross – meaning of course - the man from Nazareth who hung on its timber.
Luther, nailed those words to the door of the church in Wittenburg, Germany – I have been there myself – (2017) on the 500th anniversary of the Reformation - because he believed in the cross and Christ’s finished work.
And while the cross demands devotion and sacrifice - we don’t need to prop up the cross with our good deeds.
The cross stands on its own.
A stumbling-block to many – but the power of God to save.
It's rugged...And it's bloody.
Yes, the nails left their mark on the old rugged cross...The dust and the dirt and the flies made that cross more rugged as the hours passed.
It's not a pretty and attractive cross… It's not clean and pristine – its not adorned with gold as though a piece of jewelry – its blood stained.
It's old and rugged and stained with Jesus precious blood.
It's done its job and then some.
We don’t need to layer it with gold to make it special and attractive – let it be true to itself... old and rugged, and bloody.
Will the cross speak in our day?
... what good is a sign of death and defeat in an age of optics, image and self-salvation?
Do you wear it as jewelry to accent your outfit – or as the sign of your hope and identity?
I see many wearing a cross of gold... as a piece of jewelry... dainty and pretty – not looking old and not looking rugged...
“And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain
I will cling to the old rugged cross
And exchange it some day for a crown.”
Peter said... “to the old rugged cross I will ever be true...its shame and reproach gladly bear...”
"…Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." And all the other disciples said the same.(Matt 26:35)
Yes, Peter made his 3 famous denials... but because Jesus never gave up on him... Peter went on to preach the gospel and when he was finally cornered and they arranged for his death – ironically by crucifixion, his one request was to be crucified upside down – out of respect for his Lord.
Is the cross foolishness?
Then consider the one they called “doubting Thomas” - once he saw the risen Lord for himself and touched him... said, “my Lord and my God!”
...that same Thomas went all the way to India ...preaching the cross.
Stephen was a deacon... but then he too paid the ultimate price – they stoned him to death…as he was dying he spoke – in the hearing of Saul of Tarsus- “Lord Jesus receive my spirit…do not hold this sin against them (Acts 7:59-60)
Another of the first deacons, Philip was sent by the Holy Spirit into the desert to witness to an Ethiopian banker: philip told the Ethiopian the good news about Jesus ... while reading the ancient prophet Isaiah ... chapter 53 “he was led like a lamb to the slaughter...” (Acts 8:35)
Who was the prophet talking about he asked - himself or someone else? (v. 35) And Philip began with that very passage of scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
He got baptized – “…and went on his way rejoicing”!!!
Paul said: God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our lord Jesus Christ... “we preach Christ crucified!”
He told the Corinthians – “I determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
In 1955 - 4 missionaries prepared to enter the Amazon jungle of Ecuador
In September 1955, Nate Saint was joined by Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Pete Fleming, and Roger Youderian.
Saint found a Huaorani (also known as Auca) settlement while searching by air. To reach the tribe, Saint and the team lowered gifts in a bucket tied to the plane. The team decided to try to meet the Huaorani on the ground; and, on January 3, 1956, using the beach as a landing strip, they set up camp four miles from the Huaorani settlement. Their initial contact was encouraging; however, on Sunday, January 8, 1956, the entire team was killed on the beach when armed Huaorani tribesmen speared them to death.
Nate Saint was only 32.
2 years later in 1958, the missionaries made peaceful contact with the Huaorani tribe. They came to live with them, learned their language, and taught them the Bible.
The original chief assassin was named “Mincaye” - he soon converted to Christianity.
He eventually became a preacher and an elder in the Huao church, and became one of the most outspoken of the Huao Christians.
He said of the change he saw in his tribe, "We acted badly, badly, until they brought us God's carvings (the Bible). Then, seeing His carvings and following His good trail, now we live happily and in peace."
Mincaye became especially close with Nate Saint's son, Steve, who lived in the tribe for many years.
Because he had killed Steve Saint's father, Mincaye felt a special responsibility in raising him. A kinship bond was developed, and Mincaye adopted Saint as his tribal son.
The Saint family came to live permanently with the Huaorani in 1995,
Mincaye considered the Saint children his grandchildren.
As of 2006, Steve Saint works with the Huaorani people and travels around the world, preaching the gospel, often accompanied by Mincaye.
And finally let me say to each of you… “there’s room at the old rugged cross – for you – even though millions…even billions have already come – there’s still room… yes, there’s room at the cross for you.
Oh, that old rugged Cross so despised by the world
Has a wondrous attraction for me
For the dear Lamb of God, left His Glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary
So I'll cherish the old rugged Cross
Till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged Cross
And exchange it some day for a crown.
