SERMON OUTLINE:
• The cross to the world – “a message.” (vs 18&24)
• The cross to the Jews = “stumbling-block” (vs 23b)
• The cross to the Greeks = “foolishness” (vs 23c)
• The cross to believers = “the power & wisdom of God” (vs 24)
SERMON BODY:
Ill:
• In 2014, a metal detectorist named Derek McLennan,
• Was detecting in Scotland,
• When he discovered a rusty old cross.
• In the ground it was worthless, a piece of metal slowly detreating.
• It has been named the Galloway Cross,
• And it is part of an exhibition called the Galloway Hoard.
• It is perhaps the most significant treasure from the Viking Age.
• The silver cross & spiral chain are over 1,000 years old.
• In each of the four arms of the cross are four symbols,
• These symbols represent of the four evangelists who wrote the Gospels,
• Saint Matthew (bottom – haloed figure)
• Saint Mark (right – the winged Lion)
• Saint Luke (left – winged ox)
• Saint John (top – eagle).
• TRANITION:
• The Galloway Cross is a historical thing of beauty and significance.
• It is something to be looked at and studied and admired – but that is all!
Ill:
• In the city of Coventry where I lived before moving down South.
• Has a number of claims to fame.
• Perhaps it is best known for its two cathedrals.
• The old one which on the night of 14th November 1940;
• Was bombed, destroyed and left as ruins by the German Luftwaffe.
• And a new one designed by Basil Spence was built alongside it.
• Finished on 25 May 1962, to replace the one that had been destroyed.
• Just as the new cathedral was being finished.
• A cross was lowered by helicopter and placed on top of it.
• It was and still is a symbol for all to see.
• And you can still look out over the city skyline,
• You see the three spires of Coventry and the symbol of the cross.
• To the first Christians the dross was not a symbol but…
(1). The cross to the world – “a message
(vs 18 & 24).”
“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.”
“but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
• We live in a world that struggles to understand the cross:
• To lots of people the cross is a historical sign.
• Or an ornament, or a piece of beautiful jewellery,
• People who have no interest whatever in Christianity or Christian things will were a cross,
• To many people the cross is a symbol:
• The great symbol of Christianity,
• But to the early Christians:
• The cross certainly was not an ornament,
• Nor was it a symbol, of Christianity, it was the fish!
Ill:
• The fish is based on an acrostic of the initial letters of the Greek words for Jesus Christ.
• To understand this symbol, you need to know the meaning of the acronym.
• The fish symbol, originates from the Greek word for fish, “ichthys/ichthus.”
• This word is further defined in the acrostic IXNYy (with the N flipped) that translates to:
• I – Iota or Iesous (which means Jesus)
• X – Chi or Christos (which means Christ)
• N – Theta or Theou (which means God)
• Y – Upsilon or Yidos/Huios (which means Son)
• Y – Sigma or Soter (which means Savior).
• Basically, the fish represents the phrase of “Jesus Christ God’s Son is Savior.”
• And was the early sign of Christianity.
• TRANSITION:
• The cross did not become a symbol of Christianity until about the fourth century.
• To the early Christians the cross was always a message,
• It was never a symbol, an ornament, a piece of jewellery but always a message.
Note:
• That is why I decided to speak on the verse from,
• First Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18 says,
"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".
• N.I.V. “The message of the cross”
• Some translations say, “The preaching of the cross”.
• It literally reads the ‘logos’ of the cross,
• The emphasises in the verses is not the act of preaching,
• ‘Logos’ is the word, ‘meaning’, or, ‘the reason why.’
Ill:
• If you are at school or university,
• You use that word ‘Logos’ all the time and perhaps you don’t realise it!
• In English it is translated as ‘ology’
• If you study,
• Biology – the study or the reason why life and living organisms behave as they do.
• Zoology – the study or the reason why animals behave as they do.
• Sociology – the study or the reason why people/ human society behave as they do.
• Ecology - the study or the reason why living organisms and their environment
• Technology - the study or the reason why the practical arts.
• Question: Rhinology is the study of? (over to you)
• Answer: No! not Rhino’s but the study of the nose
TRANSITION: The cross was a message to be explained – not a symbol!
• And rather than just explaining the events that happened in history.
• i.e. the practical details of crucifixion.
• We have to explain the reason why,
• The reason why the Son of God would allow his own creation to kill him.
(2). The cross to the Jews = “stumbling-block”
(vs 23b).
• Having stated that the cross is a message,
• The apostle Paul then goes on to say (vs 23):
• "We preach Christ crucified: A stumbling-block to Jews…"
• The cross was a message, that the early Church was proud to preach:
• Even though it did not make sense to those who first heard it!
• i.e. To the Jews it was a “stumbling-block.”
• The Jews were looking for a conquering King/Messiah who would overthrow Rome,
• And establish a political kingdom.
• And so, a suffering Messiah would seem to be a failure.
Ill:
• I chatted last afternoon Sunday with a religious Jew who told me exactly that.
• Jesus was a failure because,
• “Our Messiah will come to reign as King and your Messiah got himself killed.”
• When I showed him from his own scriptures (Old Testament),
• Passages like Isaiah chapter 53, Psalm 22 etc.
• He dismissed them with those words, “impossible, our Messiah comes to reign.”
• And I reminded him, as Isaiah the Jewish prophet reminded his people,
• That before the glory must come suffering, before the crown must come the cross!
(3). The cross to the Greeks = “foolishness”
(vs 23c).
"We preach Christ crucified:
A stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles…"
• Gentile simply means, ‘of the nations.’
• It refers to anyone who is not a Jew.
• The apostle Paul used the terms "Greeks" (1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 22),
• And "Gentiles" (1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 23) interchangeably.
• It “foolishness” to the Gentiles and specifically the Greeks because.
• The Gentiles were into reason, into philosophy and wisdom.
• Salvation came from education, understanding, philosophy – the mind.
• The thought of a crucified body bringing hope was foolishness to them,
• When your dead your dead,
• This was something only a madman would believe.
Ill:
• Warren Wiersbe, in his book, ‘Be Ready’ says,
• That a typical inscription on a grave in the apostle Paul's day was:
• “I was not, I became, I am not, I care not.”
• To paraphrase, ‘When your dead your dead,’
• So how can a dead man’s death and shameful death at that! Help anyone?
• This message was foolishness to the Gentiles/Greeks.
Ill:
• Picture the electric chair, or the lethal injection table, or a firing squad,
• Or the gas chamber.
• Now imagine if today if one of these were to become the very symbol of our faith.
• Imagine the reaction in our country to songs & hymns being written about them:
• e.g. “So I’ll cherish the old firing squad”
• e.g. “There is room in the gas chamber for you.”
• e.g. “At the firing squad, at the firing squad, where I first saw the light.”
• e.g. “When I survey the wondrous lethal injection.”
• e.g. “Jesus, keep me near the electric chair.”
• e.g. “Beneath the hang man gallows I fain would take my stand.”
• Now I am not trying to be silly or facetious in the least,
• Rather, I am trying to help us appreciate and understand,
• How perfectly ridiculous it must have seemed to unbelieving people in Paul’s day,
• To hear the message of the cross that Paul preached.
• TRANSITION:
• And yet the first Christians did not try and adapt their message,
• To fit in with the culture or religions they were up against.
• The very opposite, they preached Christ and him crucified!
Ill:
• We forget in our modern-day western setting:
• That in the ancient world,
• Crucifixion was a very, very common form of execution,
• We cannot imagine just how many people were crucified by the Romans.
• It really was a common form of execution.
• A century before Jesus, there was a slave revolt in Rome,
• In response the Roman commander, Marcus Licinius Crassus,
• Ordered six thousand people to be crucified along a 130-mile stretch of a road.
• (e.g. watch the 1960 film, ‘Spartacus,’ starring Kirk Douglas).
• All those leaving the city of Rome.
• Would have to walk by the near-lifeless bodies,
• Or gaze or smell the decaying bodies being eaten by vultures and vermin,
• It served as a very effective advertising/billboard to the world,
• Mess with us and this is what happens!
• TRANSITION:
• Crucifixion at the time of Jesus was a very common form of execution.
• The Romans did not invent crucifixion; they borrowed the idea from the Persians,
• But they certainly adapted it and perfected it.
• Into probably the most horrendous way a person can die.
(4). The cross to believers = “the power & wisdom of God.” (vs 24)
“…but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
Ill:
• In the book ‘Miracle On The River Kwai’.
• Ernest Gordon's Tells the true story of some Scottish soldiers,
• Who were forced by their Japanese captors to work on a jungle railroad.
• Under the strain of imprisonment they had degenerated to cruel behaviour,
• But one afternoon something happened.
• "A shovel was missing. The officer in charge became enraged.
• He demanded that the missing shovel be produced, or else.
• When nobody in the squadron budged,
• The officer got his gun and threatened to kill them all on the spot!
• It was obvious the officer meant what he had said.
• Then, finally, one man stepped forward.
• The officer put away his gun, picked up a shovel, and beat the man to death.
• When it was over, the survivors picked up the bloody corpse;
• And carried it with them to the second tool check.
• This time, no shovel was missing.
• Which meant that there had been a miscount at the first check point.
• The word spread like wildfire through the whole camp.
• An innocent man had been willing to die to save the others!”
• Ernest Gordon writes; “The incident had a profound effect on all the prisoners;
• From that moment on they began to treat each other like brothers”
• TRANSITION: Now I am sure you have already made the connection,
• An innocent man sacrificed his life on behalf of others,
• A group of men were saved by one man’s courage and sacrifice.
• The Bible teaches that Jesus would give his life as a sacrifice:
• “The just for the unjust, the righteous for the unrighteous”;
• That he might bring us, reconcile us to God!
• When we believe this message,
• We experience the power and the wisdom of God in our lives!
To understand the cross let me suggest 3 things:
FIRST: REMEMBER GOD’S SON!
Question: How can a man who died 2,000 years ago affect me today?
Answer: Remember who that man was!
Ill:
• The death of any great person affects history.
• e.g. JFK, Mahatma Gandhi:, Benazir Bhutto, Martin Luther King, Jr.
• e.g. My father died as a boy or teenager, his death would affected me,
• My children and future generations.
• Jesus is the eternal Son of God,
• His death will affect eternity.
• Not when a person dies, but who died and why!
• TRANSITION: Jesus was the eternal Son of God,
• Who took on flesh & blood and entered our world as a perfect man.
• Therefore, his death will have eternal ramifications!
• Thousands of people were executed by crucifixion by the Romans,
• But only one was the eternal Son of God,
• So, it is not when a person dies, but who died and why!
SECOND: REMEMBER GOD’S TIME!
• Quote: The Bible says (2 Peter chapter 3 verse 8).
• “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”
• God is working on a different timetable to human beings,
• He is not ruled by the clock, the watch or by time.
• Time is simply not an issue with God because he has an unlimited amount of it.
Ill:
• If you and I go down to the local shops to buy something in one of the stores,
• We want to know what the prices are,
• Because that will determine if we can afford to buy it or not.
• But if a billionaire wanted to buy a piece of something in a shop,
• Or maybe a even the shop itself,
• The price is not going to make any difference,
• Because the billionaire has ample funds to purchase it.
• TRANSITION: Peter reminds us that,
• Both a day and a thousand years are such miniscule amounts of time to God,
• That it really makes no difference to Him.
• Once again, it is not WHEN Jesus die in history,
• But WHO died and WHY!
THIRD: REMEMBER GOD’S PLAN!
Ill:
• Think of humanity aboard a hijacked jetliner flying through time.
• God himself directed its take-off from the divine control-tower.
• The initiator of all evil, whom we call the Devil, Managed to get a boarding pass.
• When the plane reached its cruising altitude,
• The Devil produced his weapons, threatened the pilot,
• And took control of the aircraft and all its passengers.
• Thus, the plane hopped on fearfully through history.
• From airport to airport.
• Until it was caught on the tarmac at Jerusalem,
• An outpost of the Roman empire, in the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
• Where the Son of God offered himself as sole hostage.
• In exchange for the passengers and crew.
Ill:
• The Cross DVD Lifetone Video SermonSpice:
• YouTube Preview: https://youtu.be/NvAiKXI5GnY?si=CZ-rGGrTH_kXn51R
• The death of Jesus was not assassinated.
• It was not martyrdom.
• It was part of a rescue plan!
• Promised by God way back in time in the Garden of Eden.
• “he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel”
• (Genesis chapter 3 verse 15)
• And fulfilled by Jesus Christ,
• One Friday afternoon, 2000 years ago at 3 o’clock,
• As he hung on a cross!
• When (2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21)…
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Question: Have you come to that realisation?
Answer: How will you respond?
• And if you have yet to receive Jesus Christ as your saviour, then do so now.
• I often say it’s as easy as A.B.C.
• A = Admit – Like Adam I am a sinner by nature and by practice.
• And I know my sin is an offence to a holy God.
• B = Believe – that the last Adam Jesus bore your sins when he died on the cross.
• Put your faith and trust in him and his finished work and not your good works.
• C = Consider – am I willing to make Jesus Christ Lord of my life,
• Am I will repent, turn from living for self and start to live for him?
• D = Do – will you do that now as I lead you in a short prayer of commitment to Christ.
• Let’s pray.
SERMON AUDIO:
https://surf.pxwave.com/wl/?id=EMkOtTiQF5cD0iQhgqjmpXYq5kDVxe4w
SERMON VIDEO:
https://youtu.be/NVbF_bmb49Y
