MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
CENTRAL CHRISTIAN, BROWNSVILLE, TX
A. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1:18-25. I want us to read some of the most meaningful words in the N.T. Paul writes,
"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 man? Where is the scholar? 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 miraculous signs & Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews & foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews & Greeks, Christ the power of God & the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, & the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength."
ILL. Some time ago the topic of the day on an Oprah Winfrey show was "Having Affairs With Married Men." She had brought together several people who were currently having an affair to get their comments on how they felt about it. One lady responded very positively, saying that her affair with a married man had been a long-standing affair, & she was very happy in it.
Then someone raised the question of morality. Instantly, the woman took offense. "Wait a minute," she said. "I’m a Christian, but I want everyone to know that my personal life & my religion don’t interfere with one another." Then she went on to say, "I believe in a God who wants me to be happy. And if this man makes me happy, then God approves of the relationship."
That’s an amazing belief, & I wonder where she found it, because I’ve never discovered that in the Bible. But that kind of thinking is not new at all. It has been around for a long time.
B. People have always wanted a God who will place His stamp of approval upon their life-style, never requiring any change for the better. And they have come up with all kinds of euphemisms to make it sound all right.
So what used to be called "living in sin" is now called "a meaningful relationship." What used to be called "self-indulgence" is now called "self-fulfillment." What used to be called "chastity" is now called "a neurotic inhibition." And what used to be called "killing the unborn" is now called "the right to choose."
ILL. Jesus encountered that attitude in His day. He looked at the Pharisees & Sadducees & called them "hypocrites" & "whited sepulchers." On the outside they appeared to be pious & prayerful & obedient to God. But inside they were rotten.
People are still like that today. The lady on Ophrah’s show was just an example. We want a God who doesn’t require any changes in us, & who places His stamp of approval on whatever way we want to live.
C. That may seem to work for a while. But sooner or later, we bump into an old rugged cross. There we meet a God who says, "I don’t approve of the way you are living. I don’t like your sin. Your sin is so horrible to Me, so evil, that it requires that I go to the cross & suffer & die for it."
PROP. So Paul said, "The Jews stumble over that cross. And the Greeks think that it is foolishness. But others see in it the power & wisdom of God." And there are still those three kinds of people in the world today.
I. THE JEWS
A. The Jews, for instance, looked at the cross & stumbled over it because they didn’t see the kind of Messiah they wanted. That’s strange, because the Jews had been carefully picked by God. He had watched over & protected them down through the generations, & had prepared them to be the nation through whom the Messiah would come.
But when they saw the Messiah, they rejected Him & crucified Him. The Bible says, "Jesus came unto His own, & His own received Him not."
Paul tells us that the Jews stumbled over the cross because "the Jews demanded miraculous signs." They wanted a Messiah who would perform miracles on their behalf.
Now the irony is that that was exactly what Jesus was doing. He was performing miraculous signs. He was giving sight to the blind. He was straightening the legs of the lame. He was cleansing the putrid skin of lepers. He was ministering to them, reaching out to meet their needs.
But that went right over their heads because those weren’t the kinds of miracles that they wanted. They wanted signs of power & success. They wanted a Messiah who would overthrow the Romans & re-establish the Kingdom of David.
If He had marshaled an army, & led them into battle, & defeated the Romans, if He would have shown them that He was successful & victorious, they would have marched behind Him. But the cross got in the way.
You see, the cross doesn’t look like success or power. It doesn’t look like victory. It looks like weakness. It looks like failure. It looks like defeat. So they kept falling over it. It kept getting in the way.
B. Not only did they have a false concept of the Messiah, they also had a false concept of salvation. They thought that the way to salvation was through their own righteousness. So they were busy keeping the Law.
But they weren’t keeping God’s Law. They just fooled everybody into thinking that they were. They were busy running to the synagogue at the appointed times, saying their prayers loudly so that all could hear. They were giving their offerings in such a way that everybody was impressed with their generosity. They appeared to be pious & prayerful & generous.
SUM. As far as they were concerned, they didn’t need a Savior. They didn’t need anybody to die on the cross for them. They thought the way to salvation was through their own righteousness which they carefully defined to their own liking. As a result, they kept falling over the cross.
II. THE GREEKS
A. Then Paul looked at the Greeks. Vs. 22 says, "The Greeks wanted wisdom." They were the intelligentsia of the day. They had produced men like Socrates, Plato, & Aristotle. Great thinkers. Many of them we read even today.
ILL. Socrates said, "The secret to a successful society is education. If we can just give everybody a good education, then it must follow that the world will get better & better."
Now that sounds familiar. We have been told that for generations. That is exactly what we were telling ourselves before WW1 & WW2. "Education will solve all our problems. All we need is more education, & mankind will become better & better." But we haven’t, have we?
I am certainly not opposed to education. But it’s just that we can learn everything there is to learn, & still have a fatal flaw. And that fatal flaw is sin.
ILL. The 17th chapter of Acts describes the scene when Paul came to Athens. The Athenians sat on Mar’s Hill, the Aeropagus, & they sat there all day, thinking their profound thoughts. "And," Luke says, "they told each other everything new." Can’t you just see it?
Then one day the apostle Paul walked up there & started telling them about a God who was unknown to them. This God came to earth, walked among men, died on the cross, & rose again. But it was all foolishness to them.
Reason tells you that babies aren’t born to virgin girls. Reason tells you that God who is spirit doesn’t become flesh. Reason tells you that almighty God will not allow puny men to nail Him to a cross. Reason tells you that when a man dies he cannot be resurrected back to life again. None of that makes any sense. So the Greeks looked at the cross as foolishness.
B. They also had a different concept of salvation. The Greeks believed that all souls are immortal. Therefore, when you die, you automatically go to be with the Gods. If your life was good enough, then you stayed with the Gods. But if it wasn’t, then you were reincarnated into another body, & you get another chance. And you keep trying until you get it right.
That way everybody is finally saved. Nobody is lost. You keep being reincarnated until finally everybody is one with the Gods. That was what the Greeks believed.
SUM. They didn’t need a Savior, because everybody was going to be saved anyway. So when it came to hearing about a cross, that was foolishness. "Why does anybody have to go to a cross & die? We’re all going to be saved."
ILL. Does that sound familiar? We’re hearing that same kind of thinking today from Shirley McLaine & company. It’s not new. It is as old as Mar’s Hill. It’s as old as the Old Testament.
Man hasn’t learned anything new. We’re still sinning the same sins, still thinking the same false thoughts, still stumbling over the same cross. We’re still laughing at the wisdom of God, & treating it as foolishness.
C. Now interestingly, the man who wrote the words we have read this morning tried both ways. Paul tried being a good Jew, even to the point of committing murder because he thought that was what he ought to do.
Yet, when he had kept all the rules & regulations, when he tried to save himself through his own righteousness, he ended up empty inside. He tried scholarship. He sat at the feet of the finest teachers. And when he had learned all that his mind would hold, he was still empty inside.
So in one of those anxious moments, on his way to Damascus, trying to fulfill what he thinks God wants him to do, he sees a light he has never seen before, & hears a voice he has never heard before.
Back in the 7th chapter of Romans, Paul opens his heart to us. He says, "I now understand what’s right, & what’s wrong." Now that is an amazing statement to make, because the world still hasn’t figured that out. We’re trying to say that what used to be right is now wrong, & what used to be wrong is now right.
Paul said, "I know what is right, & what is wrong." Then he went a step farther. He said, "I really want to do what’s right, & I don’t want to do what is wrong. But here is my problem. When I get ready to do what’s right, there is a power that tries to overwhelm me, & I often end up doing what’s wrong."
Then from the depths of his soul he cries out, "O wretched man that I am. Who is going to save me from this body of sin?" But then he answers his own question, "Thanks be to God for Christ Jesus," who lifted the burden of sin, who took away the anxiety & replaced it with peace, who took away the despair & replaced it with hope, who took away the sadness & replaced it with joy.
CONCL. God accomplished that which was impossible when He went to the cross & died for my sins. He did for me what I couldn’t do for myself. I can’t explain it to you. There is no way to do that. I just know that it is true, because I have been there. That is why I know it is true.
That is the invitation that we offer. An invitation to stand by the cross, to see the one who suffers & dies there, to submit to one who says, "I don’t like your sin, but I stand ready to forgive you. And to prove that I’m sincere, I’ll pay the price, if you’ll accept it. I’ll grant you my pardon. I’ll forgive you & love you for all eternity."
