MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
CENTRAL CHRISTIAN, BROWNSVILLE, TX
(This is an update and a revision of a message that I preached back in 1994.)
ILL. There is a story about a little girl who proudly wore a shiny cross on a chain around her neck. One day she was approached by a man who said to her, “Little girl, don’t you know that the cross Jesus died on wasn’t beautiful like the one you’re wearing? It was an ugly, wooden thing.” To which the girl replied, “Yes, I know. But they told me in Sunday School that whatever Jesus touches, He changes.”
A. That is part of the message of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:18-20, "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?”
And in vs’s 22-25 Paul continues, "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. Do you remember? A few years 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 having affairs 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 it’s not 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 committed relationship." What used to be called "abstinence" is now called "a neurotic inhibition." And what used to be called "killing the unborn" is now called "pro choice."
Jesus encountered that attitude in His day. He looked at the Pharisees & Sadducees & called them "hypocrites" & "whitewashed tombs." On the outside they appeared to be pious & prayerful & obedient to God. But inside they were rotten.
There are people like that today. The lady on Oprah’s show was just an example. There are far too many who 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. But sooner or later, we bump into an old rugged cross. There we meet a God who says, "I don’t like your sin. It is so horrible that it requires me to go to the cross & suffer & die to free you from the punishment you deserve."
PROP. Then Paul declares, "The Jews stumble over the cross. And the Greeks think it is foolishness. But others see in it the power & wisdom of God." And there are still those 3 kinds of people in the world today.
I. THE JEWS
A. The Jews stumbled over it because Jesus wasn’t 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 He came, they crucified Him. The Bible says that Jesus "…came to His own, & those who were His own did not receive Him." (John 1:11)
Why? Why didn’t they receive Him? Because the "Jews demand miraculous signs…" They were expecting a Messiah who would perform miracles on their behalf.
Now the amazing thing is that Jesus was doing exactly that. He was performing miracles - giving sight to the blind, straightening the legs of the lame, cleansing the lepers. He was ministering to them, reaching out to meet their needs.
But those weren’t the kinds of miracles 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, dying on 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 stumbling 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 were just going through the motions, going to the synagogue at the appointed times, saying their prayers loudly so that all could hear, & giving their offerings in such a way that everybody was impressed with their generosity. They appeared to be pious & prayerful & generous. And I’m afraid that there are people just like that in our world today, too.
SUM. So in their own minds, 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 stumbling over the cross.
II. THE GREEKS
A. Then Paul looked at the Greeks. Vs. 22 says that the “Greeks look for 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. "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 Athenian philosophers met on Mar’s Hill, the Aeropagus, & they sat there all day, thinking their profound thoughts. And Luke says that they “spent their time doing nothing but talking about & listening to the latest ideas.” (Acts 17:21)
Then one day the apostle Paul went up on Mar’s Hill & 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. And there are people who think like that today, too.
Reason tells you that babies aren’t born to virgin girls. Reason tells you that God 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 just keep being reincarnated until finally everybody is one with the Gods. They didn’t need a Savior, because, in their thinking, everybody was going to be saved.
SUM. 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 anyway."
Does that sound familiar? We’re hearing some of that same kind of thinking today. It’s not new. It is as old as Mar’s Hill.
III. WHAT ABOUT TODAY?
A. 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.
ILL. Michael Bird, a minister in Australia, tells about a well-known American preacher who gave some advice to an Australian congregation. He said, “Don’t tell people about the cross, it doesn’t work. That’s why the Franklin Graham crusades are no longer effective. Just tell them that God loves them & has a plan for them.”
The crux of his advice was that “The message of a crucified Jew is ridiculous to the modern mind... So move on to something better. A crucified Messiah is stupid, but promise them prosperity, give them emotional experiences, provide them with self-esteem – then you’ll fill the pews.” (Adapted from Michael Bird on SC)
But folks, make no mistake about it. The Christ who miraculously confronted Saul, the persecutor of Christians, on the road to Damascus is the same Christ who confronts us today with the unchanging message of the cross.
B. And I’m convinced that sometimes He still confronts non-believers in ways that may be hard for us to understand. But God is not limited by our unbelief. Even as Jesus miraculously confronted Saul who sincerely thought that he was carrying out God’s purposes in hunting down, arresting, & even killing Christians, I think He is perfectly capable of confronting people today.
ILL. I want to tell you of a modern day Damascus road experience that some of you may find hard to believe. It is reported in an article by Fred Markert in the current issue of Pray Magazine. Fred is the International Director of YWAM’s Strategic Frontiers, a group that focuses on witnessing for Christ among mostly Muslim nations where it is not always easy for Christians to go.
Fred is living in Afghanistan, & he relates this story about a Muslim woman, a university professor, attending an English class taught by YWAM volunteers. Listen as she later tells her story to one of them:
“I started to go to sleep & suddenly my bedroom filled with light. At the foot of my bed stood Jesus, & I knew He had come to kill me!”
You see, the day before, she had stormed out of the English class after the teacher had begun to answer questions & to speak about Jesus to his students. As she stormed out she cursed the teacher.
“I cursed you all the way home,” she told him. “I went home & I lay in bed & I was praying, ‘Allah, I want you to kill those people because they are not English teachers – they are missionaries & I want them out of my country! Kill them!’”
It was then that she saw the vision of Jesus standing at the foot of her bed. “I knew He had come to kill me because I was asking Allah to kill His workers. So I got out of bed on my hands & knees. I was trembling & I crawled to the feet of Jesus, waiting for Him to slay me.”
“As I was trembling at His feet, I started to feel warm all over. I started to feel love wash over my body – love & mercy. I looked up at Him,” she said. “Jesus was so beautiful, I had to give Him my heart.” (Pray Magazine, Sept-Oct, 2002, pg 17)
Today, that woman, a university professor, is a Christian who earnestly tells her students that Jesus is real, & that He is her Savior & Lord. And amazingly, from all throughout the Muslim world there are similar accounts coming to the surface. I wish I had time to tell you more of them this morning.
Now I ask you, “Are these stories hard for you to believe?” Well, maybe so. But in the Bible, in every instance where God used supernatural events, it was always to advance His kingdom on earth. There was always a practical application to a real-world situation.
Think about the angel appearing to Cornelius the Centurion, telling him to send for Peter who would tell him the words of life; or about the angel appearing to Phillip & telling him to go down to the road where he would meet the Ethiopian Eunuch. And how about Paul’s vision of a man begging him to “Come over to Macedonia & help us”?
CONCL. There may be a lot of things that we don’t understand, but remember, God accomplished that which was impossible when He went to the cross & died for our sins. He did for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves.
I can’t explain it to you, but I know that it is true, & that is the invitation 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."
