No Such Thing As A Comfortable Cross
Text: 1 Cor 1:20-25
Intro:
This evening I would like to bring you a message entitled “No Such Thing As A Comfortable Cross”
I am taking the thoughts I am sharing from a article I read earlier this week by Victor Knowles entitled “Cutting Corners of the Cross.”
Dyson Hague said: “No minister of Christ has any right to smooth off the corners of the cross.”
We are living in a day and age in which the church is trying to be as seeker sensitive as possible.
We altar church times, have smoking areas, have contemporary music and programs, anything to make the church as palatable as possible to
the world. Many of these things are fine, they are just adjustments to style.
But we must be careful that we present the reality of the Cross of Jesus Christ.
We must make sure we do not misrepresent the Cross, and thus offer a “Cheap Grace,” to those who are looking for a supernatural change in their lives.
By Cheap Grace, I mean that we sugar coat the truth of what the cross is all about. In some ways we like to pad the cross so that people aren’t accidental hurt by its sharp edges. Now it is okay to do this with our methods, but we must never pad the message. We must always represent the reality of what the cross of Jesus Christ is about.
I like to deal with reality…
Illus: Kathleen likes to set the clocks ahead a few minutes to build in a buffer zone for our schedule…I don’t. I like to know exactly what reality is.
I like to deal with reality…especially when it comes to Eternal Issues. Tonight I want to look at the 8 corners of the cross that should never be
padded.
8 areas that we must be careful not to soften, because in so doing we dilute the message.
Every time we share the Cross of Jesus Christ the temptation is there to take these sharp uncomfortable edges and smooth them off to make the cross more comfortable. As you will see, these 8 corners are not the place for compromise.
1) Sin
To dismiss sin is to dismiss what the cross is all about. Christ died for our sins.
2) Repentance
This was the first word in Jesus’ preaching. Without repentance all men will perish.
3) Confession
We must always confess our sins to God and sometimes to one another.
4) Self-Denial
We are to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily.
Self indulgence flies in the face of this teaching.
5) Discipline
How can we be true disciples with out discipline?
Robert Foster gives us 13 Spiritual Disciplines
Meditation, Prayer, Fasting, Study, Simplicity, Solitude, Submission Service, Confession, Worship, Guidance, Celebration.
6) Holiness
Purity in thought and deed is an absolute requisite to seeing God.
7) Stewardship
Jesus preached more about a man and his money than any other topic.
8) Humility
“A newspaper reporter was interviewing an old rancher and asked him to what he would attribute his success as a rancher. With a twinkle in his eye the man replied, "It’s been about 50 percent weather, 50 percent good luck, and the rest is brains."
Pride caused Satan’s fall from heaven, and may keep more people out of heaven than any other thing.
Conclusion
We might afford to have padded pews in the church, but we cannot afford to have a padded cross.In our text we read…” but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,”
