Sermon Study #255 - POWER OF THE CROSS
Key Scripture: (1 Cor 1:17-18) For Christ did not send me (Paul) to baptize, but to preach the gospel--not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. (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.
Olympic Committee - surveyed 6 nations (including USA) to identify logos:
92% - identified the Olympic 5 colored rings
88% - identified the “M” golden arches and the Shell oil sign
54% - identified the Christ-crucified (crufixion)
Does this say that the world is more interested in "french fries" than in Jesus?
What does the cross of Christ represent to us?
(1) HEALING FROM SICKNESS AND SORROW:
Isa 53:4-5 Surely he took up our infirmities (disease, sickness, anxiety) and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions (rebellion, sin), he was crushed for our iniquities (evil); the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed (made whole).
(2) FREEDOM FROM SIN/WORLD:
Paul states: (Gal 6:14) May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
(3) RECONCILED THROUGH PEACE:
(Eph 2:14-16) For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.
(Col 1:19-20-22) For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death (on the cross) to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation--
(4) GRACE NOT LAW:
(Col 2:13-14) When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
(5) VICTORY OVER DARKNESS:
(Col 2:15) And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
