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Sermon Notes of Rev.Dr.I.J.W.Oakley (20-9-1998 Guisborough Evangelical Church)
After urging the Corinthians to be united, and giving the
grounds for unity in the church, Paul leads into a discussion about the very
heart and core of the Christian Gospel. This message again puts God in the
centre, and cuts men down to size. It also has a very divisive effect of men.
The subject of the Cross and our attitude to it lifts God up in His greatness,
glory and power, and does nothing to pander to men’s pride, importance,
cleverness and wisdom. My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your
ways my ways, declares the Lord (Isaiah 55:8). His thoughts and values are
the very reverse of ours.
The Cross and our attitude to it are the clearest indication of where we are before God, whether we are a Christian or not, and what our eternal destiny will be. Here is the great dividing line among men, and it goes on right into eternity.
We preach Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23).
Straight to the heart of the matter – the message of the Cross. The
apostles’ jobs were to be heralds, not to invent a message or alter a message,
but just to proclaim the message God has given us – and that message is Christ
crucified.
The Gospel is not a tentative suggestion, or discussion
document, or hesitant conjecture. It is a clear, bold, dogmatic, authoritative
proclamation. So Paul preached it boldly and unashamedly as the truth of God.
Neither is the Gospel an invitation to Jesus to sort out our problems and make
us happy. That does not exalt God and humble men; that puts man in the centre
and reduces the Almighty God to a servant. The Gospel message is not to be
tailored to please men or flatter them.
The Gospel message speaks of sin, condemnation, lostness
and helplessness. The only remedy is not in human wisdom or achievement but in
the Cross of Christ and His resurrection. Through this God’s power is seen,
for defilement and curse of human sin. It is not good advice about what men have
to do, but it is good news about what God has already done and still does.
(Greek criston estaurwmenon present
participle – the permanent and abiding effectiveness of the Cross of Christ).
This message is for all time, the twentieth century as
well as for the first century. It is a glorious message but a divisive one. It
does not allow us to be neutral. It goes to those who are perishing (1
Corinthians 1:18), in a state of ruin, distant from God, drifting downwards to a
lost eternity. To them, the message is foolishness, nonsense, and ridiculous. But
to us who are being saved it is the power of God. We are forgiven, changed
by God and on our way to heaven. Or, in the language of Jesus, to those who are
on the broad road which leads to destruction, the Gospel message is nonsense, to
be rejected. But to those on the narrow way that leads to life, it is the power
of God.
The message of the Cross divides people in the most
fundamental way. Perishing or saved. It is a perfect barometer and perfect
indicator and pointer to spiritual condition. A person’s attitude to this
message – whether they reject it, are indifferent to it or laugh at it, in
which case we know that individual is perishing, or if they glory in it and
accept it and rest on it, in which case we know they are saved.
Now Paul takes this argument further and looks at each class – the perishing and the saved.
Might have thought that the message of grace and mercy
for needy men and women would be accepted and welcomed with open arms. But the
vast majority is every age – the perishing ones – totally rejects it. Paul
divides the rejecters into two categories, the Jews and the Greeks. In our
twentieth century terms, the religious and the intellectuals.
To the Jews, or the religious, the Gospel is a stumbling
block, which causes them to fall and trip up. They have their own pre-conceived
ideas about God and how He should deal with men. They expected the promised
Saviour, the Messiah, to be a great mighty conqueror, leading the Jews to glory
and victory. They also expected wonderful signs to be performed and marvellous
happenings. The Gospel message, “Christ crucified”, did not fit into their
picture. The Messiah who would save them being crucified! To be hanged on a tree
was a sign of being cursed by God. What utter rubbish, a contradiction of terms.
Surely they would be saved by their religion, their good works and the fact they
belonged to the chosen race – not by someone dying on a cross, a Roman gibbet.
The message of Christ crucified is still a stumbling
block to millions – many of whom would call themselves Christians. They talk
about the Cross, and sentimentalise about the Cross as a wonderful picture of
suffering and forgiving love. But they do not regard it as the place where the
penalty of sin was paid and as the only hope for sinful men. Their dependence is
not on the Cross for salvation, but on their good living, saying prayers, not
smoking and drinking, church attendance and the sacraments. Human pride cannot
take this Gospel.
To Greeks, or the intellectuals, the Gospel message is
foolishness. Whereas the Jews majored in pride of character, the Greeks majored
in pride of intellect. They place confidence in the power of human intellect and
human ideas and philosophy to find out the truth about God. They have certain
preconceived ideas about God and His relationship to the world. They spend
endless hours in hair-splitting about trifles. To them, Christian teaching is
crude and uncultured. God is a remote being found by human reason. The idea of
the Incarnation and the Cross is revolting. This message is a joke. Men of
brains and intellect would not stoop to intellectual suicide to believe that
nonsense.
There was a well-known cartoon found years ago on the
walls of Palatine Hill in Rome, and now in a museum there. It is of a cross, and
on the cross is the figure of a human being with a donkey’s head. At the foot
of the cross is a crude drawing of a man with one hand uplifted as in worship.
Then in Greek letters beneath an inscription alexaminos debite qeon - “Alexaminos worships God”.
Today, pride of intellect still finds the message of the Cross, human sin and helplessness, a joke. Try out the Christian message on people in areas of culture, great philosophers, politicians and media people. They examine religion through a microscope or telescope. They take on every aspect of philosophy or phenomenon of human history. They will consider something subject to the almighty power of human reason. But to speak of sin and failure, and dependence on God’s mercy alone in the Cross, personal trust and love for Christ – that is humbug. And as for Christ as only Saviour, that is the last word in bigotry and fanaticism. For the great majority of religious, good living, righteous people and all those who bow to the power of human reason and wisdom, the Gospel is just nonsense and highly offensive.
Now to the other side of the picture. If many reject, not
everyone does. But to those whom God has called, and who by God’s grace
answer that call, whether from a religious or an intellectual background, this
message is Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians
1:25). It humbles a man completely, but exalts God in power and wisdom.
(1) The wisdom of God. That which is folly to human mind is a display of God’s wisdom. The Cross is God’s answer to this problem. Sinners cannot just slip into heaven with no questions asked. God in justice must punish sin. God in love longs to save the sinner. The Cross is the place where the eternal mind solves the eternal problem. God’s sending His Son, transferring guilt to Him, dying in our place, love providing a substitute. The substitute in His death bears the penalty imposed by God’s justice. So the sinner can be freed and restored, because the substitute was made sin for Him.
(2)
The power of God. The Cross produces an effect on men which nothing short
of divine power can produce. Provide perfect and complete cleansing. Brings
assurance – no condemnation now or in the future – causes man to be adopted
into God’s family to be a child of God and imparts new principle of life –
the very life of God enters the human soul.
This is God’s answer to man’s greatest problem.
God’s wisdom and power can deal with it. Man’s wisdom and power cannot, with
all our education and technology. We can put a man on the moon, but we cannot
control behaviour on earth. “Man on the moon and hell on earth” – and
unable to do anything about it!
Faced with really big questions, and the ultimate question – man’s religion and man’s intellect are powerless. Human arrogance and pride are shown up for what they really are. God alone is exalted and lifted up as the only Saviour and Lord.
We preached Christ crucified. No neutrality about the
Cross. It either is an offence and insult to our pride, or else we glory in it.
Our reaction to the Cross is the acid test of where we stand and where we will
be in eternity. It demands an urgent decision. It demands total allegiance and
total surrender. Must trust soul to Him if we would enter heaven. Not talk about
how good we are and how we deserve heaven, or our church membership.
Do you glory in the Cross? Is it everything to you? Is it life to you? Are you ready to die rather than deny? That is what the Christian is. Eternal destiny depends on our response to this message from God. May God have mercy on us all and may the Spirit open our eyes to see the glory of the Cross.
