Sermon Transcript
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 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 intelligent of the intelligent, I will frustrate. Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law?
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 signs and Greeks look for wisdom, But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God, that is, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption. Therefore, as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power. We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing.
No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written, what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived— the things God has prepared for those who love him— these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments.
For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
Good morning, everybody. Pastor Dan shared last week about how the Apostle Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians that we’re reading from here It was written to a church that Paul knew really, really, really well. If you don’t know about Corinth, Corinth was a major port city in the ancient world. It was important militarily. It was important commercially.
It was the capital of the Roman province of Achaia. It was this big economic center, prosperous, wealthy, cosmopolitan. People from all over came to Corinth, a hub of trade, a hub of commerce. Very diverse, home to many people of great diversity and backgrounds. And many of the people were quite intelligent and intellectually sharp there in Corinth, but they also had lots and lots and lots of temples to Greek and Roman gods.
And Corinth was sort of known as the Las Vegas of its day in that region, of a place of great immorality. And what happened in Corinth stays in Corinth, like that kind of a thing. That was Corinth back there. And so Paul strategically came to Corinth as a missionary. He spent a year and a half there getting to know the people and talking to them about Jesus.
And lo and behold, many people came to faith in Jesus, and a church community formed in Corinth. You can read all about that in Acts chapter 18. And then after a while, Paul moved on after a year and a half to start churches other places, but Word was coming back to Paul as he was in these other places that things were not going so well back at the church in Corinth. They were plagued by all of these kinds of problems, and that’s why Paul wrote this specific letter. And each of the sections, as we go through this new sermon series in the book of Corinthians— last week was just the first week, you can go back and listen to it online, such an important message that Pastor Dan shared with us— But each of the sections we’re going to encounter here in 1 Corinthians, and we go chapter by chapter through this series, are corresponding to specific problems that Paul was trying to address.
And one of the reasons why we, Bridges Community Church, in 2024 are studying this letter is because we too, if you didn’t know this, are a church community called out to be God’s people. And none of us are perfect. And so we’re going to have problems, and we do have problems. We’re certainly not perfect as a church, and so we should expect to face many of the same kinds of things. So that is why we’re going through this passage.
We can learn from the Corinthian example. And so the letter is going to read like a collection of short essays on different topics, topics that are relevant today, topics that matter 2,000 years later. But there are all these core ideas that unite all of these various pieces together in 1 Corinthians. So here’s what Paul does in each section of the letter. He describes a problem that we all face and that Corinth was facing, and then he always responds to that problem with some part of the story of the gospel, the good news about Jesus.
And he shows how the believers, the reason that they were dealing with issues in Corinth and the reason why we today in the church often deal with problems is because we are not really always living out what we say that we believe. That’s what he’s trying to point out to them. You’re not always living out what you say that you believe. At the beginning of the letter we looked at last week with Pastor Dan, the problem Paul was concerned about was— maybe you remember this— there are these divisions happening in the church. And by divisions, I mean cliques and groups and rivalries.
There are some other teachers who had come through town after Paul had left. There was this guy named Apollos. Really, really good teacher. And then Peter. And then people had just picked their favorite leader and sort of become groupies around their favorite people and then started to talk badly about and to look down on if you supported anybody else.
They were looking at their leaders primarily through the lens of who is the most eloquent, who’s the best leader here. I follow this person, I follow that person. Who can lead us further? And it became a point of pride for them. They were putting their confidence in personalities and things like presentation styles, which I might add, we do today, right?
You have your favorite pastor, you have your favorite podcast, you have your favorite Bible teacher, you have your favorite Christian teacher, musician, you have your favorite leader, your church program, maybe even your favorite political party or politician. So Paul, his response to all of this is to say, come on guys, you got to be kidding me, right? He kind of takes a little bit of a sarcastic and sharp tone. He says the church is not about a popularity contest. The church is a community of people centered around Jesus, and all of the church’s leaders and all of the, the people within the church are simply servants of Jesus.
So sure, you might prefer one leader over another, This is not worth dividing over, church. It’s not. And it’s certainly not worth speaking poorly about your brother or sister in Christ. So how does Paul respond to this problem? Again, the same way he responds to each of the problems throughout this letter.
One of the things he does, points them back, as I said, to the story of the gospel. And in verse 18 of chapter 1, maybe you missed it, he doesn’t use the word gospel there. He uses the phrase phrase, the message of the cross. The message of the cross. And if you’re here for the first time today and you don’t know who we are as a church, and you listen, the one thing we want you to know is that we at this church care deeply about the message of the cross.
And we’re going to be talking about that today. And that’s not a boring subject. That is such an important message. What is the message of the cross? Can we all get on the same page on this one?
Okay, what is the message of the cross? The message of the cross is unmistakably clear. It is not a gray area. The message of the cross is not unknown. Scripture makes it so crystal clear to us.
The message of the cross throughout the New Testament is God sent his Son Jesus into the world not to condemn the world but to save the world through him. And how did Jesus go about doing this? By living the sinless life that we could never live, a perfect life, a life that meets God’s standard for getting into heaven. And not only that, but Jesus also suffered, and he was crucified on a wooden cross. Why?
To pay for and to atone for my sins and for your sins and of all people’s sins, to secure pardon and salvation to any and all who would believe in Jesus as their only bearer of sin. Sin. The central message of the Gospel, the message of the Cross, is this: Jesus took our place. Can we say those 4 words together? Jesus took our place.
Let’s insert the word my instead of our. Jesus took my place. That is the message of the Cross. When He went to the Cross, He took your place. He took my place.
He was condemned in our place, in your place. On top of that, he rose from the dead to put the life of God back inside of us that God originally created us to have. The cross, friends, is the very center of our belief. It is the very center of God’s making himself known to us. You don’t have the cross, you have no Christianity.
You don’t have the cross, we have no hope. There is no hope for salvation apart from the message of the cross, period. I’m not going to equivocate on that. Crystal clear. That is the message of the cross, and I need to hear it every single day.
Did you know that? I hope you need to hear it every single day.
That is good news. We need it. And so Paul isn’t really telling— this is interesting. I don’t know if you noticed, Paul isn’t really telling the Corinthians to do anything here. Like many of you, I love practical application in a sermon or from a Bible text.
We want someone to tell us what to do. Tell me what to do. Give me 3 tips. Give me strategies for how I can live and overcome whatever. Sometimes Scripture doesn’t do that, and it doesn’t do it here.
What Paul is doing instead is reminding the Corinthian church and reminding you and me about what we should know or what we ought to already know, that when we put our hope, when we fix our eyes and put our confidence in lesser things, I don’t know, things like personalities, things like programs, things like titles, things, anything else outside of the church, anything inside the church that might possibly compete with Jesus for the allegiance of our heart, anything. When we fix our eyes on that, we not only succumb— well, first of all, we not only have our priorities out of whack, but we also succumb to what for all of us is a very dangerous possibility. And Paul calls it out here, and that’s our first point in this message: a very dangerous possibility. What is the very dangerous possibility that Paul points out? Verse 17 tells us.
Paul wrote For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. Think about that, that the cross of Christ could actually be emptied of its power. You just heard me share the message of the cross. It’s a powerful message. How could it be emptied of its power?
You might not have ever considered this. This passage is saying it’s not only possible, it’s dangerously possible that you or I, by taking our eyes off of, turning our attention away from the preeminent importance of the cross, can empty the cross of its power. And I don’t understand personally all that that entails. I just know that it terrifies me that I could possibly do that. But it should make us consider, well, what kinds of things can empty the cross of its power?
Based on the things Paul’s writing about, I have some suggestions. I think we could safely say that one of the things that empties the cross of its power is when Christian believers live like unbelievers.
Did you catch that? Or when we focus on or take our pride in external righteousness, an external form of, I’m doing all of these things and I’m avoiding these things, and I am externally righteous, but inwardly my heart is not right with God, and I’m so judgmental. I’m like the Pharisee of the Pharisees. That empties the cross of its power. Or when we have correct doctrine and belief, but then we’re a jerk about it to other people, and we don’t have the Spirit of Jesus treating people the way that Jesus did.
Or when we as Christians remain in the kiddie pool far too long and we’re not willing for God to stretch us and to grow us and get us out of our comfort zones. Or to put it the way that Paul puts it in chapter 3, when we act like spiritual infants when we should be acting like spiritual adults by now. It is all well and good to be in the position of an infant when you actually are brand new to the Christian faith, but Paul is reminding the Christians in Corinth, look, you should have outgrown that stage a long time ago. Acting like a baby is really, really cute when one is little. Acting like a baby when one is grown?
Not so much. He’s saying that they should have been teaching others by this point. Instead, they’re stuck in kindergarten with all of their factions and rivalries and emphases on superficial things. Friends, we do the same thing when we harbor enmity or strife with another brother or sister in the Christ— in the church, and we fail to apologize, to take ownership for what we’ve done for the sake of unity.
That robs the cross of its power. Do you understand this?
And the same is true when we make worship about us or church about us. And I think the church should be doing this, and I think the church should be doing this. And it’s really more about our preferences than about something that Scripture may be saying, hey, this is a black-and-white issue. But it’s really more about, hey, this is what I want, that empties the cross of its power. Or when we feel a need to soften the message or to alter the message of the cross in any way so that we don’t offend others, that empties the cross of its power.
All of these things are very dangerous possibilities for us, are they not?
So Paul is telling them, look, Corinthian church, this is not the way that you first received the message of the cross. It’s not. So he’s reminding them of the message of the cross. He’s reminding us the message of the cross. And I think you know this, the message of the cross is very unacceptable as a message to many groups of people, isn’t it?
It was then, still unacceptable to many today. Why? I’ve had numbers of people who’ve asked me this. Why, why do so many not believe in the message of the cross if it’s so powerful? Lots of possible reasons.
This text in chapter 1 gives us 3 reasons, and I’ll go through these quickly, why many do not believe in the message of the cross. First of all, this text tells us the message of the cross and why people don’t believe it is, first of all, because God chose an unacceptable message that simply doesn’t make sense from a worldly perspective. The message of the cross is— did you notice this— described as foolishness in chapter 1, verse 18. It’s described as foolishness in verse 21, foolishness in verse 23. Verse 25, it’s called foolishness and weakness.
Verse 28, it’s described as something low and despised. All throughout these verses here, Paul is describing how the world views the message of the cross. To them, it is a weak message. It is an unacceptable message. It is ludicrous.
Put your trust in a Jewish carpenter who lived more than 2,000 years ago, basically as a homeless person for the last 2 or 3 years of his life at least, and then died as a criminal. Could that really be the plan of salvation that God chose? The Jews of Jesus’ day didn’t think so. They rejected the message because they wanted signs. The Jews of Jesus’ days wanted the miraculous.
And yes, Jesus showed it to them, but it wasn’t enough. They were expecting a deliverance, but a certain kind of deliverance, a certain kind of deliverer, one who would perhaps— Jesus, can you be a little bit more like Moses maybe, and like part the Red Sea and then deliver the people through the wilderness and then maybe lead to the overthrow of Rome? Jesus, can you do that? Nothing could be more antithetical to the Jews of Jesus’ day, to their request that the Messiah die like a bloody criminal on a cross. That thought any— look, you die on a cross, you were cursed by God.
So they saw Jesus as probably a total failure. To them, the cross looked weak and ridiculous. And for the Greeks and the Gentiles of that day, many of them, they loved and celebrated philosophy and rhetoric and logic and new ideas and great teachers. It was an idol for them. That’s how they judged people— knowledge and intelligence, how smart you were.
That became their idol. So how could an ignorant, unschooled Jew like Jesus, crucified as a criminal, possibly compare— possibly— to their intellectual titans of their day? People think that even today. They see it as a joke. So they saw no place, no need for the cross in their life.
It’s just an unacceptable message. A second reason why many do not believe that this text talks about: God chose an unreasonable method of salvation. He chose an unreasonable method. What is this unreasonable message? The New Testament tells us it is salvation by grace through faith.
Salvation by grace through faith is the method that God chose. Did you notice how many times God’s name is mentioned here? He is the one God is the one doing the saving by his grace. God is the one doing the calling. God is the one who makes people righteous.
God does the choosing. All of these words describe God’s initiative, his doing, his work. But again, the world looks at it even today and wonders, salvation by grace through faith, that’s it, really? That’s not all there is to it, right? Don’t I have to clean up my life a little bit?
Don’t I have to, I don’t know, like be good enough to earn salvation, or at least be better than at least a few people? Don’t I have to earn my way into this? The reason why the world wonders this is because we are preoccupied with thinking in terms of strength. And Paul is doubling down here on the reminder, friends, that God chose a message, the message of the cross, and a method of saving that is going to come across as absolutely unreasonable to every other religion. It’s going to appear weak to anybody who thinks that salvation and being made right with God could only come about by power, by strength, by human effort.
A third reason why many do not believe that this text tells us— many people reject the message then and today It’s because the message of the cross comes to such unlikely recipients, such unlikely recipients. Austin didn’t read this a little bit ago, but I’m going to read it. In verses 26 and 27 of chapter 1, Paul says, brothers and sisters, I want you to think of what you were when you were called by God. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many of you were influential by human standards.
Not many of you were of noble birth by human standards, but God chose the so-called foolish things of the world in order to shame the wise, and God chose the weak things of the world— why?— in order to shame the strong. By and large, the people in Corinth who had become Christians were not considered the wise people or the glamorous people or the gifted people or the saintly people. To the rest of the world, these would have been considered nobodies. Now Paul is not saying you cannot be a Christian if you have money or if you have a sharp mind or if you’re in a position of influence in whatever field God has placed you in, but he’s saying that being wise, having a good job, having a high IQ, being powerful, coming from the right family is not and cannot and will not ever be a criteria criterion of you becoming a Christian, ever. Lots of people like that have tried to come to Jesus when Jesus walked the earth, thinking he’d be either impressed or that they would have an edge over perhaps less qualified people.
Almost all the time, Jesus rejected them when they came with that kind of motive. Paul’s not trying to insult anybody here in this description of who accepts and receives the message of the cross. The point he’s trying to make is that none of us today brings anything to the table to God with regards to our salvation. Like, let’s just admit it. We bring nothing to the table.
It is all grace. If you have other things that the world deems to be desirable, great, good for you, but it doesn’t give you an edge or a more favorable standing with God with regards to your salvation. That’s why the general norm— Paul doesn’t say not any, he just says not many. The general norm of those who receive the message are described here as they are in this passage. He’s describing regular old normal people just like you, just like me.
You’ve got scars, I’ve got scars. You have flaws, I have flaws. You have skeletons in your closet, so do I. And yet the gospel comes to these unlikely recipients such as us. Now these are just 3 reasons, okay, that this text gives us why many people reject the message then and today, the message of the cross.
But there are many, many others, like for instance those who judge the Bible to be irrelevant. It’s antiquated, it’s a mystical book that has nothing to do with our day today. You ever heard that? Or perhaps people reject the message of the cross because their wealth, their prosperity their status has erased any felt need they have for God. Why would I need God?
I’ve got everything I need, right? Or because perhaps people love their sin and they want to be in charge. They don’t want to change. It’s too costly. I can’t do that.
Or because they reject the idea that it’s possible that a loving God, if he exists at all, would allow such suffering in this world as we see all around us. Whatever it is, Paul has this to say. About anybody who rejects the message of the cross. Chapter 2, verse 14. Austin read it.
The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them— what? Foolishness. Cannot understand them. It’s not possible. And they cannot understand them because they are discerned— how?
Only through the Holy Spirit of God. What this is saying is that the person without the Holy Spirit— and that’s describing anyone and everyone here today or for all time who has not yet accepted the message of the cross, that may be you— the person without the Spirit of God within them is spiritually dead. Ephesians 2 tells us there is no spiritual life within a person who has no Holy Spirit. When you accept the message of the cross, the Holy Spirit indwells you. And that is a permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
We need to be filled by him again and again, but the indwelling of the Holy Spirit happens the moment you accept the message of the cross. You haven’t accepted it, the Holy Spirit is not working within you, and there is no spiritual life.
Someone like that lacks the necessary spiritual equipment to be able to correctly process spiritual truth. It’s not that so-called unbelievers cannot mentally grasp or comprehend the significance and the truth of the Gospel. It’s not that. It’s just those things can only be discerned through the work of the Holy Spirit. They can hear the message.
They just can’t deem it as being spiritually valuable and wonderful and worthy of accepting. Only the Holy Spirit can do that. But they don’t have him working inside of them. The bottom line is this: The plan of God for our salvation, according to this passage, is unacceptable to many, but it is salvation through weakness. That was God’s plan— salvation through weakness.
And that obviously runs contrary to what we are raised with, to how we are taught. The world says, if there is any such thing as salvation, it comes about through strength. It comes about by you being good enough, moral enough, righteous enough, you’ve got to do all the right things, avoid all the wrong things. But God’s plan for our salvation from the get-go has been salvation through weakness, and as a result, many do not believe. Well then, you might ask, how am I supposed to share my faith with somebody who does not believe?
If they won’t even have the capacity to believe, to accept the message of the cross, Why would I even bother then to tell them my story of what Jesus has done in my life? They’re just going to reject the message, right? Those are all understandable concerns, but that brings us to a 3rd point here. It is true, it is true, not many will accept the message of the cross. Many will reject it, but not all, not all.
So, okay, what Why do some ever believe? The answer is in chapter 2, verse 10, the first part. Some believe because these are the things revealed to us by God’s Spirit. What things? What things are revealed to us by God’s Spirit?
What is Paul talking about? He is referring back to the previous verses about the mystery of the cross, the cross of Jesus being the power of God that saves us. The point is that our understanding, our capacity to understand, our capacity to believe the message of the cross only comes as a gift of the Holy Spirit. Period. We did not need human information to persuade us.
We needed God to open up our eyes and to reveal it to us. If you’re somebody who’s accepted the message of the cross, that’s your story. God came to you. We needed the Spirit to take the truth of the crucifixion and the truth of the resurrection of Jesus and drive its significance home into our hearts. So it’s not that we have more information than somebody else.
It’s not that we’re more intelligent. It’s not that we have greater evidences. It’s that God’s Spirit has opened our eyes. He’s opened our minds. He’s opened our hearts to receive the message of the cross.
Sometimes you’ll hear a Christian share a testimony and say, I found God. You know, God wasn’t lost.
He found you.
If you had to be looking for him, we’d be in a lot of trouble because you couldn’t find him. I couldn’t either. Thank God that he came to us. Thank God for the cross. Thank God that he took our place.
Thank God that he reveals himself to us through his Spirit and that it’s not on our shoulders. Thank God He has disclosed something to us that had been previously hidden to us. He has unveiled something to us that had been previously veiled to us. Paul describes it in verse 7 of chapter 2 as a mystery, a mystery that had been hidden and that God has destined for our glory a long time, since time began. That word mystery, it’s not like a Scooby-Doo mystery that we’re talking about.
That word mystery means a secret which is impossible for humans to penetrate, but which God has now chosen to reveal. That’s the mystery. What is it, that mystery of the message of the cross? What is that mystery? That salvation is found only in the cross of Jesus.
That is the mystery. Only the cross, not our good works, not our credentials, has the power to save. And none of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing by the way, have understood this mystery. Paul says if they had, they would have never crucified Jesus in the first place. So how is it then that this mystery was hidden to them and then remains hidden to so many who reject the message of the cross today?
Verse 9 tells us of chapter 2, what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived, the things God has prepared for those who love him. I don’t know about you, I’ve heard that verse many, many times, and every single time it’s misquoted.
Every single time somebody’s quoting from that passage, which by the way comes from a passage in Isaiah 64, every time I hear somebody talk about it, maybe you do too, the person is using this verse to describe heaven. Paul’s not talking about heaven here, and nowhere in these first couple chapters is he talking about heaven. At all. I think he’s talking about unbelievers not being able to know what salvation is like and why they need it. I think that’s his whole point.
The message of the cross is what no ordinary human eyes have seen or could possibly see on their own— the revelation of God in the person of Jesus. No ordinary ears have heard and perceived the mysteries of God. No ordinary minds could possibly perceive those mysteries because they’re beyond human thinking. God’s ways are not our ways.
His thoughts are not our thoughts. The message of the cross, friends, can only be received and can only be understood through the work of the Holy Spirit of God. And the reason why the Spirit is qualified to do that is because, if you didn’t know this, the Spirit knows the deep recesses of the mind of God. That’s what it said, chapter 2. Who better to reveal God to us than the Holy Spirit, right? That doesn’t mean the Spirit is ignorant of certain things and that he has to search around and find them out.
He’s God too, you know, but He knows everything. And simply just means that the Spirit is the one who can penetrate the inner being of God and His thoughts and show us who God really, really is and open up our eyes to see this mystery. So by all means, if you are a believer, share your faith when God gives you the opportunity, but do so as Paul did when he came to Corinth. Chapter 2, verses 1 through 5. We didn’t read all of them there earlier, But Paul says that he resolved to know nothing when he came to Corinth, nothing except one thing: Jesus and him crucified.
That’s it. When Paul came, he came in weakness. He didn’t come in strength. He came in weakness. He came with humility.
He was with fear and trembling. Why? I think he understood the enormous responsibility to point others to Jesus. He had no interest in trying to impress people. With his eloquence or to put on a show or to manipulate people with his words.
He was mindful of the fact that these were people he was ministering to who did not yet have the Spirit of God within them, and so they needed God to open up their eyes and open up their hearts to see life in a more accurate way and to understand God’s power and wisdom and plan for their salvation in the message of the cross. He was so dependent on God. He knew that if anything good happened, it would be God’s doing, not his own. He knew that the power is in the content of the message, not the messenger. It is in the work of the Spirit, not in the wisdom of man or woman.
He needed people to see clearly Jesus and him crucified for them to know that they can receive salvation. So when God presents you with opportunities to share your faith, do so. Our job is to simply share. It’s God’s job to do the work. Our job is to simply share and to depend completely on God.
It’s the Spirit’s job to do the converting. You can’t do that. I can’t do that. You pray for their heart. You ask God to do his work in his way, in his perfect timing.
Why did God plan it this way? What was God’s purpose in planning it this way? We’ve addressed the plan of God for our salvation, salvation through weakness. God’s purpose in creating his plan of creation, chapter 1, verse 29 tells us, the way he does it this way is— verse 29 tells us— so that no one may boast before him. So that no one may boast.
God arranged it this way, choosing a seemingly weak and ineffective message that doesn’t make sense to much of the world, so that when God releases his power to change lives, to put marriages back together, to heal people, to heal relationships inside the church and outside the church, to lift people out of deadness into life, to bring them out of darkness into the light. When God does supernatural stuff in transforming people’s lives, God wants it so that there is no other possible conclusion other than, God, you did that. God, you had to do that. Only you could do that. Humans think we can reason our way to God.
God says no. Anyone who desires to come to salvation has to come through the cross. No matter how smart you are, how gifted you are, God says it’s foolish to do life without the cross. By the cross, God outsmarted the wise. By the cross, God overpowered the strong.
That’s why God called so-called nobodies like us. By the way, there’s not much room left for boasting for us when we realize that we’re nobodies.
Right? That’s why God chooses the weak. That’s why God chooses insignificant things whom the world pays no attention to. That’s why God chooses the despised, the unworthy, the unimpressive. God doesn’t ever want you to begin to trust yourself, to trust in your own experience, to think, you know, I think I can figure life out on my own.
I think I’m doing okay. Because then you’ll start living life in your own power and as if your salvation depends upon you. And as soon as you go there, it’s going to lead you to despair, and it’s going to lead you to boasting in yourself. And moreover, all that Jesus has done for us will be of no value to you at all. You are emptying the cross of its power when you do that.
Now, there is a place and a time for boasting, Paul says. By all means boast, but if you’re going to boast, verse 31 of chapter 1 tells us, just boast in the Lord, don’t boast in yourself. Live every day with a spirit of thankfulness and gratitude to God, telling God every single day with your words, telling him with your life, God, you did it all. Thank you. Thank you, God.
Friends, don’t ever start putting your hope and your confidence in lesser things. I know that there are believers here in this room who are like Steve I already know all these things. But here’s the question that is on the table for you today. Are you living the Christian life every single day with your confidence in this message, the message of the cross? Are you?
Because you understand that receiving the message of the cross is not just necessary to have your sins forgiven, for the Holy Spirit to come inside you to give you the hope of eternal life with God, but the message of the cross is absolutely necessary necessary for living every day of your life. Every day. You’re not to put your confidence in a leader. You’re not to put your confidence in an election. You’re not to put your confidence in the church, in a church program.
Certainly don’t put it in me or in any of the pastors here. Don’t put your confidence in anything that is less important than the message of the cross. Those things are not our confidence. Our confidence is in the gospel. It’s in the message of the cross, in the faithfulness and grace of God.
And that is why Paul is focusing so much here on reminding us these things, because the Corinthians had gotten away from it, or they seemed to have forgotten it, and they were putting their confidence in lesser things. And we do the same thing all the time. Look, I also know that there are many of you here today who have already received the message of the cross. You’ve accepted it, you’ve embraced it, but I’m also confident that there’s people here today, maybe even watching online, that will watch this at some point in the future. Maybe you came with a friend today.
Maybe you came with a relative today. Maybe you wandered in here on your own. I don’t know. But you’ve never realized that Jesus lived a life that you can’t possibly live. You didn’t realize.
You didn’t— nobody had ever told you that Jesus died a death that you should have died. You didn’t know that He rose from the dead in order to give you back the life that God created you to have. And I’m telling you today, And if that’s you today, I just want to make an appeal to you. Let today be the day that you believe in and receive this message of the cross. Let today be the day that you believe and receive this in your own life.
Change your mind about your sin. Change your mind about who Jesus is. Quit thinking he was only just a good person or just a moral person or just a good teacher. Stop not taking it seriously. Today I appeal to you, repent, turn from your sins, and trust Jesus alone to save you from your sins and to make you right with God.
That’s your invitation today. It’s my appeal to you today. Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, we have sat under the message of the cross and we are now responsible. For what we will do with it as believers, to live every day with gratitude and to take our eyes off of things of this world that can distract us from focusing solely on the message of the cross. For anyone here who has not yet received, I pray that today would be the day that they say, yes, I receive it, I accept it, come into my life, Jesus. And if that’s you today, Simply on your own terms with God right now, tell him, Jesus, come into my life. Jesus, forgive me of my sins.
That doesn’t mean you’re going to be perfect. It just means that you are saying, I can’t do this life on my own, and I can’t have eternal life on my own. Jesus, I need you. Thank you for making a way and being my mediator between me and God. That’s all.
It’s simple. You don’t have to add anything to it. If that’s you today, do it today, please.
Father, thank you for your word. I trust, as we have just driven this home again and again today, that your word will not return void and you’ll have your way. May you increase and may I decrease. More of you and less of me, less of all of us. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
Now friends, I’m going to be in the back. Under the balcony over there as we sing. If you just prayed that prayer, I want you to come. I’m asking you to come. Just slip out of the pews.
Other people won’t notice, okay, if you’re concerned about that. Maybe you just want to come for any kind of prayer. I’ll pray for you, okay? But if you made that decision today, I want to talk to you about some next steps that can help you. I want you to be a part of this family, the community of faith here, so that those, those things that God has done here today can continue on.
Amen. Come on back to the back as we sing, and I’m happy to pray, and I’ll stick around a little bit after the service as well back there.
