Sermon February 7, 1999 Back to the Cross based on 1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
"How many times are you going to send me to the principal's office?" asked the irritated grade-school student. He had had quite enough of this teacher sending down to talk to the principal. He was frustrated with having to return each time he hit another student, used foul language or refused to do his work. The teacher calmly replied, "I'll send you as many times as it takes. If you keep on breaking the rules, you're going to the principal's office."
For us as Christians, the question becomes, "How many times must I return to the cross?" Do we need to go more than once? After all, we are forgiven our sins when we come to believe in Jesus. Must we return again to the cross?
We resist returning to the cross. We fight it. We might deny our sins. We might deny God's Word and His commands for us contained therein. We might reject God altogether as we refuse to come back to the cross. Rather than face our sins, our shortcomings, our failures in God's eyes, we simply turn away from God.
Others develop an system of thinking where they believe they don't need to return to the cross. These are those who hold a "theology of glory." This thinking suggests that once we are saved, converted, come to faith, then we are in full and complete glory. They will say once you are saved, you cannot fall away from that salvation. They will define repentance as a one-time action when you "get saved." Once you become a Christian, according to this theology of glory, you are entitled to think you are better than other people. You are beyond sin. You are part of the moral majority. Some will even add steps above the cross. You can progress as a Christian by a so-called "baptism in the Holy Spirit." You can progress to higher levels by being "slain in the spirit" and speaking in tongues. This theology of glory never returns you to the cross. Never again do you come face-to-face with your own inadequacies.
This theology of glory is not the way Christianity works, however. We instead work with a theology of the cross. This way of thinking leads us to a knowledge of sin and grace, Law and Gospel, again and again. We return to the cross to face our sins and be reminded of God's grace given to us there.
Still, it is hard to go to the cross. The cross is a offensive place to go. At the cross we find Christ, nailed up there, pierced in the side, with blood dripping down from the crown of thorns. The cross is for us a harsh place. Do we have to go back to the cross?
Our own wisdom might tell us not to go there. Human thinking leads us away from rather than toward the cross. Human thinking can fail us. We ought to listen to God's wisdom instead of our own. God's wisdom is brought through the apostles and the Word of God they gave us.
Paul wrote, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to remind the people of Corinth about His prior visit. He said, "When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God." Paul came without the usual pretensions of teachers of human wisdom. He didn't come teaching from a position of authority. He didn't come claiming to be full of the bright ideas of men to share. Instead, Paul contrasts the preaching he brought with human wisdom.
Man's wisdom would lead us away from the cross. The best of the human thinking would teach us not to return to the cross. It would suggest that the cross is foolishness. In the way of the cross lies shame, guilt, and sorrow. It lowers our self-esteem to come face-to-face with our sinfulness. Psychology would lead us away from the cross.
The tools of the business world have come to Christian churches. Marketing analysts come into churches and teach them how to grow. They tell them to minimize the preaching about sin. Rather than telling people they are sinners in need of forgiveness, instead, tell them that they are doing a good job. Offer encouraging words. These marketing people will tell churches that they ought not preach Christ crucified. How can you suggest that it was the will of the Father that His only Son suffer a horrible death? The marketing people will suggest that the preaching of Christ's bloody sacrifice for our sins be minimized. This is the wisdom of man, which would lead us away from the cross.
In the way of the cross is where we need to go. We need to return to the cross. Paul reminded the Corinthians of what his teaching and preaching was all about. He says, "For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." He did not share the teachings of men, but the simple truths of Jesus Christ. The most important thing about Jesus Christ that he shared, that item worth special mention, is "Him crucified." Jesus on the cross, crucified for you and me. Him crucified for all people. Paul's preaching to these people of Corinth brought them to the cross the first time. Then, Paul reminds them of this in his letter. They need to return to the cross again. His reminder brings them back again. He reminds them that they ought to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified.
"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." (1 Corinthians 1:18) Yes, it is foolishness to those who reject Christ, but returning to the cross is the way of salvation. Returning is to allow the power of God to be at work in our lives. The power of the Law and the Gospel work on us when we return to the cross.
It is true that shame, guilt and sorrow lie in the way of the cross. Yet, we do not remain there, for we know that what was accomplished on the cross can take away all of that. We remember that upon the cross hung Christ who died in our places. He satisfied the death that was demanded for our sins. Without Christ upon the cross, we would truly be stuck in shame, guilt and sorrow. We would be stuck there forever. Without His body and blood sacrificed for us on the cross, there can be no hope, no life, and no salvation.
With Christ on the cross, we come to know that what he accomplished is the forgiveness of all our sins. Those acts which cause us shame, guilt and sorrow are taken away. Our sinful nature is forgiven. We are freed from shame. Our guilt is lifted. Our sorrow is turned to joy. All this occurs at the cross. We come away from the cross with hope over the future, which looks very bright indeed. We come with enough life to last forever. We come with salvation from the punishment due us for our sins.
Also in Chapter 1 of 1st Corinthians, Paul wrote, "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 man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." To the lost people of the world the cross, Christ crucified, is a stumbling block. It is foolishness. To us who are called, however, it is the power of God. It is the His wisdom which far surpasses anything that man can think up. To return to the cross is to return to the power of God. It is to return to the wisdom of God.
Paul came to the Corinthians with this message of the cross. He came with Christ crucified. Our text says: "I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 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 men's wisdom, but on God's power." Paul's preaching to these people was simply to call them to faith in Jesus Christ. He didn't demonstrate men's wisdom. The Holy Spirit demonstrated His power by working through Paul's preaching to call them to faith. It was not the work of men's wisdom that resulted in faith. Going to the cross is opposite to men's wisdom. Yet, through this "foolishness" comes the demonstration of God's power to call those who heard the gospel to faith.
Some will resist coming to the cross. The want to avoid the discomfort, even the pain. Part of the pain of coming to the cross has to do with the sins which we are comfortable committing. Coming to the cross means our old sinful ways are to be crucified. Galatians 6:14 says, "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." Through the cross the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. This means even though we drag our sins to the cross, we leave them there. Even though we come with the sinful "ways of the world" toward the cross, we come away from the cross as new creations. We are made holy by Christ's blood shed for us and we are given the power to leave behind the ways of the world. We are crucified to the world and the world is crucified to us. This means we leave behind all the things that we do which everyone else is doing. We drop off those sins at the cross. We leave behind all those things we feel we can get away with just because everyone else is doing it. You know your sins. They may be breaking the law, such as speeding or cheating on your taxes. They may be stealing, gossiping or lying. The list can go on.
One of the more popular TV shows in our family is "Seventh Heaven," which portrays the life of a pastor's family. It is unfortunate, however, that most of the plots of this show are based on lying. The show's family members are constantly lying to each other. The parents do it and so the children consider it acceptable. Everybody does it. In fact, they expect each other to lie. This is a sin that everyone does, so it must be acceptable, right? This is a sin of the world. This is a sin we need to carry to the cross. You will know other sins in your life that you need to carry to the cross.
There is a pain of coming to the cross and admitting our sins and guilt. If we do not truly desire to leave those sins at the cross, then we have not come to the cross. If we feel comfortable in our sins and believe it is okay to continue in them, then we deny Christ crucified. Instead we have come to the temple of the worldly false-god. This false-god of self-esteem and self-centered pleasure-seeking tells to us to simply continue doing whatever we want. What we want must be right. This is not coming to the cross. Coming to Christ-crucified means we are sorry over our sins and we plan to amend our sinful ways.
Coming to the cross is painful. When we come we cannot boast in ourselves. We come through guilt, shame and sorrow. We come in sadness over our lives. We have nothing in us of which we can be proud. Yet, when we come to the cross, we boast in Christ. We boast in the one who died to take away our sins. We boast in the forgiveness given to us as a free gift.
We return to the cross each week, but more is better. We can return to the cross each day, each hour, each minute. Frequenting the cross, hanging out there will lead us to "to know nothing ... except Jesus Christ and him crucified." The more we go to the cross, the more we know Christ crucified for us. So, we go back to the cross. There at the cross we find our sins forgiven. There at the cross we find the crucified one, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.