THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS 1 Corinthians 1:18-24 4-11-09
Today I want to talk for a little while about “the preaching of the cross”, about the crucifixion of Jesus there on the cross of Calvary, so I want you to pay close attention.
Listen as I read today’s text found in 1st cor. 1:18-24
18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
Let me say before I read on, that these words “foolishness of preaching” does not mean foolish preaching, the meaning here is, --to the minds of the so called intelligent thinkers, it was “foolishness” God is not calling it foolishness, He is pointing out that these great thinkers said it was foolishness, and with that understanding Paul says, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
The Jewish standard of what was wise was to be able to see signs. The Jews were always asking Him for a sign.
Matthew 12: 38-39 Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. 39But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign;
John 2: 18 Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
John 6: 30 They said therefore unto him, What sign shewest thou then, that we may see, and believe thee? what dost thou work?
Even when He performed signs, He never performed them at their request, and let me say that when He did perform signs it didn’t satisfy them –
The Jews way of thinking was, “if He’s really Messiah, He would never deny the Jewish people a sign to show that He is who He says He is”’, so they rejected Him, and it was because of their own worldly wisdom. So He became a stumbling block to them.
23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
What was the wisdom the Greeks sought after? What was their foundation of human understanding? Well, it was the pagan philosophers, the poets. They thought it was ridicules to think of a suffering God.
How could God suffer? They theorized that’s It’s just not rational! They wanted a gospel that was based upon their own human understanding.
But the gospel that Paul is preaching, the gospel that is in the word of God, was not meant to be according to mans understanding, God can not be put in a test tube and analyzed, we receive what comes from God by faith, not if we’re able to completely understand it.
I’m glad that our Great God is far above puny little mans understanding, what kind of God would we have if we knew every thing He did?
Isaiah 55:8-9 8For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
In these verses Paul is telling the Corinthians that the gospel message is by far superior over anything humans can come up with through reasoning and philosophizing. He was trying to encourage them to receive the message to do with the cross and not the "wisdom" or in the styles of those who delivered the message.
There are countless Preachers of the Gospel all over the world, and all of them are different because people are different, but the true Preachers of the Word all preach the same Gospel message, some have a better delivery than others, but all deliver the same message if their truly Gods messenger.
Jude said in
Jude 3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
Paul said in
Galatians 1:6-12 6I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 7Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. 8But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
10For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. 11But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. 12For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Just exactly what is the ‘GOSPEL” anyway?
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 1Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; 2By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. 3For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; 4And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
According to the scriptures mean that some where in the O.T. Scriptures it had been pinned down how He would die.
-- how that Christ died for our sins- Isa. 53:--ps. 22:
--he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:-
Psalm 16:10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Without the death of Jesus on the cross there would be no scriptural gospel.
Jesus said in
John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
John 12:32-33 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. 33 This he said, signifying what death he should die.
So His death by any other means was impossible, the devil tried many times and in many different ways to kill Jesus but all failed.
Again in
John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
It seems that man has become so educated in the things of the world that he has become foolish in his thinking on the things of God. We’ve heard the old saying that some people have become educated fools.
Someone has defined philosophy as a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn’t there.
Today man is still searching for some theory or formula, and he thinks that it is through science that he will get the answers to some of the questions of life.
One man said” that modern man is over impressed by his own achievements.”
Ted Turner said that Christianity was nothing but a crutch for ignorant people to prop on, or something to that effect.
Psalm 14:1 The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.
In the foreknowledge of God, He knew man would fall into sin, so He set up a system that would reveal to lost mankind that he needed a Savior, a Sacrifice to take his place, to pay his sin debt in order for fallen man to have a way back into good standing and fellowship with God, so He instituted the sacrificial method back to Him.
Hebrews 10:1-4 For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
2For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
3But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
The Old Testament It and its sacrifices for sin were only a shadow of better things. The law and its sacrifices did not possess the perfection or power necessary to forgive sins. But they did reflect and point to the perfection and power that was to come in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The offering of sacrifices had to be repeated year by year, time after time.
This shows that they were powerless to forgive sins. If they had been a perfect sacrifice, they would never have to be repeated. Perfection completes, fulfills, satisfies, and finishes or else it is not perfect.
The offerings of the sacrifices never removed the awareness and consciousness of sin. Man always had a guilty conscience—a sense of being sinful, because he was always repeating the sacrifice for his sins.
If he had sensed that a perfect sacrifice had been made, that his sins had been removed once-for-all, that a perfect sacrifice had been made that made him forever acceptable to God......then he would have never needed to make another sacrifice.
But the offering of animal sacrifices never gave him this freedom of conscience. They were powerless to do so. Therefore, they were not the perfect sacrifice needed so desperately by man.
The animal sacrifices of the O.T. cannot possibly pay the penalty and judgment of sin for man. At most they can only symbolize that a perfect man must be sacrificed for man. Animals are of this earth just as men are. Animals are corruptible, aging, and imperfect creatures just as man is.
Therefore, there is no way an animal sacrifice could ever be the perfect sacrifice needed to die for man’s sins. Animals could not willfully choose to die as a substitute for man. The perfect sacrifice for man must willingly die for man in order to be an acceptable substitute.
The sacrificing of animals was laying the groundwork for the Perfect Sacrifice that was to come.
A perfect and eternal Person had to willingly sacrifice Himself for the sins of mankind.
If He sacrificed Himself—died for the sins of men—then His death would cover the sins of men. His death would be accepted as the perfect sacrifice for man’s sins.
He also had to be eternal in order to cover sins eternally, all past sins as well as all future sins. Being eternal, whatever He did could cover everyone eternally—all who ever lived, those in the past as well as those in the future. This is the reason God Himself—in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ—had to be the sacrifice for our sins. Only God is perfect and eternal; therefore, only God could be the Perfect and Eternal Sacrifice for our sins.
God came into the world in a human body: came to show us the love of God, came to take our sins and their guilt and, condemnation upon Himself, came to offer up Himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins, came to take our sins off of us so that we could be counted perfect and made acceptable, and came to give us life eternal, a life that could fellowship and commune with God forever and ever.
Romans 1:1-4 1Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 2(Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) 3Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 4And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
Romans 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.
Phil. 2:5-7 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.
1 Tim. 3:16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
Hebrews 2:14-15 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
1 John 3:5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin.
These scriptures as well as many more reveal to us that the perfect Sacrifice was Jesus Christ doing the will of God and doing it perfectly.
This was absolutely essential if there was to be the perfect sacrifice. He had to live a sinless life. By living a sinless life, He stood before God as the Perfect, Ideal Man. He stood before God as the very embodiment of righteousness—as the Ideal Righteousness.
Therefore, His Ideal Righteousness could stand and cover mans sins . When a person looks to Jesus Christ, believing in Him with his whole heart, God counts that person righteous. God counts the faith of that person as the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
This is the reason that man’s only acceptance before God is Jesus Christ. God accepts no person unless he comes to Him in the perfection of the righteousness and sacrifice for sins. The only righteousness and sacrifice for sins is the Son of God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:19 For as by one man’s disobedience [Adam’s] many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
2 Cor. 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
1 Peter 2:22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.
Jesus substituinary death in our stead on the cross was and will always be the only way back to God.
