Title: The Message of the Cross

Text: 1 Cor 1:18-25

Date: 4-2-06.am

Introduction:

1 Cor 1:18

For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (NAS)

Paul says the message (word or proclamation) of the cross is foolishness (offensive) to those who are perishing (a reference to those who are lost).

1. The cross was associated with slavery, with guilt and crime, with suffering, with shame, with reviling, and with death.

2. Preaching the cross seemed to be stupid; by preaching a person, ridiculous; by preaching a person judicially put to death, insanity; by preaching one crucified, a moral deceptiveness.

3. The Jews should resent the doctrine of the cross because they cherished a carnal love of splendor and power of a manifest and impressive kind, and the word of the cross outraged their sentiments. They looked for a temporal deliverer in the Messiah, and this expectation was disappointed in the gospel of the Crucified Christ.

4. There was a special reason why the Gentiles, especially those of education and philosophical tastes, should take offence at the word of the cross. They disdained the barbarian and despised the Jew, and they had contempt for the form in which Christianity was proclaimed. Much like modern society they loved health, beauty and power, and had no sympathy with a religion which gloried in the Crucified, and appealed to the sinful and the wretched. Their taste for speculation and for novelty was not gratified by Christian doctrine, and the cross would fit into none of their schemes of the universe.

But, for those who are being saved it is the power of God, or is understood to be God’s power in action.

When Paul uses the phrase being saved he is referring to the sanctification process we talked about last week. Paul in his letters writes of salvation in 3 tenses: we are saved the moment we trust Christ, we are being saved that’s the continual process of maturity in our salvation that we talked about last week as sanctification and we will be saved referring to the ultimate completion of our salvation when we are glorified with the Lord in eternity.

The cross is God’s ultimate declaration to mankind.

The cross was a symbol of Christ’s sacrifice. Jesus bore the cross long before he

set out for Calvary; its shadow had covered Him from birth. In his death upon the cross he bore our sins, and guaranteed His people (those who come to Him in faith and receive His gift of salvation) should like Him be crucified to the world. So that the tree of death the cross became the sign of redemption and life.

         It is the ultimate declaration of our guilt - the total bankruptcy of mankind the hideous nature of sin is portrayed in Christ’s death the most undeserved and cruelest conceivable.

         It is the ultimate declaration of our helplessness - If we could atone for our sin in any other way the cross would have been unnecessary, but Jesus died on the cross because sin has rendered mankind utterly helpless.

         It is the ultimate declaration of His justice - God could not overlook or excuse sin because of His perfect holiness and righteousness the wages of sin is death and the wages of sin must be paid.

         It is the ultimate declaration of His love - man’s sin without God’s love would not have taken Jesus to the cross. But God so loved the world rather than simply giving Justice He gave His only begotten Son.

The cross is God’s ultimate offer to mankind

         The cross is (not only the ultimate proclamation of God’s love) the ultimate example of God’s love

I Jn 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son {to be} the propitiation for our sins.” (NAS)

John 15:13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. (NAS)

The cross is the ultimate display of God’s grace

Isa 53:3-5

3       He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

4       Surely our griefs He himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5       But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being {fell} upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. (NAS)

Surely MY griefs He himself bore, and MY sorrows He carried; But He was pierced through for MY transgressions, He was crushed for MY iniquities; the chastening for MY well-being {fell} upon Him, and by His scourging I AM healed.

That’s God’s grace in action

In Love God offers humanity salvation, redemption restoration, reconciliation and relationship.

The cross is God’s ultimate power in the world

         It has the power to endure

         It has the power to attract

         It has the power to change

The source of this power. It is Divine. The word of the cross expresses the Divine mind, shows God’s estimate of human sin, exhibits God’s Divine righteousness, reveals His Divine love, and does all this on a human stage, so we are able to appreciate the Divine mystery of God’s love and grace.

Compare it with any other power, and its superiority is evident. Nothing else can awaken the selfish, the sensual, the sinful and the unrepentant heart to a sense of sin; nothing else can move the unrighteous and worldly heart towards the pursuit of holiness; nor guide and direct us to a life of consecrated service; nothing else can enter a corrupt society as leaven, and can purify it as salt?

That is the word of the cross. The ultimate proclamation, offer, example and power of God offered to mankind. Separated from by sin restored and reconciled by the cross. Foolishness to the world but the power of God for salvation, and there is room at that cross for you.