The Crucified Christ

Good morning, welcome to NHCC. Please open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 2.

Where are we these two weeks?

This morning, focus on the death of Jesus on the cross.

Next Sunday, the resurrection of Jesus from the grave.

Read 1 Corinthians 2:1-2- “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

Pray.

Main point of the text- focuses on the ministry of Paul.

When Paul came to Corinth to preach the gospel (Acts 18), there was nothing special about him that would make the gospel appealing.

Wrapping Ali’s presents.

Notice some of the ways he describes himself:

2 Corinthians 10:9-10- “I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters. For they say, ‘His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.’”

While Paul may have packed quite a punch with the things that he communicated in his letters, people were unimpressed with not only his looks, but surprisingly, his speech.

1 Corinthians 2:3-5- “And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

Finding much of the same. There was a reason that his speech was not high and lofty like that of the philosophers- so that the power of God might be seen.

Paul is preaching the gospel and people are coming to know Jesus.

Galatians 4:13-14- “You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.”

1. What is this message of the cross?

The gospel could be communicated a lot of different ways. Ephesians 2. Galatians 1. The entirety of the book of Romans.

2 Corinthians 5:21- “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Here is the core of the gospel, or good news, of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes we wonder why is the gospel considered good news? Just somebody dying and being resurrected from the dead.

Here we have the good news made plain.

This good news centers completely on the cross.

Notice the trade.

He, Jesus, perfection, without sin- He became sin.

The One who is all knowing and knows no sin was made to be sin, and suffer the consequences completely.

He was made sin. Not He was made sinful. He was made sin.

Consider the implications here- The One who was without sin became sin. He became the ugliness and every wrong decision that we have ever made.

When He became sin, there was one consequence to be paid. Death. That’s the penalty for our sin.

But a trade was made. Jesus became what He was not because of us. We became what we are not because of Him.

Jesus didn’t deserve to be made sin because of His perfection. We didn’t deserve to be made righteous because of our sin.

And yet, He was made sin. We could become the very righteousness of God.

We were sinners, Jesus took our sin. Jesus was righteous, we took His righteousness.

The good news of the cross is that we are made right with God. Reconciled to God.

It is a message of simplicity- the good news of Jesus Christ.

Kim Riddlebarger- “The apostle preached that Jesus died in the sinner’s place, bearing the wrath of God in his own body, and then God raised Jesus from the dead as proof of his victory over sin and its consequences.”

We find a contrast in how one responds to this good news.

2. The life of worldly wisdom.

Defined in our text as “lofty speech or wisdom”

Look at surrounding context:

1:21- Does not know God.

1:22- Demand signs, seek a special level of wisdom.

1:26- Powerful, of noble birth.

Consider the full picture- One who is put together. Has influence, self-dependent.

Chapter one tells us that they rejected true wisdom because it didn’t fit into their categories of their own wisdom.

Kim Riddlebarger- “Instead of seeking truth, or seeking to understand the problem of human sinfulness and God’s solution to it, the Greeks of Paul’s day substituted their own wisdom for God’s revelation. Then, based on that wordly wisdom, Greeks laughed at the cross because they thought it foolish.”

Is life so different today?

The idea that man stands in opposition to God is laughable. If God is real, then He must be okay with me. We have redefined God according to our own foolish wisdom.

The idea that we have a need outside of ourselves, which we cannot provide for ourselves, is laughable.

3. The cross-centered life.

Defined in our text as one who knows nothing but Christ-crucified.

Clearly doesn’t mean that this is the extent of Paul’s knowledge, but instead that he sees everything through the cross, particularly in his dealings with the church at Corinth.

The Christians there knew of the cross, they knew that salvation had been offered in the cross, but

Paul says that the cross defines everything for him. In the same way, the cross is meant to drive every aspect of life.

Our own personal lives.

We model our lives after Jesus.

Philippians 2:4-7- “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”

We like practicality- we enjoy outward actions- What can I do? But Paul begins with the mind that drives that which is outward. Have this mind.

The cross impacts our own view of ourselves.

The cross beckons us to humility. Not fake humility, but instead a real understanding of our own sinfulness and need for Jesus.

In relationship.

We go low.

We place ourselves underneath everyone with whom we come into contact.

We serve everyone.

Uncle Russ as an example. No one feels insignificant in his presence.

Impacts our evangelism- our focus is on Jesus and His cross.

The choice lies before us. For everyone.

Those who have not placed their trust in Jesus.

What will define the rest of your life from this point on?

1 Corinthians 1:25- “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

What is best for you?

We live lives that are aimed at what is best. Take the best job. Give our kids the best education. If something is not what we perceive to be the best, then we leave it behind in search for something else.

Here we are reminded that if there were any foolishness or weakness in God, they would still be far greater than our highest and loftiest power and wisdom.

Jesus claims that real life, the life we were meant for, goes through the cross and ends in glory.

Many have heard such claims and turned away

Those who have placed their trust in Jesus.

How does the cross define your life right now?

Has it taken you lower? Or have we too often followed the wisdom of the world, that wisdom which beckons us to advance ourselves at all costs?

We remember this morning the crucifixion of Jesus, not simply to remember that we were given God’s righteousness when we deserved death, but also to set a path before us.

The choice is yours.

Let’s pray.