The power of Christ

Christ Crucified

1 Corinthians 1:22–25 KJV 1900

22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

1 Corinthians 1:23 “23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;”

We live in world of rapid change

Elaborate -phones- cars - AI computers - we are in constant change

Morality we see changes - what was once wrong is now ok

Fundamentally man(woman) changes little. our basic needs, physical, mental and spiritual remain the same, regardless of the changing times in which we may find ourselves. Man’s inherent sin, his tendency to go away from God, the consciousness of his own need we have a need for God.

The Psalmist said, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God” (Psalm 42:1).

The apostle Paul, on his visit to Athens, found the cultured Greeks seeking after God and building altars to the Unknown God.

Modernism has blown its damaging breath across the pulpits of many Christian churches. Do we have a sure message for such a time, for such an age, and for such a world?

In all humility, but with deep conviction and boldness unafraid, we may take our stand beside the first preacher of any generation, the apostle Paul, and declare that though

“The Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (I Corinthians 1:23, 24).

I. We Preach Christ Crucified in Obedience to His Commands.

“Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).

“Thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46-47).

Thus, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John record the great Commission and then in Acts 1:8 Luke records that the last words spoken by our Saviour to His disciples as He was ready to depart from them were, “Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

May I remind you that New Testament Christians knew no other message. They went everywhere preaching and testifying to the things they had both seen and heard. Christ crucified and risen again was their saying. It was their pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. Their chief spokesman in the early days in Jerusalem declared, “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). A little later the apostle to the Gentiles said, “I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified” (I Corinthians 2:2).

Many people resent the use of such words as “command” and “obey” in Christian service, but Jesus commanded, and if we fail to obey we are rebels against His authority; we are slackers in His kingdom.

no earthly ruler ever claimed as much power or authority as Jesus claimed when He boldly declared, “All authority is given unto me in heaven and in earth; go ye therefore, and make disciples.”

When Jesus uttered this command He was not a requester or a beggar before His disciples. He had been crucified and had risen from the dead a conqueror. He stood before them a victor, clothed in the regal apparel of His resurrection glory and of His kingly office.

II. We Preach Christ Crucified As An Expression of Gratitude

To all who withdraw from the stern words of command and obey I make an appeal to the gratitude of your hearts, to a sense of your appreciation of what Christ’s death-resurrection has made possible in your lives.

“Tell to others all around, What a Saviour you have found”

We delight to sing the praises of loved ones and friends because of our appreciation for what they mean to us and what they have done for us. We never cease telling of the early teacher who influenced our life’s choices, of the preacher who won us to Christ or baptized us, and of the physician(dr) who ministered to us or to our loved ones in times of sickness. If our gratitude thus leads us to tell others about these earthly friends, how much more ought we to tell them about the great Physician of our souls?

In a busy day in the life of Jesus He came into, the country of the Gadarenes. A poor demon-possessed man was healed and then besought the Master that he might go with Him, but Jesus suffered him not, but said, “Go home to thy friends and tell how great things the Lord hath done for thee and hath had compassion on thee” (Mark 5:19). Every redeemed person can join heartily in singing—

“All my life was wrecked by sin and strife, Discord filled my heart with pain. Jesus swept across the broken strings, Stirred the slumbering chords again” “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Sweetest name I know, Fills my every longing, Keeps me singing as I go.”

III. We Preach Christ Crucified in Answer to the World’s Need

It is the only message that will save men(women) from sin, that will deliver them from the powers of darkness unto light, and from Satan unto God. I believe that the very life of the Christian movement is now being threatened at just this point. There are three trends in modern thought which lead away from the cross:

1. There is the belief in man’s own sufficiency(goodness)(adequacy), in the possibility of salvation by works, by self-righteousness, by education or by culture.

The fundamental delusion(myth) of this belief lies in the slight conception which men have concerning sin. They fail to reckon with the depravity of man’s nature; the heinousness of man’s sin in God’s sight; and God’s demand for righteousness. To a generation ignorant or unmindful of the awfulness of sin, its universal prevalence, its devastating blight, its dreadful consequences - they do not look to Jesus as the answer to the sin problem in their lives,

“The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God” (I Corinthians 1:18).

you do not grow up and are automatically a Christian that is not the way it is

It is a change of heart, a repentant person -the work of the Holy Ghost - Salvation comes From God (Jesus Christ) - Through Jesus Christ

“I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

2. Another trend in modern thought, which leads away from the cross, is to follow other religions, so many fall prey to false religions. Easy believing -

The moment one grants the possibility of salvation through any other name than that of Jesus Christ

Is the moment some falsehood has taken hold and it is a LIE

If one can be saved without a personal faith in the shed blood of the Son of God as “the lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” (so may we all be saved), “for, there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”

(Romans 3:22, 23). It is as true today as it was when Jesus declared, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14: 6), and when Peter preached with great boldness: “Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

3. A third trend in modern thought which leads away from the cross is to recognize Jesus Christ just as a great teacher, just a prophet, a good man, But to deny that Jesus came to save us from sin, to die on the cross, to resurrect on that 3rd day that is a problem and the world doesn't want to see Jesus as the saviour of the world

Let us say with a new emphasis, “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (I Corinthians 2:2), and “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Galatians 6:14).

Jesus Christ Crucified

This is the one message that will bring pardon and peace to troubled hearts; - That will transform crooked lives; -

That could change an impulsive and unstable Simon into Cephas a Rock; - That could change Saul, the persecutor of the early church, into its chief defender and mightiest messenger;

- That could send the poor outcast woman of the street back into society without a harsh word or a scornful look, but with the tender, encouraging words, “Go thy way and sin no more”;

- That could make the selfish, grasping Zacchaeus willing to make restitution to all he had wronged and ready to give half of his goods to feed the poor.

- This is the only message that could have sustained the Christian martyrs of the first century as they burned at the stake or were devoured by wild beasts in the arenas of the wicked.

This is the only message which could(did) change you, me

Spurgeon, the uncouth country lad, into the mighty Metropolitan preacher;

John Wesley, the cultured Oxford student, into the fiery Methodist evangelist;

William Booth, the unknown, itinerant preacher, into the head of the Salvation Army;

Moody, the shoe clerk, and

Billy Sunday, the carefree young baseball player, into the mightiest evangelists of the past century.

Billy Graham , Evangelist

. It takes the power of Jesus Christ in a man’s life to deliver him from his bad habits.”

“We preach Christ Crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (I Corinthians 1:23-24).

Preaching Christ Crucified has the power to change lives - transform cold - hard hearts - sin loving wicked people, to a child of the King - power to remove the darkness - to light

Power from Death to Eternal LIFE

Apart from Christ all is lost ; but in Him we have Salvation

Apart from Christ all is dark; but in Him we have light

Apart from Christ all is death; but in Him we have life

In Him all things consist

Jesus Christ is the subject of all Bible preaching