The Message of the Cross
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· 20 viewsWhat is the message of the cross that is so foolish to the unsaved?
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There’s a scene in the 2006 animated Pixar movie Cars that I have always liked
Spoiler alert if you’ve never seen it, but in this particular scene Old Doc Hudson (a former race car himself) is trying to teach the young Lightning McQueen how to handle driving on a dirt track and it’s not going well as he keeps sliding off the track
That’s when Doc Hudson gives him this advice that when you are going fast on the dirt you sometimes have to “Turn right to go left”
VIDEO CLIP
Of course Old Doc Hudson was right (we call it drifting today) and at the end of the movie Lightning has to use this bit of information to save the day
So why am I telling you this and what could any of this possibly have to do with Good Friday?
Well the answer is quite simple really, in this lifetime we will come across all sorts of different things that seem strange and illogical but that are completely true
We laugh and scoff at them only to realize later on just how right and necessary those things really are
No where is this more obvious or stark than when it comes to the cross of Jesus Christ which we remember today
Listen to what Paul said to the church in Corinth,
For 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
Paul’s entire ministry was to proclaim “the message of the cross”, in fact a couple verses later in verse 23 he says that this is the sole emphasis of his preaching
But here in our text he admits that this message is “foolishness” that it’s a “turn left to go right” kind of message and that until they get it, people find it crazy
Actually the word that Paul uses for “foolishness” is the Greek word “moria” and it the same root from where we get our English word “moron”
Paul says that people who don’t understand the message of the cross think that you’s have to be a moron to believe it
Like those who first believed that the earth was round or that we revolve around the sun and not the other way around
So the question that I want to try and answer this morning is then, “What is the message of the cross that people find so unbelievable?”
And perhaps more importantly, “What is the message of the cross that brings to us that believe it the power of God?”
Or to put it simpler, “What does the cross say and do I believe it or not?”
Well there are a lot of things that the cross of Jesus Christ speaks to us but this morning I want to focus on just 3 of them that make it so difficult for people to believe and receive
The first thing that the cross says is that there IS a God and that He has provided us with a moral code that He expects us to follow
To believe in the cross you must first believe that there is a God
The fool says in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
there is no one who does good.
But more than just believing that there is a God you must believe that there is a God who is involved with His creation and that He has a plan for us that we are required to follow
Isaiah 46:8-
“Remember this, keep it in mind,
take it to heart, you rebels.
Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me.
I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, ‘My purpose will stand,
and I will do all that I please.’
From the east I summon a bird of prey;
from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose.
What I have said, that I will bring about;
what I have planned, that I will do.
The message of the cross is that there is a God, that He created mankind (as well as everything else) and that God interjects Himself into this creation
The message of the cross is also I have failed to meet the high standards of God’s moral code and so I am a sinner who is worthy of God’s wrath
Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.
We preach that Christ died to bring forgiveness for sinners which is absolutely true but for that to have any meaning to me
Unless I am a sinner the message of the cross, that Jesus came to save sinners, is a ridiculous concept that is meaningless to me
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
I must first accept the words of that all have sinned, that I am a part of that “all” who have sinned and so I am also deserving of God’s judgement and wrath as described by Paul in and 2
The overwhelming opinion today is that mankind is basically good, that deep down inside we all want to do the right thing and that, if by chance, we do something that goes against this saintly nature, it is only because of negative stimuli and so we’re not really responsible for those things
That Jesus died for my sins is foolish because I don’t have any sins, at least not any that are deserving of God’s wrath or eternal punishment
Which brings me to the third thing that the cross says, “That I need the intervention of someone else for me to make it into Heaven”
Surely the only people that don’t make it into Heaven are the people who don’t deserve to like Stalin or Hitler or maybe even those whose bad deeds far outweigh their good deeds
But as for the rest of us, and me in particular, when I get to Heaven they will see that I have been a good enough person to make it in so don’t be so absurd as to say that someone else has to make a way for me to get in, I’ll do it myself
Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
tells us that all of our best efforts to try and live a life worthy of making it into Heaven on our own amounts to nothing more than a pile of dirty rags butJesus said,
Jesus said,
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 14:1-6
Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation
In this life time we are going to come across a lot of things that just seem too bizarre to be true and perhaps the greatest of them all is the message of the Cross
Because the message of the cross is that:
There really is a God and He is present here within His creation desiring to take part in our lives
That God has given us a moral code that we have failed to achieve and so I am a sinner who deserves to be punished
There is nothing that I can do to resolve my desperate situation but Jesus intervened on my behalf and made it possible for me to become a child of God and to live in Heaven for all of eternity
But when we accept this message, when we grab a hold of these truths, something happens, the power of God begins a work in our lives
We become a brand new person, born again as Jesus put it to Nicodemus, and God continues this work in us until it is completed ()
And we are given eternal life
I don’t know this morning what your thoughts are on the message of the cross, perhaps you think that it is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated upon mankind and that a person would have to be a moron to believe it
If so there’s probably nothing that I could ever say or do to change your mind but I would challenge you this morning to take another hard look at this message
Give it a second thought because there is way too much riding on it to just glibly dismiss it
And for the rest of us, let us never lose sight of what the message of the cross really is but let us allow the power of God to work in us because we have believed in the message
Let’s pray
#87 The Old Rugged Cross
Communion
