The Cross Centered Church

Introduction

1 Corinthians 2:1–4 ESV

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

Willis More Director of the United States Weather Bureau

On Wednesday, September 5, 1900, the Galveston Daily News ran a tiny, 27-word squib in its weather section: A tropical disturbance was moving over western Cuba and heading for the south Florida coast. The notice was datelined “Washington, D.C.,” September 4.

AT THE U.S. WEATHER BUREAU in Washington, D.C., director Willis Moore made squelching Cuban forecasting one of the most important reforms he brought to the office. The bureau had been established as part of the U.S. Army’s Signal Corps in 1870; when Moore took it over in 1895, he was determined to make it a model of efficiency. Perhaps most important, he tightened the rules concerning local forecasting—especially regarding storm warnings. Moore believed local weathermen had been over-warning the public. There was a tendency to sow panic. It created an unhappy impression that the bureau was not fully in control. From now on, all storm warnings would come from Moore at his hub in Washington. The local weathermen would cable regular temperature, atmosphere and wind condition reports to the central office, where clerks aggregated the morning data into a national weather map, which was then telegraphed back to each station. It was for Washington, not for local weathermen, to determine what was going on locally.

And for fear of panicking local populations, Moore banned certain words from all official weather reports: “Tornado.” And “cyclone.” And “hurricane.”

The job the very purpose of the existance of the weather buro was to inform/warm people of the potential disruptive and destructive perils of the weather beuro.

To know nothing except Christ and him crucified doesn’t mean that other things are unimportant. It means that the cross is of infinite importance.

The only message you can build a church on is Jesus Christ and him crucified.

That’s why Providence Baptist Church must be...

Revival begins and ends at the cross.

You must be a cross-centered church.

In his book The Wondrous Cross - Author Stephen Holmes says,

Without the cross, there is no Christianity, and there can certainly be no Christians. Without the cross, there would be no possibility of a company of forgiven, redeemed people joyfully celebrating their salvation. Without the cross, our experience of life would be nothing but sin and shame.

I must be a cross centered Christian.

Mark 8:34 ESV

34 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

1 Corinthians 2:2 ESV

2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

Karl Barth the great Swiss Theologian tells of a time when he had been indoctrinated into a liberal theology that dismissed the atoning sacrifice of Christ. He said as I was preparing to speak to the people I looked out the window and it suddenly downed on my that I had nothing to tell them!

We must build our church on that one message! Christ and Him crucified.

What does it mean to be a cross-centered church?

Being a cross-centered church means that the gospel is our only message.

1 Corinthians 1:22–23 ESV

22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,

Being a cross-centered church means everything we do should lift up the cross.

1 Corinthians 2:2 ESV

2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

The problem with many a modern churches is that we have become experts in so many things but we have lost our expertise in the one must significant area!

We have become experts at entertainment.

We have become experts at impressive productions.

There is a lot to see in the contemporary church. Look at our lights, look at our screens, look at our music, look at our technology, look at our buildings, look at our programs, look at our coffee!

But where is the cross?

Being a cross-centered church means that our worship must be under the shadow of the cross.

Galatians 6:14 ESV

14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

At the cross at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden of my heart rolled away!

Being a cross-centered church means church unity not division.

1 Corinthians 1:10–11 ESV

10 I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers.

Where you find church fights you will not find a church focused on the cross.

The cross is the antidote for what ails the church.