The Glory of the Cross
ATTENTION
VIDEO - "The Cross of Christ" - Sermon Spice
I suppose to people who have never had a personal relationship with Christ, such videos and thoughts about the cross are non-sensical. I know they are to at least one very vocal unbeliever. In fact this one even wrote a book entitled, “God is not Good.” His name? Christopher Hitchens. In that book, he wrote:
Many of the teachings of Christianity are, as well as being incredible and mythical, immoral. I would principally wish to cite the concept of vicarious redemption, whereby one's own responsibilities can be flung onto a scapegoat and thereby taken away. In my book, I argue that I can pay your debt or even take your place in prison but I cannot absolve you of what you actually did.
He then goes on to call the thought of Christ actually forgiving our sins an “exorbitant fantasy.” While I am not sure exactly where Mr. Hitchens is from, I tell you, he could have lived in Corinth, or any of the many cities of Asia minor where believers were constantly ridiculed by both Jews and Greeks for believing in the folly of the cross.
NEED
Of course the sentiment can be found in ever-increasing volumes in today’s society. Under the onslaught of this negative press, it is easy, especially for those who may not know the Lord, to begin asking, “Why has the church made such a big deal of the cross anyway?” After all, it certainly contradicts what we value, doesn’t it? Our world values what they call wisdom, but the cross seems foolish. As the song says, This really is such a strange way to save the world. To have the Son of God to die? That is foolish!
And the cross seems weak. If Jesus was really God, surely He could have impressed us with His power and we would have believed, but, instead, He is put to death on a cross. The vernerable became the vulnerable and, to the unbelieving mind at least, that is weak. The cross contradicts what we value
And it also contradicts who we value. Surely Jesus, if He was God, should have known that the best way to win friends and influence people is to tell them how valuable they are. Butter them up! Get them to feel good about themselves, then sell them quick before they can change their minds. Capitalize on their egos! Pretend to value what they value (which, by the way, is themselves) and they will follow you, but the cross doesn’t do that. The cross doesn’t flatter, it filets; the cross doesn’t coddle, it crucifies. It contradicts who we value.
Why, then, do we make such a big deal of the cross? Why do we hold the cross of Christ in such reverence? Why do we glory in it? Well it is for those very reasons we just mentioned! The apostle Paul said it like this:
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence. 30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— 31 that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
Three reasons for glory jump out at me when I read through this chapter. First, we can glory in the cross alone because
DIV 1: GOD’S REJECTION CONTRADICTS WORDLY VALUES
EXPLANATION
Now, the first reason that you might distrust the world’s disdain for cross is what Paul says in v 26. He says, there,
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise (watch!) According to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.
The Greek is kata sarka and it means “according to unspiritual, worldly standards.” It refers to evaluations made by unregenrate humans employing criteria that are revealed to be bogus in light of God’s standard of measure. In other words, not many who are wise according to how the world measures wisdom, not many mighty according to how the world measures strength, not many noble according to how the world measures nobility are called.
In other words, God rejects the worldly wise, mighty and noble. These represent three distinct groups which the spector of the cross causes to be rejected. The worldly wise are the learned, clever and experienced. The know-it-alls of business and academia cannot fathom that something as cruel as a cross would be God’s means of saving the world. Albert Einstein, in letter responding to the philosopher Eric Gutkind who had sent him a copy of his book, Choose Life: The Biblical Call to Revolt, wrote:
The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.
The intellectual rummages his mind around Calvary and is so repulsed by the inelegant spectacle of a dying God that he rejects it. But his rejection just proves the point: God has chosen the foolish things to confound the wise, and the real truth is the intellectual may feel as if he’s rejecting God, but verse 26 makes it clear: God is really rejecting him because God rejects the wise.
And He also rejects the mighty. The word “mighty” there speaks of those whose wealth gives them the social and political levers of power. In their position, they refuse to accommodate a Savior who demands of them their all. They reject Him, but v 26 again makes it clear: While he feels as if he’s rejecting God, God is really rejecting him because God rejects the mighty.
And He also rejects the noble. Literally that word, “noble” means “well-born.” Those who had a proud pedigree and belong to the ruling class. We’d call them the “blue bloods.” If you were not born to it, in the society Paul lived in, you really almost never achieved it. The well born had it made and they weren’t about to give up their position to serve a criminal from Nazareth whom the Romans had crucified. They thought they were rejecting him, but in reality, God rejected them.
ARGUMENTATION
And I can hear what some of you may be thinking: How is it, Rusty, that God rejects them? I mean I thought God accepted everyone. Well, my friend, that’s where you are wrong.
Now, understand. It’s not that God excludes them as much as they exclude themselves. You see the wise, the strong and the well-born are used to running things. They run the economy; they set the standards; they determine who succeeds or fails, at least that’s what they think. But God proclaims the foolishness, the weakness, and the humiliation of the cross and they can’t stomach that, and in their rejection of the Cross, God rejects them, and their very rejection becomes an occasion for us to give glory to God, because only God, Himself, could so turn this world’s value on its ear and lift up the foolish, the weak, and the low-born. God is glorified through the cross because the cross contradicts the values of this world.
ILLUSTRATION
In the film The Bucket List, Edward (Jack Nicholson) and Carter (Morgan Freeman) are both terminally ill. Doctors have given them about one year to live, so they make a list of things they always wanted to do before they "kicked the bucket"—and go about doing them, one by one. The list includes skydiving, racing vintage Mustangs, and seeing the wonders of the world. In this scene, Edward and Carter are on their way to Europe in a private jet.
"It's indescribably beautiful," Carter says as he looks out his window at a magnificent landscape.
"I love flying over the polar caps," replies Edward. "We're above the desolation."
Both men look out the window together. "The stars—it's really one of God's good ones," Carter says.
"So you think a being of some sort did all this?" Edward says.
"You don't?"
Referring to his illness, Edward replies, "You mean, do I believe if I look up in the sky and promise this or that, the 'Biggie' will make all this go away? No."
"Then 95 percent of the people on earth are wrong," Carter says.
Edward smugly fires back: "If life has taught me anything, it's that 95 percent of the people are always wrong."
"It's called faith," Carter says.
"I honestly envy people who have faith. I just can't get my head around it."
"Maybe your head is in the way."
"Carter, we've all had hundreds of these discussions, and every one of them always hits the same wall. Is there a sugarplum fairy or not? And nobody has ever gotten over that wall."
"So, what do you believe?" Carter asks.
"I resist all beliefs."
"No big bang? No random universe?"
"We live. We die," Edward says. "And the wheels on the bus go round and round."
"What if you're wrong?"
"I'd love to be wrong. If I'm wrong, I win."
Carter chuckles before he says, "I'm not sure it works that way."
Carter’s right! It doesn’t work that way! God has determined that the cross of Christ is the absolute fulcrum of history. If you trust the work of Christ on that Cross you win; if you reject it you lose. It’s so simple, yet so weak and foolish that many reject it out of hand. They refuse to let go of their own value system and buy into God’s.
APPLICATION
Listen, my unsaved friend, the greatest barrier to you accepting the finished work of Christ on your behalf is your own achievement. I know you’re smart according to the world; I know you may be strong, if you’re compared to me; I know you may have a good pedigree and a Harvard law degree, but as long as you trust those things, you’ll die in your sins. If you are to live, you must accept the foolish weakness of the cross.
And what about you, Christian. Are you fitting in a little too much? Listen, the Christian community, if it functions the way God intended it, will always be counter-cultural, but not necessarily in the sense that we often think of that term. When we say “counter-cultural” we often think of showing the world just how unworldly we are. We think of showing them that, since we came to Christ we are “goody-two-shoes” kind of people. But that’s not what is to make us counter-cultural. In fact, its almost the opposite. We are not to show people how good we are, but how bad we were before Jesus changed us. We are to demonstrate to this world a new way of “doing business” with God that shows the world that all we have is nothing we deserved, but is a free gift of His grace given to us through what Christ did on the cross. We are to use the cross as an opportunity to bring praise to God not ourselves.
And it is that activity which we often so resist. Man in his ceaseless desire to glorify himself doesn’t want to glorify God, and that brings us to the second reason we can glory in the cross. Not only do we glory in the cross because God’s rejection contradicts worldly values, but also because:
DIV 2: GOD’S SELECTION DESTROYS HUMAN PRIDE
EXPLANATION
Now v 27 makes a whole lot more sense when you understand the culture in Corinth. The Corinthian people lived within an “honor-shame” society. To them, public recognition was often more important than the facts. The worst thing that could possibly happen to you in that society was to have your reputation publically assaulted. In this kind of atmosphere a personal sense of worth was based on the recognition by others of one’s accomplishment. Under that kind of pressure, self-promotion was the order of the day, and the church was not immune. Many of the problems the Corinthians experinenced in their church came from their pride and desire to be recognized. God’s choice turns that desire on its head.
V 27 says:
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence.
To the Corinthian so concerned with saving face, Paul speaks of losing it. That is what the word “shame” speaks of. Shame is a corporate and social lack of honor, a losing of face. Paul says that God uses the cross so that the foolish things of this world will cause the wise to lose face; the weak things of this world to cause the mighty to lose face; the nothings of this world to bring to nothing the ones who think that they are something. And how does He do that? Through the cross. It is the cross of Christ that destroys our human pride!
And why does God do that? V. 29 tells you the answer. Its so that “no flesh can possibly glory in His presence.” “With this clause” says one writer,
Paul expresses the ultimate purpose of the divine folly: "so that no one may boast before him." The ground is level at the foot of the cross; not a single thing that any of us possesses will advantage him/her before the living God--not brilliance, "clout," achievement , money, or prestige. By choosing the lowly Corinthians God declared that he has forever ruled out every imaginable human system of gaining his favor. it is all--"trust him completely"--or nothing.
ILLUSTRATION
And I tell you, man doesn’t like that! He will go to any lengths to resist that! It was John Lennon who wrote:
Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
In 2006, Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, placed a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for December 8—the anniversary of John Lennon’s death—to be made a global day of healing. In that ad she said, and I quote: “One day we will be able to say that we healed ourselves, and by healing ourselves, we healed the world.”
O No, Yoko! O no we won’t. We will never be able to say we healed ourselves! If the cross of Christ says anything, it shouts to the world, you cannot save yourself. And man vainly covers his ears and sets himself against that message for He refuses to be shamed. He refuses to admit his sin.
I’ll never forget witnessing to a college student here in Wilson. I had knocked on her door just out cold turkey witnessing and when she came to the door she actually listened to me. At least she listened right up to the point that I told her that everyone is a sinner. When she heard that, she literally turned up her nose. She refused to believe that she was a sinner just as much as the worst person on death row. Her problems was that she simply had too high an opinion of herself. And, in that, she was like all the rest of humanity, which is exactly why God chooses the nothings of this world, and the weak and the foolish. He is determined that no flesh will ever glory in His presence. It is the cross of Christ that shames man and glorifies God.
APPLICATION
So what are you hanging onto that preserves your pride? For some its comparison. You say, “Preacher I know I’m not perfect, but I’m sure better than most people.” You try to justify yourself by comparing yourself with others. But Jesus brings you to a cross that humiliates your self justification.
What are you hanging onto that preserves your pride? For some its doubt. You say, “Rusty, I just can’t bring myself to believe such tall tales. To admit to believing that God came down here to be a man, lived a beggar’s life and died a criminal’s death, that’s just too humiliating. Give me something respectable to believe.” My friend, all I can give you is what the Bible gives you: A crucified Savior. As long as you are using your doubts to preserve your pride, you will continue to reject Him.
What are you hanging onto that preserves your pride? For some its religion. You’ve been a church member all your life. Maybe you used to attend a downtown church where the belltower clonged the hour and the pipe organ led the worship. You’re willing to be a social “Christian” doing good works and being “respectable,” but you’ve got no room in your theology for a humiliating cross. You’re hanging onto your religion because if you embrace the cross you will be absolutely humiliated!
O but, listen to me. It is only that cross, my unsaved friend, that you can cling to. If you ever get to heaven, all of pride must be let go; all of self must be sacrificed; all of human effort must be seen as the filthy rags they are. All of you has to be given to all of Him. It will seem like death to you, for in a sense, that’s exactly what happens. You are crucified with Christ. Your pride must die. O but when that happens, you will find in Him the perfection you never achieved; You will find in him the forgiveness you’ve always needed; You will find in Him the peace you never had; You will find in Him the fulfillment your hungry heart longs for.
Genelle Guzman McMillan was the last person to be rescued from Ground Zero alive. She had been trapped in the rubble of what remained of the Twin Towers for 27 hours when at last fire fighters heard her calling and pulled her out.
This 30-year-old single mother had only been on the job as a Port Authority clerk for nine months when the terrorists attacked the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. When the North Tower collapsed, her job was no longer on the 64th floor---there was no 64th floor! Her job became trying to stay alive entombed in the ten floors of twisted steel and smoking debris, hoping for a miracle.
McMillan lay there, "head pinned between two pieces of concrete, legs sandwiched by pieces of a stairway. Her toes had gone numb hours ago. Her right hand was pinned under her leg. Only her left hand was free."
Genelle, had fallen away from her faith God over the years, but in the rubble now, her thoughts turned to Him. Thinking of her 14-year-old daughter, she prayed that her body would at least be found so that it could be buried. Becoming a bit more bold, she revised her prayer and asked the Lord that if she had to die, that she could at least make it to the hospital so she could see her daughter one last time. But as faith seemed to bubble in her heart, she boldly asked her Heavenly Father to be rescued alive.
"I was praying to God: 'God please save my life. Give me a second chance. I promise I will change my life and do your will.'"
McMillan remembers saying that prayer over and over. "God please save my life. Give me a second chance. I promise I will change my life and do your will." She had no idea now how many times she repeated it or how many hours passed. Not long after that she was rescued by fire fighters.
Genelle’s story illustrates a principle that we run from in good times and are brought to remember in a time of peril. Deep down we all know that the crucial issue in our turning to God is the need to surrender our will.
You see, it is the cross alone that tells me that my pride must fall down. To submit to the cross is to say that I was so bad that Jesus, the very Son of God, had to die like this. The cross destroys my pride.
And what about you, Christian? Are you proud? It’s easy, once we are saved, to begin to nurse a spirit of arrogance, forgetting that we were saved by grace. Whether saved or unsaved, there is nothing God hates more than human proud. I may be proud if I get angry when you correct me. I may be proud if I refuse to serve if someone doesn’t praise me. I may be proud if I bow up and resist those God has placed in authority over me. And it just may be my pride which refuses to ask for help when I need it or take it when it is offered. God destroys human pride. No flesh will ever glory in His presence.
Listen, if you are ever saved. If your life ever pleases God. If you ever make it to heaven, it will be because you let go of your pride and embrace the shame of the cross. God’s selection destroys human pride. That’s why the cross glorifies Him and not us. But not only does God’s rejection contradict worldy values and God’s selection destroy human pride. Finally,
DIVISION 3: GOD’S PROVISION COMPELS OUR PRAISE
EXPLANATION
We tend to look at the humiliation of the cross and see that as a negative thing. And yet, it really isn’t. You see, the humiliation of the cross is the very thing that leads to the provision of the cross. V. 30 describes that provision. It says:
But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— 31 that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
This verse says that once we are emptied of ourselves, christ becomes four things for us. He becomes: wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
To the foolish he becomes wisdom from God. That just means Christ becomes our wisdom when we accept the “foolishness of the cross.
To the weak (that is those who lack social standing, those who have no goodness or strength) he becomes righteousness. That means to all those who were not accepted by this world; to those whom the world looks at with disdain and scorn, Christ, by His cross becomes the means of them being accepted not by the world, but by God!
To the despised ones, he becomes the means of them being sanctified. While I may sit at the back of the bus, live on the wrong side of the tracks, and associate with the dregs of society, through Christ, I am sanctified, I am set apart for God. I may not be special to this world, but I am special to God. His grace cleans me up and makes me new and sets me apart for His glory.
To the nothings, he becomes the means of my redemption. I was a slave to sin, living a life of a nobody, but Christ, through His cross purchases my redemption and buys me back from my slavery. And then He gives me a position of dignity and freedom. He is my redemption
O listen it is through the shameful cross, God provides for me everything I need. And when he does all of that, all I can do is say what the apostle says in v 31, “I can’t glory in myself, I can only glory in the lord” When I come to understand what He has provided I can’t help myself. I am compelled to praise Him.
ILLUSTRATION
David Livingstone was eager to travel into the uncharted lands of Central Africa to preach the gospel. On one occasion, the famous nineteenth-century missionary and explorer arrived at the edge of a large territory that was ruled by a tribal chieftain. According to tradition, the chief would come out to meet him there; Livingstone could go forward only after an exchange was made. The chief would choose any item of Livingstone's personal property that caught his fancy and keep it for himself, while giving the missionary something of his own in return.
Livingstone had few possessions with him, but at their encounter he obediently spread them all out on the ground—his clothes, his books, his watch, and even the goat that provided him with milk (since chronic stomach problems kept him from drinking the local water). To his dismay, the chief took this goat. In return, the chief gave him a carved stick, shaped like a walking stick.
Livingstone was most disappointed. He began to gripe to God about what he viewed as a stupid walking cane. What could it do for him compared to the goat that kept him well? Then one of the local men explained, "That's not a walking cane. It's the king's very own scepter, and with it you will find entrance to every village in our country. The king has honored you greatly."
The man was right. God opened Central Africa to Livingstone, and as successive evangelists followed him wave after wave of conversions occurred.
Sometimes, in our disappointment over what we don't have, we fail to appreciate the significance of what God has given us.
Just like livingstone, we look at God’s “stick,” that is His Cross, and disdain it. We look at what we give up to gain it: our sin, our control, our lust, our lives. Most of the world considers it a bad trade. But when we understand what the cross really does for us. When we understand the provision of the cross, we realize that giving up our “goats” really makes sense. We say with the songwriter, and we come to the place that we can truly say with the song writer, “Nothing in my hand I bring simply to thy cross I cling.”
Listen to me unbeliever: You’ll never save yourself! Only Jesus saves! Listen to me, Christian. You’ll never keep yourself! Only Jesus saves. That is the Glory of the Cross. I compels us to worship God, because only Jesus saves.
VISUALIZATION: JESUS SAVES
APPEAL:
Christian what about it? Have you forgotten that it isn’t your goodness that makes your right with God? Have you allowed a spirit of pride to invade your heart? Have you been trying to hard to keep yourself where you think you need to be and you’re finding it impossible. Maybe what you need is to bring the issue, the sin, the need, the desire whatever it is and lay it down at the cross. Self-effort will never get you there. Whatever the need is, I invite you to come
My unsaved friend, what about it? Have you ever dropped your pride and embraced the shame of the cross?
