Sermon Tone Analysis

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.