Why the Cross?

OPEN: Corporations have extensive marketing campaigns designed to introduce a new product. They spend a great deal of time and money trying to find the right optic that will generate the greatest appeal for the product.

TRANSITION: There is not a marketing group on planet earth who would have proposed the Crucifixion for the purpose of revealing the mystery of the ages. Not a single marketer would have come up with the idea of killing the Creator of the Cosmos on a wooden cross to introduce the concept of salvation. The Cross simply does not make sense to our human way of understanding how things should work.

As Easter Sunday approaches we want to prepare our hearts by taking a closer look at the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. This morning we are going to try to answer the question: Why the Cross? in the first of our Easter messages.

READ the TEXT: 1 Corinthians 1:17-24

God has established the Cross of Christ as a Dividing Line (1 Cor 1:17-18)

Explanation: Paul is at the start of his letter to the Corinthians. After his greeting, he moves quickly to address the issue of division within the family. In verses 10-16 Paul takes the members of the Church at Corinth to task for settling into separate groups based on secondary issues. Without going into the specific issues in this message, I simply want to point out that Paul’s solution to achieve unity within the body was for them to focus on the Main Thing, not secondary issues. Paul declares what the MAIN Thing is in verses 17 & 18: to proclaim the Good News through the message of the Cross

Paul puts the importance of the Crucifixion into perspective when he declares the Cross to be a major Dividing Line. How one views the Cross reveals his or her understanding of Christianity. Paul tells that a person who is outside the faith will view the Cross as absurd - sheer foolishness. To a believer, however, the Cross represents the only satisfactory payment for his or her sin debt. Both groups are looking at the same historical action, but each reach very different conclusions.

illustrate: Consider the question of origin. The naturalist conclusion is that what exists is the result of evolution over billions of years. He or she declares the position is “scientific” when in fact there is no observational science that exists to support evolution. One who holds the Bible as the Ultimate Authority understands that God is Eternal and He is the Creator. Same question, different answers that result in very different world views

Argument: With similar emphasis, Paul is declaring the Cross as the Dividing Line between faith and unbelief. Unbelievers ridicule the idea of a Sovereign God who Creates and sustains the Universe. They also ridicule the idea that it was necessary for Jesus to die on a Roman cross in order to secure salvation for those who believe. The very idea reeks of foolishness and they consider those who believe in the necessity of the Cross to be dumb, superstitious and weak

Application: The path to pleasing God is through faith in His revealed Word. No one can please Him by trying to accommodate the world system through an attempt to appear sophisticated. Realize you will not stand before other humans on Judgment Day. The opinion of others can impact us, but it should never drive our destiny. Trust the Word of Christ, and if others laugh and ridicule you, so be it.

What others think of us is not important and that brings us to the second point:

God is not impressed with the reasoning skills of fallen humanity (1 Corinthians 1:19-20)

Explanation: Paul addresses the issue of God’s view of unbelievers by quoting from the OT prophet Isaiah. In the 29th chapter of Isaiah, the prophet is talking about people who profess to be God’s people by what they say, but in their heart they do not believe. They are hypocrites who are trying to play both sides. The prophet reveals God’s judgment upon them in that He is going to destroy their so-called wisdom and hide the truth from them.

Paul’s point is that just as God destroyed the “so-called” wisdom of the ancients, He is doing the same thing in the present. Paul puts forth some rhetorical questions to his readers in order that that can see God’s viewpoint. The expected answer to each of the questions is “nowhere.” There are not any persons wise enough to figure out God's plan by the use of human reason

Argument: The prophet Isaiah revealed God’s truth when he wrote “for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Application: Bottom line is that God doesn’t reason like we do. We are limited and finite; He is infinite and possessing all wisdom and knowledge. We are not capable of understanding the fullness of His plan and we have to accept that.

God chose the Cross so we proclaim that message and trust in His power to save (1 Corinthians 1:21-25)

Explanation: The bottom line answer to the question of Why the Cross is simply because the Cross was God’s plan. Scripture declares “that it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe” (1 Cor. 1:21b). Even though there are unbelievers who desire the certainty of a supernatural sign while others want to reason their way to God, He as the Sovereign God of the Universe has the final say in how issues of salvation bear out in the world. God has already declared that lost humanity is incapable of reaching the truth on its own (v. 21a) so He revealed it to us. The truth of God comes to the world through the preaching or proclamation of the Gospel

Argument: The Jews wanted the certainty of a supernatural sign. As God’s people who had received the Law, the Jews had at least a nominal understanding of God as Law Giver. The Law, however, revealed Jesus to be the end of the Law. The unbelieving Jews did not want to accept Jesus as their Messiah because He didn’t meet their personal expectations. So, they were always pestering Him about a sign. Like, “hey, we will believe in you if you give us a sign.” This was a dodge - Jesus had already been giving out signs left and right. He had miraculously healed people in their presence and He fed the 5,000 with another miracle. It was right after this miracle that they were still hard-hearted enough to say, “what sign shewest thou then, that we may see and believe?” (John 6:30)

Application: God has already revealed Himself to us. We have the witness of His Word, the witness of Church history, and the evidence of changed lives. His witness is sufficient - God is not obligated to set down a neon sign in your front yard!

We are more like the Greeks. Many in our modern age make use of the knowledge approach. We largely view the answer to our problems through education. We have a drug problem? Let’s just educate people about the dangers of drugs and it will be fixed. We have teen pregnancy problem? Let’s just teach young people about safe and effective birth control and it will be fixed. We have a crime problem? Let’s build more prisons and then offer the prisoners programs to complete while they are incarcerated.

Argument: Until we accept that more education will never adequately address the moral issue of sin, we will never accept the Cross and the necessity of faith. No one is ever educated or reasoned into the Kingdom of God. While the Bible contains all the information we need, memorizing the Bible will not save anyone

Conclusion: Former atheist Josh McDowell approached the Bible with the purpose of proving that it wasn’t true. During his extensive research from the Bible itself he became convinced of the truthfulness of the Scriptures and how the Bible presented one reasonable account of God being gracious to lost souls. The knowledge he gained was good and wholesome, but it didn’t change his life. It was only when God convicted him personally of his lostness did Josh surrender to Jesus through faith in the finished work of Jesus.

The Cross may not make sense to you. You or I will never fully understand why God did not make salvation available apart from the self-sacrifice of Himself to pay the sin debt of the world. The reality is that this is exactly what He did. ‘For He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21)