Sermon Tone Analysis

Welcome

Introduction

Execution and torture are not words we typically think about when we walk into a church.

They’re not topics most of us would feel comfortable talking about in any of our conversations.

So how did it happen, that one of the most brutal forms of torture and execution has also become one of the most recognizable symbols in history?

I’m talking, of course, about a cross.

Crucifixion in the Roman empire had become the preferred way to “deal with” rebells and anyone who might get a similar idea.

It was tailored to be as painful, shameful, and drawn out as possible; following the same four fold pattern time and time again:

The victim would be tortured—publically.

And we could go into a ton of detail of what that looked like…but I’ll let you read up on it on your own.

The victim would be forced to carry his or her own cross to the place of execution…paraded through crowds gathered to watch.

The victim would be attached to the cross beam by rope or nails, sometimes having to drive the nails in themselves.

The cross would be raised up, put on public display.

Political propaganda to those who had gathered to watch.

Crucifixion was a disgusting, shameful, humiliatingly horrific way to die.

The Roman Orator, Cicero called it, “…the cruelest and most terrible punishment.”

And this brings us face to face with the great paradox of Christianity today.

Because, for some reason, we take this symbol…and we wear it on necklaces, earrings, tattoos.

We print it on shirts (and wear them in public).

We paint them on walls, hang them around the building.

It’s hard to imagine a sane society celebrating any other explicate form of execution the way we do with a cross!

Churches around the world will gather, today, to sing about and celebrate the cross.

Preachers will appeal to what happened “on that cross”.

It will be talked about, read about, gazed upon, and drawn by millions of people.

So much so, that one author asked, “What would Coca-Cola, McDonalds” or Amazon, I might add, pay for that kind of global brand representation?!”

But why?

Why, of all symbols available to us, have Christians identified most with the Cross?

What is it about this symbol of death that people throughout the last 2000 years have found so compelling?

That’s what we will spend our time talking about today.

Because as we continue in this series through 1 Corinthians, we will find the story of the cross is at the very center of the Christian message Paul is is proclaiming!

In fact, the message of the cross is the very center of what it means to be a Christian!

And if we are going to answer the question “How does the church follow Jesus in a world that doesn’t follow Jesus” we will find that our answer is directly tied to what we think of the cross.

So if you’re not there yet, open with me to 1 Corinthians 1:18.

If you need a bible, you can grab one from the seat in front of you. 1 Corinthians is on page 952.

And what we’ll see in this passage is that story of the cross is a story of Folly, Wisdom, and Power.

I’ll read the passage, pray, and then we’ll get started.

PRAY

The Folly of the Cross

Alright, let’s get started.

The first thing Paul points out is that the story of the cross is folly.

Or, that it seems foolish.

Connection to Previous Section

But before we look at that, let me remind you of how he got here.

Last week, starting in v. 10, Paul started to address some of the larger issues going on in the corinthian church.

The first one was the divisions and tribalism is is ready to tear things apart.

The church as picked their favorite leaders and treat them like different teams.

And Paul’s point was that they’d picked the wrong rally point!

That actually, it’s not the different leaders in the church that matter, but it’s all about Jesus…who He is and what He’s done.

And instead of picking teams, the church needs to come back to central message and power of that message.

Look back for a sec at v. 17 (1 Corinthians 1:17)

He’s saying, “I didn’t come to you so that you’d be impressed with me!

I came to you with the message of the cross!”

But at this point, he’s got to dig into what the message of the cross is and what it means because it was it was a very uncomfortable image—and difficult to wrap their minds around.

Different people think of different things when the think of the cross.

Look with me at v. 18 (1 Corinthians 1:18

His point is: if you’re a follower of Jesus…you see the cross one way—you see it as the picture of God’s power and you see it for what Jesus accomplishes on the cross!

But, you see it that way because that’s what you’ve experienced with the cross!

If you’re not a follower of Jesus—the cross looks like non-sense.

Like what does the death of Jesus have anything to do with anything let alone be something I should orient my entire life around?

That’s a good question!

Some of you are here today with that same question—what does the death of Jesus have to do with anything?

Why does it really matter.

Honestly, some of us who have been following Jesus for years even struggle to answer that question.

Folly of the Cross to the World

Paul talks about two different responses to the cross in particular.

And these responses matter to him because these are people that he wants to see become followers of Jesus.

Look at v. 22 (1 Corinthians 1:22-23)

He talks about how the Jewish people think of the cross and what the Gentiles, which is the Jewish word for everyone else, think of the cross.

Stumbling Block to Jews

To the Jewish community, it’s a stumbling block.

What does he mean by that?

Well, he’s talking about how any first century Jewish person would have thought about crucifixion.

They just can get over how Jesus, if he really was the promised Messiah the whole Old Testament was point forward to…they can’t get over how God would allow Jesus to go through such a horrific death!

Not only that, but Old Testament Law, in the book of Deuteronomy, directly spoke of people who died like Jesus

Deuteronomy 21:23 (ESV)

23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God.

You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

If anything, the cross showed how Jesus was cursed by God!

He wasn’t a person to follow…and if those who did follow him weren’t careful, they would probably suffer the same fate and curse Jesus did!

Not to mention, the Messiah in the Old Testament was supposed to be this victorious figure who crushed the enemies of Israel to establish a new and better Kingdom.

But on the cross, Jesus was publically humiliated.

So if anything, the cross shows the power of Rome, not of God.

Folly to Gentiles

And in a similar way, the Gentiles (or everyone else) would naturally see the cross as foolish.

That if you just took the facts at face value, the only conclusion you could draw was that Jesus was a common criminal.

A nobody! Who was disposed of by the powers that be.

And that this whole business of a crucified ‘god’ was absurd.

If fact, we this early example of some graffiti from Rome from early second century.

The inscription mockingly says, “Alexamenos worships his god.”

It’s a man bowing down to a crucified donkey.

This is what they thought of Christianity.

It’s foolish.

It’s a waste of time.

Move on.

And I would suggest that, in many ways, we live now in a cultural moment that views the message of Jesus and the cross just as out of touch with reality!

In a city like Chicago, it’s not uncommon to find people who are, at best, completely indifferent to the message of Jesus…at worst, seeing it as leading cause of oppressive values in the wider world.

It’s foolish to think it matters.

And I think the natural question the Corinthians would have asked…and the same on we need to ask is how do we take this message of the cross to the world around us…especially if everyone else will see it simply as foolish?! What hope do we have at all in sharing the message of Jesus if the whole time it just sounds like nonsense?

The Wisdom of the Cross

But, as Paul points out, there is something much more profound and beautiful happening with the cross.