Biblical Evangelism Conference Talk 3

Preaching the Cross

November 2005

Why speak and teach from the Bible anyway? Swish media presentations will get you more attention. Apologetic messages that concentrate on tight philosophical argument will win you many more ears in a university and college context than publicly opening a Bible. Proclaiming an exclusive message seems to be the fastest way to get the authorities or the student union on your back these because the post-modern thought police have established the norm that exclusivity is unacceptable and that exclusivity in the realm of religion is dangerous fundamentalism. Why speak and teach from the Bible? It is the fastest route to get yourself marginalised, hated, accused of politically incorrect bigotry, marked down and excluded. All the fun is happening somewhere else.

Romans 15:14-16 says:

I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. I have written to you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit

The fact is that the fun may be happening somewhere else, but the joy, the abounding hope and the power of the Holy Spirit are happening here. Goodness, all knowledge and grace are happening here. And the way that is working out in Paul’s life in v16 is that he has been made a priestly servant of the gospel of God so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

The force of the gospel is not that God should be acceptable to us and our cultural desires, it is that we should be acceptable to God. Because we are here for him not the other way around. And so Paul is seized by God to be a servant of the gospel in order that non-Christians might hear, be saved and sanctified by the Holy Spirit in order to be offered to God as an acceptable offering.

And I dare to suggest that is our ministry too. If we are bringing the gospel, it is so that people all over the world may be made acceptable to God by the Holy Spirit. God’s power is present in the message about Jesus – and only in the message abut Jesus – for conviction, for conversion and so that they become worshippers.

The Message of Power 

In Romans 1 Paul says “I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.” Why is that? Why is Romans 1 true? Why is it that this message has that power, but no other one does? Why is it that it all comes down to the cross in the end?

Read 1 Cor. 1:17-2:5, 12-13

1 Cor.1:30 teaches that Jesus is our wisdom, our righteousness our sanctification and our redemption. In 2:12-13 we learn that we are imparting this message of Jesus, the crucified Jesus not with human wisdom, but by the Holy Spirit. By the message of the cross the Holy Spirit takes the power of the cross and teaches it in such a way that it impacts lives and people are born again. They are regenerated. Made new, from Heaven.

Understanding the message of the cross – that is not just cerebral understanding with your mind (non-Christians can do that), but grasping it with your life and reckoning on it – brings the power of the cross into your life. See how Paul fleshes that out:

1:30 God is the source of your life through Christ

2:5 your faith rests in the power of God and not in the wisdom of men

Christ becomes your wisdom, your righteousness, your sanctification and your redemption. How wonderful it would be to linger on each of those for a sermon.

In turn we have a message that is not of worldly wisdom but comes with the demonstration of the Spirit and with the power of God.

Therefore, as it is written, let him who boasts boast in the Lord. In Christ crucified. Did you know that you are commanded to boast. Boastfulness is not wrong. What you boast in decides whether it is right or wrong. I meet lots of timid Christians who think it isn’t their place to say anything and want to be humble and quiet to whom Paul would say “with all your might BOAST. Boast to the whole world about the cross of Jesus Christ.”

A Foolish Message 

Now we have already agreed that the object of preaching is the glory of God. And God gets glory by Christians boasting in the cross, because that is how the Holy Spirit comes into people’s lives with transforming power. But there is a problem to the natural mind: the message of the cross is foolishness. It isn’t eloquent, it isn’t philosophically sophisticated, in no age has it been considered wise by the standards of the world whatever they were at the time. People today want to claim that the message of the cross is out of date and irrelevant. People have always claimed that. It is foolishness.

Paul repeats it:

v18 it is folly to those who are perishing

v21 God is saving people through the folly of what we preach in the world’s terms

v22 we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Greeks

Why is it folly? It is folly because people with a man-centred view of the world demand a message that is credibly man-centred. This message is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles. He says that the Jews demanded a sign. They were demanding that God perform. Religion with a wow factor. And the Greeks were wanting wisdom, that is cleverly argued philosophy about man and the world. Not so much demanding supernatural spectacle as insisting that they can reason out God with their intelligence. Clever old them.

But God won’t have either because both are saying “God you had better deliver on my terms and in ways I am happy with.” That man-centred “God had better do things my way” is precisely a symptom of the self-sufficient rebellion that makes the cross necessary anyway. They are setting themselves up in judgement on God.

Now if I can just apply that like this. I think we see this both from the world and in the church today. You don’t have to think very hard to come up with examples of the world rubbishing the message of Christ crucified, in pop culture, in movies, in the current taste in offensive comedy. Or just turn on any television commercial for Christmas goods. I was particularly struck by Jeremy Clarkson’s Christmas “Motor Heaven and Hell” video. And there are plenty of obvious academic direct parallels to the Greeks desiring worldly wisdom. Any of you who study any of the liberal humanities will know only too well that texts are now philosophically suspect. Authority and authorship is no longer acceptable. Instead we empower the reader to create meaning for themselves, to actualise themselves, to deify themselves. And you try saying that you believe in God or truth in classes like that and you will see just how foolish the world thinks the message of the cross is.

But sadly you don’t have to think very hard to come up with examples in the church either. It won’t be deliberately offensive in the same way but it is there just the same. The bishop who preaches universalism because he is embarrassed by an exclusive message and wants to demythologise it, is denying the cross. The preacher who is all anecdotes and jokes for the sake of popularity and who fills the pews but whose message is resolutely this-life centred. The ministry that teaches prosperity for this life and not going the way of the cross. We can think of 100 others.

It is the same thing. It is standing in judgement on God and his divinely appointed message. It is denying the power of the Holy Spirit in favour of man-centredness. That insistence that we can come to God as we like and that he will perform to our expectations will finally see the glory of God. But not in salvation and the joy of his creatures who are in Christ, but in judgement.

But God, in wonderfully ironic wisdom, has established his own way of both righteously pouring his judgement on that sinful hubris AND saving sinners so that he is rejoiced in and glorified. Romans 3 says that he has a way to both be just in judgement AND the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus. But it is manifestly NOT a way we are, humanly speaking, happy with. Indeed, humanly speaking it is foolishness. Because God is not going to choose any man-appointed, man-approved, man-sanctioned method. Because that is to praise man. That is like God seeking man’s permission. God is not nervously wringing his hands saying “I want to find a method to rescue you. Something you’ll find to your liking. Something you can take a part in and some of the credit for. Is this alright with you?”

No he has gone for something that rebellious man finds to be sheer folly. But his folly is wiser that the wisdom of foolish mankind. See that in:

v21for since in the wisdom of God the world didn’t know him through its own wisdom it pleased God to use the folly of what we preach

v23-24 Christ crucified is a stumbling block and a folly to human wisdom but to those who are called it is the power and wisdom of God

v25 the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men

v27 God chose the foolish things to shame the wise, the weak to shame the strong, the things that are nothing to bring to nothing the things that are

In order that nobody can boast in any human achievement for their own justification or sanctification. You cannot offer anything to God is this regard whatsoever. We can ONLY boast in Christ crucified. That is a great definition of preaching: publicly boasting in Christ crucified.

The Cross and Human Pretension 

So God refutes all human pride, all human attempts at religion, all man-made efforts at self-salvation. Instead he says “you can come freely. You don’t have to do anything. I’ve accomplished everything at the cross of Jesus. But there is a price to coming freely and that is your human pretensions. You have to forsake your worldly wisdom by which you cannot know God and accept God on his own terms, accept the message of the cross, to your own utter humility.

And if you do you will get the power of the cross, the grace of God breaking into your life. But not any other way. 1:17 says that trusting any other message or trusting any eloquent clever presentation tries to secure glory for man and therefore empties the cross of its power.

Do you believe this? Lots of people would like you to not preach the cross. Non-Christians find it offensive. Some Christians think it is dull, or the basics that they have gone on from and grown out of. Some think that its just an old message with little contemporary excitement because they’ve heard it all before.

But I tell you that there is no glory in Christianity without the cross. There is no glorious message for us to proclaim without the cross. There is no power to save those who believe, no grace, no work of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 3 says that you grow as a Christian having the Holy Spirit and knowing him working miracles among you because you believe the message of Christ crucified. And without the message of the cross the gentiles are nor brought as a fragrant offering to God for his praise.

Paul's Preaching Tips 

Let me end by giving you Paul’s own preaching lesson tips. Here they are:

You have to trust a humanly foolish message. Read 1:18. You might not enjoy that. It will open you up to ridicule and scorn. Get used to it. God is using the foolish things to shame the wise. Trust the old message

Preach the gospel but not with eloquent words. That doesn’t mean don’t prepare. It means that if you use eloquent words because you want your presentation to look good then you will point to yourself but not to the cross. And you will therefore empty the cross of its power. You who enjoy public exposure, beware. You who are from top institutions that applaud you for being persuasive and humanly wise, beware. You who enjoy hearing the sound of your own voice, who like popularity. That is to be praised by the world and dismissed by the Lord. Paul’s preaching was not eloquent, 2:4 it wasn’t in plausible words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit’s power

Don’t rely on yourself but on the Holy Spirit. If you as yet have little experience of the Spirit using you in power in this regard then you had better humble yourself and pray. Spurgeon used to pray on every step up to his pulpit “I believe in the Holy Spirit.” And it was a very high pulpit with a lot of steps. Can you see there in 2:13 that our words are taught by the Spirit to those who are spiritual?

Get used to rejection. 2:14 the natural person doesn’t accept the things of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 17 when Paul was speaking in Athens he got to the message of the cross, of Jesus and the resurrection from the dead and got an instant response, but from most it was neutral or negative. It says that a few were converted, some said “we want to hear more” and a lot sneered. We tend to have a view that when we do evangelism right then people are converted, but when they aren’t it must be because we have either the message or the method wrong. That isn’t right. When we speak the message truly some are saved and some are condemned by their unbelief. The message of the cross accomplishes both

Don’t worry about weakness. Its alright. In fact it is better than alright, because God says that he will use weak people not strong ones. Strong ones attract glory to themselves. Weak ones are the demonstration that the power lies with God. If it was OK for Paul to come with fear and trembling then it is OK for you to come with fear and trembling too

Dear friends, as we do this we will establish our faith and the faith of others on an unshakeable foundation – that God is glorified in the salvation of repentant sinners. Jesus is the wisdom and power of God. The message of the cross is the message of power. Power for salvation, power for growth. Power to know Jesus, by the Spirit, who has become our wisdom and righteousness, our sanctification and redemption.

So boast before the world with all your might. As it is written “let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”