Let's Remember Our Message

Let's Remember Our Message
1 Cor. 1:18-2:5
 
As Christians about the work of the Church, it is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day routine of administration, phone calls, counseling, emails, lunch meetings, staff meetings, service production, and a host of other things that require our attention.  These, of course, are all good things to be about.  But as we seek to build the Church of Jesus Christ, to bring people to be His fully devoted followers, we must always keep central our Message:  Christ Crucified!
 
1.  It is the Power of God
                From both the outside and inside of a ministerial group, remembering our source of strength is essential.  We get off message all of the time, and then we wonder why there is no life to our ministry.  Could it be that we have neglected to preach this centrality of the Gospel?  People must understand their sin and God's wrath.  They must also understand God's mercy and grace that is offered in spite of all that we have done.  All those things mesh at, and only at, the Cross of Christ. 
 
2.  It is the Wisdom of God
                The crucifixion of Jesus Christ sounds as insane now as it did 2000 years ago.  "You base your lives on what?"  As Paul says in 1:22, every nonbeliever is seeking some sort of sign, some sort of message, something that is in line with their own personal viewpoint that they can take and make their own.  But our Message is radically different than what the world wants.  They wanted a king, God sent a carpenter.  They wanted a warrior, but God sent a sheep to the slaughter.  They wanted anything that would show the wisdom of the age, but God provided a message of "foolishness;" a "stumbling block." 
                We should always seek to be relevant to an ever changing world.  But, let's always remember that in our relevance our Message is still radically different than the wisdom of the world.  "Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men" (1:25).
 
3.  God is everything the world seeks, but nothing that they think He should be.
                It is funny to consider; all the things that the world is looking for (Power, might, wisdom, nobility), God IS!  Problem:  The world is looking in the wrong place.  So Paul reminds us to remember our calling.  We are not wise, not mighty, and not noble, thus we must rely solely upon Him.  Why?  V. 29:  "So that no man may boast before God."  Let's not kid ourselves.  We want our church to be Awesome!  But even if we got to this point, what good would it be if it was because of something we did?  The Bible tells us that everything that we have done in our own strength will be wiped out when we die!  If we bring people in according to our own wisdom, our own strength, our own works, have we really benefited them, or have we just taught them to say "Lord, Lord," but not taught them to make Him Lord? 
How did Paul handle this problem?  He did the exact opposite of what everyone wanted:  "I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him Crucified" (2:2).  Let's be equally determined to pursue our vision in such a way that our people's "faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God" (2:5).  For, "by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption" (1:30).
 
Isaac Watts nails it!
                In "At the Cross," Isaac Watts shows why the Cross is so very central to our lives as believers.  Do we look at the Cross and have the same reaction as He did?  "Thus might I hide my blushing face while His dear Cross appears, dissolve my heart in thankfulness and melt my eyes to tears.  But, drops of grief can never repay the debt of love I owe.  Here, Lord, I give myself away.  'Tis all that I can do. . . . At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away, it was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day."  It is that joy that we should live by.  It is that joy that drives us to do ministry.  It is that joy in the Cross that we must take to a dying world.

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