April 10, 2020 • Josh Lindstrom • 1 Corinthians 1:18
To die upon a Roman cross was the most brutal and humiliating death one could imagine. And yet, it was on a Roman cross that our Savior bled and died for us. Though folly to a fallen world, to us who are being saved it is the power of God. Today, the cross is seen everywhere. It adorns the tops of churches and people’s necks, but commonplace as it may be, it remains the enduring symbol of God’s magnificent love for us.
Sermon Points:
(Study)
Carson
Ancient world – romans & barbarians, Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free – Paul only has two – perishing and not perishing (those who are being saved).
• The dividing group between those two groups…is the message of the cross.
• Not simply a philosophical system – a supremely wise system that stands over against the folly of others. It is far more: where human wisdom utterly fails to deal with human need, God himself has taken action.
• Will say that the gospel is God’s wisdom (1:24).
• We are impotent when it comes to dealing with our sin and being reconciled to God, but where we are impotent, God is powerful.
• Human folly and human wisdom are equally unable to achieve what God has accomplished in the cross.
• The gospel is not simply good advice, nor is it good news about God’s power. The gospel is God’s power to save those who believe. The place where God has supremely destroyed all human arrogance and pretension is the cross.
An Exegetical and Theological Exposition
• The conjunction “for” ties this verse to the preceding vs 17.
• This is the thesis statement for 1:18-3:23
• “word of the cross” either
o The content of the message OR
o The act of preaching itself
o Paul probably has the first in mind
• The offense of the cross is often lost on modern readers for whom the cross is now a symbol of the faith
o Roman orator and philosopher Cicero called crucifixion a “most cruel and disgusting penalty”
o From a Jewish perspective, the one crucified was under God’s curse.
o Yet, a Christ crucified was the object of Paul’s proclamation – which brings into sharp focus the distinction between those who belong to this age and those who belong to the age to come
o The present age is doomed and is already in the process of passing away. For this reason, those who belong to this age and deem the corss as nonsense are on their way to ultimate ruin.
o Paul uses the present tense participles to describe both groups, thus commenting here only on their present state rather than their final destiny
o IN other words, those who are perishing are on their way to ultimate ruin apart from repentance and faith.
o Similarly, those who are being saved are reminded that they are still on the way and have not yet arrived.
• Contrast between foolishness and power – not foolishness and wisdom?
o IN contrast to human wisdom, Paul’s message was powerfully effective
o Not impressed with their arrogant speech but wants to know what kind of power they have since the kingdom of God is not a matter of speech
• The term “power” in this context, has to do with the effectiveness of the cross to make God known, to accomplish salvation, and to transform lives.
o Thiselton, argues that the word “effective” more accurately captures Paul’s intent, and avoids secular notions of that which is miraculous or overwhelming.
o The word of the cross is the power of God in the sense that God’s intention to defeat evil, to make humself known, and to save those who believe will certainly be brought to completion. In other words, he is able to deliver on his promise that is the gospel
o The Corinthians wanted to avoid the humiliation associated with the apostolic way of life.
Tyndale
• The “message” is literally “the word”; it contrasts with words of human wisdom in vs 17. It includes both the manner and the matter of apostolic preaching.
• The message does not please the perishing, any more than the simplicity with which it is presented.
• IN their wisdom they see it as nothing but foolishness/nonsense
• Those being saved have not yet all the wisdom of heaven, but their newness of life enables them to weigh spiritual things.
• They perceive the greatness of the gospel, whereas those who are perishing are blind to it.
• It is not the opposite of wisdom – it is not simply good advice, telling us what we should do. Nor is it information about God’s power. It is God’s power.
NIV application
• a theology of glory versus a theology of the cross
o The former leads to equations between true Christianity and specific political parties or agendas, material wealth, or heavy-handed leadership
o The latter seeks to bind up the broken-hearted, empower the disenfranchised, and love the unlovely of the world
o IN short, the gospel drives to level ground at the foot of the cross
o If we really understand that Christ experienced the agony that we deserved to suffer, how can we possibly exalt ourselves or any other human leader?
Baker
• The death of Jesus is one of the foundational symbols that determined Paul’s vision of the Christian community. But Greco-Roman symbols and mythology competed with the cross to provide a framework for interpreting life.
• Christ has suffered “a particularly cruel and shameful death, which as a rule was reserved for hardened criminals, incorrigible slaves, and rebels against the Roman state”
• The story behind Jesus’ death discloses that he was rejected by the very people he came to save, was deserted by his own disicples, was strung up by the proper authorities, and apparently was powerless to save his own skin.
• Paul did not sweep the crucifixion under the carpet as an unfortunate episode remedied by the glories of the resurrection.
• He does not say that he preached the resurrected Christ, but the crucified one.
• The cross was repugnant to ancient sensibilities – not sentimentalized like we do
• To proclaim a crucified Jew from some backwater of the empire as “a divine being sent on earth, God’s son, Lord of all and the coming judge of the world, must have been thought by any educated man to be utter “madness” and “presumptuousness”
• Christianity was cradled in what looks like disastrous defeat, and the unspeakable stigma of the cross exposed the preacher to woeful contempt.
• The message of the cross is an antidote to human self-glorification, it is hardly a message for the ambitious
• The gospel transforms the cross as a symbol of Roman terror and political domination into a symbol of God’s love and power. It shows that the power of God’s love is greater than human love of power.
• Paul did try to get people to believe by arguing that Christ crucified accords with the common principles of logic or that belief is in the long-term best interests of the hearers. As a herald, he simply announced what God has done in Christ
• As proclaimer – is to make sure that each hears and understands – Paul trusts the power of the cross to convict the audience rather than the power of his eloquence. The spirit reveals the message’s truth to the believer.
• The audience is dethroned as the ultimate arbiter of what is true or persuasive, and the message becomes sovereign with the power to save or condemn, depending on the listeners response.
• Since the cross represents painful death and profound humiliation, it calls into question the conventional wisomd about power and the divine.
• Shame is removed through the divine identifation with the shamed in a shameful death.
A shorter exegetical and pastoral…
• Not a contrast between power and weakness but between power and folly
• Corinthians – power as influence or force, or the social or economic power. Just as today, machine, politics, armed forces. Leading to…power as miraculous or the overwhelming
• The proclamation of a humiliated, crucified Christ, whose manner of death was too shameful for mention in polite conversations had nothing to do with the spectacular or manipulative. But it effectively empowered, most especially as power for, rather than as a Christianized version of secular power over.
• Folly leads to striving that is ineffective, fruitless and empty – that characterizes those who are on their way to ruin.
• Christian believers for whom the proclamation of the cross becomes an effective reality (the power of God) are turned away from such a fate and find themselves by God’s grace on the way to salvation (a carefully chosen present participle that denotes a continuing process)
• Paul’s sense of being saved like those being rescued from a sinking ship by a lifeboat
o Those have been saved, they have been rescued from peril
o But, as the lifeboat moves to the shore they are in the process of being saved
o Finally, they look ahead with longing to reaching the solid shore, then they will be saved.
• The proclamation of a crucified Christ constitutes the greatest affront to all except those who appropriate what is proclaimed
o Death on a cross was regarded in Roman society as brutal, disgusting, and abhorrent. IT was reserved for convicted slaves and convicted terrorists, and could never be imposed upon a Roman citizen or more “respectable” criminals. It was so offensive to good taste that crucifixon was never mentioned in polite society, except through hthe use of euphemisms.
o For Gentiles whom might imagine a divine savior figure, for Jews who expected a messiah anointed with power and majesty, the notion of a crucified Christ, a messiah on the cross was an affront and an outrage.
Worship Songs:
Amazing Grace
© Public Domain | CCLI Song # 4755360 -- CCLI License # 420630
His Mercy Is More
CCLI #7065053 | Matt Boswell and Matt Papa
© 2016
Jesus We Love You
CCLI #7030068 | Hannah McClure, Kalley Heiligenthal, and Paul McClure
© 2014
I Love You Lord
#25266 by L Klein
1978, 1980 House Of Mercy Music, Maranatha! Music
Here I Am To Worship
#3266032 by T Hughes
2000 Thankyou Music