Grace, mercy, and peace be yours from God our Father and our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Amen
1 Corinthians 1:18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who
are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For
it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the cleverness of
the clever I will set aside.” 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the
scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the
wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world
through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased
through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who
believe. 22 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom;
23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to
Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and
Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the
foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger
than men. 26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not
many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 27
but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and
God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which
are strong, 28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has
chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,
29 so that no man may boast before God. 30 But by His doing you are in
Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and
sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that, just as it is written, “Let him
who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (NASB)
What follows are some sermon series I found on a local mega-church’s
homepage.
Discovering Fast Start Potential – “Unleash the potential of fasting in your
life and discover amazing benefits to your physical, emotional, relational,
financial, and spiritual health.”
Winning At Life – “Nobody really wants to be the biggest loser in all of
life. What we all want is to win in the things that matter most! The book of James
gives us practices and principles to run the race Gods way and, ultimately, to win
at life!”
Operating in Fast Start Power – “The vision of faith is the vision to see
God’s promises fulfilled in your life. Discover the path God has mapped out so we
can experience His power and see the impossible made real!”
Thou Shalt Prosper – “Although abused and corrupted by some, Gods
wisdom on financial matters is clear and simple. When you sow Gods principles
governing stewardship and generosity, you reap His blessings in every area of
your life.”
These are real sermon topics from a very real and local megachurch. But
there is something else to be said about these sermon topics. Their all law, law,
law, and more law. No Gospel here. No Jesus Christ and Him crucified here. No
foolish of the cross here. They are doing away with that cross stuff these day. Yet,
the people who preach like this and the millions who listen, think they are hearing
the Gospel.
The visible church, like the world in which it lives has lost its way. It has
replaced the words of God, sound theology, and the Gospel itself with the
philosophies and wisdom from men, 20 and 21 century wisdom which has
th st
turned out so well for western civilization.
The assigned epistle lessons for this and next Sunday are quite a contrast
from the nonsense being preached today in liberal and evangelical churches.
Replacing biblical theology with philosophy has always been a problem.
But once you understand why the Bible has been given to us and what its
purpose is, it is a pretty clear book, even if most of the Christian are not.
Christian theology and Christian preaching is “the theology of the cross.”
Christian worship, is a service wherein the Gospel is preached, Jesus Christ and
Him crucified, and benefits of Christ are distributed to sinners.
In 1 Corinthians 2:2, next week’s epistle lesson, St. Paul teaches that
Christian preachers, teachers, congregations, and worship services are to be about
Christ and His crucifixion. “For I determined to know nothing among you except
Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” This is the sum and substance of the preaching
and teaching of the Christian Church. This is what makes Christians, Christians
and congregations Christian congregations.
Unfortunately, in every time and in every generation that message has often
been eclipsed and replaced. It is not just church growthers and American
Evangelicals that do this. In the early 1990s, after I had been here for a couple of
years, three of our former council members and I went golfing. One of those men
decided he’d strike up a conversation with me about my preaching. The
conversation started as you’d imagine, with a polite, but undeserved compliment
on my preaching style.
That compliment was followed by the suggestion that I shift the emphasis of
my preaching to be more “practical.” What I needed to do, in his mind was to
preach more “to do” sermons. “Tells us pastor, what to do to make our lives better.
That turned out to be a rather short conversation. Be it in a formal worship service
or in our daily lives, we have a very strong propensity to replace God’s words and
doctrines with our own.
“For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but
to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” “For I determined to know
nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”
In the first century when St. Paul wrote the Epistle to the Corinthians,
having the cross as the chief symbol for a religion that preached forgiveness,
peace, and eternal life was foolishness. The cross was an instrument of death,
punishment, and Roman tyranny. It wasn’t even a symbol of justice in the mind of
the Jew. While criminals were crucified, so were political and religious
dissentients. People and groups that wanted nothing more than to be or remain
free, found themselves hanging on the a Roman cross. Crosses and crucifixions
had nothing to do with a religion of peace and grace.
There was a time in St. Paul’s life that he couldn’t imagine a religion that
held the cross and the crucifixion of a blasphemer as it central message. He was
one one of those people, he condemns in his epistles.
St. Paul had to unlearn everything he had been taught as an orthodox Jew.
He was raised and taught to be a zealous Jew. A man of strong character. A man
who obeyed the laws of the Jews. He was a man who thought true religious power
resided in a council of 70 men, called the Sanhedrin, and that the glory of God’s
power resided in the Temple.
He was given the religious and political power to arrest and kill Christians
because of their faith and doctrine concerning Jesus’s death and resurrection. He
was a man who once thought it was all about will power, obedience, and pleasing
God.
Then one day on His way to Damascus to arrest more Christians, Paul was
made weak and shown his foolishness. Jesus blinded him and sent him to a
Christian man. Jesus turned Paul’s entire world up-side-down. Suddenly the cross
was no longer foolish. Conventional wisdom no longer applied. The scribes were
no longer wise in the law. The philosophers no longer enlightened. All that
religious and philosophical education and all that work that Paul did to become
wise in the law and philosophy, no longer held any promise.
“The cleverness of the clever I will set aside.” “Where is the wise man?
Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?” That’s Paul’s way of
saying that the religious leaders and the philosophers of the age who regarded
themselves as educated, moral, and pious (as Paul once thought of himself) were
proved foolish by God in Christ.
The “Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach
Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.” It is
from here that St. Paul launches us into the mystery known as the theology of the
cross.
What is the theology of the cross? It is the theology of true faith. It is a
theology that finds God where He has promises to be, even though all the evidence
seems to be to the contrary. Luther gave expression to it in the Heidelberg
Disputation in 1518.
18. It is certain that man must utterly despair of his own ability before he is
prepared to receive the grace of Christ.
19. He deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the
visible and manifest things of God seen through suffering and the cross.
21. A theology of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theology of the
cross calls the thing what it actually is.
The Scripture teaches and shows that God, in the normal course of His work
in the Church hides Himself in suffering, in the lowly, in the ordinary, and in
sinful people.
Many today have replaced the authentic Gospel, the divine service, and
biblical theology with marketing, pragmatism, and more. Now, as then people see
God at work in the big, the exciting, and the spectacular. They think that sitting in
a large theater and watching skits, talk shows, bands, light shows, and special
effects is worshiping God. They think God is in those things and that is where
wisdom is found. They even think that when it comes to worship, they define what
it is to worship God, rather than God defining what it means to be His people.
While the masses look for great signs and wisdom, God teaches us in 1
Corinthians to see things differently. “26 For consider your calling, brethren,
that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble; 27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the
wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things
which are strong, 28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has
chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are.”
St. Paul just taught us that God is not found in the grand and glorious. He is
not found in the strong and proud. He is not found in the works and things done by
men and that attract the eye.
Instead, He is found in the weak, the foolish, the despised, the lowly, and
the base things. He is found in sinners who come confessing their sins. “A contrite
heart, O God Thou will not not despise.”
He hides Himself in the things and people, that most folks don’t have much
regard for. He uses things of little value to do away with the things that are held in
great esteem.
He joins His Word with ordinary water and makes the sacrament of Holy
Baptism in order to create children for Himself. He chooses sinful men, men who
aren’t in many cases all that bright to be pastors, vessels, ambassadors so that they
will hear your confession of sin and stand in the stead and by the command of
Jesus Christ forgiving you your sins. He chose to join His Word, His body and
His blood to the simple elements of bread and wine to give to you of remission of
sins in the Lord’s Supper.
Now why would God chose the weak, the base, the despised? We get that
answer too. 29 “so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are
in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and
sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who
boasts, boast in the Lord.’” Again Luther in the Heidelberg Disputation.
25. He is not righteous who does much, but he who, without work, believes
much in Christ.
26. The law says, “do this”, and it is never done. Grace says, “believe in
this”, and everything is already done.
It is all done because it was done in your stead by Jesus Christ. The
theology of the Bible, the theology of the cross turns everything upside down.
While the world screams about and demands power; political power, black
power, white power, women’s power, the power for self-improvement and health,
the power to generate wealth, the power to win, the power of this or that church
body or synod, the power of numbers, the power of the mega-church, the power of
American Evangelicalism, the power of charismatic personalities, and all the rest,
[while the world and the old sinful self seek power], the God the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit seek weakness and make the lowly.
God’s grace and forgiveness is not found in power. God is found here. In
places like this, like little Immanuel. He is found here in the church service. He is
found here serving you through His Word and Sacrament ministry.
Strength and power is overrated. In God’s economy, your weakness proves
to be His great strength. Don’t believe me? Well St. Paul had trouble with that
doctrine too, even after he was made a Christian. It took a while for St. Paul to
learn to live by the theology of the cross.
St. Paul had a weakness. We don’t know what it was. What we do know is
that Paul thought God expected him to overcome it and to become strong. Three
times Paul asked God to take away the weakness. “And He has said to me, ‘My
grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Most gladly,
therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ
may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults,
with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I
am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor. 12:10)
Thus folks, this pulpit is not for any other purpose than to preach the
foolishness of Christ and of Him crucified. It is not for cute stories. It is not for
conventional words of wisdom. It is not the place to preach the philosophies of the
day. It is not the place to preach works righteousness. It is not a platform for
entertainment. It is not the place to make you winners.
No other words are to be proclaimed from this place except the words of
the cross because there is no forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation in any other
kinds of words. While others seek to avoid the message of the cross, we glory in it.
“For the word of the cross is to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Amen.
May the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus. Amen.

People of the Cross

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