Over the next chapter we are going to be looking at the work of the Holy spirit as he presents Christ and him crucified through the preaching of the gospel. We are going to talk about preaching. And I went back and forth whether to make this one sermon on the whole chapter or three sermons. And I landed on two. Why one sermon, because this chapter stands as a whole. It talks about preaching a crucified Christ (v. 1-5), who is revealed to us by the Spirit, v(5-13), and accepted by those filled by the Spirit 14-16). So this whole chapter is about preaching. Preaching the foolishness of the cross, in the divine power of the Spirit who opens the hearts and minds to receive Christ.
One scholar says, “Isn't it time to confess our need of divine power in our preaching?... We long to be filled with the Spirit, led by the Spirit, helped by the Spirit, sanctified by the Spirit, taught by the Spirit. We long to walk by the Spirit, bear fruit by the Spirit, pray in the Spirit, and preach in the power of the Holy Spirit. We bow low before God, asking for his supernatural visitation upon us at every level, including our preaching, for his glory in our generation.” This Spirit whom we long to be filled with works through the preaching of the Gospel as we confess in Lords Day 25.
The proclamation of the crucified Christ
1. Preacher
2. Proclamation
3. Power
The Preacher
“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.” He was attacking a certain kind of speech that drew attention to the person rather than to the subject matter. Everyone was learning the tricks of the day like “How to keep a crowd engaged and entertained.”
The preacher does preach to the church in the world’s way. I am not a motivational speaker. I am not here to inspire you to greater heights this week. I am not here to hold a “ted talk” so that you have some useful piece of information (If you don’t know what that is you can look it up later). Paul did not come with a list of ten things that will change your life.
The work of the pastor is not to please the audience or create a personal style of preaching. He does not arrive with pomp and applause. He rejects all preaching for the sake of effect. There may be a whole group of people that go home from the sermon saying, “Wow that was powerful,” without ever having been touched by the Holy Spirit of God. The effect of preaching is seen in the fruit of a changed life, not in someone saying, “wow that was powerful.”
That is why later in verse 4 he repeats and says, “And my speech and my message were not in persuasive (plausible) words of wisdom” This word persuasive appears only here in the New Testament and seems to have a more negative connotation. Like enticing. It is not that he is not concerned with truth, or convincing them of the truth. He simply believes the truth will speak for itself. Paul’s words here have deep roots in biblical tradition.… Moses claimed lack of eloquence (Ex 4:10); Isaiah had unclean lips (Isa 6:5); Jeremiah was too young for public speaking (Jer 1:6). In each case, the power of the speaker lies not in him, but in the truth of God’s word revealed by the Spirit.
Rhetoric was the basis of education and credibility in Paul's world. It was the social dividing line between the upper class of smart, cool people and the working lower class of simple, ordinary people. Audiences applauded the clever use of argumentation or language that could keep them engaged, or better – entertained.
We see it today in advertising, in political spin, in manipulative legal argumentation, in TV talk shows which fill the hours with words, without saying anything, in the late-night comedians, in pop music and dances that say absolutely nothing but say it in a way keeps us watching. How many times have you been stuck to the screen and after 30 minutes you realize what it complete waste of time it was. Communication has been professionalized, and it works. Why? Because it gives you what you you want. It is about you. And the sinful nature feeds on that. It’s about keeping you at the center. The wisdom of the greed was the subtlety of Socrates, the elegance and beauty of Aphrodite, and the strength of the Olympic competitors. It was about cleverness, power an style.
But there is a problem: it's all about self-display for self-glorification it is man centered. .’Now make no mistake, Paul was a gifted, articulate, careful, passionate, learned, fascinating man, but he knew the difference between preaching Christ and showing off. He knew the difference between winning disciples to Christ and attracting a following to himself. Christianity has many fans, but few true disciples. He knew the difference between getting the gospel out and branding his own recognizable way of saying it. He knew the difference between the Spirit and the flesh.
The Preacher must in a sense decide to crucify himself. Or as Paul says, “For I decided to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified.’ The verb decided is important. It was a conscious choice on the side of Paul.
And his choice was to preach Christ and him crucified. Christ crucified has become either a preachers slogan, a theological topic, or a religious ornament. But in Paul's world it was the most horrific method of execution known. Reserved for slaves and those that committed treason. When Paul kept preaching of Christ and him crucified he was speaking of Jesus death 20 years earlier. There was the immediacy of time, the horror of detail, and the depth of humiliation that is hard to even imagine today. To preach that the almighty eternal son of god, the anoincted messiah had been crucifed was to invite scorn from jews and Greek. It was foolish.
The reaction of greeks to the message of the cross is captured in a rough drawing on the wall in Rome in the 3rd century. It is a picture of a foolish looking youth worshipping a crucified man with a donkeys head. Underneath is written, “Alexemenos worships his god. In others words, a fool worshiping a crucified fool.
Yet, Paul decided to preach the cross. Why? Because he knows that the cross is the power of God and the wisdom of God. It’s the power of God, because only the cross makes forgiveness possible, only the cross grants the righteousness of God. Only the cross grants life eternal. And it is the wisdom of God, because only at the cross do, we really come to know God. Here we come face to face with who we are and who God is. And it overthrows the worlds wisdom. It reveals just who the master of the universe is,: Humble self-giving, tender hearted, suffering for and with the creatures he has made. Proud Jews and high-minded Greeks scoffed at the idea that God can be like that. Muslims express outrage that God could be humble hearted, as revealed in the cross. This is the message that the preacher gives.
So the message and preacher can only succeed in and through Gods power. preacher that has not been crucified with Christ succeeds only by human power. If we do all things to attract people, and not not point to Christ attraction the, as one preacher said, “we build churches grounded in the weakness of human power and the folly of human genius – which are sandy foundations for the future. But strong churches, rock-solid churches that can stand up to anything, are a miracle of the Holy Spirit, who empowers crucified preachers only.” Strong churches in other words outlast any one preacher.
We must note what Paul is not arguing for is some anti-intellectualism. Not at all. Instead, as one commentator states, “His settled resolve was that he would do only what served the gospel of Christ crucified, regardless of people’s expectations”
The preacher must be able to say, “I do not want to leave a legacy. I don’t care if they remember me. Only Jesus.” I was visiting someone the other day that mentioned something in a sermon and then as an aside, they said they did not remember who was preaching. I loved that.
Paul continues, “And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling.” Why? Because he was afraid of the people? Because he trembled at what they thought.? No, but he was broken. He arrived there just after being mocked in Athens. And he arrived alone, only later did Timothy and Silvanus come to him. Paul was so anxious that the Lord appeared in a vision at night encouraging him not to be afraid. He had to depend solely on God.
And ultimately it was in fear of God that he trembled. He knew they greatness of the message and the smallness of the man. it was again all about the message. Paul stood before kings, and judges. He stood before crowds that wanted to murder him. It was in the fear of God that he trembled. This fear and trembling lay in his sense of responsibility before God to fulfill Gods call to be an effective messenger of his grace.
He is not a performer he is a preacher. A performer after a while thinks “he’s got this.” A preacher never thinks that. And the moment he does it is time to step out of the pulpit. A preacher always enters the pulpit with a sense of fear and trembling – aware of his own sin, and aware of Gods holiness.
The message
What does a preacher do? Paul came “proclaiming the testimony of God.” He stands as only as witness – pointing to real historical events in time and space, that have eternal consequences for every soul alive. He points away from himself and what he is doing – to what God has done in Christ Jesus. A witness is never central – he is always pointing to someone else.
And what is this testimony of God? It is “Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Or it could be better translated “Christ and this man crucified.” It is the cross which we preach. It is the cross which is the center of history – and changes the reality of the past present and future. It is the cross where the fullness of God’s character is revealed. It is the cross in which we glory.
It sounds so counter intuitive – glory in a blood execution!? Yes! There my sins were judged! There my debt was paid! There Sin, Death and Satan were forever vanquished! There the good news for a lost humanity that was announced at Christmas came true. The cross which enables us today to suffer well. To fight well. To run well. To deny ourselves, and follow him. to lose our life, and in the process save it.
The verb makes it clear this is a once for all event with ongoing historical significance. This is not an event just that happened ages ago with nothing to do today. It was that day that your world started. You were there. You were crucified with him. A new human race was bought and redeemed and was started on that day. Paul says, “I was crucified with him.”
One author puts it well when he says, “'The gospel points to a bloodied mass of crucified flesh hardly recognizable as human and says to US all, “There is the healing of all your wounds. There is the satisfaction of all your desires. There is the wisdom for every question you ask. There is the victory that will open up a new future for the whole universe." The best kept secret in the world today is that life comes out of his death, joy out of his sorrow, power out of surrender, greatness out of ordinariness, opportunity out of setbacks. Jesus is the paradox. Hanging from his cross and rising from his grave, Jesus proved the wisdom of God's folly and the power of God's weakness.”
The way that he became the lion of Judah is by becoming the lamb that was slain. It is beautiful how revelation mixes these images in revelation 5, where in the span of 2 verses he is called the lion of Judah and the lamb who was slain.
This message does not fit with our time. It does not fit with a sinful humanity who believes themselves to be demagogues. But it is the message of hope for those who are dying.
So I ask you again like last time, “What do you come here for? Do you come here desperate to hear Christ? It was the evening of July 2, 2017 when I stood on this pulpit for the first time as your pastor. I preached this text. This is what I said then, and I wish to remind you of it so that you might continue to hold me accountable.
Here is a quote from that sermon. “This is the message (The message of the cross) that I am going to harp on again and again while I am here. On this first day of my ministry, I commit to each one of you that I am determined to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I want you to hold me accountable, as church and leadership —that I make a show of no other knowledge than this, to preach nothing, to discover the knowledge of nothing, but Jesus Christ, and him crucified, raised and exalted. Christ, and his work, is the center and substance of the gospel, and must be the main subject of a ministers preaching. My calling is to display the banner of the cross and invite people under it. To live a cruciform live.”
Paul felt inadequate. And why not? It is God's strategy for human history to expose that inadequacy and then replace it with Jesus. And in him is the power of life. The resurrected life won through his death.
The Power
Paul did not preach his message with entice words, “but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” This demonstration of the Spirit and of power stands in contrast with the “plausible words of wisdom.”
This word is only used once in the New Testament – and it refers to a type of proof – a demonstration that something is convincing. And what made this cruciform message convincing? It was seen in the work of the Spirit and of power – it lay in the results. Not in the personality of the preacher, but in God the holy Spirit. Its evidence lay in changed lives, living as part of a changed community.
And although we are going to get into this a lot more next time let me just say now that the preaching's power is found in the working of the Spirit. . The Spirit highlights Christ work. No human power can create that rock solid security that one has when placing one’s faith in Christ and him crucified. No human power can replace the power of the Spirit of God who reveals to us the thoughts of God. No human power can give people the courage to stand up against the cosmic powers of this present darkness. No human power can change the heart. No human power can bind a people together from every tongue tribe, nation, and language. The fact that these things are happening is proof that the Spirit of God is at work through the preaching of the gospel.
But no persuasion will convict someone to the extent that they will make a decision that will change the course of their life. This is not just behavioral change, but heart change. The heart change is proof of the Spirits working not of the preacher’s persuasiveness. The Spirit proves as only God can with absolute conviction that Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God, and that everything is is but dust in the wind- utter folly and weakness.
And the end result is “so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” It is so that your faith may not depend on the preacher’s technique, or his persuasiveness, or he elegance. Don’t think that. Listen for the word of God!
If your faith rest in the power of God this day, it is secure. Your faith is the demonstration of the Spirit powers in preaching. Note: I said faith is the demonstration of the power of the Spirit. Not as many charismatics will argue, tongue speaking or healing, or some other gift! No in the context on 1 Corinthians it is clearly faith in Christ crucified that is the proof positive of the Spirits power.
Where does your faith rest? May it rest in Christ, “the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Amen