I want to talk this afternoon about the
cross. To some, it represents the power and the mercy of God. To those whose spiritual
eyes have been opened know the cross is powerful because its message has
completely changed the direction they were headed.
But to others, the cross represents nothing
more than superstitious nonsense, foolish myths fit more for children and old
women than for sophisticated, intelligent and cosmopolitan adults.
Why does the cross cause such division? Why
do some proclaim with the apostle Paul, “I am not ashamed of the gospel,
because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes:
first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” (Romans 1:16, NIV), while others unwittingly
throw in their lot with those of whom the psalmist writes: “The kings of the
earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his
anointed, saying, “Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles”?
(Psalm 2:2-3)
Why is the word of the cross foolishness
to those who are perishing, some of whom have walked 50, 70, 80 years on that
broad road toward hell? It’s an important question because if we know WHY many
think that way then we can better understand how to speak with them in such a
way as to draw them out of their self-delusion and into the light of God’s
truth.
Speaking of self-delusion, as I prepared
for this message, I thought of former Beatle John Lennon – a philosopher in his
own right. Lennon wrote the song, Imagine. Let me remind you of some of the lyrics:
“Imagine there's no
heaven. It's easy if you try. No hell below us. Above us only sky. Imagine all
the people living for today. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only
one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one.”
Those who are well-grounded in the
Scriptures recognize Lennon’s philosophy reflects Biblical prophesies regarding
the End Times and the anti-Christ’s establishment of a One World government and
a World religion. The Bible talks about it in several places, such as Daniel’s
prophecy chapters two and seven, along with Revelation chapter 13.
The late Professor Stephen Hawking, the
eminent Cambridge scientist and cosmologist, had a similar view of heaven, of hell,
and of the supernatural power of the cross. The well-known atheist called heaven,
“A fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”
In response to Hawking’s thinly veiled
mockery of people of faith, John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at Oxford,
responded: "Atheism is a fairy story for people afraid of the
light"
What settles the debate for me between both views is what Jesus said in St. John’s
gospel: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people
loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who
does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their
deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so
that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight
of God.” (John 3:19-21, NIV)
Not that Jesus needs anyone to confirm
His words, but I can attest to the truth of what He said in that text. In my
late teens and early twenties, God revealed Himself to me at least twice. Let
me share briefly those revelations:
In 1969, as I waited at a red light, this
thought dropped into my mind: What if there is a God? I considered the prospect
for a few moments until I realized if God exists, I would have to change my
lifestyle. But I was unwilling to give up my ‘sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll,’
so, when the light turned green, I made a choice: God doesn’t exist.
Several months later, while walking
toward my apartment, I noticed an ant hill along the sidewalk. Hundreds of the
little creatures scrambled back and forth into and out of the hill’s opening.
And I suddenly remembered from my high school science class that ants are vital
to the earth’s ecosystem. Without their irrigation of the soil, much of the
earth's plant life would not be possible. That meant those tiny creatures were
part of a precise ecological structure. Structure implied someone who did the
structuring. But I knew where that thought was headed, and I didn't want to go
there.
When I rejected God’s question at the
traffic light, and when I walked away from that ant hill, I made choices – not
intellectual choices, but moral choices. I rejected God’s existence because I
was not afraid of the darkness. I preferred the darkness. I wanted nothing to
do with the light – and what would then become a compelling reason to change
how I lived.
John Lennon, Stephen Hawking and people
like them say that only simpletons and children believe the Bible to be God’s
infallible and inerrant word. But their argument is rooted in ignorance at
best. It is purposely deceptive at worst.
The authors of the work titled 100 Years
of Nobel Prize reported that between 1901 and the year 2000 more than 65% of
Nobel Prize Laureates identified themselves as Christians. Overall, Christians
won a total of 78% of the Nobel Prizes in Peace, 73% in Chemistry, 65% in
Physics, 62% in Medicine, 54% in Economics and 50% of all Literature awards.
Here are a few other great scientists of
centuries past who were all also great men of faith in God, the Bible, and in
Jesus the Savior. I’m sure you recognize some of their names:
Johann Kepler (d. 1630) discovered the
laws of planetary motion and worked out a method to map the movement of stars
across the galaxy.
Blase Pascal (d. 1662) is the father of
the science of hydrostatics (the study of the pressure that fluids exert on
other objects). Pascal contributed to the development of calculus and the
theory of probability. Pascal also created the barometer.
Sir Isaac Newton (d. 1727) is credited
with discovering the Law of Gravity, and the three laws of universal motion.
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) was
instrumental in developing the germ theory of disease. His research helped
develop vaccines against many of those diseases.
So, to say that only simple-minded
people believe in God is not only a specious argument, but it willfully ignores
the facts of history. The claim intelligent people reject the existence of God
and the reliability of the Bible simply proves the apostle Paul’s words from
today’s text: “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.”
The psalmist wrote it twice – probably
so we would pay attention: “The fool has said in his heart there is no God” (Psalm
14, Psalm 53). So, let’s turn our
attention away from fools and their foolish reasonings, and look now at the power
of the cross.
When John the Baptist sent his disciples
to ask Jesus if He was, indeed, the Messiah, Luke tells us: “At that very
time He cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits; and He
gave sight to many who were blind. And He answered and said to them,
“Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive sight,
the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised
up, the poor have the gospel preached to them.” (Luke 7:21-22)
I’d read that text dozens and dozens of
times before I recognized a powerful truth I’d not seen in earlier reads. Jesus
recited for John’s disciples the miraculous works He’d performed – healing the
blind, the lepers, the deaf – even raising the dead. And Jesus He added – “And the poor have
the gospel preached to them.”
I’m don’t think the Lord was talking
only about those who are financially poor – although there can be no doubt they
were also in His mind. The poor often live without hope and are often shoved to
the periphery of society. But there is also another kind of ‘poor’ to which the
Lord may have been referring. You will please remember what Jesus also said
during His Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3)
Poor in spirit – Those who approach the
Lord with humility – as the publican who would not lift up his eyes toward
heaven, but beat his breast and said, “Lord, be merciful to me, the sinner”
(Luke 18:13).
Poor in spirit -- Those who recognize
their own spiritual bankruptcy; who because of their sins know they have
nothing to offer God for their salvation – nothing but the blood of Jesus
because of whose mercy died that they might become rich in faith and in service
to their king.
Poor in spirit versus spiritual
arrogance. As the Lord said to His Father, “I praise You, Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and
intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was
well-pleasing in Your sight.” (Matthew 11:25-26)
The preaching of the good news of
salvation, of forgiveness of sins, of the promise of eternal life, of being
adopted into the very bosom of God’s family – THAT news, when it results in a
new life, is as much a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit as any physical
miracles – even if it is hidden from the arrogant and self-righteous who think
they’re too smart to believe what they consider as nonsense the gospel message.
The
Hebrew prophet Isaiah wrote of the coming Messiah: “The Spirit of the Lord
God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the
afflicted; He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners.” (Isaiah 61:1-2)
“It
was for FREEDOM’” St. Paul wrote to the
believers in Galatia, “It was for freedom that Christ set us free” (5:1).
He tells us that Jesus, “gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue
us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.”
(Galatians 1:4)
Have
You been rescued from the philosophies and the empty deceptions vomited from
Hollywood, the news media, educators, politicians, even from some church
pulpits? Have you been changed by the gospel?
Did the good news of Jesus Christ’s birth, life, sacrificial death for
your sins change your life direction?
If
you belong to Jesus, of course it did. The supernatural power of God through
the word of His cross could do nothing ELSE than change your direction. Indeed,
if the gospel does NOT change a person’s life – then that person never believed
the power of the cross. It really is as
simple as that.
When the apostle Paul told the folks in
the Ephesian church that they once were dead in their trespasses and sins, he
was not speaking metaphorically. He was speaking sober truth. They were dead;
Spiritually dead. They had no relationship with God. Here is what he writes,
starting with verse one of chapter two:
“And you were dead in
your trespasses and sins . . . and were by nature children of wrath . . .. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His
great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our
transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. Paul goes on to tell them in
this section that before God brought them to Himself, they were “separate from
Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the
covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” (Ephesians 2:1-12)
But by the power inherent in the word of
the cross, God made them alive – just as His power made you and me alive when
we accepted God’s gift of forgiveness of sins made possible through the death
and resurrection of His Son, Jesus.
No, Paul was not speaking metaphorically
when he told the Ephesian Christians that they were at one time dead in their
sins. It was the word of the cross that set them free from Satan’s captivity to
unwittingly do his devilish will (cf. 2 Timothy 2:26). It was for those
captives in Ephesus, and everywhere else that “[Christ] gave Himself for our
sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age.” (Galatians
1:4-5)
The word of the cross is and always will
be foolishness to those who are perishing – the John Lennons and the Stephen
Hawkings of this world. But yet that same word of the cross is the power of God
to everyone who is poor in spirit, who is humble before almighty God and our
Savior, Jesus the Messiah. It is God’s power to all who determine to live obediently
to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
At the end of my message to the congregation at the 55+
community, I played this song. I offer it to you as well in closing.
The Power of the Cross, by Keith and Kristyn Getty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BAPvqeFnjE
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