The Foolishness of Preaching - Preaching The Cross

1st Corinthians 1:21-24

INTRO: Good morning church. Every year many people celebrate an event they call the Holy Week and Easter. The focus of this event is on the last days of Jesus on earth and culminates with Easter Sunday, the cross and the resurrection. To some it is an obligation from the religious community to which they belong. They go to church because they feel they have to put in an appearance, but most of the rest of the year they do not show up.

When we began this series we talked about “the scandal of the cross”. In the religious world the reality of the cross is not often preached. I wonder if by going to an assembly on Easter some of these people are put off from looking deeper into the cross. A Baptist preacher once said: “Bluntly stated, the cross is bloody, it's an offensive message and it's a shameful death in the ears of the world”.

Death is a topic most people like to distance themselves from. The preacher continued; “the word of the cross is foolishness. In other words, it's nonsense, pointless, idiotic, and mindless. That is what the cross is to the natural man”. Perhaps that is why most of the year in many churches you do not hear the cross preached.

I. FOOLISHNESS.

A. That preacher said “the word of the cross is foolishness”. What is foolishness? What is a fool? What is it to be foolish? The synonyms in the dictionary give us some hints. These include: simpleton, dolt, dunce, blockhead, numskull, ignoramus, dunderhead, ninny, nincompoop, saphead, sap. 2. Zany, clown. 5. Moron, imbecile, idiot. 6. To delude, hoodwink, cheat, gull, hoax, cozen, dupe.

1. Turn with me in your bibles to 1^st Corinthians 3:18 – “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.” Interesting, I thought that foolishness was the opposite of being wise. Doesn’t Proverbs 1:7 say in part: “Fools despise wisdom”? Yet, here Paul says something that sounds different, “let him become foolish that he may become wise.”
2. Let’s look at 1^st Corinthians 1:18 – “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Are not those that are lost… perishing… the ones in need of this message? Why then is it foolishness to them?

B. Consider what some people think about preaching the cross.

1. They say; someone dying on a cross almost two thousand years ago has no relevance today. They are not interested, and they don’t even want to discuss it. Besides, - they might tell you, - there have been many good men who have died for good causes down through the years. Surprisingly this is also the attitude of some in the religious world.
2. A Dean of St. Albans Cathedral, Jeffrey John, said on BBC radio that the crucifixion of Jesus for the sins of the world is: “pretty repulsive as well as nonsensical [i.e. foolish] … What sort of God was this, getting so angry with the world and the people He created and then, to calm Himself down, demanding the blood of His own son? ... Anyway, why should God forgive us through punishing somebody else? It was worse than illogical, it was insane. It made God sound like a psychopath. If any human being behaved like this, we would say they were a monster.”
3. Dr. John Dominic Crossan, former co-chairman of the theologically liberal Jesus Seminar, made a similar comment in October 2000 when he said he finds it "an obscenity" that God had somebody else suffer for our sins and that sacrificing His own son was "a sort of transcendental child abuse."
4. Yes, for the unsaved and the unrepentant … the preaching of the cross is foolishness.

II. WHAT DOES THE BIBLE TELL US?

A. Paul says in 1^st Corinthians 9:16 – “…woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!”

1. Paul knew how unacceptable his preaching would be … but still, he preached the cross.
2. He knew the words he was saying were completely contrary to the spirit of the age. He came to them in fear and trembling. His message was alien to them. Many had never heard of Jesus, and they had no interest in hearing about Him. “Why tell us Greeks and Romans about a Jew whose end was crucifixion? He is nothing to us. We have our own gods and our own religions, we don’t need another!”
3. Paul wasn’t telling them “nice‟ stories, with fanciful lyrics and ear-tickling daintiness. He preached to them nothing else and nothing less than the Son of God who died on the cross to save sinners.
4. It wasn’t as if he didn’t know anything else, because he did. He was a clever and intelligent man who had been taught the deep things of his Jewish faith from a master, the Pharisee Gamaliel. He had an advanced education. … Yet, when the Lord saved him, he did not hesitate to become a fool for Christ.
5. Paul was not an uneducated man. We read in 1^st Corinthians 2:1-5 – “1. And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5. that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

B. That brings me to our text for this morning. Read with me 1^st Corinthians 1:21-24 where Paul tells us – “21. For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 22. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23. but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24. but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

1. When the apostle Paul referred to the “the foolishness of preaching”, he acknowledged that there were many who considered the message of the cross just plain foolishness.
2. I am not certain just what was happening among the Christians in Corinth, but we know they lived in a city dominated by Greek thinking and wisdom. We also know that the church there was one of divided loyalties.
3. There was some pressing need for the apostle to emphasize the cross of Christ. While the resurrection was central to the apostle’s preaching, we cannot escape the fact that the cross was always in his mind and teaching.
4. I would like us to think for a few minutes of some things in the context of the verses we have just read.

III. THE CONTEXT

A. The cross was to the Jews a stumbling block - 1:23a. Why?

1. In spite of scripture to the contrary they expected a militant Messiah. They cried “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' The King of Israel!” when He went into Jerusalem. (John 12:13)
2. We read the Jews sought a “sign” - Let’s look at Matthew 12:38-40 – “38. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.'' 39. But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40. "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”

B. We read that the cross was to the Greeks foolishness - 1:23b Why?

1. Theirs was the world of the great Greek philosophers.
2. Secular wisdom is what was highly valued among them.
3. The idea of a savior executed by crucifixion made no sense to them, just as it makes no sense to some today.

C. Preaching the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing– as we read in 1^st Corinthians 1:18a. Why was that?

1. To the Jews and Greeks of Paul’s time, they just could not get past their prejudices. In fact, Paul, then called Saul, was among those. He wasn’t interested in Christ. Jesus held no appeal whatsoever for him. In fact, more than any other name, he despised and rejected the Name of Jesus. Yes… he understood those to whom he was preaching because he was once as they were.
2. The Jews and Greeks had a lot of trouble accepting the idea of a crucified Savior. As in our day, so it was in Paul’s day … Speak to them about anything else, virtually, and they will listen to you, at least for a short while … but speak to them about Christ, and immediately the “shutters come down”. Every type of religion is given a platform, but if you preach the Gospel, you meet with aversion and opposition.
3. Look with me at 2^nd Corinthians 4:3-5 – “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world (referring to Satan) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.”[KJV] There is a personal choice involved and Satan is right there to blind those who will not believe. ... Failing to accept the benefits of Jesus’ atoning death is true foolishness.

D. Worldly wisdom leads to unbelief in 1^st Corinthians 1:21 – “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, …”[NKJV]

1. Worldly wisdom puts its trust in what man can do and provide. Many attend church to be entertained, to be made to “feel good”.
2. Worldly wisdom does not believe in what it cannot see - or in that which does not seem logical or rational.
3. We need to remember Romans 1:20 – “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,” - unbelief is inexcusable!

E. In 1^st Corinthians again, look with me at 1^st Corinthians 1:26 – “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.”[ESV] The wise, the powerful and the noble of the world are rarely among the called.

1. It is a sad, true fact confirmed in human experience, yet it is not to say that none of the wise and mighty are called for we find there was Dionysius at Athens (Acts 17:34); Sergius Paulus, the proconsul of Crete (Acts 13:6-12); the noble ladies at Thessalonica and Berea (Acts 17:4,12); and Erastus, the city treasurer (Roman 16:23).
2. When we are called we are called by the gospel 2^nd Thessalonians 2:14 – “to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ”[NKJV] Paul writes that God called them by the gospel. The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ are the central facts of the gospel.
3. Are perhaps, those who reject the gospel simply “above” such needs as those the cross supplies? I’m thinking of the sermons on Solomon’s porch.

F. In 1st Corinthians 1:18b we read: - “… but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” In v.24 “but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” The preaching of the cross is the power of God to the saved.

1. The word translated as “preaching” is from the Greek word which means “to proclaim or to publish”.
2. We may tend to forget in this world which emphasizes entertainment, that it is the message and not the messenger or their eloquence which is God’s power.
3. Human wisdom is very dismissive of God’s truth for so, so many reasons - but the “poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3) can accept His truth and act upon it.

G. The idea of the cross is rejected by human wisdom. This morning I mentioned some religious leaders that were talking negatively about the idea of the cross. In 1^st Corinthians read with me 1^st Corinthians 1:25-28 – “25. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28. and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,” That cross, that thing of disgrace, is a challenge to human wisdom. “that old rugged cross, so despised by the world”.

1. I would suggest that the whole idea of the word of the cross is to bring one to faith. God explains something to us in Isaiah 55:8-9 – “8. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,'' says the Lord. 9. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
2. Think about baptism – it is so rejected by the wisdom of the world. I know of those who profess belief up until the act of baptism, and then they say they cannot see the point!
3. Human wisdom would design something much more elaborate, more “meaningful” or logical ... but faith simply acts in obedience to the word.

IV. THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PREACHING THE CROSS.

A. The world looks at us as fools, - and even in some church circles there are those who look at us as fools because… we hold to the Gospel and we continue to preach it. It is foolishness to them … but it is the message God gives His children to proclaim the way He has set before us. Yes, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but it is a message the Christ-rejecting world cannot afford—not to hear, and consider …

1. What is said in v. 21 is in part … “it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”
2. There is only one means of entrance into Heaven and it is on the basis of what Christ did on the cross. There is no other way of salvation, only God’s way which He purposed, and has completed, through His Son.
3. Therefore, each time we present the Gospel there is always, - a response. God’s Word is met with either acceptance or rejection. Either the Christ of the Gospel is accepted, or He is rejected; there is no “in-between”, there is no half-way decision.

B. How does the foolishness of preaching the cross become effective in the salvation of souls? If I was to stand and preach the Gospel with tears running down my face, would that convince someone to be saved? If I was with them in a room for hours and we spoke about nothing but their need to come to Christ, would that be effective? Is it about the methods we use, - how up-to-date, or how old-fashioned? No, we are clearly told not to attempt to use the worldly wisdom of words.

1. Here is how the preaching of the Gospel becomes effective … “it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” The salvation of lost souls is the consequence of God’s pleasure to offer salvation, - in other words, His will. The means by which His will in the salvation of souls becomes effective is through the foolishness of preaching the Word of God.
2. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter preached Christ. He spoke to the crowds about their need for salvation. Following Pentecost, what were the apostles doing? … “And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ” (Acts 5:42).

V. WHAT IS THE BOTTOM LINE?

A. Search the Scriptures and you will find preaching is God’s way of telling lost sinners they need to be saved. Ah, some say, we’re not in the first century anymore! … Yes, I know we are not, but what we need to realize is God has never instructed us to replace preaching. … Preaching has always been the method He has used to proclaim the Gospel.

1. It is not the plans, programs, or the latest techniques of men that capture the soul for Christ … It is the Holy Spirit Who draws the sinner to salvation through the preaching of the Word of God!
2. Advance another method, and you’re attempting to take away from God and apply man’s wisdom!
3. Lost souls can only be saved when God’s word is sown in their hearts, and then He brings it to fruition.
4. This is the Gospel He sets in your heart, and this is the Gospel with which He saves you. Through the preaching of His Word, we learned we were sinners in need of a Savior. We were led to that place where we would believe and accept that message. True salvation has no other source than God. It will never be attractive or appealing until through His word, He opens our blinded eyes to see it. It will never make sense until through His word He gives us understanding. It will only be “foolishness” and a “stumbling-block”.

B. What kind of people does God call to preach the foolishness of the Gospel? He calls those who are committed to it, and convinced of it ... the kind who know it is real themselves. It is not just the person that stands up here, it is all of us. It has nothing to do with titles, or degrees, or anything else... It has all to do with knowing Christ, and desiring to make Him known.

1. Christ, and all He represents, is the true wisdom of God – 1^st Corinthians 1:30 – “But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption ”
2. Because of the wisdom of God, we, (“the called”), are in Christ.
3. Christ and the cross are set in contrast to the wisdom of the world. The wisdom of the world crucified Jesus – but because of Jesus the called are seen by God as righteous, sanctified and redeemed!

C. Yes, we glory in the Lord! I would call to your mind Galatians 6:14 – “But God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

1. So many in our present world would dismiss Christ and scripture.
2. The world argues today for a secular society with no mention of God ... much less the cross. “The cross of Christ crucifies Christians to the world, by inspiring them with such principles and leading them to a course of life which renders them in the eyes of the world as contemptible, and as unfit for their purposes as if they were crucified and dead." (MacKnight)
3. But we are of the called ... and we will preach Christ and Him crucified ... and we will find our joy in the blessing of the cross.
4. It is the only message we are told to preach. From the moment of our conversion until the moment the Lord calls us home or comes for us – it is our responsibility to make the Name of Christ known as the only Savior.

CONCLUSION:
Of course, not every believer is called to stand before a group or teach a class … but every believer is called to make the Name of Jesus known. Some of us are tillers of the soil. We, by our actions or our words, help prepare the ground for the gospel to take root. Like those early New England farmers we find rocks in peoples lives that can hinder the seed taking root. By our actions and our words we can help to remove those rocks. Sometimes it is only one rock at a time, perhaps by a kind word or deed. Sometimes by finding a rock that is a misunderstanding and doing a little teaching. In the end, stone by stone, the ground is cleared and the seed finds a place to grow.

You don’t need to stand at the podium to preach a sermon. You can preach a sermon in your own home or in your work-place. The words you say, the attitude with which you say them, the opportunities you take … your friends may look at you and think you are “strange” … They might not understand or be able to make sense of what you are saying …

But you don’t have to use fancy words and try to impress them … simply believe and trust in what God’s Word says in, 1st Corinthians 1:17f – “… preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” … 21. “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” …

God has blessed us with many things; that includes the ability to choose. He has also blessed us with the ability to learn, given us His word and this wonderful universe to learn from. With the abilities to choose and learn, we also have the ability to change our minds as we learn. We see this all the time as we study the natural world and learn more. If one never hears the word their choices will be limited. Preaching the cross, be it with our words, our actions, our lives, is our joy and this foolishness ... the wisdom of God.
Folks, if you are here this morning and subject to the gospel invitation we invite you to come and let us know your need. For those who need to be baptized into Christ we would like to assist you in that need. If your need is prayers of your brothers and sisters we are ready to pray with you. However we can help you, we encourage you to come while we stand and sing.

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Adopted from Sermon by: Cecil A. Hutson