Title: 1 Corinthians 1:17
By: Dan Pancake
Intro
I am going to preach this morning on the preaching of the cross. We are going to talk about the cross again today. We are coming upon Easter two from today, I believe, will be Easter. We are looking forward, of course, our yearly celebration of Easter. That is why we are in business today, here in the church. We are doing God’s business in the church, because He lives. We sung that song today—because He lives, I can live also. Aren’t you glad He lives. I’m glad He lives. I am glad He lives everywhere, in every way. He is still doing the same work that He has always done. He is saving the lost, adding to His kingdom, blessing His church, preparing us for a place in glory. One day He will come again and receive us unto Himself.
1 Corinthians 1:17-23
17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:
23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;
We preach Christ. That is what I am here for today; to preach about the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did for us, in dying for us on Calvary’s cross.
John Wesley
I read this illustration some time back and I have used it many times through the years, but I like it. The great Methodist, John Wesley was traveling evangelists and preaching in America on horseback. One night after he had a meeting, on the way back to where he was staying; he was accosted by an individual that stole all of his money. Just as the thief was getting ready to leave, Wesely said to the thief, “Wait young man! I have got one more thing that I must give you.” The thief was startled that he stopped and wondered what he had to give him. Here is what he said, “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.” Maybe that will help you some day in your life, he said. Years, later he finished a meeting in another town and another place. Greeting people at the door as they went out, a fellow came by, a businessman and shook his hand. He said, “Do you recall that night that I accosted you in the woods back there and took all of your money and all those things. You gave me that one more thing.” He said, “Yes, I do. I remember. I remember doing that.” He said, “That one thing you gave me has changed my life completely.” Amen! He gave him back his money. God is good! Isn’t He?
It is through the cross that people are saved. The power of the message of the cross is the message of Christianity. Without the cross we have nothing to believe in. Of course, it is the cross, the death, the burial, the resurrection; it is all together. Right? It is not just one, it is everything. Of course, it is not the act itself, it is the person behind the act. Dying for our sins. He had no sin of His own but He died willingly for our sin. You and I know that we have sin. Would you say amen to that? Yes, we are guilty of sin but thank God there was somebody who was never guilty of sin, who died for the sins of the entire world and of course his name is Jesus. When we preach the cross, we are preaching the power of God to people that will believe.
Paul says in verse seventeen as we read it to you. He says Christ did not send me to baptize. There is nothing wrong with baptism. After you are saved you should be baptized. You should follow the Lord in a believer’s baptism. That baptism is a testimony to the world that something has transpired in your heart. The Lord has transformed your life and you are buried in baptism and raised again in newness of life, to walk with Him in a different style of life. Christ is our life. Paul said, “He did not send me to baptize.” That was not the reason he came. Paul’s message or Paul’s calling was to present the gospel as clearly as he possibly could so that people could hear the Word of God, the Spirit could convict their hearts of sin and they could be saved. That is the message today. I want to remind us again of Paul’s great mission of just presenting Christ to the people of the world. To the Jews it is a stumbling block and to the Greeks, it is foolishness; but unto those of us that are saved, it is the power of God.
Those of us that have been saved, honestly know that there is something to this thing. There are more than just words people are saying. It is more than just an idea that somebody came up with and started a great movement a long time ago that is still going on. That is not it. There is a person behind what we believe. There is a power behind that person that can transform your life from what it was to what He wants it to be. Aren’t you glad of that today. God has the power to transform and change our lives.
Message of the Cross
Paul was focused on this message of the cross. I have told you many times now; Billy Graham has his own channel. I think it is 467 or something like that, on Sirius Radio. If you get Sirius Radio, and you get that channel; you ought to go back and listen to some of Billy Graham’s messages. I am always amazed, when I listen to Billy Graham, and listen to all his different messages that he preaches. It really does not matter which message he starts on. He can start on any message. First of all, I am impressed with the simplicity. I love the simplicity of his presentation. I pray to God all the time. I don’t know if you do or not. He will send the world another Billy Graham. We need one. You know there was a long time in the church when we took it for granted. He was just there. Multitudes of people were coming to know Jesus Christ through his ministry and we just took it for granted. Actually, we dismissed it. We would see people coming to the front, chewing their gum, laughing, and having a good time. Those probably weren’t the people that got saved. There were numbers of people that got saved. The churches around America, and all over the world were blessed by what God did through that one individual. Now God took that one individual and blessed the entire world through a simple message of what? Jesus Christ died for our sins on the cross, and through simple faith in Him, you can go to heaven. He did it so easily. Didn’t he? Before him, there were other great preachers. There was D. L. Moody, Billy Sunday, the “sawdust trail” here in America. A lot of folks hit the “sawdust trail” of Billy Sunday. Before them, Charles Spurgeon. Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher, the prince of preachers in England. Do you know what Spurgeon always said? When someone said, “What is your style of preaching?” He said, “Here is what I do. I take a text from the Bible and I travel over land as quickly as I can until I get to the cross of Christ. When I get to the cross of Christ, I stay there and let people know about the grace, the love, and the mercy of God that can save them from sin and bring them into the kingdom of glory. Aren’t you glad, this morning. God does send good preachers. I will tell you what is better than sending good preachers is that God goes with them and He convicts people of their sin and brings them to Christ. Preaching without the presence of the Spirit is meaningless. We must have the presence of the Spirit.
Paul’s Mission
Paul’s mission was clear. So, he avoided using human wisdom. If you read Paul’s writings, and you can read several books of Paul, thirteen books or so from the New Testament are Paul’s. You can read some of the depths of his thoughts and writings. You know he is an extremely intelligent man. What he is saying to these people in Corinth is I am not going to count on the fact that I know a lot of things in sharing this with you. I want to simply and straightforwardly present to you that Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose again, so that you can be saved, and guaranteed that you are saved forever.
Listen to what he says. I don’t want to use the wisdom of man. I don’t want to try to impress you with what I know. I do want to present to you what I have and that is Jesus Christ. It is good stuff. That is what Paul says.
Verse eighteen is the key verse. This is the verse that I really want to concentrate on today. Notice what he says here.
1 Corinthians 1:18
18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
There is a dividing line between people in this world and you and I have seen it. We witness it. It is a big dividing line. We can see it on a large scale as we look over the world. We can see that there are a large number of people, not as large as it used to be, of people of faith. What has happened to the people of faith? What happened to Christianity in America? Christianity was growing in leaps and bounds just a few years ago. What happened? I will tell you what happened. We have become more accustomed to our gods of this world—materialism, convenience, and pleasure. Maybe you ought to write that down somewhere because those are the key gods of America today: materialism, convenience and pleasure. Almost everything American life is about is about those three things.
Let me tell you something today, Christianity is not about materialism. It is not about convenience. Sometimes it is not convenient to come under the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. It is not convenient to know that your life is going to hell if you don’t give your life to Jesus; you are going to die and go to hell. That is not convenient. I will tell you it is also not pleasurable when you go through that. When you come to Jesus, and He forgives you of your sins and comes into your heart; He can transform your life. He gives you all of those things. He can bless your life with anything in life that you need. He is there. He is there for everything you need. Materialistically, He can bless you. Why? Because all the world belongs to Him. Hasn’t He blessed this church? Hasn’t He blessed America? Aren’t you glad we are part of this thing called America? We are glad of that. You can see that dividing line if you look at it. We can see it on a much smaller scale than that. We can see it in families. We really can. We can see that some in the family have given their lives to Christ. Some of the family said that is foolishness. Listen to what he says.
1 Corinthians 1:18
18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
The word perish comes from the Greek word Moria and it means; we get our word moron from. However, don’t take that too far. All it simply means is somebody who just doesn’t know. Since they don’t know, they condemn what they do not know. A lot of people say—nothing to what you guys believe. That is just silly. The Bible is ancient. It’s old. It doesn’t mean anything. Who can understand the Bible anyway. …come to know Jesus.
You get to know the author of the book. The book makes a lot more sense. Would you say amen? Yeah. There is that dividing line between men. He says with the Greeks, it is wisdom, and with the Jews it is a stumbling-block. The stumbling-block is Jesus Christ, himself.
The Gospels
Do you remember when He was on the earth and you read the gospels? By the way, the gospels are the life and times of this person named Jesus Christ. Therefore, you read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They are not confusing books. As a matter of fact, Matthew, Mark and Luke are so much in agreement with one another you would think why do we need three. However, the Bible includes all three. You will read John’s gospel and you will say, John’s gospel is completely different than the other three, but it is still the gospel. The life and times of Jesus Christ—you read these things, see what He did, see where He went, and hear what He said; You listen to what He said and I will tell you it makes tremendous sense if you think about it. Through the gospel record we get the idea of what God wants to do among humanity. There is still that dividing line between this one; He says with the Greeks it is wisdom and with the Jews it is religion.
Religion is a difficult thing to overcome. I know a young man years ago, he was part of a religion. It was a religion that was so strict that he would live for a little while then he would feel like he was backslid. By the way, when they were backslid, they were out in the world and completely lost again in his mind. So, back in the world for a while. I would catch him—I was in the world at the time, so I would catch him back and forth at that time. I would listen to him talk about what a great time he had in church. I said, if church is so great what are you doing out here with us? Man can come up with all kinds of things that you cannot live by. That is not the Lord.
The Lord does not give you something you can’t live by. He does not make it so strict that you can’t live by it. All He simply says you put your faith and trust in me; I will set you free from a life of sin then you can really live. Amen! That dividing line is still there. The Jews that is a stumbling-block to them. They still stumble over it today.
On YouTube, the best TV in the world, I think. You will find there from time to time that there is a particular fellow that I like to watch videos. I don’t even know his name. He goes around, generally I see him around Jerusalem itself. He will witness to these Jews. He will stop them and talk to them a little bit. He is a Jew, a converted Jew. He talks to them about Jesus being the Messiah. Almost every time before that person walks away; they come there with a great opposition to Jesus Christ. Then they find out that Jesus was a Jew. Also, that Jesus was not really against what they were preaching and teaching. He wasn’t against that. He just wanted to complete it and make it what it needed to be. Man had made it to where you couldn’t live by it if you wanted to. Jesus sets you free. You see that and see these people walk away saying, well, maybe He is the Messiah. I will tell you without any doubt He is definitely the Messiah. The Jews can’t get over that. A lot of people can’t get over a lot of stuff that is going on in the world today. However, to the Greeks and to the Jews that are stumbling and those who are calling it foolishness; the preaching of the cross to them is foolishness.
God Calls Preachers
I read that scripture to you. It pleased God that by the foolishness of preaching he wished to save men. I am glad that God calls preachers. I am a preacher. I have never really liked to call myself that. I really never thought so much of myself as a preacher as a pastor. I am a pastor. I learned that a long time ago.
We went with Calvin Evans back when I was a really young Christian. I went to Jamaica on a missionary trip with him. While we were there he would say where do you want to go? Therefore, we went this one little church and the next day he would say, where do you want to go tonight, Danny? I said I would like to go back to the same church. He said, why do you want to go back to the same church. I said, I don’t know. I just want to go back to the same church. He said, all week where do you want to go. I said, I want to go back to the same church. He said, they would probably like to hear somebody different. I said, they probably would. That is where I would like to go. I realized then what it was. I liked preaching to the same group all the time. I have that gift of irritating the same people; over and over again, week after week. No. I have that pastor, teacher gift. I figured that out along the way. I am a pastor. I thank God that He calls preachers. I know there are some preachers that left a dark mark on the ministry. I know that. The fact of the matter is that all of us sin and come short of the glory of God. I know that.
God chose to save me and through the foolishness of preaching. Now it didn’t say the foolishness of preaching. He didn’t say that. I think there are a lot of folks that are doing that. He says, the foolishness. Why does it seem foolish? Because to the world it seems like something not wanted, not agreed with lifestyle therefore, it is foolishness to me. I will tell you when your soul is in the balance, when your heart is broken, when hard times come and difficult things happen in your life; you realize I am all alone in this world. If I don’t have God, I am all alone in this world. Are you with me today, church?
I know we have each other. We have our families. I will tell you there are times in the midst of a crowd you know it. You are all alone. You don’t have to be all alone. There is a God in heaven that loves you. A Savior that died for you and me on the cross, to save us from our sins.
Paul says, I boldly preach the cross. I believe the cross is God’s greatest declaration to humanity. Through the cross God says, “I love you.” If the cross says anything; God says, “I love you.” Now I know there are have been all kinds of things said about love. In our American society, we have it all messed up about what real love is and what real love isn’t. When God loves, He loves with a real love. It is genuine. When we use that word “Love” of course, it is agape. That is the highest form of love. Agape love always wants what is best for the other person, the person that is loved. If you have a wife you love like that, you know you want what is best for her. She has a husband. She wants what is best for her too. (laughter) …and him. Agape love. That wonderful agape love, that thing that is higher than any. It says here, God so loved the world. He loves you more than anything in the world.
John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
We know that wonderful verse. Here is another verse.
1 John 4:10
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Not that we loved God, but that God loved us and gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, not for our sins only, but the sins of the whole world. What is the propitiation? It is the payment for sin. God loved you. He made Jesus the payment for sin. God declares through the cross, I love you. God declares through the cross that “…my grace is sufficient for you.”
Many people come to Christ. When I got saved, perhaps before you got saved, I felt like—I don’t know if God wants to save me or not. I don’t know if I am even savable. My life was so filthy. My life was a black mark on white sheet of paper. My life was filthy. My mind was filthy. My mouth was filthy. My thoughts were filthy. When I came to Jesus Christ, I had all kinds of doubts as to whether He could save me. Are you with me today? The wonderful thing is when I came to Him; I found out that His grace was sufficient for a guy named Dan Pancake. He can save to the uttermost, all that come unto God by Him, he says, in Hebrews 7:25. His grace is sufficient for us.
Hebrews 7:25
25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Ephesians 2:8
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
I have to earn my way to heaven. No, No, No, No. You go to heaven because you come to Jesus and say, Lord, forgive me of my sins, and He gives you the gift of salvation. He gives it to you. It’s yours!
John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
He gives you this gift. He gives it to you everlastingly. He gives it to you. It’s yours. He gives it to you, by grace. The cross says my grace is sufficient for you. However, the cross also says, our Savior is holy. Did you know that? Jesus was really, if you look at it—Shannon mentioned this morning, while he was talking to you about the law and the sacrificial system under the law and the innocent animals that had to die. Their blood was sprinkled. It was all a symbol or a type of what was going to come later. It symbolized the coming of the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. He would come and give his life and his precious blood would be sprinkled, not on the altars of men but on the glorious altar in heaven itself, therefore to obtain salvation for all of us, who would believe in Him. His holy blood. He is the fulfillment of that sacrificial system. He is the last. There is no need for it anymore. It is done. It is over. He died for our sins on the cross. He spent three days in the grave, then on the third and glorious day, He got up again. He raised from the dead! Anybody here? Praise the Lord!
We are going to celebrate that more a little later on. Therefore, it is a declaration of His holiness. The Bible tells us: for we see Jesus who is made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became Him for whom were all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons into glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. The cross, the work of the cross, was a holy work. God declared that my sacrifice is the only real perfect sacrifice that has ever been given for sins. Are you still with me today. That is what He does. Then the cross is the declaration of God’s power. It didn’t look powerful. It didn’t look it at all.
Hebrews 9:26
26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
I didn’t quote that correctly. Listen. As you go through the suffering of Jesus, you find out that it did not look strong. It did not look powerful. He was scourged. He looked weak when that was happening. He was beaten in the face by those that were around Him. He was spit on by others. He couldn’t do anything to stop that. They plucked the hair out of face. It tells us in Isaiah 50. They mocked Him and made fun of Him as hung on the cross. Before He hung on the cross, they striped Him naked as they hung Him there. Then they nailed Him to the cross. If you looked at, it looks very weak. He looks like He died in weakness. They took Him down from the cross and wrapped Him, then put Him in a tomb. Then that morning came when the ladies went out to anoint the body. You remember what happened. Then that glorious angel from above said, “Why seek ye the living among the dead?” He is not here. He is risen. You and I have a risen Savior. You can’t find His grave today because He is not there. Amen! He is risen! The message of the cross is a powerful message because Jesus Christ died for us. He gave everything He had for you and I. Furthermore, He raised in glorious power and is now seated at the right hand of God in the heavens to make intercession for you. Glory to God! Aren’t you glad for the cross today?
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a lot of things that men like to brag about today. Amen!
Friend Story
I had a friend one time; he did not have anything else to brag on. I told you this before. He bragged on his teeth. He did have nice teeth. (laughter) Well, he didn’t have anything, so he bragged. He had beautiful teeth. He did! He had a nice bunch of comperes. I saw him not too long ago. He is already gone too, by the way. I did his funeral sometime back there. As I seen him, he did not have a tooth in his head. We can brag on things that don’t last.
Men like to glory in something. I love to watch football. We guys like to watch sports, some of them. They scored a touchdown and acted like they had never been in the endzone before. They jump up and down. Men like to brag. However, we don’t have a thing to brag about. Some people are really talented. However, that talent is a gift from God. It really is.
Boast About Jesus
Here is what you and I ought to boast in. God loved us. Christ died for us. Jesus Christ died for Dan Pancake. He died for you. He did not stay dead. He also got up for you. He came out of that grave. He said, “No man takes my life. I lay it down of myself. I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again. This commandment I have received of my Father.” He tells us that in the gospel of John. Now that is true. He did that. Nobody else in this world can ever say they were dead and I just got up of my own free will. Jesus did. That guarantees when you put your faith in Him, you are going to heaven. Are you going to heaven? I said are you going to heaven? There is only one way to get there. Right? Jesus Christ.
I am almost done.
Let me quit with this.
Story
Harry Ironside was a great pastor of the Moody Church many years. J. Vernon McGee—I don’t know if any you knew J. Vernon McGee, or listened to him years ago. So, he’s been gone a long time. He was a great teacher. He loved Harry Ironside. Harry was his mentor. Harry was a great preacher at Moody’s church. One day, in the city of Chicago where he pastored; there was a Salvation Army meeting going on, and Harry stopped by to visit with them. They recognized him and seen that he was there and called him up to the stage. They said, “Give your testimony.” So, he did. He told them how the Lord saved his soul, and changed his life, and come into his heart and his whole life was completely different. He noticed while he was talking there was a guy in the crowd who had a white card in his hand and he was writing stuff down. It was a small crowd. He said, when he was done that guy came up to him and said I want to challenge you to a debate. Ironside said, “Okay. Sure.” What do you want to debate about? The guy says, “I’m an agnostic. I am not sure if there is a God or not, he says. I don’t believe anything about what you are teaching.” Ironside said, “Okay. We will debate.” He was a professor at one of the local colleges. He said, “We will set this date right here. This will be the day we debate. We will set a time and we will debate.” He said, “Okay. But before we debate, here is what I want you to do.” Ironside said to him, “Here is what I want you to do. You bring one person, a man whose life has been transformed and changed completely by what you believe, then you find one woman and bring her that her life’s been transformed and changed by not believing in God, and believing what you believe.” He said, “On the other hand, I am going to bring one hundred people with me who are going to testify that they have been changed, their lives have been transformed by the power of God. Then I will debate you. I will put them on the stage with me and you put the people on the stage with you and we will debate.” He said, “I’m not going to do that.” Why wouldn’t he want to do that? Because nobody has ever been changed by sin except for the worse. Everybody that has ever known Jesus Christ has been changed. Their lives are transformed. They are not the same person they were. They are not who they used to be. Yes, they look the same. Yes, their body is the same. I will tell you on the inside, something wonderful has happened and they are no longer who they used to be. They are a new creature in Christ Jesus. All things have passed away and all things have become new. How can you say that? I am a witness to that.
In this group right here, there are least fifty people who could say the same thing. God has transformed my life. He will do the same for you.
God Will Change Your Life
If you are in this room today, you don’t know Jesus; God can transform your life. You say, I don’t know if there is anything to this or not. I have to be honest with you. Before I got saved, I was hoping there was something to it but I wasn’t sure. I knew what I was doing was wrong. I knew I did not want to keep living the way I was living. When I came to Jesus and He forgave me of my sins—how did you know He forgave you of your sins? I can’t even begin to explain that. I just know that I know. Anybody a witness to that. I just know that I know that He forgave me of my sins. Since He forgave me of my sins; I know He will forgive anybody of their sins. He can make your life different. How does He do that? He does it little by little as you continually live for Him and apply yourself to His Word, study His Word, go to church and fellowship with God’s people. God will change your life.