Evangelism and the Cross
God has a heart for the lost. (Slide 1) This seems like the greatest understatement of all time. To say that God has a heart for the lost, I don’t think that really grasps the extent of the matter. God’s connection to the lost, God’s connection to His fallen creation goes well beyond an interest, allegiance, or even passion. The lost are not one of many passions of God; the lost are a central consuming factor for God. Indeed the whole story God is unfolding through history is centered around the return of the lost to their Father.
Jesus perhaps describes it best in Luke 15:1-7, He says, ‘Now the tax collectors and "sinners" were all gathering around to hear him. 2But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them." 3Then Jesus told them this parable: 4"Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' 7I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.’
How important are the lost to us? Does the fact that everyday thousands of people die and go to hell consume or even concern us? We are called to have the heart of God and to seek the lost. Evangelism is the call of every believer, every follower of Christ.
Transition to Proposition
But as Christians today we face a cultural phenomenon that the Church hasn’t seen since the fourth century. Things aren’t like they use to be. In the western world we no longer occupy the center of society, we have been slowly pushed out to the peripheral and now must learn how to operate there, something we haven’t had to do for nearly 1700 years. We face a new dynamic that does not recognize objective truth, is pluralistic at the core, and bombarded by more messages and opinions than ever before in history. **Post on Religious T-Shirts at the World Cup... (Slide 4)
Things have changed, things are new, and I believe that when faced with the new, as Christians, we must go back to the old. By old I don’t mean our traditions and heritages, but by old I mean the enduring eternal truth of God. Though the world is in a constant state of flux around us, as Christians, we stand on a foundation that never changes.
Proposition
As we seek the lost our message must be Christ crucified. (1:23)
Transition to Main Body
I want us to explore this truth by looking at Paul’s words to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1&2. The first thing we encounter is the eternal reality of humanity, we see is that...
1. The cross has divided the world into two groups those who are being saved and those who are perishing. (1:18)
Paul says 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.’ It is very important that we allow this truth to settle within us. We must grasp this. Because of the cross of Christ there is no middle ground, we are either perishing or being saved, we are either one or the other, and those around us are either one or the other. So the first and most important question this morning is, ‘Am I among the perishing or those being saved?’ Before we can bring the gospel to others we must belong to it ourselves, and simply going through the motions and doing the right things does not save us, it is Christ alone. Do you remember the last time you confessed your sins to God and asked Him to be LORD of your life? Once we have dealt with our own relationship with God the next question is one we have already tabled, ‘what are we doing about the lost, what are we doing about those who are perishing?’
As we continue in the passage the next we see response of humanity to God.
2. Paul says in 1:22, Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom. (1:22)
The world puts varying parameters, constraints, or requirements on God, and Paul exemplifies these in the Jews and Greeks. Some people we will encounter with the Gospel will be like the Jews who demand miraculous signs. They say things like I will devote myself to this God if He heals my child. I will follow Jesus if I can maintain my independence. I will happily become a Christian if God proves Himself to me. I will turn from my sin and read the Bible if my marriage gets sorted out... I will acknowledge Jesus as Lord if He performs the kind of miracle, on demand, that removes all doubt. (D.A. Carson)
Others we will encounter with the Gospel will look for wisdom as the Greeks did. These people create entire structures of thought so as to maintain the delusion that they can explain everything. They think they are scientific, in control, powerful. God, if he exists, must meet the high standards of their academic and philosophical prowess and somehow fit into their system, if he is to be given any sort of respectful hearing. (D.A. Carson)
What these mindsets do is strive to make God all about me and not God. To put God on our own set terms and stipulations that He must meet in order to earn our attention. We are assessing God instead of God assessing us. This is what the world wants to hear, but this kind of Gospel is ineffective because it is stripped of its power and authority because God and the cross have been removed from the center of it.
The gospel is not simply good advice, nor is it good news about God’s power. The gospel is God’s power to those who believe. (D.A. Carson) The gospel is God’s power unto salvation. What we have is not philosophy, it is not doctrine, it is not theology, it is not self help mantra, it is not the secret to a happy life. It is none of these things, and we must not succumb to the pressure to make the Gospel into them, or allow the gospel we preach be tainted by them. What we have is the message of power unto salvation and eternal life for the world, as Paul reminds us in 1:24.
So we see humanities response to the reality of God and then next we see how we should respond,
3. Our message must be Christ crucified. (1:23)
Paul says in 1:22,23, ‘Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles...’ In the face of self centered world we must present the selfless cross of Christ.
The message of the cross and Christ crucified in the first century was so far out there that it truly appeared as foolishness. But that was the message they preached. What does our message sound like today? What kind of message do we seek to give to the world? Our message must be as scandalous today as it was in the first century. The message of the cross, in the first century, was so far out that it only made sense if it was true; the same should be true today. **Arthur Clip
We have a tendency to try to make the message fit into society, but in doing so we reduce it to a fraction of its potency and glory. It is not our job to make the gospel rational, it is our job to communicate the gospel effectively, and those are two different things. It is God who transforms the hearts and minds of individuals not us.
We have seen that as we seek to reach the lost our message must be that of Christ crucified. We have see the eternal reality of humanity, that there are only two groups those perishing and those being saved. We have see humanities response to the reality of God, seeing that it is our tendency to demand God on our terms and make it all about us. So we’ve see that our message must be Christ crucified, a selfless Saviour in the face of a selfish world.
But I want to answer one more question today...
4. How do we preach Christ crucified? (2:1-5)
Read with me 1 Corinthians 2:1-5. ‘ 1When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.[a] 2For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.’
Here we see how we preached Christ crucified. First we see that we...
Proclaim the testimony about God. (2:1)
If we want to preach Christ crucified and keep the cross at the center of our efforts we must learn to testify to what God has done and is doing for the world, and for us individually. One of our greatest tools in this subjective world is our testimony of what God has done for us personally. When was the last time we told someone what God has done in our lives; how He saved us, transformed us, and has been at work in our lives?
Being prepared to testify to God’s work in our lives will transform us as individuals and as a Body, and also make us an eye witness of God’s power and the transformation in the cross, to a world that is lost.
Next we must...
Focus on Christ crucified. (2:2)
We must keep the cross and the resurrection at the centre of our message to the dying world. This must be the core of all we have to say and how we live. And all our efforts should be measured against this goal of keeping Christ crucified as the central focus. If we go into the world and don’t know what to say tell them about Jesus, crucified, buried, and raised from the dead. Tell them of Christ crucified not only in history but also in our lives. Tell them the story of Jesus.
As I prepared this point I couldn’t help but think about the words of the wonderful hymn by Fanny Crosby, Tell me the story of Jesus...
Tell me the story of Jesus,
Write on my heart every word;
Tell me the story most precious,
Sweetest that ever was heard.
Tell how the angels in chorus,
Sang as they welcomed His birth,
“Glory to God in the highest!
Peace and good tidings to earth.”
Tell of the cross where they nailed Him,
Writhing in anguish and pain;
Tell of the grave where they laid Him,
Tell how He liveth again.
Love in that story so tender,
Clearer than ever I see;
Stay, let me weep while you whisper,
“Love paid the ransom for me.”
Tell me the story of Jesus,
Write on my heart every word;
Tell me the story most precious,
Sweetest that ever was heard.
This is what we need, this is what the world needs, the story of Jesus, proclaimed and embodied.
Next we see that we...
Should not fear weakness, illness, or a sense of being overwhelmed. (2:3)
Paul said he suffered from all these things when he proclaimed the Gospel to the Corinthians but it did not stop the Spirit from doing His work. Indeed 2 Cor. 12:1-10 reminds us that God’s strength is most greatly displayed in our weakness. The life of an evangelist is not always a comfortable one but it is a rewarding one. The Spirit within, the triumph of the cross, is greater than any fear or assailant that we can face, so we should not hesitate when the Spirit leads us into circumstances we otherwise would like to avoid.
Fourthly, to be faithful to our call to preach Christ crucified we must...
Avoid manipulating people. (2:4a)
Paul said that he never used wise of persuasive words but instead relied on the Spirit of God to convince and transform. As we have mentioned before, we don’t need feel the pressure of trying to concoct the best argument, or most eloquent speech, or quickest wit, we do not need to convince men of their sin, God does that. We are but conduits of the transformative force. **Presents... the wrapping really doesn’t matter... God doesn’t need us to manipulate or coerce people, He just needs us to be willing vessels of His presence.
Finally we see that we are to...
Proclaim and anticipate God’s transforming power. (2:4b-5)
The final key to preaching the cross and Christ crucified is to proclaim Christ and anticipate the fulfillment of God’s work. If we are to be effective evangelist we must believe that God will do what He said He would do. There is not value in going into the word with the message of Christ, whether that be to a distant country or to our neighbour, if we do not believe that God is actually God is going to save those we go to. I fear too many of our efforts fail on this point. Friends let us believe God for who He is, God, the great I AM who is capable of all things.
And now for all I’ve said this morning, I must leave you with one more thing, which I genuinely wish we had more time to talk about. The Gospel, the message of the cross and Christ crucified, must be preached with our mouths and with our lives, I am convinced of this and the Bible confirms it. Jesus said that we are to be as a shining city on a hill, and we all know light is seen not heard. Both our actions and our words must proclaim the cross centered message of Christ to the world. (Slide 5)
Conclusion / Appeal
This morning we are going to conclude with a very simple challenge to put what we have learned today into practical application. During this summer the church will have various outreach efforts and opportunities for all of us to engage in, but this morning I want to challenge us to something far more effective.
If you remember, a couple of summers ago you were challenged to get to know one unsaved person over the summer months. Well this summer we are going to take it a step further. Today I believe the Spirit is asking us all to commit to being used by God to bring one person to know Him over this summer. If stop for a minute and allow the Spirit to speak to your spirit, it is not as crazy as it first sounds. If you offer yourself to God, God will work through you. Imagine the impact this kind of commitment will make.
Cards have been prepared for us to sign as a reminder of our commitment today and I would challenge you I would challenge myself to bring our hearts before God and make this commitment today.
Let Us Pray!
