Rev. Ron Sumners
Paul, by today’s standards, was a poor choice for a missionary. He was bull-headed, opinionated, pompous, conceited, intolerant, vain, boisterous, proud and uncompromising.
It doesn’t seem that God would choose such a man to be his chief spokesman in the days of the early Church. It takes a diplomat, a tactful tread-lightly arbitrator to bind together different factions and come to a mutual understanding. It takes much planning, and theme preaching, and special campaigns to get people to move in a certain direction, doesn’t it?
But Paul did anything but approach the factions of the early Church in that way. Paul was an uncompromising dynamo because he had authority. And his authority was this: He placed all his faith, and trust, and hope, and effort, and talent in confidence of the power of one single event; the Cross of Jesus Christ.
This is the core of the Gospel. Paul had authority because he preached “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Paul didn’t worry about hurting people’s feelings, or preaching what people wanted to hear on the fringes of the Gospel to avoid conflict. He preached Jesus Christ crucified, buried, and raised again, and everything else stood under the all-encompassing light of that event. The Cross! This morning we stand under its shadow.
Paul could have gloried in a lot of things. He was wealthy by inheritance. He chose the life of a tentmaker and poverty. He was a Roman citizen; he was educated under Gammarid, the finest of all Rabbinical teachers. He held a high position with the Sanhedrin. He was the personal friend of men in high places (which saved his life more than once). He had a miraculous conversion experience where God singled him out as one chosen for a special mission. He had the ability to draw people to him as he spoke; he was evidently a tremendous orator. But Paul said, “I glory in the Cross.” The Cross was the central event in the life of Paul. The Cross, where the sacrifice was made. The Cross, where God-man showed his redeeming love; the Cross, where the weight of guilt and sin for all time hung transfixed between Heaven and Earth; the Cross, where a man suffered and bled and died that we might live. The reality of the Cross burned its imprint into Paul’s soul and purged his heart and made him a new creature under God. No wonder he gloried in nothing except the saving sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross.
The cross, all through the centuries, has been a symbol of love, and has been given as a charm or pendant to loved ones - as a symbol of hope as a crucifix clutched by a dying soldier - as a symbol of power, embellishing the shields of Richard's warriors as they waged the Holy Crusades. We use the cross today as a charm, an ornament, a structure on the steeple saying to the world, “There’s a place of worship down here.”
Everyone recognizes the Cross. But what does it say to us? Does it speak to us in the same way that it did to Paul? Can you say this morning, “God forbid that I should glory save the Cross of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?” This is not a rhetorical question. That is the question that determines whether this or any other church is alive and vibrant and aflame for God or fat, satisfied, and stagnant. Dearly beloved, the message of the gospel and the message of the Church to a world alienated from God is the Cross!
We have many things that we can glory in in this church. We have one of the most beautiful sanctuaries anywhere. We have a lovely location and stand as a visible witness to God for all those who look at the Mountain. We have a wonderful pastor and music leader. We have many dedicated professional people in our membership. We give generously to missions. Our WMU and Brotherhood are active and strong. We have the best food served anywhere at our Church meals. Indeed, we have a lot to be proud of. This is a good and growing church.
I love this church and it is my home, but if we glory in ourselves and our own goodness we will die! Our beautiful location cannot save a man’s soul; our active Church program of itself cannot touch the hardened heart of the sinner. Only the Cross of Jesus Christ can do that. And it’s the only message we have. There are other things that are important, but the Cross is the heart and soul of the Gospel.
Too long, preachers, like me, have majored on the minors. While we bore our people to apathy with theological minutia, there are people within our own congregation starving for the meat of the Gospel. While we’ve preached Jesus as the good moral teacher and all around “good guy” people have died within earshot of the church without hearing that Jesus Christ is our Savior!
We wonder why so many people have gone into the charismatic churches. Most of their worship seems so irrational to us. Beloved, a starving man is not rational, he’s hungry. He’s looking for nourishment. If we’d preach the Gospel people wouldn’t have to look. They’d be filled in their own church.
What is the message of the Cross? What does it say to us?
It tells us that the only way of salvation is through Jesus Christ. “There is no other name under Heaven or Earth whereby you might be saved,” “I have come to you that you might have life, and have it abundantly.” “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord.” You may be saying right now, “Ron sure is quoting a lot of scripture.” You’re right. I am. And it’s spiritual food. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling better already.
The Cross says that the only way that a man can be saved from his sinful self is to look back across the centuries and see Jesus hanging at Golgotha and say, “Oh God! It should have been me!” We all need to realize again and afresh this morning that, that one act was efficacious for us all. He died for all the world, yet He died just for me. He died just for you. And the realization of that fact right now fills me with awe, and wonder, and gratitude. I feel like saying with the hymn writer, “Why should He love me so? Why should my savior to Calvary go? Why should He love me so?”
That leads me to the second thing the Cross tells us. God loves you! You may be so mean that everyone associated with you hates being around you, but God loves you. You may not even love yourself, and many people do hate themselves, but God loves you. He proved it. He did something! Love is only real when it is shown. Don’t tell me you love me, show me! And God showed us by giving His only Son to die, to suffer hurt and humiliation and the grave. I know I’m not worthy of the sacrifice. But I accept it as the redemptive act of my salvation, because God loves me. As rebellious and hateful and ungrateful as I am. He loves me! And He love you too!
The Cross is also the turning point in our lives. Once we’ve fallen under the shadow of the Cross we can never be the same. Paul said it this way, “the world is crucified to me and I unto the world.” Paul became a new creature and from that moment on the Damascus road his life followed a new path. He kept his eyes on the Cross and followed where it led. Jesus told the parable of a man plowing in the field. The only way to plow a straight furrow is to keep your eyes ahead to see were you are going. When you look back you lose control and the furrow becomes crooked. How much our Christian life is like that. When we accept Jesus Christ, we become new creatures and if we try to hold on to the old habits and godless ways we’ll get all crooked. You cannot serve God and man at the same time.
Finally, the Cross tells us that there’s something wrong with us. It took the best God had to ransom us. The Cross shows the depth of human sin. It took God’s own Son to balance the scales. The story is told of a wealthy man who had a little girl. She was the apple of his eye. He loved her and probably indulged her too much, but he did it through love. The child became ill.
The man rushed his daughter to the doctor and the diagnosis was given. She had a terminal illness. The man took her to doctor after doctor, each confirming the diagnosis. One day he heard of a doctor in Switzerland who had developed a treatment for the disease. The process was long and very expensive, but there was hope. The man sold his business and took his daughter to see the doctor. It took all he had, but his daughter was made well. This story not only shows us how much the father loved the little girl, but that there was something terribly wrong with her. The doctors she went to were good, they just didn’t have the cure. Only the one physician could save her.
This morning you may have never responded to the message of the Cross. But it has to be your own decision. Sunday School teachers, parents, friends, pastors are all good physicians, but only the Great Physician can cure the terminal illness of separation from God.
A young preacher started at his first pastorate and within six months his church had grown from 50 to 150 members. The older pastors invited him to speak at the yearly associational convention to share the secret of the church’s tremendous growth. The young preacher looked at the older, wiser men and said, “I haven’t been to seminary yet, and I can’t read the Greek.
When I came to the Church it didn’t have enough money to buy Sunday School literature, now we go over budget every week.” “We know,” said one of the pastors. “How did you do it? What program did you use? What theme have you been using?” The young man said “I’ve been doing the only thing I know how to do. I just get in that pulpit and brag on Jesus.”
When was the last time you bragged on Jesus? This morning, this very moment, can you say, “I glory only in the Cross of Jesus Christ?” When was the last time the Cross burned into your heart? Do you feel the Spirit right now? If you do, it’s that same Jesus who died so you can live!
The only message I had to preach today was, “God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross.”
The Cross. The Cross of Jesus Christ! What do you glory in?
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