What Man Thinks Of The Cross "“ Part 1 of 2

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Would you take advantage of this opportunity of doubling your gift? Here's what you do. moodymedia.org forward slash matching. That's moodymedia.org forward slash matching, or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. and the core of God's redemptive agenda. On Running to Win, we've been exploring God's view of the cross. But today, we'll focus on man's viewpoint. As we'll soon see, the contrast is startling.

Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, we're learning about Christians, politics, and the cross.

In a nutshell, what does modern man think about the cross of Christ? Well, Dave, in asking that question, there are many words that come to my mind. One is foolishness. That's mentioned, of course, in 1 Corinthians. A stumbling block, also mentioned there. Unnecessary, that would be another word. Or a pendant to be worn around the neck. That's what people think of the cross.

They have no idea, many of them, have no idea of what was accomplished there. And that's why we here at Running to Win, even in the midst of a political season, want to remind ourselves of that which is most important. I've written a book entitled, Christians, Politics, and the Cross.

For a gift of any amount, it can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com.

That's rtwoffer.com, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And let me remind you that no matter what man thinks of the cross, it is still the power of God unto salvation. Whenever I'm on a plane, I like, if possible, to talk to the person next to me about Christ. This summer, my wife and I were riding together on a plane, and across the aisle from me, there was a woman who had a necklace with a cross. And ever wanting to be the person to build a bridge into people's lives and to try to find out where they might be spiritually, I said to her, thank you for wearing that cross.

I said, we really do have a great savior, don't we? And she looked at me, and she said, well, she said, I don't think that I maybe understand the cross like you do. She said, look at this. And she took the necklace, the pendants, and she put them in her hand, and she said, under the cross, there is a Jewish star, and behind the Jewish star, there is a little trinket to the Hindu god, Om.

She said, I'm in social work, and I've discovered that people come to God in many different ways. Well, you can imagine the interesting discussion we had for the next 20 minutes as that plane was coming into a landing in Pittsburgh, as I had the opportunity to explain to her that you can put the cross on the same necklace as the god Om and other religions, but in reality, they can never be together. To think that the cross can be combined with other religions is to totally misunderstand it, and to empty it of its power in your life. Can the cross be combined with other religions? Do we understand the cross if we think that that is possible? I want you to know today that the cross is a great divide.

On the one hand, there are those who believe in it, who have an eternal destiny with God forever, those who understand it, not just those who pray a little prayer, but those who understand it. And on the other hand, there are those who despise it, though they think they honor it. After all, they may wear it as a necklace, but nevertheless, they despise its message, and they will spend eternity elsewhere, and never the twain shall meet, ever. The cross.

What does man think of the cross? It is a scandal beyond irony that the very cross in which the Apostle Paul gloried, and which means so much to God as we learned last time, can mean so little to people, and that what God honors, men often despise. The passage I want you to turn to is 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

City of Corinth, situated, of course, not too far from Athens. Some of us have been there, and the Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the fledgling church, which was once again one of those islands of righteousness in a sea of immorality, and he talks about the wisdom of this world. You'll notice 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18, and he says, For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside. Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe?

Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for a sign and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, to them Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Why does he bash human wisdom like he does?

Well, there are two reasons. First of all, the problem rests in man's mind. It isn't that we're not smart, just think of pocket calculators, think of putting men on the moon, thinking of all of these technological discoveries, computers and the internet and viruses and all the other things that we have to put up within life.

Of course people are smart. The problem is that when they get beyond the physical and the mechanical and the scientific and they begin to speculate in that realm which is sometimes called metaphysics, they do not have the building blocks upon which to construct the system to figure the world out. For example, if you had only the world you would never conclude that God loved it. You could not possibly conclude that based on what is happening in Rwanda and other countries of the world and where you see earthquakes and floods and devastations. You would never know how God was to be approached.

You would know very little about him. And that's why you have today as people cut themselves off from biblical revelation, you have pragmatism and relativism and individualism because we are all like those ants that I've told you about on a Rembrandt painting who notice the roughness of the canvas and the change of color beneath their feet but they have no idea what the whole picture looks like. Men have a lot of knowledge and when it comes to the things of this world they have a lot of wisdom but when they speculate about God there is no way for them to possibly understand him. Problem is man's mind and the other problem of course is man's heart. We at root do not want to really understand God anyway.

We are at root running from God because we are desire driven. Take for example the issue that consumes a lot of our time, attention and our prayer, the issue of abortion. As you know all of the evidence, theological, physiological, philosophically, medically is on our side in this debate that pre-born infants are actually infants. And the amazing thing is though that there are people who see this evidence and they still take a different position and they still are in favor of the killing of pre-born infants under certain circumstances. Now why would that be when all the evidence is there? Because there is something within the human heart that says I can discard the evidence when I want to do what I want to do and believe what I want to believe because fundamentally there is an unwillingness to believe even despite the evidence. Remember that.

We are all desire driven much more so than we are willing to admit. Years ago I remember reading a story of a man who was going to hire a secretary. So he asked his assistant to do a battery of tests on three secretaries, their typing skills, their aptitude, their experience. And after all of the tests were done the assistant brought him all the information and said here's all the information. The man says just discard it.

He says I'm going to hire that beautiful brunette. In other words it doesn't really matter what the evidence says. I want to do what I want to do. That's the nature of the human heart. And so the world by wisdom knows not God. The little that it knows about God it discards because at root we do not want to be subject to the Lord our God. Now what I'd like to do in the next few moments is to show you scripturally as we look at this passage why it is that the wisdom of this world and the thoughts of this world clashes so pointedly with the message of the cross. And we pick up the text where I left reading where the Apostle Paul says in verse 22, notice it says indeed the Jews ask for signs and the Greeks search for wisdom.

Then you have to read verse 23 because they are connected together. But we preach Christ crucified to the Jews he is a stumbling block and to the Greeks he is foolishness. First of all the cross runs counter and clashes with the pride of man as represented by the Jews. The Jews sought for signs. The Jews were put off by the weakness of Jesus Christ. Far from being convinced that Jesus was the Messiah because he died on a cross far from that convincing them it did just the opposite.

They said to themselves who in the world would like to be aligned with somebody who's a loser. If the Messiah comes surely he is going to be killing the Romans. The Romans are not going to be killing him. Scripture says that Jesus was crucified in weakness. I mean there he hangs helplessly and nobody is delivering him. Who can believe in a man like that the Jews said.

He's weak. Furthermore they said give us a sign. You know they of course wanted a Messiah who is politically strong. They wanted a Messiah who would come and throw off the Roman occupation and all those taxes.

Every denarius that was paid was paid in anger and resentment to a foreign power. And they wanted political deliverance and they wanted it right now. Furthermore they said give us a sign that we might believe they kept pestering him as recorded in the gospels. What they wanted to do is to find somebody who could do anything that they wanted and any miracle that they would suggest. Just like we learned last time he said he said give me a sign do something and Jesus kept silent. And this reticence of Christ this hesitancy really bothered the Jews.

And they said if he's the Messiah why doesn't he do those big miracles that we think he should. Years later there was someone who came along who said that he would be able to part the Jordan River by his word. And he gathered a whole group of disciples at the Jordan River and commanded it to stop flowing.

As you've guessed it continued to flow. And then there was another man who took 30,000 people to the top of the Mount of Olives. And said when you are here at my command the walls of Jerusalem are going to collapse. Well the walls didn't collapse. That's the kind of a sign the Jews were looking for.

Give us something big. Jesus says there shall no sign be given to you except the sign of the prophet Jonah. Because as he was three days in the heart of the fish so shall the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth. Jesus said the resurrection is my final most complete the best verified sign you're ever going to get. Throughout the history of the church this has been a question. How many signs do we need in order to believe? There's been even a whole movement called signs and wonders.

This is a problem for the Reformers. Because when they began to look at the Bible and they began to peel away layers of tradition to get to the message of the cross. Rome said but you don't have miracles and we do. We have statues that weep and we have relics that multiply themselves and you have nothing. The Reformers said to us the power is in the message itself.

For it pleases God through the word preached to save those that believe. So there's always been that question. New Agers today they like to say that we have signs. I remember years ago when Billy Graham was in India there was a Hindu priest who challenged him to a healing duel. They were supposed to line up all these sick people and see who could heal the most the fastest. Well I think Billy was wise and not taking him up on it. This man may have had some very interesting alien powers by which he may have been able to pull off some quote miracles.

And Billy might not have looked very good in that context. But it is you see through the message that is preached and New Agers say we have the miracles. And people are saying today maybe that's what the church needs is a whole bunch of miracles. Apostle Paul says you know the Jews are looking for signs and they're missing the whole point. It's not that we don't have an explosive powerful message but it is the message itself of the crucified Christ that does the miracle and does the great work.

And there's a miracle for you. So first of all the cross you see clashes with our pride with our desire to believe in somebody who's going to do all these marvelous things that were expected when he was on earth. The cross also clashes with our wisdom. The Greeks seek for wisdom. Now if you know anything about Greece it gave us Plato and Aristotle two of the smartest men who have ever lived period. Nobody I don't believe has ever philosophically reached their heights. Whole dissertations today are still being written about Plato and Aristotle. And yet you know what Plato and Aristotle the Greeks generally they believed that God was a God of apothea.

You do catch the word don't you? It's the word apathetic. You see reasoning from the world to God they concluded that God could have really no contact with the world. That he was a God without emotion. He could not be affected. He could never be changed.

He could not possibly be interested in human beings. That would be to denigrate him they taught. And then most of all they said that there's no way that the word that God could ever become flesh because in their view whenever you had flesh which had changeability you had imperfection. So when John writes in chapter 1 verse 14 and the word was made flesh that phrase was like an explosion in the philosophical world of that day. Which said yes God became man and the Greeks stood back and said absolutely unthinkable.

Unthinkable it does not fit with our conception of God and with our conception of good and evil. Now there were two different kinds of Greeks there were the Epicureans who were of course the hedonists of the day. But they were also the materialists they were the Carl Sagan's.

You know the universe is all that ever was and ever will be that's where they ended. And then there were those who were the Stoics and they were the New Agers of today. They were into psychic energy.

They were into astrology. They were into believing that the soul becomes one and loses its identity with the universe in a great oneness. By the way you did hear about the New Ager did you not who went into a hamburger shop and said to the man please make me one with everything.

Am I going too fast for some of you? When the Apostle Paul was on Mars Hill and when he was preaching there he was preaching to both groups just like we do today. We preached to the materialists and we also preached to the New Agers. But there was one thing that they really did agree on and that was that salvation was through ideas. Salvation was through human wisdom.

Salvation was a matter of knowing things that we could figure out on our own. They were scandalized at the thought that God had to reveal to us something that we didn't know because after all we know enough number one. And number two they were offended at the very notion that God had to come to redeem man because we were that bad off. And their big thing was that man's problem is not sin it is simply ignorance and the answer to man is more knowledge. So they could not accept the cross and to them it was plain foolishness. So you see the cross clashes with our pride it clashes with our wisdom it also clashes with our values. Read this for consider your calling brethren that there are not many wise according to the flesh not many mighty not many noble. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong. And the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen.

The things which are not that's what he has chosen that he might nullify the things that are that no man should boast before God. In the early church there were many different converts in fact Pliny tells us that people were converted from all different walks of life. And you had some who were rich and you had some who were poor and some who were educated but by and large Christianity flourished among the lower class it always has. It flourished there not because it is intellectually indefensible but usually those who are going through tough times recognize their needs. And there were many slaves in the empire remember in those days and a slave according to Greek teaching was a tool a slave was a thing without any rights without any value except in so far as he helped his master that was all.

In fact it was incredibly cruel even the children of slaves if they had children were considered to be owned by the owner and the parents were not considered the owner of their own children tragic. But you see it was the remarkable truth of Christianity and the surprising good news that it is exactly those kinds of people that God often calls to greatness. Because there are not many wise according to the flesh some but not many not many mighty are called and not many noble. You remember Queen Victoria she said thank God for the letter M and she said that because she read this text and she was so thankful that it did not say not any noble are called just not many because she was among the called.

Since that time there have been some members of that royal family that at least looking at across the ocean it appears as if they are not yet called. But nevertheless it says not many mighty not many noble but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. And God comes along and takes a slave who is a nobody in this life and elevates him to be a somebody to be a son and a daughter of God Almighty. And Christianity taught that you might not matter in this life at all but you matter to God you matter to God. And that God sometimes to scandalize the human mind takes people whom we think are great and mighty and wonderful and they think that about themselves too. And he bypasses them and he goes to the needy and the downcast and the nothings of this world and he makes something out of them.

He loves the unlovely and he elevates the lowly. You know my friend in this series of messages of course I'm emphasizing the cross of Jesus Christ but let me also share my heart about another matter. In the midst of all of our political wrangling there's so much division among Christians. Families are divided, churches are divided, oftentimes relatives cannot talk about these things without arguing. Let us make sure that no matter what our political convictions are that the gospel of Jesus Christ should always supersede those and our unity in Jesus Christ need not be broken because of these differences. Let's not let the flag do or try to undo what the cross of Jesus Christ has done, namely to unify us in Jesus Christ. I've written a book entitled Christians Politics and the Cross.

We need to think clearly about these matters and it's so important for us to know that throughout history there's been controversy. Now for a gift of any amount this book can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to rtwofferer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now because I believe so deeply that this book will be of help, clarifying some issues, dealing with some of the relationships between the cross and the flag, I'm going to be giving you that contact info again. Hope that you have a pen or pencil. Here's what you do. Go to rtwofferer.com.

That's rtwofferer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. May I thank you in advance for helping us as we get the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world and we preach the cross to all who will listen. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614.

In the mainstream media, truth seems to lie with the majority opinion and so we're analyzing what people believe about the cross of Christ. Next time on Running to Win, some crucial insights on why man's opinion is at odds with that cross and some ways we can best communicate that cross to the world. Running to Win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.