Good morning everyone. We're going to continue reading the full passage of what we just looked at.
So it's 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18 and we're going to read all the way to chapter 2 and verse 5.
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.
For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
the intelligence of the intelligent, I will frustrate.
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law?
Where is the philosopher 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 know him,
God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.
Jews demand science and Greeks look for wisdom.
But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.
But to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom,
and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called.
Not many of you were wise by human standards.
Not many were influential.
Not many were of noble birth.
But God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the wise.
God chose the weak things of this world to shame the strong.
God chose the lowly things of this world,
and the despised things and the things that are not,
to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.
It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus,
who has become for us the wisdom of God,
that is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.
Therefore, as it is written,
let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.
Chapter 2.
And so it was for me, brothers and sisters,
when I came to you,
I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom,
as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you,
except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
I came to you in weakness, with great fear and trembling.
My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words,
but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power,
so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom,
but on God's power.
Amen.
Well, over the next few weeks,
we're going to spend some time thinking about seven different things,
which are really important for us as a church.
Seven marks, if you like, of what church life should be like.
And the first one this week is about being cross-centered,
and we're going to look at that passage together.
So let me pray as we do that.
Heavenly Father, we do thank you
that you have spoken through your word, the Bible,
by your Spirit in our hearts as we listen.
And we pray, please, this morning,
that you might help us to understand what you've written,
that we might listen carefully and thoughtfully,
that you might be at work in us,
not only as individuals, but also as a church family.
And we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, on June the 22nd,
which I think was the week before last, wasn't it?
It marked 75 years since the docking of HMT Empire Windrush
at the Tilbury Docks in Essex.
And I think there's a picture of that.
On that day, 492 passengers from the Caribbean
disembarked to begin a new life in Britain,
arriving here on the invitation of Britain,
but finding that the country that had invited them
did a very poor job of welcoming them.
So begins the famous story of the Windrush Generations.
And there's been celebrations, haven't there,
around Brent and Westminster I've seen,
cycling around,
as the significance of that story.
Now, I know that that story is personal to many of you.
It has a profound impact, doesn't it,
on the identity of many people
and their experience of life.
Because here's the wider principle, okay?
Here's the wider principle.
It's stories of origins and history
that understand how we shape our identity.
And I think if you can click onto the next slide.
Stories of origins and history
that shape how we understand who we are.
In other words, I am who I am
because of where I am from
or because of what has happened to me
or because of what has happened to those
who are like me along the way.
Now, I want to suggest to you,
if that's true this morning
because of Windrush
or because of the history of where you're from
or where I'm from
or where you went to school
or I went to school
or what happened to my family before I came along,
then I want to suggest to you,
if you're a Christian this morning,
then there is an even bigger story,
a bigger history, if you like,
that shapes all of our identities.
Not because those other things don't matter.
They have their own significance, don't they?
It's because this is more significant
and even bigger than any of those histories.
There is an action of God in history
which transforms who I am,
shapes all of my identity,
something which forms the very center
of the Christian identity,
which is not based on what I've done,
but what God has done.
And that's the cross.
Click the next slide.
So every week as a church,
we are going to gather
and retell the story of the cross,
the story of God the Son in human flesh,
giving his life in our place,
bearing our sin that we might be forgiven,
a story of a God who is rich in love,
full of grace and truth,
who moves towards the world that he has made,
not as we might imagine
in an awesome display of raw power,
raw power,
not moving towards his creation
in dictating a book to a warrior in a cave,
not even moving towards his creation
in the silence of a meditating monk.
More miraculous than any of that,
God moving towards the world that he's made
by becoming one of us
in the person of the Son.
Jesus, fully God and fully man,
coming not to be served,
but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.
Now, I want to suggest to you this morning
that so significant is that event
and the history of it
and the message of that event,
that if you're a Christian this morning,
before you are anything else,
you're a child of the cross,
forgiven, loved, accepted, secure,
eternally alive,
because in our place, condemned he stood,
sealed our pardon with his blood.
That's our shared history, isn't it?
It's why when you come to 1 Corinthians,
and look down at that if you've still got it open,
when you come to 1 Corinthians,
you find a church that is struggling and divided,
and the Apostle Paul seeks to answer their struggles
and their troubles,
not so much by addressing them specifically.
It's ages before he really comes on
to give any clear answers
to the questions they're asking.
Rather, he starts by retelling them
the story of the cross
and why his ministry is all about the cross.
And so for the time we've got together this morning,
I want us to look carefully at what Paul says here
and so that we can see
what does it mean for us as a church
to be cross-centered?
What does it mean for us as a church
to have this shared identity
of being children of the cross of Christ?
What does it mean for us as a church family
to be like that?
And I want to start with three things
that it does not mean
and then give you three things that it does mean.
I know that's slightly counterintuitive,
but it might keep your attention this morning.
Okay, so three things that it does not mean.
And there should be a slide for each of these, Neva,
so here we go.
Oh, she's chivvying me along.
Being cross-centered does not mean being impressive.
Just look down at the passage
and look at verse 17,
just before the section that Jen read for us.
Paul is describing his own ministry
among the Corinthian church
and says in verse 17
that it wasn't with wisdom or eloquence.
Literally, it was not with word of wisdom.
And that's because verse 18,
the message of the cross,
appears foolish and not impressive.
Now, it's not hard, is it,
to see why Paul says this?
Think about it.
At the center of Paul's ministry,
at the heart of the church in Corinth
that he started,
is the news of a man hanging naked
and dying on a Roman cross.
A man facing the most shameful death, no.
But a man who, Paul says,
should now be worshipped as divine.
There's a famous bit of ancient Roman graffiti,
which is teasing a guy called Alex Aminos.
I don't know whether you've seen it.
There's a slide of it.
Alex was obviously a Christian,
and the person who scratched the graffiti
paints a picture of him in front of a cross
where there's a man with the head of a donkey.
And the graffiti says,
which you might not be able to read the graffiti,
it says,
Alex Aminos worships his God, it says.
It's teasing it, isn't it?
What a foolish thing.
Imagine worshipping a guy dying on a cross.
It's ancient kind of satire.
But if we're honest,
it's not just the first century Romans
who thought the cross was stupid.
It's the same today.
Imagine tomorrow morning,
you're in a conversation with a colleague or a neighbor,
and they ask you that sort of unlikely question.
I'm trying to think about identity
and what it means to be me.
They're never going to ask that, are they?
But you just imagine that they do.
And you say to them,
I'm so pleased you asked that question.
We were talking about that very thing at church yesterday.
My identity is all about
a guy who hung dead on a Roman cross.
What are they going to say?
They're going to think you're crazy, aren't they?
I mean, if you say,
oh, no, actually for me,
it's all about living by Jesus values.
Well, they might recognize that, might they?
They say, oh, yes, yeah,
do to others as you would have them do to you.
I think that's a great thing for your identity to be in,
a great thing for you to live by.
But as soon as you say,
no, no, my identity is in the blood and the gore of the cross,
that's a bit weird, isn't it?
Very impressive.
And here's the rub then for us as a church.
We can either be, as a church,
we can either be impressive,
or we can be cross-centered.
It can't be both.
We can either choose to gather and tell the story of all of our achievements,
what we've done,
how well things are working out for us,
and how hard we're working,
or we can choose to gather around the story of what Christ has done on the cross.
So which will it be for us?
Impressiveness or the cross?
Now, I know, because you're all good Christian people, aren't you?
And, oh, of course, we want to be people of the cross.
We don't want to be impressive like that.
We want to be people of the cross.
But how would you tell if you were people of the cross?
It's easy.
When you get home,
ask yourself what you were most pleased with at church today.
Was it that it ran smoothly?
That we didn't start too late?
That Steve wore a shirt instead of a t-shirt?
That was a good thing for him to do.
Or is it that you were left with the very clear idea
that your only hope in life and death
is what Jesus has done for you
and not anything you've done for yourself?
Second thing that a cross-centered church is not,
it is not logical.
It is not logical.
Look again at the passage.
Look down at verse 19.
Here, Paul, talking about the message of the cross,
says that it destroys the wisdom of the wise
and the intelligence of the intelligent.
So much so that he says, verse 20,
where is the wise person?
He says, they've gone.
Where is the teacher of the law?
Literally, the Jewish scribe.
They've gone too.
Where is the philosopher of this age?
Where's the expert of the times?
Where's the professor who knows what they're talking about?
Well, she's gone as well.
Nowhere to be seen.
Beginning of verse 21 sums it up.
Let me read it to you again.
For since in the wisdom of God,
the world through its wisdom did not know him.
Here's the point.
The message of the cross,
being cross-centered as a church,
is the opposite of what you would be by nature.
And it doesn't matter whether you're from a religious background,
like the scribe,
or from a secular background,
like the philosopher.
The message of the cross is so countered to the way that we think,
that we wouldn't,
given all the time in the world,
we wouldn't have dreamt it up.
Why?
Well, because the cross defies human logic.
How so?
Well, because the cross doesn't say the sort of things that we think.
The cross doesn't say,
do you know what?
Work really hard and God will bless you.
It doesn't say that.
It doesn't say,
you know,
sort out your life
and God might then be interested in you.
It doesn't say,
you know,
listen,
you've got this.
Just dig deep,
be mindful,
live in the moment,
be the best version of you
and everything will be okay.
The cross-centered church doesn't even say,
you're a wretched sinner
and you spend the rest of your life feeling terrible about it.
It doesn't say that.
Instead,
the cross-centered church says something
that we wouldn't have dreamt up
given all the time in the world.
It says this,
that at the heart of the universe,
the glorious God who made us,
the one who in his eternal brilliance
did himself not need to be made,
that God loves sinners,
loves them.
And not with like a kind of passing affection or pity,
but in a love that willingly gives himself up for them
in the person of the sun,
in his human nature,
dying on a cross.
And you say,
when you understand that,
that makes absolutely no sense.
Why would the God who did not need to be made
become one of us in the person of the sun
and give himself on the cross?
The people unlovely like us
makes no sense.
And when you say that,
you go,
I'm beginning to get it.
That's exactly right.
The cross makes no logical sense.
It's the opposite of what we would think.
Honestly,
I think this is one of the reasons
that you can be sure that the gospel is true.
If you're sitting here this morning,
I've got loads of doubts.
I'm not sure whether this is true.
Well,
I think one of the reasons you can be confident
that this is true
is it's the opposite of what you would think by nature.
You know,
when you come up with something yourself,
when you tell a story
that's not quite true
and you're inventing it yourself,
you always come out really well
out of that story.
Have you noticed that?
The stories we make up always flatter us.
You know,
gods that we make up
are ones that are like superheroes
or ones that make us like superheroes.
You know,
they're distant gods
and they're approached
by acts of great righteousness by us.
Oh,
well,
if I come and pray or I fast,
then God will be impressed.
Those are the gods that we make up.
You know,
if I say the right prayers
at the right time
or I wear the right things,
that then God will be pleased with me.
But the God who's real,
there's nothing like that at all.
Because the God who is real
has an inhuman love for his people.
And in the person of the son,
he goes to the cross for them.
And that's not logical.
Okay,
the final thing
that a cross-centered church is not,
a cross-centered church is not appealing.
Appealing.
Again,
look back at the passage.
Look at verse 23.
What's the instinctive response
of the Jews
and the Gentiles
to this cross-centered ministry of Paul's?
What does he say?
It's a stumbling block to Jews.
They trip over it
and it's foolishness to Gentiles.
Here the sentence is that the Jews,
they trip over the message of the cross.
There's something about the gospel
which causes them to fall over.
We've seen it already.
Religious people fall over
or trip over the gospel
because it offends
their sense of self-righteousness.
Religion says,
do this and God will love you.
The gospel says,
God loves you
already
in Christ.
The gospel tells religious people,
listen,
you are way worse than you thought
because you cannot cover it
with your works
and tells them at the same time,
you are loved
way more than you ever dreamt
because God is more loving
to sinners than you ever imagined.
The religion of the Jews
was about status
and heritage
and moral performance
and the message of the cross
is about humility,
undeserved kindness
and owning up to your sin
and it's unappealing to them.
So it is to religious people today.
The message of the cross
is no help to someone
who is convinced
that they're able to earn God's love.
And for the Gentile
which is literally
the nations,
the rest of the world,
the gospel is unappealing
because it just sounds nonsense.
It sounds crazy.
Who would believe that,
they say.
Now there's loads more
that we can say from the passage.
We're going to say a bit more
but hopefully you can see
that being cross-centered
as a church,
having the cross of Jesus
at the center of our identity
as a church and as individuals,
the story that we're going to tell
week in and week out,
that is not a recipe
for worldly success.
In other words,
preaching Christ crucified,
shaping our church life
around that message,
discussing it in small groups,
teaching it to the young people,
singing about the cross
when we gather together,
praying in line with the cross,
understanding our identity
in the face of the cross of Christ,
none of that is going to make us popular.
If we want popularity,
we need to teach rules
or self-help.
Those are the options.
And we need to sing things like,
I am dynamite or whatever it is,
but not in Christ alone.
Let me say,
this is why being cross-centered
as a church is so difficult.
Being cross-centered as a church
and as an individual
is not complicated.
It's really, really simple.
It's difficult
because there's an aversion
in each of us against it.
We will hate the unpopularity
that it will bring.
We'll resist the fact
that it will bring out
the worst in us
and the best in God.
We will long for something
more palatable,
easier to sell,
a quicker fix.
Because being cross-centered
is not what?
Impressive,
it's not logical,
and it's not appealing.
So why on earth
would you want to be cross-centered?
Well, let me show you
three more things
from the passage
that will hopefully answer that.
Being cross-centered as a church
means these things as well.
It means speaking the truth.
Speaking the truth.
Come back to verse 18.
Let me point out
something really important
to you here.
I'm going to read it again.
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.
Now, the word in our Bibles
that translated message here
is the Greek word logos,
which more literally
is the word word.
This is the word of the cross.
Which contrasts
with verse 17
where you have
the word of wisdom,
the logos of wisdom.
So here, if you like,
are the comparison
of two stories.
It's the word of the world,
the word of wisdom
and eloquence,
or it's the word of the cross,
which is the power
of God to save.
And here is the point.
The message of the cross
is important
because it's the word of God.
It's truth.
It's the logos.
Now, I think that's interesting
because I think
if you or I were writing
verse 18,
we would say
it's the cross of Christ
which is the power of God.
But it doesn't say that,
does it?
What does it say
is the power of God?
Not the cross of Christ.
It's the message
of the cross of Christ
which is the power of God.
It's the word of the cross
which is the power of God.
Paul is not contrasting
the world's wisdom
with sort of
a silent belief in Jesus.
He is contrasting
the word that the world says
against the word
that God says.
He's not contrasting
just a kind of
religious experience
with the word of the world.
Instead,
he's comparing
the message of the cross,
the spoken message
about Jesus Christ.
Telling,
declaring,
saying
what his death
on the cross has done.
That's the power of God,
he says.
Now,
I hope you're thinking
in your mind.
There are loads
of implications
of that,
aren't there?
But one really important one
is that there is no distinction
for us as a church
between being cross-centered
and being Bible preaching.
I think I've got that
on a slide,
Niva,
that says
cross-centered
equals Bible preaching.
There you go.
You cannot be
cross-centered
without the message
of what the cross means
which is the message
of the whole Bible.
And you can't be faithful
to the Bible
without being cross-centered
because on every page
the achievements
of Christ's cross
are articulated for us.
or to put the same thing
in a slightly different way,
you can't be cross-centered
without preaching the Bible
because it's the declaration
of the message
that's so important.
It's about listening
to the word of God
instead of the word
of wisdom and eloquence.
It means,
doesn't it,
in youth work,
in Sunday school,
in small group discussions,
two things are really important,
aren't they?
Two things are really important.
One is to have an open Bible
and the second is
to show how that particular
part of the Bible
points you
to human inability to save
and God alone can save.
Let me say,
in my experience,
it might be different here,
but in my experience
as evangelicals,
we are better at the first one
than we are at the second one.
Right?
We understand
we have to open the Bible.
We know that.
But we are really good
at opening the Bible
and telling people
to be better.
Or opening the Bible
and using it
to give people information.
What you really need
to understand
are these stories.
Now,
being a better person
and understanding
the stories of the Bible,
both those things
are good,
aren't they?
But that's not why
God's word was given to you.
God's word is given
because it teaches you
the message of the cross,
which is what Christ has done
and not what I have done.
Open Bibles
but not seeing the cross
is not seeing
God's sovereign power
to save.
We've not really understood
our Bibles
unless we've seen the cross.
I could go on,
but I've got years to go on,
so I'm not going to do that
just this morning.
Let me show you
a second thing
that being cross-centered
means as a church.
It means we have access
to God's power.
Access to God's power.
We've touched on this already,
but notice verse 18,
the message of the cross,
the declaration of what
Christ has achieved
in his death and resurrection.
The message of the Bible
is to those who are being saved
the power of God.
In other words,
this message,
which is foolishness,
illogical,
unimpressiveness to the world
is to God's people
power.
Now, what is it
God's power to do?
Is it God's power
to give me all I want,
power to have a good week at work,
power to heal me
from every disease,
power to put money
in my pockets maybe?
Well, no, it's not, is it?
Follow the logic
of the passage.
You'll see verse 21.
Notice the same contrast.
The wisdom of the world
versus the foolishness
of preaching.
You see that?
What is it that
the foolishness of preaching
can do
that the wisdom
of the world cannot?
Well, it's enable people
to know God,
isn't it?
By being saved by God.
Here then,
the message of the cross,
being cross-centered
as a church,
means we have,
listen, this is it,
God's power
to know him.
God's power
to know him
and be saved by him.
It doesn't mean
that we will always know
why God is doing
what he's doing
in my life
at any particular
given moment,
but it will mean
that even in the midst
of pain and suffering,
even with the tears
strolling down our face,
we will be able to say,
even now I know God
and I know he's with me.
I can experience God,
I can relate to God,
I can delight in God,
I can enjoy him
through the message
of the cross,
which is the message
of the Bible.
Think about it like this.
I think I've got
a picture for this.
Imagine that a friend
invites you out
to go and eat burgers,
okay?
I didn't put a particularly
good picture of a burger up
because I didn't want you
to salivate too much,
but imagine, right,
a friend invites you out
and says,
listen,
I found somewhere new
on the Kilburn High Road
to eat burgers.
Let's go and eat burgers.
It's going to be great.
We're going to have
an awesome time.
Come with me.
I'll show you where it is.
So you go,
you follow them,
and you sit in the shop
and you take a seat,
and all over the wall
of the shop
are pictures of burgers.
They look great.
And you're sitting there
and your friends sit in there
and you're looking
at each other
and you're looking
at the menu of burgers
in front of you,
and then your friend says
to you,
should we leave now?
And you get up
and walk out
a bit confused
and they say,
wasn't that great?
Wasn't that a brilliant place?
Didn't you really enjoy that?
What are you going to say?
You're going to,
well,
that was rubbish.
I didn't even get
to eat a burger.
I went to eat a burger.
I didn't even get one.
What a terrible,
terrible time.
Now, listen,
it's a silly story,
isn't it?
But that is like church
without the message
of the cross.
Hearing the message
of the cross
is how the church
gets to eat,
and I hope this isn't
irreverent,
how we get to eat
the burger of the delights
of God's goodness.
This is the feast
for us this morning
as we gather around
the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ,
hearing his message,
feasting on him.
And it doesn't work
if you don't preach Christ.
If you come to church
and someone says
something other
than the message
of the cross of Christ,
it's like going
to a burger restaurant
and not getting
to eat one.
Or if you don't come,
well, it's like not even
turning up anyway,
isn't it?
Actually, gathering
as a church
around the message
of the cross
is how we delight
in God,
how we get to feast
on him.
It's the power
of God to save,
the power of God
for us to know him
and delight in him.
Finally,
a cross-centered church
means a divided church,
a divided church.
Now, I put it like that,
which I think should be
on the next screen,
being divided.
I've put it like that
to make you sit up
and listen,
because I knew
this was the end.
Surely you think,
wow, division in the church,
dude, that's a terrible thing.
This is your first Sunday.
Don't stand up there
and preach division.
That would be
a terrible thing to do.
We don't want that.
And of course,
division in the church
is a bad thing,
but there are,
or there is a certain
kind of division
that the cross brings,
which is really,
really important.
Because a cross-centered church
will expose
a division in the church
between those
who trust in Christ
and those who do not.
Between those relying
on human wisdom
and those relying on God.
As we preach Christ
at the center,
it will make this division
increasingly clear
that there are those
who believe
and those who do not.
And the temptation is then
to change the message,
isn't it?
Or to water it down
just a little bit,
a little bit,
or be a little bit
less focused on it
just to mask that division.
Because it means
hard things, doesn't it?
It means that
some young people
will stop coming
because they don't
believe the message.
They want the word
of the world,
not the word of the cross.
It means some friends
we invite
don't want to come back
because they're offended
by the idea
that God alone
can save them
and they can't do
anything themselves.
Now, don't get me wrong.
We don't want to be
deliberately offensive.
Christians can be
deliberately offensive,
can't they?
I'm sure we've all
got a bad experience
of that.
It's as if
it takes some weird
spiritual delight
in being obnoxious.
I'm not talking
about that at all.
If people leave the church
because we are rude
and unkind,
then that's our fault
and we should repent
and find them
and say sorry.
Well, the point is
that even if we are
really friendly
and really warm
and really welcoming,
even if the welcome
at church is amazing,
the fellowship is warm
and sweet
and the food is delicious
over lunch,
if we preach the cross,
this division will become
clear in the life
of the church.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 11,
Paul says the division
becomes really clear
as you gather around
the Lord's table
because some people
are allowed to eat it
and others are not.
Literally,
as we eat the visible
words of the cross,
which means that you
really belong to church
by believing in the message
of Jesus Christ
and his cross,
not just by coming.
Don't say West Kilburn
Baptist Church
is my church
because I come.
You say West Kilburn
Baptist Church
is my church
because I believe
in Jesus Christ alone.
That's why I'm here.
And that means,
doesn't it,
as we finish this morning,
I need to ask you
and I need to ask myself
this really important question,
which is this,
do I believe
in Jesus Christ
and him crucified?
Do I believe?
Do I believe
that my sin
is so bad
that I cannot
save myself,
but my Savior
is so lovely
that he's done
all that needed
to be done
to save me?
Do I believe that?
This morning,
have I abandoned
all hope in myself,
every last little bit
of self-reliance
and thrown myself
on Jesus?
Do I see myself,
before I see myself
as anything else,
I'm a person
defined by the story
of what Jesus
has done for me?
I'm a child
of the cross.
That the most
foundational thing
is that I belong
to Jesus.
He loves me.
He died for me
that I might be forgiven.
Do you believe that?
Because if you do,
then welcome.
Welcome to a company
of unimpressive,
illogical,
unappealing people
who have access
to the truth of God,
experience the power
of God
and know God
through the thick
and thin of life
and stretching
into eternity.
There's no better
place to be.
Let me pray
as I close.
heavenly Father,
thank you so much
for all that you've done
for us in the Lord Jesus.
Thank you for this
indescribable love
that you have
for sinful people
even like us.
and we thank you
that you've saved us
not by what we have done
but by what Christ
has done for us.
So we delight in that
and we feast on that
this morning.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.