Lessons From the Cross- To Know the Crucified Christ

Lessons From the Cross          To Know the Crucified Christ 

Scripture:  1 Corinthians 2: 1-9

            Well friends, I’m grateful to be back in worship with you. And I hope that you came prepared to meet Jesus in new and powerful ways. Today we’re going to take one more look at life from underneath the cross. One of the great challenges we have as a people of faith is keeping God’s great story at the forefront of our minds. As a people of God, we believe that God is always up to something good, calling people to experience new life with Jesus, to be forgiven and set free, to be transformed. But this can be a difficult story to embrace when we see so much ugliness and evil in the world. It can be challenging to press into our faith when there’s so much evidence of division, hatred and chaos. Yet part of what makes us Christian, part of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, is our stubborn belief that God is making all things new. And quite simply the best evidence that God continues to love this world, full of its troubles and struggles, is me and you. That’s what we’re talking about today: the new story God gives us because of the Cross. Would you read with me?  

            From time to time, I have the privilege of hearing personal stories of God’s renewing work in the world, stories about God gripping the lives of individuals and forming what Paul refers to as a “new creation.” Over the years, I’ve listened to people share with me how Jesus has taken their lives and made them new. Oftentimes these stories point to something that was lost or confused or broken, but then God entered their stories and wrote a new chapter. And every so often I’m invited into that story. I remember a few years ago, a new friend of mine was carrying around some old wounds. We had spent the last few months wrestling with questions that had no easy answers, questions about death and cancer and purpose. And I really wasn’t quite sure what to do…so I to kept him focused on Jesus as much as I could. I really didn’t have the answers he was seeking, but I knew if he continued to reach out to Jesus in the midst of his internal chaos, healing would happen. And one day it did. He called me up and asked if we could go to that place where his disappointment began, a place that caused his stomach to knot up every time he thought of it. And there, I watched him kneel and name every disappointment, every pain, every unanswered question, every wound and hand them over to Jesus. Then he got up and started a new life. Something happened in that moment. My friend met Christ. It was as simple as that. He met the crucified Lord and began to walk forward as a new creation. And let me tell you something: I felt closer to God in that moment than I had in a long time. That’s why we do what we do. 

            Sometimes we get bogged down in church life with non-essentials. I’m not sure if this is what Paul is experiencing as he writes this letter to his friends in Corinth, but he’s quick to remind them that everything he’s done, and everything he’s trying to do, is really about one thing: knowing Jesus Christ. And that’s really at the heart of what Jesus has told us to do. You might remember the last words he shared with his disciples before he took his rightful eternal place with the Father: Go out into all the world and make more disciples. We call it the Great Commission, and it’s all about helping people find their way to Jesus Christ. And one of the most important tools God has given us in this work is the story of your life.  

            The longer you follow Jesus, the more you’ll recognize that God is giving you an important story to tell. You might not have a good handle on certain theological truths and you might question whether you have all the right answers, but you have a story of God working in your life. In the old days, we called these stores “testimonies.”  They are stories, personal and powerful, about God meeting you where you are and beginning to change something about your life.  Somewhere along the course of your life, you had (or will have) an encounter with Jesus.  It might have been during a powerful worship service or a walk in the woods or a conversation with a good friend, but somewhere in the course of your life, Jesus broke in and transformed you inside and out and set you on a new path.  

Your story is powerful because it communicates something authentic about faith that a tract or handout simply cannot.  Your story communicates that this God we read about on paper really does exist, that Jesus really did rise from the dead, that God really is making all things new---and the evidence is your life transformed and newly created.  This is the case Paul is making in our text for today. He reminds his readers that he didn’t come with eloquent speeches or brilliant defenses of the faith. Not that anything is wrong with those. Sometimes they’re quite useful. But in this case, Paul reminds his readers that he really has one purpose in mind: to lift up the power of the crucified Christ. And he knows this power, because it changed his life. 

You might remember a bit of Paul’s story. It’s recorded in the Book of Acts and really is one of those stories that leaves you speechless. Paul was a powerful man who spent his life studying the Scriptures, but he came to the wrong conclusions. Known at the time as Saul, he was committed to preserving the traditions of his faith, and in doing so, he was certain that anyone who followed Jesus had it wrong. And so one day, on his way to flush out more Christians from their homes and place them in jail (or worse), Jesus stopped him in his tracks. Here’s the rest of the story: Read Acts. The crucified Christ met him on that road. And from that point on, Paul spent the remainder of his life helping others experience the same love and power he knew to be true. And there will be a time, maybe several times, when God will use your story to draw someone else to the cross, where they can receive new life. And what a privilege it is. 

So, when you sense that God wants you to share your story, here are four things to keep in mind that will inspire you to share with confidence:  First, your story is not primarily about you.  It’s about God and God’s movement into your life, which made possible your movement to God.  We have to be careful that we don’t make our stories about us, because our goal is not to get people to become like us, but to encounter the Resurrected Christ.  People come to know Christ in various ways- and thus we should not be surprised to learn that our stories sound different than the stories of others.  That is God’s intention.

 I’ve heard many people question the sincerity of their faith because they don’t have a story like the Apostle Paul.  They never breathed murderous threats, they were never “blinded by the light,” and their conversion was nothing of dramatic Damascus road encounter.  But Paul tells his story over and over, not to convince people that they need a story that sounds like his, but to convince people that only God could implement such a radical reorientation in his life.  How has God made himself known to you?  How has God moved in your life when you weren’t expecting?  How did you become aware that God wanted to play a larger role in your existence?  Those are the questions that need to shape your story.  Your story is primarily about a God of grace who has forgiven your sin and given you new life, all through the power of the Cross and the gift of the Spirit.

Secondly, the character of your life authenticates your story.  Nobody will take your new creation story seriously if your life does not look like a new creation.  Paul’s example is an extreme example, but a good example nonetheless.  The man who once wanted to put to death followers of Jesus was now a man who would willingly give up his own life for the sake of others.  When the disciples first heard about Paul, they were concerned about the authenticity of his story.  All they knew was Saul, the one with authority from the Jewish elite to bring them harm. But then they witnessed for themselves his new character and the new creation of his heart. Jesus set the bar pretty high when he said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.”  You may never love with the perfect love modeled by Jesus, but your love for God and others should be more apparent now than in those seasons prior to God making you new.  Does your life resemble the way of Christ?  When people see you, do they glimpse the Savior?  Has the way you live your life changed because of Christ and what he has done? Those are important questions because the character of your life authenticates your new creation story.

Thirdly, make sure your primary motive is love.  We take our cue from Jesus, who shared his life with others and by sharing life he was able to share his story. When I traveled to England a few years ago, I passed by a street evangelist, who was standing on a crate and shouting out Bible verses- mostly verses regarding repentance, sin and the Second Coming of Christ- all of which are important pieces to God’s story.  But what struck me about his preaching was the no one was listening.  There was no crowd. There were no interested inquiries.  Nobody seemed to pay any attention to the shouting preacher on the street.  He had not earned the right to be heard.  In order to share our stories, we need to develop relationships with those whom we hope will one day experience new life in Christ.  Relationships build bridges of trust, which prove to others that you’re not out to sell them a book or convert them to your way of thinking or that you’ll dump the friendship if they don’t come around. Without trust, people may hear your story, but they won’t actually listen to your story because they aren’t convinced that you have their best interest in mind; they aren’t convinced that the primary motive that compels you to share your story is love.  Don’t underestimate the importance of building trust.   

Finally, remember that your story still has blank pages and unfinished chapters.  God is not done making all things new, and that means God is not done authoring the story of your faith.  And the future potential of your story to be a conduit of new creation in the lives of others is dependent on your ongoing and constantly growing relationship with Jesus Christ.  Your story did not end at conversion.  Your faith did not reach its highwater mark at an altar. Quite the opposite; those were the moments that set your newly created life in motion.  All throughout Scripture, the oft-repeated refrain that God’s people needed to hear over and over and over again was “Remember.”  Remember the Lord.  Remember his mercy.  Remember the Cross.  Remember that he has rescued you from sin and hell.  Remember his love. Remember the One who has done for you what you could not and still cannot do for yourself.  Remember your first love.  And keep on telling your story so that others can know Christ and him crucified.  Amen.