The power of God: the cross

Third Sunday after the Epiphany

January 27, 2008

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

Can you believe it? Within just a few years after our Lord ascended to heaven, there were divisions among the Christians.

Well, isn’t that how people are? Paul reports that some lady, named Chloe, had some people that were quarreling among the Corinthian Christians. One person was saying, "I follow Paul," while another one was saying, "I follow Apollos," and another, "I follow Peter," while some surely thought they were trumping the rest by asserting that they followed Jesus.

This arguing led Paul lay the smackdown on them. He was so frustrated that he claimed to be glad that he hadn’t baptized any of them, save for a few. Hmm, based on Paul’s frustration, a pastor might wonder if this is a good reason to move on to another church—you know, get out of town before the ones you baptized grow up enough to cause trouble.

Paul knew that the people were losing their focus. Being Christians isn’t about who baptized you, or which man you follow. Being Christians isn’t about putting on dinners, or raising money. Being Christians isn’t about how many committees on which you serve or how faithful you are in attending worship.

Being Christians, and being a Christian church, is about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But, sadly, even among Christians, the Gospel of Jesus Christ can take a back seat.

To get the Gospel back to the front, Paul writes it, profoundly: "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

There is only one thing that establishes a Christian church, and there is only one thing that sustains a Christian church: Jesus Christ, and His death and resurrection for the sins of the world. This is the Gospel, the good news of God’s love for sinful man, that He gave His one and only Son into death that, believing in Him, a person has eternal life.

This Gospel can never be folly to the Christian church, or the church ceases to be Christian. Indeed, it is this Gospel which sets apart the Christian church from all other religions and ideas about how one can attain eternal life.

For St. John’s Wednesday morning Bible class, I was asked to do a study of other religions and cults. We are in the middle of it, right now. As I was preparing for this study, I researched ten major groups of the world. I found many things that made them different, but one vital thing in which they all are exactly alike.

Some examples will make the point. What do major religions teach about God? In the religion of Buddhism, they teach there is no god. In Buddhism, one’s goal is not to know God, or please God, or achieve salvation. In Buddhism, one’s goal is to reach Nirvana, which is a state of nothingness.

Now, on the other end of the scale, let’s take Hinduism, which has over three hundred million gods. In Hinduism, one’s goal is to live a good life so that he doesn’t get reincarnated in his next life into a worse kind of person or a lower form of life.

Both Islam and Judaism believe there is only one God. But, both Islam and Judaism reject that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They reject that Jesus is God in the flesh and Savior of the world. In Islam and Judaism, man earns his eternal bliss by how he lives a God-pleasing life.

And that last thought, my brothers and sisters in Christ, is what unites every religion on earth, outside of Christianity. No matter what is taught about God—whether God is one, or three hundred million, or doesn’t exist—every other religion teaches the same basic message as to how a person can enjoy eternal bliss after this earthly life.

• In Scientology, Tom Cruise and his friends get themselves Clear through a step-by-step program.
• In the Unification Church, the Moonies cooperate with the Lord, and have to be married to do so.
• For the Mormons, it is mandatory that you are baptized and strictly observe other church ordinances.
• In Islam, the faithful Muslim will obey the Five Pillars of the faith.
• In Judaism, the modern Jew simply has to be a good person and forgiving to others.

The thing that unifies every religion on earth, outside of Christianity, is that man saves himself. There is no Gospel in Islam—you have to please Allah. There is no Gospel among the modern Jews—you have to please God. There is no Gospel for the Buddhist—you have to get your act together.

Every religion, when you boil it down, is the same. Follow this recipe—and, this religion is the religion that has the right recipe—and you will cook up for yourself the desired eternal bliss.

Only Christianity has the Gospel, the good news, that you don’t do a thing to save yourself—that God makes no demands on you for you to inherit eternal bliss.

Indeed, the rest of the world considers the Gospel to be folly. That’s why Paul wrote, "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing . . ."

According to every other religion, it is folly to believe in a man who received the death penalty. It’s foolishness. It’s frivolity. It’s futility. Faith in a man, who obviously failed in His mission—yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Besides, what does faith alone get you? What you know is work. If you want to get somewhere in life, you have to work for it. You can’t sit back and think, "I have faith that my boss will notice me and reward me." That’s foolishness. If you want the reward—the promotion, the raise, the recognition—you have to do the work, put in the time, earn your way.

That’s why every religion, which humans dream up, has man working his way to his eternal bliss, because all we know is you gotta work if you want to be rewarded.

So, you Christians? To the rest of the world, you are complete and utter fools. But, trusting in the God, who created the heavens and the earth, and who gave His Son into your flesh, to bear your sins so that you could have salvation won for you, "The word of the cross . . . is the power of God."

Being saved is the same as being born—the one being saved or being born has nothing to do with it. Whether being saved or being born, you are the object of the process.

As your parents asked you for no help in giving you life—isn’t that a foolish notion?—neither does God ask you for help in giving you eternal life. That, too, is a foolish notion, since you and I were dead in sin before God made us alive in Christ. How can a spiritually dead person give himself spiritual life? We know all about death. When you’re dead, you’re worthless to help yourself.

Therefore, we do not look to our own works for our salvation. There are no Five Pillars, as in Islam. There is no meditating to reach Nirvana, as in Buddhism. There is no mandatory wedding, as for the Moonies. There is nothing mandatory outside of what God has done for you in the person of His Son, your brother, Jesus Christ.

It’s all Gospel. It’s all good news. It’s all gift.

Jesus is God’s gift—He does it all, you do nothing.

Baptism is God’s gift—you are bathed into the washing of rebirth and renewal in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Holy Communion is God’s gift—you are fed on the resurrected and living body and blood of your Savior, Jesus.

The whole Gospel is good news because it is God’s gift—you are pronounced forgiven, eternal, and saved by nothing that is in you, and nothing that you have worked for, but everything that Jesus has worked for, everything that Jesus died for.

Therefore, we don’t argue amongst ourselves, over what pastor is better, or what committee works harder, or who raised the most money.

We rest our case on the shoulders of our Savior. We are fools for Jesus Christ, because He is God’s power to eternal bliss. Amen.