R.C. Sproul: Christ Crucified

our scripture for this evening is from Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth I will be reading from the first chapter beginning at verse 17 through verse 25 here then the Word of God for Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel not with wisdom of words lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect 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 and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent where is the wise where is the scribe where is the disputer of this age has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world for since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe Jews request a sign the Greeks seek after wisdom but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling-block in to the Greeks foolishness but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks 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 and then in chapter 2 Paul says and I brethren when I came to you did not come with excellence of speech word of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified and he who has ears to hear the word of God let them hear it let us pray Almighty and everlasting God you who have adopted us in the beloved we asked as we consider this that the world deems foolish that you will grasp us with its wisdom and with its power for we ask it in the name of Jesus amen in the year 212 BC a very strange book was published and its author was even more strange than the book that he published because in this book which the author dedicated to the king of the city of Syracuse and the south southern coast of Sicily in this book the author sought to calculate how many grains of sand it would take to fill the entire universe can you imagine a work more bizarre than that this was one of the very last things that this man did before he died as he contemplated the number of grains of sand it would take to fill the universe recently I've been preaching through the book of Acts and I mentioned to our congregation that when Paul came to Athens and saw a city completely given to idolatry and he began to proclaim Christ to the philosophers gathered at the Areopagus the Bible says that they looked at the Apostle and they said what will this babbler say and it's a strange translation because the word that is translated babbler literally means seed picker seed picker were somebody who went around the streets scooping up seeds from the ground eking out a subsistence from them much like a modern Street person does by sifting through garbage cans well if there ever was a seed picker in the ancient world it was this man who tried to count the number of seeds that would fill this universe the name of the book you may remember if you lived back then or recall your history was called the sand reckoner and again as I say written very shortly before the man died he died when his City came under siege by a Roman general whose nickname was the sword of Rome that general was Marcus Claudius Marcellus and when he brought his troops and in fact the Roman Navy to move against the Citadel of Syracuse he was utterly astonished at the resistance that he met there during the siege and he had to work feverishly to keep his troops from giving in to utter discouragement because to their astonishment they encountered war machines that they had never seen before that were far more sophisticated than any of the military equipment that the Romans had invented up to that point one of those war machines was the catapult but another one that was perhaps even not perhaps certainly even more astonishing was that as the Romans ships approached the cliffs outside of Syracuse the sailors looked up into the sky and they saw these huge jaws descending from the sky and the jaws came down and gripped one of the Roman ships and then hoisted it a hundred feet or so into the air the jaws were released and the ship and its crew fell to the rocks and were smashed to smithereens they couldn't believe what they were seeing until the jaws moved to the next ship and came down and gripped it and then raised it into the air and dropped it onto the rocks and the sailors under Marcus Claudius Marcellus were terrified finally the Romans were victorious and the command of the general was that the engineer who had developed these new weapons for the Sicilians was to be unharmed but that mandate was ignored by one of the rank-and-file soldiers who was so annoyed by this man's ingenuity that he approached him as he was doing mathematical equations in the sand and killed him on the spot and thus Archimedes met his death and now you know the rest of the story Archimedes is famous for after discovering the laws of buoyancy in his bathtub ran into the streets naked crying out Eureka I have found it and even his book the sand reckoner which seems so absurd to us today estimated the number of grains of sand that would fill the universe matched almost exactly the estimates copulated by 20th century physicists only a few short years ago I think it's safe to say that Archimedes was one of the most brilliant men not only in the ancient world but as has ever walked on this planet and I think you remember the words that he spoke to the king of Syracuse on one occasion when the king was amazed at all of these machines that Archimedes had designed Archimedes said to him give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I can move the whole world you remember that give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I can move the whole world a little over 200 years after Archimedes made that statement a lever was found that was long enough to move the world it was a tree about ten feet high and the place that it was placed was Calvary because the cross was the lover that turned the world upside down it was the cross that revealed the power not of the ingenuity of Archimedes but the power of God himself to write a topsy-turvy world and it was the message of that cross that changed the world forever now the cross according to what the Apostle teaches us here in first Corinthians had a visible and an invisible significance I remember when I was a college student being fascinated more than fascinated being absolutely gripped by the great American novel written by Herman Melville Moby Dick there is a portion of that story when Ahab in his monomaniacal quest to find the albino whale is running out of patience is on the rim of hysteria in his passionate desire to find Moby Dick that he wants to most a reward to the first person on board the pequod who would cite this monster and so ahab went to the main mast of the ship and he took out a hammer and a nail and he nailed a gold doubloon on to the mast of the ship and he said whoever spots the whale first and cries thar she blow will get the gold doubloon and then what what follows from that moment in the novel is an insight by Melville into the ruminations of the crew members who one lime one come up to the center of the ship they look at the main mast they look at the gold doubloon and they begin to think and to express what that gold doubloon would mean to them Starbuck stubs the various members of the crew looked at it and thought what they could do with the money that that was worth how many cigars it would buy what riches would be there and they all had a completely different view it was totally subjective until the Year rational cabin boy pip came along and he sort of danced around the main mast and he said I see you see we all see and he made fun of the members of the crew because they all had a different view of the significance and the meaning of that gold coin I often think of that when I read the New Testament account of the cross of Christ caiaphas looks at the tree and says that is expedient that one man dies for the good of the nation for him it is an event of political expediency to get the Romans off their back Pilate also looks at it from the vantage point of expediency but in that reverse when he says oh if I give Jesus over to the people and they allow and they kill him then this will quiet this tumultuous mob of Jews and keep them under control the Centurion looked at it said surely this man was the son of God the people saw the execution of an impostor others the destruction of a dream but if you were standing there and you were observing the death of Jesus on the tree would you have seen in that event a cosmic act of redemption would you have witnessed in the death of this Jew the propitiation of a holy God by a perfect sacrifice would you have seen in that event the expiation or the remission of the sin of all who put their faith in Him beloved that was invisible to anyone who was a spectator of the cross how do we know that the cross was the supreme act of redemption its meaning and its significance was not outwardly visible to those who were there in the flesh to them it was foolishness it was not known through the wisdom of this world it could not be known save through the special revelation of Almighty God for all outward appearances it seemed to display the weakness of Christ and yet the Apostle says it was the power of God the power of God to turn the world upside down the power of God to turn you upside down the power of God to turn me upside down now in chapter 2 Paul says when I came to you I didn't come with excellence of speech or of wisdom for I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified now there's a sense in which what the Apostle is saying here is a bit of a hyperbole because Paul spent much time explaining many things about the kingdom of God he talked not only about the cross but he talked about the resurrection he talked about the Ascension he talked about the return of Jesus he talked about justification about sanctification and all of these things and yet here he says when I came to you I was absolutely determined to know nothing accept Christ and him crucified but that can sound like hyperbole but if you examine the depths and the riches of the cross everything else that Paul was teaching were simply a footnote to that central affirmation of the cross of Christ it's the resurrection that demonstrates the efficacy of the cross and all the rest of these things are inherently related to it listen to what else he says I was determined to know nothing among you except Christ and him crucified and I was with you in weakness in fear and in much trembling I think there's a secret there for ministry I think there's a reason why the apostle to the Gentiles was so effective in his ministry of course the first reason is because his ministry was the ministry of the word and it was in the power of the Cross which is the power of God unto salvation but from a human perspective Paul says what when I came to you I was with you you that's what we want from our pastor that our pastors will not be against us above us or away from us but we will be with us and Paul said I was with you in weakness in fear and in much trembling and my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God last night ladies and gentlemen the Southern Baptist Convention concluded 15,000 representatives were here in Orlando right in the hall down down the hall right next to this asked wing of the convention center as an exercise in chaos this week in Orlando I was surprised that how much attention the secular press and media gave to the Southern Baptist Convention I was not surprised by the past time that was enjoyed here in Orlando this past week by the press of Baptist bashing the hostility expressed by the media toward the positions taken by the Southern Baptist Church and various issues was exceeded only by their ignorance if you would read the editorials and the I didn't come to bash the press I just want to point out that it's was out it stood out to me how little they understood of the issues how theologically ignorant the press was read some some editorials and semesters in the Orlando Sentinel like I said where where have these people been I mean they could at least ask one of the theologians why they're taking the position instead of just reacting the way they are and making the assumptions that they make without any understanding of the things of God and then I thought wait a minute that's what we're here for this week the things that these people are prepared to die for the secular press doesn't understand at all they look at the Southern Baptist Church and think that it's a congregation of idiots of fools who are so completely out of step with what is politically correct in our day and our time one article I read said that same book in which Paul says that he will not allow a woman to have authority over men also tells women not to have braided hair and the Baptist's are all exercised about or denied ordaining women and yet they don't say anything about the braids that the women are wearing they don't really believe the Bible and I thought myself well there's an expert in hermeneutics but if you love the cross and if you love the gospel why if you don't see it as utter foolishness and weakness why not I think of course the greatest theologian the greatest philosopher the greatest preacher that ever graced this land was Jonathan Edwards when we hear about Jonathan Edwards today he is known more for his sermon sinners in the hands of an angry god than for anything else but would put Edwards on the theological map was a different sermon it was preached much earlier than the sermon sinners in the hands of an angry god and that sermon was entitled a divine and supernatural light where Edwards talked about the sweetness and the excellence of the Ministry of God the holy spirit who illumines us that we may see the sweetness and the wisdom of the cross without the spirits taking the scales from our eyes we would never behold the loveliness of Christ we would spend our time marching in protests around the Assembly of Christian believers but Paul goes into this in the second chapter of first Corinthians when he says in verse 6 we speak wisdom among those who are mature but it is not the wisdom of this age nor the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing well let me just stop here for a second before I go on with this text I think the greatest threat to the church in our day is based in our profound desire to be acceptable to the secular culture we want to be accepted nobody wants to be considered a fool nobody wants to be deemed stupid beloved I've spent my whole life in the academic world and I know that the greatest moral weakness of Christian professors is their intimidation by the world for fear that they will be thought of being less than academically acceptable if they hold such positions as the inspiration of the Bible or the exclusiveness of Christ these ideas that the world up horse and so we wimp out we lose our courage because we don't want to be thought of as being weak but who is weak and we are not weak Paul's it I'm with you in your weakness and the strength of God is greater than weakness right now as I speak one of the closest friends I've had in my entire life is on his deathbed in our hopes he was scheduled to be here this week but it was not to be in the plan of God and he is dying in faith and he is dying in triumph and he is dying in joy but I remember just a little over a year ago when Jim Boice and I were together alone and he was looking at the landscape of the evangelical world and he looked at me and he shook his head and he said RC were surrounded by wimps I don't know how many times that's going through my mind and I say oh god don't let me be a wimp don't let me be a coward who runs when the world is hostile when the world laughs when the world considers me a fool I mean what would you rather be than a fool for Christ that's the greatest honor that you can ever have is to be a fool for Jesus Christ because this foolishness is the wisdom of God himself let's never forget that we speak wisdom among those who are mature but it is not the wisdom of this age nor of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing why would you be concerned for five minutes about political correctness the utter all ideologies the philosophies the worldviews that mark this present world are coming to nothing but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory what isn't that strange because almost always when the Bible speaks of glory it is that which is given to God in fact God says what I will share my glory with no man and yet from the foundation of the world God determined and decreed that because of the cross and because of his only begotten son God was going to give his people a share and participation in his glory that the world would think was crazy none of the rulers of this age understood this mystery this was a hidden wisdom for had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of glory but as it is written eye has not seen nor ear heard nor has it entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him but God has revealed them to us through his spirit for the spirit searches all things yes the deep things of God for what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of man which is in him even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God and now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God think about this passage the spirit searches the deep things of God now that's a text that we can easily misunderstand because when we think of searching we think of looking for something that is lost or looking for something that we have not yet discovered we're trying to find out some truth that we have not yet penetrated what truth does the Holy Spirit have to look for beloved the Holy Spirit is God the Holy Spirit is the third person the Trinity who possesses all of the attributes of the Godhead which means that just as the father is omniscient so the Holy Ghost is equally omniscient so there's nothing in the mind of the father that isn't all ready known eternally known absolutely known and perfectly known by God the Holy Spirit so why does the Bible say that the Holy Spirit searches the deep things of God what Paul is saying is really simple the Holy Spirit is not searching the deep things of God for the Holy Spirit's benefit for the Holy Spirit's education but the Spirit puts a searchlight on the Word of God for us he searches out the wisdom of God and reveals it to us there's a cliche in the Christian community that we say sometimes glibly there but for the grace of God go I when I look at people who don't get it when I read the articles that I mentioned earlier in the paper and I see the groping in the darkness of the critics of the faith who have no understanding of what these things are about I have to say there but for the searching of the Spirit God that's why we have to understand this hostile as the world may be to the cross and as hostile as the world may be to us God has not called us to be the policemen of the world that he's called us to proclaim to the lost of this world this mystery that is hidden from their eyes hoping that when we proclaim the word faithfully accurately and boldly God will attend the proclamation of that word with the power and with the insight of God the Holy Spirit my job is not to open up their eyes or to open up their ears or to open up their hearts and I am so glad because I am totally ill-equipped for that task I don't have the power to open anybody's eyes and if it could be done through eloquence we would spend all our time learning how to speak properly if it could be done simply through argument we could spend all of our time in debate but that's not how Paul came he came in the power of the Spirit of God and his concern was I don't care if my grammar is perfect I don't care if I parse everything exactly what I am determined to know nothing but Christ and him crucified and so he went to the synagogue every day and when they throw him out of the synagogue he'd go to the Agora he'd go to the marketplace and what did he do when he went to the Agora what did he do when he was in the synagogue he was knowing nothing but Christ and him crucified he said let me tell you about a lever that'll change the world the cross but we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit who is from God in order that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God and these things we also speak not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual but the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God why not say it again the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned that he was spiritual judges all things yet himself is rightly judged by no man for who has known the mind of the Lord that we may instruct him but we have the mind of Christ you want to turn the world upside down look at the world through the eyes of Jesus I think it is the goal of the Christian in his sanctification to be so nurtured and grounded in this word in the revelation of the truth of God that we come to the place that we love what Jesus loves and we hate with Jesus hates we embrace what Christ embraces and we reject what Christ rejects and that's what's offered by the Holy Spirit to every believer so that we don't come to the cross like this crew of the Pequod came to the gold doubloon and say I see you see he sees we all see but we see Christ and we see him crucified we see Christ not in the pluralistic American view of one way of many but we see Christ as the only begotten we see Christ as the sole mediator between God and man because no one ever no one else no one else was ever crucified for my sins and that's what the church has lost her focus on the cross and when we come back and we see the cross the way the Word of God reveals the cross to us the way the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the meaning of the cross and we see ourselves in light of the cross then maybe people will talk about us as those people who are turning the world upside down let's pray father you have given us a lever long enough and strong enough and a place to stand by which we can move the world we have dropped the lever and moved from that standing point and the world does not change but give to us a new passion for the cross for Christ and for him crucified through that divine and supernatural light by which the spirit searches all things we will be completely grasped by the sweetness and the excellency of Jesus we will not rest until his name is known throughout the world where we ask it in his name amen

Channel: Ligonier Ministries

Views: 118,244

Keywords: bible, reformed, evangelical, christian, gospel, rc sproul, sproul, cross of christ, crucifixion, the cross, atonement, the gospel

Id: 9TgUgAu93Bs

Length: 45min 41sec (2741 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 01 2011