The Cross In Eclipse (A Message For ALL PULPITS) - Dr. Maurice Watson

now tonight would you take your bibles and turn with me to paul's letter to the first letter to the corinthians first first corinthians chapter two and i want to read into your hearing if you can help me with this verses one through five first corinthians chapter 2 verses 1 through 5. and of course i'm reading from the new king james bible and if you found it might you indicate as such by saying amen here's how my bible reads and i brethren when i came to you did not come with excellence of speech lord of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of god for i determined not to know anything among you except jesus christ and him crucified 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 look at verse 2 again for i determined not to know anything among you except jesus christ and him crucified i want to talk for a moment about the cross in eclipse you may be seated the cross in eclipse one words be said that a certain church had a beautiful stained glass window just behind the pulpit one it was a picture depicting jesus christ on the cross one sunday a guest minister came who was much smaller than the regular pastor a little girl listened to him for a while and then she leaned over and said to her mother where is that man who usually stands there so we can't see jesus while we chuckle at that little girl's question the sad reality is that far too many pulpits are occupied by men and women who stand there at the hour of proclamation and they keep people from seeing jesus the preaching of the cross is a bedrock theme of the christian message it is an essential element that gives shape and form to all true biblical proclamation the message of the cross brothers and sisters is the foundation upon which our future hopes lie because it reminds us that because jesus was victorious at calvary we can be victorious in the face of our present situations and challenges however a sad reality that i'm noticing is that that the cross of christ is gradually playing a secondary role in the american pulpit our culture of consumerism has caused the american public to have less of an appetite for the message of the cross yet it learns if you will for a gospel that tells it how it can acquire more of the stuff that it likes to consume for you see in an effort to reach these potential customers some preachers have retrofitted the true message of the cross with the message of health wealth and prosperity it is not that they have gotten rid of the cross of christ altogether in christian preaching but they place so many things and personalities in front of the cross that it's hard for people to see it this is the sad reality of the cross in eclipse stephen smith in his book dying to preach correctly asks that if the cross is god's primary means of of of of salvation why is it not also our means of communication was god so is god so weak that he had to use the cross for our salvation and we're so strong that we don't need the cross in our proclamation for you see crossless preaching is like a newly built concrete freeway that has no rebar inside of it it looks good in the short run but it'll soon crumble under the weight because it lacks that would makes it gives it stability likewise preaching that does not embrace the cross as its central theme will not lead people to a lasting and authentic relationship with god what a profound question that little girl asked where is that man who usually stands there so we can't see jesus but on the other hand what a what what a what a what it what a an immature and what a a a child-like discussion that was taking place among the members of the corinthian church it was ripping the church apart and causing it to be divided into factions there was infighting in the church over personalities there was a paul group in the church there was an apollos group in the church there was a cephas group and there was another group that called itself the jesus group for the members of this church were at odds with one another over which one of these men was considered to be the greatest preacher by each respective camp paul wrote a scathing rebuke of their party's strife because such division was an affront to the message of christ paul disavowed himself of such utter nonsense and he urged them to do the same in chapter 1 verse 14 he said paul said that he was glad that he had not baptized many of them because he did not come to produce paul followers and in chapter 1 verse 17 he explicitly says christ did not send him to baptize but to preach the gospel not with wisdom of words or sophisticated speech lest the cross of christ would be of no effect for paul child of god attempts to undercut cut one of the carnal values that was contributing to their division which was their desire for honor paul gives them a warning that that their their put that their personality devotion was affecting the effectiveness of the message of christ because of what they were doing the cross of christ was an eclipse may paul's warning to the corinthians also serve as a warning to you and me today not to do or say anything in our preaching of practices that will keep people from seeing the cross of jesus christ paul then asserts that he had modeled this truth in front of them by the way he lived and by the gospel that he preached might i say to you tonight that the greatest danger facing the church today is not that the church might be attacked from the outside by an unbelieving and ever skeptical world and the most ominous danger facing the church today is not even the fact that more and more people are choosing other expressions of religion while others are opting out of religious belief altogether no the greatest danger that the church is facing today is an internal threat it is the danger of a cross-less pulpit and so let me share with you what paul says by implication and application are some of the factors that's leading to the cross of christ being in eclipse first of all if i lean into the direction in in this way i would suggest to you that the cross is eclipsed when style is more important than substance listen to how he opens up in verse 1 and our brethren when i came to you did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of god paul here in chapter 2 verse 1 returns to a thought that he started in chapter 1 verse 17. he said he did not come with excellence of speech if you will that is the superiority of language with elaborate words eloquent words nor did he come with speech that pretends to self to social status neither did he come he said with wisdom declaring to them the testimony of god wisdom there refers to oratory he says that he did not come to win the hearts of the corinthian believers by being a perfect master of the art of oratory for you see in corinth there were professional orators there and those professional orators they followed uh entry conventions whenever they entered a city when they entered the city they gave flowery speeches in praise of the city and of their own personal achievements they did this in order to establish a following and to reap the financial benefits because many of them were often hired as professional orators and teachers these itinerant teachers and philosophers depended on their wisdom and eloquence of speech in order to win a crowd they were spelled binders if you will who had mastered the craft of crowd manipulation through the style of their oratory and it mattered often mattered little to the audience whether or not what they had to say was true paul on the other hand says that he had not come to them depending on the use of rhetorical devices in order to win the people he did not use his preaching in order to use the superior language nor did he use language that was conducive for self-display he said he didn't use his preaching in order to exhibit how eloquent he was or to win the admiration of distinguished persons or to communicate to the people that i am superior to you paul says i didn't come to you as a verbal bully are y'all with me today oh paul understood that while the orators in corinth were were able to sway and manipulate and wow the crowds through the eloquence of their oratory the style of their oratory paul says that god had used him to lead many people to christ by the substance of his message and in verse two he tells us what the substance or content of his message is for i determine not to know anything among you except jesus christ and him crucified now paul was not promoting anti-intellectualism in that statement remember he was an intellectual he was he was taught by gamalio he was an expert in jewish law he was a hebrew of hebrews and by his lineage and education paul was a member of the intellectual elite he knew how to use the rhetorical devices of the greeks remember on mars hill he quoted the athenian poets if you will but paul intentionally chose not to use superior language because he did not want the style of his preaching to overshadow the substance of what he came to say and that is jesus christ and him crucified steve smith says that paul essentially says listen look i know exactly the style that you want but i'm intentionally choosing not to use it he said i find that rather odd why would any effective communicator who had effectively exegeted his audience by telling them that he knew the style that they wanted why would he not use it he said for paul it was quite simple paul was driven by fear unquote he was driven by the fear that the style of his message would overshadow the substance that he came to preach which was jesus christ and him crucified so the operative question that begs to be answered is this can you put the style of your delivery behind the cross so that the message of the cross can be heard and seen now that's a relevant question because i know some preachers who spend more time developing the celebration of their message than the content of their message i know some preachers who have an eloquent delivery but erroneous doctrine i know some preachers who have sweet music but a sorry message and we've all heard preachers who sound good but are not good and sound [Applause] someone has rightly said that we may be living and witnessing the first generation of christians who identify themselves mostly by style whereas generations of the past they identified themselves by using words that spoke of the substance of what they believed or the theology of what they believed words like um conservative evangelical um liberal reformed uh prophetic fundamentalist uh liberation theology whether or not you agree with it those words spoke to what one believed it spoke to the substance of what they believe today's church hear the words we use to describe the church today traditional non-traditional contemporary seeker sensitive seeker friendly online church one church got a billboard that calls himself the 30-minute church those words say nothing about the substance of what one believes but the style of their worship and conversely the style of preaching that fits that worship but the problem is that instead of embracing both style and substance too many churches are embracing style to the detriment of substance and in a biblically illiterate culture style will always trump substance so that the sermon need not convey the truth of the text correctly as long as it sounds like a sermon and the preacher looks like a spiritual and dresses like a preacher and gestures like a preacher and sounds like a preacher then the audience is satisfied but the church's infatuation with style over substance is leading her down a dangerous path it is causing the church to be an inch deep and five miles wide it is causing the church to produce weak anorexic malnourished almost christians do i have a witness today because such style has replaced substance the cross of christ has been eclipsed but tell me tonight what was stylish about calvary look at jesus on the cross beaten and bloody beyond human recognition what was stylish about that what was seeker friendly about the cross he was despised and rejected of men style you say what was flamboyant about the cross a man of sorrows and equated with grief what was in vogue about calvary what was attractive about calvary and we esteemed them stricken smitten stringed stricken smitten by god and afflicted and we hid as it were our faces from him the reality is that there was nothing stylish about calvary but asked me what was substantive about calvary and my answer is everything he was wounded for our transgression that's the substance of the cross he was bruised for our iniquity that's the substance of the cross the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed that's the substance of the cross tell me can style beat that keep your style give me substance don't they need more than a surprise sweet kind of preaching that it that tells them how to be their best selves and they need more than a well-packaged brand of preaching that that emphasizes the false notion that god wants every christian to be healthy and wealthy no i contend that they need style and substance they need some preaching that got some blood on it they need to be told about the ugliness of good friday so that they can appreciate the beauty of resurrection sunday they need to be told that it costs god everything he had to pay the penalty of their sins they need to see the justice of god in all of its terror so that they can appreciate the grace of god and the assurance that it go that it offers [Applause] oh brothers and sisters that substance that's the substance that substance not your style is what saves lives while style is important we need to understand that it's only a tool that we use to help us to convey the ultimate substance of the gospel jesus christ and him crucified that substance not your style is what saves lives that substance not your style however eloquently you speak it is what lifts about down heads that substance jesus christ dying like a common criminal on the cross is what drives tear-stained eyes that sepsis not your style not your thunderous voice not your sweet sounding hoop not your eloquent uh speech not your well-shined shoes not your latest attire not your technological savage is what turns hellbound sinners to the grace of god my late grandmother she lived to be 99 years and nine months old just three months shy of a centenarian but when i was a little boy when she wanted me to hurry up and do something my late grandmother would use this term she said boy make haste and come here make his means get here quicker quicker than now and sooner than right now it's quicker than and that means get here right now preacher when you go to your pulpit sunday may i give you some advice read your text and make haste to run behind the cross because it is the substance of what you have to say and not the style that's going to change lives so move every vestige of the style of your preaching behind the cross so that jesus can be seen without obstruction the cross is eclipsed when style is more important than sepsis but if i lean into this text another way i would say to you that the cross is eclipsed if you will when the message when the messenger is highlighted more than the message i said the messenger becomes more important than the message paul said paul said in verse 3 i was with you in weakness in fear and in much trembling the great orators of paul's day they knew a term called presence presence was the charisma the charm the persuasive ability of the orator to wow and woo the audience to hold the audience in the palm of his hand to literally overwhelm them with his eloquence it's called having the presence and yet paul rather underwhelmingly says i was with you in weakness in fear and in much trembling he said while the orators of your day have come to overwhelm you with with their eloquence eloquence i've come to underwhelm you with a simple message in simple words jesus christ and him crucified i was with you and we how was he weak how was he weak some say perhaps it refers if you will to some physical ailment some physical malady others say that it might be a reference to his um his his his physical appearance paul paul paul is drawing a contrast if you will between his physical appearance and those of the orators many uh scholars of you just suggested that the orators of corinth or orators of the greek world many of them were perfect specimens of human beauty and attractiveness and yet historians say that paul may have been a short ball-headed man with a crooked nose and weak eyesight well maybe his weakness was um the fact that he had to toil with his hand his relative impoverishment again there seems to be a contrast between paul and the orators of his day because if you were a great orator in the greek world you could find yourself to be a very wealthy person and they often often a wealthy person never had to work with do manual label and yet paul is a tet maker or maybe his weakness refers to his vulnerability to suffering or maybe it simply refers to his refusal to give in to silver tongue oratory whatever else paul may have meant when he said i was with you in weakness in fear and in much trembling i believe that paul used this self-deprecating language to suggest that when it comes to the gospel that we ought to highlight the message more than we highlight the messenger for paul had not come to corinth to glorify himself he had not come to start a paul fan club no no he came to preach a simple message jesus christ and him crucified maybe you heard the joke about the soldier who was fighting in in in the army overseas and he decided he was in love with his girlfriend back home decided to write her a love a love letter every day said i'm gonna write her love letter from the battlefield and after she received over 300 love letters from him she fell in love with the postman who delivered who delivered the letters brothers every sunday we stand to preach we are preaching god's love letter to god's people but remember we're just the postman they're not supposed to fall in love with us they're supposed to fall in love with god unfortunately unfortunately some preachers don't see themselves as servants we live in a day now of this new phenomenon the celebrity preacher he sees himself as a celebrity as a star so they approach the preaching moment as if it is their opportunity to prove to the world that they uh deserve to be mentioned as a great preacher by their colleagues the preacher their preaching moment then becomes a time for them to build their brand to market their product and to garner a following for themselves but when the messenger is highlighted more than the message i'd say to you that the cross of christ is an eclipse it has been said it is said that when the great reformer martin luther when he first learned that the first protestants were calling themselves lutherans he protested i quote him he said what is luther the teaching is not mine nor was i did was i crucified for anyone how did poor stinking bag of maggots that i am come to the point where the people call the children of god children of christ by my evil name unquote now if luther didn't want people the christians to be called by his name who are we to approach the preaching moment with the aim of people celebrating us and calling our name brothers and sisters we've not been called to make preacher groupies out of the people to whom we preach we've not been called to be celebrated and applauded by the people we're supposed to be uh ambassadors and not christian salesmen but a friend of mine told me about a preacher on his pastoral anniversary his members wanted to honor him so they had a life-side sized poster made of the pastors made of the pastor and they brought it to his anniversary and they presented it to him they said pastor this is our gift to you but we're not just doing this for you this is also for us because we're going to put this out in the lobby because whenever you are out of town and you're not here our hearts are so broken and and we miss you so much that we want this poster in the lobby so at least we can still see you can i tell you something these personality driven churches may be swelling our churches but they're hurting the kingdom when a church is built around a personality as opposed to be built around jesus christ the problem is when that personality goes off the scene or dies i've seen churches that die also so the operative question that i want to ask tonight is do you pastor a church that can survive your death because if it cannot survive your death maybe it's not a church it's a fan club preacher it is not our message it is not our brand that we are supposed to promote we are supposed to promote christ's brand and his brand only and we ought to do it like paul did in weakness in fear and in much trembling paul was very much aware of the fact that this gospel that he preached jesus christ and him crucified was considered as weakness in the eyes of both the jews and the greeks to the jews it was a stumbling blocks into the greeks it was utter foolishness and he also knew that the preacher who preached such a gospel came across as being weak but paul reminds them in chapter 1 verse 27 that god often works through weakness that god has taken the weak things of the world to confound those things that are mighty brother i suggest to you that the cross of christ can only be preached in weakness because the preacher's weakness is the stage upon which god demonstrates his power to save i said something there and i want to say it again that that the cross can only be preached in weakness because the preacher's weakness is the stage upon which god uses to demonstrate his power to save so go to the pulpit knowing that you are weak but also with the understanding that your weakness does not hinder god no your weakness excites god because it lets him know that you are dependent on him your best preaching is not preached in your strength but it's preached in your weakness paul said when i'm weak then i'm strong have you ever gone to the pulpit with what you thought was a well-prepared well-written sermon you crossed every t you dotted every eye you chiseled every phrase you had every illustration in just the right place and yet you preached it and fell flat on your face but don't you remember some other times when you studied as much as you could and prepared to the best that you could but you felt this message is inadequate and you went to god said lord i don't feel like i got much to say and i need you to help me today those are the times when god shows in his power that he's he's strong when you are weak because those are the times he breathes on what you have to say so preacher when you go to your pulpit sunday please announce your texts but after you announce your text make haste and run behind the cross because it is the message that we preach and not the messenger that really matters but may i say to you in the last place that the cross is eclipsed when human performance takes precedence over the holy spirit's power verse 4 he says and my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom but in demonstration of the spirit and power my good friend david garland perhaps captures the essence of what paul is saying i quote him that in giving too much of importance to preachers and their personalities the corinthians lost sight of the fundamental truth that effect that the effectiveness of preaching is not in the personality personality and gifts of the preacher but in the message of the cross itself and the holy spirit who confirms it by his power stripped of self-reliance paul cast himself at the mercy of god and god works through him powerfully he argues that the persuasive power of his preaching did not come from human wisdom that is from the skill of persuasion or manipulating arguments or modulating the voice in order to mesmerize the audience with spellbinding oratory unquote no all he declares that he did not preach to them as one who had mastered the art of oratory while the orators of corinth believed that the effectiveness of their rhetoric was determined by their ability to weigh the to wow and sway the crowd paul declares that the effectiveness of his preaching was seen in the fact that his preaching depended on the power of the holy spirit he said his preaching was in demonstration of the spirit and power that word demonstration is a legal word a forensic word it's a it means proof presented in a courtroom paul says that the evidence that proved that my preaching was authentic was that the holy spirit himself empowered it and the evidence is many lives were saved and changed are y'all with me here ah he said the holy ghost took the witness stand when i opened my mouth and declared that what this man is saying is authentically from me and he used it to change lives and he tells us in verse 5 why this is the case so that your faith should not rest should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of god paul said had i come to you as an eloquent aura or orator if i had come to you as someone who who was a rhetorician he said you might have been tempted to join the paul crowd which is the very argument he's been arguing against since back in chapter one he said i didn't come to make paul followers i came to make christ followers so that your faith should not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of god the real power behind preaching is the holy spirit it is not the inflections of our voices it is not how loudly we can speak it is not how cleverly we can express our ideas no the real power for preaching is the holy spirit powerful preaching comes only from god therefore the preaching moment is not your moment for you to try to preach in your own power and no young preacher it is not your time to showcase your talents and abilities it is a sacred moment when the holy spirit breathes on the preparation and prayerfulness of the preacher giving the proclamation the efficacy that it needs in order to transform the lives of hearers let me get out of here i i've kept you almost too long already ah when we were when we were little children you can recall that we were told to be cautious during an eclipse yeah you remember those days we were told don't ever look at the s-u-n during an eclipse because this could lead to blindness well let me lift that to a higher holier level looking at the s-o-n the son of god while he is being eclipsed will not only cause blindness spiritual blindness it will guarantee it so the question that i asked tonight is is is is is the cross eclipsed in your ministry that when the people you the people you serve when you go to church do they come to see you or do they come to see jesus because the reality is child of god if we're honest about it this world seems to be doomed darkness appears to be winning the battle it seems child of god that that love has been eclipsed by hate that justice has been eclipsed by prejudice compassion has been eclipsed by selfishness unity has been eclipsed by division and the church seems like it's being eclipsed by the world but there is a way out of the darkness so that we can fulfill our god-given assignment we must not allow anything anyone anywhere or at any time eclipse our commitment to holding high the cross upon which the light of the world was slain ultimately paul is asking here he's really telling us here what the proper proximity to the cross ought to be for every true preacher of the gospel he said i was determined not to know anything among you except jesus christ and him crucified he's telling us child of god that the preacher should never stand in front of the cross because the cross would be eclipsed neither should the preacher stand beside the cross because you might give someone the misguided notion that you're equal to jesus you should never be exalted above the cross because you are not god but the old preacher of my childhood they seem to know best what the proper proximity to the cross ought to be for every true preacher of the gospel you remember those old preachers don't you dr wade when they would come to the pulpit in their black suits black tie white shirts but before they would take a text they often bowed their heads and they prayed this prayer lord hide me behind the cross let the man in me sit down so that the preacher in me can stand up child of god that's what i've come to tell you uh when you take your text sunday read your bible but whatever you do run quickly behind the cross so that the people will be able to see jesus christ that's the proximity that we ought to have whenever we preach we stand not beside not in front and not above but we stand behind the cross get behind the cross because that is where your authority lies get behind the cross so that jesus can be seen get behind the cross so that the people will understand that it is not your style of preaching but it's the substance that you preach get behind the cross so that the people will know that it is not the messenger but the message that counts get behind the cross so that power can come from the holy ghost i don't know how you feel about it but i've made up my mind that i'm gonna stand behind the cross whatever you do child of god make up your mind that you're not going to allow anything or anyone to eclipse the cross in your preaching if i'm never invited to preach another revival i made up my mind i won't let the cross be eclipsed in my preaching if you never invite me to another conference again i won't let the cross be eclipsed in my preaching the stakes are too high so we must preach the cross people are too lost so we must preach the cross hell is too hard so we must preach the cross eternity is too long so we must preach the cross everything that happened that's good to me i got it because of the cross because of the cross my soul is saved because of the cross i have a relationship with god can i get a witness jesus keep me near the cross there's a precious fountain free for all a healing stream it flows from calvary's mountain can i get a witness is there anybody here that's not ashamed to preach the crowd at last and give my savior bleed and did my sovereign die would he devote that sacred head for such a warm as i at the cross at the cross where i first saw the light and the burdens of my heart rolled away it was there by faith i received my sight and now and now i am happy all the day good day church but how the reach the masses men of every birth foreign answer jesus gave the key he said and i am be lifted up from the earth i'll draw on me unto me the world is hungry for the living breath lift the savior up for them to see trust him and do not doubt a word that he said i'll draw on me unto me donny jones the preacher don't exalt the pew preach the gospel temple pure entry demand will gladly follow him who once taught outro outro all men black men white men redness [Music] educated uneducated outro outro oh man unto me somebody shall glory glory is there anybody here not ashamed to live by the cross of christ if you're not ashamed stand up on your feet hold your head back close your eyes and shall glory oh

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Keywords: maurice watson, prosperity gospel, preachers of la, gino jennings, gino jennings prosperity preachers, td jakes, jamal bryant, Serita jakes, potters house dallas, praise break, crazy praise break, cogic shout, cogic praise break, serita jakes, maranda curtis, tasha cobbs, holy convocation shout, dance praise break, todd hall dancing, holy ghost praise break, bishop noel jones, city of refuge la, shouting, cogic bump, Marcus d cosby, Terry anderson, Ralph d west, shout

Id: t9WWuhmm8OE

Length: 41min 31sec (2491 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 12 2021