Trinity Baptist Church

Obvious Truths from Obscure Scriptures

The Offense of the Cross

Galatians 5:11

 

I mentioned last week the overwhelming love Paul had for the Jews. Even though his ministry was to the Gentiles, he was a Jew and he had this great desire for their salvation, even to the point he was willing to forfeit his own salvation if it would result in them being saved.  He desperately prayed for them to come to recognize Christ as Messiah. He was willing to suffer anything or everything, if only his people Israel might be won.

 

As I reflected on this deep longing that Paul had, I was taken to the cross of Jesus Christ and the contrasting results it brings from men.

 

Listen to what Paul wrote to the Corinthian believers in

 

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

 

In a simple phrase, we could call that the offense of the cross.  In fact, that’s how Paul referred to it in

 

Galatians 5:11

 

The great stumbling block to the Jews, the offense that made the gospel so repulsive to them was the cross.   Take away the cross and it would be a thousand times easier to win the Jews to the Lord.  Say nothing about the meek and lowly Jesus who is crucified as a common criminal and most of the difficulty Jews had in accepting Christ would be eliminated.

Just concentrate on His power and personality and miracles and authority and they could easily have accepted Christ.  In fact, they wanted to elevate Him to King and deal with this hated Roman occupancy.

 

But He was continually talking about being a servant and taking the lowly place and going to Jerusalem to die, and then to top it all off, He was publicly embarrassed in a crucifixion at the hands of these Romans.  It could not be tolerated that this was the Jewish Messiah.

 

But in spite of all that, this was the one theme Paul would not ignore. “God forbid,” he says, “that I should glory save in the Cross of Jesus Christ my Lord.”

 

There are some great lessons there for Christian teachers and preachers and churches who are trying to advance Christ's kingdom.

 

One thing that teaches us is the more earnest and eager we are to see people saved, the more willing we must be to do what it takes to reach them.  Why do we spend money to go to Africa and Utah and Mexico and have local outreach events? It is simply because people are lost and need a Savior.  And it’s not convenient and it costs money and time, but the cross requires that effort.

 

But there is a companion truth taught through the experiences of Paul and that is the gospel is not attractive to many.  Just because we preach the gospel doesn’t mean everyone will be saved.

 

 

The cross is offensive to many and if we would just preach a bloodless, cross-less gospel that concentrates on doing good deeds and helping people, many would respond.  But with Paul, we must say, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ my Lord.”

 

It is better to empty a church by preaching the Cross than to fill it by keeping silence and compromising the message of the cross.  It’s better to fail in our evangelism attempts with the truth than to succeed by being a traitor to the Cross because when the offense of the Cross ceases, the church ceases.

 

There is nothing more central to our faith than the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So this morning, I want us to concentrate for a few moments on this obscure Scripture and the obvious truths it reveals to us as we think about the offense of the cross.

 

Now that language is foreign to those of us who are saved. To the Christian, the cross is not an offense, but the very symbol of life.  It is the doorway to heaven and the release from all the problems and cares of this world.

 

So we gather to the Lord's house as Christians Sunday by Sunday and we are not surprised by the message of the cross.  It is not offensive; it is welcomed and through it we are encouraged and renewed and blessed.  The cross of Jesus Christ is our delight, our refuge, and our banner, our blessing.

 

 

 

But to many today, that’s not true.  It is still an offense and it cannot be accepted.  Now obviously, when we talk about the offense of the cross, we aren’t talking about the pieces of wood, but rather to what happened on that cross and in particular the Man Who hung on that cross. 

 

But keep in mind, neither Christ without the cross nor the cross without Christ can save. The two must go together. It had to be the death of Jesus on a cross to save men. The bible says, "Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree" and He became a curse for us. But that kind of preaching is an offense to the unsaved world and to much of the believing world.

 

And it was certainly offensive to the Jews of Paul’s day.  Why was that so?  What was it the Jew found so offensive about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ? Interestingly, it is the same things today that people still find offensive about the message of Jesus Christ.    

 

Now to understand these points, we have to think through the mindset of a Jew and what were there expectations about the Messiah.  First, the Cross was offensive to the Jews because

 

 

It shattered every dream they ever dreamed, every ideal that ever embraced.  But their expectations and their dreams and hopes were not what Jesus delivered.  They dreamed of sovereignty and prestige for their nation.  They longed for the homeland to be free from occupation.

 

They had prayed for and had dreamed of their Messiah, and He was to come in power as a conqueror.

 

Isaiah had declared, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight" and you could almost hear the march of victorious feet as they announced His coming.  That was the light which burned in the Jewish darkness; that was the song which made music in their hearts.

 

But in the place of a conquering, victorious, ruling and reigning Monarch came the meek and lowly Jesus.  And in the place of a throne came the cross of Calvary.  In place of the Christ victorious, Christ crucified. And was this the Messiah who was to trample Rome, pierced in hands and feet by Roman nails? This was the answer to all their hopes and dreams and the anticipation of the centuries?

 

Everything they had been led to believe and expected was completely unfulfilled in this Jewish carpenter from Nazareth.  Every hope they ever had was contradicted with Jesus.  So no wonder, to the Jews the cross was offensive

 

And I would venture to say the same is true today.  The offense of Calvary is just as powerful now as it was then. Many how many people have missed heaven because they were afraid a relationship with Jesus Christ would dash all their hopes and dreams?

 

The devil has so cunningly led us to believe that to follow Christ is to ruin your life.  He’ll take all the joy and fun.  And all the dreams and ambitions must be surrendered to His will.

 

And if you follow Jesus, you’ll wind up in an African jungle destitute married to some ugly woman, isolate and separated from all the good things of life.

 

And it is true that written across Calvary is the message of sacrifice while written across the world is pleasure.  And you need to know it will cost you something to follow Christ but it’s nothing you will ever miss.

 

On the lips of Jesus Christ you find words like “Take up your cross and follow me” and if you listen to the world, they’re not telling you to die but to live and not just live, but live it up.

 

But the rest of the story has not yet been told.  This world is not all there is to it.  And we should shout from the mountaintops the pleasures and joys and happiness and peace that come only from loving and serving the Lord!

 

So no doubt, the cross is just as much offensive to a pleasure-driven world as it was to a power-driven Jew.   

 

The cross was also offensive to the Jews because

 

 

The cross is offensive to human pride.  If Christ was Who He claimed to be and the cross did what Christianity says it did, then everything the Jew was most proud of lost its meaning.

 

 

 

 

If nothing else, the Jews were preeminently a religious people.  But the overwhelming peril of religious people is their tendency to be proud of their religion.  We like to brag on our accomplishments, us religious folks.

 

But if Jesus was Who He claimed, none of that meant anything anymore.  It had all blown away like a dried leaf on a September afternoon.  If there was any meaning in the Cross, then everything that was Jewish was over.  No more would the eyes of men turn to Jerusalem; no more would sacrifices fill the altars; no more was there room for ceremonial law if the Son of God had died upon the tree.

 

And to have all those things that meant the most and were the dearest to the heart of Jew taken away and treated as if they didn’t matter was bitterly offensive to a Jewish heart.

 

The cross is an offense to human wisdom. We love to brag on our great intellectual prowess.  We will think our way into eternity.

 

The lost world pokes fun at anybody who believes that a man died on a cross and suffered hell and bled and paid our sin debt. Sin to them is not something to be removed by Calvary; it is something to be removed by culture.

 

But, dear friends, it takes more than intellectualism to save. It takes more than culture to save. It takes more than an education to save. One does not go to heaven headfirst. He goes heart first.

 

 

 

I am not against education, but salvation does not come wrapped up in a sheepskin. You are not delivered from sin by way of a diploma. The only way anyone can ever be saved is by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

 

I read about a miner who owned a mine. He sent his son off to school to study mining engineering. When his son returned with his diploma he thought he knew more about mining than his father did. Every time his father would do something he would say, "No, you do it like this, dad," and reminding his dad, "I have been to school. I have a diploma, a degree."

 

His dad got fed up with him after a while and walked off and left the boy to run the mine.

 

The young man shored up a wall like they told him to do it at school, but water started coming through that he couldn't stop. Soon it was going to collapse. Finally, he realized he needed daddy's advice. Calling him on the phone he said, "Dad, I can't do anything with it. I've tried everything but there is a hole here which I can't stop."

 

His daddy calmly said, "Stick your diploma in it."

But he needed more than the diploma to plug that hole. He needed his father's wisdom.

 

The preaching o the cross is offensive to human pride and human wisdom.

 

But primarily the preaching of the cross is offensive to human righteousness. Many people, like the Jews of old, are going about to establish their own righteousness. They have not submitted themselves unto the sightedness of Christ.

And that still goes on today as well.  Listen to most anyone in church or not as they talk about someone who’s lived a good life.  “Well, if anybody ever had a chance of getting to heaven is was old so-and-so.

 

They lived such a good life and helped so many people and went to church and never said a curse word and were nice to everyone.”

 

We seem to be convinced God makes an exception for those who have a good work ethic or have difficult circumstances and if we just worked hard and do our best and live right everything will be OK.

 

But over against that reliance upon good works and religion hangs a crucified Redeemer saying, “No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

 

And no matter how straight our theology is on a hundred other things, if we miss this one, we’ve missed it all.  “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”  “There is none righteous, no, not one.”

 

“For we are saved by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast.”

 

There is a verse of scripture that leaped out at me the other day. Mark 6:20, "For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and holy and observed him and when heard him he did many things and heard him gladly." Did you get that?

 

 

 

 

Herod feared John the Baptist. When he heard him he did many things. In other words, when John the Baptist preached Herod got under conviction and did many things. He worked.

 

Now, I don't know what he did. He may have joined the Sunday school or the brotherhood. I don't know what he joined, but he did many things. He may have helped some old ladies across the street or bought some Girl Scout cookies or given to the United Way.  I don't know what he did. But the Bible says he did many things.

 

You know, men have not changed. Men will hear preaching today and they do many things. They decide they are going to turn over a new leaf. They decide they are going to quit smoking. They decide they are going to get baptized. They are going to church. They are going to do this and they are going to do that.

 

You can do this and do that and do the other, but salvation is not spelled d-o. It is spelled d-o-n-e! Jesus Christ died for you. That is the way you are saved. Religion is doing. Salvation is resting in what has already been done.

 

You see, you don't go to heaven by being good. You go to heaven because Jesus died for you. That is why the cross is offensive to human righteousness and human pride and human wisdom.

 

We are all tempted to despise what we get freely. We like a little toil and sweat. We measure the value of most things, not by their true worth, but by what it cost us to obtain them.  But Calvary costs us nothing.

It cost God everything, but it cost you nothing.  It’s a free gift!  And here is the offense of the Cross in any age, in any culture in any circumstance:  If you will come to God, you must come with empty hands.  You must come understanding there is no other way, that your need is so desperate that without Christ, you go to hell.

 

And in an age like ours, where we love to brag on all we’ve done and earned, the unconditional surrender of a lost sinner to a Holy God is offensive. When it comes to going to Heaven, ain’t nobody got no bragging rights! 

 

I love the words of Augustus Toplady that we sing in the hymn Rock of Ages when he said,

 

Not the labors of my hands

Can fulfill Thy law's demands;

Could my zeal no respite know,

Could my tears forever flow,

All for sin could not atone:

Thou must save, and Thou alone.

 

One final thing, the Cross was an offense to the Jews because

 

 

For centuries, the Jews enjoyed the distinction of being God’s chosen people.  They had the Law of God, and sacrifices and the Temple and the Priest and to them had been given the oracles of God.  They were to be blessed and protected like no other group on the earth. The knowledge of the One True God was theirs.

 

 

They could read their history books and find example after example where God had come to their rescue.  They were the apple of His eye.  No one was allowed to mess with them and get by with it.

 

To the Jew, it was supremely important that the Jews should stand apart; through their isolation God had educated them. They had had the bitter-sweet privilege of being lonely, and being lonely they had been ennobled.

 

They had no envy of the art of Greece. They were not awed by the majesty of Rome. Greeks and Romans, Persians and Assyrians, powerful, cultured, and victorious as they were, were nothing more than Gentiles. And it was with a snobbish contempt that this little nation viewed the world.

 

Then came the Cross and leveled all the distinctions. The message of the Cross announced there was neither Jew nor Gentile, Greek nor barbarian, but Christ was all and in all. Let some filthy Gentile from the farthest reaches of humanity come to the Cross of Christ pleading for mercy and he could suddently be a child of Abraham.

 

Put yourself in the sandals of a Jews and try to feel the insult of it all.  Look at Jesus out in the cemetery, traipsing through the pig manure as he heals a demon-possessed man or as he interacts with a woman who’s been bleeding for years.

 

And if this was the Messiah, then everything the Jew had clung to was gone. All those separations are torn away as the Cross announces, “Whosever will may come.”

How offensive that must have been to the Jew!

 

And it’s offensive to many today. That same attitude is seen in those who like to look down their self-righteous noses at those who don’t dress as they dress or smell as they smell.  You can see it in the contempt for those who are less fortunate or the way we treat kids from the poorer parts of town.

 

We tolerate them because we must, but it irks us to think they have the same standing and the same privilege and the same love as those of us who clean up and dress us.

 

But I will remind you, the message Paul preached regarding the Cross announced the center wall of partition was taken away.  There are no distinctions.  There are no separations.  There are only who kinds of people, those who are saved and those who are lost.  And in one afternoon, when Jesus Christ died, and the veil of the Temple was torn into, all those distinctions came crashing down.

 

And because of that, with all the hopes gone, with all the bragging rights destroyed and all the distinctions swept away, the Jew must chose to be offended by the cross or embrace the cross.

 

And not the Jew only, that is the choice of all humanity.  Will I die and go to hell offended or will I embrace and glory in that which is offensive?

 

It’s awkward, isn’t it?  The only thing that can get lost mankind out of the mess he is in is that which he finds offensive

 

 

But then again, why be offended by that which is designed to save you? God designed it that way. 

Here the awful sin question was settled forever.

It is absurd to be offended by that which is full of wisdom and power and glory and hope.

 

Think about how God provided a sinless substitute in Jesus Christ to eventually be crucified on the corss to save your sorry self from hell and you;ll quickly discover if anyone has the right to be offended,, it’s Him not you.

 

When you come to understand what happened at the cross, you quickly see it offers us hope and life and eternity and for us to resist or refuse it demonstrates our ignorance and lack of spiritual understanding.  And it is only when you get a good firm grasp of the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ that you will stand back and marvel that this God Who has every right to be offended today extends you an opportunity to be saved.

 

How dare we, the offensive, be offended by the Cross? It was not there that hope was taken away, but hope was extended.  It was not there that bragging rights were removed, but we were given the precious privilege of glorying in the cross of Christ our Lord.

 

It was there, where the distinctions of humanity were removed, that we were given the glorious opportunity to be called the children of God, as those who were His enemies were brought close through the precious blood of Jesus, so that never again would we be separated from Him.

 

 

The cross is not the place to be offended, but accepted and delivered and saved from our sin.

 

A doctor was called to the bedside of a dying man.  After the initial consultation and tests were finished, the doctor said, "Sir, the best thing I can do is to ask, Have you made your peace with God?"

 

The man lifted his wasted arm to grab the doctor, looked at him with the empty gaze of a dying man and said, "Doctor, is it as bad as that?"

 

Let me say to you, it is always as bad as that. No matter who you are or what your circumstances, if you are not saved, you are in desperate need of what only the cross of Jesus Christ can provide.

 

And if you will accept what is offered, then the very offense of the cross will become its glory to you.

 

Let’s pray.