1 Corinthians 2:1-5
I fully identify with the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:3, “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.” I’m not exactly sure why he said that, but I know why I’m saying it. We are on a new path, a new journey, and we are looking to God. We don’t know what’s up ahead.
We do know our message though. Paul declares in verse 2, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” You all know how much we appreciate Martyn Lloyd-Jones and his integrity and biblical commitment in his ministry. There was an utter lack of any showmanship about him. He believed in the sovereignty of God, the power of God’s Word, and the sufficiency of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
He died in 1981 and was buried in Wales. On his gravestone are etched the words of 1 Corinthians 2:2, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” This was the motivation for his entire career in preaching and how he wished to be remembered.
This was Paul’s testimony to the Corinthians and we need to have the same determination, to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. This doesn’t mean Paul didn’t talk about anything else. It means that everything in your Christian life flows out of this great and mighty truth. Your purpose, your joy, your obedience, your hope – all flows from Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I want to give you three truths from these first five verses.
#1 Our message is grounded in the testimony of God – vs. 1
And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.
Paul came to the Corinthians with one message that God revealed, and it is meant for all of lost humanity. It is the great mystery of godliness, a revelation straight from God carrying the absolute authority of God that every human needs to hear. That’s why Paul was determined to preach Christ. He didn’t come with fancy talk, human wisdom, philosophy, psychology, or a culturally relevant message. He preached Christ and Him crucified with full assurance, utter confidence in God, and urgency. That’s exactly what we must be committed to – the testimony or mystery of God.
#2 We have the one message lost people need to hear – vs. 2
For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
There is only one message that will prepare a human soul to meet God, and it is this one. With all the noise of social media, news sources, twitter feeds, this message is being drowned out. There is no other message and we must fight to keep it at the center, like Paul did. Anything that threatens to hinder, confuse, add to or take away from this message must be rejected. Paul said in Galatians 6:14, “God forbid that I should glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Jesus Christ and Him crucified contains everything we need for life and godliness.
Only at the cross do we face the truth and reality about God, ourselves, our needs, our mortality, our eternity, our condition, God’s provision, our hope, our joy, and our strength. Only at the cross do we gain the convictions to obey God, to do right, to love Christ, to pursue godliness, to determine to suffer in this world, to be uncompromising. Friend, if the cross doesn’t convict you and move you to clean up your speech, your behavior, your attitudes, your words, your habits, then you don’t understand Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
All men and women, boys and girls everywhere need to hear this message, and not just once but over and over. Jesus Christ and His cross is the good news for unbelievers and believers. Every part of your Christian life, every responsibility, every comfort, every hope, everything flows out of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
#3 Our confidence is in the power of God in the gospel and nothing else – vss. 4-5
4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.
Paul keeps repeating that the church’s message is not human wisdom or eloquent speech. It is nothing human, nothing imported from the world or the culture. Our confidence in evangelism is always in God’s power, in God’s Spirit working in the heart of sinners drawing sinners to the cross and then building them up in the cross.
One day Charles Spurgeon went with a friend to the Crystal Palace to test the acoustics. In a few days he would speak to 24,000 people there. This glass and iron structure was built for the 1851 Great Exhibition. It covered 23 acres and was 1848 feet long. Spurgeon asked his friend to go to the very farthest point in the building, and then Spurgeon cried out, “Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.” Twenty-seven years later as a man lay dying he asked to see Spurgeon. He asked Mr. Spurgeon if he remembered that day at the Crystal Palace. “On that day I was working just underneath where you stood. I was an unsaved man, living a sinful, wicked life. When I heard you utter those words, ‘Behold the Lamb of God,’ the Holy Spirit applied those words to my heart, and very soon after I found peace through believing.”
What does Christ and Him crucified say to you? It says you are a condemned sinner under the law of God. You are helpless to save yourself. You are guilty and vile before God. You are a rebel going your own way and deserving of God’s wrath if you continue in the path you are going. It says you have offended a holy and loving God with your selfish living and sinful attitudes.
But it also says the same God is full of mercy and grace and has provided His Son as a substitute for you to take your place in punishment, to suffer the wrath you so rightly deserve. It says that Christ on that cross was only there because of sinners like you. And He did this so that people like us could repent, turn from sin, put our trust in Him, and receive eternal life and newness of life. It says through Christ you can become a child of God, an heir of God. When you die, you don’t have to suffer God’s wrath on your sins. You can enter into the loving, joyful presence of God and of the Lamb of God and experience the incredible pleasures of God forever and ever.
My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought,
My sin–not in part but the whole–
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, oh my soul!
Verse 5 says, “That your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.” Where does your faith rest? Is it in human wisdom or ideas or schemes, or in God’s power in the gospel? Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation for anyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” In other words, there is one powerful gospel for every person ever born, whether they are rich or poor, brilliant or average, strong or weak, Gentile or Jew. That’s why Paul said, “I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” That’s why Martyn Lloyd Jones wanted this epitaph on his gravestone. And that’s why we must be firmly committed to the same message for all people. This is the one message everyone needs to hear.