LENT
3
March
7-9, 2015
Pastor
Timothy J. Spaude
Text:
1 Corinthians 1:22-25
“WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?”
1.
Jews
look for signs.
2.
Greeks
look for wisdom.
3.
Americans
look for…
4.
Christians
look for Christ crucified!
1 Corinthians
1:22-25 (NIV 1984) “Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for
wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and
foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews
and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the
foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is
stronger than man's strength.”
Wants versus needs. Have you noticed
how often those choices come up? In important areas of our lives we are
presented with the option of going for our wants or our needs. It’s that way
with money. Hopefully you all have established a home budget or spending plan
for the money God gives you. Financial experts will tell you to check your
wants versus your needs. What you need is food but what we might want is fast
food or restaurants. What we need is appropriate shelter but what we want are brand
new granite counter tops, Jacuzzi tubs and 4 car garages. You have to make a
choice. Food is like that too. What we need is nutritious foods like fruit and
vegetables, protein, the right kind of fats. What we want is Snickers and
Doritos and craft beers. A choice has to be made. Time is like that what we
need is an appropriate amount of sleep and to get our work, housework,
homework, yard work done. What we want is to watch TV and play video games. A
choice has to be made. And have you noticed how often we really aren’t very good
at making the right choices? How often wants get put before needs? There are
some consequence for those wants/needs decisions we make. They can affect our
financial well being, our health, our performance.
The stakes get a lot higher when it
comes to spiritual needs. Everybody has a God sized hole in their heart. It
needs to be filled with the one true God of the Bible who reveals Himself as
the Savior God. Often it’s filled with something else. Let’s keep those
needs/wants ideas in mind as God’s Word forces us into a self examination
question. What are you looking for?
God had the Apostle Paul write the words
of our text as part of his letter to the congregation in Corinth. It was made
up of Jewish believers and non Jew, Gentile, Greek believers. What were they
looking for? “Jews demand miraculous signs.” For proof
that someone really was sent from God the Jews demanded miraculous signs. You
heard that in our Gospel reading. Actually they were supposed to look for
certain miraculous signs that the Messiah had come. God had said in prophecy
that when the true Savior came He would make the lame walk, give sight to the
blind, hearing to the deaf. All those things Jesus did. But the Jews demanded
more. Why? Because he wasn’t the kind of savior they wanted. What they needed
was a savior from sin. What they wanted was freedom from the Romans. So they
rejected the signs Jesus gave them and refused to believe. This putting wants
over needs led them straight to Hell.
Let’s move on. “Greeks look for wisdom.” At the time Paul wrote this the Greek
influence called Hellenization was still in effect. People wanted to be like
the Greeks. They valued wisdom. So many of the ancient philosophers that are
still admired today were Greeks: Plato, Socrates, Aristotle. Here are a couple
of their gems. “The energy of the mind is the essence of life.” “Happiness
depends on ourselves.” I think you can tell from those samplings that the
wisdom of the Greeks was to look at self as the solution to everything. What
they needed was God as their solution but what they wanted was themselves as
the answer. So they rejected Jesus as the Savior who lived for them and died
for them. This putting wants over needs led them straight to Hell.
Now we don’t live at the time when Paul
wrote to the Corinthians nor do we live where they did. We live now. We live in
America. What is it that Americans are looking for? In your bulletin you see a
listing of some of the characteristics most often seen in different generations
of Americans. These things are not true for every single person born in those
years but are typical of most according to sociologists. Did you notice that
only one of those generations typically puts others above self? Only one of
those generations is really accepting of authority and so would be inclined for
instance to accept the authority of the Bible? Only one is really good at
commitment? It happens to be the one that spent the most time living when
Christian influence was the strongest. As that influence has waned Americans
have become more and more about self so that I’d say what Americans look for is
success for themselves. Americans want to be part of the fastest growing
company driving the best selling cars dressed in the most popular fashion
cheering for the winningest teams. What Americans need is a Savior from sin.
What they want is success. The result is that even though visible Christian
churches as a whole are trying to reach out to more and more people using all
kinds of innovative ways and all the technology available 20% of the American
public, and 30% of adults under 30, are religiously unaffiliated according to a
recent poll. That makes the fastest growing religion in America—non religion. This
putting of wants above needs leads straight to Hell.
And now we come to the important part of
our text. It begins with one of God’s little big words. Little in size, big in
importance. It’s the little word “but.” “But
we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to
Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of
God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's
strength.” But is a negative coordinating conjunction. It tells you a
contrast is coming from what was talked about before. Jews and Greeks look for
the wrong things, but, but we, Christians are different. We look for Christ
crucified. To those who were first and foremost Jews that was a stumbling
block. They wanted an earthly king to defeat the Romans not a King who looked
like He was defeated by the Romans, put to death on a cross. To those who were
first and foremost Greeks this teaching that you needed someone else to save
you, that it would not be worked out by man was foolishness. But, but to those
who were first and foremost Christians, whether they were Jewish Christians or
Greek Christians Christ crucified is the power and wisdom of God combined. His
way of providing our salvation is so wise, a perfect God man to be the
substitute. Who would of thought of that? And the power of God! By Jesus’
sacrifice all sins paid for. No man’s strength could accomplish that.
I guess the question for us here is who
are we and who will we continue to be. Americans first or Christians who happen
to be American. Will we go with our wants according to our generational
stereotype or our needs as sinful human beings? As noble as the ideals of the
Traditionalists are law and order and the good old days won’t get you to
heaven. But Jesus will. As ignoble and selfish as the ideals of the rest of the
generations are entertainment, fun, things and me won’t get you to heaven but
Jesus will. Christ was crucified for you. That’s what we need. A Savior to live
in our place and to die in our place. Christ crucified. God’s wisdom and God’s
power together.
It’s clear from the trends in our American generations
that the Devil is working very hard to keep all eyes off of Christ. He is
tricky in the ways he works slowly to undermine the Bible’s authority. He is
tricky in the ways he gets people to put themselves first and to put fun and entertainment
above all else, to get bored with the old, old message of the rugged Cross on
which Christ died. But we don’t have to fall for those tricks. Money people,
dieticians, time managers all say that if you want what you need making the
right choices gets a whole lot easier. So what do you want? What are you
looking for? By the power of the Spirit today we say, Christ Crucified. Let’s
stay that way. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment