Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3218
“But we preach Christ crucified.” 1 Corinthians 1:23.
IN the verse preceding our text, Paul writes, “The Jews require a sign.” They said, “Moses worked miracles; let us see miracles worked and then we will believe,” forgetting that all the wonders that Moses worked were altogether eclipsed by those which Jesus worked while He was upon the earth in the flesh. Then there were certain Judaizing teachers who, in order to win the Jews, preached circumcision, exalted the Passover and endeavored to prove that Judaism might still exist side by side with Christianity—and that the old rites might still be practiced by the followers of Christ. So Paul, who was made all things to all men that he might by all means save some, put his foot down and said, in effect, “Whatever others may do, we preach Christ crucified—we dare not, we cannot and we will not alter the great subject matter of our preaching, Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
Then he added, “and the Greeks seek after wisdom.” Corinth was the very eyes of Greece and the Corinthian Greeks sought after what they regarded as wisdom—that is to say, the wisdom of this world, not the wisdom of God which Paul preached! The Greeks also treasured the memory of the eloquence of Demosthenes and other famous orators. And they seemed to think that true wisdom must be proclaimed with the graces of masterly elocution—but Paul writes to these Corinthian Greeks, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
Now, in these days there are some who would be glad if we would preach anything except Christ crucified! Perhaps the most dangerous among them are those who are continually crying out for intellectual preaching, by which they mean preaching which neither the heavens nor the preachers, themselves, can comprehend—the kind of preaching which has little or nothing to do with the Scripture and which requires a dictionary rather than a Bible to explain it! These are the people who are continually running about and asking, “Have you heard our minister? He gave us a wonderful discourse last Sunday morning! He quoted Hebrew, Greek and Latin. He gave us some charming pieces of poetry—in fact it was altogether an intellectual treat!” Yes, and I have usually found that such intellectual treats lead to the ruination of souls. That is not the kind of preaching that God generally blesses to the salvation of souls and, therefore, even though others may preach the philosophy of Plato or adopt the arguments of Aristotle, we preach Christ crucified, the Christ who died for sinners, the people’s Christ and, “we preach Christ crucified” in simple language, in plain speech such as the common people can understand!
I am going to try to put our text into practice by telling you, first, what we preach Secondly, to whom we preach it And, thirdly, how we preach it
I. First of all, WHAT WE PREACH. Paul is the model for all preachers and he says, “We preach Christ crucified.”
In order to preach the Gospel fully, there must be a very clear description of the Person of Christ, and we preach Christ as God—not a man made into a God, nor a God degraded to the level of a man, not something between a man and a God, but, “very God of very God.” He is One with His Father in every attribute—eternal, having neither beginning of days, nor end of years. Omnipresent, filling all space. Omnipotent, having all power in Heaven and on earth. Omniscient, knowing all things from eternity—the great Creator, Preserver and Judge of all—in all things the equal and the express Image of the invisible God! If we err concerning the Deity of Christ, we err everywhere! The Gospel that
does not reveal a Divine Savior is no Gospel at all—it is like a ship without a rudder—the first contrary wind that blows shall drive it to destruction and woe be to the souls that are trusting to it! No shoulders but those almighty ones which bear the earth’s huge pillars can ever carry the enormous weight of human guilt and human need. We preach to you Christ, the Son of Mary, once sleeping in His mother’s arms, yet the Infinite even while He was an Infant! Christ the reputed Son of Joseph, toiling in the carpenter’s shop, yet being all the while the God who made the heavens and the earth! Christ, who had nowhere to lay His head, the despised and rejected of men, who is, nevertheless, “over all, God forever.” Christ nailed to the accursed tree, bleeding at every pore and dying on the Cross, yet, living forevermore. Christ suffering agonies that are indescribable, yet being at the same time the God at whose right hand there are pleasures forevermore. If Christ had not been Man, He could not have sympathized with you and me, nor could He have suffered in our place. How could He have been the Covenant Head of the sons and daughters of Adam if He had not been made in all points like them, except that He was without sin? With that one exception, He was just as we are—bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh—yet He was as truly God as He was Man, the One of whom Isaiah was Inspired to prophesy, “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” So, in preaching Christ crucified, we preach the Glory of Heaven conjoined with the beauty of earth—the perfection of humanity united with the Glory and dignity of Deity!