For Christ did not send me to baptise but to preach the gospel

LIMAVADY INDEPENDENT METHODIST CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 27 MARCH 2022 pm

1 CORINTHIANS 1 VERSES 14 - 19

On past Sunday nights we have been looking at the gospel - its presentation, its purpose and its power.  That is why I want to turn back to this subject again, none other than the cross of Calvary.  Paul was very precise and careful in this respect.  Verse 17 "Christ sent me not to baptise."  Of course he baptised but he was saying this was not his main ministry.  "I was to go forth and preach the gospel."  He clarifies that "not with the wisdom of words".  Not with my intellect, vocabulary or abilities - "not with wisdom of words less the cross of Christ be made of no effect."  It is important that we come tonight and see Jesus.  If I was to preach with the wisdom of words that would be another gospel - as Philippians says a perverted gospel.  

Notice firstly what Paul might have meant as regards the effect of the cross - the sufferings of the cross.  The cross was employed by the Roman authorities as a means of execution.  It was the most inhuman, barbaric, cruel, degrading form of death mainly reserved for the lowest of all criminals.  When you think of that - the Lord God' own perfect sinless son came into this world. He could find no resting place in Bethlehem, only a manger.  The place reserved for him was at the cross outside Jerusalem, outside the city walls.  That is the death he chose to bear for you and I.  That is what Jesus did for you and I.  Is it any wonder Paul said "less the cross became of no effect."  That execution was done in public, all would see him hanging there for many hours before death came by suffocation.  It was a warning to all who would pass by.  This place of skull was the place for the Lord. He was that man on the middle cross of Calvary.  His sufferings, not for any wrong doing of his own.  The perfect son of God bore that shame with humility for you and I.  Think of the sufferings he had before then.  To see his friends and disciples flee from him in the Garden of Gethsemane and leave him alone.  See the Roman centurions spat on him, scourged him, ridiculed, tied him up, how they stretched out his arms and took the lash and left his back as a ploughed field.  Then to take him out and put spikes in his hands and feet then nail him to the cross.  He was suffering terribly for you and I.  His visage was marred more than any man.  They couldn't even recognise him.  They plaited a crown of thorns on his brow.  They lifted him up and he hung there.  He cried out "my God, my God why have you forsake me?"  The Lord had to see his son dying there.  He was dying for all my filthiness.

The substitution of the cross.  What he had to go through then see him hung for a substitution.  A substitution is someone or something that stands in for another.  Taking the place of another.  In sporting terms someone who is not having a good game or is injured may be pulled off by the manager and replaced with another.  Maybe you have been invited to a wedding and it is not possible to attend so you send someone else in your place.  That is what the cross shows.  The cross is there because of you.  The Lord went to the cross to be my substitute.  Think of the sufferings we should have borne.  Christ says "no I will bear them in your place."  Romans says "for all have sinned."  It doesn't rule anyone out.  We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.  Jesus says "I am going down into the world and will die in the place of everyone who has sinned."  "For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of Christ." (2 Corinthians 5 verse 21)  What a wonderful transaction on the cross.  It cannot ever be done any other way.  We could never be enough to substitute for our sins.  Take him in all his glory to die in shame and agony for you.

The sacrifice of the cross.  The Old Testament scriptures show how people approached God and how the High Priest approached God.  They took a little lamb and put it to death.  They then took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar.  He was coming by the blood of an innocent lamb.  We have no access into the presence of God unless we come through the finished work of Calvary through Jesus own blood shed on Calvary.  If we miss the cross we miss the salvation of God.  In Genesis 4 we read of the sons of Adam.  In the previous chapter everything was perfect and very good.  Adam fell from grace with God.  Adam had to teach his sons how they could approach God through the sacrifice.  Remember how they came to God.  Abel was a shepherd and brought a lamb.  Cain was a tiller of the ground and he brought from the works of his hands.  I am sure it was perfect in his eyes but it didn't suffice.  The only thing that sufficed for God was the blood of that lamb.  Just as it is only the blood of Jesus Christ that is sufficient for us tonight.  Those sacrifices continued until Christ came and died for us on Calvary.  Ephesians 5 verse 2 "Christ also loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour."  In Hebrews we read that the priest had to do it continually, he was never finished.  One sacrifice was enough to satisfy the just demands of God when God saw his son dying on the cross of Calvary for the sins of the world.  That was enough.  On the third day God raised him from the dead to give us our salvation.  1 Timothy 4 verse 10 "God is the Saviour of all men.  Calvary is a finished work.  He is the Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe.  There is  no other salvation.  He is the Saviour of all men but only those who believe in him that are saved from sin.  Only those who really come to him believing that he is the son of God and died for our sins that we can find salvation in Christ alone.  The sacrifice to bring him to God.  Are you under the blood tonight?  Trusting and depending on the Lord?

The sufficiency of the cross.  All those who stood around that day heard the times Jesus spoke from the cross.  7 times he spoke.  The last one was "it is finished."  Is it any wonder Paul said "not with wisdom of words."  The cross is the central figure of God's atoning work.  I don't have to paint it up.  This is the sufficiency of it all.  In John 17 verse 4 Jesus said "I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work thou gavest me to do."  That takes us back to eternity when God chose his son to send him into the world to prepare the work of salvation.  The great work of the souls redemption had to be fulfilled.  The Old Testament priests had to bring sacrifice continually.  Jesus when he offered himself once it was for all time.  There is nothing we can do to obtain salvation.  "For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.  Not of works, lest anyone should boast." (Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9)  How God's heart must be grieved when men and women turn and reject his son.

The salvation of the cross.  What a wonderful subject the cross is.  Why do I preach about the cross?  "Unto us which are saved it is the power of God."  It is up to every person to make a decision - what will you do?  Jesus left the splendours of heaven to go and endure the cross.  What must I do in response?  Repent, turn to Christ, trust him as Saviour, invite him into your life and take him with you as you go back into the world.  "Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men under heaven whereby we must be saved." (Acts 4 verse 12)