The Right Kind of Preaching
Spring 2023
OBSERVATIONS ON PREACHING THE CROSS OF CHRIST
Preaching the cross is at the heart of the Christian gospel.
Building on his theme in chapter one, Paul makes the cross the central focus of gospel preaching. He shows how the cross of Christ cut through the wisdom of this world. We learn that gospel preachers must set themselves to expound the revelation of the cross because:
A social Christ without a cross is humanism—man’s way to work for his own salvation.
A dead Christ hanging on a cross is ritualism—man’s way to put God at a distance.
A living Christ, who was crucified and rose again, is the gospel.
Paul’s message was unique and contrary to the so-called wisdom of the world. He forthrightly declared the death of Christ as God’s good news to a perishing world.
We must realize how opposite is the message of a crucified Christ to the worldly man’s way of thinking. To announce to sinners, whose minds are fixed on the things of this world, that there is good news in a man’s death seems odd. Yet, when coupled with the resurrection, it is God’s good news to the world. This was Paul’s core teaching, and he came back to it continually as he did near the end of this letter:
“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1Corinthians 15:1–4).
Dr. Zwymer, the famous missionary to Muslims, stated, “If the Cross of Christ is anything to the mind, it is surely everything – the most profound reality and the sublimest mystery. One comes to realise that literally all the wealth of glory centres here. The Cross is the pivot, as well as the centre of New Testament thought” [Cited in The Outlined Galatians by Robert E. Lee].
Without faith in the Christ of the cross who died and rose again for our justification, no one can testify to being a Christian. But if you have come to Christ for salvation, and by faith you depend upon His work at Calvary and in the triumph of His resurrection, you are saved. You are a Christian in the true and fullest sense of the gospel.
All ministers of the gospel need to preach the cross as God’s message to men.
Paul had no time for the tricks and techniques of the Greek philosophers. He could not join the lovers of human wisdom in their attempts at human persuasion. Paul called them “enticing words of man’s wisdom” (1 Corinthians 2:4); devices to entrap their hearers. Paul simply heralded forth God’s message about the cross-work of Christ as God’s way of saving sinners. He did not depend on personal techniques to persuade men. Paul did not go to the pulpit in his own name, nor in his own authority, for he preached “the testimony of God” (1 Corinthians 2:1).
Paul preached the good news of the gospel plainly, boldly, straightforwardly, and obediently as God’s ambassador. He sought to stir hearts to faith in the redeeming and saving power of the cross of Christ. To him, that was true gospel preaching. We need that apostolic preaching in our pulpits today. The more of Christ’s person, purpose and triumph in His death that sinners and saints hear the more they will experience the power of the gospel in their lives. Such preaching will be a proper “demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Corinthians 1:4).
In place of using human techniques to attract men to mere religion let there be a thorough declaration of the meaning of Christ’s atoning death. Souls need to hear of Christ’s redeeming power in His death to turn away God’s wrath from their heads. Preachers must passionately declare to their people all they know from the scriptures of what it meant for the Holy One to die in the sinner’s place. This is God’s recipe for gospel power in the pulpit.
Preachers of the cross must depend upon the personal and powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit makes the cross-work of Christ real to sinful men by the miracle of regeneration. Otherwise, this wisdom of God in the cross of Christ is lost to the natural man. This is Paul’s insistence from verses 8–16 of this chapter. Note his statements about the darkened state of the natural, unregenerate mind.
“Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it; they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8).
The apostle’s logic is striking. It ought to have struck fear into all who were guilty of crucifying the Lord, but in their spiritual blindness they cried out for the Lord of glory to be crucified. How blind they were!
“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
This is cited from Isaiah 64:4. It does not relate to man’s knowledge of heaven, but refers to the things believers enjoy through the gospel after conversion to Christ. But without conversion man’s faculties are dead to God.
“For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man…” (1 Corinthians 2:11).
This is like asking, what can an ant, even though so wise at its own level, know of the things of the mind of man? Likewise, there is an immeasurable distance between the levels of the unconverted man’s mind and the mind of God.
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14)
This text is the death knell of the unregenerate man’s hope in self. Without the Holy Spirit’s power no one is capable of receiving, knowing, or discerning the true knowledge of God unto salvation. Sadly, this is true of all unregenerate men and women, but marvelously, it is not true of you if you are a born-again believer.
Paul said, “But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit…” (1Corinthians 2:10). You have received the Spirit which is of God, and you are given to understand the blessings of the gospel. You can compare spiritual things with spiritual (1 Corinthians 1:13). You do rest in the cross of Christ for salvation for you are born of God and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and you now have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).
To have the mind of Christ is to have the outlook of Christ. Because you are born again through the power of the Holy Spirit you see through new eyes that are opened to spiritual things–the things of God. Therefore, Christianity is the religion of the supernatural. Without the work of the Holy Spirit opening blind eyes, unstopping deaf ears, and enlightening dark hearts by His effectual power, no one can be saved by the preaching of the cross.
To do:
If you are born again, praise God for opening the eyes of your understanding to behold the saving power of God in the cross-work of His Son. This is God’s miracle in you.
Pray for the ministry of the Holy Spirit wherever the cross of Christ is preached. The Spirit’s work is vital to effective gospel ministry, and we must never forget that the regeneration of a soul is solely the work of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.