Preachers of the Cross of Christ.
" . . . we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." - 1 Corinthians 1:23-24. (taken from the King James Version of the Bible)
Baptist preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached from this text on the Sunday morning of February 11, 1855, at the Exeter Hall, in the Strand. London. Early in his sermon Spurgeon made this statement :-
“Before I enter upon our text, let me very briefly tell you what I believe preaching Christ and him crucified is. My friends, I do not believe it is preaching Christ and him crucified, to give people a batch of philosophy every Sunday morning and evening, and neglect the truths of this Holy Book. I do not believe it is preaching Christ and him crucified, to leave out the main cardinal doctrines of the Word of God, and preach a religion which is all a mist and a haze, without any definite truths whatever. I take it that man does not preach Christ and him crucified, who can get through a sermon without mentioning Christ's name once; nor does that man preach Christ and him crucified, who leaves out the Holy Spirit's work, who never says a word about the Holy Ghost, so that indeed the hearers might say, "We do not so much as know whether there be a Holy Ghost." And I have my own private opinion, that there is no such thing as preaching Christ and him crucified, unless you preach what now-a-days is called Calvinism. I have my own ideas, and those I always state boldly. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism. Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else. I do not believe we can preach the gospel, if we do not preach justification by faith without works; not unless we preach the sovereignty of God in his dispensation of grace; nor unless we exalt the electing, unchangeable, eternal, immutable, conquering love of Jehovah; nor, I think, can we preach the gospel, unless we base it upon the peculiar redemption which Christ made for his elect and chosen people; nor can I comprehend a gospel which lets saints fall away after they are called, and suffers the children of God to be burned in the fires of damnation, after having believed. Such a gospel I abhor. The gospel of the Bible is not such a gospel as that. We preach Christ and him crucified in a different fashion, and to all gainsayers we reply, "We have not so learned Christ."
In my own reading of this text I must add the words of the apostle Paul from Galatians chapter 2 verse 20 (I quote from Weymouth’s translation of the New Testament)
“I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me; and the life which I now live in the body I live through faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up to death on my behalf.”
The death of Christ upon the Cross has impacted upon my own life for it has become very personal to me. I realise that because He died for me this requires some response from me.
Others will reject this gospel truth and they will continue in their own self centred world.
But SELF needs to be overcome and the only way this can happen is by the believer’s total identification with the Crucified Christ.
“When Christ bids us come and follow, He bids us come and die,” said Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Born in 1906, Bonhoeffer as a German Lutheran pastor and theologian participated in the German resistance movement against Nazism and this resulted in his death in April 1945.
The Christian life is impossible to live without Christ as Saviour being central within our lives. There is nothing in the unsaved person’s life that can satisfy God’s righteousness. God will not accept our self-righteousness in the slightest degree. It is only after an individual has put his faith in Christ and been born again that God brings a person to self-crucifixion so Christ will be magnified.
John Wesley
, who encouraged his followers to go on to perfection, wrote in A Plain Account of Christian Perfection in 1767“ . . . this man can now testify to all mankind, `I am crucified with Christ: Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. ' He is `holy as God who called' him `is holy,' both in heart and `in all manner of conversation.' He `loveth the Lord his God with all his heart,' and serveth him `with all his strength.' He `loveth his neighbour,' every man, `as himself;' yea, `as Christ loveth us;' them, in particular, that `despitefully use him and persecute him, because they know not the Son, neither the Father.' Indeed his soul is all love, filled with `bowels of mercies, kindness, meekness, gentleness, longsuffering.' And his life agreeth thereto, full of `the work of faith, the patience of hope, the labour of love.' `And whatsoever' he `doeth either in word or deed,' he `doeth it all in the name,' in the love and power, `of the Lord Jesus.' In a word, he doeth `the will of God on earth, as it is done in heaven.'
http://gbgm-umc.org/UMhistory/Wesley/plainaccount.stm
Wesley contines:-
“Beware of schism, (causing division) of making a rent in the Church of Christ. That inward disunion, the members ceasing to have a reciprocal love 'one for another,' (1 Cor. 12:25,) is the very root of all contention, and every outward separation. Beware of everything tending thereto. Beware of a dividing spirit; shun whatever has the least aspect that way. Therefore, say not, 'I am of Paul or of Apollos;' the very thing which occasioned the schism at Corinth. Say not, 'This is my Preacher; the best Preacher in England. Give me him, and take all the rest.' All this tends to breed or foment division, to disunite those whom God hath joined. Do not despise or run down any Preacher; do not exalt any one above the rest, lest you hurt both him and the cause of God. On the other hand, do not bear hard upon any by reason of some incoherency or inaccuracy of expression; no, nor for some mistakes, were they really such.
“O beware of touchiness, of testiness, not bearing to be spoken to; starting at the least word; and flying from those who do not implicitly receive mine or another's sayings!
The gospel preacher has a God given responsibility to preach the message of a Crucified and Risen Christ whilst being totally linked to that cross on which our Lord and Saviour died.
