April 20, 2025 • 45 mins
Ever wonder why Christians can't seem to get along? In this revealing exploration of 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, we uncover the simple yet profound solution to church division that has eluded believers for 2,000 years: focus solely on Jesus.
Throughout church history, divisions have erupted when believers shifted their focus from Christ to human leaders, theological systems, or denominational distinctives. Paul confronts this tendency head-on in the Corinthian church, where believers were identifying themselves primarily as followers of Paul, Apollos, or Cephas rather than Christ. His response cuts to the heart: "Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you?" These piercing questions reveal that church division is fundamentally an identity issue.
The solution isn't complicated theological formulations or organizational restructuring—it's keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus alone. When we recognize that Jesus was sinless on the cross (offering a sacrifice of infinite value), was love personified (extending forgiveness to those who rejected Him), and conquered death (to share His resurrection life with us), we discover the true power of the gospel.
This message transforms our understanding of the Christian life. It's not about trying harder to follow rules or principles, but about yielding ourselves completely to Christ, allowing Him to live His life through us. As we give Him our heart, mind, and body, He manifests His character through us. This is the genuine power of God displayed in the world today—not Christians striving to be better, but Christ Himself living and loving through His people.
Whether you're wrestling with church hurt, struggling with religious burnout, or simply seeking authentic spiritual life, this message offers a refreshing perspective. Discover how focusing on Jesus alone can bring unity, freedom, and genuine transformation to your life and faith community.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
But it's Resurrection Sunday, it's Easter Sunday.
Some pastors get like angry.
If you call it Easter Not me,you can call it Easter, it's
fine.
But today we're not going to dolike a super special sermon.
Because here's the thing if youhave a church and you win
(00:20):
people with like specialexciting things, like smoke and
lasers, you have to keep doingthose things to keep them here.
So what we're going to do iswe're just going to study the
Word of God, like we do everysingle week.
And how about that that work.
I like that because I lovestudying the Word of God.
So we're going to continue ourtime in 1 Corinthians, chapter 1
(00:44):
, where we ended up last time.
So we're going to continue ourtime in 1 Corinthians, chapter 1
, where we ended up last time.
We're just going through 1Corinthians.
So we're going to be startingin verse 10 this week and going
through oh, I think we're goingto get through like verse 13 or
so, I don't know, we'll see.
And today's sermon is calledhow to Focus on Jesus.
It will be a littleresurrection-y.
We'll talk about theresurrection.
(01:05):
So it worked pretty well.
I was pretty excited about itactually.
So, how to focus on Jesus?
Now, nothing really matters thatwe do unless we pray.
So I'm really unconvinced ofthat.
So let's take a moment and bowour hearts before the Lord.
Father, we humble ourselvesgreatly before you because you
(01:30):
are to be feared, because youare so wonderful, magnified,
glorified.
You're perfect.
You're the creator and we havebeen created to serve you and
honor you.
But, father, you also love usso dearly and we are complete as
people and our identity is andhonor you.
But, father, you also love usso dearly and we are complete as
people and our identity iscompletely in you.
And so, lord, we love you, weworship you, we honor you and we
(01:54):
pray that your kingdom come andyour will be done, that we
would be aligned with your willin all things.
So if there's something that wewant or we desire that doesn't
line up with your kingdom,father, we surrender it.
We surrender, we give it up,lord, because it's your kingdom
(02:18):
that matters, not ours.
It's your fame that matters,not ours.
It's you, jesus, that is theking.
We are your servants.
So we give you all this, lord,we worship you, we praise you
and we ask you to teach us, openthe understanding of our minds
(02:39):
and our hearts and help us beready to serve you today In
Jesus' name.
We pray Amen.
So, as we opened the book of 1Corinthians last time a couple
weeks ago, we learned that thegrace of God is completely
life-changing.
Okay, the grace of God willchange your life.
(03:01):
It's like a new pair of glasses.
These are my new glasses.
So since I was here last time,I even got newer, new glasses.
So these are my newer, newglasses.
And it changes how we seeeverything in our lives, from
our identity to our thoughts andour actions.
It's all transformed by gracealone.
It's never law.
(03:22):
So grace and law we're going tostudy this a lot are two
opposites, okay.
So the law, where you do what'sright because you're supposed
to, it's the rules.
Okay, that's the TenCommandments.
So Jesus actually set us freefrom that way of living, which
is by grace, which is his spiritand life within us, lives for
(03:46):
us and transforms us, and sothat's this grace that we're
studying about.
We're going to dive deep intothis.
So we're saints, not sinners.
We are saints who sometimes sin, though.
Okay, but it's not our identityanymore.
So how do we get this grace?
And the answer is, like Mattsaid last week, just Jesus.
Right, were you guys here forthat sermon that Matt did last
(04:07):
week.
It was a great sermon.
Just Jesus.
Well, yeah, the grace of Godcomes through Jesus alone.
As we look at Jesus alone Whoa,calm down, sean.
We look at Jesus alone.
It's really not that hard.
(04:27):
We just look at Jesus alone.
It's really not that hard.
We just look at Jesus alone.
Paul mentions Jesus 11 times inthe first 10 verses that we read
last time.
Do you think Paul is trying tosay something?
It's kind of like a toddler.
How many of you guys have kids,grandkids maybe, and you get
(04:48):
them to focus on you?
You say, hey, focus on me,right here, right here, right,
look at me, focus on me, look atme.
How many times do you have tosay look here before they
actually look right?
Paul's like for us.
He did it 11 times.
He's like look, look, look,look, look, blah, blah, blah.
That's what Paul is doing.
He's like focus on Jesus, don'tlook anywhere else.
(05:12):
Focus on Jesus.
This is the way, this is whatthe gospel is.
Jesus said I am the the and theman.
You guys have been well taught.
Good job, good job, it's.
It's really so easy.
Look at Jesus, just look to him.
(05:35):
Put your faith in confidence inhim alone and and it's that
easy In his world, with thisgospel.
Being smart and talented is noteven helpful.
In fact, they can detract ourability to be able to easily
(05:59):
trust in him.
That's why there's a, you knowsome people are like well, like,
how do mentally handicapped?
How does that work with God andwith God's kingdom?
And how does God view peoplewho have challenges mentally and
physically and all that?
What do we think about that?
Well, in God's economy,humility is what is exalted.
(06:21):
So the easier you can trust inhim, the more you're going to
experience him in his reality inyour life.
Because God gives grace to thehumble but opposes the proud.
So being smart and talentedisn't really helpful in the
(06:41):
church or in God's kingdom,which is great for us Subtle
slam on all of us, me too.
Okay.
So here's my sincere questionwhat in the name of Peter and
Paul has happened in the churchover the past 2,000 years?
(07:02):
And Paul has happened in thechurch over the past 2,000 years
?
If being humble and justfocusing on Jesus is what the
church is supposed to do, whathas happened in the past 2,000
years?
Because I think there's beenquite a deviation from that,
right?
Okay, so you guys want a briefhistory lesson, church history,
(07:26):
one of my favorite things.
If you want a podcast to listento, communio Sanctorum, which
is Latin for history of theChristian church, just look up
history of the Christian church.
It's a great podcast, greatpodcast.
But anyway, that's for free.
You need to pay extra for thatone.
So the church started to reallyspread around the world right
(07:49):
after Jesus.
So just explosive growth, evenwhen everyone was trying to kill
him for like 300 years.
Then, after 300 years, thispersecution got so bad the
church was like we're not doingthis anymore and we're never
doing that again.
So the Roman emperor gets savedI'll put in quotation marks,
his name is Constantine.
(08:10):
You guys heard of him.
So, and then that moment thechurch Christianity became the
official religion of the Romanempire and this ended all the
persecution.
But really sucked, because thenthe church was lame, because
the church started was just thegovernment and so just
(08:31):
everything wrong with thegovernment was now part of the
church, and so there was no likepurity in the church and it was
really bad.
Eventually, the church became socorrupt that all the true
believers were being killed bythe Catholic church leaders and
the church said we're not doingthis anymore.
So one group split and we callthem the Eastern Orthodox Church
(08:56):
.
Then the Catholic church got sofocused on not letting anyone
split again that they becameeven more corrupt and
overbearing.
So the church is like we'renever doing that again.
So then Martin Luther came inlike the 1500s and he started
another movement of peopletrying to reform the church and
(09:17):
eventually they just ended upsplitting from the church the
church that was there at thatpoint and so they formed a whole
new denomination, which became10 denominations, which now
became thousands ofdenominations, where everyone
just was free to start their ownlittle denominations.
Then, basically, in this recentage, the church is like we're
(09:39):
not doing that anymore, we'renever doing that again.
So everyone is nownon-denominational and we all
basically just believe the samething and practice the same
thing around the world.
Basically like a lot of thechurch is pretty united.
That sounds really messy, right?
I think so, and it sounds likea lot of strong-willed,
(09:59):
strong-minded people andopinionated people got involved
in something that was supposedto be really, really simple
Right Focus on Jesus.
That was supposed to be thelive by his grace.
That was supposed to be thething.
Now, all through history therehave been people and bright
(10:21):
spots in the church, differentrandom people in different spots
.
Like there was a time like StPatrick we just had St Patrick's
Day Like that homeboy like castout all the evil out of Ireland
at one point it was so cool,like just by focusing on Jesus
and living by grace.
(10:41):
And all throughout historythere's been these revivals and
every single revival was aboutgrace, every single one of them.
So guess what we're going tofocus on?
Jesus and his grace.
Okay, you know, living by hisgrace is going to lead to loving
God and loving others.
Which our name right, one, twochurch, do you guys know?
(11:05):
I just want to be very clear.
Those are not rules that welive by.
That's not.
Here's our two rules love Godand love others.
That's what we will look like,that's what our life will.
That will be the fruit of ourlives as we receive his love.
See, he loves us first, whichour response to that is loving
(11:26):
him and loving others.
It's not supposed to be hard.
We keep our eyes on him.
He transforms us.
How?
By keeping our eyes on him.
So that's how his grace works.
So that's my introduction.
Now let's get into 1 Corinthians1, verse 10.
Now I plead with you, brethren,by the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that you speak the samething.
(11:47):
Paul says that there be nodivisions among you, but that
you be perfectly joined togetherin the same mind, with the same
judgment.
So Paul heard even at thebeginning of the church there
was divisions going on.
Divisions mean to tear or rend,and basically they were.
(12:08):
He's saying that they wereripping each other apart.
They were tearing up the bodyof Christ and he wants them to
see that you guys are, should bejoined together.
And joined together was amedical term for setting a
broken bone, so it's like hewants them to understand that
they are one body and divisionsare bad.
(12:29):
Joining together is good, unitygood.
Divisions bad.
Okay, how to get there?
He says this is how you getthere.
Speak the same thing About what?
About Jesus?
The name of Jesus?
He says speaking the same thingabout the name of Jesus.
That means focusing on Jesus,and his name or his identity is
(12:55):
what that means.
That's the only solution forall this mess that people cause
in the church.
Now, has the church been perfectfor the past 2,000 years?
Obviously not.
The church has been a giantmess.
There's been, like I said,wonderful high spots, wonderful
(13:16):
beautiful parts, and it's thebody of Christ and we love it
and he loves it.
You can't not love the churchbecause it's Jesus' body.
But there have been people whomake a mess of things.
Right, well, I don't go tochurch.
You know why?
Because the people suck.
How many times have you heardthat?
(13:37):
How many times have you saidthat I'm going to find a church
in a bar or something?
I'm going to find a church in abar or something?
He says the solution for all ourchurch hurt, all our church
problems, is get your eyes offthe church and get them on to
Jesus.
That will transform you, whichwill make you part of the
(14:03):
solution to what is wrong in thechurch.
You know what's wrong with thechurch?
It's full of people and peopleget self-centered and we need
people who are not self-centeredbut Jesus-centered, and they
will help the people who areself-centered to see Jesus' life
.
So Paul just finished giving us10 verses, the first 10 verses
(14:26):
about Jesus and his grace, andthis is truly the way to do.
Everything we're called to doin the church is by his grace.
We'll study more about that,but let's look at verse 11.
For it has been declared to me,concerning you, my brethren, by
those of Chloe's household sohe's totally throwing them under
the bus that there arecontentions among you.
(14:48):
Now I say this that each of yousays I'm of Paul, or I am of
Apollos, or I am of Cephas,which is Peter's other name, or
I am of Christ.
Verse 13, is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you orwere you baptized in the name of
Paul?
I thank God.
So here's the conflict that wasgoing on in this church.
(15:09):
It was an identity conflict,which is really the essence of
all conflict.
(15:30):
In every church.
It's an identity issue.
Some people were focused on menand some were focused on Jesus,
and when you're focused on men,it skews your identity of who
you think you are.
So they were focused on Paul.
Paul was their church founder.
He was their original firstpastor.
(15:51):
Great guy Moved to Idaho.
Nobody knows what happened tohim.
I hope Matt's watching, allright.
Apollos, the second onementioned.
He was like this great newteacher that came in and
(16:12):
everyone loved him.
He had tattoos and he was coolfrom Colorado and again people
were focused on him.
They shouldn't have been right.
And then there was Cephas,which is like Peter.
You know he's Peter, right, andso that's what Jesus is homeboy
.
And so, yeah, there was peoplethat were like we don't care
about any of you, we just wantthe original.
(16:34):
Like priest down the street,paul says focus.
He's like to the toddler, focuson Jesus, not your pastor.
The toddler focus on Jesus, notyour pastor on Jesus.
He is the head of the churchthere.
He's the head of the body.
(16:55):
He knows how to build hischurch.
Look at Jesus, not men.
This is vital to understandthat we are one body.
Each of us have equalrepresentation.
We are equally parts of onebody.
We do have different roles.
Some of you work at, renew andserve the Lord as like the hands
of the body.
You know, I'm like the mouth,the joke teller.
(17:19):
You know I'm a teacher, reallya pastor, you know.
But there's all the vital, mostvital parts.
We'll get into the body partlater, but we are one body.
And then he asked this questionwas Paul crucified for you?
Was Paul crucified for you?
He says look at Jesus.
Jesus was the only one that wascrucified for you.
(17:42):
There should be no other starin this show.
There should be no other personany church ever talks about
except Jesus.
We don't need ever to talkabout anybody else.
You don't need to talk aboutpresidents.
You don't need to talk aboutanybody else.
His love is the thing thatbirthed all of us into this
kingdom.
He is the seed that was plantedin the earth when he was killed
(18:06):
and laid in the tomb and thatproduces millions of seeds when
it goes into the ground and thenit rises from the dead and then
Paul brings up baptism.
Then Paul brings up baptismLike out of nowhere.
It seems like, okay, so what isbaptism?
(18:30):
Baptism is something that wereceive like a gift.
Some people think baptism issomething you do.
Oh, I need to go baptize myselfor I need to go do baptism.
That's actually not how itworks.
Baptism is something we receive.
We say you get baptized, oractually that means you receive
(18:54):
baptism.
Why is that different?
Because it's not a job to dobaptism.
It's really nothing we do.
A believer receives it whenanother believer recognizes that
you follow Jesus and you test,you declare that you believe in
Jesus and that he's your Lordand Savior.
Then another believer says yeah, I see that in your life, I see
(19:17):
it's real, and they, withconfidence, can place their
hands on you and say, I welcomeyou, I celebrate your faith, and
then you are like, welcomedinto the you could call it the
club of being Christians.
Right, my grandpa used to be inthe Lions Club.
You guys, you ever heard of theLions Clubs?
Yeah, terrible breakfast everySaturday.
(19:38):
But he would take me all thetime and I was like, how do you
get in this club?
And he never would tell me.
I was like I think they had tolike kill someone to get in it
or something, but I don't know.
And here's the thing For someoneto baptize you.
You could disagree with them oneverything except for Jesus.
(20:00):
I mean, you could not like themat all.
But if you're like-minded onthe one thing of Jesus who Jesus
is and what you believe abouthim you can be baptized.
That's crazy and it's coolbecause, if you think about it,
it's kind of like the sixdegrees of Kevin Bacon.
Have you guys heard of thisgame?
(20:21):
You haven't.
Okay.
So six degrees of Kevin Baconis a real fun game where you
pick a movie star and KevinBacon and you pick how they're
connected to Kevin Bacon.
So, like Jack Black was in thismovie with this thing, jack
Black was in this movie withthis thing, and then he was in
(20:42):
this movie with this thing, andyou can always get to Kevin
Bacon within six movies.
So it's a game, if you likeactors, and it's a fun game.
But it's kind of like us we haveall been baptized all the way
back to Jesus.
Like someone laid Jesus laidhands on someone.
Like people baptized you intothe club, but it's like all the
(21:05):
way like they laid hands on youinto it.
So it's kind of like we're allpart.
I think it's pretty cool.
It's like this connectionthat's been literally laid down,
passed down through all thegenerations, so we're like one
body that's actually touchedeach other.
I think that's really cool.
There's no like I mean, there'sChristians out there that
haven't been baptized, so it'snot everybody, but I think it's
pretty cool.
(21:26):
So is baptism required forsalvation?
It's a good question, but theanswer is no.
Just ask the thief on the cross, right Jesus said today you're
going to be with me.
Oh, sorry, you didn't getbaptized.
So good luck, no, but it is ahelpful, encouraging gift that
(21:54):
God commands us to receive, toidentify in this life, to
identify with him, with his lifeand death as ours and our union
with him.
And so, yeah, you don't have toreceive his gifts.
Like, he promises you peace, youdon't have to take it.
(22:16):
You can live stressed out andworried your whole life, you
don't have to take it.
You can live stressed out andworried your whole life, you
don't have to take it.
But he still promises you thathe is your peace, that he is the
source of it, and he'll nevertake that promise back.
But you're going to miss out ifyou don't take it by faith,
right, right, so, but I don'tlike Jesus.
(22:40):
Then don't get baptized.
That's pretty much the dealhere.
Right, but I don't like Jesus'body, the church, then you
probably don't want to getbaptized.
I get it, but it doesn't changethe fact that you're in the
body if you believe.
So, gotcha, you don't get tonot be in the body.
If you believe, so you may aswell get baptized and serve your
(23:04):
part of the body.
So who wants to go get baptized?
Well, we'll talk about thatlater.
So he's in you, you're in him,and so he's in the church.
So you're in his church,whether you like it or not.
If you believe.
So maybe the solution isn'tavoiding baptism, but it's
(23:25):
focusing on Jesus instead of managain.
See how?
That's why Paul brings upbaptism right here.
He's like if your focus is onmen, baptism's going to get all
weird.
You're going to think you'rejoining a man club like the
Lions or whatever.
But if you focus on Jesus, it'shim that you're in, not the
(23:56):
people.
Okay, so verse 17.
For Christ did not send me tobaptize but to preach the gospel
, not with words, lest the crossof Christ should be made of no
effect.
So Paul thinks baptism is soimportant that he doesn't even
care if he did Like.
This is one of the points forwhy baptism is not required for
(24:16):
salvation is because Paul likeit wasn't even that big of a
deal to him.
He's like yeah, I don't know ifI baptize you, it's not that
important to me because I cameto preach the gospel, right.
But he says here Paul onlywanted to preach the gospel, he
only wanted people to focus onJesus, not with words of wisdom,
not with words of wisdom.
(24:37):
I love when people think I'msmart, do you guys?
You think I'm smart?
Thank you, gotcha.
But the simple truth of thegospel is not complicated.
It really is not.
This is why there should beperfect unity in the church.
(25:01):
It's when we divide over thingsthat we think we understand
more than other people.
That's when we get all messedup.
Well, at our church, we superunderstand the end times.
At our church, we superunderstand communion.
So we're going to make a wholechurch that we just understand
(25:24):
things better than otherchurches.
We're going to call them thisspecial name.
That's what happens, okay, butthe power of Jesus has nothing
to do with being smart ortrained or talented or anything
like that.
He says the cross is powerfulall by itself.
The cross can save anyone wholooks to Jesus and believes
(25:45):
Anyone.
We don't have to make itcomplicated at all.
I don't have to dazzle theisland with my intellect and
witty humor.
The cross speaks for itself andI love that.
I get in the way when I try tospice it up, but the message of
(26:07):
the cross is so powerful.
How many of you guys have seenYou've Got Mail?
Yeah, if you haven't seen it,where have you been for 30 years
?
But it's a beautiful movie,right?
Not as good as 50 First Dates,I will 100% agree.
(26:27):
Is there a way I could make 50First Dates my example instead
of You've Got Mail?
Was there like a message in abottle?
Oh, I don't know.
Okay, yeah, grace is new toeverybody, all right.
Well, the reason why you've gotmail is my illustration right
now is because she would getlike that ding, you know you've
got mail and he would get it andthey would get so excited when
(26:51):
they got that message right, youknow, she would be like, oh, I
wonder what he said.
You know, and she didn't evenknow who was sending it, but the
things that were being saidwere so powerful and romantic
that it was like touching herheart and his heart as they kind
of developed this relationshipand then realized that they knew
each other but they hated eachother, but they loved each other
(27:13):
and it was beautiful and theyhad dogs.
Brinkley, barkley, brinkley whatwas his name?
Brinkley?
Yeah, okay, when I get a textmessage, I get a little excited.
I'm like, oh, someone loves me.
They sent me a text message.
You know someone sends me anemail.
(27:33):
Depending on if it's acomplaining about the sermon or
a good email, you know I getexcited.
Someone thought enough to likewrite me a longer message.
Someone sends me a voicemail.
They actually wanted to opentheir mouth and speak to me.
Hey, that's pretty nice too.
But if someone, like writes youa letter, a handwritten letter,
do I even know what I would do.
(27:55):
I would like have to sit downand like get a cup of coffee and
get a pipe and like so, then bewritten in cursive.
Probably have to get my grandmato translate.
That was a good one.
Yeah, awesome, thank you.
(28:19):
Well, paul says here the messageof the cross it's it's speaking
a message.
You're getting a message inyour inbox every moment, every
time you see the cross, and notwhen someone wears the cross as
a necklace.
That's not the message of thecross.
I don't know what that speaksand that's not bad.
Obviously, wear a cross if youwant.
(28:40):
I don don't care.
But what is the message of thecross?
It's the gospel, and the gospelis good news.
And the good news is not tryharder to be a good Christian.
That's not the gospel.
How many of you grew up thinkingthat was the gospel?
I did.
I absolutely grew up thinkingthat I was supposed to try
(29:03):
harder, sacrifice more, givemore, do more.
That's what God was looking forfrom my life.
You know why?
Because pastors told me thatwhen they were teaching the
Bible, they were like this isyour response Do this, do this,
do this, and I didn't get tohear the message of the cross.
(29:28):
And so the message of the crossfor me was sad and foolishness.
I was like I tried and I triedand I tried and I ended up burnt
out.
Anyone else ever end up burntout following Christ?
I can tell you every singlereason.
Why was because we weren'thearing what the cross actually
(29:50):
said.
Because what did Jesus say whenhe was on the cross?
It is almost done, except forall the things you have to do.
That's not what he said.
What did he say Louder?
Yes, right.
He screamed it, blood curdling,it is finished.
(30:14):
He wanted there to be no doubt.
He was finishing the work.
So what do we do?
He said believe, I'll come andlive inside you.
I'll change you, I'll do allthe stuff you know you're
supposed to do.
I will do it through you if youbelieve and give yourself to me
.
Give me your heart, give meyour heart, give me your heart.
(30:37):
That's what Jesus asks for, notfor more religion, not for more
religion, not for more goodworks.
He will do good works throughyou.
He must have your heart, though.
He can't do it without yourwhole heart.
That's the gospel, the goodnews.
Preaching a good, high moralstandard, which is what people
(31:00):
in the South love to preach.
That's not the gospel.
Be a good person, follow therules, is not the gospel.
A big, universal God like theliberal, god of like, oh,
everyone is acceptable.
That's not the gospel either.
Neither one, left or right, isnot the true gospel.
The true gospel is Jesus alone.
(31:26):
Paul says there's only two waysthat people see the message of
the cross, and the first waythey see is foolishness.
Why would the death of anotherman mean anything to me?
So this is unbelievers.
The cross is foolishness tothem.
It's not even a noble death.
It was a shameful death.
It was like saying someone diedon an electric chair.
No one's like golf clap, welldone.
(31:49):
Electric chair death.
Except it was even moreshameful because dying on the
cross, you were hung, naked,mocked, tortured, abandoned by
everybody.
So that means nothing to mebecause I don't need him.
(32:10):
See, the unbeliever thinks it'sfoolishness that Jesus would do
that because I'm a good person.
Why do I need that?
I've been a religious person,or I don't even need religion.
I've got my life all figuredout and I can't trust anyone
anyways, because everyone'salways let me down, especially
(32:32):
God.
That's when you're having thosethoughts, that's when the
message of the cross isfoolishness to you.
When I die, I expect God tolook at my life and compare me
to all the other people in thisworld and I expect God to say
you're good enough.
I mean, you're not Hitler,right?
(32:53):
Like that's the argument thatpeople always have.
Like it's Hitler, he's the onlyone going to hell.
If you're not Hitler, you'regood to go.
But that's not the message ofthe cross, right?
Am I perfect?
No, but no one is right, atleast I'm not Hitler.
(33:15):
The message of the cross isfoolishness to those who are
perishing, because the Biblesays if you reject the message
of the cross, you are perishing,which does mean going to hell.
Right, and yes, that isexclusive.
That is narrow-minded.
People accuse Christians ofbeing narrow-minded.
Yeah, I guess we arenarrow-minded, just like it's
(33:37):
narrow-minded to say you have tohave air to breathe and live.
You have to breathe to live.
You have to eat to live, youhave to drink to live.
Those are narrow-minded.
I don't want to breathe, okay,I guess you can choose that way,
but the only result is death.
(33:59):
Exactly, the message of thecross is foolishness because it
says sin must be paid for, andpeople don't want to be
accountable to their sin.
I don't want to be accountableto my sin, but the cross says it
has to be dealt with.
And the standard of what needsto be dealt with is every person
(34:22):
ever created is held to theperfect standard of perfection.
The Ten Commandments is howevery human being will be judged
, and that is absoluteperfection.
Every human is held to the samestandard.
And the Ten Commandments is notmeasuring how good you are,
it's measuring how far short youfall from the perfect standard.
And so God is perfectly just.
(34:44):
He cannot let sin go withoutjustice.
That's his job description asthe judge of the universe.
He must judge sin and itdoesn't mean he doesn't love us,
because his love isdemonstrated by Christ on the
cross paying for that sin.
That he judges Christ on ourbehalf.
So that's the beautiful side.
(35:06):
But that doesn't make sensewhen it's all foolishness to you
, when you don't believe inJesus, when you don't understand
, because to us who are beingsaved, the message of the cross
is the power of God.
I'm going to give you threeways that it's the power of God
displayed for us.
(35:27):
Jesus was sinless on the cross.
How was Jesus sinless.
He lived an absolute, perfectlife, so his life was of
infinite value, so the sacrificewas worth a lot.
Infinite value, so thesacrifice was worth a lot.
Have you guys heard the story ofthe guy who was the train
(35:48):
operator?
He ran like one of thosebridges that would lower for
trains to get across and thenwe'd raise it and boats would go
through.
And it was like take your sonto work day, and he took his kid
to work and so he's, you know,and he's not expecting any
trains to come by.
And then all of a sudden hegets a thing on the radio, a
message, and they're like hey,there's a train coming and it's
(36:10):
got like 1,000, you know peopleon it and they're coming and
they'll be there in two minutes.
And he's like, oh my gosh.
So he looks around to find hisson and his son is not around
because he was out playing.
And he looks around and he seesin the gear mechanism of the
bridge his son is playing in itand he sees that if he raises it
(36:34):
, that his son is going to besmushed and killed.
And so he calls out to him andthere's no way.
So in like 10 seconds he has tomake a decision and this is
actually a true story and he hasto make a decision on whether
(36:55):
he is going to allow his son tolive or whether he will
sacrifice his son and the trainwill pass by.
And he chooses to lower thebridge to allow the train to
pass by.
His son is killed and the trainpasses by and all the people he
(37:17):
can see, all the people in thewindows, and none of them know
what sacrifice he just had tomake for them to live.
None of them know his love.
And it's a really powerfulstory that shows us the heart of
God.
Amen, amen.
You can all stop crying now.
(37:37):
You can all stop crying now.
So Jesus' death on the cross.
His life was of infinite value.
He always obeyed God in everyway.
See, he wasn't the kid thatdidn't know.
He willingly went to the cross,even when his father asked him
to suffer and die and beabandoned, rejected, he went to
(37:58):
the cross obediently.
He offered himself as thesacrifice for our sins so that
we could be set free, as wetrust in him by faith alone.
There's absolutely no way wecould save ourselves, because we
couldn't even pay our debt, butJesus's life is sufficient to
pay all of our debt, includingthe debt of the entire world.
(38:22):
That's how amazing and gloriousJesus is.
That's why we sing to Jesus,that's why we give our lives to
him.
That's why nothing is held backfrom him.
So the power of God isdisplayed for us as believers
when we recognize the value ofhis life.
His life is powerful.
It can forgive sin.
(38:47):
Secondly, jesus was love on thecross.
So the power of God in his lovedisplayed for us by Jesus on
the cross, even when I didn'tdeserve love, jesus loved me,
Even when I rejected his love.
Jesus loved me Even when myidentity was nothing but shame
(39:10):
and pain and disappointment.
Jesus ran to me, not away fromme.
He is the only one.
He is love personified.
And that message only gets intomy brain and my head and my
heart by the power of God.
(39:31):
God opens me up to be able tounderstand that love.
And the third way that God'spower is revealed to us as
believers is that the lastmessage of the cross was death.
Right, everyone who ever wasnailed to a cross died.
It was 100% successful.
(39:52):
People even lived electricchairs.
Did you know that Peoplesurvived electric chairs?
I don't know how, but they geta cool nickname afterwards
Sparky.
I just made that up.
I don't know if that's true,but anyway, nobody survives
electric chairs crosses, notelectric chairs crosses.
(40:19):
But yet Jesus is alive and thatshows the power of God, because
obviously the greatest powerever shown was Jesus rising from
the dead after being crucifiedon the cross.
It is the most amazing powerthat's ever been displayed.
Science today is going throughgreat, great, great pains and
(40:42):
effort to try to produce lifefrom something that's dead.
So they like shoot amino acidswith like lasers and electricity
all the time.
If you read science journalsand stuff, they're always trying
to produce life from like aminoacids and stuff, and you know
how many times it's worked ZeroRight.
Because it can't work, becauseyou can't make life from
(41:05):
non-life, because you have tohave the power of creation to
create life.
Like life doesn't come fromrocks, no matter what your
evolutionist teacher tells you.
So as you study science, as yousee that life is the greatest
miracle, you have thisincredible power displayed.
(41:26):
When God said, not only letthere be life, but you can kill
my son, and my power will bedisplayed when he rises from the
dead.
Okay so, and then he was seenby his disciples.
And then he was seen by over500 people at once and all of
(41:47):
those people were persecuted andthey threatened to kill them,
because they're like you can't,you can't come back from the
dead and they're like we know,but it happened and this is the
power of God and that's what thechurch is.
We are people who believe in thepower of God to raise someone
from the dead.
So, jesus, the last thing forus today, this is the big point.
(42:11):
We focus on Jesus.
We focus on Jesus and then,because Jesus wants to share his
life with us, he wants to pourhis life into us and live his
life through us, as you, hewants you, your body, to be his
(42:36):
new temple.
That's the deal he wants tomake with you temple.
That's the deal he wants tomake with you.
He doesn't he's not asking youto sacrifice more, do more, give
more.
He wants you just to believethat you died with him on the
cross, that you rose again withhim, that he wants to share all
(42:56):
of that with you.
He wants to share his deathwith you, forgiving your sins,
his life with you, raised tolive a life for God's glory.
God wants you to live for God'sglory.
God wants you to do what'sright, to do good works, but how
?
By him living through you.
He doesn't want you to try todo it.
(43:17):
That could never work, or elsewhy did Jesus have to come?
Why did Jesus have to rise fromthe dead?
He rose from the dead to beable to share his life with you,
to live through you.
And again, what's our place inthat?
Our thing in that is to say youknow what?
Come, live through me, livethrough me.
(43:48):
I give you my heart, jesus,live through me.
And that, giving him your mindand your mouth and your hands
and your body, everything aboutyou.
As you give those things to him, he takes control and he lives
through you.
And that's the power of Goddisplayed in this world today is
when a Christian finally stopstrying to be a Christian and
(44:11):
says I am a Christian.
So, jesus, here's my life,here's my mind and here's
everything.
I give it to you, and he willlive through you.
So, in your mind, is themessage of the cross foolishness
or is it the power of God?
(44:33):
Amen, I think it is the powerof God for all of you guys in
here.
But if not, and you would liketo see the power of God in your
life.
All you have to do is call outto him and say Jesus, I believe
that you were God, that you diedon the cross, that you rose
from the dead and I ask you toforgive me of my sin and live in
(44:57):
me, and I want to give my life,my heart, daily to you, for you
to live through me.
Tell him you hear the messageof the cross.
If you hear the message of thecross, that was god that opened
your heart.
Jesus was perfect, jesus waslove and jesus sacrificed.
But it's Resurrection Sunday, it's Easter Sunday.
Some pastors get like angry.
If you call it Easter Not me,you can call it Easter, it's
fine.
But today we're not going to dolike a super special sermon.
Because here's the thing if youhave a church and you win
(00:20):
people with like specialexciting things, like smoke and
lasers, you have to keep doingthose things to keep them here.
So what we're going to do iswe're just going to study the
Word of God, like we do everysingle week.
And how about that that work.
I like that because I lovestudying the Word of God.
So we're going to continue ourtime in 1 Corinthians, chapter 1
(00:44):
, where we ended up last time.
So we're going to continue ourtime in 1 Corinthians, chapter 1
, where we ended up last time.
We're just going through 1Corinthians.
So we're going to be startingin verse 10 this week and going
through oh, I think we're goingto get through like verse 13 or
so, I don't know, we'll see.
And today's sermon is calledhow to Focus on Jesus.
It will be a littleresurrection-y.
We'll talk about theresurrection.
(01:05):
So it worked pretty well.
I was pretty excited about itactually.
So, how to focus on Jesus?
Now, nothing really matters thatwe do unless we pray.
So I'm really unconvinced ofthat.
So let's take a moment and bowour hearts before the Lord.
Father, we humble ourselvesgreatly before you because you
(01:30):
are to be feared, because youare so wonderful, magnified,
glorified.
You're perfect.
You're the creator and we havebeen created to serve you and
honor you.
But, father, you also love usso dearly and we are complete as
people and our identity is andhonor you.
But, father, you also love usso dearly and we are complete as
people and our identity iscompletely in you.
And so, lord, we love you, weworship you, we honor you and we
(01:54):
pray that your kingdom come andyour will be done, that we
would be aligned with your willin all things.
So if there's something that wewant or we desire that doesn't
line up with your kingdom,father, we surrender it.
We surrender, we give it up,lord, because it's your kingdom
(02:18):
that matters, not ours.
It's your fame that matters,not ours.
It's you, jesus, that is theking.
We are your servants.
So we give you all this, lord,we worship you, we praise you
and we ask you to teach us, openthe understanding of our minds
(02:39):
and our hearts and help us beready to serve you today In
Jesus' name.
We pray Amen.
So, as we opened the book of 1Corinthians last time a couple
weeks ago, we learned that thegrace of God is completely
life-changing.
Okay, the grace of God willchange your life.
(03:01):
It's like a new pair of glasses.
These are my new glasses.
So since I was here last time,I even got newer, new glasses.
So these are my newer, newglasses.
And it changes how we seeeverything in our lives, from
our identity to our thoughts andour actions.
It's all transformed by gracealone.
It's never law.
(03:22):
So grace and law we're going tostudy this a lot are two
opposites, okay.
So the law, where you do what'sright because you're supposed
to, it's the rules.
Okay, that's the TenCommandments.
So Jesus actually set us freefrom that way of living, which
is by grace, which is his spiritand life within us, lives for
(03:46):
us and transforms us, and sothat's this grace that we're
studying about.
We're going to dive deep intothis.
So we're saints, not sinners.
We are saints who sometimes sin, though.
Okay, but it's not our identityanymore.
So how do we get this grace?
And the answer is, like Mattsaid last week, just Jesus.
Right, were you guys here forthat sermon that Matt did last
(04:07):
week.
It was a great sermon.
Just Jesus.
Well, yeah, the grace of Godcomes through Jesus alone.
As we look at Jesus alone Whoa,calm down, sean.
We look at Jesus alone.
It's really not that hard.
(04:27):
We just look at Jesus alone.
It's really not that hard.
We just look at Jesus alone.
Paul mentions Jesus 11 times inthe first 10 verses that we read
last time.
Do you think Paul is trying tosay something?
It's kind of like a toddler.
How many of you guys have kids,grandkids maybe, and you get
(04:48):
them to focus on you?
You say, hey, focus on me,right here, right here, right,
look at me, focus on me, look atme.
How many times do you have tosay look here before they
actually look right?
Paul's like for us.
He did it 11 times.
He's like look, look, look,look, look, blah, blah, blah.
That's what Paul is doing.
He's like focus on Jesus, don'tlook anywhere else.
(05:12):
Focus on Jesus.
This is the way, this is whatthe gospel is.
Jesus said I am the the and theman.
You guys have been well taught.
Good job, good job, it's.
It's really so easy.
Look at Jesus, just look to him.
(05:35):
Put your faith in confidence inhim alone and and it's that
easy In his world, with thisgospel.
Being smart and talented is noteven helpful.
In fact, they can detract ourability to be able to easily
(05:59):
trust in him.
That's why there's a, you knowsome people are like well, like,
how do mentally handicapped?
How does that work with God andwith God's kingdom?
And how does God view peoplewho have challenges mentally and
physically and all that?
What do we think about that?
Well, in God's economy,humility is what is exalted.
(06:21):
So the easier you can trust inhim, the more you're going to
experience him in his reality inyour life.
Because God gives grace to thehumble but opposes the proud.
So being smart and talentedisn't really helpful in the
(06:41):
church or in God's kingdom,which is great for us Subtle
slam on all of us, me too.
Okay.
So here's my sincere questionwhat in the name of Peter and
Paul has happened in the churchover the past 2,000 years?
(07:02):
And Paul has happened in thechurch over the past 2,000 years
?
If being humble and justfocusing on Jesus is what the
church is supposed to do, whathas happened in the past 2,000
years?
Because I think there's beenquite a deviation from that,
right?
Okay, so you guys want a briefhistory lesson, church history,
(07:26):
one of my favorite things.
If you want a podcast to listento, communio Sanctorum, which
is Latin for history of theChristian church, just look up
history of the Christian church.
It's a great podcast, greatpodcast.
But anyway, that's for free.
You need to pay extra for thatone.
So the church started to reallyspread around the world right
(07:49):
after Jesus.
So just explosive growth, evenwhen everyone was trying to kill
him for like 300 years.
Then, after 300 years, thispersecution got so bad the
church was like we're not doingthis anymore and we're never
doing that again.
So the Roman emperor gets savedI'll put in quotation marks,
his name is Constantine.
(08:10):
You guys heard of him.
So, and then that moment thechurch Christianity became the
official religion of the Romanempire and this ended all the
persecution.
But really sucked, because thenthe church was lame, because
the church started was just thegovernment and so just
(08:31):
everything wrong with thegovernment was now part of the
church, and so there was no likepurity in the church and it was
really bad.
Eventually, the church became socorrupt that all the true
believers were being killed bythe Catholic church leaders and
the church said we're not doingthis anymore.
So one group split and we callthem the Eastern Orthodox Church
(08:56):
.
Then the Catholic church got sofocused on not letting anyone
split again that they becameeven more corrupt and
overbearing.
So the church is like we'renever doing that again.
So then Martin Luther came inlike the 1500s and he started
another movement of peopletrying to reform the church and
(09:17):
eventually they just ended upsplitting from the church the
church that was there at thatpoint and so they formed a whole
new denomination, which became10 denominations, which now
became thousands ofdenominations, where everyone
just was free to start their ownlittle denominations.
Then, basically, in this recentage, the church is like we're
(09:39):
not doing that anymore, we'renever doing that again.
So everyone is nownon-denominational and we all
basically just believe the samething and practice the same
thing around the world.
Basically like a lot of thechurch is pretty united.
That sounds really messy, right?
I think so, and it sounds likea lot of strong-willed,
(09:59):
strong-minded people andopinionated people got involved
in something that was supposedto be really, really simple
Right Focus on Jesus.
That was supposed to be thelive by his grace.
That was supposed to be thething.
Now, all through history therehave been people and bright
(10:21):
spots in the church, differentrandom people in different spots
.
Like there was a time like StPatrick we just had St Patrick's
Day Like that homeboy like castout all the evil out of Ireland
at one point it was so cool,like just by focusing on Jesus
and living by grace.
(10:41):
And all throughout historythere's been these revivals and
every single revival was aboutgrace, every single one of them.
So guess what we're going tofocus on?
Jesus and his grace.
Okay, you know, living by hisgrace is going to lead to loving
God and loving others.
Which our name right, one, twochurch, do you guys know?
(11:05):
I just want to be very clear.
Those are not rules that welive by.
That's not.
Here's our two rules love Godand love others.
That's what we will look like,that's what our life will.
That will be the fruit of ourlives as we receive his love.
See, he loves us first, whichour response to that is loving
(11:26):
him and loving others.
It's not supposed to be hard.
We keep our eyes on him.
He transforms us.
How?
By keeping our eyes on him.
So that's how his grace works.
So that's my introduction.
Now let's get into 1 Corinthians1, verse 10.
Now I plead with you, brethren,by the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that you speak the samething.
(11:47):
Paul says that there be nodivisions among you, but that
you be perfectly joined togetherin the same mind, with the same
judgment.
So Paul heard even at thebeginning of the church there
was divisions going on.
Divisions mean to tear or rend,and basically they were.
(12:08):
He's saying that they wereripping each other apart.
They were tearing up the bodyof Christ and he wants them to
see that you guys are, should bejoined together.
And joined together was amedical term for setting a
broken bone, so it's like hewants them to understand that
they are one body and divisionsare bad.
(12:29):
Joining together is good, unitygood.
Divisions bad.
Okay, how to get there?
He says this is how you getthere.
Speak the same thing About what?
About Jesus?
The name of Jesus?
He says speaking the same thingabout the name of Jesus.
That means focusing on Jesus,and his name or his identity is
(12:55):
what that means.
That's the only solution forall this mess that people cause
in the church.
Now, has the church been perfectfor the past 2,000 years?
Obviously not.
The church has been a giantmess.
There's been, like I said,wonderful high spots, wonderful
(13:16):
beautiful parts, and it's thebody of Christ and we love it
and he loves it.
You can't not love the churchbecause it's Jesus' body.
But there have been people whomake a mess of things.
Right, well, I don't go tochurch.
You know why?
Because the people suck.
How many times have you heardthat?
(13:37):
How many times have you saidthat I'm going to find a church
in a bar or something?
I'm going to find a church in abar or something?
He says the solution for all ourchurch hurt, all our church
problems, is get your eyes offthe church and get them on to
Jesus.
That will transform you, whichwill make you part of the
(14:03):
solution to what is wrong in thechurch.
You know what's wrong with thechurch?
It's full of people and peopleget self-centered and we need
people who are not self-centeredbut Jesus-centered, and they
will help the people who areself-centered to see Jesus' life
.
So Paul just finished giving us10 verses, the first 10 verses
(14:26):
about Jesus and his grace, andthis is truly the way to do.
Everything we're called to doin the church is by his grace.
We'll study more about that,but let's look at verse 11.
For it has been declared to me,concerning you, my brethren, by
those of Chloe's household sohe's totally throwing them under
the bus that there arecontentions among you.
(14:48):
Now I say this that each of yousays I'm of Paul, or I am of
Apollos, or I am of Cephas,which is Peter's other name, or
I am of Christ.
Verse 13, is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you orwere you baptized in the name of
Paul?
I thank God.
So here's the conflict that wasgoing on in this church.
(15:09):
It was an identity conflict,which is really the essence of
all conflict.
(15:30):
In every church.
It's an identity issue.
Some people were focused on menand some were focused on Jesus,
and when you're focused on men,it skews your identity of who
you think you are.
So they were focused on Paul.
Paul was their church founder.
He was their original firstpastor.
(15:51):
Great guy Moved to Idaho.
Nobody knows what happened tohim.
I hope Matt's watching, allright.
Apollos, the second onementioned.
He was like this great newteacher that came in and
(16:12):
everyone loved him.
He had tattoos and he was coolfrom Colorado and again people
were focused on him.
They shouldn't have been right.
And then there was Cephas,which is like Peter.
You know he's Peter, right, andso that's what Jesus is homeboy
.
And so, yeah, there was peoplethat were like we don't care
about any of you, we just wantthe original.
(16:34):
Like priest down the street,paul says focus.
He's like to the toddler, focuson Jesus, not your pastor.
The toddler focus on Jesus, notyour pastor on Jesus.
He is the head of the churchthere.
He's the head of the body.
(16:55):
He knows how to build hischurch.
Look at Jesus, not men.
This is vital to understandthat we are one body.
Each of us have equalrepresentation.
We are equally parts of onebody.
We do have different roles.
Some of you work at, renew andserve the Lord as like the hands
of the body.
You know, I'm like the mouth,the joke teller.
(17:19):
You know I'm a teacher, reallya pastor, you know.
But there's all the vital, mostvital parts.
We'll get into the body partlater, but we are one body.
And then he asked this questionwas Paul crucified for you?
Was Paul crucified for you?
He says look at Jesus.
Jesus was the only one that wascrucified for you.
(17:42):
There should be no other starin this show.
There should be no other personany church ever talks about
except Jesus.
We don't need ever to talkabout anybody else.
You don't need to talk aboutpresidents.
You don't need to talk aboutanybody else.
His love is the thing thatbirthed all of us into this
kingdom.
He is the seed that was plantedin the earth when he was killed
(18:06):
and laid in the tomb and thatproduces millions of seeds when
it goes into the ground and thenit rises from the dead and then
Paul brings up baptism.
Then Paul brings up baptismLike out of nowhere.
It seems like, okay, so what isbaptism?
(18:30):
Baptism is something that wereceive like a gift.
Some people think baptism issomething you do.
Oh, I need to go baptize myselfor I need to go do baptism.
That's actually not how itworks.
Baptism is something we receive.
We say you get baptized, oractually that means you receive
(18:54):
baptism.
Why is that different?
Because it's not a job to dobaptism.
It's really nothing we do.
A believer receives it whenanother believer recognizes that
you follow Jesus and you test,you declare that you believe in
Jesus and that he's your Lordand Savior.
Then another believer says yeah, I see that in your life, I see
(19:17):
it's real, and they, withconfidence, can place their
hands on you and say, I welcomeyou, I celebrate your faith, and
then you are like, welcomedinto the you could call it the
club of being Christians.
Right, my grandpa used to be inthe Lions Club.
You guys, you ever heard of theLions Clubs?
Yeah, terrible breakfast everySaturday.
(19:38):
But he would take me all thetime and I was like, how do you
get in this club?
And he never would tell me.
I was like I think they had tolike kill someone to get in it
or something, but I don't know.
And here's the thing For someoneto baptize you.
You could disagree with them oneverything except for Jesus.
(20:00):
I mean, you could not like themat all.
But if you're like-minded onthe one thing of Jesus who Jesus
is and what you believe abouthim you can be baptized.
That's crazy and it's coolbecause, if you think about it,
it's kind of like the sixdegrees of Kevin Bacon.
Have you guys heard of thisgame?
(20:21):
You haven't.
Okay.
So six degrees of Kevin Baconis a real fun game where you
pick a movie star and KevinBacon and you pick how they're
connected to Kevin Bacon.
So, like Jack Black was in thismovie with this thing, jack
Black was in this movie withthis thing, and then he was in
(20:42):
this movie with this thing, andyou can always get to Kevin
Bacon within six movies.
So it's a game, if you likeactors, and it's a fun game.
But it's kind of like us we haveall been baptized all the way
back to Jesus.
Like someone laid Jesus laidhands on someone.
Like people baptized you intothe club, but it's like all the
(21:05):
way like they laid hands on youinto it.
So it's kind of like we're allpart.
I think it's pretty cool.
It's like this connectionthat's been literally laid down,
passed down through all thegenerations, so we're like one
body that's actually touchedeach other.
I think that's really cool.
There's no like I mean, there'sChristians out there that
haven't been baptized, so it'snot everybody, but I think it's
pretty cool.
(21:26):
So is baptism required forsalvation?
It's a good question, but theanswer is no.
Just ask the thief on the cross, right Jesus said today you're
going to be with me.
Oh, sorry, you didn't getbaptized.
So good luck, no, but it is ahelpful, encouraging gift that
(21:54):
God commands us to receive, toidentify in this life, to
identify with him, with his lifeand death as ours and our union
with him.
And so, yeah, you don't have toreceive his gifts.
Like, he promises you peace, youdon't have to take it.
(22:16):
You can live stressed out andworried your whole life, you
don't have to take it.
You can live stressed out andworried your whole life, you
don't have to take it.
But he still promises you thathe is your peace, that he is the
source of it, and he'll nevertake that promise back.
But you're going to miss out ifyou don't take it by faith,
right, right, so, but I don'tlike Jesus.
(22:40):
Then don't get baptized.
That's pretty much the dealhere.
Right, but I don't like Jesus'body, the church, then you
probably don't want to getbaptized.
I get it, but it doesn't changethe fact that you're in the
body if you believe.
So, gotcha, you don't get tonot be in the body.
If you believe, so you may aswell get baptized and serve your
(23:04):
part of the body.
So who wants to go get baptized?
Well, we'll talk about thatlater.
So he's in you, you're in him,and so he's in the church.
So you're in his church,whether you like it or not.
If you believe.
So maybe the solution isn'tavoiding baptism, but it's
(23:25):
focusing on Jesus instead of managain.
See how?
That's why Paul brings upbaptism right here.
He's like if your focus is onmen, baptism's going to get all
weird.
You're going to think you'rejoining a man club like the
Lions or whatever.
But if you focus on Jesus, it'shim that you're in, not the
(23:56):
people.
Okay, so verse 17.
For Christ did not send me tobaptize but to preach the gospel
, not with words, lest the crossof Christ should be made of no
effect.
So Paul thinks baptism is soimportant that he doesn't even
care if he did Like.
This is one of the points forwhy baptism is not required for
(24:16):
salvation is because Paul likeit wasn't even that big of a
deal to him.
He's like yeah, I don't know ifI baptize you, it's not that
important to me because I cameto preach the gospel, right.
But he says here Paul onlywanted to preach the gospel, he
only wanted people to focus onJesus, not with words of wisdom,
not with words of wisdom.
(24:37):
I love when people think I'msmart, do you guys?
You think I'm smart?
Thank you, gotcha.
But the simple truth of thegospel is not complicated.
It really is not.
This is why there should beperfect unity in the church.
(25:01):
It's when we divide over thingsthat we think we understand
more than other people.
That's when we get all messedup.
Well, at our church, we superunderstand the end times.
At our church, we superunderstand communion.
So we're going to make a wholechurch that we just understand
(25:24):
things better than otherchurches.
We're going to call them thisspecial name.
That's what happens, okay, butthe power of Jesus has nothing
to do with being smart ortrained or talented or anything
like that.
He says the cross is powerfulall by itself.
The cross can save anyone wholooks to Jesus and believes
(25:45):
Anyone.
We don't have to make itcomplicated at all.
I don't have to dazzle theisland with my intellect and
witty humor.
The cross speaks for itself andI love that.
I get in the way when I try tospice it up, but the message of
(26:07):
the cross is so powerful.
How many of you guys have seenYou've Got Mail?
Yeah, if you haven't seen it,where have you been for 30 years
?
But it's a beautiful movie,right?
Not as good as 50 First Dates,I will 100% agree.
(26:27):
Is there a way I could make 50First Dates my example instead
of You've Got Mail?
Was there like a message in abottle?
Oh, I don't know.
Okay, yeah, grace is new toeverybody, all right.
Well, the reason why you've gotmail is my illustration right
now is because she would getlike that ding, you know you've
got mail and he would get it andthey would get so excited when
(26:51):
they got that message right, youknow, she would be like, oh, I
wonder what he said.
You know, and she didn't evenknow who was sending it, but the
things that were being saidwere so powerful and romantic
that it was like touching herheart and his heart as they kind
of developed this relationshipand then realized that they knew
each other but they hated eachother, but they loved each other
(27:13):
and it was beautiful and theyhad dogs.
Brinkley, barkley, brinkley whatwas his name?
Brinkley?
Yeah, okay, when I get a textmessage, I get a little excited.
I'm like, oh, someone loves me.
They sent me a text message.
You know someone sends me anemail.
(27:33):
Depending on if it's acomplaining about the sermon or
a good email, you know I getexcited.
Someone thought enough to likewrite me a longer message.
Someone sends me a voicemail.
They actually wanted to opentheir mouth and speak to me.
Hey, that's pretty nice too.
But if someone, like writes youa letter, a handwritten letter,
do I even know what I would do.
(27:55):
I would like have to sit downand like get a cup of coffee and
get a pipe and like so, then bewritten in cursive.
Probably have to get my grandmato translate.
That was a good one.
Yeah, awesome, thank you.
(28:19):
Well, paul says here the messageof the cross it's it's speaking
a message.
You're getting a message inyour inbox every moment, every
time you see the cross, and notwhen someone wears the cross as
a necklace.
That's not the message of thecross.
I don't know what that speaksand that's not bad.
Obviously, wear a cross if youwant.
(28:40):
I don don't care.
But what is the message of thecross?
It's the gospel, and the gospelis good news.
And the good news is not tryharder to be a good Christian.
That's not the gospel.
How many of you grew up thinkingthat was the gospel?
I did.
I absolutely grew up thinkingthat I was supposed to try
(29:03):
harder, sacrifice more, givemore, do more.
That's what God was looking forfrom my life.
You know why?
Because pastors told me thatwhen they were teaching the
Bible, they were like this isyour response Do this, do this,
do this, and I didn't get tohear the message of the cross.
(29:28):
And so the message of the crossfor me was sad and foolishness.
I was like I tried and I triedand I tried and I ended up burnt
out.
Anyone else ever end up burntout following Christ?
I can tell you every singlereason.
Why was because we weren'thearing what the cross actually
(29:50):
said.
Because what did Jesus say whenhe was on the cross?
It is almost done, except forall the things you have to do.
That's not what he said.
What did he say Louder?
Yes, right.
He screamed it, blood curdling,it is finished.
(30:14):
He wanted there to be no doubt.
He was finishing the work.
So what do we do?
He said believe, I'll come andlive inside you.
I'll change you, I'll do allthe stuff you know you're
supposed to do.
I will do it through you if youbelieve and give yourself to me
.
Give me your heart, give meyour heart, give me your heart.
(30:37):
That's what Jesus asks for, notfor more religion, not for more
religion, not for more goodworks.
He will do good works throughyou.
He must have your heart, though.
He can't do it without yourwhole heart.
That's the gospel, the goodnews.
Preaching a good, high moralstandard, which is what people
(31:00):
in the South love to preach.
That's not the gospel.
Be a good person, follow therules, is not the gospel.
A big, universal God like theliberal, god of like, oh,
everyone is acceptable.
That's not the gospel either.
Neither one, left or right, isnot the true gospel.
The true gospel is Jesus alone.
(31:26):
Paul says there's only two waysthat people see the message of
the cross, and the first waythey see is foolishness.
Why would the death of anotherman mean anything to me?
So this is unbelievers.
The cross is foolishness tothem.
It's not even a noble death.
It was a shameful death.
It was like saying someone diedon an electric chair.
No one's like golf clap, welldone.
(31:49):
Electric chair death.
Except it was even moreshameful because dying on the
cross, you were hung, naked,mocked, tortured, abandoned by
everybody.
So that means nothing to mebecause I don't need him.
(32:10):
See, the unbeliever thinks it'sfoolishness that Jesus would do
that because I'm a good person.
Why do I need that?
I've been a religious person,or I don't even need religion.
I've got my life all figuredout and I can't trust anyone
anyways, because everyone'salways let me down, especially
(32:32):
God.
That's when you're having thosethoughts, that's when the
message of the cross isfoolishness to you.
When I die, I expect God tolook at my life and compare me
to all the other people in thisworld and I expect God to say
you're good enough.
I mean, you're not Hitler,right?
(32:53):
Like that's the argument thatpeople always have.
Like it's Hitler, he's the onlyone going to hell.
If you're not Hitler, you'regood to go.
But that's not the message ofthe cross, right?
Am I perfect?
No, but no one is right, atleast I'm not Hitler.
(33:15):
The message of the cross isfoolishness to those who are
perishing, because the Biblesays if you reject the message
of the cross, you are perishing,which does mean going to hell.
Right, and yes, that isexclusive.
That is narrow-minded.
People accuse Christians ofbeing narrow-minded.
Yeah, I guess we arenarrow-minded, just like it's
(33:37):
narrow-minded to say you have tohave air to breathe and live.
You have to breathe to live.
You have to eat to live, youhave to drink to live.
Those are narrow-minded.
I don't want to breathe, okay,I guess you can choose that way,
but the only result is death.
(33:59):
Exactly, the message of thecross is foolishness because it
says sin must be paid for, andpeople don't want to be
accountable to their sin.
I don't want to be accountableto my sin, but the cross says it
has to be dealt with.
And the standard of what needsto be dealt with is every person
(34:22):
ever created is held to theperfect standard of perfection.
The Ten Commandments is howevery human being will be judged
, and that is absoluteperfection.
Every human is held to the samestandard.
And the Ten Commandments is notmeasuring how good you are,
it's measuring how far short youfall from the perfect standard.
And so God is perfectly just.
(34:44):
He cannot let sin go withoutjustice.
That's his job description asthe judge of the universe.
He must judge sin and itdoesn't mean he doesn't love us,
because his love isdemonstrated by Christ on the
cross paying for that sin.
That he judges Christ on ourbehalf.
So that's the beautiful side.
(35:06):
But that doesn't make sensewhen it's all foolishness to you
, when you don't believe inJesus, when you don't understand
, because to us who are beingsaved, the message of the cross
is the power of God.
I'm going to give you threeways that it's the power of God
displayed for us.
(35:27):
Jesus was sinless on the cross.
How was Jesus sinless.
He lived an absolute, perfectlife, so his life was of
infinite value, so the sacrificewas worth a lot.
Infinite value, so thesacrifice was worth a lot.
Have you guys heard the story ofthe guy who was the train
(35:48):
operator?
He ran like one of thosebridges that would lower for
trains to get across and thenwe'd raise it and boats would go
through.
And it was like take your sonto work day, and he took his kid
to work and so he's, you know,and he's not expecting any
trains to come by.
And then all of a sudden hegets a thing on the radio, a
message, and they're like hey,there's a train coming and it's
(36:10):
got like 1,000, you know peopleon it and they're coming and
they'll be there in two minutes.
And he's like, oh my gosh.
So he looks around to find hisson and his son is not around
because he was out playing.
And he looks around and he seesin the gear mechanism of the
bridge his son is playing in itand he sees that if he raises it
(36:34):
, that his son is going to besmushed and killed.
And so he calls out to him andthere's no way.
So in like 10 seconds he has tomake a decision and this is
actually a true story and he hasto make a decision on whether
(36:55):
he is going to allow his son tolive or whether he will
sacrifice his son and the trainwill pass by.
And he chooses to lower thebridge to allow the train to
pass by.
His son is killed and the trainpasses by and all the people he
(37:17):
can see, all the people in thewindows, and none of them know
what sacrifice he just had tomake for them to live.
None of them know his love.
And it's a really powerfulstory that shows us the heart of
God.
Amen, amen.
You can all stop crying now.
(37:37):
You can all stop crying now.
So Jesus' death on the cross.
His life was of infinite value.
He always obeyed God in everyway.
See, he wasn't the kid thatdidn't know.
He willingly went to the cross,even when his father asked him
to suffer and die and beabandoned, rejected, he went to
(37:58):
the cross obediently.
He offered himself as thesacrifice for our sins so that
we could be set free, as wetrust in him by faith alone.
There's absolutely no way wecould save ourselves, because we
couldn't even pay our debt, butJesus's life is sufficient to
pay all of our debt, includingthe debt of the entire world.
(38:22):
That's how amazing and gloriousJesus is.
That's why we sing to Jesus,that's why we give our lives to
him.
That's why nothing is held backfrom him.
So the power of God isdisplayed for us as believers
when we recognize the value ofhis life.
His life is powerful.
It can forgive sin.
(38:47):
Secondly, jesus was love on thecross.
So the power of God in his lovedisplayed for us by Jesus on
the cross, even when I didn'tdeserve love, jesus loved me,
Even when I rejected his love.
Jesus loved me Even when myidentity was nothing but shame
(39:10):
and pain and disappointment.
Jesus ran to me, not away fromme.
He is the only one.
He is love personified.
And that message only gets intomy brain and my head and my
heart by the power of God.
(39:31):
God opens me up to be able tounderstand that love.
And the third way that God'spower is revealed to us as
believers is that the lastmessage of the cross was death.
Right, everyone who ever wasnailed to a cross died.
It was 100% successful.
(39:52):
People even lived electricchairs.
Did you know that Peoplesurvived electric chairs?
I don't know how, but they geta cool nickname afterwards
Sparky.
I just made that up.
I don't know if that's true,but anyway, nobody survives
electric chairs crosses, notelectric chairs crosses.
(40:19):
But yet Jesus is alive and thatshows the power of God, because
obviously the greatest powerever shown was Jesus rising from
the dead after being crucifiedon the cross.
It is the most amazing powerthat's ever been displayed.
Science today is going throughgreat, great, great pains and
(40:42):
effort to try to produce lifefrom something that's dead.
So they like shoot amino acidswith like lasers and electricity
all the time.
If you read science journalsand stuff, they're always trying
to produce life from like aminoacids and stuff, and you know
how many times it's worked ZeroRight.
Because it can't work, becauseyou can't make life from
(41:05):
non-life, because you have tohave the power of creation to
create life.
Like life doesn't come fromrocks, no matter what your
evolutionist teacher tells you.
So as you study science, as yousee that life is the greatest
miracle, you have thisincredible power displayed.
(41:26):
When God said, not only letthere be life, but you can kill
my son, and my power will bedisplayed when he rises from the
dead.
Okay so, and then he was seenby his disciples.
And then he was seen by over500 people at once and all of
(41:47):
those people were persecuted andthey threatened to kill them,
because they're like you can't,you can't come back from the
dead and they're like we know,but it happened and this is the
power of God and that's what thechurch is.
We are people who believe in thepower of God to raise someone
from the dead.
So, jesus, the last thing forus today, this is the big point.
(42:11):
We focus on Jesus.
We focus on Jesus and then,because Jesus wants to share his
life with us, he wants to pourhis life into us and live his
life through us, as you, hewants you, your body, to be his
(42:36):
new temple.
That's the deal he wants tomake with you temple.
That's the deal he wants tomake with you.
He doesn't he's not asking youto sacrifice more, do more, give
more.
He wants you just to believethat you died with him on the
cross, that you rose again withhim, that he wants to share all
(42:56):
of that with you.
He wants to share his deathwith you, forgiving your sins,
his life with you, raised tolive a life for God's glory.
God wants you to live for God'sglory.
God wants you to do what'sright, to do good works, but how
?
By him living through you.
He doesn't want you to try todo it.
(43:17):
That could never work, or elsewhy did Jesus have to come?
Why did Jesus have to rise fromthe dead?
He rose from the dead to beable to share his life with you,
to live through you.
And again, what's our place inthat?
Our thing in that is to say youknow what?
Come, live through me, livethrough me.
(43:48):
I give you my heart, jesus,live through me.
And that, giving him your mindand your mouth and your hands
and your body, everything aboutyou.
As you give those things to him, he takes control and he lives
through you.
And that's the power of Goddisplayed in this world today is
when a Christian finally stopstrying to be a Christian and
(44:11):
says I am a Christian.
So, jesus, here's my life,here's my mind and here's
everything.
I give it to you, and he willlive through you.
So, in your mind, is themessage of the cross foolishness
or is it the power of God?
(44:33):
Amen, I think it is the powerof God for all of you guys in
here.
But if not, and you would liketo see the power of God in your
life.
All you have to do is call outto him and say Jesus, I believe
that you were God, that you diedon the cross, that you rose
from the dead and I ask you toforgive me of my sin and live in
(44:57):
me, and I want to give my life,my heart, daily to you, for you
to live through me.
Tell him you hear the messageof the cross.
If you hear the message of thecross, that was god that opened
your heart.
Jesus was perfect, jesus waslove and jesus sacrificed.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Cold Case Files: Miami
Joyce Sapp, 76; Bryan Herrera, 16; and Laurance Webb, 32—three Miami residents whose lives were stolen in brutal, unsolved homicides. Cold Case Files: Miami follows award‑winning radio host and City of Miami Police reserve officer Enrique Santos as he partners with the department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit, determined family members, and the advocates who spend their lives fighting for justice for the victims who can no longer fight for themselves.