✍️The Cross of Jesus, Our Pride(1 Corinthians 18-25)
Prayer)Thank you for your allowing us to worship you. We worship you in spirit and in truth and may the Holy Spirit leads us. Give us the faith to receive your Word, the understanding to know what it means, and the courage to put it into practice in our lives. May your words through this time make us graceful and let us understand it clearly and practise your will perfectly. May our living life obey your words. In Jesus Name Amen.
⛰Long time ago, in Korea, a woman had two sons—one who sold umbrellas and one who sold shoes made of hay, as worn by Korean people during those days.This woman spent every day of the year worrying about her two sons. On sunny days, she worries about her umbrella vendor son’s business, and on rainy days, she worried about her shoe vendor son’s business, as during rainy days, people did not buy hay shoes. So she worried non-stop, 365 days out of the year. But she could have looked at things in a different way.
On sunny days, she could have thought about how her shoe vendor son’s business flourished, and on rainy days, she could have thought about all the good business that her umbrella-vending son was doing. Instead of worrying every day, she could have been grateful and thankful 365 days out of the year.
Matthew 7:33 saying to us ” But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.What do you worry about today?
2 Corinthians 7:10 says to us ” Godly sorrow(saro 사로）brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. Is this worldly worry necessary? or are they unnecessary? The bible says to us, “Leave the unnecessary ones(Worldly worries)with God. God will give you everything you need. Just seek God’s Kingdom and His righteousness. Be hold the Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sin and took all our worries and burdens on the cross.
The first thing that is visible to everyone in the church is the cross. The cross of our church is very beautiful and well special design. The cross is the symbol of salvation and core of Christian faith because Jesus completed the greatest act in history of human salvation by dying on the cross bearing the whole burden and worries of our sins.
Therefore, we should not forget that the cross is the most precious things which needs to be in the center of our life of faith. Wherever we go, we need to live boasting of the cross of Jesus. People boast of their knowledge, position, family, and children. Above of all, we should have the cross of Jesus as our pride.
In our text, by the grace of God, the Corinthian church experienced a great revival. However, the people did not boast of Jesus’s cross but they became self-assertive and boasted of themselves. So factions emerged within the church. some followed Apollos; some followed Paul who was founder of this church; some followed Christ. Since factions were created and conflicts and oppositions grew up, heresies came into the church. Shameful things started to happen in the church. Feeling sorry about them, the Apostle Paul wrote letters to the Corinthian church telling them not to waste the precious grace of the cross.
1 Corinthians 1: 18 says, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
The cross is the power of God, God showed the great work of salvation through the cross. When we believe in and rely on the redemption that Jesus accomplished through the death on the cross, we will be given salvation as a gift. By the blood of Jesus and the grace of the cross, we were saved and became children of God. Because Jesus paid all the debts of our sins, there is no other condition to receive salvation.
Ephesians 1:7 says, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” After accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior, two changes take place in our lives, the first is becoming righteous and the second is to be born again, We become righteous, after realizing that we were incorrigible sinners, but God was saying to us, “It is all right, Your sins were absolved at the cross. ” Our sins were forgiven by Jesus’s death on the cross, and we are now righteous in the eye of God. When we become righteous, we are also born again. We all become righteous by the blood of Jesus on the cross, and begin to live our new lives in the grave as the children of God with abundant peace, joy and righteousness bestowed by the LORD.
The cross is not a theory, but the power of God. It is the power of salvation, healing, and eternal life. The church is the ark of salvation which tells the whole world that Jesus is our savior.(Witness community) Therefore, we should be the servants of the Lord who come to the church, meet(Justification), and be like Jesus(Sanctification), and preach the gospel of Jesus to accomplish the great Commission which Jesus Christ entrusted us.(Matthew 28:20) PHD-Preaching the Gospel, Healing the sick, Driving out the demons.
When applying to colleges in US, students can choose to go for the Early Decision if that college offers it. A High School senior may get the admission to the college of his or her choice at the end of the first semester of the last year of school, around December, and the colleges will not start until September of the next year. By this Early Decision, the colleges can select and secure the best applicants by getting their commitment to enroll in that particular college. But one bad consequence for the students who have gotten the Early Decision admission is that they begin to neglect their studies. Now that they have the admission to the college of their choice, they don’t feel the need to study any more. I have noticed some Christians have this attitude also in their life of faith. Certainly, our goal is to be saved for the eternal life. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved”(Romans 10:10). We feel like we already have secured the Early Decision to get into the heaven thanks to the grace of the God, and this is the Gospel. But that does not mean we can squander away our remaining time on earth just like what some senior in High School do after getting the Early Decision.
Therefore, as Paul urged, we should offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, and not follow the examples of this generation. Renewing and restoring ourselves to live a holy life will please our good and perfect God. We firmly believe in the everlasting love and Cross’s grace of Jesus Christ for us, even if our lives are crumpled or soiled like dirty paper money which still has the same value. Even so, you should not keep your life soiled with your everyday sins. You should try to straighten out your life with your best efforts.
The Apostle Paul had a lot of things to boast about, Since he was born, he was a Roman citizen. In those days, being a Roman citizen was a privilege. Foreigners even tried to buy Roman citizenship with money. However, the Apostle Paul was born as a Roman citizen, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees, and a Benjamite. He also studied under the best scholar Gamaliel and was recognized by the Sanherdrin as a promising young man. But he threw out all his sources of pride like decayed soil after meeting Jesus, He confessed in Philippians 3:8
“What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whole sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ.”
He confesses like this “I throw out all my things like rubbish. My boast in life is Jesus only. I want to live by preaching and boasting about the cross of Jesus.” When the cross of Jesus becomes our boast, then Jesus will take care of our life. When we have priority Jesus Christ, even if we have problems, difficulties, pains and sufferings following us around; however, when the cross of Jesus becomes our boast, the power of darkness disappears and the Lord leads our life.
1 Corinthians 1:21－２３ says “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe Jews demand signs and Greeks looks for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified; a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength”
In people’s eyes, those who preach the gospel seem foolish and a bit slow; however, God’s power is with them. As you know, many people in this world have some bitterness in their hearts, They have wounds in their hearts. They have resentment against their parents. They say,
“I am forsaken. My parents gave me up when I was an infant.”
“My dad left me when I was five. I was abandoned by my mom, too.”
“I have always been lonely. I have never had joy”
“My marriage is a total disaster. I have been thoroughly agonized since my wedding day until now.”
So many people have bitterness in their hearts today. The bitter water caused by their parents, the bitter water of hatred and resentment(리젠트먼트 against their parents, or the bitter water of pain and agony caused by their husbands or wives torments them. some people drink, take drugs, or indulge in pleasure to forget and overcome such bitterness, but it only makes the water more bitter. We cannot make bitter water sweet by ourselves. Only Jesus can turn the bitter water of our heart into sweet water. I pray that by grace of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, all of you will experience God’s victories and miracles beyond your suffering.
John Wesley emphasized that our salvation was not an event in the past, but a continuing journey for us to reach the sanctification. The holy ceremonies for the Methodists are the baptism and the communion. The baptism is the starting point for our life of faith by having our old self die with Jesus Christ and being born again of the water and the Spirit, dead to sin, but alive in Christ, and will be united with him in His resurrection(Romans 6:1-11; John 3:3-5) The communion is the spiritual nourishment we need continuously in our holy life of faith as Christs, so that we can go out and practice our love for God and our neighbors by sharing with them what we have. God’s power and love for us is manifested in the holy ceremonies which restore those of us who had been broken and shattered.
The German theologian and anti Nazi activist Dietrich Bonhoeffer（디트릭 본호퍼） said in his book that we should reject the cheap grace and seek the expensive grace which living the holy life by denying our own self and bearing our own cross to follow the LORD. (NO CROSS NO CROWN NO PAIN NO GAIN NO THORNS NO THRONE NO GALL NO GLORY)
As Christian and disciples of Jesus, we should live the fruitful life by remembering the grace of the Cross for us and spreading the aroma of Christ to our family and neighbors. No matter when and where, we are always attached as the branches to the vine so that we can bear much fruit.
God is the Lord “Jehovah Rapha（제호바 라파）” who heals us. Rapha is the Hebrew word which means ‘to repair’ when damage is done on clothes. It is also used to mean ‘complete reconstruction’ of a collapsed house. It means ‘to make something incomplete complete’ When we are ill, the LORD heals us, making us healthy and complete. The work of the Rapha of our LORD is with us now. The Lord heals all our deceases and gives us the blessings of the forgiveness of sins through the grace of cross of Jesus Christ. Psalms 103:3 says, “who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.” Also, the LORD touches our wounded hearts so that we have healed hearts. Psalms 147:3 says “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.”
IN CONCLUSION, the LORD turns our desert-like surroundings with bitter water into a place with streams of healing and restoration through his love and the grace of the cross. When we march forward with faith, trusting in the power of the cross of Jesus without doubt, the power of the blood of Jesus will forgive us from all our sins, turning the bitter water of hopelessness, pain and agony into the sweet water of God’s grace and blessings.
We should pray “Lord, be with us, Turn all the bitter water of my life into sweet water. I want to trust in the power of the cross of Jesus. Lord, come and stay with us. Make us our life as a life of prayer and obedience so that we may enjoy the blessing from heaven.” I pray that all of us who gathering here will enjoy the blessings of the LORD throughout our life in the name of our LORD Jesus Christ who took all our sins and burdens of our life on the cross as we worship to the LORD through this world communion service.
Prayer)Oh Hearing God, Give us the faith that Living God is present with us Empower us with THE POWER OF CROSS AND HOLY spirit to overcoming our daily problems. Strengthen us to continue our journey of faith with you. By the power of CROSS. Help us to live for your Glory moment by moment and to PROCLAIM the GOSPEL, God’s Cross grace with our neighbors. Make your Holy Spirit shine upon every one of your children who are in troubles.
Let the fire of Holy Spirit touch them.Put your hand on them, heal the sick hearts and mind and recover the sick body with your healing power. Make your Holy Spirit shine every family AND ALL THOSE WHO ARE GATHERING HERE in fullest and allow them to receive abundant grace OF CROSS to overcome the world. So that we live out fully our God’s mission for this world. In Jesus’s Name Amen.
