1 Corinthians 1: 10-31

How is it that Christ’s death on the cross has changed anything? Why is the cross so central to the Christian proclamation of the gospel?

1. Sectarian factions had begun to emerge among Christians in Corinth. 2. Paul appeals to them for unity for the sake of Christ and the preaching of the gospel. 3. In the face of factions and dissent Paul asserts that Christ cannot be divided and it is ultimately to Him [not any of his servants] that we belong.

v. 17 “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel....” 1. Paul was not diminishing the importance of baptism; but, was speaking of the various roles each one is called to play in the body of Christ. 2. Paul was an evangelist and apostle (church planter); others were pastors (who baptize and train believers).

v. 18 “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.” vv. 20b-21 “Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.”

Paul’s Critique of conventional wisdom: v. 22 “For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” v. 23 “but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ [is] the power of God [the sign] and the wisdom of God.” v. 25 “For God’s foolishness [so called] is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”

The Import A. The message of the cross and its truth turns all conventional wisdom on its ear. B. The cross becomes a bridge whereby we might make a way to overcome the hopeless gulf between man and God. v. 30 “[God] is the SOURCE of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us WISDOM FROM GOD, and RIGHTEOUSNESS and SANCTIFICATION and REDEMPTION, in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

C. The Message of the Cross is larger than Christ’s death. D. The truth is: It is Christ’s resurrection and triumph over death that gave his sacrificial death power. E. In this way alone is the cross to be understood as life. F. This is the central point of our message: 1. Creation was moving toward death. 2. But because Christ overcame death and passed over to life, we who are in him may share in that life and the hope it brings.