Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Scandalon*

September 4, 2005

 

I.

Introduction: An unlikely symbol

1.

The cross is an unlikely choice for the symbol of a religion.

The Jews have the Star of David as their symbol; the Buddhists a Lotus flower; Muslims display a Crescent and star.

These symbols were beautiful or good from the beginning.

The cross was a horrible form of execution.

2.     “Would you wear a tiny electric chair around your neck?

Suspend a gold-plated hangman’s noose on the wall?

Would you print a picture of a firing squad on a business card?

Yet we do so with the Cross.”

(/He Chose The Nails/, Max Lucado, p. 113).

3.     Perhaps you can relate to my experience.

I often forget the offensiveness of the Cross.

I see crosses everywhere and they are beautiful */to me/*:

1.

Many years ago in Europe I saw beautiful, ornate crosses decorating ancient cathedrals.

2.     A few years ago in Hawaii I took pictures of two crosses which are perched up high and framed by the beautiful Hawaiian landscape.

3.     I think of the tiny crosses on bracelets that I’ve seen on the delicate wrists of my precious daughters.

4.     I have loved the Cross for so long now that I sometimes forget that the Bible calls it an */offense, a stumbling block/* to Jews and */foolishness/* to Gentiles.

1.     *1 Corinthians 1:23 (NASB): “…We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block (/skandalon/) to Jews and foolishness (/moria/) to Gentiles…”*

2.     *Galatians 5:11 (NIV): “Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted?

In that case the /offense/ (/stumbling block /NASB) of the cross has been abolished.”*

3.

This Greek word for “offense” or “stumbling block” is /skandalon/.

Greek scholar Walter Bauer defines /skandalon /as: “…that which gives offense or causes revulsion, that which arouses opposition, an object of anger or disapproval.”

(BAGD, p.753).

4.     /Moria/—the word translated “foolishness”—is the Greek word from which we get our word “moron” or “moronic.”

5.     Of course, when we speak of the Cross, we’re not talking here about the original cross—the actual wooden planks upon which Jesus was hung.

1.     Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the 4th century and somehow decided she had found the original cross.

Soon this cross was said to have miraculous powers and pieces of wood claiming to come from it were found all over the Empire.

(/The Story of Christianity/, Justo L. Gonzalez, p.126).

2.     No, the Cross is a symbol.

The Cross is a symbol of what some have called the entire “Christ-event”—the death and resurrection of Christ.

II.

What exactly does the Cross symbolize?

*1.     **The Cross symbolizes the heart of our message.

*

1.

The Latin word for cross is /crux/.

And, of course, the English-speaking world uses crux as the heart of the matter—The Cross is the crux of the matter—the heart of the Christian message.

2.     *1 Corinthians 2:1,2: “When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.

For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”*

3.     Did Paul know, say and teach nothing else but the crucifixion of Jesus?

No, he knew, said and taught many other things.

He was exaggerating to make a point: This is the very heart of my message.

4.     Look how he put it later in that same book: *1 Corinthians 15:3-6: “For what I received I passed on to you as of /first importance/: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.

After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.”*

5.     That’s the Cross!

When Paul said he knew “nothing…except Jesus Christ and him crucified,” he meant the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

*“He died for our sins according to the Scriptures and he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”*

This is the gospel!

This is the good news!

This is the Cross—the very heart of our message!

6.     Was this message well-received in the first century?

No! It was an offense—a /skandalon/.

7.

An early Latin apologist, Minucius Felix, tells us that Christians were accused of worshipping “a criminal and his cross.”

Jesus was referred to as the “dead God” by Roman historians (ISBE, Vol. 1, p.827).

*8.     **“…A stumbling block, an offense, a /skandalon/ to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles…”*

9.     Is it any better received in our time?

a)     Stories:

(i)    After nearly four decades, a 30-foot cross that towered above Oklahoma’s State Fair Park (in Oklahoma City) was taken down as the result of two people who were */offended /*by it.

(ii) A 75-foot-tall cross in a public cemetery in Tehachapi, California, was recently removed after a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a Jewish family who had a member buried in the public cemetery.

The family said they were */offended /*by the cross.

(iii)     Last year a McAlester Oklahoma firefighter told the city council he represented a group that was */offended /*by the cross on the city’s seal.

They threatened legal action if it was not removed.

(iv)     There are hundreds of disputes like this taking place all over the country—all over the world.

They make me mad; fearful about the future.

I think they’re wrong about violating this so-called separation of church and state.

10.

But it occurs to me that these “offended” parties */get it!/*

They’re right—the Cross is offensive!

The Cross should offend!

It is necessarily offensive.

It is not just a pretty monument; it is a symbol that carries with it a powerful message.

11.

But the message of the Cross does not offend /only /Jews and atheists.

There are many who call themselves Christians who do not want to hear this message either.

What was Paul addressing in Galatians 5:11 when he wrote: *“Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted?

In that case the offense (/skandalon/) of the cross has been abolished.”*

12.      What was he talking about?

What error was he addressing?

Judaizers—false teachers—were telling the Galatians that yes, Jesus is the Christ and He did His part by dying on the cross, but what Paul teaches is that you must do your part!

You must keep the law to be a Christian—you must be circumcised in order to be saved.

Paul said, No, that’s not the gospel I brought you!

If I told you to keep the law in order to be saved, then why am I still being persecuted by these Judaizers?

The offense of the cross has been abolished if the message is Christ */plus /*law—Christ */plus /*works—Christ */plus /*human effort!

Paul was being persecuted because his message, the true message of the cross was that the law had been abolished!

Christ—and Christ alone—saves.

13.      Look in the greater context of Galatians:

a)     *Galatians 3:1-5: You foolish Galatians!

Who has bewitched you?

Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.

2I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?

3Are you so foolish?

After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?

4Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing?

5Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?*

b)    *Galatians 3:11-14: “Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, ‘The righteous will live by faith.’

12The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, ‘The man who does these things will live by them.’

13Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.’

*(Deut.

21:23) *14He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.”*

14.

The message then, is that Christ died for our sins—in our place—so that we either let Him be our substitute or we refuse Him as our substitute—we either */believe /*it or we don’t.

We either put our faith in Him—and Him alone—or we do not.