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1 Corinthians 1:10 – 2:5 Our Unchanging Message
I want just to focus on our unchanging message. We must never compromise the truth, but there must be a willingness to be all things to all men, “but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,” (1:23), “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (2:2).
We live in a world that seems to have lost its moorings. Here in Wales we know the reality of churches closing. Some churches remain closed after Covid. Some men leave the ministry after moral collapse. It seems the foundations are being destroyed. Paul tells us to follow the example of Christ, who does not change. The gospel message does not change. Paul is confident we can go back to the Lord Jesus Christ and the truth of His word. We are not alone. He will never forsake us and will fulfil His purposes.
God’s unchanging purpose is still that lost sinners might be saved, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” (Romans 5:20b). The church exists for the glory of God and the salvation of sinners. How do we achieve our purpose? By never changing the message, showing there is a Saviour who can take the broken pieces of our lives and use them to His glory.
The unchanging pressure
“For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,” (1:22).
Every culture has its own form of opposing the gospel. Every generation has its own ways of saying, ‘We don’t want that! Do it this way.’ When Paul wrote to the Romans he said, ‘Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mould,’ “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2). Throughout history God’s prophets have faced the same pressures (Isaiah, Amos). Throughout history people have said, ‘Don’t rock the boat. Don’t cause a disturbance.’ Jesus Himself faced pressure. When He fed 5000 people He began to show that people’s lives had to be changed. We are told in John 6, ‘Many turned away from them.’ Jesus actually said to His disciples, ‘Will you also turn away?’ People are compromising the truth, even within conservative evangelical churches. Are you going to turn away?
People compromise the truth because of the pressure of tolerance. It is not easy. The Christian Institute remind us regularly that there is pressure to ban so-called conversion therapy. If that comes in, in effect every preacher who declares that we are sinners and fallen short of the glory of God, that we need to change our ways, that we need to repent, everyone prepared to do that faces the risk of being arrested. Why? Because it goes against the flow. Friends, it is tough. In our day and age, Christianity is no longer the mainstream. The Christian principles are no longer the undergirding principles. We are supposedly those with hate speech.
How do we respond? With the unchanging message, “but we preach Christ crucified,” (1:23), “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (2:2). Paul says this is his uncompromising, unchanging commitment. He will do things God’s way. Paul knew that his responsibility was to preach the Lord Jesus Christ. The One he had persecuted was the One he was to honour. He would not go in his own strength. The message was Christ – Christ crucified, dead, buried, risen, ascended into heaven, and the Holy Spirit.
Friends, we must remind ourselves constantly that we worship God in Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Trinity has one purpose – that God will be glorified, and sinners may be saved. God sent His Son. The Son came in obedience to the Father. The Son and the Father have sent the Spirit in order that God’s truth might go into our world. Paul was sent to preach Christ, but he was sent to preach in the power of the Spirit.
We live in a day when people are concerned to preach the word, but there is not that same emphasis in preaching through the Spirit. Without the work of the Spirit we will not understand. Paul and the other apostles knew the pressure of being told to tone it down. Obey the Lord rather than man.
“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (2:2). Paul made a conscious decision. He faced this pressure. Paul loved his people, the Jews. His heart’s desire for Israel was they would be saved. He was prepared to lose his own salvation so that his own people might be saved. He knows he cannot succumb to pressure.
What is Paul committed to? “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (2:2). Paul uses his words carefully. He uses the name of Jesus and the title of Christ. He calls Him Jesus because He came to save. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:17). Do you believe this? We have the solution to put this world right. This world will never be perfect until the Lord Jesus Christ returns. But every time there has been revival there has been a restoration of order within the wider culture. Jesus saves immediately, but He saves ultimately. He saves eternally. Therefore, when Paul says, ‘I’m going to preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified,’ he is saying, ‘There is a way to be saved.’
You will never find peace until you find it in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ is His title – the One anointed by God, set aside by God. The apostles faced pressure and the judgement the Jewish leaders wanted to out on them. They were told not to preach, but they turned around and said, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among menby which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12). There is no other way to be saved but through Christ. He is the one that God has appointed.
The message is not only Jesus is Saviour, the only means of salvation, but it is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He is the substitute, the only substitute. Writing 700 years before, Isaiah could say,
“But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.”
(Isaiah 53:5).
My brothers and sisters in Christ, as the Holy Spirit deals with you, are there times that you feel so horribly filthy and think, ‘How can I call myself a Christian?’ Satan will use your conscience, and he will condemn you. But I want to say to you, ‘Look to the cross.’ Christ is no longer on the cross. He died and was buried. On the third day He arose. Death is conquered. The price has been paid. He ascended into heaven and is now seated at the right hand of God and continues to intercede for His people.
The letter to the Corinthians is a tragic letter. It shows us a church that was in a right mess. Paul deals with the different issues. But before he finishes his letter, as Paul draws things to a summary, he takes the Corinthians back to this glorious truth, “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” (1 Corinthians 15).
The message has not changed. He lived in our place. He died for our sins. He bore our sins. He was raised. God in Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, was active in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the unchanging message. This is the message 21st century Britain needs to hear.
The people in Corinth had been born into the immorality of Corinth. Corinth had a notorious reputation. Paul lists sins that will keep us out of heaven, “ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). Sin will keep us out of heaven. Sin will keep us out of the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul wrote a similar list to the Galatian church. But notice, Paul doesn’t stop there. He says, “And such were some of you.” (1 Corinthians 6:11). He is saying, ‘You were caught up in the immorality of Corinth.’ Today, people are up in the immorality of the 21st century.
Paul preaches the glorious message of the gospel. Do you understand the gospel? My sin, your sin, has been dealt with by the Lord Jesus Christ. You have been made holy, declared not guilty in the presence of God. Why? Because of the Lord Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit begins His work, He will often make you feel very uncomfortable, ashamed and broken. He is showing you your sin. But when you understand your sin, He will show you that it has been put on Him. He has died in your place.
In the compromise and the pressure of the 21st century, don’t compromise on this. Hold fast to it. Tell Roch, tell Haverfordwest, tell Pembrokeshire, tell the nations of the world that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. To Him be all the glory and praise.
Penuel Baptist Chapel, Roch 