1 Corinthians 1:18-31

What miracle has God done in your life? Something big. Something astounding. Something no one has ever heard of before that just knocked your socks off. You know the power of God, you know what He can do? What has He done in your life? The Bible is full of examples. The Israelites being brought through the middle of an ocean. Manna floating down from heaven. Water from a rock. Lazarus walking back out of his tomb. Paul seeing a light on the road to Damascus. Peter walking out of a prison next to an angel. Come on. What’s happened to you, like that?

Okay, well, if you haven’t had any Bible sized miracles happen in your life, what about this? What do you know about Jesus, that nobody else does? What information, what angle on theology have you grasped, what knowledge do you have that would impress us all. A new way of thinking, a new way of understanding. Maybe something that the church used to hold to that has now been forgotten, something that you are remembering. What important knowledge do you possess? Nothing? No miracle? No incredible wisdom? Nothing?

Well, that’s okay, because Christianity is not about miracles and Christianity is not about wisdom. Christianity is about Christ. I know this is strange, but we are still in the time of Epiphany. Remember, Epiphany helps keep Christmas going a little longer, reminding us about the Savior who came to earth to rescue us. Epiphany keeps us focused on Jesus, rather than getting distracted.

And it’s easy to get distracted. Christianity is about Jesus. We are Christians because Jesus died for us. We are Christians because Jesus arose for us. We are Christians because Jesus’ life, His mind, His heart, has taken over our life, our mind, our heart. We are Christians because we are little Christs, little Christians.

Except a lot of the time that doesn’t seem to be enough. We will talk about Jesus, about His likes and dislikes, His personality, what He does, what He wants us to do. We’ll mention Him, once in a while, as we should. But for some reason, we get really excited when someone starts talking about a miracle that they’ve seen, a show of God’s power. That’s when our interest really perks up. Jesus is great and all, but let’s hear some more about the miracles. Let’s read the books about amazing acts of God. That’s far more interesting than Jesus.

Or let’s talk about information, knowledge, facts. Let’s dissect and examine and scrutinize the words and writings of theologians and write our reports and feel good about how much we’ve been able to figure out.

And with all the attention paid to miracles and all the time spent on knowledge, we forget about Jesus. Miracles are wonderful, theology and doctrine is vital, but only because it points to Jesus, hanging on the cross, rising again, and entering our lives.

Those who don’t know Jesus won’t understand this. Verse 18:

Jesus death and resurrection just doesn’t seem very important, not to most people. For many, they don’t believe that Jesus is God, so then the fact that Jesus, just a guy, the fact that He died really doesn’t matter. Yeah, Jesus died. So does everybody else. What’s the big deal?

But it’s not just people who don’t know Jesus that miss the importance of His death. In the evangelical church, more and more, Jesus’ death doesn’t seem to have done a lot. Yes, He died on the cross, and because of that, we who believe are able to got to heaven. But right now, right here, in this moment, in this place, does the death of Jesus really have any effect? Does it make a difference? In the United States, during an election year, does the cross change things? To hear people talk, it’s up to us to change the world. That’s a false gospel. We can’t change anything. We are incapable of effecting anything. Only Jesus can do that, through His death and resurrection.

For those who don’t know that, who don’t believe that, this statement doesn’t make any sense. They will think that it is our responsibility to do something about this world, about global warming, about purity in the church, about moral and holy leaders. And hardly ever will we hear anything about Jesus taking sinful people, sinful leaders, sinful churches, a sin-soaked world, taking all of that sin with Him to the cross and putting it to death. Hardly ever will we hear anything about the life of Jesus, the resurrected, eternal life that is seeping into this world, spreading out into every corner until finally everything has been renewed. That kind of talk just flies by so many people. They don’t get it.

But we do. We understand. It’s all about the cross. The deadness of our words, the rebellion in our thoughts, the filth in our actions, it’s all been nailed to the cross. It’s been put to death. Unforgiveness in our marriage, resistance to growth in our relationship with Jesus, it’s all been killed on the cross.

And because of that, we talk different. We think different. The most important thing to us is that Jesus died on the cross for us. There’s a reason that the cross is the primary symbol of Christianity, because it’s all about the cross. The gospel is nothing without the cross of Jesus. History doesn’t make sense unless we consider Jesus’ death on the cross. The worries of tomorrow are terrifying, without the cross. Super Tuesday is meaningless without the cross. The Supreme Court is not really supreme, without the cross. Jesus’ death and resurrection is everything to us. And because it’s everything, we end up talking about it all the time. A day can’t go by without us referring to Jesus’ death and resurrection, how Jesus puts to death something sinful and smelly, and is bringing to life something else, new and powerful.

But that’s not actually what we do, is it? How often does Jesus death and resurrection actually come up in our conversation? Miracles and great knowledge are so much more fun to talk about. Having a new perspective, talking about acts of power, that’s much more interesting.

That’s just not the way God thinks. Verse 20:

We value power. We value knowledge. When we have power and when we have knowledge, then we have control. Power and knowledge make us capable, or so we think. We have the resources. And since power and knowledge seem so important, it’s natural for us to get distracted. We’re not the first. Verse 22:

And not much has changed.

But we know something better. We know what works. We know what really makes a difference. Verse 23:

In our conversations, we will be tempted to go to the smart and powerful. As we talk after church, as we get together with friends, whenever we’re discussing the important issues of our lives, we will gravitate toward miracles and knowledge.

We love miracles. We love to hear about them, and we’d really love to be able to talk about a miracle that has happened in our life. Sometimes we look for that special sign from God that tells them what to do. Something that can’t be explained any other way, some so-called coincidence that assures them they are making the right decision. We will look for the miracle, because a miracle really shows that God is working. We are comforted with miracles. We are excited about that show of God’s power.

We love knowledge. The new book that just seems to explain everything so well. That piece of information that will just fix the problem. We’ll ask people what they know. We’ll talk and talk and try to figure things out. We love information. We live in the information age, and we soak it all up.

But Christianity is not about miracles and power. It’s about Christ, hanging on a cross. The greatest defeat is the ultimate victory. Death leads to life. Sacrifice leads to gain. This doesn’t make sense. We’d rather have the gain and the life and the victory without the sacrifice and death and defeat.

But, verse 27:

So, when we talk about the election coming up, we have to bring up Jesus, crucified. We have to ask whether the positions on the issues show that they have been cleansed by Jesus blood, or whether they just sound like some knowledge or power. Think about what we hear on the debates. We hear about answers to our dependency on oil. The solutions we hear are switchgrass and algae and ethanol and solar and wind. What we don’t hear is anything confessing our greed, our misuse of resources, our selfishness, all the things that make our dependency on oil that much greater. We don’t hear that Jesus died to kill greed and selfishness, that He rose again so that we can use resources appropriately.

We talk about immigration, and that’s a messy one. We hear solutions about guest worker visas and deportation and doubling security and building a wall. What we don’t hear anything about is repentance. We are not repenting for our selfishness, our greed for the resources others might get. We are not repenting for not doing all we can to help those who are so poor, they risk lives to come into our country. We’re not placing our own sins in this issue on the cross, and looking for solutions from the resurrection of Jesus.

When we have to make decisions in our own personal lives, decisions about whether to get married, about what kind of car to buy, about what job we should take, whether we should buy a new house, when we should retire, even what we should have for supper and what we should wear to school… all of those questions, we go looking for answers, knowledge, information that will help us decide. What we don’t do is go to the cross. The knowledge, the special sign, that seems more useful.

It’s not. We preach Christ. We preach Christ crucified. Jesus death and Jesus resurrection is the source, the foundation for every part of our lives. What needs to be sacrificed, and what is Jesus bringing back to life? What needs to be dropped, and what is the Lord giving in it’s place? Those questions are always on our minds. This is how we get the answers. This is how we find our way through. Verse 30:

What has the cross put to death in your life? What has the resurrection brought back to life? Ask those questions continually. Don’t worry if you haven’t seen any miracles. It doesn’t matter if you don’t know everything. Jesus took away your sin on the cross. Jesus gave you eternal life. Let that be on your lips constantly.