Rev.
Dr. Michael A. Milton
-- How I Want Our Beginning To Be
Remembered
We
don't mean to, but we often make Christianity more complicated than it really
is‑and sometimes less glorious, less majestic than who Christ really is.
It even happened to a church that Paul planted.
Remembering
The Beginning
Remembering
the beginning is important. When my wife and I were married, I did everything
possible to make our first day as husband and wife a special one. I wrote her
a special song for the day. I ordered flowers, bought her a memorable wedding
present, reserved a place at the special restaurant and tipped the waiter to
say our names as "Mr. and Mrs. Milton." But the most special thing
that took place, the thing that we would always remember most was not planned.
As I took her to dance, the band played our song. They didn't know it was our
song, and I didn't tip them to play it. In fact, the song was sort of obscure
and I doubted any musical group would ever know it. But, there it was: my
bride and I, dancing to our song. That was so important to us. For in the days
ahead, in trials and difficulties that always come to couples, we could look
back and if we were on the wrong track, we could remember and readjust our
way.
Beginnings
are also important for pastors and congregations. And our beginning is
important today. Go back to the Bible and to Paul's ministry. When he was
dealing with the Corinthians, who were having some problems, he reminded them
about their beginning. In reminding them about the beginning, he led them to
see the very foundation of his ministry. Paul's instructions in 1Corinthians
contain some very basic truths.
Remember
That We Began Our Ministry Together By Focusing On The Centrality Of The Cross
Of Jesus Christ. (vv. 18-25)
In
Corinth, there were Jews who wanted miraculous signs and Greeks who craved
rhetorically satisfying logic for their religion. Paul went to Isaiah and
answers these problems with God's own Word: "I will destroy the wisdom of
the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." (Is.
29.14)
Paul,
in dealing with this church he had planted, wanted them to remember that his
central message was the Cross. Many things had happened in that church since
Paul had planted it. Others had come in. Parties had arisen in the church.
There was great trouble at Corinth. And in the midst of this, Paul reminds
them about the fundamentals of the faith: the cross of Christ. In that one
event, the God of heaven who came in the flesh, offering Himself as a
sacrifice for the sins of His people, faith makes sense. It is the wisdom of
God over the supposed wisdom of
man. This is antithesis and it is a necessary tension in the gospel.
Man looks at the cross as foolish. It doesn't seem right that men are
saved by a God who dies for them. But in this one act of love and grace and
mercy, in Christ identifying with us in our sin and taking the punishment for
those who repent, we come to see God's power.
One
commentator said: "The message of the cross is portrayed as an
uncompromising indictment of human values of wisdom and power . . ."
One
theologian pointed to this antithesis, of the supposed wisdom of man and the
supposed foolishness of the cross, and called it the difference between
"a religion of therefore" and a "religion of
nevertheless." In man, we have a "therefore" religion. In man's
wisdom, we say, "Your father was an unbeliever, therefore you are an
unbeliever, therefore, your children will be unbelievers." But, the
preaching of the cross of Christ is the "nevertheless" of God. This
Cross centered faith says, "Your father was an unbeliever, nevertheless,
God calls you to repent and believe. And though you came from an unbelieving
family, God has snapped the chain of unbelief and establishes a covenant of
grace in your midst which may be passed along to your children!" I
remember telling this to a grandmother who came to me to pray about her
granddaughter. The mother had run off with another man, and the little girl
was a witness to the whole thing.
She saw awful things. The grandmother was slipping into despair as she
imagined "therefore the girl will grow up and have great problems."
I shared with her what this glorious teaching of the cross really means. How
man's wisdom may say "therefore" but the Cross says,
"Nevertheless." God who transformed the cross from an instrument of
shame to a sign of victory and hope is the God who may
"never‑the‑less" transform this event. God's power is
the cross of Christ. Your hope for your problems is in the cross of Jesus
Christ.
As
Paul came preaching the centrality of the cross, I want to do the same. I want
our beginning to be remembered as a beginning focused on the cross. For in the
cross we have the power to face difficulty, the power of God to have hope in
the midst of despair, and if God is going to bring revival to our nation it
will be through magnifying the Cross of Jesus Christ. Paul says that for those
being called to eternal life, the cross is the wisdom and power of God to do
the work. It is a supernatural work of God to come down and save a soul,
revive a straying saint, or work repentance in an erring believer and we must
thus lean on the supernatural directive of God: the preaching of the cross of
Christ.
In
chapter two, verses 1‑5, the apostle not only draws them to recall his
initial message but also his medium for the message. As he drew a distinction
between the supposed wisdom of man over against the genuine wisdom of the
Cross, so, too, he showed that the force of his message rested not on human
power, but the Holy Spirit. Paul showed that the Holy Spirit did the great
work, because he was himself simply a weak, trembling vessel.
I
Want Us To Remember That We Began Our Ministry Together By Admitting Our Own
Weakness (2:1-5)
The
Corinthians were much impressed with credentials and with oratorical
demonstration and with superficial things. "Man looks at the outside of a
man, but God looks at the heart." Paul reminds the Corinthians that when
he came, he came in weakness. In other words, the Corinthians church was
planted not through the showy exhibition of a gifted preacher, but simply
through the power of God in Christ flowing through a weak vessel.
If
Paul, the greatest preacher and missionary of them all, came to the
Corinthians in weakness and in trembling, so I surely must admit that I come
this way.
A
long time ago, my pastor told me: "Preach out of your brokenness and you
will connect hurting people with the only source of healing."
When
we act like we are God's gift to the world, when we point to our
accomplishments, when we rely on our own native strengths, we rob Christ of His
glory. And no one will ever be saved by Mike Milton. So, I need to get out of
the way and preach Christ. Paul said: "I
was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my
preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men
but in the power of God." I come to you to simply tell you that God has
saved a poor sinner like me. If God can do that in my life, he can change your
life.
The
most powerful person in my life has been the woman who raised me: my Aunt Eva.
She had no education beyond the tenth grade. She was a widow with no children
when I was placed in her arms. She wasn't experienced as a parent and being 65
when she adopted me, couldn't exactly go out and play football with me. She was
very often physically weak. But, I will tell you this: she taught me Christ. And
when I fell away from her teaching and went my own way as a young man, she
prayed me to Christ. When I was so depressed over the problems in my life that I
felt like giving up, she lifted my eyes to heaven. And when I became a pastor
and sought counsel for the many decisions before me, I went to her. For in her
weakness, Christ was made strong.
I
want us to remember our beginning together: that I come in weakness, pleading
for your prayers, admitting my own inability, but also saying that in our
weakness, Christ is made strong. People will be saved and people will grow, then
Christ alone is exalted.
"Grace
Amidst The Garbage"
In
this passage, we have seen that we should build a ministry based on the
centrality of the cross and the admission of our weakness and need of the power
of the Holy Spirit. No one will be saved. No one will grow. Our church will not
really grow, unless those two things are secure. The cross of Christ and the
power of God at work among us.
Shortly
before I left Savannah, the headlines in the Savannah News were all about Baby
Grace. Baby Grace was a newborn girl discovered in a dumpster by a garbage
worker. Amid the refuse of a ghetto area of Savannah, lying in pornography, the
green broken glass of discarded cheap wine bottles, in coffee grounds and
rotting food, was a tiny, little girl not over a week old. The garbage collector
named her "Baby Grace." And the story of Grace is changing the hearts
of that neighborhood like nothing before. There will be no problems finding
parents for Baby Grace. Couples are lining up to claim Grace as their own.
I
think what God is telling us in this passage is that the message of
Grace‑God's grace in Christ‑is equally surprising and even
disturbing. For in a garbage dump outside of a two bit occupied country, on a
Roman cross, Grace could be found. Grace is not found in the pretty religion of
men, but in the garbage dump of our own lives. And those who find Grace, and
tell it best, are not professional clergymen, but people who have lived close to
the dumpster themselves, fellow refuse workers, if you will, who have discovered
Grace.
That
is all I am. That is all you are. We're
just a bunch of sinners saved by grace, calling you, too, to admit your weakness
and reach out for His power‑His grace‑which was demonstrated when
Jesus died for us on the Cross.
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Rev. Dr. Michael A. Milton, First Presbyterian Church, 554 North McCallie Ave.,
Chattanooga, TN 37402
