February 25, 2024
We’re in week two of our sermon series on the Cross. Last week we talked about how Jesus said to be his disciples, you must deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me. Jesus took up his cross. First, he went out into the desert where the devil tempted him to be king of the world, and to get all the power and riches and glory! But Jesus refused, and instead lived, serving God and others. After three years of ministry, he went to the cross and died a painful criminal’s death. But then God raised him up! Jesus teaches us, when you choose to lose and take up your cross, God works through you!
It’s hard to take up your cross. Today we’re going to talk about our human problem that we never have enough. We’re not content or satisfied. There’s pressure to win, and we especially want other people to see us win. Maybe you have an older brother or sister, and you want to have more than them, or achieve more than them. Or you’re a mom with kids, and your house looks like you have kids. You’re afraid of what the other moms will think and don’t want to be judged by your house. Or you watch TV and surf the internet, and you feel like compared to others, you don’t have enough. It’s common to feel inadequate. We try to feel better by going on a quest for more: more possessions, more achievement, trying to look like you have it all. But as much as you try, you don’t get to the place where you say, “Now I have enough, I am enough.”
The book of Ecclesiastes is in the middle of the Old Testament. It’s part of the wisdom literature: books like Job, Proverbs, and some of the psalms. Wisdom literature provides practical advice for living and thoughts about God. Ecclesiastes is the most skeptical book of wisdom in the Bible. Chapter 1:2-3 says, “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
3 What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?
It’s good to work hard, but the writer of Ecclesiastes is asking, is there a purpose behind your work? It doesn’t make sense to work for no purpose.
In chapter 4, verse 4, he points out the problem with always wanting more in order to win the approval of others. He says, “And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”
The writer is saying, the reason you work hard and try to achieve, is that you are jealous of other people. You aren’t working for a right purpose. You are just chasing the wind. It’s like you’re on a hamster wheel, trying as hard as you can to get to a better place. But you can never get there. You will never arrive, never be content. Because there are always people out there who have more and have achieved more than you. You’ll never be content.
What can we do? How should we live? Ambition & achievement are good, but if that’s all you live life for, it will wear you out.
Jesus offers us a better way. The cross. It’s the symbol of suffering, shame and loss. The cross is a reminder for us to stop chasing what can’t be caught.
A lot of Christians don’t even know that Jesus invites us to take up our cross. They know that Jesus is their savior. They have been baptized or prayed a pray for salvation. But to them the cross is more like a good luck charm than a way to live your life!
The Apostle Paul started out living his life as an achiever. In Philippians 3 he talks about his credentials: I was circumcised on the 8th day, an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, a Pharisee who kept the law, so eager that I persecuted the church, faultless as far as keeping the law. Paul outworked everybody religiously and was proud of it!
Then, while he was out searching for Christians in order to arrest them, Paul was struck down on the road by a blinding light, and the Lord spoke to him.
Paul became a Christian and went in the opposite direction! With the help of his new friends in the church, he took up his cross, and suffered as he became a missionary. He accepted the invitation to join the “loser’s club.” In the 1st century, a person who died on a cross was a criminal, a loser. The world thought Jesus had lost.
Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, 1 Cor. 1: 18. He knew they needed some help to understand the cross and its opposite way of living from the world’s way. He says, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing…” Who are the people who are perishing? He’s talking about the people who are fading away. The perishing are those who want to be the best (Paul knows, he used to live that way). But their life is perishing, fading away, falling behind. They’re scrambling to reclaim and maintain stuff. It’s like the saying, “Whoever dies with the most toys wins!” You’d like to have the most and win! But it won’t work. You can’t take your stuff with you! If you’re only after what the world can give, you are perishing.
Paul says in the second half of verse 18: “but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” The message of the cross means something very different to those who follow the way of the cross. We stop doing things under our own power. We let go of the ways of the world, and the power of God begins to work in and through us.
Paul reminds the Corinthians, remember when you started following Jesus. Not many of you were wise, you weren’t powerful and influential. But God chose what was foolish and weak and lowly. The cross is foolishness to the world. But through it the power of God works. God cannot work through us if we’re chasing the wind and clinging to what is fading and perishing.
When you go to a funeral, what gets celebrated there? Do we talk fondly about all the deceased’s possessions? Do we talk about their trophies? No! We remember the love they showed to their family, that they helped people in a time of need, and their smile and the way they made you laugh. So, we all know what really matters in a person. It’s that someone serves, and has character, that they are generous, and how they fight for the rights and benefits of others. But it’s easy to forget what matters in our own everyday life. Life is not about running over other people to get our way. God’s way is not about winning the world, it’s about losing control, and following the foolishness of the cross. God’s power works through us when we do! The cross is a reminder for us to stop chasing what can’t be caught.
My challenge for you this week is, if you find yourself in conflict with someone, to ask yourself, what would choosing to lose look like in this situation? Just think about it, and you don’t have to do anything. This is the first step, to think about it. Maybe instead of convincing a person you’re right and they’re wrong, you could listen. Listen really well. Try hard to understand their point of view.
The cross seems to be foolish to those who are perishing. It doesn’t get you fame or fortune. But to those who are being saved, who have decided to take up their cross, it is life giving! It means the power of God is unleashed to work through you! So don’t worry what others think of you because that is chasing after the wind! Be single-minded in taking your cross and following Jesus. Seek only God’s approval. Then you will find the best life, a life that matters right now and in eternity! Amen.
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