Wednesday, December 17, 2008, Part 2
Hebrews 11
IDEA: We sometimes face audiences that regard the basic message of the Christian faith as utter stupidity.
PURPOSE: To help listeners understand why the message we preach is dismissed as nonsense.
A friend of mine has said that if you can understand someone's presuppositions, you can understand almost everything they do. Do you agree?
What do we mean by "presuppositions"? Do you have any?
I. The Greek audiences held the presupposition that any message worth hearing would be bolstered by sophisticated arguments presented by brilliant speakers.
The cultured Greeks wanted elaborate philosophical arguments from brilliant speakers if they were to consider a message. What presuppositions did they have?
Do you know anyone who loves to argue? Do you find it easy to change that person's mind?
Do you think it is futile to try to "make the case" for the Christian faith?
Books on "apologetics" are written to do that.
The Greeks also valued oratory. Have you ever heard brilliant speakers who almost swept you off your feet with the way in which they presented their argument? Why does that happen?
Do you think that it is counterproductive to train ministers to speak the message well?
The message of "a Messiah crucified" was laughable to a sophisticated Greek audience. Why? Three reasons:
The message didn't make sense to them.
How could a dead Jew hanging on a cross outside Jerusalem do anything for anyone?
He died for our sins. Who cared about "the sins of the world"? Unlike the Jews, the Greeks didn't think much about being made "right" with the gods.
The Greeks had the presupposition that the gods couldn't "feel" emotion.
If a god could feel sorrow or joy or anger or grief about people, then that meant some man or woman had influenced the god and therefore was greater than the god.
A "God who suffered" was a contradiction in terms.
The ultimate "foolishness" to the Greeks resulted from how they felt about crucifixion.
Cicero, the greatest Roman orator (106-43 BC), spoke for everyone when he wrote about the horrors of crucifixion. It was unthinkable to a cultured Roman or Greek that any "god" would allow himself to be subjected to such a cruel and shameful death.
There was a well-know caricature painted on the wall of the Palatine (Caesar's palace) in Rome. It's of a slave bowing down to a crucified figure with an ass's head. The inscription said in Greek, "Worshiper of a suffering God." Only an ignorant peasant would worship a god like that.
II. Do you think the message about Christ crucified goes down easily with sophisticates today?
Many have a strong distaste for the message about "Christ crucified."
After the release of the film, "The Passion of the Christ," many in the secular media said, "Why do a film on the cruel death of Jesus when what matters is His teaching?"
There has been a strong reaction to this message in religious circles.
It has been called "child abuse."
It is described as "barbaric" and hopelessly out of date.
III. Why wouldn't it be a good strategy to drop this part of the message and focus on something more positive and uplifting?
Why do we ask people to believe in Jesus Christ and Him crucified?
Ultimately all we have is God's promise that He is satisfied with what Jesus has done to take the punishment for our sin by dying on the cross.
In the final analysis, it doesn't matter what we think about the death of Jesus. What matters supremely is what God thinks about it.
When that truth is embraced it can change Jews and Greeks as no miracles of philosophy can do. It was true in the first century and it is true in our century.