In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of the apostles' calling to spread the true wisdom of God to nations where other wisdoms prevail. He highlights the negative influence of worldly wisdoms, such as lust, addiction, and greed, and how they manipulate and control people's lives. The speaker also discusses the power of Jesus' name and the authority it holds over demons. He concludes by emphasizing the significance of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, where he bore the sins of the world, and how this wisdom leads to resurrection in the church.

Thank you. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Let's pray. Great God in heaven, we bless you this evening. We thank you for so great a salvation. We thank you for the kind intention of God, which is manifested to us through the gospel of Jesus Christ. We ask Lord that that which is foolishness in the eyes of men would be exalted this evening. And that which is wisdom and cleverness in the eyes of men would be abased and broken. We ask that the man Christ Jesus would be exalted in this gathering and in the hearts of every soul in this room. We ask Lord that you would deliver a word from heaven and speak to us something that will be foundational, not merely for a ministry, not merely for some new theological idea, but for the reality of our lives. So we trust in the great Holy Spirit to perform that work through a word this evening. We ask that you would come Lord, glorify the Son in our midst. In Jesus name. Good. Well this evening is meant to be an evening of opening up the scriptures with regard to the man Christ Jesus and the gospel of the cross. So we're going right to the heart of foundation here. I'm going to read a whole portion here, 11 verses, so just follow along with me if you would. Paul speaking to the church at Corinth. And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are you not mere men? What then is Apollos, and what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything but God who causes the growth. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder, I laid a foundation. And another is building on it, but each man must be careful how he builds on it. And then here's our principal verse. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. We've called these evenings of recovering the foundation. And I've said that it's not new revelations and new teachings and new ideas that we need so much as a recovery of the true foundation, which is the man Christ Jesus himself. What does that mean? What is Paul getting at in this passage when he says no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ? Well, here's a question that we need to ask. What is the foundation being laid in or what is it being laid for? Anyone have an idea? What's the foundation? If Paul is speaking metaphorically with this wise master builder metaphor, what is he speaking about? Obviously, he's not speaking about buying a building or building a building. So what is he speaking of? Don't be shy. It's okay. What is the foundation being laid for? What is Paul building? Are you speaking more in terms of the foundation of the church? I'm asking specifically what is the apostle saying? He's been set apart as a master builder to build. So it's to the glory of God. But what is the it itself that he's building? The church. Yeah, the church. So what is the church then? If it's not a building, it's a people. So what then does it mean for Jesus Christ himself to be the foundation of a people? There's an awesome insight that needs to be recovered here in the church because we have ministries that have been built on so many other foundations, with so many other emphases. But where is that house where Jesus Christ himself has the preeminence and the supremacy and the central reality, not only in two or three meetings a week where he's the main subject, but in a people where he himself is the foundation of that people, of that church. This is the apostle's vision. Paul's vision is for the building of a house which God himself will inhabit. He's speaking of something so much more than the building of a ministry where we have meetings and God's presence is felt and known a few times a week. Precious though that is, he's speaking of a vision that he has through the gospel, which is a people who have been founded upon the reality of Jesus Christ himself. And here's something I would say. The majority of the church has not even been founded on the subject of Jesus Christ himself. And even more of a remnant could be said to have been founded on the man, Christ Jesus himself. But yet this is what the apostle burns for. This is his vision. This is his ultimate jealousy to see a people in the earth who are the very expression of the man, Christ Jesus. Not only in a ministry, but in the reality of life. The apostle has a vision for a people who are marked by the spirit of Jesus Christ. They've been founded upon him. In one sense, I would say, as Gordon Fee has noted, that the foundation is not proper doctrine, but the gospel itself. He intends them to hear Jesus Christ and him crucified. So, remarkable New Testament scholar, Gordon Fee, has said that the foundation is not just the apostle striving for right doctrine, though he would contend for that. It's that the community would hear the gospel itself. And I would take it a step further, not to undermine what he has said, but to say it's even further than the hearing of the gospel itself, but the founding of a community upon the person himself, Jesus Christ. He himself is the foundation. So, this scholar by the last name of Weiss has noted that when Paul reaches verse 11 and says, For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. You know, Paul's working with this metaphor. I am like a wise master builder. I'm not a wise master builder, I'm like one, who's building with the right tools and the right timing, being sure that the cement that has been laid has set properly before another portion is added. So, he's like a wise master builder, Paul is. He's working with a metaphor, but this scholar says that when Paul hits verse 11, he's no longer dealing with a metaphor, but with a reality. He says, Paul is no longer thinking metaphorically in verse 11, but has in mind the thing in itself. When he says Jesus Christ is the foundation, the only one that can be laid, which has already been laid. He said, this scholar has said, Paul is no longer saying, this is a metaphor, I'm saying literally, Jesus Christ is the foundation. If we haven't got the life of Christ moving through our own congregations and our own personal lives, we have not the church. If we have not the wisdom of Christ, and particularly the wisdom of Christ and Him crucified, then we don't have church. So, what does that mean then for a community like us in the early phases of our existence, and the Lord is just breathing upon us in these early phases and saying, build rightly, build wisely, and even speaking things out of His own heart, hey brother, for the building of this particular Antiochal vision that we have. If Antioch itself becomes the vision, then we've lost it already. You can't have church without the foundation being Christ Himself. And so this is something more than using language that Christ is the center, Christ is the foundation, Christ has the preeminence. It has to have the corresponding reality of the Spirit. Bearing witness with the community that Christ Himself is the foundation, and that if we would operate on any grounds other than the grounds of His atoning mercy, then we cannot see the church built. We cannot see the gospel have an effectual impact upon the society. We cannot see the flourishing of a praying community of believers, except that we are building upon the revelation of Jesus Christ Himself. Some of you might be thinking, okay, big deal, now let's get on to the more meaty subject. But there's not one. Christ crucified is the pinnacle of the revelation of the fullness of the nature of God. Demonstrated in history, making a permanent mockery of the principalities and powers of darkness, and all of their faulty wisdom, there's not something else to move on to. It's only the increase of Christ, the increase of Christ, the increase of Christ in the community, in the life of prayer, in the scriptures, and in our mode of being as the church. That and that alone will move the Jew to jealousy in these last days. That and that alone will be a demonstration of His wisdom to the principalities and powers of darkness. You know, Paul in chapter 3 is coming out of this awesome statement that he delivers in chapters 1 and 2 of the contrast between the wisdom of God and the wisdom of men. The wisdom of the cross and the wisdom of power as men pursue power. So that Jewish man hanging on the cross, Paul is saying, is the full revelation of the nature and wisdom of God, which is foolishness to the Greek and a stumbling block to the Jew. But to us who are being saved, it is Christ, the power of God Himself. What am I getting at? What is Paul getting at? That's the greater question. Well, how can a man like Paul make the statement that Jesus Christ Himself is the foundation of the church and the only foundation that can be laid, but elsewhere in his writings, Ephesians 2 for instance, make a statement like this, the apostles and prophets are the foundation of the church. Oh, wait a minute, Paul. You're contradicting yourself. How can Christ be the only foundation of the church, and elsewhere you're saying the apostle and the prophet is the foundation of the church. Have you ever thought of that? Have you ever thought of that? Paul uses the same word and description of foundational servant leaders in the church as the foundation. He uses the same word foundation as he uses of the Lord Himself. Either he's contradictory, he's forgetful, he's got a mixed up idea of things, or he's speaking something flat out of heaven that needs to be considered by the church, which would be a foundational people in the last days for the salvation of Israel and a resurrection witness to the nations. What's the statement that Paul is making? The apostle and the prophet, or might we say the apostolic and prophetic church, has so died to the wisdom of men and the pursuit of worldly power that the resurrection life is demonstrated in its being to such a degree that as our brother used to always say, you can't tell where Christ begins and the apostle ends, or where the apostle begins and Christ ends. They become one. They become a demonstration of the same wisdom, and the powers of darkness would then equate a man like Paul with Jesus Himself when they speak through the demoniac, Jesus we know and Paul we know, but who are you? How can the powers of darkness look upon a man, a fallen man, and be threatened by them and put Paul's name in the same sentence as the threat that Jesus Himself posed in their lives, in the life of the powers of darkness and that whole demonic governmental structure in the heavens that plays upon nations and manipulates kings and inserts lusts and temptations in the hearts of men and impresses men to strive for power in this life to the negation of any consideration of the wisdom of God? How can they be so threatened by what tradition would call a five foot something tall, bald-headed, bow-legged, disfigured man, Jewish man named Shaul? And when the demon speaks up, when the sons of Sceva are attempting to cast the demon out, the demon speaks up and says, Jesus, the resurrected Christ we know. Well, that doesn't affect us to hear that. Of course they're threatened by Him. He's the One, the preeminent One. He's the resurrected One, the ascended One. He's the One who's existed from before history even commenced. He's always been their great foe and enemy and threat to their false wisdom and their false kingdoms. Jesus we know, that poses no surprise to us. But that they would say, Paul we know, is a remarkable statement. But here's the larger question in this day. Since now we've romanticized and put Paul on a pedestal. Though he himself would be the first to labor to be sure the saints knew that he was not the foundation in and of himself. We've put him on a pedestal. But listen to this, Paul's vision was not that he would say, I'm an apostle and therefore I'm the foundation of the church and you need to recognize my foundational quality and exalt me. Paul's vision was that through his own blood, sweat, and tears in a radical and intimate identification with the cross of Christ that a people would be birthed in the earth and nurtured in the earth whose very lives, whose very mode of being, whose thinking, whose theology, whose speech, whose prayers, whose service, whose mundane activity would demonstrate the wisdom of God to their false kingdom and actually pose a threat to what they have been seeking to set up from of age old. Do you believe that in the midst of working at a home health care agency or recovering an air conditioning system or changing a diaper or sweeping the floor or some other noted, some other activity that we would consider mundane that you have the capacity to demonstrate to the principalities and powers of darkness and heavenly places the very wisdom of God? Guess what? That's your high calling in Christ Jesus. And Paul was laboring for that reality. And that is precisely why Paul was unwilling to build on any other foundation than the man Christ Jesus. It's not by accident that the saints, that the faith, and Jesus himself were called in the book of Acts the way. If you look it up in the scholars, why were they called, why was the faith, why was Christianity called the way in the book of Acts? You have mixed opinions and responses. Some would say, well, it must have something to do with the fact that Jesus was called the way, the truth, and the life. So when it speaks of the way, it's speaking of Christ. And in some passages in Acts it clearly is. But there are other passages where it would seem they are calling the community of believers the way, that way. Well, what is it? Is it one or the other? It's both. In the same way that the apostle and the prophet are the foundation of the church, with Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone, and Jesus himself, Paul would say, is the only foundation, in the same way the church is the way as Jesus Christ himself is the way. In fact, the church is only the way because it's that one entity in the earth in which Christ himself abides and is demonstrated. Isn't that awesome? Your life, not your ministry, but your life is the one avenue in the earth by which the wisdom of God has liberty to roll freely and be paraded amongst Israel and the nations and before the powers of darkness. Your life. In fact, Paul magnified his ministry not because he wanted his face on a magazine or he wanted his name on a billboard. He says, I magnify my ministry. Why? So that some of my own kinsmen might be moved to jealousy. What does it mean that he magnified his ministry? One brother has said, one British scholar has said, that Paul magnified his ministry meant that he poured his blood and his tears and the whole of his being into the setting forth of Jesus Christ amongst the Gentiles so that some would be wrenched loose from Greek wisdom and brought into a Hebraic and heavenly wisdom and thereby move some of his kinsmen to jealousy. Paul magnified his ministry. What does that mean? It doesn't mean he magnified his position. It means he magnified what was the natural outflow of his life in Christ. Paul's ministry was what it was, not because he was an eloquent preacher. As a matter of fact, part of the divisions in Corinth that were festering that he had to address in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians had to do with the fact that men in Corinth were comparing the apostles one with another and some were even clinging more to Apollos because he happened to be more of an eloquent speaker. So some of the saints in Corinth were actually saying we prefer Apollos because of his speaking. And Paul says when I came to you I came to you with much weakness and trembling so that your faith would rest on the power of God and not on the wisdom of men. So what ground then is the church operating upon? If we're speaking this evening on the man Christ Jesus and the gospel of the cross what is the gospel of the cross? What does it represent? What does it effect in the earth? Karl Barth said years ago actually in 1919 he made a declaration that I think is one of the greatest statements I've ever heard about the gospel. He said the gospel is not a truth amongst other truths. The gospel is the truth which sets a question mark against all other truths. Can we add another element to that and say the man Christ Jesus therefore is not a man amongst other men. He is a man who sets a question mark against all other men. The greatest of Greek philosophers and intellectuals the wisest of atheists in the earth was Adiel Moody who said that the atheist on his tiptoes sees less than the saint on his knees. The wisdom of God turns the wisdom of men upon its head. The cross which was the most foolish of demonstrations in the minds of men. A mangled Jewish man hanging on a cross. His flesh opened up. His own followers, every one of them having betrayed him and ashamed to call him their own brother. Hanging in between two criminals. But not only a great teacher hanging there. Not only even a great prophet hanging there. As much foolishness as that would seem. You're a great prophet to Israel and you're being crucified? With your own kinsmen agreeing to it? And Rome carrying it out? You're a great prophet? How foolish is that? Not foolish enough. The full wisdom of God could not be demonstrated until God himself was hanging on the cross. Fathom that dear saints. What can be said then of the gospel? It is ultimate wisdom. It is the highest wisdom. It is a wisdom which sets a question mark against all other wisdoms. Are you tracking with me? The apostle, the great calling of the sent one is then to go into the nations where all of the other wisdoms prevail and to set forth the one supreme and true wisdom. The one wisdom which will counteract all other wisdoms that have had full influence and sway in the earth. Full liberty to influence the minds of men. Principalities and powers of darkness playing in the lives of men pulling and jerking men like puppets to fight with their wives to waste their money and their resources on trivial things to give themselves over to the lusts of the flesh to be bound and gripped in pornography and for businessmen, distinguished men to be sneaking behind their wives' backs to pick up prostitutes and to destroy their lives and the lives of the woman giving herself to that pitiful occupation. Powers of darkness are playing upon men with all kinds of false wisdoms disfiguring the human race moving upon the nations and upon Israel herself. And there's one entity in the earth by which the one true wisdom can be set forth. And it can't be set forth only verbally it has to be set forth as the reality of the condition of her life and that one entity is the church. So to what degree then are we still moving along on the basis of the wisdom of this world which is the pursuit of power the pursuit of glory outside of the wisdom and glory of the cross. The apostle has the responsibility to set forth Jesus Christ and him crucified. Paul wanted the saints to have a life and a mode of being that was not based on the wisdom of men but was based on the very power and life flow resurrection reality of God himself. So how does he go about then laboring amongst the saints. He says I made it my desire and my supreme passion to know nothing among you save Christ and him crucified. The wisdom of the cross is the wisdom of God himself. And that mangled Jewish body with open wounds innumerable that we cannot even count with the cat of nine tails having whipped him dozens and dozens of times his body ripped to shreds what is left of the fluid in his body pouring out through his pores and dripping into the open wounds so he is covered with stinging and burning and not only that the internal anguish of the cross the betrayal of his own brethren the bearing up of the sins of all humanity which even the created order cannot bear as it says in the little apocalypse of Isaiah I believe it's in Isaiah 24-27 it's somewhere in there where the prophet says that at the end of the age the entire created order will be teetering and tottering underneath the weight of the sin of mankind at the time of Jesus' return the earth itself will be tottering as a drunken man under the weight of the sins of history all of Hitler's abominations all of Mussolini's violence and arrogance all of the arrogance of wealthy kings and even the arrogance of the homeless man who would say I can get along just fine without mercy the sins of the nations have accumulated and at the end of the age the world itself and the whole created order will be tottering as a drunken man fathom this you saints all of that sin was laid upon one six foot tall Jewish frame at the cross he bore all our iniquities and all our sins and infirmities all of that was being demonstrated at the cross and it's the highest wisdom that we need to drink in as our very life bread it produces resurrection in the church so how does this touch nuts and bolts what can be said of a church in the earth whose labors are predicated on a wisdom that is other than the wisdom of the cross when we have ministries that have been built and even church functions which are built for the sake of appeasing to men and even across our own nation we may have a great multitude attending meetings on Sundays who have not yet met once with the wisdom of the cross who have not yet had their own wisdom and their own self-possessed manhood questioned by the reality of the gospel of the cross having only heard a message that they were to come and be a part of this ministry the ministry exists for you our music is being performed for you the coffee shop in the foyer is for you and our greatest hope is that you will continue to come and maybe even a good percentage of you will give tithe so that we can maintain the air condition bill and the salaries of the ministers and the whole thing in many places has been based on a wisdom which is beneath the glory of God in the cross I'm not saying that only for the sake of criticism but I'm saying that sometimes to get to the true foundation you've got to unearth and uncover the faulty foundations that we've been laying upon it in an attempt at building his house in a slipshod way that is devoid of his own wisdom if it's devoid of his wisdom it cannot lead to his glorification and if it doesn't lead to his glorification it does not lead to deliverance for men Paul knew that the one gospel which would deliver men from the spirit of this age was the gospel of the cross we need again to hear it, we need again to see it we need again to feel the blow of that wisdom and let it lay low that which remains in our own lives in our own ambitions after a well-known name and let it lay us low into the ground so that we can experience the glories and the wonders of resurrection life which will produce in the earth a people not merely a ministry but a people whose very day-to-day mode of being demonstrates his wisdom to the powers of darkness and actually has the authority the life upon it to set men free to cause them as Paul said to the church at Thessalonica to set down their idols and turn to serve the living God Paul is no longer thinking metaphorically when he speaks of Christ as the foundation he is speaking of the thing in itself or maybe we should say he is speaking of the man Christ Jesus in himself one brother says that Paul consistently refuses to allow that he himself can be regarded as the foundation he will not allow that in the first chapter he lists off the apostles that the saints are identifying with and even one of that group of saints within Corinth the church at Corinth, some of them are saying I'm of Paul others are saying I'm of Apollos others are saying I'm of Cephas, I'm of Peter so you've got then some saying I'm of Paul because he's the first one that preached here so we're the original Corinthian fellowship you've got others that are saying I'm of Apollos because his eloquence, he's so moving the way that he speaks and we want to glorify that attribute we're of Apollos others are saying we're of Cephas, we're of Peter because he's the one that actually lived with Jesus and in fact Jesus said upon that rock he would build his church so we're with him and then some of them even have the audacity to say we are of Christ but to the negation of the other saints so there's a superiority complex that's moving throughout the saints throughout this church and Paul is saying you guys have totally missed it it is about the glory of Christ and him crucified it is all about his glorification in the reality of your life for no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid which is Jesus Christ Paul is jealous for the government of God to have its outworking in the lives of the saints what is his government? we hear often of his kingdom but we don't often hear of his government but they're one and the same the kingdom of God is not just a hyped up mode of ministry we're going to do the kingdom things the kingdom of God is the infiltration in the earth of his own government and way Paul defines the kingdom of God and the government of God as righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit and there shall be no end to the increase of his government this is good I want to read briefly from a brother named Juergen Moltmann in his book, The Crucified God we need to see the glory of the cross not as an aspect of the Christian faith or of theology but as the center of the church itself it takes one who sees that reality to proclaim that reality it takes one who has known that reality even in the dying of his own life to set that forth and it will take a church which has come into the experience of the cross and which is now abiding in the resurrection life and glory of Christ to set that forth in the earth you know when I stood shoulder to shoulder with 80 Muslims a few weeks ago and saw their prayers and their religious service and believe it or not I had the same sense in my spirit that I have when I go to synagogues where there are a group of Jewish men and women who have not yet found Yeshua as their Messiah the same feeling I had in my inner man that here is a striving after truth and a striving even after righteousness and a striving after God without one drop of the reality of His mercy I felt a demonic pressure in my inner man while being there looking for open doors of witness amongst the Muslim community here in our own neighborhood which I did have and had lunch later with one of the teachers was able to share the testimony of my own salvation experience but listen it's going to take something more than being able to trot out a few phrases about the gospel it's going to take a people who have come into a mode of being that's resurrection this brother Juergen Moltmann has said the cross is not and cannot be loved yet only the crucified Christ can bring the freedom which changes the world because it is no longer afraid of death in his time the crucified Christ was regarded as a scandal and as foolishness today too it is considered old fashioned to put him in the center of Christian faith and of theology can you see why we are without foundation as the church can you see why pornography prevails why a recent statistic said that over 50% of ordained ministers in America confess to a secret consistent struggle with pornography can you see why there are self centered ministries being built why well known and esteemed leaders even many who have had gifts of the spirit that we cannot say on any other basis were false they were truly gifted in the spirit as were the saints at Corinth and yet they were lacking in a foundation of the cross and therefore have fallen into all kinds of sins and other issues of embezzlement and alcoholism before the public eye that is the witness that is being set forth can I address your question? what do you think the author meant by the cross can't be loved that we've seen how I love the old rugged cross what do you think he meant by the cross cannot be loved well I think he is speaking on the basis of human wisdom that it cannot be loved the old precious hymn so I'll cling to the old rugged cross even then I think there is a danger amongst many believers of sentimentalizing the cross it's covered with roses and Jesus is on the cross looking almost like a ballerina in the old European paintings but I think what he is saying is the cross cannot be loved that Jesus himself even took up the cross it was for the joy set before him that he endured it but he despised the shame so even Jesus himself didn't love the cross but he knew that the wisdom of God demonstrated in the earth would require it I think that very question is the root of our discussion today because we have, we do love the cross as you said the sentimentality when we ought to be loving the broken Jewish man on the cross who came down off the cross so it kind of speaks to that very thing the only reason Paul would preach the cross is because it's upon that cross that Christ was crucified the only thing which makes the millennial kingdom glorious is that Christ himself will be present in Jerusalem and his government will be flowing out from that reality the only thing that makes the church the church is that Christ by the Holy Spirit is present in her midst and there is even a movement of saints who would place an emphasis on the cross as the central reality which is right, but they only do it subjectively and therefore the cross itself eclipses the glory of the one who hung upon the cross so may the Lord have for himself a community of saints in the earth who can say out of the depths of who they are as could Paul I desire to know nothing among you save Christ and him crucified every labor in eschatology, every labor in theology every labor in ecclesiology eschatology is a study of the end of the age, the last things theology is the study of God of who God is, what he's like what the scriptures have set him forth as, being and ecclesiology is a study of the church and every single one of those, if not approached through the lens of Christ and him crucified will lead to something lesser than the glory of God so it's not by accident that he's called the way he's not only the intercessor in the sense that he yearns for the salvation of his kinsmen, or that as John Hyde used to say, remember dear saints our Lord still agonizes over souls I believe that's true, but that's not the only sense in which he's the intercessor he's the intercessor in that he is the bridge and the way by which the saints come into any inkling of the knowledge of God as God in reality he's the way, he's the door he himself coined these phrases about himself isn't it wonderful that we can open the gospels and hear Jesus preaching Jesus has there ever been a better proclamation? even the tradition is said of Da Vinci was it Da Vinci who did the Lord's Supper? Leonardo Da Vinci when he did the Lord's Supper he had painted the other apostles but he had spent reportedly some time in prayer before, and when he got to painting the face of Jesus Christ, his hand began to tremble and we ought to approach any proclamation of this glorious man with the same sense of trepidation yet you've got to step out of the boat and realize that if the church cannot speak of Christ, then no one can speak of Christ but the church only has the ability to speak of Christ because Christ himself is in her midst see, by him through him, and to him all things Jesus is a two way we think of Christ as our way to God but God has chosen Christ all of us, anything is from God when you come through Christ that's right even the creation of the entire cosmos Paul said, was created through Christ so when the Lord said let us make man in our own image the participation of Christ and the activity of the Spirit was in full function the Godhead was demonstrating the Lord's creative capacity and giftedness but it all happened by the Spirit from the Father, but through the Son and perhaps one of the greatest issues about the Millennial Kingdom and the fact that we're not going to be whisked away and to be playing instruments harps and blowing shofars on a little cloud and we'll all be little fat babies with wings you know, in some kind of ridiculous vision of heaven that the age to come is actually our abiding with the man Christ Jesus himself in this created order having been made new by the full release of redemption in the earth, what am I saying by that? that the created order which was created by the Father, through the Son and because of the work of the Spirit when the Spirit brooded over the waters and land was made, when the formation when Adam's body was moved upon by the Spirit of God and a bone was taken out to form Eve the Spirit was active in the creation of the cosmos, the created order the universe, that's what the cosmos is, the whole universe yet at the end of the age after the nations, after the earth itself and after the universe has been weighed down by the whole of history and the sin of mankind redemption breaks in at the return of the Son and for a thousand years the earth is beginning to feel the load of that sin lifted, the government of God will be sent out from Zion the word of the Lord from Jerusalem and the whole created order will begin to function as He had always intended it to function it's the man Christ Jesus who will affect this in His one thousand year preparation of the earth, what for? for the coming of the Father at the end when the new Jerusalem descends when the new heavens and the new earth meet in a profound collision and the Father Himself will be dwelling it says at the end of Revelation amongst men well if it weren't for the return of the Son in His flesh and blood resurrected body then that preparation would not even be able to be made so only the Son, it's summed up, that's why the Apostle would say all things are then summed up in Christ from beginning to end it's this eternal Jewish man Yeshua, Jesus the Christ it's through Him that all things are filled with the knowledge of God so what does that then mean as we gasp and are filled with awe just thinking about Him with our finite minds and getting little glimmers of Revelation and help by the Holy Spirit just as waves go over even our minds and our hearts and thinking upon Him what does that mean then when Paul says that the Father has appointed the Son as the head over all things including the church which is His body the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way that's the apostolic vision will manifest itself in a way unprecedented at the end of the age when a whole nation has been born in a day Israel has been redeemed Jew and Gentile have been manifestly made one new man in the nations and Jesus Himself has planted His feet on the Mount of Olives and is issuing forth a true and eternal and life-giving government for the first time in that remarkable visible way but here's what he says about the Kingdom Paul says the Kingdom of God is not a matter of words only but of power I think our minds immediately go to the demonstration of miracles which is part of the demonstration of God's power but that's not the summation of His power the Holy Spirit is not just a positive influence that affects the gifts of the Spirit and healings in the earth though He is that the Holy Spirit is God Himself therefore the power of God is not only electricity which affects something in the earth the power of God is the demonstration of the person of God okay Brian you've brought up all these lofty concepts well I don't feel an itch to dot every I and cross every T for you because the gospel of the cross is a mystery it's not a mystery meant to confuse us but it's a mystery meant to confound our human presumption and arrogance it's a question mark set against all other wisdoms but I will say this when this gospel is proclaimed and when this cross has its work amidst communities that power God Himself will be demonstrated in real life I want to see the church again in the earth that will be accused of turning the world upside down we've had noise we've had noisy gongs and clanging cymbals we've had conferences and I'm not opposed to conferences but we've had them we've had shouts and boisterous claims and exaggerated statistics but what the Lord is after is a people in the earth who operate in their lives on the basis of the wisdom of the cross which is the laying down of our own lives and the reception of His own life what is the basis of your own life? what is the basis of the life of the church? well the intent of Paul and the intent of God Himself which will lay an adequate foundation is that the cross and the resurrection the wisdom of the cross and the resurrection life which results naturally out of the experience of the cross would have its way not only for a souped up meeting but for your day to day reality so let me ask you a practical question are you getting up in the morning and realizing that if you don't go down into death that you will operate on the basis of your own wisdom that day I'm not talking about a heroic get up at 2 in the morning and pray 6 hours before you go to work otherwise you're not even a Christian I'm not talking about strife I'm actually speaking of something that is totally devoid of human devotion I'm speaking of death it's surrender it doesn't come without prayer but it doesn't come by a striving in prayer it comes when I prostrate myself in the morning on the wooden floor and in the winter time it's a cold wooden floor out of the warmth of the bed early enough, whatever that might mean for you it's not right to compare hours of devotion but whatever it might mean for you it's early enough to where you can make the transaction with the Lord Lord, I'm surrendering my life today my wisdom today my own striving, my own righteousness today with a faith that as the good father that you are you will give me your own wisdom your own life, your own righteousness afresh so that I might walk not only as a minister but as one who is a member of the way into my regular day to day grind a mode of being with resurrection life resting upon my soul that there would be a countenance in the saints that's transcendent that when they look upon us they would look upon the face of an angel I tell you what you guys probably know as profoundly as I know we're in need of a great conversion as the church but you know I believe we're at a point where the Lord is speaking with clarity I'm calling you out I want to not only deliver you from Egypt as you've experienced in your own salvation but I want to bring the necessary circumcision as we read the other day in Joshua 5 where Joshua was required to circumcise all of the sons of Israel who had been born in the wilderness many of whom could have been would have been grown men and Joshua was given the command of the Lord circumcised them well what is the purpose? I think about the agony of that as a grown man the awkwardness of that for Joshua and the others but even though they had been a part of that remnant that was delivered out of Egypt there was a circumcision yet required but what was the intention of the Lord? it says a few verses after the circumcision in Joshua 5 he says I intended to roll away the reproach of Egypt from you that which lingers in us of the wisdom of this world that's the result of our own past sin that's the result of the spirit of this age moving through us and having dominance over our personalities and our choices and the way we handle money and the way we relate to one another where we have not had the humility the nature, the purity, the kindness of Jesus himself, the Lord is saying let me bring a knife to those faulty foundations that you've been operating on and come back again to the true foundation which is Christ himself and I will bring the knife cut back that which I never intended to be there anyway and roll away from you the reproach of Egypt when the cross has its effect, the resurrection life ensues the resurrection life comes you can't have resurrection without death there wouldn't be resurrection if there weren't first death and Paul said that we have been identified in baptism with the death of Jesus Christ himself but it's not only a canned introduction to Christianity that hey, Jesus died on the cross, do you believe it? yes, I believe it, okay, therefore I'm a Christian Paul says no, it goes further than that, saints he says the cross of Jesus Christ in Galatians by which I have been crucified to the world and the world has been crucified to me we need to examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith not examining as with human wisdom but on the basis of the cross on the basis of atonement so don't look at yourself and say oh, I got angry at my wife last week so somehow I've got to muster up the spiritual high mindedness to not get angry at her again maybe if I fast for 30 days I can get there, well maybe but that's not likely what the Lord is saying what he's likely saying is look upon the one who hung on the cross look upon my wisdom the climax, one scholar called the cross the climax of God's speech on the cross what men would consider foolishness and what the Jew would consider a stumbling block, God says my ultimate pulpit was on the cross where my son died and the resurrection glory as the firstborn from the dead that issued out of that death was so significant that it caused resurrections to spring up throughout the land and it sprung an earthquake the whole cosmos could not contain what was happening, which is why the scholars called the cross the eschatological event of the cross which is to say, it kicked into motion the cycle which would eventuate in the end of all things in the new kingdom and the new reality, the new heavens and the new earth would break in upon the earth it's already been sealed it's almost as if you had a million dollars in debt and a brother came along and said I'm paying your debt in full but you won't see all of those payments until a certain time down the road but listen, you're relieved, I've taken it all it won't all be paid off until a time in the future, but you don't bear it anymore the cross kick-started something in the created order a cycle, a spiral that cannot be reversed and the powers of darkness know it and that's why they're running to and fro seeking to cause chaos, it says knowing that their time is short but do we know that their time is short or are we buckling under the weight of their false wisdoms the lies that they speak be they temptations and issues of lust or be they statements against the character of God and His kindness toward us the gospel of the cross is the gospel of glory and we need a new revelation of an ancient reality we need a fresh breathing of the Lord upon our spirits of the magnitude of what was effected at the cross and even more than what was effected at the cross of the glory and majesty of the one who hung upon it so Lord we ask that you would mark the church ruin us for faulty foundations Lord let the finger of God come and stir and wipe away those faulty foundations which have eclipsed in our hearts and minds the true foundation which is our man in the heavenlies, Jesus Christ Himself who yet bears the scars of the cross even in His resurrected and ascended state let the glory of the man Christ Jesus again be revealed in the church Lord we're not looking for new revelations we're looking for a fresh revelation of that which is eternal take us back to the ancient paths Lord and have for yourself a people in the earth again, voices whose faith and whose life and whose mode of being has been based upon the true foundation Jesus Christ and Him crucified, Lord we trust you for that we ask for increased understanding on this in the days to come, we ask for your own spirit to come, quicken our hearts give us life in the inner man awaken us to the reality of that which the prophets and apostles have spoken and Lord may it be for us that not only a few voices will be raised up in these last days but a people a people whose very lives are a demonstration of what the scholar called the climax of your speech Christ and Him crucified a people marked with the character of God the glory of God, the majesty of God the personality of God, the way of God the doctrine of God we ask for it Lord build that in these humble beginnings even of our own fellowship let us begin now with hearts extended as was Paul's with a jealousy for the glory of Christ only demonstrate your own wisdom to the principalities and powers save men in this city from the grip of darkness and of sin, let a gospel go forth that will break open the hearts of prostitutes and crack dealers, and atheists and philosophers let the gospel of the cross which is foolishness to them now be revealed as the ultimate wisdom of God to them that they may be saved and that your house may be built for the glory of the Lamb who was slain Amen