Jess Whitlock
The preaching of the cross of Christ has always been imperative. Paul penned that “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18), and again we hear him say, “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (2:2). The Gospel of Christ is God’s only power to save the lost (Rom. 1:16). It is God’s desire that all men, Jew and Gentile, be saved and “that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity” (Eph. 2:16). God the Father and God the Son considered the church to be so important that Jesus Christ “humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross” (Phi. 2:8). The old-time Jerusalem message will always put the cross of Christ at the front and center of preaching.
This fact can be clearly seen in the very first Gospel sermon preached on the day that the church of Christ was established as recorded in Acts 2. Notice:
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What the Jews did to the Savior: “you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death” (2:23).
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What the Father did for the Savior: “whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it” (2:24). “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (2:36).
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What you and I must do to obtain salvation of the Savior: “‘Men and brethren, what shall we do?’ Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (2:37-38).
Christ boldly claimed, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32). Earlier, Christ had prophesied: “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things (8:28).
Let us, like Paul, be ever determined to teach and preach the powerful and precious message of Christ and Him crucified.
