CCW Podcast

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Let me tell you a little story to introduce our sermon topic this Sunday. The devil was once crossing the Libyan Desert when he came upon some of his friends who were tempting a holy hermit. They tempted him with the seductions of the flesh, they sought to sow his mind with doubts and fears, they told him that all his discipline and uncompromising righteousness were worth nothing. But it was all in vain. The holy man of God was impeccable. Then the devil stepped forward. Addressing his friends he said, "Your methods are too crude. Permit me for one moment to make a recommendation." Going up to the hermit, he asked, "Have you heard the news? Your brother has been made Bishop of Alexandria." The fable says that "a scowl of malignant jealousy clouded the serene face of the holy man." Jealousy will often rouse our flesh to do terrible things.

This Sunday, in The Plot of the Cross, we complete our series of messages about the cross. We'll examine the real reason the High Priest and Sanhedrin had Jesus crucified. It's not exactly a secret, for even Mark recorded in his gospel that "Pilate knew that the chief priests had delivered Jesus for envy", Mark 10:15.

The crucifixion itself was the most horrible of deaths. There has never been a
more cruel and painful form of execution than crucifixion upon a cross. There was the pain of the driven spikes forced through the flesh of Jesus' hands and feet. There was the weight of His body jolting and pulling against the spikes as the cross was lifted and rocked into place. There was the scorching sun and the unquenchable thirst gnawing away at His dry mouth and throat. There was the blood oozing from His scourged back, His thorn-crowned brow, His stick-beaten head. Then in addition, just think about the aggravation of flies, gnats, and other insects. On and on the suffering could be described.

And for Jesus, the crucifixion was the summit of sin and love. He suffered the separation from His heavenly Father as He became sin for us. He bore not only the physical punishment of the cross, but the spiritual suffering was something we can't even imagine. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is both the most shocking event and the most wonderful event of human history. It is the most shocking event in that it is the creature murdering the Creator, and it is the most wonderful event in that it is the Creator saving the creature.

But the story doesn't end at the cross! After three days in the grave, He arose with power, having defeated the final enemy of our souls - death. Hallelujah, He is risen and our sins are forgiven! Don't miss this exciting time of worship this Easter Sunday. He is risen indeed! Pray for great Easter services in all of our churches, that the gospel would be preached and men, women, and children would come to know Christ.

A man came back from a weekend retreat experience and when a friend asked him how it was, he said, "I died!" The friends asked him what he meant. "You see," the man answered, "I went to this thing not knowing what to expect. But in the process of that long weekend, I discovered that I had spent my whole life hiding behind a lot of masks. I realized that I had never even let my wife see me as I really was. I'd been playing games with her, and playing games with my children, and playing games with others--never letting anybody know who I really am. The worst of it was to discover than even I didn't know myself. And, as all of this was being exposed over the weekend, I died over and over again." It is a painful thing for a middle-aged man to discover that he is not even in touch with his own honest feeling about himself. "I am convinced," he said, "that I had to go through this death experience in order to become the new person that I hope to be now." Unless a grain of wheat falls to earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears rich fruit (John 12:24). When Christ died, we who believe in Him, died with him. We died to sin, to self, and the world. While this may sound like something you might want to avoid, dying is the only way to live.

The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the outworking of God's redemptive purpose in time and in eternity. For this very reason the cross is central in God's word as well as being central to God's world. Throughout the Bible we find the message of the cross of Christ, central in the Law, the Psalms, the Prophets, the Gospels, the Acts, the Epistles, and the Book of Revelation. To remove this recurring truth is to render the Bible meaningless.

But the cross is also central to the world. The cross is central in history, because the death of Christ divides human history, the centuries before Christ and the centuries after Christ. The cross of Christ is central to human experience, having an important relevance to the relationships of government and people, businesses, families, churches. It is clear from scripture that unless we accept the redemption offered from the cross, there will be no hope of peace, harmony, or good will. The cross stands as the only means to forgiveness of sins and a relationship with God.

"Is life worth living?" That was the question the Preacher raised when he began the discourse that we call Ecclesiastes.

After experimenting and investigating "life under the sun," which means living life without God, he concluded "Life without God is not worth living!" He realized that life was not monotonous but filled with challenging situations from God, each in its own time and each for its own purpose. He also learned that wealth could be enjoyed and used for the glory of God. Though man's wisdom couldn't explain everything, Solomon concluded that it was better to follow God's wisdom than to practice man's folly. As for death, there is no way to escape it; and this should motivate us to enjoy life now by living like we are dying and by making the most of the opportunities God gives us. Paul said,"whether we eat or drink or whatever we do we do it for God's glory"
(I Corinthians15:31).

This Sunday we will finish our study on Ecclesiastes by looking at Solomon's Conclusion of the Whole Matter. Solomon ends his research by giving us four pictures of life and how each picture gives us a practical application to heed.

Solomon is the author of a large part of the wisdom literature of the Old Testament: Song of Solomon, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. In chapter ten of Ecclesiastes, he returns to the theme of wisdom verses foolishness. This section reads like a cross- section of the book of Proverbs. The Teacher-King dispenses one wise saying, after another. Solomon once again wants to remind his congregation of the importance of wisdom and the danger of folly and foolishness. The word folly is used nine times in this chapter. He lays down the basic principle that folly and foolishness creates problems.

Solomon had already compared a good name to a fragrant perfume
( Ecclesiastes 7:1), so he used the image again. What dead flies are to perfume, folly and foolishness are to the reputation of a wise person. The conclusion is simple: wise people will stay away from foolishness and folly. Why is one person foolish and another wise? It all depends on the inclinations of the heart (Ecclesiastes 10:2). Solomon is going to warn us about four different areas of our lives where we can be foolish.

Why is everyone so afraid to face the reality of death? The comedian Woody Allen once said, "I'm not afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens." Solomon, in the book of Ecclesiastes, is not afraid to talk about death. He has said throughout the book that if you try to live your life without God, it will be a meaningless life, and therefore a meaningless death.

To get to the end of a life of emptiness and despair and face the reality of who-knows-what after death could make anyone afraid to confront the reality of dying. After all, the only way to be prepared to live is to be prepared to die. Death is a fact of life. The last time I checked, the statistics on people dying were exactly 100 percent. All of us are going to die.

Solomon examined many facets of life so that he might understand God's pattern for satisfied living. Robert E. Lee's last words were, "Let the tent be struck!", meaning that he was was ready for the earthly tent of his body to be taken down. Unless Jesus Christ returns and takes us to heaven, we will all one day "strike our tent" (1Corinthians 5:1-8) and leave the battlefield for a better land. Paul said,"for me to live is Christ but to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). We must be ready.

One of my favorite players in the National Football League years ago was Kurt Werner. Kurt was a great Christian who stood up for his faith. Kurt led the Saint Louis Rams to the Super Bowl and they won it. He was named the most valuable player of the league and the Super Bowl. The next thing you know, he was sitting on the bench, not playing. He went through a period of not doing well, got injured; and while he was recuperating, the back-up quarterback won his job. So Kurt went from MVP to holding a clipboard and taking notes on the sidelines. Talk about a humbling transition! Thankfully, he handled it very well. Life is a process of learning humility.

The actor Tom Selleck wrote, "Whenever I get full of myself, I remember that nice couple who approached me with a camera on a street in Honolulu one day. When I struck up a pose for them, the man said, 'No, no. We want you to take a picture for us.'" Even strangers can keep us humble.

In the eighth chapter of Ecclesiastes, Solomon reminds us about five things that make us humble. When we humble ourselves before The Lord, He will lift us up (James:4:10).

Life is a puzzle, a process of making disjointed pieces fit together into a big picture. When we know what to do, we lack power to do it. And when we feel empowered, sometimes we don't know what to do. We need wisdom, which is the skill of living, and the strength to carry out what we know to do.

Solomon came to that conclusion that wisdom alone did not make life worth living (Ecclesiastes 1:12-18). In Ecc. 1:18, he wrote, "For in much wisdom is much grief and he that increases knowledge, increases sorrow." But then, we see him taking a second look at the problem and modifying his view.

In Ecclesiastes 7&8, King Solomon discusses the importance of wisdom in life ("wisdom" is found fourteen times in these two chapters); and he answered the question asked in Ecclessiastes 6:12, "For who knows what is good for man in this life?" The Preacher concludes that, though wisdom can't explain all of life's mysteries, it can give us at least three positive contributions to our lives. What are they? Find out by listening in!