Passion Week Devotion #1

Your pastors began a practice early on in the life of OVC to select certain texts to guide us devotionally during special seasons of the year. We periodically use a daily devotion as the platform to help us consider a particular subject. Such is the case for this week. It is Passion Week or referred to often as Holy Week, the week between Palm Sunday, which marks the day of Jesus’s Triumphal entry into Jerusalem and Resurrection Sunday. This week we are offering six devotions that we hope will help us as we worship privately and consider the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. We hope these will be a blessing to you. Of course if you are already following a strict devotion plan we urge you to continue your plan. But please take a few moments to consider these texts as well. We pray this will be a season of helpful reflection and heightened sensitivity to the work of God through Christ.

 March 29, 2021 – Monday

 Text – 1 Corinthians 1-2

Focal Text – 1 Corinthians 1:18; 2:5 – “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” “So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

 The focal point of our devotions this week will be the cross of Christ. We know that we are already looking ahead to Friday and the remembrance of the crucifixion of Christ. Then Saturday our minds will be wondering and considering the darkness of a tomb where the body of our Savior lay anticipating the resurrection and our celebration of His resurrection. We will be thinking about how a lost world lay in darkness waiting for the Light of life to burst forth and declare by His glorious presence that hope was certain! But the gospels and many other texts in the New Testament call our attention to the cross. So, we will give attention to some of these texts.

Why this text? Let’s consider it for a moment. Paul is writing this letter to a church that was not unfamiliar to him. Paul had ministered in the church for about eighteen months. It is interesting that he began this letter pointing the church to the cross of Christ. The church was struggling with unity. We know this because we read in 1:10, “I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgement.” At least part of the disruption in the church was due to various members’ preferences of teachers. It seems that some preferred Peter, others Apollos, and some Paul. It seems silly and even foolish that a church would be distracted over such triviality but this was only one manifestation of the larger issue. The church failed to see the significance of the cross. It had been wooed and swayed by the wisdom of the world, the argument of the culture, and the values of the age. Does any of this sound familiar?

 Then Paul wrote, “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Then Paul goes on to write, “And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified…so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

 There are several things that the Holy Spirit through Paul is teaching us. The “word” of the cross has something to say.

 First, the power of God is displayed in the cross. The power of God is never wasted. The power of God is dispensed in exactly the precise way and measure to accomplish God’s intended purpose. The cross communicates this truth.

 Second, the cross displaying God’s power is necessary for salvation.

 Third, the cross not only was the instrument of death on which Christ provided the atoning work necessary for justification, its saving work continues in the life of believers. Read Mark 8:27-39. Immediately following Peter’s confession that Jesus was in fact the Christ, the Messiah, Jesus then disclosed what that ultimately meant regarding His purpose and work. He would suffer, be rejected, be killed and then be resurrected. One would think that if Christ took the cross on behalf of those he saves then that would mean that those whom he saves would not have to bear the cross. Yet, what we hear from Christ is: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me…”  What is the continued saving work? It continues to sanctify and that sanctification is an ongoing work of self-denial. The cross continues to save.

 Fourth, the cross is foundational to saving faith in Christ. As we read in Mark a “crossless” Christ was not consistent with Christ and His mission. And, “crosslessness” is inconsistent with being a believer. This is why Paul wrote: “I know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified…So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”

 Fifth, the cross stands as an affront to the world’s system and wisdom. To the world it is a symbol of weakness but it is a display of the power of God. To the world the cross is a symbol of shame and is to be despised but Christ’s shameful presence and encounter on the cross ultimately made the cross an instrument of glory. To the world the cross is a symbol of death but Christ’s death on the cross makes life possible. To the world the cross strips man of his control of his life and yet Christ demands control of our lives and the cross is a symbol of self-denial for God’s glory.

 Sixth, the cross stands to provide what otherwise would be impossible, reconciliation with God (1:28-29).

 As we look to the cross be reminded of what it is and does in God’s redemptive work. Boast in Christ and His cross. Bear the cross of self-denial for salvation’s sake.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for bearing the cross for my sin and providing forgiveness and eternal life. Thank you for pointing me to the cross that I may continue dying to myself that you may be glorified in me. Grant me grace to see the glory of the cross. Grant be boldness to boast in you and not be ashamed. Amen.

 Hymn: The Power of the Cross https://youtu.be/6wcULqyoINg