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This is a message that was preached for a worship service that included the Sacrament of Communion.
Written Excerpts:
Introduction:
We are going to be sharing the emblems of the Lord’s Supper a little
later. Before we do that I wanted to speak to you for a little while regarding
the text that was included in the responsive Scripture reading we did a little
earlier in the service.
(Read verse above)
The text actually is a testimony from the Apostle Paul and what he says
he is willing to brag; boast about.
People boast about some of the most interesting things. I did a brief search online regarding the kinds of things people brag
or boast about. Much of what I found was not worth repeating. But I did find a
few interesting examples.
A writer by the name of Sharla Smith wrote an article called: The
Psychology of Boasting: Crazy Things People Brag About. In the article she
posted a list of some examples of bragging. Here is part of the list:
ð How much food they can eat
at a buffet.
ð How much pain they can
endure.
ð How many scars they have.
(And you're sure to be shown all of them. . . ALLLLL of them.)
ð How many screws, pins, and
metal plates are now holding together their leg, or back, or head...
ð How many medications they
are taking . . . and yet nothing seems to be working.
ð How long/horrific their labor
was preceding childbirth. (You'll know more details than the doctor.)
ð The very large donation
they made to a charitable foundation.
ð How many pots of coffee
they've already consumed that day . . . and how it doesn't affect them one bit.
ð How much money they just
spent on a jacket, or handbag, or marble countertop, or on vacation, or a
diamond ring, or, or, or. . .
ð How little money they spent
on something.
ð How they just cheated on
their taxes.
ð How they just cheated on
their partner.
ð And, how well they can keep
a secret (while they're in the middle of telling you something that probably
should be kept a secret . . . or you wish they would have kept a secret.)
We can all probably relate to the things she describes in this list.
Boasting is something that gets old pretty quick when we’re the ones listening,
but it doesn’t seem so bad if we’re the ones doing it. The kind of boasting that makes me even more “ill” is boasting about
faith, grace, or religious qualities. There have been times when I’ve even
heard people comment about how humble they are!
Well here in the context of this verse, Paul has been talking about a
special group of religious leaders that were called Judaizers. They claimed to
follow the Gospel and teach the Gospel, but they also wanted to please the Jewish
authorities and therefore they tried to mandate that new Christian converts
follow certain Jewish laws and traditions. These religious leaders were trying to require all the Gentile
Christians to follow all the Jewish laws so that they could boast about it with
the Jewish religious rulers.
It appears by the wording the Apostle uses here that they were also
promoting these outward “proofs” of piety so that they could avoid persecution
themselves from the Jewish authorities. He says in v. 13 (NKJV) …
they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.
(Jamieson, Fausset, Brown) “… namely,
in the outward change (opposed to an inward change wrought by the
SPIRIT) which they have effected in bringing you over to their own
Jewish-Christian party.” - A Commentary: Critical, Experimental, and Practical on
the Old and New Testaments.
Outward conformity to some kind
of ritual is always easier to “measure” than genuine spiritual maturity and
inward grace. So, to “prove” to the Jewish authorities that they were really
accomplishing great things, they were trying to force the new believers to
follow OT laws.
In stark contrast to these boasting
missionary Judaizers, Paul boldly asserts that he will have no part of boasting
about anything except the cross of Jesus Christ.
“Paul boasts in a wounding far
more severe than circumcision: crucifixion.” - The IVP Bible Background Commentary –
New Testament.
(Barnes) “Others glory in
their conformity to the laws of Moses; others in their zeal, or their talents,
or their learning, or their orthodoxy; others in their wealth, or their
accomplishments; others in their family alliances, and their birth; but the
supreme boast and glorying of a Christian is in the cross of Christ.” Notes on the
New Testament Explanatory and Practical.
(Barnes) … the cross was a
stumbling-block to the Jew, and folly to the Greek. (1 Corinthians 1:23), but
to the Christian, that cross is the subject of glorying.
Barnes goes on to describe why
the cross is the subject of boasting for the Apostle. Here are just a few of
the reasons he gives for the Apostle’s bragging in the cross:
(1.) Because of the love of Him
who suffered there;
(2.) Because of the pardon there
procured for the guilty;
(3.) Because of the
reconciliation there made for sin, accomplishing what could be done by no other
[offering], and by no power of man. - Notes on the New Testament Explanatory and Practical.
Conclusion:
Today as we celebrate communion
by sharing the emblems of the Lord’s Supper, we want to emphasize the message
of the cross. We want to remind each of us
that we have nothing to boast about in our own efforts or accomplishments. The only things we have to boast
about are the grace of God and the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross.
As we share the bread and juice
today, let us mentally brag on Jesus and His unspeakable suffering for our
salvation.
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