Muslims will speak about Jesus you know uh Buddhists will speak about Jesus Hindus will speak about Jesus new age will speak about Jesus even s worshippers will speak about Jesus you know everybody will speak about Jesus that tells you something I lay in Zion a stumbling Stone a rock of offense the word here for stumbling or offense here is the word in Greek scandalon try it Scandal now what does it sound like Scandal Scandal this is called the god Scandal this is going to be part one because there’s so much here Scandal here in in
Greek it means a trap or a snare or something that causes offense or something you stumble upon now Romans here is quoting a prophecy in the Hebrew scriptures about messiah messiah is called a stumbling stone or a rock of offense it’s saying that Messiah is a scandal to the world the gospel is a scandal to to the world that doesn’t know him it will cause people to be offended it will cause people even to fall even though it’s for Life what is what is the scandal of the Gospel the Bible also speaks that the same word is
used about the scandal of the Cross what is it I see there I see two major ones there’s many but there’s two major ones one is the cross in Galatians Paul uses the phrase the offense of the cross the Greek word the scandal of the cross the cross is a scandal to the world to the flesh why it’s scandalous that a faith could be based on a man executed as a criminal the center of our faith is an execution an execution stake that’s radical on churches on roofs there are on Steeples you have cross you know what that’s equivalent to that’s equivalent
to a hangman’s news I mean imagine celebrating that or or a Gallow on on a on a church or an electric chair imagine if churches had electric chairs or images well that’s what the cross was you go into jewelry stores and you’ll see gold crosses and jeweled crosses it’s amazing it’s like wearing a golden noose around your neck now I’m not discouraging you to do that that’s fine to do that or golden electric but it’s telling you how radical the cross is it’s not a piece of it’s not primarily a piece of jewelry but the fact that it
could be used as jewelry something that people see as beautiful is is telling you the the awesomeness of God that he can take an execution stake and make it something that’s beautiful only the Messiah only the Son of God could turn an electric chair into a a an object of hope that’s what the cross is Imagine songs about that that’s telling telling you how radical our faith is that’s the craziness of it an instrument of death turned into an object of hope it’s written in First Corinthians 1:23 we Proclaim Messiah crucified to the Jews a
