The Cross or the Clowns

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry.

When the Cross Is Removed, Christianity Collapses

Mike Abendroth, your host here. Today I�d like to talk about something that is beyond me, that is to say my comprehension on one hand. On the other hand, I understand exactly what happens. When you get rid of the cross, everything goes when it comes to Christianity.

Oh, you might want to have a religion, it might be tax-free, you might want to be some Baha 'i or something else, but once you get rid of the cross as the centerpiece of Christianity, you no longer have biblical Christianity.

Again, it might be gizzard Christianity, that is to say, you make it up in your own gizzard, as my father would say. Do people have gizzards? You make it up in your own mind, your own bowels, your own splankna, your own conceptions of things, but it�s just not biblical Christianity.

Biblical Christianity, by Bible�s definition and by history, is something that�s received from God. God reveals Himself. You can learn a lot about God as you look up and see the sky and the moon and the sun and the clouds and the stars and see babies born.

You can figure out the power of God and the wisdom of God, but there are certain things that you just cannot figure out. They were a mystery until God revealed them. Often when you hear the word �mystery� in the New Testament or read it, that is the exact definition.

It�s not mysterious, it�s not ethereal, it�s not some kind of vapor, kind of weird do-do-do-do mystery, it�s something that we don�t know until God tells us, and then after He tells us, the mystery has been revealed, how men can be justified in the sight of a holy God, how can God forgive and still stay just, those kind of things.

The Trinity, one God in three persons, you never could figure that out just looking at some kind of antelopes on the side of a mountain, you couldn�t figure it out. So today I want to talk about the cross and how central it is to Christianity, and that�s all stemming out of my studies lately in 1 Corinthians.

I got this newspaper clipping, I don�t know why people fuel my fire, at church I often get handed these little notes, and these little notes are typically newspaper clippings. I don�t get the newspaper anymore.

When I was a kid, of course we always had the newspaper and you�d have silly putty and you put the silly putty onto the newspaper and it would show in mirror form what was on the newspaper. If you buy silly putty for your kids now you can�t even teach them what to do with it because we don�t have newspapers any longer, it seems.

There�s an article in the paper written by Catherine Bouday, B-U-D-A-Y, and she�s a staff writer and she writes in Marlboro, is where the story�s coming from, �Please Laugh in Church, First Church in Marlboro Plans Holy Humor Service Sunday.

Now this is a few weeks old, this is around Easter time, but it says this, I won�t read the whole article, but you�ll know where I�m going pretty fast. This weekend the First Church in Marlboro Congregational will spice up its services by sending in �the clowns.

That�s not the pastor, you�ll see what I mean. The church will have a holy humor service this Sunday featuring stand-up comedy, a laughing Jesus on the cover of the church bulletin, and a sermon that begins with, �Have you heard the one about what happened on the road to Emmaus

Back to the article, �The service which starts at 10 a .m. Sunday, April 11th, is the brainchild of interim pastor Betsy Waters, who says humorous church services have their roots in medieval times and have become more popular over the past decade.

We laugh, we cry, and tell stories she said. Waters began the tradition three years ago, always on the week after Easter, to show that God has the last laugh over death, �The resurrection is one of the greatest punchlines of all times Waters says, �it�s God�s creative humor at work in the world.

This is not my own comment, editorially, hearty har har. The service will open with �the clowns� prayer. I�m not making this up, this is not some kind of weird satire on Christianity today, this is real.

This is right here in Massachusetts. This is happening probably all over the country. Let's see, �A separate children�s service will focus on the book �The Most Wonderful Egg in the World. Now, I�m just trying to hold back my comments at the moment.

This is shameful, this is blasphemous, this is vulgar, this is rude, this is unconscionable, this is not Christianity. Call yourself a church if you want, call yourself the first church if you�d like, call yourself a congregational church, but please don�t call this Christianity, �the clowns� prayer.

The article goes on to say, �Humor is also working its way into the line-up of hymns. Well, of course, because compromise leads to more compromise. Past services have featured choir members wearing animal masks as they sing the whimsical hymn �All God�s Creatures Got a Place in God�s Choir.

Some sing low, and some sing higher. I mean, could I make this up? Why do we need a show like No Compromise Radio, where we�re always biblical, always provocative, always in that order? At least that�s our desire.

Because of this kind of banality, this kind of arcane, asinine behavior that gets itself in the newspaper, you�re not going to see, �Oh, there�s Reformed Baptist Church, Presbyterian Church of America focuses on the cross and the resurrection and the substitution and atonement of Jesus Christ, the literal God-man, as he assuages the wrath of God for all those who would believe.

That�s not going to be newsworthy. But the clowns� prayer, you�re going to get somebody who�s going to write up an article and somehow make it sound like it�s good. The article goes on to say, �This year�s featured hymns include one called Sing My Song Backward and an alternative version of Give Me That Old Time Religion.

This kind of playing around reminds me back in the day when you have these children�s services, where you let the children, most of the time unregenerate children, do the service. They do the collection, they do the singing, they do the Scripture reading, they do the ushering, they do the preaching, and so you have a bunch of unbelieving kids who put together the service.

The children take care of the service that day. That is an abdication of leadership in Titus chapter 1 and 1 Timothy chapter 3. There are leaders for a reason, obviously not to lord it over people, 1 Peter chapter 5, but the leaders are to lead because they are the mature ones spiritually.

And so this kind of thing is similar, this newspaper article is similar to the churches that have children take over for the day. There is a Fun Boy 3 song called The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum.

That�s exactly what�s happened here. Well I go back to the article, �During the collection, instead of singing the traditional �Praise God from whom all blessings flow�, the choir will sing �Praise God for dollars, bills and coins.

�The medical profession has said that those who incorporate laughter will live five years longer said Goodrich, who is 84 years old. This is some other person, I don�t know who Goodrich is in this paper.

Well, you�ll live five years longer to postpone eternal hell for acting so blasphemously to torque the religion that God has revealed. God has told us quite clearly how to worship Him. He has told us this is what you do.

Try reading the Old Testament, for instance, in Numbers or specifically Leviticus, and you will see that religion that God likes, that God is pleased with, that God desires, that God commands, that God says this is what you do, is very precise.

It is very particular. It is very much not �I want to be led and then I�ll do it. This is what I think would be good, this feels good, this is what society says, this is how I like it. In my old church, no, God particularly likes this particular way of worship.

Do this, that, and the other, and on the flip side, don�t do this, that, and the other. And that�s what you�ll see in Leviticus. You�ll see that whether it comes to touching the Ark of the Covenant or whether it comes to what kind of sacrifices there are for certain kinds of sins, unintentional sins.

What is the particular sacrifice? What time of day it is? Who should do the sacrifice? How it should be done? God is very, very particular. And if you don�t think so, you can read about Nadab and Abihu and find out exactly what God thinks of their particular worship.

It�s not worship unless it�s ordained by God in the Scripture. It might be something that is neutral, it might not even be bad, but it is not worship unless it is prescribed by God and it is through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

You can�t even get into the throne room, as it were, to worship unless you can go in with the covering, with the cloak of perfection, Christ�s perfect righteousness. And so when this article says, �Please laugh in church if you laugh because of some comic relief in a sermon, I�m not saying you should never, ever laugh.

I�m not saying that, �Well, the Bible never says Jesus laughed, so Christians should never laugh. The fruit of the Spirit is joy. That�s part of the fruit of the Spirit, is joy, and we can have joy and we can laugh.

And there�s a time to laugh and there�s a time to cry. And Ecclesiastes would tell us that very thing. But to have this holy humor service, there�s nothing holy about this particular service. My name is Mike Abendroth, this is No Compromise Radio Ministry, and I�m talking about the cross today, and if you get rid of the Bible, if you chuck the Bible, if you throw the Bible away, you can come up with any kind of service that you want, stand-up comedy or not, and it�s not going to be worship.

It�s not prostration where you say to yourself, �In body or in spirit, I�m bowing before this great King. When you get rid of the cross, you get rid of Christianity. When you have a vacuum of the cross, the vacuum must be filled, and it�s filled with trite nonsense like this.

Trite nonsense is actually the best thing I could call it. It is utter blasphemy to turn the reverent worship of God, the fear of the Lord as a beginning of wisdom, into this kind of hearty-har-har service.

And so, you know, the problem is it�s probably going to be packed out. People probably love it. It�s the old lie that some evangelicals even buy into. Well, you know, giving�s up, attendance is up, and there�s a real buzz around the church, therefore we�re doing the right things.

Sometimes those things happen when the church is doing the wrong things. Sometimes when people who are faithful, like many pastors across Massachusetts, small churches, small pastorates, you�ll never hear about them, but they�ll be exalted in heaven because of their faithful response to Christ�s life and death and resurrection for them, but they just preach away and their churches aren�t large, so I guess they�re unfaithful, right?

I guess Benny Hinn is faithful because he has millions of people. On a side note, you need to type in �Benny Hinn attacks Joel Osteen� on Google because he takes Joel Osteen and seeker-sensitive people to task.

Out of all people, Benny Hinn on this YouTube takes Joel Osteen to task. Well, I�m digressing. What does the Bible say? This is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry, here on our flagship station WVNE, here in Worcester, 1 Corinthians 2.

Paul said, �And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except clown prayers.

For I determined to know nothing among you except holy humor service Sundays. What would Paul think of that? �For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. �I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

For what reason? Why did Paul say, �Remember when I was with you in Acts chapter 18 for those 18 months, and you're really into philosophy and wisdom and the art of speech and the art of the deal and rhetorical brilliance and persuasive eloquence.

Remember what I did when I came to you? I had my mindset that I wasn't going to be led. I wasn't just going to say, �Well, what do they need today? I'm going to go ahead with this pre-programmed message that God gave to me and I give to you.

I discharge my duty. The baton is passed to me, Paul, and now I pass on the baton to you. And I pass it on without frills, without eloquence, without a bunch of show, because I want you to believe in Jesus, not believe in me, not believe in the way I talk and the way I do things, because when a smooth talker comes along who's more smooth than I am and a better talker than I am, you'll believe them.

But if you believe in this crucified Messiah, this Messiah that's anything but some political anarchist who comes along and is going to rid Rome in his first coming, second coming yes, but first coming no.

Here comes this meek and gentle Jesus coming in on a donkey into the city. This is going to be a faith that is rooted in Jesus Christ, the crucified one. So he says in 1 Corinthians 2, verse 5, �This is what I'm leading toward, so that your faith, the faith of you, literally, would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

That's where Paul is going. Paul is saying, I'm going to preach this message that the world is going to reject, the world is going to think is foolish, because the word of the cross, chapter 1 of 1 Corinthians, is stupid, it's moronic, it's foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

And Paul says, I'm going to preach this message of the cross, and I'm going to preach it day in and day out. I'm going to say ahead of time, I've decided, I've determined, I've been resolved to preach this message.

I'm not going to get there and then look at your faces and say, well, what do they want? Let's take some survey to see what we should give the folks today. No, wisdom of God does not come through this kind of humanistic fashion.

God was well-pleased, 1 Corinthians 1, through the foolishness of the message preached, this crucified Messiah, to save those who believe. You might want signs, you might want wisdom, you might want holy humor services, but Paul said we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.

That's what we do. We have one message to preach, and that is the cross. And once you get away from the substitutionary death of Christ, you've gotten away from it all. There's a penalty to be paid for sin, and Jesus is a vicar, He's a substitute.

He pays instead of, He pays in light of, He pays on our behalf. Of all the elect, the Father gives the elect to the Son, the Son dies for the elect, and then the Holy Spirit regenerates those very elect.

Was Jesus a good example of love on the cross? Certainly, but He was much more than that. He was dying for the sins of all those who would ever believe by absorbing the wrath of God. So when it comes to the cross, we cannot get rid of the cross.

Paul said, that's the message. Everything leads to that, even when he talks about husbands loving your wives. He gets back to the cross as Christ loved the church. This is not some kind of moralistic to-do list, no, not at all.

That's why when you hear of people messing around with church services and they truncate the cross, they jettison the cross, they bypass the cross, they talk about the cross in the middle of a holy humor service.

You can make the cross void. Even though you're preaching the real cross, it can be made void. For Christ did not send me 1 Corinthians 1 .17 to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made empty, void, vacuous.

When you get rid of the cross, everything goes. Call yourself a tax-free zone, call yourself a 501bc3, whatever it's called these days, but don't call yourself a Christian church, because Christian churches have Christ's death and resurrection at the heart of it.

Paul is not going to say the resurrection is of little consequence. Chapter 15, he goes on to say this is a hinge, this is critical, this is an important part of Christianity. Obviously, without the resurrection we're to be pitied, but the message of salvation is not complete until you preach the crucified Messiah, the sin bearer, the Lamb of God who needs to be slain for the sins of the world, all those Jews and Gentiles and every other tribe and tongue and kindred, young and old people, to be saved.

Union Theological Seminary and the Rejection of the Cross

There's an article in the Layman posted February 18th by Parker Williamson. Here's what the article says. Once honored for voicing substantive theology and Reformed tradition, Union Theological Seminary's 2010 Sprint Lectures will feature a feministic speaker.

Well, that's no shock, they do that regularly. I love it when seminaries are liberal and turn conservative like Southern Seminary with Al Mohler, but it's a tragedy to see good seminaries like Union decades ago turn liberal.

They're one of the 11 seminaries now that's a PC USA. Typically if you see Presbyterian Church USA, once in a while you might have a faithful man who preaches, but 95 times out of 100 they're liberal, they're gone, they're dead.

Ichabod. The Sprint Lecturer this year is Margaret Miles, and she wrote an article in Christian Century 2008 called God's Love, Mother's Milk, and she basically hates the cross. She disdains the cross, and she's got to find a different symbol for Christianity.

What symbol would you pick? If you had to get rid of Christianity symbol, the cross, would you pick something else? Maybe the dove, maybe the olive branch. Here's what she picks. Let me let her speak for herself.

Margaret says, although theologians may have claimed that crucifixion scenes exhibited the extremity of God's love for humans, it was scenes of the child sucking at the breast that spoke to people on the basis of their earliest experience.

And she said, if you think that the cross is a symbol of God's love, you are mistaken. She says, quote, it presents a violent act as salvific, end quote. Well, you know what, Margaret, sometimes even in our world today to get peace, there's got to be violence.

There's got to be war to get peace. And so that's exactly what we're saying, that we're saying this violent act, not Jesus just being crucified, spat upon, beard plucked out, nails in the hands and the feet and the spear in the side, the agony and the asphyxiation of crucifixion, the humility and the nakedness and the torture for those hours.

But we're talking about the Father pouring out his wrath on the Son, the Son willingly being the sacrifice for sins. 30 ,000 Jews were crucified. Just because you're crucified doesn't mean you're going to be a sin bearer.

But if you're the God man and you're suffering the wrath of the Father, you are going to be a sin bearer because God is just and God is not going to exercise double jeopardy. And if you are paying, if you paid for your sins once, you're not going to have to pay for them again.

And if Jesus paid for your sins, you won't have to pay for them again. The article goes on to say, the equation of love with heroic violence and suffering is typically, she said, a male-centered perspective.

In societies in which violence is rampant on the street and in the media, the nursing virgin can perhaps communicate God's love to people in a way that a violent image, the image of one more sacrificial victim cannot.

That is from Margaret Miles in the Long Line of Blasphemers at Union Theological Seminary. You say, what Long Line of Blasphemers? 1997, Rosemary Radford Ruther was speaking at the podium, I won't call it a pulpit, and she said the resurrection of Jesus was, quote, a myth created by males to assuage their own fear of death.

And she said, you know, we've got to make room for multiple deities, quote, the great womb within which all things, gods and humans, skies and earth, humans and non-humans are generated, end quote. Now are you ready for pulling over to the side of the road to get rid of the contents in your stomach?

That's how I feel. I feel angry, I feel sad, I feel the people that follow these folks are duped yet they want to be duped because people heap up teachers after their own desires, 2 Timothy 4. What a disaster.

It is a different religion. Paul says, I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But you know what? They don't like Paul either. They don't like the Jesus of the Bible either.

So it shouldn't surprise us. Paul says in 1 Corinthians, the cross to people, it's weak, it's not salvific. The people who get saved following this weak supposed cross, they're weak too. The preacher's manner and method, that's weak.

And why is this all weak? Because we will see the power of God through this weak message as it changes people. Not just changes the people and their actions and their attitudes, but changes their status before God.

From enemies to friends. God has a personal relationship with you today. If you're not a believer, He has a very personal relationship with you and He takes it very personally. You are His enemy. If you're a Christian, He has a personal relationship with you too.

That is, a friend. And so it all has to do with Jesus Christ. Who do you say that I am? And the only way to turn enemies into friends is through the cross. The only way to be reconciled to God is through the cross.

Not baptism, not sacraments, not confirmation, not consecration. It's through the cross. I determine to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So if you have a pastor that preaches the cross and resurrection, thank him.

If you have a pastor that doesn't preach it, leave because it's not a pastor and it's not a church. It is the cross in the center for Christianity to be real.

Closing Appeal and Station Identification

No Compromise Radio, God bless. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.