1 Corinthians 2:2
For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
WILLIAM JAY (1769-1853): If we turn to the first preachers of the gospel, we shall find each of them saying, with the inspired apostle, “We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord,” 2 Corinthians 4:5.
THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): So Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, seemed by the matter of his sermon to have “known nothing but Christ, and Him as crucified.” Thus, in his Epistle to the Galatians, he calls his preaching among them “the preaching of faith,” Galatians 3:2. And what was the main scope of it, but the picturing out—as the word is, of “Christ crucified before their eyes”? Galatians 3:1. So he preached Him, and so they received Him, and so they “began in the spirit,” Galatians 3:3. And thus also do the sacraments, the seals of the promises present Christ to a believer’s eye; as they hold forth Christ as crucified; their scope being to “show forth His death till He come,” 1 Corinthians 11:26; bread signifying Christ’s body broken in the sufferings of it; and the cup signifying the sufferings of His soul, and the pouring of it forth unto death.
JOHN NEWTON (1725-1807): The mystery of Christ crucified was a stumbling-block to the Jews, and was, by many of the Gentiles, accounted foolishness and absurdity; but the apostles proposed it simply and indifferently to all.
WILLIAM JAY: If they would persuade men by the terrors of the Lord, they were His terrors; if they spake of the wrath of the Almighty, it was the great day of His wrath: “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when His wrath is kindled but a little,” Psalm 2:12. Did they speak of the divine perfections? they made them shine forth in the face of Jesus Christ. Did they speak of providence? they placed the reins of universal empire in His hand, and made Him “Head over all things to His church which is His body,” Ephesians 1:23. Did they speak of heaven? they made it to consist in seeing His glory—in “seeing Him as He is,” 1 John 3:2; and in “being forever with the Lord,” 1 Thessalonians 4:17.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): The basis of “The Great Commission” is the death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This must never be lost sight of. “It behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day,” Luke 24:46. It is a risen Christ that sends forth His heralds to preach “repentance and remission of sins.” The incarnation and the crucifixion are great cardinal truths of Christianity—but let all preachers remember the place which resurrection holds in apostolic preaching and teaching. “With great power gave the apostles witness.” Of what? Incarnation or crucifixion merely? Not so; but “of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,” Acts 4:33.
C. E. STUART (1828-1903): “Repent ye and believe the gospel.” Regarding repentance, in the New Testament we meet with that call repeated. John the Baptist preached it, and the Lord called men to it, Mark 1:1,14,15. The apostles before His crucifixion went out to insist on it, and after His ascension continued to enforce it; as repentance forms so prominent a topic in the preaching of the apostles, it may well be a subject for inquiry, how far this element of apostolic preaching enters into the general evangelical teaching of the present day.
WILLIAM JAY: Did they speak of repentance? they never thought of fetching this water out of the millstone of man’s natural heart; they knew that the tear of penitence could only drop from the eye of faith, in sight of the cross; as it is written, “They shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and they shall be in bitterness as one that is in bitterness for his first-born” Zecharian 12:10.
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Everything centers in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified,”—that is, the person, and the work. The person of Christ was always presented in apostolic preaching. Men were not asked to believe a creed or to subscribe to a system of doctrine, but they were asked to receive a person—the Lord Jesus Christ.
WILLIAM JAY: Jesus Christ is all, and in all, in the gospel ministry. He is the grand theme. If they called upon persons to pray, it was to ask in His name. “Yea,” said they, “whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.” Colossians 3:10.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Whatever we do not preach, let us preach Jesus Christ. I have found, wherever I have been in England, that though there might not be a road to this place or that, there was sure to be a London road. Now, if your sermon does not happen to have the doctrine of election, or the doctrine of final perseverance in it, let it always have Christ in it. Have a road to London—a road to Christ—in every sermon.
H. A. IRONSIDE: Years ago a gentleman living in a country town in England went to London and while there heard some renowned preachers. Writing home to his wife, he said, “Last Sunday I went in the morning to hear Dr. so-and-so—he named one of the most eloquent men occupying a London pulpit at that time; and in the evening I went to the Metropolitan Tabernacle to listen to C. H. Spurgeon. I was quite impressed by both of them. Dr. so-and-so is certainly a great preacher, but Spurgeon has a great Saviour.” Do you see the difference?
JOHN NEWTON: We preach Christ crucified, Christ the end of the law for righteousness, and the power of God for sanctification, to every one that believeth. We preach salvation by grace through faith in His blood, and we are sure that they who receive this doctrine unfeignedly, will, by their lives and conversations, demonstrate it to be a doctrine according to godliness. They are not indeed delivered from infirmities, they are liable to mistakes and indiscretions, and see more amiss in themselves than their worst enemies can charge them with. But sin is their burden, they sigh to be delivered from it, and they expect a complete redemption.
THOMAS GOODWIN: Thus did the apostles also in their sermons…And so it follows, “We preach Christ crucified, unto them which are called, the power of God,” 1 Corinthians 1:23,24.
GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): The Holy Ghost shall be sent down on you, if you do but believe; for Christ ascended up on high to receive this gift even for the vilest of men. Come then, all ye that are weary and heavy laden with the sense of your sins—lay hold on Christ by faith, and He will give you rest; for salvation is the free gift of God to all that believe. And though you may think this too good news to be true, yet I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not. This is the gospel, this is the glad tidings which we are commissioned to preach to every creature. Be not faithless then, but believing.
