And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 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, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)

If I told you we were going to change the world with a message about someone who died which we would deliver without any finesse and with great fear and trembling, you would tell me to go find another strategy. Yet that is exactly what Paul, the great apostle and founder of the church did. And the original Jesus Music artists all would agree. The message of Christ on the cross and the power of the Holy Spirit to drive it home are the two most important things about the Jesus Movement then and now.

The faith of believers can’t rest on how cool we are, or how wise or persuasive our speech is. And even with the life of Jesus, what was important were not His miracles, or healings, or even raising people from the dead, but it was His death on the cross, because that was the event that bought eternal life for all who believe in Him. That is what saved us. That is what He came for. That’s why Paul says he was determined to know nothing among the Corinthians but Jesus Christ crucified.

How far afield we have become! How cluttered the message has gotten. How Christians have been identified with so many issues other than the gospel. How that simple, straightforward message of the Jesus Movement is needed again.

“I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” We need that determination again. Are you willing to let everything else go and focus only on this for the sake of more people coming to faith in Christ?