The Power of the Cross Week 1: The Message of the Cross
The Power of the Cross • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 3 viewsThe cross reveals God’s wisdom and power.
Notes
Transcript
Announcements:
Offering box is on the wall near the coffee table
Bible reading plan is on the church website. If you would like a paper copy of the reading plan, please let me know I will be happy to get one for you.
March 14th from 9AM-1:45PM: Pursuit Equip Tour in Morganton $15 per person (church will cover) for those helping with media, kids church, nursery. If have any questions or are interested, please see me after service. We have transportation so we can all travel together! (Come ready to: Collaborate with leaders like you, Exchange practical ideas you can implement immediately, Be sharpened through Spirit-led conversation, and Leave encouraged, equipped, and refocused.)
Worship:
1.
2.
3.
Introduction:
There’s an old barn just outside town.
If you drove past it, you probably wouldn’t slow down. The red paint is faded. The roofline sags just slightly. It looks like it has seen a hundred winters.
But inside that barn is something remarkable.
Running through the center is a massive wooden support beam. It’s dark from age. Scarred from tools. Split slightly in places. It doesn’t look impressive.
Most people walk in and never even notice it.
But without that beam, the whole structure would collapse.
It holds everything together.
This morning, we begin a series called The Power of the Cross.
And the cross is like that old beam.
To the world, it looks crude.
Primitive.
Outdated.
Even offensive.
But it is holding everything together.
Let’s read our text.
18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to us who are being saved.
Paul draws a line in the sand.
There are two groups:
Those who are perishing
Those who are being saved
And the dividing line is the cross.
I. THE CROSS LOOKS FOOLISH TO THE WORLD
Paul does not soften it.
He says plainly — it is foolishness.
The Greek word carries the idea of absurdity… nonsense… something ridiculous.
To the first-century Roman world, crucifixion was humiliation.
To the Jewish mind, it was curse (see Galatians 3:13).
Who would worship a crucified man?
Paul even says in 1 Corinthians 1:23 that Christ crucified is:
A stumbling block to Jews
Foolishness to Gentiles
The world measures power by:
Strength
Influence
Control
Victory
But the cross looks like weakness.
It looks like defeat.
It looks like a failed revolution.
Isaiah 55:8–9 reminds us:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
and your ways are not my ways.”
This is the Lord’s declaration.
“For as heaven is higher than earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
God’s wisdom does not operate on human metrics.
The world says:
Climb higher.
Assert yourself.
Protect yourself.
Win at all costs.
The cross says:
Descend.
Surrender.
Sacrifice.
Lose your life to find it.
Pause.
Isn’t it still this way today?
We live in a culture that celebrates self-promotion.
And we preach a Savior who emptied Himself.
We live in a culture obsessed with comfort.
And we preach a Christ who embraced suffering.
The cross will always look foolish to those who measure life by earthly standards.
Paul explains in:
3 But if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
That’s why arguments alone don’t convert people.
It takes the Spirit of God to open blind eyes.
Let me return to that barn beam.
Visitors walk in and say, “That thing is ugly. Replace it.”
But they don’t understand engineering.
They don’t understand weight distribution.
They don’t understand that what looks rough is actually essential.
The cross may look foolish.
But it is foundational.
II. THE CROSS REVEALS GOD’S WISDOM
Paul contrasts human wisdom with God’s wisdom throughout 1 Corinthians.
The cross is not Plan B.
It is eternal wisdom unfolding.
Revelation 13:8 speaks of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
8 All those who live on the earth will worship it, everyone whose name was not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slaughtered.
The cross was always God’s design.
Here’s the problem humanity faced:
God is holy.
Humanity is sinful.
23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;
God cannot ignore sin.
Habakkuk 1:13 says His eyes are too pure to look on evil.
13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil,
and you cannot tolerate wrongdoing.
So why do you tolerate those who are treacherous?
Why are you silent
while one who is wicked swallows up
one who is more righteous than himself?
So how can God remain just — and still save sinners?
Psalm 85:10 gives us the answer poetically:
10 Faithful love and truth will join together; righteousness and peace will embrace.
That embrace happened at the cross.
At the cross:
Justice was satisfied.
Mercy was extended.
God did not sweep sin under the rug.
He poured judgment out on His Son.
Romans 11:33 declares:
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways!
The cross is divine wisdom on display.
It answers questions philosophy cannot answer.
It solves what religion cannot solve.
It satisfies both righteousness and grace.
And notice this carefully:
God did not defeat evil through domination.
He defeated it through substitution.
He did not conquer by crushing sinners.
He conquered by being crushed for sinners.
Isaiah 53:5 says,
5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds.
That is wisdom beyond human design.
Back to the barn beam.
The farmer once told someone,
“That beam came from another building that collapsed under too much weight. But this one held.”
Sometimes the strongest things are shaped through pressure.
The cross was not an accident.
It was the wisdom of God.
III. THE CROSS IS THE POWER OF GOD
Paul shifts from wisdom to power.
“…but it is the power of God to us who are being saved.”
The word for power is where we get “dynamite.”
It implies explosive, transforming force.
Romans 1:16 says:
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
The cross is not inspirational sentiment.
It is transformational power.
What does that power do?
It:
Regenerates dead hearts (Ephesians 2:1–5)
Breaks chains of addiction
Restores broken marriages
Reconciles enemies
Gives hope to the hopeless
Hebrews 4:12 says the Word of God is living and active.
The message of the cross is alive.
It still changes lives.
And notice Paul’s tense:
“…to us who are being saved.”
Salvation is not merely a past event.
It is an ongoing transformation.
The cross saves.
The cross sustains.
The cross sanctifies.
Without the cross, Christianity is empty ritual.
With the cross, it is resurrection power.
Let me ask you plainly:
Has the cross become familiar to you?
Has it become background noise?
A necklace?
A decoration?
A logo?
Or is it still the power of God in your life?
Back in that barn, storms have come.
Wind has pushed against the walls.
Rain has beaten the roof.
Snow has piled heavy.
And that beam has held.
It doesn’t look impressive.
But it is powerful.
APPLICATION
There are only two responses to the cross:
You either see foolishness.
Or you see power.
If you are skeptical this morning —
Ask God to open your eyes.
If you are saved —
Return to the cross in wonder.
Never move beyond it.
This month we are walking slowly toward Easter.
We are not rushing to the empty tomb.
We are lingering at the cross.
Because until you understand the cross,
You will never fully appreciate the resurrection.
CLOSING
The world says:
Win.
Dominate.
Impress.
Climb.
The cross says:
Die.
Surrender.
Trust.
Believe.
And what looked like weakness
Turned out to be the power of God.
That old beam in the barn?
Most people don’t notice it.
But it is holding everything together.
So is the cross.
And next week…
We will talk about the weight it carried.
