Why Build Around the Weakness of the Cross?

6 · Alcantar establishes the centrality of the cross to Paul's entire Corinthian correspondence by noting its bookend placement (1 Cor 2:2 and 15:3)

And yet Paul begins the letter with this statement: "I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." And at the end of the letter, he ends with 1 Corinthians 15, "For I delivered to you as of first importance that Christ died, that he was buried, and that he rose again." Meaning the cross bookends the book of 1 Corinthians, the letter, the first letter to the Corinthians. So why? Why does Paul seem obsessed with this strange, bizarre, distasteful object in Roman culture? And the key question is, why does Paul build the church around the seeming weakness and offense of the cross?

Why does he do that?

7 · Alcantar applies the historical question to the present congregation, asserting that the temptation to build on something less offensive than the cross is universal across Christian generations

And I think that's a question for each of us today as well, because we, like every generation, we face the same temptation the Corinthians do here to shift our attention from building our lives, building our churches, building our families, building our relationships around something else that is not as strange, as bizarre, as offensive as the cross of Jesus Christ.

8 · Alcantar introduces the medical analogy of presenting problem versus root problem, then reads 1 Corinthians 1:10-12 to establish the Corinthian factionalism as the surface issue

Now, we're going to begin back in 1 Corinthians 1:10 in the title, "Divisions in the Church," because Paul launches into this kind of excursus on the cross of Jesus Christ for a particular reason. Now, I've talked to some medical professionals about the concept of the presenting problem, or even, you know, people who are psychologists or therapists. Somebody comes in with a presenting problem, that they come in saying, "I have a headache." But often the presenting problem is not the real problem. Well, do you have a headache?

I mean, it's real different if you got a headache from dehydration, you need to drink more water, or you got a headache because you've got some kind of tumor growing in your head. Or if you've got a headache because you're just stressed out, right? Those are all very different. So the wise medical professional tries to discern what is behind this, not what is the problem on the surface, but what's the problem underneath the problem. And so Paul identifies first the problem on the surface in verse 10.

He says, "I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, 'I follow Paul,' or, 'I follow Apollos,' or, 'I follow Cephas,'" who is Peter, "or, 'I follow Christ.'" So, this is the problem that Paul sees, the presenting problem. This church is full of rivalry and division. They had each taken a leader in the early church and built a following around that person and argued endlessly over which of those followings was better.

9 · Alcantar translates the Corinthian factionalism into contemporary categories—theological tribes (reformed, charismatic), political identities (conservative, libertarian), educational choices (homeschool, classical, public), and celebrity influencers

Now, I don't think anybody came in today with an "I follow Apollos" shirt, but if you did, you should feel real bad right now. I mean, shame on you. No, I don't think anyone has done that, but we all face this temptation to think of ourselves, compare ourselves to one another, and to gravitate to a tribe or a person or a speaker or a leader that we sort of find our strength and power by associating with those things, those peoples, those groups. Meaning, you might say, "I follow Paul," or, "I follow Apollos," or, "I follow Peter," but you could say, "Well, listen, I'm better than the other Christians I know because I'm reformed. I'm a reformed Christian, unlike those people out there.

Or, I'm a charismatic Christian. I care about relationship with the Spirit. Or you might think, well, I'm conservative and people should respect me for that. No, I'm even more than conservative. I'm libertarian.

And somebody's like, no, I'm not even libertarian. I'm an anarchist. I hope you're not an anarchist. But we do this over all these different areas of life. You say, I'm a homeschooler, so I'm better than these people.

I'm a classical homeschooler, so I'm better than regular homeschoolers. I'm a proud public schooler, so I'm better than those people. Or I follow this leader, this politician, this author, this preacher, this YouTuber, this thinker, right? This person. Well, have you— there's people always talking about, well, have you read so-and-so?

And you're like, oh. You're like, no, I've never heard of— oh, okay. You know, I thought so. You know, they just— We face the same temptation.

10 · Alcantar expounds verses 13-17, showing Paul's diagnosis: the Corinthians' factionalism is not merely bad behavior but theological contradiction

But Paul knows that that problem— he could just say, "Well, stop it. Stop it." But he knows the problem is deeper than they think it is. First, he corrects them with a simple, verse 13, "Look, is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?" Meaning there shouldn't be division. You should all be defined by being in Christ, which he's going to unpack throughout the letter.

But verse 14, he continues, "I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. I did baptize also the household of Stephanus, and beyond that, I don't know whether I baptized anyone else. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, and not"—and this is the key—"not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross be emptied of its power. So what he's saying is this to the Corinthians. He's saying, when you do this, when you think this way, when you begin to say, well, I'm powerful, I'm strong because of my association with the powerful and the strong, you are emptying the cross of Christ of its power.

These two things are not incompatible. You can't both believe in the cross of Jesus Christ and cling to the kind of the worldly definitions of power and strength around you. They are not compatible. You can't hold them together. It's one or the other.

And to hold the world's definitions means to empty the cross of its power.

11 · Alcantar expounds 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, tracing Paul's three-fold rhetorical demolition of worldly wisdom (philosophers), religious scholarship (scribes), and public persuasion (debaters)

And he goes to work on them in 3 sections to drive home his point. The first is he reminds them of the weakness of the message of the gospel. First, a weak message. Verse 18: "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.'" And then this stinging list of rhetorical questions: "Where is the one who is wise?" Where's the scribe? Where's the debater of his age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we, we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. What Paul is doing here is he's using this list of stinging rhetorical questions to drive home the fact that none of these so-called powerful, strong groups open the way to salvation or restore them in the sight of God. He talks about the wise man, meaning the person who has this whole philosophical system lined up, who has an answer. Have you ever run across these people online? They have an answer for everything.

Oh, just follow my method of whatever, of eating and working out and this and life and finances. Just follow all of that and then you'll be— great and powerful and rich and attractive like me.

Paul says, "Okay, yeah, great. Did any of them save you? Did any of them go to the cross for you? Did any of them open the way to God? I thought not." Or he said, "Where is the scribe or the scholar?" Referring to the Jewish scholarship of knowing these deep religious truths, of knowing all these ancient texts of being a person of great learning, did any of them— Paul is asking, did any of them save the world?

Did any of them redeem you? I thought not. Or even the debater, right? The powerful person. Now, in Corinth, if you look at a city diagram of Corinth, there was an amphitheater and an agora, a marketplace.

And often there would be, it was almost like a sporting event to come and hear the latest orator or debater, right? The way that some people get fired up, you know who you are, for like WWF, right? They're just like, "Oh my gosh, did you see The Rock? He came back this week, he made an appearance." You know, your people are like, "Yeah," the fireworks are going off. That was debate and oratory skill in Corinth.

Now they also had the Olympics, but again, it varied interests, okay? Right, but it was these, they would draw a crowd and they would use these. No, listen, man, there's no movies, okay? There's no Marvel, there's none of that stuff. And so the most exciting stuff was sports and oratory.

And that's just what they had. And so Paul is saying, listen, all of you guys that have your favorite speakers and preachers and team, yeah, yeah, our guy's gonna debate the other guy and we're gonna win. He goes, okay, great, okay, great. Any of those people save you? Did any of those people solve the fundamental problems of humanity?

No, they just gave another speech. So all these things, all this power, this strength that you're pining after and going after, it comes in the end to nothing. And in fact, true power and true strength in the gospel of Jesus Christ destroy and confound the wisdom of the world.

Look, this is so important. It is not as though the gospel takes the categories of power and strength in the world and just fulfills them better than the world can.

It is that the gospel destroys the way of thinking the world has. It utterly destroys it.

12 · Alcantar translates Paul's critique into contemporary American church culture, cataloging the measuring sticks Christians use: coolness/aesthetics, novelty, financial success, educational achievement, controversy skills, and authenticity

Now, you might think, "Okay, well, I'm very glad I'm not a big fan of rhetoric, otherwise I'd feel real convicted this morning, but thankfully I feel safe." Well, what some of our own versions of this be, right? Are those things that we— think about it this way— we use as the measuring sticks of life. We say, "Listen, Here's the measuring stick I'm using of power and strength.

And I measure up and you don't. So I'm better than you. Or my guy, my favorite guy, my favorite tribe, they measure up and yours doesn't. So I'm better than you. This is what the Corinthians are doing.

What are those measuring sticks we use? Maybe it's coolness, right? We value, we're a culture obsessed with aesthetics and vibes and feelings. We listen to celebrities and Instagram stars who have carefully produced content. We tend to, the American church tends to gravitate to attractive pastors with cool bands and nice lighting.

So, all of you are safe here. I mean, I think our band is relatively cool, but not so much the rest, right? We gravitate to coolness. We gravitate to novelty. We have a bias toward anything new.

Newer is better. New books must be better. The wisdom of youth must prevail. We gravitate towards success, monetary success, financial success, education success, right? The first person in their family to get a college degree, the first person to get a master's degree, the first person to get a PhD, or the person to make this amount of money, the person to move into this income bracket, the person to take this kind of vacation.

We value in a strange way, and just like the Corinthians, anyone who's great at controversy, who tells it like it is, who tears and tears down their opponents the best. And we're like, "Yes!" And you're like, "I don't do that." I see what you post, right? I've seen it. Anyone who is great at self-expression, who purports to share their true self, their authentic self, right? Self-authenticity is a currency.

The most authentic person must be right. And look, some of this isn't necessarily bad, but when these are our measuring sticks, okay, who's the most authentic, who's the most successful financially, who's the most attractive, who's the guy that— their finger on the pulse of American youth culture. When those become our measuring sticks and either we compare ourselves favorably there or we associate ourselves with somebody, we're like, "Okay, I'm part of this tribe and we're good at this." When we do that, Paul says we are just using the world's definitions of power and strength. And you know what the cross of Jesus Christ does to those measuring sticks? It takes them in hand and snaps them and says, "Worthless." Because the cross is what is truly powerful.

The cross is where true strength is found.

13 · Alcantar highlights the oxymoron 'Christ crucified' (anointed King + executed criminal) and unpacks its significance: the cross is not just better wisdom—it is God's wisdom operating in a category the world cannot comprehend

Paul says, "But we preach Christ crucified." And Carson points out that even that term, "Christ crucified," meaning the King Messiah, 'crucified' is a juxtaposition in terms like— what does he say? He has a great language. Oh, like frozen steam or hateful love or upward decline. Right?

It wouldn't make any sense. How can you be a king and crucified? It doesn't make any sense. But that's what Paul says. We preach Christ crucified.

To those who are called, it is this. When you see the cross, To those who have been saved, redeemed, transformed, justified, for those people, you see that Christ and the cross are the power of God more than all earthly power, are the wisdom of God more than all earthly wisdom. D.A. Carson says this, "Where human wisdom utterly fails to deal with human need, God himself has taken action." We are impotent when it comes to dealing with our own sin and being reconciled to God, but where we are impotent, God is Powerful. Human folly and human wisdom are equally unable to achieve what God has accomplished in the cross.

Now, this line is just great. The gospel is not simply good advice, nor is it good news about God's power. The gospel is God's power to those who believe. The place where God has supremely destroyed all arrogance, human arrogance and pretension, is the cross. So Paul says, it is not until you snap those worldly measuring sticks that you begin to see the power of the cross, right?

The power of the cross, this King hanging, bleeding, crucified on the cross, that is what has the power to save. That is what has the power to give life. That is what has the power to redeem. That is what has the power to restore you to relationship with your eternal Father. And it is the wisdom of God.

For all the books humanity has written, for all of the posts that have been written since the advent of social media, none of them have been able to do what the wisdom of the cross has done. The plan of God worked out from eternity past weaving in the most unexpected ways together the salvation of humanity and God's people blows every other plan, every other kind of definition of wisdom out of the water.

14 · Direct interrogation of the congregation: What measuring sticks do you use? What tribal affiliations give you a sense of superiority? Paul's message is uncompromising—you cannot synthesize the cross with worldly power

So my question is this: What are the earthly measuring sticks you value most in life? What is wisdom to you? What is power to you?

What do you get out and say, "Well, at least I'm doing better than them." right? Or at least I'm associated with this tribe, and this tribe is more just and right and smart and whatever, democratic, than the other people, and so therefore I'm doing better than those other people.

And Paul says, "No, they're not compatible." You can't be using that and then trying to fit the cross into the world's versions of power and wisdom You must destroy the world's versions of power and wisdom and receive then the gospel of Jesus Christ.

15 · Alcantar transitions from the weakness of the message to the weakness of the messenger

Second, a weak Christian. It's a weak message. Paul turns the tables from the ruler that he snaps to the mirror. He says, "Look in the mirror, brothers." Verse 26, "For consider your calling, brothers.

Not many of you were wise according to earthly standards, not many were powerful." not many were of noble birth, but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. So, So that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.

And what Paul does then is he says, okay, listen, I don't think you're convinced yet. I want you to turn from the gospel message itself and look in the mirror. Have you ever had this experience where— I was at a hotel like last year, or I think it was last year at some point, that has like the lights around the mirror that are like, like you can see every pore of your face. So, Jen says that they're great for doing makeup with, but I just remember waking up in the morning, looking raggedy, it was a long day of travel, and I turn on the light, and I saw my face, and I went, "Ah!" And I thought, "That guy looks old." Like, what is happening to me? I thought I had more hair than that, you know?

But it's that particular mirror, right, that all of a sudden, like, shows you as you are. And sometimes when, you know, if you take a shower, the mirror is steaming, you just kind of see the outline of your head, and you're like, "Hey, I bet he looks pretty good," right? But then you clear it off, you're like, "Whoa, okay." Paul is doing that for the Corinthians. He's saying, "Listen, you are looking at yourself in the mirror, and you're like, 'Hey, that guy's pretty good, that girl's pretty good. She's pretty strong, she's pretty powerful, she's doing pretty well according to the world's standards.'" And he takes— that towel and he goes, "Wrr, wrr, wrr," and he wipes it down so you can see what's there and says, "Look at that." And the reality is, the honest truth is this, not many of you were powerful before coming to Christ, right?

Not many of you were noble. Not many of you were people that the world considered, "Oh yes, the best of the best." And he points that out for a reason. He wants them to see when the gospel came to them, it did not come to them because they were powerful enough to attract God's attention. The gospel did not come to them because they were strong enough to attract God's attention. D.A.

Carson says this, "Not only has he shamed and nullified the world by choosing so many people whom the world does not highly esteem," God has taken this step to shatter human boasting. God acts to redeem fallen men and women because he is gracious and for no other reason. He does not owe anyone in the world forgiveness and eternal life. If he gave out these wonderful gifts on the basis of a formula worked out by the immigration departments of many countries, meaning the more education, skills, sophistication, or wealth you have, the easier it is to get in, then many of those who come to know God by faith in Jesus Christ would have a legitimate ground for boasting. But God takes action so that no one may boast before him, meaning this: nobody based on that portrait in the mirror receives entry into the kingdom of God.

It is not their accumulation of wealth, attractiveness, power, income, education that gives them a leg up in the admissions process to the kingdom of God. Paul says, "Remember yourself. You were low even by the standards of the world, and yet God chose you."

16 · Alcantar draws out the dual pastoral effect of Paul's theology: first, profound humility (no one merited salvation), then (in the next unit) profound encouragement

Now, this is both profoundly humbling and profoundly encouraging. It's profoundly humbling first before it can be encouraging. And it's profoundly humbling because often we compare ourselves to one another favorably, don't we?

And we kind of— or we— so we either compare ourselves favorably to people that we see are lower than us in power and strength, Or we despair when we see the people higher than us who have power and strength. And we think, "Okay, well, listen, maybe if I work hard enough, I can merit enough, I can do enough, then I can get up there too." And Paul is saying, "No, stop it." When you in the church are saying, "Well, I have a leg up on this crowd. I got a leg up on that crowd." Stop it. Because none of you entered the kingdom of God, none of you were saved as a result of your power and strength. In fact, God intentionally chose weakness.

He chose weak people. He chose messed up people.

17 · Brief personal testimony from a congregant reinforces the reality of pre-conversion hopelessness and the danger of forgetting it once life stabilizes

I talked to somebody after the first service and they said, "Listen, I was hopeless before Jesus. And so often I just forget it." Right? We just think, "Okay, well, I'm doing okay now." Where were you before Christ?

Hopeless. Helpless, unable to merit his attention.

18 · Alcantar confesses his own sin of using educational credentials (3

And when you remember that, it brings a profound humility that permeates the culture of your family, your marriage, your relationships, and your church.

Look, I have been there. I remember early on in ministry there was a brother I was having a theological dispute with and I remember thinking, I remember having this thought.

Well, that guy thinks he's right, but he does not have a 3.98 GPA like me.

That's right. That's right. You know, or— and then I thought to myself, he hasn't even read as many theological books as I have. I'm going to ask him. I'm going to ask him about these books next time I see him.

I'll be like, "Oh, have you read this?" You know?

And in that moment, I think like so many of us, you see my heart exposed where I'm going, okay, well, I'm better than you and I have a ground to stand on to look down on you because I have power and strength according to the world's standards.

And yet, did my GPA get me to God?

Did those lists of theological books I read gain me entrance into the kingdom of God?

No, only the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross did.

19 · Alcantar completes the theological move: after humility comes encouragement

So it is with all of us. There is no varsity and junior varsity seating sections in the church. It is not those who have merited it and those who are trying to merit it. It is only those who have received the grace of Jesus Christ.

But if you let that be profoundly humbling, it is also profoundly encouraging because Paul says, "You are in Christ Jesus who became to us from God righteousness and sanctification and redemption." He says in verse 27, "God chose you." He chose you despite your weakness. It's not as though he could not see your weakness and after he kind of determined and launched the plan of salvation to save you, he got you and went, "Oh, no. That's not— I did not realize that was under there." Right?

Like, "I'm going to save her." And he's drawing you to himself, and as you're being drawn to himself, he begins to go, "Oh, ooh, well, I already did commit to save her, but otherwise—" He doesn't do it. He sees you in your absolute worst, in your weakness, He sees you as bankrupt, even according to the world's definitions of power and strength. He sees you as bankrupt in the court of heaven. He sees your sin. He sees me and my 3.98 GPA self-righteousness, which by the way, the 0.2 is because even though my name is José Ricardo Alcántara, I got a B in Spanish that semester, which is pathetic, right?

He sees all of these things. He sees through us. He sees into the holes in our resume. He sees into the holes in our biography. He sees the worst of us.

And yet he still chose us because of his grace. Not because of anything we did. Not because of anything we merited. Grace. Right?

And when that happens, when we receive that as a church, man, it builds a culture that is unlike anything else in the world. Everything else in the world is, "I'm here, you're here, you're here, I'm here, I'm here, you're here, you're here, I'm—" In the church, it's we're all here, level, ground is level, down here at the foot of the cross. That's it, man.

20 · Alcantar introduces the third movement: after the weak message and the weak Christian, now the weak minister

All right, third section, a weak minister. Now, Paul finally turns his attention to remind the Corinthians of how he ministered to them when he came to Corinth.

Now, before we read this, I want you to remember that Paul the apostle has, by all stretches of the imagination, an actually impressive biography. When he's like, "Not many of you were noble," he is. He's a Roman citizen, even though he's a Jew. We don't even know how he got that citizenship, probably through his family being wealthy or something like that. He studied with the foremost Old Testament scholar, Gamaliel.

He studied with the most zealous and strict sect of his religion in the Pharisees. He traveled the world. He was cosmopolitan. He knew how to quote the Mediterranean poets to people. Like he quotes the Cretans one of their own poets in one of his letters.

When he goes and speaks in one of the cities in Acts, they assume he is the god Hermes and begin to try to worship him, right? And so here's the reality. In Corinth, he lands in Corinth and immediately observes their culture. He immediately observes they're defined by, "Oh, I'm following this teacher right now. I'm following this orator right now.

I'm following this philosopher right now." Everybody has their favorite. They all have their team t-shirt. They're all walking around. And Paul knows he can set up shop and he can go like this, "Hey, everybody." See this one I'm standing on? This is who I studied with.

These are the poets I can quote. This is my Roman citizenship. Listen to me and draw a crowd to himself. He could easily do that.

21 · Alcantar re-reads 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (the sermon's primary text) in light of Paul's credentials

And yet, you know what he does?

Read again, chapter 2, verse 1. And when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech, or wisdom. For I decided— it's a conscious decision— decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Look what Paul does. He does the unexpected when he arrives in Corinth. In fact, the way that a lot of people like him were supported in Corinth is they went and they accumulated followers and the followers would start paying them a monthly, like, basically like a subscription to their favorite orator or speaker to be part of their tribe. And so Paul could stand up here and start lecturing and people start bringing him money. He starts signing people up and he could live pretty comfortably.

But he goes in and he sees that culture and he says, "No, no, no, I'm gonna make tents. I'm gonna refuse to take any money from these people. And in fact, I could preach up here, I'm gonna preach down here. I could do these great flights of oratory like at the end of Romans 11, these poems that I can do spontaneously, not gonna do that." plain preaching of the gospel. He does the opposite of what they expect.

And he says, "Do you remember that? That's how you were planted as a church. It wasn't me standing on my own merits. It was me humbling myself so that nothing would obscure the cross of Jesus Christ and its message for you."

22 · Alcantar articulates a principle of ministry philosophy: the method of attraction determines the object of loyalty

Look, man, I've heard it said, "What you win them with is what you win them to." And I think that's true. In much of church ministry.

If you win people with coolness and aesthetics, that is what they will expect and demand. If you win people with sophistication and smarts, that is what they will demand. If you win them with humor and authenticity, that is what they will demand. But Paul comes to Corinth and determines to win them with nothing but the message of the cross.

23 · Alcantar catalogs the rapid cycling of church aesthetic trends (casual jeans → ripped jeans → dapper suits; high-tech production → vintage restoration) to illustrate the futility of building on cultural coolness

And, look, the reality is, like, I've seen so many movements come and go even in the last 15, 20 years. Among the church, right? Like pastors trying to be relatable by wearing, you know, jeans. I remember what a big thing it was, like jeans.

What's the church coming to? And other people are like, finally, we're reaching the young people with jeans, you know? And you have these movements and then went to ripped jeans. And now guys are dressing back up again and they're looking dapper and, you know, and then you've gone from like, okay, everything being lights and smoke and like lasers. And now there's this big movement in aesthetics that like, no, no, no, you don't want any of that stuff.

You wanna find like a super old church and fix it up, and that's what's cool now.

24 · Alcantar issues the pastoral application: the church must refuse to play the cultural relevance game

Listen, I don't know what's gonna be cool next year or the year after or the decade after that or 100 years from now. I don't know, but I do know this. If we build our church around stuff like that, it will fade. It will pass away, and it's nothing more than using the world's measuring sticks and us as the church trying to come and say, "We can do that too." Let's not play that game.

Paul says, "I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified, so that their faith would not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." Paul does not want at the end of his sermon, at the end of their Sunday service in Corinth, for anybody to be thinking or saying out loud, "What a speaker, what an orator, what a philosopher, what a scholar." He wants the only thing coming out of the mouth of the church at the end of the service to be, What a Savior!

Jesus Christ and him crucified.

25 · Alcantar clarifies: the call to emulate Paul is not aesthetic primitivism (no lights, no nice shirts) but a heart posture—removing every barrier to the cross, refusing to stand on boxes of worldly merit, lowering ourselves so Christ is seen

So as we minister to those in our lives, let's emulate the Apostle Paul. Now, it doesn't mean that we don't have lights. I mean, we have some lights, right?

Jen makes sure I wear, like, a presentable shirt on Sundays. This is, you know, these are good things. But as we minister to those in our families, those in our groups, those in our church, those in our city, Let us do everything we can to keep at the forefront of what we do, removing anything that would be a barrier to people seeing the cross of Jesus Christ. And let us not play cultural games.

Let us put aside the kind of the boxes of merit that we're tempted to stand on and lower ourselves that people may see the cross of Jesus Christ.

26 · Alcantar synthesizes the sermon: Paul clings to the weakness of the cross because it is true power—the only power that saves

All right, let me end with this. Why does Paul cling to the weakness of the cross? Because the weakness of the cross is true power.

The true power for your ministry, for your life, for your Christian life, for your family, for your group, the true power is the cross of Jesus Christ. And that power is good news for those who find themselves weak. Look, the gospel is not actually good news for people who are proud. If you're proud, you don't need the cross and you don't understand it. But if you, like Paul, say, "Man, I'm the chief of sinners, I'm someone who needs God desperately," the cross is the best news imaginable.

And that's what Paul is returning them to here. Okay, one last quote from Carson, then I'll shut up with Carson. This is my promo for the book. The whole sermon is just— I promise D.A. hasn't paid me at all.

Don hasn't paid me at all for this. But this, this is a great way to end. He says this: "These people are saved by him not because he chooses those who boast some superior trait or insight, not because he loves people who judge themselves to be wise, but because God has determined to rescue those who believe in him. By his grace, they trust him, they rely on him, they abandon themselves to him. He is their Savior." center, their rock, their hope, their anchor, their confidence.

And thus, God quietly and effectively banishes the wisdom of our culture as utter folly. Thus, the message of the cross divides the human race absolutely. It is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

27 · Transition from exposition to prayer, inviting the congregation to stand and prepare for personal reflection

Would you stand and let's pray? And as you stand, I just want to encourage you to take a moment.

28 · Alcantar guides the congregation through a structured moment of personal examination using the sermon's three images: (1) the measuring rod to be snapped, (2) the mirror showing weakness, (3) [implied: the cross as power]

There are 3 images, if you could say it that way, in the passage today. The first is that image of the measuring rod, the worldly measuring rod to see how we're doing stacked up against others.

And I think one of the first messages of this, before this is good news, it's hard news. It's hard news because we've got to snap that measuring rod. We've got to allow the cross, to snap in half that measuring rod that we have, that we pine after coolness or success or authenticity or income or education, whatever those things are. So just take a moment right now before the Lord. Say, "Lord, help me to see, is there anything in my life I'm using to pine after power and strength from the world's definitions?

And, Lord, help me. Help me to refocus." and see that that's not what I should be pursuing or thinking.

And then that second image in the text is that image of looking in the mirror. And as I said, it is profoundly humbling, but it is also profoundly encouraging if you're willing to see you see the difficult truth of the gospel, that you are really weak, the gospel becomes the best news in the world. So let's pray together for that.

29 · Closing pastoral prayer asking God to make the church live up to its name (Cross of Grace), forsaking worldly power for the cross

Lord, we pray that we as a church would be a church that's— that live up to our name as Cross of Grace. Lord, that we would— we would not look to the world's definitions of strength and power as we build our families and businesses and lives and church.

But instead, I cling to the cross because the cross is the greatest news imaginable for those of us who believe.

When our, our standing in the world did not save us, the standing of your Son did. When our relational skill didn't save us, your relationship our relationship with the Son did, when our futile efforts to gain identity and notoriety and win praise failed us, we find your smiling face in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so, Lord, I pray that as we sing, you'd remind us of the joy of our salvation yet again. Amen.