The Cross Breaks the World

When the pastor mentions the cross and the resurrection, it’s easy to feel like you’ve heard it a million times and start to zone out. But the cross shouldn’t be boring. It’s like plugging something into a power outlet—ordinary, perhaps, but necessary. The cross is God’s power; living without it would be like trying to live without electricity.

Two things can make the cross seem dull. First, when we get lost in the details that obscure its meaning. Second, when it doesn’t make sense to us because we’re thinking the way the world thinks (1 Corinthians 1:18–25).

The world’s way of thinking isn’t entirely bad. God wants us to survive and thrive, to innovate, to build, and to accomplish great things. The problem is its obsession with visible success. When we have enough technology, influence, or wealth, we’re tempted to believe we no longer need God (1 John 2:15–17).

The world’s mindset makes the cross hard to understand because Jesus lived the opposite way: giving rather than grasping, choosing humility over pride, surrendering to God’s will rather than seizing control. The cross breaks everything the world would have you believe. And yet, it’s the only way that truly works. Through it, Jesus defeated death and restored our relationship with our Creator—something human wisdom could never accomplish.

Jesus’s death and resurrection demonstrate God’s power, which grows stronger within us when we stay connected to it. That’s why Paul resolved to focus on the cross above all else (1 Corinthians 2:2), and why we return to it again and again in church. We’re reconnecting to the soul’s power source. It’s a kind of power that speaks for itself. It doesn’t require complex explanations, only a heart that is willing to listen.

Watch the full sermon here.