April 26, 2025 • 11 mins
This Good Friday message invites us to stand in awe at the foot of the cross, where God turned the world’s understanding of power and wisdom upside down. Drawing from Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians, Pastor Lonnie reveals the paradox of the cross: what appeared to the world to be weakness and foolishness was, in truth, the very power and wisdom of God.
Once a symbol of fear and shame, the cross became the doorway to salvation, love, and hope. The message emphasizes what God did through the cross, He longs to do within us. Our brokenness, weakness, and shame are not obstacles to God’s work but the canvas upon which He paints His redemptive power.
This is not a call to admire a decorative symbol of faith but to embrace the transforming reality of the rugged cross—a cross that confronts our pride, shatters our self-sufficiency, and calls us to surrender. When we do, God brings beauty from our brokenness and strength from our surrender. In this holy paradox, we find the path to true life. The cross still works, the cross still saves, and the cross still redeems.
Once a symbol of fear and shame, the cross became the doorway to salvation, love, and hope. The message emphasizes what God did through the cross, He longs to do within us. Our brokenness, weakness, and shame are not obstacles to God’s work but the canvas upon which He paints His redemptive power.
This is not a call to admire a decorative symbol of faith but to embrace the transforming reality of the rugged cross—a cross that confronts our pride, shatters our self-sufficiency, and calls us to surrender. When we do, God brings beauty from our brokenness and strength from our surrender. In this holy paradox, we find the path to true life. The cross still works, the cross still saves, and the cross still redeems.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Tonight we gather at the foot of the cross, for
Heaven's power met human weakness, and the world's wisdom was
(00:22):
essentially turned upside down. In his first letter to the Corinthians,
Paul doesn't try to dress it up or to make
it more palatable, and he names this particular paradox we have.
(00:42):
In his letter in corinth he wrote, for the message
of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,
but to us, who are being saved, it is power.
(01:03):
It is the power of God. Now let's contextualize this
reading here. To the ancient world, the cross wasn't a
symbol of inspiration, not at all. It was an instrument
(01:25):
of humiliation. It represented Rome's brutal authority, a tool of fear,
a tool of public shame. And no one, no one
(01:48):
in the first century wore crosses as jewelry or displayed
them in places of honor. The very idea that the
Son of God would hang on one seemed well foolish.
(02:12):
You get it, foolishness. But here is the wonder. Exactly
in the midst of the foolishness, the wonder of our faith.
God chose what the world rejected. God took a tool,
(02:36):
a tool of death, and turned it into a doorway
to life. He took the ugliest, most shameful scene in
human history, and he transformed it into the most beautiful
(02:58):
act of love the world has ever known. Paul gets
into the weeds even a little more. He says, those Jews,
they demand signs and the Greek. You know, they want
to be smart. They're looking for wisdom. But what do
(03:18):
we do. We preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews,
and foolishness to gentiles. But the foolishness of God is
wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is
stronger than human strength. Only God, only God, could take
(03:50):
the cross, make it to change to where a cross
of defeat would make it a symbol a victory, or
a cross of guilt, and turn it into a sign
(04:12):
of grace, or the cross of condemnation and transform that
into freedom, or the cross of pain and fill it
with healing and hope, or a cross of death and
(04:35):
make it the very pathway to life. Who else but
God could do such a thing. Now here's an even
deeper truth. You ready for it? What God did for
the cross, he longs to do in us, in you,
(05:02):
in me. What God did for the Cross, God longs
to do in us. He wants to take what feels
like a weakness in your life, your mistakes, struggles, pain,
(05:27):
and he wants to turn that into a testimony of power.
Now Paul understood that he understood as very well. He
did not hide his struggles at all. We find that
Paul embraced them. He embraced them not with pride, but
(05:50):
he was able to embrace his struggles with purpose. Later
on in Corinth, he wrote, I will bost all the
more glad about what my weakness, so that Christ's power
then may rest on me. For when I am weak,
(06:14):
then I am strong. Paul learned that God doesn't work
in spite of our weakness, as sometimes we may think.
But God works through our weakness, not in spite of,
(06:38):
but through our very weaknesses. So let me ask you,
are you willing to let your weakness become God's canvas
of what God wants to make of your life? Are
(07:01):
you willing to give him the very things you try
to hide? I try to hide our fears, our failures,
the shame, for the power of the Cross is not
(07:25):
its comfort. Let's get that out of our mind. The
power of the Cross is not its comfort, It is
in its confrontation. And that's where the powers of what
God can do in the midst and confront us with
our weakness. It confronts our pride, and it exposes our
(07:48):
illusions of control, illusions of control. So to follow Jesus,
it is a surrender, not just our strengths, but what
(08:09):
might even be more difficult, our weaknesses, not just our
Sunday best, but the everyday messes of our lives. And
the good news of the Gospel is that tonight the
Cross still works, the Cross still saves, the Cross still redeems.
(08:38):
And what God did on Calvary's Hill, God is still
doing in hearts today. So will you, like Jesus, before
you trust God enough to let your weakness become His strength.
(09:08):
Will you let go of the comfortable cross, the decorative cross,
the religious symbol, and embrace the rugged one, the transforming one.
(09:31):
Because when you do, God does for your life what
he did on the cross. He brings power from weakness,
hope from suffering, and resurrection from death. Let us pray,
(10:00):
Loving God do for us tonight what you did for
the Cross. Take our weaknesses and use it to reveal
your strength. Take our pain and redeem it with purpose.
(10:26):
Take our shame and clothe it with grace. Do for us,
Do for this Church, for this broken world. What you
did on that hill long ago. Give us eyes to
(10:53):
see and hearts to believe. And may we walk in
the shadow of that cross, not in fear, but in
absolute abundant freedom. In the name of Jesus, are crucified
(11:17):
and will be risen. Lord. Amen,
Tonight we gather at the foot of the cross, for
Heaven's power met human weakness, and the world's wisdom was
(00:22):
essentially turned upside down. In his first letter to the Corinthians,
Paul doesn't try to dress it up or to make
it more palatable, and he names this particular paradox we have.
(00:42):
In his letter in corinth he wrote, for the message
of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,
but to us, who are being saved, it is power.
(01:03):
It is the power of God. Now let's contextualize this
reading here. To the ancient world, the cross wasn't a
symbol of inspiration, not at all. It was an instrument
(01:25):
of humiliation. It represented Rome's brutal authority, a tool of fear,
a tool of public shame. And no one, no one
(01:48):
in the first century wore crosses as jewelry or displayed
them in places of honor. The very idea that the
Son of God would hang on one seemed well foolish.
(02:12):
You get it, foolishness. But here is the wonder. Exactly
in the midst of the foolishness, the wonder of our faith.
God chose what the world rejected. God took a tool,
(02:36):
a tool of death, and turned it into a doorway
to life. He took the ugliest, most shameful scene in
human history, and he transformed it into the most beautiful
(02:58):
act of love the world has ever known. Paul gets
into the weeds even a little more. He says, those Jews,
they demand signs and the Greek. You know, they want
to be smart. They're looking for wisdom. But what do
(03:18):
we do. We preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews,
and foolishness to gentiles. But the foolishness of God is
wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is
stronger than human strength. Only God, only God, could take
(03:50):
the cross, make it to change to where a cross
of defeat would make it a symbol a victory, or
a cross of guilt, and turn it into a sign
(04:12):
of grace, or the cross of condemnation and transform that
into freedom, or the cross of pain and fill it
with healing and hope, or a cross of death and
(04:35):
make it the very pathway to life. Who else but
God could do such a thing. Now here's an even
deeper truth. You ready for it? What God did for
the cross, he longs to do in us, in you,
(05:02):
in me. What God did for the Cross, God longs
to do in us. He wants to take what feels
like a weakness in your life, your mistakes, struggles, pain,
(05:27):
and he wants to turn that into a testimony of power.
Now Paul understood that he understood as very well. He
did not hide his struggles at all. We find that
Paul embraced them. He embraced them not with pride, but
(05:50):
he was able to embrace his struggles with purpose. Later
on in Corinth, he wrote, I will bost all the
more glad about what my weakness, so that Christ's power
then may rest on me. For when I am weak,
(06:14):
then I am strong. Paul learned that God doesn't work
in spite of our weakness, as sometimes we may think.
But God works through our weakness, not in spite of,
(06:38):
but through our very weaknesses. So let me ask you,
are you willing to let your weakness become God's canvas
of what God wants to make of your life? Are
(07:01):
you willing to give him the very things you try
to hide? I try to hide our fears, our failures,
the shame, for the power of the Cross is not
(07:25):
its comfort. Let's get that out of our mind. The
power of the Cross is not its comfort, It is
in its confrontation. And that's where the powers of what
God can do in the midst and confront us with
our weakness. It confronts our pride, and it exposes our
(07:48):
illusions of control, illusions of control. So to follow Jesus,
it is a surrender, not just our strengths, but what
(08:09):
might even be more difficult, our weaknesses, not just our
Sunday best, but the everyday messes of our lives. And
the good news of the Gospel is that tonight the
Cross still works, the Cross still saves, the Cross still redeems.
(08:38):
And what God did on Calvary's Hill, God is still
doing in hearts today. So will you, like Jesus, before
you trust God enough to let your weakness become His strength.
(09:08):
Will you let go of the comfortable cross, the decorative cross,
the religious symbol, and embrace the rugged one, the transforming one.
(09:31):
Because when you do, God does for your life what
he did on the cross. He brings power from weakness,
hope from suffering, and resurrection from death. Let us pray,
(10:00):
Loving God do for us tonight what you did for
the Cross. Take our weaknesses and use it to reveal
your strength. Take our pain and redeem it with purpose.
(10:26):
Take our shame and clothe it with grace. Do for us,
Do for this Church, for this broken world. What you
did on that hill long ago. Give us eyes to
(10:53):
see and hearts to believe. And may we walk in
the shadow of that cross, not in fear, but in
absolute abundant freedom. In the name of Jesus, are crucified
(11:17):
and will be risen. Lord. Amen,
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