GCI Las Vegas Church video (38:02)
Matthew 4:12-23 Why Christians Must “Leave”
Dr. Dan Rogers, Pastor of Grace Communion Las Vegas, Nevada.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-D7yZ11LUk
Previous videos by Dr. Dan Rogers:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCemAreRmMNXoBU-SJxbTRqg/videos
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GCI Home Church video (47:34)
1 Corinthians 1:10-18 “The Crux of the Matter.”
Tim Sitterley, Assistant Pastor of Grace Communion River Road, Junction
City, Oregon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ7iW3JPC0Q
Previous messages for the GCI Home Church:
https://resources.gci.org/media/gci-usa-home-church-archive
You can subscribe to these messages for the GCI Home Church here:
https://resources.gci.org/national-church-signup
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Blog by Tammy Tkach, Assistant Pastor
Grace Communion River Road, Eugene, Oregon:
https://gemsofgodsgrace.wordpress.com/
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GCI New Life Fellowship services in Baltimore MD
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM.
https://www.facebook.com/newlifefellowshipbaltimore
https://www.youtube.com/@newlifefellowshipmd1769/streams
Recording available after the conclusion of the service.
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Hands for Christ Community Church, Staten Island NY
Services in American Sign Language.
Spoken English interpretation and Worship Music.
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM
https://video.ibm.com/channel/ZW4EharLZWf
Recording available after the conclusion of the service.
Pastor Mary Bacheller – mary.bacheller@gci.org
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GCI Glendora CA Videos
https://www.youtube.com/c/GCIGlendora/videos
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdsXRXFpUED_6cLP4lr3NIRA2lg6F9Xx1
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Revised Common Lectionary Sermon Outline for Sunday February 1, 2026 –
Fourth Sunday After Epiphany
Micah 6:1–8 • Psalm 15:1–5 • 1 Corinthians 1:18–31 • Matthew 5:1–12
This Sunday, we continue in the season of Epiphany — a time when Jesus
is revealed not just in glory, but in surprising grace. Our theme this
week is pointing to the way of the cross. The prophet Micah echoes God’s
ancient call to his people. God calls us to not empty religion or
impressive ritual but a life of justice, kindness, and humility with
God. The psalmist describes the kind of person who can dwell with God —
one who speaks truth, protects the vulnerable, and acts with integrity.
Paul reminds the Corinthian Church that God reveals his power, not
through worldly wisdom or strength. Rather, God reveals his power
through the foolishness of the cross where Christ humbled himself to
bring salvation. And in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus begins the Sermon
on the Mount by proclaiming blessings. These blessings are not on the
powerful, but on the poor in spirit, the mourners, the meek, and the
peacemakers. These readings challenge us to reconsider what true
greatness looks like. God calls us to live out our faith in a way that
reflects the countercultural, cruciform love of Christ in the world.
Pointing to the Way of the Cross
1 Corinthians 1:18–31
For the message about the cross is foolishness 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.”
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater
of this 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,
God decided, through the foolishness of the proclamation, to save those
who believe. For Jews ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we
proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to
gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser
than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise
by human 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, things that are not, to abolish things
that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. In
contrast, God is why you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom
from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order
that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Introduction: Fads, Fame, and the Search for Wisdom
Every generation has its trends. Maybe you remember bell bottoms, shag
carpeting, oat bran or heavy metal. Maybe you remember when we all
thought oat milk would save the world, or when kale was the answer to
every health problem known to humanity.
Fads are funny because they’re universal. They promise the change we
want — better health, better looks, better living. But like other things
shiny and new, they pass. Andy Warhol famously said that everyone would
get fifteen minutes of fame. That might be generous in today’s world of
10-second viral videos.
Even the Church isn’t immune to trends. We get excited about new books,
new worship styles, new movements, new “keys” to success. Some of these
are good gifts; others are just noise. But underneath all of them lies
the same human impulse: we want to be well and live a good life. We want
to belong. We want to matter.
The apostle Paul knew that impulse well. The Church he was writing to in
Corinth was swept up in its own cultural whirlwind. Corinth was a city
addicted to being clever, relevant, and admired.
And into that whirlwind Paul writes about something that sounded absurd
and not popular. He writes about a crucified God.
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are
perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1
Corinthians 1:18
The City of Corinth: Where Everything Was New and Nothing Lasted
To understand the church in Corinth, you must understand the city
itself. Corinth was the definition of a start-up town. It was rebuilt
from ruins, thriving on trade, bursting with new money. It was the Las
Vegas of the ancient world — a place of opportunity, ambition, and
self-promotion.
Philosophers and religious entrepreneurs flocked there to peddle their
ideas. You could get your fill of whatever new “wisdom” happened to be
trending that season. Everyone was trying to sound deep, look
enlightened, and get followers.
You could call it the first-century version of social media. People were
constantly posturing, endlessly debating, marketing their own
brilliance, and preserving one’s honor.
So, when Paul preaches Christ crucified in this city of winners and
people striving to be on top, his message sounds like nonsense.
Crucifixion was the ultimate mark of failure. It was Rome’s way of
saying, “This person doesn’t matter.”
The Corinthians wanted success, sophistication, and status. And Paul
gave them a cross.
The Foolishness of the Cross
Let’s pause and remember what the cross actually was.
It wasn’t jewelry. It wasn’t art. It was the tool of state execution —
public, brutal, humiliating. It was designed not just to kill but to
shame. You didn’t speak of the cross in polite company.
And yet Paul can’t stop speaking about it. Repeatedly, he centers the
gospel not on Jesus’ miracles or teachings, but on the cross.
Why? Because the cross is where God reveals who he is.
For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is
stronger than human strength. 1 Corinthians 1:25
That line flips everything upside down. Paul isn’t just saying that God
outsmarts us; he’s saying that God’s way of love looks like foolishness
to a world addicted to power.
When we look at Jesus on the cross, we see a God who wins by losing, who
rules by serving, who conquers by dying. That’s not a clever philosophy.
That’s not a trend. That’s a revelation.
The cross is not our idea about God; it’s God’s self-disclosure. It’s
what happens when divine love enters human sin and refuses to retaliate
or get even. It’s the Trinity’s love exposed in human history — the
Father sending the Son, the Son offering himself, the Spirit sustaining
him in obedience.
In other words: the cross is what the triune God looks like when he
saves the world. (By the way, when we use the word “triune” to describe
God, that word means consisting of three in one.)
God’s Agency: The Power that Comes from Weakness
Paul says,
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through
wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to
save those who believe. 1 Corinthians 1:21
Notice the subject of the verb: God decided.
It’s God who decides. God saves. God chooses. God acts. The gospel is
not a new human insight. It’s not a spiritual improvement plan. It’s God
taking the initiative to rescue us from the systems we’ve built around
pride and control.
At the cross, God refuses to play by our rules of success. He undermines
the logic of empire, the logic of domination, the logic of honor and
shame, and the logic of winners and losers.
In Christ, the power of God is displayed not in crushing others but in
healing their wounds.
The Incarnation — the eternal Son, taking on flesh — reaches its climax
at the cross. The One who made the universe becomes the One who is
crucified by it. The infinite God chose to limit himself to love us from
within our brokenness.
This is why Paul can say that “God’s weakness is stronger than human
strength.” What looks like defeat is actually divine victory. It’s love
stronger than hate, forgiveness stronger than violence, life stronger
than death.
Pointing to the Way of the Cross
So, what does it mean to witness or to point to the way of the cross?
For Paul, it means living as people whose whole identity has been
redefined by Jesus’ crucified love.
In Corinth, everyone was trying to climb the ladder — socially,
intellectually, religiously. But Paul says God turns the ladder upside down:
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… so that no one might boast in the presence of
God. 1 Corinthians 1:27-29
When we live by the way of the cross, we stop boasting in ourselves and
start boasting in God.
That doesn’t mean we glorify suffering or romanticize weakness. It means
we learn to see God’s presence where the world least expects it — in the
broken, the ordinary, the overlooked.
To point to the way of the cross is to let our lives point to the
self-giving love of the Trinity. The Father gives the Son; the Son gives
himself; the Spirit gives life and comfort. The entire movement of God
is outward, sacrificial, and relational.
The Church is called to mirror that same movement: not to seek power,
but to serve; not to dominate, but to love; not to climb higher, but to
kneel lower.
When the Cross Confronts Our Culture
The Corinthians were fascinated with wisdom and rhetoric or persuasive
arguments. They wanted a gospel that impressed people.
Today, our culture isn’t much different. We chase relevance, popularity,
and influence. We measure success by numbers, reach, and likes. Even in
ministry, we can fall into the trap of thinking that bigger and louder
is better.
But the cross whispers a different word. It says: You are loved, not
because you are successful, but because you are mine.
The cross exposes our idols — not just the obvious ones like wealth or
fame, but the subtler ones like self-reliance, human reason, cleverness,
and control. It asks us: Will you trust the wisdom of God even when it
looks foolish?
That’s what witnessing or pointing to the way of the cross means. It
means trusting that God’s redemptive work is happening even when the
world calls it failure. It means believing that love — not dominance —
is the true power that heals creation.
The Trinity and the Cross: God’s Love in Motion
Let’s step back and see how the cross reveals the triune God.
The Father is not an angry judge demanding payment. He is the one who
sends the Son in love. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only
Son” (John 3:16).
The Son is not a victim of circumstances. He willingly enters our
condition, saying, “No one takes my life from me; I lay it down of my
own accord” (John 10:18).
The Spirit is not absent. The Spirit is the One who empowers Jesus to
endure suffering and who raises him from the dead; the same Spirit is
poured out on us (Romans 8:11).
At the cross, the eternal love that has always existed within God’s own
life breaks open into the world. The Trinity is not a theory; it’s the
beating heart of the gospel.
When we speak of God’s power, we’re talking about that love — the kind
that risks everything to restore communion.
So, the message of the cross is not merely that Jesus died, but that God
himself has entered our darkness and filled it with divine life.
The Cross and the Church: A Community Formed by Grace
The Corinthians’ problem wasn’t just bad theology; it was bad community.
They were dividing into factions. “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,”
“I follow Cephas.” Each group thought they were superior.
Paul’s response? “Is Christ divided?”
The cross dismantles our hierarchies. It brings us to level ground. None
of us stands above another because all of us stand beneath the same mercy.
In a culture obsessed with status, the Church is called to be a
community of grace. Not a gathering of the elite, but a fellowship of
the forgiven.
Paul reminds them — and us — of who we are:
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise
by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble
birth. 1 Corinthians 1:26
We didn’t get here by merit. We got here by grace. The thing about
relying on merit is I might be tempted to believe I earned all the good
things in my life. So, when I see suffering or misfortune in others, I
might be tempted to believe that they deserve it.
The cross shapes a new kind of community — a people who embody the
humility and generosity of the triune God. This is what makes the Church
missional: we exist not to draw attention to ourselves, but to reveal
what God has done and is doing in Christ.
The Paradox of Power
The world tells us that power means control, domination, and visibility.
The cross reveals a different power — the power of love that yields,
suffers, and transforms.
When Paul says, “Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God,” he’s
not being metaphorical (verse 24). In Jesus’ crucifixion, the true
nature of divine power is unveiled.
That’s why Paul can say, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Because the only thing worth boasting about is what God has done through
the weakness of love as exemplified by the cross.
In the Church, every act of service, every gesture of compassion, every
word of forgiveness is a small participation in that same power. We
become witnesses to the cross not by winning arguments, but by living
cruciform lives — lives shaped by the self-giving love of Christ.
The Cross as the End of Self-Boasting
At the heart of Paul’s argument is the destruction of boasting in self.
Boasting is what happens when we try to define ourselves apart from God.
It’s when we think our worth depends on our achievements, knowledge, or
morality. The cross ends that illusion.
The Son of God hangs there stripped of everything we normally boast
about: status, strength, success. And yet, in that very stripping, the
glory of God shines brightest.
The Incarnation means that God is not too proud to enter our fragility.
The cross means he refuses to leave us there.
So, when Paul says, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord,” he’s
inviting us into freedom. The cross frees us from self-promotion and
self-protection. The cross declares: You are already loved beyond measure.
A Modern Witness
Few modern voices illustrate this better than Henri Nouwen. A
world-renowned priest and professor, he taught at Harvard and Yale. He
had everything Corinth would have admired — intelligence, success, acclaim.
And yet, late in life, he left academia to live in a L’Arche community,
a home for adults with developmental disabilities. There he discovered a
different kind of wisdom — the wisdom of love.
He once wrote,
When I came to L’Arche, my whole life was tired. But God said, ‘I love
you. I want to hold you.’ Finally, God had the chance to really hug me
and lay divine hands upon my heart through this community.
In that community, people didn’t care about his books or credentials.
They loved him simply as Henri. And in that simplicity, he rediscovered
the power of the cross — the foolishness of love that expects nothing
and gives everything.
The Missional Call: Bearing Witness to the Crucified Christ
When Paul says, “We proclaim Christ crucified,” he’s describing the
ongoing mission of the Church.
Our task is not to impress the world with our intelligence or relevance.
Our task is to bear witness — to point to the God who saves through love
that suffers and redeems.
This witness takes many forms:
showing compassion where others show contempt or hate
forgiving where others retaliate or seek vengeance
standing with the vulnerable rather than siding with the powerful
offering hope where despair has the last word.
Each act of cruciform love proclaims the gospel. To witness to the way
of the cross is to live as if resurrection is real — because it is.
Conclusion: Boasting in the Lord
Paul ends this passage by pointing us back to the source of everything.
The source of your life is in:
Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. 1 Corinthians 1:30
Notice again: he is the source.
We didn’t engineer our salvation. We didn’t reason our way to it. We
received it.
In Jesus Christ, God himself became our wisdom, our righteousness, our
sanctification, and our redemption. Everything that matters has already
been given.
The cross is not a temporary strategy; it’s the eternal character of God
revealed.
And so, Paul ends with this benediction of humility and joy:
“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
The Invitation
The gospel is not another trend that will fade when the next one comes
along. It’s the enduring reality of a God who became human, entered our
suffering, bore our shame, and turned it into glory.
The way of the cross will never be fashionable. It will always look like
foolishness to the world. But to those who have seen its power, it is
the wisdom of God.
So, the invitation today is simple:
Come and see.
Come and see the power of love that looks like weakness.
Come and see the wisdom of God that confounds the proud.
Come and see the crucified Christ —
the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world,
the Son who reveals the Father’s heart,
the Spirit who makes all things new.
This is the way of the cross —
the way of life,
the way of peace,
the way of the triune God who has chosen to save the world through love.
May Jesus’ Church point to the way of the cross. Amen.
Small Group Discussion Questions
Why does the gospel seem like “foolishness” or “weakness” in a world
that values success, strength, and status?
Does viewing the cross through the lens of the Trinity change the way
you understand what happened there?
What does it mean for us to point to the way of the cross in our
relationships, workplaces, or community?
God chose what is low and despised to shame the proud and unite his
people. How does the cross shape the way we see others — especially
those the world overlooks?
© Copyright 2026 Grace Communion International
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