The Power of Preaching Christ Crucified, Part 1

By Robb Brunansky

Published October 2, 2025

We have come to a new chapter in 1 Corinthians, where the apostle Paul continues to address the divisions in the Corinthian church. In 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, we saw how the nature of the gospel, in and of itself, it is contrary to the ways and wisdom of the world. Paul then shows in verses 26-31 that this description of the gospel of Christ crucified as the wisdom and power of God matches the Corinthians’ experience of salvation.

There’s one more thing Paul wants to talk about in this regard: his own personal ministry among them. He started to talk about this in 1:17, but he paused to highlight the nature of the gospel. Now, he is ready to explain his ministry among the Corinthians and the example he set. The nature of the gospel, the experience of the Corinthians, and Paul’s preaching all expose their boasting for the foolishness that it is.

In 2:1-5, then, Paul expounds on the preaching of Christ crucified, focusing on why it is powerful and effective for his readers. This message is vital for our day because the reliance on the power of the gospel to save sinners has fallen on hard times.

Many leaders in today’s church have decided that preaching the Bible is not the most effective way to reach people with the gospel because they think Scripture is largely irrelevant to men and women. In his book, Communicating for a Change, Andy Stanley writes that what the church needs today is “less explanation and more inspiration. Less first century and more twenty-first century.” Stanley and many others around him tragically believe that people’s greatest need is to feel inspired by an effective communicator.

These modern-day, progressive church leaders have determined that what happened two thousand years ago on a cross on Calvary is not highly relevant today. And so, the church has abandoned the biblical mandate to preach the Word. That is a tragedy, because God’s power is unleashed – not in progressional dialogue, re-imagining a sermon, or by the strategies of human communicators – but through the preaching of Christ and Him crucified.

Paul’s day was replete with communicators and orators who would influence and dazzle people with their wisdom and insight. He was familiar with the Andy Stanleys of his generation, and others throughout the centuries, who were indispensable to their hearers because their strategies, methods, and ministries were all the result of their own ingenuity and creativity. Paul was roundly criticized because he didn’t follow those conventions, but instead preached Christ crucified.

When we read 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, we see the power of preaching Christ crucified, and why Paul made his conscious objective to proclaim a crucified and risen Messiah. To see the power of preaching Christ crucified, we need to understand three elements of Paul’s preaching ministry, and we’ll first look at the method of Paul’s preaching.

The first two verses of the chapter are about Paul’s preaching methodology, technique, and practice of preaching. Paul came to the Corinthians proclaiming the testimony of God. The word translated proclaiming is often used in the New Testament to refer to an official herald of the gospel – someone God has appointed to preach. The message preached is the testimony of God, which is the legal witness of God about His Son.

It is crucial to understand that Paul did not decide the method himself; he was called as a herald or preacher. Paul did not gather everyone in a circle to have an impromptu discussion about how Jesus might relate to their felt needs. Rather, he declared the testimony of God as a divine ambassador under the authority of King Jesus the Messiah.

Note, too, Paul does not come with his own message, but with the testimony of God. Paul knew that as a faithful witness, he was not free to adjust the message. It would be a great sin and eternal crime to tamper with the very testimony of God Himself, which determines our eternal destiny.

Paul understood that people are not always going to want to hear the testimony of God. An ever-present danger is to worry that people may not be interested in the Bible and to give attendees what they want to ensure the church is “successful.” That’s what Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2-4. We are supposed to preach the Word in season, when the Spirit of God makes people hunger for the truth of Scripture; and out of season, when they are more interested in temporal concerns. The “out of season” nature of God’s Word in much of our culture is exactly why many churches have sermon series and services based on entertainment myths because they believe the only way to entice people is to scratch their itching ears.

Paul is not describing his method pragmatically because he lived in a culture that valued preaching. He lived in a culture that valued rhetoric, not preaching. What Paul did and how he preached was considered foolish to those who heard him. However, what people wanted to hear did not ever factor into his equation. Paul came to authoritatively preach the testimony of God.

The way Paul preached the testimony of God is explained in what he did not and did do. Notice that Paul rejected superior speech and wisdom. He did not preach in a self-aggrandizing, pretentious way, which was used by the leading orators and communicators of that culture, and was designed to impress and influence the Corinthians. In fact, their opinion never entered his mind.

On the other hand, Paul resolved to know only Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul is saying, “I am resolved to clear the table of every conceivable topic, form of wisdom, and potential way to win people over, except for one and only one thing: Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” This was seemingly the worst possible strategy because the Jewish Messiah and crucifixion would never make the list of things people in the first century Greco-Roman world wanted to discuss. Nevertheless, Paul resolved that he would not move the cross from the center of his message, nor have any other message.

What’s fascinating about this section is that Paul is dealing with church conflict. We might think we need Christ crucified plus something more to deal with such a complicated issue. Yet, Paul addresses the problem and then goes right to the cross and to Christ crucified. Anything else is inferior knowledge and wisdom, and so it isn’t really all that useful. Why would Paul resolve to know something besides the cross when it determines everything for the Christian? This is the testimony of God, that He sent His Son to die for sinners on a cross.

This message has implications for every conceivable issue of life and ministry. Paul says, “If you have a problem with church unity, then you need to go back to the cross and learn what the cross says about humility, love, grace, mercy, weakness, and forgiveness.” The cross of Christ should shape our relationships, marriages, parenting, employment, friendships, and lives.

Christian, we will never get beyond the cross. Every problem we have in our lives, churches, and world is solved by Christ and Him crucified. We don’t need more 21^st-century; we need more of first-century Calvary. Paul made it his absolute resolve to know nothing but the cross of Christ because there was nothing greater to know. That was the method of Paul’s preaching, and nothing has changed today. Preaching Christ crucified should be the method of all God calls to preach His Word.