Key Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 2:1-16
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”—but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
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Lesson One: When wounds cloud my belief—the cross is my true north.
• By looking at the cross—we are reminded that God cares because he suffered in our place
Isaiah 53:5, But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed
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Lesson Two: When loss undermines my trust—the cross is my true north.
• The cross demonstrates that God is good—even in the midst of profound loss
Romans 8:32, He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
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Lesson Three: When circumstances obscure control—the cross is my true north.
• God was in control even at the tragic moment of the crucifixion—just as he is in control of our chaotic circumstances
Acts 2:23, This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death…
Isaiah 53:10, Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer…
Romans 8:28, And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
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Lesson Four: When situations overshadow God’s future plan—the cross is my true north.
• God had a plan for Jesus—even when he was in the grave. We can trust that God has a good and gracious plan for our lives
Acts 2:27, You will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.
Jeremiah 29:11, For I know the plans I have for you… plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Psalm 139:16, All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
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Lesson Five: When opinion drowns God’s voice—the cross is my true north.
• We can trade our negative self-perception for God’s truth—that we are loved, chosen, and forgiven
1 Peter 2:9, But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Colossians 1:13–14, For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us… and purify us from all unrighteousness.
2 Corinthians 5:17, If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
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Lesson Six: When the enemy accuses—the cross is my true north.
• Any guilt or shame we carry has been “nailed to the cross.” We can respond to accusations with the finished work of Jesus
Colossians 2:13-14, When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
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Lesson Seven: When temporary pleasure tempts—the cross is my true north.
• Compared to the eternal purpose and riches found in Christ—worldly distractions are fleeting
Galatians 6:14, May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.