Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
Feb 08, 2026
1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16)
God's wisdom revealed through the Spirit
2:1When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the testimony of God to you with superior speech or wisdom.
2:2For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.
2:3And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.
2:4My speech and my proclamation were made not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
2:5so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
2:6Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are being destroyed.
2:7But we speak God's wisdom, a hidden mystery, which God decreed before the ages for our glory,
2:8and which none of the rulers of this age understood, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
2:9But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him"
2:10God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
2:11For what human knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God's except the Spirit of God.
2:12Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.
2:13And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.
2:14Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God's Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
2:15Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else's scrutiny.
2:16"For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
Sermon thoughts.
Text: 1 Corinthians 2:1-12
Introduction: Beyond Fancy Words
In the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit I welcome you to this study.
I promise to keep this moving because I know the only thing standing between you and lunch is me, and that’s a dangerous place for a preacher to be.
My friends, when the Apostle Paul arrived in Corinth, he didn't lead with flashy audio visuals or a professional PR team. He told them plainly: “I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom.”
Why? Because Paul knew a dangerous truth: you can win a man’s mind with a brilliant argument and never touch his soul.
You can impress a congregation with a polished performance and leave them just as cold as when they walked in—or worse, they leave thinking the preacher is great, but forget that God is greater. (I’m praying that doesn’t happen today)
Today, I want to talk about the difference between "religion in the head" and "religion in the heart." Paul determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Now, don’t let Paul fool you—he wasn't exactly a slow learner. He was highly educated, studied under the Ivy League rabbis of his day, and grew up in Tarsus, which was basically a center of Greek philosophy. Today he would have enough degrees to cover a wall.
But Paul realized that compared to the Cross, his education was scrap paper.
Does this mean we should be ignorant? Of course not. But if your spirituality is just high-minded philosophy or—God forbid—endless political debates on Facebook, it is a bloodless husk.
If you have the "ten-dollar words" like Substitutionary Atonement but you don’t have the love of Jesus, you’re just a walking dictionary with a cold heart.
The Cross is our “get out of jail free card”.
You must understand that Christ paid a debt He didn't owe because we owed a debt we couldn't pay.
Is Christ the center of your life, or is He just a Sunday decoration—like that fancy "guest towel" in the bathroom that nobody is actually allowed to use?
Paul admits he came in "weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling." This flies in the face of every "Alpha Male Leadership" podcast out there.
Mother Teresa said, “God cannot fill what is already full.”
If you show up to heaven’s gate and try to show God your "Good Person Reward Card" or your perfect attendance trophy, you’re going to leave empty-handed.
We have to admit our spiritual poverty. I will admit that I can’t even find my own car keys some mornings. I'm certainly not able to save my own soul.
Paul's admission resonates with me because, for a long time, I rejected the Christ story as foolishness. I thought the miracles were just tall tales. Water into wine? Walking on waves? I was way too "rational" for that.
I was so full of myself that there wasn't even a folding chair left for God to sit on. I wanted the Creator of the Universe to play by my rules.
I was like an ant trying to explain nuclear physics to the person about to step on the anthill.
Eventually, I realized that the God who built all of reality can flick it on and off like a light switch whenever He pleases.
Paul says the "rulers of this age" think they are wise. They chase wealth, status, and the latest iPhone. 2,000 years later, we’re still doing the same thing.
But this "wisdom" is coming to nothing. The world says seek revenge; God says forgive.
The world says "He who dies with the most toys wins"; God says "Give it away."
To the world, God’s wisdom looks like it’s standing on its head, but really, it’s the world that is upside down.
The person without the Spirit is like someone trying to describe colors while standing in a pitch-black room. They just don't have the "spiritual senses" for it.
But for those of us who have felt the warmth of God’s love, this wisdom is more precious than gold. It’s the "deep things of God" whispered to our souls—usually right when we’ve finally stopped talking long enough to listen.
I beg you today: don't trust in a faith built on human logic. Logic is great for balancing your checkbook, but it’s a terrible savior.
Search your heart. If you feel "cold" spiritually, ask Him to turn up the heat. If you are "almost" a Christian — meaning you like the ideas but haven't met the Man — pray to be "altogether" a Christian.
Let us go forth not just "informed" by a sermon, but transformed by the Holy Spirit. Let us be people who know nothing but Jesus Christ — and maybe where we parked our cars.
Amen.
I have an epilogue to this sermon.
John Wesley often invited his listeners to a "Covenant Prayer" of total self-surrender, a prayer designed to be a deliberate turning away from the "spirit of the world" toward the "Spirit of God."
I am providing you with a type of covenant prayer. Use it as a starting point for your own contractual agreement with God.
Understand that through the life, teaching, sacrificial death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God has made His convenient with mankind.
What I've tried to put into this prayer is basically my understanding of and agreement to His covenant.
This is my prayer. If it doesn't speak your truth, edit it until it does. God already knows your heart so don't make promises you don't intend, with the Spirit’s help, to keep.
Eternal God, Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, I come to You now, setting aside all pretenses and every mask of formal religion. I confess that too often I have been a "halfhearted Christian" maintaining the appearance of faith while living far from its true power. I have allowed the spirit of this world — its pride, its anxieties, and its shallow wisdom — to take root in my heart.
Lord, I am exhausted from living a divided life. I am tired of having one foot in Your kingdom and one foot in the world. I realize that this double-mindedness has robbed me of Your peace and left me feeling empty. I see now that the spirit of this world and Your Holy Spirit cannot live together. Therefore, by Your grace, I choose today whom I will give my soul to.
I surrender everything to You. I give You my will, my reputation, my desires, and my very life. Take away my "heart of stone" — that cold, self-centered spirit that is so easily offended and so slow to love. Instead, give me a "heart of flesh," made soft and responsive by Your grace.
Holy Spirit, come and take full possession of Your temple. Search me: Reveal the deep parts of my heart so that I can see myself as I truly am.
Fill me with love: Let the love of God be poured into my heart until every root of bitterness and pride is gone.
Confirm my identity: Do not leave me in doubt. Speak to my spirit and remind me that I am truly Your child, forgiven through the blood of Jesus and being made holy by Your power.
I am determined now to focus on nothing but Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross. Let that cross be the end of my pride and the beginning of a holy life. May I no longer live for myself, but for the One who died for me and rose again. Transform me from the inside out, so that my life clearly shows Your Spirit at work and brings You praise in everything I say and do.
In the name of Jesus Christ, my Savior and my everything,
Amen.
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