WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.339 I'm going to begin by reading another verse. 00:00:04.339 --> 00:00:12.160 You don't have to turn to it, but at 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 10, Paul says this, but this 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:15.880 is someone else's words. 00:00:15.880 --> 00:00:22.600 His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech of 00:00:22.600 --> 00:00:25.000 no account. 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:33.799 So this is Paul describing what other people in Corinth are saying about who he is. 00:00:33.799 --> 00:00:39.880 And if that were written today, you could imagine the same person saying, Paul looks 00:00:39.880 --> 00:00:44.240 so brave behind a keyboard, but when you see him in person, you realize what a weak fellow 00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:45.240 he actually is. 00:00:45.240 --> 00:00:48.799 He's a nobody when you actually see him. 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.839 And I think that verse is a good way of introducing our passage tonight because that criticism 00:00:55.839 --> 00:01:00.359 and all the things that go along with that criticism is what Paul is actually responding 00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:03.399 to in our passage tonight. 00:01:03.399 --> 00:01:08.679 As you read the last few chapters of 2 Corinthians, what you realize is one of the concerns that 00:01:08.679 --> 00:01:14.439 Paul has for the church in Corinth is that a group of men have come in and have established 00:01:14.439 --> 00:01:19.799 themselves as leaders, and Paul calls them false apostles. 00:01:19.799 --> 00:01:23.879 And these are men who have come in, and part of the way that they have established themselves 00:01:23.879 --> 00:01:30.379 in the church is by constantly boasting about themselves, by holding themselves up as greater 00:01:30.379 --> 00:01:31.379 than all others. 00:01:31.379 --> 00:01:34.359 They constantly compare themselves to others. 00:01:34.359 --> 00:01:37.519 So on the one hand, they hold themselves up, and then they also, any chance they get, they'll 00:01:37.519 --> 00:01:38.840 put Paul down. 00:01:38.840 --> 00:01:42.640 They'll say, remember what a weakling that man is, because of course Paul is not in 00:01:42.640 --> 00:01:45.799 Corinth, and so he's hearing all this second hand. 00:01:45.799 --> 00:01:50.960 And that's why when you read 2 Corinthians, the word boasting is repeated so often. 00:01:50.960 --> 00:01:55.239 By my count, more than 30 times Paul uses the word boasting, and it's because there 00:01:55.239 --> 00:02:00.000 are people in the church who are boasting, and Paul doesn't like it. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.340 And what we're going to look at tonight is how Paul responds to those false apostles, 00:02:04.340 --> 00:02:08.319 or how he's telling the church to think about those false apostles. 00:02:08.319 --> 00:02:12.199 And the way that Paul does it, ironically, is by boasting. 00:02:12.199 --> 00:02:15.359 So we're going to look at two boasts that Paul gives tonight. 00:02:15.359 --> 00:02:19.199 I'll call them his, the first one is his lesser boast. 00:02:19.199 --> 00:02:21.599 He makes a number of lesser boasts. 00:02:21.599 --> 00:02:26.679 And then the second one we'll look at is what you could call his greatest boast. 00:02:26.679 --> 00:02:29.479 And so in light of that, what you could say this whole passage is about, what we're trying 00:02:29.479 --> 00:02:33.560 to get at tonight is you could say Paul's giving a lesson about leadership, about what 00:02:33.560 --> 00:02:38.639 true Christian leadership looks like and should look like, about how to identify the difference 00:02:38.639 --> 00:02:42.599 between a false apostle and a true apostle. 00:02:42.599 --> 00:02:46.479 But I'm sure that many of you don't think of that context when you think of some of 00:02:46.479 --> 00:02:50.919 the verses here, when you think of those famous words like, my grace is sufficient to you. 00:02:50.919 --> 00:02:58.319 And it's because in addressing these specific contexts of greater apostle, lesser apostle, 00:02:58.319 --> 00:03:03.639 Paul's also getting at these universal truths about what it means to be a Christian, about 00:03:03.639 --> 00:03:09.000 what it means to live gladly in dependence on Jesus's grace. 00:03:09.000 --> 00:03:14.000 And so that's why even though this context is a bit detached from us, it's worth listening 00:03:14.000 --> 00:03:18.719 because Paul is getting at truths that are universal and that we all need to hear. 00:03:18.719 --> 00:03:22.039 So we're going to look at the lesser boast and then the greater boast, the greatest 00:03:22.039 --> 00:03:23.039 boast. 00:03:23.039 --> 00:03:25.279 So first the lesser boast. 00:03:25.279 --> 00:03:30.119 And you see this in verse one where Paul says, I must go on boasting, even though he says 00:03:30.119 --> 00:03:31.119 boasting is not good. 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:35.680 So I must go on boasting because by this point he's actually been boasting for quite a few 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:36.680 verses. 00:03:36.680 --> 00:03:42.159 If you're keeping score at beginning at chapter 11 verse 16, until now he's been boasting 00:03:42.159 --> 00:03:45.719 about things that are great about himself. 00:03:45.719 --> 00:03:52.159 And all his boasts have been about himself establishing his worthiness to be a true apostle 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:56.319 as opposed to what these other men are saying about him, which is that he is weak and he's 00:03:56.319 --> 00:03:57.759 a nobody. 00:03:57.759 --> 00:04:02.399 So he's been boasting and then as we come to our passage in verse one, he says, I must 00:04:02.399 --> 00:04:04.959 go on boasting though there's nothing to be gained by it. 00:04:04.959 --> 00:04:10.319 I will go on boasting of visions and of revelations of God. 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:14.519 And unlike his earlier boasts where he talks about himself and about the things that he 00:04:14.519 --> 00:04:21.439 has done, he says in this boast, he says, let me tell you about a man that I know. 00:04:21.439 --> 00:04:23.159 And this man had a wonderful experience. 00:04:23.160 --> 00:04:30.600 He says, I know a guy who 14 years ago was caught up into the third heaven or as he also 00:04:30.600 --> 00:04:33.160 puts it, he was caught up into paradise. 00:04:33.160 --> 00:04:40.600 And he says, this man, he heard things that cannot be told and which man may not utter. 00:04:40.600 --> 00:04:45.600 And now there was an early church father named Gregory of Nazianus and he talked about this 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:46.600 passage. 00:04:46.600 --> 00:04:53.360 And the first passage that he said was, you know, if Paul said that this experience was 00:04:53.360 --> 00:04:57.439 ineffable, it couldn't be talked about, then what we really owe this passage is the tribute 00:04:57.439 --> 00:04:59.120 of our silence. 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:02.360 We shouldn't talk too much about what it means that this person's in the third heaven 00:05:02.360 --> 00:05:04.720 or all these things. 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:07.320 Third heaven probably means the highest heaven. 00:05:07.320 --> 00:05:10.439 But there's so many questions you could ask about what this experience was like. 00:05:10.439 --> 00:05:17.079 But what is clear is what Paul is doing by describing this experience because he's saying, 00:05:17.079 --> 00:05:21.240 this man that I know who had this experience of being taken up, snatched up literally in 00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:29.120 the third heaven, he's saying a man like that has something to boast about. 00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:33.399 Any man who has had an experience like that has been given an honor by God. 00:05:33.399 --> 00:05:37.959 And so Paul, he's using logic and he's saying, imagine a man like that. 00:05:37.959 --> 00:05:40.040 Would he not be worthy of honor? 00:05:40.040 --> 00:05:45.319 Would he not be someone that we would consider as great as Isaiah or as Ezekiel or as Elijah? 00:05:45.319 --> 00:05:48.879 We would consider him one of the greatest prophets that there are. 00:05:48.879 --> 00:05:55.680 If a man like that were in our presence, he would have something to boast about. 00:05:55.680 --> 00:06:01.439 And Paul says, after saying that, he says, now I will boast about that man, but I will 00:06:01.439 --> 00:06:04.759 not boast about myself. 00:06:04.759 --> 00:06:09.879 Now if you're not familiar with this passage, it could be surprising to know that the person 00:06:09.879 --> 00:06:17.800 that Paul is actually talking about, the person who went up and had this experience in the 00:06:17.800 --> 00:06:20.959 third heaven is actually Paul. 00:06:20.959 --> 00:06:22.680 Paul is talking about himself in the third person. 00:06:22.680 --> 00:06:30.519 Now I say that most theologians think that this is Paul, not because I know at theologian 00:06:30.519 --> 00:06:33.759 who disagrees, but because there must be someone who disagrees with this. 00:06:33.759 --> 00:06:41.079 But people are certain that it's Paul who is describing himself in third person. 00:06:41.079 --> 00:06:43.199 And partly because that's the only way to make sense of the context. 00:06:43.199 --> 00:06:46.279 He says, I'm going to boast about revelations. 00:06:46.279 --> 00:06:49.240 And then he says, and then he describes revelation. 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:54.519 And then later he'll go on and he'll talk about how in order to keep him from being conceited 00:06:54.519 --> 00:06:59.439 because of the greatness of his revelation, God gave him a thorn. 00:06:59.439 --> 00:07:04.399 And the assumption is that he's pointing back to the revelation that he just described. 00:07:04.399 --> 00:07:10.160 So Paul is describing this revelation in third person and he's saying, I'm not going to boast 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:12.160 about that man. 00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:15.839 I'm only going to boast about myself and about my weaknesses. 00:07:15.839 --> 00:07:17.079 So what is Paul doing here? 00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:23.040 Well, in talking about himself in third person as weird as that is, part of what he's doing 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:30.080 is he's distancing himself between himself as he is today and that miraculous experience. 00:07:30.080 --> 00:07:31.920 Not because he's embarrassed of it. 00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:37.760 He actually says that the man that experiences that has something to boast about. 00:07:37.760 --> 00:07:44.640 But in distancing himself from that experience, he's saying that that revelation and all the 00:07:44.640 --> 00:07:50.800 dignity that belongs to it is not something that he uses when he's with other Christians 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:51.800 to boast about. 00:07:51.800 --> 00:07:56.680 It's not something that he lords over other Christians. 00:07:56.680 --> 00:08:02.520 And it even seems to be the implication that when he says, I know a guy 14 years ago who 00:08:02.520 --> 00:08:08.199 had this experience, that what he's saying is, I've had this experience for 14 years 00:08:08.199 --> 00:08:11.480 and I have never once lorded this over you. 00:08:11.480 --> 00:08:16.160 I've never once used this to boast about my greatness. 00:08:16.160 --> 00:08:20.519 And this may be the first time that the Corinthians actually hear about this story. 00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:27.959 And now a cynic might say, well, Paul, if you're so keen on not bragging about your 00:08:27.959 --> 00:08:32.079 experiences, why did you just tell us about your experience? 00:08:32.079 --> 00:08:37.039 Because isn't it the epitome of a humble brag to say, you know, I could tell you about 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:40.600 this thing that I've done and this thing that I've done, but I'm not going to tell you about 00:08:40.600 --> 00:08:42.759 that even though I just did. 00:08:42.759 --> 00:08:49.039 But I think to understand what Paul is doing here, you have to appreciate the context again. 00:08:49.039 --> 00:08:55.039 Paul is boasting about himself this one time saying that he had this experience to make 00:08:55.039 --> 00:09:00.120 a point about what the false apostles do all the time. 00:09:00.120 --> 00:09:06.480 The false apostles love to boast about their experiences and to lord it over everyone else. 00:09:06.480 --> 00:09:11.439 And in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12, he describes these false apostles like this. 00:09:11.439 --> 00:09:17.879 He says, these are men who commend themselves and they measure themselves by one another 00:09:17.879 --> 00:09:21.519 and they compare themselves with one another. 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:25.480 And Paul says his response to that, he says, and when they do that, they show that they 00:09:25.480 --> 00:09:28.639 are without understanding. 00:09:28.639 --> 00:09:36.559 And so Paul's approach, his response to their boast, Paul's response to their boasting, the 00:09:36.559 --> 00:09:47.440 way that he responds to it, is he himself boasts to show that if someone, to show that 00:09:47.440 --> 00:09:51.720 if we're going to measure ourselves by the greatness of our experiences and by the greatness 00:09:51.720 --> 00:09:55.080 of the things that we've done, Paul says, I could do that. 00:09:55.080 --> 00:10:00.360 I could stand up like that and I could lord myself over others, but that's not who I am 00:10:00.360 --> 00:10:02.040 and that's not what I do. 00:10:02.040 --> 00:10:04.800 He boasts this one time just to make that point. 00:10:04.800 --> 00:10:09.720 And if you read back in chapter 11, Paul goes through this litany of boasts. 00:10:09.720 --> 00:10:12.800 He says, does anyone consider himself a true Hebrew? 00:10:12.800 --> 00:10:13.800 I'm a true Hebrew. 00:10:13.800 --> 00:10:15.600 Does anyone consider himself a son of Abraham? 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:17.320 Well, I'm a son of Abraham. 00:10:17.320 --> 00:10:20.080 Does anyone consider himself a servant of Christ? 00:10:20.080 --> 00:10:24.800 He says, not only am I a servant of Christ, I am an even better servant of Christ. 00:10:24.800 --> 00:10:28.320 And he gives this litany of things that he has suffered for Christ and ways that he's 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:31.560 served the church for Christ. 00:10:31.560 --> 00:10:35.360 And then he goes on and he says, I could even brag about my revelations. 00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:41.560 And then he says, but what he's getting at is he's saying, this is no way to live the 00:10:41.559 --> 00:10:47.399 Christian life and community is by lording ourselves, by lording our own greatness over 00:10:47.399 --> 00:10:49.959 other people. 00:10:49.959 --> 00:10:54.919 And so that's why when Paul is boasting throughout this passage, he's also constantly hedging 00:10:54.919 --> 00:10:57.639 himself, especially in the passage before. 00:10:57.639 --> 00:11:02.279 So he'll say things like, don't think of me a fool, but I have to say this or he'll 00:11:02.279 --> 00:11:06.239 say like in verse one, he says, I must go on boasting even though there's nothing to 00:11:06.239 --> 00:11:08.599 be gained by it. 00:11:08.600 --> 00:11:12.279 And so we could summarize Paul's implicit warning when he's giving this lesser boast 00:11:12.279 --> 00:11:13.279 like this. 00:11:13.279 --> 00:11:21.120 He's saying, beware the man or beware the woman whose greatest boast about their walk with 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:25.240 Christ is what they have accomplished. 00:11:25.240 --> 00:11:29.159 Or their greatest boast about their walk with Christ is about the way that God has lifted 00:11:29.159 --> 00:11:33.600 them up above others. 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:38.440 And we could make that more personal because Paul realizes this danger is not just out 00:11:38.440 --> 00:11:40.960 there with those false apostles. 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:45.480 In a few verses, he'll talk about his own tendency to be conceited and the need for 00:11:45.480 --> 00:11:46.480 that to be killed. 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:52.080 And so in a way, Paul is saying, beware the tendency in our own hearts that the one thing 00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:58.120 we brag about, the one thing we talk about when we're in community is what we have accomplished, 00:11:58.120 --> 00:12:02.040 the way that we have served Christ, the way that we've given ourselves so selflessly for 00:12:02.040 --> 00:12:07.880 the cause of Christ, or the way that we feel like God has given us a closer experience of 00:12:07.879 --> 00:12:09.279 His love than others. 00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:10.960 Paul says, beware of that man. 00:12:10.960 --> 00:12:16.360 But you can't really understand what he's contrasting the false apostles against until 00:12:16.360 --> 00:12:20.080 you get to what he calls his greatest boast. 00:12:20.080 --> 00:12:22.159 And this is what I'm going to spend most of our time on tonight, and that's what we'll 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:24.120 move to now. 00:12:24.120 --> 00:12:30.159 So Paul says that his greatest boast is in his weaknesses. 00:12:30.159 --> 00:12:35.120 And just like he illustrated his boast about the revelation with a story, he illustrates 00:12:35.120 --> 00:12:38.120 his boast about weaknesses with another story. 00:12:38.120 --> 00:12:41.720 And he starts in verse seven. 00:12:41.720 --> 00:12:47.159 And unlike the story about revelations, he makes it very clear that he is talking about 00:12:47.159 --> 00:12:53.679 himself, and he says, to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness 00:12:53.679 --> 00:12:57.960 of the revelations, the revelations we just mentioned. 00:12:57.960 --> 00:13:03.159 A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming 00:13:03.159 --> 00:13:07.959 conceited. 00:13:07.959 --> 00:13:12.279 And the obvious question, one of the obvious questions when Paul says that is, what is 00:13:12.279 --> 00:13:13.639 the thorn? 00:13:13.639 --> 00:13:16.199 And no one knows what the thorn actually is. 00:13:16.199 --> 00:13:18.879 We can say some things that we know that it's not. 00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:23.799 We know that it's not a sinful tendency in Paul. 00:13:23.799 --> 00:13:28.720 We know that it's not a sinful urge that he has trouble controlling. 00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:35.560 Because if it were, then God would not tell him to stop praying for it to go away. 00:13:35.560 --> 00:13:39.360 He calls it a thorn in the flesh, and so it was probably physical. 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:46.560 And it was probably a physical condition that was either very painful or debilitating or 00:13:46.560 --> 00:13:48.680 both. 00:13:48.680 --> 00:13:53.759 And it may well have been that Paul felt like this thorn was something that not only was 00:13:53.759 --> 00:13:59.600 painful, but it actually kept him from carrying out the mission that God had called him to 00:13:59.600 --> 00:14:00.600 as an apostle. 00:14:00.600 --> 00:14:02.960 So it was extremely painful. 00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:07.759 And we're speculating here, but this could have been the same thorn that Paul talks about 00:14:07.759 --> 00:14:12.480 in Galatians 4, 14, where, and I'm quoting this, Paul says, he says to the Galatians, 00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:18.039 you know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first. 00:14:18.039 --> 00:14:25.559 And though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but you received 00:14:25.559 --> 00:14:28.959 me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. 00:14:28.959 --> 00:14:31.159 That could be the same thorn that Paul is talking about. 00:14:31.159 --> 00:14:37.279 And if it is, what it could point to is the fact that this was doubly painful for Paul, 00:14:37.279 --> 00:14:43.399 this thorn, because not only was he himself being hurt by it and debilitated by it, but 00:14:43.399 --> 00:14:49.199 he also had this awareness that it was his thorn brought a cost to others. 00:14:49.199 --> 00:14:55.319 He tells the Galatians, you bore with me in my trial, even though you could have despised 00:14:55.319 --> 00:14:56.319 it. 00:14:56.319 --> 00:15:01.079 And that must have been hard for Paul, who wants so desperately to love the churches that 00:15:01.079 --> 00:15:06.039 he visits, to in any way be a burden to them. 00:15:06.039 --> 00:15:11.079 And again, we don't know what the thorn is, but I would argue, many people have argued 00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:15.560 that there's something providential about that, because if Paul had told us what the 00:15:15.560 --> 00:15:22.120 thorn was, then our tendency would be to apply whatever lessons Paul derives from that thorn 00:15:22.120 --> 00:15:24.639 to that one specific issue. 00:15:24.639 --> 00:15:26.759 But that's not the way that Paul understands his thorn. 00:15:26.759 --> 00:15:31.639 And he'll go on to talk about how this one specific problem that he had, he realized 00:15:31.639 --> 00:15:38.200 that it actually applied to all of his sufferings, to all the adversity that he faced in his life. 00:15:38.200 --> 00:15:42.240 And so Paul learns, Paul talks about how this one thorn, this one thing that he carried 00:15:42.240 --> 00:15:48.240 his whole life, is something that taught him normative truths about the way that God works. 00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:49.480 We're going to talk about those lessons for a moment. 00:15:49.480 --> 00:15:55.120 So he learns, the first thing that he says about his thorn is that there were two sides 00:15:55.120 --> 00:15:57.480 to it. 00:15:57.480 --> 00:16:03.240 On the one hand, Paul says his thorn was truly evil. 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:06.640 He doesn't use the word evil, but he describes it even in more graphic terms. 00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:12.720 He says, he calls his thorn a messenger of Satan. 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:18.439 So on one hand, what he had to go through was truly evil. 00:16:18.439 --> 00:16:22.480 It was something that was brought about in one sense by Satan. 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:28.039 And the reason it's important to say that plainly as Christians is because as Christians, 00:16:28.039 --> 00:16:31.759 we recognize that this world is not as it should be. 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:37.480 And we're not afraid to look at suffering and adversity and to say, in a perfect world, 00:16:37.480 --> 00:16:39.480 these things would not exist. 00:16:39.480 --> 00:16:45.759 And in the world that God is going to make new, these things will not exist. 00:16:45.759 --> 00:16:53.279 And what God calls us to do on the one hand when we look at suffering in our own life, 00:16:53.279 --> 00:16:56.679 or when we look at suffering in the life of others, is not to trivialize it. 00:16:56.679 --> 00:17:01.000 We don't offer cliche sayings by saying things like, you know, it's not really all that 00:17:01.000 --> 00:17:02.000 bad. 00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:04.640 It'll all blow over. 00:17:04.640 --> 00:17:10.680 We have a right to look at all forms of suffering in this world and say, this is truly awful. 00:17:10.680 --> 00:17:12.559 What you're walking through is painful. 00:17:12.559 --> 00:17:16.680 And there's no reason to sugarcoat that. 00:17:16.680 --> 00:17:24.000 And that's part of the truth that Paul sees in his thorn is that in his thorn, there was 00:17:24.000 --> 00:17:26.279 no intrinsic good. 00:17:26.279 --> 00:17:29.240 In suffering, there's no intrinsic good. 00:17:29.240 --> 00:17:34.359 But what that does is it highlights, recognizing that highlights the other side of the truth 00:17:34.359 --> 00:17:42.079 about the thorn, which is that God in his awesome power is able to take something that 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:48.079 has no intrinsic good and use it for good. 00:17:48.079 --> 00:17:55.240 God, what Paul saw in his pain was that God was that God took something that was so awful 00:17:55.240 --> 00:18:01.120 that Paul felt like he needed to pray over and over again for it to leave him. 00:18:01.120 --> 00:18:06.519 God took something that bad and Paul saw that his hand was in it and he was transfiguring 00:18:06.519 --> 00:18:09.000 that pain and using it for good. 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:14.599 You could say that God was turning evil against itself and turning it for good. 00:18:14.599 --> 00:18:21.519 And what Paul sees and what he describes here is he sees how God uses the thorn in two ways, 00:18:21.519 --> 00:18:25.639 two different things that are united in a way as well. 00:18:25.639 --> 00:18:27.200 So he sees God doing two things. 00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:34.960 The first thing that he sees is God is working in the pain of the thorn and he's working 00:18:34.960 --> 00:18:39.079 on the sinful tendencies in Paul's own heart. 00:18:39.079 --> 00:18:41.440 And that's how he opens and closes the story, right? 00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:46.119 He says, to keep me from being conceited. 00:18:46.119 --> 00:18:47.359 He opens and closes. 00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:52.119 To keep me from being conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, 00:18:52.119 --> 00:18:53.839 God gives me the thorn. 00:18:53.839 --> 00:18:58.599 And so there's this tragic irony about the way that we handle good things in our life, 00:18:58.599 --> 00:18:59.599 right? 00:18:59.599 --> 00:19:06.359 Where we look at God and God has a tremendous capacity, this passage shows us, to take evil 00:19:06.359 --> 00:19:10.079 things and turn them for good. 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:15.759 And we have a tremendous capacity to take good things and turn them for evil because 00:19:15.759 --> 00:19:17.319 of our sinful nature. 00:19:17.319 --> 00:19:26.639 And so God in his mercy saw that Paul being given this awesome revelation from God, even 00:19:26.639 --> 00:19:32.200 though that in itself was a wonderful and holy and good gift, there was a tendency in 00:19:32.200 --> 00:19:38.759 Paul's heart to take that good gift and to make pride out of it. 00:19:38.759 --> 00:19:47.159 And so some people suggest that at the very moment that God gives Paul this revelation, 00:19:47.160 --> 00:19:53.040 immediately afterwards, he gives him this thorn so that even as he gives him this blessing, 00:19:53.040 --> 00:20:01.960 he gives him a thorn to keep any sinful natures from coming out of that. 00:20:01.960 --> 00:20:08.720 So God in his mercy gives Paul something in his life that will through God's grace squeeze 00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:10.800 the pride out of him. 00:20:10.800 --> 00:20:13.880 That's what Paul sees God doing through the thorn. 00:20:13.880 --> 00:20:20.840 And squeeze is probably the right word because Paul saw this thorn as painful. 00:20:20.840 --> 00:20:27.640 And you can imagine Paul saying, is there no other way to take care of my pride than making 00:20:27.640 --> 00:20:29.720 me have to walk through this thorn? 00:20:29.720 --> 00:20:33.600 Could you not just tell me don't be conceited? 00:20:33.600 --> 00:20:37.880 And I say this as a side note because I don't want to make this the center of the sermon. 00:20:37.880 --> 00:20:44.560 But I wonder, I have to think that when Paul heard God say, after Paul had prayed three 00:20:44.560 --> 00:20:47.440 times will you take this from me? 00:20:47.440 --> 00:20:50.600 After God said no, my grace is sufficient for you. 00:20:50.600 --> 00:20:53.840 I have to think that Paul's heart dropped. 00:20:53.840 --> 00:20:57.840 And that was not the news that he wanted to hear. 00:20:57.839 --> 00:21:08.319 But I also, I wonder, I want to believe, I suspect that in hearing no, Paul also took 00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:12.959 solace from remembering who he was talking to. 00:21:12.959 --> 00:21:17.619 Because I've been talking about how Paul is interacting with God. 00:21:17.619 --> 00:21:21.000 But if you read the passage carefully, yes, he is interacting with God. 00:21:21.000 --> 00:21:25.480 But more specifically, it looks like a conversation between him and Jesus. 00:21:25.480 --> 00:21:31.480 Because God says my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your 00:21:31.480 --> 00:21:32.480 weakness. 00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:37.759 And then Paul talks about how the power of Christ will rest upon him. 00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:43.920 So it seems as if Paul is reaching out directly to Christ, asking him to take away this thorn. 00:21:43.920 --> 00:21:49.079 And if that's true, think about, I wonder if it occurred to Paul that the person he's 00:21:49.079 --> 00:21:55.400 praying to is also someone who stood in a garden once facing a terrible trial. 00:21:55.400 --> 00:22:00.960 And the Bible says that Jesus prayed three times in the Garden of Gethsemane that God 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:04.680 would take away the trial that was in front of him. 00:22:04.680 --> 00:22:10.040 And God says, no, he walks through the trial. 00:22:10.040 --> 00:22:15.640 And of course, Paul could see that as a terrible thing to be associated with in his own life, 00:22:15.640 --> 00:22:18.200 that he's going to have to walk through a terrible trial. 00:22:18.200 --> 00:22:23.280 But there's also the hope, I mean, Jesus' death and resurrection is the perfect example. 00:22:23.279 --> 00:22:32.399 It's the supreme example of a truly and unambiguously awful event, an evil event happening, the 00:22:32.399 --> 00:22:35.680 Son of God being nailed to a tree and crucified. 00:22:35.680 --> 00:22:40.819 And yet God's hand being in that and working in it, something greater than the world could 00:22:40.819 --> 00:22:42.639 have ever imagined. 00:22:42.639 --> 00:22:49.599 And I wonder if Paul took solace in that, knowing the person I'm praying to knows exactly 00:22:49.599 --> 00:22:51.680 my situation. 00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:55.320 This is a God who can sympathize with my weaknesses. 00:22:55.320 --> 00:22:59.320 And I know that if he tells me no, then there's a reason for that. 00:22:59.320 --> 00:23:03.200 And there's good that can come from this. 00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:10.120 But let me get back to this idea that Paul surely wanted another way. 00:23:10.120 --> 00:23:16.120 And it seems like there's mercy in the fact that God puts this thorn in Paul's life as 00:23:16.120 --> 00:23:18.799 far as we can tell for the rest of his life. 00:23:18.799 --> 00:23:19.799 And the question is why? 00:23:19.799 --> 00:23:22.919 Why can't God just say, don't be conceited, Paul? 00:23:22.919 --> 00:23:26.799 And surely he should have been able to, but it wasn't enough for Paul. 00:23:26.799 --> 00:23:33.039 And one answer that I've heard suggested, there's an old Scottish theologian named James Denney, 00:23:33.039 --> 00:23:36.680 and he described what was going on like this. 00:23:36.680 --> 00:23:42.919 He talks about how our sinful human nature is like a crooked branch. 00:23:42.919 --> 00:23:48.319 And the way that you fix a crooked branch is not by turning it into the shape that it 00:23:48.319 --> 00:23:52.480 should be and then letting go and expecting that it will fit that new shape. 00:23:52.480 --> 00:23:57.399 The way that you fix a crooked branch is you turn it the way that it should go and you 00:23:57.399 --> 00:23:59.000 hold it there. 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:06.039 And you hold it there for a long, long time until finally it is so, how would you say, 00:24:06.039 --> 00:24:09.480 with you that when you let go, it's bent in the right direction. 00:24:09.480 --> 00:24:12.960 And James Denney suggested that's the same thing that is happening to Paul. 00:24:12.960 --> 00:24:18.440 But it wasn't enough just to be told once, don't be conceited, because that would be 00:24:18.440 --> 00:24:22.640 like turning it in a direction, letting it go, and it just flops right back. 00:24:22.640 --> 00:24:29.960 God and His mercy in effect puts a brace on Paul's heart so that his tendency towards 00:24:29.960 --> 00:24:33.400 pride is constantly under pressure. 00:24:33.400 --> 00:24:39.039 And it may be for the rest of his life so that Paul is held in place in a way that curbs 00:24:39.039 --> 00:24:43.759 the most sinful desires of his heart. 00:24:43.759 --> 00:24:44.759 Denney puts it like this. 00:24:44.759 --> 00:24:50.559 He says, the commonest experience in the human life is that the man whom sickness and pain 00:24:50.559 --> 00:24:56.639 have humbled for the moment, the very moment the constraint is lifted, he resumes his old 00:24:56.639 --> 00:24:57.759 habit. 00:24:57.759 --> 00:25:04.200 He does not think so, but it is really the thorn that has been keeping him right. 00:25:04.200 --> 00:25:09.240 And when its sharpness is blunted, the edge is taken from his conscience too. 00:25:09.240 --> 00:25:15.039 And isn't that the case that so often we experience adversity in our lives, and the effect that 00:25:15.039 --> 00:25:18.920 it has on us, even though we would never wish adversity on ourselves, the effect that it 00:25:18.920 --> 00:25:25.039 has on us is it makes us cry out to God, and it makes us sense viscerally our need for 00:25:25.039 --> 00:25:26.039 Him. 00:25:26.039 --> 00:25:29.279 And we think, now I am turning to my God. 00:25:29.279 --> 00:25:33.279 And the moment that adversity is lifted, we forget all about that. 00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:39.839 And so God in this what you could call a severe mercy, he puts Paul under constant pressure 00:25:39.839 --> 00:25:46.920 so that he is constantly crying out to God for mercy and seeing God meet his needs. 00:25:46.920 --> 00:25:50.039 So God gives Paul a trial that will stay with him. 00:25:50.039 --> 00:25:54.879 But there is a second way that is related, a second way that Paul sees God working in 00:25:54.879 --> 00:25:57.720 his trial. 00:25:57.720 --> 00:26:00.440 He says the result of the thorn. 00:26:00.440 --> 00:26:04.840 What I saw from the result of the thorn in my life, Paul says, is that the power of God 00:26:04.840 --> 00:26:07.039 rested upon me. 00:26:07.039 --> 00:26:09.000 And you see that in verse nine. 00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:15.279 Paul says he prays three times that God would take this away from him. 00:26:15.279 --> 00:26:20.160 And God says those famous words, my grace is sufficient for you. 00:26:20.160 --> 00:26:24.320 My power is made perfect in weakness. 00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:31.559 So God tells Paul in your weakness, you will know my grace and my grace will be what sustains 00:26:31.559 --> 00:26:34.200 you. 00:26:34.200 --> 00:26:38.200 And that tells us something about the nature of grace that you might not often think about 00:26:38.200 --> 00:26:40.879 grace. 00:26:40.879 --> 00:26:48.679 Paul learns experientially this crucial truth that God's grace is powerful. 00:26:48.679 --> 00:26:50.000 God's grace is power. 00:26:50.000 --> 00:26:56.079 So if you look at the wording here of what God actually says, my grace is sufficient 00:26:56.079 --> 00:27:00.039 for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. 00:27:00.039 --> 00:27:03.519 And you see how God is using those terms interchangeably. 00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:07.400 Grace is power and power is grace in Paul's life. 00:27:07.400 --> 00:27:11.599 Now normally when we think about the word grace, we think of God's favor in our lives, 00:27:11.599 --> 00:27:13.319 God's unmarried favor. 00:27:13.319 --> 00:27:15.559 And certainly that's in the background here. 00:27:15.559 --> 00:27:21.319 But when Paul talks about grace here, he's specifically talking about the element of grace 00:27:21.319 --> 00:27:26.319 that is powerful, the element of grace that can work in your life and can do things that 00:27:26.319 --> 00:27:30.960 you can't explain and support you in ways that you can't explain. 00:27:30.960 --> 00:27:36.319 And he's not just talking about himself, right? 00:27:36.319 --> 00:27:42.759 This is a truth that is true of all Christians that if you are in Christ, the fact that God 00:27:42.759 --> 00:27:44.200 has shown you grace. 00:27:44.200 --> 00:27:49.680 The fact that grace is in your life means that you are forgiven of your sins. 00:27:49.680 --> 00:27:55.600 And it also means that God is working powerfully in your life, renewing you day by day and 00:27:55.600 --> 00:28:00.200 upholding you in ways that you may not be aware of. 00:28:00.200 --> 00:28:01.200 And that's good news. 00:28:01.200 --> 00:28:05.440 But I have to say there's always been one word in this passage that I've struggled with, 00:28:05.440 --> 00:28:07.559 which is the word sufficient. 00:28:07.559 --> 00:28:11.559 Because when I think of the word sufficient, I think of the word satisfactory. 00:28:11.559 --> 00:28:17.159 And when I think of the word satisfactory, I'm reminded of the fact that at my university, 00:28:17.159 --> 00:28:22.000 satisfactory is the word that we used to describe the lowest possible grade you can receive on 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:24.879 an exam and still pass. 00:28:24.879 --> 00:28:30.879 Now if you apply that logic to what Paul is talking about here, if that's what he means 00:28:30.879 --> 00:28:35.200 by sufficient, then it makes God sound stingy, doesn't it? 00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:37.039 My grace is sufficient for you. 00:28:37.039 --> 00:28:42.000 I've given you just enough, just enough so that you can hang on. 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:47.039 And to be honest, sometimes experientially, we can feel like we've only been given just 00:28:47.039 --> 00:28:51.519 enough grace to hang on, but that is just a feeling. 00:28:51.519 --> 00:28:55.879 That can't be what Paul means here, because this is the same Paul that says, he says to 00:28:55.879 --> 00:29:00.240 the Ephesians, I hope that God will show you, he will lavish upon you the riches of his 00:29:00.240 --> 00:29:02.559 grace. 00:29:02.559 --> 00:29:07.240 And he also says here in just a few verses, I will boast gladly about God's grace in my 00:29:07.240 --> 00:29:10.919 life. 00:29:10.919 --> 00:29:14.879 Paul seems to think that sufficient here means something else. 00:29:14.879 --> 00:29:20.679 Sufficient here means that when God gives us his grace, and when God says that grace 00:29:20.679 --> 00:29:27.200 is sufficient for us, God gives us all the grace that we could need. 00:29:27.200 --> 00:29:31.599 And that's the power of grace that's being described in this passage, a grace that meets 00:29:31.599 --> 00:29:36.039 all of our deepest desires and needs. 00:29:36.039 --> 00:29:41.359 And then he says, my power is perfected in your weakness. 00:29:41.359 --> 00:29:48.240 Now I struggled with understanding this, because you certainly don't want to say, right, that 00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:52.240 God needs weakness for his power to be perfect. 00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:58.679 It's not like God's power is imperfect, and then it becomes perfect by our weakness existing. 00:29:58.680 --> 00:30:02.160 I think the best way that I could think to describe it was like this. 00:30:02.160 --> 00:30:04.560 Where I come from is tornado land. 00:30:04.560 --> 00:30:08.080 It's not the worst tornado land in the US, but there are tornadoes and they're a real 00:30:08.080 --> 00:30:10.360 danger. 00:30:10.360 --> 00:30:14.720 And your first prayer when you live in a place like I do is that you'll never have to come 00:30:14.720 --> 00:30:16.640 face to face with a tornado. 00:30:16.640 --> 00:30:22.080 But your second prayer is that if you do, that your house will be strong enough. 00:30:22.080 --> 00:30:26.360 And the things that you can't see in the house, the beams and the foundation, will be strong 00:30:26.359 --> 00:30:31.519 enough to hold the house up and keep you safe. 00:30:31.519 --> 00:30:37.479 And when the tornado, it's only when the tornado hits your home that you finally see the true 00:30:37.479 --> 00:30:45.479 strength of all the supports and all the foundations that aren't obvious in your day-to-day life. 00:30:45.479 --> 00:30:48.399 Now those beams and those supports are always there. 00:30:48.399 --> 00:30:51.759 They're always upholding the house nonstop. 00:30:51.759 --> 00:30:58.759 But it's only when the big bad storm comes that you can truly see what is the power of 00:30:58.759 --> 00:31:02.359 those foundations and of those beams. 00:31:02.359 --> 00:31:06.759 And I think there's a similar idea to what is going on here when Paul says, when God 00:31:06.759 --> 00:31:11.359 says, my power is made perfect in weakness. 00:31:11.359 --> 00:31:17.559 God's power doesn't go from being imperfect to perfect through our weakness, but his power 00:31:17.559 --> 00:31:22.599 goes from being less evident to more evident in our weakness. 00:31:22.599 --> 00:31:28.240 So just like a storm is the thing that you hope never happens, but it's also the very 00:31:28.240 --> 00:31:33.480 thing that exposes how truly powerful your house is. 00:31:33.480 --> 00:31:38.119 The thorn for Paul was the thing that he hoped would never happen, but it was also the very 00:31:38.119 --> 00:31:46.079 thing that made visible to the world and visible to himself just how powerful God's grace was. 00:31:46.079 --> 00:31:50.759 God's grace was always upholding him, never, it was always upholding him, but only when 00:31:50.759 --> 00:31:54.679 the storm came could Paul truly see how powerful it was. 00:31:54.679 --> 00:31:58.279 Could he appreciate how powerful it was? 00:31:58.279 --> 00:32:03.439 So this is part of the purpose in Paul's thorn, that it leaves him weak and in leaving 00:32:03.439 --> 00:32:10.879 him weak, he more and more is allowed to see the power of God's grace in his life. 00:32:10.879 --> 00:32:14.439 So I'm working towards a close here very quickly. 00:32:14.440 --> 00:32:18.120 And I want to come back to the very reason that I said that this whole passage existed 00:32:18.120 --> 00:32:27.320 in the first place, which is that Paul is addressing the church about these false apostles 00:32:27.320 --> 00:32:31.920 who have made a name for themselves and who have established themselves by boasting about 00:32:31.920 --> 00:32:37.799 their greatness and by trying to humiliate Paul for his weakness, whatever those weaknesses 00:32:37.799 --> 00:32:40.279 are. 00:32:40.279 --> 00:32:46.960 And the note that Paul ends on here when he says, I will boast about my weaknesses, the 00:32:46.960 --> 00:32:52.720 note that he ends on is not defensive, it's subversive, because he in effect, he says, 00:32:52.720 --> 00:32:59.599 these men, they call me weak in order to dismiss me as if my weaknesses are the very things 00:32:59.599 --> 00:33:01.039 for which I should be ashamed. 00:33:01.039 --> 00:33:06.759 And Paul says, actually I look at my weaknesses and those are the very things, those are the 00:33:06.759 --> 00:33:13.119 only things that I see in my life that I want to boast about, because it's in my weaknesses 00:33:13.119 --> 00:33:19.039 that I can boast about my savior and about the way that he meets all of my needs. 00:33:19.039 --> 00:33:24.200 And Paul is teaching a universal lesson here in a specific context. 00:33:24.200 --> 00:33:33.119 He's implying that what it means to be a true apostle is to be one who boasts extravagantly 00:33:33.119 --> 00:33:36.640 about God's grace in our weaknesses. 00:33:36.640 --> 00:33:40.759 And of course, if that's true about being an apostle, then it's true about being a Christian. 00:33:40.759 --> 00:33:45.920 That part of what it means to be a Christian is that we are people who we do boast. 00:33:45.920 --> 00:33:51.000 But the only thing that we boast in is the grace of God that has been shown to us to 00:33:51.000 --> 00:33:58.160 meet the very places in us which are the most weak. 00:33:58.160 --> 00:34:02.520 I really enjoyed thinking about how a passage like this could be mishandled. 00:34:02.519 --> 00:34:07.079 And I thought about how someone could read this and say, you know what, if God really 00:34:07.079 --> 00:34:10.400 is glorified in weaknesses, then maybe we should make sure that all of our leaders are 00:34:10.400 --> 00:34:12.079 especially weak. 00:34:12.079 --> 00:34:15.360 And I thought about the way that I assign the kids church rhoda. 00:34:15.360 --> 00:34:20.920 And I thought maybe God would be most glorified if I chose people who I knew would be terrible 00:34:20.920 --> 00:34:22.519 at this job. 00:34:22.519 --> 00:34:27.800 So that God could be glorified and that we could just, let's just see what God does with 00:34:27.800 --> 00:34:30.960 all of our weak teachers. 00:34:30.960 --> 00:34:34.639 For all you know that's what I'm already doing. 00:34:34.639 --> 00:34:39.440 But I think that's obviously not what this passage is getting at. 00:34:39.440 --> 00:34:44.519 But I think what this passage could mean is that when our leaders are leading and when 00:34:44.519 --> 00:34:49.960 our teachers are downstairs teaching the kids, they're constantly and in their own way in 00:34:49.960 --> 00:34:56.280 different ways teaching these children about what it means that all of us are weak and 00:34:56.280 --> 00:35:01.920 all of us need to be upheld by God's grace and that far from being something to be embarrassed 00:35:01.920 --> 00:35:04.960 about, that's the very thing that defines us as Christians. 00:35:04.960 --> 00:35:11.200 We are all here and our only right to be here is to claim to you people who need the grace 00:35:11.200 --> 00:35:14.480 of Jesus Christ in our lives. 00:35:14.480 --> 00:35:18.040 And if you don't believe that, maybe you're a false apostle. 00:35:18.040 --> 00:35:22.519 But if you do believe that, you're a welcome here and you're welcome to call on the grace 00:35:22.519 --> 00:35:26.960 of Jesus Christ because his grace is sufficient for us. 00:35:26.960 --> 00:35:29.759 Let's pray. 00:35:29.759 --> 00:35:33.159 Heavenly Father, we praise you for your grace. 00:35:33.159 --> 00:35:40.880 We pray that we would never step on your grace, that we would never mock it, but that we would 00:35:40.880 --> 00:35:49.400 lean into it, that we would call to you for support and that we would see that far from 00:35:49.400 --> 00:35:54.680 looking for you to bring grace into our lives that we would see that you have already been 00:35:54.680 --> 00:35:57.559 gracious to us, Lord. 00:35:57.559 --> 00:36:02.320 Help us to rest in what we already know to be true about you and your sufficient grace. 00:36:02.320 --> 00:36:04.000 In your son's name we pray. 00:36:04.000 --> 00:36:20.000 Amen.