2 Corinthians 1 (Part 2) :8-11 - The Apostle Paul and Suffering

second Corinthians were in chapter 1 this is the second part of chapter 1 we started it last week and excited to kind of be in the new book study and we're going to take about four whole verses today I'm back in two slow mode just wanted you to know second Corinthians chapter 1 beginning at verse 8 goes like this for we do not want you to be unaware brothers of the affliction we experienced in Asia for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself indeed we felt that we had received the sentence of death but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead he delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again you also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many let's stop there and let's pray thank you Father for this time in your word may it be fruitful and along those lines father we pray that you would open our hearts to hear your voice to respond appropriately and then Lord to put this into practice in our lives use this Lord to bring great instruction and insight we ask it in Jesus name Amen you know last week when we started our study of 2nd Corinthians we focused on the first seven verses of what I shared with you is a very very personal letter by the Apostle Paul to the Corinthian church and we saw how Paul spoke in those first verses about comfort he talked about God as the God of all comfort and he talked about just that that whole topic and and we noted as we looked at it that Paul looked at trials differently than you and I look at trials I brought out last week how when I'm going through a hard time I see it as something that's just making me miserable but Paul saw trials in his life as something that would help equip him when he received the comfort of the lord to then turn around and give that come to other people he literally looked at difficulties that way how is this going to help me bless other people and so forth and now the Apostle begins to open up to these folks in Corinth about just how bad things were in Asia and when he talks about Asia he's talking about Asia Minor and and he's telling that how awful their suffering was in Asia Minor and and you'll notice here in verse 8 he begins again by saying we don't want you to be unaware your Bible may say ignorant of the afflictions or the suffering that we experienced there in Asia Minor he's and look what it goes on to say he says for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself and then he just as if that isn't dramatic enough he says it we actually felt you know the sentence of death and that's a very very strong statement by the Apostle but he's being uncharacteristically transparent with these people and there's we're going to see that purpose unfold as we go through 2nd Corinthians Paul often would talk in his letters about his suffering but he never talked like this this is this is this is new and and he's telling them just well does this is the worst thing that's ever happened he says guys I just want you to know that when we were in Asia Minor this was the worst thing that ever happened to us there's this wonderful rendition of the Bible that's been around for since the 40's called the Phillips translation some of you might have heard of it it's a little bit weird to read because there's no verse numbers in it but the Phillips translation has a really interesting take on this verse let me show you this on the screen it goes like this at that time we were completely overwhelmed the burden was more than we could bear in fact we told ourselves that this was the EM kind of just lays it out in very clear terms doesn't it how Paul felt about the way they'd been suffering and you know in the whole Greek language there are basically ten were basic words general words that are translated or used to describe suffering Paul uses five of them in this letter alone five of the ten you know that cover the whole Greek language and the one that he uses most frequently in this book is a Greek word that that that speaks of suffering as being confined and under pressure I don't know if you can relate to that too being feeling like you're confined and under pressure push down press down and stuffed in no air to breathe no where to move and you just feel trapped have you ever been in that sort of a place that's the essence of what this one one of those just one of the words that he uses means and it's clear that the Apostle Paul's life was a life of pain it was a hard difficult life and he's going to focus in this letter on his pain we're going to talk a lot about pain in our study of second Corinthians but what makes this letter so wonderful is that the Apostle Paul is going to teach us how to see our pain and our suffering through God's perspective because you see that's something we don't usually do and frankly I believe it's the secret to dealing with pain and difficulty the way you and I see our pain is we see it through our own eyes and that's all we see and that's the way we relate it to others it's the way we view it in our own hearts and when we try to view the difficulty of our lives the painful situations of our lives through our own vision through our own ability to see it it becomes incredibly oppressive and and burdensome and you talk about being depressed I mean you've got good reason to be depressed you're looking at the painful situations of your life through your eyes it will always be oppressive and Paul is going to show us in this letter how to lift up our eyes and to see our pain and our challenges and our difficulties and our trials through the lens of God's perspective you know one of my you guys some of you been around here long enough you know that one of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 73 don't turn there but the reason I like it so much is because it's so real and the writer of that Psalm as you read through it he admits that he got his eyes off the Lord and he was processing life through his own eyes and what he was doing was he was looking around him and he was noticing all the people who were godless and what that basically means is people that don't give a rip about God they just don't care they you know and he was looking at all of his neighbors and so forth and that you know never thought twice about God and he was taking note of the fact their lives are good it's like they never suffer and then he would look at his own life and the suffering that he was going through and the lives of other believers and the suffering that they were going through and he was going wait a minute we got a disconnect here something is wrong here and he talks about how he pondered this idea to the point that it really began to mess with his mind and and and he admits something about pondering it in his own ability let me put this part of it up on the screen from Psalm 73 he says when I tried to understand all this it was oppressive to me notice what he's saying there when I tried to understand all this it was oppressive from my perspective in other words when I tried to make sense of it through the lens of my ability to comprehend all that's happening in my life I was instead of being relieved I was oppressed right so confusing so oppressive and I think a lot of people a lot of believers even tend to kind of walk around trying to make sense of suffering with their own under standing with our own mind with their own perspective you know and it's not working in case you were wondering it's not working we're not getting anywhere we're spinning our wheels and we're just getting discouraged and depressed the other thing that about this passage that we're looking at here this morning and what we're going to be seeing standing into this book is that this this what Paul is saying here is it is a wonderful reminder to you and I that the level of difficulty that God might allow in our lives can easily surpass our ability to endure it notice what Paul says again if you look with me in your Bible in the middle of verse 8 he says we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength or as the NIV says we were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure so that we despaired even of life and you guys I hope you are able to deduce what that means it means God will give you more than you can bear I know what you've heard and you know sue and I have really enjoyed watching that Paul Mark series when calls the heart some of you guys might have seen it too but I got to tell you something there frequent quotes from the Bible leave something to be desired they are constantly saying to one another well just remember God will never give you more than you can bear and I want to scream at the TV and I think I've even done it a few times that's not enough Bible you know I want to say and Sue and I always kind of look at each other and roll our eyes whenever they whenever they say that because you know it's a it's a common belief but Paul says right here in second Corinthians God gave us more than we could bear it was far beyond our ability to bear it was far beyond our ability to endure plus when it comes to one calls the heart I don't like the fact that the pastor occasionally pops into the saloon for a drink but that's another message altogether and we'll just deal with that at a different time anyway the Apostle Paul makes it clear in this passage and this is the point that he his team were allowed to experience a level of suffering that easily extended beyond their ability to endure and I know that's probably not the good news you were hoping that I would bring but I want you to see here that in the second half of verse 9 Paul explains why look good look with me there the second half of the verse verse 9 he says but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God or as the New King James says that we should not trust in ourselves but in God and the idea here people this is important the idea here is that suffering really of any kind is a constant reminder to you and I that we need God to carry such things because we can't carry them ourselves oh I don't know what kind of arrogance our dopey headedness I'm not sure that's a word it takes for us to think that we can handle all of these things in our own strength and power but we can't we can't handle them have you ever noticed you guys that when life is going well and things are kind of on cruise it's just so easy to depend on yourself and we get into that routine of just you know an issue comes up but it's not a big issue because life's going pretty well and so what do I do I basically just kind of figure things out on my own I do it my own way I'm Lord of my own life in a very real sense of the word oh yeah sure I'm still coming to church and saying Jesus you are Lord I might even be singing it in the songs but when it comes to my day-to-day life I'm in charge but see I'm not really thinking much about it because life's not that bad and I can deal with this stuff right and so I basically kind of step into the driver's seat and if we're going to be brutally honest with ourselves we're going to admit that the majority of us really only turn to God to help fix things when we run out of ideas of our own right but that's the point of trials and difficulties they are a reminder to you and I that we're not just power when we've run out of ideas we're always powerless fundamentally you know at the baseline of life you and I it's it's a fantasy it's a figment of our imagination that we're really able to kind of work things out in our life we only come to realize it when we come to the end of ourselves when I come to the end of my own you know solutions I tried everything I can do nothing works well I guess it's time to turn to God you know he's kind of my ace up my sleeve sort of a sort of a thing but I want to remind you here in this passage that we're looking at who Paul trusted in in the face of his own trials and suffering you might say well I sees you first of all it's God yeah but look what he says look at the end of verse 9 he says who did he trust God who raises the dead did you catch that it wasn't just it wasn't just and so we're trusting in God he says we're trusting in you know so that we might trust in God who raises the dead doesn't that kind of change sort of your understanding or your view of him when you call him that you can say to people I'm just trusting in God or you can say the people I'm trusting in God who raises the dead do you understand how that just kind of like whew brings the intensity up of of who you're trusting in because you know we say trust in God all the time and it almost kind of becomes this meaningless kind of cliche phrase well just trust in God are you trusting in God yeah let's all trust in God hey got a bumper sticker trust in God and my money says In God We Trust da-da-da-da-dah it just becomes kind of this meaningless noise but try saying this next time you know what I choose to trust in the God who raises the dead why is that significant because Paul is making a point here he's saying he's powerful and he's able right God who raises the dead it's kind of just that reminder that he can do something that you can't you know what I'm going to trust in the God who raises the dead because you know there's a lot of things in life that are dead and we need God to raise them up and we can't do it ourselves and check out this declaration of faith that Paul gives here in verse 10 this is this is a great great statement he says he delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us on him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again and this is what you have to love about the Apostle Paul you know he endured what he admitted here was the worst event of suffering in his life these his brothers we don't want you to be unaware of just how bad it got it was so bad that we literally thought we were going to die in fact I think we probably would have welcomed down but after that much difficulty Paul comes back and he goes he had he not only delivered us he's going to keep delivering us I have every every hope that he will deliver us again in other words he emerged from this trial with greater faith than he went into a will you see I think that that's a very important thing for us to look at instead of this trial weakening his faith it actually strengthened his faith and this is what we call hope it's biblical hope and I want to make a point about biblical hope and and and I felt like this point was important enough to actually put it up on the screen so you could read it together biblical hope is defined as an expression of absolute confidence in God's promises for the future predicated on his faithfulness in the past and I want to leave that up for just a minute so that we can just you can just let it kind of sink in for those of you that are kind of visual like me it's nice to see it biblical hope is defined as the expression or as an expression of absolute confidence in God's promises for the future why because it's predicated on the fact that he has been faithful in the past Biblical Hope and I call it biblical hope for a very specific reason because we need to set it apart from what you and I often call Hope which is nothing more than wishful thinking Americanized usage of the word hope is is something that we I sure hope the weather is going to be nice tomorrow when we go on our hike but I really don't have any expectation necessarily I'm just it's just kind of a pie in the sky well I hope right that's not biblical hope again biblical hope is predicated upon the fact that God has been faithful Lord you've been given when you're reading through the Psalms are you ever struck by how often in the midst of David's most poignant sensitive passion filled prayers for deliverance he also talks about how God has delivered him in the past he'll actually make reference in his prayers to God's faithfulness past and then he applies that to his situation present and then going forward right we often don't do that one of the most powerful things the Lord spoke to me personally at one point was a simple question that the Holy Spirit just dropped in my heart one day while I was praying and he said this to me have I not proven myself faithful as simple as that and it was enough of a question that that that it stuck with me and it rattled me to the point where I've had to answer that question over and over and over again and say yes Lord you have proven yourself faithful it doesn't mean I'm not an idiot and I'm still not going to worry sometimes but please Lord don't let my lack of faith affect the reality of the true picture of what you've done in my life because you know what you have then faithful and you have proven yourself so so now as we as we think about this idea of hope which is predicated on God's faithfulness I want you to see one of the characteristics that Paul gives us here of Biblical hope look at verse 11 you also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf or the blessing granted us through the prayers of many now you read that verse and you think about what Paul just got done saying what he just got done saying was God delivered us he will keep delivering us right but then what's the next thing he asks them to do pray for him did you catch that now some people are going to think that wait a minute I think we just see a kink in Paul's armor because he made this declaration of faith in God my hope is in God at the very next thing he does is he goes so pray for us would ya because then as God delivers us doesn't add it up you kind of think to yourself wait a minute what if he really truly had hope in God wouldn't he just know that God's going to take care of him and not need to ask them to pray do you see well Paul's didn't see any contradiction here in on the one hand expressing hope God will deliver us and then saying now you guys pray for us he didn't see a contradiction there and I don't think we should either because what we're seeing here is that Hope biblical hope is not passive it's active and what we mean by that is it doesn't just sit around you know waiting for something to happen outside of me it's involved in the process of reaching that goal which is the fulfillment of God's promise let hear me people this is important not involved to the point that I was involved before which was manipulating circumstances and fixing things in my own strength that's different that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about involved by prayer and faith and speaking the truth in faith and in love and so forth that's an active involvement there's nothing wrong with you saying to someone when you're going through a difficult season pray for me would you pray for me because that's not a that's not an admission on your part that I really don't have my hope in God in fact it's it's really buttressing that idea that your hope is in God because your hope is in God you're asking for prayer right you're not asking for solutions from that person you're not saying what would you do if you were in my place what would you how would you fix this problem that's not what you're doing you're saying let's pray would you pray right I think some people think that asking for prayer somehow expresses that I'm really not putting my hope in God or something which is really ridiculous Paul didn't see any contradiction here he says in verse 9 hey our hope is in God he delivered us and he will delivered us and then in verse 10 now pray for us see that active element of putting our hope in God fact let me show you this from another passage from Philippians chapter 1 verse 19 it goes like this for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance did you see in that single verse he talks about his faith and he talks about the active element of his faith through prayer and the Spirit of Christ he says I know right I know that's faith I know that he will deliver I know he will now I know also that there's going to be this active element your prayer the spirit of Jesus you with me it's very very important that we see that because we've been kind of sold a weird bill of goods by certain preachers and teachers over the years that basically kind of tell us that you know real faith you know or they try to define real faith and it just gets wacky it really does real faith is active and that's what I want you to see here and hope that is based in the promises of God is active so let's be active with our faith right let's be active with our hope you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

Views: 15,374

Rating: 4.8086958 out of 5

Keywords: Bible, Bible teaching, Thru-the-Bible, verse by verse, Calvary Chapel, Bible study, Christianity, New Testament, Old Testament, Suffering

Id: ErNb-EUQspw

Length: 24min 56sec (1496 seconds)

Published: Sun May 28 2017