2 Corinthians 12 (Part 1) Strength in Weakness

second Corinthians chapter 12 we're making our way through Paul's letter second letter to the Corinthians and we're in the twelfth chapter so you can see where we're coming down to the end here just it ends after chapter 13 so and we are going to take the first 10 verses of the chapter and oh what 10 verses they are are you ready buckle up Paul writes I must go on boasting though there's nothing to be gained by it I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven whether in the body or out of the body I do not know God knows and I know that this man was caught up into paradise whether in the body or out of the body I do not know God knows and he heard things that cannot be told which man may not utter on behalf of this man I will boast but on my own behalf I will not boast except of my weaknesses though if I should wish to boast I would not be a fool for I would be speaking the truth but I refrain from it so that no one may think more of me then he sees in me or hears from me so to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations a thorn was given me in the flesh a messenger of Satan to harassed me to keep me from becoming conceited three times I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should leave me but he said to me my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me for the sake of Christ then I am content with weaknesses insults hardships persecutions and calamities for when I am weak then I am strong stop there let's pray Heavenly Father I know that you have some important things to say to your children today and Lord I am such an unworthy vessel to speak these things and yet lord I pray in Jesus name that you would use me to minister your word and that you would open all of our hearts to hear your voice we look to you this morning and just pray for the ministry of your grace to flow in this place touch every heart minister hope we ask it in Jesus precious name Amen Paul's been engaging in this what he would refer to as foolish boasting because the Corinthian church had been listening to the boastings of these Jewish legalists Paul referred to as false apostles who had made their way into the Corinthian church and were talking themselves up and talking Paul down and so Paul is now defending his ministry and he said alright you want to do a little boasting fine we'll do a little boasting but he made it very clear this is not as the Lord would have me to speak and in the last chapter he boasted about all of the difficulties and hardships and challenges that he had endured as an apostle ministering for the Lord but he goes on now and things begin to change here in chapter 12 as he says in verse 2 he says I know a man you'll notice here in Christ and that just speaks of a believer who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven now so as he speaks of this man who is obviously Paul who for he says 14 years ago endured you know these revelations of the Lord and was caught up to God he you'll notice he begins to speak in the third person he doesn't say this happened to me although it's obvious that this happened to him because as he gets into the latter part of what we're looking at today he says because of these surpassingly great revelations God gave me a thorn in the flesh so obviously he's talking about himself he's okay talking about himself when he when he refers to getting a thorn in the flesh but he's uncomfortable too saying it's me when he refers to these great revelations and these great visions it's almost like he's speaking of himself as just an onlooker you know because this whole thing of boasting really left Paul kind of dry anyway he didn't want to do it he didn't want to speak this way but he's speaking anyway to these people about what the Lord had done in his life because no doubt these false apostles were probably boasting about revelations from God and insights from the Lord and he wanted them to know that I too have received these things but he's so uncomfortable talking about it he has to refer to himself in the third person and you'll notice that he says that he knows someone who was transported against him transported into the third heaven well you say well what is the third heaven well Paul identifies it in the very next verse if you look in verse three with me he says and I know that this man was caught up into paradise so Paul himself identifies what the third heaven is it's paradise and he repeats in this verse that he's unsure whether he went there in his body or whether he was out of his body which by the way I like that statement and I'll explain why in in a bit but first I want to address this this reference to the third heaven what is the third heaven are we talking about levels of heaven where if you if you live a better life or or a more righteous life or a more sanctified life you have a higher level of heaven into which you are granted know that that is not it at all there are I'll tell you you know the Bible makes it clear that there are different rewards in heaven - based on how we've lived our lives and how we've used what God has given us you know for the kingdom was for his glory and that sort of thing we know that but levels of heaven know this does not teach this idea that the better life you live the higher level of heaven you attain essentially the Bible speaks of three levels that it calls heaven but the Bible also refers to the heaven of heavens because you see in the Bible particularly you go back in the Old Testament you will find that heaven is a word that is also used to describe just the sky in the heavens you know we can you and I it's where you and I see birds and jet planes flying it's it's that atmosphere above the earth but the Bible calls that the heavens above the earth okay and then there's the stellar heaven that heaven which contains the planetary bodies the Sun and stars and moon and and so forth and so on and then the Old Testament refers to the heaven of heavens which is the place of God's throne the place where God you know and and the angels if you will are that third heaven of heavens the unseen realm paradise where Jesus promised you'll remember the thief on the cross that he would be that very day with Jesus this day Jesus said you will be with me in paradise Paul says that third heaven is paradise he tells that us very clearly that in verses two and three so this is what we refer to as the present heaven now we call it the present heaven because the Bible says one day it's going to pass away - literally the very place where God lives where you know where people go now people talk about you know when I die and go to heaven do you know that when if you die before the Lord returns yeah you're going to go to the you're gonna go to the third heaven you're gonna go into the presence of the Lord you're gonna go to paradise but you know it's not going to be paradise always you know that it's that's going to actually pass away and there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth that is going to be one day created let me show you a couple of passages that speak of this Revelation chapter 21 verse 1 says then I saw a new heaven and a new earth and it tells us for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more so John is telling us here in this revelation of the end of all things that there is coming a time when heaven and earth will literally pass away and a new heaven and earth will be created in which God and man will dwell together look at what Peter says also 2nd Peter 3:7 it says by the same word the present heavens and earth and that's where we get our idea of the present heaven he says are reserved for fire being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men so interesting passages huh about the passing away of not only the earth but the present heaven so the logical question here is how do we know these passages refer to paradise being destroyed and maybe maybe he's just talking about the atmosphere maybe he's just talking about the heaven of the sky that that that you know is going to be destroyed since we know that heaven can refer to the sky and in fact all of space well we know it because of what something else we see in the book of Revelation let me show you that also from revelation 21:3 it says and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling place of God is with man he will dwell with them and they will be his people and God Himself will be with them as their God the point of this passage here in Revelation is that the destruction of the present earth and the present heaven will bring the creation of a new heaven and a new earth which will be merged and God's dwelling will be with man right now we say God dwells in heaven men dwell on earth even though the Lord is with us in a very real and genuine way but there's coming a time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth and they will be one can you imagine that heaven well the fact of the matter is you can't I mean and I've got a pretty wild imagination and I struggle with this one because having an earth being one are you kidding this is weird I mean it even sounds a little strange doesn't it but that's what the Bible says right pretty cool okay fairly long explanation of what the third heaven is but that's that's me there we go all right let's read verse three and four again because we want to see what else that God's got for us here he says and I know that this man was caught up into paradise whether in the body or out of the body I do not know God knows and he heard things that cannot be told which man may not utter all right again Paul mentions whether during this revelation he he says I don't know whether I was physically present while I was in paradise or whether I was spiritually president or whether it was just my soul and spirit that was in the presence of the Lord Jesus I really don't know I'm not I'm not really sure and the reason I said earlier that I like that comment is because it speaks of a greater physicality to the realm of heaven then I think we often consider you know we tend to think of earth as made up of physical things you know like stuff we can feel and smell and touch I guess that's feel isn't it and here and you know what I'm saying and then and then we think of heaven going to heaven as kind of like kind of like this ethereal nothingness like and you know because of that I think a lot of people don't necessarily look forward to heaven because you know we we relate on such a physical level to things that we tend to kind of think I like this I like do you guys happen to drive when you're coming in today did you happen to notice look to the north and see that there's snow on the mountains to the north part of me is delighted by that and part of me is like I'm not ready for winter but it's beautiful it's beautiful I look at the fall the autumn and the colors are magnificent and we tend to think of you know this is really cool and we share pictures on Facebook and this and that look how beautiful this tree is look and then we think about you know and then one day we're gonna go to heaven I think a lot of people think it's gonna be in black and white it's like it's gonna be kind of like an old classic movie you know where we just kind of move in slow motion and we're not really sure if we even recognize either anybody I just had a somebody emailed me just this last week you know and just said do you think we're gonna recognize each other in heaven it's like are you kidding of course we're gonna recognize each other do you think heaven is going to be anything less than Earth it's gonna be earth turned way up better it's going to be I mean the colors the magnificence the joy the appreciation the delight you know everything that earth is and Earth is a lot of those things for us even though we live in a fallen Kingdom the fallen kingdom of man there's still this residue of incredible beauty I mean drive through Teton National Park and tell me that you know the places and just absolutely drop-dead gorgeous or any number of other places in the world you think you think heaven is gonna be less than that you think heaven is gonna be oh what a letdown man we're in heaven yeah yeah just back on earth where things were pretty you know this is just heaven give me my harp sit on a cloud for eternity and play the same old song I mean can you imagine why people don't look forward to it so this idea that heaven is everything spiritual where earth is everything physical I think what we're seeing here is that that's not really what the Bible communicates I mean here Paul was completely unaware of whether he was actually in the body or out of the body while in paradise he he was and what that means is I may have actually been there physically I don't know God knows but I don't know so that tells me that paradise isn't so different in terms of the physicality of the environment right I mean when you read the book of Revelation it's it's clear that John was transported into paradise and saw things in heaven and so forth is on but have you ever noticed that there are aspects of physicality that attend his account to what's kind of what he sees and hears and and so forth and experience is happening there for example he describes eating he's handed a scroll and he eats it so he describes literally consuming something and he tells you that what it tasted like it tasted you know a significant way he said it tasted good but then he also describes the sour stomach he got from it so he describes things using terms of physicality so you kind of say to yourself no wonder Paul was kind of confused you know in this whole thing as to whether or not he was actually there physically in heaven John also talks about falling down at the feet of an angel remember that he says I fell down at his feet well first of all it's pretty tough to fall down without a body and second of all you can't fall down at somebody's beat feet if they don't have some kind of physicality related to their to their being and and and you know so do you understand what I'm saying here there are all these references that we see in heaven so we see and and that and that delights me it really does it delights me but Paul wasn't confused about everything there was one thing he was very sure of and that is that he had heard things while he was there that he shouldn't even that no man could mention or utter and apparently this is somewhat common with people who are given a revelation of heaven because it happened to some others let me show you a couple of passages on the screen it happened to Daniel look at this from Daniel chapter 12 I heard but I did not understand then I said oh my lord what shall be the outcome of these things and he said go your way Daniel for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end in other words this is not to be repeated and it also happened to John in his revelation of Jesus check this out from Revelation 10 and when the seven thunders had sounded I was about to write but I heard a voice from heaven saying seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down so you see this is kind of common where someone is is is receives a revelation from God but it is not all to be expressed you know there are things that need to be held back so Paul says in verse five look it with me again in your Bible he says on behalf of this man I will boast but on my own behalf I will not boast except of my weaknesses though if I should wish to boast I would not be a fool for I would be speaking the truth but I refrain from it so then look at this is very important here that you see this so that no one may think more of me then he sees in me or hears from me and I really like what Paul is saying here in these couple of verses because he implies here first of all that there's a whole lot more he could have said about this experience of being caught up to paradise if he was able there's a whole lot more I could share he's basically saying to us there's a and and as a request of that he's saying there's a whole lot more I could say in defense of my Apostleship if I wanted to right but he wanted to be careful less he create a sense of awe and misplaced appreciation that extended simply beyond his life and his message here's my point and I think this is Paul's point we can always draw a crowd with sensationalism but how many how often can we draw a crowd with the message of Jesus Christ that draws only a special crowd when you when you get up and you just start talking about Jesus hey can I tell you what Jesus did for you you know you're gonna you're gonna get people you know most of the people are gonna go uh no but thanks in fact they might even leave off the thanks but if you get up and you start telling people about some amazing sensational something that happened in your life you guys aren't gonna believe this and you start telling about angel explained people are gonna do and they're gonna you know be all excited and and so forth and I think just about in any culture that's the case where we just have this propensity to gravitate toward people with a sensational story in fact obviously it's true today we see rather than reporting of news today on TV we see more the the sensationalizing of events than we do the actual reporting of news but you know what sensational things have always drawn a crowd what what what what Paul is saying here and he could have done that you know he could have talked about all the amazing things kind of reminds me you know of that circus Hawker you know they come to town before the circus come see the man that can swallow a saga Norden he can breathe flames out of his mouth or something and then people who and so they want to pay and come and see the circus I suppose Paul could have probably gone out in the city square and said I was once bit by a venomous snake and I just shook it off into the fire buddy wants to come hear that story pretty cool I suppose there's probably if he could have done that you know come see the man you know that was taken up to the third heaven and heard inexpressible Paul never wanted to do that and that's what he's saying in these verses he's saying I I never wanted to to say these things I never wanted to even begin to express these things because I didn't want you to think more of me than what was warranted nor I didn't I didn't want that to eclipse the message you see the message of Jesus I think some Christians and churches have even kind of gotten caught up in the excitement of things that are sensational and Jesus gets lost in the whole thing I mean good if the source of things happened to somebody today like they happened to Paul they'd probably write a book and have a book tour you know my journey to paradise in fact by paul of tarsus you know forward by Peter the fisherman Paul didn't want that sort of thing although I think that doesn't mean it wasn't tempted I don't think it means it wasn't he wasn't tempted look what he admits in verse seven he says to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations obviously that were given to him a thorn was given me in the flesh he even refers to it as a messenger of Satan and he says why it was given to harass me to keep me from becoming conceited all right stop there for just a moment Paul tells us here in this verse that God allowed some kind of ailment to plague him in some way and it appears to be physical he doesn't tell us what it is but it appears to be physical because he refers to it as a thorn in the flesh okay that's really all he tells us what it was exactly we have no idea here what we do know Paul wanted it gone and he says in fact in verse eight look with me in your Bible three times I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should leave me and by the way this is saying something for the Apostle Paul I think this man was pretty accustomed to suffering he was pretty accustomed to being in difficult and uncomfortable situations and I think he pretty much kind of rolled it up into I'm an apostle and and and and that sort of thing but this situation was so problematic to him that he asked the Lord not once but three times to take it from him and the largest response to Paul is what's going to take up the remainder of our time here this morning verse 9 but he said to me my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness by the way I'm guessing that's probably not the response Paul was looking for I mean just saying because after all is said and done that answer means no make no mistake about it God said no Lord please take this thing from me no but I want you to notice that God didn't just say no he gave Paul a very important message and that message is so important that it continues to be God's answer for believers who suffer today and that message is my grace is sufficient for you and right away we notice some important things about that such as God says my grace is sufficient for you he doesn't say my grace will be sufficient for you or my grace could be sufficient for you he says it is sufficient that means that you and I don't have to ask him for a sufficiency of Grace it is already operational in our lives if we are willing to lay hold of we'll talk about how in just a bit but at this point we need to remember what we're talking about when we talk about grace because when when God says to Paul my grace is sufficient for you that might be confusing to some of us we talked about this back in chapter 8 because many times we think of grace simply as unmerited favor but in this context Paul is talking about grace that enables in other words he's talking do you guys remember back in chapter 8 he talked about he said hey I guys I want you just to know about the churches in Macedonia they were incredible because they gave out of their poverty they gave an offering to the suffering believers in Judea out of their poverty and he said it was God's grace so what we see in that passage and we talked about it back then is that God's grace in this context is grace that enables it's grace that empowers us to do okay or to be what God has called us to do or to be alright but here's the important question Paul says my grace or the Lord said to Paul rather my grace is sufficient for you so if that is universally available to all believers how do we activate it right how do we activate it it's kind of like getting one of those cards you know in the mail that you have to call and activate it's yours but before you can use it it has to be activated usually that means calling a number going through some menu or getting online or doing something well in the same way this grace that empowers has to be activated in our lives and I want you to notice how it happens verse 9 you ready but he said to me my grace is sufficient for you here's the activation key for my power is made perfect in weakness there it is guys so let's close in prayer no I'm just kidding I mean we've all read this before right we've already my power is made perfect in weakness but we're kind of left alike huh what is he exactly saying here he's saying that the reason that he allowed Paul to suffer all the difficulties the harassing torment of what that thorn in the flesh was to him because of the end result the end result of the suffering was that Paul remained weak he remained he was literally put in a weakened condition because of it but that was a good thing because in his weakness the grace of God enabled and empowered him in amazing ways to do things that otherwise Paul would not have been able to do you with me it's kind of like God is saying to Paul listen buddy I want you to just remember something I know I haven't given you what you asked for but I've given you what you need in fact what you need the most because the best way for my power and my strength to be operational in your life is for you my son to be kept in a place of weakness that is the best way to activate this grace that enables so what's Paul's conclusion in all of this I'm in the middle of verse 9 look with me there middle of verse 9 Paul says therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses he says so that why here's the point so that the power of Christ may rest upon me for the sake of Christ and I'm content with weaknesses he says insults hardships persecutions and calamities for when I am weak then I am strong by the way does that last phrase sound weird to you it should because it is grammatically incorrect but you know Paul this care because he's speaking the truth he's not speaking correct grammar you see correct grammar would be when I am weak then he is strong kind of like the lyric we all sang of Jesus loves me when we were children they are weak but he is strong actually Paul says now it's actually a little bit different than that when we get weak then we are strong because what Paul is talking about here is that activation process how do you activate the power enabling power of God in your life by being weak now this really goes against the grain of our humanity because we don't like to be weak like ever we like to be strong you know we want to show strength to other people we want to show that we've kind of got it put together kind of like Facebook you know we want to always show this and we've gotten very good at this on Facebook we give people a very filtered picture of our lives right this is my life with filters right I'm not gonna let you see the real thing you can't you know yeah but I'll let you see my life with filters because it's like whew you know we don't like to be weak so Paul in this sentence abandons what would otherwise be proper grammar and he says when I am weak then I am strong because he understood that in order to activate the flow of God's power in his life he had to first embrace he had to embrace his personal weakness and then present himself before God as an empty vessel I'm empty I got nothing I got nothing God's like glad you finally figured that one out now I can use you I can really use your life because you've come to that place of personally understanding your weakness but how did we come to that place of personally understanding our weakness we were dealt a hand of pain which by the way we usually accuse God for God I don't want this pain in my life you know why did you give me this pain why is God do this in my life anyway and we're angry about it and they angry about the pain I'm angry about the difficulty I'm angry about the the circumstances that are just hard and so I spend all my time complaining and I read all kinds of self-help books about how you know not to be weak and and so forth and so on and I missed the whole point I missed the whole point of the suffering which is to bring me to God on my knees to say to him I have nothing I am an empty vessel I am poured out and I have nothing I have nothing to offer you no power no strength no ability and that's what Paul understood that God responds to the confession of one of his children who comes to him in weakness and he responds by giving the grace which is the power to do and the power to be which would otherwise not be available to you you guys familiar with a man by the name of William Wilberforce historically speaking he was a pretty cool dude he was born in the late 1800s woops late 1700s died in the early 1800 I think he died around 1830 335 something like that William Wilberforce was instrumental as a born-again believer in the fight and in fact leading the fight to abolish the slave trade in the United Kingdom in Britain but what you may not know about William Wilberforce is that he was a man who struggled with great physical weakness and frailty he was a very frail man you can you can read about the things he did and you can kind of think whoa what a guy what a guy you know brought the nation of Britain to its knees to the place of of finally abolishing the you know slavery in that country and you're thinking wow William Wilberforce boom he was a very weak man in fact someone who witnessed him in action said this and this and I quote I saw what seemed to be a shrimp become a whale in that an interesting statement I saw a man who seemed to be a shrimp become a whale William Wilberforce understood just like the Apostle Paul understood that in the hands of God his weakness was a benefit and he confessed it and gave it to the Lord and God used him to take down a Goliath so what's our takeaway from this well how about something like this then from what you and I see in the scripture and from what we also observe in people we see we understand that bodily pain and difficulty can actually have a special role in those people finding the strength of God in and through their lives and so we see this activation key in the word of recognizing our weakness and confessing it before God and laying it down but there's one other key that I want you to see here and this is also very important as it relates to activating the grace of God and it's found in verse 10 and just because it's so important I'm just gonna put it up on the screen okay look at it here because I've taken the liberty of highlighting some of it for you to emphasize the part I want you to see for the sake of Christ there it is then Paul says I am content with weaknesses insults hardships persecutions and calamities for when I'm weak then I am strong and I want you to see those words that are highlighted in all caps because they are so crucial because listen if you're doing it for any other reason but for the sake of Christ you're gonna end up a big fat mess emotional mess because you know what humanly speaking we don't do these things we don't we don't in we are not content with weakness for our own sake I have never once in my life been content with weakness for my sake I always want strength but what Paul says here is for the sake of Christ then I am content and that is so important here he's talking about suffering weakness for the sake of Christ in other words for the purpose of Christ I'll say it another way Lord this weakness in my life I'm doing this for you this thing in my life this this this thing that you've allowed in my life that that keeps me weak this is for you this is for your glory not mine in fact in the eyes of people it makes me look like nothing and that's okay but I know what begins to happen in my life as a result of this weakness operational in my body I throw myself before you and I am utterly dependent on you because there's nothing else to depend on I have no inner strength to depend on I have no inner fortitude to just say all right it's time to buck up you know and Beast there's nothing and so lord this is for you that's what Paul is saying here I have been forced God to cast myself on you completely in utter dependence upon your power your strength according to the promise of your word and Paul found him in that himself in that place often and he wrote this section of second Corinthians to tell you and I that when you find yourself there - God is faithful he's faithful and he will do what he said he will do and that is he will take your weakness as you lay it down in weakness and he will bring about his strength through you amen you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Ontario

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

Id: XSPvJgHa7RM

Length: 40min 23sec (2423 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 22 2017