Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.
This fall, we're studying the book of Second
Corinthians. Second Corinthians is a heartfelt
and practical book calling us back to the life
of the cross. We, like the Corinthians, so often
pursue glory, admire eloquence, shun suffering,
hide hurt, and hoard our goods. And yet the gospel
of Jesus tells us that resurrection comes after
a cross. that comfort comes after being crushed,
that the way up is the way down, that the way
to glory is through suffering, that his strength
is made perfect in our weakness. We'd love to
meet you, and we hope you'll consider coming
and joining with us each Sunday morning at 10
a .m. in the heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You
can find us online at secondcitychurch .org and
on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. We hope
you enjoy this sermon. God bless. Lord, would
you meet us now and enliven our hearts more that
we might desire you, you alone, and your coming
to make all things right. God, would this season
be a holy one. On this holy day, your Lord's
day, where we desire you more fully, where we
maybe even have a sense, a greater sense of our
need for you more fully. God, now with the words
of my mouth, with the meditations of our hearts,
be pleasing in your sight, our Lord, our rock
and our Redeemer. Amen. All right, I'm going
to try to sing this first, but I may give up.
When I grow up, I will be tall enough to reach
the branches that I need to reach to climb the
trees you get to climb when you're grown up.
I'm not going to keep going. I practiced this
song a little hard. I'll just read it. But it's
not as much fun to read. And when I grow up,
I will be smart enough to answer all the questions
that you need to know the answers to before you're
grown up. And when I grow up, I will eat sweets
every day on the way to work. And I will go to
bed late every night. And when I wake up, when
the sun comes up, and I will watch cartoons until
my eyes grow square. And I won't care because
I'll be all grown up. And I love this one, a
couple of these, I'm gonna keep going. When I
grow up, I will be strong enough to carry all
the heavy things you have to haul around with
you when you're a grown up. And when I grow up,
I'll be brave enough to fight the creatures that
you have to fight beneath the bed each night
to be a grown up. When I grow up, I'll have treats
every day and I'll play with things that mom
pretends that moms don't think are fun. All right,
I won't say all of it. That's one of my favorite
songs from, somebody knows this, right? Where's
it from? Matilda, thank you. And I love it in
part because it's sort of silly. It invites your
laughter and it's a very wonderful tune that
I couldn't keep going with. But another reason
that I love it is that it shows how often we
think that there is a grownup life. out there.
Children sometimes might think this, but I think
we think this too. Where you have it all. You
have it all together. You're able to do it all.
It's almost like an adulthood that in theological
language we would call an over -realized eschatology.
Amen? Y 'all are like, what's that? I'll tell
you. That is the idea. that the final events
in the Christian life and faith, when all is
good and right and as it should be, can be realized
here in this life. It's come fully now. It's
just yours to be grabbed onto and to be lived
into. And in that idea, there is no need to wait.
for glory, to wait for Jesus to come. It's not
needed. I want you to think about this with me
for a moment in regards to Christmas carols being
sung during Advent and November. I shared what
last week, what an angry preacher I am that right
after Halloween, all of a sudden there's Christmas
decorations up in all the stores. And all of
a sudden there's Christmas songs being sung.
Played all over the place. It was as though we
went from October 31st That blessed eve of our
Saints To December 25th candy and then presents
the good life We don't want to sort of sit in
the need of how difficult life is how painful
it is how full of sorrow It can be I Don't like
to wait Paul in this chapter again is continuing
this dynamic with these super apostles. This
is a major part of this, the theme of this book,
of course. These teachers had come into the church
in Corinth with their letters of recommendation
and their, you know, their know -how and their
eloquence and all, and we're teaching another
Jesus as we looked at last week. And I posed
to you last week that very likely the Jesuses
that they were proposing, the different messiahs
corresponded to the messiahs that were on offer
at the day and are on offer in our own day. But
here in chapter 12, our text we have before us,
it seems as though a lot of what Paul is arguing
for here in this chapter is that these super
apostles were living and declaring, inviting
others into the paradise life. They were teaching,
you don't have to wait. And maybe you should
actually think less of those who have their thorns
in their side, their sorrows that persist. Can't
they just live into glory now? The pain and the
weakness of this life, they would say, was an
aberration of the Christian experience, not the
norm. Proverbs 13 -12, I love this proverb. It
says, hope deferred makes the heart sick. My
guess is pretty much all of you know that experience
on some level. Hope deferred makes the heart
sick. Maybe what they were saying though, what
was on offer is, well, don't be sick! Have it
all or you can we should Don't wait you can grow
up now you can have it all now you can climb
the tree now you can eat the candy now Have all
the Christmas songs now Sorry, I do love Christmas
songs. There's something great in waiting. So
what's Paul say? Okay, so the first thing I want
us to consider is that he Paul actually does
know the experience of the wonder of what God
has done and will do. Paul knows this taste of
glory, okay? So verse one, it begins like this,
I must go on boasting, though there's nothing
to be gained by it. You remember, he's been kind
of entertaining their rhetorical dynamics to
hear their boasting. I will go on to visions
and revelations of the Lord. What he's doing
is he's introducing this idea that he has had
experiences of glory. He's hesitant to get too
much into it. And maybe you heard this as Rebecca
read it for us. He says a few times, I knew a
man. He doesn't want to sort of enter into the
discussion, but he eventually of course doesn't.
We know from verses six and seven that he's the
man. He does say eventually me. who he's talking
about, but he's sort of pushing it off. But he
then, he gets into this dynamic, he says, I know
this experience. I know the idea of having tasted
something so glorious that you just want to sit
in that all the time. And you want to grab onto
that all the time. The verses two and five, he
says this, I know a man, there's that phrase,
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. Okay.
What's clear is that this is not his conversion
experience. Paul recounts that elsewhere a couple
different times. This isn't his experience on
the road to Damascus where he's blinded. That's
not what's happening here. In fact, this is the
only time where he seems to talk about this experience.
He says it happened 14 years earlier, which we
would have known would have been actually quite
a few years after his conversion. It would have
been probably right before his first missionary
journey. And what is clear is that there's this
experience that he had, and it was so significant,
it was so life impacting, it shaped him in such
a way that he actually can't even describe whether
or not it was actually a physical experience.
Was he brought up into this place of paradise,
maybe like Elijah or Enoch of old, like physically
done, or was it just this spiritual experience,
this out -of -body experience of his spirit?
What he knows is that it had happened though.
He had actually had a glimpse, at least a taste
of glory and of paradise. He doesn't say much
about it. He doesn't describe it. But he says
he experienced this, this paradise experience,
this glimpse of glory. So it's Advent. We've
mentioned that a couple of times, of course.
This is the time when we remember the Lord's
coming, His first coming. We do more than that,
but we remember this first coming of the Lord's
in His incarnation. And I hope that each of you
actually have tasted in a way of the things to
come. The life for which your heart longs. Things
that you want to hold onto and not let them pass
you by, right? Just sit in that. Maybe a meal
with friends where laughter permeated the whole
time. Sorrow seemed to just not even be present
in your mind or in your heart. It was so gone.
There was such an experience of fellowship there.
Fellowship that pushed out all of the disunity
of our day. And maybe you've had moments of your
relationships that seem so ecstatic that the
union was so tight, the discord again, which
we live in so often in our time, was just a thing
of the past. It wasn't even on your mind because
there was such a deep dynamic between others
at play. Maybe you've had this sense of God's
spirit within you that truly you actually have
had that experience of the peace that passes
your understanding. God with you. the Spirit
of God making His habitation, His temple in you.
And you had this ecstasy of grace which sort
of blew your mind past your understanding. I
hope you've experienced some of those things.
But we can think back to the time when our Lord
did come to us here on this earth, right? I think
one of the reasons why so many uh, Christians
and non -Christians alike are so intrigued, at
least by Jesus, is because, because when you
consider Christ and His coming, you look back
at His first coming, you actually do see a glimpse
into glory, into things as they should be, right?
The lame, they're walking, the blind, they're
given sight. Uh, the socially estranged, think
of the woman who had a bleeding for 12 years,
right? She had to go around saying, unclean,
unclean, and nobody would hang out with her.
She's Far off, outside of the neighborhood. Think
of the woman there at the well, having to go
out to the well to get her water at midday when
nobody would do that. And nobody's with her because
nobody would be with her because of her sordid
past. What does Jesus do? He restores her things
as they're supposed to be, glimpses into glory.
We can say, we can truly say in a way that when
we look at the first coming of Jesus, we get
a little glimpse into paradise. We taste it.
We have it a little you know, we touches our
hearts and we want to grab on to it And we see
in his resurrection that his resurrection Joy
is our resurrection Joy think of the stories
a little bit after the resurrection Jesus meeting
not just Thomas's doubts, but our doubts With
his nail pierced hands, right? Jesus feeding
not just the disciples on on the beach there
but in some ways he's feeding our hearts by saying
well fellowship restored life with god with roasted
fish jesus restoring peter despite his threefold
denial glimpses into paradise what we most desire
but these super apostles here in second corinthians
They probably came in and spoke of their experiences,
and Paul's saying, I don't want to have to speak
about this, but I'll tell you. But I think the
big difference that's going on is that they're
saying, grab onto it now. And if you're not experiencing
this now, you are living a lesser -than -Christian
life. expect necessarily that all of you think
this. So maybe some of you have heard this. And
maybe not all of you think, man, I just need
to live a life that is all together, that can
have it all now. But I certainly think it's at
least the temptation of our hearts to do this,
to think that it must be on offer. At least somebody
has it, right? And I need to grab it and I need
to desire it. And that needs to be the object
of my life. It's certainly the good life the
life of having it all together certainly at least
the life that we project is it not We want to
show that we have it together that we are mature
that we're adults We can climb all the trees
and you know what I can eat the candy if I want
I'll just go to the gym I can make it happen
We project competence We display our experiences
and our knowledge our know -how our book smarts
Of course we do this on social media it's built
on this experience right Or at least that we
know that this is how it works if the news cycle
is primarily about Catastrophizing and just showing
you all that is wrong in the world. What is social
media doing? posts about vacations and about
The glorious food we've tasted the mountains.
We've climbed the races. We've completed the
kids that have all of the smiles We don't need
to tell anybody it was like the 20th picture
Paradise here And we certainly think that at
least some can have it all now, maybe it's not
the people we know but in it In our minds, there's
this idea that it exists out there. Maybe it's
the greats of history. I don't know who comes
to your mind. Steve Jobs, Mozart, Isaac Newton,
Martin Luther King, John Calvin, we're in a Presbyterian
church. If we were only just like them, we could
live into the glory that is on offer today. Let
me tell you about Florence Chadwick. She was
born in 1918 in San Diego long before Title IX.
She won her first swimming competition at the
age of nine. She was drawn more though to open
water swimming and so at the age of 10, what
have you been doing with your life? She became
the youngest person to swim across the mouth
of the San Diego Bay. In 1950, she became both
the fastest woman to swim the English Channel
and the only woman to swim it both ways. She
went on to swim the Strait of Gibraltar. Then
in 1953, she swam the English Channel again because
somebody else took her record and she wanted
it back. And then she swam the Bosporus and the
Hellespont. Her career was one of success, right?
There's those people out there, right? This idealism,
this over -realized eschatology exists, at least
for some people in our hearts, just ache and
we eat ourselves up. I think in some ways we
approach the Bible and its characters like we
approach Francis Chadwick or Martin Luther King
or Augustine or Calvin or whatever. Maybe we
know that the social media count with all of
the edited beauty, which is exactly what it is,
edited beauty. We know that that might be a farce,
but we have this idea of being set on this good
life. And we hear of these super apostles. We
say, yes, super apostle, give me that title.
Some people can have it now. Strength and unending
progress is on offer now. So what these super
apostles were offering was something that of
course the Corinthian church was like, yeah,
give me that instead of this bumbling Paul figure.
And of course that's what so many in our day
do. But Paul goes on, right? He goes on from
speaking of his experience of what God has done
and giving him this glimpse of glory, to then
the second movement in this first half is speaking
of his experience, actually, his real lived experience,
which also speaks for the hope that he has, what
God will do. So verses seven and eight, right?
Seven and eight. So to keep me from becoming
conceited, because isn't that exactly what happens?
Look at what I did. Look at my pretty blah, blah,
blah. Look at the experience I had. So to keep
me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing
greatness of the revelations. A thorn was given
to me in the flesh, a messenger from Satan to
harass me to keep me from becoming conceited.
Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this,
that it should leave me. And we don't know what
this thorn is. The word for thorn is scallops,
like how some people pronounce scallops, scallops,
which can mean a stake, which is driven down,
sort of immovable. A one event kind of thing
that is just in you. Or a splinter which just
is constantly irritating, right? You just can't
get it out. But it's something sharp and it's
painful and it defies eradication. Its effect
was crippling, draining of energy. Was it his
constant persecution? Was that maybe the thorn
in his flesh? Some people have said, given the
context of St. Corinthians and where he brings
it up, was it a speech impediment? A stutter?
A slur? Was it deep mental illness? The ongoing
slot of depression? Was it, we have some reason
to believe, that Paul may have been married?
It's possible. Was it the loss of his loved ones
at some time? We don't know. And I think it's
God's grace we don't know, but just like our
Lord prayed in Gethsemane for his cup to be taken
from him, Paul did this and it was not. And I
want to suggest this too this morning, that this
thorn not being taken away was that he would
look for and hope for all the more the coming.
of Jesus. His second Advent. Because there's
a dynamic at play that if you can have it all
now, why wait? Why long? You know, adults don't
exist. I wish the kids were up here to hear that.
It's actually a kind of important lesson. I mean
like the perfect social media pictures aren't
real. Please hear me. No, super apostles that
have it all together do not actually exist. They
don't. So I heard this quote this week from an
essay from George Mack. The essay is, adults
don't exist. Steve Jobs delayed nine months of
medical treatment for pancreatic cancer to try
carrot juice diet Mozart spent his income and
lived miserably in mountains of debt and regularly
wrote letters to friends begging for money Nietzsche
lost His virginity in a brothel and caught syphilis
and only saw his work sell 300 copies in his
lifetime. Martin Luther King had extramarital
affairs with over 40 women, including spending
his last night with two women who were fighting.
The last night of his life. Isaac Newton spent
30 years of his life writing one million words.
The great scientist Isaac spent 30 years of his
life writing one million words on the pseudoscience
of alchemy, which were hidden for years by his
heirs because they were too embarrassed to publish
them. Don't put any adults on pedestals. Kill
your gurus or a more useful belief. Your adults
aren't going to save you. They don't even exist.
Which he means is that there's this idea that
just when we get there We'll be able to carry
the heavy loads that we have to carry around
when we're adults So we'll get to do what we
want. We can climb the trees, right? We can get
to the high place. There's this possibility But
there is something really wonderful in coming
to this admission Listen to this there are 4
.9 billion people on social media throughout
the world and the average person spends a 145
minutes a day on social media, that's the average.
That's a lot of time, two hours and 15, no, sorry,
two hours and 25 minutes. And what has it done
for us? What has it done for us? Unbelievable
increases in anxiety and, you know, the constant
FOMO, fear of missing out dynamic that we live
in, looking at the highlight reels. of everyone
else's lives. The super apostles over realized
eschatology doesn't do us any good. Whereas the
thorns in our flesh, the places where we ache
and hurt and know our frailty often are the very
places of God's grace. Let me say that again.
The thorns in our flesh, the places where we
ache and hurt and know we don't have control
can be the very places of God's grace in our
lives. Think with me back to Matilda. If you
know the story, you know that most of the adults
in that story are not the adults that they sing
about. Not even close, their living self -serving
lives. They're hurting those about them. I mean,
her father is an absolute awful father. The headmaster
of the school, one who is to tend to and care
for the children under her care, Mrs. Trunchbull,
is like a hell figure. And yet, who is the one
who brings some redemption, Miss Honey? Who knows
heartache, who knows loss, who knows pain, who
has this deep -seated thorn? After Paul speaks
of the thorn in the flesh He says what is at
the very heart of this whole book second Corinthians.
This is the heart of this message But he said
to me the Lord said to Paul My grace is sufficient
for you My power is made perfect in weakness
then Paul goes on therefore I will boast all
the more gladly in my weakness, so that the power
of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ
then I am content. I'm content with weakness,
insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.
A wild thing to say. Content with insults and
calamities. Why, when I am weak, then He is strong,
then I am strong. Which is to say, it's in our
weakness the power of God is made strong. It's
in our weakness where our faith in what God has
done, right, this glimpse of glory that he gives
us in his first advent, moves in us that our
faith might grow and our hope might abound. What
he will do in his second coming is in these places
of waiting and longing and desiring God. where
we find strength, where we grow up into Christian
maturity. Let me go back to Florence Chadwick.
So she was this unbelievably masterful swimmer.
I mean, her story is remarkable, records throughout
the world. And in 1952, keep in mind she grew
up in San Diego, Southern California. She attempted
to swim the distance between LA, Los Angeles
and Catalina Island, which is 26 miles. Right,
I ran two half marathons and I couldn't walk
after the second one for like three days and
she swam a marathon 26 miles of deep chop choppy
cold shark infested water And she was doing very
well until the fog came and settled in and She
couldn't see where she was going thought And
eventually she loses heart and she stops and
she climbs in the boat. And when she got to the
boat, she realized the people there in the boats,
she only had it one mile to go. 25 miles of swimming.
You think of this church, right? The Corinthian
Church. They're so desirous to get there and
all this is about them is just clouding their
vision. The temptation is to go along with these
super apostles and to give up on the true Christ.
And it may be easy to look at her life and see
what a loss. She had such a great career anyway.
But then a couple of months later, she said,
I'm going to give it a go again. She tried and
you know what? The same thing happened. Well,
sort of. Swimming and the fog descends again.
And she can't see where she's going. You can
say in a way that the thorn in her flesh persisted.
But give up? She said, no. Glory was in front
of her. She couldn't see the shore. And she wasn't
at the shore. And she keeps going. And she makes
it. She makes it. And of course the question
is, What's different? What's different from being
so blinded by all that's around you and giving
up or being blinded with solid around you and
continuing on? She said she kept a mental picture
of the shore in her mind. She just focused on
that mental picture as she swam and swam. And
we are in Advent. And we have had, we have this
recorded for us in the holy scripture. We have
had this glimpse of glory. Christ among us, kingdom
of God is at hand, Jesus says. And he is saying,
keep going despite the thorns, despite the pain.
It may actually be the grace of God for you that
causes you to continue to long for him and have
your eyes fixed. on what is to come in Christ's
second coming. His resurrected life, true paradise,
true glory, not these fake ones that we are so
tempted to grab onto. Christ is our shore, God
in the flesh. The one who for our sake actually
drank the cup that he pleaded would be taken
away. And in His cross and His resurrection,
we wouldn't have this temporal life hope, but
we would have an eternal glory set before us.
Brothers and sisters, Christ's power is made
perfect in our weakness, and your thorns are
the very grace of God, helping you to cling to
Him and to fix your eyes on Him. Let me pray
for us. Lord in heaven, what a lesson we need
to hear, God. how tempting it is to grab on or
to be blinded by these fake lights, these flashing
lights that grab for our attention, these beautiful
posts, beautiful people and hagiographies of
the people of the past. God, would we be a people
that own our sorrows, that are acquainted with
grief like our Lord was? You know that often
actually it is our thorns which are your grace.
Would we fix our eyes on Jesus, both the author
but also the only perfecter of our faith? Amen.
Thank you for listening to Second City Sermons
podcast. We hope this sermon has encouraged you
to worship God and to celebrate the gospel of
Jesus. Please consider subscribing to this podcast
and joining us in person each Sunday at 10 a
.m. You can find us online at SecondCityChurch
.org and on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Thanks again for listening. God bless.