2 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul did a little boasting
in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, not boasting in
the way that maybe some of these, as he would
call them, super apostles were boasting. These
super apostles had come in and they were preaching
a different Jesus. The people were following.
this version of Jesus as they were preaching,
whatever that looked like. And Paul said, look,
they're telling you a bunch of foolishness, but
you gladly are listening to that foolishness,
so let me be foolish for a minute. And so Paul
in his foolishness said, look, if they have these
credentials that make them, you know, something
that you want to listen to, then here's my credentials.
But Paul's credentials were essentially... hard
work and suffering and persecution for the gospel.
I filled up seven football stadiums, and I took
up a gazillion dollars, and I've been on every
talk show in the whole region around this area.
He didn't brag about those kind of things that
maybe we may see people boast about today. Instead,
Paul boasted about... I've been in prison. I've
been beaten many times. I've been shipwrecked.
I've been lost at sea. I have experienced dangers
in any way you can imagine. He says, I have suffered
greatly for the kingdom of God. And that was
what he boasted in. And tonight in this chapter,
he's going to kind of conclude that idea, that
thought. He doesn't really have any desire to
boast in himself. We have to realize when we
see these things through 2 Corinthians, Paul's
desire is not to boast in himself. I think that's
clear as we read through the whole book. But
even still, he knows that even though he feels
foolish in doing this, he sees some benefit in
it. Not so people would come to have some greater
appreciation and worship him, but so they would
listen to his message, which was Jesus Christ.
And so he boasts in a reluctant way. But tonight,
he's going to boast in a way that really shows
his heart. So let's pray, and then we'll get
started. God, we come to you. We thank you for
your good words. I pray that your Holy Spirit
will be with us tonight. I thank you that we
can come and laugh and love each other and just
have a good time, dear Lord, and have freedom
to do so in your house. I pray that your Holy
Spirit would lead me in the words to say that
you would help your word to speak to us tonight.
Meet us where we are, dear Lord. Help us to find
strength in you in the midst of our weakness.
And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
All right, we're going to look at about the first
few verses, and we'll talk about that for a little
bit. We'll go through about the middle of verse
7, and verse 7 kind of takes up in the middle
of a sentence. We'll finish that sentence. We'll
talk about those few verses, then we'll move
on to the rest of the passage. 2 Corinthians
chapter 12, verse 1. Boasting is necessary, it
is not profitable, but I will move on to visions
and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in
Christ who was caught up into the third heaven
14 years ago. Whether he was in the body or out
of the body, I don't know. God knows. I know
that this man, whether in the body or out of
the body, I don't know. God knows. was caught
up into paradise. He heard inexpressible words
which a man is not allowed to speak. I will boast
about this person, but not about myself, except
for my weaknesses. For if I want to boast, I
will not be a fool because I will be telling
the truth. But I will spare you so that no one
can credit me with something beyond what he sees
in me or hears from me. especially because of
the extraordinary revelations. Now this passage
leaves us maybe with more questions than it does
answers. We see here that Paul is kind of wrapping
up his boasting in a sense. He sees that in some
way it's not profitable, but he still realizes
that there is some need for that. And then he
shifts gears and he says, I want to tell you
about somebody else. I don't want to boast in
myself, but I want to tell you about another
man who 14 years ago was caught up into the third
heaven. Now, there is a lot of speculation as
to who Paul is talking about here. Obviously,
we don't know. We can only speculate. Scripture
doesn't tell us who he's talking about here.
The general rule that is commonly agreed upon.
is that Paul is in fact talking about himself,
that he doesn't want to say his name, he doesn't
want to draw attention to himself, and so therefore
he says, well, I'm just going to tell you about
a man. Now, whether or not this is Paul, it doesn't
really matter too much. I don't know if it was
Paul or was not Paul that he was talking about.
I suspect it probably was. He probably was speaking
of himself in some way. We see a similar thing
in the book of Mark when there's one who's there
with Jesus when he's arrested and those who are
arresting Jesus, they grab the clothes of one
of the people there and this person runs away
and his clothes rip off and he runs away naked.
We see that in the book of Mark. And it is also
believed that that is probably Mark, that Mark
is probably talking about himself there now.
How scholars come to these conclusions. I'm not
really sure, but it's been generally agreed upon
through the years that there Mark is talking
about himself while not naming himself. And here
it is usually agreed upon that Paul is speaking
about himself and not wanting to draw attention
to himself. Perhaps for just the kind of the
grandeur of this experience that somebody is
taken up into heaven and hears inexpressible
words. I mean, Whatever it was that Paul or whoever
this person was heard is indescribable, something
that we could not even begin to understand or
wrap our head around. And Paul gets to his main
point as he gets toward the end of this passage.
He says, look, it's not a big deal. It's not
a big deal about these things. that I'm telling
you about. What matters is what you see of me
and what you hear of me, what you have seen of
me. So he could have told him this story, but
this is all unprovable. So he's not trying to
tell him something that is unprovable. He's not
saying, let me tell you about this grand story.
While it is certainly true, he's saying what
you really need to pay attention to is not just
this story, but what you really need to pay attention
to is what you have seen and what you have heard
from me. Now, this is a pretty incredible thing
that, that Paul describes here. And Paul describes
that he says, I don't know if this was real,
if this person was literally taken to heaven,
or if this person was having some type of vision.
He's not certain as to how all this occurred.
There's a lot of questions here that we can speculate
on, but we simply don't have the answers to that.
But nevertheless, Paul is using this as an example
in boasting. Kind of using it to get to people's
attention, but in reality saying, but don't pay
too much attention to that. You've got enough
that you've seen and heard of me here that you
can pay attention to. Now, he says in this passage
that this person was caught up into the third
heaven. Again, there's a lot of speculation to
be had there because what in the world is the
third heaven? Well, you see right here, this
is the mention of the third heaven. What we know
about it is right here in this passage. Which
isn't a whole lot. Now, there are certainly different
views and interpretations about what the third
heaven is. There are some religions, and it's
a pretty important part of their religion, that
they have interpreted this to mean that there
are multiple levels of heaven. The worst people
still make it to heaven, but they're on the first
level. And then those who are a little bit better
on the second level and those who are really
good get to make it to the third heaven. But
you've got to be really special. That's one teaching
that you may hear. Again, this is total speculation
because the Scripture, it does not say that.
It simply says the third heaven. Now, I think
that there's maybe a more reasonable explanation
than that. I certainly would disagree with that
interpretation. I think the more reasonable explanation
we see is we read through Scripture. Because
what we see when we read through Scripture is
we see the heavens referring to different things
through the Scripture. The same word as heavens,
but it's not always referring to the abode of
God. Now certainly we would say God is in heaven,
and I think that that's right to say. And so
sometimes when we see heaven in the Scripture,
it is talking about, where God resides. But sometimes
when we see heaven, it's talking about the sky,
the atmosphere that's around us. We see that
in Genesis, that God created the heavens and
the earth. We also see scriptures that talk about
the heavens declare the glory of the Lord, or
we see the heavens referring to the stars of
the sky. And so those are three different heavens,
all the same word. that's used there, heavens,
and those instances that refer to the sky, outer
space, and the abode of God, but it's the same
word for all of them. So I believe that it's
probably the most reasonable explanation for
three heavens here. It's not that there are multiple
levels of heaven that we will go to one day,
but it's simply saying the highest heaven. Okay,
the first heaven we can see is the sky. The second
heaven we can see, outer space. And the third
heaven, the abode of God, this is what this person
saw, Paul or whoever it was. He was taken up
to the third heaven. And so this first part of
this passage, It's a lot to consider and a lot
to think about, but we don't want to get too
caught up in the weeds, but perhaps some of you
had some thoughts or questions on that, so maybe
you want to research it more, but we will move
on. And he says in the middle of verse 7 here,
Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself,
a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger
of Satan to torment me, so that I would not exalt
myself. All right, now this is an interesting
passage and maybe hard for us to wrap our mind
around or kind of grasp. But what does he say?
So that I would not exalt myself. That is to
say, so that I would remain humble. Now, we probably
all at some point in time, there is a temptation
to exalt ourselves, a temptation to be proud.
Maybe you get a compliment or maybe, you know,
you really take care of yourself, and man, you
start looking good, you start working out, you
start losing weight, and man, you start looking
good, and you see yourself in the mirror, and
you think, man, I'm pretty good looking, or you
sing, and you think, man, I'm a pretty good singer,
or you get that compliment, or whatever it is.
There's a lot of things in this life that we
can begin to... exalt ourselves a little bit.
Man, I do such a good job at my job. Like, who
else could do as good as me at doing this job?
Or I'm so great at this sport. And we begin to
exalt ourselves. And there's probably times in
all of our lives that maybe we could say that
we've had a humbling. Man, those are not good
times. But all of a sudden, we start getting
a little proud. We start exalting ourselves.
And God graciously humbles us sometimes. But
Paul says here, so that I would not exalt myself.
Now, maybe the exaltation was going to come from
what he had seen or whoever he's talking about
had seen. Maybe there would be a temptation there.
Look, I've been to the highest heaven. I've heard
and seen things that you cannot even imagine.
Man, I must be special. Maybe that's what he's
referring to. Maybe there's something else in
his life that he's tempted to exalt himself about.
Whatever the thing is that's maybe a temptation
for him to exalt himself, God deals with that.
Therefore, so that I would not exalt myself,
a thorn in the flesh was given to me. Now, again,
like the other verses, there's a lot of speculation
here as to what this thorn in the flesh is. Now,
I suppose that it is possible that the thorn
in the flesh is a literal thorn in his flesh.
However, it's unlikely. It's probably something
much more severe than an actual, I've been walking
through a thorn into a thorn bush and I got a
thorn in me. There's a symbolic language that
there's something that's sticking in me and it's
painful and it hurts and I can't get it out.
It's always there poking me and jabbing me. It's
always reminding me that it's there. So therefore,
so that I will not exalt myself, he says, a thorn
in the flesh was given to me. Now, we don't know
what that thorn in the flesh is. You can go home
and you can research this and you're going to
find a lot of things that it could be. It could
be some physical ailment. It could be some anxiety.
It could be some depression. It could be just
the persecutions that he goes through. I mean,
the list goes on and on of things that people
have speculated that this thorn in the flesh
could be. We simply do not know what it is. But
it's something that was always kind of there
with Paul that was keeping him on level ground,
so to speak. It was keeping him grounded in the
Lord. Now listen to what he says about this thorn
in the flesh. He says, a messenger of Satan to
torment me so that I would not exalt myself.
So a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger
of Satan to torment me. Now that's pretty serious
language right there. What is he talking about
when he talks about a messenger of Satan? Some
translations may say angel. Same word there,
messenger angel. You look back and you study
the original language. We see that a lot. That's
what an angel is, a messenger. And so he says
part of this thorn in the flesh was that a messenger
of Satan was sent to torment him. What does this
mean? Well, perhaps it was some kind of demonic.
follower of Satan that was doing something, having
some impact in Paul's life that wasn't giving
him rest, that was just constantly just attacking
him in some way. That's a possibility. Maybe
this messenger of Satan was human. Maybe it was
somebody that Satan was using to hinder Paul.
We know that Paul faced a lot of opposition.
We see a similar thing with Judas who betrayed
Jesus, that Satan... essentially used Judas as
a messenger of Satan to betray Jesus. So we don't
know who this messenger is, whether it's a supernatural
messenger or whether it's a real person that's
just coming against Paul. But whoever this messenger
was, it was a constant torment to him. It was
a constant struggle to him. It was something
that he always was having to deal with, and he
never could quite escape. And in whatever way
that God was allowing this to take place, and
God did allow this to take place, and God sometimes
may allow us to go through things, maybe that's
how God keeps us in check and keeps us dependent
on him, is he allows us sometimes to endure things
that we may not think are for our good. But maybe
in the same way that Paul is being helped here
so that he would not exalt himself, maybe the
Lord uses events in our life, allows things to
happen in our life that are going to cause us
to have to continue to trust in the Lord. Because
if we do begin to exalt ourselves and we're never
brought down and we're always living in that
pride, then eventually we will just kind of forget
about the Lord and we will not seek the Lord.
And if Paul would have done that, and let's say
that Paul would not have had this thorn in the
flesh, would not have had this messenger of Satan,
perhaps Paul would have exalted himself in whatever
way that it was that he was tempted to do so.
And maybe he would not have been as effective
for the kingdom of God. Maybe he would have been
more concerned about his own ministry and what
he had seen and what he had done, and maybe he
would have allowed that to go to his head. People
do that. Human beings do that. We see that sometimes
with famous people that start out on a good track.
Maybe they're preachers. Maybe they're politicians.
There's a lot of people that I think start out
on a good track. And they don't intend to go
off the rails. They don't start off being evil.
But, man, there's some exaltation and there's
some pride and there's some greed that comes
in. And sometimes well -meaning people end up
just really doing some horrible things. And so
maybe in some way we... Man, we don't like these
thorns in our flesh. They're painful to us. We
wish we could just be free of some of our temptations,
some of the things that just keep coming back
and coming back and coming back. And maybe this
is a way that God says, no, I want to use you,
but I want to make sure that you stay humble.
I want to make sure that you continue to trust
in me. And so God certainly had allowed this
thorn in Paul's flesh in whatever way it was,
whatever was tormenting him that he wanted to
escape from, he was not able to escape from that.
And sometimes it's a hard thing for us to consider,
but there may be some things in our life that
God may not deliver us from. It may not be his
will to deliver us from those things. But it
may be that he allows things to happen because
those things are making us into the person that
he wants us to be. And that's a hard thing for
us as human beings to wrap our head around because
we understand things in a human way. But as the
proverb says, trust in the Lord with all your
heart and do not rely on your own understanding.
I was talking to somebody the other day and they
said, man, you see in the scripture, You know,
Jesus had the ability to heal and the apostles
thereafter had some ability to heal. And he said,
wouldn't it be great? He said, I wish I had the
power to touch somebody and heal them today.
And I said, I don't know if I would want that
power or not. And I don't know that we could
be trusted with that power if God were to give
all of us that power. Because I don't know about
you, but I'd heal everybody. Man, I'd get me
a jet. I'd fly around to every hospital, to every
sick person in the world. I'd just be like, bam,
heal, bam, heal, bam, heal, bam, heal. I mean,
that's what we would want. Every child we saw,
every person, every friend we know, we get to
call so -and -so's in the hospital like on the
way. And we would go and we would heal every
person. And we would think this is a good and
right thing to do. But we know that it's maybe
not the best thing to do. How do we know that?
Because God does not do it and God is good. Why
is it maybe not always good? Well, how many people
have come to the Lord in the midst of their suffering?
How many people in the midst of their pain, in
the midst of their heartache, in the midst of
their life falling apart, have called out to
the Lord and trusted Him? How many people in
their hardest moments have trusted the Lord all
the more? And what if those hardest moments were
wiped away? What if that pain was wiped away?
What if healing was instant? Perhaps there would
be many people who would not come to the Lord.
I suspect there are some of you in here that
would say, man, there was a time in my life where
I was going through so much stuff and I had to
pray to the Lord so much and your faith was strengthened
and you trust the Lord more as a result of that.
So maybe if we had that power, We wouldn't be
able to use it in the way that God wants us to.
Sometimes, as we see in the case of Paul, and
maybe in our life sometimes too, God allows us
to go through things because he knows it's going
to make us into the men and the women that he
wants us to be, that we need to be for his kingdom.
And the things that he's allowing you to go through
today, that you've been going through for 20
years, maybe he's preparing you and he's strengthening
you and he's getting you in the right spot for
something that he wants you to do next week or
next year and in 20 years. And maybe he's preparing
you for that. And maybe he wants to use you in
the same way that he wanted to use Paul. And
the way that he kept using Paul and the way that
he wanted was he allowed this thorn in Paul's
flesh to persist. So what does Paul say in verse
8? Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three
times to take it away from me. Now this is a
natural thing to do. This is what we should do.
When we've got conflict and stress and pain and
temptation, we should take it to the Lord. We
should pray to the Lord and say, God, here's
this thing I'm going through, but God, your will
be done, not my will be done. That's exactly
what Jesus prayed, okay? He's listening to go
be crucified. He's about to go be nailed to a
cross. Jesus knows that what is before him is
about to be a horrible and painful thing in a
lot of ways. I mean, you got the pain of all
the people that are closest to you just running
off and leaving you. Well, that's pretty bad,
and that ain't even the start of it. As soon
as your friends leave, now all of a sudden you're
in a mall of people who hate you, that spit on
you, that mock you, that rip your clothes off,
that put a crown of thorns on you, that nail
you to a cross and that stand there and joyfully
watch you die while you are dying to cover their
sins. Now that's a pain. That's a lot of pain
that Jesus knows that he's about to experience.
And knowing that this pain is before him, He
says, God, let this cup pass from me if it be
your will. God, deliver me from this if it be
your will. And Paul prayed this prayer three
times, it says. I pleaded with the Lord three
times to take this away from me. Now, I suspect
that there are some of us in here that have pleaded
with the Lord many more than three times. For
ourselves, for our loved ones, for our world.
There are lots of things that we have pleaded
with the Lord on. God, would you deliver me from
this? God, would you heal this person? God, would
you heal our world? God, would you heal me? God,
would you make my job better? God, would you
make my marriage better? God, would you help
me with my children? God, would you help me with
this? God, we have pleaded with God. I'm talking
about earnestly and genuinely pleaded and called
out to the Lord. And sometimes God has heard
our prayers and other times he has heard those
prayers but not answered in the way that we have
asked. And Paul asked, and there is nothing wrong
to ask, but what we always must remember is that
we must always ask in God's will. We think we
may know that... If we got healed in this way
or somebody else got healed in this way or if
we got this new job or if we got this new thing,
we think that it'd be better for us, but God
knows what's better for us, and we do not. So
we plead with the Lord and we seek the Lord and
we pray to the Lord and we seek the Lord's will,
and that's what Paul did. Now, you're not going
to tell me that Paul wasn't a man of faith, that
Paul didn't trust the Lord. Certainly he did.
But even though he pleaded with the Lord, God
did not remove this thorn in his flesh. Listen
to what the next verse says. This is God speaking
here in verse 9. But he said to me, My grace
is sufficient, for power is perfected in weakness.
Now if you don't know that scripture, you need
to know that scripture. You need to make a note
of that. You need to write that down. You need
to underline that if you underline that in your
Bible. That is a good scripture. My grace is
sufficient for power is perfected in weakness.
Now there are going to be things in our life
that are hard. And you know that because you've
gone through them and you're going through them
and you will go through them. And there are things
in your life that you just wish you could be
delivered from and they bring a lot of difficulty
and pain and stress and heartache and angst in
your life and those things are just so tough.
And you call out to the Lord and listen to what
the Lord said to Paul here. He said, my grace
is sufficient. And that's the only way we're
going to make it through the things that we go
through. Say, God, how am I going to make it?
God, how am I going to make it through this?
I cannot make it another day, dear Lord. The
pain, the heartache, the hardship that I'm going
through, it is too much, God. God, how will I
make it? And maybe we need to hear the words
of God tonight where God says to Paul, my grace
is sufficient. By the grace of God, that's how
we'll make it. By the grace of God. On the days
where you say, I don't know if I can make it
another day. You can make it by the grace of
God. On the days that you say, I got too much
pain, dear Lord. I just, I cannot make it. You
make it by the grace of God. You're going to
see people. family and co -workers and people
that you just do not want to see, that are just,
they make your life hard and miserable, and you
say, God, I cannot bear to be around them for
one more day, God. How am I going to make it?
You're going to make it by the grace of God.
My grace is sufficient, God says. And what does
he say after that? For power is perfected in
weakness. Power is perfected in weakness. He
doesn't say power is perfected in strength. He
doesn't say I'm just going to make you super
strong and everything's going to go good for
you and in that strength and in all of that good
that's happening for you, then you're going to
see my full power. That's not what he says. He
says power is perfected in weakness. He says,
with this thorn in your flesh, with this weakness,
with all of this that you're going through and
suffering in your life, with all of these things,
God says, this is how you're going to know my
power. This is how you're going to see my grace.
This is how you're going to learn to trust me
all the more. This is how I'm going to make you
into the man that I want you to be. This is how
I'm going to use you for my kingdom. This is
how you're going to make it through by my grace
and my power. And God tells him, you're only
going to experience that in weakness. And listen
to what Paul says. Therefore, I will most gladly
boast all the more about my weaknesses so that
Christ's power may reside in me. So I take pleasure
in weaknesses, insults, catastrophes, persecutions,
and in pressures because of Christ. For when
I am weak, then I am strong. What a beautiful
Close to that section there. For when I'm weak,
then I'm strong. There's a lot of people in this
world. And man, they have exalted their self.
And they are living in their strength. And their
strength may be physical strength. It may be
their fame. It may be their wealth. It may be
their job. It may be, you list it. There may
be a lot of things that people, man, they are
finding strength in these things and they are
exalting themselves in these things. But guess
what? At the end of the day, in their strength,
they are weak. But for those who trust in Jesus
Christ, we find a strength that is hard to explain
to people who have never experienced. Paul says,
for when I am weak, then I'm strong. That just
don't even make any sense. You tell that to an
unbeliever, they're going to say that don't even
make any sense because they don't understand.
They don't know what true power is. They don't
know what the grace of God is. They're living
for the world and the things of the world and
they are living in weakness and pain and they're
still trying to find the answer and the answer
is humbling ourselves before Jesus Christ. That's
where we're going to find strength. On the days
that we say, God, I am too weak to carry on.
God I am too weak to go back to that office.
God I am too weak to go out into that mission
field. God I am too weak to go in for another
treatment. God I am too weak to make it through
another day. When we get to that moment and we
become completely and totally dependent on God.
You'll find a strength that you can't even imagine.
You'll find a peace that you can't even imagine.
And Paul says, this is what I will boast in,
that I am weak, that I'm a human being and I'm
weak and I have failures and I have difficulties
and I have temptations and I fail sometimes and
I'm not a good speaker and I'm a weak man. But
I have found strength in Jesus Christ and that's
what he wants his audience to find. That's what
he cares about. He don't care about all this
boasting. He don't care about people knowing
what he's done or how he's done it. He wants
people to know that he loves Jesus. And he knows
that to love Jesus and to feel the strength of
Jesus requires humility. So wherever you are
tonight, maybe you're in the midst of a struggle
now. Maybe you will be in a couple of months.
You remember the word of God that his grace is
sufficient. And on your weakest days, you seek
his power for his power is perfected. and weakness.
Let's pray. God, we come to you. We thank you
for these good words. That's a few things in
here, dear Lord, that we just speculate on that
we don't have a good answer to. We just don't
know. And help us not to get caught up in the
weeds. What we do know, dear Lord, is that you
are good. And sometimes, God, as hard as it is,
you allow us to go through things that are hard
and that are painful and that we do not enjoy.
But God, just like Paul, sometimes you use these
thorns in our flesh to keep us humble. To keep
us to seek you, dear Lord. Without that, man,
maybe we'd go out on our own and get ourselves
into trouble. And maybe, God, there are some
here tonight or some online that are listening
that they have gone out on their own. And they
have trusted in their own strength. And they
have realized they're not as strong as they thought,
dear Lord. So I pray that we would listen to
Paul's words here. That we would listen to your
words, dear Lord. That we would know tonight
that your grace is sufficient. And that's the
only thing that's sufficient. And God, we may
have come in here weak tonight. We are, God.
We just need to admit that. Maybe we don't want
to, but we need to admit that truth. We are weak
human beings and we struggle and life is hard.
But God, if we would just seek you, your power
is perfected in our weakness. So God, help us
just to humble ourselves, to quit trying to do
it on our own, but to trust you so that we may
be able to say, God, that when we are weak, We
are strong through Jesus Christ. And I ask these
things in Jesus' name. Amen.