EPISODE 139 2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 12 Part 2 "When I Grow Up"

Welcome to Share the Word. I'd like to start with a suggestion, which I don't normally do, and here it is. Please, get rid of all distractions that Satan will put in your way, because you need to listen to this podcast carefully. Second Corinthians chapter 12, part B. When I grow up. What do you want to be when you grow up?

I asked that of my five-year-old grandson, Theo, the other day. He thought for a few seconds and then answered, A legendary artist. I am for sure keeping all of his artwork that's covering my fridge now, just in case that's his future outcome. I'd be on Antiques Roadshow as a very old man looking for valuations on early works by Theodore Nitz. Who do you want to be when you grow up? Second Corinthians is not a part of the Bible to try and preach through when you are young.

You can no doubt do it with the help of some commentaries, but without the life experience to give it context and authenticity, I'm afraid it would ring pretty hollow. In fact, this letter is not one many preachers at any age will tackle, given the choice. I asked some of my preacher friends the other day who spent decades in the pulpit if any has ever done a series through Second Corinthians. Crickets. No one had, and I wasn't surprised. It's a very personal letter rooted in the apostle Paul's life and ministry.

In a lot of it, frankly, he sounds pretty frustrated. I remember when I was a young man of about 25, coming into the first church I served as a pastor, fresh out of graduate school. One Sunday morning, I was taking the stairs from the outside door up onto the main level, two at a time, and whistling some upbeat tune, when a middle-aged woman stopped me and asked, Pastor, why do you seem so happy all the time? I don't remember how I answered her, but I do remember my thought was, Why wouldn't I be happy? I'm doing the work I've always wanted to do. I'm young.

I'm healthy. I mean, why wouldn't I be? Honestly, I felt pretty strong and invincible at that time. I really didn't know yet, by experience anyway, what adult life in this fallen world could throw at you, or what the enemy, if you're starting to accomplish anything for God's kingdom, will throw at you. The Apostle Paul, at the point he was writing this letter, had had an incredible amount of difficulties thrown at him. Remember the litany I read a couple episodes ago when we were looking at chapter 11, talking about when he lists the number of times he was imprisoned, the number of times he was beaten, the number of times his life was in jeopardy, when he recounted his arduous journeys and the days he was hungry and the nights he was cold.

His whole life as a believer, as an ardent follower and servant of Jesus Christ, gives lie to the claim of the false teachers then and now that when you're walking in God's will and doing your best to be obedient, that that is the key to being blessed financially, physically, in every way, to being strong and untouchable. That was certainly not Paul's experience. His life was more often than not hard. He said in that section where he was listing the difficulties he encountered pursuing Christ's Great Commission that in addition to all those physical things, he also had to deal with the emotional and spiritual anxiety that arose trying to care for all the churches he had planted. Who is weak and I don't feel weak? he rhetorically asked.

Who is being led astray and I don't burn with anger over it? He often felt he was not able to keep up. He was not able to answer all the questions. He was not able to provide all the guidance. He was not able to deal with all the problems, like an endless game of whack-a-mole. If you feel like this as a Christian, even while you're doing your best to pursue God's calling on your life, hey, you're in good company because the Apostle Paul certainly did.

On top of the hardships and burdens he dealt with in chapter 12, he also lets us in on something very personal: the fact that he was plagued with ongoing attacks by something he called a thorn in my flesh. That's in verse 7. By in my flesh, that sounds to me like this was most likely some kind of ongoing physical malady that plagued and hindered him. He believed it came from Satan, or more specifically, he says, a messenger of Satan, that is, a demonic agent at the enemy's bidding. I've heard and read a lot of speculation about what Paul may have suffered from that he would describe that way, a thorn in my flesh. Was it some kind of chronic disease that flared up badly from time to time?

Was it something wrong with his eyes that affected his vision and made his life constantly difficult? Some think it may well have been depression that overwhelmed him at times, and others that instead he was referring to a particular demonically motivated opponent who was always trying to stir up trouble for him, like happened here in Corinth or earlier in Galatia. The truth is, we don't know the particulars of what it was because he doesn't elaborate, but he describes its effects as torment. He was tormented by it. He fervently pleaded in prayer, he says, three times, asking the Lord to remove it from his life, but each time the answer was no. Does that surprise you?

I mean, what if Paul had some kind of, say, eye disease like recurring conjunctivitis or keratitis that made his eyes ooze, which not only blurred his vision but made him unattractive in person? This is one of the speculations that's actually pretty reasonable from things he writes in his letters. Wouldn't it seem obviously for the best that God heal him of that? Wouldn't he be more effective? Wouldn't it help him be more self-confident? Certainly seems that way to us.

But surprisingly, the answer from God, he said, was always no. This personal revelation by Paul makes me think of Jesus' ordeal in the Garden of Gethsemane when Satan attacked him, and in his humanity he was physically and emotionally struggling there. It was an extreme situation, and Jesus prayed three times, like Paul did, to the Father, Rescue me from this. Take this cup from me. But again, the answer was no. In Jesus' case, it seems more understandable.

If God had delivered him from the torment he was undergoing, then the whole divine plan for our salvation would have been aborted. But have you ever wondered at how, in the grip of that intense pain and struggle, even Jesus in his humanity cried out to God in prayer for deliverance from it? I mean, pain can be that unnerving for anybody. It could be for Jesus, and I take some solace in that. Why God's answer was no in Paul's case, though, would seem harder to justify, at least for me. Why did God say, in effect, No, Paul, I'm going to allow this messenger of Satan, this thorn in your flesh, to keep doing what it's doing.

I'm not going to remove it. That's hard to accept. The counterintuitive answer Paul arrived at, or that God revealed to him, was that he was actually more useful to God with it than he would be without it, more effective at his ministry work if weaker and humble because of it, and this painful, jagging thorn in his flesh helped keep him weaker and humble. Wow, what an answer. What if Paul had been a six-two, tall, dark, and handsome, someone who presented a very strong, attractive physical presence, in addition to being well-educated with a brilliant mind, and on top of all those natural advantages, then knowing he was hand-selected by Jesus Christ to spearhead the gospel's advance to the Gentile world, and personally prepared by him through divine revelations and visions. Paul said, in all honesty, and paraphrasing him now, my head probably would have exploded.

I would have been so full of myself, so conceited, that God could never have used me. Why? Because God is opposed to the proud and gives grace to the humble. So Paul understood and accepted best he could who he was and why God allowed the stuff to go on that he allowed to go on. It kept him weakened and dependent on God's grace and power. It kept him humble and in a place God was able to use him to do great things, great things which were manifestly God's work, not just a superman's accomplishments.

How does knowing this about Paul inform you? That God did not level all the hard roads that Paul took, or protect him from all the unwanted abuse, or prevent him from being unfairly opposed and lied about as he was time after time. Or pour out financial and physical blessings on him, as some might have supposed he deserved for his faithfulness. What God did, though, was give him a promise: My grace is sufficient for you, Paul. God did not keep him from trouble or rescue him out of trouble, but gave him grace, grace enough, that is, the supernatural enablement to carry on through trouble, to carry on despite trouble. Paul says in chapter 12 at verse 9, So I gladly boast in my weaknesses.

I delight in my sufferings, if that means Christ's power will rest on me. And it did. It obviously did. Hmm. That's who I want to be when I grow up. This reminds me of something Jesus said when his aunt came along with her sons one day, his disciples, the brothers James and John, to make a request of him.

She knelt and said, When you come into your kingdom, Lord, grant that my sons be on your left hand and on your right, meaning, will you make them your left and right hand men, giving them the places of honor and power? And Jesus' response was, You don't even know what you're asking. Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I'm about to drink from? It seems in God's economy, and we can see this many places in the Bible, suffering comes before glory. Noah worked 40 years, all the while ridiculed by his generation, before God proved him right. David ran for his life, hiding from King Saul in caves in the wilderness for more than a decade until Saul was removed.

Many heroes of the faith never experienced the glory in this lifetime, but God promises it's still very real and it's ahead for them. Other people glorify themselves, as the boastful false teachers at Corinth must have been very good at, and they are glorified by people who are in awe of their talents and their looks and their natural gifts. But God will glorify those who have been willing to suffer, and suffer some more if necessary, in pursuing obedience to Him and His calling on their lives. This is something Paul fully believed when he wrote, God's grace is sufficient. At the outset of chapter 12, he is continuing his response to the false teachers who were trying to take over the church in Corinth. They boasted about their oratory skills.

They boasted they were from the original church in Jerusalem and had letters to prove their authority. They must have also boasted about having unique visions or revelations from God. I think we can fairly deduce that because that's where Paul reluctantly goes in his own defense of his apostleship. Listen, although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord, he wrote. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven, whether it was in the body or out of the body, I don't know. But I know that this man was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.

I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself except about my weaknesses. But if I should, I would not be a fool because I would be speaking the truth. But I'll refrain so that no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or what I say. He's talking a little weird there, isn't he? It's clear he's referring to himself when he mentions a man he knew who was caught up to paradise 14 years earlier. He doesn't come right out and say, So you want to compare those guys' claims about visions and revelations to what I've experienced?

He, in a way, diminishes his extraordinary experiences. In fact, says, This is not the kind of thing I want you to evaluate me over. I think his point is that anyone can claim supernatural experiences, and a lot of people do. In fact, almost nothing will gain you an audience faster than claiming to have had supernatural experiences. But although Paul had had several, he realized anyone could make those kind of claims. The claims cannot be tested, so what are they really worth?

Yet, if you insist, he says, I've not only seen visions and been given revelation from God, and he had several times, I was actually caught up to heaven once. That's what he means by paradise. He means where God is now. He calls it the third heaven. Don't misunderstand that. He's not suggesting there are levels of heaven, as some false works-based religions teach, like Islam or Mormonism.

If you work hard at their religion, they promise their adherents you will go to a higher level of heaven. No. By third heaven, Paul means not the atmosphere above the earth and not space, the stellar heavens beyond that, but the third heaven, which is equated here with paradise. Paradise is where God lives. Jesus promised the dying thief on the cross who turned to him in faith that day, Today you will be with me in paradise. This is the heaven where those who die in faith are living now and waiting for us to join them.

Paul says he was transported there 14 years earlier, and he's not sure if it was bodily or in his spirit. I think more likely in his spirit, spiritually that is, as John was when he wrote the Revelation and saw those things. And Paul says he experienced things then inexpressible, things that he would not be able or even perhaps permitted to tell. There are things about heaven that God is keeping secret. They will be astonishing and unexpected, and we can't even imagine them now. That's what the New Testament says.

If when you do think about heaven, you can't imagine how eternity wouldn't become boring, you couldn't have it more wrong. Everything good that we know here, the best experiences here will only be heightened there, past our imagination's capabilities. We talked, I think, in a previous episode, I think it was 2 Corinthians chapter 5, about Christians who've experienced near-death experiences, which really means they died by common understanding and then were later revived and came back. I don't think any of them get as far as to see what God showed Paul in this vision he refers to, because they often return from that experience and do tell of similar things that they all felt and saw and heard. But whatever Paul was shown in heaven and heard from God there, he was not permitted to tell. But you know what those who have had any real glimpse of heaven always say?

They always say, I really did not want to come back. They say the little they saw of it is every bit as real as here, but far better in every way, and the encompassing love and acceptance they felt there surpasses anything they've ever known here. As Paul wrote to the Romans, so my sufferings are not worthy of comparison to the glory God is going to reveal to me. I can't help but believe that the fact God had shown Paul the glories of heaven is one big reason he was able to keep going through all the things he kept having to go through, and still accomplishing the amazing things he did. But even if we haven't had such a privilege, and most of us haven't and never will, we can hold on to the promise that these things are real and that God's grace is sufficient for us until then.

I like the fact that in chapters 11 and 12 of this letter, the apostle Paul gets transparent and reveals some of his personal struggles. He didn't feel the need to pretend to be more powerful or more spiritual or a bigger giant than the boastful false teachers. He said he was okay with being weak because then it was all the more obvious that it was God, not him, who accomplished the things he accomplished. He had even come to terms with unrelieved suffering and dealing with pain because those things kept him humble and eligible for more grace, he said.

We too can stand fast in these truths, that feeling weak doesn't mean we're incapable of doing what we need to do, but it should drive us to rely more on God's strength at work through us, and that experiencing pain and suffering doesn't mean we are forgotten or unworthy, but that we are just frail human beings who receive more grace as we remember who we are and stay humble before the Lord. A Christian song I remember singing as a soloist once in a church goes like this, and this was when I was a young man before I had any idea what I was saying. He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater. He sends us more strength when the labors increase. To added afflictions, He adds His mercy. To multiplied trials, He multiplies peace.

His love has no limits. His grace has no measure. His power's no boundaries known to men. For out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He gives and gives and gives us again. When we have exhausted our store of endurance, when our strength has failed before the day is half done, when we reach the end of our human resources, our Father's full giving has only begun. His love has no limits.

His grace has no measure. A Christian I've admired from my generation is named Joni Erickson. Her married name is Joni Erickson Tada. She was disabled, paralyzed actually from the neck down as a teenager after a diving accident in the Chesapeake Bay. But by God's grace, she has lived a spiritually fruitful life as any missionary, pastor, evangelist in my lifetime. I thought about her as someone contemporary who embodies the truth and the spirit of this very personal passage from Paul we've thought about today.

And I found online a speech she delivered at Liberty University's convocation in 2011. Her autobiography, Joni, and she spells it J-O-N-I, published in 1976 was an international bestseller. She became a world-renowned advocate for the disabled, launching Joni and Friends, an organization in 1979 that to this day continues to bring both practical help and the hope of the gospel to people with disabilities around the world. And that was augmented in 1982 with a radio program of the same name, which played on hundreds of stations around the world. Despite the big thorn in the flesh she carried around, she shared the hope of the gospel through her difficult but grace-empowered tenure here, with millions throughout her lifetime.

When her chair was rolled up to the microphone at convocation that spring day, she said, in part, It's not like I'm famous or well-spoken or a great writer or a great communicator, but that God uses weak things in this world to showcase His power and glory. And His grace in my life has been such an honor. When I think of all the pain that's happened to me since I spoke here last, I would still say the same things. God is good. He fits everything—the pain, the pulmonary hypertension, the paralysis, recently the episodes with cancer—into my incredibly good life. I wouldn't trade what I've learned in the 46 years since I was here last for anything else, or for even the ability to walk.

It's not just me, but Christians are often asked to share in the sufferings of Jesus, to meet Him on the road to Calvary. So we take up our crosses and we follow. The university vice president who introduced her that day left the graduate students with these words: Johnny doesn't stop. She keeps going and going. She started pursuing Jesus in her twenties, where many of you are now, and she just hasn't stopped. What kind of person could you become if you followed Jesus through suffering, not for a season, but for a lifetime?

If you put your head down and faithfully pursue obeying and serving Jesus for those 30, 40, 50 years He challenged them, that's Johnny Erickson, and that's also who I want to be when I grow up. This is Paul for Share the Word. Thanks, Paul. For the sake of example, think of yourself as a player on a sports field, and the opposing team pays absolutely no attention to you at all. The probability is because you pose no threat to them at all. The high scorer is the one they target, and the Apostle Paul is proof that those who score points for the kingdom of God are most likely to be hit the hardest.

Satan attempts to derail those who bring value to the kingdom of God. So if you're unencumbered and not bothered by Satan, ask yourself why. Are you the one who poses no threat? Are you bringing value and glory to God's kingdom? It's throughout my life that I've learned that it's always been those moments of greatest pain, tribulation, difficulties, and challenges that God has revealed and given the most amazing joys of my life. From all of us at Share the Word, our blessings and prayers go out to all of you.