Introduction:
A. I want to start with a true story that illustrates the overall lesson I hope we will learn today.
B. The story is told of a 10-year-old boy who decided to study Judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident.
1. The boy began lessons with an old Japanese Judo master.
2. The boy was doing well, but he couldn't understand why, after three months of training the master had taught him only one move.
a. “Sensei,” the boy finally said, “Shouldn't I be learning more moves?”
b. “This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you'll ever need to know,” the Sensei replied.
3. Not quite understanding, but believing in his teacher, the boy kept training.
4. Several months later, the sensei took the boy to his first tournament.
a. Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches.
b. The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy used his one move to win the match.
c. Still amazed by his success, the boy was now in the finals.
d. This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced.
e. For a while, the boy appeared to be overmatched.
f. Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out. He was about to stop the match when the Sensei intervened.
g. “No,” the Sensei insisted, “Let him continue. I assure you, the boy will be fine.”
h. Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: He dropped his guard.
i. Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him.
j. The boy had won the match and the tournament. He was the champion.
5. On the way home, the boy and Sensei reviewed every move in each and every match.
6. Then the boy summoned the courage to ask what was really on his mind.
a. "Sensei, how did I win the tournament with only one move?"
7. The Sensei answered, “You won for two reasons.
a. “First, you've almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of Judo.”
b. “And second, the only known defense for that move is for your opponent to grab your left wrist, and you, obviously, don’t have a left wrist.”
C. As hard as it might be for us to understand, here is one of the most important spiritual lessons God can teach us…
1. Our greatest weakness can turn out to be our greatest strength.
2. Our greatest loss can turn out to be our greatest gain.
3. Our greatest suffering can turn out to be our greatest blessing.
D. In the section of 2 Corinthians that we are studying today, we come to the climax of Paul’s defense of his apostleship.
1. As we noticed last week, Paul was reticent to draw attention to himself and to write about his personal experiences, but there was no other way to address the problem and defend himself.
2. Interestingly enough, to avoid exalting himself any more than necessary, Paul began describing this lofty experience in the third person.
3. He began, “I know a man…” and it isn’t until verse 7 that we realize that Paul, himself, is the man who had this experience.
4. Let’s work our way through this section and learn what lessons we can from the vision, the thorn and the grace.
I. The Vision – God Honored Him
A. As we have seen in our study up to this point, Paul’s opponents were happy to boast about themselves and their accomplishments and their letters of recommendation.
1. They may also have been boasting about their spiritual experiences and their wonderful visions and revelations.
2. Surely the Christians there in Corinth stood in awe of them.
3. Surely these opponents must be super-spiritual, super-apostles to have had these kinds of experiences, right?
4. Maybe the Corinthians were saying that these opponents must be greater than Paul, because Paul hadn’t told them about any visions.
B. So, against Paul’s usual practice and against his own godly desires, he decided to play their game.
1. He wrote: I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3And I know that this man - whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows - 4was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell. 5I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say. (2 Cor. 12:1-6)
C. God had honored and blessed Paul by giving him many visions and revelations during his ministry.
1. Paul had seen the glorified Christ on the very day he was converted (Acts 9:3; 22:6)
2. Paul had seen a vision of Ananias coming to minister to him (Acts 9:12), and he also had a vision from God when he was called to minister to the Gentiles (Acts 22:17).
D. At other points during his ministry, Paul had had additional visions from the Lord to guide him and encourage him.
1. It was by a vision that he was called to Macedonia (Acts 16:9).
2. When the ministry was difficult in Corinth, God encouraged Paul by a vision in Acts 18:9,10.
3. After his arrest in Jerusalem, Paul was again encouraged by a vision from God (Acts 23:11).
4. An angel appeared to him in the midst of the storm and assured him that he and the passengers would be saved in spite of the impending shipwreck (Acts 27:23).
E. But the vision we want to talk about today, was different from the rest.
1. God also blessed Paul when he took him to heaven, and then brought him back to earth.
2. This marvelous experience had taken place 14 years before the writing of this letter, which would date the experience in about A.D. 43.
3. That was the period in Paul’s life between his departure for Tarsus (Acts 9:30) and his visit from Barnabas, when he was invited to work with Barnabas in Antioch (Acts 11:25-26).
F. Jewish rabbis often spoke of themselves in the third person, and Paul adopted that approach as he shared this experience with his friends and enemies there at Corinth.
1. So wonderful was this experience that Paul was not quite sure whether God had taken him bodily to heaven, or whether his spirit had left his body.
2. Note the contrast of the humiliation of the previous story being let down over the wall in a basket to escape, and the glorification of this story of being “caught up to paradise.”
3. This story affirms the reality of heaven and God’s ability to take people there.
G. One interesting thing for me to think about is the fact that it appears that Paul had kept quiet about this experience for 14 years!
1. Unlike Joseph in the Old Testament who got into trouble because he couldn’t keep his dreams to himself, it appears that Paul was tight-lipped about this glorious experience.
2. While there in heaven, Paul heard “inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell” – how about that!
3. Could Paul’s opponents trump an experience like that? I don’t think so!
4. There’s no doubt that this vision of God’s glory was one of the sustaining powers in Paul’s life and ministry.
5. No matter where he was - in prison, in dangerous travels, or in need - Paul knew that God was with him and that wonderful things lay ahead.
6. All this gives new meaning to Paul’s words from an earlier chapter: Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Cor. 4:16-18)
H. Such an honor as this would have made most people proud.
1. I doubt that I could have handled that kind of experience.
2. Instead of keeping it quiet for 14 years, most of us would have immediately told everyone about it and used it to become rich and famous – writing books, and making the speaking circuit.
3. But Paul did not become proud.
4. And even here as he relays the truth about the story - he was not engaging in empty boasting.
5. Paul’s concern was the good of the church and the glory of God.
6. How is it that Paul could have had such a glorious vision and yet still remain humble?
7. The answer is the thorn.
II. The Thorn – God Humbled Him
A. After the glory came the pain.
1. The Lord knows how to balance our lives.
2. Paul’s great experience in heaven could have ruined his ministry on earth, so God, in all His goodness and wisdom, permitted Satan to afflict Paul in order to keep him from becoming proud.
3. Let’s listen to Paul describe his experience: To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. (2 Cor. 12:7)
B. The mystery of human suffering will not be completely understood in this life.
1. Sometimes we suffer just because we are human.
a. Our bodies change and our abilities diminish as we age.
b. This same body that can bring us so much pleasure can also cause us much pain.
c. The same family members and friends that delight us can also break our hearts.
d. This is the universal human experience – the only way to escape it is to be less than human.
2. Sometimes we suffer because we are foolish and disobedient to the Lord.
a. Our own rebellion may afflict us, or the Lord may see fit to discipline us in His love.
3. Other times we suffer because God is using it as a tool for building godly character.
a. Paul’s thorn in the flesh was given to him for this purpose.
C. Many have speculated over the years as to the exact nature of Paul’s thorn in the flesh.
1. The word translated “thorn” means “a sharp stake used for torturing or impaling someone” – this was no small sliver!
2. Calvin concluded that Paul’s thorn was spiritual temptations.
3. Luther concluded that Paul’s thorn was the opposition and persecution he faced.
4. The common Roman Catholic teaching was that it was Paul’s carnal temptations.
5. Some have suggested that Paul’s thorn was his physical appearance – he was weak or somehow disfigured making him somehow ugly or unappealing.
6. Some have suggested that Paul suffered from epilepsy.
7. Others have theorized that he suffered from terrible headaches – perhaps because of malaria.
8. One of the more accepted theories is that Paul suffered from some kind of eye trouble.
a. Maybe his eyes never really recovered from the blinding on the Damascus road.
b. Paul said of the Galatians that they would have torn out their eyes and given them to him (Gal. 4:15).
c. At the end of his letter to the Galatians, Paul wrote, “See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!” (Gal. 6:11), as if he was describing the big characters a man would write with if he could hardly see.
9. Whatever the thorn in the flesh was it brought Paul ongoing pain and distress.
D. It is important for us to note that God permitted Satan to afflict Paul, just as God had permitted Satan to afflict Job.
1. While we do not fully understand the origin of evil, nor all the purposes God had in mind when he permitted evil to come, we do know that God controls evil and can use it even for His own glory.
2. Satan is limited by God.
3. Everything that Satan did to Job and Paul was permitted by God and God permitted it for a reason.
E. Now that we have discussed the vision and the thorn, we must finish with an understanding of the grace.
III. The Grace – God Helped Him
A. Look at verses 8-10: Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But 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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
1. There are many powerful lessons for us here in these verses.
B. It is so important for us to accept the fact that God has the right to answer “no.”
1. Paul prayed long and hard for God to take away the thorn in the flesh.
2. If you remember, Jesus also prayed three times for the cup of suffering to be taken from Him.
3. I can just imagine the Corinthians and the opponents of Paul reading this suspenseful story.
a. You can feel their expectations building up as Paul tells the story of his vision and then the satanic messenger who had come to trouble him.
b. Surely, Paul, the opponents must have said, it can’t be God’s will for you to suffer such a thing.
c. Claim the victory of Jesus over the work of Satan and be rid of it.
d. “Yes,” Paul wrote, “three times I prayed to the Lord about it” - and the Corinthians must have been awaiting Paul to say – “And on the third time the Lord took it away.”
4. But God said something quite different from what anyone had been expecting.
5. God’s answer was “no, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
C. There are those who want us to believe that an afflicted Christian is a disgrace to God.
1. They believe that if you obey the Lord and claim God’s promises, then you will never get sick or have trouble of any kind.
2. The truth of the matter is that God has not promised that Christians will be free from sickness and suffering.
3. Nor has God given up the right to choose how to answer our prayers.
4. It wasn’t wrong for Paul to ask for God to remove his suffering, nor was it wrong for God to answer his request with a “no.”
D. Rather than give Paul healing, God promised to give him help.
1. Warren Wiersbe made a good distinction in his commentary when he wrote: Many of our blessings come through transformation, not substitution.
2. When Paul prayed three times for the removal of his pain, he was asking God for a substitution: “Give me health instead of sickness, deliverance instead of pain and weakness.”
3. Sometimes God does meet our need through substitution, but other times He meets the need by transformation.
4. Sometimes, like in Paul’s case, God does not remove the affliction, but He does give us His grace so that the affliction works for us and not against us.
E. In the end, Paul learned that his thorn in the flesh was a gift from God.
1. There was only one thing for Paul to do and that was to accept the gift from God and allow God to accomplish its’ purposes.
2. God was trying to keep Paul from being destroyed by his blessings, and this was God’s way of accomplishing that.
3. When Paul accepted his affliction as the gift of God, then this made it possible for God’s grace to go to work in his life.
4. God’s grace enabled Paul not only to accept his afflictions, but to glory in them.
5. By depending on God’s grace, Paul was able to keep his suffering from becoming a tyrant that controlled him, and make it a servant that worked for him.
Conclusion:
A. Please don’t misunderstand me today – I’m not trying to say that any of this is easy.
1. Our sufferings are just that – they cause suffering; they hurt and they make things hard.
2. Paul suffered because of his thorn, but Paul learned how to also benefit from that thorn.
B. The key to all of this is our trust in the Lord.
1. So much of the battle is won when we accept the situation the Lord is allowing us to be in, when we depend on God’s grace to get us through, and then we wait for the Lord to bring the blessing out of the affliction.
C. Many of you know the stories of Joni Eareckson Tada and Corrie ten Boom.
1. Joni is an evangelical Christian, and founder of Joni and Friends, an organization “accelerating Christian ministry in the disabled community.”
a. A diving accident in 1967 left Tada hospitalized and paralyzed as a quadriplegic – she has no use of her arms or legs.
b. After two years of rehabilitation and in a wheelchair, Tada began working to help others in similar situations.
c. Tada wrote of her experiences in her international best-selling autobiography, Joni, which has been distributed in many languages, and which was made into a feature film of the same name.
d. Tada is a conference speaker and a writer whose articles have been published in Christianity Today, in Today’s Christian Woman, and in newspapers around the world.
e. Tada has appeared four times on Larry King Live.
f. During her two years of rehabilitation, Tada learned how to paint with a brush between her teeth, and now sells her artwork.
2. Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch Christian Holocaust survivor who helped many Jews escape the Nazis during World War II.
a. She has received numerous awards and was a popular author and sought after speaker.
b. In 1970, Corrie Ten Boom co-wrote her autobiography, The Hiding Place released in 1971 and which was made into a movie of the same name two years later.
c. In her writing and speaking, she focused on the power of forgiveness.
3. In the article, “My Heart Sings,” written by Joni Tada for Christianity Today, Joni tells of a visit she had with Corrie after Corrie was aged and had been paralyzed by a stoke.
a. She wrote, “I recall how our eyes met as we were fed our cucumber sandwiches. Helpless and for the most part dependent, I felt our mutual weakness. Yet I am certain neither of us had ever felt stronger. It makes me think of the Cross of Christ – a symbol of weakness and humiliation, yet at the same time, a symbol of victory and strength…For a wheelchair may confine a body that is wasting away, but no wheelchair can confine the soul…the soul that is inwardly renewed day by day. For paralyzed people can walk with the Lord. Speechless people can talk with the Almighty. Sightless people can see Jesus. Deaf people can hear the Word of God. And those like Corrie, their minds shadowy and obscure, can have the mind of Christ.” (Christianity Today, Vol. 33, no.1)
D. I think I have much to learn about the truths we are discussing today.
1. We live in a world full of people struggling to be, or at least to appear, strong in order not to be weak; but we believe in and follow a gospel which says that when I am weak, then I am strong.
2. Will we trust in our God who says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”?
3. Will we like Paul then declare: “That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor. 12:10)
E. Let me end with this prayer that I found and really like: “My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn. I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but not once for my thorn. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross; but I have never thought of my cross as itself a present glory. Teach me the glory of my cross; teach me the value of my thorn. Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbows.” Amen.
1. Has God allowed thorns in your life?
2. Will you trust God to work with them and through them?
3. Will you rest in the thought and promise: “God’s power is made perfect in weakness”?
Resources:
Paul for Everyone, 2 Corinthians, Tom Wright, Westminster John Knox Press, 2003
2 Corinthians, The NIV Application Commentary, Scott J. Hafemann, Zondervan, 2000
2 Corinthians, John MacArthur, Nelson Impact, 2007
The Letters to the Corinthians, William Barclay, The Westminster Press, 1975
Be Encouraged, The Bible Exposition Commentary, Warren Wiersbe, Victor Books, 1989
The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Murray J. Harris, Edited by Frank E. Gaebelein, Zondervan, 1976
“What? Are You Weak or Something?” Sermon by A. Todd Coget, SermonCentral.com
“Thorns of Life” Sermon by Bill Butsko, SermonCentral.com
