Barry Metz 10/30/16

Boasting in Weaknesses, Part 22 Corinthians 12:1–10

Let’s pick up this morning in 2 Corinthians 12. If you have your bibles, turn there and I’ll begin reading in verse 1…. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 1….

12 I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 3 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— 4 and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. 5 On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— 6 though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. 7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 

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Two weeks ago we used this slide…

…to try to characterize the situation that the apostle Paul found himself in as he penned chapters 11 and 12 of 2 Corinthians. It was the apostle Paul versus in the ‘Super Apostles’ in the Boast bowl.

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How did the apostle Paul find himself in such an unusual place? Knowing what he knows about boasting, knowing that he knows that only fools boast. How did the apostle Paul end up in the ‘Boast Bowl’?

I guess we could say he was forced into it. We could imagine him thinking something like this: “If the Corinthians will not put up with (me) when (I’m) wise and (when I) speak according to the Lord, perhaps they’ll put up with me when (I) act the fool and boast in the same manner as my opponents.”1 You see Paul was a reluctant boaster. Boasting was for fools and he was no fool. But he would go to almost any length to win the Corinthians’ hearts and if that meant fighting fire with fire then he would fight fire with fire; if that meant boasting to counter his opponent’s boasting, he would boast. He would boast if it would win their hearts. He would play the game his opponents played if he was forced to. But as we pointed out a couple of weeks ago, he would turn boasting on its head and with a surprising twist boast about his weaknesses. He would enter the Boast Bowl and play by a completely different set of rules.

We made a point two weeks ago that Paul begins what many students of scripture call his ‘Fools Speech’ in 2 Corinthians 11:22. He introduces this so-called ‘fool’s speech’ in the second half of verse 21….but whatever anyone else dares to boast of—I am speaking as a fool there it is I am speaking as a fool —I also dare to boast of that.

So this so-called ‘Fool’s Speech’…..

…runs from 2 Cor. 11:22 to 2 Cor. 12:10.

Two weeks ago we looked at the first section of Paul’s “Fool’s Speech.” We noted that Paul began his speech in verse 22 boasting about his bona fide identity strengths—that he was a Hebrew, a Jew, and an offspring of Abraham. And then he began talking about his Christian ministry and as he transitioned to his Christian ministry he transitioned without any fanfare in verse 23 to begin boasting about his weaknesses—his many hardships that marked him as a

1 Garland

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failure in the Corinthian culture. Look at verse 25…Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked…and so on…hardship after hardship that showed him to be weak. He capped off the discussion of his weaknesses in verses 32-33 with a picture of himself from way back at the start of his ministry when he was delivered from a wicked king by being let down in a basket through a window in the city wall. It was a memory that left him looking silly, humiliated, and weak.

As we transition this morning into the first ten verses of chapter 12, Paul will boast about another event from his life that demonstrates his weakness—a time early in his ministry when he was snatched up to paradise. And again we’ll be surprised at how Paul turns this incredibly amazing experience into an opportunity to boast again about his weakness.

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Now we’ve just read the first ten verses of chapter 12. And I’m sure you have some familiarity with them. It turns out that this passage is highly debated. Listen to the questions that shape the debate:

1. What’s the nature of Paul’s experience? Is it a vision or revelation from the Lord or is it about the Lord?

2. Is Paul speaking of his own experience? Or is he speaking of the experience of one of his associates in ministry….I know a man in Christ..Paul writes…what’s that all about? Is this Paul speaking about his own experience or someone else’s? One author has even suggested that 2… Paul is parodying (parody-ing)—making fun of, lampooning—the vision of one of his opponents in Corinth in these verses? More on that idea later.

3. What is the third heaven? What is paradise? Does Paul use those terms in our passage interchangeably to mean the same thing?

4. What did Paul see or hear in paradise? And why was he prevented by God from sharing what he saw and heard? (And what does that mean for the whole genre of books today that describe a vision or trip to heaven?)

5. And finally, what was Paul’s thorn in the flesh—that ‘messenger of Satan’ that God used …what an interesting phrase…the messenger of Satan that God used….to keep him from becoming consumed with his own importance?3

So with those issues in the background let’s look into the passage. ______________

Look at verse 1…

2 Betz3 Guthrie mentions these or similar questions in his commentary

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12 I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 

Paul is transitioning in verse 1. He’s been boasting about his hardships and difficulties and weaknesses. And he’s decided to boast through our somewhat arbitrary chapter divisions in our English version. He’s going to go on boasting—ambivalently none the less—to visions and revelations of the Lord.

Now we assume that his opponents, the so-called ‘super apostles’ in Corinth, had their own visions and revelations and so Paul is taking them on toe to toe, item for item.

What does the term visions signify? The word ‘visions’ involves the intersection of the heavenly and the earthly realms in some way.4 Up to this point in his ministry, Paul has had several visions from the Lord. And quite frankly I was surprised at the number of times in Paul’s ministry the heavenly and earthly realms intersected for Paul.

His life as a believer started with a vision of the exalted Christ on the road to Damascus5

Soon after his conversion, he received a vision of a man named Ananias who would come and lay his hands on him so that he could regain his sight.6 In Acts 16, Paul saw a vision of a man from Macedonia asking for help.7

In Acts 18, while Paul was in Corinth, he received a vision from the Lord—Listen to Acts 18:9 And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for a have many in this city who are my people. 

In Acts 22, Paul fell into a trance while he was praying in the temple, and the Lord warned him to flee8 And then after writing the book of 2 Corinthians, there were more.9 So the point is there were a host of times in Paul’s ministry that the heavenly realm and the earthly realm intersected.

So in Paul’s “Fool’s Speech” he is moving into the category of ‘visions’—times when the heavenly realms and earthly realms intersected in some way for him—and ‘revelations’—times

4 Guthrie5 Acts 26:19 looking back on the events of Acts 9; Paul calls it a vision6 Acts 9:127 Acts 16:9-108 Acts 22:17-219 In Acts 23:11, while Paul was under arrest in Jerusalem, the Lord stood by him and encouraged him. And then in Acts 27:23-24, Paul had a vision of the Lord before the shipwreck.

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when there was a disclosure from the Lord of some type.10 And clearly those two ‘categories’ are not mutually exclusive; they overlap. Paul received many visions and revelations.

Well in verses 2-4 Paul provides a specific example of one of the visions and revelations from the Lord he experienced.

2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 3 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— 4 and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. 

Now I’ve tipped my hat already—I’ve said that Paul experienced this vision. I do think this is Paul’s personal experience. I don’t think it’s some ministry associate of Paul’s and I don’t think that Paul is parodying the visionary experience of his opponents’11

Now what do I mean by ‘parodying the visionary experience of his opponents’? Well look at how little really comes out of Paul’s trip to paradise…. “I know a man who went to Paradise and he can’t say a thing about what he saw there”’ Do you see how Paul could be parodying his opponent’s visions? “Yeah…I know a man who went to paradise….yep…sure do…..and you know what? He can’t say a thing about what he experienced.”

But I don’t think that that’s what is going on here. And I don’t think he’s describing the experience of a ministry associate of his. I think this is his experience. There are two main reasons…

1. The entire surrounding context in chapter 11 and 12 concerns aspects of Paul’s own ministry and so the vision seems best understood as Paul’s experience.12

2. In verse 7, Paul goes from third person ‘I know a man’ to first person, So to keep me from being conceited…   It doesn’t make very much sense at all for Paul’s ministry associate to have the vision but for Paul to get the thorn. Doesn’t it make sense that the one who had the vision would get the thorn?

Well then why does Paul talk the way he does? Why does he seem to distance himself from the man who experienced being caught up to paradise?

10 Guthrie11 Guthrie12 Guthrie

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Some have argued that this was a technique used by speakers at the time to deflect attention away from themselves.13 “Paul would have been aware of the great (men) of faith who had been snatched up to the heavens, and he doesn’t want to be seen as claiming a place of honor among them (Garland 1999: 511)”.14 We know that Paul would deflect attention away from himself and on to Christ. So that could be why Paul says….I know a man in Christ…

But perhaps Paul brings up the encounter in paradise with God in a distancing way because he doesn’t want his main point to be missed-- that God is powerful in his weaknesses.

Look at verse 2 again… 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago…this would have been around 42 AD15 when Paul was in Syria before any of his missionary trips… was caught up…was ‘snatched up’…was ‘taken away suddenly16’ to the third heaven…The bible views the heavens as threefold—the first heaven is the atmosphere, the second heaven is the place of the stars, and the third heaven is the home of God 17 —whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. It seems that Paul’s experience was so ‘thoroughly ecstatic’ that he didn’t know whether he had been caught up bodily or whether it was simply the ‘out-of-the-body transport of his human spirit’18  The event was so outside the realm of Paul’s normal experience that he couldn’t be sure what exactly happened to him19 That’s not so hard to believe is it?

Verse 3 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—

The word ‘paradise’ shows up two other times in the New Testament…

13 Guthrie; “It is relevant that such a third-person approach to relating one’s own experience was used at points in rhetoric to deflect attention from oneself, thus reducing the offense of boasting about oneself (Keener 2005: 238), and Paul’s whole posture in his “boasting” involves humbly focusing attention on the Lord and not on himself.”

14 Guthrie, G. H. (2015). 2 Corinthians. (R. W. Yarbrough & R. H. Stein, Eds.) (p. 580). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.15 Guthrie, 40-42 AD16 Guthrie, Here and in verse 4 the apostle explains that he was “snatched up.” Both the aorist passive participle in verse 2 and the aorist passive indicative in verse 4 are from ἁρπάζω (harpazō), a word that could mean taking something away suddenly, as in the case of a person being grabbed and taken away by a wild animal (e.g., Gen. 37:33; Ps. 7:3 [7:2 ET]), or a thief stealing someone’s property (Matt. 12:29). The term could also refer to a person suddenly being taken away in supernatural movement, as when Philip was “snatched up” by the Spirit (Acts 8:39), or when at the end of the age believers will be “caught up” to be with the Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:17). In John’s apocalyptic vision, the Christ was “caught up” to God’s throne (Rev. 12:5). Such movement between heaven and earth is perhaps the most distinguishing feature of apocalyptic literature of the era (e.g., 1 En. 39.3–4; 52.1; Wis. 4:10–11; Apoc. Mos. 37.3). Thus Paul’s experience involved suddenly being “snatched up,” transported to the very presence of God in “the third heaven” and “paradise.”17 Guthrie18 Hughes19 Guthrie

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The word is a loan word from the Persian language. It was originally used of parks belonging to the Persian king and his nobles and it was picked up by the Greek translation of the Old Testament to describe the Garden of Eden. So if you were reading Genesis 2:8 in the Greek, you’d find this ‘loan word’ from the Persian language… paradise. The word paradise came to be identified with ‘God’s transcendent place of blessedness’20

There are good reasons I think to believe that Paul uses the term ‘third heaven’ and ‘paradise’, here in verse 3, interchangeably to describe the highest heavenly realm, to describe God’s heavenly throne room, to describe God’s presence. So it may be that Paul was snatched up into the very presence of God in the heavenly holy of holies.”21

4 and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.

The things that Paul heard were beyond utterance not because they were unintelligible but because God had forbidden Paul to speak of them.22 Why would God grant Paul such an incredible heavenly experience and then prevent him from talking about it? John Calvin answers… ‘this happened for his own sake, for a man who had waiting for him troubles hard enough to break a thousand hearts, needed to be strengthened in a special way to…help him persevere.’23 The things Paul heard were given to him for his own benefit.

Verse 5…5 On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses— Paul will reluctantly boast on behalf of the man he has distanced himself

20 Guthrie21 Guthrie22 The term ἄρρητος (arrētos) ‘unutterable’ could refer either to something that cannot be expressed, since the words are beyond human ability, or to something that must not be expressed because they are too holy to speak and thus forbidden (BDAG 134). The relative clause that follows, ἃ οὐκ ἐξὸν ἀνθρώπῳ λαλῆσαι (ha ouk exon anthrōpō lalēsai, that a person is not permitted to speak), seems to clarify matters…Thus Paul was not allowed to reveal the words that had been spoken to him.23 John Calvin as quoted by Hughes

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from who was snatched up to paradise but he will not boast on his own behalf. He will only boast of his weaknesses. And that would be consistent with everything else he has said.

Verse 6… 6 though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth…in other words if Paul would wish to boast about his being snatched up to paradise, his boasting wouldn’t be foolish because he would be speaking of something that really happened…. but I refrain from it…I refrain from boasting…  so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. …. 

How do we evaluate a true minister? We see them and we hear them. We observe how they live and we listen to what they say. And Paul wants those criteria—and those criteria alone—to be the criteria by which he is evaluated.

He doesn’t want the Corinthians to evaluate him based on his visions and revelations . He doesn’t want the Corinthians to evaluate him based on his mystical experiences. He wants them to form an opinion of him solely on how he conducts his ministry and the things that come out of his mouth.

“Impressive heavenly visions and revelations, as authentic as they are, and as significant as they are, are not what makes for authentic ministry. Rather, Paul suggests authentic ministry is shaped and verified in the nitty-gritty of day-to-day ministry.”24

As we come to verse 7 we come to the real reason Paul brought up his trip to paradise. It was to announce his greatest weakness—the thorn that was given him in the flesh

7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 

What do we know about the thorn?

24 Guthrie, G. H. (2015). 2 Corinthians. (R. W. Yarbrough & R. H. Stein, Eds.) (p. 587). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

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There’s lots of mystery in this list.

1. The term translated ‘thorns’ referred to something sharp or pointed. 25 Some argue that the word ‘stake’ would be a better translation.26 A stake in the flesh… As a metaphor the term carries ‘the notion of something sharp and painful which sticks deeply in the flesh and in the will of God defies extracting’27

2. The thorn was a purposeful gift from the Lord so that Paul wouldn’t be full of himself or become consumed with self-importance. The thorn was given to him because “the superiority of the revelations might lead Paul to present himself as superior.”28 So, one writer says, “God…brought the elated Paul down to earth and pinned him there with a thorn.”29

3. We assume the thorn was given to Paul ‘by the Lord’ although the text doesn’t specifically say that. The tone surrounding the thorn seems positive and redemptive so it seems fitting to see God as the giver.30 The thorn didn’t come by way of an accident. It wasn’t something Paul brought upon himself. It came as God’s gift. “God was the unseen agent behind the bitter experience.”31 And again there’s great mystery in this.

4. It was a thorn in the flesh. It’s probably this idea that leads many to assume that Paul’s thorn was a physical malady. But it doesn’t need to be. One author suggests that it could be translated ‘thorn against the flesh”

25 Guthrie, ‘Against the LXX backdrop, the translation ‘thorn’ seems appropriate (Num. 33:55; Hosea 2:6; Ezekiel 28:24). This list is from Guthrie26 Garland27 As quoted in Garland28 Seifrid29 Barnett as quoted by Garland30 Guthrie31 Ralph Martin as quoted in Hafemann

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5. It was a messenger of Satan. Although the thorn was redemptive and ultimately from God, Paul also describes it as a messenger of Satan. Clearly Paul sees ‘Satan’s messenger as directly involved in his thorny situation.’32 So we could say the vision of heaven roused (adversarial circumstances) from hell33 Paradoxically, the thorn was both a gift from God and a goad from Satan.34

6. The thorn ‘beat’ Paul continually. See the words ‘to harass me” in verse 7 in the ESV? The word there could speak of hitting someone with a fist or a hand. On the night before Jesus was crucified, they struck him with their fists—same word. They roughed him up. Paul’s thorn roughed him up repeatedly.

7. Paul pleaded three times that it would be taken away. Significantly, Paul’s three prayers parallel or echo Jesus’s threefold prayer to the Father in Gethsemane that the cup of suffering would be removed from him. And just as Jesus’ cup of suffering was not removed by God, so Paul’s thorn was not removed either. Both Jesus and Paul heard God’s silent ‘No!’ And Hughes says this in his commentary, “Whenever Christ says no to our desperate passionate pleadings, his ‘no’ is freighted with his perfect, compassionate, goodness and love.”35

Well we’ve danced all around this question, ‘What was Paul’s thorn?” Was it a physical illness of some kind?36 Was it a psychological malady?37 Was it opposition?38

Paul doesn’t tell us and we do better not to speculate. And it might be just God’s design that we are left to wonder so that we with our different experiences can enter Paul’s circumstances when we encounter weakness or suffering or hardship or physical illness.

Paul is clear about the thorn’s theological origin (it was sent by Satan and given by God). Paul is clear about its cause (Paul’s great revelations). And Paul is clear about its purpose (to keep Paul from becoming full of himself)39

32 Guthrie33 As quoted in Garland34 Guthrie35 Hughes36 Guthrie, Physical illness of some kind. Suggestions include malarial fever, epilepsy, severe headaches (Tertullian, On Modesty 13), a pathology of the eyes (Gal. 4:13–15), a speech impediment (2 Cor. 10:10; Barrett 1973: 315), perhaps a socially debilitating disease or disfigurement (P. Marshall 1983: 315–16), or some unspecified personal illness (Hafemann 2000: 462, following Heckel 1993)37 Guthrie, A psychological malady. Suggestions include anxiety disorders, pangs of conscience over persecuting the church, deep suffering over his ineffectiveness in reaching the Jews with the gospel, depression, and sexual temptation (yet see 1 Cor. 7:7 and Furnish 1984: 548; see also the discussion and counterarguments in Thrall 2000: 809–11). 38 Guthrie, Opposition. Suggestions include conflict with the Judaizers, specific opponents such as Alexander the coppersmith (John Chrysostom), opposition in general (Keener 2005: 240), a specific opponent at Corinth (Mullins 1957), and even the church at Corinth itself (McCant 1988).39 Seifrid

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9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 

Based on the Lord’s words to him…these red letter words from the Lord to Paul at the start of verse 9… My grace is sufficient for you….My grace is completely adequate for you….the Lord in effect was telling Paul, “You don’t really need the thorn removed. All you need is my grace to deal with it.”40

Charles Spurgeon who suffered a tremendous amount—I read that he spent 1/3 of his last 27 years of ministry out of the pulpit because of physical illness--told his congregation that one of the central points of 2 Corinthians 12:9 is that God’s grace is now sufficient for whatever need we may face.

He writes…

It is easy to believe in grace for the past and the future, but to rest in it for the immediate necessity is true faith.… At this moment, and at all moments which shall ever occur between now and glory, the grace of God will be sufficient for you. This sufficiency is declared without any limiting words [in 12:9], and therefore I understand the passage to mean that the grace of our Lord Jesus is sufficient to uphold thee, sufficient to strengthen thee, sufficient to comfort thee, sufficient to make thy trouble useful to thee, sufficient to enable thee to triumph over it, sufficient to bring thee out of it, sufficient to bring thee out of ten thousand like it, sufficient to bring thee home to heaven.

Whatever would be good for thee, Christ’s grace is sufficient to bestow; whatever would harm thee, his grace is sufficient to avert; whatever thou desirest, his grace is sufficient to give thee if it be good for thee; whatever thou wouldst avoid, his grace can shield thee from it if so his wisdom shall dictate.… Here let me press upon you the pleasing duty of taking home the promise personally at this moment, for no believer here need be under any fear, since for him also, at this very instant, the grace of the Lord Jesus is sufficient.41

Martin Luther said there are three rules for understanding scripture—praying, meditating and suffering trials. The ‘trials’ he said are supremely valuable: they teach you not only to know and understand but also to experience how right, how true, how sweet, how lovely, how mighty, how comforting God’s word is. Therefore the devil becomes the unwitting teacher of God’s word….the devil will afflict you and make a real doctor of you…42

Well the Lord goes on to explain in these red letter words in our text in verse 9 why the thorn

needs to stay in place….My grace is sufficient for you….for…. here is the reason that the thorn needs to stay in place…. For my power is made perfect in weakness.40 Guthrie41 Hafemann, S. J. (2000). 2 Corinthians (pp. 456–482). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.42 As quoted in Hafesmann

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My power, God’s power, Christ’s power, is perfected, brought to its desired end43…in weakness.

So when God says that His power is perfected in weakness, “he means that the power of God has its intended effect or fulfillment in contexts of weakness, that is, in trials and persecutions.”44 Paul’s opponents live out of their strengths. Paul delights to live out of his weaknesses.

Scholars agree that verse 9 is the summit of 2 Corinthians, the lofty peak from which to view the entire book.45 And speaking musically, ‘power in weakness’ is the melodic line that weaves its way throughout the book:46

2 Corinthians 1:8–9 ….8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not ourselves but God who raises the dead. 

2 Corinthians 2:14 --14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession….remember to be in a Roman triumphal procession was to be a captured prisoner being led to one’s death… and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 

2 Corinthians 4:7–12 --7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you. 

{We could add other scriptures where this theme is present in 2 Corinthians47} Power in weakness….what will it take to make that the theme of our lives? We seek as a church to make the gospel visible. We can do it best when we display God’s power in our weakness.

Back to the text… verse 9b… Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. 

43 Guthrie44 Guthrie45 Hughes46 Hughes47 2 Cor. 6:4-10; 2 Cor. 11:23-29 where Paul’s endurance is evidence of God’s power in his life

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Why does Paul boast all the more gladly of his weaknesses? So that the power of Christ may rest on him. The word ‘rest’ is related to the word ‘tent’. It means ‘to use a place for lodging, to take up quarters, to take up one’s abode.’48 One author says this, “‘rest on me’ is the vocabulary of the tabernacle from the time when God began pitching his tent with his people.’49

The all-powerful Christ pitches his tent with his people in their weakness.

I couldn’t help but think of blind Fanny Crosby who wrote over 8000 hymns

Doesn’t this behoove all of us, to live out of our weaknesses?...to cry out daily, “I can’t do it without you…Help!”

I can’t live for Christ without you… Help!I can’t fight sin without you… Help!I can’t do my work well without you….help!I can’t student without you…..help!I can’t be the right kind of husband I need to be without you…help!I can’t parent the right way without you…help!I can’t be single without you….help!

Oh all-powerful Christ, pitch your tent with us in our weaknesses!

Henrietta Mears set the standard for Sunday school in the 1950s. She served as the Sunday school superintendent and teacher at First Presbyterian Church in Hollywood, California. She influenced the ministries of many--Billy Graham, Bill Bright of Campus for Christ, Richard Halverson who went on to become a chaplain of the United State Senate, and a host of others.

What I didn’t know is that she suffered from childhood on with extreme myopia (nearsightedness), and general eye weakness and irritation. She, like Paul, cried out for relief, but God did nothing. In her latter years she often remarked: “I believe my greatest spiritual asset throughout my entire life has been my failing sight, for it has kept me absolutely dependent on God”50

Verse 10…10 For the sake of Christ, then,…Paul brings his argument to a conclusion…. I am content…there’s a pretty strong argument we could translate it this way… I am delighted… not

48 Guthrie49 Hughes, Exodus 40:3450 As quoted in Hughes

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Barry Metz 10/30/16

only I am content …but I am delighted 51 …. with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 

I’m delighted with things that would seem to separate me from the love of Christ…weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities… Why?

For when I am weak, then because of God’s power, I am strong.______________

In 1958 John Stott led a university outreach in Sydney, Australia. He received word of his father’s death the day before the final meeting and at the same time was beginning to lose his voice. He describes the final day of outreach as follows:

It was already late afternoon within a few hours of the final meeting of the mission, so I didn’t feel I could back away at that time. I went to the great hall and asked a few students to gather round me. I asked one of them to read … “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:8–9). A student read these verses and then I asked them to lay hands on me and … pray that those verses might be true in my own experience.

When time came for me to give my address, I preached on the [broad and narrow ways from Matt. 7]. I had to get within half an inch of the microphone, and I croaked the gospel like a raven. I couldn’t exert my personality. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t use any inflections in my voice. I croaked the gospel in monotone. Then when the time came to give the invitation, there was an immediate response, larger than any other meeting during the mission, as students came flocking forward.

Reflecting on the impact of that experience, Stott reports, “I’ve been back to Australia about ten times since 1958, and on every occasion somebody has come up to me and said, ‘Do you remember that final meeting in the university in the great hall?’ ‘I jolly well do,’ I reply. ‘Well,’ they say, ‘I was converted that night.’ ” He concludes, “The Holy Spirit takes our human words, spoken in great weakness and frailty, and he carries them home with power to the mind, the heart, the conscience, and the will of the hearers in such a way that they see and believe” (Knowles 2007: 137–38).52

INTRODUCE ELIJAH PENDERGAST

51 Guthrie…in the parallel of verse 10 he expresses, “I am delighted in weaknesses,” using the verb εὐδοκέω (eudokeō, delight). Generally NT authors use this verb to speak of taking pleasure or delight in something and thus approving of it. This is the term, for instance, used by the Gospel writers to express the “delight” the Father has in the Son at the baptism (Matt. 3:17) and then again at the transfiguration (17:5). Elsewhere Paul uses the word to speak of God’s pleasure in saving the lost through the foolishness of preaching (1 Cor. 1:21), or God’s pleasure in revealing his Son in Paul (Gal. 1:15–16). Earlier in 2 Corinthians the apostle comments on his preference for being out of the body and present with the Lord (5:8). Furnish (1984: 531) suggests that it means “something less than ‘take delight in,’ ” but that is the dominant meaning in the NT (Matt. 3:17; 12:18; 17:5; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22; 12:32; Rom. 15:26–27; 1 Cor. 1:21; 2 Cor. 5:8; Gal. 1:15; Col. 1:19; 1 Thess. 2:8; Heb. 10:6, 8, 38; 2 Pet. 1:17), and it is appropriate here. Paul proclaims that the onerous experiences he has described in the Fool’s Speech can be viewed as a source of delight because of their outcome (cf. James 1:2–4): power in ministry.52 Guthrie, G. H. (2015). 2 Corinthians. (R. W. Yarbrough & R. H. Stein, Eds.) (pp. 576–598). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

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Barry Metz 10/30/16

When I survey the wondrous crossOn which the Prince of glory died,My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,Save in the death of Christ my God!

All the vain things that charm me most,I sacrifice them to His blood.

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