[Machine transcription]
In the name of Jesus, amen.
Dear saints of God, one of the first things they teach you when they teach you how to
preach is that you should have a theme that goes from the beginning of the sermon to the
end of the sermon and ties the whole thing together.
Well, we’re going to forget about that this morning because I want to look at the epistle
text, 2 Corinthians chapter 12, and I want to look at it kind of from three different
angles or really I just have three different things that I want to pull up and hold before
you from the text.
And they’re somewhat disconnected with each other, so I’ll just beg your patience as we
work through that.
The first thing is to understand what Paul is actually doing.
It’s a kind of a weird thing, especially that the text starts, I will go on boasting.
And we say, well Paul, why are you boasting in the first place?
Now we should probably read it like this, Paul says, I will go on boasting.
Because what he’s doing is in fact not boasting, but the very opposite of boasting.
But here, here’s the, here’s the thing that’s happening.
Paul had, remember, helped establish the church in Corinth on his second missionary visit.
And after he left, there was false teachers and false doctrines that got in there and
got involved and had messed things up.
When Paul writes his first letter to the Corinthians, we see that there are people
who didn’t believe in the resurrection of the body, the spiritual gifts were being abused.
Some people didn’t, they were abusing their Christian freedom.
They weren’t even, they were kind of sinning and showing off their sin.
And Paul writes to correct them.
In between the first letter and the second letter, some more false teachers had come
in there and their main argument was that Paul doesn’t count as a true teacher of God.
He’s not a real apostle.
He’s not really, he’s not someone that you should listen to.
So Paul is in this awkward situation as an apostle of having to defend his apostleship.
I mean, he has to do it all the time.
But that’s what he’s doing in the whole section.
But the way he does it is really quite amazing.
It’s almost like, you know how this goes if you’re applying for a job, or you have your
curricula vitae, your list of your accomplishments, and you have the things that you’ve done.
I worked here, and I did this, and I graduated with this, and I got this award.
There’s an ancient form of that, that especially kings would have.
They would talk about all that they’ve conquered, and all that they’ve accomplished, and all
that they’ve done.
Well, Paul takes that form, it’s like he’s giving us a resume, but instead of listing
all of the good things that you would brag about, he lists basically all of his failures.
It’s an astonishing list.
I’m going to go back to chapter 11 and just read you a few verses.
Paul says, are they servants of Christ?
Talking about these false apostles who are accusing.
Are they servants of Christ?
Paul says, I am a better one.
I’m talking like a madman.
With far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, often near death.
Five times I received at the hands of the Jews forty lashes minus one.
Three times I was beaten with rods.
Once I was stoned.
Three times I was shipwrecked.
A night in the day, I was adrift at sea.”
Can you imagine if, like you guys had called me up and were thinking about calling me as
a pastor and you said, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
And I say, well, yeah, I’ve been in prison five times.
I was beaten up three times.
I was in a shipwreck, flogged, imprisoned.
I mean, do you see howâ¦
And Paul goes on, on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger
from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness,
danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardships, through many sleepless
nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure, and apart from
these other things, there’s the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
Who’s weak?
Am I not weak?”
And at this point, we want to stop Paul and say, we weren’t talking about weakness in
the first place.
We were talking about strength.
We were talking about being an apostle.
We were talking about, are you a servant of the Almighty God?
Is that who you are?
And here you are bragging, not about your success, but about your failure.
Not about your strength, but about your weaknesses.
Who’s weak?
Am I not weak?
Who’s made to fall and am I not indignant?
If I must boast, Paul goes on, I will boast in the things that show my weakness.
The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who’s blessed forever, knows that I’m not
lying.
And here it comes.
Here’s the capstone of his argument for his apostleship.
He’s going to tell a story.
At Damascus, the governor, under King Artatreus, was guarding the city of Damascus to seize
me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped.”
Now that is not really something that you would brag about.
There was these soldiers, they were going to arrest me, but I was afraid and I hid in
a basket and they lowered me through a wall.
That’s Paul’s great triumph, his great victory.
And this is the point, Paul is not boasting of himself.
He’s not presenting himself as some sort of super-apostle, and I think he could
have. He said, well, you know, I’ve written half of the New Testament. I was
given the power by Jesus to perform miracles. I’ve raised the dead. I’ve
healed the sick. I’ve started churches in all these different continents. He
could have boasted of these things, but he does not. He instead boasts in the
things that are his failure, his weaknesses, his defeats, the time that he was stoned and
beaten half to death.
Now that’s the context for what he says in our text.
He says, I’ll go on boasting.
And when he does that, something different is happening.
Now with chapter 12, because Paul wants to bring in the fact that he brings nothing in
himself to the church, that his entire office is to bring the church Christ.
But he is an apostle.
He is truly called by God.
He does have something to say to them.
He was given the revelation of our Lord Jesus, and his whole life is to make that known,
but it’s not in himself, it’s not in his own strength.
It’s a gift from God.
So he does have to talk about that he was called to be an apostle, but listen to how
he does it.
He says, I know a man.
You know, you’ve been in those conversations when you say, I’ve got a friend.
Asking for a friend.
That’s what Paul does here.
Now he says, I’ve got nothing in myself, but I do know a guy.
I know a guy who was caught up to the third heaven.
Now who’s that guy?
That’s Paul.
Whether in the body, out of the body, I don’t know, the Lord knows.
I know this man.
He was caught up into paradise.
In the body, out of the body, I don’t know, God knows.
And that guy, that one, that man heard things that can’t be told, which man may not utter.
On behalf of that guy, I’ll boast, but not on my own behalf.
I will not boast except of my weaknesses.
Though I should wish to boast, I would be a fool, and I would be speaking the truth
if I refrained from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears
from me.”
Then an amazing thing Paul says, because he is the one who was caught up into the third
heaven.
He’s the one who’s given this vision of paradise.
He’s the one who heard things spoken that no man is authorized to speak.
That’s Paul who’s given this gift, and he says, but to keep me from being too elated
I was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, to keep me from becoming
conceited.
Three times I pleaded with the Lord, let it depart from me, but the Lord said my grace
This is sufficient for you.
My power is made perfect in weakness, so I will boast, therefore, of my weaknesses.
Why?
So that the power of Christ will rest upon me.
For the sake of Christ, here Paul finishes his argument here.
For the sake of Christ, then, I’m content with weaknesses, I’m content with insults,
I’m content with hardships, I’m content with persecutions, I’m content with calamities,
for when I’m weak, then I’m strong.
Now, I want to lift out three things from this text for you, and I think Paul has some
wisdom for us today.
The first thing I want to talk about is being a faithful steward of private revelation.
It’s a pretty specific application, but I think it’s pretty important.
The second thing I want to talk about is how the Lord ministers to us through the Word.
I want to use this text as an example.
And then third, I want to sort of finish by thinking how it is that the Lord’s strength
is made perfect in weakness.
But maybe first this theological topic is how are we to be good stewards of private
revelation and specifically because we see in this text that there’s a danger in the
vision that was given to St. Paul.
When the Lord carried St. Paul to his throne room, to the third heaven, there was a risk
for Paul in that vision, and so the Lord sent a thorn in the side to protect him from that
vision.
So we want to think about that.
Now, what do I mean by private revelation?
The way that we think about private revelation as opposed to public revelation, which is the
revelation that we have in the Scriptures.
And maybe our first doctrine, the first thing that we want to realize is that the Lord Jesus
Jesus has given us enough in the prophets and the apostles so that we need nothing more.
The Scriptures are sufficient.
We don’t need to hear from God any more than what He’s already told us.
Everything that youâ¦
And we should have this absolute confidence.
In fact, if you don’t get anything else I say, this is the main thing to grab a hold
of.
Everything that we need to know for life and salvation is given to us in the Scriptures.
Now, there’s a lot of churches that don’t have that doctrine and they’re looking for
the Lord to reveal Himself either to the church or to the individual.
I remember these old evangelical days myself where my own piety was that you had to pray
and then listen to God and the Lord would reveal Himself to you.
He would give you specific revelation, specific direction, specific wisdom, specific insight.
And part of your piety as a Christian was to expect that from God and to look to that
from God.
And then when you have it, that became your sort of defining theology or defining voice.
I remember a number of times when I thought that the Lord was in fact speaking directly
to me.
Ask me later.
I’ll tell you those stories.
They’re kind of embarrassing and I don’t want to preach them from the pulpit.
But that was the idea that I was looking for that and I was expecting that.
And I imagine that a lot of us know Christians that have that sort of theology.
That is the first thing that we need to know, is that the Scriptures never teach us, first
of all, to need that sort of revelation, to look for that sort of revelation, or to expect
that revelation.
The Scriptures are sufficient.
And if the Lord would never come and say anything else to you than what He said to you in the
Bible, in the prophets and the apostles, you would thank the Lord because it’s not only
is it enough, it’s more than enough there.
But we do see in the Scriptures that the Lord does come and speak to His people and He does
give a revelation to people.
Sometimes it comes in the form of a burning bush or of a dream or of appearing to someone
like Jesus appeared to Paul on the way to Damascus and He revealed Himself to him and
He brought him into the third heaven.
And I think that’s, if I was just to ask you to raise your hand, I’m not going to,
but I imagine that if I asked you, hey, how many of you have had friends or neighbors
or family that have had a private direct revelation from God, that God has come to them and spoken
them in the form of an angel or in a dream or that they’ve heard the voice of God in
their own heart?
How many of you have friends and neighbors that have had that experience?
I imagine that probably all of us would raise our hands.
And I also think this, that if I said, how many of you have had something like that happen
and that a lot of you would also raise your hands.
Now, here’s the question then for us.
How can we be good and faithful stewards
of those private revelations from God,
and how can we first recognize their danger?
Because we know from this text from St. Paul
that these revelations are in fact dangerous.
If your friend, for example, he says,
hey, I wanna, could we get a cup of coffee?
I wanna sit down and tell you something pretty important.
And you sit down with them and they say,
They say, I want to tell you that a few weeks ago I had a dream, and in the dream the Lord
was speaking to me.
The first thing that you should say is, I’m so sorry.
And serious.
Because if it’s true that the Lord has spoken to them in a dream, the Lord has now given
them a burden, and it’s going to be a heavy burden.
It’s going to be a desperate temptation.
And in a number of ways, I’ll tell you.
First, it’s going to be a temptation that they take that which has been revealed
to them by God and lift it above the Scriptures. I know God speaks in the
Apostles and the Prophets, but here this is He spoken directly for me, and this is
now the most important word that I’ve ever heard from God. To be a good steward
of the private revelation means that it has to, it must be below the Word of God.
God.
It must submit to the Word of God.
And if that private revelation supports the preaching that we have in the Scriptures,
then God be praised because we have the Scriptures.
But if it doesn’t, then it has to be put aside.
I’ve been reading and thinking a lot about Genesis 32, which is where Jacob and the Lord
are wrestling.
Remember on the fords of Jabbok?
And Jacob has the Word of God.
The older will serve the younger.
He has the promise that from him will come the Messiah.
And Jacob is to believe that word and now he goes to the river Jabbok and
Jesus shows up and he doesn’t confirm the blessing but he slams his face in
the mud. Remember this crazy story that Jesus comes to Jacob and what are they
doing? They’re wrestling all night and the Lord is coming at Jacob like he’s
going to destroy him. And here’s the point, Jacob has this individual
revelation of Jesus which says I’m going to destroy you and he has the word that
says, you will live and from you will come the Messiah. And this is the
whole point of that story, is that Jacob has to hold on to the vision and say, I’m
not gonna let go until you, the one trying to destroy me, will bless me. So
the Lord deals also with us. When the Lord comes to you and He speaks
to you, it must be to serve the Word that’s written in the Scriptures. And if
it doesn’t serve the Word written in the Scriptures, you have to let it go. It
It doesn’t matter if an angel comes and preaches to you that God hates you.
That angel has to go.
It doesn’t matter if Jesus himself were to stand in front of you and say to you, heaven
is closed.
You’ve got no chance.
I’m going to condemn you.
He has to go to his word because in the word he tells us his heart.
In his word he tells us the truth.
In his word he says that I’ve died for you, that your sins are forgiven, that I love you,
that heaven is open, that you will live forever, that I came not to condemn the
world, but that the world through me might be saved. And so the private
revelation must â dear saints, this is so important â for you and for everyone
that you’re helping to steward these revelations, it must serve the written
Word of God. It must stand under the Word of the prophets and the apostles. The
private revelation must remain private. It must remain individual. It can’t â and
And this is the other danger, right, that it exalts itself over the Word, and then now
I start to exalt myself over the Word because I, after all, have what God has spoken to
me and what He’s revealed to me, and now I want to make it known.
It’s not your job to make it known.
If the Lord wants everybody to know what it is, He would have had it written in His Word.
This is theâ¦
I think the way we should think about things like, you know, the books about the people
who die and go to heaven and have those visions of heaven?
One, if the Lord wants to give that kind of vision of heaven to someone, then we praise
the Lord.
That’s what He wants to do.
But He’s given the vision to them and not to you.
And in fact, He’s not given the vision for them to trust in, but to confirm what He speaks
in the Word.
And He certainly has not given that vision to you to strengthen your faith.
Because if now, if your faith is strengthened by the vision or revelation given to someone
else, then it’s taken away from the Word.
And in that we see how the devil abuses the Word of God, which is why the Holy Spirit
gives to Saint Paul an affliction, the thorn in the flesh, to keep him from becoming too
pride so that he is not invested in the unique revelation given to him but grounded in the
Word of God.
Okay, I think there’s more to say about that, but that’s probably enough.
It is maybe just enough for us to walk away with this to recognize that if the Lord wants
to reveal something to you, that’s his decision.
If he wants you to have a vision or a word that’s not in the Scriptures, that’s up to
him.
But if he does do that, that is a high calling of faithful stewardship.
And we have to be very careful that we don’t let those individual revelations stand above
the Word of God.
Now, the second thing, so that’s a warning.
The second thing I want to consider is how the Lord uses the word to minister to us.
And I just probably want to talk about this because this particular epistle text, well,
it just is for me personally, perhaps the most precious word in the entirety of the
Scriptures.
In fact, maybe I should write this down that this should be my funeral sermon, Pastor Davis,
when you preach that in a couple of weeks or whatever, that you’ll preach on this text.
And if you could then maybe just let me tell a story, and I’ll show you.
I think this is an example of how the Lord ministers to us.
So most of you know that a couple years ago when I got COVID on that first round and was
pretty sick, and that was taken away from me.
One of the things that was taken away from me was my capacity to think straight and to
talk straight for a number of weeks.
And the thought at that particular point was that I do not know how I will continue to
be a pastor.
I couldn’t see it.
I thought that was gone.
I couldn’t finish a sentence.
In the first sermon I thought that some of the people were like, well, we could use with
you finishing a few fewer sentences, pastor.
You don’t have to finish as many sentences just because you can now, sheesh.
But that was taken away and I thought, oh, if I can’t be a pastor, if I can’t provide
for my family, if I can’t really serve normally as a father and a husband, I just was kind
of incapacitated.
I said, well, what can I do?
I’m just so weak, I could hardly stay awake, you know, I was just weak.
And the verse that echoed in my mind and my heart the whole time was these precious words
that the Lord Jesus spoke to Saint Paul.
My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Now that’s pretty marvelous. In fact, as
soon as I could write, I wrote that on a note card, I put it on the wall in my
in my desk, in front of my desk at home. My strength is made perfect in weakness.
It’s true. And this is how the Lord ministers to each one of us, that He
takes His Word and He gives us just the Word that we need, just when we need it.
And when we’re sad, the Lord comes along and He ministers to us in our hearts, the joy
of the Lord is my strength.
When we feel constrained in our inner life, the Lord comes along and ministers to us,
Christ has set you free.
When we feel the burden of our guilty conscience, the Lord comes along and ministers to us,
your sins are forgiven.
That the Lord takes the Word of God and He ministers to us in our own hearts with that
Word.
Now, I don’t think there was a time in my life before when I had taken these words from
2 Corinthians and put them on a note card to memorize them, although that’s a great
idea and we should do that.
But to know that when we study the Lord, the Lord’s Word, when the Holy Spirit is pressing
it into our ears and into our hearts, He’s putting it there so that He can⦠when we
are suffering, when we are sick, when we are low, when we are laying on our deathbed, who
Who knows how the Holy Spirit is ministering to our consciences in those particular moments
and God be praised for that.
So let us continue to give attention to the Lord’s Word knowing that He’s the one who
uses it, who activates it, who puts it to use in our hearts and minds.
That’s the second thing.
Now the third thing.
What does this mean that my strength is made perfect in weakness?
I think that we should know that when Paul is listing off his failures as the things
that he’s boasting of, that he is following the example of the Lord Jesus.
Here’s how I want you to think about it.
If you were to say to God, say, Lord, you say that you’re almighty, I want you to prove
it.
could you could you provide for us a list of your works a list of your
almighty deeds the Lord would have a lot to choose from you know he could say hey
I by the way with a word created everything I hung the stars in the in
the sky I divided the sea and the land I created the great sea monsters I uphold
all things by my power.
I’m coming on the last day and I’m going to gather up all people and I’m going to judge
the living and the dead.
The Lord could have a long list of all of his mighty works, but when we ask that question,
Lord, would you make known to us your power?
He says, my power is made known chiefly in showing mercy.
And here’s my power, I was born of the Virgin Mary, I was crucified under Pontius Pilate.
I suffered. I was nailed to a cross. I bled and I died and I did all of that
for you.” In other words, the cross is the Lord’s boasting for you because in his
cross, in the weakness of God, our salvation is accomplished. Our enemies,
sin, death, and the devil are overthrown and the Lord makes himself known to us
not as the almighty creator and destroyer but rather as the friend of
sinners, as the forgiver of sins, as the Savior of the desperate, as our Savior, as
your Savior. When Paul says my strength is made perfect in weakness he’s
pointing our eyes and our attention straight to the suffering and death of
Jesus, where the weakness of God is our life, where the death of God is our hope, where
the suffering of God is our salvation.
So may God grant us a spirit that we have this wisdom, that we can ourselves and with
our friends be faithful stewards of the revelations that God gives, that we would rejoice in his
caring for us and that most of all that we would that we would know that for us
the Lord’s power is made perfect in the weakness of his death on the cross. May
God grant it for Christ’s sake. Amen. The peace of God which passes all
understanding guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
