Grace is the greatest gift…in a world of greatest pain…What is the thing in your life that has hurt you the most? For some it’s a relationship (spouse or parents)…for others it was a sickness…some it was financial…and for many it was an emotional breakdown (depression)…Whatever you answer with…I bet that question has raised some emotion…Pain leaves a mark on us, suffering changes us, weakness affects us. What interaction does grace have with suffering? If God is so gracious…why is there so much pain?
That was one of the questions asked by Christians in the Bible…
PAINFUL QUESTIONS
Background: Corinth was known for its temple prostitutes, its expensive and luxurious lifestyle, its impressive architecture, and its elite socialites. It was the place to go for pleasure, exotic living, and extravagant buildings. The “Corinthian Style” of architecture is characterized by massive columns with amazing detail that were constructed to specifically portray power and prestige. The Corinthians loved strength and power.
Every society of that day used successes and strengths to prove their point and exert influence (Jewish, Roman and Greek cultures all the same…in fact in every society)…Like the people of Corinth, we live in a culture that puts a lot of value on our own strength, abilities, and accomplishments…2 Corinthians – Struggling people…
Ministry is filled with suffering both personally and positionally…if you are going to be serving God in ministry…you will face intense suffering personally and practically.
Read- 2 Corinthians 11:22-30
…8 significant sources of danger (word danger repeated)
Physical weakness
Emotional weakness (vs. 28) – what mom can’t relate to this…what dad can’t relate to this
Then he asks 2 rhetorical questions…lean in and listen to these questions.
Who is weak? Who is led into sin? (verse 29)…If you feel weak…me too….If you are tempted to sin…so do I…
1. GRACE DOESN'T EXEMPT US FROM SUFFERING
You might not know Christ…you don’t have to be a Christian to ask these same questions…atheist, Buddhist, or Muslim…or agnostic…everyone experiences difficult times…people you love will die, miscarriage or infertility, prescription pill addition, closet problem with porn, lose your job, children rebel, physically sick, marriage difficulties, cancer, one visit to the doctor can change your life…different reality.
From a logical point of view, it would seem that God would reward those who do good with less pain. Certainly it would seem that God would give those in Christian ministry a free pass from pain. After all, missionaries, church planters and pastors work for God! Wouldn’t it be a good idea, when it would be in your power, to take special care of those who work for you?
But…Paul didn’t get a pass from pain
Verse 30 – Boast in weakness…crazy…doesn’t make sense
Let me help you find hope in your hurt…
PURPOSE IN PAIN
2 Corinthians 12:1-10
We see God’s grace in this revelation…some believe this was during his calling from Jerusalem to Antioch…we don’t know for sure…
Third heaven?
1st Heaven=Earth’s atmosphere. 2nd Heaven= Outer Space. 3rd Heaven = Gods Throne.
- Paradise…Paradeseo– of Persian origin, it meant a walled enclosure (a royal enclosed park).
“When a Persian king wished to confer a very special honor on someone specially dear to him, he made him a companion of the garden & gave him the right to walk in the royal gardens w/him in intimate companionship.” - Both the Hebrew & Greek borrowed this word…idea of walking where God dwells.
Paul has this grace-filled moment with God…So to keep from conceit and pride…
And now, there was a “thorn in the flesh.”
First of all, what is this thorn in the flesh? The Greek word is scolops (sp?). What is it? What is the thorn? Well, it’s a stake, and it was the kind of stake upon which people were impaled. It was a horrendous way to die.
4 things about the thorn
- Painful – sharpen stake
How bad was this particular pain? It was straight-from-hell bad, if you read the passage closely enough. It was a “messenger from Satan,” sent to torment him.
- Torment – beat with fists…
- Physical…in the flesh…it was meant to keep him from being conceited…
We don’t really know exactly what this thorn was:
- Calvin thought spiritual temptations.
- Luther temptations & persecutions.
- Roman Catholics say sexual temptations.
- Some say disfigurement (like hunchback, epilepsy, malarial fevers, or severe headaches).
- Others speculate a speech impediment.
- And others Ophthalmia (inflammation of the eye) from Gal.6:11 See with what large letters I have written
Chronic
- It was not what the thorn was that mattered, but what it did!
Suffering can look many different ways…Read - 12:10
- Insults (relationships) – arrogant insults…words…offenses
- Hardships (Difficulties) – maybe it is infirmities and sickness…medical history
- Persecutions (wounds, scars) that you have suffered at the hands of others…
- Calamities or troubles (stresses…literally narrow space squeezed)
***Some of us have suffering and weakness as a companion in our lives
This is the danger side of grace…Paul demonstrates humanity...WE DON’T BOAST IN SUFFERINGS
Our human instincts…there are two main options as view the grace of God…
BIG IDEA: GRACE BECOMES AN IDOL WHEN WE USE IT AS A MOMENT OF ESCAPE, INSTEAD OF A METHOD OF ENDURANCE IN SUFFERING
3 general reactions…escape can look different ways…
- FREEZE
We grow numb - Some people refuse to face reality…you can’t move…you can’t do anything…you can’t even pray…FEELINGLESS FEELING…teeth with novacain…
- FADE
We spend our whole lives trying to avoid anything painful or hard…We don’t flee…we don’t run…why? Because we are Christians…but we do fade…we begin to pull back… Some people drift from despair to self-pity…We often treat suffering like a game of dodgeball. When anything hard comes at us, we jump out of the way. We duck, dive, and hide.
- FIX
Humanly fix it…or some people bargain with God and make a plea - make a grace deal with God
If Paul had lived today with some preachers, he would have been simply told “You just need to ask that demon to banish because we have authority over all evil spirits”
Paul goes to prayer…nothing wrong with prayer…even Jesus prayed in the garden…
3 times – Over and over…Please God…Please God…Please God
Pleaded – only time used in relation to prayer…parakaleo…come to me…come alongside…
“You’ve given me more than I can handle”
Get rid of the pain…that’s the goal…escape the pain…
For some of us in this room, we have a tendency to think, "When this thing is done, when my affliction is removed, when my suffering is done, then I will be okay. Then life will be great." As if grace is the removal of our difficulties…
You might say:
Show me grace Lord, and... pay my bill Show me grace Lord, and... cure my ills
Show me grace Lord, and... remove my fears Show me grace Lord, and... dry my tears
Show me grace Lord, and... increase my wealth Show me grace Lord, and... preserve my health
Show me grace Lord, and... plead my case Show me grace Lord, and... enlarge my place
Show me grace Lord, and... tell me "why?" Show me grace Lord, and... do it today
If our grace is in the removal of our difficulties then at times we are going to be disappointed…
The pain didn’t go away. Whatever the problem, it apparently stayed with Paul for quite some time, or even the rest of his life.
God responded: I am not denying your prayer but I am denying your request…
- I’ve got something better for you than merely taking it away. Something more valuable than removal…
2. SUFFERING FINDS PURPOSE THROUGH GRACE
We’re not fond of pain, or even slight discomfort. We rebel at the suggestion of it, recoil at the sight of it, and reject the suggestion that it might be good for us. But the lessons of life are almost always taught in the classroom of suffering – whether you’re “suffering” through a elementary-school spelling quiz, dealing with the excruciating pain of disease, or the heartbreak of grief.
These are lessons that can be learned only in the classroom of suffering, and only the student enrolled there is allowed to make the discovery.
Verse 9 – Grace is sufficient for you…Why then? To find grace…Suffering is confirmation of God’s grace…
Sufficient? We at times feel like grace is not sufficient in our suffering. As if grace was a cheap, weak gift. We ask, “How could such a gracious God, leave me with such tremendous pain?”
Chapter 12 – God took a bad thing and used it for a good purpose…Let me show you my brokenness…it’s not a burden but a blessing…why?
arkeo – to be possessed of unfailing strength; to be strong, enough, sufficient
My grace is sufficient – John 6 – feeding of 5,000 – everyone had sufficient and content…feed you full and have more left over
God grabs the scales and says, “Keep your thorn but I have grace, and grace is heavenly strength for the need of the moment. Grace is a river that runs to the soul that brings healing, and also provides calmness and a sense of acceptance and hope and even gladness, as Paul says he has after the answer. Grace is indeed given to us. God says, “I am going to take grace, and it’s going to be like an elastic band that is going to stretch over your thorn and over your difficulty in such a way that you have purpose in the pain…That’s what I am going to give you instead.” Grace is a wonderful pillow upon which many a weary traveler has laid his head.
The deepest need that you and I have in weakness and adversity is not quick relief, but the well-grounded confidence that what is happening to us is part of the greatest purpose of God in the universe
“In times of affliction we commonly meet with the sweetest experiences of the grace of God.” ? John Bunyan
Life with sufficient grace and sustaining power is better than life without thorns...without suffering… Could it be that we are looking at suffering wrongly? Why…because grace brings a greater awareness of God’s purpose in our suffering…a greater awareness of God Himself…
Suffering may be a mystery but it is a revelation
Learn more of God in places of suffering…than in places of success and significance…God becomes more real and I understand more about my faith. If you marked your spiritual journey…I bet you would agree
One of the ironies is that suffering is the shortest root to God
You don’t know Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have…
You are saying to me “God’s grace isn’t sufficient for me.”
Some of you are going through bitter divorces. Some of you are in situations, which if we knew the details, we would be amazed at the pain that is represented in this room, and in our wider audience on the radio and internet. We would be amazed at the pain out there, and there are some people saying, “God’s grace is simply not sufficient,” and the reason is you and I simply do not have the kind of faith that embraces what God gives us and accepts it as from his loving hand…Grace has become an idol…
God’s will in suffering is transformation rather than elimination – it takes faith to believe that
God can take your biggest mess and turn it into your signature message…biggest test, greatest testimony.
3. GRACE REVEALS GOD'S ENDURING POWER IN OUR WEAKNESSES
verses 9-10…
Made perfect – same word as Jesus said on the cross (It is finished)… Perfect” means fulfilled, accomplished, completed, finished. It’s the same term Jesus spoke as His final word on the cross, tetelestai, which means, “It is finished” (John 19:30). ***The cross is symbol of shame and weakness but to us it’s the power of God…weakness becomes strength… Amy Carmichael – He suffered not so that we wouldn’t suffer but that when we suffer we would become like Him
God brings His sufficient and powerful grace to the relationship; all we bring is weakness. All of this is grace because we can’t do anything to deserve what He does for us. And He makes sure the results are perfect and complete.
God wants His grace to be completed in your weakness…how? Through power
GRACE = POWER…parallel statements…vs. 9
At the core of the Christian life is a paradox: weakness is the platform for the display of divine power… Showcase the glory of God
That is the one thing that differs between us and the rest of the world…we all suffer…we suffer well…
Notice the word “content” – the word means to take pleasure…WHAT? HOW CAN HE SAY THAT?
Grace is for weakness…power from God so that we endure…through endurance…Because he is learning that the power of grace is the ability to endure…pleasure and endurance are connected…
He is calling us to endure…
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame…Romans 5:1-5
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4
hupomoné – to remain under, to endure
Strength doesn’t leave a lot of room for God’s power, but in weakness there is room for God to show what He can do…to make you strong…to give you an ability to endure…
God used the pain as a needle to puncture the pride…
Don’t view suffering as an enemy, but learn to greet It as a friend!
- Instead of staring at the thorn we need to be able to see the rose, & smell its fragrance!
The amount of pleasure and satisfaction I get to live out is proportionate to my understanding of God’s grace
When you see a hard thing coming your way, try a different reaction: I may not want this, I certainly didn’t choose it, but I can accept it and be content even now. I know God’s grace is sufficient to get me through it. I’m going to see the power of Christ in my life in an incredible way. I’m weak, but He’s strong.
I’m stronger than I have ever been because I have never been weaker than I feel in this moment
In this season, don’t focus too much on finding your strengths. Give attention to identifying and exploiting your weaknesses. God has not given them to you in vain. Identify them. Accept them. Exploit them. Magnify the power of Christ with them. Don’t waste your weaknesses. – John Piper
