THE MINISTRY OF THORNS
2 Cor. 12:7-10
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: UNTIED SHOE
1. Boudreaux saw Thibodaux on the wharf and noticed one of his shoelaces was untied. “Watch out you don’t trip up over your laces, Thibodaux.”
2. Thibodaux replied, “Yeah, it’s the crazy instructions on these shoes.”
3. “What instructions, Thibodaux?” “Underneath the shoe, it says ‘Taiwan’.”
B. TEXT
“Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap [Gr. ‘thorn’] to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, “My grace is enough; it’s all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness.” Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I (He) becomes” 2 Cor. 12:7-10, MSG.
C. THESIS
1. There’s some things I’ve found it difficult to understand. Like, why did God create mosquitoes, bull nettle, snakes, wasps, thorns, etc. What possible good purpose could they serve?
2. All those things seem only to be hurtful and to have no redeeming value. But I’ve finally thought of a value for thorns. That’s right. Thorns actually have a “ministry” in God’s plan. So what is the ministry of thorns? Glad you asked!
3. The title of this message is “The Ministry of Thorns.”
l. THE PARADOX OF GOD’S WAYS
A. OPPOSITES BALANCE
1. Whenever one reads this portion of Scripture (2 Cor. 12), it stands out that there seems to be a paradox in the processes of God. Right at the time miracles are occurring and there’s a revival beginning to happen, a calamity sets in on the life of the apostle Paul.
2. Paul’s strength was confronted with weakness. Paul, who was so exalted, was abased! He who had such great faith was pressed with doubts! God used opposites to balance each other.
3. Achievements for God, or great/privileged spiritual experiences – while good – are also fertile ground for spiritual pride.
4. People who experienced great revelations from God – people like Joseph, Moses, Samuel, Elijah & Elisha, Daniel, etc. – they were elevated in knowledge about God.
5. As Paul (1 Cor. 8:1) famously said, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up!” With great spiritual knowledge there is the danger of feeling superior to others.
6. And, the higher we get with God, the more the enemy fights against us. “The wind blows fiercest around the highest peaks.”
B. THE TRIAL THAT BEFELL PAUL
1. To counter-balance this, God allowed Paul to have a disability or handicap. Speculation about what this ‘thorn’ was abounds, but the most persuasive idea is that Paul had some problem with his eyes.
2. Paul told the Galatians, “You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first….For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me” (4:13,15, NKJV).
3. It may be that the stoning at Lystra resulted in permanent damage to his eyes or body. He was thought to be dead. It may have been during this life & death experience that he was caught up (in spirit or body) to the “third heaven.”
4. There are three “heavens” mentioned in Scripture:
a. “The rain fell from heaven”- atmosphere around Earth;
b. “The stars in heaven”- the physical universe;
c. “God’s throne in heaven”- the spiritual location of God’s manifest presence. THIS IS THE “THIRD HEAVEN” spoken of by Paul. It is simply the spiritual habitation of God with the angels.
5. During this experience God revealed mysteries to Paul that he was forbidden to share or were too sacred to share.
C. REVEALS PAUL’S VIEW ON DIVINE HEALING
1. Whatever Paul’s physical problem was, he at first saw it only as an attack of Satan. So he sought the Lord to remove it.
2. This incident is VERY IMPORTANT, because it reveals Paul’s view that IT’S NOT GOD’S WILL FOR US TO BE SICK. Paul never said, “IF IT’S YOUR WILL LORD, please heal me.” He simply said, “Lord, heal me!” He persisted in this seeking until the Lord told him that he was supposed to have this problem.
3. Now lest anyone say, “This proves that it’s God’s will for us to be sick,” I counter that might be true if you’ve been caught up to third heaven. Otherwise it’s God’s will to heal ALL sickness. Jesus healed every person who ever came to Him.
4. “Beloved I wish above all things that you be in health and prosper, even as your soul prospers” 3 John 2. That’s God’s will!
II. THE SUBSTANCE OF PAUL’S REVELATION
A. WORD STUDY OF “THORN”
1. When one looks at the Greek word, “thorn,” we find that it’s the Greek word “SKOLLOPS.” The definition of it is “something pointed, sharp, the presence of a stake. Something that causes severe pain or constant irritation.”
2. However, we know from Paul’s description that it wasn’t a mere splinter that was bothering him. It was something debilitating, aggravating, something that wounded his pride and rendered him weak.
3. How could he preach a Christ that could heal if he himself was sick? Or how could he preach a Christ who was Victor over all things if Christ wasn’t the victor over his own infirmity? “Physician, heal thyself!” they would say.
4. It was a terrible, unexplainable contradiction! It could have rendered Paul unfit for ministry. This explains Paul’s desperate pleading to the Lord for deliverance.
B. THE PURPOSE OF THE THORN
1. Oh but the Lord had some deep water He wanted Paul to swim in. God used Paul’s weakness to show him a great truth.
2. The truth is this: The weaker Paul felt in himself, the more he relied on the Lord Jesus to help him. So his handicap ended up being a good thing – it drew him closer to Jesus, and Paul learned to yield himself even more to the Lord to gain God’s divine strength.
3. Paul also learned that this great pattern of ‘strength through weakness’ was the pattern by which Christ overcame sin & Satan. Jesus, instead of conquering by His divine power, conquered by weakness, yielding Himself up to be crucified and die.
4. Jesus was more than a conqueror, because He overcame with the proverbial “one hand tied behind His back.” Even God’s weakness is stronger than Satan’s strength. If God can defeat Satan even with His weakness, what could He do with His strength?
5. So thorns should be welcomed. Until the presence of a thorn marks my life, I am just a shell of what God desires me to be.
6. Satan doesn’t bother those he already has, instead, he harasses those he perceives as a threat. So if he’s harassing us, that’s a good thing!
7. So let’s do like Paul and not find fault with God, or did he sit down in despair. He kept going, moving, driving, reaching, giving, in his pursuit of God.
III. THREE VALUES OF THORNS
A. THORNS CAUSE PEOPLE TO PRAY
1. The power of the thorn causes men to pray. It was here that Paul was driven to pray by the pain of that thorn. Three times he sought for the deliverance.
2. He prayed persistently until God told him, “No, my grace is sufficient for your thorn.” Paul prayed specifically, “Remove this thing that troubles me.”
3. Some people pray in general and never get anything specific (many have never developed an ability to have a dialogue with God).
4. Trouble and distress should drive us to God, instead of away from God. It should cause men to pray, not to complain. Yet often we begin accusing God of not caring about us. Instead we should be convinced of His good motives and seek
His help.
B. THORNS FORCE US TO DEPEND ON GOD
1. When we are confronted with a problem we can’t solve, we have no choice but to go to an outside force to get help in overcoming it.
2. When we turn to God, we can then appropriate His grace to overcome the problem, or God (as stated in 1 Cor. 10:13) makes a way of escape for us.
3. Either way, we’re forced into a position of dependency on God greater than what we’ve had before. We learn that God hears and answers prayer. We learn that we can actually contact God and how to do it. Most of all the people in the N.T. who received a miracle were desperate people who got a hold of God.
4. That’s the Beauty of Thorns. They’re blessings wrapped up as curses. Like a man who, because of a flat tire, meets the woman he loves for a lifetime. He later thanks God for the flat, for without it, he’d never have met his life’s joy.
5. So it is with trials that drive us into the arms of God, and once we’ve gotten in those arms, we resolve never to leave them.
6. As Paul was faced with his impossible obstacles, he learned to let God take over. He learned to yield to the Holy Spirit. His ministry became less of Paul, and more of Jesus.
7. Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” Gal. 2:20.
8. Through his thorn, the union of Jesus and Paul became so much deeper that Paul felt he was fading out and Jesus was more clearly seen in his life. May we all come to that place!
C. THORNS CULTIVATE CHARACTER
1. The presence of our troubling thorn, if we respond to it right, can cause us to be shaped into the image of Christ.
2. We can’t keep the Sermon on the Mount in ourselves; it will require the grace/presence of God to “love our enemies;” to give away our substance; to forgive those who hurt us; to not be afraid about tomorrow, etc. We have to have God’s Spirit to do it – “Christ in you, the hope of Glory!”
3. The more time we spend with Jesus, the more we become like Him. “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image…” 2 Cor.
3:18. The Sanhedrin noticed the influence of Jesus on Peter and John, uneducated fishermen (Acts 4:13).
4. So the thorn plays a part in shaping our character. Here’s a favorite poem of mine about an oyster & a grain of sand;
“There once was an oyster whose story I tell,
Who found that sand had got under his shell;
Just one little grain, but it gave him much pain,
For oysters have feelings although they’re so plain.
Now, did he berate the working of Fate
Which had led him to such a deplorable state?
Did he curse the Government, call for an election?
No; as he lay on the shelf, he said to himself,
"If I cannot remove it, I’ll try to improve it."
So the years rolled by as the years always do,
And he came to his ultimate destiny -- stew.
And this small grain of sand which had bothered him so,
Was a beautiful pearl, all richly aglow.
Now this tale has a moral -- for isn’t it grand
what an oyster can do with a morsel of sand;
What couldn’t WE DO if we’d only begin
With all of the things that get under our skin.”
5. Despite our difficulties, our trials, and seemingly hopelessness, we will find, when we go to God for help, that His grace will be sufficient! We will be able to overcome – to have victory in the midst of difficulty!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. Pablo Picasso was the Spanish cubist artist who sketched, sculpted, and painted his way into prominence in the early twentieth century. On the rare occasion, he painted live portraits. One such instance was his painting of Gertrude Stein, one of America’s foremost authors of a bygone era.
2. Stein was born in California, educated at Radcliffe College and also studied at John Hopkins University. For most of her life she lived in Paris and there she would write poetry.
3. During the winter of 1905-1906, Gertrude Stein sat before Picasso for a personal portrait. Ninety times she sat before him. Finally, Picasso grew frustrated. He said, “I can’t see you any longer when I look at you.”
4. So he packed up his brushes, paints, and canvasses and
returned home to Spain. There, he continue working on Stein’s portrait. By the next fall, the painting was unveiled.
5. Onlookers were surprised. Gertrude Stein was a young woman when the master painted her. Yet, the face staring from the canvas was that of a wizened woman wearing a thoughtful, earnest face.
6. Eventually a friend courageously remarked to Picasso that Gertrude didn’t look like her portrait. Picasso replied simply, “She will one day.” Indeed, as time passed Gertrude became the image of Picasso’s portrait.
7. Any artist can paint what is. Good artists can paint what once was. But, only masters can paint what shall be.
B. THE CALL
1. Today, I look into faces of partially completed canvasses. And I pray that the Master will allow me to catch a glimpse of what He sees for your life.
2. I pray that you do not become frustrated or disheartened with the thorns in your life; they don’t disqualify you! They are being used to shape you -- not for who you are now, but who God wants you to someday be.
3. That is the purpose of the thorns. Let’s pray that God will give us grace to accept our thorns and go to God for His grace in dealing with them. Prayer.
[This is a rewrite of Philip Harrelson’s message of the same title.]
