Paul’s Power in Weakness: One of the most startling realizations for many Christians is that even with faith in Jesus, life can still be very, very hard. Tragedy can still strike. Godly people still suffer. The Apostle Paul knew this better than most. He endured great hardship during his ministry. What kept him going? What drove him forward? He learned the vital lesson that when you’re weak, grace is enough. Recorded on Jun 18, 2023, on 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 by Pastor David Parks.
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The Life of Paul is a new sermon series (mostly) from the book of Acts in the Bible. The Apostle Paul has a fantastic story. Born Saul of Tarsus, Paul was a brilliant young man who was a violent persecutor of Christians. But then he met Jesus, which changed everything. Eventually, Paul would become not only the preeminent Apostle to the Roman world but one of the most influential people who ever lived. Paul’s story offers a great case study of what it looks like to learn the way of Jesus.
Sermon Transcript
All year, we’ve focused on Learning the way of Jesus. And today, we’re almost done with this theme. After today we only have one more week in our series on the life of Paul before we start our new annual theme, which is Finding Life in Jesus’ Name. For most of this next year, starting in July, we’ll be working through the whole gospel of John, chapter by chapter and verse by verse. And I can’t wait for that series! I’ve been working on this for months, and I can’t wait to share what the Lord has been showing me in John’s gospel. But as we finish our series on the life of the Apostle Paul, I do hope this series has been helpful for you. We’ve seen throughout this series that everybody needs Jesus, even enemies of Jesus like Paul. However, if you hear the gospel, put your faith in Jesus, and start to follow his way by the power of the Spirit, it doesn’t just make your life a little better — Jesus changes everything. We’ve seen this transformation in Paul’s life, going from a violent persecutor of Christians to the most effective Christian missionary in the history of the world. And we’ve seen this dynamic of change/transformation in the lives of many people and even whole cities as a result of Paul’s ministry. I suspect many of us could give testimony to the changes that Jesus brought into our lives, too. However, despite all this evidence of the power of God and the truth of the gospel, one of the most startling realizations for many Christians is that even when you trust in Jesus as Lord, even when you’ve been baptized and are obedient to follow his way, life can still be very, very hard. Tragedy can still strike. Godly people still suffer. And I’ve experienced this. I’ve been wounded, I’ve had broken relationships, I’ve struggled and suffered, and I’ve tasted the bitter wine of anxiety and depression and all manner of weakness, despite trying to be faithful to God. But my life has been relatively easy compared to Paul’s life. Paul suffered a great deal after becoming a Christian, as we’ll see today. My question is this: why did Paul keep going? From a biographical standpoint, why did Paul keep traveling, keep preaching, keep making disciples, and so on, when he so often faced such terrible and even violent opposition? What drove him forward, despite such hardship? The answer is that Paul was taught a lesson by Jesus himself that sustained him through it all. Not only did Jesus help Paul learn how to survive suffering, but he gave him a source of power, even in the midst of great weakness. If you have a Bible/app, please take it and open it to 2Co 12:1. As you turn there, let’s do a quick recap of Paul’s life. Paul was born and raised in Tarsus and received the best Jewish education in Jerusalem. He became a Christian in Damascus and eventually helped lead the church in Antioch. From there, he went on three missionary journeys which led him as far as Corinth to the west, in which he helped plant dozens of churches. Paul wrote letters back to many of those churches, some of which have been included in the canon of Scripture. Paul would eventually spend the last few years of his life in prison in Rome before being put to death for his faith in the mid-sixties AD under the emperor, Nero. But here, Paul isn’t dead yet. He’s still alive and is writing back to his friends in Corinth in response to a distressing report that they are being confused and led astray. We’ll unpack this passage in three parts: 1. the highest of highs, 2. the lowest of lows, 3. Paul’s power in weakness.
2 Corinthians 12:1–4 (NIV), “I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I 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. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell.” Ok! Let’s pause here. So, we’re coming into the middle of a longer passage where Paul has to defend his ministry to his friends in Corinth. He had stayed and ministered in Corinth for about a year and a half. But after he left, others came to Corinth claiming to be “super apostles.” Now, we don’t know much about who they were or exactly what they were claiming, but clearly, they were saying things that required a response from Paul. So here, when he says that he must go on boasting, even though there’s nothing to be gained by it, he’s doing something that he really doesn’t like to do. That is, he has to defend the validity of his ministry. He’s having to boast, as perhaps these so-called super-apostles had boasted, of his own authority/credibility because it was being questioned. But what Paul says in defense of his ministry is amazing. You see, whether it was because of their culture or religious background or some other reason, the people of Corinth were especially interested in more dramatic spiritual (charismatic) experiences in their church. The letter of 1 Corinthians addressed some of the chaos and foolishness that this was causing in their church. But then, along comes this group of “super apostles” who seemed to be more than willing to feed into that desire for the more extreme, perhaps claiming to have spiritual experiences or visions of their own. So Paul’s hand is forced, and he basically says, “Oh, so you want visions and revelations?? Well, no one has me beat on that front.” So he reluctantly says that fourteen years earlier, he was caught up to the third heaven, to the paradise of God. Now, in Jewish thought, it was understood that heaven was separated into different levels. The third heaven, the highest place, would be the throne room of God, a paradise of perfection and glory. And Paul says that he was caught up to the highest heaven and saw things and heard things that no one is permitted to speak of. Fourteen years earlier would place this as happening during the decade when Paul was back in Tarsus after becoming a Christian. In other words, this divine revelation happened during the time when Paul basically disappeared from the record of the book of Acts. I would guess Luke would’ve wanted to include it, but I imagine Paul resisting. The only reason he brings it up here is because he is being forced to defend the gospel that he preached to his friends in Corinth. Now, experiences such as this are fairly rare in the Bible, but they do happen from time to time. Two men were physically caught up to heaven in the OT, including Enoch (who “could not be found, because God had taken him away”) and Elijah (who went up to heaven in a whirlwind in a chariot of fire). Additionally, there were prophets who received dreams or visions from the Holy Spirit, which revealed some aspect of the heavenly realm as a message for God’s people. I think of Isaiah, who found himself in the throne room of God and saw the Lord high and lifted up. In the NT, Philip was physically transported by the power of the Holy Spirit to share the gospel with an Ethiopian man. But this sort of experience is rare. None of us will probably have this experience on this side of eternity. But even though Paul uses the third person to talk about this experience, saying that he knows a man in Christ who saw the highest heaven, it’s clear from the context that he’s talking about himself. And the reason he does this is not because he’s sharing this to make himself look cool or impressive. If these super-apostles wouldn’t have shown up, I don’t believe he would’ve even mentioned it for fear he would get the attention/glory instead of Jesus. Paul repeats that he doesn’t even fully understand how this experience happened, whether he was physically caught up or it was some sort of vision. He repeats this to emphasize the fact that he didn’t have this spiritual experience as a result of his wisdom, knowledge, faith, or power. This experience was 100% God. But even so, Paul experienced the highest of highs. Like Moses or Abraham in the past, Paul saw God. He received a foretaste of paradise. He heard inexpressible things. What a gift! What an incredible assurance of faith! Surely a man with an experience like that would be considered to be especially blessed by God, right? Surely a man like that had the favor of God on his life. Who wouldn’t want that? But in his very next breath, we’re reminded that this man who experienced the highest of highs also went through the lowest of lows.
2 Corinthians 12:5–8 (NIV), “I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even 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, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.” Let’s pause here. We go from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. From the heights of the throne room of God, from paradise, to a thorn in the flesh and a life marked in many ways by weakness — this is Paul’s story. He experienced surpassingly great revelations. But, in order to teach him humility, in order to keep him from becoming prideful or conceited, Paul says he was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of the Adversary, which was a source of torment. This is strong language representing real pain. And Paul says that he prayed and prayed and prayed, three times he pleaded with the Lord, but the Lord didn’t take it away. Now, we know that Paul suffered in many places and in many different ways. Let’s look at a passage in the previous chapter where Paul talks about this.
2 Corinthians 11:24–28 (NIV), “24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.” Here’s the point: Paul suffered. There are no two ways around it. He lived an incredibly fruitful life but an incredibly difficult life. So in all this, what was the thorn in the flesh that he mentions in chapter 12? The OT speaks of enemies being a thorn in the side of the people of Israel. And we’ve seen that Paul certainly had enemies. But it isn’t clear if the thorn he’s referring to here is a person or people who are opposed to him or something equally difficult to deal with, such as an illness or affliction. One could imagine Paul suffering from a stubborn infection or a broken bone that didn’t heal properly from being beaten, stoned, or shipwrecked. The truth is, we don’t know, but it really doesn’t change the point. In fact, it broadens the point to include any condition we might face that could be considered a thorn in the flesh, a painful, unwanted hardship, or a time of suffering. But what was it that kept him going? What was the power that propelled him forward, first, from the highest of highs and, second, to the lowest of lows? Third, Paul’s power in weakness:
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV), “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 about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 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.” So three times, the mighty Apostle Paul pleaded with Jesus to remove this thorn in the flesh, whatever it was, this source of weakness, pain, and shame. And three times, Jesus said, “Not yet.” But that wasn’t all. I mean, that could have been enough. If God says “no” or “not yet” to our prayers, it’s the best thing for us, and we should accept that. But Paul says that Jesus told him something more. And friends, this will change your life if you understand this. Jesus told Paul that his grace is sufficient; his grace is enough; his grace is all we truly need. Why? For (because), Jesus says my power is made perfect in weakness. The power of God, the power of the King of heaven, is made perfect, it’s brought to completion, it reaches its intended goal…when? In our weakness! Now, to understand the power available to us in our weakness, we must understand what grace is. No other religion or philosophy today or in history has anything like the grace of God found in Jesus Christ. Grace is one of the aspects of Christianity that is totally unique. Every other way (Buddhism, Islam, or even secular humanism) says that “It’s what you do that saves you.” But this is the opposite of the gospel. The gospel says, “It’s not what you do, but what Jesus has done that saves you.” Christian salvation is not earned but is received as a gift. And that’s grace: grace is a gift. Grace is the free and unmerited favor, blessing, and love of God given in Jesus. Spiritually dead people can’t make themselves alive. So God sent his one and only son into the world not to condemn the world, but to save the world, to give his life so that we might live, and to rise again so that we might rise. A grace-less religion results in people who are either exhausted from continually trying and failing to be good enough to appease God, or it results in people who are self-righteous and judgmental. Without grace, you’ll either be spiritually crushed, or you’ll be full of pride. Without grace, your identity is fundamentally unstable because it’s based on your moral or religious performance, which is inconsistent at best. Instead, because of the person and work of Jesus, we are given the forgiveness, blessing, acceptance, and love of God as a gift. We didn’t earn it, so we can’t lose it! And this identity is rock solid; it’s unshakable. But the truth is, if we were truly strong, we wouldn’t need the grace of God, we wouldn’t need the cross, we wouldn’t need a savior. But we are not strong. So it’s our weakness, our pain, our wounds, and our suffering that are the only contexts for grace. But you know what? Grace is enough. Because in our weakness, grace becomes a dynamic source of power. Paul says that this is why, for Christ’s sake, he delights in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties. Not because these things are good or fun. Paul went through some terrible things. But because it was in those moments when he was weak, then he was strong. Because only then did he fully rely on the grace of God. Why did Paul keep going in the face of hardship? What drove him on? What kept him going? It was the power of grace. It was the truth that when Paul was weak in himself, then and only then was he strong in Christ. So today, whether you’ve been experiencing the highest of highs or the lowest of lows or something in between, never forget this principle: When you’re weak, grace is enough. It was the secret to Paul’s life and ministry. And it will change your life if you let it. Let us pray.