Our Lord’s Grace Is Sufficient in Our Weakness and Strength (2 Corinthians 12:7-10)
His Strength in Our Weakness
2 Cor 12:7-10
Greeting: Shantha and I have rejoiced with you in the Lord planting and building Shepherd Bible Church in Rosemount, even while we were in India. Many of you prayed for us and we are grateful for your prayers and support. So, It is with great joy we worship our Lord with you this morning. Thank you for giving me this privilege to serve you by opening the Word of God.
Please turn with me to 2 Cor 12:7-10
Here we come to the summit and peak of the epistle of the 2nd Corinthians as Philp Hughes points out. But in my study and christian experience I am beginning to realize that this is also a summit and peak of our Christian lives.{Generally, Mt. Everest in the Himalayan range of mountains is known as the highest mountain peak in the world. But, in many ways professional climbers acknowledge that Mt. K2 in the Karakoram range of mountains is a much harder climb than Mt. Everest, even though it is not as tall. Because it's way more technical, brutal, and dangerous than Everest.} Most of us have not reached this peak in our experience of the Christian life, and there are others who have crossed through these waters of suffering with the Lord. But through the experience of Paul in 2 Cor we get a panoramic view of what`s coming and this entails.Let's read at 2 Cor 12:7-10
2 Corinthians 12:7–10 (ESV)
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. 9a. But he said to me, 9b. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 9c.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.῾
Pray
Body:
I believe that the first part of v.9 is the main point of the passage and it is what the Lord is saying to us today, just as he once said to Paul and the corinthian church: “My grace is sufficient for you, because my strength is made perfect in weakness”
Why is it that our Lord`s grace is sufficient? What does that mean? Why does the Apostle Paul have to be weakened? What does it mean that our Lord`s strength is made perfect in weakness? Why does God ordain and allow such suffering in the lives of his children? Is he an egomaniac for doing so?
1. In v.7-8 we will see that our Lord`s grace is sufficient because it weakens our flesh.
2. Then in v.9b-10 we will see that the Lord`s grace is sufficient because it strengthens us in Him.
1. Our Lord’s Grace is sufficient because it weakens our flesh/unruly desires.[v.7-8]
a. What does Grace mean in this context?
i. Generally grace is translated as God's unmerited favor.
ii. But here we should understand what is happening through God's unmerited favor.
iii. He is sanctifying Paul with the divine aid of the Holy Spirit, as Calvin & others point out.
iv. Do you remember what the Spirit did after he came and rested upon Jesus during his baptism?
v. He led him out to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.vi. So if our Father providentially works in the ministry of His Son in this way, why would we expect anything else in the life of His Apostles and our lives.
vii. As Piper points out, The Sovereign God purposefully uses the father of lies and pride to kill pride in Christ's Apostle.
viii. Just as Christ defeated death by trampling it with death.
b. Why does our Lord do this?
i. As we have already seen, it is to kill pride.
ii. If you boil sin down to its very essence, pride is at the root of it.
iii. It was Satan's pride that he wanted to be exalted above God in worship.
iv. In the same vein of pride Adam and Eve were deceived into disobeying God.v. Paul the Apostle of apostles isn't immune from this temptation and inclination of our fallen desires.
vi. That is the case with us as well. Pride is at the heart, root, and foundation of all our sin.
vii. We lustfully look at the opposite sex or envy another man's status or covet his possessions because we are prideful.
viii. Our hearts constantly seek to exalt ourselves over the will of God and good of our neighbor.
c. How does our Lord accomplish this?
i. Paul tells us in v.7 that a thorn was given to him in his flesh.
ii. Who gave him this thorn?
1. Our Lord [signified by the divine passive]
iii. What was this thorn?
1. A messenger of Satan?iv. What was the thornish purpose of this messenger of satan?
1. To torment Paul
2. Look at V .7, it is book ended with the same reason twice.
a. To keep from becoming conceited
b. Or it could be translated another way = that i would not exalt myself.
v. Scholars have various views about what this thorn was. Many argue that it was a physical condition, others argue that it was a psychological condition and others hold that it was the opposition he faced from the super apostles in Corinth.
vi. I believe it was a combination of all these factors. But, the main impetus of pain comes from the fact that the Corinthian Church was siding with these false super apostles.
1. Pastor John Macarthur points out that thisis why Paul is in agony within his soul.
2. The church he planted and pastored is being deceived by false apostles to turn against him.
3. Illustration: It would be like a child that is ashamed to acknowledge that her mother was janitor to her posh group of friends while forgetting that her well being depended on her mother.
d. But you might be thinking, is God an ego maniac for doing this? Why does the all powerful God have to cause pain in his Apostle? Can’t he accomplish his purposes in another way?
i. John Piper points out that Brad Pitt, Oprah Winfrey, and others thought the same and concluded they could not worship such a God, who causes pain in his followers.ii. If this causes you to stumble then that is because you didn't look close enough.
iii. In v.8, Paul says that he pleaded (begged, NLT) with the Lord.
1. This is an explicit reference to our Lord Jesus Christ.
iv. He is not an ego maniac, Phil 2 says that even though he was in very essence God, He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant.
v. Would an ego maniac do that?
vi. But He did not become weak in order to be humbled like Paul and us.
vii. Instead he became weak to take upon himself the wrath of God we deserved.
viii. Do you remember Gethsamane, Our Lord prayed in the wee hours of the night, 3 times to his father.
ix. That the cup of God's wrath might pass from him three times.
x. Even though we are not told how the Father might have responded, it might have been the same words with which our Lord answered Paul's prayer.
1. My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
xi. Many saints like Joseph, Jacob and Job were also comforted with the same comfort in their afflictions, as their thorns dug deep into their sides.
xii. While all pointing to God's only Son, Jesus as the culmination and perfection of God's weakening hand in our lives.
xiii. So these words are not of an ego maniac general, who sends his troops into the heat of battle while enjoying the protection of the pentagon.
xiv. Instead these words come from our Lord who stands in the midst of God's throne as a slain lamb who conquered death by trampling it with death.
xv. Application: prayer
1. Dear brother, sister, Our Lord's grace is sufficient in weakening us.
2. Paul realizes the purpose of his pain in the midst of prayer. That too after praying three times for it to be removed.
3. Are you approaching the throne of grace in prayer as the thorn God has given you pierces deeper and deeper within?
4. He might not take the pain away nor the thorn.
5. But he will give you his sufficient grace that draws your wandering heart near to
him.
6. He loves you and wants you to draw closer to him in prayer as our Lord did in the garden of Gethsemane.
xvi. But remember, His sufficient grace doesn't weaken us, not for nothing.
2. Our Lord's grace is sufficient because it strengthens us in Christ to glorify him. (c.9b-10)
a. At the end of v.9 we see that as Paul realizes the purpose of his suffering through prayer Paul rejoices in God weakening his flesh.
b. Realizing the sanctifying purposes God has for us in our suffering changes our perspective through prayer.
i. It moves our eyes from the thorn to our Lord.
ii. In prayerfully doing so, Paul was enabled to look at his thorn through the eyes of God's providence and not just his pain.
c. Even though the first divine purpose was to weaken Paul's flesh and continuously kill pride, that wasn't the ultimate or the desired end.
d. The second more deeper and profound purpose in Paul's weakening is seen at the end of v.9.
i. So that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
e. The ultimate purpose is our strengthening in Christ which glorifies Him.
f. So weakening is the prerequisite and the means of our strengthening in Christ.
g. Our weakness is an avenue for Christ's power to be magnified.
h. Illustration:
i. In the ancient world bowls and plates were made out of rocks.
ii. They were carved or bored out in order to hold the contents to be served, like soup or stews.
iii. If not the contents of the meal could not be held by the rock. Thereby making it useless.
iv. But when it is bored out all that remains of the rock is a mere husk of what used to be.
v. Whereas the present value of this rock comes from what it holds within.
i. That's why our God-given weakness is the avenue for Christ's power to be manifested through us.
j. That's why Paul could say in Gal 2:20 that, the life that I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.
k. However the Corinthians' perspective of strength was quite opposite.i. For them strength was mingled with public honor, self-sufficiency, and extraordinary power.
ii. The city of Corinth was famous for hosting the Isthmus games (Olympics of our day). So their ideal view of strength was the triumphant athlete. It was Hercules that captured their ethos of culture, not Christ and Him crucified.
iii. This cultural reality had crept into the Corinthian church through their societal norms and also through the false super apostles who are condemning Paul for his weakness.
iv. So the church wanted leaders who had rhetorical eloquence, social status, immense wealth, and the spiritual triumphalism of the so-called super apostles.
v. Sadly they were deceived into exalting their flesh and becoming weakened by their fleshinstead of being strengthened by the way of the Cross.
l. Application: Christian Nationalism.
i. Aren't we tempted to seek the power of the sword and not the cross?
ii. We are living in a time where the church is being lured headlong into destruction through political power.
iii. Whenever Christianity is used as an adjective be aware, whatever Christian Nationalism preaches has more to do with nationalism than Christianity.
iv. Remember that Christ wore a crown of thorns in this world to establish his kingdom. He did not wield the sword of politics to make converts. Even in his return the sword he wields proceeds from His mouth which is His Word by the power of the Holy Spirit. So will we endure many thorns even in our society.
m. If the power of Christ doesn't represent the world's idea of power, what is the power of Christ and how does it glorify Him?
i. The hand of God's providence rests upon his weakened saint for the sake of ministry and service.
ii. Even though Paul was enormously afflicted from within and without, God accomplished the purpose of reaching the gentiles through him.
iii. And still the fullness of the gentiles are being brought in through the words of God written through Paul.
iv. In much affliction Paul gained much power for the sake of building Christ's Church.
n. Why is that? Because the Bible teaches that self-sufficient power leads to pride and promiscuity.
i. In Judges 13-16, we see a man of herculean proportions, Samson the nazerite.ii. His God given power was to enable him to be a righteous judge over God's people.
iii. When the Spirit of God rushed upon him,
1. Even killing a lion was as simple as tearing a young goat in two (which in itself is hard to do).
2. With the jawbone of a donkey he killed 1000 philistines.
3. And even burned their fields to ashes by torching the tails of foxes.
iv. But what did all these herculean escapades of samson lead to?
1. Pride and Promiscuity.
2. When many, including Delilah, asked Samson where his strength came from? He should have answered “from the Lord.”
3. Instead he always exalted himself as the locus of divine power through riddles and jokes, instead of the Spirit of God.
4. If he had witnessed that his power comes from God then many would have repented doing right in their own eyes like Rahab and trusted in the Lord for their salvation.
5. But Samson's self-sufficient power led him to a dungeon blinded by pride and promiscuity.
6. It's in this weakness Samson recognized the downfall of his office and the weight of his rebellion.
7. When he prayed in repentance and faith God's strength enabled him in his weakness to bring down the temple of Dagon upon the heads of its own idolaters.
8. Thus fulfilling the purpose of God in weakness what he could never do in his pride and promiscuity.
3. Conclusion:
a. If we are honest with ourselves we are like Samson in his pride as we serve our Lord.
b. But the Lord is gracious to blind us to ourselves.
c. So that we may look upon Christ by faith and become like a mere tent or tabernacle which can embody the power of our Good Shepherd to
i. Shade his sheep as pillar of cloud in the heat of life and
ii. Warm his lambs with his tender compassion in the coldness of many dark nights of the soul.
d. When Christ tabernacaled amongst his people, did he do so in a blinding light? Or did he preach to them with a deafening sound?
e. No, the eternal Son of God became a man facing all the weaknesses, insults, andafflictions to be finally crowned with a crown of thorns and mocked by the people he came to save.
f. But God vindicated him by raising him from the dead.
g. That is why Christ crucified is our song and sermon.
h. And if Christ crucified is our song and sermon, then along with Paul we too can be content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.
i. Because when we are weak (in ourselves), then we are strong (in Christ Jesus).
4. Pray