A thorn in the flesh

All right, we will be turning to the passage that Courtney read for us here. And you have on the top of your handout, there's kind of the poetic form. And some things to point out with that, aside from the fact it doesn't cover the entire passage, the verses 7 through 10 particularly, Some of the things that stand out is one is to have Paul repeating a line there, to keep me from exalting myself, and then talking about this thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, and then stating again, to keep me from exalting myself.

I think that repetition is to emphasize and to make very clear what this is for. God's not just saying, hey, try a thorn in the flesh, see how you like that. Try it on for size. It's not that at all. He says he very clearly understands God's purpose in having this there. The other thing we bracketed is basically verse 9. A couple things to point out. One is a focus on the power. Obviously this is God's power.

And then the weakness or weaknesses, that's his weakness. But beyond that, there's another reason for placing it in the form that we have, and that is, in the English, some of the definite articles, that is, the, is dropped out for kind of smoother English. I put them back in from the Greek. So it says, the grace of mind is sufficient for you, for the power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I would rather boast about the weaknesses of mine, he's very specific, so that the power of the Christ may dwell in me.

This is a very emphatic verse with focus kind of hitting home again and again with these definite articles. Then you find a series of I am statements. And along with that, of course, the pattern of with, with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties.

Something else I would point out in here, and I haven't necessarily made note of it in your handout, so you may want to do some underlining. is three times Christ is referenced in this passage. One is the Lord. Now you may say, wait a minute, that's not Christ. Well, Paul's pattern was to use the word pair the Lord in reference to Christ quite often. And so I take that to be the case here. He does have again the Christ, and the English frequently drops out that definite article. The Christ to the Jews was looked at as a term that meant to them, the Messiah. The Messiah.

And finally, for Christ's sake, is the third reference to Christ. So actually, three references to Christ in this passage. And I would suggest to you one thing. Paul's not talking about just mechanics here. This whole thing with the revelation that he had, that is, he went up to the third heaven, which he also calls the paradise.

This incident with the thorn in the flesh, and we'll talk about what that is. It's about relationship. Do you notice that? Why did all this happen? It's about relationship with the Lord. That's why all this happened. It wasn't just cold, dry, dusty doctrine. It wasn't just facts and Bible information. It was about relationship with the Lord.

One of the key points to bring out of this is that this thorn in the flesh, and like I said, we'll take a look at what that is, has a God-intended purpose. The Lord not only had a purpose for this, but Paul knew very clearly what that purpose was. I think that's, as we go through various trials in life, and we will. As we go through various trials, the comfort, the assurance of knowing God has a purpose in all of it. God does not bring about some senseless pain and agony in our lives.

I told a story about how years ago when I was on the farm You know, there wasn't some sort of a schedule that we had like you punch the clock and you work here and you work there. So I'd be working and then I'd look over and I'd notice that there were two anthills that were somewhat distant from one another.

And so what I'd do, I wondered, you know, of course teenage boys wonder about all sorts of things. I wondered what it would be like if you took a whole bunch of these ants and took them over to the other ants. Of course, you can't just wonder, right? So you got to do it. So I got this nice shovel, so I take a whole shovel full of ants and take it over to the other ant hill. And all these ants are just instantly in battle, just fighting like crazy, right?

Of course, I was wondering, I wonder what would happen. See, God isn't doing that with us, okay? God's not just doing like I did with the ants and saying, I wonder what will happen. You know, I wonder what will happen if I take it and do this with Vern. Right? That's not what God's doing.

God is doing the things that he's doing for a purpose. Paul knows it, and it's important that we know it. In this case, Paul knew exactly what the purpose was. We may not always know why, but it's very important that we know that everything that God is doing in our lives happens for a purpose. and that we take comfort in that, that we are assured of that, and we know it, not just here, but in our hearts.

You know that hassle that came about us last week? The hassle that's going to come about this next week that you don't even know about yet? It all has purpose. God's not playing little anthill games like I did. He's not saying, I wonder what will happen if I do this to Vern. Dink! Right? Oh, isn't that interesting? Right? That's not God's game.

The Lord had seen fit to keep this thorn in the flesh in Paul's life. And Paul, in this case, knew the reason. We don't always know the reason, but he did, in this case, to keep his pride in check. Paul had had this revelation in which he went to the third heaven, to THE paradise. And he knew that was of the Lord.

But you know, this thorn in the flesh that he had, this messenger of Satan as he also names it, they're both of the Lord. See, if something good happens, we're not to think, oh, well, that's of the Lord. And if something bad happens, well, that must be of Satan. Well, not necessarily. Satan may, in fact, be an instrument of the Lord, but it's all of the Lord. What was this thorn of the flesh? Ah, the big question. What was it?

An exhaustive study by hordes of scholars, looking in every tiny detail, looking at all the resources, literary and otherwise, looking at the full breadth and depth of all the available historical resources, you know what they've concluded? Nothing, for sure. We don't know. Okay?

Now, there have been various speculations, no doubt about it. Some have thought that this was some temptation that Paul had that he just couldn't shake, just kept coming after him. Maybe. Some have thought that it was a troublesome personality, that this thorn in the flesh is some guy that just keeps bugging the tar out of him. Right? Some have said, well, it's some sort of a physical problem. And you know, any one of those could be correct. So I'm not saying all the speculations are wrong. But the truth is, we really don't know. But Paul did, and the Lord did. And I think that's what counts. But the next line there may be a little puzzling to us.

What is this idea of a messenger of Satan to torment Paul? Doesn't that seem a little odd that God would use Satan a messenger of Satan, to remain in Paul's life. You'd think the Lord would want to get Satan out of Paul's life, right? No. A messenger of Satan. And it's supposed to be there. Yeah. Supposed to be there. Paul says, Lord, can you take it away? Three times. Lord, can you take it away? And the Lord says, no, it's supposed to be there.

What's interesting is as we go through scripture, we find that the Lord has used and will use Satan again as prophecy, right? For his own purposes. And in all that, Satan is not out of control. God is not pacing the floor of heaven, wringing his hands, thinking, what am I going to do about this crazy Satan guy? What Satan does is not out of God's control. As a matter of fact, we have multiple evidences that Satan has to get permission from God to do what he does. Isn't that interesting? You see, Satan is not out of control and God isn't wondering, what's going to happen to this guy? How am I going to deal with him? No, not at all.

When God is done using Satan, you got that? When God is done using Satan, He'll bind him. We don't need to. When God is done using Satan, He'll throw him into the lake of fire. His influence will be ended. But that'll happen when God's done with his use of Satan. Yeah.

We don't have to worry about it. God's going to bind Satan. As a matter of fact, he'll have an angel do it. It'll only take one. Okay? God's got tens of thousands of angels and he'll assign one of them and say, go bind that guy for a while. A thousand years will do. And that'll be it. Just one angel will do it.

And Satan won't break loose. And he won't have to say, I bind Satan a thousand times, because he'll be bound for a thousand years and that'll be it. And then shortly thereafter, he'll go to Lake of Fire and that'll be it too. And by the way, he won't be reigning there. He'll be as miserable and victimized as everybody else. He won't be the king of hell.

Here's an example. Job 1.12. The Lord said to Satan, this is after Satan had made some requests, Behold, all that he, Job, has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him. You can do this, Satan. I give you permission. But that's all. You can go no farther. Satan had to go.

Believe me, Satan, if he could do it without going before the Lord, he would. But he had to go before the Lord first. Satan is not going to do anything in your life, I would say especially if you're a believer, he's not going to do a thing in your life without God's permission.

It's not like some animal got loose at the zoo and the zookeepers are running around trying to get the animal contained. Satan is not out of God's control. He has to ask God permission to do things. And God places limitations on him, and God sometimes says, no, that ain't happening. Satan is not out of God's control.

Here is in Luke 22, here at the time often called the Last Supper. Christ turns to Peter, otherwise known as Simon, says, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission, that is, he has obtained by asking, to sift you like wheat. And it was granted. But Christ prayed for him. It was allowed. It was allowed. But Satan didn't just spring off and do it. He had to get permission.

We do not need to go about worrying about Satan. Especially, I would caution you, don't go worrying about Satan to the point that you're beholding him instead of the Lord. Okay? Don't go worrying about Satan to the point that you're beholding Satan instead of the Lord. Our focus needs to be upon the Lord.

There at that Last Supper additionally, John 13, 26 and 27 says that Satan entered in to Judas, Judas Iscariot. So Jesus said to him, what you do, do quickly. Christ was quite aware of what was about to take place. He was not ignorant of it. He was not pacing around on the floor saying, oh, no, what am I going to do now? Satan has entered Judas. Not at all. Christ was well aware. He knew what would have to take place.

There, some chapters later, hours later in time, not many, Christ is praying and he says, while I was with them, as he's praying to the Father, I was keeping them in your name which you had given me. And I guarded them and not one of them is perished, but the son of perdition, so that the scripture would be fulfilled. When Satan entered Judas and Judas went out and did what he did, it was not a point where God was going, oh heavens, what are we going to do now? It was instead something that God had purposely written in scripture centuries before. And now was the fulfilling moment. Satan is not going to do something out of control, out of God's control in your life.

We also point out earlier when we were studying 1 Corinthians 5.5, that's one passage, another is 1 Timothy 1.19-20, where it seems to be a specific apostolic authority to hand someone over to Satan for God's purpose. So yes, a messenger from Satan to torment Paul could be exactly what God wants to have happen. But don't worry about Satan, just keep looking at the Lord. After Paul asked three times, take this thing away, would you please, Lord?

What's his response? The Lord's response, my grace is sufficient for you. Now, this word grace is something we should talk about a minute here. In the pagan culture, grace meant a favor that you do for friends or relatives without expectation of some payment back. That was all it meant.

But what happens is this word grace is grown and grown and grown in scripture to the point where it's infinite. Why? Because it's a part of God's very character. God is infinitely gracious. And I would suggest to you that stretching and growing the meaning of grace is something that God is going to do with us for eternity. It isn't grace until it's amazing. Okay? It isn't God's grace until it's absolutely mind-bogglingly amazing. For by grace we're saved, and that's just the start. That's just the front door. Under God's grace, we're motivated to act in faith. We're not under law, but under grace. Very interesting. And why were we identified with Christ?

So that, Ephesians 2.7, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches. By the way, it's not just He might show the riches of His grace, but surpassing, over the top. This is like if you were at a baseball game. It's not just hitting a home run, it's hitting the ball and it's out into outer space. This is way over the top grace. This is not out of the park. This is out of the orbit. That's the kind he's talking about here.

Surpassing wealth of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. That word show is the word that is used. It means demonstrate into rolling ages to come. when ages and ages have passed, God will be demonstrating His grace to us. As I told the elective here before, we don't need to worry about what we're going to be doing for eternity. It's what God's going to be doing for eternity. He is going to be showing, demonstrating His grace to us for all eternity.

And we're going to be gasping in awe. Wow! We won't be looking down our watches saying, boy, when's the next coffee break? It's getting kind of rough on my rear. No, it won't be any more of that. It will be something we will be awestruck from one moment to the next, if moments have any meaning at all.

In the rolling ages to come, He will demonstrate the surpassing riches of His grace. But that grace isn't just the grace that saves us. It isn't just the grace that motivates us to act or even to not act. It's not just the grace that he's going to demonstrate for ages to come, but it's the grace that is also sufficient in painful circumstances. My grace is sufficient for you.

When I was going through months and months of medical analysis when I got the Lyme disease, it was extremely painful. It felt like a truck was backing up over my arm. And then he put it in reverse and put it in forward and backed over again and again. And for about a week, the doctor would give me some Vicodin to take the edge off the pain.

But nothing else even touched it. None of the other painkillers even touched it. But he wouldn't renew the prescription. He said, is that stuff really addictive? I said, yeah, but this pain is really something too. And I'm not sure it's addictive. God's grace is sufficient. I'm not sure if it's addictive. I haven't thought about that one.

Anyway, God's grace is sufficient for whatever is going on. There are times when he might say, yeah, I'll give you some relief there. Yeah, I'll take that pain and discomfort away. And there may be other times when he'll say, my grace is sufficient for you. I need you to learn about the magnitude and the dimensions and the aspects of my grace. And the only way you're going to do that is through the circumstance that you're going through now. My grace is sufficient.

One of the other points that comes out of this, God is never, and I mean not ever, interested in any one of us taking on the task, trying our best, or showing Him that we have what it takes. I do not recommend in the slightest that you try to be a good Christian. Don't do it. You've heard the statement, don't try this at home. Don't try this anywhere. Do not try to be a good Christian. That's not what God wants. There's this I-can-do-it attitude, right? But that's not what God wants from us.

Isn't it very interesting? When He put you into Christ, He identified you with Christ's death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding. What did you do first? You are crucified within first. Why would he do that? I mean, is that nice? You know, the first thing he does is crucify you.

Welcome to salvation. Now you're dead. Okay? Here is Galatians 2 19 and 20 and I had this slightly expanded just to kind of get the meaning of the passage. For through the law I died in relationship to the law so that I might be alive in relationship to God. I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who do the living. You're done here folks. You're through. You're all done.

It's no longer I who do the living, but Christ does the living in me. The life which I live now, I live because I said, God, I've got what it takes. I live because I'm trying really hard to be a good Christian, right? No! I live by faith in where? Who? The Son of God.

You know, the one that loved you and gave himself up for you. We have been made to be in Christ and Christ has been made to be in us so that the power of God is what pulls it off here on this planet. That's why we've been made to be in Christ and Christ in us. So that the power of God is what pulls it off here on this planet. It is not our job to try to be a good Christian. It's not our job to give it our best. You ever hear that song, give of your best to the master? Don't you dare. That's not what he wants.

His power is shown in our weakness. Remember way back in 2 Corinthians 4-7, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels. Here's this earthen vessel. I wish there wasn't quite so much of it. So that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. What's that? Why is Christ in me?

Here's that word surpassing again. This is the over-the-top baseball out of orbit. The surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. This isn't even a matching deal. Where I give half and God gives half. No! It's all Him. It's not my job to pull it off here. God does not expect me to try to be a good Christian. He does the living here, not me. It's not my job. If you try to be a good Christian, I'll make you a guarantee, it won't work. Okay? It won't work. Because it's never what God had in mind anyway. That's why he says, look, the best thing we can do is write off as soon as you believe, we'll kill you. You're going to be crucified. It doesn't get any better than that. Right?

You see, the super-Christian is seeking to impress God on others by our own self-effort. I've tried that for a long time. It doesn't work. We might think that what God wants us to do is to do powerful things for God. That's not what God wants to do. God intends to do all things through us by his power. And sometimes that happens best when we're weak. So God says, Fern, I can't use you until you've been really racked out by Lyme disease.

This is the way the Lord works. He will give us something. He will give us something. We look at it and say, Lord, that's in the way. He said, no, that's what I have to do in order to get you out of the way. Our insufficiency is God's opportunity. Ever been put up to a task that you feel you're inadequate for? Good. When we think that we have what it takes, then God's power in the life of Christ can't be made evident. We're in the way.

We're trying to pull off what He never intended for us to pull off. The I can do this thing is exactly what He doesn't want us to say. He says, I never wanted you to do it. That's why I had to crucify you first. We might be prone to ask God to get all the obstacles out of the way. But that's exactly what he had in mind. Obstacles. He says, then my power will be evident. That's exactly what you need. You in Christ, Christ in you. We have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. Not from ourselves.

In the last few verses, 11 through 13, Paul is dealing again with this identity theft problem. Why do we say identity theft? Because there are others who are claiming to be apostles showing up there in Corinth. And Paul says, wait a minute, I'm the only apostle you guys have seen. These other guys are charlatans. He nicknames them facetiously, most eminent apostles, which is, I'm sure, sarcasm. So Paul is dealing with this identity theft problem. And so what does he do? He gives them the signs of a true apostle. He gives two of them.

In fact, in other places we'll see more. Suffering. It's mentioned there just in perseverance. The word perseverance means to bear under in this case. And signs and wonders and miracles. Isn't this interesting? Signs and wonders and miracles and suffering. Why don't they just do signs and wonders and miracles to get rid of the suffering? Very interesting.

But no, a sign of a true apostle is both. Both of these are recorded in Acts. We find instances of Paul and the other apostles performing miracles and going through suffering. Both. We also see that evident in this very letter that we've been studying here. Paul lists all the different things that he's been through. Beatings and shipwrecks and being stoned and all that.

At the same time, carrying out gifts of healing. You have there in a slide on page two, the five signs of a true apostle. A genuine apostle, I think, is the right way to look at it. And two of them are particularly of note here. But what we have here is a fascinating paradox. Here's Paul's ministry as the Lord's apostle. Here he does all these signs and wonders and miracles.

But whatever this thorn in the flesh was, The Lord said, no, it stays. No, it stays. You go out there and you heal people. You make people rise from the dead. You fix all sorts of problems miraculously. But this thorn of the flesh, it's got to stay. Why? You need it. Paul, I know you can go out and do all sorts of miraculous things and heal people. take care of all sorts of problems, but this thorn in the flesh, you need it. It stays.

What's interesting is you don't see the apostles carrying out any miracles experimentally. Peter and John didn't go up to the man who was lame there at the temple. You know, it's silver and gold. I don't have any of that. But such as I have, give I you. Let's see if this works. Rise up and walk. Try it again. Well, heavens, that didn't work. He didn't do that, did he? Just right off, bang, that was it. The miracle took place right there. And yet, there were ways in which these apostles were limited.

Paul needed this thorn. And here's one other thing I would suggest for you and for me. We need what's happening to us. We need what's happening to us. Things are not out of God's control. As a matter of fact, things are very much in God's control, and we need exactly what's happening to us.

We need it. Have you ever heard that expression, I need this like I need a hole in the head? And that certainly made good sense to us. But here, What's really amazing about this is this thorn in the flesh is something Paul needs and he knew exactly why he needed it. We don't always know exactly why we need things, but we do. We need what's happening to us. Whether it's good things or whether it's things that don't feel so good, we need what's happening to us.

We need it. So what do we do with this passage? One of the things that's clear, Paul could bring this to the Lord. He brought it to him three times. We have the grace-given privilege of bringing everything to the Lord. Everything. There's no exception.

Years ago, I can remember a time when my mom was getting together with some other ladies at a Bible study, and she asked them to pray for our cow. And one of the other ladies says, you can pray for cows? Oh yeah. Yeah, you can pray for cows. You know?

Pray about everything. Bring everything to work. What an awesome privilege we have. We can bring everything to the Lord of the universe. The God of all creation. The one with whom we'll spend eternity. We can bring everything to it. No exceptions. If the Lord responds in a way that brings relief and earthly blessing, then that's by his grace.

Some of you may recall, I've shared in the past, when the Lyme disease had first hit and its effects were really devastating. At the same time, Nancy, starting sometime prior to that, had a whole body intense itching. At times, she would even itch in the middle of the night and scratch herself, bruised and sometimes even bloody. She had this intense itching.

And so I said, Nancy, we can ask the Lord to take this away. And so we knelt down by the bed and we prayed. And right in the middle of the prayer, before we were done praying, the itching left Nancy and has never returned. I've still got the Lyme disease. The symptoms from that are still there. The Lord said yes to the prayer to give Nancy relief, but no Vern, you need this. Isn't that interesting?

If the Lord says that the trial must remain for a time, or for all time, then that's also by His grace, and His grace is sufficient. It is another aspect of God's grace. If we're going through a difficulty and we're needing to learn that His grace is sufficient, then isn't that a part of growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's a part of growing, folks. Growing in His grace. And that's a good thing, even if it hurts.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that your grace is indeed a most amazing grace. We thank you for that, Lord. And we do pray that we would grow in the grace and knowledge of you, that these trials, these difficulties are intended to direct us in exactly that. We thank you for these things. Thank you for the insights from your word. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.