2 Corinthians - Suffering and Grace

Now in 2 Corinthians 12, Paul talks about his apostleship with reference to visions and revelations, 2 Corinthians 12:1-6. And he tells us that he actually went to heaven and then came back again. Interestingly enough, Paul went to heaven and he came back and he kept quiet about it for 14 years. "It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory." Paul said, "I really shouldn't have to do this to go around boasting, but you've forced me to do it." The immaturity of the Corinthian church forced Paul to defend himself.

"I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago, whether in the body I cannot tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth. Such an one caught up to the third heaven."

So Paradise is the third heaven. "And heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such an one will I glory, yet of myself I will not glory, but in my infirmities. For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool." He says, "I may be acting like a fool, but I'm not going to be one." "For I will say the truth, but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be or that he heareth of me."

Of course, Paul is talking about himself. He speaks in the third person here, "I knew a man 14 years ago," but he was the man. And he had this marvelous experience of being caught up to heaven. Apparently, from the scriptures, we discover that there are three heavens. There's the heaven of the clouds and the atmosphere, and there's the heaven of the stars and the planets, and then the third heaven is where God dwells. And this is where Paul went—to Paradise.

Now the next thing he tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 is that this experience of going to Paradise put him in danger. There was a danger he might be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations. And so what did God do? God gave him "a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure." And for this thing "I besought the Lord three times that it might depart from me."

That's a normal response; don't criticize him for that. The Lord Jesus prayed three times that the cup might be taken from him. And He said unto me, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness." Most gladly therefore will I rather glory, boast, in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Now here are two radically opposite experiences. In one experience, God catches him up to heaven. Now, Paul was not sure whether he went up in the spirit or whether he went up physically. Paul said, "I was transported up to heaven, and I had this amazing experience of hearing words in heaven so holy and so marvelous that no man could utter them."

Then he turns right around and says, "After I had this experience in heaven, I had an experience from the pit of hell. Satan came and began to buffet me." God took me to heaven and blessed me, and Satan came and buffeted me.

Now, contrast these two experiences. One was an experience of wonderful glory up in heaven, hearing words, seeing things, visions, revelations in heaven—an experience of wonderful glory. The other was an experience of amazing grace. God said, "My grace is sufficient for thee."

One was an experience up in heaven; the other was an experience on earth being buffeted from hell. The experience he had up in heaven he was not allowed to share. That's interesting, isn't it? You'd think that if God would go to all the trouble of transporting an apostle up to heaven, letting him listen to these marvelous words, God would want this man to share it.

But for 14 years, Paul kept quiet. Can you imagine 14 years of splendor? 14 years of silence coupled with 14 years of suffering? Paul kept quiet about it. And Paul had this affliction not because he was not spiritual, but because he was so spiritual, God was afraid he would get proud and then God couldn't use him.

Sometimes suffering and pain are not punishment for sin; they are balance for blessing. You know, if all God did was fill your hands with blessing, you'd fall right on your face.

Right now, just hold out your two hands and pretend that God is filling your hands with blessing. You'd fall right on your face. But when God fills our hands with blessing, you know what He does? He puts burdens on our back. And that balances us; that keeps us from falling over, and that enables us to walk. And the blessings and the burdens balance each other.

Now, it's interesting that the experience Paul had in heaven he could not share, but the experience he had on earth he was able to share. He said, "Let me tell you what God did for me when I was suffering." He said, "My grace is sufficient for you. Paul, when you're weak, you're strong. When you're suffering, I'm going to help you."

Up in heaven he had a marvelous experience of ecstasy, but on earth he had a wonderful experience of the grace of God meeting his need, sufficiency. When God took Paul up to heaven, I think He was preparing him for all the suffering he was going to go through.

Now, I can't prove this; Paul doesn't tell us why it happened. He says it happened 14 years ago. That would be just about the time Paul was in Tarsus and Barnabas was looking for him to take him to Antioch. And Paul and Barnabas went to Antioch and ministered, and then Paul was called to his ministry to the Gentiles to carry the gospel to the uttermost parts of the Roman Empire.

And so God, I think, was preparing Paul for the experiences he was going to face.

Now, he tells us these experiences in 2 Corinthians 11, doesn't he? Stripes above measure, he was in depths often, the Jews beat him five times, and the Gentiles beat him with rods three times, he went through shipwreck, he was a night and a day in the deep, perils in the water and on the road and in the city and in the country—all these problems.

Just read it there in 2 Corinthians 11. How was Paul able to go through all of this? Well, I'll tell you how. He had been to glory. He had seen the glory of God. He had heard the glory of God spoken.

No wonder he wrote, "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us." And so whenever Paul went through these sufferings, he thought of the glory of heaven. You say, "Well, I haven't been to heaven." My friend, if you are saved, you are living in heaven right now. You are seated with Christ in the heavenlies. And one of these days you're going to be caught up. When you live with heaven on the horizon, you can stand anything.

Our Father did a similar thing with the Lord Jesus. Before our Lord went down to Jerusalem to suffer and die for us, He had that experience of transfiguration. Remember that? When the glory of God just radiated out from Him, and the cloud of glory came down around Him, and the voice from glory said, "This is my beloved Son, listen to Him." I think God prepares us for the experiences to come.

But you know, when He gave Paul that thorn in the flesh, He was preparing him for temptation. The glory in heaven prepared Paul for trial, for testing, for tribulation, but the thorn in the flesh prepared Paul for temptation. God said, "Paul, you're going to be tempted to be proud." Lest I should be exalted above measure, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh.

Now, which of these two experiences would you want? You see, God balances life. I'm so glad of that. God holds the key of all unknown and I am glad. But you know, when Paul went through this experience of the thorn in the flesh, he had a message to share with us. He said, "Let me tell you what God did for me when I suffered."

You know, you're suffering now. You're lying in that hospital bed, you're suffering, you hurt. Maybe it's not physical suffering in the body; maybe it's that painful suffering in your heart. You're carrying heavy burdens; you've got trials, brokenhearted, disappointment. And God says to you, "My grace is sufficient for you."

You know, that little message that God gave to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you," has done more good than all the wonderful things Paul heard up in heaven that he couldn't share with us. But you know, I think that out of our experiences of suffering, we have something to share with other people. "My grace is sufficient for thee."

How many times I've turned to 2 Corinthians 12. How many times in ministering to sick and afflicted people we've turned to 2 Corinthians 12. God is putting you through what you are going through because He wants to give you a message for somebody else. He wants you to be able to say to someone else, "Look, I have learned by experience that God's grace is sufficient for every need."

2 Corinthians 12:7: "And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure."

Twice Paul repeats that, doesn't he? "For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am strong."

Paul was a man who suffered. Everybody suffers in one way or another. God's people suffer. "In the world you shall have tribulation," said the Lord Jesus. "The sufferings of this present time," wrote the apostle Paul. Everybody suffers—some with bodily pain, physical pain. You're listening to me right now and your body hurts and perhaps a doctor can't do much about it.

There are those who suffer with emotional pain, with mental agony; loved ones have broken their hearts. Perhaps you're going through some dark valley of bereavement or disappointment. It seems that all of God's people suffer; there's pressure of one kind or another. And this raises the question: how shall we deal with suffering in our lives?

Well, let's get our message from the man who really went through it, the apostle Paul. He'd been up to heaven and experienced glory, but now he's on earth going through suffering, and through that suffering he experiences the grace of God.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 that there are three possible responses to suffering. Here they are: we can seek to escape suffering; secondly, we can seek to endure suffering; or we can take a third response to suffering: we can seek to enlist our suffering.

Now we're going to look at these three responses. First of all, in 2 Corinthians 12:8, we discover Paul tried to escape his suffering. Don't criticize him; this is a normal response. I confess to you that when I am suffering, I pray about it the way Paul did, the way Jesus did.

Three times my Lord in the garden prayed, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me." God made our bodies to warn us when something is wrong and we should do something about it. When there's pain in the body, the body is flashing a red signal and saying you better do something about this. There's nothing wrong with seeking means to alleviate suffering.

You know, if your car has something wrong with it, you take it to the garage and the mechanic fixes it. If your body has something wrong with it, you don't just pray about it; you should pray, no question about it, but you ought to do something about it. Don't be one of these super-spiritual, ultra-pious people who says, "Well, I'm never going to do anything about my suffering." God wants us to use the means that are available to take care of the physical needs in our lives.

Now, the Jewish people had the attitude that if you were suffering, God was punishing you. If you were suffering, it was a mark that there was sin in your life and therefore there's something wrong. If you just confess your sin, the suffering will go away. Well, it doesn't work that way.

Here was a case where Paul prayed three times, "Lord, take it away." I don't know what Paul's suffering was, whether it was... some scholars think he had visual problems, his eyes were giving him difficulty. We don't know. I'm glad we don't know, because then we can identify with him. I don't have to have exactly what Paul had. But Paul prayed, "Lord, take it away. I have letters to write, I have churches to found, I have people to counsel, I have trips to make. Please take away this suffering." And God didn't do it.

If you cannot escape suffering, you've got to do something else. Secondly, we can seek to endure suffering. Now, Paul was a Roman, and you know the Romans were great courageous people—the Stoic attitude of just endure it.

Some of you have read the writings of Marcus Aurelius, the great Stoic philosopher, who tells you how to endure anything, you know. If you've got a broken arm, well, you just endure it, don't go to the doctor. And Paul was the Roman who could have said, "Well, I'll just endure this. I'm a strong man. I've been through a lot. I've been through shipwreck, I've been through whippings, I've been through scourging. I can endure this." But you know, not everybody has that kind of power.

Not everybody has that kind of inner resource of personality to endure suffering. And furthermore, God doesn't want us to live like that. I'll tell you why. When all you do is endure your suffering, you are using your energy on the inside to keep yourself together, and you have no energy left for the outside to serve other people.

If you're using your mental and emotional and nervous energy just to endure your pain, you know what happens? You get irritable, and you get short-tempered, and it's... you're hard to live with. And the energy you should be using for your husband, your wife, your children, ministering for the Lord's people, you're using all that energy on the inside and you haven't got any power left for the outside, and you're tired all the time and irritable. And more than that, life gets very self-centered.

I have been through it; I know what it's like to hurt. It used to bother me that when I was sick and going through pain, that it was hard to pray. I was reading A.W. Tozer one day, and Tozer admitted that when he wasn't feeling good, he had a hard time praying. And I said, "Hallelujah, you're a brother to me," because I appreciate that. Look, we are normal, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. God knows that we're human.

And God says, "Now look, if you can't escape suffering, and I don't want you just to endure suffering, there is something better than this." What is it? Learning how to enlist suffering. You see, God did not cure Paul.

Now, I don't want to get into any arguments with anybody, but God doesn't always heal, and God is not always obligated to heal. We discovered in our previous study that God took Paul to heaven to show him glory that he might be able to endure his suffering. And God gave him this physical suffering on earth to keep him from being proud of the fact that he'd gone to heaven. "Lest I should be exalted above measure, lest I should be exalted above measure."

Paul knew why he suffered. Now, sometimes we don't know why. Job didn't know why he suffered. The whole thing was a mystery; he hadn't read the book of Job. He hadn't listened in to the conversation between Satan and Jehovah.

Job did not know why he was suffering, but he believed that he had integrity, that he was right before God, and he believed that when it was all over, God would be glorified. "When he has brought me forth, he's going to bring me forth like pure gold," said Job.

And so in our next study, we are going to discover how it is possible for us as Christians to hurt and still be happy. To suffer and still experience glory. How it's possible for God in our lives to transform trials into triumphs. And so the next time we are together, we're going to find out from the apostle Paul that pain need not be an enemy or a master; pain can be a servant working on our behalf.