Grace Sufficient - 2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Grace Sufficient
2 Corinthians 12:1-10
I.
It Is Not Expedient For Me, v. 1
1. There is
considerable textual variation as to the exact rendering of this verse.
(2 Cor. 12:1 ESV) "I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by
it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord."
(2 Cor. 12:1 KJV) "It is not expedient for me doubtless to
glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord."
(2 Cor.
12:1 NLT) "This boasting is
all so foolish, but let me go on. Let me tell about the visions and revelations
I received from the Lord."
2. Once again all
through chapter eleven Paul is defending himself against that small group in
Corinthian who see him as less than a true Apostle and therefore without true
authority over the Corinthian church.
3. And so he begins to
boast of the things that the Lord has aloud him to do. This is another case
when boasting is not bragging, but just stating the facts with pure motives.
2 Cor. 11:21-28 "To my shame, I must say, we were
too weak for that! But whatever anyone else dares to boast of--I am speaking as
a fool--I also dare to boast of that.
( 22) Are they Hebrews? So am I.
Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. ( 23)
Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one--I am talking like a
madman--with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless
beatings, and often near death.
( 24) Five times I received at the
hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.
( 25) Three times I was beaten
with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day
I was adrift at sea; (26) on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers,
danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in
the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false
brothers; (27) in toil and hardship, through many a
sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and
exposure. ( 28) And, apart from other things, there is the
daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
4. Paul had good reason
to boast of his accomplishments, although in truth he was embarrassed to do so.
5. Now he goes on to
explain some visions and revelations he had received.
a.) A vision, is an
appearance presented to one whether asleep or awake that the person can actually
see.
b.) Revelations, comes
from a Greek word that means "unveiling" or "revealing". A
revealing of something not previous known.
II.
Paul's Vision that Happened Fourteen
Years Before, v. 2
1. Paul is writing as
if this happened to someone else but verse 7 makes it clear that it is Paul
himself that he is talking about.
2. Fourteen years ago:
2 Corinthians was written in 56 AD so fourteen years ago would have been 42 AD
just less than a year before Paul arrives in Antioch
3. The third heaven:
Some Jews believed in seven heavens but most probably three heavens. The first
heaven would be our immediate atmosphere, the second heaven would be where the
planets and stars are, and the third heaven is where God is.
4. The phrase the third
heaven is often used as an idiom for God’s presence. Paul was where God was
where ever that might be.
5. Paul doesn’t know
how he got there, whether it was an out of body experience or whether his body
was taken.
III.
Things Heard in Paradise , v. 3-4
1. Verse three is
redundant from verse two.
2. In verse four Paul
now explains that he has been caught up into Paradise .
3. Both the third
heaven and paradise are Jews idioms for God’s presence. There is no need to try
and draw a distinction.
4. Surprisingly the
Bible is rather quiet about the afterlife. There are no exhaustive chapters on
exactly what it’s going to be like in heaven.
5. The last two
chapters of Revelation is the longest passage about heaven described by Paul in
figurative language and symbols. He is trying to describe a spiritual place
with human language and it just can’t do justice to what it will be like.
6. For that very reason
it is not expedient for us as Christians to dwell on it.
7. It says that he
heard inexpressible things that he cannot reveal to anyone else. God does not
see it as necessary that we should know more about heaven than what is already
revealed.
8. The Jews consider
the personal name of God (Jehovah) so holy that they never pronounce it. When
they are reading from a text with that name in it they substitute the word
“adonai ” or Lord in it’s place.
9. When the scribes
were making copies of the holy scriptures if they misspelled that name they had
to destroy the entire manuscript and start over.
10.
This is probably what Paul was talking about, the things
he heard were not meant to be repeated because they were so holy.
11.
Since this vision happened before his Gentile Ministry it
is significant to note that the purpose of this vision for Paul was to prepare
him for what lay ahead, because as we saw in the verses from chapter eleven
Paul endured above and beyond what most people could have endured, and so to
prepare Paul God shows him a glimpse of heaven, and saying see Paul this is
what it’s about this is the goal after all you will endure. And that gave Paul
the strength to keep going under insurmountable odds.
IV.
I Will Boast About My Weaknesses, v.
5-6
1. Throughout 2 Corinthians
it seems that Paul does a lot of boasting. In fact he uses the word 28 times.
2. We had an early
lesson which was entitled when boasting is not bragging.
3. Paul has no thoughts
of being superior to anyone else he is only reciting his testimony. Paul didn’t
have a little book of quotations to quote from or famous people to draw
examples from all he had was himself and so that is why he will boast when
necessary it’s merely sharing another part of his incredible personal
testimony.
V.
The Thorn in the Flesh, v. 7-8
1. After the glory came
the pain. So that Paul would not become conceited there was given to him a
thorn in the flesh. Something that was always causing him pain.
2. Dozens of things
have been listed as to what this thorn might be, none of which have come close
to general acceptancce: persecution, carnal temptations, his physical
appearance, epilepsy, bad eye sight, and the oldest is that he suffered from
severe headaches probably what we would call migraines.
3. It must be
acknowledged that the general impression of Paul that the reader obtains from
his Epistles, not least from 2 Corinthians, and from Acts, is of a man with an
exceptionally strong constitution and remarkable powers of physical endurance.
This is not really compatible with the view that he was the constant victim of
a severe physical ailment.
4. The verse says
“there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.”
5. I think the last
phrase interprets the first phrase, that the thorn in the flesh was the
spiritual warfare with which he battled Satan and all adversaries he threw his
way.
6. Chrysostom’s
exegesis is that there were times when God would not permit Paul’s preaching to
progress, in order to check the high thoughts of the apostle, but allowed his
adversaries to maltreat him.
7. So, I tend to agree
with the spiritual nature of the thorn not a physical one. You can of course
come to your own conclusions because there is really no right or wrong answer
as far as what little information the bible gives us about it.
8. Paul begged God
three times to take it away and each time God said no.
VI.
My Grace is Sufficient, v. 9
1. But what God did
answer him was that “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made
perfect in weakness.” OK so what does that mean?
2. In the
English New Testament the word “grace” is always a translation of the Greek
word “charis”, a word that occurs in the Greek text something over 170 times.
In secular Greek of all periods it is also a very common word, and in both
Biblical and secular Greek it is used with far more meanings than can be
represented by any one term in English.
a.) The word seems to denote pleasant external appearance, “gracefulness”
or “loveliness”. Such a use is found in Luke 4:22: “And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that
were coming from his mouth.”
b.) Charis can
denote joy,” as in 3 John 1:4: “I have no greater joy
than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”
c.) As a mental attribute charis may
be translated by “graciousness,” or, when directed toward a particular person
or persons, by “favor.”
d.) As the complement to this, charis
denotes the emotion awakened in the recipient of such favor, i.e. “gratitude.”
e.) Concretely, charis may
mean the act by which graciousness is expressed, as in 1Co_16:3, where the King James Version
translates by “liberality,” and the Revised Version by “bounty.”
3. And charis is the word for God's favor. But God's favor differs
from man's in that it cannot be conceived of as inactive. A favorable “thought”
of God's about a man involves of necessity the reception of some blessing by
that man, and “to look with favor” is one of the commonest Biblical paraphrases
for “bestow a blessing.” Between “God's favor” and “God's favors” there exists
a relation of active power, and as charis
denoted both the favor and the favors, it was the natural word for the power
that connected them. This use is very clear in 1Co_15:10,
where Paul says, “not I, but the grace of God which was with me” labored more
abundantly than they all: grace is something that labors.
4. God’s Grace is Power and it works best in a weak vessel that is not
self-reliant.
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