2nd Corinthians ā Wayne Barber/Part 5
By: Dr. Wayne Barber; ©2006 |
One of the great things about studying the scripture, at least in my life it is, is that it teaches us, and this is my words, but life is like a quarry. You know what a quarry is? Thatās where all that rock is chipped out. Life is like a quarry. You see, life and all the circumstances of life, are used of God to shape us and conform us into the image of Christ. |
The God of All Comfort ā Part 4
Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 1, and weāre going to be looking at verses 8-11 today. This is the āGod of All Comfort, Part 4ā. One of the great things about studying the scripture, at least in my life it is, is that it teaches us, and this is my words, but life is like a quarry. You know what a quarry is? Thatās where all that rock is chipped out. Life is like a quarry. You see, life and all the circumstances of life, are used of God to shape us and conform us into the image of Christ. Now, how do we know that? Romans 8:28 says, āAnd we know that God causes all things to work together, for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.ā
Now the āgood,ā sometimes we donāt see the good when the pain is going on in our lives, but the good comes out in verse 29: āFor those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren.ā You know, the only down side to that as far as weāre concerned, certainly not as far as God is concerned, is that the tools that He uses to chip away the old ugly flesh that is still resident in our life, theyāre not of our choosing. Donāt you wish you could choose the tools that God would use? But we donāt get to do that. Not only that, the tools that He chooses to use sometimes can be painful at best to our flesh particularly.
You see, God uses life to chisel us down to where there is much less of us and so much more of Him. One of the tools that He chooses to use is persecution that comes from letting Jesus be Jesus in us. As we saw last week, itās not persecution at us; itās persecution that is coming to Him. We actually experience the sufferings of Christ. Persecution is never a welcome guest, I donāt care who you are, I donāt care what kind of veteran you are. In persecution, itās never a welcome guest. We donāt look forward to it, we donāt want it, but itās going to come if we make a stand and if we make a vessel that Christ can use.
If anyone should be used to persecution, I mean, he could have a PhD in it, is the apostle Paul. We saw last week in our study, just a real brief look in 2 Corinthians 11 of what he had been through because of his just saying yes to Jesus. He says in Galatians, āleave me alone, donāt let anybody trouble me. Iāve got the brand marks of Jesus on my body.ā
Well, Paul had found his comfort in the midst of all the persecution heād been through. And thatās what we are seeing in our text. He had found that the God of all comfort is always there, and itās such a precious thing. In fact, itās so much so that he burst out into praise in 2 Corinthians 1:3. He says, āBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,ā actually itās much more emphatic than what the English can bring out, āthe Father of mercies and God of all comfort.ā
Then in verses 4-7 he begins to show how precious this comfort really is to him and should be to us. He showed us the meaningfulness of Godās comfort in our life. And the meaningfulness is in the fact that God is always there to comfort His own. Itās not like you have to pass a test; you donāt have to go through a class. God is always there. The word ācomfortā in verse 4 when it says, āwho comforts us in all our affliction,ā is in the present active tense. Present tense means Heās always comforting us, and the active voice is so impressive to me, maybe not to you, but the active voice means this is His own choice. He doesnāt do this because He has to; He does this because this is Who He is. Heās the God of all comfort. Thatās so precious.
But not only that, we saw the ministry of our comfort. Affliction drives us to the God of our comfort and when we get there we realize that when He comforts us, itās not for us alone. No man is an island, but God uses the comfort in our life so that then we can become a vessel through whom He can reach out and touch other people with that same comfort. He says, āwho comforts us in all our affliction,ā verse 4, āso that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.ā And he puts the word āinā in there. Thatās not just persecution, thatās any affliction. God comforts us so that we can now comfort others in any affliction.
Life is not accidental. Some people believe this and that bothers me that they donāt seem to understand that Godās in control. As far as God is concerned, He never wastes any experience in our life, even failure. Heāll weave it into His perfect plan. But God uses these experiences and these trials and these difficulties to prepare us so that we now might be able to comfort others. But we also saw, Paul shared with us the measure of our comfort. He says in verse 6, āBut if we are afflicted,ā speaking of he and his team, āit is for your comfort,ā speaking of the Corinthians, āand salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer;ā and thatās a powerful verse because the Corinthians had never suffered for the right reason. They had suffered because of sin in their life. The church was upside down. Yes, they had a lot of suffering, but it was self-inflicted and he said, āIf youāre going to suffer, suffer for the right reason.ā
Then verse 7, āand our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.ā And thatās his point: if youāre sharers of the right kind of suffering. Itās apparent that God, through the suffering that Paul had gone through, and the comfort for which he had received, God had tenderized his heart toward these Corinthian believers. Thereās been a real rift between him and the Corinthian believers. They treated him pretty toughly and so now his greatest desire is that they will glorify God and as I said, learn to suffer for the right reasons. Paul says, āIf that happens, then my hope is firmly grounded. I have something I can build upon if youāre living yielded to Christ. I can help you. But I canāt do much for you if youāre going to live to yourselves.ā
Well, today in our study we will see Paulās suffering in a beautiful light that should encourage each of us. Weāre going to get a glimpse of how suffering purified Paul. You know, itās funny how we deify the Bible characters. āPaul was part of the Trinity.ā No! God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost. Now, he may have his application in, but thereās been no vacancy in the Trinity. Heās still down here with the rest of them. We tend to deify them. No. God used suffering to purify Paul and squeeze out the message so that it can get across to you and me even in the 21st century.
Suffering purified Paul and then, when he was purified, it stabilized his hope; but it also opened the door to the possible reconciliation between him and the Corinthian believers. Itās a precious thing: God sometimes takes pain in our life to bring us to the end of ourselves as we see today, and then Heāll give us a fresh hope. But in that moment weāre going to start seeing people in a different light. Theyāre no long threats, theyāre opportunities.
Well, look at verses 8-11 and weāre going to begin to see what God can teach us about what I would want to call the ministry of affliction. Ron Dunn, whoās in heaven now, preached a series of sermons and he called it Strange Ministers. And the reason he called it Strange Ministers is because of the pain that we sometimes have to go through to get across the truth that God is trying to teach us. Ronās son committed suicide. Ron was manic depressive and fought that all of his life. His other son was suicidal. His daughter was in a car wreck and had to have a leg amputated. His wife had cancer. I mean, hereās a man who had a walk through the valley, but he had learned something: in the midst of it God was going to purify him, and God would use that to deepen his own walk. He was one of the greatest preachers that ever lived here on earth.
The purification of our affliction
Well, there are several things we want to share. First of all is the purification of our affliction. Letās look at that purification. Letās look at the process here of whatās happening in Paul. Now Iām told, that if you put quail in an area, you stock it with quail, and there are no hunters, and there are no predators in that area that would threaten those quail, that those quail, over a period of time, will either die out or will certainly decrease in number. But they tell me that if you put quail in an area where theyāre hunted and there are predators that are preying upon them, they say give it a few years and youāll have more quail than you could possibly count. Because there is something about being persecuted that brings about a better result. Well, I donāt know about quail, but I certainly know about the Christian life. Thatās exactly what Paul is saying. Persecution, affliction, in a strange sense, is necessary in our life because it is a purifying element in our walk with God.
Purification is meant to drive us to Him. Paul illustrates this in a dramatic way. Look at verse 8. First of all, he showed that he has an intention to bare his heart to these Corinthian believers. Now sometimes when you go through bad times you tend not to want anybody to know about it. But this is not the apostle Paul in this text. Paul said, āI want you to know what weāve been through because if you donāt know what weāve been through you wonāt understand our comfort, and if you donāt understand our comfort, then there can be no ministry from us to you. Verse 8, āFor we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction.ā The word āwantā there is thelema. And thelema is the same word we saw in verse 1 when Paul said, āPaul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will,ā itās the word for āwill,ā and he translates it here āwe do not want.ā Itās a powerful word, just as God intended to use Paul; Paul intended to tell the Corinthians about his affliction.
You have to see the intensity in this. If you just read it casually, you miss it. Paul says, āIāve got a burden. I want you to know something and Iām going to tell you about it.ā It was for their good. āFor we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction.ā The word ānotā there, there are two words for ānotā in the Greek language. And I know this will excite you. But one of them is a relative not, but the other one is ou and it means not in any way, shape, or form. Now when I was growing up and I wanted to go do something and I asked my mother and she said, āNo,ā I want to know which one sheās using. Because if she uses ou, hang it up brother, itās over. But if she uses it in a relative sense, it could change depending on the circumstances. Usually with my mother it was the relative one. With my daddy it was absolute. So Iād always go to my mom.
Paul says, āWe do not [in any way, shape or form] want you to be unaware of something.ā The word āunawareā is the word agnoeo. It means to be without understanding; to be ignorant of something. And the word āaffliction,ā āwe do not want you to be unaware of our affliction,ā the word āafflictionā is the word thlipsis. Weāve already seen this word in verse 6. Itās more inward, but it also involved the outward. Itās the inward, emotional stress that comes from outward physical threats and pressure in your life. Paul wanted them to know about the extreme persecution that he and his team went through when they were in Asia.
He says in verse 8, āFor we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia.ā Now, we donāt know for certain what heās talking about. We wish we did. We wish there were more details in this that would pull us into the story, but Paul doesnāt give those. Whatās he talking about when he was in Asia? It could have been a lot of things because he experienced a lot of trials when he was ministering in Asia. Most probably heās referring to what happened to him in Ephesus, because Asia in that day is today modern day western Turkey. Itās not Asia that we think of, itās a different Asia. When you see it, donāt ever connect the two because theyāre not connected. And Ephesus is the capital city of Asia, of this area. And Ephesus was also the headquarters of Paul when he was doing his work in any part of that region of the world.
If it happened in Ephesusāand we donāt know, weāre reading between the linesāperhaps itās the incident that took place in Acts 19. Let me tell you about that because if we read it, it would take us way too long. There was a man by the name of Demetrius there that was a silversmith and Paul had really caused him some financial damage. Paul was a threat wherever he preached Christ to those who lived for themselves. Always the gospel threatens people who walk after the flesh. Paul preached Christ crucified and he preached there is no other God. Because of this Demetrius was suffering financially. Why would a silversmith suffer financially because a man is preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ? Because Demetrius, among others, was selling little silver statues, the false goddess Artemis, also known as Diana. Thatās the Greek name for it.
There was a great temple built for Artemis, built on top of a big hill overlooking Ephesus. Iāve been there. Itās beautiful, built up on top of that hill that overlooks the whole city. Back in the days when Paul would go there it was a seaport. Now itās about ten miles inward because itās filled in since that time. There was a huge business of selling these little statues. People would come from all over the world: it was one of the wonders of the world and people would come to Ephesus to see this magnificent temple to the false goddess called Artemis. Well, as you walk up the street there and it makes a turn, you pass the amphitheaters right here and you walk down the street and you make a turn, thereās the library over here, and you begin to walk up, this is probably the best archeological remains anywhere in the world. But as you walk up that street, there are little shops, you can see where little shops were, like a strip mall weād have today, and each one of those shops had people selling these little silver statues of Artemis.
Well, the more Paul preached Christ and the more he preaches that thereās only one true Godāand it certainly isnāt Artemis at the top of the hillāpeople were getting converted and guess what? They stopped buying those little statues. Isnāt it amazing how the gospel of Jesus Christ, yes, it will change society, but it will also threaten the society that is built upon greed. Youāve got to get rid of Christianity if youāre built upon greed, because greed comes from serving the god of the flesh and there is no other God but the Lord Jesus Christ. Christianity is definitely not profitable for those who sell sin.
Well, these greedy merchants in this city of Ephesus, led by the man named Demetrius, they began to spread the news that this man was in here, heās preaching against our goddess in the temple on top of the hill and heās hurting us in every single way. And a riot broke out. You know, Paul just seems to have that magnetism about him. A riot broke out. The people seized two of his partners, they didnāt get Paul, they drug them into the amphitheater. Oh, I wish I could take you there; i is something else. This amphitheater is almost completely there as it was in the days of Paul.
And they went in this amphitheater, and the book of Acts 19 says they began to shout, āGreat is Artemis of the Ephesians. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.ā And the scripture even says in chapter 19 that there were many in that crowd who didnāt have a clue why they were there. Isnāt that kind of the way it still is? People rally for something negative and people just jump in. They donāt really care whatās going on. And so theyāre all in this amphitheater, and you say, āWhy would you say the noise is deafening?ā Because I have been there and the way they were constructed is incredible. They didnāt have microphones like we have today and you can get 125 or so feet from somebody and it was built in a semi-circle and you can face the stone of that wall that goes all around and up above were the seats, and you can whisper, and somebody can be on the other side, Iāve done it, and you put your ear down to the stone and you can hear what heās whispering 150 feet away and all that heās doingāthatās the way the sound, the acoustics of those amphitheaters were incredible. And here are people not whispering, theyāre shouting. āGreat is Artemis of the Ephesians.ā
To make a long story short, it became so bad, and the murderous and hateful attitude of the crowd became so violent, that Paul, you know Paul, he was going to jump right in the middle of it, and his disciples grabbed him and said, āDonāt you dare go up there.ā And they had to sneak him out and he was taken over to Macedonia. Had they gotten their hands on the apostle Paul they would have ripped him to shreds. And we donāt understand the thlipsis. We donāt understand the pressure, the stress that he was under, but it appears that he might be bringing it out here in 2 Corinthians; the fear that was in that crowd.
Maybe he was referring to this event. But the problem is that we just donāt know. That gives us an idea, but we just donāt know. The account in Acts only gives brief details of the horrendous time that Paul had with his team. But what we do know is that it was life threatening. We know that for a fact: verses 8-9 tell us that. Look at verse 8, āFor we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively,ā listen carefully to each phrase, āwe were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves in order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.ā
Now Paul says, āI want you to know this, Corinthians. I want you to understand: youāve been suffering because of sin. I want you to understand what suffering for the sake of Jesus is all about. I want you to understand the depth that you can be driven to because of persecution in your life.ā The word āburdenedā is bareo. A similar word is barus which is a form of that word, which is talking about something that is so heavy on top of you that it is crushing you down. You know, he says in another place, ābear one anotherās burdens,ā and itās the word barus , when you see a brother that is being crushed and oppressed and he canāt carry the load.
Then thereās another version that says, āEvery man should bear his own burden.ā Thatās a different word, phortion, and that means every man has his own backpack to wear. But when it comes to this word right here, there are times in everybodyās life it is crushing them down and they canāt seem to handle it and he tells us to go and help that person bear that burden. Thatās the word barus. Something so heavy on top of you that itās pushing you down and down and you canāt stand it.
The word āexcessivelyā is kata here, which means down, or against. To be pressed down to the point you just canāt take it anymore. And remember Paul has already opened the door: this is persecution, what it can do to you. And itās a very human emotion. And they are human people weāre dealing with here. Itās coming from everywhere.
The rest of the verse explains things for us, āwe were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life.ā Now Paul says, āWe didnāt have the strength in ourselves to bare up under it. It was beyond our strength.ā You know, we live in this macho day, donāt tell anybody you canāt do something. Are you kidding me? Suck it up, boy. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. And thatās the way weāre brought up. And the apostle Paul says there are going to be times in your life you better admit that you canāt do it because if you canāt admit you canāt do it, whatās going to happen is that youāre not going to receive the comfort that God can give to you in that situation. Youāre not going to be enabled.
Itās kind of like in the book of James. He says, āIf any of you lack wisdom.ā Now the first key to that is that you have to admit that you donāt have it. You see, whatās happened to us in the 21st century is that we have to prove ourselves to be something we know good and well weāre not. Weāre trying to live a standard and we canāt even live up to it ourselves. But hereās Paul saying āwe despaired even of life,ā and the words there mean we were at a total loss to know what to do to save ourselves. They thought they were going to die. Verse 9 says, āindeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves.ā Some people say that sentence of death could be that there was a warrant out for their arrest after this riot and they were going to arrest them and put them to death. Possibly, but when he says, āwithin ourselves,ā I think what heās saying is āwe have come to the conclusion within that we were going to die. We were at the end of ourselves. There is not one single thing we can do to help ourselves.ā He knew and expected death to be the result of what was going to happen.
You have to keep asking yourself, why is Paul being this gut honest? Why is he telling them this? He says, āI donāt want you to be unaware in any way shape or form. I want you to understand what we have been through: suffering for Christ.ā What is the message heās trying to get across to the Corinthians? Well, if youāll continue in verse 9 he answers that: āso that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.ā Paul is so clear. Paul is saying, āāthese horrific experiences that happened to us, Corinthians, are good things because God has used them to drive us to the point we couldnāt do it anymore.ā One of the biggest problems of Corinth was fleshly wisdom and doing it in their own strength and he said, āGod had brought us to this point to where we would learn to trust Him. He drove us to the end of ourselves to purify us of ourselves so that we would learn to trust Him.ā
All theyāre saying is that their hope was, and they did have hope, they put their hope in the One, in God, who raises from the dead. Their hope was this: that even if they were put to deathāwhat affliction are you going through today? Maybe itās not persecution, maybe itās sickness or illness, or something elseābut even if it brings you to the point of death, God is the One Who raises the dead. Now that ought to light your fire. Isnāt it interesting: we know these things in our head, but when weāre in the midst of a trial we act as if we donāt have a clue.
Paul and his team believed God could deliver them from death
There are two things that are involved here. First of all, Paul and his team believed that God could deliver them from the jaws of death. Now thatās my term, thatās nothing scriptural. Thatās my term: the jaws of death, or the actual death itself in my mind. In other words, if they died, they knew theyād be with Him. And death could not hold them in its jaws.
At the funeral of a 26-year-old man the pastor said something Iāll never forget as long as I live. In a funeral he got up and he said, āOh, death! Where is your sting?ā Kind of like, ācome on, death, answer back.ā āOh, death! Where is your victory?ā What is he doing? Heās quoting out of 1 Corinthians 15 and, of course, it goes on to say, āThanks be unto God for the victory that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.ā But I will never forget, and Iāve never been in a funeral where somebody started it that way. He just put his hand on his hip and he said, āOh, death! Whereās your sting? Oh, death! Where is your victory?ā
Why would he do that? You see, Jesus has conquered sin and death and if we get to the point of death, if weāre in any affliction, particularly persecution and it brings us to the point we think weāre going to die and thereās not a single thing we can do to save ourselves. At that point it begins to be overwhelming to us that Jesus is the resurrection. Jesus has conquered death. Death is nothing more than a homecoming for believers. Itās graduation day for those that have been believers down here on this earth and have walked faithful before God. So the jaws of death, they werenāt afraid of it anymore because they had been driven to the end of themselves, God had purified them and brought them to the marvelous understanding of this truth.
Paul and his team believed God could deliver them from the threat of death
But secondly they also believed that God could deliver them from the gates of death, the threat of death. The point is that because of tribulation He did do that this time. He rescued them from death. But the point is because of tribulation they were purified of trusting themselves. You know there is something to be said about a person who is driven to the end of himself and he cannot do one single thing: itās in that moment he realizes that Jesus is everything he needs.
There is a purification of trials and afflictions
You know, when Jesus is all that you have, thatās when you realize that Heās all you want, all you need. So thereās a purification of trials and afflictions. God uses it to drive us to the end of ourselves. Whatever is over our head is under His feet. And thatās when we begin to understand it. We donāt understand it in a setting like this. Oh, we do mentally, we comprehend it. But when weāre there it drops in there and makes an 18-inch journey from the head down to the heart. And we begin to understand what is going on.
What is it that is afflicting you? In any area, is it persecution? Is it a trauma that youāre going through? Is it a sickness that youāre facing and what God says is, āWhat could be the worst thing?ā You say, āWell, if I die.ā And God says, āExcuse me? Youāre just a vapor.ā You know, isnāt it amazing weāre spending all of our time trying to keep people down here while God is spending all of His time trying to get them up there. We talk as if we understand. Iām telling you, I donāt think I fully comprehend it. You wonāt fully comprehend it until you have been to the point where there is nothing else you can do and then God says, āNow letās go back to what you used to talk about to others and tell them. Letās make sure you understand this. Iām the One Who raises from the dead.ā
It brings a stabilization of our hope
So the purification of our affliction; thereās a purifying element of being afflicted no matter what area it comes from. But secondly, what this does is when we come to the end of ourselves, it brings a stabilization of our hope. What happens is that our hope begins to get threatened. It becomes uncertain when it should be certain. But when we get to the end of ourselves, when we get to that place, then God stabilizes our hope. Hope springs eternal in the heart of one who has been to the end of himself and God has revealed Himself afresh as the One Who raises the dead. He understands that even death cannot conquer us. You know, you can kill the messenger, but you canāt kill the message, so Godās work is going to continue right on. And weāre going to be with Him. The stabilization of our hope.
Verse 8, āFor we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves in order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will delivers us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us.ā Paul says in the midst of that awful trial, God delivered them from impending death. Thatās the first thing he says.
He says, āLet me give you the end of the story. Iām not giving you all the details but it was so bad we were at the end of ourselves, we knew we were going to die, but God rescued us; He delivered us.ā But the word ādeliveredā is perhaps a word you donāt fully understand. I didnāt. The word ādeliveredā is the word rhoumai. This is the word meaning āHe drew them to Himself.ā Itās the most beautiful word in Scripture. Paul is even talking about āHeāll deliver me,ā and yes, he was put to death, but God still delivered him. He drew him to Himself. Sometimes it means, contextually, āhe was taken away from the danger.ā Sometimes he was rescued in the midst of the danger. God simply drew him to Him. And you see, once youāre in His presence, it doesnāt matter whatās going on around you. Itās like youāre in a raging river and itās sweeping you down in its current and you canāt do a thing. The coldness of the water is just about to bring you to the point of hypothermia and you canāt move and youāre weak and youāre sucked into that current and youāre trying to cry out and itās feeble. āHelp! Help!ā You canāt help yourself and suddenly a pair of giant, strong hands and arms reaches out and He pulls you out of that current, but not only pulls you out of the current. Oh, no, no, no. He pulls you to Himself and wraps His arms around you and holds you there until you can quiet and until you understand youāve been delivered. Thatās the word.
I tell you one thing that will go home with you. When God rescues us it doesnāt mean necessarily He took us out of danger. He may have left us in the midst of it. He may even let us go to the point that we die; and in death His arms are still there and takes us right on to be in His presence forever. It doesnāt necessarily mean He rescues us from danger. However, in this particular context, it does. This word has more a meaning of ādrawing to Himself.ā Itās a beautiful.
Talk about comfort. You think Paul hadnāt received the comfort of God? Heās explaining it now. āBut at the very end when I thought I was going to die, God drew me to Himself.ā Iāll tell you one thing: some of those few times in my life Iāve understood any of this to any degree, just being in His presence is all I want anyway. If you study the book of James, thatās really what itās saying. Itās not saying that youāll be delivered from everything. What itās going to say is you can find yourself complete in the midst of it. God will draw you to Himself.
Verse 10, āwho delivered us from so great a peril of death.ā Look at the hope now that has arisen within Paul, this eternal certainty of hope. The word āhopeā means that which has absolutely no uncertainty whatsoever. Affliction has driven him to a point that he cried out and when he cried out, God was right there. Heās the God of all comfort; Heās always there and immediately showed him that there was nothing that could happen to him that hadnāt already been taken care of when Jesus died on the cross, resurrected, and came to live in his life. Thereās nothing that can happen to us that He cannot conquer. Heāll draw us to Himself.
Paul, having been afflicted to the very depths of his soul, having trusted in Christ, now has his hope stabilized. Heās back on his feet. Do you see how the process of affliction produces this awesome result? I donāt know if, when we studied Philippians, if you caught it or not, but what grabbed me was the apostle Paul had been in prison approximately four years, maybe even five, when he wrote Philippians. And yet he says in that book, āI canāt speak for you, but as for me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.ā Do you understand that he didnāt just live this way all the time? You know, we still think of him, we still deify these guys. No! What I see is, āI have counted all things lost, because I have lost all things.ā Actually he counted them lost before he ever lost them.
You know, God strips us down to where there is nothing else left and itās in that moment when weāve been stripped down, whether it be persecution, whether it be sickness, whether it be anything else, and He brings us to the end of ourselves, and at the end of ourselves is when we look and for the first time perhaps we see Him. Then His Word suddenly takes a meaning that itās never taken before and the things weāve sung and the things weāve carelessly shared suddenly become so real to us that we can say with Paul, āFor me to live is Christ, I donāt want anything else. And to die is gain.ā
Paul said He will continue to deliver us even if we die: He is our deliverance. And then Paul says something else: āand yet He will deliver us.ā He says it three times. āHe has delivered us.ā Then he puts it in the present tense, āHe continues to deliver us.ā And then he says it again, āAnd yet He will deliver us.ā Boy, that is hope that has been stabilized.
How many are living as if they even expect Him today? But Iāll tell you what, when God puts you in the throes of distress and He puts you in the valley, all of a sudden that becomes a truth that you want to sing and will ring in your ears. You begin to say, āHome! Home!ā You begin to see it for the first time.
You see, what Paul is saying is something for us to be encouraged by. He was comforted by the God of all comfort. He was at the end of himself; he thought he was going to die. God revealed Himself: Iām the One Who is the Deliverer. Iāll deliver you even if you die.ā And now his hope has been so stabilized he says, āAnd yet He will go on delivering me. And yet,ā and I think he points to the end now, āand He will deliver me.ā His hope has been stabilized.
It brings a reconciliation of our prayer
So the purification of our affliction, the stabilization of our hope, but finally, the reconciliation of our prayer. Now this verse 11 is not an easy verse. Certainly prayer is involved in praying for others. And donāt hear me wrong when you donāt hear me say it as emphatically as you want me to say it. I think thereās something else going on here. Listen to me; you canāt pray for someone when thereās animosity and division between the two of you on your part. When you still have that hatred, when you still have that contempt, when you still have whatever it is. Itās very difficult to pray and have that at the same time. When a believer who has hurt another begins to sense the softening of God in his heart and begins to realize the depths to which this person has been through, and that believer begins to pray for this someone, then reconciliation has either occurred or itās on its way to occurring.
The Corinthians had hurt Paul deeply. Donāt ever forget this. This is not a church like Philippi; this is not a church like Thessalonica. This is a different church. This church had bruised and beaten this man. He spends the last four chapters of this whole epistle defending those at Corinth who had questioned him being a true apostle of God. But Paul has been so purified; Paul has been brought to the end of himself. Paul has received the comfort of God, and because of this it has tenderized his heart towards the very people that have hurt him. But can the same be said of them towards him? They donāt even understand what heās been through. This must be factored in to verse 11.
He says, āyou also joining in helping us through your prayers, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed upon us through the prayers of many.ā The phrase, āyou also joining us in helping us through your prayersā is an interesting one. Itās really one Greek word mainly. Itās sunupourgeo. It means to work together up under somebody. And it describes the manner in which you do this. In other words, how can they come up under Paul, how can they help him, how can they undergird him? With prayer, and certainly thatās a beautiful picture of what prayer is. Itās an undergirding. But itās in the present tense. You pray, and you keep on praying. This is the way you can work with me.
But itās the active voice, and this to me is important. Active voice means you do it of your own choice. Donāt let it be because Iām telling you to do it. You see, because of the way the Corinthians had treated Paul, I do not believe Paul is thanking them for praying for him when he was going through his affliction. They could care less except about themselves. Nor do I think heās begging them to pray for him. Thereās nothing that we know in Paulās relationship in the Corinthian believers that would even begin to suggest that.
But I believe what heās saying is that he has greatly suffered and in that suffering, his suffering was for the right reason because he was a believer that let Jesus be Jesus in him. The Corinthians had suffered because of their own self-infliction: they because of their own sin and their own worldliness. Yes, theyād suffered but it wasnāt the right kind. And then Paul says, āI was comforted. In the midst of it, at the point of death, I was comforted.ā And that comfort from the God of all comfort, heās now passing on to the Corinthians. I believe heās saying āThis enrichment that Iām sharing with you, I really want you to see the worth of it. It ought to lead you at least to pray a thanksgiving for what God has done.ā
You see, these sincere prayers would then result in God getting all the glory, and this was the heart of Paul all along. When he writes the hard things to Corinth, he just wants God to get the glory instead of man. And he said, āyou also joining in helping us through your prayers, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed upon us through the prayers of many.ā
Paulās ultimate concern for the Corinthians was that they be rescued from danger, but the right kind; that they come to the place in their life that when they do suffer itās for the right reason. And he said then God can be honored and your prayers will cause many to give thanks for what God has done. Paulās not praying for himself, heās not confined to his own little world. It stretches to the entire world and he wants people to understand where heās been and he wants people to understand what God has done for him. But they canāt understand it if theyāre going to live after their flesh.
I personally believe that beside the danger he faced in Asia, one of the things that burdened him down excessively was the way the Corinthians had treated him. I believe it broke his heart, drove him to the very ends of his self. But Paul makes it clear to the Corinthians that he has given his life to a great and powerful God who supports and comforts him no matter what is going on in his life. But the most beautiful thing that reveals his heart is that now heās letting them know, āI need you. I need you, Corinthians.ā The ball is now in their court because until they begin to live a yielded life they will never even begin to understand the suffering heās talking about and therefore cannot know the comfort he wants them to know.
When the Corinthian believers are joyfully giving thanks to God for His intervention in Paulās life, having understood because of their own experience the depths of suffering heās been through, and when that happened, then Paulās hope had been fully grounded. He knows then that theyāre where they ought to be.
You see the picture of this whole thing is that if weāre suffering and in affliction, letās make sure itās the right kind of suffering. And if itās a disease we face or if itās death we face, listen, we didnāt ask that to come on us. Letās make sure we go through it the right way. And thatās what Paul would say to us today. Because if you will allow yourself to get to the end of yourself, youāre going to see truths that youāve never seen before. Theyāll become more important to you than ever. Youāll see Him as your deliverer. Maybe Heāll rescue from the situation, maybe He wonāt: Heāll take you on to be with Himself. But He is the eternal Deliverer of all and Heāll draw you to Himself in the midst of whatever youāre going through.
I love what Michael Bolton said. He said, āGod is not concerned about our happiness but Heās concerned about our holiness.ā Our relationships, and thatās what Paulās concerned about because thatās Godās heart in him. He wants the Corinthians to get up off their good intentions and start living the way they should be living and stop suffering from the consequences of sin and start suffering for the right reason. And when they get to the end of themselves he wants them to know the same comfort he had because now heās comforting them. Itās being passed on to someone else.
What are you going through today? Whatās facing you today? What affliction is facing you, whether it be persecution or something else? How has what youāre going through driven you to Jesus? How has it purified your heart towards others? How has your hope been restored? How now could you carry a grudge against anyone when youāre in that place? You remember John Mark? Remember Paul and John Mark had a little bit of a problem? John Mark bailed out on him and he came to the point that Paul said he wasnāt taking him with him. Barnabas said, āOh, come on.ā And Paul said, āIām not doing this.ā And there was a rift between Paul and Barnabas. Barnabas took John Mark, Paul took Silas and they separated. I mean, Paul could not take it that a guy would abandon and bail out on him in the midst of difficult times when he needed him. But in 2 Timothy, when heās about to die, he says, āTimothy, come see me, come before winter. Bring my coat because Iām cold and bring my parchment because Iām bored to tears. By the way, bring John Mark. Heās useful to me.ā
Who is it right now that is on your top ten hit list? Who is it? You mark my words: you get to the end of yourself and youāre going to face the Maker. I guarantee you thereās not going to be one bone of contention in your life because suddenly youāll realize that wasnāt worth fooling with. Youāre now seeing whatās real. And, folks we need to get hold of this truth, Iām telling you; because in heaven thereās not going to be anything but relationships. You better deal with them now. And if we wonāt deal with them, God will put you in the fires to burn off that old flesh and heāll bring you in to yourself and Heāll reconcile you with a brother. The pressure will push you to the truth.
[ā¦] Read Part 5 [ā¦]