This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again I will not spare them—since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.—2 Corinthians 13:1-4 

Introduction

Father’s Day is a day devoted to honoring dads. When kids think about their dads, the thing that stands out is their strength. When I was a little boy, I would boast about my dad. My other little friends would join in talking about their dads, and before you knew it these little boys were getting into these big arguments. “I bet my dad could beat up your dad.”

Here is an argument that I never heard: “Oh, yeah? Well, no one is weaker than my dad. He is the weakest of all.” Weakness does not seem like something to brag about. In fact, we tend to think of strength as the absence of weakness. That view of strength has led to many popular proverbs in our day. 

“Nice guys finish last.” Don’t be weak, or you get walked on. “Big boys don’t cry.” Don’t let people see your weakness. “Might makes right.” If you are weak, you get walked on. “Don’t let them see you sweat. Put your best foot forward.” Don’t let people see your weakness. “If you don’t look out for yourself, others will walk all over you.” If you are weak, you get walked on.

These proverbs may appeal to some people, but not if we feel compassion for those who are overpowered and oppressed. These proverbs lose their appeal when we see a tragedy like what happened in Charleston, South Carolina. Nine fellow brothers and sisters from the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church were gunned down. What was the problem here? Was the problem power? No. The problem was the abuse of power. The murderer did not use his power to serve—he used it to slay. The evil, racist heart that has the power is the problem.

Take another look at the weakness and strength on display at that church in South Carolina. The physical bodies of these nine brothers and sisters were weak. Their bodies were not bulletproof, but because of the blood of Jesus, their souls were bulletproof and hell-proof. Those nine slain brothers and sisters are now gathered around the throne worshipping the Lamb who was slain.

Look at the strength on display at that church. A riot would have been a worldly display of strength, but no one has ever looked at a display of strength at a riot and found it compelling. The Christian version of power—resurrection power—is forgiveness. Christians are not impervious to pain, but look at the power of forgiveness. One woman said, “Every fiber of my being hurts, but I forgive you.” An unbeliever who witnessed it found her offer of forgiveness compelling. The promise for Christians is not that we will overpower the world. The promise is that we will overcome the world in the power of Christ.

Power cannot be the problem because God is Almighty. Absolute power cannot corrupt the incorruptible God. We sometimes throw around the word God around, and it shows us that we have a problem that some have called “awe amnesia.” We have lost our jaw-dropping awe when it comes to conceiving of all that God is. For example, God is not just the most powerful being that exists—he is also the most powerful being possible. You cannot imagine something stronger. God is greater than you could ever imagine.

My family sometimes plays a game where characters fight each other. These characters have cards that display their statistics, such as how many spaces they can move. These cards show how powerful the characters are when they attack, which determines how many dice you shake when use them to attack. At one point in the game, you actually shake like twelve dice when you attack with the Hulk. One of the best lines from the first Avengers movie is when the Hulk is about to smash Loki. Loki says that they cannot attack him because he is a god. The Hulk smashes him and says two words: “Puny god.”

One day as I was getting ready to roll my twelve dice and attack, I stopped to think about how many dice God could attack with. I know that sounds like a silly thought, but it brought God’s strength home to me in a deeper way. There are not enough dice in the world. There are not enough numbers in the world. Infinite strength cannot be measured. That helped further define how indefinable and immeasurable and unlimited God is. You can’t measure God. You cannot define his limits. He breaks every scale and every achievement test, and he exceeds every standard imaginable. No one can answer the question, “How strong is God?”

We can say that he is all-powerful, but that can be a lazy answer. We should strain our imagination in terms of unlimited strength, and we should also remember that our finite imaginations are too feeble to fully capture all that God is. We can’t measure how strong God is. You can look at examples of his strength—we can see that God made everything that is out of nothing—but they are only examples of God’s strength. They are not definitions.

The Corinthians prized strength, but they were proudly leaning on their own understanding when it came to understanding God’s strength. God revealed his strength to them through Paul, but many were rejecting it because it did not fit their preconceived notions. They were a little bit like the Roman city of Pompeii. Pompeii was completely destroyed by a volcano. There were warning signs, but the people of Pompeii refused to take them seriously. Paul shouts to the Corinthians now to take the warning signs seriously.

The main point is both striking and simple: Christ’s judgment will come when Paul comes if the Corinthians continue to trust their own understanding. The only way to avert this judgment is to be reconciled to Christ through Paul, who is Christ’s ambassador.

The problem is that the Corinthians looked at Paul’s weaknesses (suffering and poor speaking) and concluded that Christ could not speak through Paul. They assumed that Christ’s power could only be seen in the absence of weakness. The Corinthians needed to reconcile the relationship between power and weakness in their thinking 

Human culture may define power as the absence of weakness, but God defines it differently. The power of God shines best when weakness is present, not when weakness is absent. This passage teaches us that we must also yield to God’s revelation of the cross and resurrection instead of leaning on our own understanding.

1. The Warning of Paul (vv. 1–3)

This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again I will not spare them—since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me.

Paul keeps emphasizing the number of visits. He said it in last week’s passage: “Here for the third time I am ready to come to you” (12:14). Now he says it again in this passage: “This is the third I am coming to you” (v. 1). This time, Paul tells us why he’s emphasizing this. The principle of Deuteronomy 19:15 is guiding him. He has a formal charge against the Corinthian church. They had been rejecting his apostolic authority. They believed that Paul needed to pass their test. The test was whether or not Christ is speaking in Paul. 

Paul visited them twice already. The first visit was his founding visit when he spent about six months among the Corinthians and by the grace of God established the church there. The second visit was a painful visit. Paul was opposed. Rather than fight the opposition, Paul retreated and gave the Corinthians a chance to repent when he sent a tearful letter. The majority of the Corinthians responded with repentance, but some persisted in rebellion. Now Paul is planning a third visit. It will be the third witness. Christ—the judge—has the gavel, and he will render his verdict of judgment against the rebels. The Corinthians are asking for proof that Christ speaks through Paul, and they are going to get more than they bargained for. Christ will provide the proof of his power in judgment.

Paul says that Christ has provided plenty of proof that Paul is an apostle. The very existence of the Corinthian church is the greatest proof. But the Corinthians didn’t like the evidence they saw because they had different criteria. They believed that the proof of divine speaking was eloquence. It was common to regard an eloquent speaker like Cicero as a “god among men.” Wisdom and eloquence together showed a divine stamp of approval. A Sophist named Favorinus gave an address to the Corinthians in which he explained that he was “equipped by the gods for the purpose of speaking” (Favorinus, A. D. 80–150). 

This type of pride in public speaking as performance is profoundly dangerous. Does anyone remember Acts 12:22?

On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. And the people were shouting, ‘The voice of a god, and not of a man!’ Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.”—Acts 12:21–23

God will not give his glory to another.

Now Paul goes right to the real reason for their problems. The Corinthians do not understand weakness. Paul starts by painting them a picture of Christ’s weakness, which will give them a better understanding of Paul’s own weakness.

2. The Weakness of Christ (vv. 3–4)

He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God.

Paul agrees with the Corinthians that Christ is powerful. But he helps them see their foolish contradiction. The Christ they confess as Almighty is a crucified Christ. How can they confess the crucified Christ and fail to see strength in weakness? The risen Christ of power still has the nail-scarred hands of weakness.

Paul says that Christ was crucified not just in weakness but from or out of weakness. Here is what that means: Christ was not simply an almighty being who got caught in a weak situation. He literally became weak. He took on flesh—he now wears human weakness as part of his nature. Paul is emphatic that Christ does not live by his own power. God raised him from the dead. Human weakness and divine power are forever found together perfectly in Jesus.

The problem in Corinth was that the Corinthians had adopted the way the world thinks about weakness. The world believes that weakness and strength are polar opposites, that they cannot coexist. It claims that power is the absence of weakness.

Paul says the opposite: the power of God is present only in weakness. Paul has already made this argument back in 2 Corinthians 12:9–10. God’s strength shines best against the backdrop of human weakness. But Paul’s point here is a big step up in the argument.

It is one thing to argue that God’s strength shines best in human weakness. Paul makes the shocking argument that divine strength shines best in divine weakness. This is like a theological cherry bomb: almighty weakness.

Can you feel the challenge and contradiction this brings to Corinthian culture? Corinth was a city devoted to wisdom and strength. The Corinthians were the proud hosts of the Isthmian games, which alternated with the Olympics. First-century Corinth had marble statues of wrestlers and sprinters, victory plaques, and a mammoth sculpture of Nike (Victoria) with her triumphant wings outstretched. 

Furthermore, the patron saint of the Peloponnese was Hercules. An imposing bronze figure of Hercules would bid the traveler farewell. Hercules performed six of his twelve famous labors in that region. Hercules appeared on many coins and statues, and his temple was located near the center of the city. Hercules was half mortal and half divine. He conquered death not by dying but by bringing back Cerberus, the watchdog of the underworld.

But Jesus went way beyond Hercules. Hercules was half human and half god. Jesus is fully human and fully God. Jesus is purely, perfectly, one-hundred-percent weak human, and he is also purely and perfectly Almighty God. Both natures are joined together perfectly. This union of two complete and perfect natures (sometimes called the hypostatic union) means Jesus can be an almighty baby sleeping in a stable. As God, he never had a beginning, but as a human, he has a birthday. It is too much to take in. 

Perhaps you have heard the age-old question about whether God can create a rock so heavy that he can’t lift it. That question is child’s play in comparison to how an eternal God can come up with a way to die. But God went beyond even that question. How can the eternal God die and not stop being eternal? Does your head hurt yet? It takes infinite wisdom to fully understand almighty weakness. We may not be able to plumb the depths of what all this means, but you should cherish the deep things of God and adore his wisdom and love that decreed these things.

3. The Weakness of Paul (v. 4)

For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.

This verse corrects a faulty idea we often have. We tend to think that we are weak on our own but that with God’s help, we become strong. We imagine that Paul meant that he is weak on his own but strong in Christ.

But Paul says that he is also weak in Christ. Weakness and strength are not sequential (We are weak, and then we are strong). No. That would mean that weakness is present first and then replaced by strength. Paul says that weakness and strength are simultaneous (When we are weak, at that time, we are strong). Weakness and strength are bonded together beautifully. They both happen at the same time. If the Corinthians could not understand the coexistence of weakness and strength, they could not worship the crucified and risen Christ. 

The saving comfort that comes to sinners only comes through the sufferings of Christ. The sustaining comfort that comes to both Paul and the Corinthians only comes through the sufferings of Paul.

Conclusion

Christ Is the Wisdom and Power of God 

Let’s be clear on what we are saying. The world takes one look at the cross and immediately looks away in disgust. We agree that the cross looks weak and foolish at first glance. But there is more to see. First impressions can be deceiving. At first glance, the cross really does look weak and foolish, but the cross is actually the power and wisdom of God. 

Think about it for a moment. The cross does not look like sophisticated wisdom. It’s easy to say, “I see only death and defeat, and you say I am supposed to see life and victory? Foolish!”

But think about this question: how can a perfectly just God justify unjust sinners and remain just? That was the biggest problem in the universe. Through the wrath-satisfying sacrifice of Christ on the cross, God can both be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

The cross does not look like outward displays of forceful strength. It does not look like Jesus overpowered his enemies. It looks like he was overpowered by his enemies. But if you want power, it is found at the cross. Who are our most powerful enemies? Sin, Satan, death, and hell are the most deadly and powerful enemies we face. They are forever problems. Do you see the power of God present in the cross? Jesus was able to defeat our most powerful enemies—sin, Satan, death and hell. They are powerless against him, so they are also powerless against us. There is now therefore no condemnation in Christ Jesus. He vanquished all of our greatest enemies in a victory that looks like defeat.

The way God saves us reveals how fallen we really are. We don’t just do bad things; we are bad. We are not a piece of fruit that has a bad part that can be cut off so the rest can be eaten. We are rotten to the core. Christ came to save us not just from bad decisions—he came to save sinners, sinful people. One of the things profoundly wrong with us is our addiction to power and pride. We needed to be humbled. We needed to see how pitiful our power is.

Imagine that someone thought he was the fastest person alive. He challenged the fastest person to a hundred-yard dash. When the fastest person alive hears this challenge, he doesn’t just want to beat the challenger—he wants to humble him. He shows how ridiculous the comparison actually is. The fastest person runs on one leg and still blows the challenger away.

That is what God shows us in salvation. We try to intellectually rise to God, but God puts the philosophers to shame through the cross. The foolishness of God is wiser than all human wisdom. We try to climb our way up to God with the strength of our moral strivings, but God puts the self-righteous to shame through the cross. The weakness of God is stronger than all humans.

When we try to rise up to God’s level armed only with human abilities, we fall far short. Then we are humbled to find that God had to come down to our level. We find God in the gallows. We find him suffering an excruciating death, and we are forced to confess that we should be the ones dying.

Substitution is ultimately good news, but it is initially crushing news. We share in Christ’s victory only becomes he bears our blame. We have to confess our blame before he can bear our blame. Why does God design salvation that way?

Christ came to save us from our addiction to power and our worship of power. God’s saving power is located exclusively with the crucified Christ. God has shattered human wisdom, power, and honor with the cross. Worship now is a sweetly broken experience because we sing beneath the cross and watch the shards of our idols fly in a hundred different directions.

One of my seminary professors once told me a story about a man that wanted to become a ninja. This man got as far as he could in his training in America, and then he moved to Japan because he had heard that the best trainer in the world lived there. He moved to Japan and wandered around, trying to learn the language as he went, until he found this trainer. Then he trained and trained and trained and trained. When he became satisfied that he had gone as far as he could go in his training, he felt that his quest was complete. So he moved back to America and pursued a corporate job.

As you can imagine, he did quite well because he was very focused and driven. He told one of his friends that he had studied to be a ninja, and this friend told that fact to a few others in the office. One of his coworkers did not believe it. This coworker was a black belt and thought that the man was an imposter. One day, the coworker challenged the man to fight. The man who had trained to be a ninja refused. Every day at noon, the coworker would offer his challenge. Everyday, the man politely refused. So the coworker would challenge him and taunt him to prove that he wasn’t an imposter.

Finally, the man realized that his coworker’s taunting was becoming a distraction at work, so he gave in. They went to the parking lot, and the other employees gathered around them. The coworker rushed the man with a massive flying kick, and the ninja sidestepped the kick and performed a ninja chop to the throat. The coworker crumpled to the floor, and the fight was over—it had lasted a grand total of three seconds.

The moral of this story is that you don’t ask a ninja to prove it. You especially do not ask God to prove his power. There is nothing worse than wrath that is almighty—but there is nothing better than almighty mercy. God asks you to prove his love. You cannot measure his power and love, but you can experience them through the cross of Christ. He proves his love and power there for his people.

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him. / How I’ve proved him over and over. / Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus /Oh for grace to trust him more.

It is so sweet to trust in Jesus. Take him at his word today. He will receive you. He will not cast you out. He will not lose any that come to him. He is a shepherd who will not lose any sheep. No one can snatch his sheep out of his sovereignly strong hand. 

Almighty wrath is coming. Do not look at God’s patience and think it means that he is harmless. I can’t think of a more terrifying mistake to make. The trumpet will sound, and the only hope is to be found in Christ. People will ask the mountains to crush them rather than face the wrath of the Lamb. You don’t have to be hidden from him—by faith you can be hidden in him, dressed in his righteousness alone and faultless to stand before the throne.

Sermon Discussion Questions

Outline: 

1. The Warning of Paul (vv. 1–3)
2. The Weakness of Christ (vv. 3–4)
3. The Weakness of Paul (v. 4)

Main Point: Christ’s judgment will come when Paul comes if the Corinthians continue to trust their own understanding. We must also yield to God’s revelation in the cross and resurrection of Christ and not lean on our own understanding.

Discussion Questions
1. Why was it important for the Corinthians to know that this trip would be Paul’s third visit?

2. In Paul’s day, how did the Corinthian culture define strength? How was the culture’s idea different from what God revealed in Christ?
3. How was Paul’s ministry a reflection of the cross and resurrection of Christ?

Application Questions
1. Is the culture’s definition of strength still the same today as it was among the Corinthians? Where does that understanding of strength show up in your own life or experience? When are you tempted to adopt that understanding? 

2. How does God’s design of salvation crush all the fallen pride of man? What does it mean that Christ “took our place”? How does the gospel bring both devastating news and good news, all at the same time?
3. How can the cross of Christ look foolish and weak at first glance, but upon further reflection be the revelation of the wisdom and power of God?

Prayer Focus
Pray for grace to grow in understanding, experiencing, and reflecting the weakness and power of Christ in the cross and resurrection.