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. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses—though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.—2 Corinthians 12:1–10

Introduction

I had verses 1–10 read for context, but we’re going to spend most our time this morning in verses 7–10. 

I would like for this sermon to serve somewhat as an example of what it might look like to grasp the meaning of a passage of Scripture, apply it to your own life, and then seek to apply it among the next generation. So that’s my outline beginning with the title: Pleased With Weakness for the Sake of Christ (1) In Paul, (2) In Us, and (3) Among the Next Generation.

So we begin with Paul.

1. Pleased With Weakness for the Sake of Christ—In Paul

Not everyone was best pals with Paul. There were people who did not like him or his message. He suffered persecution at the hands of some of these people. And some of them were standing against him saying that there was no way he could be an apostle because he was suffering way too much to be an apostle. Paul’s response to this was to turn up the volume on his suffering. So he lists many of the ways he has suffered in the second half of Chapter 11, and he adjusts the equalizer a bit so it comes in not only loud but very clear. Paul has suffered much.

At the beginning of Chapter 12 Paul tells the story of a man who has had “visions and revelations.” Paul is speaking in third person here, but don’t let that throw you off. You can tell he’s talking about something that happened to him, because just a few verses later, he tells us that he was given a thorn to keep him from becoming conceited about the revelations. Why would he be conceited about someone else’s revelations?

Now, some people in Paul’s day would fast and deprive themselves of sleep so they could work themselves up into visions. Paul did not work himself up into anything. He was “caught up” by the Lord into the “third heaven,” into “paradise.” As I understand it, this is the place of heavenly glory that all believers in Jesus will see one day. And God gave Paul a little taste of it beforehand, like watching a movie trailer before you see the movie. And what Paul experienced there was so disorienting that it took away his own self-awareness. He didn’t even know if he was in the body or out of the body. What he heard there was so awesome that he could not describe it with human words. So, you can understand why Paul might be inclined to get a little prideful about it. Nobody else he knew saw what he saw or heard what he heard. He must be God’s super-mega dude, right?

Super-mega dude? No. Deeply loved by God? Yes! And you are going to see that as we pick things up in verse 7.

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.—2 Corinthians 12:7

So what was that thorn?

Wouldn’t we like to know?! We think if only we knew what particular kind of pain Paul was facing, then we would understand more of what he was going through and be able to relate to him in his particular weakness.

But what if it’s better that we don’t know exactly what particular kind of pain Paul was facing? I think it is better that we don’t know, because that way his weaknesses and his response to his weaknesses can serve as an example to us all, no matter what kind of weakness we may be facing.

So, we are not sure what the thorn was. The word can mean a splinter or a stake. There may be a little of both meanings mixed in here. It could have represented a physical, mental, or emotional ailment. It could have been Paul’s persecutors. I think it’s more likely that it was some kind of physical ailment. But let’s not miss the point of the thorn (pun intended).

Who gave Paul this thorn and why was it given?

He didn’t go out seeking it. No, it was given to him. Paul describes the thorn as a messenger of Satan sent in order to harass him. But he also describes the thorn as being given to him in order to keep him from becoming conceited. So what’s the point of the thorn, harassment or humility? It’s both at the same time!

From one perspective the thorn is a messenger sent by Satan to harass Paul. Satan’s intention was to torment him with this. Whatever the thorn was it somehow pierced Paul and produced pain and affliction of some kind. It was debilitating for him and it caused his work in the gospel to be more arduous, more laborious because he had to deal with this thing, day in and day out. And he wished that he could just get around it or through to the other side of it, somehow.

From another perspective the thorn is a tool in God’s hands to keep Paul from becoming conceited. Look at the verse and you can see this purpose for the thorn wrapped around Satan’s purpose to harass Paul. And it would be just like a messenger of Satan to come in and twist the visions and pervert Paul’s thoughts about himself and leave him as a debilitated, prideful man. That’s how we know that this other purpose, the one wrapped around the harassment, is from God. God is so merciful that he did not want Paul to be puffed up so he gave Satan some leash to hurt Paul (like he did with Job and Joseph in the Old Testament), knowing and intending for the pain to keep Paul from conceit and to make him humble. 

The Helicopter View

Imagine you are working your way through a wooded area and you run upon some thick brush. You are able to keep going for a while but then stumble headlong into a patch of thorn bushes, you get so stuck and it’s so painful, and the thorny brush is so thick and so expansive, that your only way out is to get on your knees and crawl back through the way you fell in, wounded and weary.

This is frustrating to you because you are an adventurer. You thought you would finally make it through to the other side of the forest you had explored so many times. But not this time. 

Later you are able to take a helicopter ride and fly over the very area where you stumbled upon the thorns. You are horrified to find out that only a few feet beyond where you were stuck in the thorns is a cliff—a drop off of about 200 feet where you would surely have plunged to your doom if only you had been able to get through those thorns to the other side.

You look down at your bandages and scars from the thorny brush and for the first time tears of thankfulness well up in your eyes. You now see what you could not see before. Those thorns that caused you so much pain ultimately saved your life.

Isn’t this little picture like the Christian life?

Friends, we do not have the helicopter view. We often cannot see what our thorns are doing for us. We feel the pain. We get frustrated, even angry. We try to avoid the thorns, get around the thorns, get out of the thorns, get through to the other side of the thorns. But do we see what the thorns might be producing in our lives? Maybe they are keeping us from falling off a cliff of conceit and pride.

How did Paul and Jesus respond to Paul’s thorn?

Paul is a human being just like us. So he probably didn’t understand God’s purpose in the thorn right away, so he prayed. 

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.—2 Corinthians 12:8–9

I think these times of pleading with the Lord were three separate events, maybe with some time in between, when Paul poured out his heart to God. We weren’t there so we can’t know for sure, but can’t you imagine what Paul’s prayer may have been like? “God please come and help me. Take this nasty thing from me. Couldn’t I serve you better without it? Raise me up again, and I will be more effective in my ministry of the gospel. Oh, God please make it go away.” 

Jesus answers Paul’s prayers, but not with what Paul was praying for. Jesus essentially says, “No, Paul, I’ve got something better for you.” He says, “My grace is sufficient for you.” In other words, when you have my grace, you need nothing else. And here it is for you, Paul. Your weakness is a window to my power, because my power is made perfect in your weakness. It is brought to completion in your weakness. My power comes to its fullest measure in you in your weakness.

This is so counter-intuitive to us. We go to the gym to get strong. We run one more lap so we can gain endurance. We practice our musical instruments to be getter. Practice makes perfect, right? My percussion instructor used to say, “Perfect practice makes perfect,” as if perfect practice could actually be achieved.

Most people don’t have a problem trying to be strong. We want to be strong and healthy and well-abled people. It is part of the human condition to want to be happy, healthy, and hindrance free. We don’t like weakness. We don’t like it in ourselves, and truth be told, we don’t really like it in others. Weakness, to many people, is something to be fought against, prayed against, rebuked and driven out. 

How did Paul respond to this thorn that remained lodged in his life? He asked Jesus to take it away, which is a very good thing to do. And yet, Jesus came to him instead of the healing. After he heard the words of Jesus and what Jesus was doing in him through the thorn, Paul said something that our “Do it Yourself” American culture would think is off-the-charts ridiculous.

Paul’s not just okay with weakness or ready to endure weakness. He is actually pumped up about it! He is not only pumped to keep boasting about his weakness, he is actually really happy about it. It’s like a boasting-in-weakness sundae with a cherry on top. Man, Christians must be one peculiar kind of people. Exactly, because Paul understood Jesus’ words and they sank deep into his heart. He could boast of weakness like a crazy man for the purpose of Christ’s power resting on him.

Jesus is Paul’s aim in life. So when he is blown away by this truth that Jesus brings him he is a happy man. Still hurting, but happy. Verse 10 says:

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

This word for content here means “well pleased.” It is the same word used when God the Father says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” So Paul is well pleased with weaknesses. And not only that, but he broadens it out to include other forms of hurtful things. Why? Because when he is weak (in himself), then he is strong (in the strength God supplies). And the strength God supplies here is the power of Christ. And when the power of Christ shows up on the scene, Paul is helped to proclaim the gospel; the gospel saves Jews and Gentiles, and it can be clearly seen that the power is certainly not coming from this weak man named Paul. Then Jesus gets the glory. That’s why he says here, “For the sake of Christ, I am well pleased with weaknesses” and all the rest.

Philippians 3:7–11 helps fills out the meaning of this phrase, “for the sake of Christ.” You don’t have to turn there. You can just listen. Paul says to the believers:

Whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

When Paul calculated the sum total of all other things in his life, Jesus was better than all of it put together. Other things were less than nothing in comparison. Gaining Jesus, being found in Jesus, knowing Jesus and the power of his resurrection satisfies Paul to the core. Any form of human suffering is bearable, even honorable, if it will give Paul more of Christ and spread the fame of Christ.

That is why Paul can be well pleased with weakness in 2 Corinthians 12. Not because he loves weakness by itself. But because he loves what weakness brings him, which is more of Christ, and more glory to Christ. So Paul reaches his aim, which is Jesus.

This is a blood-bought reality. Just one chapter later, in 2 Corinthians 13:4, Paul reminds us that Christ “was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God.” And he goes on to say, “For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.” Here you have the evil purpose of Satan crucifying Christ on the cross in human weakness. And you also have the redemptive purpose of God as Jesus bears the sins of all those who will trust in him, rises again, and lives to tell about it in each one of our lives as we trust in him. 

2. Pleased With Weakness for the Sake of Christ—In Us

So what’s your weakness? What health problem or persecution or affliction are you facing? Have you followed Paul’s example and come to know Christ’s power?

We’ll come back to that question, but first let me share a story with you. I went back and forth about whether or not I would share this, because I didn’t want this to be about me. But a friend of mine reminded me that it is not a story about me. It’s about Jesus, so here I go.

My Weakness

Within the last 10 years I have had three anxiety attacks. I shared this story last fall with our MOMS group, so I know that some of you have had the same kind of thing happen to you. When the anxiety attack was happening, especially with the last two, it literally felt like I was going to die. Classic symptoms are heart palpitations or a racing heartbeat, shortness of breath or hyperventilation, a cold sweat or a hot sweat, the shakes or tremors, gastro-intestinal issues, scattered thoughts or very unclear thinking, feeling like you’re going to faint or that the world is closing in around you, and the one I hate most: thoughts of impending doom (like something horrible and unavoidable is going to happen to you or to someone you love). And then there is the aftermath of waking up in the middle of the night with similar symptoms for weeks or even months after the main attack, or feelings like you might have another attack just around the corner. 

But Jesus has met me in this thorn, in the watches of the night when all I could do was say or think his name. He’s also helped me in some very practical ways: to see that I need more sleep, more exercise and less caffeine. He has led me to repent of sins that may have been causing anxiety and sins within the anxiety itself. He has communed with me in the Psalms and in classic Scriptures on anxiety and fear and God’s presence and help (like Philippians 4:6–7, Isaiah 41:10). He’s helped me murmur some of these Scriptures under my breath in prayer throughout the day to try to replace the anxiousness. He’s led me to good books and good counsel. He’s given me my precious wife and friends to encourage me and hold me accountable. He’s allowed me to continue in ministry while all this was going on. And with it he has given me greater sensitivity to the weaknesses of others, and even a deeper love for them and understanding of their situations. What a gift! In all of this the grace-power of Christ has been flowing to me in various forms. It is so good, and I praise God for it!

This weakness in my life has greatly harassed me. I am not having anxiety attacks every day, but I would say there is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about this issue and have to deal with it in some form. 

It is a fight to keep a right attitude about it, but Jesus is with me. And God has used this harassment to humble me and reveal my subtle pride in my health and strength to do whatever I want to do, whenever I want to do it. Whenever we think that way it is an illusion. The truth is we are always dependent creatures on a Loving Creator. What I need so much more than health or anything else is Jesus and his grace-power.

I have prayed and asked God to take this thorn away, and as of yet, he has not. But one thing he has done is give me more of himself. I can truly say I hate the tendency toward anxiety, by itself. I’ll be glad for the day Jesus takes it away forever. And that day is coming! It’s coming for you too! But it is not here yet. So until that day, I will keep praying that God will take it from me, and whether he does or not, I am getting to the point where I can say, “I am well pleased with this weakness, for the sake of Christ.” Because when I am weak in myself, he is strong in me. I get more of Jesus and he gets more glory.

Your Weakness

So I ask you again: What’s your weakness? What health problem or persecution or affliction are you facing?

I believe there are dangers here. Have you ever heard of using the idea of “two ditches” to explain something? I know you have because Pastor Jason uses it a lot, and it’s helpful! Well, there are two ditches I want us to be aware of here.

The first ditch is apathy. This is where we develop a kind of bottom-feeder acceptance of our weakness. It’s what I call an Eeyore complex or Puddleglum complex. “Oh bother, why bother even getting up today. I may as well give up before I begin. That way there’s no disappointment from failing.” When this happens we have given up and settled into bed with the weakness and pulled the covers over our heads. In the rest of our lives we might appear to be prayerful, fervent, faithful and fruitful Christians, but not in this part. We have given up and allowed the weakness to only harass us, and not truly humble us. (I know some of you are struggling with clinical depression or anxiety. I am not talking about that here. That would be a topic for another day.)

The second ditch is over-realized eschatology. That means that a person expects all of heaven’s joys and glory and healing to be experienced in full right now. Revelation 21 tells us of a day when we will experience complete healing forever. Christ has given us that blessing, but it is not here yet. “Your best life now” and word of faith teaching is unbiblical bologna. If you buy it and swallow it, it may go down like Turkish Delight, but it will come back up and make you spiritually sick. Then when you or someone you love is faced with illness or disease or some other form of weakness, your best defense will be to rebuke it, tell it to go away, and claim healing. But in his sovereign goodness, God might not take it away. And then what? How does “your best life now” or any name-it-and-claim-it theology help you? It doesn’t. It leaves you spiritually sick. So now you are not only physically sick but also spiritually sick.

Either one of these ditches can result in shaking a fist at God and saying, “Why have you left me here?” But that is not the way Paul is teaching us here. And he endured more suffering than most of us will ever face. He doesn’t give us a formula for facing weakness (follow these 3 steps and everything will be fine). But he does give us an example to follow: He prays, he listens to his Savior and embraces his words by his grace, and he is well pleased with weakness for the sake of Christ.

So in your weakness, have you travailed in prayer for God to take it away? Don’t give up. He may yet do that. God might want to show you the power of Jesus in healing you of that thing or taking it away somehow. So maybe you should come for prayer this morning or with the elders sometime soon. (And, by the way, a sermon on healing needs to be preached, but that was not today’s sermon.) Today’s sermon is about what to do when you pray for God to heal you of a weakness and Jesus gives you himself and his grace-power in the weakness instead.

In your weakness, and while you have waited on the Lord in prayer, has God chosen not to take it away? Listen to the words of your Savior. Paul wrote them down not just for his sake and for the Corinthians, but for you and for me. Jesus says to us, “My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Many of you know this better than I do. Jesus says to you, “You have my grace and you need nothing more, because my power is perfected in your weakness.”

So ponder the ways Jesus has shown up with his all-sufficient grace-power in your weakness. Recount them. Give thanks and ask for more grace. And what if all you can do in the watches of the night is read just a few words from Psalm 63 and meditate on them? What if all you feel you can do right now is breathe while you are flat on your back and maybe say or think the name of Jesus or “Jesus, help?” Remember that any inclination toward Jesus is his power at work. Even that breath you just took is made possible by grace. If Jesus is with you, and his grace is flowing to you, then you need nothing more. If your aim is more of Jesus, then you can be well pleased in weakness.

So what might this look like among the next generation, with our kids and grandkids, or serving with children in our church?

3. Pleased With Weakness for the Sake of Christ—Among the Next Generation

Let’s start with the home. How might we shepherd the hearts of our children by this passage?

In the Home

This may be obvious, but before we try to teach this truth our children we need to submit our own lives to it. That doesn’t mean you have to live it out for 10 years before you teach it. This can happen in a day or an hour. We hear this passage preached. We go home and look at it again. We pray through a weakness we are experiencing and ask for healing. If it comes, we praise God for it with our kids. If it does not come, we hear the Savior say, “Thy strength indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and pray. Find in me your all in all.” We embrace that truth and please ourselves in our weakness as we turn the truth over and over in our minds and begin to love Jesus more than freedom from our ailments. Then we go out of our closets and find that one of our children has a fever. So we stop to pray with him, something like this: 

Lord God, I thank you for my precious son/daughter. We know that you are a God who gives good gifts to your children. Jesus, your blood purchased our healing on the cross. Please give my son/daughter the good gift of healing from this fever. And Lord, while we wait on you for healing, help our hearts to trust in you and in your grace to carry us and help us through. We ask you to use this sickness to draw us closer to you. Give us more of you and glorify your name in our weakness, Lord Jesus, we ask in Jesus’ name.

Then, as we sit down for Bible time or go for a walk or we are on the way to baseball or dance class or piano lessons, we ask God to make us aware of opportunities to remind our children or grandchildren of finding pleasure in our weaknesses because it makes Jesus look really good when he shows his power in our weakness and we are at peace and pleased in that.

In the Church

I have watched many of you, married and single, with and without children do this kind of thing in our classrooms and at retreats and camps, and it has been beautiful. Many of you have welcomed weakness in the form of serving children with disabilities and special needs, and that has been beautiful.

But sometimes we feel like we have to be spiritual super heroes to serve in children’s ministry. It’s as if we feel like we have to achieve a level of greatness in our spiritual lives before we can jump in and serve with the kids. I can understand this. We have an application process, we run a background check, we check references, we have a personal interview, and we have training and beefy curriculum. That’s a lot, because we love these kids and care deeply for their physical and spiritual well-being. But these standards do not mean we don’t accept people with weaknesses in the ministry.

In fact, some of the most powerful times I have experienced in classroom ministry have been when people like you have put Jesus on display for the children in your weaknesses—struggling with severe arthritis or some kind of physical disability, emotionally spent while your parents are dying, in utter heart-break because your own children are walking away from the Lord, or having been verbally beat up at work because of your Christian faith. You walk in having walked through the dregs, and now you have a countenance of pleasure in your weakness because Jesus has met you there and has shown up in power. You shine with the countenance of Jesus in a way that is deeper and fuller and richer than it ever would have been without that affliction.

So let me officially say that we want to roll out the welcome mat to weakness in our church. If you feel weak and you hear your Savior say, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,” there is a place for you to serve in our church. I want my kids to grow up rubbing shoulders with the grace of Jesus that rests upon you.

Closing

As we close I want us to sing one of our favorite hymns here at Bethlehem, “It Is Well,” because I believe it outlines 2 Corinthians 12:7–10. We’re going to sing, “Whatever my lot” (whether peace or a thorn), “Thou hast taught me” (your grace is what I need), “To say it is well with my soul” (I am well pleased with weakness for the sake of Christ).

Oh, dear friends, Christ has regarded your helpless estate and has shed his own blood and risen again and ascended on high for your soul. One day you’re going to see him. And when you do, every thorn of this life will be wiped away, along with every tear. Receive the all-sufficient grace of Jesus. Let’s pray.