Transcript

Separation From Self-Part One

2 Corinthians 11:8-11
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Pastor Randy Smith

It's hard not to get sucked in. Biblically speaking it is a constant pull all humans gravitate toward. Even among Christians, it can become a black hole, a vortex that draws you ever deeper into its clutch. Most people are so absorbed that they have no clue as to how deeply they are immersed. Add to this intrinsic pull of our fallen hearts, the knowledge of a fallen culture that promotes, fosters and rewards this behavior.

What I am talking about is an unhealthy consumption of self. Society admires and aspires to the red carpet treatment. It justifies crime and wasteful spending and divorce and laziness and drug use. The schools teach it in their self-love and self-esteem doctrines. The songs boldly proclaim it as noted in the popular song by Bratz entitled, "It's all about me." Social media though not evil in itself has become a masterful tool to broadcast self. Self-absorption, narcissism, people who think they are exceptional, and they're waiting for the rest of the world to figure it out.

Even professing Christians are blind and greatly deceived in this area. They may claim Christ, but the world really revolves around themselves with Jesus tacked on for good measure. Little do they sadly realize that coming to Christ means a death to self (something about losing your life so you can find it - right?) and new allegiance to love and serve Him. It's not all about me. Being a Christian means freedom and deliverance from self, so it can be all about Christ.

Last week we saw Paul's understanding of this thought in 2 Corinthians. In a letter saturated with pain and heartache, the apostle surprisingly began his manifesto on biblical suffering in verse 3 not with self but with praising "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Think about it. Called specifically by God as an apostle to take God's message around the ancient world. Yet in his service to Christ, Christ would permit the man to experience extraordinary suffering. If anybody could have felt sorry for himself, if anybody had a right to be angry with God, if anybody could have thrown in the towel it would have been Paul. Yet Paul persevered because, as we learned last week in verses 3-7, his focus was not on himself but on God. Remember the progression? While suffering he experienced a comfort from God that outdistanced his suffering. He then rejoiced that he was able to comfort the church with the comfort which he himself received from God.

You see, the suffering made him tender and empathetic to the pain of others. And the wisdom he gleaned in the schoolroom of pain was now available to pass on to others. Others before self - didn't Jesus teach us that? And when we process in this way, trusting God and desiring to be used by Him as a tool of His grace to others, does it not show we are acting differently than the world? Does it not reveal a transforming power that comes down from above? Does it not, as Paul expressed in verse 3 bring glory to God that He can change a selfish heart?

But here is then the big question. How does God take souls that naturally beat for themselves, break them of that love affair, and get them to naturally beat for Him which will result in God's glory and for those souls true strength and purpose and freedom and peace and joy!

James Denny in the late eighteen hundreds said, "It is natural…for us to trust in ourselves. It is so natural, and so confirmed by the habits of a lifetime, that no ordinary difficulties or perplexities avail to break us of it. It takes all God can do to root up our self-confidence. He must reduce us to despair; He must bring us to such an extremity that the one voice we have in our hearts, the one voice that cries to us wherever we look round for help, is death, death, death. It is out of this despair that the superhuman hope is born. It is out of this abject helplessness that the soul learns to look up with new trust to God… How do most of us attain to any faith in Providence? Is it not by proving, through numberless experiments, that it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps? Is it not by coming, again and again, to the limit of our resources, and being compelled to feel that unless there is a wisdom and a love at work on our behalf, immeasurably wiser and more benign than our own, life is a moral chaos?... Only desperation opens our eyes to God's love."

The apostle Paul put it like this when he concluded 2 Corinthians, "And [God] has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

In today's lesson you will understand that God has a purpose in the pain. We will see that His plan is to forever break us of our self-reliance and self-dependence so that we might not depend on our feeble resources, but on the very One that supplies us with true power, so we might have all we need to be truly fulfilled in Him.

1. God's Person (1:8-9a)

Let's start off in our first of three points with "God's Person."

As I've said before 2 Corinthians was written by Paul to basically defend his character and qualifications. It wasn't for his sake that he defended himself. It was for the sake of the church and the Gospel because as an apostle Paul spoke on behalf of God. Therefore to ignore Paul as his critics desired was to ignore the very words of God.

So the false teachers were all over Paul in an effort to discredit his work. And one of their primary attacks on him was the fact that he suffered too much. They claimed that God would never permit one of His choice servants to suffer to such a degree.

As we learned last week and already reviewed this morning, Paul took this critique and turned it around. He explained that suffering is part of God's plan, used by God for good purposes and is often an indication of those who have committed themselves most fully to Christ. Far from shying away from his suffering, Paul took his suffering in verses 3-7 (as we learned last week) and went on to say how his suffering gave birth to his affectionate love for the church. Rather than disqualifying him, suffering confirmed and enhanced his spiritual leadership.

Now in verse 8 Paul shares with the church an example of what he's talking about. He says, "For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia."

The Bible chronicles the emotional and physical tribulation of Paul, but for some reason Paul specifically chose to call attention to this one particular trial. Everybody wants to know what it was. Some argue that it was the riots in Ephesus (which was a major city in Asia) mentioned of in Acts 19. Some claim it refers to Paul's comments in 1 Corinthians when he said he "fought with wild beasts at Ephesus" (1 Cor. 15:32). Personally I think Paul was speaking figuratively there. In 1 Corinthians 16:9 he speaks of "many adversaries" in Ephesus. Was it that? Some insist it was a life threatening illness; perhaps the infamous "thorn in the flesh" Paul spoke about in this letter (2 Cor. 12:7). The truth is we don't know. It seems the Corinthians knew and Paul was only seeking to draw attention to the severity of the trial and what God did in his heart as a result of the trial.

How bad was the trial? Paul spoke with three powerful clauses to express the weightiness of the burden.

First, still in verse 8, "that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength." In the original Greek those words were used to describe an overloaded ship riding low in the water or a pack animal weighed down by a heavy load. That gives us a good picture of what Paul's getting at. It is the kind of trial where the weight of it is just pulling you down. The simple things in life become a monumental chore. Eating, sleeping, thinking is all made difficult as influenced by this raging storm within. The weight just seems to increase upon this heavy load that is already pulling you under. We are talking about intense emotional anguish that drains us of all vitality.

Second, the end of verse 8 Paul says, "so that we despaired even of life." You get to the point where the simple pleasures of life are completely lost. No desire to leave the house. No appetite for good food. No laughs with friends. You become an empty shell just going through the motions with a fake smile plastered on your face in an attempt to hide the bleeding heart deep within. You know the Bible speaks candidly of Job's suffering. Like Paul, he also despaired of life. "Let the day perish on which I was to be born, and the night which said, 'A boy is conceived'" (Job. 3:3). There seems to be no hope and no way of escape and therefore no joy in living.

Third, in verse 9 Paul laments, "Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves." Some claim this was an official sentence of death passed on Paul by the authorities whereby Paul believed he was awaiting his execution. If this were the case, I believe the pain Paul experienced was the despair of not being able to fulfill his ministry (in contrast to the peace experienced in 2 Tim. 4:6-8).

Others claim this is the sentence of death that Paul passed on himself. In other words, though Paul would never commit the selfish act of suicide, the pain was so penetrating that life felt like death, and death in many ways seemed preferable. If this were the case, we can only imagine what made this trial any more severe than the other trials he experienced.

What do I draw from this? One, suffering is not always a result of personal sin or a lack of faith. Suffering is permitted by God even to the most righteous and most dedicated in their service to Christ. Two, there are no doubt hurting people in the church like Paul, and some of those hurting people are right here among us. They are presently going through pain beyond anything we can imagine whereby they can sadly identify with the apostle's words. Are they receiving the comfort as we learned last week from God's people? That's a call for all of us to exercise patience and compassion. Three, I need an answer to how I can balance the clinical depression that Paul spoke about with his words that command us to "rejoice always" (Phil. 4:4) and "be anxious for nothing" (Phil. 4:6). Was Paul in sin during this depression? Is it possible to be deeply saddened and still at peace? How could Paul be abiding in Christ and still despair of life? Four, though God does not owe this answer to me (i.e. Job), I'd love to know why He permitted this pain in Paul's life. And if there is a reason, what good can possibly come from it?

2. God's Purpose (1:9b-10)

That takes us to our second point where that last question is answered, "God's Purpose." We dare not glorify suffering in and of itself. But through the suffering, we learn God produces incredible results if we keep ourselves by His grace committed to Him in the midst of it.

As I mentioned in the sermon introduction, there is a hideous barrier that separates us from the deepest blessings in life that can only be unlocked through a rich relationship with the living God. That barrier separating us from the living God is our constant love affair with ourselves.

What we fail to understand is that our desire for happiness is not bad. It's only insufficiently filled in and of ourselves. Our ambition is not bad, but it enslaves when we use it to further glory for ourselves. Our fulfillment comes not in the personal declaration of independence, but rather through a humble submission of dependence on God. True joy, deeper peace, unrivaled freedom, don't you want that? And don't you think it will bring our Great Shepherd the greatest glory when His sheep are content, finding their greatest satisfaction in Him?

So why the suffering? Here is the answer. Paul tells us half way through verse 9. "So that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead." Implication of what Paul learned: We are hardwired to trust in ourselves. That's not good for us or the God-glorifying purpose for which God created us. Therefore, suffering is used to break us of self whereby we might trust more deeply in God. So God's intent in suffering is not to pull us away from Him as many people seem to believe, but rather draw us closer to Him. And the more He strips us during affliction of our human resources and excuses and justifications and easy way outs, the more we will run to Him and cling to Him as the only thing we've got.

Let's get it straight here. God does not seek to destroy His people. The only thing God destroyed in Paul was Paul's self-confidence. And what did Paul get in return? He lost self and received the fullness of the living God! Paul learned that God is all he really needed. And I think we'd all admit that we need to get to the end of ourselves before this abandonment of self and unequivocal trust in God really settles in.

We might desire to have the God who removes all pain and gives us everything we want. But is that what we really need? We're like the ignorant three-year-old that argues with mom because she can't have ice cream instead of vegetables every night on her dinner plate. We are no different - the finite telling the Infinite what is best for us! So as that three-year-old needs to trust her parent, we need to trust our loving heavenly Father who makes wise decisions for our lives and desires nothing but our very best, and as Paul says in verse 9, nothing gets us to trust more than affliction.

Sam Storms commented, "The 'in order that' of verse 9 forever dispels the idea that troubles, afflictions, pain and trial are somehow outside the sovereign purposes of God. There is always design in our distress. God so values our trust in Him alone that He will graciously take away everything else in the world that we might be tempted to rely on: even life itself if necessary. His desire is that we grow deeper and stronger in our confidence that He Himself is all we need" (God's Design in Our Distress, Internet Post).

John Piper put it like this, "God's first great design in all our trouble is that we might let go of self-confidence. When we do that, there is a temporary sense of falling. But by faith in God's mercy, we land, infinitely more secure, in the arms of our Father, who is utterly in control at the brink of life and death" (Brothers We are Not Professionals, p. 141).

We come to conclude with the Psalmist in Scripture, "Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (Psm. 73:25-26).

Did Paul learn God's lesson? I think so because by the time he penned chapter 4 of this epistle he said, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh" (2 Cor. 4:7-11).

Did the suffering consume Paul, or did he rise above his situation? I think the latter because by the time he penned chapter 6 of this epistle he rightly balanced the pain that was real and the joy that transcended. He said he was "sorrowful yet always rejoicing" (2 Cor. 6:10). I take that to mean that the power of our God in His grace is effective to provide a deep abiding joy in the worst of circumstances. God's grace doesn't just take off the edge. God's grace doesn't reach a limit. God's grace always abounds to the need. God's grace is, as Paul penned in chapter 12, always "sufficient for you" (2 Cor. 12:9). Why? Because as we see right here at the end of verse 9, chapter 1 is the fact that at our disposal is resurrection power.

We will talk more about that next week when we finish the remainder of this sermon. But as we wrap things up, does the working of God in the midst of suffering make a little more sense to you? Does it give you hope?

You know when I was a school teacher I spent my summers first lifeguarding and then managing a massive rock quarry converted to swimming facility in Naperville, Illinois. The deep end was fifteen feet, and since the water was not filtered and the bottom surface of sandstone was a light brown, pale in color, it was virtually impossible to detect a body once someone went under. Frequently we'd conduct rigorous guard drills. And when you do guard drills, you need mock drowning victims. To the chagrin of the lifeguards, I would always volunteer myself. I reasoned, if they can save me, they can save anybody!

The guards would all take their stations and I and a couple others would enter the water. They didn't know who they'd have to save, or the staged situation that was about to unfold. When it was my turn to be the victim, I would ask the head lifeguard which lifeguard was the cockiest and displayed the most arrogance. That person would then be offered my services. They'd often be humbled in a matter a minutes.

Eventually the guards got smart. Instead of trying to be the hero and take me in single-handed as I resisted with all my might, they would tag-team. They would do just enough to reserve their energy while I expended all of mine. When the point came when I could no longer resist, they found it much easier to subdue my will to their control and carry me in.

As humans, we are all filled with pride. In His love, God too goes after us individually to teach us humility. And when we get to that point like Paul, when there is no energy or hope in saving ourselves, when all our human resources are depleted and abandoned, only then is He able to subdue our stubborn wills and graciously take us to a place of safety.