Weak Worship
2 Corinthians 12:1-10 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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2 Corinthians 12:1-4 ESV
1 I must go on boasting.
Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions
and revelations of the Lord. 2 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. 3 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— 4 and he heard things that cannot be
told, which man may not utter.
Today marks the first Sunday in February, which marks the
first Sunday in an even-numbered month, which means that today we begin a new
series of sermons from a portion of the New Testament.
And that portion of the New Testament that we will be
working through this month is found in Paul’s second epistle to the
Corinthians, specifically, chapter twelve, verses one through ten.
Now, this passage is a passage that is known by many
churchgoers. And while it is known by a great many, I’m not sure how many
really know the context that surrounds it, Paul’s purpose in sharing it, and
what we are supposed to take away from Paul’s recollection of what he shares.
It is my hope that through what is shared this morning, we
will walk away not feeling as though we finally know what the “third heaven” is
or what “paradise” is, but instead, I hope that we walk away recognizing what
God is truly communicating to us through the recollection of Paul’s
profound experience.
And I believe that this can be accomplished as we first briefly
examine the overall outline of this second epistle to the Corinthians.
Second Corinthians, I believe, can be divided into 4 parts.
The first part is the introduction found in chapter one. The second part
consists of Paul’s defense of the legitimacy of his ministry found in chapters
two through seven. The third part consists of Paul’s appeal to the Corinthians
to be generous as he continues to take up an offering for the saints in
Jerusalem in chapters eight and nine.
And the fourth and final part of the epistle begins in
chapter ten and proceeds to the conclusion of the epistle. And in this
concluding section of the epistle, Paul finally gets around to the main point
of the letter, and that is to show that spiritual power flows through
surprising channels.
There were, at the time in which this epistle was written,
those who had come to the church in Corinth pretending to be apostles of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And because they pretended to be apostles, they then claimed
that their teachings were authoritative and binding, as teachings of an apostle
would be authoritative and binding.
Yet their teachings were contrary to the gospel that Paul
had brought to them, therefore, these false apostles refuted Paul and said that
it was they, but it was Paul who was a false apostle.
And the way that they went about attempting to prove that
Paul was not a real apostle was by saying that Paul was outwardly unimpressive.
They said that though the letter that Paul had written to the
Corinthian church was weighty, still, Paul himself, physically speaking, was
unimpressive. It was said that when he was in the presence of the Corinthians, Paul’s
bodily presence was weak, that his speech was of no account.
They said that if Paul were a legitimate apostle, he would not
seem to be unimpressive in these ways.
Another way that they tried to discredit Paul was by saying
that because Paul preached to the Corinthians and instructed them free of
charge, it signified that he was less than they, who were more than happy to
receive payment for the instruction that they had given.
They said that because Paul had charged nothing for
instructing them, that proved that his instruction itself was worth nothing.
But most of all, these false teachers pointed to the fact
that Paul suffered immensely throughout his ministry. They said that if God had
truly blessed Paul and inspired him, then he would not suffer for the sake of
the gospel, but because he did suffer, it was clear proof that he was a phony.
Indeed, these false apostles had went so far as to even speak
of themselves as “super-apostles”. But Paul says that though they classify
themselves as such and though the Corinthians also classify them as such, the
reality is that they are no real apostles at all, but instead are servants of
Satan, and it is the Corinthians who are being duped.
Then Paul closes chapter eleven by speaking of how,
contrary to the message of the “super-apostles”, real blessedness comes through
weakness.
And he reveals this by speaking of how he had discovered through
his own experience that anytime God would ever bless him; his blessing was
accompanied by a manifestation of his own weakness so that he may ever be
reminded that his blessings come not from himself but from God.
It is this that Paul says he boasts about. He boasts not in
anything of himself but in His God and what He reveals to him, which is then
accompanied by the manifestation of his weakness; abundantly revealing to him
that his blessings come not of himself, but of God.
And because he has been speaking in the close of the previous
chapter about the God-induced revelation of his weaknesses through his
sufferings, he now, in this passage speaks of a grand revelation that God had
given to him which then followed with a revelation of his own weakness and
thus, he begins this chapter by saying:
2 Corinthians 12:1a ESV
1a I must go on boasting.
Paul says that he must “go on boasting”. In order to drive
his point home and put the nail in the coffin on the claims of these false
apostles, Paul gives one last dramatic example of being humbled by God after
experiencing something exceedingly grand.
But though Paul will now proceed to this last grand example,
he confesses in the second half of this first verse that,
2 Corinthians 12:1b ESV
1b Though there is nothing
to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.
When Paul declares here that there is nothing to be gained
by what he is about to reveal, what he means is that unlike his opponents,
those false apostles who gain from their boasting, whether it be financial or
otherwise, he, on the other hand benefits in no way in what he is about to
reveal.
All that concerns Paul is the wellbeing of the Corinthians,
and it is for that reason, not for any personal gain that he will, as our
reading says here, “go on to visions and revelations of the Lord”. Which he
will do by recounting the grandest vision and revelation that he had ever
received.
And as Paul makes his way to this particular boast, he does
so with the greatest humility. We see this in the first part of verse two,
where Paul says:
2 Corinthians 12:2a ESV
2a I know
a man in Christ
Now, when we read this opening, it appears as though Paul
is proceeding to write about an experience that someone who he knows experiences,
something that someone other than he himself experienced.
But in all reality, Paul is talking about himself
here, but the reason why he writes the way that he does here is because he
speaks of this profound experience with great humility.
He doesn’t say, “I did this. And I did that.” But,
addressing himself in the third person, what he clearly indicates is that he
was not the cause of anything that he is about to speak of. It wasn’t by his
power or because of his goodness that he experienced what follows. But rather,
he recognizes that he was a passive participant whom God chose to see,
hear, and experience what follows.
And Paul gives all of the glory for the experience that
will shortly be described to Christ as Paul speaks of himself here by saying
that he knows a man “in Christ”, indicating that he has lost his life in
Christ, living only for Him, and thus, any gracious blessing that he receives
from the hand of God is only because he is “in Christ”. Because Christ died for
him and communicated His righteousness to him.
Indeed, I think that it is quite apparent that this
boasting of Paul is much different than the boasting of the false apostles.
In describing what he was blessed to experience, Paul goes
on to speak of the time frame when this blessing occurred and that location
wherein the blessing took place in the last part of verse two and all of verse
three, where we read of Paul speaking of himself, saying that “this man” was he:
2 Corinthians 12:2b-3 ESV
2b 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. 3 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—
So, the first thing that we see is that this event took
place “fourteen years ago”, likely before Paul had ever written any sacred
scripture. He likely points out this time frame in order to relay that before
he began to write under the inspiration of God, he was already experiencing the
presence of God to a great extent.
But he says that it was on this particular occasion that he
was “caught up to the third heaven”. Now, this “catching up” this, being
“caught up” denotes a forcefulness. A forcefulness which was obviously
accomplished by God. And because it is indicative of a forcefulness, it is also
indicative of the fact that Paul had no say so in this. He put forth zero
effort here, God did it all.
That’s how grace works, it doesn’t come to you and say,
“Well, do you want to or not?” no, it comes and works in the believer apart
from any assistance or cooperation on the believer’s part.
And that place where Paul was caught up and taken to by God
is what he identifies as “the third heaven”.
Now, there have been innumerable interpretations of what
and/or where “the third heaven” is. And there has been a lot of controversy
concerning some of the interpretations that have been given throughout the
centuries, a lot of disagreement, and to be completely honest, a whole lot of
nonsense regarding this.
And I’m not even going to go there, because whether this
“third heaven” means that there are three levels of heaven or whether it simply
means that this is the full manifestation of heaven is pretty irrelevant.
What we do know is that scripturally speaking, the number
three signifies wholeness or completion. So, like I said, whether Paul means
three levels of heaven or the full manifestation of heaven, what we do know is
that he speaks here of being fully in paradise, that direct and sublime
presence of God.
And whether this happened in the body or out of the body,
he says that he does not know and indeed, it is irrelevant to him, God knows,
he doesn’t need to know. What is important is that God was pleased to bring
Paul there to Him, and He graciously done so.
So, we see when and where this extraordinary blessing
occurred, now as we move on to verse four, the final verse in our reading, we
read of what Paul had heard during this most blessed experience, where we read:
2 Corinthians 12:4 ESV
4 and he
heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.
Paul says that as he was there, as he was in the “third
heaven” he “heard things”. What he heard, we of course, don’t know, but hearing
what he heard was obviously significant to him as he is sure to mention it
here.
And what it is that he heard, he says are things “that
cannot be told, which man may not utter”.
Saying that these things cannot be told may indicate that
it is quite impossible to tell what he had heard, that he is literally unable
and incapable of repeating what was said, because he doesn’t know how. But
while we don’t know that for sure, what we do know is that in saying that “man
may not utter” these things which he heard, Paul is saying that it is not
right, proper, or godly for him to utter those things which he had heard.
Indeed, what Paul experienced here was most certainly
beyond extraordinary. But as we think of the language used by Paul in this
account using words such as “caught up” and “heard”, what we see is that in
this remarkable experience that Paul “boasts” of, he rightly recognizes himself
as only the beneficiary and observer.
He wasn’t accomplishing anything; he was only made fit by
God to receive what God was graciously giving him. God was the gracious giver;
Paul was the passive beneficiary. God did not say to Paul “Do this and I will
give you a supernatural, other-worldly encounter” no, God simply gave this
encounter to Paul and even made Paul to receive it.
Assuredly, even in this crescendo-like experience, Paul
doesn’t view himself as special or deserving, but as someone who is weak,
someone who is dependent upon the grace of God for every last thing. And after
experiencing such an amazing reality, more than ever does Paul see how small he
is when compared to God.
And thus, he boasts in his own weakness, because it is in
that state of weakness that he properly apprehends his God, it is in that state
of weakness that he truly worships his God.
Beloved, may God be pleased, through the manifestation of
our weakness, to make us apprehend Him. To make us worship Him!
Amen?
