Bethel Lutheran Church - Pastor Luke Bernthal Thankful for Our -Thorns- ; 2 Corinthians 12: 7 - 10; 2009-07-19 The Bulletin (order of service) Text: 2 Corinthians 12: 7 - 10; Well, have you ever been Thankful for Your “Thorns” in your flesh? What? Why would we ever be thankful for things that make our lives miserable? Apparently the Apostle Paul was thankful for his “thorns.” In our text he speaks about a “thorn” in his flesh which he says “tormented” him (v. 7). And yet he ended our text by saying, “I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties” (v. 10). Was he sick? Was Paul delusional? No! Paul could say these things and even be thankful for his “thorns” because He trusted in Jesus, and in his own words, endured them “for Christ’s sake” (v. 10). Paul’s words in our text are a good example for us to follow to help us, not just endure the “thorns in our flesh” that we encounter in our lives, but also to be thankful for them. Paul could be thankful for the “thorn” in his flesh because he understood the reason why God had allowed it in his life and trusted that God was going to use that “thorn” for his highest good. You see, the apostle Paul was blessed with many spiritual gifts and talents. He was given the ability to speak in tongues, and apparently did so more often than any of the Corinthian Christians (1 Corinthains 14:18). He was quite possibly the most successful Christian missionary in history, and was inspired by God to write 13 books of the New Testament. In the first verses of this chapter Paul recounts how he was also apparently given many “visions” and “revelations” from God, one of which appears to have been a vision of heaven itself (2 Corinthians 12:1-6). Because of these spiritual gifts and revelations from God, Paul may have been tempted to boast and become prideful. God wanted to prevent this from happening, so He allowed Paul to suffer from a “thorn in the flesh.” Now, we don’t know exactly what this affliction was, but it most likely was a physical ailment of some kind. It could have been blindness or some sort of problem with his eyesight. (Remember he was blinded for a time when Christ appeared to Him on the road to Damascus.) Others believe it may have been a chronic illness, or perhaps a speech impediment. Regardless of what this “thorn in the flesh” was exactly, this “disability” kept Paul humble. It helped him realize and recognize his limitations as a man. More importantly this affliction was a constant reminder for him that he was a weak, human being, completely dependant on the grace of God. Paul shows us in our text the first step we are to take when we encounter these “thorns” in our lives: Prayer. Paul writes, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it [this thorn in his flesh] away from me” (v. 8). This ailment was obviously very troubling to Paul. He even calls it “a messenger of Satan, to torment me” (v. 7). No doubt Satan’s use of Paul’s affliction was to try and tempt him to despair, to lose trust in God, and to blame God for allowing this difficulty to come upon Him. God had another purpose for this “thorn” in Paul’s flesh. As He always does God used Satan’s “messenger” for Paul’s good. When Paul heard God’s answer to his prayer (v. 9) he realized that, even though it wasn’t the answer he had been hoping for, it was for his own spiritual and eternal good. Like Jesus, Paul prayed “Thy will be done, Lord” and was content with the Lord’s answer. I’m sure that we have all “pleaded” with the Lord very earnestly for something many times in our lives. Do we always remember to pray, “Thy will be done, Lord” along with it? When we realize that God’s answer to our prayer isn’t the answer we think is best for ourselves, are we content to trust that His answer is best for us? When we are battling our “thorns in the flesh” we should, by all means take it to the Lord in prayer. He is the one who is able to take our burden from us and remove those thorns from our flesh—if He chooses to do so. If His answer to our prayer is like the answer He gave to Paul, we need to trust His good and gracious will for us. We need to rest our restless spirits on the fact that He has a better purpose for allowing things to come our way that we perceive as trials and difficulties. From our text we can see that God allowed Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” to continue for two reasons: 1) to keep him humble, and 2) to cause Him to rely more fully on the sufficiency of His grace. His response to Paul’s prayer was, "My grace is sufficient for you” (v. 9). God’s grace in Christ, the salvation He won for Paul by His death on the cross was more than sufficient to give Paul what he needed in the midst of hard times. In His infinite love, God also indicated to Paul by these words that His gifts of grace, above and beyond the forgiveness and eternal life that he had already been assured of, would, in fact, preserve him and bear him up during whatever trials and difficulties might come his way. This grace, not his own power, is what Paul needed to rely on. In the same way we find our “sufficiency” in God’s grace. In His grace—His undeserved, unearned, and unconditional love—He sent His son Jesus to take away the biggest “thorn in our flesh,” our sins. These thorns were impossible for us to bear and guaranteed our damnation. But Jesus bore our thorns for us, and He bore a crown of thorns of His own in order to crown us with the crown of life and make our “thorns” in this life easy to bear. The assurance of forgiveness that Christ’s death has won for us gives us all we truly need to make it through this life—no matter how difficult it is. And yet our God is so generous and loving that He has also assured us "My grace is sufficient for you,” indicating that He will also supply us with the gifts of grace that we need to overcome the “thorns in our flesh,” whatever they may be. There was one more reason why the Lord allowed Paul’s thorn in the flesh to continue. In God’s response to Paul’s pleading He said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." (v. 9). By enduring the difficulties of his “thorn in the flesh” Paul kept the spotlight off himself and kept it directed on Christ and His power. He says at the end of v. 9, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.” Paul knew that Christ was glorified through his weaknesses, His grace and His strength were made evident, and all the glory was given to Christ. Paul was more than willing to rely completely on Christ’s strength, rather than his own feeble abilities. That is why he was able to state the profound paradox that concludes our text, “For when I am weak, then I am strong” (v. 10). How about us? Are we willing to be “weak” for Jesus? Are we content to rest in His greater strength, give Him the glory for all that He accomplishes through us, and willingly bear the “thorns in our flesh” that He allows to come our way? By God’s strength we can! We can confidently say with Paul “When I am weak, then I am strong!” In other words, “when I am weak” in myself, in my own strength and abilities, “then I am strong” in Christ, relying fully on His grace and His strength. We, like Paul can also “boast all the more gladly about [our] weaknesses” (v. 9) because in them Christ’s strength is displayed, and not our own. Wouldn’t we much rather have His strength working in us and for us? Obviously, yes! So when Satan attacks us with his thorns and aims for our weaknesses we can be confident that God is using these difficulties, trials, and hard times for our good, and that in our weakness is where we find Christ’s strength—our true strength. God has entrusted us with our own individual set of experiences and “thorns in our side,” just like he gave the Apostle Paul. Now, God told Paul the reason for allowing his “thorn” in his flesh. However, many times God doesn’t give us an immediate or clear explanation as to why He has allowed them. Can we still trust in Him even if He never tells us why? Even if it’s something traumatic and unspeakably horrible? WE CAN! We can when we realize that all of our setbacks, difficulties, our hard times—and yes, even our tragedies—are all being worked out for our good and for God’s glory. We can when we hear His word say to us individually “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (v. 9). We can when we realize that our true strength comes from Christ. We can be Thankful for our “Thorns” even “in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties” (v. 10a). We can when we realize what Paul knew and believed, “When we are weak, then we are strong!” (v. 10b). Amen! |