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Extreme Afflictions

2Corinthians: Paul's Most Underappreciated Epistle

Oct 22, 2017


by: Jack Lash Series: 2Corinthians: Paul's Most Underappreciated Epistle | Category: NT books | Scripture: 2 Corinthians 1:8–10
  1. Introduction
    A. Remember that some in the Corinthian church were using the fact that Paul had experienced so many troubles to cast doubt on the authenticity of his apostleship. 
      1. And instead of answering defensively — “I haven’t suffered that much!” or something like that — he begins to positively explain to them God’s purpose for the suffering of His people.   
      2. First, he explained that suffering gives God an opportunity to bestow His comforting grace upon His people.
      3. Second, Paul explained that God uses the suffering He allows and the comfort He then bestows to equip His people for the ministry of giving help and comfort to others who suffer. 
      4. And now in these verses, Paul gives a third reason why God allows His beloved children to suffer.
     B. Read 2Cor.1:8–11  
     C. In this passage Paul is informing the Corinthians about a time of extreme affliction he and his fellows endured in Asia. 
      1. ?We know very little about this trial in Asia. It might be referring to the incident recorded in Acts 19:23-41, though that passage conveys little of the intensity reflected in Paul’s language here. 
       a. ?But if that was the case, why not use the name Ephesus like he did in 1Cor.15:32? 
       b. ?If God had wanted us to know more about Paul’s affliction in Asia, He would have told us. Just like his thorn in the flesh in 2Cor.12:7-9. 
      2. Paul says they were so utterly burdened beyond their strength that they despaired of life itself. 
      3. He says they felt they had received the sentence of death.
      4. How many of you have ever been in a situation where you thought you were going to die? 
       a. That’s the kind of experience we would imagine if we were just told that they felt they had received the sentence of death.
       b. But Paul also says they were burdened beyond their strength. And to me that doesn’t sound like one scary incident. So, instead of trying to speculate about the details of the affliction, let’s focus on the lessons God is teaching here. 
    II. Death is a regular part of life.
     A.  Notice in v.10 the words “deadly peril.” “He delivered us from such a deadly peril.”
      1. But the Greek word here is simply the word for death.
      2. In other words, the Greek here actually says, “He delivered us from such (or so great) a death.”
     B. He uses this language again in 2Corinthians 11:23“...far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and many deaths.” 
     C. Now I am not saying that God resuscitated Paul in Asia as Jesus did Lazarus from the tomb (John 11:17-44). However, Paul recognized that his life involved many “deaths.”
      1. Referring to the same idea, Paul says in his 1st epistle to the Corinthians (15:31), “I die every day.”
      2. In our passage Paul makes clear that daily dying is a normal part of the Christian life by what he says in v.10 “He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us.”
     D. This is how it is for a Christian. We endure weaknesses, insults, hardships, disappointments, failures, losses, persecutions, calamities, afflictions, perplexities, betrayals, sicknesses, set backs — all of which are little deaths. 
     E. All God’s children are called to die everyday. This is what it means to carry our crosses daily and lose our lives for Christ (Lk.9:23-24). We are to die to sin (1Pet.2:24). We are to die to ourselves (Gal.2:20). We are to die to this world, die to pride and selfishness, die to human approval, die to all our earthly securities.
     F. It began with Jesus. He died for us and through His death God brought about salvation and glory. 
     G. Now He calls us to die for Him and for others every day. 
     H. This is the key to resurrection power now and full resurrection on the last day.
      1. "...we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him." (Rom.8:17) 
      2. The cross is the path to the resurrection, for us as it was for Jesus. In order to attain to His resurrection, we must be conformed to His death. In order to live we must die. 
     I. And God is the master engineer who knows just the right deaths we need in our lives.
     J. But, deaths aren’t the end of the story, because God raises the dead.
    III. Learning to trust not in ourselves, but in the God who raises the dead
     A. Sometimes God allows our burdens to get piled up so high that it seems we are going to break under the pressure. It seems like we do not have the strength to hold up under such a heavy load.
      1. But why would God do this? Why would He allow such crushing burdens to be heaped up upon our backs? Does He not care about us? Well, Paul tells us why in the next verse: “so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.”
      2. Our Father in heaven is not an uncaring God. "Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust." (Psalm 103:13-14)  
      3. And yet our compassionate God also wants to teach us to stop trusting in ourselves in order that we might start trusting in Him. And there’s no better way to teach this than to allow troubles to press down upon us until we lose hope in ourselves and cry out to Him. 
       a. We don’t turn to God unless we feel helpless.
     B. Paul and his companions had just stared death in the face and been delivered. Now, reflecting back on the experience, he sees that God did it to teach them to trust not in themselves but in Him. In saying this he refers to God as "God who raises the dead." 
      1. “God, who raises the dead.” What a wonderful way to refer to God! No matter how low things get, no matter how dark and gloomy things seem, there is NEVER a time to lose hope, because our God is "God who raises the dead." 
      2. Life is full of deaths, but no longer do we need to fear them and flee from them and panic in the face of them, because we have a God who raises the dead! It’s one of His specialties! 
      3. Just as He rescued Paul from this "death", so He rescues us today. 
      4. Hasn’t He rescued you from many deaths? Hasn’t He pulled you out of all sorts of scary and dangerous situations? Hasn’t He intervened many times when everything looked bleak?
      5. This isn’t good luck, it’s God. It’s the God who raises the dead. 
     C. And so when we feel the nails & the mocking & the self-sacrifice & the weariness of crucifixion, we must remember that it all comes from a God who loves us and has a good purpose in our lives.
      1. No matter how low things get, no matter how dark and gloomy things seem, there is NEVER a time to lose hope, because our God is "God who raises the dead." 
      2. There is no pit so deep, there is no problem so difficult, there is no monster so scary, that God can’t be trusted in the face of it. 
     D. The death and resurrection of Jesus gave Paul – and give us – a new way to look at our lives, a new paradigm to use to interpret our circumstances. We now see that though we face deaths on a regular basis, these deaths no longer need to intimidate us as they once did, because our God is the God who raises the dead. 
      1. Over and over Jesus had told His disciples that He would be crucified but then resurrected, but the disciples just couldn’t accept it. On the day of the crucifixion, they were shattered. 
      2. Think about how gloomy everything looked on the Friday Christ died. 
      3. He was dead, His body was buried, a big stone covered the entrance to the tomb. It was so final! Everything looked so hopeless. The disciples were huddled in fear and panic. 
     E. And yet behind the scenes, in the secret corridors of heaven, there was being prepared the world’s greatest comeback. Man couldn’t see it — but there are many things man cannot see. 
     F. And Jesus has promised our deliverance as well, but like with the 12, sometimes life looks very grim. Many things in this life pull us down. But even when we have the sentence of death within ourselves, we need not be shattered! We can trust in God who raises the dead. 
      1. "Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea." (Ps.46:2) 
      2. There is no pit so deep, there is no problem so great, there is no monster so scary, that God can’t be trusted in the face of it.
     G. But if the earth didn’t shake, and if everything we touched turned to gold, we’d feel secure where we are! We’d never feel the need to run to Jesus.   
      1. Our loving and compassionate God wants to teach us to stop trusting in ourselves in order that we might start trusting in Him. 
     H. The American dream versus the Christian dream
      1. The American dream is to make a good living and live a happy, comfortable life. 
      2. The Christian dream is to know Jesus and walk with Jesus and rest in Jesus, and learn to be content in plenty and in want, and help others know Jesus and grow in Jesus, and to be welcomed by His warm embrace into our true & eternal home.
      3. Jesus is not the inventor or the protector of the American dream. 
      4. When you signed up to be a Christian, you didn’t sign up for a safe, predictable life. You signed up for an adventure designed to teach you about the exceeding greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
      5. Your life is actually pretty predictable: you will keep dying, and you will keep being raised up — if you love God and are called according to His purpose (Rom.8:28). 
      6. And that’s the life of the church as well. 
     I. Our instinct is to treat suffering as to-be-avoided-at-all-costs. But the Bible tells us to “Count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds.” (James 1:2) Why? Because suffering is fun? No, but because of all the benefits which come from it. 
      1. Suffering brings the comfort of God.
      2. Suffering equips us for ministering comfort to others.
      3. Suffering teaches us to trust in the living God.
     J. When is the last time we thanked God for the hard things He’s allowed in our lives?