Christ life & ministry glories only in the Lord - not in the...
2 Cor: 11:23-27 · Roger Henderson · Nov 12, 2017
2 Corinthians (2017), No. 43
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261727121205

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Some of those incredible things about Paul and his ministry is just beyond, you know, beyond the comprehension of what he endured during his his ministry. OK, so let's go. So I, I borrowed an outline from Chester Macaulay. This is just the last part of this chapter. So first of all, he kind of titles 16 through 21. explanation of Paul's boasting. And actually what we're going to talk about today is actually some of the items of Paul's boasting. There's really two categories.

There's external ones, what he endured and suffered externally, you know, hunger, hardship, beatings, and so on. And then next week, Randy is going to cover basically the internal hardships. There's only a couple of verses about that. Internal hardships are where his care for the churches, his concern for the brethren in each of the churches, Corinth certainly. Look how much time he spent with the Corinthian church. It's recorded in both the two books we have.

And then lastly, the uniqueness of Paul's boasting. What's interesting is that we think of boasting If a person is going to boast, typically they're going to boast, let's say you're an athlete, you're going to tell them about how many touchdowns you made and how many field goals you kicked or whatever it is. But Paul's going to boast. I'll give you an example. He would boast in how many injuries he had or interceptions.

Well, not even though interceptions will be a plot positive because I mean, you get an interception. Well, yeah, yeah, that's true. He's supposed to be thankful. Wait a minute. I'm going to count up a number of times. I was in jail. I was hungry. He just goes on. That's boasting. Well, wait a minute, that seems all strange.

That's the boasting that Paul struggled with. Even to mention that, he struggled with that. Actually, I kind of came across a verse, I listened to Chester McCullough, that's kind of interesting, that kind of helps in putting Paul's boasting in perspective. So we're going to see Paul's boasting today.

He finally, as someone has said, he finally, he's agonized, most of chapter 11, about boasting. Now he's finally going to do it. He's finally going to open his mouth and here's what the Lord has caused me to suffer in my weakness. The trials he had to go through.

Exactly. Oh my goodness. Just incredible. Could someone read 2 Corinthians 21-27? That would be great if someone could read that, 21 through 27. They come in the middle of an idea there. I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Albeit, wheresoever any is bold, I speak foolishly, I am bold also. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. Are they ministers of Christ?

I speak as a fool. I am more, in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I have been in the deep, in journeyings often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. That kind of stops there. That's where we kind of transition, we go to 28. and from the external things, then I have just the burden of these churches, just the burden of people staying true to the Lord. And he goes on starting in 28.

So I went back to just to be part of 21, but in whatever respects anyone is bold, I see in foolishness I am just as bold myself. So, like I mentioned, here's the Amplified, but in whatever, any person is bold and dares to boast, mind you, I'm speaking in this foolishness. I am bold also and dare to boast. So after, as a constable, I picked up on this too, after repeated promising, I'm going to boast, I'm going to boast, it's not right for a person to boast, he makes his case, But you guys are so over the top.

I know. So anyway, so there's a proverb here. Proverb 26, four and five. What's interesting is I looked at some other translations. The American Standard has versus four and five slightly different. And I actually like what they did. I don't I never I haven't a chance to really check out. I looked at I looked at the King James and they're slightly different. So we just read Proverbs 26, four and five. Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will also be like him. Answer a fool as his folly deserved, that he is not wise in his own eyes.

So it's interesting, it looks like some translations actually have a fool according to his folly in both verses, but the American Standard Action has what he deserves. And it seems like that Paul abided by verse 4, if you will. He felt that was good wisdom from Solomon. Solomon is the author of of the Proverbs, and so that was wise wisdom. Get to verse 5, it says, yeah, you can answer a fool, but according to what he deserves.

That's kind of interesting. It seems like that he thought, well, what do these false apostles need. They need to understand what the ministry through Christ looks like. And it looks like not a lot of fun. Go ahead Tom. I would almost have to say that here he may have had a unique spiritual insight into that fool's pathway of thought that wasn't voiced. So he could answer it according to this following and not stumble around trying to find it. So what's it? According to what a fool deserves. And you think, well, what does a fool deserve? He deserves to be corrected and shown the error of his ways.

So Paul's going to show them, this is what boasting in the Lord looks like. It's what the Lord had intended through me for this. And it's different than the boasting that you guys might do. You would boast in your credentials or whatever it might be.

OK, good. So now, OK. So he starts off initially he starts off with this. Are they so my pattern. And this is this is one of he's going to show apparently these these critics these these false apostles they were you know They were Hebrews, they were Israelites, they were descendants of Abraham. So they all were all the same. So in that case, they matched up.

They all had the same, you might say, I'm a lawyer. He's a lawyer. I'm a housewife. She's a housewife. We're all on equal footing. So he goes through and he says, well, let's start with the things that were the same. So Hebrew basically meant that it was a pure-bred Jew.

Who could read the Old Testament? I wonder. Actually, I, I got some of this from some folks reading the Old Testament. I was wondering how people could read that. I was kind of doubting whether they certainly could speak it possibly, but read it. I'm not sure. So I wondered about that. So let's look at it.

Acts worth a lot of time and acts today, even though acts is not, does not completely show us every occasion that Paul talks about. It has a lot to offer in terms of background for a lot of these. sufferings that Paul went through. So could someone read Acts 6.1? Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the native eaters, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily service food.

OK, so the distinction here is made in this verse about the Hellenistic Jews and the native Jews. So I believe that Paul is claiming to be, I'm a native Hebrew. That's my lineage. I'm a native Hebrew, you might say. I'm a native born American versus my daughter was born overseas. We were overseas in England for five years supporting the military. and she was born in England, so she would not be a native born American. She's born American by American parents in a foreign country.

So that's kind of the distinction that Paul's making here. The distinction is that he is a native Hebrew. The second is Israelite, a member of God's chosen people, just a whole bunch of different delineations in the Old Testament about the gods, the apple of God's eye, the gods chosen people has a plan and a purpose for them. I had several verses that talk about that. Let me see which.

I guess the key thing he didn't mention was the difference between Hebrews and Israelites. Hebrews was probably just a generic, almost racial term. But if you were an Israelite, then you were into the Old Testament more thoroughly because you got the inside information that a straight, everyday Hebrew might lack. Well didn't that mean also because the Israelites didn't necessarily, I mean they were not Jews originally. Originally Abraham was not a Jew. I mean if you were an Israelite you were descended from Abraham.

Exactly, exactly. So there's a lineage, this is more a lineage thing. The Hebrew is more That's the culture, that's who I grew up as. We're Native Americans if we were born in this country. Whereas somebody born outside, like my daughter, she's not that, even though that bugs her a bit, but anyway. Why did you have to be, anyway, she gives you a hard time being born someplace. First she thought it was a negative, now she thinks it's a positive.

Kids change. This one is closely tied to that. Descendants of Abraham or the seed of Abraham. And let's read actually Romans 11 1 actually kind of captures both the Israelites and descendants part kind of together. So someone could read Romans 11 1. I say then have God cast away his people. God forbid for I'm up. for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. Right. So there he gives a kind of lumps it together. So this traces it back as Mark pointed out to Abraham. So here's the lineage. Abraham is not a Jew.

So this kind of this said that these were the if you had this kind of lineage and had this kind of background you were at the top of the social class. You know you might say I went to Harvard or I went to Yale I was in Congress. I mean, maybe you might not think that was a good deal. Or you had some some position of high, whatever. And you'd be in the top echelon. You'd be going with the high flyers or whatever you want to call it, whatever. So Paul was a high flyer. He went with the best of the best. He was trained by Galileo as a whole. He has his resume other places in scripture, but he was right up there with everybody else. But now it's going to sharply depart here. 23a is interesting.

You read that verse, Are they servants of Christ? I speak as if insane. If you look at that carefully, he's saying they're ministers of Christ. This is once again one of his statements. It would be like saying, Are they, you'd say, are they Americans? They're not. He's making, you know, what's the right word? Anyway, he says, that's an insane thing. They're not ministers of Christ. They're leading them down the wrong path. Well, he's using that sarcasm again.

Exactly. Wake up. These are ministers of Christ? What are you thinking about? I just think he's being sarcastic. They can't be ministers of Christ. That doesn't make any sense. Basically it means you're out of your mind if you think that. This word is only used in this particular passage interestingly enough. It's a word for madman. You're a madman if you think that.

So now, right in between 23A and 23B, he's going to say, I more so. It seems like he says, I am more than these false apostles. Paul will now glory in his weakness. So the consul has commented, however, instead of citing successes that he has experienced in his ministry, the awards that he had received from others. I wondered about that one.

How many awards did Paul receive? Not certainly when he started preaching Christ. He didn't get too many awards then. He may have gotten a lot of awards before that, but not... He got chased out of town most times. He listed his apparent defeats, weaknesses. But don't you think in his mind, he didn't think of these as defeats?

No. To him, these were badges of honor. Because he had seen the light. He knew the truth. Absolutely. He did not see this. And the Lord told him, you're going to have to suffer for me. So when that occurred, I don't think he was necessarily shocked. We might be shocked.

Today you think, well, typically you want to earn some if you have some profession when you earn it and then you Proceed your profession. You don't want to be shot down your first day in the job So to speak you want to continue on in your profession and do well. Well Paul's profession was suffering for the Lord I mean, it's just it's hard to kind of get your hands around that but it's a head around that so it's interesting so now he starts in this thing before it was a So it was equality.

They are this. I'm that. We're equal. Now he's going to use this expression in far more. He's only a couple of expressions in far more or more abundant labors. I get to the point of exhaustion. The word for labor is there. Is it just not a I labor a little bit. It's to the point of exhaustion.

And if you start reading through Acts, what's cool is we're doing that right now with Vern. We're going through Acts and we're going to see more and more of Paul's ministry. Many times he was in jail. Many times he was being chased out of town. He didn't have proper food or clothing or anything. So all this account is backed up by what we're going to see in Acts.

So let's look at 1 Corinthians 15.10. Can someone read that? There are it may be so many.

By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, unlike that verse I was trying to quote, but I belabored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Yeah, you notice how the grace of God is intertwined with what he's saying there? It's not I, but the grace of God. So he realized that where he was at in his ministry, he realized that that God was in control, even though he was suffering. And it's not I, but the grace of God.

So I thought that was really pretty neat. So we had far more labors, more abundant labors, and far more imprisonments. So from Acts, he was imprisoned in Philippi, Jerusalem, Caesarea and Rome, those are the places. Quite a rap sheet, huh? Right? Where have you been? Where have you been in jail? Well, I've been in jail in St. Louis and New York and Florida. OK, let's see, what do we have here at 6-5?

This is one of these lessons where it's just so there's so many. You know, it goes to other places. You're constantly bouncing back. So it's a little bit. So could someone read six, six, six, five for me? Actually, let me talk to this and then maybe somebody can read another verse. I might have to read here. Actually, six, five is kind of in the midst of another listing of his trials here.

It says in beatings and imprisonments and tumults and labors and sleeplessness and hunger. Actually, five has been imprisonment. So I have the word imprisonments. And then also, let's look at let's look at his imprisonment in Philippi. And this is this is a really well known one. Act 16. Look at Act 16. This is the one that it's really a notable one. The Philippian jailer. OK,

16. And let's start because someone read in Act 16, 22 to 24. This is just the first part of it. But let's just kind of set the stage. 22 to 24 in Act 16. Actually, maybe let's go back to. 19, I'm sorry, 19 through 24, I apologize, 19 through 24. But when her master saw that the prophet was gone, he seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the authorities.

And when they had brought them to the chief magistrates, they said, these men are throwing our city into confusion, being Jews, and are proclaiming customs which is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans. The crowd rose up together against them, and the chief magistrates tore their ropes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. When they had struck them with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely. And he, having received such a command, through them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.

Great. Thank you. OK, so there is some there is his imprisonment. And this is a wonderful one. This is where I know as we read farther on, we're going to be getting to this with Vern here at some point here. So this is a wonderful one where they talk. Now, they're free. They talk to the Philippian jailer and he believes in the Lord Jesus. So it's a wonderful passage. But but here's here's the example of their imprisonment in And Philippi. And I just noticed they weren't treated, escorted nicely off to prison. They got they got beaten. You know, it was now television.

That's right. The cameras on their cell phones. Right. Take a picture. All right. So far more imprisonments. OK, so now we go here. Beaten times without number. We just saw that they were beaten there. And then in Acts 16, 23. Actually, that's just where we were. I got repeats. After a while, you wind up going back to the same place or multiple places because it has the same word. OK. Often in dangers. Let's see about that one. OK, actually, let's look at another place in Acts about this one. 836, I think, just talks about... What is 836 saying? I apologize for doing this on the fly here. What 836 is just talking about, we are considered sheep for the slaughter and so on.

It's a quote from the Old Testament. But a place where it talks about danger of death, as if they didn't want danger of death most of the time, is in Acts 20. So let's look at Acts 20. And could someone read Acts 20, 17 through 24. Acts 20, 17 through 24. Acts 20? Acts 20, starting at verse 17 and going to 24.

And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church. And when they were to come to him, he said unto them, You know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind. and with many tears and temptations which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews, and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there. say that the Holy Ghost witnessed in every city saying that bonds and afflictions abide me, but none of these things move me. Neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Great, thanks Margaret.

So, verse 24 is what really kind of caught my eye. And my version says, but I do not consider my life of any account. His life was in danger all the time, but that didn't keep him up at night, so to speak. He just walked with the Lord and kept trusting him.

I have a quote from Hughes here. Paul is not in fact magnifying self in the passages which is now beginning. There is a complete disparity between himself and his adversaries. But he is magnifying the amazing grace of God, which is, in the midst of affliction and suffering, is sufficient for his every need. That's kind of what that passage talks about there. It's pretty cool. So he's focused on God working in him for his glory.

So five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes. So if you look, if you look at it and do wrong, you don't have to. It talks about that the law prescribed 40 lashes. I'm sure you've heard this before. But the Jews, you know, being that, you know. What they decided to do, they didn't want to violate the law. So they only gave you 39 lashes. So they miscounted. They hopefully they still come up with 40. They miscounted. So we're not going to go over. So we'll go one less. And if we miscount, what if they miscount twice to get 41?

They could be in trouble. I don't know. It's all over with. Anyway, so that was a typical. So he says five times I received. And I couldn't necessarily find a passage that talked about that. What I did find is some passages about beaten with rods. And typically that was from the Gentiles. So back to Acts. Acts 16 here. And what's going to happen is we're going to come back to some of these passages that we were in earlier. Acts 16. And what do I have here? I have... How about 2016, 22, and 23?

The crowd rose up together against them and the chief magistrates tore their robes off them and proceeded to order them to be beaten with rods. When they had struck him with many blows, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to guard them securely. Good. Okay. Great.

Alright, so there we see, and then let's see, what do I have here? Timothy, okay, what's that all about? So let's look at this again. I'll go ahead and look at Timothy here. Yeah, okay, so it says, 2 Timothy 3.10 persecution and sufferings such as happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me."

So there's just a multitude. Once I was stoned, this one, Acts 14, Can someone read Acts 14 verse 19? And there came certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium who persuaded the people, and having stoned Paul, they drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. Well, this is a very interesting passage because this passage says that they thought he was dead. Read the next verse for me. Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city, and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe."

It's sort of like a deja vu. He's dead, and they're walking around, and then he gets up. We're going to see a wonderful passage. In fact, Bob's going to teach. I was looking ahead here, and I was thinking about Rishabh, and I decided to leave it alone. Bob's going to teach chapter 12, verses 1 through 10.

And that's where the account of Paul being caught up to the third heaven. So some people are trying to figure out, when did this happen in Paul's life? So that particular account where he was left for dead, some have hypothesized, well, when he was left for dead, the Lord took him for a while. And then, you know, Lord's time is not our time. So he took him for a while, caught him in the third heaven.

And then, you know, He thought he rose up and he was fine. So anyway, is that Greek word? I was just curious. OK, the Greek word for he rose up. Is that a different word than he just stood? I mean, is that a word that possibly could imply that he actually was dead? I don't know what we're going to have to ask Bob. No, I don't. I didn't actually search for that. I just in preference.

I was listening to different people talk and they were saying, wow, you know, talking about being caught up to the third heaven, which is a marvelous passage. And Paul's not, he doesn't say what he heard. It's interesting. If you compare what, you know, John was caught up to the heaven too, and he was given a bunch of information, right? He wrote Revelation. Well, Paul said, the Lord says, no, Paul, you're not going to tell about this. You're not going to tell us. Not your baby. It's going to be John's. You know, cover your mouth. You're not going to talk about this.

And he says, it's an incredible thing that I saw there. I don't know. That's an interesting point. And I'll take a note to take a look and see what it is. So we get there. I can ask Bob if he talks about it. I can I can research that tonight. Yeah. OK. Yeah. Yeah. But it's interesting. It's sort of like, well, he's dead there and walking around. Oh, hi, Paul. You're getting up now. And so they cared for him. They nursed him back to health. No, he just got up. And of course, Scripture doesn't give us a lot. Sometimes he just skips over stuff that doesn't think we need. Interesting. All right.

Three times I was shipwrecked. So according to accounts, I didn't look at all nine voyages. According to accounts, he was shipwrecked three times, which I don't actually see in these voyages. But there are nine voyages. I didn't put all the verses. So let's look at a couple of the voyages. Let's look at Acts 13. And sometimes it's not obvious you went on a voyage sometimes. You've got to read very carefully. So this is Acts 13 verse 4. Does someone read that?

So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia, and from thence they sailed to Cyprus. OK. So when you see the word sailed, or sea, you get a good idea of where. So that's one of their sailors going from, they sailed to Cyprus from Seleucia. OK. Then the other one that I want to just mention is the one in, Now Paul and his companions put out to sea from Cappas, and came to Perga, and from Philia. But John left them, and returned to Jerusalem.

I think Verne covered this recently. So here they are. There is another journey by sea. So somewhere in these journeys he was shipwrecked three times. As has been pointed out, Paul seems to list more Trials and sufferings and shipwrecks then are recorded in Acts. You cannot find every single one. So here's the case where we got nine voyages. It may not be any of those voyages. It probably wasn't.

There was shipwrecks and other voyages. A night and day I spent in the deep. So somewhere, probably one of the shipwrecks I would gather, he was out there bobbing up and down the ocean. He signed up to go with Paul. He didn't sign up for the luxury tour.

So anyway, pretty sure. All right. OK. I've been on three. I've been on frequent journeys and kind of. So the journeys and the voyages. I think about that. OK. So, OK. So he basically talks about journeys and journeys. Gather us at this sort of voyages. But basically there were dangers. He uses this phrase.

I noticed when someone was reading, they use the word peril in dangers and dangers as one word in the original. And it's the word translated as peril. And actually it shows up in Romans 835. So let me just read this as a passage of use of that same word. So it's translated in dangerous. My version, American Standard, then in Perils and other versions. I'm not sure if there's another rendering. Perils was typically them. Someone gets 835 before I do. We shall separate us from the love of Christ. Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword.

Right. OK. So there's the word peril. That's the same word. So it's used in. In all these passages here, it's in endangers or peril. So what's interesting in the text, the way they translate it, they have endangers and then they start making a list and they just drop the end part. But the word is endangers is the word or peril. Endangers from robbers, endangers from my countrymen. The robbers, we don't have a whole lot of, I don't think we have a passage at all to go there.

Certainly a whole bunch in terms of his countrymen. And we saw that, we actually see a few already. There's plenty of times when his countrymen came after him, right? They were upset with him. Very upset with him that he was speaking about Christ. But weren't there a lot of robbers? I mean, they talk about it in their accounts where people were making land trips, which many of his journeys were by land.

Oh, yeah. And they walked. And so they went in groups so that they would have a better defense against robbers. Absolutely. There were all kinds of. Oh, yeah. No, it was very dangerous. Very dangerous. That's why I agree. I guess was the point. My point was not that they didn't have a lot of those cases.

It's just that if you're trying to trace every one of the trying to find a parallel verse, you have a hard time finding robbers. But they do talk about robbers. They do. They're warned about robbers. Robbers. There are a lot of places. Exactly. And that's actually, I probably should have gotten one of those. So good point. Good point. OK, so I had a couple of places I wanted to look at here just briefly. So let me just look here at Acts 9.

Yes, Acts 9.23 says, when many days had elapsed, the Jews plod together to do away with him. That doesn't sound like it's too friendly. That's a pretty dangerous situation. Then down to verse 29 in Acts 9, it says, and he was talking and arguing the Hellenistic Jews, but they were attempting to put him to death. That's kind of dangerous.

That's 1350. But when the Jews arose, But the Jews aroused the devout women of prominence and the leading men of the city and instigated a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of the district. And let's look at the Thessalonians passage. Did someone read 1 Thessalonians chapter 2, 14 and 15?

For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God, and Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did for the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove them south. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men. OK, good. So that little phrase about my own countrymen, that was how I picked up on that. OK, we'll get to the. OK, now.

So here's the more dangerous, dangerous than the Gentiles. So you go to kind of trace back to a lot of verses you looked at and you'll see that not only the Jews after him, the Gentiles, especially like the case where they where he was taking away their when the girl came, the one who was they were using. Yeah. What was she doing when she was prophesying? I don't know. Anyway, so when their livelihood was taken away, they went after Paul. OK, so he has location. They were in cities, in the wilderness, on the sea. So wherever he went, he was in danger or in peril.

And then on the false brethren. I thought of what we've been studying all along here, certainly. dangers from the false brethren who were putting him down, questioning his apostleship, the Judaizers. And so besides that, all the perils, I've been in labors and hardship. So you see that phrase, labors and hardship, kind of shows up in passages. He'll refer to that in Thessalonians again. So let's just look at one of those.

1 Thess 2.9. For you recall brethren, our labor and hardship, how working night and day, so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaim to you the gospel of God. Right. So that phrase, labors and hardship, shows up at least those two times. There are many sleepless nights.

Actually, what's interesting, and the King James kind of renders this... So, when you read the... Who has the King James? It's Watchings, or it's interesting, it's not sleepless, go ahead. This is going to be verse 27, in 2 Corinthians 11. In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, You know, it's interesting. It was like you can't get to sleep.

So what do you do that? Well, it's like, you know, a stamp. And, you know, the phrase where you step in. Well, I think I think of it in the garden. Right. The Lord asks his disciples, you know, keep stay awake. Well, don't fall asleep. So it comes across in the King James at watching. But it's actually sleeplessness. And actually, second Corinthians six, five talks about that to sleeplessness. OK.

In hungers and thirst, often without food and cold and exposure. So Amplified has in hunger and thirst frequently, frequently driven to fasting by want. So that's an interesting fast. And that's basically I would say that's starving. I wouldn't call fasting if you have no food. I wouldn't call that fast. Right. I'm fasting today. No, I don't have any food. That's what my problem is. I'm not a volunteer.

But it was a common occurrence in those days too. If you're in prison, if your friends didn't bring you food, you didn't get anything. Your prison wasn't a place to rest right here. First of all, you get to work out and watch TV. And I should. I don't know. I haven't been in prison. Thank you. I can't. I will not speak, say anything about the prisons there. When we were in Rome and went to see some of the prisons, you know, the old prison where Paul supposedly was. It's very interesting because all it is is a hole in the solid rock where they dump them down in there and they're chained inside. There's no light. There's no window. There's no stairs that go down in there. Why do they need to chain them? And then they chain them. So the fact, you know, I often think about when Paul was... The Philippian jailer? Yes, when he was released.

There was no way, I mean, you have to, be pulled up by a rope or something because the hole is so high up from the floor there's no way you could escape and someone couldn't even pull you up without a rope you'd have to have a rope ladder that you could climb up and then they chained them down in there And as Jack said, no food unless someone knew you and would bring you food. You have to bribe the guards to get there.

Yeah, it was pretty cruel. I don't know how people survived for any length of time. I have no idea. It's incredible. No, I agree. So actually, that's that's where I want to stop for today. So we're going to continue on next week where we in verse 28, he transitions to the care of the churches, his burden for the churches. So it's hard to believe Paul could pin the momentary light afflictions.

I mean, We're just not on the same page in our society. We just don't really have a grasp of what physical suffering is about. I actually think in our country we have more psychological suffering. Think about it, we're constantly bombarded by phones, TV, the whole world. We're constantly bombarded by psychological stuff. That wears you out. Unfortunately, we aren't being beaten too many times. But there are countries where that is happening. Oh, absolutely. We don't have it here. All right, so let's close.

We thank you, Father. We thank you for the lessons we have, Father. Thank you for just looking at Paul's life and just marveling at what he endured and how he did it. trusting and relying upon you Lord. We pray that you help us to rely upon you in the trials and sufferings that we have. We know that they're different probably from what Paul has, but we know that you desire that we trust you and rest in your provision in all things. We ask this in Christ's name.