A heart opened wide - Part II
2 Corinthians 6:1-13 · Vern Peterman · Jun 27, 2010
1 & 2 Corinthians, No. 52
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492628131000

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

Good morning. We're going to step into this passage that Courtney read for us here. And we're actually going to revisit the same passage, but kind of look at some different things there. And so we will be Looking at that in a minute, Nancy and I for this last week have enjoyed having Hassan with us, and if you didn't have a chance last week to deluge him with welcomes, you can certainly revisit that here after the service. But he'll be with us until August 22. And then he'll head back to Uganda then. So meanwhile, we get to have him with us.

Now, in this passage that Courtney read for us here, got a question. And this is sort of applicable to the passage, but also to all of 2 Corinthians. And that is, we want to ask the question, why? Now, you may be wondering, why is he asking the question why? Well, we're going to talk about that. In 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul talks from the first chapter again and again on into this chapter, and he's not done.

We're going to see repeated reference to troubles, trials, and tribulations. At times, he provides details, and even numbers of times he's gone under some particular kind of trouble or trial. And so we have a listing here, as you have on page one of your handout. This listing is not exhaustive, in fact. As we're going to see when we get into chapter seven, just a couple of weeks from now, he addresses this some more. So this lists only some of the places where he talks about troubles and trials.

Nonetheless, so why are these so important to the Apostle Paul that he would bring them up again and again from the very first chapter on to the very last chapters and several times in between? Why are they so important to Paul that he would keep mentioning them, giving detail, bringing them up? And why is it important to tell the Corinthians about them? to tell the believers there at Corinth again and again and to talk about them in different ways. Why is all this mention made repeatedly of these troubles and trials and tribulations? Why all the detail?

Well, we want to get a perspective on that and to do that we have to go to Acts chapter 9. You also have this slide on your handout here so you can stay in 2 Corinthians if you would like. In chapter 9, it gives the account of where Paul is brought from being an enemy of the gospel and an enemy of the church. In fact, it says later on in Acts that every chance he had, he voted for death for the Christians. But here in Acts chapter 9, we find that Paul, who has been on his way from Jerusalem up to Damascus, we see it there as the yellow and red dots on the map, he is blinded along the way. As a matter of fact, the section of the old road to Damascus there is shown on one side of the slide. Damascus is an ancient city, so is Jerusalem, and the road between is ancient as well.

And the passage goes like this in Acts 9.10.

Now, there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. And the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias, and he said, Here I am, Lord. And by the way, I was looking this up. It's interesting. Here I am is mentioned a whole bunch of times in the Old Testament. This is the only place that shows up in the New Testament. So here's Ananias responding in the longstanding Old Testament pattern that began all the way back in Genesis. Here I am, Lord, as if the Lord needs to know where you are, right? Okay, verse 11, and the Lord said to him, Get up and go to the street called Straight. I think it has to do with straight like just direction. It's not used like anything in our modern vernacular. The street called Straight.

Here is a more recent picture in color, and here's an old black and white picture. I don't think it's from biblical times, but anyway, it's black and white. But that's the street. There it is right there. It travels east-west and a fairly lengthy but ancient street as you can see. So go to this street called Straight. That's the place. That's the city.

That's where Ananias was told to go. And inquire at the house of Judas. Not the Judas in the Bible from the Gospels, but a different one. for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight." And so, of course, Ananias is very eager to go to meet with this guy Saul, right? Not so much. But, Ananias answered, Lord!

It's like, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to your saints at Jerusalem, and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name." Lord, are you sure? You know, you haven't made a mistake, have you? Right? But, and this is I think the key verse for what we're looking at here today, but the Lord said to him, Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine. to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel. And this is the key thing in verse 16, for I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake.

Isn't that an interesting thing about Paul? You would think, what would the Lord say about this man who had been an enemy, a deathly enemy of the church? And now the Lord is going to actually commission him to go out and bring the gospel. What would the Lord say? One know what the Lord says and even tells Ananias, I will show him how much he must suffer for my name's sake. This is rather amazing. Suffering was something that the Lord knew from the outset that Paul would do. And as a matter of fact, It was something that the Lord would show and reveal to him.

So getting back to 2 Corinthians, we have to ask the question, how is being a Christian different from being a masochist? And you're probably wondering that yourself, right? A masochist is a person who derives pleasure or personal satisfaction from pain and or being dominated.

And you might even wonder, here's James 1, 2. James just gets through saying, hi, my name's James. And right after that he says, consider it all joy. As a matter of fact, my brother was taking a Greek translation class and he says, you must esteem it ultimate joy.

My brethren, when you encounter various trials, oh boy, now how is that different from masochism? Here's the difference. A Christian is one who can anticipate spiritual benefit in time and beyond time for pain of varying kinds and durations. The masochist looks for the pain of the moment and somehow turns it upside down to find pleasure in it. The Christian looks at that and doesn't say, boy, that pain feels good. As a matter of fact, it may just plain hurt. But But the Christian realizes there is a reward, there's a payback, there's value in what's taking place here. That this isn't senseless, this in fact makes eternal sense.

Masochism is a humanly perceived thing in present time. It has no spiritual aspect, at least from a biblical standpoint. a masochist may think otherwise, but at least biblically, there's no spiritual aspect. A Christian's anticipation of that spiritual benefit is as revealed by God, as we're going to see in some of the passages in 2 Corinthians this morning, and received by faith. Spiritual benefit from the things that causes pain. Spiritual benefit from the things that trouble us. Wow. Pain, we have in this next slide, is a multi-purpose tool. And why do I say that? We've asked the question, why?

Why does Paul, from the first chapter of 2 Corinthians on through the middle of the book where we are now, all the way to the final chapters, why does he keep bringing up pain? He brings it up because in different contexts throughout that book, He points out that pain has different purposes. So not only is pain useful and not senseless, but it is, in fact, something that God intends to use for various purposes in our lives, more than one. It is, in fact, a multi-purpose tool. He keeps coming back to this subject of pain, but the reason that he gives varies. Why? Because pain has multiple purposes in God's design.

The lessons and learning about our suffering are more than this one book can even cover. But still, this is a big book when you deal with the subject. As part of our study today, we will walk our way through 2nd Corinthians looking briefly at the spiritual benefits of the various kinds of pains and afflictions that Paul and those with him had experienced. Have you discovered some of those purposes in your own life? Yeah, I'd have to say that I have. I'm not done. I'm not done discovering. But scripture reveals what some of these are.

One of them that really comes to mind in my own case was when I first got the Lyme disease and I didn't have a diagnosis for months. When I first got Lyme disease, it felt like a truck was backing up over my left arm and then peeled out and then backed up again. It was extremely painful. And there were other strange and odd neurological effects coming from this. But I can remember, it was hard to think, but I can remember laying on the couch one day and there were tears streaming down my face because it just hurt like crazy.

But thinking, you know, I'm pretty useless right now, but I'm amazed how much the Lord loves me. I am astounded that the Lord loves me when I can't do very much. So this was kind of a personal lesson in the Lord using pain as part of this multi-purpose tool.

The first thing in 2 Corinthians 1, verses 5-11, the one who has suffered is qualified to minister comfort to others in their suffering. The first purpose that Paul gives for pain. It makes you qualified for ministry. This isn't seminary classes and this isn't coming to Holly Hills and that sort of thing, although certainly a lot to learn here. But it's a qualification for ministry. The person who has been through pain is able to minister to another who is going through it, able to comfort. This word comfort means to come alongside or be called alongside. And he uses this word again and again. And in fact, it's used in various ways in many of Paul's letters and in other writings of the apostles. It's a coming alongside another. It's not looking down at them and not at a distance, but it's coming next to them, coming alongside to minister.

It's personal. Suffering is also not about solo. This is not suffering all by yourself. You know, it's an amazing thing. We think, okay, my nerves are connected to my brain and I'm the one who's feeling the pain. But from a spiritual standpoint, that's not where the sensation stops. What do I mean by that?

It's not God's design that we suffer alone. It's also not God's design that we look at Christ as, He's up there and having a great time in heaven, and I'm miserable down here, and you know, the separation between Him and having a party up in heaven, and me down here just hurting and hurting, I don't like it. That's not the sense either.

What scripture lays out is that suffering is something that the whole church body is involved in. Suffering is something that the Lord Himself takes personally. Senseless, solo suffering and silence is not what God has in mind. If we are suffering, it is not useless. It is not senseless. I'm not going through it for nothing.

God has a purpose in it, and as we said before, even multiple purposes in the suffering that we go through. It's also not something that we just sit there and we alone experience it. It is something that the body is to share. It is something that the Lord Himself takes personally. Here is the book of Acts again, and we mentioned chapter 9 before when we talked about Ananias.

Well, right before that, The Lord said to Paul, whose name was Saul at that point in time, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who was Saul persecuting? The church. The people in the church were the ones who were getting killed. They were the ones being thrown in prison. They were the ones who were visibly receiving the persecution. But how did Christ look upon that persecution? Here he is talking to the persecutor, capital P. And he says, why are you persecuting me?

When we go through suffering, the Lord takes it personally. The Lord isn't just up there having a big party up in heaven, and we're hurting down here. The Lord takes that suffering personally. And that's why when he approaches the Apostle Paul as he's being converted, From Saul, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. The Lord takes it personally. When we are hurting, God is not distant. Christ our Lord and Savior takes it as upon himself. He is not ignorant of. He is not oblivious to. He is not uncaring about what we're going through.

In Romans 12-15, Paul urges the church there in Rome, and he says, Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Join with them. Suffer together. Join with them in this. As we step forward into chapter 4, verses 8 and 9, And we saw a chart like this when we were going through it a couple chapters back.

He says, we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. We are perplexed, but not despairing. We are persecuted, but not forsaken. We are struck down, but not destroyed. In each case, he says, it's not ultimate, but there is the pressure. There is the pain. There is the difficulty. There is the trouble. There is the trial. One purpose of our suffering that comes out from this passage is that the limitations, the constraints in this life, the degree to which we suffer, is to show forth His life. How do we know that?

In verses 10 and 11, And these are not quoted in your handout, so you might want to make note of it. For we who live are always caring about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that purpose, purpose, we have a purpose for the pain that we go through, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. People look at a believer and they say, I can't figure out any reason why that person should be smiling. I can't figure out why should they be happy. in the midst of this suffering and pain.

What sense does it make? Our lives can be inexplicable to the world because there is a life showing through in the midst of this suffering, in the midst of this pain. There's a life showing through and it's his life. It's so people see His life showing through us that we go through these things. Paul repeats it, in fact the last line is almost verbatim, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. His life instead of ours.

As we step in that same chapter in the verses 16 through 18, there's a huge payoff. What do I mean by that? From an eternal perspective, there are actually several principles that come into play all at once here. Though Paul's many sufferings are substantial indeed, I mean, matter of fact, we're going to see the list as we go farther on, it is astounding, the things that he went through.

Beaten and stoned and run out of town, and that's just the start. But he calls them momentary light affliction. Kind of amazing. Momentary light affliction? Paul, you just got stoned and left for dead. That's momentary light affliction. I don't know what he'd call a momentary light affliction, right?

Why would he do that? Why? In Paul's time and beyond time, spiritual perspective, all the difficulties, all the struggles, all the pains, all the agonies that he's gone through, all of them, he says, that's a bargain. That's a bargain I'll buy up every time. He says, this is nothing compared to what the Lord has prepared for me. It's practically insignificant.

Here's this guy, he gets beat up, things that in many cases would kill a man. He gets again and again and again these horrible mistreatments. And what does he do? It's momentary light affliction compared to the eternal weight of glory that this is developing. So our pain, our suffering, the things we struggle with, the troubles that we encounter, they are productive. They are productive spiritually. They're a bargain, Paul says. Momentary light affliction, eternal weight of glory. By comparison, it's nothing. He says it's a bargain I'd grab every time. I'd gladly take it.

As we step into chapter 6 here that Courtney has read for us, verses 3 through 10, Paul lists the troubles that come from the outside circumstances. And he goes through and lists them briefly. We're going to see in several chapters ahead here, he gives a count and some detail to what these different things are. These varied and many troubles are met, however, in the rest of his listing by the adequacy that comes from God. Here's the external circumstance, but here is the internal resource from God himself. Here's the trouble and trial and pain and difficulty that come from the outside. But let me tell you about the God who's working from the inside.

Additionally, he proceeds his list of the agonies, the difficulties, all the troubles that he has with a word that means to patiently endure with both cheer and hopeful expectation. Isn't that amazing? I'm going through difficulties, but I'm hopeful. I'm going through an awful time, but I'm cheerful. Wow, this is amazing stuff. This is phenomenal. How could you possibly be cheerful?

God's adequacy is expressed in his character, lived out in the believer, his life. And God's adequacy is also expressed by the provisions of God himself. He says here, in the Holy Spirit, You have the Holy Spirit, if you're a believer here today, with you all the time.

Nancy and I have a friend who was brought up in more of a charismatic kind of background. And I don't mean good speakers. She was brought up in a charismatic background. And when we finally started looking at what the scripture says, she said, do you mean the Holy Spirit doesn't come and go all the time?

No, the Holy Spirit is with you all the time. And through all these things that Paul went through, he could count upon the Holy Spirit's presence and power through all these things. There are almost a couple dozen ministries of the Holy Spirit that are available to and ongoing in the believer all the time. And these ministries then are part of God's capacity in the believer for meeting up with these troubles and trials. We also have the Word of Truth, the very thing that we're studying here this morning. We have the Word of God to tell us what's true.

One of the difficulties that come about if people are flying, say, through fog or clouds, is that you can become disoriented, lost. Which direction am I headed? Even losing a sense of what's up and what's down. And so the instruments are there to tell you, you know, what is my relationship to the horizon here? What is up? What is down? Where am I with respect to the physical things that are on the ground? We have the word of truth to reveal to us what's really happening when the world out there can be really disorienting, when we can get confused about what's up and what's down and what's true and what's false.

And finally, we have the power of God. Paul, the same one who went through all these difficulties, said that we have the energizing, we have the empowering, and we have the enabling from God. We have the three E's, if you will. Those are capacities and adequacies to meet the trials, to meet up with them. as we go through the different difficulties that we have. Not only is there a sense of purpose in it, but there's also empowerment in it to deal with those things that are so very difficult. In chapter 11, verses 23 through 33, God's strength is shown in our weakness and vulnerability. The difficulties show His life. It also shows his strength. He doesn't, in this passage, just list them. He actually gives numbers. Numbers of shipwrecks that he's been through. Numbers of beatings. He gives numbers to these things, and when we take a look at it, you will be likely astounded. But he doesn't give those as trophies for, man, look what I endured. Man, am I great. That's not his point. The point in these difficulties is to show God's power and his adequacy. It's to God's credit. It's to God's glory, not Paul's.

Human beings are inclined to think that life is about us. Life is about me. Mike was telling Roger and me some weeks back about a fellow who was before a firing squad. And just as the firing squad is getting ready to lift up their rifles, he said, let's get this straight. This is all about me, right? People are inclined to think everything is about them. The reality is, as the believer begins to look at what God's Word says, Our lives are really about His life and His character and His glory.

Even this, Nancy and I enjoy, and sometimes it's enjoyment that comes a little slowly, but enjoy marriage and pre-marriage counseling with couples. And one of the things that we have to tell people is your marriage isn't about you. Now, it's not all about you. Your marriage is not about you. Because it's Christ and the church that are examples for your marriage. Your marriage isn't about you. It's about Christ and the church. So get over yourself, right? Your marriage isn't about you. It's about Christ and the church.

Ah, yes. Chapter 12. Oh, you're going to love this one. Sometimes a thorn is just what we need. Paul tells about asking the Lord to take his thorn in the flesh away. Now, we'll take a look at it. He still doesn't tell us what exactly that is. But the Lord does not take away the thorn, even though Paul asked repeatedly that he would do so. Why? Paul needs the thorn.

And I can summarize it this way, and this is not original with me. This is from a pastor that Nancy and I knew in Carson City. He put it this way, real simple. You need what's happening to you. You need what's happening to you. The Lord is the one who writes the prescription. You need what's happening to you. It doesn't mean that God wants you to do everything you're doing. Don't get me wrong. But whatever is happening in your life, you need it.

Just like Paul didn't get this thorn taken away. Why? He needed it. So why does Paul need the thorn? You may be asking that yourself. So that the Lord is exalted and not Paul. I'm sure Paul was thinking, Lord, it would be a lot easier if I didn't have this problem. Wouldn't I look a lot stronger if I didn't have the problem? Wouldn't things be a lot better if I didn't have the problem? When in fact, no. Paul, you need it. You need the problem. The Lord knows what will result in the best outcome for us. That's right. The Lord knows what will result in the best outcome for us. We need what's happening to us.

He writes the prescription for what's going on in our lives. Now, we've got a new sign-up sheet out in the lobby here. And you can sign up for whatever trials you want. I'm kidding, of course. But it's really the Lord, it's really the Lord who writes the prescription, doesn't He? He says, you need this and you need that. And you may say, but that's not what I signed up for. In fact, that's exactly what you signed up for when you became a believer. Yeah. You signed up to have the Lord write the prescription as to what you need, to have Him Bring these things into your lives because that's what you need.

The Lord told Paul, My grace is sufficient for you. And in that trial, because of that thorn, My grace is evident. You will learn about My grace. In the last part of this passage, Paul expresses what I would summarize here as hearts that long for hearts that are open.

He says, we have had an open heart before you. We've told you all our motivations, why we're doing what we're doing. We've told you we're even doing this at our own expense. This is not something we expect to gain anything. Matter of fact, I've given you the list. This is costly for us to carry out this ministry. We're not doing it so that we get something from you. But since we've laid out our hearts before you, we ask that you lay your hearts before us, that there be an openness as we have been open with you.

One of the things we put on here is one cannot play hide-and-seek with God. There is a tendency for people to think that I'm going to play some little game with God because God doesn't know the next move. Yeah, right. Right? We're not playing any games with God that way. When you play a game, the idea is that you're expecting the opponent can't see the outcome or can't see something. There's none of that with God.

He knows it all. He knows all the possibilities. So why is having an open heart so important here? All of our hearts are indeed open before the Lord. Scripture makes that abundantly clear. We've given a few passages. We could have given more. The Lord sees what's going on. He searches the hearts. The one who doesn't have an open and honest heart before the Lord, however, is fooling himself. It's kind of like the kid, you know, they're playing hide-and-seek and he's right next to the person who's going to go look for him and he goes like this, you know, can't see me. That doesn't work, does it? Right? It doesn't work.

God sees everything. He knows what's going on. Only as we have, however, intentionally open hearts with the Lord are we able to have intimacy with Christ. When we stop playing games like God doesn't see something or He doesn't know the next move. No. That doesn't work. Intimacy with Christ is exactly what He has in mind. And we can't play any silly games. and focus upon an intimacy with Christ is exactly what God desires of us as a church body. In Ephesians 4, Paul had written this, and he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, that's us.

Verse 13, until we all attain. That's where we're headed. That's where we're going. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith. By the way, not the same as agreeing to disagree. The unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. I have this underlined there in the red on purpose. It is an intensive personal knowledge which means intimacy with Christ. It's not just I get a PhD in everything about Jesus. No. This isn't degrees. This isn't knowing Bible stuff. This is knowing Him. This is being intimate with Christ. That's the direction of maturity. That's the direction of the fullness of Christ. Farther on in verse 14, he has a section there of defining immaturity. This is no longer children, and he describes what that's like. I'm going to move on to verse 15.

But speaking the truth in love, and speaking the truth in love is literally truthing in love. Truth in action in love. Christians sometimes can get the mistaken impression that God wants us to choose between truth and love. Truthing and love, or as 1 Corinthians 13 puts it, love rejoices in the truth. They're not at odds. We don't pick between love and truth. Love and truth go together.

We are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Intimacy. Intimacy is the basis. Real intimacy with Christ is intended by God to have an outcome among us. That we have real intimacy with one another in the body of Christ with grace as the reigning principle. One of the other things that Nancy and I will share in marriage counseling is intimacy in the marriage at every other level begins with intimacy with Christ. If Christ and the church is the model for the marriage relationship, then if I understand intimacy with Christ, that's the starting point for me to have intimacy in the marriage relationship. But it doesn't just stop there. Intimacy among us in the body of Christ. Real intimacy begins with intimacy with Christ. With grace is the reigning principle. A gracious principle between us. Intimacy with one another that comes from intimacy with Him. That's the starting point. with no ending point.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you've laid out these valuable and important principles, exceedingly valuable, eternally important. And we pray as we think of these two things in this passage, the pain, the struggle, the trouble, the difficulty. And then we think of intimacy. They're not disconnected. We pray that you would teach us how those go together. We thank you, Lord, for your so graciously laying out these precious truths. Truths that are not just valuable for now, but valuable for eternity. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.