BURDENED UNTO BLESSEDNESS
Posted by Angella Diehl, Webmaster on June 21, 2020 under 2020 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; June 21, 2020 from 2 Corinthians 1:8-11
Theme: God sometimes brings us into complete despair of ourselves so that our trust will be completely in Him.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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2 Corinthians is a wonderfully encouraging and uplifting portion of the Bible. But as the opening portions of it show us, that encouragement comes as a result of having first been shaped and formed through hard trials.
The apostle Paul began with these words of encouraging comfort:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation (2 Corinthians 1:3-7).
There is plenty of encouragement to be drawn from those words. The ideas of “consolation” or “comfort” are expressed a total of ten times in these five verses alone. In them, Paul lays out to us the wonderful ministry of comfort that we can have toward one another—first through being comforted by God in our times of need, and then through passing that comfort on to one another in each other’s times of need.
But you’ll notice that, mixed in with these expressions of comfort, there are lots of other things mentioned: “tribulation”, “trouble”, “sufferings”, “afflictions”—and also with these things being said to “abound”. To some degree, the blessed ministry of comfort is only made possible by the experience of trouble and affliction—hard times of trial through which God helps us and guides us through faith in Jesus His Son; and that they teach us to trust in Him as our all-in-all.
And so; that leads us to the next thing that we read from the apostle Paul. He opened his heart to his readers and shared with them the depth of his own personal time of affliction—and of how, through it, he experienced the greatness of the comfort and help of God. He spoke for both himself and his co-author Timothy when he wrote;
For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us, you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many (vv. 8-11).
This experience of affliction had built into Paul a great sense of confidence in the sufficiency of God—not only for the undergoing of the specific trial that he had experienced, but also for any trial that that would come afterward. This whole experience was so profound that it transformed him from then on.
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As I was thinking about this passage, I couldn’t help but think of the experience of my wife and me over the past thirteen years or so. As many of you know, back in 2008, she developed a condition called CFS/ME—or chronic fatigue syndrome. Ever since then—and most intensely over the past four—she has been largely bed-fast and house-bound; and I have served as her caregiver.
I don’t share that in order to give the impression that our struggle has been worse than that of other people. It’s certainly true that others have suffered far more than we have. But what both my wife and I can testify to is that, over this past decade and a half, God has deepened our trust in Him far more than we ever expected that it could have been at the beginning of our trial. The whole experience has been inexpressibly hard for both of us. In many ways, it feels as if we have been shut out from a great deal of ‘normal life’. It has placed a terrible burden on us, on our children, on our extended family and friends, on our church community, and on my ministry and on hers. There have been many times when we have cried out to God and asked why this is happening—and there have been many times when we’ve felt as if we couldn’t drag ourselves up and go on another day. But by God’s grace, we have. And we have grown in countless ways to know—personally—the sufficiency of our God and Savior through some very dark times of trouble and affliction. It has made us much more compassionate toward others who are also in times of trial and need and disability; and it has given us the ability to share the comfort that we have experienced in Christ. And most of all, it has helped us to love and cling to our Lord Jesus more closely than ever.
I know that many of you have also had such times—or are going through them right now. The burden you feel may seem overwhelming—and is genuinely more than you can take. You have heard the old saying, haven’t you?—that ‘God will never give you more than you can handle’? Well; that’s not in the Bible. And as some of us know—from personal experience—it just isn’t true. There are definitely times when God will allow His people to go through a time of trial that is far greater than they can handle—a time in which they completely despair of themselves. As we can plainly see from these words in 2 Corinthians 1, even the apostle Paul could testify to that. But instead of that false idea, what we learn from it all is that God will never let us experience something that He cannot handle—and that He will always bear us up through it all if we will but trust in Him.
I believe that this is the great lesson of this morning’s passage. And it’s something that we must to come to grips with before we can really be the comfort and encouragement to one another that God wants us to be in the household of faith. It’s that God sometimes brings us into times of complete despair of ourselves so that our trust will be completely in Him.
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I’m very glad that Paul wrote his own experience of this down for us—and that the Holy Spirit preserved it for our instruction. Let’s look carefully together at what Paul wrote.
First, let’s notice …
1. THE GREATNESS OF THE BURDEN THAT HE FELT.
In verse 8, Paul wrote, “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life.”
What was this ‘trouble’ that had come to Paul? There have been lots of different speculations about it. One idea has been that he was writing about his turbulent time in Ephesus—which was the chief city of Asia Minor. We’re told about that trial in Acts 19. We’re told there about how, when he had begun preaching in Ephesus, it started to upset the idol-making businesses—and the entire economic trade that was centered on the worship of the false goddess Diana. People weren’t worshiping Diana as much as they used to. Many of them were turning completely away from Diana and to faith in Jesus. A chief instigator of the trouble was a silversmith named Demetrius who made silver shrines for Diana. He gathered all the members of his guild together and stirred up fierce opposition Paul—this preacher who was turning people to Jesus and destroying their profits. It actually caused the whole city of Ephesus to fall into confusion and to gather together into a dangerous mob. The whole city was, in fact, about to go into riot. Paul’s friends had to urge him not to venture into the arena, where the angry mobs had gathered against his preaching. Paul barely escaped from it all with his life. It must have been a terribly discouraging time for him. A good preacher wants to lead people to Jesus—not start city-wide riots. And so, many wonder if this was Paul’s great ‘trouble’.
Others have suggested that it was some other event—something that we’re not told much about—in which Paul himself was actually apprehend and put on trial for his life. In 1 Corinthians 16:9, he wrote and asked for prayer because “a great and effective door” had opened to him in Ephesus, “and there are many adversaries”. I Corinthians 15:32, he mentioned that ‘in the manner of men’, he once ‘fought with beasts at Ephesus’. It may be that he was speaking figuratively—that is, of hostile, ‘beast-like’ people who sought to have him killed; but it is also possible that he may have actually been put in the arena once and made to face wild beasts as punishment for his preaching. He once wrote to send greetings to his dear friends Priscilla and Aquila—friends who partnered with him in his ministry to Ephesus—friends who he said had “risked their own necks for my life” (Romans 16:4). Perhaps the risk to their necks was quite literal! Many wonder if this was Paul’s great ‘trouble’.
It may actually be that there were a whole host of trials that were bearing down on him and on Timothy all at once. He wrote in 2 Corinthians 11:23-29 about the many types of trial that characterized his ministry. He listed them in this way:
… in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness—besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation? (2 Corinthians 11:23-29).
So; what was this great ‘trouble’? It may be any one of those things—or it may have been all of them together. It may have been that Paul didn’t need to mention the specific situation to the Corinthians because they already knew about it. We, however, just don’t know. And perhaps it was the Holy Spirit’s intention that we not know the specifics; so that what Paul taught us in these words would be applicable to us all in any of the various trials that God allows to fall upon us. We do know, however that—whatever it was—Paul and Timothy had felt “burdened” or “weighted-down” by it in such a way as that it was “beyond measure”—that is, that the pain of it couldn’t be counted up and humanly expressed sufficiently. They felt burdened “above strength”—that is, it was far beyond their human ability to endure or to cope. And they were burdened so much that they “despaired even of life”. They didn’t expect to survive. Or—if we may dare to say it—they may have even wanted to die.
Paul didn’t keep this to himself. He wanted the Corinthians to know about it.
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Now; have you ever felt that way? Perhaps you do right now. Did you know that some of the greatest saints in the Bible have felt that horrible burden? Some of them had times when they were so overwhelmed that they ‘despaired of life’.
Think of Moses. When he was leading the people of Israel through the wilderness—and they were complaining and threatening and demanding that he give them meat to eat—he cried out to God and said, “If you treat me like this, please kill me here and now—if I have found favor in Your sight—and do not let me see my wretchedness” (Numbers 11:15). Or think of the prophet Elijah. He once had to ran away for his life because of threats against him for his ministry. He ran far south into the wilderness; and he fell down broken and exhausted; and he said, “It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!” (1 Kings 19:4). Or remember Jonah. He was completely discouraged once when—after he had preached God’s judgment against the enemies of his people—they repented and God had mercy on them. He was wrong-hearted about it all; but even this man who had miraculously survived being swallowed by a great fish sat down in anger and said, “Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!” (Jonah 4:3). And I believe Paul and Timothy would have identified with those Old Testament saints. They too would have understood what it meant to be so burdened in one’s walk with the Lord and service to Him that one would ‘despair even of life’.
But look carefully at what Paul did with this brokenness. He wrote in verse 9 of himself and Timothy; “Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead …”
Here then was the response Paul had to the greatness of the burden he felt—this great burden that caused him to despair even of life; and that was to give …
2. THE SENTENCE OF DEATH TO HIS OWN SUFFICIENCY.
He said that he and Timothy “had the sentence of death” in themselves; and that means that it wasn’t the sentence of death someone else gave to them. It wasn’t that they weren’t told by the authorities that their bodies were about to be put to death—although it may be that they were. Instead, it was that they put to death—in their own selves and by the decision of their own will—their own sense of sufficiency. They completely ceased to trust any longer in the power of their own strength, or in their own wisdom, or in their own reputation, or in their own character qualities. In fact, in the original language, it’s put in such a way as to say that they had the sentence of death in themselves once and for all.
But it wasn’t so that they would then be without trust at all. They said that they did this so that they should completely cease from trusting in themselves, and should trust completely instead in “God who raises the dead”.
This was something that Paul expressed in other places in the Bible. In Philippians 3, for example, he said,
But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:7-11).
Or in 2 Timothy 1:12, he wrote;
For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day (2 Timothy 1:12).
Or in Galatians 2:20—in perhaps the greatest example of them all—he declared;
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20).
You know, dear brothers and sisters in Christ; any affliction or trial that breaks us free from trust in ‘self’—anything that forces us to put to death our trust in our own abilities and resources—anything that forces us to put our full trust instead in the God who is able to raise the dead—is truly a great spiritual gift. It may not seem so at the time. In fact, it won’t feel like a blessing at all. But in the plan and purposes of God for us, it truly is.
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That was Paul’s experience. And this leads us to then notice …
3. HIS COMPLETE TRUST IN THE DELIVERER.
In verse 10, he said that he and Timothy had the sentence of death in themselves, so that they should trust instead in God; “who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us …”
In the original language of Paul’s letter, he wrote that they trusted in God who in the past—in whatever experience that great ‘trouble’ was that they went through—had delivered them “from so great a death”. They had been at the end of themselves. They had been looking death in the face—certainly death to their own self-sufficiency and resources, but perhaps even death to their own physical bodies. And yet, God delivered them. He had proven Himself to be sufficient to them. But then because of it, Paul and Timothy were confident that—as it’s translated in some of our Bible’s—God will deliver them. Whatever trial they may undergo—or perhaps whatever new trial it was that they were right then undergoing—they knew that the God who delivers them in the past was fully able to do so again. And more; they knew that He would still deliver them in the ultimate sense that they would eventually end up in heavenly glory—fully and forever delivered from all trial and suffering—in the presence of Jesus Christ eternally.
That kind of trust can only come through undergoing an overwhelming trial that breaks us free from all but a trust in God alone. We can see something of it in the story of Daniel’s three friends who were cast into the fire. The king commanded them to worship the false idol that he had set up; and they refused to do so. The king threatened to throw them into the fiery furnace for it; and they said;
“O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king” (Daniel 3:16-17).
They knew that God could deliver them from the fire. And He did. He delivered them in the very midst of the fire—and then, all the way out of it. But they also knew that even if He didn’t deliver them right then, they would nevertheless eventually be delivered from the hand of the king by going to heaven—and into the hands of the God who raises the dead. That’s a picture of a complete break from self, and a complete trust in the God.
And Paul and Timothy brought that trust with them into everyday life—and into every trial—from then on. We see this in Paul’s victorious words in 2 Corinthians 12—words that many of us have clung to and found comfort in during times of our own deep trial;
And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).
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So; we see in all this a great spiritual lesson. God sometimes brings His people—even His most faithful servants—into complete despair of themselves through great trials and tribulations; and all so that they will cease to trust in their own resources altogether, and trust completely in Him instead. The apostle Paul and his ministry partner Timothy certainly learned this. It completely transformed them. Many of our Lord’s most faithful and most useful servants have had to learn it since them. And it may be that you and I are learning it even now.
But before we depart from this subject, let’s notice one more thing. In verse 11, Paul and Timothy stressed to their Corinthian brothers and sisters in Christ that God will yet deliver them; “you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many.” We cannot do this alone. That’s why Paul and Timothy were careful to tell their readers, “we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us …” They wanted them to know, so that they would lend their support in prayer.
And do you notice that Paul doesn’t say, “you also helping us together in your prayer for us …”? Instead, he simply says, “You also helping …”; and doesn’t say ‘helping who’. Could it be that the Corinthians’ prayers would be helping in the work that God was doing in Paul and Timothy to perfect a whole-hearted trust in Him through the trials? I believe we do a great service to one another in times of trial when we pray for each other. And we certainly should pray that, if it is His will, God would deliver us from the trial itself. But the way that Paul puts this suggests that when God brings us through great times of trial, and we pray for one another we should pray—most of all—that we learn to trust more perfectly in Christ through it all. That ends up being an even greater service of prayer than to pray for deliverance from the trial altogether. Such a support in prayer would result in a more complete trust in God alone—and in more eternal praise and thanks to His name.
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So; dear brothers and sisters in Christ; let’s not fuss when God allows hard trials to come upon us. Let’s learn to allow God, through those trials, to break us completely free from all dependency upon ourselves. Let’s allow the trials of life to cause us to place ‘the sentence of death in ourselves’ so that we can more completely trust in the God who raises the dead.
Then, we will truly be able to be a comfort to one another in the way God wants us to.
EA
