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Did Paul See the Third Heaven? | Studies with Stearman · Prophecy Watchers

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Studies with Stearman. Join us as we look
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  Speaker 1: deeper into the Bible. Strengthen your faith with us, even
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  Speaker 1: as we see the day approaching. And now, here's Gary.
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  Speaker 2: The older I get, the more I understand about Christianity
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  Speaker 2: that I didn't understand before. Growing up as a young
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  Speaker 2: boy in Christianity, in a rather large old institutional church
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  Speaker 2: with a beautiful pipe organ, I never learned about the gospel.
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  Speaker 2: The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ was simply not
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  Speaker 2: preached in that church. And I never learned about saving
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  Speaker 2: grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. I learned a lot
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  Speaker 2: about Jesus as a person, that he was a nice
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  Speaker 2: man who lived in the first century and did wonderful
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  Speaker 2: deeds and healed sick people and so forth, but I
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  Speaker 2: had no personal connection with Jesus. And the older I got,
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  Speaker 2: the less personal connection I had until when I was
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  Speaker 2: a teenager, I decided that all of this Jesus stuff
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  Speaker 2: wasn't relevant anymore. It was taking an hour or two
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  Speaker 2: out of my week that I could better use elsewhere,
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  Speaker 2: so I just kind of drifted away from church. I
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  Speaker 2: saw no relevancy in church. And as I look back,
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  Speaker 2: there was no relevancy in church, because it's not church
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  Speaker 2: where Where you find relevancy, it is in your relationship,
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  Speaker 2: your personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ that you
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  Speaker 2: find relevancy. And churchianity, as it's been laughingly called, has
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  Speaker 2: nothing to do with Christianity. Well, as we go through
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  Speaker 2: 2 Corinthians, and we've been going through 2 Corinthians for
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  Speaker 2: several weeks now, we discover that that's really Paul's message
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  Speaker 2: as he writes to the Corinthians. He's writing a letter
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  Speaker 2: to a church in a vile city. bad city, kind
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  Speaker 2: of a Las Vegas of the first century. It's a
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  Speaker 2: city where you can do anything, get anything, find anything,
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  Speaker 2: buy anything. It doesn't matter. It's a wild town. And
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  Speaker 2: the Corinthian church reflects that. And I think it's by
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  Speaker 2: the grace of God that there was a Corinthian church
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  Speaker 2: because it gave Paul the chance to illuminate all of
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  Speaker 2: the things that can go wrong with a church. And
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  Speaker 2: then to have a series of discourses with this church,
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  Speaker 2: which became public records, And it is this public record
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  Speaker 2: that we have in 2 Corinthians 12. The other thing
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  Speaker 2: I want to say before we continue is this. People
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  Speaker 2: in the world, if you hold up this book, this
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  Speaker 2: is the Holy Bible. This is the Holy Bible. And
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to thump on this a while. So you
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  Speaker 2: listen up. What do you think of when you think
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  Speaker 2: of the Holy Bible? You think of the Psalms, the prophets,
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  Speaker 2: you think of stories about Jesus, you think of a
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  Speaker 2: lot of holy stuff. And the holy eclipses the unholy.
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  Speaker 2: But in fact, when I read the Bible, you know
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  Speaker 2: what I find in it? The story of unholiness, starting
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  Speaker 2: with the sin of Adam and Eve. And I find
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  Speaker 2: a bunch of real horrific failures all the way through Scripture.
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  Speaker 2: In other words, the Holy Bible is not just perfection
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  Speaker 2: on four wheels. The Holy Bible is is the story
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  Speaker 2: of mankind in sin and the remedy for that sin
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  Speaker 2: in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't
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  Speaker 2: pull any punches, it's not about words and music and
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  Speaker 2: sweet wonderful thoughts, although it has those things in it.
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  Speaker 2: The heavens declare the glory of God and the earth
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  Speaker 2: his handiwork and so forth and so forth. It has
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  Speaker 2: all that in it, but what it really is is
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  Speaker 2: a story of a broken humanity. And when you are
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  Speaker 2: dealing with something broken, there's a lot of Anguish. There
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  Speaker 2: are tears. There are human repercussions of all kinds. And
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  Speaker 2: that's the story we have in 2 Corinthians. Now, it's
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  Speaker 2: amazing to me that Holy Scripture contains the failings of
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  Speaker 2: holy people. Peter, the night of Jesus' trial, failed miserably.
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  Speaker 2: He was running around stomping and cussing, denying Christ. Paul
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  Speaker 2: tried to destroy the early church. You can just go
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  Speaker 2: down the list. It's a story of human failure. The
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  Speaker 2: great King David, one failure after another. His son Solomon,
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  Speaker 2: one miserable failure after another. God used horrifically challenged and
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  Speaker 2: tainted human beings to do his work. And so that
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  Speaker 2: brings us to Paul. And as we have seen over
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  Speaker 2: the last few weeks, this letter from Paul is Paul
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  Speaker 2: being a fool. Chapter 11 starts in verse 1. He says, listen,
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  Speaker 2: I've tried everything I know of to make sense to
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  Speaker 2: you people and you're still accusing me of being a
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  Speaker 2: false apostle. So in 11.1 he said, would to God
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  Speaker 2: you bear with me a little while in my folly
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  Speaker 2: and indeed bear with me for I'm jealous over you
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  Speaker 2: with a godly jealousy. And he begins this plea that
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  Speaker 2: we looked at last week in what he describes as
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  Speaker 2: my folly. Forgive me, I'm going to act foolishly for
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  Speaker 2: a little while. The Greek word for foolish is afranos,
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  Speaker 2: which means unthinking. When you say franeo in the Greek,
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  Speaker 2: or franos, it means to think. And if you put
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  Speaker 2: the privative alpha in front of it, afranos, it means
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  Speaker 2: not to think, which is translated in the King James
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  Speaker 2: Bible as being a fool or folly here in 11.1.
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  Speaker 2: Would to God, Paul says, you bear with me a
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  Speaker 2: little in my folly, in my foolishness. Indeed, bear with me.
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  Speaker 2: And he goes on, as we saw last week, to
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  Speaker 2: present himself as foolish. It's hard to put this in
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  Speaker 2: context unless you begin to visualize Paul in a personal setting.
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  Speaker 2: Imagine that it's you and Paul in a little room,
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  Speaker 2: and he's in a rocking chair, and you're sitting over
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  Speaker 2: in front of a fireplace, and it's really quiet. And
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  Speaker 2: he's composing this letter and he's saying to you, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I wrote to the Corinthians a while back. Man, these
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  Speaker 2: people are a problem for me. Wow. And here's what
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  Speaker 2: I said to them. And then he begins to tell
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  Speaker 2: you what he wrote to the Corinthians. And I think
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  Speaker 2: of a character, and again, you've got to put this
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  Speaker 2: in character or you'll miss it. I think of a
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  Speaker 2: character a little bit like Peter Falk in the old
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  Speaker 2: Columbo detective series. Does anybody remember that one? And Columbo
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  Speaker 2: was this great detective who pretended to be kind of
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  Speaker 2: a doddering idiot. He'd walk around, well, gee, I don't know.
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  Speaker 2: He'd walk around kind of like he didn't know what
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  Speaker 2: he was talking about. He played the fool. But he
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  Speaker 2: was very, very smart. Well, this is Paul in 2 Corinthians.
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  Speaker 2: And he's just into his, gee, I don't know what
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  Speaker 2: to say, you people. Let me play the part of
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  Speaker 2: a fool for a little bit here. And, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I don't know what to say. But in saying that
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  Speaker 2: he doesn't know what to say, he says some amazing things.
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  Speaker 2: Drop down to where we were last week, 2 Corinthians 11, 16.
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  Speaker 2: Paul says, I say again, let no man think me
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  Speaker 2: a fool. If otherwise yet as a fool receive me
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  Speaker 2: that I may boast myself a little. That which I speak,
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  Speaker 2: I speak not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly.
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  Speaker 2: This confidence of boasting. He says, you know, I'm a fool.
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  Speaker 2: I'm just an old fool. What do I know? I
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  Speaker 2: know nothing. I'm a fool. And he's into his Dutch
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  Speaker 2: uncle mode here, or his ancient Hebrew rabbi mode, in
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  Speaker 2: which he's talking to you and he says, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I might be a fool, but listen. Listen to me
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  Speaker 2: for just a minute. He says, yeah, that which I speak,
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  Speaker 2: I speak it not after the Lord, but as it
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  Speaker 2: were foolishly, this confidence of boasting, seeing that many glory
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  Speaker 2: after the flesh, I will glory too. I will glory also.
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  Speaker 2: For if you suffer fools gladly, seeing yourselves are wise,
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  Speaker 2: for you suffer if a man bring you into the bondage,
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  Speaker 2: if a man devour you, if a man take of you,
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  Speaker 2: if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you
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  Speaker 2: on the face. And he's talking about all these false
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  Speaker 2: teachers that have been coming in after he left Corinth.
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  Speaker 2: These other people came in. with improved versions of the gospel,
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  Speaker 2: and they accused Paul of being a false apostle. They
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  Speaker 2: came in, they told the people, you know, they gave
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  Speaker 2: them the truth. Like, here's what Christianity really is. Now
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  Speaker 2: this Paul over here, he will say one thing, but
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  Speaker 2: listen to me. Christianity is not what Paul says it is.
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  Speaker 2: It's something else. And then they would castigate Paul, and
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  Speaker 2: they would impugn his person, and they would essentially call
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  Speaker 2: Paul a false apostle and an old fool. And so
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  Speaker 2: Paul is reacting to this by saying, okay, I'm a fool.
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  Speaker 2: I'll be a fool. He says, you suffer fools gladly.
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  Speaker 2: If a man bring you into bondage like a false
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  Speaker 2: teacher comes into your congregation and brings you under bondage,
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  Speaker 2: if a man devours you, if a man takes from you,
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  Speaker 2: if a man exalts himself, if a man smites you
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  Speaker 2: on the face, I speak as concerning reproach as though
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  Speaker 2: we had been weak, albeit where and so ever any
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  Speaker 2: is bold. I speak foolishly. I'm bold also. And then
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  Speaker 2: here's where we're going to start. Verse 22. Because last
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  Speaker 2: week when we came to verse 22 we discovered who
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  Speaker 2: these false teachers really are. In discovering this we discover
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  Speaker 2: Paul's modus operandi. And all through his ministry he was
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  Speaker 2: hounded by Jews. Usually Hellenistic Gnostic Jews who would come
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  Speaker 2: in and accuse Paul of false teaching and then supplant
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  Speaker 2: his teaching with their own version of teaching, which was
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  Speaker 2: you have to keep at least part of the law,
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  Speaker 2: and furthermore you have to understand that you are in
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  Speaker 2: the process of becoming a spiritual creature. And they began
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  Speaker 2: with this process of teaching that Jesus was not really
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  Speaker 2: a flesh and blood human being. He was a spirit
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  Speaker 2: man who descended from the Father. And then when it
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  Speaker 2: was time for him to leave, he ascended back to
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  Speaker 2: the Father. But he was never really a fleshly human being.
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  Speaker 2: He was a manifestation of spirit. This is Gnosticism. And
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  Speaker 2: so these false teachers would come in and the Grecian,
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  Speaker 2: the Hellenistic Jews, just ate this up because it fit
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  Speaker 2: their philosophies. Greek philosophy, indeed human philosophy, doesn't like the
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  Speaker 2: idea that God, through the mode of virgin birth, would
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  Speaker 2: come into the world in a fleshly body. Human beings
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  Speaker 2: are put off by that whole idea. They would rather
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  Speaker 2: have their God be God, something superior, something transcendental. And
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  Speaker 2: in fact, there is an entire movement in Christianity called transcendentalism.
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  Speaker 2: goes way back to the beginning of the 19th century
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  Speaker 2: and got really big at the beginning of the 20th century.
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  Speaker 2: And the idea of transcendentalism is that Jesus is not
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  Speaker 2: really a flesh and blood man, that's just a myth.
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  Speaker 2: Jesus is a spirit creature. It's Gnosticism. But Jesus sweat
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  Speaker 2: real human sweat, calluses on his hands, he knew what
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  Speaker 2: it was like to stub his toe, to live in
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  Speaker 2: a body that got dirty, sweaty human being, looked like
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  Speaker 2: an ordinary man. God gave up everything of himself, of
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  Speaker 2: his glory, to come and do what he did. And
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  Speaker 2: then when he was through doing what he came to do,
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  Speaker 2: he was glorified once again. This idea is repugnant to
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  Speaker 2: human beings. And you find that expression in very strange places.
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  Speaker 2: subtly expressed in a lot of books, particularly intellectual books.
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  Speaker 2: Anywhere you have an avant-garde version of the gospel, you
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  Speaker 2: find them denying the physical reality, the fleshly incarnation, the
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  Speaker 2: virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the first
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  Speaker 2: thing that goes out the window because human beings don't
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  Speaker 2: want a flesh and blood God who suffered just like
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  Speaker 2: we suffer. They want a God a transcendental God, a
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  Speaker 2: God that is somehow bigger than life. Well, as if
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  Speaker 2: Jesus is not. So Paul then identifies these people who
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  Speaker 2: are impugning his reputation. Verse 22, he says, are they Hebrews?
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  Speaker 2: So am I. Boy, is he ever a Hebrew. He's
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  Speaker 2: the Hebrew of the Hebrews, tribe of Benjamin. Brilliant man, Sanhedrin.
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  Speaker 2: Local boy studies under Gamaliel. I mean, he's a brilliant
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  Speaker 2: yeshiva boy. The guy just blows the top out of
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  Speaker 2: every class he's in all his life. Are they Hebrews? Yes,
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  Speaker 2: I am. So am I. Are they Israelites? Yes, so
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  Speaker 2: am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I.
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  Speaker 2: And the way he says this in Greek, and we
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  Speaker 2: talked about this last week, is he tosses it off.
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  Speaker 2: Are they Hebrews?
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  Speaker 1: Yes.
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  Speaker 2: You have to get the flavor. It's Paul sitting in
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  Speaker 2: his chair now and he's saying, are they Hebrews? Big deal. Listen,
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  Speaker 2: I'm a Hebrew. Are they Israelites? Eh, big deal. I'm
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  Speaker 2: an Israelite. Are they of the seed of Abraham? Eh,
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  Speaker 2: big deal. So am I. And he literally says that. Again,
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  Speaker 2: you have to visualize Paul in his foolish mode. in
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  Speaker 2: his Columbo mode, in his, so what? Listen, I'm a fool,
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  Speaker 2: but let me tell you something. I'm a fool, but
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to tell you something. This is the modality. Now,
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  Speaker 2: this is Holy Scripture that we're reading here. This is
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  Speaker 2: Holy Scripture. And it's the story of an apostle trying
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  Speaker 2: his very, very best to make sense to a renegade
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  Speaker 2: people in the church of Corinth. Are they ministers of Christ?
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  Speaker 2: He says, are they ministers of Christ? I speak as
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  Speaker 2: a fool. That's what I told the Corinthians. I'm speaking
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  Speaker 2: like a fool. Are they ministers of Christ? So am I.
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  Speaker 2: Big deal. I'm more. In labors abundant, stripes above measure,
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  Speaker 2: prisons more frequent, in deaths often. Of the Jews, five
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  Speaker 2: times received I forty stripes, save one. Thrice I was
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  Speaker 2: beaten with rods, once I was stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck,
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  Speaker 2: a night and a day. I've been in the deep,
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  Speaker 2: in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers,
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  Speaker 2: in perils of mine own countrymen. And of course those
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  Speaker 2: would be the renegade apostate Hebrews who were trying to
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  Speaker 2: wipe him out everywhere he went because the Jews had
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  Speaker 2: a certain way of teaching which was antithetical to Paul's
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  Speaker 2: method of teaching. They wanted to preserve the Hebrew traditions
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  Speaker 2: and they also wanted to preserve the idea of Hellenistic
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  Speaker 2: philosophy because they lived among the Greeks. They lived in
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  Speaker 2: a Greco-Roman culture and they had managed to blend or
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  Speaker 2: merge the Hebrew traditions with Greco-Roman culture. And so it
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  Speaker 2: is with Jews. In every society where they settle in
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  Speaker 2: during their years of diaspora and those diasporas began back
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  Speaker 2: in 722 BC, every place the Jews settled, they managed
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  Speaker 2: to survive as Jews, but they mingle their own historical
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  Speaker 2: traditions and theologies with the local theology, and so they
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  Speaker 2: become a kind of a mixed bag of religious belief
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  Speaker 2: while remaining genetic Jews. Of the Jews, says Paul in
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  Speaker 2: verse 24, five times, received I-40 stripes, saved one. He
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  Speaker 2: went to the Jew first and also to the Greek,
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  Speaker 2: if you recall. And the Jews hated him. This is
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  Speaker 2: nothing new. It's not new to Paul. The stories of
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  Speaker 2: Jews persecuting Jews goes way back before the first century.
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  Speaker 2: Jewish sectarianism was always a big problem within Judaism. He
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  Speaker 2: was beaten with rods. He was stoned. He suffered shipwreck.
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  Speaker 2: A night in the day, in the deep. In journeyings often,
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  Speaker 2: perils of waters, robbers, my own countrymen, heathen, the city
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  Speaker 2: and the country and the sea, among false brethren, weariness, painfulness,
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  Speaker 2: watchings often, hunger, thirst, and fastings often, in cold nakedness.
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  Speaker 2: Besides those things that are without... That is, outside problems
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  Speaker 2: that I've had to deal with, external problems, that which
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  Speaker 2: comes upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
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  Speaker 2: I have external problems, I have internal problems. Who's weak
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  Speaker 2: and I'm not weak? Who's offended and I burn not?
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  Speaker 2: And what he's saying here is, you know, I feel
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  Speaker 2: your pain. In spite of all the pain that I
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  Speaker 2: have personally suffered, he says, I feel your pain. Who's
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  Speaker 2: weak and I'm not weak? Who's offended and I burn
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  Speaker 2: not or grieve not? My heart burns within me when
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  Speaker 2: I see the suffering of other Christians. So I have
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  Speaker 2: my own difficulties and then I have the difficulties of
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  Speaker 2: all the churches that I founded laid upon my heart.
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  Speaker 2: Now what are we talking about here? We're talking about Christianity.
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  Speaker 2: This is the heart and soul, the core of Christianity.
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  Speaker 2: It is not organ music and hymns, although I have
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  Speaker 2: nothing against organ music and hymns. It is not feel-good messages,
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  Speaker 2: although I'm not against feel-good messages. And I think from
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  Speaker 2: time to time, depending on which part of the Bible
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  Speaker 2: we get into, we get into some feel-good areas of
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  Speaker 2: the Bible that will really build you up. But the
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  Speaker 2: reality of Christianity is that it's a battle. And we're
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  Speaker 2: going to really see that today as we move on
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  Speaker 2: deeper into what Paul is writing here. Verse 27 says,
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  Speaker 2: in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often. And I want
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  Speaker 2: to camp out on that word watching for a moment,
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  Speaker 2: because you sort of miss what it is in English.
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  Speaker 2: The word is agrupnia in Greek, and what it means is,
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  Speaker 2: it's sort of the Greek word for insomnia. It means,
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  Speaker 2: I can't sleep. And Paul's saying, in weariness... in painfulness,
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  Speaker 2: in sleeplessness, in hunger, thirst, fastings often, cold, nakedness. And
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  Speaker 2: then he says, besides those things that are on the outside,
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  Speaker 2: that which cometh upon me daily, namely the care of
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  Speaker 2: all the churches. And I feel the pain. Who is
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  Speaker 2: weak and I'm not weak? Who's offended and I burn not?
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  Speaker 2: I hurt for these people. And then he says, if
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  Speaker 2: I must needs glory, I'll glory of the things that
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  Speaker 2: concern my infirmities. Now here he's being really foolish. You've
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  Speaker 2: got to come back now to really understand the method
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  Speaker 2: that Paul's using here. He's using the old Dutch uncle
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  Speaker 2: idea or the old rabbi idea. Say, come closer. Listen
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  Speaker 2: to me. I got something to say to you. Listen,
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  Speaker 2: you know, look, you And he says here in that
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  Speaker 2: tone of voice, and just think about this tone of voice.
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  Speaker 2: It says, if I got to brag, I'm going to
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  Speaker 2: brag about the things that concern my weakness. That's what
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  Speaker 2: he's saying. What a thing to say. Imagine you're sitting
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  Speaker 2: with somebody and he says that to you. Somebody you
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  Speaker 2: really respect and admire and he's going on and on
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  Speaker 2: about everything he's suffered and how his enemies are abusing him,
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  Speaker 2: and he's got this problem church over here in Corinth
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  Speaker 2: that he has to deal with. And you're really into
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: his story. And then he says to you, if I
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: got to brag, I'm going to brag about those things
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: that concern my own weaknesses. I'm going to talk about
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: my weaknesses. You know, everybody's got weaknesses. And by the way,
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: I've never known anybody who didn't have A lot of weaknesses.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: And now let's just be upfront about this. Weakness is
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: kind of a weak word. Let's use a stronger word.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: I've never known anybody who didn't have deep flaws inside
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: of him or her. We are all flawed human beings.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: Except for me, of course. Ignore that. I'm very deeply flawed.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: And I won't go into all my flaws. A lot
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: of you know them. A lot of you think you
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: know them, and you really don't, because I'm really much
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: more flawed than that. And everybody has backgrounds, things they've
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: done and thought that they would never in a million
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: years want anybody to know about, right? Of course. That's
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: what it means to be human. But in church, you
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: go around pretending that you are accompanied by angels, and
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: you have this glowing light over your head, and you're
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: just a wonderful, wonderful human being. Why, Brother Fred, he's
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: just so godly. I'll never be as godly as Brother Fred,
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Whoa.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: If you only knew what Brother Fred did that time
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: over there in El Reno. But I'm not going to
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: talk about that. And not just El Reno, by the way.
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: But I'm not going to talk about Fred. This is
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: the tone in which we are proceeding. And this is important.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: It's really, really important because it helps you be balanced
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: in what Christendom really amounts to. So Paul says, if
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: I've got to brag, I'm going to brag about those
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: things that concern my weaknesses, my personal weaknesses. What? You, Paul,
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: have personal weaknesses? And he could list them, and he
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: often does list them. Horrific background. Had a wonderful background
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: in Judaism, but he also did some things. Can you imagine...
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Being the one assigned to destroy the early church and
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: given papers, rabbinical licensure, if you will, to go out
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: and destroy early Christian congregations, that would include separating families
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: and sending people to execution for crimes committed against God. Well,
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: that was Paul. Verse 31, the God and the Father
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: of our Lord Jesus Christ which is blessed forevermore knoweth
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: that I lie not. I'm going to talk to you
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: about my weaknesses. I lie not. And then he says
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: in Damascus the governor under Aritas the king kept the
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: city of the Damascenes with a garrison desirous to apprehend me.
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: That garrison was a contingent of Roman soldiers, by the way,
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: under the emperor Tiberius. Aretas was a king, an Edomite king,
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: who ruled over the territory of the Seleucids from Damascus.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Well known. His rule is a historical fact. Let's just
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: go back to Acts 9 and read this for a moment,
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: kind of refresh our memories. When Paul was converted, He
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: stayed in Damascus off and on for about three years.
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: Well this was the Damascus in the reign of the
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: emperor Tiberius when the Idumeans were on the throne not
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: only in the person of Herod the Great and Herod
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: Agrippa I in Jerusalem but also King Aretas in Damascus.
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: So we have here during the time of the emperor
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: Tiberius Paul coming to Christ. And he begins to preach.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: Acts chapter 9 verse 20. And straightway, this is Paul,
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: Son of God. But all that heard him were amazed
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: and they said, is not this he that destroyed them
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: which called on this name in Jerusalem and came hither
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: for that intent that he might bring them bound under
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: the chief priests? Isn't this the same Paul? who's trying
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: to destroy Christians, and now he's preaching Christ in the synagogues?
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: And this is early, early in Paul's life, just after
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: he was knocked flat on the Damascus road and heard
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: the voice of the Lord. Verse 22, Proving that this
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: is the very Christ. And so from moment one, while
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: he was still being called Rav Shaul of Tarsus, was
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: not yet even called Paul. He's out there preaching Christ
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: in the synagogues. You can only imagine what kind of
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: enemies he was making. Verse 23, and after that many
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: days were fulfilled. The Jews took counsel to kill him.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: But their laying a weight was known of Saul. They
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: the disciples took him by night and led him down
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: by the wall in a basket. And when Saul was
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: come to Jerusalem he essayed to join himself to the
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: disciples but they were all afraid of him and believed
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: not that he was a disciple. From minute one he
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: had to fight for his discipleship, his apostleship. This is
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: the story of Paul's life. He was an outsider. He
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: was not Peter, James, or John. He was not any
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: of the insiders. He was an outsider. He had not
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: known Jesus personally Before Jesus' crucifixion. Except probably by reputation.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: And all the time Paul had ever watched Jesus from
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: a distance it was probably with fear and loathing. Now
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: he's preaching Christ. And Paul here in his letter to
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: the Corinthians says, I knew a man he says in
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: Damascus under The governor under Aretas the king kept the
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: city of the Damascenes with a garrison desirous to apprehend
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: me and through a window and a basket I was
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: let down by a wall and escaped his hands. I'm
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: just speaking foolishly, friends. I'm an apostle. I got let
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: down by a basket one time. King Aretas was after
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: me for preaching the gospel. That's who I am. And
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: what he's doing is saying, you think you're great? I'm
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: a fool. You think you're great? Listen, I'll let my foolishness,
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: I'll let my shortcomings, my weaknesses speak for me. I'm
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: not going to brag. You want to brag about your
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: apostolic credentials? You want to brag about what God's done
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: in your life? He says, I'll brag. I'll brag about
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: my infirmities. If you're like me, every time you've ever
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: read these words you're thinking to yourself, why would he
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: do that? Why does he choose to present himself as
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: a fool boasting about his weaknesses? Why does he do that?
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: And then suddenly it hits you. You've got to understand,
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: he's sitting across from you in a rocking chair and
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: he's saying, listen, I've got this problem over here in Corinth.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: I've been telling these people. You wouldn't believe. They've They've
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: got a bunch of weird guys that have come in
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: and sold themselves as true apostles and these guys are
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: calling me a false apostle and these guys are teaching
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: legalism and they're teaching all kinds of strange spiritualist doctrines
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: and they're saying Paul with his preaching of grace and
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: his preaching that you don't have to keep the law anymore.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: This guy's a false teacher. He's a false apostle and
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: I got all these problems. And so I wrote to
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: the Corinthians and I said, guys, listen to me. I'm
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: the one who brought you to Christ in the beginning.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: And then these guys come in behind me and they say,
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: this Paul is a false apostle. And probably they were
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: using the fact that Paul was not one of the
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: original 12 to promote that idea. It would be very
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: easy to say, hey, you remember what Paul did Paul
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: used to try to destroy Christianity. He used to absolutely
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: go into people's homes and arrest them. He was trying
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: to wipe out Christianity. You know what I think? I
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: think he's still that same Paul. I don't think there's any,
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: he's just masquerading as an apostle now, but he's still
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: a guy that wants to destroy the church. It'd be
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: so easy as a false apostle to come in and
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: say that. It'd be really easy to impugn Paul's reputation.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: So Paul says, okay. You want to listen to those guys?
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: I speak as a fool. Let me talk about my
• 30:04
  Speaker 2: own credentials. Listen, I've been arrested, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, poverty stricken.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: I have been starving. I have been freezing. I've been
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: out in the rain. I haven't had enough clothing. The
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: You know, if I have to glory, I'm going to
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: glory in my weaknesses. Now, that's unnatural. I want to
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: tell you something. It's unnatural to brag about your weaknesses.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: It's not a natural thing. You brag about your strengths.
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, back in so-and-so, yeah, I did that. I
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: used to do this. I worked for so-and-so and I
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: made them a million dollars back there in 1972. Blah, blah, blah.
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: You go on and on and on about your great
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: achievements in life, whatever they are. And you try to
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: conceal your weaknesses. Right? It's human. You do it. I
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: do it. Everybody does it. Not Paul. No. You want
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: to talk about life credentials? I got life credentials. Man,
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: do I ever. This Nabataean king in Damascus wanted to
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: kill me. And I was let down by a basket
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: at night and I escaped the skin of my teeth.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: That's an apostolic credential if ever there was one. Now
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: we come to chapter 12 and he puts the capper
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: on this whole dissertation. Let's just read the first six
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: verses of chapter 12, 2 Corinthians. He says, it's not
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: expedient for me, doubtless, to glory. I will come to
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: in Christ about 14 years ago, whether in the body
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: I cannot tell or whether out of the body I
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: cannot tell. God knoweth. Such one caught up to the
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: third heaven. And I knew such a man, whether in
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: the body or out of the body I cannot tell.
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: God knoweth. How that he was caught up into paradise
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: and heard unspeakable words, which it's not lawful for a
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: man to utter. Of such a one will I glory,
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: yet of myself I will not glory, but in my infirmities.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: For though I would desire to glory, I shall not
• 33:06
  Speaker 2: be a fool. For I will say the truth, but
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: now I forbear, lest any man should think of me
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: above that which he seeth me to be, or that
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: he heareth of me. Paul says it's not appropriate there
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: in verse 1. He said it's not appropriate or profitable
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: for me to glory. But if I must brag, if
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: I must brag, and by the way the very word
• 33:40
  Speaker 2: that is translated glory in the King James Version here
• 33:43
  Speaker 2: is the Greek word for bragging. Kalkomai, wherever you see
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: that word glory, where it says, it's not expedient for
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: me doubtless to glory. It's the Greek word kalkomai, which
• 33:56
  Speaker 2: means to brag. I caught a 15-pound perch up there
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: in Michigan back in 74. I didn't even use a
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: fishing pole. I was lying in my bare hands. Only
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: time it's ever been done. You know, this is normal
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: for people. This is normal. To brag. Greek word kaukomai.
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: He said, it is not profitable for me to brag.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: I'll come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago. Now,
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: as Paul is writing this letter, it's.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: A.D.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: 56. We don't know exactly when in A.D. 56. It
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: could be approaching 57. It could be back in late 55.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: And he's talking about something that happened 14 years ago.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: That would be about A.D. 42, which is just before
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: his first missionary journey. He says, I knew a man
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: in Christ about 14 years ago. Whether in the body
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: or out of the body, I can't tell. God knows. See,
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: he's still in his fool mode. He's pretending that he's
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: just kind of an old fool. Yeah, bear with me
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: for a minute. I'm an old fool. You know, I'm
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: going to tell you something. You probably won't believe it.
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: I don't know whether it's worth believing, but I'm going
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: to tell you anyway. And yeah, this is the attitude
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: he's got. And you just never let this out of
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: your mind that when Paul is talking, he's talking to
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: you like, eh, take it if you want, leave it, listen.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: I'm a fool. What can I tell you? You've got
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: to remember that he's talking this way because this is
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: Holy Scripture, friends. Somebody wants to know what Holy Scripture is?
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: It's Paul sitting around pretending to be an old fool.
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: And why would he do that? Well, we're going to
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: get to why he does that today. So 14 years
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: ago he knew about this guy that made a trip
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: to the third heaven. The heaven where the apostle John went.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: Revelation chapter 4 verse 1 where John saw a door
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: open in heaven and he heard a voice that sounded
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: like a trumpet that said, come up here. And I
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: went up there, says John, and immediately I saw all
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: these things unfold before my eyes. Well, I think Paul's
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: talking about himself here. something that happened to him 14
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: years ago. And a lot of people have said that
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: what happened to him is addressed back in Acts chapter 14.
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: On Paul's first missionary journey, when he went up into
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: the cities of Lyconia, Derbe and Lystra, Acts chapter 14,
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: And that was a tough, tough trip. First missionary journey.
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: The people at first welcomed Paul and Barnabas as gods.
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: And then later on when Paul and Barnabas really started preaching,
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: the people said, wait a minute. This sounds like blasphemy
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: to us. And so they tried to kill Paul. Acts 14.19 says,
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: and there came thither certain Jews.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: These would be Hellenistic Jews from Antioch that would be
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: Antioch of Pisidia in central Galatia and Iconium who persuaded
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: the people and having stone Paul drew him out of
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: the city supposing he'd been dead. Albeit as the disciples
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: stood around about him he rose up, came into the
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: city and the next day he departed with Barnabas unto Derbe. Well,
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: a lot of people have said when Paul was stoned
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: and dragged outside the city He really was dead. He
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: didn't just appear to be dead. He was flat out dead.
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: And we see here a miracle, Paul being raised from
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: the dead. Well, this is about 14 years before Paul
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: is writing the letter of 2 Corinthians. Therefore, a lot
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: of people have said, and it may or may not
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: be true, I don't know, but it's a possibility that
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: when Paul says, I knew a man in Christ above
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: 14 years ago, whether in the body I cannot tell
• 38:39
  Speaker 2: or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: knoweth such one caught up to the third heaven. A
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: couple of things about this. Number one, what do we
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: hear today about? We hear about near-death experiences, right? There
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: are DVDs, there are books, tapes, all kinds of people
• 38:59
  Speaker 2: have had near-death experiences. They had a heart attack and
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: they went through the ceiling of the hospital and they
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: saw Heaven and then people were doing resuscitation back in
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: the ER and they came back through the ceiling and
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: into their body and they're alive today. And so they're
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: going around witnessing saying, I saw Heaven. Well, I don't
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: doubt that they may have. Sounds like a good thing
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: to do. And by the way, in near-death experiences people
• 39:30
  Speaker 2: also say sometimes that they see hell. In fact, statistically
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: you're more likely to report that you've seen hell than
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: heaven in a near-death experience. And one man actually did
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: a statistical analysis of near-death experiences and reported that. Makes
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: sense to me Because people that would be dying in
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: hospitals I think would preponderantly be non-Christians. Therefore it just
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: makes sense they would go to a fiery place and
• 40:01
  Speaker 2: they'd go whoop whoop whoop whoop, gotta get back, gotta
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: get back. And they're back in the hospital room again
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: and some of them subsequently receive Christ. And there's a
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: wonderful DVD that's in circulation right now about just such
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: a man who went to hell and came back and
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: immediately went and talked to a Christian and received Christ
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: and spent the rest of his life from that point
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: on preaching Christ and the gospel. So Paul had this
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: near-death experience. And what does he tell us about it?
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: Does he write 3 Corinthians, which is all about his
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: trip to heaven? I, Paul, made a trip to heaven
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: and you can't believe what I saw. No, he never
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: wrote that. Because God didn't want him to brag about
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: his life. God wanted him to assure everyone that he
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: was a mere mortal man laden with infirmities. And so
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: what Paul says, such a one was caught up to
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: the third heaven. I knew such a man, whether in
• 41:11
  Speaker 2: the body or out of the body, I cannot tell.
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: God knoweth how that he was caught up into paradise. Paradise.
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for
• 41:20
  Speaker 2: a man to utter. That is Paul's total story about
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: his near-death experience. That's it. God doesn't want Paul to
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: write about his near-death experience. He wants Paul to write
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: about his infirmities. Paul, if you've got to brag, brag
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: about your weaknesses and not your strengths. This is good
• 41:43
  Speaker 2: advice for everybody. It really and truly is for reasons
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: which will become very obvious here in just a moment.
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: Paul says, of such a one I will not glory,
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: verse 5. I won't brag about that. Yet of myself,
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: of myself personally, I will not brag except in my weaknesses. Weaknesses.
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: For though I would desire to brag, I shall not
• 42:19
  Speaker 2: be a fool, for I will say the truth, but
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: now I forbear. He said, I'm going to stop right now,
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: lest any man should think of me above that which
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: He says, I don't want you to have an exaggerated
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: sense of who I am. I want you to see
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: me as an ordinary man. I'm a tent maker. I
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: am a guy you've seen out working on the street.
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: I'm a guy who has been saved by grace and
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: not by any greatness in his own person, in his
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: own personality. I shouldn't even have been eligible for salvation,
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: and yet God in his grace lifted me up. This
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: is Paul's entire attitude, and if I have to brag,
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: I'm going to brag in my weaknesses and not all
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: the wonderful things that God's shown me. By the way,
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: Paul was personally taught by Jesus. After he was saved,
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: he went to Damascus. After his blindness was cured, he
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: went to Arabia for three years. I think he went
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: to Mount Horeb in the cave of Elijah, probably. You
• 43:35
  Speaker 2: can't prove that. It's not in Scripture, but I believe
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: he did. And there he was personally taught by Jesus
• 43:40
  Speaker 2: and when he came back he began to preach in
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: Damascus until they started hunting him down for his very
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: life and he fled Damascus in that infamous basket. He
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: went and preached in other places. But everywhere he went
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: and preached people were saying, isn't this Paul? Isn't this
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: the guy that used to try to rip up the churches?
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: How can he possibly be an Apostle? But his preaching
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: was so powerful and his humility so genuine that they
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: simply were unable to stop him. Verse 7 through 10. Ah,
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: he did. Paul must have received revelations you can't even
• 44:29
  Speaker 2: imagine from Christ. And lest I should be exalted above
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: to me a thorn in the flesh. the messenger of Satan,
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: might depart from me. And he said unto me, My
• 44:51
  Speaker 2: grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches,
• 45:09
  Speaker 2: in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: when I am weak, then am I strong. Powerful, incredibly
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: powerful words. That is the gospel. When you're weak, then
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: you're strong. The church likes to take that and invert it.
• 45:30
  Speaker 2: The church triumphant. Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: The church loves to invert that whole concept of strength
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: and weakness and make it, the church is going to
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: become the strongest body on earth. Well, pardon me, but
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: every time the church has tried to become a strong body,
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: it has become an apostate body. And politically strong churches
• 45:55
  Speaker 2: are never spiritually strong churches. There just isn't any concord
• 46:01
  Speaker 2: between salvation and politics. Though we would like to influence politics,
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: oh yes we would. And sometimes we do by the
• 46:11
  Speaker 2: grace of God. Our role is not strength. Our role
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: is being strong in our weakness. Paul goes to great
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: lengths to demonstrate this. You want to know what makes
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: me strong, says Paul? It is my weakness. I've had
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: a lot of opportunity lately to contemplate that. And it's
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: been a wonderful experience. In retrospect, it really has. Because
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: you begin by asking a lot of questions and then
• 46:43
  Speaker 2: you finally come to the place where you say, ah,
• 46:47
  Speaker 2: I understand now. My grace is sufficient for me for
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: my strength is made perfect in weakness. It's an alien concept.
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: It's a difficult concept. But once you incorporate that into
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: your thinking, it's an amazing concept. And this is Paul
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: in his apostleship. We'll quit on verse 11 today and
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: finish this letter next week. Verse 11 says, I am
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: become a fool in glorying, in bragging. I'm just foolishly
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: praising myself here, you know. Think of old Paul sitting
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: in that rocking chair. I'm just a fool in bragging
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: about myself. But you've compelled me. You made me do it.
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: For I ought to have been commended of you for nothing.
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: Am I behind the very chiefest apostles, even though I
• 47:36
  Speaker 2: myself amount to nothing. He says, I'm nothing. I'm just
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: a poor, weak, sickly human being. That's what I'm going
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: to brag about. But I want you to know this,
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: in no way do I lag in any way behind
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: any of the super apostles who have come to you
• 47:54
  Speaker 2: and bragged about themselves. If they want to come to you,
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: if they want to take your money, if they want
• 47:58
  Speaker 2: to do this, that, even slap you in the face, well...
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: So be it. But he said, I want you to
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: know I've never taken anything from you. I have only
• 48:09
  Speaker 2: given to you. I am not one of the big time,
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: big shots. I am just a fool. And I am weak.
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: And I'm not going to tell you about my trip
• 48:18
  Speaker 2: to heaven. God knows. Are they Hebrews? Eh, me too.
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: Are they Israelites? Me too. What? They think there's something
• 48:29
  Speaker 2: really hot? They're the seed of Abraham? Me too. Yeah,
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: you got that and 65 cents you can buy a
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: cup of coffee. What? That's his whole attitude. He'd probably
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: take more than 65 cents now. Am I so old?
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: Can I remember a dime cup of coffee? You better
• 48:48
  Speaker 2: I can. But think about this. My strength is made
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: in my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: upon me. So where do I get my strength? From
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: some inner me? From my own brain? From my heart?
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: From my life experiences? No, I get my strength through
• 49:22
  Speaker 2: the power of Christ. And it rests upon me by
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: grace and not by anything that I have done. This
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: is such an alien concept to human beings. Even after
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: you think you've got it, you forget about it five
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: minutes later. But it's a wonderful concept. And so he
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: proves his authority to this renegade bunch of Christians over
• 49:49
  Speaker 2: in Corinth who are about to follow a bunch of
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: false teachers by saying, hey, they think they're hot stuff? Eh,
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: I'm hot stuff. Let me brag a little bit. I've
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: been shipwrecked. I've been beaten. They stoned me to death. Listen,
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: I've been this. I've been that. I'm a weak man.
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: I'm bragging. I'm a weak guy. I've done some things
• 50:15
  Speaker 2: I'm not proud of. I'm bragging in my infirmity that
• 50:20
  Speaker 2: the power of Christ may rest upon me. I haven't
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: even begun to touch the true core meaning of these words.
• 50:30
  Speaker 2: I feel inadequate to deliver Paul's heartfelt words. This is
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: Paul speaking from his heart of hearts and I feel
• 50:38
  Speaker 2: inadequate utterly inadequate to interpret these words. I've studied them
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: in several different versions and in several different Greek lexicons.
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: I feel inadequate to tell you what he's telling you,
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: except to say, for when I am weak, then am
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: I strong.