The Scandal of Weakness

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to.

St. Mark the 6th chapter. Jesus went away.

From there and came to his hometown and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue and many who heard him were astonished saying, where did this man get these things?

What is this wisdom that is given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?

And they took offense at him. And Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor except in his hometown among his relatives and in his own household. And he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.

And he marveled because of their unbelief and he went about among the villages teaching. And he called the twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no money in their belts, but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.

And he said to them, whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there and if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.

And so they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus.

Amen. Alright, today we're going to be talking about something scandalous, but it may not seem scandalous at first, but it is when you start to push on the topic. So let's start with just a basic question.

What happens to a child if you do not discipline a child and you give a child everything that it wants? It turns into a monster, right? Boy or girl, it doesn't matter. It turns into a monster. This is popular in our own literature.

You guys remember the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? And Veruca Salt? Remember that chick? By the way, it wasn't an accident that she was wearing red, like satanic red, and that her fate was that she ended up perishing in a furnace.

At least that was kind of the implication, right? Well, y 'all remember the song that she sang? I won't sing it to you because I don't really know the lyrics, the tune all that well, but y 'all know the song.

It kind of goes, I want the world, I want the whole world, right? This is what she sang. Listen to these lyrics. I want to lock it all up in my pocket. It's my bar of chocolate. Give it to me. Now! I want today.

And I want tomorrow. I want to wear them like braids in my hair and I don't want to share them. I want a party with roomfuls of laughter, 10 ,000 tons of ice cream, and if I don't get the things I'm after, I'm going to scream.

I want the works. I want the whole works. Presents and prizes and sweets and surprises of all shapes and sizes and now I don't care how, I want it now. Who does she sound like? Satan. Exactly like Satan.

What did Jesus say? You are of your father the devil. That's what he said. He said you are of your father the devil. And without discipline, without correction, we exemplify the devil. What was it the devil said?

I think it was in Isaiah 14. Listen to these words. Oh, you are fallen from heaven, O day star, sun of the dawn. How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid low the nations. You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God.

I will set my throne on high. I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds and I will make myself like the most high. And I want it now.

So here's the idea. There are literally, no joke, only two religions in the world. Two. I know it seems odd. You sit there and go wait a second. You got Christianity, you got Islam, you got Buddhism. There's two religions.

One of them is the theology of self-glory. And the theology of self-glory is all about.

Me.

And the theology of self-glory has no room for suffering. No room for weakness. None at all. In fact, it gets annoyed by it. If I don't get what I want from my deity and get it now because I need it.

And what do I want? I want power. I want riches. I want sex without consequence. I don't ever want to suffer anything involuntarily. No consequences whatsoever. And don't even talk to me about sickness.

I need a God who's going to give me perfect divine health. And all I got to do is write a check. I can do that. It's pretty simple. Right? The theology of self-glory is the theology of Satan. And if you are listening to pastors or preachers or people on the radio or television who are filling your heads with this nonsense, they are the Veruca Salt pastors.

And they all might as well be wearing red just like her. Because they're going to suffer her same fate. And it's in that context we consider then that what Paul was doing in our epistle text. I love it when this passage comes up in our lectionary.

Love it. Because the presenting problem, if you don't know the history here, is that after Paul left the Church of Corinth, a church that he planted, a church that he catechized, he had put everything in motion, taught them the basics of the Christian faith.

No sooner did he leave, everything went off the rails. This was a crazy bizarre charismania church. They were abusing the gifts of the Spirit. The rich were keeping the poor from having the Lord's Supper.

And worse than that, there were these guys who called themselves not apostles but super apostles. They were even better than the apostles because, you know, Peter, James, and Paul. Well, Paul, he probably really wasn't a real apostle.

And this is what they would say about Paul. Because Paul wasn't one of the pretty people. Church history tells us that Paul was probably short, scrawny, hook-nosed, cock-eyed, and he was a horrible speaker.

And of course the super apostles probably keyed in on this and would say things like, you know, the apostle Paul, you know the reason why he doesn't charge you when he comes and preaches in your church?

It's because no one would pay him a denarius to listen to him. In fact, he even killed a fellow. Did you read about it in Luke's book called Acts? There was Paul. He was droning on and on and on and on.

Three hour long sermon. Who preaches for three hours? And some poor fellow fell asleep. Who can blame him? He fell out of a window and it killed him. He died. For real. Lucky for him, the apostle Paul could raise him from the dead.

But, you know, he raised him and dusted him off. But still. But the super apostles, oh man. They traveled with disco light balls, skinny jeans. They had a warm up rock band. And boy, these guys when they spoke, they could just keep you in the palm of their hands.

One minute you would be just laughing hysterically because their jokes were so on point. And then they would bring you into the depths of despair and you'd have to pull out your napkins and start wiping your eyes because, oh.

And of course, they expected you to pay top dollar for their appearance. And if you ever, ever questioned them, they'd strike you in the face. Put you in your place. Touch not God's anointed, you know.

This is how these guys operated. They were super apostles. In fact, they had the letter sigma on their togas. I mean, that's how important they were. And they let everybody know it. But see, when somebody behaves like that, it's a dead giveaway.

They have nothing to do with Jesus Christ. Nothing whatsoever. They are filling your heads with the doctrines of demons and teaching you to glorify yourself and expect God to share his glory with you.

Forget sharing. You'll just take his glory and apply it to yourself. That's what they're really all about. And so, Paul has put into the unenviable position of having to figure out how to unwind the satanic anaconda that has wrapped itself around the hearts and minds of the church of Corinth.

And he comes up with a very clever way of doing it. And it's in this context that we'll look at before we get back to chapter 12 because that's a continuation of it. Back in 2 Corinthians 11, Paul starts to ease into the rebuke.

It's going to be a little soft at first but increase in intensity as he goes. He says, I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me. You see, I feel a divine jealousy for you since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

And it's here I'd like to point something out. What great words those are. Present you as a pure virgin to Christ. We will recognize properly that each and every one of us, because of our sin, we are anything but pure virgins.

If sin is the thing that makes us, well, no longer virgins, then none of us were born pure. None of us were virginal in our births. We were the exact opposite. Born dead in trespasses and sins under the power and the dominion of the devil.

And yet Christ, his cross, his suffering and bleeding and death for your sins and mine is so powerful that we are made pure by his blood, by his sacrifice. And that God himself sees us as pure virgins.

Note that, what he said there. Let that be your interpretive key to understanding what's going on in that parable in Matthew 25 about the ten virgins, right? That'll help. But we continue. He says, I'm afraid for you in Corinth that just as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

Paul pulls no punches here. He makes it clear that what's at stake is their very souls. And it's the devil himself who's crept into the Corinthian church and is speaking lies in order to deceive them.

He says, if someone comes to you and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you received a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.

And that's not a compliment. That's a rebuke. Listen, a different Jesus can't save you. A different Jesus is an idol. A different spirit cannot save you. That is an idol. A different gospel is no gospel at all.

And Paul says in Galatians, even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than one already preached, let him be damned. That's how strong this is. What's going on? He goes. Now he gets to it.

Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles. What a stupid name, by the way. Super-apostles. Who does that? And who falls for it? Really? You know what? I'm no longer a pastor.

I'm a super-pastor. Okay. I can clear a conch's finger out in a week if I just carried on like that. Come on, right? But Paul says this. Even if I am unskilled in speaking, yeah, I killed a guy, I am not so in knowledge.

Indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things. And then he asks an interesting question. Did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preached God's gospel to you free of charge?

I mean, could you imagine a pastor, an apostle, who makes a point of not having an offering, not taking a penny, a denarius, a farthing, anything from people, working with his own hands in order to support his own ministry, but then also accepting help from other churches so that he can do his missionary work.

Who has barely anything to his name. He's constantly traveling. Right? And people say, you know what, there's something really fishy about that, that he's not charging you for his work. That's how bad things got twisted around.

He says, now I did rob other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. And when I was with you and I was in need, I didn't burden anyone. For the brothers who came from Macedonia, they supplied my needs.

So I refrained. And I will refrain from burdening you in any way. As the truth of Christ is in me, his boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. And why? Because I don't love you?

God knows I love you. And what I am doing, I will continue to do. And listen to what he says. In order to undermine the claims of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission, that they work on the same terms that we do.

Paul is speaking as a true apostle of Christ. And now he just lays it bare. Such men, they are false apostles. They are deceitful workmen. They are disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

And here Paul, the implication is clear. And he will not apologize for it. These men are not from Christ. These men were sent by the devil. They are filling your heads with a false Jesus, a false spirit, a false gospel.

They are disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. But they are in fact agents of Lucifer, the one who fell from heaven. All of their doctrines are Luciferian. So it's no surprise then if his servants disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.

But their end will correspond to their deeds. Did Paul just say they're going to hell? Yeah, he did. And that's what their fate was. So Paul then says this, I repeat and let no one think me foolish, but even if you do accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast for a little.

Now what I'm saying in this boastful confidence, I'm saying not as the Lord would, but I'm saying this as a fool. So Paul is going to make a fool of himself intentionally. He's going to speak stupidly for the whole point of making a point.

And making one that, well, will not quickly be forgotten. He says since many boast about according to the flesh, well then I'm going to boast too. For you gladly bear with fools, of course, being wise yourselves.

For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face. That's what the super apostles were doing to the saints at Corinth.

And when you recognize what's going on here, you sit there and go, ugh, that ain't good. Paul says though, to my shame, I must say we were too weak for that. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of, and he reminds them, I'm speaking now as a fool, I also dare to boast of that.

Are those super apostles Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? That's where the difference begins. No, they're not servants of Christ.

He's already made it clear that they are servants of the devil. So Paul now takes his foolishness and takes it up to 11. He goes, well I'm a better one. He says now, reminder, I'm speaking as a madman.

With far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, often near death, five times I received at the hand of the Jews the forty lashes lest one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned.

Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I was adrift at sea on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, and in cold and exposure, and apart from the other things is the daily pressure on me of the anxiety that I have for all the churches.

Who's weak and I'm not weak? Who's made to fall and I'm not indignant? Paul, in reciting that list, you can almost hear Joel Osteen from Houston go, hell, he ain't doing it right. He's supposed to be having his best life now.

He just needs to decree and declare with faith-filled words. Belogna. Paul's right on point. And this is the difference between the religion of Satan and the religion of Christ. So Paul says, so if I'm going to boast, I'm going to boast of the things that show my weakness.

Who does that? Boast of the things that show your weakness? Come on. Everybody knows that this is a world that we live in as a result of evolution. And evolution tells us what? Survival of the fittest.

You've got to be strong. You've got to take over. You've got to be in control. You've got to be cool as a cucumber and you've got to crush your enemies. You know what's really interesting is that there was a fellow, his name was Anton LaVey.

He was the founder of the Church of Satan. Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, made it very clear, he pulled no punches, that he believed that Satan worship was really all about self-indulgence.

It was all about you. In fact, he came up with his own Satanic version of the Beatitudes. I apologize in advance for reading these here in this holy place. But I want you to hear these words, because when you hear it, you can recognize, wait a second, that's the same religion of the televangelists, of the theologians of glory.

Here's what he says. Anton LaVey, blessed are the strong, for they shall possess the earth. Cursed are the weak, they shall inherit the yoke. Blessed are the powerful, for they shall be reverenced among men.

Cursed are the feeble, for they shall be blotted out. Blessed are the bold, for they shall be the masters of the world. Cursed are the righteously humble, for they shall be trodden under cloven hoofs.

Blessed are the victorious, for victory is the basis of right. Cursed are the vanquished, for they shall be vassals forever. Blessed are the iron-handed, for the unfit shall flee from before them. Cursed are the poor in spirit, for they shall be spat upon.

Here's the thing, my sinful nature says amen to all of that. So does yours. At the core we are born under the dominion of darkness, in league with the devil. And you want to know why our world is so screwed up?

It's because we have enacted these luciferian values. We buy into them by nature. The reason why our world is such a mess is because we exemplify in our actions these very satanic values. And I'm not talking about them, I'm talking about you.

You do this with your friends, you do this at work, you do this with your family, you do it with yourself. And it's here where we have to recognize where this really comes from. And that's why I said this is a scandalous sermon, because we're talking about what?

Not strength, weakness. It's in this context then that Paul's going to talk about a thorn that he receives from God in order to prevent him from becoming conceited. And I would note something here before we get into this portion of the text.

That we live in a world where there are a lot of people who are ex-Christians, and they're very vocal about it. I follow them on social media because I'm always curious about what they're talking about and what they're saying.

And recently a bunch of them were talking on social media, chatting among themselves, talking about what fools they were. Because when they were Christians in high school growing up, they took vows of purity and chastity and promised to keep their virginity until they got married.

And they were saying basically, we got duped. We were abused by that. This was wrong of them. How dare they? Well, what is it that they're saying? Well, they're buying into the Luciferian value that hey, be yourself.

Follow your heart. You want to fornicabutilate? You go right ahead. Don't keep anything back from yourself. And don't let anybody tell you that you can't or shouldn't do that or that it's even wrong to do so.

The only thing that's wrong in this Luciferian system is to deny yourself anything. I want you to think about that. The Scripture is clear. Thou shalt not commit adultery. That's a commandment. We break it all the time.

Even if you haven't physically broken it, you still do it in thought. You still do it in your heart. Right? So note here that when you buy into this Luciferian value, you will not take instruction. You will not take correction.

And you will wrongly believe that anybody who is speaking biblical sense to you is not your friend but your enemy. That's the real depth and magnitude of it. Augustine in this regard says this, not everyone who spares is a friend, nor is everyone who strikes an enemy.

Love mingled with severity is better than deceit with indulgence. That's a good quote. Something we should consider. Augustine was right. So in this regard then, we actually now get to our epistle text.

Paul says, if I must go on boasting, though there's nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. Oh yeah, the super apostles, they talked about their dreams and their visions.

And Paul here pulls a trump card out because he actually had a vision where he got to see what was going on in the third heaven, the abode of God. And you'll note, he wasn't allowed to talk about it. He says, I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know.

God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know. God knows. And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. Listen to those words, which man may not utter.

If you are following anybody on the internet who claims they've been to heaven, written a book about it, or travels there often, I think like Kat Kerr, I think she goes to heaven like 50 times a week, does video blogs about it at least four times a week.

I mean, she's got a flat up there. She stays up there all the time. When people talk like this, they're not telling you the truth at all. They're not saying the truth at all. Paul couldn't utter what he saw.

Paul says, on behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. Though if I would wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I'd be speaking the truth. But I'll refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears in me.

So to keep me from becoming conceited, that's really what the text says here. To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelation, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me and to keep me from becoming conceited.

Note the reason he had this thorn in the flesh. We don't even know what it was. The reason he had this thorn in the flesh was to keep him from becoming like the devil. What is the devil's sin? Pride, arrogance, conceit.

They're all synonyms. And so because Paul had this gift given to him where he got to see what was really truly happening in the heavenly kingdom, God didn't want him to become like the devil. Why? Because God loves Paul.

And God loves you. And so you'll note, he pleaded with God three times. I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. And what did God say? No. Why did he say no? Because he loved him. He said, my grace is sufficient for you.

And here's the scandal. My power, Christ says, it is made perfect in weakness, not strength. And no truer words can be spoken. And that's the scandal of Christ, is it not? Oh, listen to Anton LaVey and the Luciferians.

Oh, they mock Jesus. Oh, he was a complete failure. Why? Because they nailed him to a cross and he died. But was he a failure? You see, Scripture is clear that although Jesus was by nature God, he did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped.

Even though he was the actual God, he doesn't harbor any Luciferian thoughts. And so what did he do? He humbled himself. He was born of a virgin teenager from a town that's racked in poverty, Nazareth.

And he humbled himself taking on the form of a slave. And Jesus, God in human flesh, was obedient. Everybody's supposed to be obedient to God, yet Christ humbled himself and he was obedient. Obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

I can point to no greater example of complete, abject weakness than Christ. And yet, his death on the cross is the very thing that conquered the devil. His death on the cross is the thing that set us free from slavery to the dominion of darkness.

Forgave us of all of our rebellion against God. Forgave us for all of our Luciferian, selfish, conceited, prideful ways. All of that was conquered by the ultimate weakness. A man naked, bleeding, dying in shame and in darkness, suffering, languishing on a cross.

That's how Christ conquered the devil and saved you and I. It is true, Christ's power is made perfect in weakness. And this calls us to repent and to recognize, man, I really have been in league with the devil.

Because you have. Paul says then, therefore, because Christ has said these words, I will boast all the more gladly now of my weaknesses. Chastened by the thorn that was in his flesh. The one that was given to him by the God who loved him too much to let him go his own way.

He now embraces these words of Christ and he will only boast in his weaknesses. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am now content with weaknesses.

I am content with insults, with hardships, persecutions, and calamities. You see, because when I am weak, it is then that I am strong. With the strength of Christ. Augustine, writing on this text, said, therefore, in these trials that we suffer as Christians, which can be both our blessing and our bane, we don't know how we should pray.

Yet, because these trials are hard, because they are painful, because they go against the feeling of our human weaknesses, by a universal human will, we often pray that our troubles may depart from us.

But this need of devotion we owe to the Lord our God, that if he does not remove them, we should not think that he has deserted us, but rather, by lovingly bearing evil, we are to hope for greater good.

This is how power is made perfect in infirmity. To some, indeed, who lack patience, the Lord God in his wrath grants them what they ask, just as, on the other hand, he in his mercy often times refuses people's requests.

Have you ever thought about that? Think back across your life. Have you ever prayed for something, and then only later realized, oh, thank God, God said no to that prayer. I think of the late Walter Martin.

Walter Martin used to have this funny analogy he'd use along these times. He says, remember when you were in high school, and you loved her, right? Or you girls, him, right? And so you prayed to God, God,.

Please let me marry her or him,.

Right? And then God said no. And you were really upset because God said no. And then at your 30-year high school reunion, you said, thank God, thank God he said no, right? I know all the girls who had the hots for me, when they see me now, they go, thank you, Lord, thank you.

Right? But sometimes you'll note, then, that when God gives us something that is harmful, it is because he's doing so in wrath. A no, often times by God, can be a loving, fatherly no because he cares for you.

And if God gives you what you want, and what you want is evil, God's basically turning you over to it. Consider that. Cyprian of Carthage, on this text, says, thus also the Apostle Paul, after shipwrecks, after scourgings, after many grievous tortures of the flesh and body, he says that he was not harassed, but he was corrected by adversity, in order that while he was still more heavily afflicted, he might the more truly be tried.

There was given to me, he says, a thorn in my flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted. Concerning this thorn, I asked the Lord three times that it might depart from me. He said, my grace is sufficient for you.

For when there is some infirmity and weakness and desolation that attacks us, then is our power perfect. Then our faith is crowned. If though tempted, it has stood firm. This finally is the difference between us and the others who do not know God.

They complain. They murmur in adversity. While adversity does not turn us from the truth of virtue and faith, it instead proves us in suffering. Scandals, when you think about it, runs completely contrary to the values of the world and even what you believe inside of your own sinful flesh, but it's true.

Christ's strength is made perfect in our weakness. So let us renounce the devil in all of his ways. Again, and repent, and embrace the infirmities, the difficulties, the afflictions, the tortures, the suffering that we go through as Christians, and rejoice then in our weaknesses, because a world is coming where there will be none of that, but it only comes through the weakness of the cross, and we are called to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses and follow Christ.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

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