WWUTT 1713 I Will Boast of My Weakness (2 Corinthians 11:24-33)

Paul went through immense beating and pressure and torture for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And he did this for the sake of others, that they would hear the truth and believe when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's Word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing, and if this has ministered to you, please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Paul’s Sufferings as an Apostle of Christ

Thank you, Becky. We're back to our study of 2 Corinthians 11. We've got a pretty good chunk to finish up in this chapter, but I think we can do it today. I'm going to begin reading in verse 24, and we'll go through verse 33 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

This is the Word of the Lord through the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth. Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned.

Three times I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the desolate places, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brothers.

I have been in labor and hardship, in many sleepless nights, in starvation and thirst, often hungry, in cold and without enough clothing. Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.

Who is weak without my being weak? Who is made to stumble without my burning concern? If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.

In Damascus, the Ethnarch under Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me, and I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and so escaped his hands. We come back to verse 24 here, where Paul now starts going through those things that he has received as an apostle of Jesus Christ.

As one who has gone out with the gospel, telling people to turn from idols, to turn from sin, to the true and living God, and pursue his righteousness, because he has declared these things, the crucifixion of Christ and his resurrection from the dead.

There are people who have beat him for this. He's been beaten by Jews, and he has been beaten and imprisoned by Gentiles, both. On both sides, Jews and Gentiles, they have all come against Paul and oppressed him because of the gospel that he proclaimed.

And he says, five times I received from the Jews, 40 lashes less one. This was the punishment that the synagogue would give to a person who was a false teacher, 39 lashes. And Paul said that he received this beating five times.

Now why 39 lashes? Why 40 lashes less one? Because in the law, in Deuteronomy chapter 25, verses one through three, we read this. If there is a dispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense.

40 stripes may be given him, but not more, lest if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight. So there is a manner of punishment that is given in the law there to beat someone on the back in proportion to the wrong that they have done.

The most number of lashes they could receive was 40. That doesn't mean every time they committed an offense, it was always going to be 40 lashes. That was just the maximum number that they could receive so that they would not be degraded in the sight of the people going on and on beyond 40 degraded would mean like it just becomes downright sick and gross.

His back is flayed open and you can see his ribs. And that's that's how seriously awful that kind of beating can be if it were to proceed beyond the 40 lashes. So you've got this whip that's just, you know, probably a leather whip.

It's not like the kind of whip that Jesus was beaten with when he was scourged because that whip had like bone and barbs and things like that in the tips of it. This was a this was just a leather whip still would have hurt a lot and it would have scarred.

It still could cut open the back. It still could have left wounds there that you would have observed. You would have recognized a person has been beaten for some sort of serious offense. When you looked at his back, Paul received this for false teaching.

At least that's the way the synagogue judged the teaching that he was that he was delivering. He was proclaiming that Jesus is the Christ. He's the Messiah. And that if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be forgiven your sins and you are justified by faith and not by works of the law.

Well, the the priests, the Pharisees, they called that blasphemy. So Paul was beaten for proclaiming that. And he was beaten with the 40 lashes less one. Well, why less one? Well, this was kind of a legalistic measure where instead of doing 40 lashes, they would decide that the maximum was 39 just so they wouldn't accidentally go over the 40.

So look at how righteous we can be. Only giving you 39 lashes instead, what they should have shown was mercy. What they should have known was the truth and not beaten Paul at all. But consider that five times he received these 40 lashes.

That's one hundred and ninety five times one hundred and ninety five strikes to the back. Because if it was five times 40, that would be 200. And then it's thirty nine lashes. So it's less one five times.

So that's one hundred and ninety five. There's my mental math for you. One hundred and ninety five times he was struck in the back with a whip. And he bore the marks of it. He says that in other places in his in his letters, he he bears the marks.

Of the suffering that he's had to endure for proclaiming the gospel of Christ, if he took his his robe and his cloak off, you would have seen this this back that had just been stripped, but it scarred over with all of the lashes that he had received.

Now, as he says this to the Corinthians, it would almost be as if to say to them, how about those super apostles, those most eminent apostles? How many stripes do they have on their back? Do they bear the marks of the gospel that they have that they've proclaimed and been persecuted for it?

They're not even proclaiming the gospel. The world loves those false teachers because they're from the world. They're not of Christ. If they were of Christ, the world would hate them. But because the world loves them, they're of the world and not of God.

But they don't have these stripes on their back. These guys are doing fine. That's part of the reason why the Corinthians find them so attractive. They're so successful. Look at them. Everybody loves them.

The people in Corinth love them. Of course they do, because they talk like the people of Corinth. They talk like the world, not like an apostle of Jesus Christ. So there's no marks on their back. You could see Paul's back beaten for proclaiming the gospel, but you would not have been able to tell that among the super apostles because they've never been beaten for that.

And this is to say to the Corinthians how much Paul has affection for them, that he would be willing to go through that for them. Five times I received from the Jews, 40 lashes less one. He goes on in verse 25, three times I was beaten with rods.

Now that was how the Gentiles would punish a person who was a public nuisance or a menace or preach some things falsely. Like you think about the riot at Ephesus that happened in Acts chapters 18 and 19.

And what was stirred up there were the artisans, the people who were the silversmiths. They made idols. They made a profit off of false gods there in Ephesus. They start complaining because Paul is leading people away from idol worship to worship his God, this Jesus Christ.

So they're upset about that because they're losing income. And then the whole riot in Ephesus starts up as a result of that whole thing. So there were Gentiles that hated the message that Paul preached because that was offensive to them as well.

They wanted their flood of debauchery. They wanted to continue in the, the, the lewd acts, the sexual immorality, their drunkenness, their idol worship, and all of that pertain. So when Paul comes along and says, no, that's wicked and you're going to be judged for that, then of course the Gentiles hate him for that.

So preaching things like that and being a public nuisance, there was a kind of punishment that the Gentiles inflicted upon such a person as well. And that was being beaten with rods. So you have in verse 24, five times I received from the Jews, 40 lashes less one, that's from the Jews.

And then in verse 25, three times I was beaten with rods. That's the Gentiles, Jews and Gentiles. They both hate this message. But again, look at the false teachers. Are they being persecuted by Jews or by Gentiles?

Paul goes on to say, once I was stoned three times, I was shipwrecked a night and a day I have spent in the deep. Now we read about Paul being stoned at Lystra, that's in Acts chapter 14, where Paul mentions three times I have been shipwrecked.

Now the interesting thing here is the shipwreck that we read about at the end of the book of Acts that would not have been included here because that event had not happened yet. So Paul was shipwrecked multiple times.

And you would think at some point this guy would say, Lord, why, why does this keep happening to me? I'm out there preaching the gospel. I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. And yet all of these afflictions keep coming upon me.

Come on, God, you would think that Paul would respond that way. But remember what we have at the beginning of this letter to the Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians chapter one. These things happen to us to remind us not to rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

And I had quoted to you passages yesterday, like from 1st Peter chapter four, where Peter says, do not think it's strange, this fiery trial that comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you.

But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings. Keep on rejoicing so that at the revelation of his glory, you may rejoice with exaltation. Peter goes on in verse 14, this is 1st Peter 4, 14. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

You are blessed when you are persecuted for the name of Christ. So rejoice in those things. In the book of Acts, the apostles rejoiced that they were persecuted and counted worthy to suffer for the name.

Do you feel that way when you are persecuted, when somebody hates you for the gospel that you believe? Or do you start crying about it? Do you start raising a public ruckus and saying, hey, I've got freedom of religion here.

These people are afflicting me and they're infringing upon my religious rights. Now I think that we should defend our religious freedom. And even Paul, when he was wrongly imprisoned, he exercised his Roman rights to object to the way that he was treated.

So there is a right way to do that. But don't complain about it to go so far as to remove the blessing that you've received for being persecuted for the sake of Christ. That's a wonderful thing. So rejoice in the Lord that you would be persecuted and be counted worthy to suffer for the name.

All these ways that Paul suffered that he lays out here before the Corinthians. I was stoned three times. I was shipwrecked a night and a day I have spent in the deep. I have been on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers, in dangers from robbers, in dangers from my countrymen, in dangers from the Gentiles.

There you have Jew and Gentile again, the Jews that hated Paul, the Gentiles that hated Paul dangers in the city, dangers in the desolate places. Doesn't matter if I go into a major metropolitan area or I'm going to the outlying areas and I'm reaching those people that are in rural places, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brothers, those that claim to be Jews and are not those that claim to be apostles and are not like these super apostles, the most eminent apostles who have come preaching to the Corinthians here, this false gospel.

Paul says, I have been in labor and hardship. In many sleepless nights in starvation and thirst, labor and hardship. Remember that Paul would work for his own living. He would work for his bread. He would not make anybody care for him.

And it's one of the things that he references with the Corinthians here in chapter 11 earlier in the chapter saying to them, should I have taken money from you? These most eminent apostles, they take money from you.

I did not burden you with that at all. I did not take any of your money. I provided for myself. But you seem to be more convinced by a person who comes in here saying you need to pay me for this message that I'm delivering to you than you were convinced by me who would not take your money.

It's almost like the the the thing of saying you get what you pay for was somehow working on the minds of the Corinthians. Well, Paul doesn't charge us anything. So apparently his message is not worth that much.

These most eminent apostles, they're making us pay them for the stuff that they're preaching to us. So maybe their message is worth more. That's not the measure of true or false, but that's probably what was going on in the minds of the Corinthians.

So Paul would labor for his wages so that he would have a living wage. He did not become a burden to anybody, said the same to the Thessalonians and said to them, if anybody is willing to not work, then he should not eat.

He said, we came to you and we work to give you an example of of people who should work and mind their own business. And if anyone is not willing to work, don't let him eat. So here he says, I've been in labor and hardship.

Now, I'm taking that quite literally in the sense that Paul would work, he would labor for his money. He was a tent maker by trade. But this also could apply to the real hard work that he actually did to travel around and preach the gospel and plant churches.

That's that's hard work, especially when you consider that he did not have the modern kind of transportation that we enjoy today. Walking all those distances was really hard work. He's been in labor and hardship, many sleepless nights.

If you can't lay down in a soft bed, especially your own bed in your own home, it's really difficult to sleep. Many sleepless nights in starvation and thirst. Often hungry. In cold and without enough clothing.

And when we get to Second Timothy, Paul says to Timothy that when when Timothy comes to visit him, he's supposed to bring his cloak, Paul's cloak with him, because at that time Paul was probably in some sort of a dank cell and it was probably pretty miserable.

He didn't have his cloak with him. He would have had those things taken from him when he was put in chains and thrown in prison. So he's asking Timothy to bring his cloak to him so that it won't be so miserable in the cell that he's in.

Verse 28, apart from such external things like food and clothing, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. And Paul had talked about his concern for the Corinthian church from a distance earlier in this letter.

He was worried that the tearful letter that he had to send to them had had hardened their hearts and maybe they had become embittered against Paul and had gone after these false teachers and were no longer walking in the way of the gospel anymore.

Now, some of them were listening to these false teachers. But Titus comes to the Corinthians and then he goes back to Paul and gives Paul a good report of what he witnessed there. And then Paul rejoice.

But he talked about how his soul was vexed because he didn't know how the Corinthians were doing. And he did not he was not able to meet up with Titus at the time that he thought he was going to meet with him.

And then when finally Titus came to him, then he was put at ease hearing about how the Corinthians were receptive of the tearful letter that Paul sent. They were repenting and they were turning back to the true gospel.

So Paul rejoiced. And that account that we have here in second Corinthians, that's just a small picture of the longing, the heartfelt affection that Paul had for all of these churches that he had planted and even those churches that he was not a part of, that he didn't have anything to do with planting, like the church in Rome and the church in Colossae.

Both of which churches that he wrote letters to in the New Testament, Romans and Colossians. So he has this daily pressure, this concern that he has for all the churches. This is a man who labored for them even in prayer.

Verse twenty nine, who is weak without my being weak, who is made to stumble without my burning concern? Again, talking about those things that Paul would feel in his heart, if he hears about somebody stumbling on the way instead of continuing in the true gospel, he was vexed in his heart over that person.

If I have to boast, he says, I will boast of what pertains to my weaknesses. And that's what we've had here. That's that's what we've had on this particular list. We've been hearing about Paul's weaknesses.

Notice that the list does not look like I planted this church and this church. And this church has done so many different baptisms. And this church has has sent out so many missionaries to the world. And I visited all of these cities.

How many cities have those super apostles been to? And I have had this many disciples and I've trained X number of preachers a day on and on it goes. Paul didn't list out his accomplishments and what he has done.

He listed out those ways that he suffered for their sake to proclaim Christ to them. So who gets the glory here? Not Paul. Christ gets the glory. If I have to boast, I'm going to boast of what pertains to my weaknesses, the God and father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.

But God knows that these most eminent apostles are lying. And then finally, these last couple of verses, Paul says in verse 32 in Damascus, the Ethnarch under Aretas, the king, was guarding the city of the Damascus in order to seize me.

They put the entire city under siege, their own city under siege. To catch Paul. And yet he managed to get out from get out from their clutches, he managed to escape their scheme, I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and so escaped his hands.

And once again, this would be in contrast with the false teachers. How many of those false teachers have had a city under siege to try to catch them because of the message that they proclaimed? The cities don't hate them because they preach what the cities love.

I quoted to you earlier this week, I think it was Monday, could have been last week, too. But from First John, chapter four, let me read a larger section there. This is First John four verses one through six.

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this, you know, the spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.

This is the spirit of the Antichrist, of which you have heard that is coming. And now it is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.

They are from the world. Therefore, they speak as from the world and the world hears them. We are from God. The one who knows God hears us. The one who is not from God does not hear us from this. We know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

So people who are worldly, they're going to listen to worldly teaching, people who are godly, they're going to listen to godly teaching. And so Paul sets before the Corinthians who is preaching the truth and who is lying.

And he says, the God and father of our Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. We get to perhaps the most famous chapter in 2nd Corinthians next week in chapter 12. Heavenly Father, forgive us our sins.

Help us to walk in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. May we not go after the desires of our flesh, the temptations of the world, or the teaching of the world. We fix ourselves according to the true teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ that we have in scripture.

May we turn from worldly ways to walk in godliness. And may this be done by the strength of your power, oh God. It's in Jesus name we pray.

Amen. For more about our ministry, visit us online at www .utt .com.