2 Corinthians 1:3-11 (Thankful for the Scars, Jeff Kliewer)

Let's pray open our eyes Lord that we may behold wondrous things out of your Word.

My soul melts away for sorrow. Strengthen me according to your Word. Incline our hearts to your testimonies and not to selfish gain. We pray Lord in the opening of your Word. That you'd open our eyes to see wondrous things.

That you'd strengthen our soul According to your Word that you would incline our hearts to your testimonies. Lord we need you to come and do surgery inside of our hearts. Because in and of ourselves We do not seek you.

There's no one who seeks God. But you by your precious Holy Spirit are able to move and change hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. Help us to feel your Word this morning. Help us to hear your Word and be transformed by it in Jesus name.

Amen. The Internet has answers To all your questions, but it's surely a toss-up whether they're good ones. Nowadays on the Internet they have a feature where when you begin to type something into the search engine on Google Google will autofill for you what comes next.

To kind of suggest what you might be searching for and you end up clicking what they suggest. So if you were to put into the Google search tab the phrase women can. The autofill would supply for you the words fly.

Vote, do it, do anything and be drafted. Those are the top ones. So women can do anything. Women can do it. Women can fly. Women can be drafted. However, if you were to put into the Google search engine and try this later I tried it this morning and it still works.

If you were to put in men can. The first autofill option is have babies. Men can have babies. According to Google the second option get pregnant.

Have periods.

Cook or. Think about nothing. These are the autofill options that Google supplies for us. The Internet is not trustworthy.

To say the least.

The world pushes narratives upon us and Of course the Internet is one of the mechanisms of the world just as television and radio and pop culture all things push a narrative Upon us the course of this world the Bible calls it.

Well right now one of the things on the Internet that I see a lot of is this concept of karma? that the reason that people suffer is because They did something either in a previous life or earlier to somebody else and now they're getting repaid For the thing that they did wrong.

I watched one video where Some some guru on YouTube was selling the idea of karma and he gets on there and says well watch this scene and they demonstrate a man Breaking up with his wife to run off with another woman and he's harsh and he runs off.

But then three years later the woman that he's with has the same conversation with him leaving him high and dry and so. The teacher comes on and tells us this is the reason for his suffering it's karma.

He's done something to deserve the suffering. He's now going with now being that this was not a Christian video. The speaker couldn't say that he was wrong to leave his wife in the first place or she would be wrong to leave her husband.

Instead he says well if he wants to leave that's fine because he needs to be happy after all the world revolves around a person's happiness in the narrative and but then it goes on to say That karma really explains everything and all suffering is the result of something that you've done.

And it's not that there's a personal God punishing you just the forces of nature of which were all apart they work out the system so that Suffering is a part of life as we're being punished essentially for our sins.

That's one answer to the problem of suffering, but don't trust it a Second one is probably more prevalent in the West see that was the Eastern Theodicy the Eastern philosophical Buddhist Hindu philosophy of suffering but the Western view is really shaped a lot by a guy named Harold Kushner who wrote a book when bad things happen to good people and the teaching of Rabbi Kushner in more of a Western mindset is that God is Sympathetic and he suffers with us, but he's just not able to prevent suffering in some cases be it because of free will or because of just the way the world is in kind of a deistic world God is somehow removed.

To the point where he can't help suffering in our lives, and that's the Western view. It's not God's fault. God isn't in any way doing these things. It's just the way the world is. John frame summarizes Kushner's view is this God does his best and Is with people in their suffering?

But is not fully able to prevent it. So this morning over against the worldly answers of the West and the East. We are going to look to the best I think the best Biblical passage for the question of theodicy now of course theodicy is why is there evil and suffering in the world.

God is all-powerful He's all-loving and yet. There's so much suffering and pain in the world. Why is there afflictions? Why do bad things happen to supposedly good people so turn with me to 2nd Corinthians?

Theodicy and the World’s Answers to Suffering

Chapter 1.

We're just going to do verses 3 to 11 today and Over against these worldly answers to theodicy. We are going to see that God's answer is first of all the person of Jesus Christ. That's who we have that's different than anyone else in the world.

We have a God who comes into our world and suffers in our stead and suffers with us and therefore he's able to help and. Secondly we have a God who has a plan so that suffering has a purpose now. What are those purposes?

That's what we're going to look at today. What are those purposes. Well when you're afflicted you're forced to rely upon God? And that gives him glory. It's the destruction of our self-sufficiency. When we're afflicted in many ways he comes to comfort us.

To make us brave to make us strong in the midst of suffering and that brings him glory. When we're afflicted We then go through things that enable us to help others who themselves are going through the same kinds of suffering and we become ministers because of our affliction.

We suffer because when we are afflicted other people pray for us and God hears those prayers and is glorified. But here's one of the most distinct things about Christianity. When we suffer and when God's people pray he is known to be and the defining Characteristic of who Jesus is is Savior.

He comes to deliver us from our affliction. Sometimes it takes longer than we would like. But he is a God who delivers. Definitionally so he is the Savior and then we give him thanks and in all of this process he gets the glory.

So let's read it. 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verses 3 through 11. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. Who comforts us in all our affliction?

So that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort, too.

If we are afflicted it is for your comfort and salvation and if we are comforted it is for your comfort. Which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken for we know that as you share in our sufferings.

You will also share in our comfort now. Look as Paul gets personal here in verses 8 through 11 for we do not want you to be unaware brothers of the affliction We experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

Indeed we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves. But on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us on Him.

We have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer. So that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. Now that brothers and sisters is a theodicy worth listening to.

It's amazing. So first in verse 3 we notice that a Christological lens is the beginning point for viewing suffering. Look in verse 3 blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ The Father of mercies and God of all comfort the beginning point to answering this question and by the way We don't have to have an answer for why everything bad happens the way it does.

We can't explain everything. But rather than doing that we can bless God even in the midst of our suffering. So Paul doesn't set out to answer Theodicy. Instead he starts out with a God-centered worldview as if the world doesn't revolve around me.

The world revolves around God and so he begins by blessing and praising God. What God is this? The God of the one who hanging on a cross cried out my God my God. Why have you forsaken me? This is the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ Our Lord he is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.

Because Jesus suffered according to Hebrews 2 18 because Jesus suffered he is able to help us in all of our afflictions. We're the only religion.

On earth.

That can say that every other worldview every other religion either sees God is distant or maybe just Panin panin theism like part of the universe, but not really a personal God. Our God is transcendent, but he came into this world and dwelt among us and He suffered the way we suffered so he's able to sympathize with us in our weaknesses.

We have a God who loves us and is able to comfort us because he came to our rescue. So begin there begin with your eyes set not on yourself and your problem. But your eyes set to Jesus because he endured the cross Scorning its shame and is now seated at the right hand of the Father.

He is the one we look to. This is the foolishness of God That confounds the wisdom of the world. You don't go to the internet To find this unless you find Christians witnessing this revealed truth. But before there was an internet before Christ came there were philosophers in Athens and in their wisdom The Stoic philosophers they had an answering for suffering which is basically just have a stiff upper lip endure it.

Pretend that you can handle it. That's their answer, but all the philosophies philosophies of the world Tried to answer this question and failed. When Christ came into the world the wisdom of God was revealed.

This is the wisdom of God the foolishness of the cross. That the Messiah the powerful one would be mocked and scorned and beaten and abused and hung on a cross to die. That's the wisdom of God and it confounds the wisdom of the world.

This is true theology focused on Christ. Why does Paul need to start his letter here. Is he just philosophizing.

No.

Remember the situation he's facing in Corinth. All of the problems we talked about last week in the overview of 1st Corinthians the schisms.

The.

Hyper-spirituality and the rejection of Paul there is a contingent in the Corinthian Church that looks at Paul as Potentially a false prophet or at least a weaker Christian because look at how Paul suffers.

He's like a punching bag. Look at his face. He's been beaten so many times that he has scars all over his face. His nose is out of joint he's disfigured. How could this be a man approved of God. And Paul's answer to that question is I'm like Jesus.

I'm like Jesus. I'm suffering for the sake of the name and These marks on my body these scars those are not signs of God's disapproval. Those are marks of apostleship. He'll say. So he begins here to refute that contingent that's left in Corinth.

Which denies his apostleship that's trying by these super apostles to overthrow him. So he's going to show that the sufferings he's going through. Confirm that he sent from God. Suffering guys does not mean that God is mad at you.

There is a kind of discipline that God can bring into our life for a purpose to conform us into the image of the Sun. But there's other reasons that we suffer. Job's friends could not understand this could they.

God had different reasons why Job was suffering. Paul is not suffering for his own sinfulness. It's actually for the purposes of God. So next look at verses 4 through 7 and. Notice two things here two purposes of the suffering.

One God comforts those who are hurting. But two he uses our suffering to make us ministers. Everything that we go through has a purpose to strengthen us as ministers to help somebody else. Who's going through the same thing that you once walked through?

He comforts us and then he uses us in a way that's unique to us. That has a purpose so verse 4 It says who comforts us in all our affliction so that that's a purpose clause. What's the purpose of this so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction?

You wonder why God has put some of the burdens on your back that you've carried for a long time. Part of the answer is that you're supposed to lift the burden off somebody else. With the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God now that word comfort in the Greek it doesn't mean Leisure the picture is not of a man laying on a raft floating on a pool comfortable.

The idea here is closer to the concept of bravery. It's to look at the affliction that you're going through and for something inside of you to well up with. Internal strength that trust in the God who's giving you this challenge.

It's an internal kind of comfort that has more to do with being brave in the midst of suffering than it does with the the Letting up of that suffering at this point. Now We will get to deliverance in a minute, but here you can remain in your suffering and still be comforted.

It won't be luxurious. It won't be easy. It won't feel good to the flesh. But you can have a comfort even in the midst of your pain. That's what Paul's talking about here verse 5 for as much as we share in Christ's sufferings.

So through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. Unless we suffer We probably will not grow as close to Christ.

As we would.

Without it.

Suffering Has a certain way of making us rely on him and his strength is made perfect in our weakness. We begin to call on him and he comes nearer to us when we're hurting. Isn't that true. Think of the most intense moments of.

Your life I.

Remember times when I was the closest to Christ and invariably those were the moments where I was in the deepest suffering. Suffering brings comfort and then we extend that verse 6 for if we are afflicted it is for your comfort and Salvation and if we are comforted it is for your comfort.

Which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. There's other people going through the same thing that you are and God is uniquely positioning you to be able to speak into their life.

You'll receive that comfort from God. You can then begin to speak as a minister into other people's lives. Our hope for you is unshaken. For we know that as you share in our sufferings you will also share in our comfort.

Too when I was in Florida this summer. I saw one of the clearest examples I've ever seen of this verse. They had a guest speaker at my brother's church in Tampa and He came up to share about his love for singing and he was a musician good singer but his three-year-old contracted cancer and slowly began the process of dying and As he endured watching that he quit singing he could no longer sing.

Until his sister called him from Africa and said no you have to keep on singing in the midst of this and so this Little boy, and this father too, but together developed a love of singing. They worshiped together through all those final months of that boy's life.

He sang and he sang and he sang and this child remained his. Remained joyful through his singing and the father held on to Christ through worship. Because God inhabits the praise of his people the boy passed away.

But not long after that. The husband and wife who lost their their little boy developed a ministry through the dream fund. You know make a wish kind of thing to help dying kids. Do things like creative arts and to help handicapped people.

To do creative arts so he now uses his singing as a ministry to help handicapped people. Sing he took his pain and used it as a comfort for other people. One of the things he said when he was preaching there.

He said before long this won't matter anymore, and at first I said amen, and I do say amen to what he meant by that. Before long all of this won't matter anymore. There's a deeper truth. That's even better than that news.

The deeper truth is all of this every second of your pain will matter forever. Because according to chapter 4 verse 17 of this book 2nd Corinthians these light momentary afflictions are Achieving for us an eternal weight of glory that far surpasses them all.

So there's something in our eternal glory and reward in heaven that's connected with the sufferings that we're going through here on earth. They're not meaningless. They're part of the will of God that's the lemma the will of God is being worked out and suffering is part of The eternal glory that we're going to experience these things.

That we suffer now are not just passing. We comfort ourselves by saying this too shall pass. Right these sufferings will pass.

They will pass and.

There's coming the eternal glory. But what was accomplished in those things will resound forever.

That young man.

Who's in the creative arts program in Tampa and encounters the love of Jesus and Gives his heart to Christ will be there with that little baby. Zion now fully developed fully growing praising Jesus for all eternity.

Because of his suffering God used it for something eternal and That is true of you. Each one of you who are going through anything in this life your suffering has a reason and a purpose. It's not meaningless.

So it is achieving an eternal weight of glory. It's beautiful. There's a song that sums us up. It's on the radio right now. It's called thankful for the scars. By I am they. That's the title of my message today.

I stole it from the song which I sometimes like to do Waking up to a new sunrise. Looking back from the other side. I can see now with open eyes. Darkest water and deepest pain. I Wouldn't trade it for anything.

Because my brokenness brought me to you and these wounds are a story you'll use. So I'm thankful for the scars. Because without them I wouldn't know your heart, and I know they'll always tell of who you are so forever.

I'm thankful for the scars. Tell you this I am thankful for the scars that mark the hands of Jesus even to this day.

And.

His feet he told Thomas to come and look at them and touch them. Didn't he. Even after the resurrection he bore the scars. Why? No longer suffering. His suffering is completed on the cross. They're a memorial to what he has accomplished on our behalf.

We serve Jesus who bore the nails and now carries the scars. I can't wait to get to heaven and Have him say like he did to Thomas. Come see where the nails pierce. Come and see the scars. Paul was fighting for the Galatians the same way he had to fight for the Corinthians.

He says to them I feel like I'm a mother. Giving birth a second time to you until Christ is formed in you. Because the Galatians were being easily led astray By some Judaizers of the gospel, but he closes That letter to the Galatians by essentially saying don't mess with me.

Because in my body I bear the marks of Jesus. The scars that Paul had on his face and on his back can you imagine five times receiving the 39 lashes? His back would be a mess. He took his shirt off. They'd see it.

In his body he bore the scars and those spoke.

They were purposeful.

So there is a reason for our suffering now. I think when he gets real personal in verse 8 and 9. I think we see the first.

Key.

To unlocking why these sufferings come into our life, and it's that we would not rely on ourselves. We would no longer be so self-sufficient in everything, but suffering must come. So we learn to rely on God, so here's how Paul says it verse 8.

For we do not want you to be unaware brothers of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength That we despaired of life itself. This is where Paul hits his low point.

We don't even know what the affliction is and I think That Paul doesn't say it. So that we can fill in the blank. Some people think it's a physical affliction remember the thorn in his flesh. Some people think it's just this burden that he carries for the churches when the Corinthians are rebelling against him.

And it's tearing his heart apart. We don't know. It's maybe another beating that he took in Ephesus. There's many things that the book of Acts does not record for us. It's not an exhaustive Commentary on the life of Paul or narrative of the life of Paul, so we don't know what the suffering is.

But he says at this point. It was so painful that he despaired of life itself. He was ready to die.

Why?

Verse 9 indeed we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was now mark that I circled it in my Bible. But that was meaning there's a reason for this, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves.

But on God who raises the dead he had gotten so far to the end of his rope. Death was all that he could foresee in his future, and he was completely relying on the God who raises the dead. He had to rely completely in the book the pilgrims progress the last great challenge for Christians is death.

He has to plunge into that sea and die. Fully relying on God. All of us will come to that point unless Jesus comes back which I have hope Will happen before my life is over. But if it doesn't we each one face that Paul was there at the end of his rope, but that was to make us not rely on ourselves but on God.

Guys I have lots of scars. Not the way Paul did from being beaten for the gospel. One of my scars is along the side of my eye here, and it was from slamming my face with the car door. I Just opened the door and looked away to the side, and it just cut me open so I had this big scar.

It was a it was a gusher had to get stitches. Why did I have to go through that? Well it happened in probably the busiest week of my year. I was a missionary at the time and we would do these block parties.

Where it was an evangelistic festival for really more than a thousand people would come and hear the gospel. But that week I was running so fast. It just slowed me down and forced me to rely on God. So I got the stitches and it actually turned out really well because as I'm walking around Kensington in the inner city there I look tough man.

I had a scar on my face. Stitches and I'd say things like oh you should see the other guy. So it made me look tough, but that's about the extent of my sufferings in terms of physical things like that plenty of scars.

I was a reckless child. I would fall off things and run into cabinets or whatever so I had stitches quite a bit. But the scars are reminders that God saw you through things. Look back on the scars of your life.

How many times has he delivered you maybe you don't have a physical scar from it? But how many times have you been in peril and the Lord delivered you from it? He teaches us to rely on him in these things.

Reliance on God in Weakness

Next my favorite part this is where I'm gonna get pumped up if I'm not excited already. It's verse 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril. So Paul had despaired of life and yet somehow God slipped in and rescued him in some miraculous way.

That Paul never saw coming.

He delivered.

Us from such a deadly peril and this affirmative. Here look at how strong and encouraging this verse is and He will deliver us on Him. We have set our hope that he will deliver us again. Psalm 34 verse 19.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous. Remember this from when we preach psalm 34, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He is the God who delivers us.

Yahweh.

Yeshua.

Yahweh is salvation. The name Jesus means God is salvation. Isaiah said that as well as they are 12 to behold God is my salvation. Luke 2 30 for my eyes have seen your Salvation. When the baby Jesus Was brought to Simeon in the temple and he held that baby.

He looked down and paused and Saw him as salvation.

This little baby.

This helpless child.

Who is he?

He's salvation he's deliverance to those who are oppressed and hurting. To those of us who are bound in our sin and Destined to be punished in eternal fire. He's salvation and rescue for the sinner and for all of us in any deadly peril.

You're facing cancer. You're facing some life-threatening illness or some debilitating illness that just goes on and on. Guess what. You will be delivered. He is the God who delivers us. You will be delivered.

Think of it. Adam and Eve Fallen in their sin. He rescued them made a coat of skins to cover their nakedness. He is the God that delivered Adam and Eve from their sin. Noah a righteous man in his generation the world being.

Flooded with judgment.

He provides an ark to deliver Abraham. He goes down to Egypt. His life is at risk. He takes matters into his own hand.

Why does he do that?

If you would only trust in the God who will deliver and over and over again Abraham is delivered. Moses learned that having to go to Pharaoh and say let my people go and God delivers the entire nation out of bondage in Egypt and brings them to the promised land.

He's the God who delivers David time and again running for his life at risk from Saul in wars and battles facing Goliath time and again He delivers he delivers the Saints. Paul learned that you and I must learn God delivers us from every peril in The middle of it.

We don't always know that that's true when our pain Is too intense and we can't see it. That light is coming deliverance is coming. There's one more aspect to this in verse 11. There's a means that God uses.

This is why we have prayer meetings every week. Verse 11. You also most must help us by prayer. So that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. You know, I have to be honest with you as a person who believes in the sovereignty of God.

I know God has a will. Sometimes it's hard for me to feel My need for prayer. Because I very much trust that God's will will be done. And who am I this puny little man on earth. To talk to God and tell him what he should do.

Anybody ever feel like that? Why am I even praying because he knows better than me. I'm probably gonna ask for the wrong thing. Now that kind of hyper Calvinistic understanding needs to be corrected by.

The Word of God.

Because what does the Bible say? It said listen to the string of verses. Psalm 66 verse 19. God has surely listened and heard my voice little me. He's heard my voice in prayer. Matthew 21 verse 22. If you believe you will surely receive whatever you ask for in prayer.

Romans 12 12 be joyful and hope. Patient and affliction. Faithful in prayer. Philippians 4 6 and 7 some of you could quote this. Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your requests to God and The peace of God which passes understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

First Thessalonians 5 7. If you can't memorize a long one you can memorize this. It's three words Pray without ceasing. James 5 13 and Following. Is any of you in trouble? He should pray he should pray.

Goes on to say the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. James the one who wrote that He knew about prayer. They used to call him old camel knees. Because he spent so much time on his knees in prayer it had worn out his knees and they were slightly deformed.

He'd walk in a funny way so old camel knees had spent so much time on his knees in prayer. That he was able to teach us how to pray. Probably the best modern semi-modern example of a prayer warrior who got answers was Mueller.

Now I'm not referring to the guy in the news, but the more impressive Mueller. George Mueller beginning in 1800s he opened orphanages and by prayer he never solicited funds. He never went out raising money for the orphanages.

You know what he did. He prayed. He sought God for the orphans and in the course of his ministry in today's terms a hundred and thirteen million dollars came in. He distributed 285 ,000 Bibles 1 .5 million New Testament sent so much money to the mission field without ever asking for a dollar.

He asked God to provide for the ministry. One of the things I learned as I was reading about Mueller this week Was that he didn't stop when the ministry was well established. He was 70 years old. He didn't retire.

To the beach, you know what he did when he was 70 years old. He became a missionary. Mueller became a missionary in his 70s. In 1876 he went to England Scotland and Ireland. 1877 he went to Switzerland Germany and the Netherlands 78 Canada and the United States.

He actually visited the White House. He was preaching here in America in 1879 Switzerland France Spain and Italy 1880 United States and Canada 1881 Canada and the United States. He's only picking up steam as he reaches his 80s in 1882 he went to Egypt and Palestine and Syria and Asia minor and Turkey and Greece.

In 1883, he went to Germany Austria Hungary Bohemia Russia and Poland in 1884. Now quite elderly. He's still going to India England and South Wales. From 1885 to 87. He went on an extended mission strip to the USA Australia China, Japan Straits of Malacca Singapore Penang Colombo and France.

In 1887 through 92 as he's nearing his 90th birthday. He goes to Australia Tasmania New Zealand Cailan and India Germany Switzerland Austria and Italy.

Do you know that about George Mueller?

Where did he get the strength?

The effective.

Fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. This is the example that God gave us of a man of prayer and The strength that he gave came through prayer. He would spend hours a day on his knees before the Lord.

Interceding and.

The final point is that this resounds in Thanksgiving look in verse 11 so that many will give thanks on our behalf. Now it's important to God his desire is for many. To give thanks for answers to prayer.

You see that in the text verse 11. Here's why prayer matters so much to God. It's a God-centered reason. So that many people who are involved in praying for whatever this need is many he wants a lot of people around that great throne.

Worshiping him that many Will give thanks. When we're included in God's means of reaching this world with the gospel and Seeing answers to prayer we become thankful. We see answers to our prayers and we begin to thank him from the heart for the answers to prayer.

In February of 1842 Mueller wrote this. A Brother and the Lord came to me this morning and after a few minutes of conversation gave me 2 ,000 pounds for furnishing the new orphan house. Now I'm able to meet all the expenses.

In all probability I will even have several hundred pounds more than I need. The Lord not only gives as much as is absolutely necessary for the work, but he gives abundantly. Now catch this. This blessing filled me with inexplicable delight.

That's what God wants. This is why prayer matters so much. When you see these kinds of answers to prayer it delights your heart and you glorify him with Thanksgiving. He had given me the full answer to my thousands of prayers during the past 1 ,195 days.

So Mueller had been praying for something specific. He marked the time for more than three years 1 ,195 days and when this man showed up out of the blue With 2 ,000 pounds to meet the needs of the orphans his heart just exploded with delight.

We need to learn to pray for whatever we need. This is why prayer meeting is so important. Some of you are really faithful about coming to the prayer meeting. But I would like to encourage everybody to come to our prayer meetings right now.