The Thorn In the Flesh
The Thorn In The Flesh • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Bride-to-Be Hosts a Banquet for Homeless
Philip Yancey told the story of the woman who was getting married and planned a huge wedding banquet… It was going to held at the Hyatt Hotel and cost $13,000. After everything had been planned and paid for the groom dumped her… When she tried to cancel she could not get her money back because the food had already been bought… She decided to go ahead with the party. Years before she had gone though a difficult time and had lived in a homeless shelter. Now she would invite the down and outs… For the dinner they served boneless chicken – in honor of the groom… Homeless people were served a fancy meal on fine china with the band playing. That is good picture of the church and the kingdom of God. A person who used their brokenness to bless.
When we accept and own our thorns we look at the world differently.
The Revelation
The Revelation
In , Paul tells us that he had been given a vision of the third heaven… “was caught up to the third heaven”
Tony Evens explains: there are three heavens:
the sky
the universe -stary/planetary
the third heaven: God’s presence… what we call paradise…
and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter ().
and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter
God has given Paul a revelation that is so great that he can’t even talk about it...
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .
We all have experienced things or situations that we wouldn’t want to tell anyone else…
a personal secret with another person… marriege secrets for instance…
a personal secret between you an God
such as a confessed sin
This revelation was so great that it brought with it the danger of Pride… of becoming proud or conceited…
7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
The Thorn
The Thorn
Paul had received a thorn in the flesh… a thorn was given me in the flesh…
thorn
somthing that tormented him constantly
something that was always present in his life
scholars suggest different things what this thorn in the flesh could have been…
some say he was it was a physical disability
others say it was a mental illness… maybe it was the stress of his opponents (Jews) tormented him… by interfearing with his mission work…
The term “thorn” (skolops [4647, 5022]), found in the OT (Num 33:55; Ezek 28:24; Hos 2:6, LXX), means something causing pain, like a splinter in the flesh
The term thorn (σκολοψ) means that something is causing pain… such as a splinter in the flesh...
Have you ever had a splinter in your finger - or even better in your toe?…One of these little things you can’t even see but they hurt… That thing bothers you until you get a needel and start digging and then get it out with at tweezers…
and if you suffered from earaches, gout, arthritis, failing body fuctions… deafness, blindness… a thorn in the flesh seems an appropriate metaphore…
This word σκολοπψ ῏thorn)… is used in both the New Testament and in the Greek translation of the O.T. - the Septuagint
55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell.
a gift
it was a gift form God…
sometimes God gives us a disability or a temptation… to expose our weakness… to come to the point that we realize that we can’t do it on our own…
a messenger from Satan
God uses Satan to harass us…
The Bible tells us that God allows Satan to do so…
Job is the best example in the O.T.
I , we find Satan coming into the presence of God arguing that Job is only worshipping God becasue God had blessed him…
8 And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” 9 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”
Job 1:
9 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”
12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
We see two things… (1) Satan enters the presence of God… (2)God allows Satan to afflict us…
But that is all… Satan can only afflict us as much as God allows… and Jesus is with us… all the way…
31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” 33 Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.”
31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat,
The closer we come to the Lord… the harder Satan will try to afflict us… and it is this affliction that God uses to humble us and turn to him…
Jesus tells Simon Peter that Satan demanded him…
so, we see that Satan still comes into God’s presence and asks for permission to torment God’s children…
Jesus said, “I prayed for you that your faith may not fail”…
(3) the prayers of Jesus are always with us… he sits now at the right hand of God right now and interceds for us… as we worship God in Christ Jesus…
Jesus knew Peter’s heart… and also his humanity… Jesus knew that Peter was prone to zeal and pride…
and when you have turned again…
33 Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.” 34 Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.”
Luke 22:
Jesus knows our human weakness… of falling away from Him… He fortold that Peter would deny him…
In Paul’s case… it was pride that needed to be prevented…
7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
2 times: to keep me from becoming conceited
God uses the messenger of Satan - a thorn in the flesh… whatever that may be in your life… to keep us from becoming proud… thinking we are better than others… thinking we are worth more than the one next to us… thinking we can make it on our own…
My Grace is Sufficient
My Grace is Sufficient
8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2 cor 12:
Paul’s three prayers can be paralleled with Jesus’ threefold prayer in Gethsamene that the cup of suffering be removed from him.
We must take to heart that both, Jesus’ prayer to the Father and Paul’s prayer to Jesus were lovingly answered with a NO.
Whenever Christ says No to our desperate pleadings… the NO is combined with His perfect, compassionate goodness and love…
How good for us when our hearts embrace this combination of a NO answer and the assurance of His Grace...
Jesus’ No to Paul came in the form of an explanation and is the High Point of his letter and today’s message”
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weekness.”
Paul learned humility by enduring a crippling weekness that reminded him always of his frailty and finitude… and God’s goodness and compassion…
Paul learned humility by enduring a crippling weekness that reminded him always of his frailty and finitude… and God’s goodness and compassion…
Because God denied Paul’s request to remove the thorn (12:9), Paul came to experience Christ’s presence and power in a new way… In a hard school of discipline and suffering Paul learned lessons of trust and dependence on God’s strength…
No wonder Paul concluded, “Therefore I will bost all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power if Christ may rest upon me” (9b)…
Paul’s joyous boast of his weakness - the thorn, as well as hardships, insults, sleepless nights, and hunger and thirst… are standing on a new principle: the power in weakness -principle…
Because God denied Paul’s request to remove the thorn (12:9), Paul came to experience Christ’s presence and power in a new way. In a hard school of discipline and suffering Paul learned lessons of trust and dependence on God’s strength
Conclusion
Conclusion
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
So, today we have seen that Paul, after God gave him a great revelation, he gave him a thorn in the flesh, a messenger from Satan to keep him from becoming conceited (or proud)
We have to undersand that God alows hartship, sickness, weakness of any kind to torment us… not that He wants to harm us… but that we may humble ourselves, and turn to Him for an extra portion of his grace…
Paul learned humility by enduring a crippling weekness that reminded him always of his frailty and finitude… and God’s goodness and compassion…
We also, need to be reminded that we are living in a frail body and that we are in need of God’s goodness, compassion, and love…
As we go from here, my prayer for you is… that you might look up to the Lord in perfect acceptance and gratitude for His presence in your life… and that you look at your thorn, whatever it is, however it disables you… and let Christ’s Grace be sufficient for you…
Amen