Our lesson begins in verse 21
where Paul says, I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been
weak, albeit whereinsoever any is bold, and I speak foolishly,
I am bold also. Now, when Paul was with the folks
there in Corinth, he was meek and humble among them, but they
seemed to be impressed with a show of strength and boldness. And Paul says, those fellows,
they've been mighty bold in preaching another gospel to you. They've
been bold and shameless in fleecing you, taking advantage of you.
And I'll be bold in preaching Christ. I'll be bold in defending
the truth because Christ is what men need to hear. Men and women,
boys and girls, what we need is the Lord Jesus Christ. And
this is a universal truth. The power of God's servant is
in his message. It's not in this way he holds
over people and how, you know, he can control, you know, a group
of people kind of give him what he wants him to do. The power
of God's servant is his message. It's delivered humbly and meekly,
but the power is in the message. And it's so important for us
to be bold and clear with the truth. And none of us want a
ministry that's built on pointing out whatever everybody else is
doing wrong. You know, this was doing this wrong. This was doing
this wrong. This is doing this wrong. Our desire is to preach
Christ. That's why we come here together
this morning is to hear Christ preached. But at the same time,
the scripture, you know, as it comes up in scripture, needs
to be dealt with false prophets need to be exposed because if
not, people could follow their message to hell. So they need
to be exposed. And we pray that while they're
exposed, God's servant would be revealed to and recognized
too. So people listen to his message.
So we need to be bold with the truth. And that's Paul says,
I'll be bold with the truth. And he goes on, verse 22, he
says, Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of
Abraham? So am I. Now, normally false
prophets will come in and they'll try to dazzle people. with things
about themselves, you know, their background, their education,
their knowledge of scripture and doctrine and so forth. And
probably that's what's going on here in Corinth. These false
prophets come in, they're saying now you are Gentiles, you've
been raised heathens and we're Jews, we're Israelites. So we
know what's best. We've descended from Abraham.
We've been taught these things from from children and we know
best. And probably what they're doing
is bringing in some of the Law of Moses that they learned all
the time they were growing up. Now Paul says, if you're interested
in that kind of thing, if you're impressed with that kind of thing,
with their background and their education and those kinds of
things, I got better than they do. Paul was a true blue blood. I mean, this fellow was a blue
blood. To Saul of Tarsus, being a Jew,
was not a nationality. You know, to us, being an American
is a nationality. To Paul, being a Jew was a way
of life, a zealous, religious way of life, every second of
every day. Now, there is an advantage in
this. In this Paul's day, there was
an advantage to being a Jew. Because the Jews were taught
the scriptures. At least the scriptures were
read to them. You know, Paul says, what advantage then does
a circumcision have? Well, much. Chiefly, that unto
them were committed the oracles of God. They were taught the
scriptures. They had the sacrifices. They had the priesthood. They
had the worship of God. But Paul has another advantage. He had that growing up just like
they did. But he's got a definite advantage
over these false prophets. Both of them are the natural
seed of Abraham. Paul's a spiritual seed of Abraham.
He has the same faith as Abraham. He has the message of Christ.
And God has to give that message. That message doesn't come from
the flesh. That message doesn't come from
growing up under the sound of the gospel. Just like you don't
receive Christ. through the flesh. You don't
receive Christ just because, you know, somebody's teaching
your fleshly mind the gospel. God has to give the message,
just like he has to reveal Christ. So what Paul's telling the folks
here is what these fellows are bragging on. And no big deal.
Lots of people receive Abraham. Not very many people have the
message of Christ. So he goes on, verse 23, he says,
Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more. In labors, more abundant. In
stripes, above measure. In prisons, more frequent. In
deaths, oft. Of the Jews, five times received
I-40 stripes, save one. Thrice I was beaten with rods.
Once I was stoned. Thrice I was shipwrecked. A night
and a day I have been in the deep. In journeyings, often. in perils of water, in perils
of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by
the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness,
in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness,
in painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst,
in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." There's a list. That's the life of God's servant. Now, Paul says, are they ministers
of Christ? Now, we all know they weren't.
But Paul doesn't take the time right here to point out all of
their heresy in the ways that they were not servants of Christ.
He's pointing out how he is the servants of Christ. You compare
and come to your own conclusions. Now, God counted Paul faithful,
putting him in the ministry. And nobody would have suffered
the life that we just read kind of a summary of there in those
verses. Nobody would have suffered a life like that for money's
sake, or trying to gain something for his own belly, because he
ain't gaining anything for his own belly. That's not why he
was in there. Paul had a life of suffering, not the life of
ease that false prophets are looking for. They're looking
for a life of ease. Paul didn't have that, obviously.
And he wants to make it abundantly clear. We've seen this in these
last weeks looking through this passage. He wants to make this
abundantly clear. He feels foolish bragging on
his own qualifications and pointing out these things about himself.
But he's going to point these things out to show what he's
willing to suffer to preach the gospel. He's not pointing out
the things that he gained from men to preach the gospel. He's
pointing out the things that he suffered. in order to preach
the gospel to the lost. And no one would be willing to
suffer these things unless their heart's in it. That's the only
reason somebody would be willing to live a life of suffering like
this. The only motivation you could
have to live this kind of life would be the glory of God and
the salvation of sinners. And you're going to leave yourself
out of it. That's the only motivation you'd have. So Paul begins this
list. He says, more abundant. Paul
traveled more, he preached more, he wrote more, he established
more churches than all the other apostles. Certainly he did that
more than the false prophets. And you know, all these labors,
this travel that Paul did to go to different places and preach
the gospel and establish churches, that's a whole lot harder than
it is in our day. You know, we thought it was hard
traveling here this morning with a little bit of snow. I mean,
Paul, Traveling for him involved a lot of walking. It involved,
you know, dangerous sea voyages, but it didn't matter to him how
difficult it was. It was full steam ahead because
he was on the trail of God's sheep. So in labors more abundant,
in stripes above measure, Paul suffered more for preaching the
gospel than other people did. And we'll see this in verses
coming up, how he was beaten and whipped and the things that
he suffered was just above measure, beyond what anybody would think
you could suffer. In prisons, more frequent. Nobody spent more time in prison
for preaching the gospel than the Apostle Paul. Now I guarantee
you false prophets wouldn't do that. The prison conditions in
those days would make somebody a mercenary recant quickly. to get out of there because that's
not what they're in for a life of ease, not to be imprisoned. He says in deaths oft, frequently,
Paul is in danger. His life was in danger for preaching
the gospel. And you can make a lot of enemies
by refusing to compromise. And Paul did that. He wouldn't
compromise the truth and he made a lot of enemies. He says he
made enemies of both the Jews and the Greeks because of his
message. The Jews hated his message because
the gospel preaches Christ is the end of the law. There's no
law keeping of our own that we depend on. Justification is by
faith. It's in the blood of Christ,
not by our works. And your fleshly relationship
to Abraham or your fleshly relationship in our day, our children's fleshly
relationship to their parents who believe. That doesn't do
you any good, not any spiritual good. Salvation must be found
in Christ. And Paul's message was, God's
Christ is this hated man, Jesus of Nazareth. This Jesus who you
crucified, that's the Christ. That's God's Son. Well, the Jews
hated that message. And they hated Paul even more
for preaching that message to the Gentiles. They wouldn't have
it. But they hated him even more for going to preach to the Gentiles.
Now, if his message is so evil, why did they care if he preached
it to the Gentiles, those Gentile dogs? But they did, and they
hated him all the more for it. And the Gentiles, they hated
Paul's message because his message tore down their idols and tore
down their superstitions. That's what the gospel does.
It tears down false refuges. and leaves us stripped down to
where we have no hope but the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Gentiles
will tell Paul, now don't come in here messing everything up.
Everything's just fine. Don't make us uncomfortable.
Just all we want is to be told everything's fine. You know,
maybe you've got to live a little better. You've got to give a
little more. But other than that, leave us alone now. But everything's
not fine outside of Christ, is it? Outside of Christ, there's
nothing but destruction and death. So the gospel tells us, flee
to Christ. You fall at the feet of the Lord
Jesus Christ and you beg him for mercy. You get in the dust as a mercy
beggar and beg God to have mercy on your guilty soul. Now, the
flesh doesn't like that. The flesh does not like to be
humbled and have to beg for anything. But the gospel declares a sovereign. We are in God's hands to do with
us as he pleases. Now the flesh doesn't like that
message, and the Gentiles hated it, but now that's so. And Paul
made enemies everywhere he went, of the Jews or the Gentiles,
didn't matter. He says five times he was whipped. Forty lashes
save one, that's a Jewish punishment from where he made enemies of
the Jews. Thirty-nine lashes, that's thirteen lashes with a
three pronged whip, 39 lashes, five times. Now, according to
Jewish law, 39 stripes was the maximum punishment. If it was
a woman or a weak, feeble man, you were to give fewer. You could,
I guess it was under the discretion of the high priest, but you could
give fewer lashes. Wasn't that the way Paul is described
by his enemies? Well, he's weak and feeble. Yet
five times he received the full measure, 39 lashes. That's how much they hated him.
They punished him to the full extent of their law. But one
day, and Paul doesn't mention this, but this is so, one day
God's going to punish them to the full extent of his law, unless
he has mercy on them beforehand. But he was hated by the Jews,
beaten with them 39 times. But then three times he was beaten
with rods. Well, that's a Roman punishment.
And who knows how many stripes they gave. I don't know that
there was any maximum, you know, to the to the Roman. I mean,
who knows how many of these beat him? They got tired, I reckon.
Look over in Acts chapter 16. Here's one of the times Paul
was beaten with rods. And we'll see why it was he was
beaten with rods. In Acts 16, this is when Paul
had come and this woman who was a soothsayer, he cast out the
evil spirit that was in her. And verse 19, when her master
saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and
Silas and drew them into the marketplace under the rulers
and brought them to the magistrates. Now, these are Roman magistrates
saying, these men being Jews do exceedingly trouble our cities.
Now, everything is fine. And then they brought in this
trouble preaching this gospel. And they teach customs which
are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.
And the multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates
rent off their clothes and commanded to beat them. And they did. This
is where they beat them with rods. And when they laid many
stripes upon them, we don't know how many there. I guess just
the guy got tired of beating them. They laid many stripes
on them. They cast them into prison, charging the jailer to
keep them safely. Now, that was painful. I mean,
I can tell you that had to be just so painful. And then, you
know, after they got done, they threw him into jail. Hated by
the Jews and the Gentiles. Both different kinds of punishments.
Three times, Paul says, or once, he was stoned. Now, when you
stone a person, you intend to kill them. Stoning a person is
not meant to give them a little threat and hope to rehabilitate
them. Stoning is meant to kill a person. If you're still there
in Acts, look back a page at chapter 14. This is meant, I mean, they take
stones and throw them at a person's head. This is meant to kill a
person. And when this happened to Paul,
they thought he was dead. In Acts 14 verse 19. And there came thither certain
Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and
having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he'd
been dead. They just threw him over the
hill. Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose
up and came into the city, and the next day he departed with
Barnabas to Derby. Well, I can promise you they
wouldn't have quit stoning Paul if they thought he was still
alive. They meant to kill him. And Tethsoft, he said, three
times he suffered shipwreck and spent a day and a night in the
deep. a drift, probably clinging to
a piece of the ship, you know. Now I've read about and seen
some things on TV about men in World War II, their ship was
sunk and you know they clung to whatever they could cling,
just floating around the sea and how horrible it was, what
a horrible experience. Well you reckon, now here Paul's
floating around this piece of driftwood and he gets rescued,
you know, the Lord delivers him. He goes where he's going, preaching.
Now he's going somewhere else. He's got to board a ship again.
Reckon he thought about floating around in the ocean for a day
and a half before he got on that ship? I bet you he did. But it didn't deter him, did
it? Full steam ahead. Because this is how important
preaching Christ is to lost souls. It was so important to the Apostle
Paul, it was above his physical life. Full steam ahead. And that
attitude, put Paul in danger constantly, whether he was on
land or at sea. You know, at sea, he was in danger
of shipwreck. On land, he was in danger of thieves and robbers.
You see, Satan will attack anywhere he can. Whatever little chink
he can get in and attack, that's what he'll do. He'll use those
outside of the church and he'll use those inside of the church.
You know, he'll use thieves and bandits from without. You know,
maybe if these thieves and bandits or, you know, people haul you
before the magistrates and they beat you, maybe that'll scare
you out of it. Maybe that'll cost you too much and you'll
quit preaching the gospel. Or he'll use false prophets from
within the church to do battle with you and try to discredit
you. Maybe people won't listen to you anymore. But however it'll
be, it'll be from within or without. In Paul's case, it's both at
the same time. And he was not deterred. He worked in studying
and preaching and traveling just till he was bone tired, just
weary. That's how important it was for
him, for people to hear the preaching of Christ. He just wouldn't rest.
He wouldn't take the time to rest. There was always someone
else he could go preach to. He was willing to suffer hunger
and thirst. and exposure to the elements
because of lack of clothing. He was willing to suffer those
awful conditions because he just wouldn't take the time to accumulate
the means or, you know, to supply those physical needs to himself.
Even when he was in want, it didn't deter him. Now, I guarantee
you a false prophet wouldn't suffer those things. You know,
they went into the ministry to avoid what they think is hard
work. You know, to them, they say, well, you know, going down
here to the plant every day is a whole lot harder than having
some cushy job sitting in the study somewhere. You know, that
doesn't look too hard to me. And we'll see in a minute why
they don't understand the difficulty. They don't understand what Paul
suffered, why he was willing to endure this in the ministry.
You know, that looks easy to me. They're doing what they can
to avoid being hungry or thirsty or naked, aren't they? And Paul's
willing to suffer those things in order to preach the gospel. Now, that's the life of God's
servant. That's not a real good recruiting
poster for the seminary, is it? And the next time we feel sorry
for ourselves, for, you know, whatever little teensy tiny bit
we suffered for the gospel's sake, it do us good to remember
what the apostles went through in the early church, what they
suffered in the church through the ages, what it suffered for
the gospel sake, which has benefited us down through the ages until
it's been delivered to us, hadn't it? Not much in comparison, is
it? And I don't think there's much
doubt people would agree the apostle Paul was the greatest
preacher who ever lived, other than our Lord Jesus. He's the
man who is most used of God in preaching the gospel. But he
suffered far more than any other two. The greatest blessing that
was ever sent to the Gentile world was treated like a plague
on the Gentile world. They do what they could to eradicate
it, just like we do. We can't eradicate swine flu.
They treated Paul like swine flu. And it looks to me like from seeing
through history, the more greatly the Lord intends to use man.
preach the gospel, the more the Lord is going to teach that man
to be entirely dependent on him. And those sufferings taught the
Apostle Paul to be entirely dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is what it looks like to me. Now, verse 28. And Paul says,
And beside those things that are without, that which cometh
upon me daily, the care of all the churches. See, this is what
those false prophets don't understand. This is the weight of the ministry. Besides all the afflictions,
this long laundry list that Paul gave us and the trials of the
body, Paul bore the spiritual care of the churches. Now, he
mentions this last, I think, because this was the greatest
burden. You know, he's got all this, these other things, but
beside all this, this is the greatest burden. caring for the
souls of people in all the churches. Paul wasn't just a pastor of
one church. He didn't just have one congregation to look out
for. It was all the churches. And he was genuinely affected
by the trouble that people suffered in all the churches. He worried
about their souls. He worried about the spiritual
growth and being fed daily. He worried about their physical
well-being, the things that they suffered. And you know, all these
churches, when somebody was in trouble, I'm just sure they tried
to get word to the Apostle Paul. They wanted him to know, they
wanted him to pray for them, you know. And then he carried
that burden. And can you blame them? You know,
if you lived in that day, who'd you call? Everybody called Paul,
wouldn't they? It wasn't just one church, it
was all of them. And he bore those burdens. And every pastor that I've talked
to at any length about the ministry and the things that they're doing,
every single one of them have told me the greatest burden is
caring for the souls of people they preach to. It's not studying
and preaching. For the most part, they always
enjoy that. That's an enjoyable thing. The great burden that
they carry is for people. The care for the souls of people. To look at the faces of people
they preach to. Do you believe? Are you looking
to Christ? This is the burden that they
carry. And, you know, I guess the best
illustration I can think of is parents. What burden do you feel
for your children? You want the best for them, don't
you? You're just constantly worried. Are they in the best situation
they can be in? And how do you hurt? when they
suffer. I'd rather suffer anything than
watch one of my girls suffer. It's a whole lot easier for me
to suffer it than watch her suffer it. A whole lot easier. Oh, it
hurts me worse to watch her suffer it than it would for me. Heartache
and pain and worry. And that's the burden Paul says
he's carrying for all the churches. Look at verse 29. He says, who's
weak? and I'm not weak. Who's offended
and I burn not? You know, you empathize with
people that you love. You weep with those that do weep
and you rejoice with those who rejoice. And that's what every
believer, all of us do that, don't we? But particularly the
pastor who has the care for the flock. It's just from the heart. It's a genuine affection and
love for people. And Paul says, Who's weak? And
I don't feel their weakness. Who's weak? And I don't feel
their struggle. You know, maybe they're struggling
with sin. They're struggling with unbelief. They're struggling
with the law. You know, touch not, taste not,
handle not. Oh, I wish they weren't going through that. I hate that
formula. I understand. Who's wounded in trial? And I
don't feel it too. Who's in the heat of trial? And
I don't feel the burn. All of them, Paul says. And of
course you do. Because they're part of the same
body. It's just one body. When the toe hurts, the arm hurts.
When the head hurts, the shoulder hurts. It's just one body, so
of course you feel it. Now, verse 30, Paul says, Now
if I must need glory, I will glory of the things which concern
my infirmities. The God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, which is blessed forevermore, knoweth that I lie
not. Now, Paul's going to be forced
to commend himself and his ministry He's not going to commend himself
with the same things that false prophets do. You know, they're
going to glory in their gifts and their tongues and their miracles
and the numbers of people. And Paul couldn't talk about
those things. He would have excelled them in all of those areas. But
the true proof of his apostleship and that his heart was in the
ministry was the things that he suffered because he preached
the gospel. These false prophets aren't suffering
like this. They just don't do it. And the
things that Paul was willing to suffer proved his genuine
love for people and his love for Christ. Look over a page
here of 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9. Paul is talking about his thorn
in the flesh. And he said unto me, God said unto me, My grace
is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
Most gladly, therefore, Well, I rather glory in my infirmities
that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take
pleasure in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in
persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am
weak, then am I strong. That's why he's glorying in his
infirmities. Now, if you suffer for righteousness
sake, happy are you. Now, he's not talking about if
he's suffering because he's done something wrong. He's talking
about for righteousness sake. And false prophets will avoid
that like the plague. And that's the proof of Paul's
ministry. And you know, we preach to people. We're not just up
here spouting doctrine. We minister to people. You care about people. And you
can't preach to people and minister to people if you don't care for
them, if you don't love them. You can't preach from the heart
to the heart. if you don't have a heart of
love. And you won't be willing to get right down with people
and shoulder to shoulder with them and suffer with them and
be with them if you don't love them. And Paul calls on God to
be his witness. He said, now you see what I've
done and what I've been willing to do, but you can't see my heart.
I call on God to be the witness. The God who sees all knows all
that I have a heart of love and concern and care for the people
that I preach to. Now verse 32, he says, in Damascus,
the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of Damascenes
with a garrison desirous to apprehend me. And through a window and
a basket was I let down by the wall and escaped his hands. Now
look back at Acts chapter nine. Here's when this happened. Now
we'll read this because what really struck me was the timing
of this incident. When did this incident happen?
In Acts 9, verse 15, this is when the Lord told Ananias, go
down to Saul of Tarsus. He's praying. And Ananias, understandably,
is a little bit concerned about that. But verse 15, the Lord
said unto him, go thy way, for he's a chosen vessel unto me
to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of
Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for
my name's sake. The first thing Paul heard from
Ananias Wasn't about this, oh, this glorious thing that's going
to happen to you. It's how you must suffer. From day one, that's
what he heard, what things you must suffer for my name's sake.
And Ananias went his way and entered into the house, and putting
his hands on him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that
appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me,
that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the
Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes, as it had
been and he received sight forthwith, and arose and was baptized. And
when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul
certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus, and straightway
he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. But
all that heard him were amazed, and said, Is not this he that
destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came
from hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound
unto the chief priests? But Saul increased the Moor in
strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus,
proving that this is very Christ. And after that many days were
fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him. And their lying
in wait was known of Saul, and they that watched the gates day
and night, to kill him. And the disciples took him by
night, and let him down by the wall in a basket, and he escaped."
Now I read all that. So we see this, this event started
in the first days of Paul's ministry, right from the start, people
were out to killing in deaths oft. And he was in great danger
for preaching the gospel and the Lord miraculously delivered
him. And that was just a harbinger of things to come. The rest of
Paul's life was going to be more of the same. He was always going
to be in great danger. And the Lord were miraculously
delivering so he could go other places to preach the gospel.
Now, is it any wonder this is the life of God's servant? Is
it any wonder Paul said, Brethren, pray for us. Pray for us. I thought this morning it'd be
a good idea for us to remember that and pray for our pastor,
because that's the life of God's servant. All right. Lord bless
you.