2 Corinthians 12:1

For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool. I will say the truth, but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he sees me to be or that he hears of me. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given unto me a thorn in my flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.

For this thing, I besought the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said unto me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in your weakness." Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Father, as we take time now to look into Your Word, we ask, as we routinely do, that You would enlighten us with Your wisdom that is from above. We ask that You would continue to transform us by the renewing of our minds. God, that we would not be conformed to this world, but conform more and more to Your image. When people see us, may they see You exalted.

Lifted up, as we sang just a moment ago, over our lives and in the world in which we live, that we would shine as lights that cannot be hid, like a city set on a hill. As our co-workers, our neighbors, our family members who don't know You, and our friends see Your light in us, may they glorify You, our Father in heaven. God, work this out in us. We want to be Your hands reaching out. We want to be those who are giving forth Your Word, Your gospel. So transform us tonight, we pray.

In Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed, saying, "Amen." You can be seated. I must go on boasting, says Paul.

I must continue to boast, although there's nothing to be gained by it, which is what Paul says in verse 1 of chapter 12. Despite it being distasteful to Paul to boast, he continues to do so, not because of his arrogance or conceit, but because he is defending his apostleship to the church at Corinth.

You remember that after Paul had spent two years with the people in the city of Corinth and seen God do a marvelous, miraculous work in bringing about a church there, he left. Enemies of the cross of Christ, as they are called in Philippians chapter 3, came in and disrupted the fellowship. They brought in seducing doctrines of devils and seditious heresies, which Paul refers to as divisive words that turned people away from the simplicity that is in Christ, as we have been seeing in 2 Corinthians.

These enemies sought to belittle, demean, or malign the character of Paul. They knew that the work God had accomplished through him in Corinth would not easily be undone unless they could bring Paul down a level or two in the minds of the people. Their goal was to make the church in Corinth reject Paul as a minister of the gospel of Christ. Once they achieved that, they could introduce a different message, a different gospel through the back door.

Now, Paul is defending his authority as an apostle. In our study last time, we considered Paul's defense of himself regarding his unwillingness to receive wages from the church at Corinth. This apparently became a contentious issue for them, as he did not accept any offerings or financial gain while he was among the Corinthians. This seemed to bother them, and his critics used it against him.

Not only that, his critics spoke against his Hebrew heritage. They questioned whether he was Hebrew enough or Jewish enough, which was significant to them since Christ, the Messiah, came through the children of Abraham. Therefore, Paul is defending his Hebrew heritage and his credentials as a minister of Christ. All of this is addressed in chapter 11.

As we come to chapter 12, Paul continues to defend the revelations that he has received.

He received revelations from God. Apparently, his critics were speaking of how the revelations they received were somehow greater than that which Paul received. In verses 2 through 4 of chapter 12, he speaks of these revelations. Then, in verse 12 of chapter 12, he speaks of miraculous signs. Apparently, when Paul was among the people at Corinth, God moved miraculously through signs and wonders, through the ministry of Paul the Apostle. Paul reminds them of that.

Later in the chapter, in verses 16 through 19, Paul defends himself because his critics were saying that he and those who were with him, his co-laborers, were taking advantage of the Corinthians with sly trickery. While each of these defenses of his character and ministry in chapter 12 is impactful, chapter 12 of 2 Corinthians is known primarily for what Paul has to say about suffering in the verses we just read, verses 6 through 10.

Suffering is perhaps one of the most difficult topics for us to speak on. It is one of the most challenging issues to address because every single one of us, every human being, to some extent, is buffeted by suffering. All of us experience the realities of evil and pain in this world. One of the most often asked questions is, if there is a God who is all-powerful, all-loving, and all-good, then why is there suffering in the world?

In our day, perhaps more than any other time in history, we see the realities of suffering because, within an instant of something happening on the other side of the world, we have the information in our hands on our iPhones or we see it beamed to us in high definition on TV. It wasn't long ago, just a year or so ago, that we heard breaking news of an earthquake off the shore of Japan. Within minutes, we were watching live feeds of tsunami waves washing across the land there, resulting in thousands of people killed in an instant. We were witnessing it in high definition, in complete awe of the suffering and pain that people were going through.

Whether it's a natural disaster or the famines and pestilence that take place in places like Africa, the reality of suffering is ever-present.

We see it and we're confronted with the realities of suffering and pain. People often ask the question, "Why is there suffering?" If there is a God in heaven, if He is good, all-powerful, and all-knowing, then why does He allow such things? In fact, there is an entire area of theology that speaks to this. It's called theodicy. There have been volumes of books by theologians and biblical scholars that seek to deal with the issue of suffering in respect to the divine goodness of God.

How do we explain these things? Why, if God is all-loving, all-powerful, and all-good, is there suffering? The follow-up question often comes: Why do bad things happen to good people? We know that question. Perhaps we ourselves have asked it, or it has been asked of us.

In response to these questions, one of the most commonly used answers is a very simple one: The reason that there is suffering, pain, and evil is because of sin. While that is true to some extent and can be supported by scripture, there are passages that affirm this reality. The reason there is evil in the world is sin. The reason that there is death is sin.

Ezekiel, as inspired of God, said in Ezekiel 18:4 and 20, "The soul that sins shall die." Paul the Apostle, in Romans 6, states, "The wages of sin is death." In Romans 5:12, he explains that through one man, sin entered the world, and death through sin, and death spread to all humanity because all sinned.

We see the relationship between death and sin. As a result, when people are asked why bad things happen in this world, why there is suffering, pain, and evil, we often respond, "Because of sin." However, the problem with that simple answer, which we can sometimes glibly provide, is that it wrongly infers...

A sort of divine karma exists in Christianity. What do I mean by that? It is a divine karma where we suffer tit for tat because of our actions. People often wrongly conclude that if something bad happens in their lives, it is because they have been bad people. This concept is best illustrated in the Bible, particularly in what Bible scholars consider to be the oldest book, the Book of Job.

Have any of you ever read through the Book of Job? For some 34 chapters, Job, after experiencing devastating suffering and trials in his life, is confronted by his friends. They contend with him, saying, "Listen, Job, the reason you are suffering, the reason you are going through all this, is because you have hidden sin in your life. You just need to repent of it. If you were a good person, certainly these things would not happen to you."

We often come to the conclusion, or hear others come to this conclusion, that abhorrent circumstances in our lives are a response from God to something we have done. In other words, all human suffering is seen as divine judgment. This is how many people perceive suffering.

Do you remember August 29, 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf states, particularly Louisiana and New Orleans? After this disaster, some people, even within the Christian community, said, "Of course it happened to New Orleans. That place is bad. Look at all the debauchery, the witchcraft, the wickedness of New Orleans. Of course that's why it happened there."

Then, if you go a little further east to Mississippi and ask, "Why did it happen there?" you might think they shouldn't have faced such judgment. We tend to equate bad things happening to people in this world with some wrongdoing on their part. Yet, when suffering touches us, we often say, "No, I didn't do anything. I don't know why this is happening."

The reality is that the Bible does not necessarily support that view. God is not up in heaven watching everything bad we do, waiting to push the smite button, although we might sometimes act as if He is.

I mean, if we were in the position of God, wouldn't we possibly be tempted? How many of you, in a situation in your life, have experienced someone doing something bad to you, and your instant reaction is, "I wish I could get some retribution on this one"? We constantly have to be reminded that God is the one who is in that place of judgment, being completely just. However, He is not up in heaven just watching all the moves of man and waiting to strike.

There are examples in the Bible that illustrate the view that the reason bad things happen is directly related to something we did—some sinful deed, thought, or word that incurred this upon us. In John chapter 9, there is a perfect illustration of this. Jesus is confronted by a man who was born blind, and His disciples ask Him in John chapter 9, verse 2, "Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?" This question gives us a peek into their philosophy and worldview. Who sinned? Was it him or his parents that he would come out of the womb unable to see?

Jesus provides an amazingly important answer in verse 3 of John chapter 9, where He says, "Neither has this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." Here, Jesus reveals that there was purpose behind this suffering, this trial that the man experienced, which is important for us to understand.

Not just in John chapter 9, but there is also a great passage in the book of Acts, specifically in the very last chapter, Acts 28. The Apostle Paul is being taken to Rome to stand before Caesar. On his way, as he gets close to Italy, he is shipwrecked and ends up on the island of Malta. As he comes ashore with all the people who were on that ship with him, they face a great storm. Paul begins to gather sticks to put upon a fire to warm all those people who have been in the ocean. As he nears the fire and throws the sticks into the flames, a snake—a viper, a venomous snake—comes out and attaches to his hand.

Now, the people who lived on the island, when they saw this, when they watched what was happening...

They probably were thoroughly acquainted with these venomous snakes on their island. They saw what happened in Acts 28, verse 4. It says, "No doubt, this was their thinking; this is what they said among themselves: 'No doubt this man, Paul, is a murderer. Being bitten by this snake, no doubt he is a murderer whom, though he has escaped the sea, vengeance suffers him yet not to live.' Obviously, the reason he's suffering this thing is because he is a wicked murderer. He escaped the shipwreck. He escaped the storm. But he cannot escape justice."

Now, in the very next verses of Acts chapter 28, it is revealed that Paul did not suffer any of the problems that probably should have come upon him after being bitten by the snake. He didn't die like the people on the island of Malta expected. When they saw that he didn't die, they said, "Well, he must be of the gods then."

So again, we get a peek into their philosophy, their worldview. If you do something bad, you're a murderer; this is going to happen to you. If you do something good, then you're going to have great blessing. That was their observation, but that's not necessarily what the Scriptures reveal. It is exceedingly important that we recognize that there are no easy answers to the questions of suffering and pain.

We would like to be able to easily say to someone who's going through a trial and facing difficulty, "Hey, listen, the reason is this." Although we may be able to support our reasoning or our answer with some sort of Scriptures from the Bible, those easy answers don't necessarily take away the reality of the pain for the person who is suffering.

You give those easy answers, and they never suffice. If someone is going through a terrible trial, perhaps they have just lost a loved one or a child to death, and they ask, "Why is this happening?" If you give them some sort of theological answer, it is not going to relieve the pain they are experiencing. If you were to even say to them, "Well, the reason this is happening is because of sin," you might walk out of there with a black eye. It is not helpful in that situation.

When you read the book of Job, you find that Job's friends did the right thing at the beginning when they first came to Job after he had suffered the loss of everything in his life. They came, and it says in Job that they sat with him for seven days.

They didn't say anything. They just sat there. They did great when they just shut up. The ministry of presence, of just being there with their friend, weeping with him who weeps, was powerful. Yet, at the end of that seven-day period, they just couldn't contain themselves any longer. Then they began to talk, and everything that they said was completely false. They told Job that the reason he was suffering was because God was judging him for hidden sin, which was not true.

As you look through the New Testament, particularly in the book of Acts, and consider Paul the Apostle and his thirteen letters, you find that Paul suffered much over the course of his life and ministry. Last week, in 2 Corinthians 11, we examined an almost exhaustive list of some of the things that Paul endured, which led him to write this letter. He was whipped 195 times at the hands of Jewish leaders. He was beaten with rods three times on three separate occasions by Roman magistrates. He was stoned with rocks and shipwrecked three times. He found himself endangered in storms upon the sea and at the hands of robbers on land. He faced danger from Jews and Gentiles, as well as from false brethren. Whether he was in the city or in the wilderness, he experienced weariness, pain, hunger, thirst, cold, and nakedness—all for the cause of Christ because of the work he was doing in Him.

On top of that, he experienced the day-to-day anxieties and burdens of the ministry that God had committed to him. When people were weak within the body of Christ, he felt that weakness in himself. When people were offended within the body of Christ, he bore that burden internally. He burned over it. You can be certain that as Paul describes all the things he experienced in suffering for the name of Christ, there were those in the city of Corinth—critics of the Apostle Paul—who pointed to the very things he was suffering and said, "See, that's proof. This guy does not have good character. You can't listen to the Apostle Paul. You're following a guy who's been imprisoned by the Romans and beaten by the Jews. You can't follow him as trustworthy, as a faithful source of revelation, having been the bearer of such burdensome suffering. Quite clearly, Paul is suffering this just judgment of a holy God." That's what you see in him.

In a sense, we can hear the critics of Paul using the sufferings he endured as another weapon against his character. They claim he has nothing good to offer and that he has gone through all this suffering because God is justly punishing him. Of course, we know that's not the case. He suffered those things for the cause of Christ.

Please understand that there are examples of people suffering both in life and as revealed in the Scriptures because of sinful decisions they made. However, those things are not necessarily the retribution of God; they are actually just the consequences of sin. How many of you here tonight would be honest enough to say that you can look back over your life and see times when you suffered the consequences of making foolish, sinful decisions? It's just a reality of sin.

Death does not follow sin merely because God is judging sin, but because sin is deadly. When Ezekiel, inspired by God, says, "The soul that sins shall die," it is simply the result of the consequences of sin. Sin is deadly. I would say that just about every one of us here tonight has experienced, in some way, the consequences of our sinful decisions and choices.

However, not all human suffering is divine retribution from God. It is not God getting even with us. There is no karma in Christianity. You do good, and then you will receive a good return from God. If you do bad, you will receive a bad return from God. That is not what the Scriptures reveal. Every single one of us is wicked; every single one of us is sold to sin. Any good that we receive is by the grace of God. We deserve all kinds of terrible things.

So the question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" should actually be rephrased: "Why do good things happen to a bunch of bad, evil sinners?" Because that is all that we are, and yet we experience such great grace.

People still ask, "Why is there suffering? Why is there pain?" The answer that Paul gives, by revelation of God here in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, at least in this instance of suffering that Paul was experiencing, addresses the question of why he is suffering.

It is, in reality, pretty difficult for us to swallow. It's hard for us to receive what Paul says about his suffering in this passage. Paul was suffering something great in his life. In chapter 11, he talked about beatings, whippings, imprisonment, being stoned with rocks, being shipwrecked, and experiencing hunger, thirst, and nakedness. He went through difficult things that everybody in life and humanity experiences. Everyone will face difficult trials and temptations.

In another passage of Scripture, Paul says that these things we endure are common to man. The Apostle Peter also mentions that these fiery trials, these strange things, are not strange at all. Everybody experiences difficulty. Paul states that he is going through something far greater than just the day-to-day realities of suffering in a fallen world. The imprisonments, the beatings, the stonings, the shipwrecks, and the poverty were all part of his experience, but there was something of a magnitude greater than those day-to-day trials happening in his life.

He refers to this in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 as a thorn in his flesh. When we visualize the idea of a thorn in the flesh, most of us probably think back to something we've experienced while dealing with roses. You know, when you're handling a rose or a rose bush delicately to avoid getting one of those thorns stuck deep in your thumb. Yet, in a moment of inadvertently grabbing it, that thorn can stick deep in your thumb, and you instantly feel the pain. You might shake your hand or even stick it in your mouth to suck on it for a moment. That is what we visualize as a thorn in the flesh.

However, the reality of the thorn that Paul was experiencing was far greater than that. Can you really visualize the Apostle Paul if that is all it was? If it were just a rose thorn sticking into his finger, could you imagine him coming before God on three separate occasions, begging God, "Please take this from me"? It just doesn't fit. The word that is translated...

In just about every English Bible, "thorn" can also be translated as a pail, a post, or a stake—an impaling object. Maybe the best illustration of what this would be comes from the movie "Braveheart." Has anybody ever seen "Braveheart"? You can admit it. There's that scene in "Braveheart" when they're at battle, and William Wallace has all his guys ready. They're down on the ground, and here come the horsemen from the English armies. They're coming against them, and right at the last minute, he says, "Wait for it!" At that moment, they pick up these twenty-foot-long sticks, these tree trunks, if you will, that have been sharpened to a point. The horses and all these armies just impale themselves on this. In that moment, you're like, "Yeah, go Wallace!" That's the picture—an impaling object.

Paul says, "I am being impaled in my flesh by this great thorn." On three separate occasions, Paul begs God to take it from him. There has been a lot of discussion and commentary by great Bible teachers and commentators regarding the exact nature of Paul's thorn in the flesh. Many speculations have been given. In fact, if you pick up fifty different commentaries on 2 Corinthians, you're probably going to get fifty different explanations about what Paul's thorn in the flesh was. Virtually all of them will speak of it being some sort of physical disorder or disease that Paul was plagued with—an infirmity that he had.

In contemplating this, I wanted to present some of the ideas that have been given by Bible commentators regarding the explanation of what Paul's thorn in the flesh was. Some people said that Paul's thorn in the flesh was headaches. Others suggested it was carnal lusts, that he was battling with lusts he couldn't control. Some have said that Paul had an eye problem, epilepsy, malaria, or Malta fever. There are even those who have claimed that Paul was struggling with loss of hair—balding—and because he was balding, he begged God three times to let this pass from him. "Give me some Rogaine." Does that really seem to fit what Paul is struggling with here? Other suggestions include hysteria and hypochondria.

Gallstones, gout, rheumatism, sciatica, gastritis, leprosy, and lice in the hair are some of the explanations that people give for Paul's thorn in the flesh. If he was balding, he obviously didn't have lice in the hair. However, there is little in the Scriptures to support or suggest that it was any of these things. We don't have any explanation that it was some sort of physical infirmity that he had.

Be that as it may, I'm convinced that the text does give us an answer as to what it was that Paul was struggling with, what this thorn was. One of the problems is that when we think of a thorn in the flesh, we immediately imagine some sort of physical infirmity, but the text doesn't necessarily force that conclusion. The passage that we have before us in the book of 2 Corinthians doesn't really push upon us that it has to be a physical infirmity. In fact, I'm convinced that throughout Paul's letter, he's already alluded to what it was that he was being devastated by.

Turn back to 2 Corinthians 2. We begin to see it unfold before us there. In 2 Corinthians 2, at verse 4, Paul says, "For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you." Then, in verse 12, he continues, "Furthermore, when I came to the city of Troas to preach Christ's gospel and a door was opened unto me of the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit because I found not Titus my brother; but taking leave of them, I went into Macedonia."

Paul expresses that he was so troubled in his heart, so discouraged, and so downcast that he had no rest. He had to leave the opportunity that he had to preach the gospel in Troas and go to Macedonia. He picks up that thought five chapters later in chapter 7. Turn to 2 Corinthians 7, verse 5. He says, "For when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Without were fighting, within were fears."

Paul was deeply, deeply grieved by something, something weighing heavily on him.

So heavily upon him was a burden that he was hindered from the work that God had set before him in the city of Troas. A great door was opened to him there, as he says in 2 Corinthians chapter 2. However, he was so devastated by something that forced him down, some thorn in the flesh, and I guarantee you it wasn't hair loss. He couldn't continue with the work that God had set before him, so he left and went to the cities of Macedonia, probably to the city of Philippi, where his good friend Luke, the author of the book of Acts and the Gospel of Luke, was. He waited for Titus to bring word back from Corinth.

Something in Corinth was devastating to Paul. It was like being impaled in his heart. Many of you know very well that there is a much deeper pain than anything that comes from a physical ailment. There is a much heavier hurt than anything we could suffer in our physical bodies. Where does all of this that Paul speaks of come from? What was it that Paul pled with God to remove? He pleaded with God three times to take this from him.

Notice how Paul actually defines a thorn in the flesh. Turn to 2 Corinthians 12 again and look at verse 7. That's where we get the term "thorn in the flesh." He says, "And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh." Now he defines it. What's a thorn in the flesh? "The messenger of Satan to buffet me." That's what Paul's thorn in the flesh was—a messenger of Satan to buffet him. The words "messenger of Satan" literally mean an angel of the devil was given to him as a thorn in the flesh. It was not merely a physical infirmity but rather an individual or a group of individuals led by an individual.

Well, who were they? What is this that's going on? Again, we need to look to the Scriptures. What do the Scriptures tell us about this thorn in the flesh, this messenger of Satan? Jump back one chapter to 2 Corinthians 11 and look at verse 13.

Paul identifies, I believe, for us just what this was in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 13. He speaks of his critics, those destroying the ministry that God had wrought through him. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And do not marvel that they've done this, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing that his ministers, the ministers of Satan, the messengers of the devil, also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their work.

So, Paul tells us what it is that he's grappling with that brought such severe anxiety upon him and almost hindered him from effectively accomplishing the work that God had set before him. It was these individuals and the work of these individuals that had brought Paul exceedingly low. The reality is that this was just what the thorn in the flesh was for. This messenger of Satan was given for the purpose, as Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 7, that it was given to bring about humility. Lest I be exalted above measure, there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, lest I be exalted above measure.

Paul was suffering. He was suffering a circumstance that was to him far greater in magnitude than beatings, whippings, shipwrecks, stoning, and poverty. It was much greater than any of those sorts of things that people might go through on a day-to-day basis. What we learn about this situation that Paul was enduring, this situation of suffering, challenges our way of thinking as it relates to suffering.

There are four things we have to note from the text about this suffering that Paul was enduring. If you're taking notes, you may want to write these down. Four things that Paul tells us about this suffering that are important.

Number one: the origin of the suffering. Paul says, "There was given to me," in verse 7, "there was given to me a thorn in the flesh." Well, who gave it? The only one who could take it away gave it. Look at verse 8: "For this thing I besought the Lord three times that it might depart."

From me, he said, "My grace is sufficient for you." So God essentially said no; He was not taking it away. The origin of this suffering was God. God had brought this and allowed it in the life of Paul. God gave it to Paul, and Paul repeatedly sought the Lord to remove it, but God said no.

Not only is the origin of this suffering important, but secondly, if you're taking notes, consider the source of the suffering. Paul identifies the source again in verse 7. He says this suffering was from a messenger of Satan. So, while God was the origin, Satan was the source. We see in that reality in verse 7 that although this originated from God, He was able to allow or use a satanic means to fully affect it in the life of Paul.

Now, this is hard for some to understand. God allowed this and permitted Satan, His enemy, to affect it. You may wonder how that is possible. Do we see this anywhere else in Scripture? Well, on more than a few occasions, we do. I already mentioned the story of Job. Do any of you remember the story of Job?

In Job chapter 1, it says that Satan appeared before God in heaven. God asked Satan, "What have you been up to?" Satan replied, "I've been going to and fro about the earth." Then God said, "Have you considered my servant Job? He's a righteous guy." Satan responded, "Yeah, I've taken a look at him. The only reason that Job serves you is because you bless him." Satan indicts God, claiming that the only reason anyone serves Him is because He gives good things to them. He argued that if everything was taken away from Job, he would curse God.

You see, Satan challenges God there, and God said, "Okay, Satan, you go ahead. You can take everything from him, but don't take his life or his health." So, on a certain day, Job woke up and received news from servants that, in the night, his sons and daughters had all gathered together in one house. A natural disaster, a tornado, came and destroyed the house where they were gathered, and all of his children died right then.

That servant departs, and another servant comes and says, "Job, you're not going to believe this. You're so wealthy, but all of your wealth has just been stolen by robbers, and they killed all your employees. All your servants have been killed." In one moment, on one day, everything that Job had was gone. God in heaven allowed Satan to do so in the life of Job to bring about His ends. In all of this, Job did not curse God.

Job chapter two tells us that Satan appears before God once again. God asks Satan, "What have you been doing?" Satan replies, "I've been going to and fro about the earth. Hey, have you considered my servant Job? He's a pretty righteous guy." God acknowledges that Job did well on the first test, but Satan counters, "Skin for skin! All that a man has, he will give for his life. If you take away his health, he will curse you to your face." God says, "Okay, you can take his health, but you cannot take his life."

In one day, once again, Job is devastated by some severe physical trial and ailment. He finds himself sitting in the dust of the ground, covered from head to toe with boils that are oozing pus from his body. He has a piece of broken clay pot and is scraping this off of his body. Job has had everything taken from him: his children, his wealth, his servants, and his health. The only thing that Satan didn't take was his wife, who turned out to be quite unhelpful. She says to him, "Job, curse God and die." But in all this, Job did not curse God.

Although he said a lot of interesting things about God—some of which were true and many of which were not—he never did curse God. He said, "Naked I came into this world, and naked I shall go forth. Blessed be the name of the Lord." In that sense, in that situation, we see God as the one who was the originator of this difficulty. It had a satanic source, not only in the life of Job but also in the life of Peter.

In Luke chapter 22, Peter and Jesus have a discourse, a conversation. Peter is waxing eloquent about how, "Hey, listen, if everybody else denies you, I'll never deny you." Jesus says to Peter, "Listen, Satan has desired you to sift you as wheat." If I were Peter in that moment, I would have probably said, "Well, you said no, right?" Jesus says, "Satan has desired you."

That he might sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you. What have you prayed? Have you prayed to remove this trial from me? No, I've prayed for you that in the midst of it, when you go through the trial, your faith would not fail. And when you return, strengthen your brethren.

So, Jesus does not remove Peter from that trial. It originated from God. The source was satanic, but God enabled him by power to go through it. God was the origin of this trial that Paul was facing. The source was satanic.

Number three, the means. We see the origin, we see the source, we see the means. What was the means? Paul says it was a thorn in the flesh to buffet me. That word "buffet" in the original language means to strike with the fist. It had a very physical look to it. Although it came from the throne room of God through a spiritual host, the enemy, our adversary, the devil, it took on a very physical reality. It struck him in the flesh like someone repeatedly punching him in the gut.

The origin was God, the source was Satan, the means was a thorn in the flesh, and the purpose, number four, was humility. Lest I be exalted above measure, through the abundance of the revelations, there was given unto me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, so that I would not become conceited.

You may ask, why would Paul ever become conceited? Well, he says it was because of the abundance of the revelations that he had received. What revelations? In the first five verses of 2 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul talks about a man. He speaks in the third person, but in verse 7, he identifies himself as this individual. He speaks about a man, saying, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know, but he was caught up into the third heaven.

You may wonder, what is the third heaven? The third heaven was an ancient way of speaking about the place where God dwelt. He also calls it paradise. In the ancient mindset, there were three levels of heaven. The first was the atmosphere around the earth, the second was the universe where the stars were, and the third heaven was where God dwelt.

Paul says he knew a man who was caught up into the third heaven, into paradise. He saw and heard things that he could not utter. Paul reveals that he had a heavenly vision that was on the same level.

In the vision that Isaiah received in Isaiah chapter 6, he saw the Lord high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the heavenly temple. At some point in Paul's life as a follower of Jesus, he was given a revelation of God that you and I cannot even begin to fathom or imagine. Not only that, Paul was brought to faith in Christ by a vision of the risen Lord on the road to Damascus, as described in Acts chapter 9.

Now, although Paul was an incredible follower of God and a great apostle to the Gentiles, he was vulnerable to the same kind of pride and arrogance that every single one of us is susceptible to. Can you imagine the kind of pride you might have if you had received that kind of revelation from God? Imagine if Paul had not had a thorn in the flesh. Picture him as a conceited, proud person.

There you are, traveling with him, and he asks you, "So, how did you come to faith in Christ?" You respond, "Well, you know, Paul, you were preaching in the city of Philippi, and I heard the gospel that you preached, and I accepted Christ." He might say, "Did I ever tell you the story about how I came to faith in Christ? Jesus Himself came down from heaven and revealed Himself to me." Really? Yes, that's how I received Christ.

As you travel with Paul, you pray about the next steps. "Where should we go? Should we go to Tarsus or should we go into Ephesus? Where ought we to go, Lord?" Paul suggests, "I really think we should go on into Tarsus," but everyone else says, "No, Paul, we should go into Ephesus." He responds, "Listen, do you realize the kind of revelations I've had? I was caught up into the third heaven. Now, who do you think we're going to listen to in this situation?"

Yet, Paul barely speaks of these revelations as we follow his life and ministry throughout the thirteen letters of the New Testament and consider his life in the book of Acts. We know very little about the revelations he received because he was humbled, so that he would not be exalted above measure. God allowed suffering in his life, which originated from Him. God permitted a satanic source, and it was very physical in the way it came against him. The purpose was the humility of Paul. Why? So that...

Christ would be exalted over the life of Paul, not Paul as this great individual. Paul's desire, as revealed in what we've been looking at in 2 Corinthians, was that he did not want to boast of himself. His desire was that Christ would increase while his own life decreased. He wanted people to see Christ, not to talk about how great Paul was. That's why he says in 1 Corinthians chapters 1 and 2, "When I came to you, I didn't come with excellence of speech." Not because he didn't know how to speak well, but because he wanted God to be exalted. He wanted people to put their faith in the wisdom of God and not in the wisdom and power of man.

Paul became small and low because of the work that God had done in him, so that God could be exalted to a greater extent in his life. Paul went through the suffering that he did, as revealed in this passage, so that God could prove and refine him. You see, suffering has a sanctifying work in our lives. Hebrews 5:12 says that Jesus learned obedience through the things that he suffered. So, suffering brought about a sanctifying work in Him, and it does the same in us.

James 1 says, "Count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations and trials." Why? Because the testing of your faith results in patience, and patience will have its perfect work in you, making you complete, lacking nothing. In Romans chapter 5, Paul says, "We glory in tribulations." Why? Because we are sadistic and like hard things? No, because tribulation works patience, and patience experience, and experience produces hope. Hope for what? Hope for a life beyond this life.

If anyone ever comes around saying that Christians never suffer or experience hardship, then Paul the Apostle was not a Christian, nor was Jesus. If there is any news, good news, or gospel that removes Jesus from the equation, it is not good to be received or listened to. Everybody suffers in this life because of the fall and the curse. We all experience difficulties and trials, but only the Christian who has received the gospel of grace has, in the midst of the trial, sustaining grace from God. Paul, in the midst of the trial,

He experienced, "God, your grace is sufficient." Only the Christian has that. Only the Christian has the hope of peace now in the midst of a storm and enduring peace in eternity, where there will be no more suffering. Jesus said it like this in John chapter 16 as he was preparing his disciples for his departure: "In the world, you will have suffering." It is a given; everyone in the world suffers difficulty. "In the world, you will have suffering, but in me, you might have peace." This peace is in the midst of the storm, not removal from the storm.

There is, however, a day, as Paul speaks of in Romans chapter 5, verse 12. He says that patience produces experience, which brings about hope. Hope for what? Well, turn finally in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 21. Revelation 21, the last book of the Bible, nearly the last chapter of the Bible, the second to last chapter of the Bible, contains a prophetic word given through a vision that the apostle John received.

What is our hope? This is it. Revelation 21:1 states, "I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea." John continues, "And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

Then, I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God." Notice this in verse four: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any pain anymore, for the former things are passed away."

We glory in tribulation, says Paul in Romans chapter 5, because tribulation produces patience, patience produces experience, and experience produces hope. Why do we have hope? Romans 5 says it is because the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The one who has put their confidence and their trust in Christ for salvation has peace now in the midst of trials and tribulations, which the world does not know, and they have the hope, the assurance of salvation for eternity.

with God in His presence, where there is fullness of joy and no more tears. The person who rejects the gift of God's grace in this life will experience the same trials, the same tribulations, and the same difficulties that are common to man. They will face these challenges without the peace of God and without the hope of an everlasting future.

The gospel is good news. The gospel is great news. Paul reveals that God allowed suffering in his life to refine him. God allowed suffering in his life to bring about humility. He allowed suffering so that Paul would recognize his insufficiency and see his complete and total dependency upon God. God allowed suffering in his life so that Paul would draw near to Him. He allowed it so that Paul would know the full extent of the grace of God, that God would prove Himself faithful to Paul, and that Paul would experience God's everlasting and enduring strength. Ultimately, Paul would reflect God's glory.

You see, suffering in the life of the Christian brings about refining. It stirs us to rely upon God and better equips us to reflect His glory. This is why James would say, "Count it all joy, brethren, when you fall into diverse trials." Not because we enjoy pain, but because in the midst of it, God is refining us, teaching us to rely upon Him, and readying us to reflect Him more greatly.

The problem is that in our circumstances and culture today, we go to extreme measures to try and build up walls around us to avoid suffering. Every time we go through any sort of trying circumstance, we immediately think, "Oh, this can't possibly be God working in my life. It must be Satan destroying me." So we pray against it. In reality, God at times does allow us to suffer because we gain a better, greater understanding of Him in the midst of that. Paul said this in Philippians chapter 3, verse 10: "That I may know Him in the power of His resurrection, in the fellowship..."

Of His suffering, being conformed unto His death. It is in the midst of suffering that we gain a greater knowledge of God. We recognize Him as the God of all comforts and the Father of mercies. We experience His grace that is overabundant and all-sufficient, and we experience His mercy that goes to the uttermost.

Oh, that we would recognize that whatever we face in this life, the difficulty, God is there in the midst of the trial with us. He doesn't always remove us from it, nor does He remove it from our lives. But in the midst of it, He gives us sustaining strength, enduring peace, great mercy, and grace.

Father, help us to recognize, as we go through difficult things, that You are working in us to will and to do Your good pleasure. We may go through times of trial and difficulty, but in the midst of those things, You are using them to refine us. You are using them to stir us to rely upon You, so that we would reflect Your glory in this world.

So God, work in our lives that we would recognize Your hand in the midst of it and that You are working things together for good and for Your glory. Stir in us an everlasting hope, an absolute assurance that we will one day be with You in Your presence, where there will be fullness of joy, no more tears, and no more pain. God, work this in us, we pray, in Jesus' name. Thank you.