The Suffering No.10 Confessions of a Scared Apostle

Let's turn to the Scriptures in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul's second letter to the Corinthians chapter 11. Paul is writing to a church which is criticizing him and his ministry, and last week we read chapter 10 where Paul makes his defense of his ministry, and today we read chapter 11 where Paul is commenting upon some of his particular critics. I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness, but you are already doing that.

I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those super apostles. I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge.

We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way. Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge? I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you. And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed.

I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so. As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of mine. Why? Because I do not love you.

God knows I do. And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ.

And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

I repeat, let no one take me for a fool, but if you do, then receive me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting. In this self-confident boasting, I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool. Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast.

You gladly put up with fools, since you are so wise. In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you, or exploits you, or takes advantage of you, or pushes himself forward, or slaps you in the face. To my shame, I admit that we were too weak for that.

What anyone else dares to boast about, I'm speaking as a fool, I also dare to boast about. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's descendants? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I'm out of my mind to talk like this. I am more.

I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods.

Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea.

I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and often gone without sleep.

I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food. I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

Who is not weak, and I do not feel weak. Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

The God and father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.

God make his word live to us today. Listen to this. Hast thou no scar, no hidden scar on foot or side or hand? I hear thee sung as mighty in the land.

I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star. Hast thou no scar? Hast thou no wound? Yet I was wounded by the arches spent. Leaned me against a tree to die and rent by ravening wolves that compass me, I swooned.

Hast thou no wound? No wound, no scar? Yet as the master shall the servant be, and pierced are the feet that follow me, but thine are whole. Can he have followed far who hath no wound, no scar? The chapter that I'm speaking to you on was named by Tim who worked out the preaching program in terms of the apostle's boasting or something to that effect. I want to change it, not because no boasting is within here, but because I think that perhaps a subtitle is necessary, The Confessions of a Scarred Apostle.

The Confessions of a Scarred Apostle. You know, and here I've got no axe to grind because although I find it incredible, if my ears to the ground are accurate in what they pick up, I know of no ginger group within this church. I know of no people who are seeking to divide it, who are constantly casting aspersions on its leadership.

One of the strengths of this fellowship for which we praise God in His sovereignty has been its unity down the years. It is quite incredible. But that's not always the case in Christian churches and neither was it always the case at the beginning of the Christian story for the Apostle Paul, Pastor Paul, he was a man who was scarred, scarred externally because of the lifestyle that he adopted as an apostle but also scarred internally because when you're wounded by a friend, if the wounding was not legitimate, it was not just a question of correction but it was libel, then that pain can be far more intensely felt.

And here is the apostle dashing off with thoughtfulness, a fairly lengthy letter to the Corinthians and he has one particular group in mind as you get to the eleventh chapter. It's the ginger group, the ones who are scandalizing the apostle. And as a result he has to engage in something which he acknowledges to be foolishness and not following the mind of the beloved Lord.

In terms of our Lord's refusal ever to bring credit to himself, I hope, says the apostle, in the first verse, you will put up with a little of my foolishness. Verse sixteen, let no one take me for a fool. Receive me just as you would a fool.

What anyone else dares to boast about, I am speaking as a fool. Verse twenty-one, why does Paul conclude that he is engaging in foolishness? Well, you see, he is driven because of the ginger party within the church, those fomenting opposition to boast about his ministry. And yet the apostle, as often is the case, deals harshly with himself because beyond, behind, around, on top of his boasting, there is the grace of God which has been so operative in his life that it has made him so successful and able to cope with the hardships that were his as an ambassador of Jesus Christ.

Paul says in the eleventh verse of the twelfth chapter, I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. So what does he mean? Well, I have already explained. It is the contents of this eleventh chapter, you see.

They are quite unusual. Take this as a warning. The man who placards himself in the pulpit is not worth listening to.

The man who is on about himself and his successes, there is only one objective in the Christian pulpit, and it is to bring honor and glory to the blessed God and Father of our Lord Jesus. But there are times when it is right to thank God for the success of a person's ministry. We do that frequently here at the Tavern, our memorial services, when we give just a little bit of information of the lifestyle of one of our beloved friends who has been carried through into the next world, but we pause always to say, well, this is what she was like, this is what he was like, but the reason for that was the grace of God, and we boast about that.

Now it is in that sense that the apostle is boasting, although he deals so badly with himself when he calls this acting foolishly. Paul is going to defend his ministry in one sense, and in the first twelve verses, for those of you who take notes, my main heading would be this, just in terms of summary, Paul explains his reasons. And then from verses thirteen to twenty, Paul exposes his rivals.

And finally, from the twenty-first to the last verse, Paul examines his record. Paul explains his reasons. Why does the apostle Paul engage in this defense of his ministry, of this church, and his activity in it? Well, he does so for three sub-reasons.

He is fathering the church. I once had a letter addressed to me which made my eyes go to saucers. It addressed me as dear father in God.

And I thought, well, that puts me into the Catholic priesthood. And then I checked a reference in 1 Corinthians 4 and verse fifteen, where the apostle Paul is speaking about the church in Corinth that he was unable to bring into being, and he says, even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers in Christ, I became your father through the gospel. There is a sense in which a man who has pioneered a church is the father of that church.

We think of, well, some think of Edward Heath as being the father of the house of commons, not because he attends the most, actually he's got rather a low record of attendance, but he's been the longest person there. Well, the apostle here is saying, I'm explaining my reasoning to you. Why am I boasting? Because, well, I am fathering this church.

You see, he looks on the church, does he not? Look at the second verse. Almost in terms of a bride being presented to the husband. We had a beautiful wedding service here, incidentally.

Aren't these flowers just remarkable? Those of you who are visitors, it's not as good as this every week, but we do thank the Lord for Barbara Davison, who with great pain put all these, physical pain, put these lovely arrangements together. Well, there was in the service a very proud father, and I said, who gives this woman to be married to this man? And firmly and gently and sincerely, the response, I do. I present my daughter and give her to this man.

Says the apostle, I'm jealous for you Christians. I want to present you as a pure virgin, as a bride, as a partner for Jesus. That's the reason why I'm defending my ministry.

One thing a father never wants is for his daughter to falter. And that's the second sub reason why Paul is explaining his, what he's about at this point, he's concerned about the faltering of the church. Look, he says in the third verse, Eve faltered in the garden of Eden.

She was deceived by the serpent's cunning. Now the possibility is that here in the church, because of this ginger group, these men whose theology is askew, who are trying to tyrannize you, the possibility is that you'll stumble, and I don't want that to happen. You see, there is only one gospel.

Verse four. If someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preach, if you receive a different spirit than the Holy Spirit, which you received as we placed our hands upon you, and you knew that mighty baptism in the spirit, if there is any variation of the good news, then it is a different gospel. And the apostle is concerned to preserve the purity of the gospel, because there's only one gospel.

And yet, you know, today the world is awash with gospels. It's awash with Jesuses. The Jesus of liberation theology, the Jesus of liberalism, there is only one Jesus, there is only one gospel.

And anyone who comes and tries to infect, impregnate his heresy into a local community of Christians, well, that needs leadership. Those who are fathers in God to say, no, you're not going to do this without a struggle on our part. The reason why the apostle then asserts himself in the fifth verse and says he's not inferior to those, and here he's being cynical, super apostles, is because of the solemnity and the truths of his ministry and the need that this has to be preserved.

The apostle Paul is an incredibly humble man. I've never met a great man who wasn't a humble man. One of the things that endears me to Frank Retief, for whom we've been praying, is his crass humility.

He's a great man and doesn't know it. I remember Donald Guthrie of London Bible College, a man with a terrible stutter, a man just of medium height and slight build, a man who in discussions with his students would eagerly seize upon any idea that they proffered in terms of their understanding of scripture, and yet one of the greatest Greek theologians and scholars that we've had in the twentieth century. Greatness and humility, if not synonyms, are close relatives, says the apostle.

I may not be a trained speaker. I haven't been to a school of rhetoric. I'm not a man who is competent with fancy flowing sentences.

But when I preach to you in a struggling, in a stammering fashion, and here he's backtracking on the second chapter of the first letter, I did present to you the truth and I'm concerned lest anyone deflects you from it. The fathering of the church, the faltering of the church, Paul is concerned to do the first and to prevent the second. But then there's a problem.

It's the financing of the church from the seventh verse to the twelfth verse. Another thing about a great Christian man is you can never buy him. Spurgeon was once asked, I speak with no disrespect to our American friends, especially as I've got to preach there next week and I don't want to create any greater difficulty than I've already got over there in terms of the mega size of their congregations.

But Spurgeon was once asked by an American church to leave the church that he was pastoring for the Lord in London and he wrote back and said no, he didn't feel it was God's will. And they wrote back and said, pay me a price. And then Spurgeon, quite rightly with indignation, wrote back and said, your money perish with you.

You see, you cannot buy spirituality. You cannot buy a man of God with money. Now, here's a difficulty.

You see, you're not going to understand what Paul is saying in this seventh through to the twelfth verse unless you grasp something of what I would call his philosophy of money. You see, when the apostle Paul got to Corinth in the early days, you read of this in the eighteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, he earned his bread and butter by resorting back to the tent-making ministry of which he was skilled in earlier years. Because when the apostle went to pioneer a church, he would never ask the emerging church at that stage to contribute towards his well-being.

Now, he had previously been to other places in Macedonia and in the fifth verse of the eighteenth chapter of the Acts, you will discover that people from Macedonia came, and the ministry is now declared to us in Corinth, but it's not in the Corinthian epistles, but it's not there in the Acts. They came to give him money, to help support his ministry. Now, he wasn't contradicting himself.

This was a mature church helping him. But the apostle, when he's pioneering, he does not make money from those who he has led to Christ. He does not preach the gospel at a fee.

Indeed, says the apostle, when he writes to the Romans, and his logic and his love is stupendous. He says, Father, far from feeling that the church is indebted to me, I am in debt to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to every creature. Now, back to these trained men who were the philosophers of those days.

You see, Greece was riddled with such men. Now, they didn't have TV. They were so blessed.

They didn't have modern tabloids. They were incredibly blessed. But they did have people who would go around, and they could talk well, professionally, philosophically.

And because there was very little else to do down in the forum, in the marketplace area where people congregated, what were the philosophers? They would bring a crowd together, and they would charge for their services. In fact, one great Greek philosopher by the name of Socrates, on one occasion, one of his friends came along and said, Socrates, for goodness sake, take an offering. Charge for what you are releasing in terms of knowledge, because unless you pay, they will not feel it is worthwhile.

Now, within this ginger group in Corinth were teachers who came from Judaism, and they were contradicting the apostle Paul. And what is more, they were charging fees. And this is, if you like, the sick logic.

Paul's just an amateur. He doesn't charge. If the value of what you speak is correlated to how much you give, the value of what you hear is correlated to how much you give, then this man, push him on one side.

You see how hurtful that would have been to the apostle Paul? When I was with you, verse 9, and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you. Hence, says the apostle, I'm going to continue to boast in this, that in the regions of Achaia, as I proclaim the gospel, I will do it freely.

The reason, well, you may misunderstand it. It has got nothing to do with my lack of love for you. Verse 11, God knows I love you.

But he says, I love the gospel even more, and I will cut the ground from under the feet of those who libel me. I am not in this for the money. And sometimes today, alas, the message has to be underlined.

Oh yes, a man who is called to preach the gospel has a right, says the apostle in the ninth chapter of the first letter, to live off the gospel. But anyone who preaches a prosperity gospel or is in a spirit of acquisitiveness, using that gospel for his own ends, a plague be upon that man. So Paul explains his reasons.

Fathering the church he's concerned with, the faltering of the church he wants to prevent, the financing of the church he wants everything decent and in order. So Paul now turns his guns on his rivals. Paul exposes his rivals from the thirteenth verse through to the twentieth verse.

We can deal with this fairly quickly because I've touched on it. The apostle actually is a very gentleman usually. He rarely equals our beloved Lord, who at times in his speech will almost alarm us.

You'll read Matthew 23 as the Lord Jesus turns his guns on religious hypocrites and you'll see what I mean. But here is the apostle almost echoing the beloved Christ. He speaks of the detractors, those who are working for the stumbling of the church.

He exposes them, such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. No wonder for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. Whereas the NEB version of the Bible, the New English version, gives it sham apostles crooked in all their practices, masquerading as apostles of Christ.

Intolerant? Yes. But the beloved Lord was intolerant. I speak with reverence and with bated breath.

God is intolerant. You read Hebrews chapter one and verse nine. He is intolerant of sin.

Read the epistles that are often left unread. The apostle Paul directs to Timothy and Titus and see what he has to say about those who pollute the gospel, resist those, turn away from those who will not cling to the wholesome words of Jesus. I put in a clarification here, not an apologia, not an apology.

Sometimes this church in this pulpit is misunderstood in this town because of our inability at times to cooperate with other so-called churches. I want to say definitively from this pulpit on behalf of our elders, we will always cooperate with any group of people who are preaching the gospel. We care not one fig for their denominational flag, but that gospel must be defined.

In terms of John 3, 16, our beloved Lord is the only way whereby men and women can be saved and outside of that there is no hope for a humankind at all. We care not what denomination a man preaches. As long as he preaches that message, we are one with him because he is part of us and we are part of him.

The apostle will always expose heresy wherever it comes. Why? Because heresy is deceitful. He makes reference to the devil transforming himself into an angel of light.

Heresy can be like the chameleon that can change its colors and make itself at home in any and every environment. Well, the apostle dismisses these people with this legitimate invective. Not only is it deceptive, it is entirely destructive.

Look, some of you, verse 19, you gladly put up with fools since you are wise. In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or take advantages of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face. See the irony there? What does he mean? In the face? Well, you see, if someone perverts the simplicity of the gospel, then in effect they are slapping you in the face.

If they say that coming to Christ and clinging to the old rugged cross is not sufficient as this ginger group was teaching in Corinth, then they are watering the gospel down. They are adding to the gospel. And if you dilute it or add to it, you destroy it.

There is only one gospel. There is only one Jesus. And Paul will expose any who denies the authority of the gospel of Christ.

And we need that same note to be struck today. So what do we look at? Paul explains his reasons. Paul exposes his rivals.

Well, verse 21, Paul examines his record. And again, he blushes. It's always so wonderful to see the modesty that there is within the apostle and how he's been forced into this position by those who are allegedly Christian.

But if they are, they're most immature. When what anyone else dares to boast about, I am speaking as a fool. I also dare to boast.

These men from Jerusalem creating so much problem in this local church. Well, Paul examines them. He speaks firstly about what he has in common.

Then he tells us where he is unique. And finally, why he must be believed. What is he in common? Well, they have come from Jerusalem.

Therefore, they are Hebrews. I too am a Hebrew. You see, the slanderer could well have been this.

He's not a proper Jew. He was born in Tarsus. Says the apostle, far from not being a proper Jew, I am not even of mixed parentage.

I am of the tribe of Benjamin. It's Jewish blood that courses through my veins. Says the apostle, if you read Acts chapter 21 and chapter 22 carefully, I was brought up in Jerusalem.

I sat at the feet of Gamaliel. I was one of the Pharisees. I was one of the leading younger theologians of that day.

Are they Hebrews? I am a Hebrew. Are they Israelites? I am a Hebrew. I am an Israelite.

Are they Abraham's descendants? So am I. The things that he has in common with this ginger group. But you see, ethnic qualification is no indication of spirituality. What does that mean? Well, simply because you were born in Israel does not make you a child of God.

Simply because you were born in worthing, respectable worthing, which really doesn't have much trouble compared with the rest of the troubles in the world. Even if you were born of the parentage of elders in our tabernacle, that would not make you a Christian. Your only reason to boast is because you have confessed the Lord Jesus as your own personal savior, your ethnic background.

What at the human level seems to be the fluke of birth is utterly and totally irrelevant. He has this in common with these detractors, and yet they're not one with him. So where is he unique? Are they servants of Christ? It's interesting that the apostle here, speaking rhetorically, does not follow with the affirmative so am I. He just goes on, I am more.

He's not even acknowledging the authenticity of their ministry. But what he does do now is to give you an insight into his life, which is very unusual if not unique in scripture. He indicates that actually his credibility as a gospeler is seen not so much in what he says, but how he lives.

What do they know of the fellowship of Christ's sufferings? He gives an account of his own. I've been flogged more severely and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.

Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked.

And so it goes on and on. And you look into the Acts of the Apostles and you think, but there's only one imprisonment there. You look into the Acts of the Apostles and you don't see reference to all these shipwrecks.

What conclusion do you draw? Well, you simply draw this conclusion that the Acts of the Apostles just gives you a little cameo of the life of the Apostle. Someone has referred to the Apostle's life or following it through Asia Minor as like tracing the bleeding footprints of a rabbit in the snow. The Apostle's credibility is not just his speech, certainly not the eloquence of his speech, but the fact that his life is backed up, or rather his speech is backed up with what he has had to say.

When the Apostle was called to be an ambassador, you remember, Ananias was given some indication of this when Paul was coming towards Damascus and Ananias was told, don't be afraid to take Paul, because you remember Paul was the great persecutor of the church, don't in any way hesitate to take Paul amongst your Christian community. He will suffer many things because of me. And in Acts chapter 20 you get the Apostle Paul talking about the many, many things that he indeed has suffered.

This is where he is unique, over against the ginger group. The man's credibility is indicated by his lifestyle, what he has in common, where he was unique, why he must be believed. Look at verse 30.

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. Why is he to be believed? Because God will attest what he has had to say.

And he gives us a little cameo now that's not found in the Acts of the Apostles of what happened to him when he commenced his ministry. Charles Spurgeon, or rather John Calvin says that this was his first apprenticeship in persecution. Do you remember? He first went off to Arabia and there he started to preach the gospel, eventually.

And apparently he caused a stir because King Aretas, who was out in the area of Arabia, now comes back into the city of Damascus. And Paul is persona non gratia in Arabia as he becomes persona non gratia in Damascus. And there is a combination of Jewish authority and Gentile authority to get rid of Paul.

How does Paul leave Damascus? Stuffed in a fisherman's basket, lowered out through a window. How was he to have come to Damascus as a spokesman of the high priest, clutching those letters of authority with a battalion of soldiers to be honored by the municipality there? That's how he was to have come. But you know the story on the road to Damascus.

When eventually Paul returns to Damascus after being in Arabia, he's smuggled out. His beginning, the apprenticeship in persecution. You see, later on in the next chapter, but I'll not steal Tim's thunder for next week, the apostle will refer to being raised up into the seventh heaven and having a marvelous encounter of the risen Lord Jesus.

Oh yes, there are all these peaks, but what about the troughs? There are all these pluses, but what about the disadvantages? You see, the apostle is here declaring in the eleventh chapter, he has the scars. The scars that are the greatest authentication of the reality of his ministry. Hast thou no scar, no hidden scar on foot or side or hand? I hear thee sung as mighty in the land.

I hear they hail, I hear them hail thy bright ascendant star. Hast thou no scar? You see, that was Paul's plaintive comment towards the ginger group. Put your life against my life.

Let's check out our theologies. Let's check out the cost factor and let that be the final adjudicator as to who is to be believed. My friend, I close with this.

The world is not going to believe you because of what you claim is the gospel. The world will believe the Christian church when the Christian church starts to show that it has been scarred in terms of the life that we live, in terms of the profession that we bear, in terms of our day by day activity, in terms of our behavior pattern. The world is fed up of noise, so many voices.

The thing that makes the Christ stand out is this, what he taught he was, what he was he taught. The church will become the church when the message that she preaches is illustrated by the life that she lives and that was the reason why the apostle was so successful. May God grant to us the ability only to boast in the glories of the gospel and may the greatest offering that we give to him be the offering of crucified lives.

Amen. Amen. Let's sing.

Amen. Amen. Lord we ask for your help for those who are responsible for the fathering of this church.

Prevent any faltering in our church. May the financing of this church always be honorable. Resist oh Lord all those who might masquerade and try to infiltrate or in any way contaminate the cutting edge, contaminate the gospel and blunt its cutting edge and help us always to glory.

Glory in what Christ has done for us once we were like Paul, the chief of sinners, but now by grace we have become sons of the living God. Oh to grace how great a debtor. Send us out feeling indebted to you.

Help us to see you more clearly, love you more dearly and follow you more nearly all our lives. And now and until we meet again for many of us this evening, for some of us at least together in three weeks or so time, be with this congregation and bless the ministry here abundantly. In Jesus name and all the people of God send.