Boasting in Weakness, Part 1

0:55And, men, I am so thankful to be able to stand before you and preach the word of God. I'm so glad that you're here. You are a strength to my soul and a help to me. I hope you'll forgive me for beginning the sermon with an extensive quote. I tried to say it better than Ajith Fernando, but that is an exercise in futility. Here's what he had to say in his book, A Call to Joy and Pain. The Bible often describes suffering as an essential aspect of the Christian life, yet, with the affluence, And technological advancement of the 21st century, many have come to regard comfort and convenience as essential human rights.

1:38Therefore, the biblical message of the essentialness of the cross has become culturally incompatible with the way many think today. Some say that because Christ bore the curse for us, we should not bear this aspect of the curse, suffering, anymore. That would suggest that there is something seriously wrong in our lives if we suffer. Joy is a commonly mentioned blessing of suffering in the New Testament. The overwhelming attitude of the Bible regarding pain and suffering in the life of the Christian is positive.

2:11Today in the church, we have a lot of emphasis on a therapy for suffering, but insufficient emphasis on a theology of suffering, which must form the basis for all therapy for suffering. Without an adequate theology regarding suffering, Christians avoid the cross and move away from their call, and they are also unnecessarily unhappy when they face pain. Friends, Paul's critics pointed to the fact that he suffered as evidence that he could not possibly be an apostle of Jesus Christ, because no apostle of Jesus Christ would be suffering the way that he suffered. This criticism, this charge, could be leveled just as well today as it was in the first century.

3:00So many seem to believe that if we are faithful, if we are obedient, if we are the people that God has called us to be, then we will not suffer. But that is not the message of Scripture. And what we will be reminded of today is that suffering reveals our weakness and the power of the gospel. Let's take a look at verse 16 of chapter 11 here. Paul seems to be answering the claims of the false teacher that he was a weak fool.

3:34So he asks permission to act like a fool so he can engage in a little boasting. And he was basically asking permission to act just like everybody else in Greco-Roman culture. So Paul Barnett has this helpful insight. Take a look. Through Christian influence on Western values, boasting is regarded as brash and impolite. Humility and self-effacement have traditionally been regarded as virtues. In Paul's day, it was quite otherwise. Thus, citizens and soldiers, without embarrassment and as social convention, outdid one another in boasting of military and political achievements.

4:14So boasting was perfectly normal in the Roman world. And clearly, the false teachers who had come to Corinth had no reservations about boasting, even though they seem to have been Jewish. And as Jewish teachers, they should have known. All of the warnings about the arrogant fool who boasts in himself in Proverbs and elsewhere. But instead of influencing the culture, they seem to have been influenced by the culture. And so Paul decides that he's going to go ahead and meet them on their own terms. If they want to get into a boasting contest, well, he's happy to go ahead and play. And in so doing, he seems to be employing the wisdom of Proverbs chapter 26. Take a look.

4:59Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes. Now, if you're familiar with that chapter of Proverbs, you also know that the previous verse says, don't answer a fool, or you're going to become like him. And so, as with a lot of things in the Christian life, as with a lot of things in the book of Proverbs, discernment is necessary. When do you answer a fool? When do you not answer a fool?

5:26It's hard to say. But Paul concluded that he had to speak up and beat them at their own game for the good of the Corinthians. So if they're accusing Paul of being weak, Paul's like, yeah, you're right. Compared to these new teachers that you've allowed in, we are weak. Take a look at verse 20. Paul says, these guys make slaves of you. That is, they put you back into bondage through their preaching. He says, they devour you, they eat you. Up all of your financial resources. They take advantage of you and put on airs.

6:08That is, they're using you to build up their own platforms and they demand to be honored. He says they strike you in the face. Paul's like, forgive me. I'm so sorry. We were too weak for that. How shameful of us that we didn't treat you like these strong leaders who came in after us. See, in every way, these new teachers are showing themselves to be harsh, greedy, arrogant, domineering, ungodly bullies. And the reality is, if you're really a strong leader, not only do you refuse to engage in those behaviors as a matter of principle, you don't have to engage in them at all because people will choose to follow a truly strong leader because of the force of their example. You don't have to coerce anyone or bully anyone because they will choose to follow you. They want to follow you if you are a truly strong leader, a truly godly leader.

7:20And Paul's example proved that he was a leader worth following beyond a shadow of a doubt because he's imitating Jesus, his Savior, in every way, the one. Who suffered. He came as the suffering servant. So Paul is going to say in the next section: look, if you want to get into a boasting contest, I don't want to do that, but I'm willing to get into that contest if it's what's required to prove to these teachers and others that they aren't true apostles and they shouldn't be followed.

7:51So let's pick up now on the second half of verse 21. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of, I am speaking as a fool, I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. I suppose one of the accusations that these false teachers threw at Paul was that he wasn't Jewish enough. Because, you know, if you're going to be preaching about a Jewish Messiah, then maybe, you know, you have to be Jewish to talk about that guy with authority. I don't know. So Paul's like, let me dust off the old resume here. I'm a Hebrew. I'm an Israelite. I'm a descendant of Abraham. Check, check, check.

8:42But in Philippians chapter 3, he goes into much greater detail. Take a look at what he says about himself. Look at his resume here. Circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. As to the law, a Pharisee. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church. As to righteousness under the law, blameless. How are we feeling now, false teachers? Is that Jewish enough for you? You know, the truth is, they couldn't handle Paul's resume. They didn't hold a candle to his pedigree. He was a Hebrew of Hebrews. And even if they could match Paul's pedigree as a Jew, they weren't in the same solar system as Paul in terms of being servants of Christ. Look again at verse 23.

9:42Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I was adrift at sea. I mean, surely it's not the case that these men are on the same level with Paul as a zealous, righteous Jewish Pharisee. But even if it is the case that they do match up to him in his Jewish pedigree, Paul comes straight out and says, I am undeniably a better servant of Christ than any of these clowns. Undeniably. It's not even close. I mean, just look at the statement in verse 23. Far greater. Labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings and often near death.

10:39I mean, could the false teachers say these things? No, they can't. They can't say that they worked until they were bone-tired so that they could preach the gospel for free. They demanded payment for their ministries. If they went to prison at all, it must have been very rare because all they were doing was preaching a slightly modified form of Judaism. And Judaism was a tolerated religion within the Roman Empire. It was a protected religion within the Roman Empire under most of the emperors. No one was going to beat them or put them in prison or try to kill them for telling people that they needed to try harder to keep the Mosaic law. That was nothing new or offensive.

11:27When Paul says that he was often near death, what does that mean? I mean, just look at the things that he says. On five separate occasions, he was lashed 39 times. Think about that. 195 whips across the back. What would your back look like? It would be one gigantic piece of scar tissue 195 times. And the good news, if there were... Was any good news was at least the Mosaic law put a limit on it, right? At least you couldn't do more than 40 lashes at a time. But then he says, on three occasions, I was beaten with rods. Well, that is the Roman punishment for disturbing the peace. And they don't have a Mosaic law that says you can only beat somebody 40 times with a rod. They just beat you till they got tired.

12:26Outside of Lister, Paul says he was nearly stoned to death. And I just want you to think about this. Jesus told Paul, I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. And so he goes out, taking the gospel to the Gentiles, doing the very thing that Jesus commanded him to do. And the fourth city that he gets to, he preaches the gospel. They drag him out of the city. They stone him, and they leave him for dead.

12:56And do you know that he got right up and walked straight back into that city? And the next day went to the next town, Derby, and preached the gospel there. The next day, y'all, it says he was shipwrecked three times, spent an entire 24-hour period just floating in the sea, praying that he'd either get washed ashore somewhere or that someone would find him. And he didn't know it when he was writing this letter, but he had a fourth shipwreck coming in his life.

13:31That was going to happen again in a few more years. I would have just started flying everywhere. On every one of his frequent journeys, he is in constant danger. Look at what he says here, verse 26: in danger from rivers, in danger from thieves, trying to avoid people who are trying to kill him, which is nearly everyone. It's Jews and Gentiles. He says, Look, if I'm in the city, I'm in danger. If I'm in the wilderness, I'm in danger. When I'm at sea, I'm in danger. Verse 27: In toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.

14:20This is Paul's boast, church. The false teachers come in bragging about how far they traveled to get to Corinth, bragging about their letters of recommendations, about their impressive gifts and ability. And Paul is like, every single day since Jesus called me, I have put my life on the line for the gospel. I have done everything in my power, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, I have done far more, far more to make the name of Jesus known.

15:00And so, when Paul was writing to the Galatians, and this is pretty early on in his ministry, when he's writing to the Galatians, and he wrote that letter because these false teachers had come in and were trying to get them to turn back to the Mosaic law, look at what Paul says at the end of Galatians 6: From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. Oh, church, just a moment's reflection on Paul's ministry and suffering, and you have to ask: What have I done for Christ?

15:45Have I really picked up my cross and followed him? Where am I suffering? Even just a little inconvenience for the cause of Christ and the gospel. We need revival, church. We need revival. We need the Holy Spirit to come and give us a passion for Christ that will lead to this kind of commitment, this kind of sacrifice, this kind of willingness to suffer for the name of Jesus. Because the truth is, if Jesus is nothing more than a good teacher to you, if he is nothing more than an ancient rabbi who said, Some interesting stuff a very long time ago, you are simply not going to be willing to suffer.

16:37You may display some of his words on a coffee cup. You might display some of his words on a piece of artwork in your house, but you are not going to be willing to give up everything for him. Answer the question: who is Jesus to you? Who is Jesus to you? Is he just an interesting and possibly historical figure? Or is he the Lord and Savior of your entire life? Is he the one who promises resurrection and everlasting life to anyone who picks up their cross and follows him?

17:19Which is he for you? The physical suffering that Paul endured for the sake of the gospel was nearly unbelievable. And yet, here's the crazy part: he says that wasn't the hardest part. And the fact is, that's not the hardest part for any gospel minister. Look at verse 28. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to Fall, and I am not indignant.

18:05Apart from the fact that Paul's life was in danger in every way, every single day, he lived under constant internal pressure, spiritual pressure, emotional pressure, mental pressure, because of his anxiety for all the churches. And, friends, when you've risked life and limb to preach the gospel and to make disciples and to plant churches, you are invested heavily in the outcome. You are just not going to be okay if these believers don't continue in the faith, or if they start believing false doctrine, or if the churches close down. You are not going to be okay with that. And so, when these churches are separated by weeks or months of travel, and you've got sinners sinning against each other, and you've got false teachers coming in, questioning Paul's ministry and his message, and threatening to undo everything that you have nearly died to achieve, you better believe that you're going to feel anxious all the time.

19:18And most gospel ministers will never go through the things that Paul went through. Some missionaries, some pastors around the world can and do go through. Similar trials and sufferings. But most are just not going to endure that level of suffering. Most are just not going to endure that level of difficulty. But the hardest part, he says, isn't the sacrifices that every gospel minister has to make on some level. The hardest part is the daily pressure that you feel, the anxiety that you feel for the church.

20:07It is trying to go to sleep at night, but tossing and turning in your bed because you are worried about the members of your church who have bought into conspiracy theories that have pulled them out of the Word of God and out of the local church. It's driving down the road and nearly rear-ending the person in front of you because you're concerned about church members who have taken second and third level issues in the church and made them into tests of orthodoxy and are threatening to cancel other people that don't agree with them.

20:48It's trying to study scripture, but your mind is wandering to the church members who are stuck in sin. Or who are addicted to various sins, enslaved to them, who are bowing at the altars of the cultural idols. It's trying to play a game with your family, but your mind keeps drifting to those other families whose marriages are on the brink of divorce. It's taking your wife out on a date and trying to invest in your marriage, but the entire time you're planning on how to reach out to those church members that you haven't seen in months and months and haven't heard from in months and months.

21:38It's constantly feeling like you've never done enough, you've never prayed enough, you've never studied enough, you are constantly disappointing everybody around you because you can't be everything to everyone at all times. That, brothers and sisters, is the hardest part. It is the constant, never-ending, daily pressure and anxiety for the church. It is hard to imagine a more wonderful group of people than New Life Baptist Church. Serving New Life as a pastor is a great joy and a real privilege. But, friends, it is still very hard because sin is real and Satan is real. And as we have talked about throughout this entire series, we are in the middle of a spiritual war.

22:38And maybe me sharing all of this will help to unite us together by strengthening our resolve as a church to fight sin together, to fight Satan together, to go after together the lost sheep of our congregation who are lonely and confused and hurting and missing, so that together we can press on toward the goal for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, as Paul talks about. Verse 30. If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and the Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. At Damascus, the governor under King Eritus was guarding the city of Damascus in order to seize me, but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his hands.

23:47To silence the false teachers, Paul boasted extensively, but unlike the false teachers, Paul only boasted in the things that showed his weakness. All of his suffering. All of his imprisonments, his anxiety, this embarrassing story of him getting put in a basket and getting lowered down a wall to escape persecution. The Roman soldiers would award the first man over the wall in a besieged city with this crown, the corona moralis. It was like the highest honor you could get because you were the first guy over the wall. Paul says, I got lowered in a basket down a wall.

24:44God knew that Paul wasn't lying about any of these things. Could these false teachers say the same? Were they really as wonderful as they made themselves out to be? Were they really servants of Christ or were they just serving themselves? See, friends, Paul shows once again, he didn't care about looking good, about flaunting his resume. He cared about God getting the glory, which is why he was glad to highlight his weaknesses so that Christ could be seen to be strong.

25:22You see, church, weakness is a central part of the gospel message. Because of God's grace. Love for us, he sent his only son Jesus to rescue us from the power and the penalty of sin. Simply put, we were too weak to rescue ourselves from the consequences of sin, from the power of sin. We have been overpowered by sin. We were born that way, born overpowered by it. And we will be, every one of us, overpowered by death.

26:02But look at the good news of the gospel in Romans 5. For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. While we were weak, spiritually dead in sin, and headed toward physical death as well, Christ died for the ungodly. The Lord of the universe, the one through whom all things were made, and the one through whom all things are held together, he remained God, but he set aside all of the privileges of his deity. And he came and he took on flesh, not in the form of an adult king, but in the form of a weak little infant, who would be born to obscure parents, laid in a feeding trough. Throughout his life and ministry, he would have no place. To lay his head because he was so poor.

27:05He did all of that so that he could live the life that we were called to live. To live that life of perfect submission to God, perfect obedience to God, and then to submit to the ignonomy, the weakness of the cross, to die an awful death, where the worst part of it wasn't the physical suffering, it was being separated for the first time in eternity from his Father. To die and be buried, and then to rise from the grave victorious over sin and death. And friends, he offers eternal life, abundant life, eternal life to everyone who will turn from their sin and who will receive him in repentant faith.

27:58But to turn to him, you've got to recognize that you are powerless to defeat sin and death on your own. You've got to acknowledge your weakness and the perfect strength of Christ to save you. So understand, in every culture, weakness is despised, it is looked down upon. But for the one who trusts in Jesus Christ, suffering reveals our weakness. And the power of the gospel. Let's pray, Father, as I stand before this wonderful group of men, men who are mentally and physically strong, I am reminded of what the world tells us: that we have to hide our weakness, that we cannot admit that we need help in any area, and how that plays into our thinking spiritually, where we are afraid to confess, to acknowledge what is true and obvious, that we are weak, that we are prone to wander.

29:54And so, God, your word once again flies in the face of our culture, it flies in the face of our face. Face of every culture because only in your word do we see weakness becoming strength. Do we see a little infant growing up to be the savior of the world? Do we see a crucified man executed between two criminals, two enemies of the state, dying and being buried and then rising from the dead? God, we want to hide our weakness. We want to boast in our strength.

30:40But God, you have shown us through your word that it is suffering and it is weakness that makes your glory so clear to those around us. I pray that our co-workers and neighbors, our friends and our family, I pray for them that they would not see us trying to hide our weakness, our sins, our failures, our shortcomings, but instead openly confessing them and pointing to Jesus, the great Savior, who said that he didn't come for the healthy, he didn't come for the strong.

31:23He came for the sick. He came for the weak. He came for any who would come. Call out to him as Lord and Savior. And so we pray this morning that even as many watch in their homes, that you would reach down into souls who must be born again. That you would grant them repentant, saving faith today. And that many would turn to Jesus Christ this morning as their hope for forgiveness and reconciliation with you. Thank you, Father, for your wonderful word. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

32:17Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.