God’s Power in Our Weakness

It’s good to be back! Travels are nice, but coming home is nicer. My family and I got to attend RHMA’s small town pastors conference in Morton IL. This conference is always good. We reconnect with old friends, experience encouraging conversations, and hopefully learn things that will help in our ministries.

This year, our time was complicated by sick kids and two urgent care visits. But, we are all healthy now.

After the conference, we visited my folks. I spoke in their church last Sunday, sharing about the ministry here in their Sunday school and church service.

And, now we are back.

The first Sunday after the conference, I always like to share a message that I heard while at the conference, to give you a taste of what I learned.

Today’s sermon was preached by Steven Whitmer, pastor of Pepperell Christian Fellowship in Massachusetts, adjunct professor of New Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Serminary, a council member of the Gospel Coalition and co-founder of Small Town Summits.

But, more important, he is a humble man who loves Jesus.

The text is 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

2 Corinthians 12:1–10 NIV

I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Before we jump in, will you pray with me?

In 2018, twelve members of a junior football team, ages 11-16, in Thailand and their assistant coach decided to go explore a cave after a football practice. Unfortunately, this was the beginning of rainy season. There was a sign at the entrance advising against exploring the cave during the months of July - November because many of the passages would be flooded. But this was June 23. Rainy season hadn’t hit yet. Supposedly.

After they entered the cave and progressed deeper into the cavities, rainfall started. Continually. The tunnels flooded, and the team couldn’t get out.

Two days later, Thai Navy seals began to explore. The water in the cave was so murky that they couldn’t see where they were under water even with lights.

Days went by, teams from around the world came to Thailand to help with the search.

On July 2, the boys and the coach were found, 12 days after they entered the cave, huddled on a narrow rock shelf. They were 2.5 miles from the cave mouth.

Finding the students was only half the problem. They had to get the students back through 2.5 miles of flooded tunnels, through caverns that only the most experienced scuba divers were willing to tackle. And many of the students couldn’t swim, much less perform experienced scuba dive maneuvers.

The journey by experienced divers would take 5-6 hours of continuous swimming.

The coalition tried to dam up the waters, dig extra tunnels. Nothing was working.

6 days after finding the team, oxygen levels dropped to 15%, below the level for maintaining normal human functions.

Time was running out. During this time, one of the rescue seals died in the tunnels while trying to bring in oxygen tanks.

Finally, they decided to swim the boys out. 18 rescue divers swam the six hours to the boys. Each boy was dressed in a wetsuit, a buoyancy jacket, a harness, ad a positive pressure full face mask. Then each boy was given anesthesia so that they would be fully unconscious. The boys couldn’t scuba dive, so they became like they were dead, so that the experienced divers to pull them out the 6 hours swim back to the entrance of the cave. They were also given anti-anxiety medication and atropine to steady their heart rates and reduce saliva so that they wouldn’t choke when unconscious.

One diver was assigned to each boy, which they called packages during the extraction. They took care during narrow passages to protect the boys heads so that they face mask wouldn’t crack. Which was difficult as many times the divers couldn’t see what was going on.

After a 2 day rescue effort, all the boys and the assistant coach were rescued safely.

It’s quite a story.

But, what is more remarkable is the paradox. The rescue team considered teaching the boys how to scuba dive. But, they realized that wouldn’t work. The boys couldn’t get stronger. They had to get weaker. In order to avoid death, they had to become like they were dead. Completely unconscious, trusting completely in the professional divers.

Which illustrates our text.

Paul lived in a day where one was considered worth listening too if they were strong. This was the time of the Roman gladiators, the Greek Olympics. If someone was weak, they were nothing.

But, Paul was countercultural: he said, I should be listened to because I am weak. In my weakness, I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 NIV

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

1. Weakness & Strength of Paul

The paradox.

He lives in a culture that exults strength. They say that one must know everything, be everything, do everything. Don’t admit weakness. Don’t admit ignorance. Be the hero and then you are worth something in society!

But, Paul says: That he is not strong because of the hero within, because of his strength or his knowledge.

He is strong because of Christ’s power. When he admits his weakness.

Now, notice that the strength that Christ gives is not automatically given.

There are a lot of different weaknesses. We do not get Christ’s power when we despise God. Or when we get angry at our situation or when we turn to substances, or when we hide our weakness.

Christ’s power is given to Paul when he accepts his weakness, not before. As Stephen coins: it is hopeful hopelessness. Throwing up our hands and saying: I can’t do it. It is impossible. It is hopeless. And in the hopelessness, we finally have hope.

The paradox is so great, that surrounded by a society that boasts in strength, Paul actually boasts in weakness.

What is this boasting? It would be helpful to know, wouldn’t it?

Paul boasts about his life in the previous chapter.

2 Corinthians 11:23–33 NIV

Are they servants of Christ? (I am 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 pelted with stones, 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 fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have 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 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.

In a society where the first one up the wall in conquering a town got a medal, so everyone pushed to be the first up the wall and boasted about it. Paul boasted about being lowered by a basket out of the town. Counter-cultural.

Boasting is being open and honest about weakness. And boasting is being content about weakness.

Paul insists that this open and honest communication and this contentment is the only pathway to strength in Christ.

Why does Paul want Christ’s power and so is willing to embrace, even boast in his weakness?

Because he is doing Gospel ministry and in order to be effective he need’s Christ’s power.

We are all in a spiritual battle and it is a battle that we cannot win ourselves. We are not strong enough.

Paul writes in 2 Cor 10 3-5

2 Corinthians 10:3–5 NIV

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

In order to be effective in Gospel ministry, he needs Christ’s power. The same is true of all of us. We want to see our families come to know Jesus. We want to see our friends and our communities follow Jesus. We want to see our nation turn around.

The only way that we can be effective in that work is through the power of Christ.

And the only way that we can experience Christ’s power is through the formula that Paul gives. When I am weak, than I am strong.

To expand it out: When personal weakness is admitted and God’s help is requests, than God’s power is experienced.

How did Paul learn this?

He learned it through the example of Christ, the gift of Christ, and the Word of Christ.

2. Example, Gift, and Word of Christ

A. Example of Christ

He saw this lifestyle of weakness lived out in Jesus Christ. Again, the thoughts of being countercultural. All of the gods of his time were warriors, strong men and women who demolished cities and fought other gods.

But, Jesus humbled himself, becoming a servant. and Ultimately dying on the cross, the biggest act of weakness possible.

But, through Jesus’ life and death, he showed the truth of the verse in Psalm 34.

Psalm 34:18 NIV

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

He lived the life of the brokenhearted and the crushed in spirit. He experienced the closeness of God through that and God’s power.

And Paul wanted that. He needed that.

2 Corinthians is such an interested book, because Paul starts the book off by talking about weakness:

2 Corinthians 1:3–5 NIV

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.

Notice what he said: share in the sufferings of Christ, then we abound in comfort through Christ.

Than 2 corinthians ends with suffering:

2 Corinthians 13:4 NIV

For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God’s power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God’s power we will live with him in our dealing with you.

Paul realized that to receive power in ministry, he must model his life after Christ: follow the pattern of crucifixion, ultimate weakness. Instead of struggling, trying to be the strong one. He must give up and admit weakness and his need for Jesus.

For when I am weak, than am I strong.

B. Gift of Christ

Not only did he learn this lesson through the example of Christ, but he learned it through the gift of Christ.

Paul writes tells about his experience of being caught up to paradise and hearing things that no one is allowed to tell. He couldn’t write a book about his experience.

2 Corinthians 12:7 NIV

or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.

A thorn was given to him. We have no idea what it was. All we know is that it caused weakness in him. And it could apply to any weakness.

And Paul didn’t want it! He didn’t say: give it to me, God! No, he pleaded with God to take it away and God wouldn’t.

Now, who gave him the thorn? He says that the thorn was a messenger of Satan. But, it was given to keep Paul humble. Satan doesn’t want the servants of Christ to be humble. So, though Satan was the vehicle for the thorn, the thorn was ultimately given by Christ.

Jesus knew that Paul would benefit from an intensive, personal experience of weakness.

Stephen Whitmer told the story of a lady in his church who experienced a debilitating bout of depression. She couldn’t even get out of bed.

After struggling through this, she wrote Stephen a letter about her experience. She said that through the depression God showed her comfort and love. She was forced to turn away from herself and look to him. She had to come to the point where there was no way out, that she had no hope. In admitting that, she found healing through God.

She wrote to Stephen, speaking of the severe depression: I am forever grateful for this gift!

Paul didn’t want the thorn. None of us want to be weak and to admit that we are utterly powerless. But, Christ teaches us such sweet lessons through those times that we are able to look back and say: yes, it was hell, but I am so grateful that it happened, because now I know Christ and his amazing power.

For when I am weak, than I am strong.

C. The Word of Christ

During this time of weakness, Paul receives a message from Christ. A word is given to him.

2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV

This word is a pivot point for the chapter. Paul’s perspective completely changes.

Christ’s grace is sufficient.

This is counter to our desire. We want to have everything together. We want to have all the answers. We want to be strong. Because we are worthless if we are not. Because our lives will fall apart if we are not. Because our ministry will fall if we are not.

We believe those lies. But, Christ says: my grace is sufficient if you would just admit your weakness.

This is counter to our culture. Paul’s culture wasn’t the only one to lift up strength. Our culture does too.

We want political leaders that show strength, that stand up against their enemies, who stick it to the man.

We look down on those who are opposite that in our culture. People like those who live at the Norfolk Rescue Mission.

In Christian circles, it’s just as bad. We like the tv preachers to speak with such power. We follow teachers on YouTube who seem to have it all together and who have all the answers.

We don’t want weakness.

But, Christ is patiently persistent with Paul and with us. He wants Paul to understand this principle of power in weakness and he wants Paul not just to understand it, but to live it. So, he reminds Paul of his example, he sends a thorn to trip Paul up, and he audibly tells Paul “my grace is sufficient.”

When I am weak, than I am strong.

Spurgeon wrote:

“God does not need your strength: he has more than enough of power of his own. He asks your weakness: he has none of that himself, and he is longing, therefore, to take your weakness, and use it as the instrument in his own mighty hand. Will you not yield your weakness to him, and receive his strength?”

This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t work hard. We are not called to be couch potatoes. We are supposed to grow our knowledge. We are supposed to pray and evangelize. We are supposed to do the work.

But, we are to do it like the Thai boys in the cave. We are to humbly submit, admitting that we cannot do this, and we place our lives in His hands. For him to do the work.

And he will. Even in the face of death, the ultimate form of weakness, his strength is manifested.

Related Media

Related Sermons