"Why I'm Thankful for 2020" 2 Corinthians 1:8 Sunday Evening Worship Service

Invite you now to open your Bibles and see the book of Second Corinthians chapter one.

Second Corinthians chapter one.

That's where we'll be this morning.

In your Pew Bibles is page 964.

I titled this message, Why I'm Thankful for 2020.

And when I told my wife that title, she laughed.

It was one of those nice, deep, rich laughs.

Why I'm Thankful for 2020.

Because it can seem like a joke, can it?

You know, everybody often says that the year they're in has been the worst or the best ever.

We deal in hyperbole, but 2020 has been quite a year.

To recap, it was March 23rd.

The New York Times ran an editorial calling for a nationwide lockdown.

This is on March 23rd.

The editorial said the lockdown should last between seven and fourteen days.

And the author said, if we don't do that, hundreds of thousands of Americans could die.

It was the very next day that President Trump himself called for a 15-day lockdown.

15 days to flatten the curve.

Yeah, you remember this, right?

15 days to flatten the curve.

The next day after that, so we're dealing with 48 hours after the New York Times said a 7 to 14-day lockdown.

The New York Times responded with another op-ed saying that 15 days was too short.

It would likely take, quote, several more weeks.

Well, we're at 32 weeks later.

262,000 people have died with COVID.

Schools in much of the country are still shut down.

38% of small businesses have closed and won't come back.

Millions of 401ks gone, college funds gone, 60 million people unemployed at the peak.

In fact, the unemployment rate in our country rose faster in the three months of COVID than it did in the two years of the Great Depression.

So it would seem somewhat strange, or at least tone-deaf, to say, you know what?

I'm thankful for 2020.

But I am thankful for 2020 because, as uh as we just sang, when my when my race has been run, when my work has been done, I'll recognize it was not I, but it was Christ in me.

We recognize that we can be thankful in trials and in difficulties because it is in trials and difficulties that God has glorified.

And so my thoughts go to 2 Corinthians chapter 1, and I want to bring our own eyes there.

2 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

And as we think of the year 2020 on Thanksgiving Day, we recognize there certainly have been worst years.

I mentioned earlier, getting all the numbers of children and families wrong, of course, but earlier the Mayflower journey, and you know, half of them didn't survive their first winter.

So there have certainly been more substantial burdens and plagues in our own country.

The Apostle Paul had quite a year himself that he describes in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 8.

2 Corinthians 1:8

He says, We don't want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia.

That's how he describes it here.

He's going to describe it other ways.

If you just drag your eyes over to chapter 4, verse 7.

In your Pew Bible, it's on the same page.

We have this treasure in jars of clay to show the surpassing power belongs to us, God, and not to us, because we're afflicted in every way.

We're perplexed, he says, but not driven to despair.

Remind yourself of that phrase as we go back to chapter 1 later on.

Persecuted, not forsaken, struck down, not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, he says.

In chapter 5, he says, verse 1, the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed.

He will repeat his different trials that he had in this previous year of him writing this letter in chapter 6, verse 4.

He says, as a servant of God, we commend ourselves in every way by great endurance in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger.

He went through very difficult things.

He went through verse 8, honor and dishonor, slander and praise, treated as impostors, yet knowing that he himself is true.

He says in the middle of verse 9, dying, and yet behold, we live.

He will go through different persecutions throughout the rest of the book, where he describes it as a poverty.

He describes his beatings, he describes his shipwrecks.

So much so, he recognizes, and you can turn back to chapter 1, so much so he recognizes that he who anyone has ever experienced a satanic attack, it was him.

He describes that in chapter 12.

We looked at that a few months ago at the height of the lockdown fever.

Paul had quite a year himself.

This was not fifteen days to flatten a curve that turned into 32 weeks.

This was Paul engaging in gospel ministry in Ephesus, where the town turned against him.

Remember, he was speaking in the theater.

We looked at the nature of the temple worship in Ephesus last Lord's Day.

Remember, there was a massive temple, one of the seven wonders of the world, the temple of Artemis, was in Ephesus.

Paul was down the street from it preaching in the theater, and the crowds filled the theater every day.

He was out there teaching.

And one day the metal workers gathered together.

The idol makers, the goldsmiths and the coppersmiths gathered together and said they've had it with his preaching because he's hurting their business.

I mean, just imagine that.

The apostle or the disciples and the elders of the church there were able to smuggle Paul out.

And you remember it's just described in Acts 19, and then later again in Acts 20.

Paul wanted to go back.

He said he wanted to go face the mob in the theater, the mob in the streets, and he was restrained, and everybody thought he was out of his mind.

And what's one man going to do in the face of the mob anyway?

Eventually, the leaders of the mob got them to disperse.

Paul was beaten for his faith there.

He was exiled.

He finally flees Ephesus and tries to go somewhere else, but he was opposed there.

We don't know how he was opposed on his way, except in Acts 20, he calls it a plot of the Jews.

So he's opposed by the idol workers in Artemis' temple.

He's opposed by the Jews.

He's beaten.

I mean, of course, in his life he's had shipwrecks, but shipwrecks by now are old hat for Paul.

Riots he can deal with.

He'd faced that before as well.

But the great grief that afflicts him in 2 Corinthians is that the church itself, the Corinthians church, whom he loved, was turning against him.

He had written them the book of 1 Corinthians, and now they were turning against him.

The people that he loved and invested in were questioning his integrity, were denying that he was a leader in their church or leader in their ministry, was saying that he's not that influential.

He's just, you know, you can ignore him.

He's one voice among many.

Discard him.

He's not even here anymore.

He's not handsome.

He's not attractive.

God didn't make him a leader for our place, you know.

He can't even preach that well.

And so the people that he loved and had invested in were turning against him.

And of course, Paul would rather be shipwrecked.

He'd rather be beaten for his faith than have the church that he loved turn against him, but that's exactly what happened.

And so he says in verse 9, we were so utterly burdens beyond our strength.

That's a Greek idiom he uses there, utterly burdens.

It's a phrase for boats that are overloaded to the point the boat sinks.

That's a phrase that he's borrowing for himself.

He says his life, this burden of the church turning against him, has overloaded him to the point that he is a boat that is sinking.

Utterly burdened beyond our strength.

He doesn't have the capacity in himself to stand up anymore, so that we despaired of life itself.

Paul is over even life itself.

Longing for death.

This is the technical legal term for a death sentence, as we would say it in English, a judge sentences you to death.

That's the Greek has the same idiom, and he's using it of himself.

He's saying that he was so burdens by the despair of the church turning against him that he is sentencing himself to death.

He would rather die than live knowing the church he loved didn't love him.

He would rather die than go on having to bear the burden of the afflicted church in his body.

He feels attacked by the devil, harangued by the Corinthians, abandoned by those who love him and know him, turned on by the Jews, and persecuted at every corner.

So much so he wants to sentence himself to death.

Now it's normal for people to lose courage in the face of death.

That's normal.

That's typical.

Calvin writes in his commentary on 2 Corinthians that even the most mature Christian, if left to his own strength, would capsize in the face of death.

People are hardwired by biology, hardwired by God's own design to flee from death.

It's not in the nature of God to die, us being in the nature of God, we don't want death.

It is the unknown, it is the great river that must be crossed into the next world, and we flee it if left to our own strength.

And that's why Paul begins 2 Corinthians chapter 1, being left to his own strength in this way, he would die.

2 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

He would capsize himself to death.

By chapter 12, he works back around.

This is why I said I said 1 chapter 4.

Remember the phrase he uses in chapter 4 at the end of verse 8 where he says, but not driven to despair.

Well, in chapter 1, it certainly seems like he's driven to despair, doesn't it?

I'm capsized, just kill me now.

And in chapter 4, I gotta remind myself, I'm not driven to despair.

Okay.

The chapter 4, Paul should talk to the chapter 1, Paul.

The chapter 12, Paul is gonna help them both out.

The chapter 12, Paul, Paul reminds himself that he goes to the Lord with this, and the Lord answers him.

Remember, he tells the Lord, why are you putting me through this, God?

And God's answer to him was very simple.

So that you learn, my grace is sufficient for you.

That's it.

Paul, you went through this year of your life so that you would learn that my grace is sufficient for you.

So in verse 8 and 9, you see Paul's despair.

Verse 10, draw your eyes down to verse 10, he delivered us from such a deadly peril.

He will deliver us.

You can see Paul reasoning with himself.

He's delivered us before, he will deliver us again.

On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

Paul is talking to himself now.

He's reminding his soul, soul, I was delivered before, he will deliver us again, and then he repeats it.

Yes, he absolutely will deliver us again.

Martin Lloyd-Jones says the key to getting yourself out of depression is to stop listening to yourself and start talking to yourself.

It's funny, right?

You know what?

You gotta stop listening to yourself and start talking to yourself.

It's a profound point to it, though.

Stop letting your despair and your despondency boss you around.

Instead, you boss your soul around.

You say, Soul, why are you downcast within me?

Soul, listen up.

Soul, get back in the game.

What are you doing out here on the bench?

Have some water, rub some dirt on it, and get back in there.

Soul, why are you sad?

He will deliver us.

And here's where Paul turns to prayer and thanksgiving, verse 11.

So powerful.

You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessings granted to us through the prayers of many.

Paul says, you have to pray for us.

He's telling the Corinthians, you have to pray for us.

Why would God let Paul go through all of the suffering he's going through?

The answer is so that the Corinthians would pray for him and see their prayers answered.

If Paul believes that all of his suffering will work out for God's glory and his good, then he wants you to pray for it so that your prayers are answered for God's glory and your good.

The more difficult you're going through, the more difficult time, the more difficult the trial, the more powerful and effectual your prayer should be.

And here's where you just need to understand what the function of prayer is.

Prayer doesn't change the mind of God.

Prayer makes you thankful for what the mind of God is.

Do you see the difference?

Prayer doesn't make God remove you from your trial.

Prayer makes you thankful to God for your trial.

It's a categorical difference, it's a huge distinction.

If you view prayer as getting you out of your dilemma, then you fail to appreciate what God is doing with your dilemma.

If you view prayer as changing your own heart and making you thankful for what you're going through, suddenly you have the courage in deliverance, and God's glory is magnified.

Psalm 50, verse 15, call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will answer you, and you will glorify me, God says.

Psalms 50:15

So you're in trouble, you call on me, I hear you, and so you glorify me, God says.

You glorify me.

And here Paul is sharing that burden.

In chapter 4, he says he's sharing it so that God's glory is magnified through them.

So by you having a burden, you can't carry it.

Okay, you're getting weighed down.

You can't carry it.

You share it with others so that others can carry your burden for you by praying for you.

Their prayers support you up.

So this is, you know, not gossip, not like, oh, the burden of my, you know, slacker, loser, villain spouse.

I'm just telling you so you can pray for me.

No, not that kind of sharing.

Sharing your own burden, your difficulty, the trials you're going through with other people so that they can pray for you, so that God is at work through everybody's prayers to deliver you for his glory and for your good.

Galatians 6, verse 2.

Galatians 6:2

Bear one another's burdens so that you fulfill the law of Christ.

I said, if you were left to your own desires, you would flee in the face of death, right?

But praise be to God, he doesn't leave you to your own desires.

Praise be to God, he gives you courage to face death boldly.

He gives you courage to face death with confidence that he is at work through it to deliver you either in this life or to deliver you into the next life.

So that's why you pray.

You pray for each other to withstand temptation.

You pray for each other to endure through the trial.

You don't pray necessarily for you to be removed from the trial.

You pray for confidence and faith and encouragement and discipline to make it through the trial.

You pray for the strength to be built up, to have confidence in God and his goodness through the trial.

You pray for the person going through the trial to say what Paul says in verse 9 that God will deliver me.

Yes, he will, yes, he will, yes, he will.

So when you tell me a trial you're going through, I pray for you to hold on to your faith and to grow more mature in your faith through the trial.

That happens because you're a believer and that's what God is doing.

Now, my prayer is answered, I glorify God, your prayer is answered, you glorify God, and everybody is stronger.

And your boat didn't sink.

Now, how do we know that's true?

How can I tell you to greet death as a friend and not an enemy and not an enemy?

How can I tell you to have courage under a trial and stand up and, you know, have courage and confidence in the face of difficulty when you feel like you're capsizing and you feel like the world has come undone?

How can I actually tell you that God will deliver you when it doesn't look like he will, even though he's praying for you?

And that's the middle part.

The whole paragraph hinges on the middle part that we skipped earlier.

Don't know if you noticed, but if you're paying attention, we skipped it.

The middle of verse 9.

This was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

The resurrection of the dead is the glue that holds this whole thing together.

That you have confidence that death is not an enemy, but a friend, because you believe that God will resurrect the dead.

That's how this fits together.

So you're going through a trial, and you're like, everything in me makes me want to run from death, makes me want to flee, makes me want to lose courage, makes me want to capsize.

So I'm telling you, help me, encourage me, make my faith stand strong with me, be my friend here, pray for me before the Lord that I'll be strong through this trial, because I don't want to run.

I want to hold on to faith, even though everything in me wants me to run.

I don't want to, so pray for me.

How do I know God's gonna answer me?

Because God raises dead people back to life.

That's a pretty powerful apologetic.

Somebody asked me recently, how do I know the Bible's true?

And it's Jesus resurrected.

That's a pretty strong argument.

Philippians 3 verse 10, I pray that I can know him and the power of his resurrection and share in his sufferings.

Philippians 3:10

We love that part of the verse until the last part, and becoming like him in his death.

Huh?

Brother, encourage me so I can become like Jesus as he died.

But listen, if you believe in resurrection power, we all love to claim resurrection power, but it you know what's required for resurrection power?

Death! I mean, there's the old adage everybody wants to go to heaven, nobody wants to die.

It's meant to be funny.

I feel like so many of us adopted it as a motto.

If you want to go to heaven, you know what's required for you to get there?

Death.

Do you want resurrection power?

You gotta die.

You know what Paul says?

I feel like I'm dying.

I have a sentence of death that makes me rely on God who encourages me through death.

Oh, brothers and sisters, death is not a foe, it's a friend.

If the worst your enemies can do is kill you, it's not that bad.

God has raised the dead in the past.

This is a common Jewish expression God uses, uh Paul uses here.

The God who raises the dead, a common Jewish expression, because God has raised the dead throughout the ages and throughout the eras.

But Paul doesn't mean anything commonly or generically here.

Of course, he means Jesus' death and resurrection.

And this is where it all hints together that God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God in Christ.

That's 2 Corinthians.

That God took Jesus, the sinless Son of God, and gave him our sin.

Gave Jesus more than he could bear, so that he would capsize under the weight of our sin.

Yet God sustains him with strength and confidence and encouragement and sustains Jesus specifically through prayer, specifically through the prayers of his friends.

And he is sustained, he goes to the cross, he dies bearing the penalty for our sin, so that he dies in our place, bearing our penalty, so God pours out the wrath that we deserve, he pours it out on Jesus, so Jesus then dies so that we don't have to pay the penalty of sin when we die.

The reason most people should have feared death is not because they don't like the physical pain or the unknown.

Most people should fear death because when they die, they have to face God for judgment.

But God takes that judgment and puts it on Jesus instead.

So now Jesus dies, goes to the grave, resurrects three days later, showing you that there is life on the other side of the grave for those for whom he's died.

And that frees you from the fear of death.

That's what he means at the end of verse 9.

We don't want to rely on ourselves.

Jesus didn't rely on himself.

Jesus, God in human flesh, should not rely on himself, but went to the Lord in prayer, called his three friends to go to the Lord in prayer.

Instead of relying on yourself, we rely on God, who says, you need to learn in your trial, you need to learn in 2020 that God's grace is sufficient for you.

And if you come out of this, learning, that's where Paul ends 2 Corinthians with.

He ends the book with, that's why I'm thankful.

He starts it with, I want to die, I'm sinking, I'm drowning, and I sentence myself to death.

He ends it with, Praise be to God, because I have learned to rely on him, not myself, and I know I can rely on him because he raises the dead.

Lord, we are thankful that you are a God who raises the dead, and that gives us courage and confidence to face whatever trial you give us with boldness.

We do pray for each other.

We pray that you would encourage each of us through our faith in Christ.

Encourage us to be bold, encourage us to walk with strength, encourage us not to doubt.

And when we say encourage, we mean we're begging your Holy Spirit to work in our heart and strengthen us.

Your Holy Spirit would give us confidence in the resurrection, a certainty to smile at the future, even though the present is like weights.

So, Lord, help us turn to you in boldness and confidence, knowing that there is freedom and deliverance through faith in Christ.

I pray for anyone here who's here today that has never trusted you, I pray, they would take stock of their own life.

They would see what they are trusting in, they would see their own sin, and they would turn to Christ, who bore their burdens for them, who paid for their sin, who resurrected from the grave, and they would believe that today, and through faith in his resurrection, they too would have the confidence to face whatever your providence brings into our lives.

We give you thanks for Paul's example.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to meet you personally at Emmanuel Bible Church.

Our service times and other church information is on our website at ibc.church.

If you want information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to tms.edu.

I hope this resource has been an encouragement to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness.

May the Lord bless you.