Boasting in Weakness (2 Corinthians 11:16-33)

Let's open to uh 2 Corinthians chapter 11, starting in verse 16.

2 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

Please stand for the reading of God's word if you're able.

Starting in verse 16.

I repeat, let no one consider me a fool.

But if you do, at least accept me as a fool, so that I can also boast a little.

What I am saying in this matter of boasting, I don't speak as the Lord would, but as it were, foolishly.

Since many boast according to the flesh, I will also boast.

For you, being so wise, gladly put up with fools.

In fact, you put up with it if somebody enslaves you, if someone exploits you, if someone takes advantage of you, if someone is arrogant towards you, if someone slaps you in the face.

I say this to our shame.

We have been too weak for that.

But in whatever anyone dares to boast, I'm talking foolishly, I dare say, are they Hebrews?

So am I.

Are they Israelites?

So am I.

Are they descendants of Abraham?

So am I.

Are they servants of Christ?

I'm talking like a madman.

I'm a better one.

With far more labors, many more imprisonments, far worse beatings, many times near death.

Five times I received the forty lashes minus one from the Jews.

Three times I was beaten with rods.

Once I received a stoning.

Three times I was shipwrecked.

I've spent a night and a day in the open sea.

On frequent journeys I faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, and dangers among false brothers, toil and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold and without clothing.

Not to mention other things.

There is the daily pressure on me, my concern for all the churches.

Who is weak and I am not weak?

Who is made to stumble and I do not burn with indignation?

If boasting is necessary, I will boast about my weaknesses.

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows I am not lying.

In Damascus, a ruler under King Aretas guarded the city of Damascus in order to arrest me.

So I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped from his hands.

Let's pray.

Lord, you are so good.

And you are faithful in every way.

And as we see all that Paul went through here as he's giving part of his testimony, Lord, help us to see your faithfulness to walk him through all of those different things.

Lord, his faithfulness to remain true in ministry against all of the opposition that he's coming against.

Lord, help us to learn from this, to apply your word to our lives here this morning.

So I pray that we would come in humility with hearts that are open for what you have for us, and that we wouldn't leave here unchanged, but that we would leave here more like Jesus.

So would you do that work here this morning, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

So the overarching message here this morning is really a continuation of last week, you know, this whole chapter 16.

So this is kind of a part two of the same theme that we're going through in chapter 11.

And that message to Corinth that Paul is giving is that they put up with false teachers really well when they really should be running these guys off.

He's gonna basically tell them that they put up with more foolishness from those false teachers than they do with him.

So Paul in these verses today lays out what they put up with, really the abuses that they put up with from these false teachers and from these false apostles.

And then he lays out what he put up with, in contrast, in order to minister to them as well as other churches.

So look for how he compares and contrasts what false apostles do with what real apostles do.

And notice that when Paul talks about what leaders in church should look like, their characteristics always line up with Jesus.

You know, as Paul lays out what the false apostles have been doing, and then what he has been doing, we just need to ask ourselves, which one looks more like Jesus?

You know, even when Paul's boasting, it's not going to be in his own strength or his own ability.

Now, lastly, kind of as a side note, Paul uses, I think it's his third or fourth week in a row here on Sunday mornings, he uses a lot of sarcasm in this passage once again.

So if it sounds off, it's intentional, and we'll point it out as we go through.

But let's start there in verse 16.

He says, I repeat, let no one consider me a fool, but if you do, at least accept me as a fool so that I can also boast a little.

So, like he said in verse 1 of this chapter, you can look at it if you want.

He said, I wish you would put up with a little foolishness from me.

Yes, do put up with me.

Basically saying, if you're going to put up with a ton of foolishness from these false teachers and these false apostles, won't you just at least put up with me too?

You know, at least for what they consider to be foolishness in Paul.

It's not really foolishness, but they see it that way.

And they're way more willing to put up with the foolishness of the false apostles than what they see as foolishness in Paul.

And then he says, so let me boast a little.

And as we've mentioned so many times in 2 Corinthians, he's not putting, he's not patting himself on the back here.

He's boasting about what God has done through him.

And notice Paul never takes credit for any of this.

Look at verse 17 with me.

What I am saying in this matter of boasting, I don't speak as the Lord would, but as it were, foolishly.

Now I know this can be a little bit confusing because the next question that usually comes is, you know, is this next chunk of scripture not inspired by the Holy Spirit?

Because of what Paul says here.

I don't speak as the Lord would.

That's really not what Paul's implying here.

Paul really doesn't like talking about himself and boasting about why he's qualified and all that he's endured, but because these false apostles that have infiltrated the Corinthian church, um, because they've caused some people in that church to doubt if he is a real apostle and causes others to doubt as well, this is like Paul relenting and just saying, okay, fine.

You want me to give you my credentials?

You know, I think it's foolish, but if that's what you really need, you know, some foolishness to believe that I'm an apostle, that I'm an apostle, he's like, here you go.

I'll I'll relent and I'll I'll give you that information.

But the interesting thing is that we need to notice is he heads in a different direction than I think the Corinthians saw coming.

Because he's not going to come at them with his pedigree and his upgreening upbringing and his education or his experience.

He's gonna boast in his weakness.

Look at verse 18 with me.

Since many boast according to the flesh, I will also boast.

For you being so wise, that's sarcasm right there, gladly put up with fools.

You know, as we've already addressed, false teachers do what they do for their own gain.

They do it for their flesh.

Whether it's financial gain, whether it's puffing themselves up, um, or because they like to feel people stroking their egos, whatever it might be, or maybe they're just trying to gain more followers and build their own kingdom.

It always comes down to the flesh.

And we'll see this in verse 20 when Paul mentions what they've been up to.

So look at that with me, verse 20.

In fact, you put up with it if someone enslaves you, if someone exploits you, if someone takes advantage of you, if someone is arrogant toward you, if someone slaps you in the face.

You see, these false apostles were so slick that the Corinthians put up with all of this junk that Paul mentions right here in verse 20.

Remember, they got on Paul for not being good looking.

They got on Paul for not being a good orator.

They wanted him to be more like the guys that were abusing them.

Think about that for a second.

They wanted Paul to be more like the guys that were abusing them.

Somewhere in their head, they weren't correlating these two things.

That the ones that were appealing to their flesh were also the ones that were abusing and taking advantage of them.

Paul's trying to show them here that they really should want their church leaders to be humble and meek and loving and to care more about the truth than giving a message that our flesh wants to hear.

You know, what this comes down to is that we will put up with a lot when our flesh is being fed, won't we?

We'll put up with, and you know, these are Paul's words, we'll put up with enslavement.

We'll put up with being exploited, being taken advantage of, arrogance toward us.

Even he says being slapped in the face.

So if we look at that list, we're talking mental, spiritual, and physical abuse that these people are taking from these false teachers.

But from the Corinthian point of view, man, they look good doing it.

And they they said it so well.

And they promised us so much, you know, if we would just jump on board and do what they were telling us that we should do.

You know, these false teachers, as we talked a lot about last week, are no different than Satan.

Because before we came to Christ, he abused us.

And he still tries to do that on a daily basis, but he enslaved us to sin.

This is using Paul's list of these false teachers.

He exploited who God created us to be.

He took advantage of our fleshly desires, he was arrogant in the face of God and toward us.

And he would slap us in the face with trials and affliction, and trials and affliction, and trials and affliction.

And we couldn't wait for the next time to feed our flesh and do it all over again.

Living for the weekend.

You know, I think a hangover is such a perfect example of how Satan abuses us.

So work with me here.

Satan tells us, you want to forget all of your problems, you want to numb your pain and have fun doing it.

You know, just drink a little and a little more and a little more until you black out.

And then in the morning, he slaps you in the face.

Hungover, nauseous, headache, regret, dehydration, exhaustion, worthless to do anything for that day.

And then we couldn't wait for the next weekend so that we could do it all over again.

You know, and it's the same with sex, it's the same with other substances, it's the same with bad relationships, you know, things that are only leading to death.

And before Christ, we couldn't wait to do it all over again and subject ourselves to those things that were actually killing us spiritually and physically.

You know, it's Satan's strategy and the same agenda of these false teachers to appeal to the flesh and abuse.

Appeal to the flesh and abuse.

You know, remember last week in verse 15 it says, for Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

So it is not, it is no great surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.

Satan abuses us by appealing to our flesh with quick fixes that leave us hung over.

And his servants wear that same disguise and use those same tactics that he does.

But when we come to Christ, Satan has to be a lot more subtle.

So he tries to appeal to our flesh through the disguise of righteousness.

He no longer can just appeal right to our flesh because if we're truly following Christ, we should be hating sin.

So he tries to deceive us, just like Paul mentioned with Eve last week, making us believe that you know, this sin, yeah, I know I shouldn't be doing it, but it doesn't really hurt anybody.

You know, and I really do, you know, deserve a little pleasure in my life or a little credit, you know, for for what I'm doing.

And he just feeds those lies.

You know, you really know better than God does in this situation.

This situation's unique to you.

Nobody else will understand, and it's okay if you partake in this, but it's just an appeal to our flesh under disguise.

Satan and his servants are abusers, and they do it by appealing to our flesh.

Look at verse 21.

I say this to our shame.

We have been too weak for that.

More sarcasm if you didn't catch it.

He's basically saying, sorry that we were too weak to abuse you.

Sorry that we suffered for your sake and spoke the truth instead of feeding your flesh.

You know, it's because we were too weak that we chose the hard and narrow path instead of the easy one.

That's the sarcasm that Paul's throwing in here.

He continues on the second half, verse 21.

But whatever anyone dares to boast, I'm talking foolishly, I also dare.

Are they Hebrews?

So am I.

Are they Israelites?

So am I.

Are they descendants of Abraham?

So am I.

Notice Paul's point here, these false apostles can't boast in anything in their flesh that Paul can't also match.

He's saying, yeah, they're all of these things, but so am I.

And it's foolishness for us to boast in our pedigree.

You know, we can sit here, we can do this all night long if you want to.

Oh, you're this, yeah, so am I.

You're that, yeah, so am I.

But what he's doing is he's really trying to show the Corinthian church to not pay attention to fleshly boasting.

And as a side note, you know, this gives us a little insight into what at least some of the false teaching that was going on in Corinth was.

And it was probably coming from this group called the Judaizers.

You know, Judaizers were those that said, yes, you need to believe in Jesus, but you also have to live by the Jewish law as well.

Basically, that grace is both given and earned.

This was the message they were trying to teach to the churches in this area, that you need to believe in Jesus and be circumcised.

You need to believe in Jesus and honor the Sabbath.

You know, basically, you need to believe in Jesus and uphold the whole Mosaic law.

And remember, we've talked about this a lot, but whenever it's Jesus and anything else, just stop listening.

And you might be thinking at this point, you know, wait a second, I thought these false apostles were appealing to the Corinthians' flesh.

Don't Judaizers just try and make following Jesus harder for the Corinthians?

You know, to practice their faith because um because the Judaizers' message was based on works?

So, how would that appeal to their flesh if if they're actually making things harder for the Corinthians?

Salvation by works appeals to our flesh.

Because then we get to say, well, I do this, this, and this for the Lord, and that's why I'm a better Christian than you are.

You see, salvation through works appeals to our pride.

And that's where we get legalism from, is when we start getting into this Jesus and works.

You know, false teachers lie on both sides of the spectrum.

You know, you have, there's the, you know, this side that says, you know, you have to do all of this, you know, to be saved.

You know, like the Judaizers.

You have to believe in Jesus, but then do all of these works.

And then on the other side, you have those people on the extreme that say, all roads lead to heaven.

You don't really have to do anything, you know, but just exist and be a good person.

And right in the middle is Jesus that says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me.

Wiping out this whole side of the spectrum.

And then you, you know, it's only through faith and belief that you are saved, not by works, lest anyone should boast.

Wiping out this whole side of the spectrum, what we're left with in the middle is Jesus.

It's not Jesus and anything else on either side of that spectrum.

You know, I think too often we only classify modern-day false teachers as those, you know, in the health and prosperity gospels or those that are saying there's multiple ways to salvation, you know, those that would be on this side of the spectrum.

But too often we neglect those that are abusing their sheep in the name of truth.

When in reality they're teaching works and legalism just like the Judaizers were teaching.

You know, Jesus and anything else is a false gospel.

You know, these Judaizers taught and saw themselves as superior because they had Jesus and the law and their heritage, and you know, fill in the blank.

You know, it really reminds me of Jesus' words in Luke 18.

You know, he told the parable, he said, he also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else.

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee was standing and praying like this about himself.

God, I thank you that I'm not like other people, greedy, unrighteous, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of everything I get.

But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes to heaven, but kept striking his chest and saying, God have mercy on me, a sinner.

I tell you, this one went down to his house justified rather than the other, because everyone, and here's the main point here, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.

These false teachers in Corinth were exalting themselves while Paul was humbling himself.

Which one of those looks more like Jesus and more like Jesus' teachings?

It's Paul, isn't it?

Paul goes on in verse 23.

He says, Are they servants of Christ?

I'm talking like a madman.

So he's still boasting in foolishness.

So he says, Are they servants of Christ?

I'm a better one.

You want to boast?

We can do this all night.

This word servant here is the same word that we get deacon from.

And a deacon is one that executes the commands of another.

You know, in Acts it was used for those that were chosen to serve the tables to the widows.

So Paul says, they say they are servants of Christ.

Let me tell you about what a servant of Christ really looks like.

And I'll give you a list of what I boast in.

And here's the list, the second half of verse 23.

It starts there at least.

And this is real really Paul saying, You want to see what a servant of Christ looks like?

Here it is.

With far more labors, many more imprisonments, far worse beatings, many times near death.

This is Paul's testimony.

Five times I received the 40 lashes minus one from the Jews.

Think about that.

Three times I was beaten with rods.

Once I received a stoning, and he was left there to die.

Three times I was shipwrecked.

I've spent a night and a day in the open sea.

On frequent journeys I faced dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, and dangers among false broth brothers.

Toil and hardship, many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst, often without food, cold and without clothing.

I kind of, in my mind.

Picture the Corinthians reading this, you know, on the other side of this letter and thinking, I think we got Paul mad.

He finally just gave us the list, you know.

Paul previously boasted in Christ, boasted in his calling, boasted that his adequacy was not by his upbringing or his education, but that his adequacy was in Christ.

But Paul's boasting here is in what he's had to endure to minister the gospel to them and to a lot of other churches as well.

Still not boasting about himself or his own worthiness, but his point is, you know, would these false apostles be willing to do this for you?

Would these false teachers be willing to do this for God's kingdom, to suffer all of that and still be faithful to their calling?

And notice the list that Paul shares right there, up till this point, they're all one-time events.

Some of them happen multiple times, but they're all one-time events that he suffered.

But in verse 28, notice he'll tell us about what he faces daily.

He says, not to mention other things.

There is the daily pressure on me, my concern for all the churches.

Remember, last week we talked about how Paul had a fatherly heart toward this church in Corinth.

And I think as we read his other letters, it's safe to assume that he had that heart for all of the churches that he planted and all the churches that he was ministering to.

He had a concern for God's sheep.

And his calling to be an under-shepherd to the great shepherd is shining through.

We see as you know, as he's writing this letter to the Corinthians.

Conversely, though, I don't think these false teachers were losing sleep at night over concern for God's sheep, were they?

Because they were out for the flesh.

They were out for their own gain.

You know, in some ways, as a pastor, I totally relate to Paul here.

And I think I can safely speak for all of the elders in our church that we all feel the same.

You know, often we spend a chunk of our elders' meetings asking, you know, have you seen so-and-so?

You know, they haven't been to church in three or four weeks.

Has anybody talked to them?

Are they okay?

Not because we want to increase numbers on Sunday, but because we care about you.

And we're concerned if we don't see you or hear from you in a while.

You know, and I don't, we all get concerned if we don't see you all gathering, you know, feeding with the other sheep here on Sunday mornings.

You know, a couple came up to me probably about six weeks ago and said, just so you know, we're gonna be on an extended trip, we're gonna be gone for about a month.

We just didn't want you to worry about us or think that we've left the church.

And I can't tell you how much I appreciated that.

That was one less thing for me and the other elders to concern ourselves with that month.

Because we care about you and we want to know how you're doing.

And we think about you outside of Sunday mornings, I promise.

And we pray for you outside of Sunday mornings, and when you're not here on a Sunday, you're missed.

Not because there's an empty seat, but because you are missed.

This is the body of Christ.

You know, and those phone calls that we make after those elders' meetings to check in on people, they're they're hard calls to make, you know, to people that you haven't seen in a while because you never want, we never want you to hear, you know, haven't seen you in a while.

Backslide much.

That's what we don't want to come through, but so oftentimes people feel so guilty on the other side of the phone, like, I'm sorry, I'm gonna be there next Sunday.

It's like, that's not the heart behind it.

If you get the phone call, it's because we care about you and we truly want to make sure that you're okay.

And Paul here has that same concern for God's sheep.

Daily thinking about them and praying for them and wondering how he could be shepherding them further and better.

That's a daily concern that's on Paul's heart, and that's the heart of a shepherd.

Verse 29.

Who is weak and I am not weak?

Paul knows weakness firsthand and can relate and can also concern himself with others' weaknesses as well.

Part of that daily concern he's talking about.

And he goes on, who is made to stumble and I do not burn with indignation.

He has a shepherd's heart.

He doesn't have any sheep that get sick or break their leg, and he's like, Good, they were a pain to deal with, so just leave them to die.

You know, he doesn't have sheep that wander off and he's just like, good riddance.

You know, now they'll go get what they deserve.

And that wolf will get them, and I'm not gonna protect them this time.

No, he has a fatherly heart, he has a shepherd's heart towards God's sheep.

Look at verse 30.

If boasting is necessary, I will boast about my weakness.

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows I am not lying.

So, question for you.

Do you think that Paul's boasting in weakness was easy for him?

Boasting about weakness is hard, isn't it?

It doesn't come natural to us.

It doesn't just like fall out of our face, does it?

And it's really hard to see weakness in the leaders that we love, isn't it?

Have you ever wondered why in the Old Testament that God includes the weaknesses of some of the most celebrated people that we see in the Old Testament?

I mean, we get to see the weakness of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob and of Moses and of King David.

And the list goes on.

God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called.

And he more often than not calls the weak so that people see that it's God working and it's not them.

You know, another prime example is the apostle Peter.

Nobody looked at Peter and said, Yeah, it's because he had it all together before Jesus called him to be a disciple.

You know, it's quite the opposite.

Paul understands this.

And instead of saying, you know, this is my upbringing, this is who my parents were, this is my education, this is how many converts I have, this is how many churches that I've planted, he says, I boast in my weakness.

It's one more thing to set himself apart from the false teachers that are boasting in their pedigree.

Have you ever known somebody that boasted in their weakness too much?

Ever been annoyed by somebody because they're too humble?

You know, I've yet to feel that emotion toward anybody.

Like, oh, they're just too humble.

Ever been annoyed with somebody that never stopped bragging about themselves?

Yeah.

All the time, right?

Yeah.

That's right.

If we're going to boast as followers of Christ, we need to boast in our weaknesses.

Like Paul's example that we get right here.

Look at verse 32 with me.

In Damascus, a ruler under King Aretus guarded the city of Damascus in order to arrest me.

So I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped from his hands.

Again, boasting in his weakness.

And this is, if you want to read more about it, is in Acts 9, 23 through 25, where Paul's just converted on the road to Damascus.

He was blinded, he's then led into Damascus.

God sends this guy Ananias to Paul, and Ananias is hesitant because Paul's been persecuting all the Christians up until this point.

His name's Saul at the moment, actually, in case you didn't know that.

But Jesus tells Ananias, he says, Go for, for this man is my chosen instrument to take my name to Gentiles, kings, and Israelites.

Listen to this.

I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.

So Ananias goes to Paul, he prays for him, the blindness goes away, Paul gets baptized, he then spends time with the disciples in Damascus, he preaches in the synagogue that Jesus is the Son of God.

And then it says in verse 23, After many days had passed, the Jews conspired to kill him.

But Saul, Saul Paul, learned of their plot plot.

So they were watching the gates day and night, intending to kill him.

But his disciples took him by night and lowered him in a large basket through an opening in the wall.

This is what Paul's been facing pretty much since day one of his ministry.

And he's not just telling Corinth a cool story here.

He's boasting in his weakness.

He's boasting or boasting in the flesh, you know, if Paul were to be doing that, it'd be like, you know, so I spoke my mind in the synagogue and I walked right down the middle of their main street as the commoners cheered, and I walked right out those city gates.

No, he said, you know, I had to get in a basket and I had to rely on some men to save my life.

My life was literally in their hands as they're lowering that rope while I was in that basket.

So then I ran and I escaped from the persecution.

Probably not Paul's proudest moment that he loves to boast about, but he realizes that if he's going to boast, it needs to be in his weakness, not in his strengths.

I want to end with this.

You know, like I mentioned at the beginning, Paul's intent in writing all of this was to contrast his ministry from false teachers.

They were lifting themselves up, Paul was exalting Christ.

They were appealing to the flesh while he was telling them to crucify their flesh.

They were boasting in their heritage, and he was boasting in what he had to endure in his own ministry.

They were boasting in their strength, and he was boasting in his weakness.

You know, and the same principles apply to us today that Paul is teaching to these Corinthians.

Don't let appearance and charisma and pedigree convince you that you should be listening to someone or being influenced by them.

If they're preaching Jesus and anything else, like I said, just stop listening.

You don't need to hear anymore.

We need to follow Jesus.

And if we're going to allow ourselves to be influenced by anybody that's teaching about Jesus, they better act like Jesus and their ministry better look like Jesus.

Just like Paul's ministry looked like Jesus' ministry, teaching truth and love.

Again, know the word.

Walk by the Holy Spirit.

This is our best defense against being deceived by Satan and his servants that are disguising themselves.

The Holy Spirit is so good at raising flags in our own spirit if we're just sensitive enough to listen to him.

And when Scripture is hidden in our hearts, we won't only see the red flags, but we'll know why the red flags are waving by the Holy Spirit.

You know, because the Holy Spirit can't remind us of Scripture if it's not in there to begin with.

He can raise a red flag, but we might not know why.

But the more we know Scripture, the more we know why those red flags are waving because God left us his word.

We have to compare everything to his word.

We have to see everything through the lens of Scripture.

And if we do that and we walk by the Spirit, we're gonna be just fine.

We shouldn't walk in fear of false teachers, but we need to keep our ears open and we need to allow the Holy Spirit to raise those red flags, and we need to stay in the word for those purposes.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for your word and that we get to go through it together like this.

Lord, I pray that you would give us discipline and diligence to remain in your word, to know it for ourselves, to hide it in our hearts, so that you can use it in our daily life to mold us and to shape us and to give us all of the things that we need to be your servants, like Paul's talking about here, to walk with you in that way.

God, would you just do uh a great work in each one of us, in every area of our life, Lord, just showing us how to live like Jesus and like the example that we see through Paul, Lord, just willing to do anything for your kingdom, willing to lay down everything for the sake of the gospel going out, and help us to do it with humility, Lord, we pray.

That we wouldn't boast in our strengths, but we would boast in our weaknesses, because that only points to you doing the great and wonderful things that you desire to do in our life, Lord.

Show us how to walk so intently by the Holy Spirit.

Lord, where we're stopping and we're listening, to where we can hear the faintest whisper of what you might be wanting us to know or telling us or pulling up the scriptures that we do have hidden in our hearts.

Lord, help us to do that well.

There's nothing we desire than to be more and more like Jesus on a daily basis.

And that's done by surrendering to you, by abiding in Christ, and by walking by the Spirit.

So help us to do those things well and in humility, we pray.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.