2 Corinthians 12
McGeeCHAPTER 12THEME: Revelation of Paul’s apostleshipWe hear a great deal in our day about space travel. This has been a big subject through the decades of the 60s and 70s. Men have been to the moon. Actually, that isn’t really very far when one considers space travel. It is a long distance to the moon, and yet it is small compared to the distances to Mars and other planets. Then when one measures the distance to our neighboring constellation of Andromeda that is way out there in space, we must say that man hasn’t been very far yet. The very interesting thing is that the Bible has the record of three men who journeyed into outer space and then returnednone of whom are in the Old Testament. I know someone will say, “What about Enoch and Elijah?” I do not think they were caught up to heaven. The Lord Jesus said, “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven” (Joh_3:13). Some will say, “I thought Elijah was caught up to heaven.” Yes, but after all there are three heavens. There is the first heaven where there are the birds of heaven. There is the second heaven where there are the stars of heaven.
There is the third heaven which is the abode of God. Elijah had been caught up into the air spaces. Up to the time that the Lord Jesus made that statement, possibly there had been no one else who had been in outer space. He said that the Son of Man came down from heaven. Then we know of two other men who have been to heaven and returned. The apostle John on the Island of Patmos was caught up into heaven.
He writes about what he saw and heard in the Book of the Revelation. He was in the third heaven where the throne of God is. “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit; and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne” (Rev_4:1-2). Paul was the other man who was taken up into heaven. The record of this is in the chapter before us. Therefore there are three men who have been able to report from heaven. The Lord Jesus, who is God manifest in the flesh, said more about heaven than anyone else did, and yet He really said very little about it. John doesn’t have too much to say about it. Paul doesn’t have anything to say about it. Paul tells us something here that he would not have mentioned at all if he had not been forced to defend his apostleship. He tells about his trip into outer space.
2 Corinthians 12:1
PAUL’S EXPERIENCEPaul had just listed many incidents showing how he had suffered for Christ’s sake. There wasn’t much glory in that. I think that the Spirit of God had him write down all his experiences so that no man would ever be able to say, “I endured more than Paul the apostle.” Actually, we should be very careful about the songs we sing. I think of the one: “Jesus, I my cross have taken All to leave and follow Thee; Naked, poor, despised, forsaken, Thou from hence my all shall be.” Henry F. Lyte I heard a so-called converted Hollywood star sing that song! I don’t believe that person had given up very much. It would be hypocritical for most of us to sing it. It would be better if we all sang a song like this: “Alas, and did my Savior bleed And did my Sovereign die! Would He devote that sacred head For such a worm as I?” Isaac Watts It is the Lord Jesus who needs to be glorified. Today we hear testimonies from men and women about their conversions. Generally the testimony is a remarkable conversion. We don’t often hear about the “ordinary” conversions. The thing which I note in a testimony is the place the Lord Jesus occupies. Too often the story goes on and on about the person and what he did and how he lived in sin and how remarkably he changed, while very little is said about the Lord Jesus. Sometimes one wonders whether the Lord Jesus was really needed or not. He gets very little praise and very little glory in most testimonies I hear. I just received a letter from a man who said, “I turned from a religious system to Christ.” Then Jesus became the center of his life and his sole occupation. He wants to grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the thing that is important. Having told us how much he had suffered for Christ’s sake, now Paul will come to visions and revelations from the Lord. We already know that the Lord had appeared to Paul on the Damascus road. Have you ever noticed that Paul has very little to say about those personal appearances? Now here is another such incident.
2 Corinthians 12:2
It was the Lord Jesus who spoke of the birds of heaven, which fly up in the air spaces. They don’t go up very high. Out beyond that is the space that contains the stars of heaven. That still is not the same as the third heaven where the throne of God is to be found. How ridiculous it was for the cosmonauts in the Russian sputnik to say they didn’t see God when they went to the moon. They didn’t go far enough, friend. They must go to the third heaven to find the throne of God. Paul speaks of his experience of being taken up into the third heaven. He dates it for us. He says it happened fourteen years before he wrote this epistle. That would be approximately the time when he had made his first missionary journey. We are told about his experience at Lystra on that first journey. “And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul, drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe” (Act_14:19-20) Was he dead? I don’t think they would have left him there unless they were pretty sure he was dead. It is my personal opinion that God raised him from the dead. Paul was rather uncertain whether this was a vision or whether he had been caught up in reality at that time. It is quite evident that he is describing his own experience here.
2 Corinthians 12:3
Was he actually dead and caught up into heaven? Or had he been knocked unconscious and had a vision? Paul is not dogmatic about it, and we should not be dogmatic about it either. As I have said, I believe he was dead and that God raised him from the dead, but the result was the same either way. He saw the third heaven. Notice his report:
2 Corinthians 12:4
Most men would have written several volumes on ponderous tones on such an experience. And they would have given a whole series of messages about it. But this is all that Paul says. This is his report. He says so much and yet he says so little. There is no description, no Chamber of Commerce advertisement, no promotion, no sales talk, no display, no hero worship of man.
2 Corinthians 12:5
There is no self-glory here. The man who was taken up into the third heaven and heard unspeakable words is the same man who was let over the wall in a basket.
2 Corinthians 12:7
PAUL’S THORN IN THE FLESHPaul says he will tell us about his infirmities, but he will not tell us about the third heaven. Why? Because he was told not to talk about it. I think many times Satan tries to remove God’s witnesses from the earthly scene. He wants to get rid of them. He uses sickness, disease, a thorn in the flesh. What was Paul’s thorn in the flesh? I want to let you in on something, give you a little secret information which I hope you won’t divulge to anyone: I don’t know. I don’t know what Paul saw and heard in the third heaven, and I don’t know what was his thorn in the flesh. I don’t know because he didn’t tell us. An old Scotch commentator said Paul’s thorn in the flesh was his wife. Well, I’ll imagine that old Scot was having trouble at home, and I think he was wrong. I believe that Paul had been married but was a widower. He wrote lovingly of womanhood, and I think he had once had a wonderful wife. He would not remarry because he didn’t want to subject any woman to the hardships which he had to endure. It is interesting that God put a zipper on the mouth of Paul and silenced him. He simply does not reveal these things to us. Someone has said that the reason a dog has so many friends is because he wags his tail instead of his tongue! I suppose most of us would have wagged our tongues a great deal if we had been caught up into the third heaven. Now why did God give Paul a thorn in the flesh? It was to keep him humble, to keep him from exalting himself above measure, having had such a vision.
2 Corinthians 12:8
Now I have a notion that Paul’s problem was very poor vision. When we get to his Epistle to the Galatians, we will find that he mentions that he had to write in large letters, which would indicate that he did not see well. We will discuss that later. Whatever the thorn was, Paul asked the Lord three times to remove it, and the Lord refused. The Lord heard him the first time and the second time and the third time. It was not that the Lord did not hear his prayers; it was that the answer of the Lord was no. Sometimes you and I keep asking the Lord for something to which He has already answered no. If He doesn’t give us what we ask for, we think He has not answered our prayer. More often than not His answer to my prayers is no. And eventually I discover that His no was the best possible answer He could have given me. He said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” He said He would not remove the thorn but that He would give Paul the grace to bear the thorn. That is the wonderful thing about it all. “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” In other words, it was obvious in Paul’s ministry that he was so physically weak that the Spirit of God was empowering him. “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” This was Paul’s response to the Lord’s answer. Paul would glory in his infirmities and not in the fact that he had had a vision. That is something you might turn over in your mind the next time you hear someone tell about a vision they have had of the Lord. It probably would be better if that person had a zipper on his mouth. The chances are that he had no vision at all but had eaten something he should not have eaten the night before.
2 Corinthians 12:10
What a contrast this man is to Samson in the Old Testament. The Spirit of God came upon Samson and he became strong. People marveled at his physical strength, but there came a day when he was very weak. The strong are made weak, and the weak are made strong. God can use the weak man.
2 Corinthians 12:11
Notice how he elaborates on this. He is apologizing again even as he has done many times earlier. Paul considered himself the least of the apostles, yet he says, “In nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.” Someone should have defended him but, apparently, no one did.
2 Corinthians 12:12
There are certain sign gifts which were given to the apostles to authenticate their message. They had the gift of healing. They could raise the dead and speak in tongues, which does not mean unknown tongues but languages and dialects. Paul had gone through the Galatian country, and there must have been fifty dialects and languages in that area. Paul could speak them all. Had he studied them? No. In that early day it was necessary to get the Word of God out into the Roman Empire in a hurry, and so these apostles were equipped with these gifts. Today missionaries and translators must spend years learning the languages they will use. “Signs of an apostle were wrought among you.” They could identify him as an apostle because he had the gifts of an apostle. We have just come through a wonderful section of Scripture. Someone has said that one of the reasons Paul was not to tell us about heaven was because there would be a mass exodus up out of this world to get there. I don’t know about that, but it is true that we could spend our time contemplating heaven and lose sight of a lost world that needs to hear of the Savior. Heaven is a wonderful place, but very little is said about it in the Word of God. Probably it is so wonderful that human language cannot describe it. It is our business to try to reach folk with the gospel so that they will be in heaven someday. Although I cannot tell you much about heaven, I can tell you about the One who is in heaven. We can talk about Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are to fix our eyes on Him. My, how this epistle has emphasized that! Beholding Him, we will become like Him in many ways. The pilgrim journey through this world will be a great deal easier if we will keep our eyes fixed on Him. The sun won’t be so hot, the burden of the day won’t be so heavy, the storms of life won’t be so fierce if we keep our attention fixed upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 12:13
PAUL PLANS TO REVISIT CORINTHPaul, you see, was their spiritual father. He had led them to Christ and had founded the church of Corinth.
2 Corinthians 12:15
Paul says, “The more I love you, the less I am loved in return.” It sounds like a complaint, doesn’t it? But the Spirit of God insisted that he not tell about what he had seen in heaven but that he tell about his sufferings and disappointments down here.
2 Corinthians 12:16
Oh, notice this man. He says, “I wasn’t after what you have, I was after you; I wanted to win you for Christ.” Isn’t that what the Lord Jesus had told His apostles? He said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Mat_4:19)and He didn’t say that every fish they caught would have a gold piece in its mouth! He made them fishers of menthat is the emphasis.
2 Corinthians 12:17
Paul didn’t use clever methods; he preached the Word of God in simplicity. He didn’t send other men along after him to make a gain out of the Corinthians.
2 Corinthians 12:19
These are the things Paul expected to find in the church when he would get there. They expected a great deal of Paul. Paul expected a great deal of them. But what would he find? There would be debates and arguing. I have been in the ministry for many years, and I am now to the place where I am in no mood for debate. Occasionally I get long letters from folk who listen to my radio program and want to debate a doctrine or a statement I’ve made on the radio. Friend, go on with your viewpoint and pray for me so that, if I am wrong, I will be led to the truth by the Spirit of God. You will not convince me with a long letter, because, frankly, I don’t have the patience to read it. Someone may say that I am very bigoted and narrow-minded. Well, maybe I am, but I just don’t believe that arguing and debating accomplish anything. Our business is to get out the Word of God, and I am not attempting to debate anything. I teach the Word as I come to it as I teach through the Bible. The contemporary church is filled with the things Paul mentions heredebates, envyings, wraths, strifes, and backbitings. “Have you heard about So-and-So?” “No, I haven’t heard.” “Well, I want to tell you.” Then they say some pretty mean things about a certain individual. And there are the whisperings. Someone has said that some people will believe anything if it is whispered to them. Then there is that word swellings. I have often wondered what Paul meant. Probably the best explanation is the one I heard Dr. H. A. Ironside give. He said this reminded him of a frog sitting on the bank of a creek or a pond all swelled up. He looks twice as big as he would ordinarily be. Then what happens? You throw a rock at him and, believe me, he becomes little again and goes right down into the water. Probably the best word that we have to describe “swellings” would be our word pompous. There are some pompous Christians. “Tumults” are troubles in the church. Little cliques get together and they cause trouble. They circulate petitions to be signed and that sort of thing. That causes a tumult.
2 Corinthians 12:21
Corinth was a vile city. It was known as a sin center throughout the Roman Empire. It was the Las Vegas and Reno and any other sinful city that you want to put with it all rolled into one. It was the place people went to sin. It is true that where sin abounded there grace did much more abound. Yet it caused the people of Corinth to look lightly upon these sinful things. This does not present an attractive picture of the church, does it? I’m sure that as we have gone through this epistle you have thought, The local church in Corinth certainly was not a very good church. That is true. Not only was it true of that church, but it is also true of many of our churches today. Let’s stop to look at this for a moment. Suppose the Lord took the church out of the world right now. What would happen if He removed all true believers who are in the world? We believe that the Great Tribulation would then begin. A part of the contribution to the Great Tribulation will be the absence of the church. The church today is the salt of the earth, the light of the world, and the Holy Spirit indwells the church today. Is the world getting better or worse? Some people say that the church hasn’t improved the world because the world is worse now than it was nineteen hundred years ago. I disagree with that. I know it says in 2Ti_3:13, “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived,” but that doesn’t say the world is getting worse; it says that evil men will wax worse and worse. I think this means they will get worse in their lifetime and then another generation will come on. The world is a little better today than it was over nineteen hundred years ago because at that time the world committed a sin which would have been an unpardonable sin had not the Lord Jesus said, “…Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do …” (Luk_23:34). They crucified the Son of God. I recognize that the world today by its rejection of Jesus Christ is crucifying Him afresh. The greatest sin in all the world is the rejection of Christ. The world of each generation has been guilty of that. The Lord Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit would come, He would convict the world of sin, “Of sin, because they believe not on me” (Joh_16:9).
There are many sins which are bad, but the worst sin of all is the rejection of Jesus Christ. The greatest crime that was ever committed on this earth was the murder of the Son of God over nineteen hundred years ago. The world today is still just as corrupt, just as vile, just as mean, and just as wicked as it was then. I will say that the world today is a better place to have a home than it was nineteen hundred years ago. We can live more comfortably. There are a great many things which make life easier and better than it was nineteen hundred years ago. However, we need to understand very clearly that it was never the purpose of the church to plant flowers in the world any more than it was Israel’s business to plant flowers in the wilderness. They were pilgrims passing through it and they had a message and a witness. This also has been the purpose of the church down through the ages. The church is a group of people who ought to be holy unto God, ought to be living for God. I wish I could point to the church and say it is doing that and how wonderful it is. Its failure in this area is one of the reasons the present interest in the Word of God has in most instances bypassed the local church. It is too busy with its internal problems. Yet that does not destroy the fact that the church is that group which is loved by the Lord Jesus Christ. He gave Himself for it that He might wash it, that He might cleanse it, and that He might make each believer acceptable to God. Although we are far from what we should be, we should be moving in that direction. So here in Paul’s Corinthian epistles we have an insight into a church which was in the worst city of the Roman Empire, and how bad it was! I don’t like to hear it said that the church does not in any way affect the world around it. It may look as if it has very little effect, and yet, then as now, if that group of godly people were to be removed from this world, the world would be much worse.