2 Corinthians 1:8-11

Delivered by God, Sustained by Prayer

Please remain standing for the reading of our sermon text – 2 Corinthians 1:8-11. That is on page 1145 in the pew Bibles

These verses continue the theme from last week. The apostle Paul was expressing the comfort of God to the Corinthians. He wanted them to be comforted by the comfort of Christ in their suffering and also share that comfort.

These verses, 8-11, continue that theme. Paul now gives them an example - a life threating affliction that he experienced.

Reading of 2 Corinthians 1:8-11.

Prayer

There is strong evidence that most of the apostles were killed for their faith… for their gospel ministry. We call that being martyred. For example, James, the brother of the apostle John, was executed by king Agrippa. We know that for sure from the book of Acts chapter 12.

That is the only one recorded in the Bible, but we have other historical testimonies from the early church fathers. They wrote about how Peter was crucified upside down in Rome. How Thomas was killed in India. How Andrew was crucified in Greece on an X shaped cross. And how Paul was beheaded under the persecution of Nero.

Other accounts exist as well. And while we can’t absolutely verify the details, the evidence supports those accounts.

Some of you will know this, but before the apostle Paul’s radical conversion, he was the one persecuting and even killing Christians. Yet God transformed his life. He was confronted by Jesus himself on the road to Damascus. Even though he was temporarily blinded, God opened the eyes of his heart, he could now see the truth clearly. Instead of being a persecutor he became one of the persecuted.

In fact, at the time of his conversion, God revealed to Paul, what he must suffer. God told a man named Annanias to find Paul. Annanias was hesitant because he knew Paul’s history. But listen to these words spoken by the Lord to Annanias.

“Go, for he [that is, Paul] is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

And suffer, Paul would. In the book of Acts we have account after account of Paul’s imprisonments, beatings, and other persecution. And we don’t even know the half of it! Later in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, Paul lists many more than we have recorded elsewhere. Five times he received what was known as 40 lashes minus 1. That is whips on his back. Three times he was beaten with rods. One time he was stoned. He had been left for dead.

You see, Paul and the other apostles endured intense persecution because of their Gospel ministry. And eventually would be martyred,

I’m telling you all this because when we read 2 Corinthians, it’s important to understand and apply this book correctly. And we can do that on three levels.

· First and foremost, Paul is defending his apostleship. The apostle’s ministry was patterned after Christ’s ministry of persecution unto death. The affliction and martyrdom that Paul and the others endured testified to God’s special call for them. So, the first layer of application is to affirm their apostleship and this word from God and to therefore reject false teachers and false apostles.

· Second, the call to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth still applies today. And while there are no more apostles, capital A, yet God still calls many to bring the love of God in Christ to places that have never received the good news of Jesus Christ. And it is a sacrifice. There are those, today, who give their lives for that great cause. Martyrs, who in their frontier mission work, testify in their life and death to the risen Christ and hope in him. That is the second level of application. Those being persecuted for their faith receive a special comfort from these verses.

You with me, so far? The first level application, again, is the apostle’s persecution and affliction which testifies to their apostleship. The second level of application is in the affliction and comfort of those who are afflicted because of their faith.

Now, some people draw the line there. They say that those are the only two levels of application here. In other words, they say we should not extend the application to the other kind of suffering… like sickness, hardships, emotional or relational pain, or grief. But I disagree with that.

· I want to make the case (like many others have) for a third layer of application in 2 Corinthians. If you have your Bible open to 2 Corinthians 1, look at verse 3 from last week. God is to be worshiped because he is the God of “all” comfort. That is pretty broad... “all.” And if you look at verse 4, the word “all” is used again. Then Paul says that they want to comfort others who are in “any” affliction. Again, it’s a very broad application of comfort in affliction… “any.” Here’s what I am saying… the giving and receiving of comfort in suffering also applies beyond those in dangerous missions work. I mentioned last week that we are not talking about worldly comfort, but rather the comfort of assurance and peace and being encouraged and strengthened in Christ to endure.

As the theme of suffering and comfort comes back around over and over, we’ll apply it on those three levels.

I wanted to say that up-front because it relates to today’s verses…

Ok, before we get into verses 8-11, I want to share one more thing. Amy told me this after last week’s sermon. The verses from last week are very meaningful to her family. 30 years ago, Amy’s brother died in a small plane accident. He was 23 years old at the time. A dear friend of the family shared these verses of comfort with Amy’s dad. That friend who shared those verses had himself been comforted by those very words. Years earlier his daughter had died in an accident. He was sharing with Amy’s family the comfort of Christ with which he himself had been comforted in his suffering.

It's a beautiful picture of sharing Gospel comfort with one another.

Now look at verse 8. It begins with the word “for.” It’s a connecting word. “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia.” The apostle Paul directly connects this new paragraph to what he has just written to them. He is saying, let me now give you an example of our affliction through which you can be comforted.

The big question, of course, is what exactly happened in Asia? That would be helpful information.

And the answer is, we don’t know exactly.

However, I do want to give you a couple of possibilities. Look at how Paul describes the event in the second half of verse 8. “We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.” It was very difficult. Verse 9 makes the event even more intense. “Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.”

Whatever the situation they found themselves in, they thought they were going to die.

Earlier in the service, we read from Acts 19. One possibility is that Paul was referring to the riots in Ephesus. Ephesus was, after all, the capital of Asia at that time - Asia minor.

You see, in Ephesus, Christianity had been spreading and transforming it in a good way. But it was bad for business. What I mean is that the church had been preaching against idols and idolatry. Well, that meant that all the merchants who were selling little “g” god idols were losing money. And so, Demetrius, the silversmith stirred up a riot. As you know, when a crowd gets stirred up, it can easily turn into an angry mob. When that happens, people lose any sense of peace or moderation… if they even had any to start with.

Well, this mob in Ephesus dragged off two of the believers, Gaius and Aristarchus. They were, in fact, two of Paul’s travelling companions. It’s amazing that these men and others were not killed. God delivered them… he used the Roman authority to calm the crown down.

You can see, it is possible that Paul was referring to this event – After all, they thought they had received the sentence of death, broadly speaking.

The only thing is that Paul was not in the midst of it. He was not at the theater where the riot occurred. The other believers wouldn’t let him go out of fear for his life.

So, we do not know for sure if this was the event.

Another possibility is in 1 Corinthians 15. There Paul mentioned that they fought with “wild beasts” in Ephesus. Those were the words he used. Now, to be sure, he was not talking about literal beasts, but rather men so evil it’s as if they were wild beasts. So, there was a second event where they had been attacked. They could have felt the same sentence of death that he describes.

Maybe it was some other event. We ultimately don’t know. But whatever it was, Paul and the other with him were overwhelmed. They feared for their life, and despaired of what was going to happen. Paul described what they felt as “burdened beyond our strength.”

Let me ask, have you been there? Have you experienced something so intense and so difficult that you could not see any path out of the burden? That is what they experienced.

In the garden of Gethsemane the night before he was crucified, Jesus prayed, “Father, take this cup from me… yet not my will but yours be done.”

I think it is safe to presume that Paul and those with him prayed a similar prayer. And what happened? God delivered them.

So, while we don’t know exactly what happened, we certainly know how it affected them and we know that God delivered them.

And furthermore, we know two more things.

· We know what God taught them.

· And we also know how the church was to help them.

So, let’s turn our attention to those two things. Again, what did they learn and how can the church help.

1. What they Learned

Number 1: what did they learn in their suffering?

You know what? We don’t have to guess. No, actually, Paul tells us right there in verse 9 – the second half. “But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”

In the middle of our affliction, suffering, trials, God desires that we rely on him. And I want you to notice something very important here - the order of what happened. Paul first says that they learned to rely on God and not themselves… THEN in verse 10 he says that God delivered them. That’s important. It was not after God delivered them that he taught them to rely on him. No, it was in the middle of feeling the sentence of death. That is when they learned to rely on him.

That’s hard to do, isn’t it. Because in the moment, we often feel so overwhelmed. Yet it is in that very moment that we need to rely on God the most.

And why we can rely on him and trust in him in those very moments? Well, it is for this reason: God raises the dead. That is what he did. God raised Jesus Christ from the grave. And that is what he will do. He will raise the dead.

At the very height of the intense burden… feeling the sentence of death, what did God teach them? He taught them to not rely on their own strength but to turn their hearts to the one who raises the dead.

It is the greatest promise that we can rely on in our affliction.

Some of you may recognize the name Donald Barnhouse. He pastored 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia back in the mid 20th century. Sadly, when his children were young, his wife passed away. As you can imagine, he struggled to have the words to comfort his children. Well, on the way to the funeral, one of his children asked, “Daddy, why did mommy have to die?” At that moment, God gave him words of comfort for his children. You see, right then, a large truck drove past them and cast its shadow over them. And he asked his children, “would you rather be run over by the truck or by its shadow? His youngest child responded first, “the shadow. It couldn’t hurt anybody.” Barnhouse replied “Remember, children, Jesus let the truck of death strike him, so that it could never destroy us. Mother lives with Jesus now—only the shadow of death passed over her.” She lives.

He was telling his kids… death is not the end. And while we grieve, we grieve knowing that God raises the dead. We each will experience the death of our bodies, yet we have that sure hope in our resurrection because of his. Those in Christ will be raised with him forever

Let’s go back to the apostle Paul and those with him. God did deliver them in that moment. God still had more work for them to accomplish in this life. More suffering to endure. More people to share the hope of Christ. More letters to write, like this one. More churches to plant. God delivered them.

I want you to notice something in verse 10. The word deliver is used three times. The first use is past tense. “[God] delivered us from such a deadly peril.” Then twice, future tense. “God will deliver us.” That future deliverance involved first, hoping and praying that the Lord would deliver them again in their earthly circumstances. But second, the future deliverance meant that whatever happened, God would deliver them forever. Death in this life will only be a shadow because God raises the dead.

Paul and those with him learned to rely on God who will deliver them. They “set their hope” on it (that is the phrase used)…. They “set their hope” that God would deliver them from the next sentence of death in this life. But they knew that their ultimate deliverance would be beyond the grave.

And as I mentioned, at God’s appointed time, Paul suffered a martyrs death. But he lives.

Lets bring this together… what was God teaching them? He was teaching them… to rely on him. His strength, his purposes, his means, and not on themselves. God reminded them that he raises the dead. That is the most profound truth for those in Christ… especially in our suffering and affliction. God will deliver you. We pray for and set our hope on deliverance in this life from whatever affliction we are enduring… but ultimately, we rest on Christ and his eternal promise. We will be delivered because God raises the dead.

2. How they should help

OK, that brings us to the other thing we learn in these verses.

We learn the primary thing the church can and should do for those suffering. And that is, pray!

Now, there are a lot of things that we can do to support one another as we go through affliction. Last week, we learned we can share the comfort of Christ with each other. Obviously, Paul had that in mind – he had just written that. And of course, we can come alongside each other in several other tangible ways. But the most important thing that we can do for anyone in any trial or affliction is pray. Pray with them and for them.

Now, remember, Paul was not there with the church in Corinth. That is why he wrote to them. So, the church in Corinth could not help him and support him in the middle of this affliction. But they could pray.

Look at verse 11. “You also must help us by prayer.” That is pretty strong. Paul petitioned them to pray. They needed prayers from the church in Corinth.

As we think about how that applies to us today. Number one, we need to be praying for those on the front lines of mission work around the world. We do that. We know and support several that are on those front lines of Gospel ministry. And we need to continue that and maybe increase our prayers.

Praying for their ministry… praying for protection… praying for them to rely on God who raises the dead. Praying that through their ministry, that God would change hearts and minds and increase his kingdom. All those things.

We also need to be praying for the persecuted church. Last week, Open Doors published their annual report of persecution. They are a ministry which focuses on information and prayer for the persecuted church. They estimate that last year 380 million Christians across the world faced persecution… and about 4,500 Christians were killed for their faith. We need to pray. God will work through our prayers to bring deliverance or endurance just as he did for Paul.

Let me ask this: What does Paul assume by telling them they must pray? Well, he believes prayer is powerful and effective. God hears our prayers. Look how he describes the importance of prayer in verse 11. He says, “many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” You see that? The Apostles will be blessed because of the prayers of the church. Our prayers will build up those in Gospel ministry. Though our prayers, God will give them confidence and reliance on him.

So, we need to press on in our prayers for those experiencing persecution.

Let’s take this down to that third layer of application. We need to pray for those in any kind of suffering…. Like what I mentioned earlier: sickness, hardships, emotional pain, or grief. To say it again, there are other ways we can and should support one another. But the most important is prayer.

And we absolutely can pray for deliverance. If it’s sickness, we can and should pray for healing. God heals. If it’s emotional or spiritual, we can pray for the Holy Spirit to intercede. If it’s relational we can pray for reconciliation. We can pray boldly for comfort and peace, and healing.

The same confidence that the apostle Paul had in prayer should be the same confidence that we have in prayer. May we pray for these things.

Conclusion

So, God raises the dead. If your only hope in life and death is in the Lord Jesus Christ, then this great promise is one you can rely on in your affliction. God will ultimately deliver you forever.

But God also can deliver you from affliction in this life. We trust in his providence, but we pray and hope that God will intercede. We boldly pray, knowing that our prayers for one another are powerful and effective.

In our suffering, may God direct us to rely on him and the power of his resurrection. And may we pray for one another and especially those enduring affliction because of their faith in Christ.