The gospel lesson this morning has taken from Matthew chapter 17, reading verses 1 through 9. Now, after six days, Jesus took Peter, James and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves, and he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light, and behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, let us make here three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah. While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear him. When the disciples heard if they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid, but Jesus came and touched them and said, arise, do not be afraid. When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one, but Jesus only. Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, tell the vision to no one until the Son of man is risen from the dead. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, let us pray, and now dear Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable unto you, for this we ask in the name of Christ, Amen. I believe you might all be familiar with the term trump card. The trump card is a card that is used in a particular situation when all of a sudden you need to score a decisive victory. You are familiar with the game, the card game of spades. You know that the ace of spades and that game becomes a trump card, and whenever a player pulls it out of his hand and puts it on the table, they are absolutely guaranteed of winning that particular round. And it's called a trump card where nothing can prevent it from being decisive. And so with this idea of a trump being something that guarantees victory. We also realize that there are times when we play trump cards that it leads us into boasting. And you know you have the trump card, and you can't wait for that moment when you draw it out of your hand and you throw it on the table, and you know you instantly win. That can lead as I am guilty to confess to boasting and to pride. Well, the Apostle Paul at this portion of 2 Corinthians was very much at about that place in the letter. As we see the letter unfold, we understand that this part of the letter to the Corinthians is a watershed at this particular place if we were in a symphony in a concert hall. We would expect to begin to hear a loud crescendo. And at a particular moment we would hear the decisive crash of symbols. We would hear a rolling thunder of bass drums as the symphony announced its climax. That's where we are. Paul is speaking at the apex of his argument. And so Paul in his struggle against the super apostles, that is, the false teachers who were beguiling the Corinthians, appears now ready to play his trump card. If Paul does play this card, we know that his victory will be decisive. We know that it will be uncontestable. He will clearly establish his legitimate spiritual and moral authority over the congregation. Playing this card will dispel the super apostles. So when you read this whole letter, when you come to this point, you have this sensation as though at a sporting event where you know that the decisive play is in the making. You know that the points are there to be scored and the victory will be complete. And you feel as though you're coming up out of your seat and you want to give that yet, you know, kind of comment at that time in the sports victory. That's where Paul is now. He has the super apostles right there. But what is Paul's trump card? What is it that he might play at this time? Paul begins to relate a vision and a revelation given to him 14 years previously. Now you understand the apostle Paul had many such visions and revelations. The New Testament documents them. This one that he is speaking to now. This particular reference is to one that he has not brought up before. It has been kept a secret. No one knew of this until he announced it at this time in Corinthians. He says that during this particular vision that he was taken up into paradise itself into the third heaven, we're not sure what exactly the third heaven means. It's unlikely that there is a first and a second, the fourth, fifth and sixth. But Paul is probably using a term here to say that the most full intimate, sweet communion that a person could have with God in heaven, I had it. I was there in paradise itself. He says, I don't know how I got there. I don't know if it was in my body or out of my body. God alone knows that. But he was at least raptured by his soul into heaven itself. This is Paul's trump card. The super apostles had claimed this. They had claimed that. They had claimed visions and revelations. But Paul, Paul had been to heaven. Paul had been to paradise. The third heaven itself and one mentioning of that will be a decisive victory and his contests against the super apostles will be over. As he begins to relate this encounter, all of a sudden he steps to the side. He begins to speak as in third person. I know a man, he says, meaning himself. I know a man who was taken up into heaven, whether in or out of the body. This man doesn't know, God alone knows, and he begins to say what it was that occurred during that time. Just amazing that Paul could have had such an experience. He goes on to relate that what he saw, he cannot put into words, what he heard is inexpressible to people on earth, God commanded that he not represent anything that he encountered there to people back on earth. Paul was favored, you see, in such a singular way by the grace of God. We don't have other accounts of Scripture where there are rival experiences that people could relate. But, just as Paul begins to pull the card out, just as he begins to make use of the trump card in a barely discernible fashion, something happens within the text. His telling of the story changes, Paul's normal eloquence, ceases. The details become sketchy, the story becomes flat, truncated, hesitant, and abrupt. As quickly as it started, Paul brings it to a conclusion. His explosive force is negated. Paul pulls his punch against the super apostles. He turns his side from going to the jugular. He fails to deliver the fatal blow. We come to those next verses and we say, Paul, Paul, why did you do that? You have been struggling for this entire book to come to this place. And just when you had them, you let them go free. Why would you do that? Well, Paul tells us why he failed to score the knockout punch. He has reluctant to do it because it could lead to boasting. And boasting of such a gracious experience that he had of being raptured to heaven, he says would be anathema. How more inappropriate a thing could I do than break out into some boasting way, playing a trump card of what God did for me? These people would think that I had something to do with it, that I could march into heaven. Paul says it was not on my initiative that this occurred. God, by his all-sufficient grace, fortified me. God took me to heaven to show me this, and if I now lapse into boasting about it, I will undermine everything that God intended to do for me. Not only that, it would be a perilous thing for me to boast about it because it would possibly undermine everything that I've tried to do to date. And so that is why Paul says he pulled his trump card and didn't go for the knockout punch. In fact, Paul says the guarantee that I don't boast, God sent me a thorn in the flesh to humble me, a messenger of Satan, to buffet me, to work his wiles against me. Paul says through this, I have come to understand that there is no self-exaltation. There is nothing that I can claim about this wonderful experience. It was a gracious thing on behalf of God who have done it for me. And so if I boast, Paul says I will only boast in my weaknesses. Not in strengths of visions and revelations, but in infirmities, in temptations, in setbacks, in persecutions, in frailty of body. Those are the things that if there is any boasting, I will try and boast through them. Now what was this thorn in the flesh that the apostles suffered? There are many speculations given throughout church history, but there is nothing conclusive. If you go back to the very beginning, commentators in the early church say, well obviously Paul had in mind here a thorn in the flesh means Jewish and Gentile accusations that were against Paul. These were his detractors, men and women who in their vile detesting of a gospel, of their willingness to do whatever they can to prevent the word of God from being ministered, they would do it. And so the opposition that Paul incurred within his own people, the Jews, and in the Gentile nations, that's the thorn in the flesh. Roman Catholic commentators throughout the ages have typically commented that this refers to sexual and impure temptations that the apostle had to struggle against repeatedly. Martin Luther said that they were spiritual trials. Paul is here talking about the anguish that he senses for his own brothers and sisters who remain Jews, who are unregenerate, who have the covenants, the promises, they have everything but regeneration. And the anguish that he thinks about in Romans on behalf of his unconverted brethren may be the thorn in the flesh. And there are physical ailments that people have cited. In Galatians, Paul talks about the fact that, oh you Galatians, I know you love me so much that you would pluck out your eyes to give them to me. It could be that Paul suffered from failing eyesight, that he was going blind, that there was glaucoma or cataracts or something like that, which prevented him from being able to see adequately. He also mentions in his letter that, see with what large letters I write to you in my very own hand. Paul typically had an Emanuean sense, someone who wrote his letters, who took the dictation. It could be that his failing eyesight didn't permit him to write well, but on this occasion he said, to underscore what I have to say to you, I'm writing the closure with my own hand in large letters. So maybe it's poor eyesight. Others say it was a form of epilepsy. And even more recent commentators believe that it was a recurrent, malarial fever, one known as multi-fever, that at the eastern end of the Mediterranean there is this fever that is very recurrent, that comes from malaria. And it could be that Paul who frequented that whole area had picked up malaria and suffered from its repeated fevers. But we don't know. And actually it's not important what it was. We know that whatever it was was something that was unusual, it was so unique that Paul felt the need to pray three times to have it delivered. It's recorded in scripture, but the fact that we don't know what it is, actually as we see later on, may give us the ability to identify with Paul. If it were a specific thing, we'd say, well, I don't have epilepsy, for example. So I can't identify with Paul's thorn in the flesh. And vigorous as it is, we might be able to say, well, maybe what he had is much like what I had. And maybe the way God came and ministered to him, God will do the same to me. And so it's actually probably more important that we don't know the true nature of it. But three times Paul says, I prayed for deliverance, but that deliverance did not come. Let me remind us that the Apostle Paul praised for something. I think he's got a hearing in heaven. He had been there. Someone else had been favored like he had. It had been to the very throne room, the paradise of third heaven itself. He knows where his prayers ascend. And so Paul prayed three times, oh, God, deliver me from this. I think he would pray confidently knowing that he had an advocate before the throne of grace. For some reason that advocate chose not to answer his prayers in the manner that he desired. But three times, like the Lord Jesus Christ himself in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Apostle Paul made his petition. And as with the Lord, all outward circumstances seemed to suggest that at this moment, where Paul could have scored his most decisive victory by retelling the vision and revelation that Satan was about to achieve his most decisive victory against Paul in court. Or led to believe that Satan was about to score a crushing triumph against Paul through buffeting him with his thorn in the flesh. The fearsome concentration of all the powers of darkness that Satan represents were marshaled against the Apostle. And it would seem like just as in the Garden, just as in Calvary, so again here in court, Satan was about to triumph. But as we know, in each one of those circumstances, God's wiser determinations prevailed. With providential care prevailed, his eternal counsels stood fast. And in each one of those situations, the conquest that Satan would seek to have was transformed into a triumph of sovereign grace. God was vindicated, Paul was sustained. God persists in pursuing his eternal plan even with the thorn in the flesh and Paul gladly submits. And there, right there, there in the mystery of God's ways and wiser determinations, we see something about the way in which God cares for his people. There as he causes all things, even thorns in the flesh, to work together for his good, Satan's victory is turned into defeat. As it was with Christ, so it was with Paul, and I believe so it can and will be with us, that as we experience things that we would call Satan's buffetings, where we think that all the powers of darkness are about to prevail over us, God will yet show us that his is an all-sufficient grace. Now in a very subtle fashion, Paul uses language and ideas that are reminiscent of other biblically events. And we can hear the faint echoes of those other biblical events come to bear in this passage that he's written for us, and there are actually three of them. The one is the transfiguration. For you see there, the disciples with Jesus had this unveiled glimpse of a glory of Christ. There before them on the Mount of Transfiguration, they were able to look at Jesus Christ where his veil of humanity, the veil that prevented his full glory from being manifested at all times, was removed. They saw something there that was part of the beatific vision. They saw the wonder of God shining through. It was such a glorious thing that they said to one another, let's build booths and let's stay here, let's enjoy this moment forever. But the key idea is that God had shown them something of himself that transcended what others had typically ever thought they could see or behold. When it was all over, you'll remember in verse 9 Jesus said to them, tell this to no man, even as he told Paul, do not speak of this to anyone. He both had similar kinds of visions of Christ, but here's the difference. Throughout the scriptures we see heaven come down. Jesus came to earth and it was on earth that the disciples saw this transfigured Christ. It was on Mount Sinai that Moses saw the glory of God go before him. Elisha had the veil removed and he could see the heavenly hosts surrounding him and guaranteeing victory over his enemies. We remember Jacob, who in a dream saw a ladder going up to heaven with angels ascending and descending, coming up and down, but the point is heaven came down to all these people. Even Stephen, when he is being stoned to death, is on earth and he looks up and he apprehends the risen Christ and he calls out to the risen Christ, Paul by contrast is taken up to heaven. It is a singular thing that goes on here and Paul in this access into the third heaven had something that none of us, I don't think, will ever experience until we get there on the other side of the grave. And again, as Paul says, he saw something there that is inexpressible. His mind was able to comprehend more of the plan of God and the plan of redemption and God's purposes and mysteries, but he couldn't say it. He was able to hear things that were too wonderful for ears. What a marvelous thing that God did by giving him that vision. But we have to ask the question, if this was Paul's kind of personal transfiguration, where he had in a heightened sense what others had had before him. That good was it, because he was commanded to remain perpetual as silent. Well Calvin answers and says that this took place for the sake of Paul himself, for one who had such arduous difficulties awaiting him, enough to break a thousand hearts, required him to be strengthened by special means that he might not give way but persevere undonted. And so this extraordinary revelation exercised an incalculable influence upon Paul himself. And upon Paul and then by extension his writings, by extension his ministry, by extension this vision and revelation had an impact upon the entire early church. It has had an impact upon every person who has read the scriptures because of what this did for the Apostle Paul. All of church history has been the beneficiary of what Paul experienced that time in heaven. What did it do? That experience fortified Paul to persevere in his ministry. It allowed him to patiently endure all the suffering, trials and tribulations, the buffeting of Satan and the thorn in the flesh. In fact I really believe that by Paul's forbearance of that, by the manner in which he went through that experience, more glory was given to God than had he relayed his vision and played his trump card. The trump card in fact was played because Paul was patiently enduring whatever God brought his way and the testimony of that before the watching world in his day was such that it was more significant than if he had played the original trump card. The question for all of us is whether we can expect some of these experiences for us. If God was pleased to fortify people by his all sufficient grace in the past, if he was willing to come to Moses and Elisha and to Jacob and to Stephen, if he was willing even for the sake of Christ himself on the man of turn's figuration, far less the disciples and Paul, will he do this for us as well? We who also have Satan to buffet us and thorns in the flesh, trials and tribulations. I believe God is willing to give to us fortifying grace through increased revelation of himself. Our God is a self-revealing God. He delights in making himself known. Undoubtedly each one of us, if a believer, has had experiences where something broke through, where God revealed more of himself to you on this occasion or that occasion. And being sustained and fortified by that heavenly vision or that further illumination, you were able to endure more patiently the things that God sent your way. We've had mountaintop experiences where we come down and we are amazed at the correlation between what occurred on the mountaintop and what confronts us three days later that week. And we look back and we say, God, you're a marvelous God. You so fortified me with that experience three days ago. But in the strength of it, I am able to listen to the doctor's report and I don't fall apart. And my hope doesn't waver in you even as I go through these testings and trials. Oh, God is pleased to reveal Himself in manifold ways the glory of His creation, experiences that we have with one another, experiences in worship and praise, experiences as we come to His word. We can't predict these. We can't cause them to happen. They are sovereignly given by God, but there are times when God is so pleased to reveal more of Himself to us that they become in very small degree or proportion, a transfiguration like experience for us. The Bible tells us that we are to seek God's face and our response should be, God, thy face will I seek, reveal yourself to me particularly with fortifying grace to withstand all that Satan would buff at me with. There is a second illusion that Paul makes from the scriptures as well. He puts together paradise and thorns. He's caught up into paradise and then receives a thorn in the flesh. Reminds me of Genesis 3 where Adam and Eve are cast out of the garden of paradise. They had known such intimacy with God. This was their every day behavior. This was all they knew, but it was forfeited because of sin. And the curse comes to Adam and Eve saying thorns will grow in the ground. And the curse can in some ways be summarized by thorns. Something to bluff at you. I think that's maybe operative in the back of Paul's mind as well as the illusion to Christ himself who three times prayed that the cup be taken away, but it wasn't.
What are the possibilities for the thorn in the flesh for us? All could be life-threatening illnesses, mental anguish and despair, wayward children, business failures, doubting spirits with respect to the faith, strife in marriage, unanswered prayers, people praying for a marriage partner but remaining single, couples praying for children but still bearing, people praying for the assurance of salvation as well as for the ability to discern God's will. All of those things could in some ways be classified as a thorn in the flesh. The thing that we need to know is that God takes us through difficulties. Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me. Again, the joining together of the presence of God, knowing him in a particular way, thou art with me, joined with trials and difficulties, the valley of the shadow of death. Job's words, though he slay me, yet will I praise him, takes this principle to the very highest expression of faith. So I believe that it could be the Paul's forbearance of the thorn of the flesh. Could be for us an example of how we are to persevere in these ways, but there is a third, and that is that Paul, in this passage, alludes to the chicana glory of God. From the Old Testament, where God led the children of Israel out into the wilderness, there they wandered for 40 years. They were completely, completely dependent upon God, every single drop of water for a million and more people had to come from the providential hand of God, every morsel of food, every single bit of protection from the enemies, everything there shows us how totally vulnerable the Israelites were and how God was pleased through their weakness to come in strength, glory, and power. And the controlling image there is God coming down from heaven in his chicana glory, dwelling in the very midst of the camp, there at the tabernacle, saying in a sense, in all of your weakness, I come as the God of glory. I come as the God of strength. I will be for you sufficient by my grace. The children of Israel understood and learned the all sufficiency of God's grace. And I believe that's what Paul is alluding to here, where he says, if I glory my friends will be in weakness. In fact, he says, I pray that God's glory will come down and rest upon me. The language is reminiscent of the chicana coming down to dwell in the tabernacle. Paul says, wouldn't that be a marvelous thing? And most gladly, he says, will I bear these infirmities? If through my weakness, God will come in that kind of saving power and glory. Well, Paul knew the sufficiency of grace. God's grace had already saved him from sin. It had already caused him to grow in Christ's likeness. His grace had allowed him to be raptured into paradise. His grace had allowed him to boast in weaknesses rather than flaunting strengths. And his grace had allowed him to prevail over Satan's buffeting. And his grace through all of this allows the apostle Paul to prevail over the super apostles. Paul committed himself to the sufficiency of God's grace. He did so without reservation or regret. His was an abandonment to grace, trusting in God's wise determinations. Such enthusiastic willingness for God's grace to prevail in all circumstances is surely a mark of maturity and genuine faith. Would that we all might long for such grace to come and to dwell upon us to magnify the glory of God through our very evident weaknesses? As it was for Israel, O God, come, inhabit your people today with the glory of your grace. Amen. O Father, we come before you, unbended me, laid low, because we are newly aware of our weaknesses. And yet, O Father, we are also newly aware of your glory that seeks to triumph through them. Come to us, we pray, visit us from on high with an all-sufficient grace. This we pray in the name of Christ.