[Steve Myers] Well, welcome to Epistles of Paul. We're going to continue our studies in 2 Corinthians. If you remember last time, we just finished Chapter 12...oh, no, I'm sorry, Chapter 11. We just finished Chapter 11. We're going to get into Chapter 12 this time. And Paul had just gotten done talking about all of the infirmities that he had, all of the difficulties, the weaknesses. And in Chapter 11, he delineated all of those different things as he was saying he was boasting about these things. Because as he concludes talking about all of these different things, he said he wanted to boast about his weaknesses or his infirmities, all of those difficulties. Part of all of that was associated with the fact that he was showing he is a true apostle of Jesus Christ. He's basically verifying his ministry as he's going through all of these things. And that as he went through all of the challenges, it proved the fact that he was loyal to God and that he wasn't in it just for the money, that he was serving, serving the Corinthians, serving God's people, and being a tool in God's hands as well. And so as he gets to Chapter 12, he continues but in a little bit different vein. So if you look at the beginning of 2 Corinthians 12.

2 Corinthians 12:1 He says, "It is doubtless, not profitable for me to boast."

Which in a way probably not translated the best. He's really saying in a sense it's necessary for him to boast, to defend himself in other words, to defend his ministry, even though there's not much to gain by it. They're probably, in some sense...some of them that just won't accept it no matter what. And so rather than continuing to talk about the difficulties that he had and the physical challenges that he went through, he says, "I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord." So let's shift gears then instead of talking about infirmities, let's talk about visions and revelations. Here's another indication that I am an apostle of Jesus Christ. And so in speaking about these things, there is a little bit of a difference between visions and revelations. A vision almost is always connected to something that you see. Not hard to imagine, is it? I see it. It's a vision. Yes. Okay.

Now, in that, it is connected to revelations because a revelation could be given through something that you see, something you envision. A revelation is a much broader term in that way. It could be in the sense of something that comes to your mind. I mean, literally a revelation is a revealing. Something is open to you. Something is recognizable. I see it. We have the book of Revelation. It's the same base word that's used here by the Apostle Paul. It could be an impression on your mind. It could be an encounter with an angel. It could be a revelation that's given in a dream. Sometimes the New Testament describes individuals being in a sort of a trance, that these things come to them and they're revealed to their thinking. So it has to do with that. So when you think about these two things, I suppose you could say, in a sense, that all visions are revelations. They're revealing things as you may see certain things, but not all revelations are visions. Does that make sense? Yeah, hopefully, it does.

So it seems that all visions are revelations, but not all revelations are visions. And so if we begin to think of it in those terms, either way, we see God's inspiration and God's direction on both the visions and the revelations. A couple of examples throughout the book of Acts. I know you'll study the book of Acts here at ABC, and there are a number of times that the Apostle Paul recounts those things all the way from Acts 16, all the way through the end of the book of Acts. You'll find a number of different visions that Paul has in a number of different ways. He also talks about revelations, revealings that he had when he talked to the Galatians. Galatians 1, he talks about learning God's true way by being revealed from Jesus Christ. It was a revelation from Christ. Christ revealed these things to him, opened his mind to His truth.

And so I think it's Ephesians 3:3, he even talks about the fact that "the gospel, the mystery of God's way was revealed to him as well." And so we begin to see that Paul is going to recount at least a little bit of how God used him and how that reflects on him truly being an apostle of Jesus Christ. So let's take a look at verse 2 then.

2 Corinthians 12:2-4 He says, "I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body, I do not know, or whether out of the body, I do not know, God knows. Such a one was caught up to the third heaven."

And so as he begins to describe this experience, he goes back, he says, "Fourteen years," before writing this letter. So what would that point to? Of course, we know that this letter was written around 55 AD, probably the beginning of the year, maybe the very end of 54. And so we go back 14 years, yeah, we're somewhere around 41 AD or so, somewhere in that ballpark. And when you think about, well, what significant happened at that time?

Well, it's hard to exactly put your finger on what he might be referring to. But I think if we go back to the book of Acts, we could take just a moment here and look at chapter 11. This certainly doesn't go back to the road on Damascus. That was long before, that's probably 20 years before this at least, when we think about that experience, getting knocked down on that road, remember when he had been persecuting the Church. So that would have been quite a bit before this idea of 14 years ago. We know that he went into the wilderness for three years, talks about that as well. So it can't refer to that because that's not quite long enough ago either. But when we look at Acts 11, the Apostle Paul then isn't really heard from for a number of years. He visits Jerusalem, and then is just kind of out there somewhere. We're not really sure exactly where he was or what he was doing until Barnabas shows up. And if we take a look at Acts 11, we can look at verse 25.

Acts 11:25-26 Here it says, "Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul." And so this is after his conversion, after he'd been in the wilderness, and after he was out there for a while. Barnabas goes to get the Apostle Paul. It says, "And when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year, they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch."

So it could be referring to this event. Maybe it's referring to a time while he's at Antioch. We're not exactly sure, but this would definitely be in that timeframe of what Paul was talking about 14 years ago. And it's interesting what exactly he sees in this particular revelation that he received from God. In fact, maybe on our way back to 2 Corinthians, we could even pause over at Acts 16 for a moment. If you look at Acts 16, take a look at verse 9.

Acts 16:9 It says, "A vision appeared to Paul in the night." So here's one example of a vision where he talked about God gave him visions in revelation. It was a vision in the night, "A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him saying, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.'"

So here this vision, something that he saw, he saw this man in this vision that said, "Come and preach the gospel over here." And so God was kind of illuminating his thinking here that this is what needed to happen. And so it's revealed to him, he needed to go and preach in Europe. And so that's just one example along the way. Of course, I also think of another vision that's kind of around this same area.

In the book of Acts, there's that famous vision that the apostle Peter had. Do you remember when Peter had this vision about all these animals that were in the sheet? Well, that was a vision where this voice said, "Kill and eat," and it had nothing to do with cleaning and unclean foods. It had to do with people. That was another example of a vision as well. So as we continue to maybe work our way back to 2 Corinthians, there's another example. Maybe we'll pause that on the way back. In Acts 22, here's a little bit different kind of an example here.

Acts 22:17-18 It says, "It happened, when I returned to Jerusalem, was praying in the temple, I was in a trance." So here's the Apostle Paul speaking about a situation, and it says, "I saw Him saying to me, 'Make haste, get out of Jerusalem quickly, for they will not receive your testimony concerning me.'"

So this one's a little different than the Macedonian call. The Macedonian call of that man, he saw this man, and he told him, "Go to Macedonia." Here he doesn't say he saw it, he hears a voice. He hears a voice that's saying to him, "All right, get out of town." And if you've got a red letter Bible, your letters here are probably in red because this would be Christ. "So I said, 'Lord, they know every synagogue, I'm in prison.'" And so here we have more of a revelation you might say in this example that the Apostle Paul experiences. So just a couple of little examples as we kind of zero in on that 14 years before, probably around 41 AD, maybe about the time he was going to Antioch, he has this experience that he describes in Chapter 12.

So let's head back to Chapter 12 now that we looked at a vision, a revelation, and then what Paul describes here in verse 2. Verse 2, he describes this experience as one, he's not even sure exactly whether it was so real to him, in other words. This was so real, he says, "Wow, was I really still in my body?" He says, "I don't really know." Did he have an out-of-body experience? That's how real it was. Obviously, he was physical. Obviously, he was still a man, but he has this vision where he's caught up to the third heaven. And he says, "And I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know, but God knows." He says he was caught up into paradise in verse 4.

And so here we have this perspective from the Apostle Paul, this experience that was so real, and he saw things, experienced things that was at the throne of God. Now, is Paul the only one that had experiences like this? Can you think of anyone else that had an experience maybe similar to this, that just seemed to be caught up and envisioned God's throne? That's right, the Apostle John, the whole book of Revelation kind of talks about that whole experience that John had. And so here's the Apostle Paul. And it's interesting, he doesn't say, "Well, I was caught up, and I saw all these things." And interesting in this sense, he talks about himself in the third person, you know, that I know a man and...oh, it was me. It was Paul.

And so you wonder, well, why tell it in the third person? Why not just say, "Well, I had this experience, and I am that man who experienced these things"? Well, it can't be 100% sure, but it probably ties in with the Corinthians and the credibility that he would have in their perspective. And probably, he would...probably looked on a little bit more kindly explaining it in this kind of a way. And so it would be pretty obvious it's him, I'm going to come to visions and revelations like he says in verse one. And then, all right, 14 years ago, the Apostle Paul, that was me, even though he doesn't explicitly say that, that's certainly what he's indicating here. And so I'm sure part of the reason that he may have used this kind of language, it would have been quite different than those false apostles, those false teachers. They would have been bragging about themselves and how great they were and how wonderful they were.

And yet here's Paul talking about his weaknesses, his problems, his issues, and then now talking about, you know, how God opened his mind to this revelation as well. So interesting that he says, "Where did this take place? What was this experience about?" He says, "He was caught up to the third heaven." The third heaven is what he was caught up to. Now, it's interesting when you look throughout the Bible, it talks about different kinds of heavens. There's several heavens that are mentioned throughout the Bible. If you hold your place here in 2 Corinthians, you can go all the way back to Genesis. If you'd like to go to Genesis 8, right near the very beginning of the Bible, we have a heaven described here in Genesis 8. Right near the very beginning of that Chapter, we'll notice a description of a heaven. Now, what heaven was he caught up to? He said, "The third heaven."

So when we look at Genesis, we have a description of another kind of a heaven. Here in Genesis 8:2, this is in the middle of the story of Noah and the ark, right?

Genesis 8:2 It says, "The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained." So what is that heaven that's being described here? Well, this is the atmosphere, right? It's the atmosphere around the earth. If we take a look at Deuteronomy 11, there's another little description here that makes it pretty explicit that describing this first heaven, you might say, as what's surrounding the earth. It's where the rain comes from. And when we look at Deuteronomy, we can look at this particular passage in Deuteronomy 11, Deuteronomy 11:11.

Deuteronomy 11:11 It says, "The land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven."

So that's our atmosphere. So that would certainly be one of the three heavens. First heaven, earth's atmosphere. Since we're still nearby, head back to Genesis for just a moment. Genesis 15 describes another kind of heaven. Let's pick that up in verse 5. Genesis 15:5 describes another kind of heaven. Notice what it says here, Genesis 15:5. Here, God is dealing with Abram, the one who would be named Abraham. And God's talking to him.

Genesis 15:5 It says, "He brought him outside, and said, 'Look now toward heaven and count the stars if you're able to number them.' And He said, 'So shall your descendants be.'"

So He's not saying look at the clouds in this case, is He? He's looking past the clouds. He's looking to a second heaven. He's looking out to the stars. And so here in this case, this second heaven, well, what would you call that? Outer space, I suppose, or interstellar space, right? That interplanetary space is what He's referring to. Count the stars. In fact, there's a pretty famous passage, I suppose you could say, that's...I've got to think of where it's actually at now that I said it's famous. It's in the Psalms. And I think it's near the beginning. Is it Psalm 8? I think it is. Let me see if I got it right or not. Yeah, in Psalm 8, right in verse 3, this is one of those passages where David is describing space. He's describing the second heaven.

Psalm 8:3 He says, "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and the stars which you have ordained, what is man that you're mindful of him?"

And so here we see stars and planets named in this second heaven. So this space, this interstellar space is a second heaven that the Bible refers to.

Then there's the heaven that Paul referred to as well, which you could say is a third heaven. Good example of a description of that third heaven is one that's found over in 1 Kings. Take a look at 1 Kings 8. 1 Kings 8 and in verse 30, here we have the dedication of the temple. This is Solomon's temple. And Solomon is giving this amazing prayer through this section of 1 Kings. And as he's praying to God, notice what he says.

1 Kings 8:30 He says, "May you hear the supplication of your servant and of your people, Israel. When they pray toward this place, hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive."

And so that's not the atmosphere, and that's not outer space. This is the third heaven. This is God's dwelling place. So this is going to the very living space of God. That's His throne in that area. So this third heaven is God's dwelling place. Hear from your dwelling place. In fact, there's another great example in Chronicles. If you take a look at 2 Chronicles 30, we'll see a similar description here as well. So 2 Chronicles 30:27. 2 Chronicles 30:27 describes a similar situation here when it comes to God's dwelling place.

2 Chronicles 30:27 It says, "Then the priests, the Levites arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard. Their prayer came up to His holy dwelling place, to heaven."

And so here we see that description of the place of God, which is also described how? If we go back to 2 Corinthians 12, he also says this is paradise. This could also be described as paradise. Paradise ultimately is where God is. That's where God is. There is a time that it'll be on earth when the new Jerusalem comes down. It's described there.

Revelation 2 is one of those passages that describe that very thing. The midst of the paradise of God is what Revelation 2 describes when it refers to the tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God. And so it's described as paradise. Well, in fact, maybe we should just take a look at that just to kind of get our bearings on that idea of paradise. Let's go back to the beginning of Revelation. We take a look at Revelation 1. We see this indication here in, well, notice verse 10.

Revelation 1:10 Just to get this idea. Here John has this revelation, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. I heard behind me a loud voice as of a trumpet."

So here's John in this particular frame of mind. And as he's describing this, he begins to show where he was. And let's see, if we fast forward just a little bit, after we've gotten our bearings here, over to Chapter 4.

Revelation 4:2 He says, "Immediately, I was in the Spirit and behold, a throne set in heaven, and one sat on the throne."

So here we have the dwelling place of God. It is His throne room. And, yeah, I meant to stop on the way. Maybe we just backtrack just a little bit back to Chapter 2. Yeah, Chapter 2:7, as we get this picture of what John's describing here.

Revelation 2:7 It says, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, to him who overcomes, I'll give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."

And so as we look at this, we begin to see a couple of things. Well, this paradise is associated with God's dwelling place. And it's also the third heaven. That's where God is. That's where His throne is. And so he points this out so clearly as it delineates the difference between the atmosphere, first heaven, space, the second heaven, and then God's dwelling place, the third heaven. All right. So head back to 2 Corinthians, and we'll pick up what Paul was experiencing here. So in verse 4, he describes this, again.

2 Corinthians 12:4 As he says, "I was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it's not lawful for a man to utter."

It's kind of interesting. Remember, this had happened 14 years before he's writing this. And I can't help but think, well, wonder why it took him 14 years to talk about this. You know, it's kind of interesting in that regard. He hadn't really verbalized these things. But then is to the Corinthians to try to really help cement this point with them, that he is a true apostle of Jesus Christ. And so here are these amazing things, which of course, if you're experiencing that or you reveal these things, how does that all work? Spiritual things, I can't even express it. It's inexpressible, he describes it as.

2 Corinthians 12:5-6 And he says, "Of such a one, I'll boast, yet of myself, I will not boast except in my infirmities." Yeah, he just got done doing that in Chapter 5. But here he relays this story and tells it in this third person. "For though I might desire to boast, I won't be a fool, for I'll speak the truth. But I refrain, lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to be or hears from me."

So here he's describing that idea of what he said in verse 1. All right, it's necessary for me to do this, but not really sure if it's going to be that profitable to you doubters, to you who put me down, who turn away from God opening your minds to who the true teachers really are.

2 Corinthians 12:7 He says, "And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me."

So, yeah, as you study the book of Acts, you'll see many visions and revelations that will come up in Apostle Paul's life. But he says, "Yeah, I could have got a big head over these things." He's not glorying in this experience, but recognizing the challenges and the difficulties that he faced and that God allowed certain things to happen. Notice what God allowed.

He says, "A thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure."

And so here he has an interesting description of a thorn in the flesh. Well, this obviously wasn't a literal thorn like a rose thorn or something like that. No, he's using this to describe something different. He says, "It's a messenger of Satan." The word there is angelos of Satan, a messenger, an angelos, an angel of Satan, which probably we'd roughly think of demons. A messenger of Satan is a demonic influence, isn't it? Could be literally a demon. This particular passage is pretty difficult to sort out. Well, what exactly is he talking about here? There's all kinds of different explanations that are out here. Was it literally a demon that came to bother him, to buffet him? Literally, that means to beat him up? Is that literally what was happening? I mean, he just got done describing all these infirmities and beatings and being stoned and scourged and all those challenges. Was it a physical thing or was it an emotional thing? Or maybe it was a spiritual thing when you think about demonic influence. Was it one of those things or maybe something entirely different? I mean, we're not really shown exactly what it might be. There's lots of ideas. Well, maybe it was Paul being tempted by different things. Maybe it was other problems. He says in verse 8, concerning this thing.

2 Corinthians 12:8 "I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me."

Some speculate, well, maybe it was a physical thing. Could it have been a physical problem that he was dealing with? We know in other sections of Scripture, it describes some physical problems he had that probably came from some of the beatings and some of the challenges that he had. If you hold your place here for just a moment, he certainly describes some of these things in Galatians 4. Take a look at Galatians 4. Notice the description here that he gives of a particular physical problem that he had. Would this be the thorn in the flesh? Galatians 4, notice verse 14. Well, even before that.

Galatians 4:13-15 It says, "You know that because of physical infirmity, I preached the gospel to you at the first." So there are physical problems he had. Verse 14, "My trial which was in my flesh, you didn't despise or reject." Well, okay, would this be a thorn in the flesh? Maybe. He says, "You receive me as an angel of God." Verse 15, "What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me."

So could that be the thorn in the flesh? Was it his eyesight? I mean, we know at times he'll take the pen from whoever was scribing a letter, and then he would write in big letters. It was possibly his eyesight. Maybe some other problem with his health. He certainly had this, and, of course, if you had been stoned and beaten, yeah, you could have some issues like that. I mean, when we take a look at the other possibilities, I mean, there are a number of different things that this could also relate to. Certainly, it was a painful kind of a thing.

Some of the different commentaries say, "Well, maybe it was malaria or maybe it was problems walking, maybe because he was beaten and stoned and got knocked in the head so many times and shipwrecked, he could have been suffering from other things." Some propose maybe epilepsy or migraines, problems speaking because of all the trials that he went through. Could that be part of it? Possible. As we look back to what he says here concerning this thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, this angel of Satan, demonic influence seems to be involved in some sense. But it's interesting that as we consider that, it could have been maybe as a messenger, could it have been a person?

I mean, he talks about a number of people in his experience that certainly stood in the way of preaching the truth. He was involved in a number of riots and challenges as he preached and taught. I mean, I think of one, Alexander the coppersmith was one that he describes pretty thoroughly who was one of those adversaries that stood against it. I think he wrote to Timothy in, I think it was 2 Timothy, where he says, "Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm or much harm, a great deal of harm." And so could that be this messenger of Satan? Well, possibly. So really what we come down to is it's really hard to tell. The buffet word seems to be most often used in reference to people beating you up, people treating you poorly. It seems that that's usually the case. But I think we see it could be all kinds of different things. And probably what's most important is to recognize, well, what was the purpose of this experience? That's really what becomes most important.

2 Corinthians 12:8 He says, "Concerning this thing, I pleaded with the Lord three times," this is in 2 Corinthians 12:8, "that it might depart from me."

And so here in these difficult trials, what does he do? He prays to God. And how many times did he do it? Three times. Three times. Does that remind you of any others that maybe petitioned God multiple times? I mean, is it wrong to pray more than once about a situation that you're in or this thorn in the flesh that Paul had? Well, no. He refers to this as a good thing. "I pleaded with the Lord that it might depart from me." In a way, that's following Christ's example, if you remember, the example that Jesus Christ Himself set. In fact, if you want to hold your place here, we should probably just take note of this because I think it is pretty important.

If you go back to Matthew 26, here we are at the very end of Christ's physical life. This is just before He's crucified. And He goes to the garden at Gethsemane. And in Matthew 26, notice verse 36. Notice verse 36. You remember what Christ does. He prays. And so in verse 36, it gives us the location.

Matthew 26:36 It says, "He goes to Gethsemane. And He said to the disciples, 'Sit here while I go and pray over there.' So Christ goes to pray."

Well, then in verse 41, we see they begin to fall asleep.

Matthew 26:41-44 And He tells them, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." Then in verse 42, it says, "A second time, He went away and prayed." So He prays a second time. And sure enough, they fall asleep again. If you look down to verse 44, "He left them, went away, and prayed a third time."

And so here we have Christ praying about His situation and what He'll face in the crucifixion three times. And so we go back to 2 Corinthians, here's Paul petitioning God, how many times? Three times that it might depart from me. So we have, you know, the ultimate example of Christ in what Paul is doing here. And, of course, what was the answer? Kind of similar to the answer that Christ received.

2 Corinthians 12:9 "He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.'"

And so here His grace was sufficient. This was something that Paul had to experience, so that he wouldn't be overly prideful so that he would remain humble. And God allowed this for His own good purposes. This was to help the Apostle Paul. This wasn't to hurt him. And so here God is more concerned about the Apostle Paul building character and growing closer to God than anything else. He wanted to prevent that prideful attitude.

And so God gives him tremendous amount of grace in order to compensate for the difficulties that he had to go through, to overcome all of those infirmities that he described in Chapter 11, to overcome this messenger, this thorn in the flesh, that was certainly tearing him down. He needed God's grace. And so here he learned the lesson. He learned this lesson that God's power was more obvious, was more perfect in weakness. And why would that be? Well, because now you're relying on God. You're not relying on yourself. You're not relying on your own abilities, your own physical strength, none of those kinds. You're relying on God. And so there's probably a pretty good reason why we don't know exactly what this thorn was.

I think possible reason might be that whatever our situation is, whatever we're facing, we can identify with the Apostle Paul so it can apply in any difficult situation we may be facing. And it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter whether our struggle is emotional. It doesn't matter if our struggle is physical. It doesn't matter if our struggle is spiritual. We can take this example from the Apostle Paul, and we can know that, no matter what we face, that God's purpose is to help us. God's purpose is to help us to grow closer to Him, and to recognize the fact that His grace, His favor, that God favored Paul, He favors us. And with the favor of God, we can get through any situation. Christ said, "My grace is sufficient for you." This is something that will cover whatever challenge you may face, that God is doing this to help us. And so it's really a blessing in disguise.

2 Corinthians 12:9 And so Paul says at the end of verse 9, "Therefore, most gladly I would rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me."

So we have this connection between grace, God's favor, and power. God gives us the power to overcome, gives us the power to change our perspective through His grace.

2 Corinthians 12:10 And so Paul says, "I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and needs and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

And so here's the amazing part. No matter what trial might be weighing on us, no matter what difficulty is bringing stress, is weighing us down in life, God can dim that weight, can lift that weight, not just by giving us more physical power, but He increases our spiritual strength. That's what He does. He increases our spiritual strength. If you look back just a little bit, didn't He talk about this earlier in the letter? If you go all the way back to Chapter 1, remember what God said. This is really the lesson in a nutshell.

2 Corinthians 1:3 "Bless me the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort."

He comforts us in all our tribulations. So here's Paul putting a specific experience on the fact that God is the God of all comfort. He can dim and diminish the weight and increase our spiritual strength. That's what He does, and that's what He did with the Apostle Paul. And so amazing example here that Paul uses in this whole experience, that he tells about this revelation, in order, to relay the fact that God's grace is sufficient for us and our spiritual strength becomes obvious in weakness. Took all of Chapter 11 to describe that, and then through a revelation, he also punctuates that specific point as well.

2 Corinthians 12:11 He says, "I've become a fool in boasting. You've compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing."

So Paul, in a way, says, "I get God's lesson. I get the lesson that I am weak, but spiritually, I am strong. Physically, yeah, there's not much to boast about. But don't tell me I'm any less than what you call these super-apostles." Remember this word, most eminent apostles? Yeah, they identified with these false phony teachers, and claimed they were something. But Paul says, "No, they're not."

2 Corinthians 12:12 He says, "Truly, the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance in signs and wonders and mighty deeds."

So Paul recounts those things that he did when he was there. Remember he lived there a year and a half. He was there all that time.

2 Corinthians 12:13 He says, "What is it in which you were inferior to other churches, except that I myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong."

Yeah, Paul didn't take tithes from them. So he's pointing back to that very thing. Yeah, the only way that they were inferior to the other churches is Paul didn't take those tithes. And so they weren't to that point where they could have done it. And so other churches supported him.

2 Corinthians 12:14 Now, he says, "For the third time, I'm ready to come to you and will not be burdensome to you, for I don't seek yours, but you." Yeah, better that you're totally converted, that you repent and you change. He says, "For children ought not lay up for the parents, but parents for the children."

So he uses this example to really make his point that as he's defending his apostleship, he's saying that's the way that parents should be, that parents aren't going to allow the children to support them. So Paul's not going to...like a spiritual father, he is to them, that he's helping them. He's supporting them.

2 Corinthians 12:15 And so he says to the point, "I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved."

So he was willing to give it all for them, to continue to use his physical abilities, to help teach them spiritual truth. And yet what was some of their perspective? Yeah, we talked about him asking them to open wide their hearts as his was. He says, the more he loved them, the less some of them cared about the Apostle Paul.

2 Corinthians 12:16 He says, "But that be as it may, I did not burden you. Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you by cunning."

Here it's kind of an interesting connection here that he makes. Yeah, even though he didn't take their tithes, he ultimately is showing there should have been spiritual fruit from this.

2 Corinthians 12:17 He says, "Did I take advantage of you or any of those whom I sent to you?" No. The obvious answer is absolutely not. No, everything he did, he did for their sakes so that they would be built up. And so, ultimately, it says, "There should be spiritual fruit from this."

2 Corinthians 12:18-19 He says, "I urged Titus and sent our brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you?" Contrasting those false teachers who did take advantage of... "Did we not walk in the same spirit? Did we not walk in the same steps? Again, do you think that we excuse ourselves to you?" He says, "We speak before God in Christ, but we do all things, beloved, for your edification."

That was what it was all about. That was what his perspective was hopeful, that they would get it, that they would be built up, that they would understand everything he did was for their spiritual benefit, to build them up spiritually, to bring them to Jesus Christ, to help them to repent and change. And so it was quite a challenge for the Apostle Paul with probably those few who were still anti-Paul, who were still saying he really wasn't a true apostle.

But after all of this evidence and all of these things, all of the difficulties that they went through, he has their best interest at heart, saying he never took advantage of them. No one with him ever took advantage of them. In fact, if you look back, he's reiterating this point that he made in Chapter 7. If you look back at Chapter 7:2.

2 Corinthians 7:2 He says, "Open your hearts to us. We've wronged no one. We've corrupted no one. We've cheated no one."

And so here he's given the facts to prove it. And so that contrast between a true apostle of Jesus Christ and these most eminent fake and false phony apostles should have been obvious. It should have been obvious. And so Paul has pointed that out beyond any reasonable doubt. And so he's going to address those individuals who are still out of line with Jesus Christ. And so what we'll do is we'll pick it up there, next time, as Paul really finishes his argument with them and really wants to help them to see the truth and come to full repentance. We'll pick it up there, next time.