It's good to be back with you after a few weeks away, and to once again, minister the word of God to you. We will do so this morning by returning to our verse-by-verse study of Paul's second epistle to the Corinthians. So, if you will take your Bibles and turn to Second Corinthians chapter 11. In a few minutes, we will be looking at verse 16 through chapter 12, verse four, and I trust your heart is prepared to receive the word of God, this morning; God has promised to bless his Word, and Scripture is clear that by his word, and by the power of his Spirit working through his people, the Lord will do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we can ask or think. And he certainly does this, and all that he does endures to his glory. And may I remind you that without the systematic in depth preaching and therefore application of the Word of God, Christians will just drift into worldliness. We never drift the other direction. Marriages and families will suffer. Churches will move inexorably towards a state of apostasy. Nations will descend into an abyss of of immorality and paganism; because, dear friends, with no fear of God, people will end up living in a fool's paradise, utterly blind to the judgment that God will bring upon them. So with this in mind, we once again humble ourselves before God's self disclosure revealed in his inspired, inerrant, authoritative all sufficient word.

Now before we look at the text closely, may I remind you of the context. Remember that satanically inspired false apostles had infiltrated the church at Corinth in Paul's absence, and they had made all kinds of scurrilous false accusations against him to somehow undermine his apostolic authority and to lead the people into a different gospel, a foreign gospel. They were bullying the people. They took advantage of them financially. And so, what we see is Paul very reluctantly defends his apostolic authority for the sake of the gospel, for the cause of Christ. And we pick up on this theme once again in Second Corinthians 11, beginning in verse 16, notice,

"Again I say, let no one think me foolish..." in other words, like these satanically inspired, empowered false apostles that I have been excoriating. "...let no one think me foolish; but if you do, receive me even as foolish, so that I also may boast a little." In other words, bear with me in the same way that you have borne the foolishness of these charlatans that you have welcomed with arms open in the church.

Verse 17, "What I am saying, I am not saying as the Lord would, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting." And indeed, the Lord never boasted about his accomplishments to defend himself. But given the spiritual immaturity and gullibility of the Corinthian believers, combined with the cultural expressions of the false apostles who boasted about external appearance and not internal character, as we read in chapter five, verse 12, Paul knew that he must therefore at least partially engage in the same kind of quote "foolishness" as they did in order to bring the Corinthians to their senses.

So, verse 18, "Since many boast according to the flesh, I will boast also." So he begins to speak here now sarcastically. Verse 19, "For you, being so wise, tolerate the foolish gladly, for you tolerate it if anyone enslaves you, anyone devours you, anyone takes advantage of you, anyone exalts himself, anyone hits you in the face." And certainly, those of you that have come out of churches where false teachers have applied their trade, you understand what Paul is saying here, because you have been recipients of that type of behavior.

So, Paul says in verse 21, "To my shame I must say that we have been weak by comparison. But in whatever respect anyone else is bold - I speak in foolishness - I am just as bold myself." So again, sarcastically saying, my goodness, II'm ashamed to say I haven't been as bold as these guys; I mean, I've been weak in comparison, but to whatever degree they've been bold, and he says, kind of parenthetically, I speak in foolishness, here I am just as bold myself. In other words, even as the false apostles are bold in attacking me, I am going to be bold in defending myself for the sake of the kingdom. And beloved, may I remind you that as we look at this text here, we see that that human adulation through self praise is not only foolish, but it's also fleshly. It's worldly. But Paul's motive is very different here. Under protest, what we see happening, is he is reluctantly going to underscore his heritage as well as his accomplishments in the Lord only for the purpose of defending his apostleship and thus preserve the truths of the gospel that he has proclaimed. And in his defense, we can see in this section of scripture at least three measures of a godly man that not only point to his apostolic authenticity, but also extend beyond him personally, and point to the character of every godly man and woman that names the name of Christ: people marked by humility rather than pride.

And so what we will see are three things, and we'll kind of use this as a basic outline, a godly man or woman will be marked with: number one, a willingness to suffer for Christ. Secondly, a burden for the church of Christ. And then also you will see an intimate communion with the person of Christ. And I encourage each of you to measure your lives against these standards. Can there be anything more obnoxious than an arrogant Christian? I think not. I think of Proverbs 16, beginning in verse 18, "Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before stumbling." I think of the chosen one, LeBron James, if you're following NBA, you get a good sense of what that verse is talking about. Beloved, never forget that all that we are and all that we do is fundamentally offensive to God until we come to saving faith in Christ. That's the reality of our sinfulness, the horror of it all. We are all debtors to his grace. And Jesus said, "'Apart from Me, you can do nothing.'" And as we will see, God is going to take Paul all the way into the realms of his heavenly abode. And yet Paul is going to say in chapter 12, verse five, "On my own behalf, I will not boast, except in regard to my weaknesses." No wonder Paul would admonish the Colossians, in Colossians 3:12, "As those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."

So let's look at the first measure of a godly man or a godly woman, and that is a willingness to suffer for Christ. Verse 22 he says, "Are they Hebrews? So am I? Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I." Now, evidently, these false apostles undermine Paul's credibility by arguing that because he spoke Greek rather than Hebrew and Aramaic, that he was not really a Palestinian Jew, like themselves and like the other 12, but rather a Hellenized Jew, that is a Greek speaking Jew of the diaspora. And of course, all of that is really absurd, all well educated men of his day spoke Greek. Moreover, in Acts 21:40 and Acts 26:14, there is a clear implication that Hebrew and Aramaic were his native languages. You know, as I think about this, opponents of the gospel, those that would hate anyone who proclaims the gospel will go to all manner of things to try to twist and to distort something about that person's character in order to undermine their credibility. I might also add that although Paul was born in Tarsus, he came to Jerusalem, we know as a young child, and there he was raised, and eventually he studied under Gamaliel, as we read in in Acts 22 and 26.

Back to the text verse 23, "Are they servants of Christ? - I speak as if insane - ..." Let me pause here. What he's saying here is, "I gotta be crazy to even say that." When he says, "I speak as if insane," "paraphroneō" - it's a compound word; in the original language it means to be beside oneself, to be deranged, to be irrational or insane. So he's saying, "Are they servants of Christ?" And then at that point, it's like I must be out of my mind to even use that phrase in describing them. And he goes on in verse 23, "Are they servants of Christ? - I speak as if insane - I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments..." And here he's going to continue with a sample of what he has suffered for the cause of Christ. We don't know for sure how many times he was put into prison, Clement of Rome, writing at the close of the first century, indicated that Paul was in prison seven times, but we don't know for sure.

He goes on to say, "...beaten times without number..."  In other words, I've been beaten so many times I've lost count. Can you imagine that? And then he adds, "...often in danger of death." And if you study the life of Paul, you can see that everywhere he went, he caused a ruckus, and people tried to kill him. Imagine living that way, that pretty much everybody that knew you, wanted to kill you. Worse yet, you're going to stand up and preach to them the gospel. Folks, any time a believer shines the light of truth in the kingdom of darkness, he or she will make himself or herself a target of the enemy. And that's what was going on with the Apostle Paul, Second Timothy 3:12, Paul reminded Timothy, who was struggling with fear, he said, "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." I might add that it's not a form of godliness that the world maligns and hates; it's the power of godliness. You remember Paul said as well, in that same context, in Second Timothy three and verse five, he spoke of the false teachers that hold to a "form of godliness," but they deny the "power of it," and to avoid such men. You see, the world is perfectly comfortable with any forms of godliness, any pretense of religiosity; Satan doesn't care if the world thinks someone is a good Christian, as long as he knows that that person is still his slave. I mean, how can any form of godliness offend the devil when he is the inventor of it? But rather, dear friends, it's sincere godliness and holiness and simplicity and purity, founded and guided upon the pure word of God, that's what the world hates. It is true godliness. It is true holiness that incites the anger and the malice of Satan and his minions, because it exposes the unfruitful deeds of darkness for what they really are, and people will scurry like roaches in the dark as soon as the light of truth shines upon them. I mean, just try taking a stand for Christ at work, right? You know what that's like, or at the beauty shop or in the classroom. I remember how tough it was in some of my secular training years ago. Can't imagine what it would be like today. Take a stand for Christ on social media and watch what happens. Watch cancel culture be unleashed upon you. Cancel culture, by the way, is just Satan's way of silencing the truth that's all that is. Stand on a street corner during a gay pride parade and watch what happens. You'll incite a riot. Of course, you'll probably get put in jail for it.

Verse 24, "Five times I received from the Jews 39 lashes." Let me pause here, under the Mosaic law in Deuteronomy 25 you see that you were only allowed to flog a person 40 times. That would be the most, so in order for these fastidious law keepers in the Jewish realm - during the the first century - in order for them to violate the law, they would only do it 39 times. It's amazing how legalism can go to such great lengths to preserve its hypocrisy. You know, if you think about it, if you understand anything about floggings and beatings with rods, Paul's back had to have looked like dried spaghetti. It's unimaginable what he would have looked like from all of the floggings and beatings he endured, yet he described his gruesome scars as, quote, "the brand marks of Jesus" in Galatians 6:17.

Verse, 25, "Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned." You will recall how at Lystra they stoned him, and they drug him outside the city, thinking was dead. You read about that in Acts 14. "Three times I was shipwrecked..." and that, by the way, doesn't include the shipwreck that was coming on his voyage to Rome that he didn't know anything about, that was later recorded in Acts 27. "A night and a day I've spent in the deep." In other words, he found himself just hanging on to a piece of wreckage to keep from drowning until he was picked up.

Verse 26, "I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers..." We might underestimate that, but back then, they didn't have bridges like we have. Flash floods, I know from years in the mountains and the Rockies, especially with horses, the two greatest dangers are lightning and rivers drownings. You gotta be so careful. "Dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness..." Folks, you just try to survive for a while in the arid regions where Paul traversed, and then go up into the mountains, where it can get cold, where the blizzards come in, where there's rain and lightning; regions there where there are lions and wild dogs and bears and venomous snakes. We typically don't appreciate what he endured in all of his journeys. "Dangers on the sea," he says, "dangers among false brethren." Later on now he's going to lead up to one of the false teachers that he describes as a messenger from Satan; a thorn in the flesh.

Verse 27, "I have been in labor and hardship through many sleepless nights." I'm sure part of the reason his nights were often sleepless is because he had to stay up all night, working leather and making tents in order to just make enough money to survive. Then he says, "In hunger and thirst, often without food and cold and exposure."  Dear Christian, may I ask you, are you willing to suffer for Christ? I've never come close to experiencing anything like these things. I know some of what it means, but I believe it's going to get worse. Are you willing to suffer for Christ? Or are you a chameleon Christian that can kind of blend in with the world, so you look just like the world, a cultural Christian? You know, if that is you, God will chasten you, and you will forfeit blessing in your life.

So, a godly man or a woman will have a willingness to suffer for Christ, but secondly, they will have a burden for the church of Christ. And this we see beginning in verse 28, "Apart from such external things..."  By the way, this indicates that he's only mentioning a portion of some of the things that he struggled with externally. I mean he's not giving you the full list here. "Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches." Every faithful pastor understands this idea of that kind of pressure. "Epistasis" in the original language; actually, it's translated "attention," and it carries the idea of of being preoccupied or focused on one thing at the relative exclusion of other things. That's the idea, you're kind of obsessed with certain things. And these things, as he says in the text, are cause for concern. "Merimna,” worry, anxiety. So he feels this pressure, this constant weight of all of the churches; it's weighing on him. Paul was constantly burdened by the welfare of all the flocks that he was a part of, churches that he had founded like what was going on in Corinth. I can't imagine what it would be like for for me to leave Calvary Bible Church for a while. False teachers come in, turn all of you against me, say all kinds of horrible things about me and start believing a false gospel. I mean, it would just break your heart, wouldn't it? He's worried, will they be saved? Will they persevere in hardship? Will they stand firm in the faith? Are they going to be seduced by false teachers? Are they going to yield to the temptations of the world and forfeit God's blessing? Are the ones that I loved going to be killed for their faith? I mean, all these things weighed upon him.

And he goes on to say in verse 29, "Who is weak without my being weak? Who is led into sin without my intense concern?  In other words, I feel the pain of those that I love, that we all feel that in our family and our church family. "Who was led into sin without my intense, "pyroō" it means to be inflamed. The fires of righteous indignation were blown into just a raging furnace when he saw what was happening in some of these churches with the people. You remember how the Galatians were bewitched by Judaizers, causing Paul to say, "My children with whom, again, I am in labor until Christ is formed in you. I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone for I am perplexed about you." It's like the pain is like a woman giving birth, I just want so bad for you to grow in Christ. We see the same righteous indignation in the words of Jesus. Remember in Matthew 18 and verse six, he said, "'Whoever causes one of these little ones,'" referring to believers, "'one of these little ones who believe in Me, to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.'" In other words, anyone that would cause another believer to fall, to be seduced, to be tempted into sin, to be led astray from the truth - my goodness, it would be better for that deceiver to die a horrible death than to lure a believer into sin and into error. But you know, Paul knew that these were always possibilities. He lived with this. False teachers don't live with that. All they care about is being praised and getting more money. He knew the common sins within the church that would typically bring misery to the church and destroy the church.

I want to flesh that out just a little bit. Let me take you to another passage of Scripture, because I want you to to somehow, especially those of you that maybe haven't been in leadership, I want you to somehow get a sense of the types of things that weigh upon a pastor's heart. Turn to First Thessalonians five, look at verses 14 and 15, just for a second. There, Paul describes five kinds of problem people, they had in the church. These people exist in every church, some more so than others. First, Thessalonians five verse 14. He says, "We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people." So first of all, we see a command here to admonish the unruly. This weighed on his heart. There's unruly people in this church, in every church - admonish - "noutheteō" in the original language; it means to warn, to put in one's mind to counsel. And here it denotes a loving, kind, but forthright warning that alerts such a person to the serious consequences of their behavior. The term "unruly" in the active sense, speaks of a person that is disorderly, is disorganized, undisciplined, rebellious, insubordinate. The term, by the way, was used of insubordinate soldiers who refused to obey orders. They wanted to do their own thing. They wouldn't pull their weight, and of course, that would jeopardize the mission, right? You soldiers understand that type of a person is a danger to himself and to the entire military, and such persons in a church can cause all kinds of problems. And Paul was concerned with those, therefore, who were insubordinate. And I'm sure he could do as I could do, in every church, he could list the ones that he's concerned about that are that way. They're unsubmissive, they're unteachable. They simply refuse to walk in the same direction as the rest of the church. They have their own agenda. They're typically critical, rebellious, contentious, angry, and so we need to admonish the unruly.

Secondly, he says, "encourage the faint hearted." Faint hearted, in the original language, literally means small souled. It's referring to those who are timid, easily discouraged, those who just don't have the the vigor and vitality by nature to deal with things. They have a basic timidity in their disposition, their less self-assured. They lack self confidence and boldness. They're filled with anxiety and worry. Some people are just, and I say this kindly, they're just cowards by nature, and they're always on duty, always afraid that something bad might happen. Not sure what it might be, but certain of one thing, I certainly don't have the resources to deal with it, and so I just kind of hide and kind of try to disappear. What are we to do with them? Are we to berate them? Tell em to cowboy up? No. He asks us to come alongside them and encourage them. That weighed on his heart.

A third type of person, he says, help the weak. Weak - the term in the original language, especially in this context, refers to the the spiritually immature, the morally weak, those struggling with life dominating sins. Romans 14 one speaks about those who are weak in the faith. You will recall that throughout the New Testament, you see this, but especially in Romans, some were struggling with diet restrictions. You know, they had sacrificed meats to idols, and they were so worried about eating that and there's just no end to the kinds of things that can easily offend an immature believer with weak faith. We have this in the church today. Every church has it, people that struggle in their conscience, probably because of past sins, and as a result, they are hyper vigilant, calling things sin that are not sin at all. And these believers really do not have a full understanding of what it means to be a Christian. Their faith is not strong enough for them to really be able to perceive their identity in Christ, their liberty in Christ. So their conscience holds them to all manner of non essentials, producing legalism. Paul was concerned about that. These types of people are easy prey for false teachers.

So "admonish the unruly, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak..." and then he says, "be patient with everyone." I think of what my pastor friend calls VDPs. VDP's - very draining people. Be patient with very draining people, those who try your patience, those in your church family that just wear you out with their stuff. It's always a soap opera. You know, it's just drama all the time. People avoid them. They never seem to grow up spiritually. There's always a crisis. Their personality is kind of toxic. These people can be very frustrating. Sadly, these are the people that typically don't get invited to the picnics, but they show up anyway, you know. And every time you see them coming you, you kind of hear this "beep, beep, beep." It's like a dump truck getting ready to back up and pour a load on you, you know. And you'll have 30 minutes of hearing all of their frustrations; to be sure some people will try your patience. I knew one pastor who, he was telling me about this, I'm not going to tell you his name. I'm not saying this is the right thing to do, and I have never done this, by the way, but he was showing me that there's a way where you can set your cell phone to ring after a minute or so, so that when you have these people, it'll ring, you'll be excused from having to talk with them. Reminds me of this little phrase, "to live above with saints we love, that will be glory, but to live below with saints we know now that's another story." So what was must we do? Well, we're to be patient with everyone. Patience is one of the fruits of the Spirit. To be long suffering. It's much harder to show the meekness and patience of Christ, isn't it? Second Timothy 2:24, the Lord's bond servants, must be patient to all.

See again, what I'm saying here is, these are the types of people that were in the church. Paul knew them. He loved them. One final category of people to deal with, I just, would call them those who are evil. Verse verse 15, "See that no one repays another with evil for evil." Obviously, there's going to be, at times, wicked people in the church, malicious, immoral, immoral, nefarious people who prey upon others. And whenever we are the victims of their evil, what tends to happen? We tend to react in ways that are not Christ like and all kinds of bad things can happen. That's why he goes on to say, "See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people." Or sometimes they have to be removed from the church. You do that so that they will repent, so there can be reconciliation, never for retribution. But the point is, these are the types of things that you have to deal with in a church. And every pastor and every church leader is going to be aware of these things. And these things weighed on his heart.

You go to First Corinthians 11, you remember that he says that every church is going to have factious and divisive people in it, then there's going to be false teachers that are going to rise up from amongst the very church. So you're concerned about these things, and the shepherd has to be ever vigilant. And folks, I'll tell you, it can just wear you down. I understand some of that. I've watched some of you, and even to this day, and I I just cringe, I see some of the things that you do, that you embrace, and I wonder, I mean, do you really even know Christ? You've sat under my preaching, you've sat in this church for years, and you're still conducting yourself in these ways. It's a burden. It's a burden. Then I watch all these charlatans that are out there. They're all over the internet, Christian books, Christian publishing, is absolutely gone apostate. And if I know how hard it is for me, what must it have been like for Paul with a number of churches, right?

So that's what was going on. No wonder he would say, back to verse 28, "Apart from such external things," in other words, all the external sufferings that I've listed, "Apart from those things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches." He didn't want God's people to suffer. He didn't want them to be led astray. By the way the inevitable suffering of God's people can extend beyond the opprobrium of the world, in other words, the harsh criticism of the world. I mean, there's so many things that we can struggle with in the church. I mean, sometimes it's chronic illness or terminal disease or calamities or the horrors of war, just the numerous hardships that people face. But what do we glean from all of these things, as we look at it, as we look at what Paul is sharing from the very core of his being, we can see that a godly man or a woman will be, first of all, willing to suffer for Christ, but he or she will also have a burden for the church.

And folks, if, if these things don't ring true to your heart, I must say, with all love, there's something terribly deficient in your faith. If you're not willing to suffer for Christ and you really have no concern for what goes on in the church, there's something wrong you. I was reading a Barna study just recently, a summary says 51% of American adults say they have a Biblical world view, but Barna contended that only 6% of them actually did. Because out of that 51% of adults that claim to have a biblical worldview, 49% believed in reincarnation. I mean, how can you say you're a Christian and believe in reincarnation? I mean, that's just nuts. Obviously the answer is you're not a Christian. Only 33% believed people were born with a sin nature and can only be saved from the consequences of sin by Jesus Christ. You see, folks, this is what Jesus described in Matthew seven, that not everyone who calls me Lord is going to enter the kingdom. In fact, if you study that passage, you'll see that the majority of those that call themselves Christians will never come into the kingdom because they're self deceived. This is why I'm not at all surprised to see so many so called evangelicals embrace woke theology, which I contend is the greatest threat to authentic Biblical Christianity in the history of the church. This is why Paul was so concerned for the church; all of these dangers,  he knew them; the ingenious schemes of the devil and the weakness of the flesh.

Now, after expressing his sincere concern for the church, a burden that added to his suffering for Christ, he does something very remarkable. I want you to notice this. This is really rather unexpected. He launches into two very different stories of what happened to him. In verse 30, he says, "If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness." And it's fascinating. Before he gives an example or these examples of his weakness, he takes an oath concerning the veracity of what he was about to say. Moreover, he offers a doxology that is a word of praise. Notice verse 31, "The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying." Now with such a magnificent statement of honor and reverence for God, in whose presence he would never lie - Paul would never lie - one would expect an equally magnificent story that he's going to launch into, and he is in a minute. But before that, he offers a very brief and frankly, a rather mundane account of something that happened to him. It's recorded in Acts nine, he says in verse 32, "In Damascus, the ethnarch under Aretas the king was guarding the city of Damascenes in order to seize me, and I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and so escaped his hands." Alright, he stops. It's like, it's almost a non sequitur, right? It's like, logically, okay, where's he going with this? You know, when you read that, in context, that's kind of what you think. I mean at first glance, one, I think, has to ask, how on earth is this going to advance Paul's defense of his apostolic authority? I mean, that story just paints him as weak, not strong, like the forceful presence of his rivals. I mean, who wants to follow some pathetic little man who is running from a king and has to be let down in a basket over a wall in order to survive? But o, dear friends, that's exactly the purpose of his story. You see, it not only illustrates the previous statement in verse 30, "If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness." And certainly that shows his weakness, right? I mean, you can't be any weaker than that.

But it also does something else, and I want you to see this, because this is so, this is so glorious, it illustrates the utter dependency that he had on the power of God. Because what you're going to see next is how God alone could take a powerless, little man and make him the object of his covenantal love and empower him to be his apostle. What you're going to see is this little man who suffered so much for Christ, this little man that had such a burden for Christ, who is so feeble; he had to depend on others to help him descend a wall in a basket to escape some wicked king. This is going to be the same man that the King of kings will transport into the third heaven, where he reigns in his eternal kingdom. Wow. What a glorious contrast. Right? What a contrast of stories, and what a magnificent illustration of what the Lord would later say to Paul in chapter 12, beginning in verse nine, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in..." what? "...in weakness."  To which Paul humbly replied, "Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong." Folks, compare my life, my attitude and what God is doing in and through me with those false apostles. This is how it advances his argument.

Now notice the second testimony of what God did to this weak, humble apostle. In chapter 12, verse one, he goes, "Boasting is necessary, though it is not profitable; but I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord." And here again, Paul's skillful use of irony in his own boasting is intended to help the Corinthians see the absolute stupidity of boasting and the idiocy of his rivals. I might also add the phrase "visions and revelations" may have been a common slogan among the ancient pagans as well as the false apostles. And you see, false teachers are notorious for using visions and revelations to bedazzle people, to make them think, oh, wow, this person has a special connection with God. I must listen to them. This person has an elevated spiritual status. My goodness, this person has conversations with God. You know, every false religion and every cult boasts some self proclaimed prophet or prophetess who spoke to them through supernatural revelations. You see this all the time. Bby the way, many of them were supernatural revelations, they just didn't come from God. They came from Satan, the father of lies, who will disguise himself as an angel of light.

So Paul goes on, and he says, "I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago..." by the way, obviously, from the context here, he's referring to himself. "I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago - whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows - such a man was caught up to the third heaven."  "Caught up" - harpazō  - in the original language. It means to remove suddenly, or to snatch away, to forcefully seize, to to suddenly remove. As a footnote, harpazō is used 14 times in the New Testament. One of them that you're most familiar with is in First Thessalonians 4:17, to use to describe God suddenly taking his bridal church from earth to heaven as the first part of his second coming. He says, "There we, who are alive and remain, will be," here it is, "caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." The English noun and verb "rapture" is used to express this term, and this comes from the Latin noun "raptura" and the verb "rapio." Now this supernatural vision, he says, it happened 14 years ago. This means it would have occurred in late ad 55 or early ad 56 when he ministered in in Syria and Silicia; read about that in Galatians 1:21, sometime between his return from Tarsus to Jerusalem that we read about in Acts nine, and his commissioning by the Holy Spirit that occurred in Acts 13. And Paul's unable to explain how this actually happened to him, but he is able to explain what happened, and he said he was suddenly removed to the third heaven.

Now, the Bible speaks of three heavens. There's, first of all, the atmospheric heaven. You read about that, for example, in Genesis 7:11, through 12 other passages; this refers to the breathable atmosphere that covers the earth. They say it extends about 60 miles from the surface of the Earth to the edge of space, and then beyond that is the planetary heaven, or what we would call outer space. Again, you read about this in various passages of Scripture, Genesis 1:14, through 17. This is what scientists, astrophysicists would call the known universe. I'm glad to find out that they have measured it, and it's 93 billion light years. So that's comforting to know. And it's even more comforting to know that they believe it is 13 point 8 billion years old. Of course, that happened after the Big Bang. And you know, here we are. So sad, isn't it? And then there's the third heaven, which is the abode of God. We read about it here and in a number of other passages.

So he goes on to say, in verse three, "And I know how such a man -  whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows - was caught up into Paradise." "Paradeisos" in the original language. It's rooted in a Persian word, paradiza of the Avesta. The Avesta was the primary text of Zoroastrianism that they use, their religious document. And the term actually denotes an enclosure or a garden/park full of delightful delicacies that surrounded by a wall and that was used by Persian kings and nobility to enjoy intimate fellowship, and it would have been a magnificent honor to be invited into the king's "paradisia" and commune with him.

Now, given the Spirit's use of this term, we can affirm that not only does a godly man have a willingness to suffer for Christ and a burden for the Church of Christ, but thirdly, he or she will have an intimate communion with the person of Christ. And I'm sure this foretaste of eternal glory was God's way of preparing him for the things that he must endure. You will recall in Isaiah six that it was just that soul captivating vision of the transcendent holiness and glory of the pre-incarnate Christ that motivated Isaiah to preach his whole life to a people that God said would not listen, except for just a small, tiny remnant, because God had judicially hardened their hearts and promised to judge them. I have to think, would that we all have such a soul terrifying sin, destroying vision of the ineffable majesty of God. That's why it's so important, dear friends, when we come to the Word of God, when we come to church, that we we prepare our hearts to see God for who he really is, because as human beings, we tend to downplay him, and before you know it, he's nothing more than some smiley face God that winks at sin, rather than the ineffable tetragrammaton that sits upon his throne and rules over his universe in absolute holiness and sovereignty. Isaiah saw this, now Paul sees it. Oh, to be caught up in paradise. Wouldn't that be something? Let me rephrase that. Won't that be something? It's coming. Paul was utterly captivated by the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. And certainly God was preparing him. No wonder he would say in Romans 8:18, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us." What an amazing testimony, and to think that we will all experience this. Remember what Jesus said to the thief on the cross. Luke 23:43 "Truly I say to you, today, you shall be with Me in paradise." Then Revelation two and verse seven, Jesus says, "To him who overcomes, I will grant him to eat of the Tree of Life, which is in the paradise of God."

Back to the text. In verse four, Paul says he, "was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words which a man is not permitted to speak." You see beloved, what he saw and what he heard and what he understood by divine illumination and language that we couldn't even begin to comprehend, was something that he couldn't even speak about, nor would we be able to comprehend it if he did. Indeed, the secret things belong to the Lord, don't they? Deuteronomy 29:29. And so folks, we cannot imagine the sufferings that Paul endured for his faith in Christ, but we know this, that the same intimate communion that he experienced is available to all the redeemed as we abide in Christ. And even though we haven't been caught up to paradise, we get a little glimpse of it, do we not, in his word and in his church? And in someday, this coming, we're going to see it in full. And Jesus said in John 15, "'If you keep my commandments, you will abide in My love." And then he says, "These things I have spoken to you that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full." So beloved, the more we know the Word, and the more we live it, the more we obey it, the more we will enjoy the fullness that is ours in Christ.

So beloved as we close this morning, measure your life in light of these standards of righteousness revealed in Scripture. And there are many others, but there's three here that we see. And ask yourself, can those who know me best, my husband, my wife, my kids say about me? Oh yes, I see the godliness in my dad or my mom or my husband, or my wife or my friend. Well, why would you say that? All I'll tell you why, because he is willing to suffer for Christ, because he has a deep, passionate burden for the church to see people come to saving faith and to see them grow in Christ, and also because I can see in him or in her, the joys of an intimate communion with the lover of his soul. Folks difficult days of persecution are coming our way. So I pray that you will learn these lessons well. I pray that you will teach them to your children and be willing to patiently endure whatever suffering God brings your way, knowing that, such as Paul said, "momentary light affliction is producing an eternal weight of glory, far beyond all comparison." Let's pray together.

Father, we are always overwhelmed when we contemplate the glories of your grace. And when we measure ourselves against your standard of righteousness, we all fall so far short, but thank you that you have placed within us a desire to be like Christ, and by the power of your Spirit, we can see that likeness increase day by day, as we walk faithfully with you. Lord, I pray that even as Paul, we will be willing to suffer for your sake, for your glory; that we will have that same burden that he had for the church, that we are a part of this body of Christ and Lord, would that we all have this intimate communion with you that only comes when we humble ourselves before you, when we immerse ourselves in your word, when we commune with you in prayer and when we worship You, through service, through song, through loving one another and proclaiming the truths of your gospel. So Lord, to these ends, we cry out for your help, and we thank you for all that awaits us solely because of your grace. For it's in Christ's name that I pray. Amen.