2 Corinthians 1:8-11
It is a joy to have this holy privilege and opportunity to bring the word to you this morning. And the text that we’re going to be in today is in the 2 Corinthians. If you want to turn there, we’re going to be in 2 Corinthians chapter 1. And I’m just going to begin reading where we covered the last time I preached, starting in verse 3, and we’re going to go all the way through verse 11.
So 2 Corinthians chapter 1, beginning in verse 3, Paul writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction. So that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
“But whether we are afflicted, it is for your comfort in salvation; or whether we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is working in your perseverance in the same sufferings which we also suffer. And our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even to live.
“Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not have confidence in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead; who rescued us from so great a peril of death, and will rescue us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet rescue us, you also joining in helping us through your prayers on our behalf, so that thanks may be given on our behalf by many persons for the gracious gift bestowed on us through the prayers of many.”
Just recapping a little bit to to get into verse 8, where we’re going to be this morning. The source of all of our comfort is our Trinitarian God, the Father of Mercies, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, the Holy Spirit who lives in each of us as a personal divine comforter. This eternally blessed being is the spring that just continues to produce a boundless stream of comfort to those who are in need.
In this eternal blessed God there is no end or there is no limit to his comfort. It never runs out. It is infinite. And while the Holy Spirit is the divine agent that comforts us, we who have suffered and have been, comfort, comforted, we are also to be conduits of that comfort that we have received, and we are to pipe that comfort into the hearts of others who are in need.
This is one purpose for which God gives us trials so that we will be able to comfort those who are in need as well. The result in the church that practices this. Paul gets into this in verses 6 and 7. The results of a church that practices this is fivefold and it results in a super abundance of comfort, results in salvation, the perseverance of the saints. It results in confidence of salvation and fellowship.
As the church practices this, that Paul describes here, people find real comfort in their trials; people who don’t know Christ, they are saved. As we do this, we sustain one another as one means that God uses for the perseverance of the saints. We sustain one another as we comfort one another. It creates in us a confidence that we know the Lord, when we endure trials and we don’t fall away, we prove to belong to Christ and it knits all of our hearts together in a common goal of the gospel.
That’s what Paul wrote to the Corinthians. He was trying to foster there in that church, that kind of fellowship, and that’s the kind of fellowship that we want to foster here at Grace Church. Who doesn’t want to be a part of a church like that, that has a super abundant supply of comfort to go around for any who are in need or the gospel is freely shared, freely given. People are saved and sanctified, and those who are, are persevering to the end, sustained by one another.
As Paul gets into verse 8, he begins then to explain how this personally worked out in his own life. He essentially seeks to put this very thing that he just described in verses 3 through 7 into practice and bring the Corinthians comfort by explaining one of his own trials and how he was comforted. Here, in these verses, in 8 through 11 that we’re going to talk about today, we find instructions for each of us, no matter where we are at in life, whether we are enduring a trial or not.
If you’re enduring a trial, maybe a significant one, maybe a light one, it’s an example for what you ought to do, how we can think about that and find encouragement in it and if you’re not going through a trial, we also find an exhortation from Paul as to what we ought to do as well.
Let me just read verses 8 through 11 today. These are the verses we’re going to cover. Paul says, “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of our affliction which came to us in Asia. We were burdened excessively beyond our strength, so that we despaired even to live. Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not have confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;” the same God, “who rescued us from so great a peril of death, and will rescue us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet rescue us, you also joining in helping us through your prayers on our behalf, so that thanks may be given on our behalf by many persons for the gracious gift bestowed on us through the prayers of many.”
In our passage here today, we find an example from Paul on how to put those previous verses into practice, how to draw others righteously into our trials in order that they might share in the suffering as well as in the comfort. We might say, this is how we involve others and how we get involved in others lives in order to have the kind of fellowship that Paul talked about in verse 7.
We’re going to see this in four points for this morning. First, the stress of life, the stress of life, and then the sentence of death, and then the sureness of rescue, and then finally the supplication of saints. So the stress of life. Paul immediately jumps into telling us the stress, that of a trial that he had gone through. He said, for we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of our affliction, an excessive burden beyond their strength.
But he begins by saying, “I do not want you to be unaware, brothers.” In this verse, Paul bears his heart before the congregation, reflecting on a past trial, letting them understand how seriously he and Timothy were afflicted in their souls. He says, I do not want you, we do not want you to be unaware, brothers. Paul and Timothy do not want the Corinthians to be ignorant of their affliction.
Paul knows that if the Corinthians are going to share in their suffering and also share in their comfort, they have to be brought into what’s going on. If others are going to share in our affliction and comfort, they have to know. Ignorance, it’s just a lack of knowledge. But in this economy of Christ, when we are to be conduits of God’s grace to one another, ignorance is like missing a section of pipe.
The comfort can’t make it from one heart to another. We have to know what’s going on in one another’s lives in order to bring comfort. Paul’s leading by example here in sharing his heart with the people of Corinth, to let them in on a very dark time in his life. But he knows telling people about it is essential. That is to say, we can’t read one another’s minds and hearts.
No one can really know what’s going on in your heart, where you are struggling, how you are suffering, unless you tell them. Oftentimes we sit back and we wait and we’re just hoping someone asks. This is not a burden to wait on other people to try to discern. It’s a burden for you to make people aware of. If we are going to comfort and be comforted, we have to make others aware of our affliction.
If you are the kind of person, maybe you’re more private, you’d prefer to just suffer alone through your trial. You don’t easily let anyone in on your suffering. Maybe you just think you’ll grit your teeth and you’ll get through it. That’s not allowing the Lord to use it to its fullest effect. That’s not allowing others to be brought into and participate in your suffering and do what Paul says the church is supposed to do here.
Paul wanted his trial to have the fullest benefit to the Corinthians. It was a past trial at this point. They had gone through it, and Paul wanted to make them aware of it. And there’s great humility in this. It’s very instructive for the Corinthians and it’s instructive for us. I think there’s a temptation and even a pride in our own affliction to fear man, which leads us to shrink back and suffer alone.
Paul corrected the Corinthians in the first letter that he wrote to them, because they were being influenced by Greek thought that a crucified Christ was foolishness, that a suffering savior was no savior at all, but those who were worthy of being followed, they were the conquerors, the victors, maybe men who did suffer, but they stood tall and triumphed in the end. And I think we can tend to think similarly and even be embarrassed by our own suffering. And this leads us to shrink back and keep it covered and hidden from people.
Maybe we question ourselves, as Job’s friends did, that we’re suffering because of sin and that certainly can be the case. People do suffer from sin, but that is not what Paul’s referring to here. And often times in life trials, they’re not a result of sin. But we can often succumb to that temptation to think that or to fear that other people will think that if we tell them that we’re suffering.
We find it almost embarrassing that we have fallen into some kind of trial and affliction. We fear that other people will think we’ve fallen out of favor with God. We want to appear as if we’ve got everything together before people, because oftentimes, especially in the American church, the mark of godliness is that we are being blessed according to the American definition of blessedness, which is often materialistic.
Paul isn’t concerned here that if he tells them of his deep struggles that he’s going to be discredited in their eyes. Paul knows, on the contrary, that in the economy of Christ we’re going to suffer as Christ suffered. We have to remember that, that the normal state in the Christian life is affliction and that there are seasons that we enjoy reprieve, but they are not the norm.
And Paul’s telling the Corinthians, to have a minister, an apostle, a pastor who is enduring great affliction, that’s actually a mark of his faithfulness and the Lord’s faithful formative discipline in his life. Hebrews talks about this explicitly. In fact, just turn over there with me to Hebrews chapter 4, just briefly, Hebrews chapter 4, we so often forget as the church in Hebrews forgot when their pastor wrote to them. He just outright says you’ve forgotten this.
We need to remember these truths as well, that in the economy of Christ, formative discipline through our afflictions, it’s a sign of God’s favor, not his disfavor. Hebrews chapter 12. We’ll just begin in verse 5 where the pastor writes to them. He says, “And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, ‘MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE FLOGS EVERY SON WHOM HE RECIEVES.’ It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which you have all become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.”
I think, we, like this church, we forget that the Lord often afflicts us, because He loves us, that He wants us to form us into the image and character of Christ. I think we tend to think of trials and afflictions as something to be embarrassed of, like the Corinthians thought of the cross. Something to keep hidden in a way that you only mentioned if you absolutely have to, rather than something that we wear as a badge of faithfulness, boasting in our weakness as Paul does.
Let us remember, beloved, that it’s the illegitimate children that go on and live peaceful lives, but it’s those that the Lord loves that he brings trials, even significant deep trials into their lives, as Paul is going to talk about here. And let us follow Paul’s example and inform others of our great affliction in order that comfort might flow between the members of our church, like as conduits of God’s grace.
So whether it’s pride, fear of man, doubt, whatever it is that might hold us back, let’s push past that and invite others to comfort us. Involve others in what’s going on in our life, because if ignorance exists, hearts cannot connect. Grace cannot flow from one person to another when that conduit is broken; we have to make others aware of our need.
And I actually think just to to commend him, he was just up here in the pulpit a few minutes ago. Our pastor, I think, has done this well. He’s made public comments from the pulpit regarding the serious trial that they’re enduring and seeking prayers on all of our behalf. He has shared more details than even Paul has shared here with the Corinthians.
Look, look at what Paul says again in verse 8. If you’re still in Hebrews, go back to Corinthians verse 8. Paul says, “We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively beyond our strength, so that we despaired even to live.” The only circumstantial detail that Paul gives about his trial is where it happened in Asia. It’s the only circumstantial detail we have of what Paul’s referring to.
We would love to have all the details regarding what he and Timothy went through, the what, the when, the how, etcetera. But he gives us none of those details because those aren’t really the essence and the importance of what Paul wants us to know about his trial. Instead, he describes this affliction with really superlative language, describing the severe degree of the affliction and how it affected them spiritually.
I think there’s great instruction in that for us as well. We often want to get hung up on the details of the who and the what and the when and the where and the why and the how’s of people’s afflictions. We can get so easily distracted with those when what we need to know and deal with is how the person is handling it spiritually, how we need to minister to their hearts.
Paul says he doesn’t give any details other than the fact that it happened in Asia. And he says of himself and Timothy, we were burdened excessively. Excessively is actually before burdened in the Greek translation, it’s thrown to the front of the sentence for emphasis. And this word, it’s a compound word made-up of the verb, ballo, which means to throw and then the preposition, hyper, which means, it has indicates the idea of beyond something.
The word, the compound word here together refers to something exceeding an extraordinary degree. So whatever the the scale is, whatever the distance is, it’s well beyond that. If that’s not descriptive and superlative enough, Paul adds that the affliction was so excessive that he was burdened beyond strength. That word, beyond, there, it’s that same preposition of the compound word before hyper, a degree beyond the scale. Whatever the mark is, it’s beyond that.
And it modifies the word strength here, which is the word dunamis; refers to strength, might, power, capability, ability. These two words could be used to describe a ship that was so overburdened beyond its capacity that it sank. Paul doesn’t tell us, the what, the where, the when, the why. Well, he tells us, the where, but he doesn’t give us any other details.
Whatever the affliction was, it was excessive. It was beyond the mark of anything that they had previously suffered. It was beyond their strength. I think it’d be, we would be remiss if we didn’t stop to consider how bad this might be. Whatever Paul’s afflictions, for it to have been beyond him, beyond anything that they had experienced before, it had to have been really, really bad.
We must remember, as one commentator encourages us, that Paul had no small degree of strength and ability to endure. If it was beyond all the other things that Paul had endured, it was very significant. We can actually get a sense of what this might have looked like if you go over a few pages to Chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians. Paul lists a bunch of the things that he had been through, and we actually get a sense of the fact that this is what he’s referring to here is beyond all, of all of that, with the language that he used.
It’s those that the Lord loves that he brings trials, even significant deep trials into their lives.” Bret Hastings
Paul’s life was filled with great affliction, far worse than I would say, probably with certainty, this is far worse than anything any of us have ever been through. And you get the sense from the passage that we’re in that whatever he’s describing in our verses here is worse than the battery of things he mentions in Chapter 11.
Look at verse, we’ll begin in verse 24 and then we’ll skip a section in the middle before and, and then read through 33. But Paul says, “Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes, less one.” That’s being hit with a whip or a rod; a lot of times five, five times. “Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked-a night and a day I’ve spent in the deep.
“I’ve been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the desolate places, dangers on the sea, dangers from among false brothers. I’ve been in labor and hardship, in many sleepless nights, in starvation and thirst, often hungry, in cold and without enough clothing. Apart from such external things, there’s a daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.”
And then skipped down to verse 32. He says, “In Damascus, the ethnarch under Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me, and I was let down in a basket through a window in a wall, and so escaped his hands.” We don’t know what Paul’s affliction is that he refers to in chapter 1 here, whether it was a physical affliction or whether it was the concerns for all of the churches.
Whatever Paul’s referring to that happened in Asia, it was so severe that it was beyond all of these things. If you go back to chapter 1, it was so severe that Paul says, “that we despaired even to live,” This word, despaired, it’s a word that means, to be at a loss psychologically, just to be at the end of yourself. You have no idea what, what am I going to do next?
MacArthur notes that this is a word that refers to having no passage, no way out, no exit. You can imagine ourselves on a sinking ship in the middle of the ocean. You’ve tried everything. You’ve plugged, tried plugging the holes. Nothing’s working. You’re at a loss for what to do next. You’ve sought every avenue to fix the problem, and you’re at the end of yourself. And you’re coming to grips with possibly your own death. You’re not sure how you’re going to make it to tomorrow. You see no escape from your desperate situation. You can’t see how you could go on in life. That’s how Paul and Timothy felt.
Whatever it was, they were just at the end of themselves. Have you ever been here, beloved? Maybe you’re there now. Maybe you’ve, you’re there and you’ve been trying to bear it on your own. Don’t do that. Let others know, so they can buoy you up. They can keep your head above the water.
Don’t let your fellow church members be ignorant of the affliction that you are enduring. No matter how serious, no matter how significant, no matter how you might fear. It makes you look before people. You can’t be helped if you don’t make them aware, because there is hope. But before Paul turns the corner to hope, he talks about the purpose of these superlative afflictions that they are enduring.
And we find that in our second point: the sentence of death in verse 9, Paul described the stress of their situation, their affliction, that they despaired even of life. And then he talks about the sentence of death driving us further, leading us further to the depths of despair, into the valley of death, as he describes this trial. Look at verse 9 again. He says, “Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves.”
So again, before Paul turns the corner of hope, it gets even darker. If it could get worse. If he’s despairing even of life, he says we had the sentence of death within ourselves. This word for sentence of death, it refers to a legal judgment. Some take this literally to mean that a judge or a magistrate had sentenced Paul and Timothy to death. I don’t think that was the case.
Paul’s, if you read the text, he’s being very self-reflective here, not making a declaration of some judicial judgment. R.H. Lensky put it this way. He says, “They themselves and their own selves have had the sentence of death. They themselves pronounced it in their own hearts.” This is a judgment of Paul and Timothy in their own life. Whether it was a physical reality or this is just an expression of how they felt in the situation.
Whatever it was, Paul and Timothy, they felt themselves in such a bad state that someone might as well declare them dead. In fact, you might even say Paul was declaring himself dead. We might say Paul was calling his own time of death. They had felt that they had expired. Their natural ability and strength, it was gone. Natural vigor in life was gone.
But it is here that Paul and Timothy, and if you’ve been there, you maybe have experienced this. It’s when we were at the very end of ourselves. When we have no strength left in us, no vigor left, no life left in us, we don’t have the strength to go on. When we think our time of death should be called, we realize that our heart continues to beat, that something or someone else outside of ourselves is keeping us alive.
An alien force beyond us is sustaining us. Paul recognized this. It was sustaining him when he would have otherwise perished. Paul realized he was at the end of himself, but he was still alive. God was sustaining him. Paul, we know Paul and Timothy, of course, they, they knew this already, that God was sustaining them. But he declares that it was even more evident when he was totally at the end of himself, when he had no more strength. He could not go on; he recognized that God was carrying him. God was sustaining him.
And herein we find another purpose for our trials. Not only is it as we studied previously, and not only is it so that we can comfort others, but here we find another purpose in verse 9, “So that indeed we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not have confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.” This is another purpose beyond the purpose of being able to comfort others.
Our great afflictions are given to us by God, so that we would not have confidence in ourselves. We are so prone, beloved, are we not? When life is going well, we live as if we’re living on our own strength. When life is going well and none of us get up in the morning and, and think, I’ve got this, I don’t need God. None of us think that.
None of us intellectually assent to that, but we also don’t acknowledge our dire dependence on him either. Practically, we do live as if we’re living in our own strength. We do live as if we don’t need him, and therefore we have a great deal of confidence in ourselves. And the Lord is so kind to dissuade us of that notion, is he not? We might not like how he does it, but he does it to certainly shape us into the image of our savior, as he teaches us our true creaturely nature and our dependence on him.
Paul and Timothy, they were at the end of themselves. They called their own time of death, but in their amazement, they then continued to live on the power of God. This was so that they would have no confidence even in themselves. Even the mighty Apostle Paul, he was brought to the end of himself to realize he’s nothing. His strength was nothing. That God is the sustainer of all life.
Paul recognized there was this same God who raised Christ from the dead. It was this same power that was animating his good as dead body. In the midst of this affliction. This gave Paul and Timothy confidence that they could then endure anything, because all of their trust, all of their confidence was in this God, this infinite source of power.
And even if they died under their affliction, the duress of their affliction, or if someone killed them in persecution, they knew that if God still had plans for them, he could raise them from the dead. So dear one, whatever you’re going through, if you feel like Paul and Timothy here, like somebody might as well call your time of death, you are at the end of yourself. You’re done. You don’t know how you can go on. Then, beloved, you stand in the advantageous position of being able to acutely recognize that you live on the sustaining power of God and not yourself.
Each of us are, in reality, sustained by this power every day, but we are often unaware of it. But if you’re in a trial like this, you know it’s only God’s power that sustains you. Therefore, you no longer put trust and confidence in yourself. All your confidence is in him. And while this is no doubt very, very painful, whenever it happens, it is for your good.
How much more is God magnified in our minds, as awesome and worthy of praise when we see him sustaining our very life? How much stronger our affections in worship during the depths of our trials? How much more do we adore him for sustaining us and carrying us through the valley of death? How much sweeter is our rejoicing in our thanksgiving, when he does bring us out the other side of such trials.
Trust in him, beloved, not yourself. Let all your confidence be in him and rejoice. Don’t scoff at the trial the Lord has given you. Don’t waste it, but rejoice when you get to see this up close and personal, because when you do, you get to see all of his attributes in such vivid colors; all of God’s attributes, his goodness, his kindness, his wisdom, his mercy, his grace.
All of these things are so much brighter and clearer to us when we’re going through deep, deep trials and therefore it is good, because he is glorified and magnified in our minds, so that we don’t put any confidence in ourselves, but only in the God who even has the power to raise the dead. That was one of the purposes of this affliction on Paul’s life, that he might not put confidence in himself, but in God.
And Paul begins now to move from the depths of despair. We’ve come down with him into the valley of death to then start to come out the other side where he has the declaration of deliverance and rescue. And through this he means to give hope to those insignificant afflictions, just as he was comforted and received hope. Again, Paul’s just trying to put into practice what he told them in 3 through 7 here.
So that brings us to the third point, the sureness of rescue, the certainty of rescue. Paul says, the beginning of verse 10, “God who raises the dead, who rescues us from so great a peril of death, and will rescue us, He on whom we have set our hope.” Whatever Paul and Timothy endured, the rescue was nothing short of a resurrection miracle. It wasn’t a literal resurrection, but one commentator says so close to death were they that their deliverance was identical with raising them from the dead, raising them from the dead.
If you were here, back when I preached through Jonah, we talked about a similar deliverance. The language of Jonah when he writes about this is so vivid. Jonah was thrown overboard at his own request. And he recounts sinking down into the sea. And it was right as his life was fading away. He was drowning. He was beginning to pass out. He was seeing his life slip away as he was underwater. And he says right at the last moment, God rescued him. His rescue was, of course, a fish. But the point is, Jonah was seconds from passing out and drowning and perishing in the depths of the sea.
And right at the last second, a fish sent by God snatches him up and rescues him from certain death. That is the kind of dramatic deliverance that Paul recounts here. Whatever the affliction was, God delivered them from their peril. And Paul doesn’t mean to recount this just for the sake of displaying God’s power, though that is one reason. But he does so because it gives him confidence.
As he recounts this, it gives him confidence and he’s hoping it gives the Corinthians confidence and hope that God will do so again in the future. Then he tells them that, he did this for us and he will do this. He rescued us from so great a peril of death and will rescue us. God does not delight in the death of his saints, but he delights to rescue them. God is a Savior by nature.
God is a God who loves to deliver his people from peril. Bible story after Bible story teaches this all throughout the Old Testament. We see this. We’re going to be back next Sunday evening, we’re going to be back in 1 Samuel, picking up where I left off when we stopped in equipping hour. We’re going to be in chapter 17. I’ve been reading this. This has been on my mind that David volunteers to fight Goliath. A little shepherd boy fights a giant and everybody thinks he’s walking into certain death. But as we know, David and all Israel were delivered that day.
God is a God of deliverance. Paul says, “He delivered us, and he will deliver us.” God’s past faithfulness to deliver us is meant to encourage our hearts when we’re in the midst of deep, deep trials. While we don’t have this certain promise that God’s going to deliver us every time, some trial may end our life, the point here though, that Paul’s trying to make is God is prone to deliver his people. He has delivered us and he will deliver us. Whatever’s going on in our life, we need to have this mentality that God will deliver us.
When we’re in the midst of a great trial and we think that we can’t go on, we can find great comfort in remembering God’s past deliverances, all the ways that he has delivered us in the past, or we can be encouraged by others recounting how they’ve been delivered. Which is exactly why Paul’s writing to them here, to bring them comfort. Whoever amongst the Corinthians are struggling in trial, Paul means to bring them comfort.
If God can deliver him from, him and Timothy from this certainly he can deliver the Corinthians out of theirs and certainly God can deliver us out of ours. It brings hope and comfort to recount how God has rescued us, how God has rescued others, and to think upon how our God loves to rescue his people. He is a savior by nature and Paul could confidently say, “He rescued us from so great a peril of death.” How can we not go on and have confidence that he will rescue us from whatever else we go through?
It is this God who has the power to raise the dead that Paul says, “It is he on whom we have set our hope.” The English usage of the word, hope, is way too weak. We use that word so flippantly. We say things like I hope it will rain tomorrow, or I hope I get this thing, or I hope my wife makes me this for dinner tomorrow, or whatever it might be. I hope I get this thing or that thing or.
The hope in Scripture, it refers to something that you have great confidence in, that it is going to come to pass. It’s not a matter of, if, but it’s just a matter of, when. It is a patient waiting, waiting with confident expectation. We can’t have confidence in ourselves and have a firm hope in God. We can’t hold confidence in two things.
So if we’re confident in ourselves, then we’re going to be standing on slippery ground and we will have no confidence in our trials and we won’t be confident in him. We have to stand on the sure footing of our sovereign God. We have to fix our eyes on him, the author and perfector of our faith, the pioneer of our faith, who has raised Christ from the dead and will rescue you from so great a peril of death.
The verb here, we have set our hope, it’s in the perfect tense, which means it’s a past action with ongoing results. And here the emphasis is on the ongoing results. We have this enduring hope, this ongoing result of continued hope, that God will rescue and he will rescue all the way to glory, whether sooner or later than we expect; God will rescue us.
One commentator talks, notes this, that even if we, “even if we get to the end, even if our trial brings us to the end of our life,” he says this, “When he then does let us die, when his work with us on earth is completed, he removes us with one final deliverance, the most blessed of all.” We can be certain that God will rescue us, even if it is that final rescue of bringing us home to be with him.
Luther says this; he says, “Finally, when our last hour has come, God will grant us a blessed end and graciously take us from this veil of tears to Himself in heaven.” This is the great hope that we have as believers. There is no greater rescue than that to be rescued from this life of sin and death. And we have this great hope regardless of what we are going through. God is a saving God. He loves to deliver his people and he will rescue us.
When God answers the prayers of many for rescue, this leads to prayers of thanksgiving that redound the glory of God.” Bret Hastings
There is always light at the end of the tunnel for the believer. It may be near, it may be distant, but there is always light and life and hope as a Christian. Don’t despair, beloved, in the midst of deep trial, as sure as Christ was raised from the dead, he will rescue us from all of our troubles. It is certain, and we can count on it. We do not know when, but we can be certain it will happen, but we aren’t there yet unless the Lord comes back right now.
Okay, we’re still here. We’re not there yet. We’re still, some of you, I know, in deep, deep trial, still awaiting God’s rescue. Paul transitions then to the means by which God delivers us and provides help in times of affliction. And that is point four: The supplication of the saints. The supplication of the saints.
Look at the end of verse 10, “And He will rescue us, you also joining in helping us through your prayers on our behalf, so that thanks may be given on our behalf by many persons for the gracious gift bestowed on us through the prayers of many.” This also brings up a translation issue.
If you, I’m reading from the LSB, but if you’re reading from any other translation, every translation renders this verse very differently. And the issue comes down to whether the last of the three mentions of rescue go with the sentence in verse 10 or whether it carries over into verse 11. The ESV renders verse 10 like this, “He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us.” And there’s a period there starting a new sentence, “On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again.” And then there’s a period at the end of verse 10. Most translations, that one’s kind of the outlier.
Most translations rightly recognize, as does our, our LSB translation, that the last part of verse 10 needs to be a part of verse 11, for there is not a grammatically complete sentence. There needs to be a finite verb for the sentence to be complete. Later on, the verb for giving thanks, it’s a finite verb, but it’s found in the purpose clause and can’t function as the finite verb for the main clause.
So our translation here, it gets it technically right, but it’s not exactly smooth and it’s not really easy to understand. Another translation, the Common English Bible, translates it, “We have set our hope on Him that He will rescue us again, since you are helping with your prayers for us.” This translation translates that participle there at the beginning of verse 11, joining, in helping. It’s a participle, and it translates that participle as a causal participle. In other words, this would be Paul saying God will rescue us because you helped us in prayer.
That’s at least a little bit smoother and easier to understand, but I don’t think Paul is getting at causation here. Another translation, the CSB, the Christian Standard Bible, translates this as, “We have put our hope in him that He will deliver us again while you join in helping us by your prayers.” This interprets that participle as a temporal participle, which means, God will rescue us at the time of your helping by your prayers.
So this would be like when in Acts, we’re actually going to read this in a few moments. The church was praying for Peter, who was in prison. And while they were praying that night, late into the night, Peter was released and showed up to the house. Is Paul saying while you’re praying, you’re going to help us by deliverance? No, this was a past event. The LSB, the translation that I’m reading from, it doesn’t make that translation decision for us. It leaves it up to the interpreter.
I think there’s a better option than that temporal or the causal, and that is to translate this participle as a participle of means. So it would read like this, if we supply the, by means of, to our translation here, this is how it would read, “And he will yet rescue us by means of you also joining and helping us through your prayers on our behalf. So that,” and then it continues on, the means by which God is going to bring deliverance is through the prayers of the saints.
There’s also that little phrase, through your prayers, which most commentators recognize that, as a dative of means, indicating the instrument. So Paul is saying that the people of Corinth, they’re a means of helping to rescue, by the instrument of their prayers. So, beloved, if Paul told the Corinthians that they were a real means to providing help in deliverance, this means that you and I are also a real means of helping others when we lift them up in prayer.
It is a temptation in our realm of theology, with our understanding of God’s sovereignty, to minimize, if not in doctrine, than in practice, to minimize, the importance of prayer as a real means of help. Just turn with me to Acts chapter 12. I think we tend to be a little bit more like these folks who prayed for Peter out of Acts 12. Just want to read this to illustrate the point.
We do pray to God knowing he is sovereign, knowing he controls all things from before the foundation of the earth. He decreed all things. And so we often pray to him, hoping to have our will aligned to his. We’re doing it because we love him. We want to fellowship with him. We’re command to do. We do it out of a great love, but we don’t always see it as a real service to other people.
This passage in Acts 12 illustrates this point. We’ll just begin in verse 1. I think we’ve got time for this. Acts 12 beginning in verse 1, “Now about that time Herod the king laid hands on some who belonged to the church in order to harm them. And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword. And when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also.”
So all the people who the church, they’re just assuming this is what’s going to happen to Peter as well. “Now it was during the days of Unleavened Bread. When he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him,” to force, “to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out before the people.” probably to put him to death.
“So Peter was kept in the prison, but prayer for him was being made fervently by the Church to God. Now on the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, ‘Rise up quickly.’ And his chains fell off his hands.
“And the angel said to him, ‘Gird yourself and put on your sandals.’ And he did so. And he said to him, ‘Wrap your garments around yourself and follow me.’ And he went out and continued to follow, and he did not know what was being done by the angel was real, but he was thinking he was seeing a vision.”
Peter didn’t even believe it was real. “And when he had and when they had passed the first and second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. When Peter came to himself,” that is he, he still had a hard time believing he was real.
“He said, ‘Now truly I know that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting. And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. And when he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant-girl, Rhoda, came to answer. And when she recognized Peter’s voice because of her joy she did not open the gate.
“But she ran and reported that Peter was standing in the front of the gate. And they said to her, ‘You’re out of your mind!’ But she kept insisting that it was so. And they kept saying, ‘It is his angel.’ But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened the door, they saw him and were astounded. But motioning with his hand to be silent, he recounted to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison. And he said, ‘Report these things to James and the brothers.’ And then he left and went to another place.”
How often do we beloved like these folks, maybe we’re, we’re not even as diligent to praise, these folks, I don’t think. But we, even if we are praying, how often do we, don’t actually expect it to have any real effect as they didn’t. They told the young girl there, they’re, they’re no doubt praying for Peter’s release and she says, he’s here and they’re like, Nah, you’re crazy. They didn’t actually believe their prayers were going to affect the release of Peter.
This is beloved where the application comes in for those of you who maybe aren’t going through a trial. Obviously this is applicable for everyone, if you are going through a trial, but especially if you are enjoying a time of reprieve in this pattern of of life, of affliction and reprieve, then you have a responsibility to help others through prayer.
If we believe what the Bible says, then we believe that the prayers of the faithful man are effective. As James tells us in James 5:16, we hold the sovereignty of God firmly in one hand and the responsibility of man firmly in the other hand. And while we don’t comprehend, fully comprehend how God could have decreed all things before time that will come to pass and that our prayers are effective, the Bible teaches both and we have to hold both of those things.
If we believe this, then let us, as the writer of Hebrews says, take hold of our confession of our doctrine and not just say we believe it, but act on that and pray. I think we are more prone to do this for ourselves when we are in a trial, but we have to be just as diligent to do it for others as well. Hebrews 4:16 says, “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
We’re so much more prone to approach the throne of grace when we personally need grace and mercy to continue to walk in faithfulness. But we need to understand that Paul says we have to do the same thing here for others. We are, as believers, a real means of joining and helping others through our prayers. “Therefore, let us draw near to the throne of grace with confidence.”
Not just confidence that we can draw near in Christ’s righteousness that God will listen to our prayers, but confidence that Christ really wants to deliver his people and rescue his people by means of our coming to him in prayer. The Lord will, by means of your help through prayer, supply grace to those who need it. Beloved, don’t think of prayer as the ministry you do when you can’t do anything else. It is a real means of help.
Therefore, draw near with confidence, with this confidence, and pray to our God who loves to rescue and supply grace to help in time of need. The Lord is sympathetic to our cause, which is what it describes right before verse 16 in verse 15. He is not a high priest who is not sympathetic. He’s sympathetic to our cause, he desires to rescue, he desires to give grace to sustain his saints. So let us be faithful and be the conduits that can bring that to people.
So the supplication of saints, they’re a real means to help one another, bring comfort to one another. And that brings us to the ultimate purpose here, the purpose of our prayers, the purpose of our trials. Look with me at verse 11. I’m actually still in Acts. If you need to go back to 2 Corinthians verse 11, we’ll back up to the end of verse 10 where the thought starts. “And He will yet rescue us, you also joining in helping us through your prayers on our behalf, so that thanks,” so that here’s the purpose of God’s rescue, “so that thanks may be given on our behalf by many persons for the gracious gift bestowed on us through the prayers of many.”
“He will yet rescue us.” So that for the purpose that thanks may be given by many. I have kind of some quotations that I’ve patched together just to, I think, these three quotations from a commentator by the name of Richard Pratt, David Garland, and John Calvin, just to kind of summarize this. They say Paul acknowledged the purpose behind his sufferings and deliverance, God’s glory.
When God answers the prayers of many for rescue, this leads to prayers of thanksgiving that redound the glory of God. Paul’s ultimate concern is not his rescue from danger, but that God will be honored more and more. Hence, when we mutually pray for one another and obtain our desire, that is, God answers it. The glory of God is so much more set forth inasmuch as we all acknowledge with thanksgiving God’s benefits.
That is to say, God is so much more glorified in our minds as we pray for one another, as we lift one another up in prayer, as God delivers, because he is a deliverer, all of our prayers will redound to his glory as he answers them, and then we, our hearts overflow in praise and thanks to him. I love how Paul starts this all the way back up in verse 3, declaring the blessedness of God as the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort, declaring the glories of God and here he ends it with that which will magnify that reality.
That is when we fervently pray for one another and he answers those prayers. Many hearts lift up praise and thanksgiving, recognizing his great rescue. The more who pray, the more who give thanks, the more God is lifted up and glorified both privately in our own hearts and corporately, as those things, as those blessings are made known.
And again, Paul can’t but help focus, put the focus on the people in their prayers as the means of bringing this about. He says, again, thanks may be given for the gracious gift bestowed on us through the prayers of many, emphasizing our responsibility in prayer and the real means of help it is to people.
So, beloved, if you are going through a trial, maybe you feel as if someone should call your time of death, your despairing of life or maybe you’re going through a less significant trial, don’t let your fellow church members be ignorant of it. You need them, you need their help, you need their prayers, and they need you and don’t lose hope.
Remember how God has rescued you so many times in the past, how he has rescued so many others, Paul included. How he has strengthened you for all of your trials, how he has sustained you, and how he will continue to do so. Remember how he loves to rescue his people, but if he chooses to leave you in your trial a little bit longer, we have this ongoing confidence that he will one day rescue us from all trial and all peril.
So, beloved, keep your eyes fixed on him and for all of us, let us draw near to the throne of grace with confidence that we might be the means that God uses to supply our brothers and sisters who are in need with grace and strength to endure until the Lord does see fit to rescue them. Let’s pray.
Our gracious Heavenly Father, our God of all comfort, our Father of mercies, our Savior Jesus Christ, our Comforter, the Holy Spirit. We lift you up in our minds and hearts this morning. This passage has lifted you up. Paul and Timothy have lifted you up before our eyes as the magnificent, glorious, all-powerful God who can raise the dead, who loves to deliver his people, who will deliver his people. And I just pray, Lord, that we would remember that.
That you would be magnified in our mind as a God who loves to rescue his people. That you would be magnified in our minds, glorified in our hearts. That we would pour forth prayers to you and praises and thanksgiving when you answer them. And I pray that we would be all more diligent to pray for one another, that we would remember it’s a real means that You have ordained to supply grace to those who need it. I pray that we would grow in this, grow in our diligence to pray for one another as a church. Please do this in us. By the power of your spirit we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.