Psalm 7 - From Prison to Praise

I have been mulling over this Psalm for at least 2 weeks as found it really difficult to understand.  Last night I attended a lecture by Pastor Rich Holdeman on Living with Cancer.  He mentioned that the first book of Psalms (there are 3 Books in the Psalms that we read today) contain many laments which actually those who are being treated for cancer find resonates with them.  This has been my experience too!  I can almost picture David enduring some of the most awful situations and crying out to God as a result.  This was the man who was hounded by Saul and although chosen by God to be the next king of Israel had to wait many years for God’s plan to be fulfilled in his life.  His brutal honesty at times is what I can relate to and I am sure you have found this too.  This Psalm is a plea from the heart of a man under terrible persecution and yet although it begins with a cry to be saved it finishes with thankfulness.  Is it possible to turn our situations into times of gratitude?  Can we really look beyond our presence circumstances and see God’s hand at work?

Psalm 7

Shigglalon (a meditation) of David, which he sang unto the Lord, concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite (in other words a lament!)

"O Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust save me from all them that persecute me and deliver me.  Lest he tear my soul like a lion rending it in pieces while there is none to deliver."

There is one word that is repeated in this Psalm and is the key to understanding - it is the word "persecute."  Did you notice how David starts this Psalm - "O Lord my God" and these words are repeated again in verse 3.  It is a heartfelt plea.  He is being pursued by a group of people - "all them that persecute me".  It is a pursuit which holds the prospect of death.  The image David uses is one that he is familiar with as a shepherd looking after his flocks in the open countryside.  That of animals coming to take one of the lambs and maul it to pieces.  David is worried that this might be his ending and he is in dire straits.  Later in Psalm 119 verse 161 David refers to "Princes have persecuted me without a cause."  It is an unjustifiable experience.  And this is a truth we as Christians need to come to realise and should not be surprised at - when we are doing everything right and we are in the will of God, we will be persecuted.  For many reading these words, myself included, we do not know the reality of these words, not in the physical sense at least.  But our history records incidents where even today many are persecuted for their faith in God.  I am quoting from John D Gillespie's book Following Jesus in an Age of Quitters:

"The 20th century was the bloodiest century for Christians ever, with more dying for Christ in that century than in the previous nineteen together.  The Gordon-Conwell Seminary Centre for the Study of Global Christianity estimates that about 90,000 believers in Jesus are martyred every year.  That is one every 6 minutes."

We need to realise that for many, even today, their life of faith is not marked by ease and tranquillity.  This is not an unusual encounter for the child of God.  God’s word shows us this time and time again.  Jesus himself warned this would be so – Matthew 5 verse 10 and John 15 verse 20.  Paul continued that with that same thought in Romans 12 verse 14 and to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 verse 12.  Hebrews 11, that great hallway of fame of those believers in Christ named and unnamed reminds us of how many were persecuted and what they had to endure – verses 36 to 38.

Today the most powerful weapon of persecution is the tongue and many cruel words are spoken against those who profess Christ.  We can be scorned and be misrepresented in how we live our lives but as David the simple prayer to be saved and delivered should be committed to God.

This is the persecution David experienced.

“O Lord my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands; If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy). Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth and lay mine honour in the dust.  Selah.”

David is submitting himself to the events before him.  He repeats that little word “if” 3 times.  There is a recognition by David that God actually allows things to happen and therefore he needs to know God’s direction in all the circumstances he faces.  David is actually very confident in his assertion as he knows he is innocent.  His conscience is clear.  How very challenging!  I recall many times when in similar situations that I was perhaps more guilty and in fact deserved what has happened – have you not?

“Arise, O Lord, in thine anger, lift up thyself because of the rage of mine enemies; and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded.  So shall the congregation of the people compass thee about; for their sakes therefore return thou on high.  The Lord shall judge the people; judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me. Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just; for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.”

Again David asserts that he is in the clear.  He asks God to shine his light on him because he knows that he has a clear conscience.  There is a challenge in these words – would we be as quick to call on God to act if we knew that things were not 100%?  Perhaps we could be numbered among those who are actually in the wrong.  In these verses you notice that it is not for his own personal reward that he is asking God to act but rather for the people.  He wants justice for everyone.  Did you notice the phrase “oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end”?  Surely this is a prayer we all pray every day when we hear of violence, murder, war and atrocities throughout our world.  It is a sentiment expressed by Habakkuk in chapter 1 verse 13 “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he.”  We too need this cry on our lips today – God hates sin and so should we!

“My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.  God judgeth the righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day.  If he turn not, he will whet his sword: he hath bent his bow and made it ready.  He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.”

When life becomes unbearable it is good to remember the sentiments of these verses.  Firstly that God protects us – verse 10.  We are the “upright in heart” if we have trusted in God for salvation.  God is righteous and he will judge the world – one day!  For now we need patience.  Did you notice that God actually is angry with the wicked every day – verse 11?  Have you ever thought of God in the way it is described in verses 12 and 13?  Imagine God has a flaming sword aimed at those who do not repent of their sin and turn to God for salvation.  Here we have the message of the gospel hidden in this Psalm.  There is a choice to be made by every person and God, whilst he is loving, will one day call a halt to all the wickedness that is so evident in this world.  But we can know forgiveness and freedom today through his Son Jesus who died on Calvary’s cross for our sins.  The wicked must turn or perish.  Whilst God tarries salvation is available to every person in the world.  God is the cure for the terminal condition that faces the heart of every man or woman, boy or girl.  The condition – sin.  What hope is expressed even here.

“Behold, he travaileth with iniquity and hath conceived mischief and brought forth falsehood.  He made a pit and digged it and is fallen into the ditch which he made.  His mischief shall return upon his own head and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.”

To understand these words I turned to the example of Haman in the book of Esther.  Haman did not like Mordecai and he was determined to exterminate him along with all the Jews.  He built a gallows to hang Mordecai on but the tables were turned one day when Esther explained to the king what he planned and she begged for pardon.  Haman was hanged on his own gallows.  In these verses we see a similar prediction of what will happen to those who do not turn to Christ for salvation.  David himself saw something similar happening in his lifetime – Saul who was so opposed to David attempted to bring the Philistines on his side but in the end it was the Philistines who killed Saul.  These verses talk about retribution.

“I will praise the Lord according to his righteousness and will sing praise to the name of the Lord most high.”

In the darkest of hours it is good to praise God!  Despite all David has come through in the words of this Psalm he is determined to praise God.  Another example of a similar situation is found in Acts of the Apostles.  Paul and Silas were put in prison because they preached the gospel in Philippi and the magistrates ordered they were beaten.  In verse 25 of Acts 16 we read “And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard them.”

If we were in a similar situation would we be able to praise God?  This is the challenge from these verses.

What can we learn from this Psalm?  God knows and understands what we face in life.  He understands but we must learn to lean on him to bring his justice in his own time.  We have an opportunity today to place our trust and faith in Christ while there is still time and we are commissioned to tell others as well.  God will protect us when the situation becomes difficult and he will provide our defence.  God is not ignorant of all that is going on in this world and has a plan and purpose that is being worked out daily.  Lastly we should learn to praise God in all our situations and thank him for allowing us to be part of his plan and purpose on this earth.

 

I am so grateful to Alistair Begg and his ministry Truth for Life which helped me in getting to grips with this Psalm.  He entitled his sermon From Prison to Praise which I though was such an appropriate title!  He broke the Psalm up into the following points in his sermon and I have tried to follow them too!

verses 1 and 2 - the persecution he experiences

verses 3 to 5 - the submission he expresses

verses 6 to 9 - the intervention he entreats

verses 10 to 13 - the affirmation he exudes

verses 14 to 16 - the retribution he explains

verse 17 - the celebration he enjoys

 

Strength in Weakness - Keswick at Portstewart - Thursday 11 July 2024

 

KESWICK AT PORTSTEWART

BIBLE READING NOTES – THURSDAY 11 JULY 2024 – JOHN RISBRIDGER

2 CORINTHIANS 8 VERSES 1 – 9

We are in different territory today.  Yesterday we looked at the glories of a new creation.  Today it has come down to earth about money and you could nearly say it was written by an accountant.  It is great passage with little detail.  We will begin with a slightly broader picture that may help.  “Where you heart is there will your treasure be also.”  That is a deliberate misquote from Jesus.  It is deliberate because in practice that is the version of the words we believe to be genuine.  It is your money so use it for what it is most important to you.  Give but be authentic.  Follow your heart.  Your money and your heart are closely tied together.  But it works this way round – money follows the heart.  Be true to yourself.  That becomes the basis for many fundraisers – what people have a heart for, work out what they feel strongly about or moved by, give them well chosen sound bites or heart rendering images to make sure they start to feel what you want them to feel and then pitch to their hearts, to what moves them because money follows the heart.  So where their heart is that will be where their money will be also.  It is not what Jesus said.  In the Sermon on the Mount he said we need to think of it in another way.  “Where your treasure is there your heart will be also.”  Matthew 6 verse 21.  Not money follows your heart as its your heart follows your money.  Try investing some equity into a business and you might be surprised how often you check out how well the business is doing.  Your heart has followed your money as Jesus said.  That is how it works in the kingdom of God.  The manifesto of the kingdom.  The great theme of the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus is saying put your money into things that things such as comfort, lifestyle, image and that is where your heart will end up too.  If you want a heart after God, if you want a heart invested in the kingdom of God, if you want to serve the purpose of God in your generation you must begin with what you treasure, where you invest it.

 

John Wesley the great Methodist preacher at the beginning of his ministry had to live on £28 a year.  As his fame increased and his resources increased significantly he chose to live on that same amount and give the rest away.  He said “when I have money I get rid of it quickly lest it find a way into my heart.”

 

Paul understood that principle.  From the moment he met Christ on the Damascus Road he knew he was a commissioned apostle to the Gentile or non-Jewish world.  Ananias made that clear.  He was passionate that the gospel must be a boundary crossing gospel.  It must not be allowed to be stuck in a single Jewish identity.  The gospel must never be locked into a single cultural identity.  It didn’t mean he was happy for Jews and Gentiles to diverge on radically different pathways.  His vision was to see them united visibly within the church as one new humanity in Christ – Ephesians 2.  Given all the years of division, conflict and separation, the mis-understanding that arose and was so deep how do you establish heart boundaries between community separate from each other?  The principle – where your treasure is there your heart will be also.  Given that the Jewish believers in Jerusalem were under huge financial pressure for several reasons, Paul put a huge effort into raising funds from the Gentile churches to support believers in Jerusalem and so to deepen the bonds between Gentile churches and Jewish believers.  Where their treasure was is where their heart would land too.  This was something already explained in Corinthians – chapter 16 of 1 Corinthians shows us that.  In 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 10 the Christians in Corinth were most enthusiastic to get onboard.  Paul was now afraid they are going cold.  He wants them to follow through on their promises.  In Chapters 8 and 9 he wants them to follow these promises through.  Put yourself in Paul’s shoes.  There was a narrative going about that the Corinthian Christians would be better off without Paul.  Therefore the last thing you would write about would be to write about money.  That would make it super awkward.  That is how much it mattered to him.  That a Gentile church invested financially in a Jerusalem church so as to grow those boundaries of fellowship between Jewish and Gentile Christians.  It is important to notice.  Notice the passion, the motivation behind it – for the unity of the church of Christ.  Too often we see a concern for unity as a nice extra if you can imagine it but not really important.  Really some soft-headed theologians going on about the unity of the church.  It is really deeply theological – that is why he devotes 2 chapters.  We dare not divide the church of Jesus outside the unity of the bounds of the gospel.  The unity of the church of Jesus is a gospel issue on which unwilling to budge for the sake of Jesus.  It is massively important.  It was the subject of Jesus’ last prayer before his crucifixion.  The challenge of these chapters is not really a challenge of understanding full on call to radical generosity.  Not to dig out loads of complexity but to learn and practice the generosity for Christ.

 

Chapter 8 verses 1 – 5.  An example of generosity.  Verse 1.  Paul is about to speak about their giving and their gives is the overflow of the working of God’s grace in their lives.  He choose to use the example of the Macedonians.  There was a long running rivalry between the Greeks and the Macedonians.  We can why he regarded them as such a great example.  Verse 2.  What a challenge to them.  The Corinthians who were increasingly reluctant to part with their wealth.  The Macedonian generosity came from struggle and poverty.  C H Spurgeon was asked by a wealthy friend to preach in a rural church to help them pay off a debt.  As a thank you he could use his country house or town house or his seaside house if he liked.  Spurgeon told him “sell one of the houses and pay off the debt yourself.”  The more we have the more reluctant we are to give.  Money traps the heart and holds the heart but they gave from the overflow of joy.  But it was sacrificial giving – verse 3.  They regarded this not as a duty but a privilege.  Verse 4.  They exceeded the expectations, they gave more than expected to give.  The key principle – give themselves to the Lord and by the will of God also to us.  That is the nature of truly Christian godly giving.  First to the Lord and then through to whatever means he has given to us.  Giving is worship.  Keeps the tie between worship and giving.  It was a love gift to Jesus.  A great miracle of generosity.  How generosity was meant to be.

 

Chapter 8 verses 6 – 9.  An appeal to generosity.  Titus was to be sent by Paul to Corinth and they were to give to him when he arrived.  Titus seems to have been sent into difficult situations, to fix problems.  There is lots in the appeal here but 2 key words are important.  The first is the word “excel” verse 7.  You need to feel how that bit in Corinth.  They liked to excel, they were a little bit impressed with themselves.  They liked to see themselves as very very gifted, on the edge, strong in faith, articulate in speech and impressive in knowledge.   Paul says excel in those things but what about exceling in other things that are not seen?  Like sacrificial giving?  In the gift of generosity?  Be as outstanding in giving sacrificially to the needs of God’s people as you are being impressed in the ministry you excel in already.  That is the call here.  The second word is “equality”.  Work for justice through your giving.  Verse 13.  Paul is not addressing society at large but specifically talking about the relationship between Jewish and Gentile Christians.  They should not over interpret them politically nor under interpret them either.  Paul is saying your Christian sisters and brothers in Jerusalem do not have enough for clothes, food and shelter whereas you have more than you need.  Today most Christians live in the global South and many of them are in great material poverty.  When it comes to concern about global poverty and injustice it is often the poverty of our Christian brothers and sisters we have an obligation to them.

 

Chapter 8 verse 6 – chapter 9 verse 5.  Facilitating generosity.  There are issues such as transparency and in handling money.  There is also wisdom that recognises good intentions.  Good intentions alone do not count alone when it comes to finance.  We must be proactive in giving, there should be opportunities to give.

 

Chapter 9 verses 6 to 15.  The blessing of generosity.  Verse 7.  Paul is presenting the need and challenging them but he is not looking for guilt ridden pressurised response.  He wants their giving from a settled commitment.  Not reluctant or resentful but careful, happy, bright giving.  How can we be happy givers?  Enjoying sacrifice? Understanding the blessing that arises from generosity which is the more generously we give the more we have to give.  Verse 6.  The more we open our hands to release what God has given to us in generosity the more we open our lives to receive his blessing.  If we play tight fisted with God we wont receive much from him either.  That is the principle.  Not saying you should invest £10 in your church and God will provide £100 back into your bank account.  No – the more you give to God not just of money but of your time and your gifts.  The more you give, the more you will have to give to him. It is a virtuous circle.  Live a life turned in on yourself and you will never join the virtuous circle but live a life open to generosity and what happens?  Verse 11 you are enriched in every way so that you will be generous on every occasion and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.  The more generous we give the more we will have to give.  Also living generously brings glory to God – verse 12.  To a healthy Christian nothing matters more than God is praised and thanked.  Here’s the good news – the more we give the more God will be praised and the more glory goes to him.  Living generously will mean others will pray for us – verse 14.  As you give others will pray for you the blessings of generosity – they are rich. God’s blessing will never outgive God even in our generosity to others he will be generous to us.  He will be generous to us.  You never outgive the generosity of God.  God’s generosity to us goes so much further.

 

Verse 15 “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.”  What is that gift?  The gift of himself in the person of his Son the Lord Jesus Christ.  Why pursue generosity?  Verse 9 “you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes be became poor that through his poverty we might become rich.”  This is the greatest generosity in the universe.  Just think how rich he was.  The eternal word of the Father through whom and in whom and for whom all things were created.  It was all his.  It all belonged to Jesus and with legions of angels at his disposal with the Father’s eternal pouring over him and into him for ever with never ending satisfaction and joy. Rich in resources, rich in power, rich in love.  But think how poor he became as he emptied himself out into our humanity.  He became flesh for us.  An embryo, a baby, a carpenter.  The Son of Man with no where to lay his head.  Despised and rejected.  The Man of Sorrows familiar with grief, the servant of all, obeying the Father even to death, even death on the cross.  Such poverty.  Why?  How can it be that the one so rich did he become so poor because he died for us.  He died because he loved the world so much.  He did it so that through his poverty we might become rich, really rich.  Our sins forgiven, our shame lifted through the cross, adopted in him.  Loved by the Father, clothed in the Son, filled and sealed in the Spirit, inheritors of the new creation, delighted from heaven as the bride of Christ.  What riches, what glory in Christ.  This is true generosity, the generosity of Christ.  His generosity was a chosen weakness, a voluntary laying aside of power, of privilege and position.  A weakness through which God’s grant power is revealed.  Strength through weakness.  That is the mission we are called to follow.  Where is your heart?  Is it in things and lifestyle and image or is it in the kingdom of God and the purpose of God?  How do I know?  You know by where you have invested your treasure.  Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.  The call of the gospel is for a generous life invested intentionally and sacrificially in the mission of God.  A ministry to the poor, serving the community, reaching the world.  God wants your heart but where you invest your treasure, that is where your heart will go.

Strength in Weakness - Keswick at Portstewart - Friday 12 July 2024

KESWICK CONVENTION 12 JULY 2024

MORNING BIBLE READINGS – JOHN RISBRIDGER

2 CORINTHIANS 12 VERSES 1 – 12

Imagine for a moment someone in the pulpit - a brilliant speaker, huge sparkling personality, impressive physique known for healing and could report on such extraordinary experiences.  That he could tell you amazing things you never heard before, not even the bible knows about.  Now imagine a man of no status, with a bald head, crooked legs, in a good state of body eyebrows meeting in the middle and a hooked nose.  This is how Paul was – stumbling style, known for droning on and on through the night.  He would preach the old gospel stuff.  It is not difficult to guess which would burn out the wires of social media well.  Paul is like that second man.  The Corinthians wanted the first kind.  In the celebrity driven Christian world of the 21^st Century many of us share that view of things.  We like our big strong leaders.  That is why this letter including these latter chapters remain so important for us today.  There is an intoxication with celebrity leadership that needs to be broken and left behind.

Paul’s vision in which he chose not to boast.  Verses 1 – 7 “I must go on boasting.”  The previous 2 chapters he has to be doing a certain kind of boasting.  Paul is meeting the accusations head on.  Paul is not impressive enough but the Corinthians intoxication with celebrity leadership is putting them in danger – verses 2 and 3 chapter 11.  This is how serious and dangerous the intoxication with celebrity leadership is.  Paul is left with no choice.  He needs to respond to it.  He fears he has to – chapter 11 verse 21 – 23.  He hates doing it.  Then he gives 10 verses to a catalogue of all his troubles, weaknesses and burdens – verse 30.  Chapter 12 he is squaring up to latest accusation.  There is nothing to be gained about this.  Neither add to nor take away from.  His apostleship came solely from Christ on the Damascus road.  He is forced to do this by the Corinthians – verse 12.  It becomes clear – verse 7 – it is Paul himself but he is reluctant to say so perhaps because too uncomfortable for him.  He had done enough boasting not prepared to do anymore.  Maybe he is reluctant to speak of this vision – verse 4.  Just not willing to play along with the idea that his apostolic credibility stands or falls with his with his supernatural experiences.  They are just not relevant.  What was this experience he talks about?  AD 42 near his home town of Tarsus.  We don’t really know very much of it.  No obvious thing that fits.  He is talking about that.  During the end of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New some of the writers began to speculate about multiple levels of heaven.  Some suggest 3, 5, 7 and some even got to 10.  Paul seems to be referring to this three level scheme, the highest level, paradise.  Verse 4.  When Christ himself lived.  I know someone who was snatched up to the highest heaven.  The exact nature of that experience was mysterious to Paul himself.  Was I in the body or not, he is not sure.  He would say himself it was so wonderful that he found neither able nor permissible to put into words.  What would you do with such a story?  You would go everywhere and tell the story.  To prove you are a big strong leader after all.  Rather than doing that in verse 5 “I will boast only of my weakness” – why - because he doesn’t want people to think more of him than they really should.  Verse 6.   Note the last phrase “so that no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do and say.”  That is what Paul is about.  Not celebrity leadership, not mystical visions but a message spoken and a life lived.  A life of love, a life of care for the poor, a life of care for the church, a life of weakness through which God’s power has been astonishingly revealed.  Romans 15 verse 6 “leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done.”  Then he elaborates further.  A gospel ministry, not a celebrity ministry.  A gospel ministry of words, works and wonders. That is the ministry the Corinthians need to learn to live again and so do we.  We must value the gospel words, gospel living and gospel power that is what to prize.

 

Secondly Paul goes on to speak about his weakness and in this he is very happy to boast about – verse 5.  He has done a lot of boasting about his weaknesses in 2 Corinthians already but now we are reaching the classic strength in weakness passage.  Verse 7.  This is not an unfamiliar theme in the rest of scripture.  So often the most startling experiences of God in scripture leave people walking with some kind of limp – like Jacob’s hip after his encounter wrestling with God and his hip out of job or Jeremiah with his tears and near death experience in the muddy cistern.  Think of Hosea’s troubled marriage.  Or even the apostle John with his painful imprisonment and isolation on the isle of Patmos.  A greater experience of God often leads to walking with a limp.  For Paul we think of his thorn in the flesh.  Commentators differ to what it is.  It was more than a thorn, possibly a stake.  The Greek word is scollops - something sharp.  It could be a thorn, stake or surgical scapel.  Flesh- that could point to something in the body and indicates some physical or mental illness.  It is possible he is referring to his eye condition that he refers to in Galatians 4.  Flesh in the bodily or physical sense.  This word flesh is quite elastic in its meaning and can mean something that is worldly and fallen and flawed.  Humanness that is broken and turned against God.  He could be referring to persecution or awkward troublesome people or relentless temptation that he struggles with and that never seems to subside.  The truth is we just don’t know for sure what the thorn in the flesh was.  We really don’t know what it was.  I am pleased I don’t know because if I knew it was one specific thing and my trouble was something really different then I would be inclined to think well that was good for Paul but it does not help me very much.  The fact that we don’t know It gives us freedom that we could apply to what he says to a whole range of troubles.  Painful, recurring challenges, setbacks, difficulties.  Makes life difficult. Makes serving Jesus uncomfortable.  Paul’s wisdom speaks into them all.  His thorn in the flesh was given to him in order to stop him becoming conceited.  Suggests it was given by God.  Also suggests it was a messenge of Satan to torment.  Was hid from God or for Satan answer yes.  Satan the deceiver is involved with horrible intentions to trip him up and cause him trouble.  In the same sovereign God is at work with different intentions. To make him more like Christ to keep his pride in check.  If we are going to come through such hard times we need to hold both ends of this tension – on the one hand the real agency of Satan.  Trips us up but on the other hand sovereign purpose of God who is at work to mould us into image of Christ.  Lose the first and you turn God into cruel tyrant without much feeling.  Lose second, the sovereignty of God we lose hope and opportunity to grow.  If from Satan I should ask the Lord to take it away and Paul does that 3 times.  Even though from the enemy in this case Jesus didn’t take it away – verse 9.  Important and some of the most sobering words in the whole of 2 Corinthians “my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.  They are hard to absorb and be really deep in.  Not a promise of weakness removed but it is a promise of grace to bear it.  Whose grace is it – the Lord’s.  It is to Jesus that Paul asks for the thorn to be taken away.  Whose grace – it is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ who though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that we through his poverty might become rich.  His grace is sufficient. He understands. The Lord who ordains that the thorn in the flesh stays is the same Lord who wore the crown of thorns, the Lord who lets the stake stay was the same Lord whose side was pierced for our transgressions.  He understands, in his tender grace he comes to our troubled souls and weak bodies with comfort of his presence.  So often if we are going to experience his tender grace and his comforting presence we have to let go of the desire for vindication and validation that locks out the grace of God.  The big issue is that the Lord understands false accusation as well as true and he is ready to come alongside with comfort and grace.  In the case of Jesus it was through this chosen weakness that his true power was revealed.  His power of salvation to all who believe.  As for the master so for the servant, just as Paul will share in Master’s suffering and weakness so too he will share in his power.  As trusting in the God who raises the dead the mission of God advances across the Gentile world through Paul’s costly, contested weakness.  He will still have that thorn in the flesh.  The power of Christ received.  He still rejoices as a result.  “Therefore I will boast so that Christ’s power shall rest upon me” – verse 10.  “For when I am weak then am I strong.”  Here is sufficient grace to comfort us in our weakness.  Here too is perfected power.  Comes to its full realisation and strength precisely through our weakness.  Instead of trusting in ourselves we exercise faith in the God who raises the dead.  Boasting about our weakness doesn’t mean shrug our shoulders and giving up, walking away, leaving it to others or doing everything to avoid hard things.  It means we press forward trusting in God who helps us.  His strength is revealed in us for his glory.  When we are weak then we are strong.  Are we willing to take that verse to heart? 

God can use the weakness you feel in the place he has put you precisely. It is precisely in your place where your weakness can be used.  At work, where you live, in your heart for your local community.  He longs to use you as you love the people and serve the community and take the opportunities that service gives you.  You don’t have to be a great speaker, a forceful personality, a life that is sorted.  If you are strong then chances are your strength may get in the way.  God loves to use the weak.  Your weaknesses, setbacks, disappointments don't have to be a obstacle to him.  We need to step out of the comfort bubble, into the world seeking the grace and strength of God, to love people well, to serve people humbly.  Tell them simply what Jesus has done for you.  You don’t have to be able to answer every questions.  Love with the love with which you have been loved.  Serve as Christ has served you and share the good news of what Christ has done for you.  We need to take this verse to heart not just at an individual level but at a church level too.  We have been used, as churches to being in a position of strength over the recent centuries.  There were a lot of us.  We had resources, institutions, buildings, money, we were even generally seen as good guys.  Politics tended to protect us.  We liked that and came to expect it.  We cling to it and begin to hate the culture when it turns against it.  Big mistake.  What is the principle - when I am weak then I am strong.  The tiny church of the first century with just a few thousand people across the Mediterranean world, no buildings, a despised people weak so weak but when they were weak that is when they were strong.  In a couple of centuries they had changed the whole of the Roman world.  What if we are being taken back to the margins?  What if that is a good thing not a bad thing?  What if the evangelisation of our nations hinges on us first becoming weak when we prefer to be strong?  What if it is our addiction to our strength strong is the barrier to our mission?  What if it takes the loss of our resources, the loss of our political influences, power to win our nations for Jesus and the gospel.  That is unquestionable the challenge for the churches.  What if here in the particular challenges of this island of Ireland so beautiful yet so painfully divided - what if we only see breakthrough for Jesus in other communities by our own community experiencing weakness? What if it is really true then when we are weak then we are strong will we like Paul delight in weakness and accept the loss of strength in power in order to be truly strong?  Strong for mission, in love, in loving and serving our community, strong not in ourselves and accomplishments but in Jesus and his victory.  That is the most challenging bite of this passage and this book for us right now - Paul’s weakness in which he chooses to boast.

He finally rounds off the letter with his longing – his longing for the heart of the Corinthians.  He explains that he is preparing to make them a third visit when he will bring all the issues to head and deal with what he finds.  Read about that in chapter 13.  The purpose of writing this letter is to prepare them for this third visit.  That is why he has written so strongly and challenges them to break their intoxication with shallow celebrity leadership and come back to Christ and the chosen apostle for them.   Having put the challenge before them he says verse 5 examine yourselves, look inside yourself, take responsibility.  Test yourselves he says.  He longs that his third visit will not be one of painful discipleship but restoration – verses 9 and 10.  That is his heart.  He longs for restoration and he hopes that they will listen and respond humbly.  What Paul wants all along is not that he wants their money for himself or the Jerusalem church.  He wants their hearts.  That is the issue.  Chapter 12 verse 14.  He wants their heart for himself because he wanted their hearts for Christ to whom he had promised.  The Corinthians church as a bride betrothed to her husband.  Chapter 11.  He wants their hearts.  It is the loyalty and love of our hearts that the Lord most desires.  We too if we know him are betrothed to be his bride.  He wants our hearts, hearts that are comforted by him in our troubles and trust in his resurrection power, hearts that contemplate his glory in worship and so are moulded into his likeness.  That are all in on his mission, turned outwards to the world into the great ministry of reconciliation.  Ready to step out courageously to step out with gospel word, love and power.  Not turned in on themselves in slavery to stuff.  Opened up in generosity and invested in the kingdom, willing to embrace the weakness of the margins.  The weakness of powerlessness without being defined by that weakness.  Because they know that exactly in such weakness is true strength to be found.  May he have our hearts and may his grace, the grace of the Lord and the love of God the Father and intimate fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.

Strength in Weakness - Keswick at Portstewart Wednesday 10 July 2024

 

KESWICK AT PORTSTEWART

WEDNESDAY 10 JULY 2024 – BIBLE READING – JOHN RISBRIDGER

2 CORINTHIANS 4 VERSES 1 – 18

How not to lose heart.  Resilience in service.  That word resilience has had a lot of attention in recent years.  Since the pandemic how we cope and recover.  We talk about a resilient individual, a resilient leader as well as resilient structures.  The Cambridge dictionary definition of a resilient person is someone who is able to be happy and successful again after some difficulty or bad has happened.  The Merriam Webster dictionary defines it as an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change.  It seems as a culture we rather admire resilience just now.  We want to see it in people or structures in which we depend upon every day.  “Going through trouble is not easy.”  Resilient people are the kind of people who give the impression that it they are either acting or missing vital piece of emotional structure that you need for leadership.  If we think resilience is easy well it is not - it is about coping with trouble, to find hard things are hard.  After all we can conclude we are not the resilient type.  We give up and try to avoid anything that is difficult.  It does not make for good leadership.  Maybe a better word is endurance.  Pushing through when things are hard.  It is very easy for the apostle Paul to go one of 2 directions.  We can see him as a super human machine who sails through trouble and difficulties, some awesome Teflon type of guy or as the people in Corinthians saw him – weak, flaky, ready to give up when things got hard. Neither of those is accurate.  The picture of Paul we find is that he faced huge hardships one after another and he felt them deeply, sometimes despairing even of life itself.  He did not just bounce back easily especially in those conflicts that tore his heart apart with people he loved so much.  Paul modelled that he found strength in all his troubles from God to endure through them.  Not an easy bounce back but a faith filled endurance.  He was looking to Jesus to push through.  Where did that come from?  How did he not lose heart?  In chapters 4 and 5 there are 3 big answers to that question.

 

First, he was captivated by the worth of Christ – chapter 4 verses 1 – 15.  Particularly verse 7 “we have this treasure in jars of clay.”  What is this treasure?  The message of the gospel in general but also in verse 5 the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ who is the image of God.  Verse 6 the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.  That light as such is the first light of creation and is seen in the dawn of the new creation in the face of Christ.  Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee, the disciple of Gamaliel had long resisted that light until one day on the road to Damascus, when he set out to destroy the church seen a light flashing around him like lightning and was blinded.  It also gave him true sight.  Galatians 1 verse 16.  God revealed his son in me overcoming in an instant all his resistance and prejudice, all his hostility and hatred.  Gone as the light flashed on him and brought him to the ground.  It changed everything for Paul.  From his monotheism, redirected the whole direction and mission and course of his life.  Not just a great idea.  He described in verse 7 the discovery of treasure.  Feel the richness, the weight of that word.  The pearl of great price.  The joy above all joys.  To discover that God can be known in the face of a person in whom he has revealed himself.  The face of our Lord Jesus.  This is the knowledge from which we are created and for which we are recreated in the gospel.  This is the knowledge of intimate relationship eternal and satisfying.  Paul says it is treasure.  In the ancient world the homes of the well to do were full of jars of ivory, marble, brass and glass.  The ordinary folk used jars of clay.  Fragile, inexpensive, disposable bits of pottery, easily broken.  God has chosen to put this priceless treasure in the jars of clay in ordinary people like you and me, who have lots of struggles and feel so unimpressive, who get discouraged and find hard things hard.  God has put his treasure there.  So strength in weakness, resilience, endurance and service don’t come from trying to imitate those jars of ivory or glass.  We are in fact jars of clay.  It comes from savouring the treasure, from enjoying Jesus, from determining never to move from the gospel, from living in the joy of the gospel, being faced with, being satisfied in the love of God in Jesus.  Tim Keller used the words of Psalm 90 verse 13 “satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love that we may be glad and sin for joy all our days.”  This resilience is not about being impressive people but knowing we have a wonderful Saviour and enjoying and being satisfied in his love. That kind of strength in weakness brings glory to God – verse 7.  The trouble with unimpressive people is that they tend to draw attention to themselves.  Jars of clay are just jars of clay.  When you find the treasure in them you see the treasure rather than the jar.  Looking at Paul he looked like a basket case.  Verses 8 and 9.  He was full of struggles, pressures, on the brink of disaster although holding on.  The life of Jesus is revealed in verse 11 and it brings glory to God.  Through his continuing dying the life of Christ is revealed – verse 11.  But in verses 13 to 15 it brings grace to others.  Paul is echoing the line of thought through Psalm 116 “I am able to speak openly of my weakness precisely because I am confident in God’s greater strength and his deliverance.”  I have believed therefore I have spoken.  Why is he doing it – “for your benefit”.  Verse 15.  He speaks of his weakness as jar of clay because in doing so grace overflows into the lives of other people.  Paul’s ministry was the ministry of the wounded – ministering the grace of a wounded Saviour to a broken people.  So Paul’s first source of resilience is being captivated by the worth of Christ.

Secondly, he was sustained by the promise of glory – chapters 4 verses 16 – 18.  What is this hope of things unseen? How can this rather than that be something so solid that we can rest on it and therefore endure when hard times feel hard – verse 17 “an eternal weight of glory.”  Many of our ways of talking of eternity seem weightless.  Disembodied spirits floating off on ethereal clouds and ghostly existence which are mere shadows of former selves.  It is hard to imagine anything further than the weight of glory.  The solidness, the substance, the sheer majesty, significance and splendour of Paul’s vision the glory of Gods vision that awaits us.  He opens it up.  A solid hope which makes us now feel like the shadowlands and a new creation which feels like the life for which we are made.  Chapter 5 verse 1 a contrast is present.  His present bodily life in what we call “the real world” is like a tent that will be dismantled at the end of the holiday.  In its place we have a building from God.  The fashionable Greek thinking of Paul’s day which influenced the Corinthian church saw death as the release of the soul from all the encumbrances of the physical body to float about in eternal bliss.  With his daring imagery Paul is turning that on his head.  Eternal life is not an escape from physical bodily existence.  It is the very fulfilment of that existence.  We believe in the resurrection of the body and of the new creation, of a life to come that is more substantial, more solid, more ultimate, almost more physical than the life we experience now.  It is the building to replace the tent.  That is the contrast here.  That is the key to his endurance or resilience.  Do we really want to give up everything now to float weightless on heavenly clouds in a kind of everlasting church service in the sky?  I think not.  But inheriting the weight of glory, anticipating a new creation.  Giving up the tent for a solid mansion, an eternal home with God not made with human hands.  Reigning with Jesus for ever so as to lead the new creation to its full and final flourishing and justice and beauty.  That is the life we long for.  The life we were made for.  Verse 2.  To rein in creation on God’s behalf.  Revelation 21 verse 2 “we will reign with him.”  To have – this is worth any price and any sacrifice.  Maybe some of us are groaning today.  Weighed down by physical illness and disability or pain.  Maybe it has been a difficult few years and we are carrying scars.  Watching loved ones struggling with ill health or facing the possibility of death.  We pray for God’s intervention and healing but whether we know healing or not.  There is something do know – the groaning will not last forever.  There will come a time when our old mortal bodies will be swallowed up with life.  When Christ will summon them from the grave and call them to resurrection life.  We will live with God forever in that new creation.  No more mourning or crying or pain with every tear wiped from our eyes because God has made all things new.  That is our hope, a glorious hope.  It is certain because of Christ’s resurrection and guaranteed by the witness of the Spirit in our hearts.  Verse 6.  This is the key to his endurance, to his resilience and this hope we too can find grace for the struggle, strength for the weakness, resolve to live the Christian life for the pleasure of Jesus.

 

Thirdly, he was called into the mission of God – chapter 5 verse 11 – chapter 6 verse 2.  When we are not clear on our mission we tend to not get very far, inclined to give up but when we know what it is, when we are going together through something we are energised about it that belies our resilience and endurance.  A clear vision mobilises and energises us.  A lack of vision finds us grasping, not getting very far.  Imagine your local church, if it had a clear, deeply shared vision to impact the local community.  All going in the same direction.  Imagine what your church could be life if that was the clearly held vision.  For Paul the mission is absolutely clear.  It is there in verse 18.  “All this is for God who reconciles us to himself through Christ and gives us the ministry of reconciliation.”  That was the mission Paul had been given.  That ministry of reconciliation.  It was a big mission from a big God whose heart was to transform the whole of human experience.  Every aspect spoiled by human sin could be transformed by the gospel.  It is seen in Colossians 1 and Ephesians 1 in the participation of God’s plan to reconcile all things to himself in Christ ending the alienation we experience for each other, from creation, from our own broken and disordered sense of identity and self and most of all our alienation from God.  The particular emphasis is on reconciliation between people and God – verse 20.  That reconciliation requires an appeal to be made, a message to be spoken and proclaimed.  We are not called to a silent private faith but to a public talking faith.  A speaking mission – verse 11 – persuading others.  Entering into respective dialogue with them.  Verse 20 we are God’s ambassador.  It is a speaking role.  Why should we give our lives to see that mission fulfilled?

 

1.      Fear of the Lord – chapter 5 verse 11.  Because verse 10 he is our judge.  We will stand before Jesus to account for our life and service.  It is not being saved by works.  It is the reality of true saving faith.  It is the obedience of our lives and we will answer for that in that moment.  When we want to hide in shame because of our half-hearted obedience or will we receive his “well done good and faithful servant”?  For Paul not to receive that commendation meant he lived with fear.  That he might not please the Lord Jesus and receive that final well done.  I really love Christ enough to receive that final commendation – do I fear seeing the sadness in his face that I didn’t obey God after the mission he gave me?

2.    The love of Christ – verses 14 to 17.  The great love of Christ is a great love for the world that took him to the cross.  He gave up his life to pay for our sins and to reconcile us to God. How can we resist such love and stay cosily in our comfortable churches and not join in his reconciliation?  A boundary crossing mission to the nations.  It is the ministry of reconciliation to which we are called.  Not to stay in fixed cultural identities.  We were commissioned to the ministry of reconciliation.  To bring the gospel to a broken world.  That is the calling of his people.  The love that compels us.  The implication is – if we never feel that compulsion to cross the boundary and connect with people, with the good news then our hearts are not open to this boundary crossing love.  His purpose, his death was to give us a new Jesus centre life opened out to the world in mission.  We should be compelled by the love of Christ.

3.    Why join the mission?  Because of the purpose of God – chapter 5 verse 18 to chapter 6 verse 2.  It runs like a glorious thread right through the biblical narrative.  It is given first in Genesis 12 verse 2 to Abraham – “I will bless you and make you a blessing to the world”.  That is the mission of God.  To bless his people through grace not so it stops there but flows to the people of the world.  To be truly blessed, to be reconciled to God but why.  He gave us the ministry of reconciliation.  The blessing was never meant to stop with it.  It was given to be passed on and it might overflow.  That is his plan.  There is no back-up.  Our friends, our families, our neighbours, our colleagues.  God has a plan to reach them.  He blessed us to make us a blessing.  He has given us the ministry of reconciliation.  THe price has been paid, the sacrifice has been made.  A sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world – verse 21.  God made him who had no sin, the Lord Jesus in all his perfection and righteousness.  He knew no sin.  Nothing corresponded with sin.  He was utterly pure yet God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us.  Everything that he has, the second member of the trinity had been set aside.  In his righteousness and justice, ever destructive, dehumanising that spoils his creation, that invokes his wrath.  He becomes for us and he does it that we and him might become the righteousness of God.  The evidence that God’s plan has been fulfilled to bless the nations.  The gift of a right standing before him.  The righteousness of Christ given to us who are in need.  There is nothing lacking in the cross.  But the mission of God requires an obedient people.  Not only receive the blessing of God but give that blessing to others so it doesn’t stop there.

Strength in Weakness - Keswick at Portstewart Monday 8 July 2024

 

KESWICK AT PORTSTEWART

NOTES FROM BIBLE STUDY – JOHN RISBRIDGER

MONDAY 8 JULY 2024

READING: 2 CORINTHIANS 1 VERSE 1 – 11

 

What is your image of a great leader?  A good strong leader.  Are good leaders always meant to be strong?  Are strong leaders always good?  Many of us think so at least in the political realm.  They come right across the world - Teflon leaders of today – non stick relationships with trouble and difficulty who seem to sail through without any trouble or difficulty.  They may not win any arguments on rational grounds but they will win the fight.  They seem invincible as they ride the wave of popular sentiment even at the expense of previously declared principles.  Good strong leaders.  It seems it is what we like.  This is what the Christians in the first Century Corinth were seeming to like.  Paul had planted the church in Corinth – we read of that in Acts 18 but Paul’s relationship with the Corinthian church was always stormy.  We are now 5/6 years on from the planting comes after a series of letters.  The tensions remain.  Now some new impressive figures had arrived.  They were drawn from the church in Jerusalem.  They had a strong Jewish background.  For these new arrivals in Corinth frankly Paul is seen as a loser, an earnest but unimpressive figure.  To be honest the church would be better off without him.  The leaders had appointed themselves as apostles.  By comparison he was to them rather timid – chapter 10.  All words and no actions.  Unimpressive as a communicator.  Frankly a bit inferior.  Not even good enough to command a decent fee for his preaching or so they said.  When it came to the point of boasting of great spiritual experiences and revelations from heaven in their judgment he was a bit thin, he was lacking as a good strong leader.  Their good strong Jewish pedigree with a great history of salvation seemed to give them an edge over Paul.  He spent his time with Gentiles and Gentile matters.  He was lacking.  Not quite the real thing. They needed something better.  That is what Paul is responding to in this book.  There is a strong leadership focus in this book.  He addresses many areas of leadership in this book.  The primary function of biblical leadership in the New Testament is not to do with power but with example.  Most of what is said to leaders in this book is relevant to disciples as well.  What it means to be authentic disciples.  It is a letter for all of the people of God.  The striking thing about the response Paul gives he takes different form to what they expect.  Rather than defending himself and polishing up his credentials he repeatedly makes the point that it is in his weakness that his true strength is found.  Strength in weakness – chapter 12 verse 10 “I delight in weakness.”  How surprising that statement was.  Addressed to Corinthians who loved good strong leaders – why – “because when I am weak then I am strong.”  Strength in weakness.  That theme is there from the start in 2 Corinthians.  Paul introduces himself in chapter 1 not as some superman leader who sees off every challenge with ease and indifference but rather someone who had to find the comfort of God in all his troubles – verses 3 and 4.  Someone with his great difficulties as he writes this from Turkey, so intense were his trials that he despaired of life itself.  He needed the comfort of God.  Somehow that disqualified him from leadership.  This is the mark of his authenticity in leadership.  “Anyone who has known only his strength not his weakness has never given himself to a task which demands all he can give.”  Paul was that kind of leader - he had given his all in his mission of God.  He asserts that the mark of true leadership is not found in toughness, the gifting or charisma or the crowd pleasing charm of a leader but fundamentally it is found in God himself, who he is (the Father of mercies and God of all comfort) and in what he has done (the God who raises the dead).

The mark of authentic leadership.  Authentic leaders are those who experience the tenderness of God in troubles and who exercise faith in the power of God as they lead.

Firstly, authentic leaders are marked by their experience of God’s tenderness.  Deliberately using that word experience here - authentic leaders experience God.  Paul is saying here, he has experienced the God of comfort when he has faced all kinds of trouble.  He launches off in verse 3 with a classic Jewish form of praise out of the synagogue liturgy “blessed be God who …” and the Jewish people would know how to finish it off.  For Paul he finishes it differently, it was turned upside down on the Damascus Road as his understanding was transformed in an instant.  He realised then that it was there in the face of Jesus Christ that the glory of God was most truly seen. God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ - the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  This God has revealed himself as the God of all compassion and comfort.  Long ago the prophet Isaiah in chapter 40 had prophesied that Yahweh would step in among his people as Jesus the Messiah with “comfort, comfort for my people.  God has revealed himself to Paul as the Father of compassion and the God of comfort.  God as the Father of mercies and God of all comfort – did you see the plurals?  Not a little but abundant mercies.  The God who has plenty of mercies, enough mercy, kindness, compassion for all of Paul’s troubles.  He comforts us in all our troubles, whatever they may be.  Enough mercy, plenty for you for your deepest struggles, plenty for your most keenest felt weaknesses. God who is there enough. for your disposition.  For you is one of tenderness.  Don’t have to prise mercy out of him for there are plenty of mercies and compassion.  He is there for you today.  He is the God of all comfort.  Paul cannot say enough but all comfort - abundance, sufficiency.  God who will one day wipe away every tear from our eyes and who now in the midst of time comes to those crushed in spirit - Psalm 34.  The Father of mercies.  The God of all comfort.  Have you come to him troubled, broken, weary, on the verge of giving up, losing heart?  It begins here with an invitation for us to come and bring our struggles, vulnerability and failure.  To know you are coming to a God of all comfort.  If there is a voice in your head saying “not for me” you need to silence the voice in your head that says otherwise.  He is the God of mercies and of all comfort.  Is he for you and no-one else?  Not just a theoretical argument for Paul.  This is a lived experience.  He comforts us in all our troubles.  It is his own personal experience of the tenderness of God in his troubles that qualifies him for leadership and ministry.  Verse 4.  If you have lost someone close to you and you are feeling eaten up with grief and sorrow, who do you want to talk to in that situation – one who sailed through life with no obvious difficulties and trouble?  I don’t think so.  You need someone like Jesus.  He was the man of sorrows.  He knew trouble, he came to experience that trouble, experienced the God of mercies.  The Father of all comfort.  That is what leadership looks like.  This is the God I know.  Who I have found in Christ.  Come to me in my troubles.  This is authentic leadership coming straight out of Paul’s own experience of the tenderness of God.  We all need that experience.  He develops this in verses 5 and 6.  He is not just offering some short-term pain relieving comfort but a healing, transformative comfort enabling us to get up and go after seasons of feeling downcast.  If you are broken, weary or struggling - well the God of comfort is here for you and wants to minister his grace to you.  For Paul this experience of the tenderness of God that he could share with other broken believers mattered more than all the techniques other leaders could bring.  He could comfort them because he knew the tenderness of God himself.  It is truly wonderful to experience that, but it is not the only important thing. 

Paul did not stop there.  He tells us that true leaders are marked by faith or his language here on the reliance on the power of God.  The God who raises the dead.  Verse 8.  We are not told exactly what the presenting problems were.  We don’t know for sure. The most obvious candidate was the riot, the mob violence that happened in Ephesus told in Acts 19.  Equally in 2 Corinthians 11 he lists plethora of devastating experiences.  Or it could be his thorn in the flesh, maybe it was some chronic health condition.  Maybe that is what he is referring to.  This experience broke Paul and pushed him right to the limit of his mental health.  He was utterly burdened beyond strength.  Pushed to the point where he despaired even of life itself and felt the sentence of death.  We would call it today acute anxiety and serious depression.  Verse 8 “I don’t want you to be ignorant of this trouble.”  We need to take seriously that the great apostle Paul was pushed to the point, right on the edge of his mental health.  He experienced acute anxiety and significant depression.  We need to look these things in the eye.  Look what Paul learned from this traumatic and painful of experiences – verse 9.  That is a whole different angle of leadership.  It will equip him to be a leader in a different sense altogether.  Churches need the compassion of ministers but also comfort of God.  But they also need to see faith not in themselves but in the God who raises the dead to lead his people out to God’s mission.  Authentic leadership must pivot in both directions.  For Paul the experience in Asia was the death of self-reliance, believing he had all the answers but it was also the beginning of a real practical confidence in the transforming power of God as the God who raises the dead. It is important to know God raised his son from the dead in history.  The moment around which other moments have to reorganise themselves.  The beginning of new creation.  The resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  It is also important to know that God will raise the dead when Jesus returns in all his glory and calls us from the grave to join him in a new creation.  Resurrected bodies to share his reign. In the middle of time we also need to know that he still raises the dead. We need to know now that he is sufficient.  To know for now in the most crushing experiences of our life when the challenge of serving Jesus seems overwhelming, when the opposition is unrelenting he is willing to get involved.  He is the God who raises the dead.  Still is, always will be.  Paul says “I will never be the same again.”  Verses 10 and 11.  He has learned his reliance on God, not as some slogan.  It meant stretching until it hurt in the mission of God and knowing God would come through for him. Taking a risk, not being trapped in the comfort of his church community but stepping out into the world, knowing God would come through for him. This is real trust in God who raises the dead. If leaders are going to lead you into fruitfulness they also need to be leaders of faith.  That self-reliance has been stripped away and they rely on the power of God who raises the dead.  We also need to know the power of prayer by his people.  Verse 11 - not just as helped by prayer but by your prayers.  Paul needed the prayers of other people.  Not just his own.  He needed the prayers of other people to survive and flourish in ministry and so do you and I.  I sometimes get the impression we only need the prayers of other people just when we are about to die or when we are facing some other transforming time of tragedy.  I need the prayers of the people of God.  We need the prayers of other people.  There is no shame in asking others to pray for you.  Just normal Christian faith.  We need the prayers of the people of God.  That they are not just sticking plaster prayers.  Looking to encounter God, to be drawn to his wisdom, touched by his tenderness and compassion.  In that faith filled sensitive prayer that we can find the power of God who raises the dead and we can know that in our lives too.

Good strong leaders.  Paul says true strength is to be found in weakness.  That is the story of Paul’s life.  That is the story of the grace of the crucified Jesus whose greatest victory was won through the unspeakable weakness and suffering of the cross.  If you are sure you want good strong leaders make sure it is the cross shaped strength you are looking for.  The strength of celebrity will disappoint you but the strength that flows from the cross of Jesus displayed in the lives of people who know the tenderness of God and who rely on the power of God.  That strength can help transform you.  Let’s be careful about the kind of leaders we want.  Those who are leaders let us be careful about the leaders we aspire to be – do we want to be leaders marked by the compassion of the Father of mercies and by faith in the God who raises the dead?  Show your weakness and your trust in the God who raises the dead.  Not just about leadership.  It is the mark of authentic discipleship.  God of all comfort is ready to come to us all in our troubles and to use them to strip away our self-reliance, to teach us to walk by faith not by sight.