church

INI
Sexagesima Sunday
February 15, 2009
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor
Hymns: 1, 49, 521, 372

THANK GOD FOR THORNS
II Corinthians 12:7-9

And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the
revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet
me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the
Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, "My grace
is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore
most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Here ends our text.

In Christ, Who provides strength for this life and salvation for the next, Dear
Fellow-Redeemed,

A recent magazine article told of a woman who was an avid gardener. Flowers
were her specialty; and she was especially proud of her roses. She entered every
flower competition she could, and with her beautiful roses, she ended up
winning a lot of them. Eventually, she worked her way up to the finals of an
important regional competition. She chose the most perfect rose in her garden,
confident that such a beautiful flower could never lose. That's why she was so
bewildered when the judges passed her by in favor of another finalist's entry.
When she asked for an explanation, one judge told her, "The flower of your rose
is perfect, it's true. But the particular specimen you chose has no thorns, and
without thorns it's not a perfect rose!"

Like a rose, every well-rounded Christian life contains not only flowers, but
thorns as well; not only the beautiful fruits of faith, but the thorns of trial and
hardship, too. Sadly, Christians are a notoriously forgetful people. We tend to
forget very easily who it is who supplies all our wants and needs, day by day.
And we're especially forgetful when it comes to our most important need -
salvation. Well, God often sends "thorns" into our lives as a way of reminding
us where these blessings really come from. They're little memory refreshers that
are often painful, but frequently beneficial as well. The Apostle Paul found that
out in his own life, and he shares his experience with us in our text for this
morning. Let's take a closer look at that word of God. Perhaps after studying it
we will, with Paul, be able to:

=0 A
THANK GOD FOR THORNS
I. They remind us that HE supplies our earthly needs
II. They remind us that HE provides our salvation

A friend and I used to hunt in the Glacier Peak Wilderness Area in the northern
part of the state. We camped at an alpine lake, high up in the mountains. Often
we were all alone. There was something exhilarating in knowing th at there we
were the only humans in a radius of fifty, maybe a hundred miles. It was almost
as though we were "going where no man had gone before!" The Apostle Paul
must have had the same sort of feeling. Think of it: to him was given the honor
of being the first missionary to bring the good news of the Gospel to the world!
He was a pioneer in the missionary field. The fact that there had come to be
Christians in nearly every part of the then-known world was, in a large part, due
to the work that Paul himself had done. What a feeling! He must have been
sorely tempted to feel proud of his accomplishments, to boast about his special
revelations, to consider himself a pretty exceptional human being!

God saw how great that temptation would be. So God gave Paul a reminder.
Just a little something to jog his memory from time to time. Something to bring
him up short, and remind him just Who was the Creator, and who the creature;
Who the Master, and who the servant; Who the Em ployer, and who the
employee. Paul says, lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance
of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to
buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Paul was given a "thorn in the
flesh." Over the centuries, lots of people have speculated about what that
"thorn" might have been. Some think it might have been a nagging illness, like
recurrent malaria, or a mild form of cerebral palsy. Some even think it may have
been a speech impediment - you can imagine how annoying and discouraging
that would be for a man who's full-time job is preaching!

Whatever it was, it troubled him. It bothered him so much, in fact, that he
begged God over and over again to take the=2 0"thorn" away. Concerning this
thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He
said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in
weakness." God did not take it away. He left the painful thing in place, as a
necessary reminder to Paul. Eventually, the Apostle learned to thank God --
even for his thorn!

Does all this sound familiar to you? It ought to, because God uses the same
system of painful reminders in your life, too! Sickness, trouble, sorrow, and
guilt. Of course, God is never the author of evil. But God does promise to use
all the things in your life - even the bad and painful things - for your eternal
benefit. He promises to incorporate them in a good purpose, as he says in
Romans 8:28: We know that all things work together for good to those who
love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. And one of the
painful benefits of thorns in your life is to remind you of a couple of facts that
it's absolutely essential you remember! The first is that God is the one who
supplies your earthly needs. The second (and most important!) is that He is the
one who provides you with eternal salvation!

A father and his young son were watching the final stages of the building of a
bridge near their home. The bridge spanned a deep river, and the boy was
startled when the wooden supports of the bridge were systematically blasted
away with dynamite, one by one. He asked his father why the workers were
doing that. The father replied, "The wooden pilings were only temporary
supports. Now they're being removed, so that the weight of the bridge can settle
on the permanent, stone pilings that lie behind them." Sometimes we Christians
are bewildered when the things we trusted in - our money, our jobs, even our
health - seem to collapse underneath us. Especially during the present financial
crisis, when it seems we all know somebody who has lost their job or has had to
sell their home, often at a tremendous loss. A lot of props are getting blasted
out from under a lot of people right now. Can God use even these distressing
events for the benefit of His children? Yes, of course He can. God sometimes
allows these artificial supports to be removed from our lives, in order to remind
us where our confidence truly needs to rest - in Him! As we sing in the familiar
hymn: On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground (all the bank accounts
and insurance policies, all the IRAs and 401-k's) …all other ground is sinking
sand. Obviously it's very difficult when these things happen; in fact, it's another
of life's thorns. It's a painful reminder that we finally have to rely on the Lord to
provide health, safety, money, happiness -- to provide everything. He is the
rock-solid foundation that will never collapse!

We can't know and trust God's strength until He shows us our weakness. And
I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about. Right now you're probably
thinking of a particular thorn in your life -- has the down economy affected you?
Are you wondering where the next meal's going to come from, the next pair of
shoes for your kids? How you're going to cover your taxes this spring, or your
next house payment, or your next car payment? That could be your thorn!
Perhaps God's trying to remind you that it is He, not you, who supplies your
daily bread. Jesus says, "Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor
reap nor gather int o barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of
more value than they? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or
'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the
Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things
shall be added to you."

If it's not a financial problem, then perhaps it's an illness or an injury that
you've suffered. There's nothing like a serious health problem to make us realize
how frail we really are, and to drive us back to God. It makes us cry out to God,
with Jeremiah, "Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be
saved, for you are the one I praise." Jer 17:14.

Perhaps you or a loved one has experienced an accident recently, or a close
brush with death. That makes you think, doesn't it! It makes you stop and think
about who it is who is watching you around the clock, and who it is who
protects you from hidden dangers. The Psalmist uses the picture of the
immovable city of Jerusalem, which is protected on every side by hills: "Those
who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides
forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds His
people from this time forth and forever." Ps 125:1-2.

And that brin gs us to a bigger and more important question. Yes, it's a mistake
to trust ourselves to supply our earthly needs. But it's a much bigger mistake to
trust ourselves for salvation! And God has a painful reminder for that, too. Did
you ever think of your sins, and the guilt you feel over your sins, as a thorn that
God uses in your life? Again, remember: the Bible says that the Lord will make
"all things work together for good to them that love God;" -why not the
sinfulness that we see and detest in ourselves?

Yes! Our conscience, the guilt and sorrow we feel over sin, is also something
God puts to use for our good. He uses it to turn us away from our own failed
attempts at self-justification and self-righteousness. So many people today are
trying to please God by doing good deeds and by being a good person. In fact,
that's how many people define Christianity. But as Paul reminded the Romans,
the "righteousness tha t is by works" (Rom. 10:5) can never save anybody. If
anything, that kind of thinking is counterproductive of salvation. In his recent
book, Christless Christianity, Michael Horton says, "The righteousness that is
by works strives to ascend to God, offering our works of service to Him so that
we will be blessed. But as the Reformers pointed out, this does not really help
anybody since God is not impressed, we are not saved, and our neighbor is not
served." (p. 198).

We've got to get away from that. And sometimes allowing thorns in our life is
the only way God can lead us, in repentance, away from self-justification
toward the true justification that Christ provides. To Jesus' perfect
righteousness! Paul says, "Godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, not
to be regretted." II Cor 7:10. That biggest "thorn" in our lives is called the Law.
When we look down the list of God's co mmandments, the reality that we
haven't kept any of them slaps us in the face. We realize that we haven't got the
power to please God on our own. Everywhere we turn, we see the reminders:
the sins, the failures that confront us with how truly weak we are! And that
drives us, as it should, to the grace of our God. He reassures us, My grace is
sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Paul responds,
Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of
Christ may rest upon me. Paul thanks God for his thorns -- why can't we?

God wants to provide your salvation, so let Him do it! Throw off your own
righteousness, and trust in the power and righteousness of Christ! He's kept all
the commandments that you could never keep. In your place, He walked the
narrow path of righteousness through life. In each of those spots along the way
where you stumbled, where you forsook your Savior, where you struck off on
your own and sinned against God – in each of those places, Jesus kept God's
Law for you. As John says, "He was manifested to take away our sins, and in
Him there is no sin." I John 3:5. And when the time came for all the accounts to
be paid, when all the sins of the world were totaled up, Jesus signed on the
dotted line. The weight of the rough, wooden cross was heavy on His shoulder
as He stumbled toward Calvary, but it was nothing compared to that other
weight. It was light as a feather compared to the crushing burden of the sins of
mankind - your sins and my sins. Nevertheless, Jesus picked them up and
carried them, on and on. Every bloody, agonized step, all the way to Calvary.
And there He got rid of our sins, once and for all! For20God "made Him who
knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in
Him." II Cor 5:21.

Because of what Jesus did for us, we're free from our sins once and for all!
Because of His work, we are now alive to God in righteousness! We're ready
and waiting to take our place next to our Savior in heaven - the place He earned
for us when He shed His precious blood. He is the One who provides our
salvation. And if God sees the need to send reminders of that fact into our
lives, as painful as those reminders may be, we can rejoice with Paul that the
power of Christ is resting upon us!

Did you ever wonder how "cultured pearls" are produced? A tiny grain of sand
is introduced into the mantle of an oyster. The sand acts as an irritant, which
the oyster reacts to by coating it with a smooth white enamel. When many coats
of this enamel have been built up on the grain of sand, it becomes a pearl - a
thing of extraordinary beauty that is valued the world over. God sends thorns in
our lives - painful little irritants - to remind us of our weakness, and teach us to
depend on Him for our physical and spiritual needs. God grant that we may see
these thorns for what they are - gifts that lead eventually to the beauty of life
everlasting. Then we'll understand , with St. Paul, that "our light affliction,
which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal
weight of glory." II Cor 4:17. In Jesus' name, AMEN.