Christ Memorial Church

Dear friends, 

The Christian faith is full of paradoxes: 

• Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man.
• The Bible is authored by God and humans.
• God elects his people to salvation and his people are responsible to trust Christ for their salvation.
• God’s purposes will be accomplished and we are to pray for his purposes to be accomplished.
• The Lord Jesus will return on time and we are to pray for him to return on time
• Jesus Christ was chosen and predestined by God to die on the cross and human beings are completely responsible for his crucifixion. 

Though these seem contradictory, they are nonetheless true in fact.  There is ample Scriptural support for each. 

But one of our problems, it seems to me, is that we try to fix the paradoxes of Scripture instead of believing them to be true as they stand.  Our minds want cohesive and logical constructs, mental models that make perfectly good sense to us.  I believe it is one thing to try and figure out God’s paradoxes, but it’s another thing to try and fix them. 

One reason why God so clearly reveals paradoxes in Scripture is to humble us.  God knows our hearts are proud so He reveals these tough teachings to remind us that He is God and we are not. 

“O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:33). 

The Bible is written by many different human authors.  Yes!  The Bible is written by the finger and Spirit of God.  Yes!  Both are true.  Yes!  

This week’s memory verse presents another paradox:  “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). 

In 2 Corinthians 12:10 Paul says “for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” 

How can someone be weak and strong at the same time?  Ah, another paradox. 

Some “super-apostles” told the Corinthian Christians that Paul wasn’t much of an apostle.  His speaking ability was weak.  His physical appearance wasn’t attractive.  And he lived with some kind of thorn in his flesh, obviously indicating that God’s blessing wasn’t with him. 

The Greek word for thorn is “sklopos” and means thorn, stake, or splinter.  Most scholars believe that Paul’s thorn was physical.  Other suggestions include rheumatism, depression, a demon assigned to harass him, epilepsy, or eye problems. 

Regardless of what his “thorn” was, I’m glad we don’t know because now all of us can relate to Paul’s “weakness” in one way or another. 

Part of spiritual growth is learning to find the blessing in our weaknesses, but our culture teaches us just the opposite.  We celebrate the strong, the beautiful, and the famous.  Kids want to grow up to become their own version of “American Idol.” 

We all need to hear God say, “And you, do you seek great things for yourself?  Do not seek them” (Jeremiah 45:5). 

So let’s ponder a question together.  How can our weakness be a blessing? 

To begin with, your weakness is where God meets you.  God says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 

God met Paul in his weakness because God comes close to the weak.  “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalm 34:18). 

All through the Bible we read of God coming down – condescending – to the needs of his people.  We see this particularly true in the life of Jesus Christ. 

In Christ, God became flesh and dwelt among us, and throughout his earthly life Jesus met people at their point of weakness.  “He will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick…” (Matthew 12:20). 

I find it interesting that though Christ came for everyone, the prideful and self-sufficient wanted nothing to do with him.  It’s the same today.  Christ comes to all, but only those who see their need of him come to him.  The prideful still turn away.  

Consider how this principle of God meeting us in our weakness is experienced in human relationships.  The people you know best are those who are open, honest, and even vulnerable with you.  When we share our struggles and weaknesses with others, we seem to “meet” each other in deeper ways. 

This is why it is important to surrender your weaknesses to God.  When you do you are surrendering to God’s strength and intimacy in your life. 

“My grace is sufficient for you.” says God.  God met Paul with grace, enough grace to sustain him one day at a time. 

As you learn to surrender your weaknesses to God you will find power to face them. 

Every day we are tempted to cover up or hide our weaknesses.  We are afraid that we won’t measure up or look the part, so we spend undue amounts of time creating an image of ourselves that others will find acceptable. 

In other words, we can’t stand our weaknesses or the weaknesses we see in others.  We want to fix them or hide them.  But what we fail to realize is that our most glaring weakness may be our most glorious asset in serving Christ.

Take the recent Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, for example.  I enjoy Olympic competition.  I believe God enjoys it too. 

But at the same time it’s a celebration of humanity’s strength and might, an effort to showcase the strongest, fastest, and most perfect skiers, snow boarders, and skaters in the world.  An entire nation’s psyche can come down not to a second, or even a tenth of a second, but down to a hundredth of a second.  Gold!  Silver!  Bronze! 

Because we live in such a gold, silver, and bronze world, it’s hard for us to cheer on the weak and broken, the wounded and frail. 

We are consumers of perfection.  Bo Derek was called a “10” for her looks, and Nadia Comanche received the first 10 in Olympic woman’s gymnastics history in 1976 at the summer games in Montreal. 

We all want to be tens. 

Christians have their own version of the “Olympics” as we seek to produce perfect Christian families, perfect programs, perfect worship services, and perfect people.  We want flawless performances by those who entertain us for God. 

Friends, this is so far from Biblical Christianity that I’m almost embarrassed to mention it.  The Reformers made a distinction between a theology of glory (having to do with the new heavens and earth and the age to come) and a theology of the cross (having to do with suffering and pain in the present age).  These great thinkers sifted through the whole counsel of God’s Word and in essence said, “We want glory now, but we must remember that until Christ returns we live under the shadow of the cross, and all our days will be marked by trials of faith.” 

We can’t escape human weakness and pain. 

Surrendering your weaknesses to God is surrendering to God’s strength.  In the same way God turned the cross into an instrument of redemption, so God can turn your weaknesses into a platform to show his strength in your life. 

When you surrender your weaknesses to God you will also find the grace you need to live with them.  God says his grace will be enough for whatever we face.  Your weakness may be painful or embarrassing.  Your weakness may be something you don’t like about your appearance or your upbringing.  It may be physical or mental.  It may be seen or unseen by others.  But it is real and you are reminded of it daily.  So why hide your weakness from God and forfeit the strength that God wants to give you?  

Last week I conducted a memorial service for Eva Hogberg.  I will never forget my final visit with her before she died.  After conversation, Scripture, and prayer I rose to depart.  As I stood in the doorway I called back, “Eva, I’ll see you again, either here or in glory.”  And then with all her strength this frail 93 year old woman lifted both hands with clenched fists into the air and said with a smile, “I am just waiting.”  I smiled back and replied, “I know you are.”  Later that week she passed into the arms of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

I knew what “just waiting” meant.  She was waiting for Christ to come and take her home.  She persevered to the end of her life because God’s grace was enough.  God’s grace was made perfect in her weakness. 

And my friend, God’s grace will always be enough for you and me as well.

We have to discover that God’s power is made perfect in weakness in order to grow spiritually.  We will never be able to lift our hands in praise to God during our trials if we don’t surrender them to him. 

For Paul, this was a long, agonizing process.  God saved him and he was busy in Christ’s service, but God wanted to take him deeper.  Christ wanted to make Paul so humble and dependent on him that Christ’s power would fill his life to overflowing.  And indeed it did. 

How does this happen?  One way it happens is with age.  The older we get the more we realize how much we need God.  Aches and pain, shattered dreams and lost realizations catch up to us as we grow older.  Hopefully our wisdom to see our weaknesses as strength will increase as well. 

Another way we learn that God’s power is made perfect in our weaknesses is by trusting him whenever a trial or weakness comes into our life.  As we do, God develops a track record of faithfulness with us.  As we experience God coming through for us again and again, we are inspired to keep trusting him for more. 

But perhaps the most important way we learn that God’s grace is sufficient for every one of life’s hardships is by deepening our relationship with the cross of Christ. 

This is what Paul did.  “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). 

At the cross we see the “foolishness” and “weakness” of God (1 Corinthians 1:18-25).  At the cross we see Christ “crucified in weakness” but now living “by the power of God” (2 Corinthians 13:4). 

There Christ took our sin and guilt.  There Christ bore our infirmities and diseases.  There Christ took our trials and weaknesses.  And there weakness was turned into victory. 

When you look at the cross of Christ you see God making foolish the wisdom of the world and making weak the strength of the world. 

Sooner or later, then, we need to stop asking God to remove our thorn or weakness and learn to live with it. 

Paul asked God to take his thorn away three times, but each time God said no.  Paul then stopped asking God to take it away, and instead started asking him for the grace to live with it. 

This is where God wants to take you and me.  Some of our weaknesses are temporary and some will be with us for a lifetime.  But at some point we have to stop asking God to remedy them and start asking God to resurrect them as beautiful blessings for others. 

That’s right, your thorn or weakness is a gift in disguise.  We think, “Oh no, I have a flaw or blemish.  Oh my, I’m not smart enough or rich enough or popular enough.  I’m sick.  I’m in pain.  I have a sinful past.”  And on and on we go. 

What we forget is that God has providentially appointed a “thorn” in the flesh for each of our lives and his purpose is to bless others through our weakness.  God will use your unique life and weakness to bless people in ways no one else can, if you let him. 

William Sangster was a popular English Methodist pastor in the middle of the twentieth century.  He was known and appreciated for his excellent preaching and compassionate heart.  During World War Two he “converted the church basement into an air raid shelter, and for 1688 nights Sangster ministered to the various needs of all kinds of people” (Robert Morgan, Sermon Illustrations).

After the war he was “diagnosed with progressive muscular atrophy” and over the next three years died a slow death.  Toward the end of his life he could only move two fingers.  During this time Sangster made four rules for himself:  “I will never complain.  I will keep the home bright.  I will count my blessings.  I will try to turn it to gain.”  Robert Morgan says, “He did all those things.  And thus the work of God was displayed in his life, and in his death.” 

In your weakness God’s strength is made perfect.  What a humbling and encouraging paradox. 

Until next week, 

Pastor Mike