September 13, 2026
"My Grace Is Sufficient for You" (2 Corinthians 12: 1-10)
Series: Acts: God's Vision For His Church Scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:1–10
Hear now the Word of the Lord from 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. I must go on boasting, though there is nothing to be gained by it. I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know.
God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.
On behalf of this man I will boast. But on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth. But I refrained from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from becoming conceited, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me to keep me from becoming conceited.
Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ. Then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hungry, hardships, persecutions and calamities.
For when I am weak, then I am strong. This is the word of the Lord.
Please be seated.
And as you're taking your seat, let's join our hearts together in prayer and seek the Lord's help as we study his word. Gracious Father, we need your spirit. Father, we need your spirit to give us hearts to understand and eyes to see and ears to hear all that is contained in the good news of the Gospel of Christ. And so we pray, fill us with your spirit, especially for comfort and to draw our eyes to heaven where Jesus Christ, your son, is seated at your right hand, that we might draw near to you through faith in him. It's in Christ's name we pray.
Amen.
This was an extremely heavy week on Monday. Getting the news that our brother Dan Kuipers departed this world to enter into glory again was a very good thing for him. But it was devastating for us, for his family, his friends. Thursday was the anniversary of Charlie Kirk's murder. And Friday was the 25th anniversary of 9 11.
I was in Washington D.C. supposed to fly home on 9 11. I watched the Pentagon burn for three days from my hotel room. I went through a lot of videos, especially of New York this year, and it hit me, I think differently this year than it even has in the past, maybe with everything else going on. Yesterday was the memorial service for Dan, and I'm simply being honest that I cried a lot this week and I suspect many of you did as well. I think anytime we're in a week like this, there's a very old question in philosophy.
But whereas many of the questions of philosophy feel a thousand miles away from our day to day life, there's sort of a natural question that all of us ask whether we're philosophers or not. It's if God knows about everything that's happening and if God is truly all powerful, and if God is indeed good, then how does evil come to pass? How is their suffering? Of the extent that we have seen and been reminded of this week, it's called the Problem of Evil. And again, it's a question that we think about.
It's not just an abstract speculation of philosophers. It hits hard in a week like this.
The Scriptures answer this question, but they don't give us exhaustive details to fill in all the gaps. And so we continue to wrestle with this every time we have a week like this.
And so this morning, as I take a break from Acts for just one week, it's not totally a break. We were looking at the evangelization of Corinth last week. I mentioned this passage in my sermon this week before I knew all of this week would bring. But we're going to come to Paul's letter, second letter to the church in Corinth, and study this particular passage. Because I think this passage, it's a passage I've wrestled with for many years, gives us not an exhaustive answer to deal with all of our questions, but it gives us a good and faithful answer that helps us in this, our time of need.
And the answers the Scriptures give us is that Christ's power and grace are sufficient and perfect. That's our theme for this morning, that Christ's power and grace are sufficient and perfect. Now I want to ask two questions related to the problem of evil. There's technically three parts. If God is all knowing, he knows about all the evil, but we're going to assume that he does.
We're going to ask two questions, though, related to the problem of evil. First of all, is the Lord powerful? Is he powerful enough where he could do something? But second, is the Lord good If he knows about it, if he's powerful, is he good? If he then does not do something to divert the evil.
1. Is the Lord Powerful? (2 Corinthians 12:1-8)
So let's start with this question. Is the Lord powerful? And we're going to look at the first eight verses in this section. I won't go too much into the context of this because it helps to study the entire letter, second letter to the Corinthians to develop this. But essentially, Paul's ministry is under attack.
It's under attack particularly by so called super apostles. They were the celebrity preachers of their day that would go from town to town and would draw a great crowd and following, and they would make a lot of money in the process because they were very skilled in their speech, because they spoke not too far away from Athens in words of philosophical wisdom, in speeches that captivated the attention of the people. And they looked at Paul, who said that when he went to Corinth, he came in fearful, trembling, and he spoke not in words of wisdom, but he spoke determining to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. And they look at this man and they say, look at his form, look at his body, look at the way he carries himself. That's not a man that you want to follow.
That's a man of weakness. That's a pathetic figure. Why would you want to follow him?
And so Paul sort of pulls back the curtain just enough to reveal his credentials for going toe to toe with these so called super apostles.
He says he must go on boasting. And here's the thing, he has to boast. He has to declare his credentials as an apostle, but he's not really in it to puff himself up. And so he does this strange thing where he talks about himself, but in the third person. He talks about himself, but sort of distances this story from himself by talking about a certain man in Christ who was caught up into the third heaven.
These super apostles claim to have special knowledge. And Paul says that he actually did have secret knowledge, secret knowledge that it is not lawful for man to utter. But he'll boast about that man, but he's not going to boast about himself. Instead, he says he wants to boast only in his weaknesses. Why?
Well, verse six, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears of me. What Paul was doing, and this is again something that differentiated him from the entire culture of Corinth, where everything was razzle dazzle, everything was a show and a display, where everything was putting forward of the preacher and there was no contentness in the one who was being preached. Effectiveness in the world's eyes looks like power and success, and it's something to be boasted in. But Paul didn't want the people to look at him and see some tremendous leader and admire him. He wanted to get out of the way by putting forward his weaknesses so they wouldn't even be tempted to think too much of him.
They jumped right past Paul and looked to the one whom he was preaching, Jesus Christ.
But what about the Lord? Paul was not going to glory in the glory that he experienced. He was not going to glory in his strength. But what about the Lord? Is the Lord strong?
Is the Lord powerful?
And for Paul, what he really wants to boast about. And here's where he switches back to the first person, he owns this story. He distances himself from that man 14 years ago, although it's clearly he's talking about himself. But here he says, this is something I did experience, and this is something I do want to boast about. In verse seven, he says, to keep me from becoming conceited, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations that he experienced in the heavens, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
And we don't know what this thorn in the flesh is. The fact that it's a thorn in his flesh suggests some kind of physical suffering, although there are lots of suggestions that people make and Paul never ultimately answers the question. But what we do know is that Paul was painfully aware of one of the reasons for having received this thorn in the flesh. He says twice, to keep me from becoming conceited. And if you missed it, to keep me from becoming conceited.
There are many reasons. God's purposes for bringing suffering into our life are multifaceted. There are many reasons for these. But one of the reasons, especially for those with extraordinary gifts like Paul. Paul is that God is always seeking to humble us.
Not out of some kind of cruelty. He wants to humble us so that we can rightly relate to him.
Now, Paul, for his part, did not want this suffering. He did not want this weakness. And he prayed three times asking the Lord and to take it away. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should lead me. Verse eight.
Now, Charles Hodge, in his commentary on this, he makes the point, and we can't miss this, that in this we have an echo of Jesus actions in the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed three times. If it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Jesus Words are so instructive because even Jesus, who knew that he came into this world to go to the cross, asks, is it possible not to go? Is it possible? And if it is, let this cup pass from me.
He's asking a question of the Lord's power. Can the Lord take this away? Can the Lord be powerful enough to remove this from his experience?
But again, this isn't a cynical kind of a question. Well, if you don't do this, then I'm no longer going to trust you. It's a trust filled question of looking to the Lord and saying, is it possible not to have to go through this? And we read that Paul pleaded for this as Jesus prayed three times in the garden for the Lord to take this, this away. But for both Jesus and for Paul, the Lord did not take away this suffering appointed for them.
And I think there's something fitting about the fact that our brother Dan had three major bouts of cancer. And every time he prayed and this church prayed, lord, take this away. And two times that prayer was answered to some degree. But in this third time, instead of our brother being healed, he was taken home into glory. If the Lord is powerful enough to take away suffering, why doesn't he do so?
Well? What Jesus prayed was not only, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. When he prayed this, the next thing he prayed was, yet not my will, but yours be done. It gets us to a question of will. It's not if God can do something, it's what is God's will?
What is God's will in the suffering of Jesus? What is God's will in the suffering of Paul? What was God's will in the suffering of Dan? What is God's will in your suffering and my suffering? And when we ask that, we're asking the question, is God's will good?
2. Is the Lord Good? (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
Is the Lord powerful? But now we come to the second section. Is the Lord good? In verses 9 and 10, the Lord does not give Paul a great explanation. And we don't hear the Lord's response to Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane as he is praying.
But look at what he says to Paul rather than explaining everything, rather than giving the entire fruit that is going to come from this, rather than showing him the extent of the eternal decrees and where this fits into all of that.
Instead we read, he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Now what's very interesting about this passage is that in the Greek, the word sufficient is pulled to the very Front of this statement, he doesn't say, my grace is sufficient for you. He literally says, sufficient is my grace for you in Greek. That's one of the ways of really emphasizing the importance of that word, that idea, in understanding what Jesus is saying. He says, you don't need me to take this away.
It will be enough. It is sufficient for you to experience my grace in this time. Now, when we talk about grace, and we talk about grace a lot as Christians, it's important to understand that grace is not some spiritual thing or some substance, that God pours some of this stuff here, sometimes he pours some of it there. And that's how God sort of casts his grace out into the world as though it were a thing, as though it were rain or a waterfall from heaven. Don't think about grace in this way.
It leads us astray from understanding what God means when he talks about his grace. Grace is not a thing. Grace is God's kindness toward you, his disposition toward you, his attitude toward you. Grace is the fact that God loves you, though you do not deserve it. And what Jesus is saying to Paul here, it will be enough in your suffering for you to know that I love you through this.
It will be enough for you to experience the warmth of my kindness even as you go through the fires of the thorn in your flesh. That will be sufficient. That will be enough. It will be enough for you to know that I have perfect control over this situation, that I am indeed all powerful. And it will be enough to know that I am good in my grace toward you.
He goes on to say, my power will be perfect in weakness. We will come back to that in a moment. But I first want to note one commentator, Paul Parnett. He notes that when Jesus talks about is sufficient and the power is being made perfect, those are phrased in such a way that they don't capture a limited kind of action. They capture an action that is true and continues to be true.
It wasn't I gave you that dose of my grace, and now you are good. You got your booster. Now you're good.
This will continue to be sufficient for you as you walk the next steps today and the next day and the next day and the next day after that. And my power will continue to be made perfect each day as you walk through this. Okay, so let's come back to that phrase. His power is made perfect in weakness. How should we understand this?
How can God's power be made perfect in weakness?
Jesus is really revealing something important about his own mission and his ministry and what he accomplished and why the cross was so central. What he is showing us here is that at the cross, even more than at his transfiguration, God's power and glory were unfurled, were displayed, and manifested most fully. Now again, how could this be? How could the weakness of Jesus? Because Paul goes on to say in the next chapter that Jesus was crucified in weakness.
How then was the weakness of Christ on the cross the fullest display of God's power? Well, Mark Seyfried in his commentary, he makes a really interesting observation. He says, if you think about it, God's power is so great, you know, you imagine like the heights of God's power. And how could you extend beyond the infinite heights of God's power? And the answer is, there's no way to do that.
You cannot over shoot the infinite heights of God's power. But if you want to expand the footprints of God's power, do you know what you can do? Not to try to extend infinity further upward, but to go lower, to extend the power of God so that it goes into the greatest weakness and suffering that has ever happened in the history of the world at the cross of Jesus Christ. And it meets you in your weakness too. But the second thing that happens here in this passage in verse nine, at the second part of this, after Paul is reflecting on what Jesus said to them.
To him, he says, therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. That is a hard phrase to translate, but it doesn't come close to bringing out what Paul says there. It's literally so that the power of Christ may turn tabernacle upon me. The image here is of the tabernacle going through the wilderness in ancient Israel. And we read that as the tabernacle went from place to place, the Lord was with his people as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
And whenever the tabernacle was disassembled, the pillar would lead them, would tell them where to go and would stop in the next spot, and they'd bring the the tabernacle, the tents and the poles and the furniture of it, and set it up in that new spot. And the pillar of God would rest upon that place, and God would dwell in the midst of his people.
The glorious, powerful, indwelling presence of Almighty God sees fit to make his home to come to rest upon you when your lives are fitted with the tent skins. The tabernacle not of strength, not of boasting, he doesn't need that. That's not a fitting place for his glory to shine.
But in the tent skins of the weaknesses of your life, this is where God's power comes to dwell. And it's where Paul has experienced the strength of Christ in the midst of his suffering. And so he says in verse 10, for the sake of Christ, then I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
A few weeks ago, we took our two year old to the dentist and very sadly, the dentist discovered a couple of cavities in poor little Judah's teeth.
And when the dentist told Allison to schedule an appointment to fill those cavities, they informed her that that this was for the patient only and that parents were not allowed back in the room where this would be happening. Now, as we reflected on this, several things are true at once. First of all, he needs this treatment. If you let cavities go, this is not pleasant. The problem continues to grow.
A lot more pain, he'll suffer much more infection. You just don't want to go down that road. But second, filling those cavities is never pleasant for anyone. No one has ever listed cavity filling on their list of hobbies that they like to do. How horrible would that be for a toddler who has no idea what's going on or why it has to happen?
And so, as his father, I can't make the problem go away, but I also couldn't leave him to suffer alone. And so we went into the office and, well, I went into the office and I sat down and I said, I understand your policies. I understand I'm here to help. I've sat with other kids when they're getting stitches. I just want to be with them so that they're not scared as they're going through that process.
And eventually they relented and made an exception for me to be with my son when he gets these cavities filled. Now, I'm nowhere near a perfect father, but how much more does our Father in heaven, who is perfect, strengthen us when we walk through the most difficult experiences of our lives? We sang it earlier. For my Savior loves me so he will hold me fast.
Last week, one of the things I said was that God never explains the power that exists in weakness, but he everywhere commends it. Everywhere we go in scripture, he's calling us to be still and know that I am God. He's calling us to be content and to boast in our weaknesses. He's instructing us that his grace will be sufficient for us and his power will be made perfect in weaknesses. And again, our weakness.
He wants us to see as the tent skins of a pure tabernacle where he himself will make his residence, where he himself will will dwell in our presence to strengthen us in our weaknesses.
You know, when I talked to Dan in the latter weeks of his life and even the latter months, he was often frustrated because he was such a servant hearted person that he wanted to help. He wanted to be on the other side of help giving. He didn't want to receive it, he wanted to give it to other people. You have this young man in the prime of his life, strong as an ox, but brought to utter weakness and death. And I tremble to speak about these things I did yesterday and I do now because we are trotting on holy ground when we consider the indwelling presence of God upon Dan in the moment of his weakness all the way until death.
Was God powerful to save him out of the thorn in his flesh? Well, yes. Of his three bouts with cancer, twice the Lord answered his prayer.
Was God good and kind through all of this? On the surface, it's hard to see how. Which is why the laments of scripture are so important. They teach us that we can be honest about the questions we have. Not going to God in skepticism.
How dare you do this, God? But going to God saying, I know you're powerful, I know you're good. How long must we suffer in these ways? How long will you forget me, Lord? Forever?
Will it be Dan was never forgotten? In his weakness, Christ's power was made perfect in ways that we cannot see. Now, some of you were at the funeral yesterday. And so I'm going to tell you again something that I learned yesterday. I was talking with the mother of Dan's best friend who died of cancer in 2017.
In many ways a forerunner of Dan's own experiences, it was formative for Dan. Dan told me about him several times.
But this mother told me that so many people came to Christ because of her son's faith, all the way to the point of death. Even recently. She said that someone who knew her son during his lifetime was recently baptized upon profession of faith, having converted to faith in Jesus Christ.
This isn't the experience that anyone wants. We don't want to have that story in life. And again, it's so instructive that Jesus didn't want the cup that was given to him in Gethsemane. He had to wrestle with his father in prayer before he drank that cup. To the dregs for you and for me.
If we walk by sight, we look at all of this and say, what a waste, what horrors. How could this be? Nothing in this world is just. And we could write it all off and become increasingly bitter.
But if we walk by faith and trust the Lord's power and his goodness, we will experience the indwelling power of God's power presence in the midst of our sorrows.
So I want to ask you, are you trusting in Christ this morning? Have you seen and recognized your great guilt before God? Your greatest issue is not your health challenge. It's not your relational issues. It's not your financial woes.
Your greatest problem in this life, in the next is that you are a sinner and that if you die in your sins, you will be condemned for all of eternity to hell and condemnation, separated from the gracious love of God for all of eternity. This is real and it is serious and you must hear about it.
But God in his love, the will of God, the eternal plan of God, was to send forward his Son into this world to drink that cup. Was it possible? Yeah. Jesus said that he could call upon his Father and his Father would send legions of angels to rescue him. But it wasn't possible if we were to be saved.
And so Jesus, in humble obedience, endured the cross to die as a substitute sacrifice for sinners like you and me, so that through faith in Jesus, we might be saved.
In verse 9.
A better way to translate that first phrase. But he said to me is as a perfect tense, which means but he has said to me. It's the idea of something that has happened, but isn't just limited to that one time. It's something that continues and continues and continues insignificant. It was true for Paul.
It's been something that every generation of believer could cling to in times of weaknesses.
It's true for your weakness today. It's true in the weakness of your fears for tomorrow. And Charles Hodge, who points this out, says these words of Christ for you say it is enough that I love you and the promises of God secure and imply all other good. The Lord is powerful. The Lord is good.
The Lord showed his perfect power and goodness at the cross of Jesus Christ. And that power will rest upon you in your weakness when you look to Christ in faith. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that as we come into your presence, you would give us grace in our time of need, to look to Christ as our only comfort, body and soul, in life and in death, that we are not our own but we belong to our faithful, sacred savior, Jesus Christ. Draw us to faith, we pray in Christ's name.
Amen.
other sermons in this series
Oct 4
2026
"Preparation and Fulfillment" (Acts 19:1-7)
Preacher: Rev. Jacob Gerber Scripture: Acts 19:1–7 Series: Acts: God's Vision For His Church
Sep 20
2026
"Many Gifts among Many Members" (Acts 18:18-28)
Preacher: Rev. Jacob Gerber Scripture: Acts 18:18–28 Series: Acts: God's Vision For His Church
Sep 6
2026
"Power Made Perfect in Weakness" (Acts 18:1-17)
Preacher: Rev. Jacob Gerber Scripture: Acts 18:1–17 Series: Acts: God's Vision For His Church