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Our Story or His story?
Chapter 12:1-13
2Co 12:1 ¶ I don't think it’s really a good thing for me to boast at all, but if I must I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord himself.
There was a segment of the churches of Corinth (and the surrounding province of Achaia) who were being swayed by the Judaizers. Paul's name and reputation were being dragged through the mud. In the eyes of those who knew him, and should have stood by him, he was now being seen in a very doubtful light. So, not only is it not a good thing to 'boast' but he shouldn't have to.
Paul has already boasted … or at least, reminded them, of who he is. His place in the Jewish race and religion were equal to, if not more impressive than what his critics could claim for themselves. His history of accomplishments was certainly greater.
Now he boasts of something that must have been very personal and private to him. He has never mentioned this in any of his other writings.
As if he were talking about someone else he says,
2 I know a man in Christ who, fourteen years ago, had the experience of being caught up into the third Heaven. Who is this man and where is the 'third heaven?' The first heaven is where the birds and airplanes fly and the satellites orbit, the second heaven is the created universe and the third is the dwelling place of God.
Paul was caught up into the third heaven at some point in the past.
He does not know what state, physical or spiritual, that he was in at the time.
3 I don’t know whether it was an actual physical experience, only God knows that. All I know is that this man was caught up into paradise. (I repeat, I do not know whether this was a physical happening or not, God alone knows.) 4. This man heard words that cannot, and indeed must not, be put into human speech.
We know that Paul is really speaking about himself in these verses, because in verse 7 he switches from saying, 'This man heard …' to saying 'I am proud of …' And in verse 7 he says, ' … the revelations that God gave me …
Although Paul's experience seems not that common, similar things have happened to others in Bible history. Ezekiel the prophet said,
Ezekiel 8:2 “Then I looked, and behold, a form that had the appearance of a man. Below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal.
3 He put out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy”.
What in the world is Ezekiel talking about? Well that would be the topic of another study. I just want you take note of his having said, . the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and …'
And then there was Philip who, shortly after the day of Pentecost, was sharing the way of Salvation with a man taking an ox-cart trip from Israel, all the way to Egypt. After Philip baptized the man, Philip was transported (Tele-ported?) a hundred miles or so to another location. (Acts 8:40)
Another classic example is that of the apostle John in the book of Revelation.
Re 4:1 ¶ After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this."2 At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne.
The apostle Paul did not know if he was in the spirit or in the body when it happened to him …
Paul identifies the place … he was taken into the third heaven. … into Paradise. Up there he heard things. How long was he up there? He doesn't say.
Here are a couple of options mentioned in scripture that could have been the time when Paul's 'trip' took place.
Acts 14:19 ¶ Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and after turning the minds of the people against Paul they stoned him and dragged him out of the city thinking he was dead. 20 But while the disciples were gathered in a circle round him, Paul got up and walked back to the city. And the next day he went out with Barnabas to Derbe,
Is this the time that Paul was 'caught up into the third heaven'? Is it possible that our time and heaven's time are quite different from each other? Perhaps being out cold for half an hour was all it would take for Paul to have experienced a glorious visit in heaven.
Here is another possibility. This is Paul writing to the church in Galatia.
Galatians 1:11 I do assure you, my brothers, that the gospel I preached to you is no human invention. 12 No man gave it to me, no man taught it to me; it came to me as a direct revelation from Jesus Christ.
13 For you have heard of my past career in the Jewish religion, how I persecuted the Church of God with fanatical zeal and, in fact, did my best to destroy it. 14 I was ahead of most of my contemporaries in the Jewish religion, and had a boundless enthusiasm for the old traditions.
15 But when it pleased God (who had chosen me from the moment of my birth, and called me by his grace), 17 I did not even go to Jerusalem to meet those who were God’s messengers before me — no, I went away to Arabia and later came back to Damascus. 18 It was not until three years later that I went up to Jerusalem to see Cephas, and I stayed with him just over two weeks.
This is Paul sharing his personal testimony with the Galatian Christians. He states how he got his 'start' in Christian service. His 'lessons' were from Jesus directly and they came to him while he was in a remote corner of the Arabian desert. Very little else is said about this experience. Most bible expositors believe that he was out there for the entire three years. How did he live and eat etc.? We have no knowledge of that … but we know of a couple of possibilities. He could have been fed by ravens like what happened to Elijah for about three years. Or he could have been caught up into heaven in his spirit like John was, and his bodily preservation would have been a total miracle.
As a side note … for those early Christians who thought three years of personal teaching by Jesus was required in order to qualify for being an Apostle … well, Paul had it … but his 'three years' came just a little later than it did for the other 11.
Paul said it this way in his first letter to the Corinthians … 1Co 15:8 And last of all, as to one born abnormally late, he appeared even to me! So Paul agrees, an Apostle is a man who had been personally taught by Jesus. And he had seen Jesus with his own eyes and had been personally taught by Him, just as the other eleven apostles were.
Note again the name of the place that Paul was caught up into. He says it was Paradise. And he says it was 'up'.
Paradise was not always 'up'. While Jesus was dying on the cross, He told the 'repentant' thief, “Today you will be with me in Paradise”. And then later that day Jesus died and went to Paradise. But it was not 'up'. He said, “For just as Jonah was in the belly of that great sea-monster for three days and nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and nights”. Mt 12:40 The 'heart of the earth' does not simply refer to the grave. He actually went to the center of the earth. This means that, in the center of the earth was a place called Paradise. It also had another name.
When the beggar, Lazarus, died, he was carried by the angels to 'Abraham's Bosom'1. Shortly after arriving there, the rich man at whose gate Lazarus had been stationed for many days, also died. Upon arriving in a very hot place he asks Father Abraham to send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and come over to him and place a drop of water on his tongue.
This story is either fiction or it is true. Sometimes a story by Jesus, called a parable, had a parallel teaching, so that the elements of the story were not meant to be taken literally, only the main point. But in each case when Jesus spoke a parable, the individuals in the story are never named. Each of the parables has one main significant truth to be learned.
But in the record of the 'Rich man and Lazarus', because Jesus gives the person an actual name, we take this to be an actual event that Jesus shared with us.
So what do we learn about the place where Lazarus joins Abraham? That it was apparently a good place of 'comfort' and that it was within ear-shot of the hot place. This is not heaven.
But this is the place where Jesus spent three days and three nights. What did He do there for those three days?
Peter says that, “It was in the spirit that he went and preached to the imprisoned souls 20 of those who had been disobedient in the days of Noah — the days of God’s great patience during the period of the building of the ark, in which eventually only eight souls were saved from the water”. 1Pe 3:19,20
This 'preaching' is just one of the things that Jesus did during the three days and nights that he was in the center of the earth. Jesus had announced from his place on the cross, 'It is finished!2', and then he died. Salvation's payment was finished, the sins of all who had obediently offered their animal sacrifices were finally and actually forgiven and washed away. At that time also, provision was made for our sin debt to be paid in full at the very moment we confessed our sin and trusted Jesus for salvation.
This would be something that Jesus would announce to the roughly 8 billion people who arrived in this place in just a few hour span during the flood. But were they in the good place where Abraham was, or were they in the hot place where the 'rich man' of Lazarus' day ended up?
The answer is, 'Both'.
All of the wicked rejectors of Noah's gospel were in the hot place. And many other wicked people throughout that ancient world were there in Hades. But were there any 'not guilty' people who died in the flood? Yes. According to the apostle Paul3, any who were too young to understand and learn God's law … too young to know right from wrong … or like those of Nineveh, in Jonah's time … too young to know their right hand from their left4 … these also died in the flood. They were under the age of accountability. These would have ended up, not in Hades or Hell, but in the place of comfort called Abraham's bosom. What message would Jesus preach to them? “It is finished. Salvation's purchase is complete. Your sins are washed away. They are under the blood. You are now washed white. You are now prepared to enter the sinless place … My Father's house, and very shortly I will be taking you there.”
And these millions of souls who had been waiting in the place called Abraham's bosom … waiting … somewhat imprisoned there … imprisoned but not in a bad sense, are about to be taken to heaven. They were not in the place of torment where the rich man was.
Then, three days later Jesus rose from the dead. He appeared to Mary. He told her not to hold on to Him because he needed to ascend up to the Father.
And then, as she ran to tell Peter that she had seen the risen Lord, Jesus lead 'captives in His train' (Eph 4:8) … taking all the ones in 'Abraham's Bosom' up to heaven … to the third heaven. This would be opening day for Paradise in heaven.
Paul went there. Was he there for three years being taught by Jesus … or just for three minutes … that seemed like three years as he was taught by Jesus … your choice and opinion is as good as mine.
Whichever the case … Paul implies that it was an incredible experience. He says, 12:5 “I am proud of an experience like that, but I have made up my mind not to boast of anything personal, except of my weaknesses.”
If any of Paul's critics had had a similar experience, you could bet that they would be announcing it everywhere. Paul has not been announcing it, even though it meant so much to him.
Why does he not 'announce' it? Does he think back and wonder if it were really true? Is he now having doubts? No, he says, 12:6 If I should want to boast I should certainly be no fool, for I should be speaking nothing but the truth. Yet I am not going to do so, for I don’t want anyone to think more highly of me than is warranted by what he sees of me and hears from me.
There is his reason. He does not want people to worship him, or be in awe of such a one that God honored so highly by taking him right up to heaven. (It would be nice if some present day TV preachers would take the same cue.)
And what would it have done to Paul's ego if he had announced it everywhere? We might think that Paul was such a spiritual giant that his pride and ego would not have been affected. God thought otherwise. And God knows us better than we know ourselves … correct?
Paul tells us what God did about it.
7 So tremendous, however, were the revelations that God gave me that, in order to prevent my becoming absurdly conceited, I was given a stabbing pain — one of Satan’s angels — to plague me and effectually stop any conceit.
Here is the same verse in the 'Williams' translation: 7 So, to keep me from being over-elated, there was sent upon me a physical disease, sharp as a piercing stake, a messenger of Satan, to continue afflicting me, and so to keep me, I repeat, from being over-elated.
Most often we use the term 'Thorn in the Flesh'. That expression comes from this very verse. Sickness and disease are the result of sin. And sin is Satan's work.
God allowed Satan to plague Paul with a disease … a disease that humbled him. It was a disease that would keep him from ever being arrogant or proud of himself.
8 Three times I begged the Lord about this to make it go away and leave me,
Three times he begged God to heal him. After the third time he received God's answer. “No”. And I think God says something like this: “I do not want this to be removed from you. You don't need this removed from you in order for you to be a more effective minister. I want to make you an effective minister … and people will say, Wow! That has to be God using him, because he sure isn't ...”
Actually God said it this way: 12:9 but He said to me, "My spiritual strength is sufficient, for it is only by means of conscious weakness that perfect power is developed." God wanted Paul to be humble, not arrogant or proud. Humility is a gem. But is has been called 'the Lusterless gem'. It is not one that sparkles in such a way that we reach for it. Paul needed it. You and I need it. God says so.
Before I conclude that thought, I want to ask this … are there any indications or hints of what Paul's ongoing disease was?
There are actually. As Paul wrote to the Galatian church he reminded them, …. in those days you would, if you could, have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. Ga 4:15
Why? What was wrong with Paul's eyes? For one thing, he could not see well. He had to have someone else do all of his writing. This means that he would have to have someone else to read to him from the scriptures as well.
Paul did not write any of his own letters but he signed them all personally. Here is one example as he signed off writing First Corinthians: The final greeting is mine—Paul’s—with my own hand. 1Co 16:21
He signed off his Galatian letter with: See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand!
Galatians 6:11
So was his 'disease' just poor eyesight? That would certainly be a handicap, but I don't see how that alone would keep him humble … and then, Paul seems to indicate that he was experiencing a constant stabbing pain.
One more piece of the puzzle could explain it. When Paul became a Christian, you will recall that he was in the process of traveling to Damascus to persecute and incarcerate Christians. God stopped him with a blinding light and the voice of Jesus from heaven. After the encounter, Paul had to have one of his partners actually take him by the hand and lead him into the city. He was blind. And his blindness continued until God spoke to him and told him to visit a certain preacher who would pray over him and have his sight restored. When Paul followed through and the prayer was over … what appeared to be scales dropped from his eyes and he once again could see5.
People said that Paul's speech was terrible and he was unattractive. “For his letters,” they say, “are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.” 2Co 10:10
Some bible scholars believe that Paul's blind eyes received sight … but that there was a lingering effect to the initial blindness put on him by God. His vision was poor. And some say that he had stabbing pains in his eyes and they were red and running all the time. This would make him unattractive to look at. This could have been the constant handicap that Paul wished to have removed. Whatever it was Paul accepted it.
10 So I most happily boast about my weaknesses, so that the strength of Christ may overshadow me. That is why I take such pleasure in weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecution, and difficulties, which I endure for Christ’s sake, for it is when I am consciously weak that I am really strong.
We all can learn a very important lesson from what Paul discovered personally. Our pride constantly tells us, “I've got this. I can do this.” Recently I watched a short video of a father sitting on a couch or love seat and beside him his little one year old boy was trying to climb up on his own. The father's comment was, “He's persistent”. And he was. As I watched I thought, 'How natural and easy would it be for the father to reach over and give a little help. Just a little pull on the back of his diaper would do it. At last the little guy succeeded. Whether we think that it is right or not for the boy to learn things on his own … when I think of God looking down on us as we struggle and work to get things done, why? Just so that we, like the little boy could flash an expression … 'I did it!' From God's perspective … we did what? Some little thing that any 'grown-up' could do with ease? God is the grown up. He can do great things... through you and through me. But we need to say, 'Help Lord'. It is when we are consciously weak that we will ask for help.
Paul goes back to the subject of boasting …
12:11 ¶ I have made a fool of myself in this "boasting" business, but you forced me to do it. If only you had had a better opinion of me it would have been quite unnecessary. For I am not really in the least inferior, nobody as I am, to these extra-special messengers.
He now sums up his ministry with them in order for them see him for who he is in comparison with the so-called Super-Apostles. He says, You have seen a lot of evidence of God's work in my life. I could never have done any of this on my own.
12 You have had a demonstration of the power God gives to a genuine messenger by his sheer endurance as well as the miracles, signs and works of spiritual power that you saw with your own eyes.
They saw it all. But they had allowed themselves to have been blinded by the 'flash' of the super-apostles. Can they now see clearly? Paul asks a pointed question... Why don't the other churches have any problem with me? Are you inferior or something? Boy that would get them.
13 What makes you feel so inferior to other churches? Is it because I have not allowed you to support me financially? My humblest apologies for this great wrong!
We will continue on from here in the next chapter. Paul is getting them ready for his next visit. He will come down from Macedonia, pick up the offering that they should have collected by then, and carry it on to Jerusalem. But, much more than that, Paul wants to see a church totally revived and following Jesus. Some had made the turn-a-round, for which he was so relieved, even excited. Now Paul wants the rest of them, … in all of the many house churches in Achaia, to respond to this letter.
1 Lu 16:22 Well, it happened that the poor man died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.
2 Note – there are those who teach that the work of Jesus on the cross, His payment for sin, was actually not finished on the cross, but that he had to go into the fire of Hades itself to finish the payment. Jesus said it was finished on the cross.
3 See Romans 7:9 Here Paul says that there was a time in his own life when he had no knowledge of God's law. This would be in his early childhood. He states that, at that time, he was alive (spiritually).
4 Jonah 4:11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?"
5 Ac 9:18 Immediately something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got to his feet and was baptized.
There was a segment of the churches of Corinth (and the surrounding province of Achaia) who were being swayed by the Judaizers. Paul's name and reputation were being dragged through the mud. In the eyes of those who knew him, and should have stood by him, he was now being seen in a very doubtful light. So, not only is it not a good thing to 'boast' but he shouldn't have to.
Paul has already boasted … or at least, reminded them, of who he is. His place in the Jewish race and religion were equal to, if not more impressive than what his critics could claim for themselves. His history of accomplishments was certainly greater.
Now he boasts of something that must have been very personal and private to him. He has never mentioned this in any of his other writings.
As if he were talking about someone else he says,
2 I know a man in Christ who, fourteen years ago, had the experience of being caught up into the third Heaven. Who is this man and where is the 'third heaven?' The first heaven is where the birds and airplanes fly and the satellites orbit, the second heaven is the created universe and the third is the dwelling place of God.
Paul was caught up into the third heaven at some point in the past.
He does not know what state, physical or spiritual, that he was in at the time.
3 I don’t know whether it was an actual physical experience, only God knows that. All I know is that this man was caught up into paradise. (I repeat, I do not know whether this was a physical happening or not, God alone knows.) 4. This man heard words that cannot, and indeed must not, be put into human speech.
We know that Paul is really speaking about himself in these verses, because in verse 7 he switches from saying, 'This man heard …' to saying 'I am proud of …' And in verse 7 he says, ' … the revelations that God gave me …
Although Paul's experience seems not that common, similar things have happened to others in Bible history. Ezekiel the prophet said,
Ezekiel 8:2 “Then I looked, and behold, a form that had the appearance of a man. Below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal.
3 He put out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy”.
What in the world is Ezekiel talking about? Well that would be the topic of another study. I just want you take note of his having said, . the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and …'
And then there was Philip who, shortly after the day of Pentecost, was sharing the way of Salvation with a man taking an ox-cart trip from Israel, all the way to Egypt. After Philip baptized the man, Philip was transported (Tele-ported?) a hundred miles or so to another location. (Acts 8:40)
Another classic example is that of the apostle John in the book of Revelation.
Re 4:1 ¶ After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this."2 At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne.
The apostle Paul did not know if he was in the spirit or in the body when it happened to him …
Paul identifies the place … he was taken into the third heaven. … into Paradise. Up there he heard things. How long was he up there? He doesn't say.
Here are a couple of options mentioned in scripture that could have been the time when Paul's 'trip' took place.
Acts 14:19 ¶ Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and after turning the minds of the people against Paul they stoned him and dragged him out of the city thinking he was dead. 20 But while the disciples were gathered in a circle round him, Paul got up and walked back to the city. And the next day he went out with Barnabas to Derbe,
Is this the time that Paul was 'caught up into the third heaven'? Is it possible that our time and heaven's time are quite different from each other? Perhaps being out cold for half an hour was all it would take for Paul to have experienced a glorious visit in heaven.
Here is another possibility. This is Paul writing to the church in Galatia.
Galatians 1:11 I do assure you, my brothers, that the gospel I preached to you is no human invention. 12 No man gave it to me, no man taught it to me; it came to me as a direct revelation from Jesus Christ.
13 For you have heard of my past career in the Jewish religion, how I persecuted the Church of God with fanatical zeal and, in fact, did my best to destroy it. 14 I was ahead of most of my contemporaries in the Jewish religion, and had a boundless enthusiasm for the old traditions.
15 But when it pleased God (who had chosen me from the moment of my birth, and called me by his grace), 17 I did not even go to Jerusalem to meet those who were God’s messengers before me — no, I went away to Arabia and later came back to Damascus. 18 It was not until three years later that I went up to Jerusalem to see Cephas, and I stayed with him just over two weeks.
This is Paul sharing his personal testimony with the Galatian Christians. He states how he got his 'start' in Christian service. His 'lessons' were from Jesus directly and they came to him while he was in a remote corner of the Arabian desert. Very little else is said about this experience. Most bible expositors believe that he was out there for the entire three years. How did he live and eat etc.? We have no knowledge of that … but we know of a couple of possibilities. He could have been fed by ravens like what happened to Elijah for about three years. Or he could have been caught up into heaven in his spirit like John was, and his bodily preservation would have been a total miracle.
As a side note … for those early Christians who thought three years of personal teaching by Jesus was required in order to qualify for being an Apostle … well, Paul had it … but his 'three years' came just a little later than it did for the other 11.
Paul said it this way in his first letter to the Corinthians … 1Co 15:8 And last of all, as to one born abnormally late, he appeared even to me! So Paul agrees, an Apostle is a man who had been personally taught by Jesus. And he had seen Jesus with his own eyes and had been personally taught by Him, just as the other eleven apostles were.
Note again the name of the place that Paul was caught up into. He says it was Paradise. And he says it was 'up'.
Paradise was not always 'up'. While Jesus was dying on the cross, He told the 'repentant' thief, “Today you will be with me in Paradise”. And then later that day Jesus died and went to Paradise. But it was not 'up'. He said, “For just as Jonah was in the belly of that great sea-monster for three days and nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth for three days and nights”. Mt 12:40 The 'heart of the earth' does not simply refer to the grave. He actually went to the center of the earth. This means that, in the center of the earth was a place called Paradise. It also had another name.
When the beggar, Lazarus, died, he was carried by the angels to 'Abraham's Bosom'1. Shortly after arriving there, the rich man at whose gate Lazarus had been stationed for many days, also died. Upon arriving in a very hot place he asks Father Abraham to send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and come over to him and place a drop of water on his tongue.
This story is either fiction or it is true. Sometimes a story by Jesus, called a parable, had a parallel teaching, so that the elements of the story were not meant to be taken literally, only the main point. But in each case when Jesus spoke a parable, the individuals in the story are never named. Each of the parables has one main significant truth to be learned.
But in the record of the 'Rich man and Lazarus', because Jesus gives the person an actual name, we take this to be an actual event that Jesus shared with us.
So what do we learn about the place where Lazarus joins Abraham? That it was apparently a good place of 'comfort' and that it was within ear-shot of the hot place. This is not heaven.
But this is the place where Jesus spent three days and three nights. What did He do there for those three days?
Peter says that, “It was in the spirit that he went and preached to the imprisoned souls 20 of those who had been disobedient in the days of Noah — the days of God’s great patience during the period of the building of the ark, in which eventually only eight souls were saved from the water”. 1Pe 3:19,20
This 'preaching' is just one of the things that Jesus did during the three days and nights that he was in the center of the earth. Jesus had announced from his place on the cross, 'It is finished!2', and then he died. Salvation's payment was finished, the sins of all who had obediently offered their animal sacrifices were finally and actually forgiven and washed away. At that time also, provision was made for our sin debt to be paid in full at the very moment we confessed our sin and trusted Jesus for salvation.
This would be something that Jesus would announce to the roughly 8 billion people who arrived in this place in just a few hour span during the flood. But were they in the good place where Abraham was, or were they in the hot place where the 'rich man' of Lazarus' day ended up?
The answer is, 'Both'.
All of the wicked rejectors of Noah's gospel were in the hot place. And many other wicked people throughout that ancient world were there in Hades. But were there any 'not guilty' people who died in the flood? Yes. According to the apostle Paul3, any who were too young to understand and learn God's law … too young to know right from wrong … or like those of Nineveh, in Jonah's time … too young to know their right hand from their left4 … these also died in the flood. They were under the age of accountability. These would have ended up, not in Hades or Hell, but in the place of comfort called Abraham's bosom. What message would Jesus preach to them? “It is finished. Salvation's purchase is complete. Your sins are washed away. They are under the blood. You are now washed white. You are now prepared to enter the sinless place … My Father's house, and very shortly I will be taking you there.”
And these millions of souls who had been waiting in the place called Abraham's bosom … waiting … somewhat imprisoned there … imprisoned but not in a bad sense, are about to be taken to heaven. They were not in the place of torment where the rich man was.
Then, three days later Jesus rose from the dead. He appeared to Mary. He told her not to hold on to Him because he needed to ascend up to the Father.
And then, as she ran to tell Peter that she had seen the risen Lord, Jesus lead 'captives in His train' (Eph 4:8) … taking all the ones in 'Abraham's Bosom' up to heaven … to the third heaven. This would be opening day for Paradise in heaven.
Paul went there. Was he there for three years being taught by Jesus … or just for three minutes … that seemed like three years as he was taught by Jesus … your choice and opinion is as good as mine.
Whichever the case … Paul implies that it was an incredible experience. He says, 12:5 “I am proud of an experience like that, but I have made up my mind not to boast of anything personal, except of my weaknesses.”
If any of Paul's critics had had a similar experience, you could bet that they would be announcing it everywhere. Paul has not been announcing it, even though it meant so much to him.
Why does he not 'announce' it? Does he think back and wonder if it were really true? Is he now having doubts? No, he says, 12:6 If I should want to boast I should certainly be no fool, for I should be speaking nothing but the truth. Yet I am not going to do so, for I don’t want anyone to think more highly of me than is warranted by what he sees of me and hears from me.
There is his reason. He does not want people to worship him, or be in awe of such a one that God honored so highly by taking him right up to heaven. (It would be nice if some present day TV preachers would take the same cue.)
And what would it have done to Paul's ego if he had announced it everywhere? We might think that Paul was such a spiritual giant that his pride and ego would not have been affected. God thought otherwise. And God knows us better than we know ourselves … correct?
Paul tells us what God did about it.
7 So tremendous, however, were the revelations that God gave me that, in order to prevent my becoming absurdly conceited, I was given a stabbing pain — one of Satan’s angels — to plague me and effectually stop any conceit.
Here is the same verse in the 'Williams' translation: 7 So, to keep me from being over-elated, there was sent upon me a physical disease, sharp as a piercing stake, a messenger of Satan, to continue afflicting me, and so to keep me, I repeat, from being over-elated.
Most often we use the term 'Thorn in the Flesh'. That expression comes from this very verse. Sickness and disease are the result of sin. And sin is Satan's work.
God allowed Satan to plague Paul with a disease … a disease that humbled him. It was a disease that would keep him from ever being arrogant or proud of himself.
8 Three times I begged the Lord about this to make it go away and leave me,
Three times he begged God to heal him. After the third time he received God's answer. “No”. And I think God says something like this: “I do not want this to be removed from you. You don't need this removed from you in order for you to be a more effective minister. I want to make you an effective minister … and people will say, Wow! That has to be God using him, because he sure isn't ...”
Actually God said it this way: 12:9 but He said to me, "My spiritual strength is sufficient, for it is only by means of conscious weakness that perfect power is developed." God wanted Paul to be humble, not arrogant or proud. Humility is a gem. But is has been called 'the Lusterless gem'. It is not one that sparkles in such a way that we reach for it. Paul needed it. You and I need it. God says so.
Before I conclude that thought, I want to ask this … are there any indications or hints of what Paul's ongoing disease was?
There are actually. As Paul wrote to the Galatian church he reminded them, …. in those days you would, if you could, have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. Ga 4:15
Why? What was wrong with Paul's eyes? For one thing, he could not see well. He had to have someone else do all of his writing. This means that he would have to have someone else to read to him from the scriptures as well.
Paul did not write any of his own letters but he signed them all personally. Here is one example as he signed off writing First Corinthians: The final greeting is mine—Paul’s—with my own hand. 1Co 16:21
He signed off his Galatian letter with: See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand!
Galatians 6:11
So was his 'disease' just poor eyesight? That would certainly be a handicap, but I don't see how that alone would keep him humble … and then, Paul seems to indicate that he was experiencing a constant stabbing pain.
One more piece of the puzzle could explain it. When Paul became a Christian, you will recall that he was in the process of traveling to Damascus to persecute and incarcerate Christians. God stopped him with a blinding light and the voice of Jesus from heaven. After the encounter, Paul had to have one of his partners actually take him by the hand and lead him into the city. He was blind. And his blindness continued until God spoke to him and told him to visit a certain preacher who would pray over him and have his sight restored. When Paul followed through and the prayer was over … what appeared to be scales dropped from his eyes and he once again could see5.
People said that Paul's speech was terrible and he was unattractive. “For his letters,” they say, “are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.” 2Co 10:10
Some bible scholars believe that Paul's blind eyes received sight … but that there was a lingering effect to the initial blindness put on him by God. His vision was poor. And some say that he had stabbing pains in his eyes and they were red and running all the time. This would make him unattractive to look at. This could have been the constant handicap that Paul wished to have removed. Whatever it was Paul accepted it.
10 So I most happily boast about my weaknesses, so that the strength of Christ may overshadow me. That is why I take such pleasure in weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecution, and difficulties, which I endure for Christ’s sake, for it is when I am consciously weak that I am really strong.
We all can learn a very important lesson from what Paul discovered personally. Our pride constantly tells us, “I've got this. I can do this.” Recently I watched a short video of a father sitting on a couch or love seat and beside him his little one year old boy was trying to climb up on his own. The father's comment was, “He's persistent”. And he was. As I watched I thought, 'How natural and easy would it be for the father to reach over and give a little help. Just a little pull on the back of his diaper would do it. At last the little guy succeeded. Whether we think that it is right or not for the boy to learn things on his own … when I think of God looking down on us as we struggle and work to get things done, why? Just so that we, like the little boy could flash an expression … 'I did it!' From God's perspective … we did what? Some little thing that any 'grown-up' could do with ease? God is the grown up. He can do great things... through you and through me. But we need to say, 'Help Lord'. It is when we are consciously weak that we will ask for help.
Paul goes back to the subject of boasting …
12:11 ¶ I have made a fool of myself in this "boasting" business, but you forced me to do it. If only you had had a better opinion of me it would have been quite unnecessary. For I am not really in the least inferior, nobody as I am, to these extra-special messengers.
He now sums up his ministry with them in order for them see him for who he is in comparison with the so-called Super-Apostles. He says, You have seen a lot of evidence of God's work in my life. I could never have done any of this on my own.
12 You have had a demonstration of the power God gives to a genuine messenger by his sheer endurance as well as the miracles, signs and works of spiritual power that you saw with your own eyes.
They saw it all. But they had allowed themselves to have been blinded by the 'flash' of the super-apostles. Can they now see clearly? Paul asks a pointed question... Why don't the other churches have any problem with me? Are you inferior or something? Boy that would get them.
13 What makes you feel so inferior to other churches? Is it because I have not allowed you to support me financially? My humblest apologies for this great wrong!
We will continue on from here in the next chapter. Paul is getting them ready for his next visit. He will come down from Macedonia, pick up the offering that they should have collected by then, and carry it on to Jerusalem. But, much more than that, Paul wants to see a church totally revived and following Jesus. Some had made the turn-a-round, for which he was so relieved, even excited. Now Paul wants the rest of them, … in all of the many house churches in Achaia, to respond to this letter.
1 Lu 16:22 Well, it happened that the poor man died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried.
2 Note – there are those who teach that the work of Jesus on the cross, His payment for sin, was actually not finished on the cross, but that he had to go into the fire of Hades itself to finish the payment. Jesus said it was finished on the cross.
3 See Romans 7:9 Here Paul says that there was a time in his own life when he had no knowledge of God's law. This would be in his early childhood. He states that, at that time, he was alive (spiritually).
4 Jonah 4:11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?"
5 Ac 9:18 Immediately something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got to his feet and was baptized.