Countless Dangers, Continual Joy: How Is That Possible?

0:00 The conflict in Ukraine and Russia is now approaching about a million people killed or wounded. Israel is now fighting on two fronts, Hamas and Hezbollah. China, earlier this week, launched, for the first time in decades, an intercontinental ballistic missile. Boko Haram, about 10 days ago, killed 26 Christians as they worshipped in Burkina Faso and 100 other people besides. About half of the 46 million population of Sudan is on the brink of starvation because of the civil war there. There are about 10 other civil wars going on in the world right now, and forcibly displaced persons in the world from their home to where they don't want to be is about... where's my number?

1:03 100 million, 40 million of which are refugees, half of which are under 18. In the United States since 2017, about half a million people have died from opioid-related usage. Our mayor, Frye, said last week in my neighborhood, standing by one of the encampments. There's enough housing and there's enough help available and then quote exactly, these encampments are in place because of fentanyl. Now those are a few of the reasons we might choose a title like this conference has, an anxious age. But I mentioned those global crises because of two other reasons.

2:09 One is to draw your attention to the fact that if all of them went away tonight gloriously, your main reasons for anxiety would be exactly the same as they are now. You are one heartbeat away from death, and you have no control whatsoever over God's decision when that will be, because James 4, 15 says, if the Lord wills, we will live.

2:52 The pain in your chest this afternoon might be a heart attack in the making. The ache in your hip might be bone cancer. The phone ringing might be the death of your parents. Or worse, their divorce. The email you're about to open might be a pink slip at age 55 because of downsizing. The note you are unfolding might be a 20-year-old daughter saying she's not a Christian anymore and she finds more community with her LGBTQ friends than with the church. Most of our anxieties do not come from global crises, let's face it.

3:50 I don't care what you call this age, it's always an age of anxiety. The other reason for mentioning the global crises is to describe the kind of world in which the Great Commission will be finished. Yes it will. Most of the unreached peoples in the world live in cultures that are hostile to to Christianity. They are not waiting with open arms for our missionaries. Jesus said,

5:26 That's the church he's talking about. They will succumb to rampant anxiety and say it isn't worth it anymore to be so out of step with the world as Christians are. They'll fall away, they'll betray fellow Christians, and the mission of King Jesus will be completed because in the midst of all that fear and all that coldness, there will be white-hot, joyful, fearless lovers of Jesus. And they'll finish it. Many of you are in this room. We would like to think that many are at this school, and we would like to think that we are helping them be that. they're not going to be governed by anxiety. They're going to be governed by joyful, risk-taking love for people.

6:32 Now, the title of my message is Countless Dangers, Continual Joy. How is that possible? So I'd like to pray with you and then we'll go to the scriptures. Let's pray. Father, I'm seeking a miracle tonight, an emotional miracle. in myself and in these friends, continual joy in affliction, danger, sorrow, hardship, calamity. That's what I'm seeking. The miracle of continual, Christ-exalting joy. So, I ask for the Holy Spirit to come, and by the Word, create the miracle in Jesus' name. Amen.

7:48 So if you have a Bible, I invite you to open it to 2nd Corinthians. We're going to be all over this book, not just one text. and I will try to go slow enough so that you go with me.

8:14 And if you have a paper Bible, then I hope a pencil, and you can put in the margin S for suffering or J for joy or whatever will help you get back to it and find your way around in 2 Corinthians again for your strengthening. Don Carson wrote a book on 2nd Corinthians in 1986 when he was 40 years old. I'm reading it now and finding the 40-year-old Don Carson just as mature as the 78-year-old Don Carson. Actually, he's 77. I'm 10 years, I mean 10 months older than he is. Makes me feel good. I like to be older than people, which is real easy right now. So he writes this book, which I'm reading, called A Model of Christian Maturity.

9:24 I recommend it after reading 70 pages so far. And he begins it like this. I love the Apostle Paul. Some people cannot understand my love. They find Paul angular, merely intellectual, intimidating, even arrogant. My response, firmly stated, is they do not know him. Pause parenthesis. He's way more sanguine about people than I am. I think when they know him, they don't like him. Close parenthesis. Arguably, the most intense chapters in all of his writings are found in 2 Corinthians.

10:22 Close quote. Well, I too love the Apostle Paul. It would be said, I love Paul. I love him. I have a Rembrandt of Paul in my exercise room, not an original. And I have a Rembrandt, a different Rembrandt of Paul in my study. I love. Paul. There is no one in the history of the world besides Jesus whose capacity for joy in affliction I desire more than Paul's. So the title of this message really is Paul's countless dangers, Paul's continual joy. How did he do that? And I think if we get that we'll have the answer for ourselves. So of all his 13 letters, 2nd Corinthians deals with suffering and afflictions more than any other letter, just by word count. And in all of his 13 letters, 2nd Corinthians deals more with joy, rejoicing, gladness than all the other letter, than any other letter, be careful, any other letter just by word count. That combination should strike us.

11:57 Countless dangers, continual joy, how is that possible? So let's take a deep breath now and try to get into Paul's skin and feel some of his dangers and afflictions. And I think that's a biblical thing to do. You might think of, ooh, get inside of his skin, that's kind of like, what? Is that biblical? It is totally biblical. Hebrews chapter 13, verse three, Remember those who are in prison as though in prison with them. And those who are mistreated, since you're in the body, you have a body. Paul had a body. We have bodies. When he talks about being whipped, we're supposed to get in the skin. Okay, so let's try to do that for the next few minutes.

13:00 On this first point, countless dangers or continual relentless afflictions. So there's about eight texts to read to you, and you can follow with me. So chapter 1, verse 5, we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings. Not a little bit, a lot in his sufferings. Verse 8, same chapter, we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

13:50 He doesn't want us to be ignorant of that. He wants us to know that. That happened. Chapter 2, verse 4. I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain,

14:16 but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you. If you love somebody, you will weep. And if you haven't yet, you will. It's a costly thing to love. chapter 4, verse 8 through 10. And here I'm reading only the suffering words, not the resilient words. Verse 8, we are afflicted in every way. Let that sink in. Every way. Conceivable way to be afflicted. We've been there. We are afflicted in every way, perplexed, persecuted, struck down, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus. So 2 Corinthians is built around a lifestyle that has embraced Jesus dying.

15:26 I think it's Paul's way of saying, anyone who would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. That's 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 4, again omitting the hopeful words. We'll come back to those later.

15:49 Just focusing on the afflictions. We commend ourselves in every way by great endurance in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights hunger verse 8 through dishonor through slander we are treated as imposters verse 9 as unknown as dying as punished verse 10 as sorrowful as poor as having nothing that's the we're treated. Chapter 7 verse 5. Our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without fear within. Now, chapter 11, the list to end all lists.

17:00 And that's exactly the way it's intended. His adversaries had their lists. This list will shut their mouth. and it should cause ours to Be amazed. He calls himself a madman for giving this list. Meaning, okay, my adversaries brag about their various experiences. I'm going to play their game. Because I can play their game and beat them. And then stand back and say, that's a stupid game to play. That's exactly what he's thinking. I'm playing your game and I'm a madman to play your game but at this game I win and at my game I win. Here we go.

17:59 Verse 23, far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings. You can't even count them. You've been beaten once. I tell you, if I were beaten once, you'd hear about it.

18:21 I'd write a book about it. What? Think of it. He can't count them. Often near death, I've had one death threat in my life. One. Just one. At least the ones that I've been told about. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes less one. Now we've got to pause here. 40 lashes less one is what number? 39 five times. So we stop here and we think, okay. it gets whipped one two three 39 times with a whip I don't know leather strips maybe got shells in it I don't know but 39 lashes on your back probably maybe front, I don't know, and when you're done with 39 lashes, your back is flayed. How long does that take to heal? A month? Start to pretty much, it doesn't hurt so bad, a month. So what? Six months goes by, a year, and it happens again. Same back, flayed. How long does it take to heal this time? I don't know. A month goes by, two months, six months, a year, happens a third time. Same back, 39 times. How long does that take to heal?

20:15 How much time goes by? Months. Fourth time. Now, at this point, a good American Christian would say, that's not a deal. I'm serving you and I'm being faithful. I do everything you tell me to do and you're going to make me go through this again? He never talked like that. Ever. And then it happened again. Walter Weingren has a novel called Paul. In that novel, he has a chapter called The Back. Paul has a servant girl, and she pours oil on his back every morning and needs it because he can't move until she's got it made supple. I don't know if that way was, but I cannot imagine 195 lashes, and he just tosses it in.

21:34 Thank you. Let's keep going. Three times I was beaten with rods. Now that must be something special because he already said countless beatings. The rods must be really something. Once I was stoned. These are not the kind of little stones we threw at each other as kids. These are these kinds of stones. They'll knock your jaw off. and they thought he was dead. On frequent, let's see, I've got to lose my place here, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city of Minneapolis.

22:29 Danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers in toil and hardship through many a sleepless night in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches who is weak and I am not weak. Who is made to fall and I am not indignant.

23:05 Don't miss the modifiers. Greater labors, more imprisonments, often near death, frequent journeys, many sleepless nights, daily pressures. There was no let up. No sabbatical, no retirement. One more passage, chapter 12, one of the richest. Remember the thorn in the flesh. Verse 7, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me. In verse 10, for the sake of Christ then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. Now that's the end of my survey of constant dangers and relentless afflictions.

24:18 they are breathtaking. Are they not? They are both persecution and physical maladies. In fact, the line between a back that gets infected and doesn't heal and gives you a fever, is that persecution or physical malady? You can't draw a line between pain from persecution and pain from fever. or the thorn in the flesh is, almost everybody agrees, some kind of physical in the flesh malady. At any rate, these litany of sufferings is breathtaking. So, sometimes I hear professing Christians who have just been diagnosed with disease or suffered a terrible loss or experienced a calamity, get their back up and get in God's face like Job and say, where is God?

25:38 Why would a good God let that happen to me? And when I hear that, I just have to say, what Bible are they reading? like what Bible do you read if Christianity doesn't embrace that include that fold that in provide explanation for that cause you to expect that what Bible are you reading you read second Corinthians I mean I truly believe there are millions of Christians who do not read their Bibles.

26:14 Not with any sense of, I will learn about my reality here. There are millions of Christians for whom Christianity is kind of a vague thing, provides a few good feelings about guilt going away, the guidelines about sex, they really get in the way, and suffering stuff, that gets in the way, and so there's this amorphous thing called Christianity, and the Bible is not part of their lives with any kind of rigor. God, tell me what you think about everything, and I will bow. And that's what I want you to be. Be Bible people. I think there are Christians, I can name magazines, that don't like to use the word Bible. Scripture. Because it sounds more academic. I like the B-I-B-L-E.

27:10 I mean I'm serious I want to be I want to sound like a fundy. I dislike very much people who are afraid to quote scripture. This is not in my manuscript. I really dislike it. I read a book recently by a well-known scholar, almost no Bible, and he's making claims all along the way, and I'm thinking, Bible, Bible, Bible. seriously we live in a bible ignoring age people are ashamed of the bible not here please now I'm going to back up and put my pastoral hat here when my parishioners put me back a few years now when my parishioners say at the death of their husband or their child who just hit by a car something about the goodness of God that they can't see I'm cutting them a lot of slack because we have a little saying around here called words for the wind, by which we mean, you didn't mean that.

28:29 Three weeks from now, you won't say that again. So I'm not gonna hold you, I'm not gonna beat you up because that stupid thing just came out of your mouth. That God-denying thing that just came out of your mouth. I get that, but that happens, people will do it. However, It's troubling because Paul suffered probably more than anybody in this room will ever suffer. And he never talked like that. that ever. He never did the Job thing or the Eliphaz and Beeldad and Zophar thing.

29:14 And we shouldn't either. We don't need to. Not with 2 Corinthians in the book. This is here for a reason. So how did he respond? Now, if countless dangers are breathtaking, which they are, they're at least natural. I've got categories for every one of them. I know what that is. I can understand stoning. I can understand whipping. I can understand imprisonments. I can understand being adrift in the ocean. I get it. I've got categories for that. I understand that. But when I try to get my head around continual joy?

30:11 At the natural level, I'm at a total loss. There is no natural explanation for this man's joy, relentless joy, continual joy, uninterrupted joy. This is, it's inexplicable, it's incomprehensible, it's mysterious. In fact, if it's real, and it is, it's supernatural. It's a miracle.

30:42 So let's take another deep breath and get inside Paul's skin again and let him talk to us authentically about his continual joy. Not his recurrent joy. but continual joy. Chapter 1, verse 4. God comforts us in all our affliction. Not some of it, all of it. Not after it, in it. chapter 1 verse 5, as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. So the very Christ for whom and with whom he is suffering gives him comfort in suffering. I wonder if you have a category for that in your experience.

31:56 In the middle of it, while it's happening, comfort. Chapter 4, verse 16. We do not lose heart. How in the world, Paul? How in the world? We do not lose heart, though our outer self is wasting away. Now, I am sure the aging process for Paul was much faster than it is for us. None of our medical advantages. None. He didn't know anything about germs. and his adversaries didn't cut him any slack because he was getting old. None. Chapter 6 verse 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.

33:03 I think that is one of the most paradoxical statements in the Bible. It's deeply embedded in the ethos of this church, this school, desiring God. if you wonder where in the world did you get that serious joy idea? Are you kidding me? What else are you going to call this?

33:32 Joy is all over this book, and it's horrible. What are you going to call it? Horrible joy? I love the term serious joy. I love it. So while I'm chancellor, we're not changing it. Although Brian Tadd is in charge, not me. Notice, the sorrow and the joy are simultaneous, not sequential. That's what makes it so difficult, so strange, so baffling, so inexplicable. Sorrowful, yet always, even during the sorrow, rejoicing. and notice it does not say affliction or afflicted, yet always rejoicing. Affliction happens to you. Sorrow is how you feel when it happens to you. Sorrow is an emotion, and it is not a happy emotion. It's not a joyful emotion.

34:50 This is happening to you. It's right here, it's coming up out of his heart. Sorrow, sorrow, always rejoicing in enduring that. That's... Crazy. Chapter 7, verse 4, probably the most astonishing sentence in the book.

35:17 Chapter 7, verse 4, second half of the verse. I am filled with comfort in all our affliction. Now remember that list of 26 sufferings. In all our afflictions, I am overflowing with joy. It's not just coping. He's not hanging on by the fingernails. And it's not some of them, it's all of them. Overflowing. These are strong words.

35:53 Paul, where, what planet are you from? Chapter 8 verse 2 is a description of the Macedonian Christians, but Paul quotes them as a model of love that he would happily accept as a description of himself. He says, verse 2, 2 Corinthians 8, in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy, and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. So, severe affliction, extreme poverty, overflowing joy.

36:45 That's Christianity as far as Paul's concerned. One more text. Chapter 12, verses eight to 10, the thorn text. Paul prayed, you remember, three times that the Lord Jesus would take the thorn away. And Jesus said no, no, no three times. And then he adds this, verse 9, 12, 9. He said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Now here's the amazing thing.

37:39 how will Paul respond to no, no, no? So you've prayed not just three times, I've prayed hundreds of times for things. And to date, the answer's no. How do you respond to no from your God, your loving God, your all-wise God? Here's his response. Therefore, I will boast, this is still in verse nine, I will boast all the more gladly. Now just pause there. The word gladly there is hadista, from which we get the word hedonism. So if you think it's a little risky for me to talk about Christian hedonism, I have a teeny little textual foothold here. Not a big one. That's a teeny one.

38:32 This is amazing. Okay, Jesus, you won't answer my prayer. you won't take away my pain, my disease, my bad back, my eyesight, whatever it is, I don't know what the thorn is, you won't take it away, you just say no, after all these things, you just say no again. I'm glad. I just boast in my weakness. I'm looking for people like that. I'm looking for people like that. I admire them. I really admire them. I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. He exalted Jesus. He loved Jesus. He admired Jesus. He valued Jesus. He wanted Jesus so badly exalted. He would be glad if Christ would be exalted and he could live with pain.

39:33 I wanted to read to you pages from Johnny Erickson Todd's new book, Practice of the Presence of Jesus. Oh my goodness, my wife and I read every page of it in the last several months. It is just 2 Corinthians in the flesh. Get it? So here's the summary. Abundant comfort in all our affliction. Not losing heart while physically wasting away. Always rejoicing even while sorrowing. Overflowing with joy in all our afflictions. Abundance of joy in affliction and poverty, boasting gladly in weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. On any ordinary reckoning, that's inexplicable. That is simply inexplicable. But we stumble over it not just because at any natural level we can't explain how it happens, but because we're not sure what it is. Like, what are you talking about? I don't even know what you mean when you say joy simultaneous with sorrow. What are you? That doesn't even make sense.

40:54 Paul? Now, this is important. These next two minutes are important. It would be a colossal mistake to reinterpret the words joy, gladness, rejoicing in 2 Corinthians as though they were not feelings,

41:22 not emotions. Could have solved the problem like that. Sorrowful, yet always, what word will you supply? Faithful, loyal, devoted, committed. Because you can do that while you're suffering, but you cannot be happy.

41:45 That won't work. To reinterpret all the joy words in 2 Corinthians, kara, euphraino, kyrein, he deos, to reinterpret all these happy words, rejoicing words, glad words, joy words as something other than feelings goes against all ordinary usage in the Bible. Everybody wants these, they are feelings, So my definition, Christian joy, is a real, deep, glad, good feeling. You want it, and I want it. It feels good.

42:33 You don't want to feel bad. You don't want to feel good. And that's what Paul's talking about. A deep, good, glad feeling. while you are sorrowful. How? So here's the way we're going to close and answer the question. I thought a long time about how to do this and knowing that my time is up probably by this point in the sermon. So I'm going to give my answer to the how question by combining my experience, which is dangerous, I know, my experience with the many layered answer of 2 Corinthians. Because the answer to this question of how in 2 Corinthians, I would say there are probably 12 layers to it at least. I'm going to teach a course on this in May, and we'll deal with all of them.

43:28 But right now, I've got to land this plane. and I'm looking on people who, some of you have got this down better than I do, and others of you are just baffled at what in the world such joy could possibly be, that it could be simultaneous. So here's my landing.

43:56 Many of you know that my mother was killed in a bus accident in Israel in 1974, 50 years this December. It's like yesterday, right? She was 56. I was 28. I was married. I had a two-year-old son. We lived in New Brighton. It helps to know that I was a mama's boy.

44:33 I'm an only son with an older sister. My dad traveled two-thirds of the year. I learned almost everything I know about life from my mother. My work ethic is my mother's work ethic. My relationship to my father was deep respect, great admiration, very happy.

45:03 It wasn't like the emotional bond that I had with Ruth Piper. She was there always. Every little crisis, which of course at 15 is so big. They were leading a tour in Israel, December, and the phone rang.

45:29 And it was my brother-in-law who said, Johnny, I've got really bad news. Okay. What? Your parents were in a bus accident outside Bethlehem, and your mother didn't make it.

45:53 And your dad is seriously injured and in the hospital. I got whatever news he had, hung up, told Noel what I knew, took a little Carson off my leg. Daddy's sad. He said, Daddy's sad.

46:15 And I went to my bedroom and knelt down at the bed and wept, I don't know, an hour, two hours, alone, sobbing as I have never sobbed before or since. My life has been really easy. It has been. Now, I would say that Paul would agree that was sorrow. That's real sorrow. That's bona fide sorrow. And I want to testify to you, testify, that because of that experience and numerous since then, not to the degree, but this one is the ground of a testimony that, brothers and sisters, it is possible to be sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.

47:23 Yes, it is. Now, I know Psalm 30, verse 5. Weeping may last for the night, but joy comes in the morning. I get that. I'm not ignoring that. We use the word joy that way, certain outward expressions. I wasn't laughing.

47:47 I wasn't leaping. That came later. So again, Psalm 30 verse 5 is in the Bible. It's true. Here's something that's also true. Weeping may last for the night, and joy lasts for the night. That's true. It is true. As I wept, my heart, I remember this so clearly, my heart leaped up with joyful thankfulness and hope. Those two things. Thankfulness and hope. Oh God, you have been so good to me to give me such a Bible-saturated mother for 28 years beyond all my deserving. What a woman. Thank you. Thank you. Beyond all my merit, she was so attentive, so patient, so caring, so diligent, so upright, so happy.

48:57 What more could I have asked? All those years of her mothering me poured out in glad thankfulness. It was glad. Yes, it was. It was glad. Yes, it was. But that's not the main thing. Thankfulness and hope. Thankfulness and hope.

49:27 She's home. Mama's home. That's right out of 2 Corinthians. Where did that come from? That's 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Away from the body, at home with the Lord. Paul knew that. She didn't come into judgment. She's in Christ. She's a new creation.

49:54 Right? Chapter 5, verse 17, in Christ, a new creation. Christ died for my mom. He died for my mother. She had no sins, no guilt, no condemnation. Chapter 5, verse 21. For her sake, God made Christ to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him she might become the righteousness of God. Thank you. She's home, no condemnation, perfectly righteous in your presence. Praise God for hope and the mangled body. The death certificate said, lacerated medulla oblongata. You don't want to look at this. The lumber came through the windshield like missiles. That body, that precious body that bore me and nursed me and hugged me will be raised gloriously.

51:05 And that's in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 14. He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise her also with Jesus and bring her with me into his presence. Thank you, praise God, for that kind of hope for her soul and for her body. This nobody, she's a nobody. You've never heard of Ruth Piper. This nobody was a queen of heaven, as unknown yet well known, as dying and behold she lives, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing everything. Ruth Piper owned the universe when she went to heaven. Praise God, how can you not be happy as you sob your eyes out?

52:04 You think that's impossible? Wait. Be a Christian and wait. It is not impossible. It happened. and it has happened other times as well. Hang on, Daddy. Hang on. God has work for you to do.

52:27 Don't give up. It's true for her. It's true for you there in the hospital in Tel Aviv. It's true for me as I'm sobbing. this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen because the things that are seen are transient but the things that are unseen are eternal. That's in 2 Corinthians. I was in that night a sorrowing wreck. and a very happy son,

53:18 a happy Christian. How can you not be if you believe it? And he says, how can we not be if we believe it? So, countless dangers, relentless afflictions, continual joy is possible. because all the promises of God, all of them, not some of them, all of them, find their yes in Christ. Chapter 1, verse 20. All the promises find their yes in Christ. That's where my mama was, in Christ, and all the promises are yes. His word to Ruth Piper, his word to me on my knees, his word to my father in the hospital is not yes and no.

54:04 It's yes. every promise coming true. Every promise is coming through because of Jesus. So, last sentence. You can say, I can say, I will boast all the more gladly. Say it again. I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Let's pray.

54:39 Father, that's the miracle that we're longing for. We want to be, we long to be a people who are so full of your reality, your goodness in the past, your hope for the future, that when our calamity comes, we would not stop being satisfied in you. And therefore, as we maintain our gladness in you through sorrow, you would be greatly, Christ would be greatly glorified. In his name we pray. Amen.