5. AN UNFAMILIAR ROAD

5. AN UNFAMILIAR ROAD

Lessons Paul learned from hardships in Asia

God would use Paul so mightily to speak to the New Testament churches, and to teach them so many of the basic precepts of their faith; it was very important that Paul go through the depth and height of human experience. Paul had to have experienced almost everything so that he would be able to reach out in the Word, through the Word, and in the Spirit about their predicament. They were living in a time of great persecution.

2 Corinthians 1:8-11

1. We sometimes face the most difficulty when we’re being used most powerfully (v. 8).

Acts 19:8-12, 17-20 – This is the very same place he had just said he had the kind of hardships that caused him the despair in 2 Corinthians 1:8-11.

A. Paul wrote this letter right after the journey, when he was there; right after he had left Ephesus.

B. When he was in Asia he spent most of his time in Ephesus.

C. Most commentators believe that he was talking very specifically about Ephesus.

D. 1 Corinthians 15:30-32 – Paul is talking about the persecution and opposition that he met in Ephesus, and he was used more powerfully at that place than any other.

2. The enemy can’t squelch the power of God so he tries to disable the servant of God (v. 8).

The enemy wants us to quit. He is especially after the servant of God, because if a Christian is totally ineffective, and they are not doing anything for the kingdom; he is not too worried about them.

Hardship means “to be compressed on every side.”

Great pressure (barrio, Greek) means “to be oppressed, to be burdened, to be weighed down with affliction or calamity.”

God can allow oppression from the evil one, but He is not the one that oppresses us with evil. Satan cannot posses us, but he can oppress us until we want to quit. The one thing Satan hates more than anything else is the Sword of the Spirit. God has powerful works to do through us. Ephesus was the number-one occult center.

3. Even the most devoted believers can encounter hardships far beyond our ability to endure (v. 8; 1 Corinthians 10:13). Huperballo means “to throw beyond, to surpass.”

1 Corinthians 10:13 – This verse is saying He will never let you have a temptation beyond your ability to endure; but He did not say hardship – something surpassed, something thrown beyond what we can endure.

4. Believers can experience despair (v. 8). The original Greek word for despair means “to be wholly without resource.”

Despair is when you feel like you have just dropped in a pit. These are times in our lives when we are facing something, and we think, “Whatever this takes, I do not have it.” The strongest of believers can experience despair.

5. Believers can experience feelings of doom (v. 9). Sentence means “answer.”

“The only way we are going to get out of this one, is God’s going to have to take us home; because I see no light at the end of this tunnel.” I know that this is a hard lesson, but it is an encouragement to know that there is not something terribly wrong with us; that we can find ourselves in a hardship beyond our ability to endure, and we can feel doom and despair.

6. God wants us to rely on Him (v. 9). Rely means “to be convinced” (1 John 4:16).

1 John 4:16 – No matter what you are going through God loves you. Everything you go through is based on His lavish love.

7. When our hardships surpass our ability to endure, God wants us to discover His…

• Surpassing power (2 Corinthians 4:7). Power actually means “achieving power.”

2 Corinthians 4:7 – When you are in an all-surpassing situation; something that completely passes your ability to endure, you are in the prime-position to accept an all-surpassing power that will show that God has to be in you, and that He has to be at work in your life.

The word “Power (dunamis, Greek)” means “a working or achieving strength.” Not just the strength, but the strength to know how to use it.

• Surpassing glory (2 Corinthians 4:17). Glory means “to recognize.”

2 Corinthians 4:17 – When you are going through something that has you at the end of your resources, you are sitting pretty for God to come in and doing something in your life that is “surpassing glory,” far past anything that He has ever done in your life.

Glory (doxa, Greek) comes from the word “dokeo” which means “to recognize, to get a correct estimation of something.”

Glory is when the Son of God is recognizable in us. That is what it means to glorify God. He wants other people to see Jesus in us.

• Surpassing comfort (2 Corinthians 1:3-5).

2 Corinthians 1:3-5 – “Overflow” is the synonym of the other two we have seen. It means “to be exceeding in number or measure which marks fullness.” God is pouring His comfort in you up to the fill-point and spilling it over the top.

8. God has a special delivery in mind when His children suffer hardships (2 Corinthians 1:10). The original Greek word for rescue means “to draw or snatch from danger, rescue or deliver, to draw to oneself.”

2 Corinthians 1:10 - God wants to rescue us in a very, very unique way. It is not just about pulling us out of trouble. This word specifically means that God wants us to be rescued to Himself. The point of delivery is for us to grow near to him; to be drawn to Him; not just to be snatched out of trouble. We want out. He wants us to want in. God wants to pull us out and restore us to Himself. The point of the rescue is to draw us to Himself. He either rescues us from peril or in the midst of peril. He is always after delivery.

The point of the rescue is so that you can be drawn into a level of relationship you have never experienced before; surpassing intimacy with the living, resurrected, Lord Jesus Christ.