Sacrificial Ministry, Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In 2 Corinthians 12, 1-6, Paul tells of an event in which God caught him up into the third heaven, unfolding great revelations to him. But in spite of these stunning experiences, Paul's boast was in Jesus. When many may have used such an experience to build up their own kingdoms and reputations, Paul's focus remained on sharing the gospel.

Let's listen to this message titled, Speak Truth. We began with gospel authority and then we moved to guarded authority. Guarded authority is, Paul was challenging those who were in the church who made ministry about themselves.

They were personal kingdom builders and therefore they had to guard their authority closely. And that is contrary to gospel authority and genuine authority. And now in this series, we are, the title of this mini-series is Genuine Authority. For these five weeks, genuine authority, last week we looked at the element of sacrificial ministry as an attribute of genuine authority. This week we are looking at the subject of speaking truth.

Speaking truth as an attribute of genuine authority. Now as we move forward in this, we have to remember who the apostle Paul is. We have to remember his apostolic authority because the church is built upon the doctrine, the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.

We teach apostolic truth, apostolic doctrine. So we have to remember who the apostle Paul is and the apostolic authority that he did have as he presented this information. He wasn't Paul all the time, was he? He was Saul, the Pharisee. He was a persecutor of Christians and he did so out of zeal for God. And yet as he was on his way to Damascus to arrest more Christians and bring them bound and put them in prison, the resurrected glorified Jesus Christ personally appeared to Saul. And Saul gave testimony of this numerous times as he himself was on trial later in his life in ministry. And as Christ personally appeared to Saul, it is very clear that Saul was not looking for Christ. He was countering Christ and yet Christ personally appeared to him and blindness fell upon him and he fell to the ground and he said, Lord, what do you want? And Jesus said, why do you persecute me?

There was a radical turnaround in Saul's life. He put two and two together and he recognized immediately that this Christ whom he had now witnessed was indeed the prophesied Messiah of all of the scriptures. And now his name was Paul because the Lord changed his name to Paul and now he was a specifically commissioned apostle of Christ. And an apostle of Christ spoke with the authority of Christ. And this authority of Christ was a settled issue for Paul.

It was never a question in his mind. And now with his apostleship being challenged by those who viewed him as a rival for influence, a 14-year silence on a particular matter was now broken. And it was on a matter of his own experience 14 years prior. And that leads us then into this text of Paul accounting about his experience that he had 14 years ago.

So let's look at that. He said, it is doubtless not profitable for me to boast I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago, whether in the body I do not know or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows, such a one was caught up to the third heaven. Besides this experience, and this experience was unique because he says he was caught up to the third heaven.

We will visit that in a moment. But this is not the only time that the apostle Paul experienced a vision of some sort. If you were to look through the record of Acts, there are at least seven times, seven times recorded in the book of Acts, where the Lord gave the apostle Paul a specific vision with revelation in it, whether it is about where to go in ministry or a promise about his own personal safety. God seven times recorded in the book of Acts appeared to the apostle Paul. This one that he mentions in 2 Corinthians 12, we do not see it recorded in the book of Acts.

It is not one of the seven that's recorded there. So we know that there are at least eight times altogether in Paul's ministry that the Lord specifically, personally either appeared to Paul or gave him a vision, literally a vision. Not the kind of vision we talk about in today's corporate world, but literally a vision where Paul saw and heard a specifically revealed message from God. Now, some may say, Rich, how do you know this was Paul's experience? Because he says something very interesting, I know a man. It sounds like he's speaking not in the first person, right?

I know a man. Well, common for Paul to speak like that. But the reason why I believe and many scholars do believe that this is Paul recounting his own experience is because he knew the exact time and content of the experience. It was written as a personal experience the way he describes it. And not only that, Paul is speaking about visions and revelations and he is countering those who are questioning his apostolic authority.

Why? What benefit would it be if Paul was boasting about, you know, I know a man who had vision at a vision at one time, like whoop-de-doo, so you know a man, you know, how does that give you authority? And so this is, I believe, very confidently that Paul is recounting his own experience because otherwise it wouldn't fit the context of this whole passage of scripture, 2 Corinthians 10 through 13. So when was this experience?

He says it was 14 years ago. Keep your finger in 2 Corinthians and move ahead, brief just a couple of pages to Galatians. Galatians chapter 1. Here Paul is recounting his history after Christ had appeared to him initially and Paul was converted from Saul and he became the apostle Paul. Look at Galatians chapter 1 verse 18, then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and remained with him 15 days. This is when Paul now was introduced to the other apostles of the church. But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother, who is the author of the book of James.

Now concerning the things which are right to you, indeed before God I do not lie. Afterward I went into the region of Syria and Cilicia and I was unknown by faith to the churches of Judea which were in Christ but they were hearing only he who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy and they glorified God in me. Then after 14 years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and also took Titus with me.

After 14 years. So when this happened in Galatians 1 it was about after three years he was in the fourth year of his conversion and then after he went to Syria and Cilicia there was about a 10 year silent period there. And then after 14 years he came back to the apostles. So it was during that time so he put it somewhere in proximity to 43 AD because we believe 2nd Corinthians was penned and authored around 57 AD. And so Paul is recounting back to this particular time. At any rate it happened 14 years ago. It was during that 10 year silent period where Paul was going through specific training and tutoring specifically from the Lord himself.

Okay. Now that was when it happened. How did it happen?

Look what he says. This man at the end of verse 2, such a one was caught up to the third heaven. Verse 4, now he was caught up into paradise. The word caught up is the word harpazo, it's the word from which we get the word rapture. It means to seize, to carry off, to snatch away. A good illustration of it is fall is coming and the leaves start falling and a gust of wind comes along.

It's a heavy gust of wind and just picks up the leaves and carries them away. That's harpazo, to snatch away. And Paul was caught up this way. That is the uniqueness of this event. This event is set apart from the other visions that he experienced as recorded in the book of Acts. So he speaks of visions and revelations and this was a vision.

This was a particular revelation to him, specifically from the Lord to Paul. Whether it was in the body or out of the body, he cannot remember. He does not know. Murray Harris says, well, he says, consciousness of God totally eclipsed any awareness of the physical world of space and time, removing any consciousness of embodiment.

So I don't know if I was in the body. I don't know. But what he does know is that God said, I have something for you.

Come here. And he took him. He brought him. He was caught up.

And where was he caught up to? It says he was caught up to the third heaven or paradise. That is what the Jews understood to be the place of the righteous dead, those who were separated from their bodies. The righteous dead, remember, death doesn't mean annihilation. Death means separation. Those who are dead in Christ are those who are, have been, their spirits have been separated from their body and they are in a place, as the Lord said to the thief on the cross, today, you will be with me in paradise. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 AM.