“Boasting in Glory”

Sermon Title: Boasting In Glory

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 11:16-30 ESV

Introduction

When the Spirit of God is moving and working in the life of the church, the Spirit stirs things up. Sometimes it is a gentle stirring of the waters, other times, it is a powerful splash or waves that break the surface. Both are necessary for God to create a healthy church, but how we perceive it depends on whether we’re looking through our physical eyes or our spiritual eyes. When we don’t have the spiritual eyes to see from God’s perspective, we often expect that the work of the Holy Spirit means that only good things and success should follow.

A healthy church isn’t a church that has larger facilities, larger congregations, larger ministries, larger budgets, and so forth. A healthy church is about whether or not the people believe and surrender to Jesus Christ, honour the Word of God without compromise, and live it out. God was transforming the Corinthian church into a healthy church, but they were still a church with weaknesses and problems.

This is what the Apostle Paul addressed last week in chapter 10; that we are to take captive every thought that is not of Christ and the gospel and destroy it by placing it under the feet of Jesus. When our thoughts are captured by something else other than Christ, they influence how you see God, yourself, the church, and other people—it will influence how you live and the decisions that you make before God. It will shape your heart, your faith, your feelings, and ultimately your loyalty to God.

The Drifting Heart

If chapter 10 was about capturing every thought to Christ, then today’s passage is about the consequences when you don’t. What happens is that we allow our hearts to drift away from God. The drifting heart is a serious problem because it stirs up the holy jealousy of God. God is stirred to jealousy not because He’s petty like humans, but because His is a righteous jealousy rooted in covenant love like that of a husband and wife.

This is what Paul says in verses 2–3:
2 “For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”

The heart of God is being expressed through Paul. God has such a deep love for His people that the level of intimacy He desires with us is like that of a husband and wife. God feels this every time the hearts of His people drift away from Him; we are deceived and led astray by other things that have captured our minds and hearts.

Verse 4 describes the effects of the drifting heart:
4 “For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.”

A drifting heart is not anchored in the truth of Christ alone and the gospel. It becomes open to entertaining a different Jesus and a different gospel. What makes this Jesus attractive is that he is reshaped by you to fulfill the needs and desires of your situation.

Another Jesus

What may a different Jesus or a different gospel look like?

The Prosperity Jesus is all about health, wealth, success, and achievements. He gives you everything you want, and if you don’t get it, then it’s because you don’t have enough faith or haven’t given enough. It is all about visible blessings and moving upward in life.

The Political Activist Jesus reshapes the gospel around cultural and political ideologies. God is no longer the standard of righteousness—you are. Jesus becomes weaponized for your own agendas. Helping the poor becomes “the gospel” itself, when in reality helping the poor is one response to the gospel, not the gospel itself.

The Passive Therapist Jesus always comforts and affirms you but never convicts your heart. There is no repentance, no transformation, and following him costs nothing. He simply repeats back to you the words that you already want to hear.

The Self-Help Jesus is about becoming a better version of yourself. He is not the Jesus who saves you from sin, but a life coach who teaches self-improvement and motivation. Sin becomes reduced to mistakes that simply need better effort and discipline.

Perhaps you once knew the true Jesus of Scripture, but as your heart drifted away from God, you slowly traded the living God for another Jesus that fit your drifting heart.

Foolish Boasting

Unlike Paul’s loving tone in previous chapters, chapter 11 becomes sharper and sarcastic.

16 “I repeat, let no one think me foolish. But even if you do, accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little.”

Paul is essentially saying: you entertain worldly thoughts and boast in worldly values, so then let me join in this foolishness and boast as well.

But Paul speaks this way not because he hates them, but because he grieves over them with the jealous heart of God. Yet when Paul boasts, he flips the narrative upside down. He does not boast in pedigree, achievements, or authority. He boasts in imprisonments, beatings, suffering, weakness, hunger, danger, sleepless nights, shipwrecks, rejection, and pain.

Paul does this because the true Jesus and the true gospel do not avoid weakness or the cross.

The real Jesus was a servant who washed the feet of others, suffered, was rejected, appeared weak, and willingly went to the cross. He came in power, but His power was manifested through meekness, humility, and love.

As followers of Christ, we as individuals and as a church will not always look like what the world says is successful.

If your thoughts sound like:

• “Jesus must be working more over there because they have bigger programs.”

• “A successful church must look impressive.”

• “If God is moving, things should always feel strong and upward.”

• “Weakness means God is absent.”

Then perhaps you have already reshaped Christ into a worldly image.

So ask yourself this important question:
Who do you say Jesus is? Is He a cross-less Jesus, or the crucified Son of God?

Boasting that Leads to Glory

Verse 30 says:
30 “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.”

What then are the boasts of our church that show weakness?

People are hurting. People have left. Attendance is down. Offerings are down. The children’s ministry isn’t the same. We lack people to serve. We are not seeing results fast enough. The grass no longer feels green on this side.

But Paul’s point was not actually about boasting. This is why he says, “If I must…” If he must indulge in boasting, then he will boast in weakness.

Paul was not romanticizing suffering or pretending things were not difficult. He was not trying to create false positivity. It is not about pretending things are fine—it is about being anchored in Christ.

It is about trusting with no place for doubt in your heart that weakness and suffering are the means through which the power and glory of God are revealed through our dependence upon Christ.

If we must boast, then we boast in Jesus Christ alone.

But then we ask the difficult question: what is the meaning of weakness and suffering? At times it may even feel as though God allows suffering simply to display His power at our expense.

But there is more.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:7–9:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Sometimes God allows weakness and suffering in your life not to destroy you, but to protect you from drifting away from Him. Weakness reminds us that Christ is our strength, our help, our light in darkness, our hope in despair, and the answer we have been searching for.

Without weakness, we often become prideful, self-reliant, and blind to grace. Weakness exposes how far our hearts have drifted and teaches us what it truly means for God to be enough for us.

The Lord says to us today:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Brothers and sisters, His grace may not always feel abundant, but it is enough to carry you through your suffering. When you are weak, you are strong through Christ who strengthens you.

Then our confession becomes the same as Paul’s in 12:10:
“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

It is not that you are strong in yourself, but that you are strong through Christ who lives in you.

Brothers and sisters, the love of God is so deep that He is committed to making you into the image of His Son Jesus Christ, even if it means we suffer for a little while. Through weakness, the Lord teaches us to pray again, depend on Him again, love one another again, worship again, and find joy in our salvation again.

Without weakness, we would never understand how far our hearts have drifted away from God. Without weakness, we would never understand what it means for God to truly be enough for us.

So let us boast gladly—not in ourselves, but in the glory of the Lord that will surely come.