Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: And maybe this question has crossed your mind: Can God speak to me today through a vision and revelation? He certainly can, but let me warn you: The vision and revelation will not be outside of what has been received in the Word of God. God is not adding to the scripture. He's not leading you to add to the scripture. If your vision contradicts the scripture—like, for example, a very large cult came to be because the guy said that he got a vision from an angel—you can get wrong visions. You can eat pizza before you go to bed, and you can get all kinds of crazy things in the middle of the night. So, the Bible is once-for-all delivered. The faith, the Bible says, is once-for-all delivered to the saints. And so we take our visions and we yield them to the scriptures.

Guest (Male): Many of us have wondered what heaven is going to be like, and scripture gives us just enough to whet our appetite. But imagine what it would be like to be taken up to heaven for a look around but not being able to tell others about it. Such was the case for the Apostle Paul. We'll hear about this experience in just a moment as we turn in our Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Welcome to Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. So, if you're ready, let's hear all about it. Paul's Visit to Heaven.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Going back from chapter 12 to chapter 11 by way of review, remember that Paul believes this part of his letter is a little foolish. I don't know if you've ever been put on the spot like that where you've been put into a corner, things have been said about you, things have been believed about you, and you're in a corner and you just go, "Man, I shouldn't even have to say this. I shouldn't have to explain it this way." And Paul is very direct as he says in verse one, "Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly." It seems foolish to him. "Indeed you do bear with me."

And again in verse 16 of chapter 11, "I say again, let no one think me a fool. But even if at least if you do, receive me as a fool that I can boast a little." Now, he's not boasting in the sense that we might see that as bragging, but it may sound that way as he walks us down a path of his life. He gives us insight to his life both to remind the church and those that had a relationship with him of who he is and the time that they spent, but also as an answer to the critics and an answer to the false teachers. Those of you that have been with us, we've walked along Paul now in this pastoral letter for many, many weeks now. He's instructive and also he even has to defend himself in this calling and his relationship with them.

To defend his position as a spiritual leader before them, and also to remind them of his true love, he talks about his personal life in Jesus and the glorious things that he's been a part of. He defended himself in verse 22, as you'll recall. He said, "Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I." And he went through his spiritual resume of all the things that he went through and all the difficulties and all the hardships.

Then in verse 28, he said, "Besides the other things, what comes upon me daily: my deep concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation? If I must boast, I'll boast in the things which concern my infirmity. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I'm not lying."

In Damascus, the governor under Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes with a garrison; he wanted to arrest me. Verse 33: "But I was let down in a basket." He was humiliated, in other words, he's saying this. "I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped from his hands." All the things he endured as a real apostle, as a real leader, as a real pastor, as a real church planter. All the things that he endured.

Then verse 1 of chapter 12: "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. I know such a man—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows—how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such a one I will boast; yet of myself I will not boast, except in my infirmities. For though I might desire to boast, I will not be a fool; for I will speak the truth. But I refrain, lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to be or hears from me."

The men in the church in Corinth were corrupting the believers there, no doubt, claiming to have special visions and revelations. It was one of the ways they tried to prove themselves to the church. What kind of authority do they have? What kind of standing do they have? Why should they be listened to? No doubt they were giving these revelations, these visions, and using them—in their own minds making them up—as proof that they were who they were.

The Judaizers, those that some people name these false teachers, those that were wanting to bring the Corinthians back under some legalistic authority, were anxious to receive honor and they boasted, we've already learned back in chapter 3, with letters of commendation. Paul would say, "Do I need a letter? You guys don't know me? I don't need a letter of commendation. Remember what I said? You are my letter. You are an epistle of Christ. You're my letter of commendation. I don't need to bring some letter of recommendation to you."

But they were presenting them. They were giving them. And Paul wasn't looking for honor from men. He let God honor him and use him in incredible ways. When challenged, he could have easily pointed to all of the things that he went through and know that they really couldn't be any defense. I mean, as the false teachers are saying all these things, if somebody comes and says, "Well, I had this revelation," it's really hard to say, "Well, you didn't have any experience with the Lord." When somebody comes and gives these subjective things to substantiate who they are and what they say, it's hard to argue with them. I don't know if you've ever met anyone, but if they say, "I had this great revelation," you can't just go, "Well, you didn't have that." You don't know what they had. You don't know what they experienced.

That's why what do we do? We take everything—all subjective things, anybody's opinions—and what do we need to do with them? We need to test them by the Word of God. That's not subjective. Certainly you may have had an experience or some vision. I'm not going to argue you out of it. It could have even been from the Lord. But what we need to do is take what you experienced and examine it from the scriptures. So it's fruitless to argue with someone and go, "You didn't have that experience." How do you know? You don't know what they did. You don't know what they experienced.

It's better to say, "Well, what happened to you and what did you experience? And let's find out what the Word of God has to say about it. And let's both submit ourselves to the objective Word of God, not to the subjectiveness of visions." But here Paul is saying if they're going to talk about visions, I've just shared with you my spiritual resume. Let me tell you about a man that I know.

And I find it interesting, don't you, that he talks in the third person? It's so hard for him to express what he personally experienced that he says—it's doubtless, verse one, not profitable for me to boast, but I'm going to talk about now not the things that I experienced that were hard. Let me give you something I experienced that was awesome and incredible and unlike anything I've ever experienced in my entire life. Let's talk about visions and revelations.

Now, before we move on with Paul's vision and revelation, let's just be clear that God does use visions and revelations. It's all throughout the New Testament. If you're a note-taker, let me walk you down a path. There are many, many revelations and visions mentioned in the scriptures. If you want to go speed-turning your pages with me, go for it, but I'm going to read them for you. I'm just going to give you the verse and what the vision was.

For example, Matthew chapter 17 verse 9: Jesus was transfigured and it was a vision. Luke chapter 1 verses 8 through 23: Zechariah received an angelic vision. Luke 24 verses 23 through 24: the women who came to the tomb had a vision. Acts chapter 7 verse 55: Stephen had a vision. Acts chapter 9: Paul received a revelation of Jesus on the road to Damascus. Acts chapter 9 verse 10: Ananias received a vision to go to that guy named Saul. He's going to be named Paul, because he knows.

And the thing about the Acts chapter 9 vision that really is cool is it's very precise. "Ananias, I want you to go to Saul. He's waiting for a guy named Ananias." So precise. So when he comes up and he says, "Hey, my name is Ananias," Saul goes, "It's from the Lord. Here he is." Amazing. I love that.

Acts chapter 10 verse 17: Peter had a vision of the clean and unclean animals to teach him a lesson when he was kind of going to sleep and in an altered state of consciousness between being awake and asleep. He got the vision of what God has called clean, don't you call unclean. Wow.

I love what in Acts chapter 12: Peter had another vision of an angel when he got broken out of prison. Acts chapter 16: Paul had a vision from a man from Macedonia. What did he ask? "We need some help. Come and help us." And Paul went over there and planted a church. Amazing things. Acts chapter 18 verse 9: Paul had a vision while he was in Corinth. Acts chapter 27 verse 23: Paul had a vision of an angel when he was on the ship there at the end of Acts. And of course, John had that glorious revelation in Revelation chapter 1 verse 1 of the unfolding of the end times. And that's just a very small section of the New Testament of visions and revelations. So it's not unusual.

And you ask, can God speak to me today through a vision and revelation? He certainly can, but let me warn you: The vision and revelation will not be outside of what has been received in the Word of God. God is not adding to the scripture. He's not leading you to add to the scripture. If your vision contradicts the scripture—like, for example, a very large cult came to be because the guy said that he got a vision from an angel—you can get wrong visions. You can eat pizza before you go to bed and you can get all kinds of crazy things in the middle of the night.

So, the Bible is once-for-all delivered. The faith, the Bible says, is once-for-all delivered to the saints. And so we take our visions and we yield them to the scriptures. Now, here's the key. What Paul's describing here in the first six verses is a visit to heaven. This is the only example we have in the scripture of someone going to heaven and coming back and talking about it. And I want you to pay close attention to what he said and what he didn't say.

Paul says, "I know a man in Christ 14 years ago," describing this experience in the third person, giving insight on something that was glorious but not willing to brag or boast. And by the way, in the rabbinic teaching style, it would not be unusual for the rabbis to speak in the third person. And so this could be as he just walks through writing to the Gentiles in Corinth, just like picking up his training as a rabbi, speaking in the third person to take the attention off of himself. Because he's already on this flow of bragging.

"About 14 years ago, whether in the body or out of the body," he says in verse 2, "I don't know, but God knows. Such a one was caught up to the third heaven." The big question is, where did this happen? And if you do the math, there are many different suggestions of where this happened. Was it during his time alone in when he was in Syria and Cilicia, which you read in Galatians chapter 1? That's a possibility. Was it during his time in Antioch in Acts chapter 13, and you can look those up, verses 1 through 3? Or was it during his stoning at Lystra, Acts chapter 14 verse 19?

Of those three options, looking at the timeframe and the years, I fall toward the latter, the last one, where he was taken up for dead in that stoning in Lystra. During this time, most likely I think—and it could have been a time that wasn't even mentioned in the scriptures—we don't know for sure. But as you put the pieces together, most likely it was at Lystra.

But really, the reality of where and when isn't as important because we know it was 14 years ago from the time when he wrote, so we know that timeframe. The real issue is he was caught up into the third heaven. He had a heavenly glimpse, a heavenly visitation. The third heaven. Again, something that's been misunderstood. Some have used this verse to say that there are special compartments or places in heaven and the better you are, the better hookup you get in heaven. You know, the better condo—whether you get a rental, whether you get a condo or a mansion—and I make light of that, but it's really no small thing.

Paul is using the terminology of the day, even including our day as we refer to different heavens. Not that if you get saved later in life, you just barely get into the first heaven. And then if you get saved and do some good works, you get into the second heaven. But I mean, if you really pay the price, you might make it into the third heaven. That's not what he's saying here. He's using terminology.

We use the same terminology today. We may not call it the heavens, although I think we do to some degree. But of the three heavens, think of it this way: The first heaven would be the sky and the clouds and the atmosphere. We usually call the first heaven what we call today as the atmosphere: the skies, the cloud. You look up into the clouds, you go, "Oh, it's so heavenly."

The second heaven would then refer to the stars and the planets and what we would call outer space. So you've got the atmosphere, outer space. Then the third heaven would refer to biblically where God dwells: the heavenly scene. Paul refers to it not just as the third heaven, but he says later in verse four you'll notice, you can cross-reference it, he refers to the third heaven as Paradise.

The place where God is. A direct reference not only to Genesis going backwards, but also to Revelation going forward. A word picture that's referring to a luxurious enclosed garden of a king. I mean, a place that was just very special that biblically and spiritually would refer to the very presence of God. And it was here in the presence of God that Paul heard inexpressible words that were not lawful for a man to utter. Did you see that in verse four? He heard inexpressible words that he couldn't repeat.

Paul, when he returns from his heavenly vision, tells no one. He tells no one. Not for 14 years did he even share this much, that he went and heard something that he couldn't tell. So, another question that comes up is in verse four: What did Paul hear? Now, this is a quiz. This is a quiz to see if you've been with me for a while. What did Paul hear? What exact words did he hear? We don't know! The Bible doesn't say.

So anybody that comes along and says, "I know what Paul said," come on, man. Read your Bible. "Well, I got a vision of what Paul said." Well, Paul said it's unlawful—I don't know who gave you the vision, but it wasn't what Paul said. Because Paul said that the words that he heard in heaven were unlawful, what he saw and what he experienced were unlawful, inexpressible.

Because of Paul's experience, inspired by the Holy Spirit, I have to say that personally, my personal walk with the Lord, I'm very, very skeptical of those that have said they've gone to heaven and come back and have given us a long explanation of what they've seen and heard. I'm a little skeptical based on the scriptures. It seems that the most popular of those people seem to come back with a story to tell, a book to sell, a movie to promote, and some ministry event to sell tickets to.

We have an example of a man that has gone to heaven and what he saw was inexpressible and not repeatable. And he chose to stay in that realm. What he saw was inexpressible, not repeatable. And I know that some of you may even hold to a different opinion and you're not as skeptical as I am, but when I look at the scriptures, I see even the apostle who was given this special revelation chose to obey God and not say anything about it.

And I know the guys that write the books and make the movies, they don't answer to me and I don't want them to answer to me. They answer to the Lord. But I know for me personally, I want to get my information on heaven from God himself. I want to learn about heaven from God's perspective. I don't want to take my chances of someone that is writing extra-biblical views of heaven. And by the way, for those of you that have looked into some of them, if you will look closely enough, you have contradicting types of things being shared. So which one do you believe? Which one is the one that went up there? Which one is the one that saw?

For me, the safest place for me in my station in life—and I've always been skeptical of these things, but even more so now where many of my very precious loved ones are in heaven awaiting me—I want to get my information. I want to get it from the Lord. And if He says there's things inexpressible, then I don't want to know about them. I want to have this hope. I want to have this high expectation to see Jesus. And so I don't stand in judgment on those folks. They stand or fall before the Lord.

But the big question remains: If Paul couldn't repeat what he saw and what he heard, then how can others get that permission? So in Corinth, the false teachers weren't so successful in destroying the ministry in Corinth. If they weren't making any progress, if they weren't so successful, then Paul probably would have never shared even what he did about this particular event.

And he just gives enough. He says, "Hey, you know what? I've been through this, this, this, this, and this. I went through this stoning and this shipwreck. These guys beat me up. My own people turned my back. I've been betrayed. My friends have turned on me." On and on we went through that in last time, his spiritual resume. "Besides all that, I eat and drink and sleep the church. I live my life for the church. That's all I think about is how I can serve God in the church."

"Oh, and by the way, I had this vision, too. I know that those guys are talking a lot about visions, but the vision of all visions I received. I went to heaven. Well, not me. I know a man 14 years ago went to heaven. But what I saw and what I heard, God said no. It's unlawful for me to share of that heavenly scene." And he says at the end there, he says, "Man, I just don't want to boast. I don't want to boast. That guy I'll boast about, but myself, I'm just going to tell you about my weaknesses and my difficulties. What makes me a stronger follower of Jesus."

Guest (Male): Thanks for listening today to Abounding Grace as Pastor Ed Taylor brought part one of "Paul's Visit to Heaven." And you can hear today's study again by visiting our website: aboundinggraceradio.com. There you'll find our podcast, Pastor Ed's blog, a place to contact us, and even donate to the ministry as the Lord leads. That's aboundinggraceradio.com.

Another way to grow on the go is to download our free app. Do a search for Ed Taylor and listen to Pastor Ed when it's most convenient. This month we picked out a book we think you'll enjoy. It's "The Case for Christmas" by Lee Strobel. Sort of like a journalist, Lee Strobel investigates the identity of the child in the manger, focusing on the hows and whys of Christmas. It'll serve to reaffirm your faith and help seekers pursue solid answers about the first coming of Christ. We'll send it your way when you support Abounding Grace with a gift of $25 or more.

And please remember, this radio ministry is made possible through the generous support of listeners like you, and we'd appreciate it if you'd remember us in your year-end giving to the Lord. To request "The Case for Christmas," please call toll-free at 877-30-GRACE or visit us online at calvaryco.store. That's calvaryco.store. We have a little bit of time left, so let's peek ahead in 2 Corinthians.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Serve the Lord. It'll make serving man a lot easier. But if you serve man, you'll be upset, you'll be looking to, "Well, did I do it right?" Just serve the Lord. Because the Bible says if your ways please the Lord, He can even make your enemies be at peace with you, let alone the people you get along with, the people you want to serve with, the people that just God's going to use in a great way.

So don't put people up on pedestals. Don't put yourself on a pedestal. Just consider yourself a servant. That's what Paul says. He says, "Look, I know a man had this heavenly vision. I can't say anything about it. I don't want you to think any more of me than I am, what you see and hear."

And I'd say that's a good thing to write over your Bible: Servants, men and women, you have a call to the ministry, you want to be a missionary, you want to be a pastor, Sunday school—just write at the top of your, "Don't think of me anything above than what you see or hear." Because whatever they see, whatever they see in here, God is changing you and molding you and making you the person that He wants you to be. That, just be content in Him. You're just a scalpel. Be content to be in the Father's hand, because that scalpel sitting on the table doesn't do anything. But when God picks you up, oh my, it's amazing what can happen. It's amazing the life that He can give through you.

Guest (Male): Glad you've taken time out for our study in 2 Corinthians. We'll pick up where we left off next time we get together on Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado, here in Aurora.