The God of All Comfort - 2 Corinthians 1

[Music] so the word I have to bring to you here this morning is from second Corinthians chapter one so I'm just gonna read the first couple verses and then we'll get into a matter of fact why don't I read the first four verses and that'll give us a good idea and then I'll just kind of go back and make my points here we go second Corinthians chapter one father we pray first of all Lord I pray for continued abundant blessing upon believers edge Lord I think for how many years this ministry has served the men and the pastors and the people and the community here in Santa Barbara and beyond Lord what a thrilling thing it is to see the legacy of this ministry and to see the future that you have for it Lord so continue to have your blessing on and now Lord open up the eyes of our understanding as we give attention to your word thank you Lord in Jesus name Amen second Corinthians chapter one beginning of verse 1 Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our brother to the Church of God which is in Corinth with all the saints who are in all aquella grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of mercies and God of all comfort who comforts us in all our tribulations that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God Paul wrote at least three letters to the Corinthians it seems by the best you know Bible study in comparison that we do that there was a letter in between first Corinthians and second Corinthians that we don't have some people you know debate about this or that or other aspects but we have these two letters and from these two letters we understand that Paul had something of a problematic relationship with the corinthians the corinthians were a messed up church they had a lot of problems going on sometimes when you hear people talk about we want to get back to the the the the Church of the Apostles that we do I mean obviously there's so much that we see in the first century church that we kind of look at the church today and we kind of mourned that we don't see isn't there of course but then there's other things that we look at in the first century Church we go wow it looks just like today now Corinth was a messed up Church for example in this very letter we see that they criticized and in some ways the Corinthians despised Paul in his ministry can you imagine that I mean we look back these many centuries later and we look back at the Apostle Paul nichole like Oh Paul he's the greatest how in his own day many believers despised Paul and they they strongly criticized his ministry they did so in Corinth in Corinth they were harsh and they were unforgiving they didn't want to restore a repentant brother there's a brother in the church in Corinth and it's spoken of in first Corinthians who was in some pretty serious sin and they weren't dealing with it and Paul had to really confront them how to deal with the sin well the problem with the Corinthians is just like us today what I mean that things don't change they went overboard so first they were super lacks and an unconcerned about rampant immorality in their congregation and then when Paul rebuked them for that they went over to the other extreme the brother repented and they wouldn't receive him back into the fellowship so they had that problem going on the Corinthians didn't understand the work and the glory of the new covenant so Paul has to explain it to him in a new fresh way in second Corinthians that the corinthians accused Paul of being crazy we can tell that in 2nd Corinthians because basically he says to them you call me crazy okay I'm crazy here's the things I'm crazy about and that that's kind of a line of thought he follows in second Corinthians maybe the biggest problems with the Corinthians as it's revealed in this letter 2nd Corinthians is that they tended to judge things purely on outward appearance and not by what things really were spiritually I see so many parallels between the Corinthians in our modern culture today matter of fact and this is years ago that's probably thirty years ago I remember a Chuck Swindoll teaching through Corinthians and he called it Californians first Californians and I thought it was very clever and and you know in some ways it because let me tell you something about the Corinthians they were obsessed with image more than reality they didn't care if somebody was genuinely spiritual as long as they had a spiritual image that was fine they didn't care if somebody was genuinely repentant as long as they had the image of repentance that's fine and Paul had to deal with that and then the other problem with the Corinthians was that they tended to follow false apostles and all these things are things that Paul had to correct them with now what I find fascinating about that is with all those problems going on in the Corinthian church notice what Paul deals with first in his letter to them I mean out of the starting gate he's barely dried the ink on his pen for a second dip in the ink well before he gets to this phrase in verse 3 blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of mercies and the God of all comfort it shows us something to me that when Paul focuses on this first with seemingly such an urgency the idea of the God of all comfort and the comfort that God wants to bring to us is a high priority to God see I don't know about you but sometimes my mentality and I don't say this to myself as a compliment it's a criticism but because I see that's not necessarily an in connection with with the heart of God but my my tendency is where things are messed up let's straighten him out first and then bring the comfort but here Paul before he starts straightening things out he presents to the Corinthians this this picture this image this description of God that's so beautiful and powerful that we need to understand at least something of it here this morning the God of all comfort what I want you to understand is understand then one the priority of comfort God cares about us God cares about our hurts God cares about our pain and as men in particular there's something significant about that because as men we don't quite have that figured out I think there's a part of us as men that do not want to be coddled in our pain I don't know how many of you guys played football in high school or some of you maybe even college if you were much better athletes than I ever was but I mean I played high school football I wasn't any good but I played it and and you know nobody would have respected the coach that would have gone into full nurse mode over every little alley that the football player had what did the football coach do you know here's a player screaming over some bruise on his leg the coach runs over grabs a handful of grass and he rubs some grass on it he goes there now it's fixed get back out there you know and that kind of football coach drill-sergeant mentality there's something in that that appeals to us as men because we we want to be challenged we want to be spoken to we understand the need to hear those words hey suck it up and get out there and fight okay we understand that we understand there's a need for that but there is also a place for the tender comfort of God and it's a hard thing for us as men to negotiate that the - now I think it helps us a lot if we can understand what this comfort is let me tell you what this ancient Greek word that translates this phrase all comfort or it's actually just the word for comfort in this and again I'm gonna say this word and some of you guys are gonna latch on to it immediately because you've been in the Christian world for a long time and kind of know some of the vocabulary and stuff if you don't catch this word right away it's okay I'll explain it to you and by the way I always feel like I have to give this disclaimer I'm not a Greek scholar I don't know how to read the Bible in the original languages but but I I can read the guys who can do that and I trust them for their analysis so here's the Greek word for comfort ready for this right here in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 verse 3 it's Pericles now does that ring a bell with any of you Bible guys here you you probably heard that word in connection with Bible studies done from the Gospel of John where Jesus talks about the coming of the Holy Spirit the Paraclete who we sometimes called the comforter the helper the one sent to help isn't that interesting that's the word that's used right here but this is what I want you understand and this is what helps us figure out a little bit of this ideas comfort as men is the word be find comfort in the New Testament this Parekh leases that which the Paraclete brings this is something that's always more than soothing sympathy yes there's the idea of soothing in it and there's a place for us where we need our pain to be soothed but the idea behind Pericles this goes far beyond that it also very much has the idea of strengthening of helping of making strong the idea behind this word is pretty well communicated now bring up a third language I'm speaking to you in English I've referred to the ancient Greek let me bring in a third language here it's Latin the Latin word for comfort is Fortis which also means brave the idea is of strength is a bravery so this one I want you to understand when you see this the God of all comfort when you think of the work of the Paraclete I want you to think of it in two terms yes there's an aspect of soothing we don't want to get away from that but there's also an aspect of strengthening we don't neglect the soothing but we should never forget the strengthening now I gotta say right now is I take a look at our culture at large a culture is really into the soothing we kind of cry out as a soothe me soothe me soothe me and there's a place listen that there is a time in a place where just that that tender balm or lotion of God soothing needs to come to a community haven't we seen it in our midst what what a trauma it was for our community in Santa Barbara we're in one night in Montecito what 2425 lives were lost so much was destroyed what wasn't it that just just this strange air of anxiety and one or under that Thomas fire that came and filled her present but you know you could talk about in the community but it happens in individual lives as well there's a unexpected collision in people are left dead or or permanently injured there's the the health crisis that seems to come out of nowhere and it hits there's the family difficulty that comes man I guess what I'm trying to say to you is we understand that there is our share of trouble and pain for us to endure in this world and God wants to bring the soothing aspect of his comfort to it but in the midst of the soothing it isn't just you know petting you you know in your soothingness no there's also very much that aspect of God wants to bring his strength and God wanting to bring his strength is what we need to receive from the God of all comfort so this is how Paul does it he introduces who he is and how he's speaking to him then in verse 3 blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ the father of mercies I'm reading from verse 3 now and the God of all comfort the God who comforts us in all our tribulation I might have already pushed you to the extremity of throwing out foreign words in front of you but I'll do one more here that the ancient Greek word the word that Paul originally pen for tribulation it's the ancient word philippson I think I'm pronouncing it right I don't really know if I am but whatever philippson and that's an interesting word it's a very commonly used word in the New Testament for suffering or tribulation and you know what the idea behind that word is it's simply a pressing stress I remember reading in books about a way that they would execute prisoners prisoners guilty people condemned people in Old England and they would have this this execution by pressing have you ever this where they would just lay a condemned man down on the ground and they would just start to lay heavy rocks on them until the weight of the rocks became so great that the person couldn't breathe and they just suffocated and died under the pressing of all those heavy rocks listen I think sometimes we feel that way we feel that the stress the responsibilities the duties the worries the cares the concerns the crises whatever it all seems to pile upon a stone upon stone and we feel pressed and pressed upon men it's in those moments where God comes to you and he says I want to be the God of all comfort unto you I want to be the God who is here for you and your time of stress and your time of crisis and the time of difficulty for your community here I am the God of all comfort and I just want you to think about what this says first of all that he is the God of all comfort I find it fascinating that Paul gives this to us in a very I don't know if I am saying this the right way he gives it to us in a very Trinitarian setting what do I mean by that look at what he says in verse two right before verse three grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ it's right there he puts forth God the Father and God the Son and then he brings forth the idea of God the Father verse 3 blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ right there again repeating it for emphasis the father of mercies and the God of all comfort God in His triune nature is the God of all comfort by the way let me just use this as an excuse to remind you because for some reason I think it's something that as Christians we kind of all take as a given and we rarely talk about it or explain it but as Christians we are Trinitarians we believe in what's known as the Trinity and you could do a word search in your Bible and you'll never see the word Trinity in your Bible but that doesn't mean that the idea is not there the idea is very simple that there's one God and by the way I want to emphasize that there's one God here o Israel the Lord your God is one there is one God we as Christians we are not tri theists believing in three gods we believe in one God in three persons and how exactly those three persons connect as that one God under the Godhead we don't altogether understand we understand some things that it's not but everything that it is we don't understand but this is fascinating because because we understand that God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit all in a cooperative way come together to be the God of all comfort for us there's comfort for us in God the Father there's comfort for us and God the Son there's comfort for us in God in the Holy Spirit I mean I could explain to you that God the Father is called right here a comforter a Paraclete but then God the Son is also specifically called a comfort a Paraclete do you remember right after Jesus was born just within a few days when his parents brought him to the temple by the way I just got back from a trip to Israel it was a wonderful trip and if you've been to Israel you've been to Jerusalem in particular one of the most touching places to go is what they've excavated in the last 20 years or so the southern steps leading up to the temple and this would have been the way that common people would have come into the temple and what's absolutely fascinating about that is that there's not many places you can describe in modern-day Jerusalem that Jesus and the Apostles would have walked but they would have come up the common way and the Bible says that as Mary and Joseph brought Jesus as just a baby into the temple that this man named Simeon an old man came and in Brunton this is what it says about this old man that it says that he was waiting for or he gave Jesus the great title the consolation of Israel that's in Luke chapter 2 verse 25 that word consolation here it's rides same word comforter same word apparently Jesus is a Paraclete god the father's a Paraclete I don't even have to explain to you that Jesus gave the Holy Spirit this great title in John chapter 14 that he's the comforter that he's the Paraclete this is a job that's so important for God to communicate to his people that then he's entrusted it to every person of the Trinity every person of the Trinity is involved in this idea of bringing comfort to God's people are bringing them soothing in their times of hurt and bringing them strength in their times of her now we have here this idea of God being the God and that this is the phrase that really strikes me in this the God of all comfort isn't that kind of a curious phrase to use oh why not just say the God of comfort isn't that no he's the God of all comfort I think this is what it means to tell us is that there's not a single aspect of our suffering that God is not concerned about in some way what a powerful powerful expression of this very simple idea that God loves us and cares about us you see it's not just some comfort that God is concerned to bring us but all comfort I think it speaks of how he wants to minister comfort in each individual situation I don't know about you but I I think oftentimes we tend to compare our sufferings with other people's now sometimes that's helpful and I tell you the times it's been helpful for me to fill me with gratitude when I see Wow Lord you really have preserved me from so much I mean honestly when I hear about what some people are going through I feel like I've never had a problem in the world don't don't you feel this the same way sometimes I mean as much as whatever it is I'm going through has seemed real to me at the time and I've cried out to God I just say Lord Wow Lord be there close to that person I don't know if I can handle what they're going through right now but I'm conversely it says this it said it's also vain to compare our sufferings to other people because each life has its own individual pain to bear I don't think we can really compare like like a person over here who's burdened with discouragement and another person over here who's burdened with discouragement and I think discouragement is pretty much universal isn't it I I don't think you will ever find a person so successful so bless whatever you want say that they never ever at all have suffered from discouragement but here's the thing we compared to if you came to me and said David I'm really discouraged there's something in me that would leave for and say well I've been discouraged - I can talk to you about this but you know I gotta be honest I know what my discouragement feels like to me I don't know what your discouragement feels like to you it's possible that for whatever reason maybe it's something about your circumstances maybe it's something about you but maybe it's entirely possible that your discouragement for you is something so much more crushing than it was for me I don't really know but this would I know there's a God in heaven who knows and he's the God of all comfort and he knows how to bring comfort necessary to each individual soul now the God of all comfort not only refers to all types of comfort but can it also refer to sort of like the reservoir of comfort that God has he has comfort so big that it's inexhaustible you're never going to exhaust God's ability to bring soothing and strength to the human heart all kinds of comfort are stored up in God he has an inexhaustible reservoir this shows us that the kind of comfort that you need is in God you can seek Him for now it's a very common phenomenon for pain to be protected I suppose we see that analogy in the physical realm where if there's a wound the body covers it or at least attempts to if the body doesn't cover it the doctor covers it because things that cause pain are tried to be covered over and protected I think there's a spiritual analogy there oftentimes the things in our life that pain and grievous the most we almost have this tendency to want to shield it even from God himself brothers he's the God of all comfort God has comfort soothing and strength think of it in those terms soothing and strength God has for even the thing you're hiding from him right now he has comfort for it I don't know what you were expecting when you yielded that thing to God I don't know if you're expecting a lightning bolt of judgment so kind of curse from God about the but I tell you what he has here he has soothing and he has strength for it he's the God of all comfort including that particular area that you've shielded because of the pain now there's a further aspect that we have to talk about this regarding that can extends into verse four and I think this is a very important aspect I've talked to you about the soothing aspect the strengthening aspect let's stick with the esses and go with verse for the sympathy aspect look at it in verse four who comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God you understand those words don't you it's not hard to understand maybe kind of hard to grasp in our heart but it's not hard to understand one of the reasons God brings comfort to us in our pain in our stress in our tribulation is so that we can bring comfort to others in their pain in their stress in their tribulation is that clear enough now if you start teasing that out that's huge first of all it teaches us this it teaches us that God uses people to be instruments of his comfort isn't that interesting now here the idea of using people as instruments of his comfort is stayed in the secondary sense a read verse for again that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God we receive comfort from God he brings it to us by the way that that's a huge principle right there you can't bring anything to anybody else unless you fer received it and that's a huge thing I gotta say it's a it's a thing that pastors and preachers grapple with all the time Lord if this isn't real in my life in some way how can I possibly bring it to anybody else a spiritual leader is constantly confronted with the truth that he can't lead people any further than he himself has been but this idea here very strongly stated that God brings comfort to you in your time of distress and at least one of the reasons why he does that I don't think it's the only reason but one of the reasons is so that you can take that comfort somebody else now when you take that comfort to somebody else whose comfort is it is it the comfort of Johnny no it's the comfort of God so God may have brought the comfort you need to you from somebody else isn't that interesting you see because at the end of it all me and my pride may say I'll receive comfort from God but I don't want the comfort of Johnny the comfort of Mike or the comfort of Bob or anybody else no Lord only you can bring me the comfort that I want sometimes pride me but listen God may very well say to us and often brings to us that picture that he will use a human vessel to bring you the comfort you need and if I am too proud to receive it from a human vessel then it may be that God may say well I'll let you go uncomfort and until you deal with that pride isn't that a challenging assumption right there now you know there's an old joke and it's a joke it's a good preachers joke I'm not even I'm not even tell the whole thing because I'll just explain most of you heard it before you know about the guy in the flood and he's praying for God to rescue him and the helicopter come zanny sends it off no God's gonna bring me help and you know second helicopter comes no God's gonna bring me you guys know that joke at the end he's in heaven and he tells God well why didn't you bring me help and God says I sent three helicopters you know where what listen it's that way for us what Paul's telling us is that God may very well use a human instrument to bring his comfort to us God may bring the soothing and the strength that you need through the sympathy of a fellow brother in Christ and this means that there has to be something of an opening up something of a vulnerability something of an exposing of our pain a humbling of ourselves to receive comfort as men I mean I think this is sometimes difficult for us to do but this is God ordained he wants to bring us the comfort of God through Bob the comfort of God through Mike through giant this is how he works and and they need to be careful about how I say this this explains one reason why God may allow a certain suffering or pain in our life to make us more capable communicators of his comfort now I say one reason because I think that the reasons of God are complicated and sometimes unfathomable okay well let me bring this in for a landing here all right we have the God of all comfort we have him bringing us his sympathy excuse me let's begin his soothing his strength and he may choose to do it through sympathy through the communication of another brother in Christ we need to be variable we need to allow God to use us to bring it to others and we need to be open to him bringing it to us from others but then sometimes I like to think through a message and kind of wrap it up with this thought what would be different about my life if I really believe this if I really believed that this was true what would be different about my life and I can think of a few things that they sue me first of all if I believe that God truly was the God of all comfort then I would truly open up every area of my life to him I'd stop hiding those particular areas from his influence that that secret pain that secret thing that that a difficulty from my past that I've left unresolved that relationship that I won't make right no you're the God of all comfort all comfort and so there's nothing from my past or my present or even a fear from the future that I won't open up to you if I really believe he's the God of all comfort that I'm willing to do that the second thing that it does is that it realizes makes me realize that God has a beautiful purpose in every pain and stress I want to experience the soothing comfort of God the strengthening comfort of God in everything and I feel like if I do then I can face everything really that I want to receive it I want to receive it from you it makes me determine that I want to lay aside my pride and receive from my other brothers whatever comfort they have to give to me and even more so it makes me determine Lord would you make me a messenger of your comfort you seem to be concerned about this from verse 4 but then finally what it does for me and I think this is a very sort of significant thought is it makes me realize that as God's comfort extent to every aspect of my life it makes me realize I am Not Afraid to walk boldly before him in the future you know so much of how we operate in this world is in sort of a self-protective mode we're protecting ourselves against hurt against pain against embarrassment against failure we operate a lot in self protective mode and this is kind of thing is I don't want to ride my bike too fast because I'll crash it's almost as if and I know this isn't a perfect analogy because you don't want your kid to ride his bike too fast but just go with me with an imperfect analogy here for a moment God says ride your bike fast if you crash there's a God of all comfort I mean to live life under the mentality I have to live to protect myself from all risk all pain all possibility of failure or embarrassment that's living as if there's not really a God of all comfort for us in heaven a God who says what if you skinned your knee I'm the God of all comfort I'm there so what if you're embarrassed in front of people I'm the God of all comfort don't worry about it so what if there's some risk in this particular thing listen one of the things I love most about you believers edge guys is you believe in stepping out boldly boldly to reach your community in the world for Jesus Christ god bless you I want to give you encouragement to do it more and more because there is a God of all comfort backing you up and if you should stumble or or skinned your knee or or or find some embarrassment or this blows up in your face along the way don't sweat it you can live boldly and you can live alive afraid to take risks because there's a God of all comfort right there with you the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit are absolutely committed to soothing you in the midst of it but then also strengthening you continue to take forward bold steps for him so father we praise you here this morning we just honor you as the God of all comfort there you are Lord God in your triune nature there to bring it to us both the soothing and the strength and we just simply ask Lord God that you you pour out upon us that which we need Lord and father if you want to use a human vessel if you want to use a brother right beside us to bring that to us Lord we receive it I'm humbly before you most of all lord I pray that you were empower us with the strength to move forward with a new boldness in life recognizing that right with us every step of the way before us behind us beside us is the God of all comfort we thank you for it Lord in Jesus name [Music] you

Channel: David Guzik

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Id: OVF6r3QP674

Length: 39min 16sec (2356 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 18 2020