God’s Comfort
2 Corinthians 1:3-7
Sermon preached by Pastor Brent Kompelien
June 12, 2022
INTRO (SLIDE 1)
Good morning! We are continuing our summer series called “Paul’s Prayers” where we will be learning about the character of God and seeing Paul’s priorities in prayer as he writes letters to the early churches of the New Testament.
Last week we talked about fellowship with Jesus, and I challenged you with the question, “How well do you know Jesus?” “How close are you to him?”
ILLUST — Well, one of my favorite writers and theologians, J.I. Packer, wrote a classic book in 1973 called “Knowing God.” This book is all about understanding God’s nature and character, and living in the beautiful reality of nearness to God day-by-day.
This is what Packer says about knowing God, “What matters supremely is not the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it—the fact that he knows me. I am graven on the palm of his hands…He knows me as one who loves me; and there is no moment when his eye is off me…no moment, therefore, when his care for me falters. This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love, and watching over me for my good…He sees all the twisted things about me…[but] for some unfathomable reason, he wants me as his friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given his Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose.”
Packer is articulating the gospel here. To be known by God, chosen and beloved, bought by Christ’ blood, forgiven of sin, born again by the Spirit, welcomed into God’s family, and to live day-by-day under the loving watchcare of God himself is a gift of pure grace!
Friends, we all need to hear a message of hope and a message of assurance of God’s loving care this morning. Some of you are here today and you are heavy-laden. You may be burdened by disappointments, conflict, health issues, failures, or the pervasive evil and sin that runs rampant in our world and maybe in your own household or in your heart.
Because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I can confidently say this: God sees you, he knows you, and his heart is full of compassion and care for you. He will comfort you in times of trouble.
We are going to learn about God’s comfort as the Apostle Paul prays for believers in Corinth who have gone through some difficult times.
We need to understand something important today: When conflict, failure, disappointment, or hardship came, Paul prayed, he prayed, and then he prayed some more! He allowed prayer to put things into focus, to reveal the character of God, and to remind these believers what matters most.
In the prayer we will be looking at in 2 Corinthians today, Paul expresses a dimension of God’s character that he has come to deeply understand and value because he went through his own suffering: Paul personally knows God’s compassion and comfort.
PROP — Here is the simple lesson this morning from our passage: God’s comfort is a gift that is meant to be shared with others for the glory of God.
So, let’s read our text today. Open with me to 2 Corinthians 1:3-7. As we read, you’ll see Paul place his own suffering into a larger purpose that works for the good of others and the glory of Christ. READ 2 Corinthians 1:3-7.
Before we dive in here, let me remind you of what is happening in the church in Corinth at this time. Paul had written his first letter, 1 Corinthians, in the spring of 55 AD in order to address some conflict and compromise in the church. Later that fall, he had a painful visit to Corinth to personally address some of the issues in the church, and then he wrote another a severe letter in the spring of 56 to directly confront those who opposed him and were undermining the church. This letter has been lost, but we know that Paul’s companion Timothy brought a positive report that the Corinthian church had responded well to this letter, and so Paul wrote again in the fall of 56 to continue encouraging and shepherding this church, and that is the letter we have that is now called 2 Corinthians.
So, Paul’s opening prayer here is coming on the heels of some intense conflict, personal hurts and wounds, and year-long struggle within the church.
ORG SENT — Paul does two things here: First, he highlights a dimension of God’s character: God’s comfort (v. 3). Second, he explains how God’s comfort a gift that is meant to be shared with others (vv. 4-7).
MAIN 1 — God’s Comfort (v. 3). (SLIDE 2a)
This word “comfort” is repeated 10 times in this paragraph. It is central to Paul’s prayer and central to his understanding of the character of God.
What does this word “comfort” means?
It means simply (SLIDE 2b) “to encourage, to console, or to lift someone’s spirits.”
This word does not mean empty platitudes or pat-on-the-back shallow sympathy. It is so much more dynamic than that.
When used to describe God, especially when it is combined with the word “compassion” as it is here in verse 3, this word has a theological richness that can only be understood if you know your Old Testament. (SLIDE 2c)
The book of Isaiah is the best place to go:
The book of Isaiah starts with God’s chosen people pictured as a fruitless vineyard. Even though they are given every opportunity to follow God and every advantage of his care and protection, they turn against him. The first half of the book from chapters 1-39 describe how Israel ends up hopelessly lost in sin and failure, but woven into this story is a ray of hope that a Messiah will come to redeem the people.
And at the darkest moment, the whole book of Isaiah hinges on the opening words of chapter 40: (SLIDE 2d) “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
These are the words of John the Baptist as he heralds the coming of the promised Messiah who would change everything.
In the second half of Isaiah, chapter after chapter reveal more about the coming of the Suffering Servant, the Messiah, the Anointed One, who is the living, breathing proof of God’s compassion and comfort, his salvation and hope.
In one of these passage about the coming Messiah in chapter 49, God himself says, (SLIDE 2e) “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you…[I will say] to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’
Isaiah goes on to say, “He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water…Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.”
Friends this is fulfilled in Jesus! (SLIDE 2f) God has answered our cry for help! He has released us from bondage to sin! He has delivered us from darkness to light! He has shown us compassion and comfort in our sin and suffering! At the cross and in the resurrection, Jesus has shown us the ultimate expression of God’s lovingkindness toward us. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
This is the wellspring out of which God’s comfort is mediated to us when we are suffering or when we encounter trials and difficulties. It is by the ministry of Christ through his Spirit, who is called the “Comforter” or “Helper” in John 14, that we receive comfort from God.
KEY: Jesus knows you, he sees your pain and difficulty, and it is his very heart to draw near to you when you are struggling.
Jesus resisted temptation to its full extent in the wilderness, so he knows what your struggle against sin feels like and he can help you in times of trouble.
Jesus wept when his beloved friend Lazarus died, so he knows what it feels like to lose a loved one and grieve over the presence and reality of death.
Jesus took the time to care for people who were sick and reach out to touch those who no one else would touch, so he knows what it feels like to care about the brokenhearted and downtrodden.
Jesus cried at Palm Sunday when he saw how lost the people of Jerusalem were, so he knows what it feels like to have someone you deeply care about reject God.
Jesus was abandoned at Gethsemane by every single disciple, so he knows what it feels like to be alone in the deepest darkness.
And Jesus endured unbelievable physical pain when he was whipped and beaten even though he had done nothing wrong, so he knows what suffering and persecution and unjust treatment feels like.
You see, when Paul says that God is compassionate and the “God of all comfort,” he is not giving an empty platitude or a hollow promise. God’s compassion and his consolation in the midst of our trials and pain are mediated through a Suffering Messiah whom Isaiah says in chapter 53 “was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.”
ILLUST — So, let me remind you again what J.I. Packer said: This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort in knowing that God’s compassion has been proven in history through Jesus Christ, and that the personal presence of Christ by the Spirit can bring this compassion and comfort to strengthen you in your inner being when you are struggling. That blows my mind!
But it doesn’t stop there, because God’s comfort through Christ is not merely for your benefit in times of trouble.
MAIN 2 — God’s Comfort is a Gift to be Shared (vv. 4-7). (SLIDE 3a)
Look at how Paul continues the sentence from verse 3 into verse 4. READ v. 4.
ILLUST — Let me tell you an immediate example of this. Many years ago when Sarah and I decided to move across the country from California to Chicago so that I could attend seminary, we had an absolutely awful start to our road trip. We had a tearful goodbye with our family and we loaded up in my Ford truck with a trailer packed with all our belongings.
We didn’t get more than 50 miles from home and my truck kept overheating. After many hours of trying to figure out why, I literally ended up on the side of the highway and just weeping because I was so frustrated on top of being so sad to leave my family and friends!
Then 3 years later when we moved back to California, we were rejected on apartment after apartment before we finally moved into a place that was really terrible. We experienced multiple struggles like this throughout the years and really had to learn to trust God through this adversity. I felt I was being obedient to what God wanted me to do, so why was this so hard?
It was especially during my time of church planting when I felt like I was failing at every turn that I became desperate for God and I really learned how to pray and how to find comfort in him.
Now, many of you know that my twin brother and his family are moving to Minnesota this month from California. My brother and his wife felt called to transition from the tech industry to vocational ministry, and so he was just hired to be the new Executive Pastor at Rockpoint Church in Lake Elmo.
Well, on Wednesday my brother and his family had everything packed and ready in their house and their moving truck was supposed to arrive at 2:00pm. It never showed up. They called and finally the company said, “Sorry, there are no trucks.”
Shortly after this, they were notified of a major problem with the house they are buying in Minnesota and its likely that the sale is going to fall through.
And on top of that, my brother got sick with COVID and was not allowed to coach his 10 year-old son’s championship baseball game yesterday!
So, you know what I did? I called my brother and I said, “I’m so sorry. Yeah, I had a good cry too when this happened to me. And I had to turn to God and ask why?”
I told him, “It is precisely these moments of trial, difficulty, hardship, or opposition that your true colors will show, whether you really depend on God, because these moments present a fork in the road: Difficulties will cause you to either re-assert your self-dependence, or they will lead you to desperate prayer and desperate dependence on God.”
You see friends, the comfort we find as we press deeper into prayerful desperate dependence on God is a gift. (SLIDE 3b) It is a gift of closeness with God, it is a gift of Christ-like character that is being formed in you, and it is a gift of knowing God and being known by God in a deeper and richer way than you ever could in times of ease.
The gift of God’s comfort that I experienced when I was struggling was a gift I could share with my brother.
I just love how Paul puts this in his prayer. Did you notice how there are two “if” statements in a row in verse 6? Paul says, “If we are distressed, it is for your comfort…if we are comforted, it is for your comfort.”
KEY: No matter what Paul experiences, whether things are going terribly or whether things are going well, the outcome is still the same for those he is helping: He wants to be used by God to encourage and strengthen them. (SLIDE 3c)
Did you see the outcome at the end of verse 6? “Which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.” (SLIDE 3d)
This is so important friends. Paul has identified in his own life a primary way God works in our lives and how he uses a church family to help each other. He has experienced an inner revitalization, a renewal of strength, a perseverance and fortitude that is only forged in the crucible of hardship. His trust in God has been galvanized through his suffering.
And so his desire for the church in Corinth is this: That they too would experience this inner transformation, this infusion of divine strength, this forging of trust in God.
KEY: Central to God’s comfort is the realization that you’re growing in perseverance, that your inner being is being renewed, that your character is being refined in the midst of difficulties.
ILLUST — As the dross and impurities are being burned off or melted away, you can start to see the precious metal of a life of deep trust and dependence on God begin to shine!
APPLY: Let your life that has been refined in the fire become a gift for God’s glory that can be shared with God’s family as you bring God’s comfort to others through Christ. (SLIDE 4)