Topical Sermon
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist Church 10/3/2020
©2020 by Maylan Schurch
(To watch the entire worship service on YouTube, click the link just below. The sermon starts at the 50:45 mark.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RFAQgOmnBI
Please open your Bibles to 2nd Corinthians chapter 1.
Have you ever heard the spiritual, often sung by a quartet, that goes, “If we ever needed the Lord before, we sure do need Him now”? I’m thinking that these days we could revise those lyrics to say, “If we ever needed comfort before, we sure do need it now.” We do need the Lord, and we do need His comfort.
I’m somebody who usually likes to keep up with the news. Back in the days before the Internet, Shelley and I would do our best to listen to CBS Radio’s “Top of the Hour” newscasts all through the day. There we would find four or five of what CBS considered to be the most important news stories that day, briefly summarized. And if we listened to other networks’ newscasts, we would most often find that those other networks had decided on mostly those same stories.
There are news formulas that are used to decide these stories, or there used to be. If it qualifies as a national news story, it should be one that affects the most people all across the nation. A major crisis would get top billing. For local stories, decided on by your local radio station’s news department, it would be which story affects the most people locally.
Well, CBS and other networks are still doing top-of-the-hour radio stories, but now the Internet has become a firehose of news and commentary. Thoughtful mental-health experts are starting to urge people not to obsess about the news, but to listen maybe once a day.
I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to need some comfort right about now. Yes, I am a grownup, and I know that I do not need to be excessively disturbed about everything I hear, but all these disaster stories weigh on you after a while. And then, within the last couple of days, we have the president in the hospital, with all the uncertainty that roils up. (By the way, the Bible urges us to pray for our political leaders, and Shelley and I have been doing that.)
So I went looking in the Bible for some comfort. And then I remembered one of Paul’s long, winding sentences that talks about comfort. And I think we all need that encouragement this morning.
So let’s just dive in. Second Corinthians chapter 1, starting with the first verse. And we can even gain encouragement from Paul’s greeting to those Christians at Corinth. Let me show you what I mean. See if you can see a pattern in the next words.
2 Corinthians 1:1 – 2 [NKJV]: Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you see the pattern? Paul is an apostle by the will of God. He’s writing to the church of God. And he is wishing for them grace and peace from God.
In other words, Paul is centering what he is about to say in God Himself. This is not an ordinary private or business letter. Normally, letters written at that time would simply start with “Greetings.” You see examples of a couple of regular letters in Acts 15 and Acts 23.
But when Paul writes to the churches, you might say that he baptizes each letter in God. He lets everybody know upfront that this letter is coming to them in the name of God, and that they are the church of God, and that they have access, if they want it, to the grace and peace of God.
Now. Watch what happens. The very first topic Paul brings up is comfort. Let’s see how he does this.
Verse 3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort . . . .
Paul tells us that God is not only the “Father of mercies,” but that He is the “God of all comfort.” Paul could have just as well said, “the God of comfort,” period. But he says that God is the God of ALL comfort.
What kind of comfort are you looking for this morning? Are you afraid of the COVID virus? Do you have some other medical worry? Are you concerned about political matters? Are friends or relatives in the path of raging fires? Are you frightened about something that I or anybody else would have no clue about? Are you worried about something few other people seem to worry about, and who might snicker at you if they knew your worries?
Well, according to what Paul says here, God has comfort for you. He is the God of all comfort, so whatever kind of comfort you need, He can supply it.
In a minute, were going to look at a couple of ways He does this, but let’s just read through this rather tongue-tangling passage in the verses ahead. When I was a kid, I’d read through this and I would say to myself, “Isn’t there an easier way he could have said this?”
But you know Paul – former Pharisee, great thinker, detail-obsessed theologian. This is how he wrote, and it may even have been how he talked.
But let’s look at it. It contains at least one major truth about God’s comfort.
Verses 3 – 4: 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 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.
I guess, after all, that it doesn’t sound as complicated in the New King James Version as it did in the old King James. And as a kid, maybe I didn’t have the patience to figure it out.
But you get the main point, right? The idea is that when we receive this all-encompassing comfort from God, we should pass it along to other people who need comfort.
But again this brings up the question – how does this happen? God may have comfort available, but how does that comfort gets transported down to me, so I can be comforted myself and pass some along to somebody else?
The Bible talks about at least two ways this can happen. To find the first way, we have to dig just a tiny bit into the Greek language. Do you see in verse 3, where it says “the God of all comfort”? In the Greek, that word “comfort” is paraklesios. This is a combination of two Greek words to make up one, like our word “motorcycle.” “Motor” and “cycle.”
The first half of that Greek word paraklesios is para, which means “beside.” A paralegal works “beside” or in conjunction with the legal system, just as a parachurch organization works alongside the regular church. A paramedic is someone who works alongside a medical doctor.
Anyway, the para part of paraklesios word means “beside,” and the klesios part is a form of the word kaleo, which means “called.” I’ve had the sad duty of conducting many funerals, and often when a family member sits in the front row sobbing with grief, another family member will feel called to come and sit beside them and try to comfort them.
But that Greek word doesn’t only mean the kind of consolation you give to somebody who is grieving. In the New Testament it’s also translated “intreaty,” or “exhortation.” Its verb form can also mean “summon,” “invoke,” “beseech, entreat,” “admonish,” “cheer,” “encourage.”
So, when God is the “God of all comfort,” that is literally saying a mouthful. God has resources to comfort us in many ways.
But again, how does this happen? Well, if you take that Greek “comfort word” paraklesios and turn it into a noun, one of the words you get is parakletos.
So, what am I talking about? Put some sort of marker here in second Corinthians 1, and turn back to John chapter 14. Here is where you’ll find the first way God brings His comfort to us.
Jesus is speaking to His friends over the remnants of the Passover meal which lie on the table there in the upper room.
John 14:25 – 26: “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
Do you see that word “Helper”? That is that Greek noun parakletos, someone who is “called beside” to help or encourage someone else.
Back when I was a farm kid, my dad made sure that I knew how to do farm-kid things. One of these was digging post holes with one of those manual, rotating post hole diggers. It was sort of a capital T made out of iron pipes, with a sort of a hollow cylinder with blades attached to the bottom. You grabbed the top crossbar of the T with both hands, and you pressed the blades on the dirt, and you twisted with all your might, and if you were strong enough, those blades would bite into the earth and create your post-hole.
That was hard work, especially for a scrawny kid like me. So every once in a while, dad would come up beside me and grip that crossbar in his giant hands, and that’s when you would see those blades really bite rapidly down. Dad was my parakletos.
Let’s pause for a moment and put down what we could call Sermon Point One. What is the first way God comforts us?
God comforts me through His Holy Spirit.
When I was a kid, and heard about the Holy Spirit (who back then was sometimes called the Holy Ghost), I tended to feel a little uncomfortable. But since then, I have learned how the natural and helpful and friendly the Holy Spirit is.
In Joel 2:28, God promises to pour out his Spirit in the last days. In Matthew 3:11, John the Baptist preached that Jesus would baptize people with the Holy Spirit.
In Luke 11:13, Jesus Himself said that the Heavenly Father is delighted to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. In Acts 2:38, Peter urged his listeners to repent, and be baptized, and they would receive the gift of the Spirit. In John 16:13, Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would “guide you into all truth.”
Let me just pause for a moment and wonder aloud if anybody is as frightened as I am over the lack of truth these days, the lack of truthfulness. How can we believe anything we hear anymore? Talk about being worried or concerned about something, that particular subject really bothers me. Is it all right to lie? Does anybody care anymore about how truthful a public figure—politician or news commentator–is?
Once again, in John 16:13, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would guide us into “all truth.” Because the truth is comforting. I remember a few years back standing in our dining room, listening on the phone to my urologist telling me that my left kidney had become secretly and painlessly blocked with a kidney stone, and since that kidney was dead, it should really be removed.
I still remember standing there with the phone to my ear, and thinking things through. This news sobered me, but it didn’t destroy me. I knew that a lot of people get along just fine with one kidney, and I was ready to do that. I was just grateful that I had a straight-talking doctor who gave me the facts without trying to twist or sugar-coat them.
In Luke 12:2, Jesus told His friends who would eventually be persecuted not to worry about what to say, but that the Holy Spirit would teach them in that very hour what to say.
And in Revelation 2 and 3, as Jesus concludes each of the messages to the Seven Churches, He says “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
How does the Spirit speak to the churches? 2 Peter 1:21 says that one way is through the Bible. “Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” So, verses from Paul, like the ones we been reading this morning, these verses are the Spirit speaking to the churches.
On September 21, in Christianity Today Magazine’s online edition, columnist Jen Wilkin wrote an article called “Your Devotional Is Not a Bible.” She told how she recently checked Amazon for which Bible translation was the most popular. It used to be that the NIV would hold the top spot. But this time it was at number five, and the top spot was held not by a Bible but by a devotional book.
Her point was that even though a devotional book can give you inspiration and courage, it’s not the Bible. The Bible is what will give you the most balanced, reality-based path to the mind of God. And of course the Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit.
(Here’s the link to this article. https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2020/october/jen-wilkin-devotionals-bible-inspiration-study.html
So, how does God provide us His comfort? One way is through His Holy Spirit. But there’s another way as well. Turn to the book of Acts, chapter 4.
Here’s where we’ll meet someone who must’ve been one of Bible’s friendliest people aside from Jesus. What’s been happening in Acts 4 is that the growing group of early Christians were so unified and so filled with the Holy Spirit that they were selling their own houses and property, and bring the money to the apostles so they could distribute it to those who were in need.
And they were joined by a very friendly and encouraging man.
Acts 4:36 – 37: And Joses, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated Son of Encouragement), a Levite of the country of Cyprus, having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
If I were playing a Bible trivia game with someone, and they had asked me what Barnabas’ real name was, I couldn’t have told them. But as the Christians got acquainted with him, they just stopped calling him Joses (or Joseph) and started calling him “the encouraging guy,” “the son of encouragement.”
And can you guess what the Greek word for “encouragement” is right there? It’s our old friend paraklesis, that word which can mean “comfort” and a whole lot of other wonderful things.
Barnabas did a lot of good. Not only did he donate money to the common good from the sale of a piece of land, but watch what happens over in Acts 11. What has happened so far in the chapter is that the gospel is spreading quickly, not only to the Jews but to the Gentiles. Word gets back to the leaders of the church in Jerusalem, and they decide to send somebody to check it out to make sure this revival is legitimate and not fanaticism or error. And guess who they choose.
Acts 11:22 – 23: Then news of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch. When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.
So here is the Son of Encouragement doing some more encouraging. And sure enough, the word “encouraged” there is parakaleo.
In the next verse tells us how he can be such an effective encourager.
Verse 24: For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord.
So here comes Sermon Point Two. What is another way God comforts us?
God comforts me through His Holy Spirit, and God comforts me through Spirit-filled believers.
And remember what Paul said back in those first verses we read in 2 Corinthians chapter 1? God comforts us so that we can comfort others. You and I can be sons and daughters of encouragement.
Kindly Barnabas did one other encouraging deed, one which might have actually changed the course of Christian history. Turn back to Acts chapter 9.
Acts 9 tells the story of how Paul himself was converted to Christ. Back then he was still called Saul. The chapter starts with him striding—or maybe riding—fiercely toward Damascus armed with papers that give him permission to capture Christians and haul them back to Jerusalem.
But Jesus Christ appears to Him personally, in a blinding light, and talks gently but forthrightly to him. Three days later, this persecutor is now a baptized Christian, and he immediately begins preaching in the Damascus synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.
Well, his preaching is so powerful that the Jewish leaders get nervous and decide to take action.
Acts 9:23 – 25: Now after many days were past, the Jews plotted to kill him. But their plot became known to Saul. And they watched the gates day and night, to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall in a large basket.
So Saul decides to go back to Jerusalem. And the logical thing happens. But notice who’s on the spot to help him.
Acts 9:26 – 28: And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out.
I mean, there at Jerusalem you had the cream of the Christian crop. You had the disciples who had walked and talked with Jesus for over three years. Yet they were the ones who had been severely harassed by the zealous Pharisee, and they were intensely suspicious—and rightly so.
But it was Barnabas who gathered them all together and helped build their confidence in Saul. Saul got a chance to tell his story, and the people believed it, and he began to powerfully preach about Jesus, surrendering his heart daily to the comforting Holy Spirit just as Barnabas had.
Do you know what I think our world needs now? I think we need more Barnabases, more sons and daughters of encouragement. I think we need them of all ages, filled with the Holy Spirit because they have confidently asked their Heavenly Father for this most precious gift, and then have allowed that Spirit to make them perceptive and humble with whoever they meet.
Would you like to ask the Lord to make you more and more of a called-beside, encouraging comforter from now on?