Scripture referenced 9 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Psalm 86:15 opened the service: 'You are merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness'
15 But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
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Keep this verse
1 John 3:1
read aloud before a worship song: 'See what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God'
1 See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him.
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2 Corinthians 1:1-11
the main preaching text, covering Paul's greeting and the comfort-and-affliction passage
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the assembly of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort;
4 who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, even so our comfort also abounds through Christ.
6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.
7 Our hope for you is steadfast, knowing that, since you are partakers of the sufferings, so also are you of the comfort.
8 For we don’t desire to have you uninformed, brothers, concerning our affliction which happened to us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so much that we despaired even of life.
9 Yes, we ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead,
10 who delivered us out of so great a death, and does deliver; on whom we have set our hope that he will also still deliver us;
11 you also helping together on our behalf by your supplication; that, for the gift given to us by means of many, thanks may be given by many persons on your behalf.
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Galatians 1:3
cited to show Paul's repeated greeting formula 'grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ'
3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ,
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1 Corinthians 1:3
cited alongside other epistles to show the same greeting formula
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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2 Thessalonians 1:2
cited as another instance of Paul's repeated grace-and-peace greeting
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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1 Thessalonians 1:1
cited as the earliest form of the greeting, slightly different, used to argue for 1 Thessalonians being Paul's first letter
1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the assembly of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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James 1:12
quoted briefly: God has prepared a crown of life for those who endure trial and temptation and love him
12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him.
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Galatians 1:3-5
read as the benediction: 'Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins'
3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ,
4 who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father—
5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
First Baptist Jackson opened its study of 2 Corinthians on August 2, 2015, with Pastor Carl preaching on the first eleven verses of chapter one. The passage centers on comfort and affliction, and the message worked through why suffering exists and what God is doing in it. It carried straight through into a time of communion.
What was said
Pastor Carl opened by noting that 2 Corinthians is one of Paul's most personal letters, written to people he clearly loved. Before getting to the main text he told the story behind "The Love of God," written in 1917 by Frederick Lehman while he was moving thirty tons of lemons a day in a Pasadena packing plant. Lehman composed the first two stanzas during his breaks, sitting on an empty lemon crate, and the famous third verse turned out to be a translated Jewish poem from 1050 AD that had been found scrawled on the wall of an asylum. Pastor Carl's point was that the song about the limitlessness of God's love came out of one of the hardest stretches of Lehman's life, and that is exactly where 2 Corinthians chapter one begins.
Paul opens the letter with what Pastor Carl called his handshake: "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." The same phrase opens Galatians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Thessalonians, and nearly every other Pauline letter. The point was simple: whatever state the relationship is in, you start with grace and peace, not with what the other person deserves.
From there Paul moves into a doxology, calling God "the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction." Pastor Carl set that against the philosophy of Ayn Rand, quoted from Atlas Shrugged, which says suffering has no value in itself and that help given to someone who has not earned it is a moral wrong. That, Pastor Carl said, is the clearest modern statement of what the world actually believes, and Paul's opening verses are a direct answer to it.
The key phrase Pastor Carl spent the most time on was "so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction." He noted that the Greek word behind "may be able" is dunamai, the root of our word dynamite. It is not just permission to comfort others; it is power to do it. The capacity comes from having gone through the suffering yourself. He connected this to why Alcoholics Anonymous uses sponsors, why someone who has lost a child can sit with another grieving parent in a way no one else can, and to Rick Warren's line that God never wastes a hurt.
Paul then says plainly that he and Timothy had despaired of life itself during their time in Asia, feeling they had received a death sentence. Pastor Carl acknowledged that he had been in that place personally, and asked the congregation directly whether any of them had been there too. The passage gives a reason: "that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead." That is the over-the-sun answer that human philosophy cannot reach on its own, and it is the point where the sermon turned from diagnosis to hope.
Pastor Carl closed the sermon proper by reading verses ten and eleven, where Paul says God delivered them, will deliver them again, and then calls on the church to pray. He pointed out that Paul's logic is not circular or self-contained. The suffering leads to comfort, the comfort leads to a message, the message goes out through prayer, and the whole thing moves toward the glory of God, which is its only sufficient reason. The service then moved into communion, with Pastor Carl tying the bread and cup directly back to the passage: every time the church takes the Lord's Supper it is proclaiming the death of Jesus, which in 2 Corinthians terms means proclaiming life, and God's riches at Christ's expense.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Pastor Mark opened with the question: have you ever felt so afflicted that you thought it might kill you? If you are comfortable sharing, when has suffering felt that heavy to you, and what did you do with that weight?
- Pastor Mark contrasted Ayn Rand's view that help should only go to those who have earned it through virtue with Paul's picture of a God who comforts people who have no virtue to offer. How does that difference change the way you think about receiving comfort from God, or offering it to someone else?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 7,523 words
0:00
A verse with you. It'll give us a reason to praise. But you, oh Lord, you are merciful and gracious. You're slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Our God is faithful, and I wanna just warm up by saying he's faithful.
0:17
Let's sing of it, shall we? Let's stand up.
0:29
Great is thy faithfulness, o God, my father. And there be no shadow of turning away with thee. And I'll change us now, and I compassions they feel not. And as thou has been, thou forever will be. Let's sing it.
0:58
Great great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning new mercies I see. Lord, I have needed thy end by the right hand. Great is thy faithfulness.
1:27
Lord, I'm listening. Alright. Pardon for sin. Pardon for sin and the peace that endure it. And I know dear friends still cheer and to guide.
1:52
Strength for today, bridle for tomorrow. Blessings all mine when 10,000 beside. Great faithfulness great is thy faithfulness morning by morning mercies unseen
2:49
Let's pray. God, thank you for a new morning. Thank you that your mercies are made new every morning that we can come to you for the forgiveness of sins and there you are waiting, ready to accept us with open arms. We are I'm praying, God, that we would run to you this morning joyfully, just to hear from you and to be with you and to be in your presence. And we pray this in Christ's name.
3:13
Amen. You all can be seated.
3:16
Alright. Good morning. A few announcements. Stay away, Ray. He's back.
3:21
Let's give him a hand for being back. Alright. Ray is back. I'll let him tell you about his adventures. I won't get into that, but I'm just gonna go through a few quick announcements once again.
3:32
Girls study, Sunday mornings 10AM downstairs. No boys allowed. And that is for fifth and sixth grade girls. They're down in the corner room. Seventh through high school is in the youth room downstairs.
3:47
I'm saying that, and today there is no fifth and sixth grade, but they're still high school. Does that all make sense? So fifth and sixth, you're off this morning, but everybody else, you're going it's still happening tonight or today at 10:00 right after this service. And then we've got the Spanish service that's happening at 01:30 right here in this room. If you'd like to bone up on some Spanish.
4:14
Yes.
4:20
Yes. Alright. He is correct. So come check that out if you would like. Or if you know some Spanish speaking individuals who might benefit from that service, send them that way.
4:29
Send them our way as well. Uh-oh. I didn't. I messed that slide up. Sorry, Carl.
4:35
Yep. He's upset. Alright. Monday nights at Firstbeat, that's happening 06:15 down in the Fellowship Hall. Meal, music, and message each Monday night.
4:44
Some upcoming events, we've got lagoon. So, middle school and high school kids lagoon on August fourteenth and fifteenth will leave early the fourteenth. That's a Friday. We'll get there in time for Lagoon to open and you guys can ride the rides till your brains fall out. It is a great time and then we're going to then we'll stay there at the campground and then we will take off and do a little a little outlet mall shopping for those back to school folks that like to get some new gear and then we'll come back to Jackson.
5:15
So, that's a fun weekend. If you know middle schoolers or high schools and you want to send them our way, also middle schoolers and high schoolers, this is a great opportunity to bring some of your friends. It's a fun trip to bring some friends to as well. So, be thinking about that this week. I'll send out all the rest of the information about what times we're leaving, what the cost is, and all of that.
5:35
So, watch for that parents and and students. Also, sixth graders, you guys are just coming into the middle school youth group now. So, I probably don't have any of your information. So, parents of sixth graders and sixth graders, if you would like to get on the text list, come see me and I'll get you on there so you have all the information that is coming down the pipe for youth events. And always check your bulletin.
5:59
It's full of lots of other announcements as well. Anything to add to that? That's it. Why don't we stand up, greet one another, and the band will bring you back together in song.
6:30
You.
6:43
Excellent word. What more can say than till he has said for you who for refuge did Jesus have led. And fear not, he's with us. Fear not, he's with us. Don't be not dismayed.
7:04
For he is our God, our sustainer and strength. He'll be our defender and cause us to stand, upheld by his merciful almighty. And I've heard, I've heard, a foundation. I'll show our foundation and we will not be shaken. Jesus' firm foundation.
7:44
Amen. The soul that's trusting.
7:46
The soul that is trusting in Jesus' Lord will press on and endure in darkest of storm. And though even hell should endeavor to shake, he'll never, no, never, no, never be shaken. Jesus' firm foundation.
8:28
We'll sing the h to h he stands because he does.
8:37
And end to he will remain. He will remain. I'll firm our foundation. I'll show our salvation. And we will not be shaken.
9:10
Jesus' firm foundation. And even though warm through the valley of the shadow there, your purveying love is casting out fear. And even when I'm caught in the middle of the storm's hardest night, I won't turn back out of the new I need. I fear. I won't fear no evil, for my God is waiting me.
10:03
And if my God is waiting me, Woman shall I fear. Woman shall I fear. Oh, no. You never let go through the corn, through the storm. Oh, no.
10:24
You never let go Every high and every low. Oh, no. You never let go. You never let go of me.
10:39
And I can see the
10:40
light that is coming for the hard battles on, a glorious night beyond all convey. And there will be a land to these troubles. But until that day comes, we'll let them know you're here on the Earth. Amen. And I won't fear no evil for my God is with me.
11:14
And if my God is with me, then whom then shall I fear? Whom then shall I fear? Let's sing it. Oh, no. You never let go through the comb, through the storm.
11:33
Oh, no. You never let go in every time, and every dome. Oh, no. You never let go, Lord. You never let go of me.
11:44
Let's sing that again. It's too good.
11:48
Oh, no. Oh, no. You never let go through the corn, through the storm. Oh, no. You never let go in every time, every blow.
12:16
Our true lord that that you do not let go, that whatever we're going through, it can be good and we can be having an incredible season, and it can be absolutely wonderful. And then there can be those seasons that are just tough and they're dry. And I thank you that you are right there with us in every one of them. And, God, your presence just alone is enough at times and, just to to be able to sit with you no matter what the season, whether it's a beautiful day on the lake or we're sobbing in the bedroom because we've just heard some terrible news. It's just you are there, and I'm I'm grateful.
12:57
We're grateful as a church body. And thank you we can sing to you and offer praises to you. This morning, I pray that we'd empty ourselves and worship you. Amen. From first John three one, some good news.
13:12
See what great love the father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God, and that's what we are. That through faith in Christ, we become his children. If you're a parent and you've got kids, you go, oh, man. They're my kids, and they might be naughty sometimes, but I love these kids. You know?
13:30
And we're a little naughty sometimes. Right? We've got a good, good father. He loves us. Let's sing.
13:48
When I survey on which the friends of gold died riches gain I count for loss and for content on my high rise. See from his head, on the wonderful cross bids become right and find that I may truly all who got me. My grace drawn me. He'll bless your name. That's what we do, Lord.
17:11
So long be zing to deep mind. Demanse my soul, my life, my hill.
17:33
It is true, Lord. We, by grace, draw near to you. It's nothing of of our own work that nothing that we can boast in, but we boast in you this morning and your work on the cross. And I pray that you would prepare our hearts as we will be sharing in in communion and that sweet, sweet fellowship that we have together and the passing of the bread and the drinking of the cup and remembering what you've done. Amen.
18:01
You can be seated. I'm gonna ask one of our elders, Gary, here just to stand up and pray quickly and as we enter here in this worship through giving.
18:13
Let us pray. Dear Lord, we we thank you for this time that we can worship you through our giving. Lord, I pray that this giving will be one that will truly be giving from the heart. For it's not about the amount, but about the heart in which we give. Lord, I also pray that that what is giving today that that that money will be faithfully used to grow your kingdom.
18:51
And I pray all this in your precious son's name. Amen.
18:55
Well, it's good to be back. Really good to be back. Peter Holler was here a couple weeks ago and Carl preached last week. And whenever I'm out of this for a couple weeks, I start going, oh my goodness, I gotta get up in front of all those people again. But I also think, oh, I can't wait to get back up there.
19:12
So, we get to start in a new book today. The new book that we're starting in is second Corinthians. We've been through first Corinthians. As I read second Corinthians, I've read a bunch of times recently and as I read through it, it's a very very personal book. Carl, Carl.
19:30
Sorry, Carl. Paul. Carl's a very passionately personal personal guy too but Paul is really really loves these people and I see it on every page but I started out with we're going do the first chapter of Corinthians. The second Corinthians, we're going to move through it and through the week, there have just been so many instances and so many things that have come up where I think we need to dwell for a while on the first few verses, first 11 verses. It's about comfort and affliction.
19:57
I want actually, I'm just going to sing this. If y'all don't know this song in this service, I don't know. I'll sing it. I think I'll just sing it. But you can read the words up there.
20:07
This was written in 1917 by Frederick Lehman. He's a German immigrant, came over when he was a boy.
20:13
The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell. The guilty pair bowed down with care, God gave his son to win. His erring child, he reconciled and pardoned from his sin. O love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong, it shall forevermore endure the saints and angels song when hoary time shall pass away and earthly thrones and kingdoms fall when men who hear refuse to pray on rocks and hills and mountains call.
21:31
God's love so sure shall still endure all measureless and strong redeeming grace to Adam's race the saints and angels sung Could we with ink the ocean filled and were the skies of parchment made? Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade. To write the love of God above would drain the old ocean dry nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. Oh love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong, it shall forevermore endure the saints and angels song. Amen.
22:46
Amen.
22:49
So that song is the last verse actually of that song. I wanna talk about actually. 1917, this German immigrant who had lived well and had moved to America, settled down in Iowa, converted to Christ at 11. He was a migrant worker picking crab apples and he converted Christ at age 11 contemplating what he had heard in church walking through a crab apple orchard. I think that's funny.
23:23
It's crab apple. They're sour there. Frederick eventually entered the ministry and pastored churches in the Midwest but his greatest love was gospel music. He compiled five songbooks and published hundreds of songs. In 1917, his finances had gone sour and he found himself working in a packing factory in Pasadena, California.
23:45
He was moving 30 tons of lemons a day in a packing plant. Life literally handed this guy lemons. One morning as he arrived to work, a song was forming in his mind and he'd been thinking about the limitlessness of God's love even in hard times and during breaks, he sat on an empty lemon crate and he jotted down the words with a stubby pencil for the first two verses. He went to the old upright piano when he got home and began putting those notes to the words and he finally had a melody in two stanzas. If you read about this song, sometimes it'll be credited.
24:22
There was a woman that has part of the credit for the music. It's his daughter. She sang the harmony part when he was sitting at the upright piano. He finally had a melody in two stanzas but almost all gospel songs have three and so he thought of some lines that he had heard recently in a sermon and it was that last verse. Could we within the ocean feel that part?
24:44
The verse perfectly formed the third stanza but who had written it? He heard a story from the pastor that it was written on the wall of an insane asylum. And it was found in between occupants of that room after the guy had died and so that he gave credit to that guy for it. Now, that's good and sometimes preachers tell stories. You gotta fact check preachers sometimes but knowing now, we kept on going back and actually, it was a good English translation that was scrawled on the wall of that asylum but it was from something that was written in ten fifty AD by a Jewish rabbi.
25:21
He had written this concept contemplating the depth of God's love and I just thought that that was great and his story to me added some depth to it that it was in one of the hardest parts of his life that he pins this song about the limitlessness of God's love. So, with that, we're going to go into first Corinthian or second Corinthians first chapter and I said one through 23, it won't be one through 23. So, have you ever had your feelings hurt? Just say it out loud. Have you ever had your feelings hurt?
25:51
Yes. Yes. All of us have had have you had your feelings hurt this week? Yes. Probably.
25:57
Have you ever felt afflicted? Yes. I have felt afflicted. Not so much this week, but have you ever felt afflicted? Yes.
26:06
We have all felt afflicted. Have you ever felt that that affliction would actually kill you? That's a deeper question you might wanna keep to yourself. No. Just kidding.
26:15
I have felt like my affliction would kill me. I have felt a depth of despair that I felt like it would kill me or that I didn't even wanna keep on living, one or the other, at some time in my life. Have you ever felt that that affliction would get you? Have you ever experienced suffering? All these are questions that are just questions about the human conditions.
26:37
If we will admit the truth, we have we we would have to, I think, all say to that, yes. Yes. We have had that. But why? Why?
26:50
That's the question for the ages. The problem of pain is one of the biggest things that philosophers have to deal with. It's one of the biggest things that Christians and apologists have to deal with is why is it that we are afflicted? And why is it that we suffer? And why is it that we get our feelings hurt?
27:04
Why not just have joy? Why not just experience peace? Why? So I've got actually a couple of quotes I got from Ayn Rand. Because I think as as worldly philosophies go, modern worldly philosophies go, this is probably the closest to what our society thinks, especially if you're not in that moment of extreme suffering.
27:33
John Galt in Atlas Shrugged said, it's not that I don't suffer, it's that I know the unimportance of suffering. I know that pain is to be fought and thrown aside, not to be accepted as part of one's soul and as a permanent scar across one's view of existence. Atlas shrugged. This is Iron Rand. Suffering as such is not a value.
27:55
Only man's fight against suffering is. If you choose to help a man who suffers, then do it only on the ground of his virtue, of his fight to recover, of his rational record, or of the fact that he suffers unjustly. Then your action is still a trade, and his virtue is the payment for your help. And this is the main part of this. But to help a man who has no virtues, to help him on the ground of his suffering as such, to accept his faults, his need as a claim is to accept the mortgage of a zero on your values.
28:28
Does that make any sense to you? It's well written, and it it says what the world says. I mean, that's a very good articulation of how the world is but this this salutation right here that we're starting off with, we'll get to the comfort and affliction in just a minute. I wanna start off with the very first verse. Paul, an apostle of Christ.
28:49
So, he's a sent one. Christ sent him, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God. He's not claiming that it's by his human merit or efforts. He did not pull himself up from his bootstraps and earn this position. God called me and sent me by his will.
29:07
And from Timothy, our brother, his true son in the faith, he would say elsewhere. And it's to the church of God that is at Corinth with all the saints who are in the Hole Of Acacia. So, it's like to the saints at Jackson and Jackson Hole and you know, this bigger area. It's that kind of thing. He's writing back to a church that he had visited on his second missionary journey and so, Paul is probably writing this from Ephesus and he has probably already visited them one other time.
29:38
We'll get into all the background of that next week. I want you to see verse two here. Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this verse, grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Does it look familiar?
29:52
Have we seen this before from Paul? Have we heard this before? Galatians one three, you see that the words didn't even move there. Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ and if we look at second Corinthians one two, that's where we are today. Grace to you and peace from God our father, Lord Jesus Christ.
30:09
We look at first Corinthians one three. Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. If we look at second Thessalonians, an earlier book, grace to you and peace from God, our father, and Lord Jesus Christ. Hadn't moved one bit. First, Thessalonians and I think this is one of the more stronger arguments for why first Thessalonians was first.
30:29
He hadn't come up with his formula quite yet. To the church of the Thessalonians in God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace. It's the same thing though. This is Paul's handshake. You know what a handshake symbolizes?
30:42
I don't have a gun. I don't have a knife. I don't have a rock. I'm not gonna hit you. I'm offering my hand in peace.
30:49
Grace and peace. I don't even know if you deserve it but I'm offering it in peace. So, Paul starts off every book. This is a freebie. This isn't even one of the main points of the message.
30:57
Freebie number one, all of the Pauline epistles so far and it'll keep going is always start off with grace and peace. So, what if they don't deserve a kind handshake and a smile? Start there. Start there. Always start off with grace and peace and then he goes into a doxology immediately.
31:16
He says, and blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the God of all comfort. If you have ever felt your feelings hurt, if you've ever been afflicted, if you've ever felt like that affliction would kill you, just that is comforting. Just to know that God actually is a god of comfort. That's what he offers but Paul goes further as he does in long sentences and I love it. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in what?
31:56
All of our affliction. He has the depth of that. He has that depth. No one has suffered to the extent that Christ suffered. He knows what it's like.
32:09
He's the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction. But why? Why does he do it? Now, the world says that you do it if someone deserves it.
32:22
If somebody deserves your favor or if they deserve your bailout, then then you can do that. If they deserve it, if they prove themselves to be worthy, then give it to them. Go ahead. But it's based on their virtue. Why does God do it?
32:38
If all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Why in the world would God see fit to comfort us in our affliction if the righteous penalty for sin is actually death, hell, and the grave? Why would God do that? Why would he offer comfort? To us who comforts us in our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
33:09
And this is something where the philosophers just go round and round and round and round and round. And some of them will end up with, well, you go through hard times so that you can help other people who are going through hard times. And that's what this looks like it says too. Well, you go through these hard times, these afflictions, and you're comforted so that you can help other people in their time. But why does anybody have?
33:32
Why is it that anybody experiences suffering? Because we all fall short of the glory of God. Every single one of us. There's not a single one of us who does not fall short, who does not sin, who doesn't have sin on their life, who does not, at the beginning, have a death sentence hanging over them So that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. The so that right there.
34:04
I love seeing so that's. And y'all if you haven't ever done this job, you don't know what I'm talking about. So that's help a whole lot. Because when you're sitting there in the study and you're contemplating, you're going, why did he say that? And when he gives you a so that, he says, oh, I'm saying that because so that.
34:19
Now, it can be a couple of different things. One of em, it can be a purpose clause. It can tell the purpose why. In this case, why does he comfort? So that.
34:28
He comforts, so that. Purpose clause and I expected to see when I looked it up in Greek, I expected to see the word henna. That's that word right there. Rough breathing mark over a Yoda Hena which means in order that or so that and so that I'm comforting you so that you will do something and in a lot of places in the Bible there are so that's that are I did this for you so that you would do this for somebody else but it's interesting that in this case, is it so that we will comfort other people? Like, immediately, he's comforting us so that we will comfort other people.
34:59
Everybody says, if they come to a benevolent place in philosophy, they say that's what what it's good for but that doesn't answer the question of why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
35:09
It's under the sun thinking as Solomon would do in Ecclesiastes. Under the sun, this seems to make sense and a lot of human philosophers come up with a lot of good things. Let's go back to the so that. So that. So that we and it's also intensified ourselves so that we, ourselves, may be able to comfort as the translation that we've got in English Standard Version, that's what we're using today, so that we may be able to comfort.
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So I looked that up and thought, that's strange because it's not a henna clause. It's not an in order that. So what was the word there? What is it that's going on? And that's the word.
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That may be able is dunamai. And what does dunamai sound like? Dunamai. Dunamai. Dunamai.
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Dynamite. That's that's where we get our word for dynamite because it is the power to be able to do some or actually, dynamite. Alright? That that is that's what it sounds like. It's about power.
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It's the so that right there is so that we ourselves, ourselves, will have the power to comfort. The greater the channel, I heard a wise guy say this morning, the greater the channel that suffering causes in our life, the greater capacity we have for joy, but also the greater capacity we have for helping other people so that we ourselves may actually have the power to comfort. And who is it that we're comforting? It's not just Christians. It's those who are in any affliction.
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It's not just those who deserve it. It's anybody who finds himself in any realm of suffering whatsoever. God has comforted us so that we may be able, so that we may have the power. We have the capacity to do it. You, when I was asking if you've ever suffered, just kinda had in your mind and you said, really?
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I'd have to say no. I've had a pretty cushy existence so far. I probably would have said that up until moving to the mission field. I probably would have said, parents have never battled with one another. We've had enough food on the table.
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I've never had the pain of loss of a loved one that was really, really close to me. All of these things, I had not gone through this tremendous amount of suffering. And then in life, things go and it gets to be, oh my goodness, there's a depth here. And God will prepare us by taking us through trial and tribulation. Yesterday, we mentioned in the Quinceanera, James one twelve says that God has prepared a crown of life for those who endure trial and temptation and love him.
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So that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. The under the sun thinking is not the end of the story. It's not just pie in the sky by and by. There's an abundant life relationship here with God where suffering comes into focus a bit, and it'll keep on coming into focus in this passage. But you you've gotta get out of the under the sun only here thinking and start thinking about things above.
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And when you realize that you have become like Carl Reddell a while ago, a child of God by belief, That's moving from death to life. That's that's moving. That's a major movement and there's a great peace and comfort that comes from knowing that you're a child of God. Whatever other maladies you're going through. The same comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
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An eternal comfort. For just as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings. Now, had Paul and Timothy shared in Christ's sufferings? Y'all tell me, had had they? Oh my goodness.
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By this point, he'd been beaten, shipwrecked, beaten again, lowered down over a wall. He's going give us a list later on. Snake bit a couple of times. He had suffered. Timothy too.
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Timothy had been circumcised as an adult. They had shared abundantly in suffering. So, through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort too. Now, for Christ was the suffering, anguish of the scourgings, and the death, the torture that he experienced at the last moments for doing nothing wrong. Was that just or unjust suffering?
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It was unjust suffering for him. It was just on our part. We deserved that beating. It would be just for us, but he took it. And it's not the end of the story, the death.
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If he had stayed in the tomb, then this would be pointless. This verse would make no sense whatsoever because we see that he turned his face toward Jerusalem and wishes that he could gather him up like his chicks And he suffered and Jesus wept at the tomb of lash. All of these things we see where Jesus suffered. He's a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. All of these things we see.
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Well, where then is his comfort? He was he's he's living today, resurrected, enjoying eternal fellowship with God the father. If we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ, we also share abundantly in comfort too. There's something to look forward to there. If we are afflicted now, we're Paul and Timothy afflicted.
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Paul says he had thorn in the flesh that he prayed for God to take away. Yeah, he was afflicted. Why was he afflicted? He goes on. If we are afflicted and we are, then it is for your comfort and salvation.
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If Paul had just decided to make tents back in Jerusalem or Antioch and just not say anything about the gospel, would he have been beaten, lowered down in over a wall, shipwrecked on missionary journeys. If he just, whatever. Put it aside. If we're afflicted, he was afflicted for the cause of Christ. That's that's sharing in the sufferings of Christ.
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Then, it's for your comfort. He's saying that I have an eternal hope that gives me such joy and such presence here and beyond that I want to share it. I can't believe that people haven't accepted this and don't have this truth. There's somebody anywhere that needs Jesus. I want to tell em about him.
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That's the kind of guy that Paul was. So, if we are afflicted, me and Timothy and Silas, if we're afflicted, it's for your comfort and not just for your comfort, for your salvation because we carry a message. The message that we carry is one of comfort and joy. It is. And if we're comforted, it's for your comfort.
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Which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. If you have an eternal perspective, it is heartbreaking to see people going after frivolous and worldly pleasures. If you have an eternal perspective to say, ugh, going for the gusto right now because you can't wait, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Paul's not a legalist. He's he's not a licentious guy at all.
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He has a gospel perspective, and he cares for these people. He loves them. First Corinthians was all about sin, all about this rampant sin in the church and how the holiness of God kinda demanded that we be a holy people. But he's written them a couple of times. He's seen him a few times and he's saying, my goodness, people.
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I love you. I really, really, really care for you and I want for you to be at peace and at comfort. So it's for your comfort which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. If you get an eternal perspective, you start to see the the problems of going after under the sun type thinking and Solomon did see that. All of Ecclesiastes, if you want to read it, 11 straight chapters, he's after going after one thing after another that the world says are great.
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It's 11 chapters of it and then it gets to the end. It says, the conclusion of the matter, all of this is vanity. But fear God and keep his commandments. He's good. He's good.
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He brings life. So, redemptive suffering. Now, there there are couple different theological slants on redemptive suffering. I bring it up because right here is where Paul says, this, if if we suffer, it's for your comfort and salvation. He's saying, we're suffering what the gospel message carries with it.
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We're suffering Jesus. We're suffering with Jesus with the persecution that it brings. And because of that, we're carrying the message and you will hear it. And that's redemptive. The message itself, the message of the cross.
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That's where the redemption comes. I cannot suffer for rust wood. I cannot suffer with for Russ Wood. I cannot do that. I can suffer with him when he's going through a hard time, but I can't suffer for his sins.
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I can't redeem him. But I can go through something with him that I've been through that was hard for me. So this redemptive sovereign, I think it's Rick Warren, says God never wastes a hurt. He never wastes any hurt that you're going through. If you've been through the struggle of losing a child, you are going to be able to help someone who has lost a child better than anybody else.
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If you've gone through a crisis of faith, the dark night of the soul, you are going to be able to help somebody who's going through crisis of faith better than anybody else. You'll have a greater depth of compassion. If you've struggled with sexual addiction or alcohol, anything else. Why does Alcoholics Anonymous have sponsors? Because they've suffered with the same thing you're suffering with.
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That's the redemptive part of it. Going through this with you. And then Paul has a bright note right here and I love this. He gets back and he goes, our hope for you is unshaken. I know.
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Yeah. You're naughty sometimes as Carl put it. I know that. I wrote you a whole letter about that. In fact, I wrote you another one that was a severe letter about that but our hope for you is unshaken.
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We know that Christ redeemed you. We know that you belong to him. Our hope for you is unshaken. For we know that you share in our sufferings and that you'll also share in our comfort. We know that you are believers, that you put your faith in Jesus.
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That's who I'm writing to and then verse eight, we do not want for you to be unaware brothers of the affliction that we experienced in Asia. Do you remember in Acts when he said, and we were hindered, we were hindered from ministry in Asia. He says, we were hindered by the Holy Spirit. We were hindered by the Holy Spirit to minister in Asia. And he says, we don't want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction that we experienced in Asia.
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It was tough. It was really, really hard. Have you ever felt afflicted? For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the death sentence.
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Have you ever felt that affliction would actually kill you? They did. And it was for the it was gospel motivated in their case. But why? And this is where we get back to the text.
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We despaired of even life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the death sentence but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. That's pretty good. This is the this is the over the sun thinking, not the under the sun thinking. All of that suffering, Paul says, very very clearly, all of the suffering that I experience, that you experience, and that those demise, those others experience was so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God.
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It is not a pull yourself up by your bootstraps type of existence. It's not an Iran type of existence. It's not an Atlas shrug. That is under the sun thinking that we'll eventually fail. It's to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.
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He raised Jesus from the dead and that's comfort. And he promises to raise us from the dead too, but it is by his stripes that we're healed. It's by his sufferings, by his blood, and it is the only way. So why? Why all this suffering?
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To make us rely not on ourselves but on God. He has made the way for us. When we didn't deserve it, we had no virtue. We were dead men. We did not have any virtue whatsoever and he made the way by his perfect life and perfect death and we're going to go into a time of communion in just a second but I do want to end on this.
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Ten eleven say, he delivered us from such a deadly peril and he will deliver us. Future, tense. He will deliver us and there's great hope found in that. On him, we have set our hope and that's biblical hope. A sure thing that is going to come to pass.
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On him, we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. And then he calls out and he says, but you also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf. What he's saying is so that this message will keep on going. It's not just under the sun cyclical thinking. This is stuff that eventually, the purpose of the cross is for the salvation of mankind but the salvation of mankind is for the glory of God.
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It's based on God's glory. He is the only one who deserves it. That's why we sing praises to him. This just blew me away this week because the things that God has put me and other individuals that I saw this week through, I saw suffering with other people in the hospital visits. And I saw hope restored.
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It's amazing. So if you are feeling like you've got your feelings hurt or that you're afflicted or right now you're so afflicted that you feel it might kill you, Please tell somebody. Please tell me. We have a bunch of elders. Elders, would you stand up?
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Please tell these guys. Because the reason that we've all gone through what we've gone through and looking around, we've all gone through a lot is for your comfort and for your salvation just like them but you also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. Do you hear what that is? It's exponential. He's saying so that many, it's not just me and you.
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It's not me, my four, no more. It's that this message keeps on going out. Pray for us that the gospel will continue spreading and that's it. When I get those elders that just stood up, can I get four of you to come up front? And we're going to just transition into a time of communion.
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We'll end with a song after that, okay? Lord, would you connect the dots for everything I left out of the sermon today? Would you help people to understand this thing? Because the problem of pain is one of the biggest problems that we face if we really stop to think about things in life. It's the hardest thing to figure out about you, lord.
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But God, if it drives us to you, that makes sense. You're our creator, redeemer, Lord. So Lord, would you connect the dots for us, illumine your word, and just comfort us so that we may be be able have the power to comfort others. God, as we distribute this bread, ask that you'd bless everyone that partakes, lord, and those who let the plate pass for whatever personal reason. I pray that you would bring them through whatever that affliction is, Lord.
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Whether it's their denial of you and your provision or whether it is just feeling the weight of their own sin. God, would you allow us to lay it all at your feet and to be able to accept this symbol? Would you bless this bread and each one as we distribute it in Jesus name? Amen. On the same night that Jesus was betrayed, again, suffering.
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He took the bread after supper and after he gave thanks, he said, this is my body that's given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Thank you, lord, that you know what it's like to be human. I thank you, lord, that you were tempted in every way that we were tempted, yet you were without sin and you had that perfect life that you could present as an atoning sacrifice for us. God, as we distribute this cup, we remember you on that night that you were betrayed and realizing lord that we have betrayed you.
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We come together knowing that we all have sin in our lives and that the only thing that can wash it away is your blood. Lord, as we take in this symbol, Would you just touch each one of us? Please bless this distribution of juice. In your son's name, amen. And in the same manner, they took the bread, he took the cup, and he said that this is the new covenant in my blood.
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That that the suffering prophet Jeremiah had called out about the new covenant. This is the new covenant in my blood, Jesus said. Take this and drink and as often as you do it, do it in remembrance of me. Paul says also that we every time we do this, that we do it proclaiming the death of Jesus. But if we pay attention to the logic in second Corinthians, when you proclaim the death of Jesus, you're proclaiming life, grace, g r a c e, God's riches at Christ's expense.
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Amen. God's riches at Christ's expense. Would you stand with us, and we're gonna sing the doxology.
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Praise above the heavenly home. Praise father, son, and holy ghost. Let's sing that again. Praise God from moon all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures.
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Praise father, son, and holy
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and
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the benediction today is from Galatians one three through five. Grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil and suffering age according to the will of God and father to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Amen.
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