Comfort in Difficulty
The Comforts of Christmas • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Difficulties facing Australians for Christmas 2023… quit
Cost of living - higher interest rates, inflation - make Christmas a challenging time for many… adjustment need to be made, help needs to be found… what comfort does the Christ of Christmas bring?
Loneliness - more Australians live by themselves every year, immigrants, the elderly, people cut off from their communities… leading to further mental health problems… what comfort does the Christ of Christmas bring?
Making sense of a world beset by war and suffering - will it change, where is the hope, will it come to our shores, will it my way of living? What comfort does the Christ of Christmas bring?
In difficulty, we search for answers, we often think we know the best course of action (to resolve our problems)… or we lose hope, resigning ourselves to a joyless future.
What comfort does the Christ of Christmas bring?
Today we come to Isaiah 40 which reveals to us our God, a God of comfort… comfort which finds its fulfilment in Christ, the Christ of Christmas.
Pray
Four voices of Comfort
Four voices of Comfort
Four heralds speak the truth… Voice of Grace (1-2); Providence (3-5); Truth (6-8); and Love (9-11)… not a message of judgement, but one of comfort
Comfort, comfort… depth of feeling from God, but also abundance of comfort to share with his people who have been in distress.
GRACE
1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 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.
Double… justice. The punishment fit the crime. An acting double - the same.
The grace we receive comes through Jesus… he pays for our sin… he bears the punishment we deserve… God speaks tenderly to us… you need not fear the consequences of your sin, you need not fear death and judgement. Trust in the finished work of Christ Jesus.
The cross of Christ is comfort for us.
PROVIDENCE
3 A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
God provides for his people to return to Jerusalem from exile… he goes ahead of them, making their paths straight (sappers)… as the Lord acts his glory is revealed and all people see it.
God provides the straight way for us to return to him…
God reveals his glory in the cross of Christ.
John 12:23 “23 Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.”
John 12:27–33 “27 “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that was there and heard it said it had thundered; others said an angel had spoken to him. 30 Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine. 31 Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.”
This is cross of Christ is comfort for us!
TRUTH
6 A voice says, “Cry out.” And I said, “What shall I cry?” “All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field. 7 The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.”
We are fleeting, but the word of the Lord endures forever.
The promises that we are called to build our lives on… they are not fleeting, they are not flimsy, they are not tossed around by the ups and downs and difficulties of life… they endure forever...
The promises of God, that find their yes in Christ, who is the very word of God, endures forever… this is comfort for us!
LOVE
9 You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!” 10 See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and he rules with a mighty arm. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. 11 He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.
The Sovereign Lord, the great shepherd of the sheep, promised to shepherd is people, promised to bring his people, his reward, back from exile… good news, proclaimed from the mountains, proclaimed in Judah, proclaimed in Jerusalem… God loves his people.
John 10:14–15 “14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
Jesus promises to shepherd you, he loves you… find comfort here, find hope...
John 10:27–30 “27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. 30 I and the Father are one.””
Jesus is our comfort in difficulty.
The comforted comfort
The comforted comfort
How ought we respond, as those who are comforted, to the needs of those around us?
In the midst of cost of living pressures, we find comfort in our Lord Jesus Christ, how can we help others around us?
In the midst of a loneliness epidemic (33%), we find comfort in Jesus, how can we help others who struggle?
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
The Big Picture…
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
In Jesus, we understand that through our difficulties, God is doing a beautiful work, to make us mature and complete. We see that while we may not have all the answers to our struggles, we have the promise of God, assuring us of his good plans for us in Jesus.
This gives us hope. This gives us comfort.
The Big Picture…THE TRANSCENDENCE OF GOD
The Big Picture…THE TRANSCENDENCE OF GOD
So we come back to Isaiah 40 for a few moments.
We don’t have all the answers, we don’t have in ourselves all power and strength to endure suffering, but we do have a God who transcends all… What comfort did he give his people?
27 Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”?
They thought that in their exile, their difficulty, their suffering, that God had done the runner? Which is remarkable, in Egypt, God had not left them, and God had told them all that would happen if they were unfaithful… well before Babylon. (Deut 28)
So, in this moment of desperation, Judah, God’s people, feeling forgotten, complaining against God… What is his answer? What comfort does he bring?
There is no on like me, says God...
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? 13 Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as his counselor? 14 Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge, or showed him the path of understanding?
Transecendent over the Nations
15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. 16 Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires, nor its animals enough for burnt offerings. 17 Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing.
Transecendent over idols
18 With whom, then, will you compare God? To what image will you liken him? 19 As for an idol, a metalworker casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashions silver chains for it. 20 A person too poor to present such an offering selects wood that will not rot; they look for a skilled worker to set up an idol that will not topple.
Transecendent over rulers
21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? 22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. 23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. 24 No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
Transecendent over so-called gods
25 “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
Transecendent over all powers
27 Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”? 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
There is none like our God!
What does this picture of our transcendent God do for the people of Judah, in exile in Babylon?
It should lift their eyes up to the Lord, away from the life in Babylon, their difficulty, it should fill them with new purpose, beyond their struggles.
JUST LIKE we lift our eyes to Jesus, finding comfort in him, in the face of difficulty...
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
What else does this picture of our transcendent God do for the people of Judah, in exile in Babylon?
It should lift their hearts to the Lord, driving away fear, strengthened to persevere.
Ask yourself, “What choice would I make if I wasn’t filled with fear?”
What do you fear? Witnessing to Jesus, persecution/rejection, doing the difficult thing (showing mercy when it comes at a cost)...
Now in that moment when decision time comes, lift your hearts to God, transcendent over all powers, and trust him in that difficult moment, trust him so that you don’t give way to fear, trust him for the strength you need to persevere, to endure, to be faithful.
We worship a transcendent God...
Isaiah 40:28–31 “28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”