Released to Comfort

Out theme for 2024 is “Possessing the Land”

Last year I preached a series on 1 Corinthians entitled “The Spirit-filled church.

It was about this church in the Gentile world living at the intersection of spiritual reality and one of the darkest places on earth.

Corinth was a powerful cultural center of the ancient world, rivaling nearby Athens.

Corinth was the place where ships were unloaded and dragged across a six mile road and relaunched on the other side rather than sail for days around the peninsula of Achaia.

It was the ancient equivalent of the panama canal.

Commerce from all over the ancient world passed through Corinth - you could find anything imaginable in their marketplace - and also in their marketplace of ideas.

It also had a prominent temple to Aphrodite - the goddess of beauty and love.

It was a hub for prostitution and human trafficking.

This was commercial Los Angeles, progressive San Francisco, and “Sin City” Las Vegas - all rolled into one.

A year later, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church again.

From the greeting it looks as if the church has been growing.

2 Corinthians 1:1–2 ESV

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that 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.

It is possible that there were as many as four letters to the Corinthians.

Some scholars think there were lost letters, and some think that the four letters were merged into the two letters that we have now.

Paul’s encouragement to the Corinthian church is to not just be filled with the Spirit, but to release the Spirit.

We don’t just live in spiritual reality, we bring spiritual reality to bear in every situation that we find ourselves.

We carry the Presence of God with us to change the atmosphere wherever we go.

We are not just people looking for a spiritual encounter, we are the church released to take the reality of the Spirit to the world.

This week we see in the first two chapters that the church is released to comfort.

Comfort is expressed through faith, hope and love.

The Holy Spirit was introduced to Jesus disciples as the comforter.

Just as Jesus gave his indwelling presence to His disciples,

the church now brings His presence to the world.

The Comfort of Faith

I have a relative who is a funeral director. I have worked with him on a number of occasions both as a client and as a colleague. In one of our more candid conversations he told me, “There is a huge difference between our customers who have a strong faith and those who don’t. Those who don’t have faith in Christ need a lot of hand-holding, every decision is a tedious process and they are so fragile. For families with a strong faith, it’s almost a celebration. Of course they are grieving too, but they have hope.

If all you know is this life, then death seems so final.

But if you have the perspective that this life is just a fraction of all eternity,

If your reality is not just the physical, world but the spiritual realm as well,

And if you are living and walking by the Spirit, as we learned in Paul’s first letter, then death is simply a passage to another phase of reality.

Paul begins this second letter with repeated words of comfort.

2 Corinthians 1:3 ESV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

The God of all comfort - doesn’t that sound nice!

This isn’t just a nicely nice sort of comfort - this is comfort against a background of turmoil and suffering.

And comfort here is not just a nice feeling - it is a reference to the Holy Spirit’s Presence.

Faith is having the same Spirit.

Paul is going to repeat the word “comfort” ten times in just five verses.

What does repetition mean? - Emphasis!

Affliction is also repeated four times in six verses.

And suffering is also repeated four times in just three verses of the passage.

So overwhelmingly more that his emphasis on affliction or suffering is Paul’s emphasis on comfort or the Comforter.

John 14:16–17 ASV

16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, 17 even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you.

I specifically chose a translation that uses the word “comforter” because it is the same word in Greek as in 2 Cor 1:3-7.

From the Greek root paraklesis - the paraklete - the Holy Spirit is the comforter.

And this same root word is used ten times (in different forms) to describe the “God of all comfort.”

When we read this passage, it may lead us to believe that we are merely trusting in a feeling -

We are not! - We are trusting in a Spirit!

-the Holy Spirit given by Jesus to be with us and in us.

He is our comfort in the midst of affliction and suffering.

Lets finish the passage:

2 Corinthians 1:6–7 ESV

6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

Faith leads to endurance.

So the first thing that Paul wants these Corinthian believers and the whole region to know is “you are not alone!”

You are not alone because the Holy Spirit is with you and in you.

You are not alone because the same Spirit is in us and we are bonded together by that same Spirit.

The same enemy who is trying to destroy you is also trying to destroy us - because that enemy is a spiritual enemy who is against the Spirit at work in us and through us.

We are at war and we are in it together.

The second thing he wants them to know is that “you will make it!”

Paul can say that with assurance because he has been facing the same resistance for much longer than they have and he is still standing.

He has also seen how the grace of God and the power of the Spirit is that much stronger when we go through trials.

“Hang in there, the battle is great, but faith is greater!”

Faith transcends discouragement.

2 Corinthians 1:8–11 ESV

8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. 11 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.

Have you ever felt like that?

Discouragement can be so overwhelming that you don’t even want to live!

There is a kind of suicidal ideation that is just the voice of the enemy trying to get us to destroy ourselves -

I don’t think that is what Paul is talking about here.

But there is another kind where you are just tired:

Tired of fighting.

Tired of hurting.

Tired of every moment of every day taking so much effort.

You don’t really want to give up - you just can’t go on!

This is where Paul is trying to to turn our focus from the pain of the trial to the comfort and strength of the Holy Spirit.

“I have been there!” Paul says.

“This is not the end, the Holy Spirit is here with us!”

This isn’t about us, it’s so much bigger and He will see us through!”

The Comfort of Hope

In the midst of suffering and affliction, the Holy Spirit calls hope to mind.

What is hope?

Is it some fantasy that somehow, everything is going to be OK?

It is the idea that like on TV or in the movies, the good guy always wins in the end?

You know that only works because every TV show and every movie has a writer - someone who knows the end from the beginning.

Our story also has a Divine writer - and it hasn’t all been written yet.

But God knows the end from the beginning.

And God is good!

Hope believes the best.

2 Corinthians 1:12–14 ESV

12 For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. 13 For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand and I hope you will fully understand— 14 just as you did partially understand us—that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you.

When this is all over, we are going to have an awesome story to tell!

You are going to be bragging on me.

And I am going to be bragging on you.

And that is why I am choosing to believe the best about you now, because that is the story that I want to tell!

Paul is saying, “We don’t have any hidden motives.”

We are not doing what the world does - buttering you up because they want something from you.

Paul say, “ I am not trying to use you for my own purposes - because I don’t have any other purpose than serving God.”

Hope affirms and imparts grace.

2 Corinthians 1:15–20 ESV

15 Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace. 16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. 17 Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? 18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. 20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.

Not only does Paul believe the best - He believes in Divine impartation,

He is looking not only to impart grace to the Corinthian believers, but to receive grace as well.

Paul believe in mutual impartation.

Romans 1:11–12 ESV

11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

And this involves Macedonia as well, when he goes from one place to another, he is a carrier of Divine grace and spiritual impartation.

Obviously something has happened that Paul is trying to address in his letter - he meant to come to them sooner.

One moment they heard “Yes, he is coming”

Another moment they heard, “No, he is not coming.”

When you are already discouraged, hearing yes and then no can feel like “Why bother?”

Paul reminds them that God is always affirming the vision and the desires that he has placed in us.

The “no” comes from other circumstances and other forces at work.

That may delay things, but it can not prevent God’s “yes” and our “amen!’

Hope trusts God’s outcome.

2 Corinthians 1:21–24 ESV

21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. 23 But I call God to witness against me—it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. 24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.

God turns bad things into good things.

In life, you will have disappointments, but you can trust God to use those things for your good and for His glory.

Romans 8:28 ESV

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Paul is saying, “trust me, this was for the best.’

“Or if you can’t trust me, trust God, because I am working for Him.”

Nobody is out to get you (except the enemy):

God is for you.

I am for you.

You can trust that even when life lets you down, God is working toward His outcome.

Because He loves you.

The Comfort of Love

Faith, hope and love - where have we heard that before?

They are the three things that remain when all else fails.

1 Corinthians 13:13 NLT

13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

These are what you have to hang on to when times are tough.

Love must be tough.

2 Corinthians 2:1–4 ESV

1 For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. 2 For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? 3 And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all. 4 For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.

Paul is referring to the correction that he had to give in a previous letter.

There may have been a missing letter, but I think there is enough strong language in 1 Corinthians to think that that Paul may have shed some tears as he wrote it.

1 Corinthians 4:14 ESV

14 I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

1 Corinthians 4:18–19 ESV

18 Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. 19 But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power.

1 Corinthians 11:17 ESV

17 But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse.

You get the idea. Sometimes love must be tough.

But tough love is still love, nonetheless.

Most of the time, nobody knows the tears that are shed as we pray for people n our lives who are making bad choices.

When they hear our correction, they suspect the same evil motives that they wrestle with, and they project on us their own hostility.

How we long for that day when we can tell them the truth, how much we cried for them and grieved over them and their losses.

We pray for that moment of clarity to come, but in the mean time we work to keep our own hearts from hardening.

Love always forgives.

2 Corinthians 2:5–11 ESV

5 Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure—not to put it too severely—to all of you. 6 For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, 7 so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. 9 For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. 10 Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, 11 so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

When someone acts out in pain, it doesn’t just hurt the intended target, it hurts everyone around them.

It is important that forgiveness includes, not just the offended party, but all those affected by it.

Paul realizes that, though he was attacked by someone in their midst, there are others who may still be carrying the offense.

He doesn’t want the residual pain from the correction that he needed to bring to take root and result in yet another offence.

Forgiveness is so important, not just in the big things, but in the little things.

It’s those little offences that add up and make it hard to receive the comfort of the Holy Spirit.

They might be secondary to us, taking up someone else’s offence or being hurt by someone reacting in pain.

We need to make forgiveness a lifestyle - constantly searching our own heart and forgiving wherever we recognize hurt or offence.

That is the comfort that the Holy Spirit offers us - to take our pain to the cross.

Love always triumphs!

2 Corinthians 2:12–17 ESV

12 When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, even though a door was opened for me in the Lord, 13 my spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia. 14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

When Paul didn’t find Timothy at Troas, he probably thought the worst at first.

They didn’t have phone, text or email.

If he’s not there - there could be any number of reasons and most of them are really bad.

Sick - no doctors.

Robbed - travelling was dangerous in those days.

Or the absolute worst - captured by Rome!

Fortunately, that was not the case, but Paul uses the example to do some mental reimagining of what he may have been thinking.

Maybe Timothy was rounded up because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time - like rogue cops, the Romans are constantly doing that.

Maybe he is being led in a procession of prisoners down the streets of the capital.

Maybe he is rotting in dungeon somewhere.

Maybe he is hanging on a cross, in a cage from a tower or his body hung on a wall to warn passers by again insurrection against Rome.

Now let's let Holy Spirit take over the imagination and speak truth.

Holy Spirit reminds Paul that he is the head and not the tail.

Deuteronomy 28:13 ESV

13 And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them,

Jesus defeated the forces of darkness at the cross.

We are not the prisoners at the end of the procession, we are the warriors who are leading the procession - with Jesus at the very front.

We are not rotting corpses in cages, we are princes and princesses riding through a shower of flower pedals.

When royalty passes by, you know it - they don’t stink like everyone else.

They have this fragrance about them because they bathe regularly and can afford soap and perfumed oils.

Just as we regularly allow God to search us and cleanse us.

And the aroma is the oil of his Presence that we soak in.

Regardless of what happens, God loves us and we win!

Defeat can only be temporary.

Discouragement can only last for a little while.

Sorrow is not our final state - love is!

This is more than just a good feeling, it is absolute trust in the God of all comfort.

Questions for reflection:

What are you releasing? Is it the fragrance of His presence? Or do people passing by feel your pain, your hurt and your anxiety? Perhaps it is time to give you imagination over to the Holy Spirit?

What reality are you living in today? Are you trying to fight your battles in the flesh or are you relying on the Holy Spirit? Are you focused on your failure or God's forgiveness? Are you able to transcend feelings and circumstances with God’s truth?

Perhaps you are discouraged today? Perhaps you are sad or grieving? Perhaps you really have messed up? Let’s practice Holy Spirit impartation. Let's surround those who are in need of comfort and impart that gift to one another.

You are not alone.

You will make it.