Longing: Longing for Comfort
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Longing for Comfort
Longing for Comfort
Intro: Words of Comfort
Effect: Comfort
Words of Comfort
Warm blanket
Cozy Fire with eggnog or hot chocolate
Chicken soup watching your favorite movie
Hot bath
Breathing deeply (sorry, compassion, comfort)
Console
: Rod and staff, they comfort me
Manner: Speak tenderly
Like a young man wooing his girl ()
Boaz reassuring Ruth (),
A deserted husband seeking to win his wife back ().” Alex Motyer
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.
Three Voices of Comfort:
Comfort for What’s Done
Comfort for what is
Comfort for what’s to come
“Hard service”: “the word ṣābā’ means ‘army/host’ (), but extends its meaning to cover a fixed period of service () or the fixed duration of life (), and, here, an appointed period of hardship” Motyer
Iniquity is pardoned: iniquity is paid for
Grace: Received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins
NIV: “sin has been paid for’
Grace: Received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins
Personal delivery of grace double
‘double’: ‘to fold over, fold in half’: “the thought is not of an excessive punishment running beyond what the case required, but of a dealing with sin that includes realities beyond our comprehension. On the other hand, when something is folded over, each half corresponds exactly with the other half, and this would yield the thought of exact correspondence between sin and payment.”
Voice of Comfort #1: Comfort for What’s Done
Voice of Comfort #1: Comfort for What’s Done
Highway: Glory Road!
Why are these words of Comfort?
The Glory of God is coming, so prepare the Earth for His arrival.
ALL(!) the earth:
Massive construction project here: Every valley, shall be lifted up and every mountain made low.
Uneven ground level, rough places plain
Similarity between and 40
Out from the wilderness
Highway- level and straight
Differences
Difference type of highway
Not a highway for God’s people, but for God himself!
Spiritual Fulfillment- Past Tense
What was it like for a King to visit?
Example of Construction Preparation for Something Big:
Montreal Olympic Stadium
Spiritual Fulfillment- Past Tense
: In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea,
2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3 For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.’ ”
One-to-one prophesy connection: Very rare!
This passage is about John the Baptist, Jesus’ relative, who would make way for the Messiah
John the Baptist:
Not a foreman. Probably 0 skills in land surveying. No engineering skills.
But he called out: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’
Not a physical construction project, but a spiritual construction project
For John the Baptist to prepare is to announce the Coming of the King in all his glory!
Comfort: The King has come in all his glory: This prophesy came true. Check it. Name, claim it. The King has come, one and done!
That gives us tremendous comfort.
But we get even more comfort today!
Voice of Comfort #2: Comfort for the Present
Voice of Comfort #2: Comfort for the Present
“Hard service”: “the word ṣābā’ means ‘army/host’ (), but extends its meaning to cover a fixed period of service () or the fixed duration of life (), and, here, an appointed period of hardship” Motyer
Iniquity is pardoned: iniquity is paid for
NIV: “sin has been paid for’
Grace: Received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins
Personal delivery of grace double
‘double’: ‘to fold over, fold in half’: “the thought is not of an excessive punishment running beyond what the case required, but of a dealing with sin that includes realities beyond our comprehension. On the other hand, when something is folded over, each half corresponds exactly with the other half, and this would yield the thought of exact correspondence between sin and payment.”
Think about the irony:
Think about the irony:
You are just like grass...
You are like flowers of the field…
And just like grass, you grow tall and mature
And just like grass, you grow tall and mature
Just like flowers you will blossom and smell nice...
You wither and fall
That’s what you’d think you’d here with words of comfort, instead, we get:
Like grass you will wither and die.
And like flowers you will fade and fall six feet under
But God’s Word doesn’t wither or fade. It stands forever.
That doesn’t sound comforting at all!
Why are these words of Comfort?
REALITY CHECK:
God’s Spirit is still at work despite our weakness.
Reread v. 7
7 The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
Pentecost Feel to it? So much emphasis on “the word of the Lord stands forever”, that I’ve neglected to emphasize this line about the Spirit of God blowing on us!
Just as the first voice came to it’s fulfillment in John the Baptist, this voice seems to be fulfilled in the hear and now, in this era of the Spirit!
Just as the first voice came to it’s fulfillment in John the Baptist, this voice seems to be fulfilled in the hear and now, in this era of the Spirit!
For 2,000 years since the King came, died and rose, the Holy Spirit has been blowing! The breath of the Lord, the Ruach, has been blowing threw church history. Many millions have come and gone.
1. God’s Spirit continues to blow
2. God Word continues to stand.
If there’s anything history proves, is that we are like grass. Our beauty will fade.
What’s the death rate since Jesus rose from the dead? 100%
How many people stayed
Beauty: Our ‘hesed’ is ESV: ‘beauty’, NIV: ‘faithfulness’, is like the flowers of the field. “Goodliness” “Glory”
Despite our fickle faith, our unreliability, our loyalty will fade, Word can’t.
But God’s Spirit continues to blow and God’s Word will continue to stand!
But God’s Spirit continues to blow and God’s Word will continue to stand!
GOD’S Hesed: Never ends!
Comfort:
While we wait for Jesus, 3 things will remain true:
No matter how much we try, our beauty will fade.
No matter how much ‘ageless’ skin cream: Cream erases lines
Plastic surgery
Emile Ratelband, 69: self-identifies as a 49 year-old- mentioned before, but discovered he lost a legal battle over the issue.
Time
Grey hair is a coming!
Grey hair is a coming!
Best from from High School: First year of university he was already losing his hair!
Human brain stops developing by age 24: All downhill from there...
God’s Spirit will continue to blow.
Church continues to grow!
God’s Word will stand forever!
Best selling book:
See book
God is with us: Spirit is with us while we wait and He’s given us the Word along the way.
BUT, our comfort is in the Holy Spirit’s movement in the church
One way to understand these verses:
Verse 8 summarizes this voice is one line:
8 The grass withers and the flowers fades,
but the word of our God stands forever.”
Why are these words of Comfort?
God’s Spirit is at work.
Even though generations need to wait for redemption, God’s Spirit is at work
Even though their timing is not God’s timing, God’s Spirit is at work
Herald #2: God’s Word Stand Forever
GOD’S Hesed: Never ends!
GOD’S Hesed: Never ends!
“The reference is not to our fading physical ‘glory’ or anything like that but to our moral and spiritual unreliability.” Motyer
Even when the breath of the Lord blows on it, people are still unreliable! Like grass!
But the grass (and us) withers, the flowers (our faithfulness) fades: BUT GOD’S WORD STANDS FOREVER!
Our frailty is actually proof that Jesus isn’t here yet!
BUT, our comfort is in the Holy Spirit’s movement in the church
Voice of Comfort #3: Comfort for the Future
Voice of Comfort #3: Comfort for the Future
Why is this Comforting?
Because our calling is to proclaim the coming of the King!
Set the Scene:
[speak tenderly!]
Herald: Tells Zion to dig up its foundations and plot itself on a high mountain
Like the movie UP!
Tell Jerusalem to lift up its downcast face.
Who is the speaker? Another herald or Zion itself?
Empty, forelorn, sad… Time of sadness is gone!
Tell Jerusalem to tell the local towns the following:
“LOOK! It’s GOD! The Lord God is coming. He’s coming with power “big muscles!”
“LOOK!! He’s got a reward as well.
“LOOK!!! He tends, gathers, carries and gently leads his people back home!”
O Zion: “You who bring good news” feminine verb. Bride of Christ!
O Jerusalem: “You who bring good news”
Purpose of Church Plant: Bringers of Good News: Front lines
Story of the last few months: How to grow our church?
Because we baptise babies?
Because we do communion each week
Going back to our culture: 2020: Year of Release
Inviting
Caring
Sharing
We are Zion. We are Jerusalem.
The compelling vision of our Christian faith!
Look!!
He earned ‘reward’ and ‘recompense’
Roll of the Church: LOOK!! HE’S COMING!!
In Victory. Gospel, Gospel, Gospel!
