Gentle & Lowly: "Father of Mercies" | 2 Corinthians 1:3–11

Introduction

Shock describes it best when I learned what happened. It all started out on a Saturday afternoon. Kim and I were doing dinner with my parents as well as running some errands that totaled several hours worth of driving. While we were having dinner at my parents, I suddenly realized that my phone was missing. As you know, for a millennial, this is a crisis. Just kidding, it was actually go to be separated from it for a little while. So I assume that I either left it in the car or at home. When we get in the car again, I search everywhere, but the phone is no longer to be found. So Kim and I run our errands for the evening and arrive at home. As we settle in, I decide to look for my phone. As hard as I look though, it is still no where to be found. Finally, I grab my water bottle to drink as I go back to the car to search some more. I unlock the car and set my water bottle on the roof of the car to prepare for a thorough search. But as I set my water bottle on the roof, I set it down on top of my phone. Little did I know that several hours earlier, long before the hours of driving we were about to do, I had set my phone on the roof of the car and forgot about it there. I was shocked to learn that it had stayed there despite hours of driving. That evening, my smartphone had been right there the entire time despite me having no idea it was right next to me. Similarly, God the Father in Heaven is right there orchestrating the events of our lives and caring for those who follow him, even when we forget that he is there, and even when we do not realize that he is in the background orchestrating everything that happens.

As we look at God the Father today, we continue our Gentle and Lowly series. The title of the series is also the title of a book written by Dane Ortland. In it, he writes, “only as we drink down the kindness of the heart of Christ will we leave in our wake, everywhere we go, the aroma of heaven, and die one day having startled the world with glimpses of a divine kindness too great to be boxed in by what we deserve.” We can only become an aroma from heaven if we experience the heart of Christ. The heart of Christ is at the heart of this series. There are many misconceptions of who Jesus was, what he did, and what he does today. In this series, we’re looking at how the heart of Christ nourishes the worn out and weary souls of those who follow him.

The Father's heart is the heart of Christ's. They both comfort and provide mercy. In their sovereignty, they help us grow through affliction. As we learn about the Father of Mercies, Paul is writing to a difficult church. He uses the words, comfort or consolation (same root word in the Greek), are repeated ten times in 2 Corinthians 1:1–11. Paul is setting the foundation for the comfort that God offers to his people. However, he is doing this because there are so many issues within this church that he needs to address. Essentially, he is preparing them to be afflicted as they need correction. Following the Paul’s correction and affliction, he is telling them that God will comfort them as they correct what is wrong.

As we Paul prepares to address this church, we learn about the first person of the Trinity, God the Father. In verse 2, Paul has already spoken of God as the one who sense grace and peace to the church. He’ll expand on this as we journey together together through chapter 1. And as we do, we learn of the our God of comfort, the Father of mercy. As we do so, we learn that the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, are of one heart. Their comfort and mercy will comfort the afflicted. Therefore, if the Father and Son are of one heart, what is the Father's unique role in our afflictions? In other words, why is the Father needed when the Son was the one who went to the Cross? We’ve talked this whole series about who Jesus is. We’ve looked at his heart for his people. Today, we learn about how the Father fits into the picture. As we do, we learn about the core attributes of our God in heaven.

Mercy and comfort are a part who the Father is.

Paul says in verse 3-4, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our 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.” Starting off in the first two verses, Paul has already used the word, comfort, or a form of it, five different times. Starting out, Paul is already proclaiming who our Father in heaven is. We get a rich portrait of who our Father is when we look at Luke 15. This passage is more commonly know as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. A selfish son asks his loving father for his inheritance. The father is saddened, but he agrees to the request. The son takes the money and foolishly wastes it. Finally, he’s desperate. Ashamed, he goes back to his father to ask if he could at least be a paid servant at the home where he was once a beloved Son. But when the Father sees him far off in the distance, he felt compassion for him. The father runs to his son, embraces him, kisses him, and throws him a party. That is the Father in heaven that we worship. In writing about the comfort that the Fatehr offers his children, Mark Seifred writes, “this comfort—which can come from God alone—cannot be found in an “answer” but only in a relationship of communication with God, in which there is a place for petition and lament, and also thanksgiving and praise.

Gary Sinclair shares a story about professional golfer Ian Woosnam who was tied for the lead on the last day of the 2001 British Open. Woosnam, whose career was going down hill, was running out of time to win a major tournament. As he stood on the second tee that Sunday, he nearly made a hole-in-one. He turns to his caddie, Miles Byrne, for his club—only to hear Miles meekly say, “You’re going to go ballistic.” Confused, Woosnam responded, “Why?” “Because we’ve got two drivers in the bag,” his caddie replied. Immediately, Woosnam knew what the caddie was saying. Only 14 clubs are allowed. This day, they had too many, which is an immediate two-stroke penalty. The mistake by the caddie led to Woosnam losing the tournament. Most people who had so much on the line that day would immediately fire the caddie. Instead, he responded, “It’s the biggest mistake he will make in his life. He won’t do it again. He’s a good caddie. He will have a severe talking to when I get in, but I’m not going to sack him." Out of abundant mercy and grace, their relationship was stronger than ever, and the caddie learned an important lesson.

Similarly, when we are in need of mercy, it is an act of all three persons in the Godhead. Jesus Christ took the punishment for our sin at the Cross, and today he prays for us while at the right hand of God. The Father who shares the heart of Christ, shows mercy to us. Then, this is applied into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. How is God the Father a part of the equation? His mercy and his grace aren’t simply dolled out by him, they are a part of who he is.

The Father uses affliction to prepare us to comfort another who is afflicted.

Getting back to verse 4 of Paul letter, he says that God the Father, “who comforts us in all 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.” Seifred says that “Paul wants nothing else for the Corinthians than that they learn to see themselves as the recipients of the Gospel as it is given through him. Through them, he invites us to see ourselves in the same way.” The Corinthians experienced the grace of the Gospel forgiving their sins, healing their broken relationships, addressing their deepened wounds and insecurities, and the list goes on. Nonetheless, the letter shows how much further they have to go. But they haven’t simply been comforted in their affliction to get through it. They’ve also been comforted in order to be a comfort to others who are going through affliction.

Warren Weirsbe writes, “difficulties can increase our faith and strengthen our prayer lives. Difficulties can draw us closer to other Christians as they share the burdens with us. Difficulties can be used to glorify God.”

All of us tend to avoid pain. Sometimes, though, avoiding pain can lead to much greater suffering. Craig Larsen shares the story of William “the Refrigerator” Perry. Perry was a colorful defensive lineman for the Chicago Bears when they won the Super Bowl in 1985. His nickname fit him well. He was powerful and large like a refrigerator. Perry was also friendly with a wide grin. Unfortunately for him, even though he was a mammoth man playing in the tough world of the grid iron, he was afraid of the dentist. He was so afraid that he didn’t go to the dentist for twenty years. He didn’t even go when his teeth and his gums hurt terribly. He didn’t even go when his teeth began falling out. Finally, he had lost half of his teeth, including a few that he pulled out himself due to the pain, and his gums suffered chronic infection. This was suffering! At last, at age forty-five, Perry finally went to a dentist, who had to pull out all of his remaining teeth, insert screws in his jaw, and implant all new teeth. This would have cost him $60,000, but the dentist donated the procedure in order to get free publicity from the football star. Avoiding a deep seated fear cost Perry every tooth in his mouth.

This could simply be a story for every mother to tell a child in preparing to go the dentist or to get them to brush his teeth. But this is also a story for all who relentlessly avoids emotional or spiritual pain. Many actions can bring pain to the soul that ultimately provides health for the soul in the long run. These might include asking for help, working hard, repenting of sin, examining our own souls honestly and deeply, going to church, leaning in to our emotional wounds. This list goes on. It takes courage to face pain. But as William Perry said of his new teeth, “It’s unbelievable....I love them.… I got tired of my mouth hurting all the time.”

Do you have something that regularly gnaws at your soul? Do you have something that pulls at your emotions? No one can live for long without facing some kind of affliction, whether it be something as minor as a paper cut or as major as a job layoff. Regardless, God the Father, in his mercy and grace, will comfort us as we address the lingering emotional and spiritual impact of affliction. On the other side of addressing affliction, he calls us to comfort and support others who are going through similar afflictions. Therefore, how have your difficulties prepared you to similarly help another?

The Father is sovereign over all our afflictions.

Paul says in verses 9-10, “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. 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.” Paul saw and experienced God’s deliverance whether he looked back, around, or ahead. Weirsbe points out that the word Paul used here means “to help out of distress, to save and protect.” Yet God does not always immediately deliver us, and he doesn’t always deliver us in the same way. For example, James was beheaded and was instantly in the presence of Jesus. On the other hand, Peter was delivered from prison. Both were delivered, but in different ways. Sometimes God delivers us from our trials, and at other times He delivers us in our trials.

Jeff Arthurs tells a story about King Louis XIV of France, who preferred to be called “Louis the Great” and had declared, “I am the State!” died in 1717. His court was the most magnificent in Europe, and his funeral was the most spectacular. In the church where the ceremony was performed, his body lay in a golden coffin. To dramatize his greatness, orders had been given that the cathedral would be very dimly lit with only one special candle that was to be set above the coffin. The thousands of people in attendance waited in silence. Then Bishop Massillon began to speak. Slowly reaching down, he snuffed out the candle and said, “Only God is great.” King Louis, just like many people, convinced himself that he was all powerful. But that is reserved to God the Father, alone. R.C. Sproul writes that “if there is one single molecule in this universe running around loose, totally free of God’s sovereignty, then we have no guarantee that a single promise of God will ever be fulfilled.”

God the Father in heaven has control over all things. Therefore, we can trust that every affliction, every circumstance, every stressor in our life is not only within his control, but he will ultimately deliver us from it, whether it be in this life or the next. Therefore, let us trust in the deliverance from our Father in heaven.

Conclusion

So, here are the three aspects of the Father in heaven that Paul teaches us in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 1. First, mercy and comfort are a part who the Father is. Second, the Father uses His comfort in affliction to prepare us to comfort another who is afflicted. Finally, the Father is sovereign over all things.

In his book, Surprised by Children, Harold Myra writes about an incident that happened when he was young. It happened one afternoon as his older brother and he were walking home from school. Suddenly, they found themselves surrounded by four older boys they didn’t know. His brother was a good fighter, but the older boys pushed them into a field, threw ropes around them, and shoved them down on the ground. “What did we do?” the two cried out, “we didn’t do anything to you.” The older boys laughed as they tied them up, tangled them together, and ensured that the knots were tight. The older boys thoroughly enjoyed themselves. They taunted them and painfully pulled on the ropes. Finally, they left the two in the secluded field. Alone, they yelled for something to free them, but no one came to their rescue. At first a wave of relief rolled over me. Those bullies are gone! Now they can squirm free and get away. So they yanked at the ropes with all of their might, thinking they could somehow get loose. But it didn’t work. They strained and strained. They put their whole weight into it, but nothing happened. As it began to grow dark, they started to feel panic building up in them. They lay there as the light slowly and gradually vanished. The moon and stars appeared. They wondered to themselves how anyone could find them in the pitch black. They wondered how long this could go on for. Finally, at long, long last, under the evening sky, they heard their father’s voice. He had been searching for them along their path to the school before finally finding them in the field. That’s the same kind of Father that we have in heaven. You see, the Father and Son are of one heart, and their comfort and mercy will comfort the afflicted. The Father doesn't run past us, he runs toward us.

As Paul starts out with, “blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our 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.”