God of Comfort (2 Corinthians 1:1-11)

We get to start a new book, the book of 2 Corinthians, which oh you know what?

I keep forgetting to turn my mic on for some reason.

There we go.

Okay.

Mic's on.

Now hopefully you can hear me a little bit better.

But yeah, so we're gonna be starting off.

You can go ahead and turn to the book of 2 Corinthians.

But first, I want to do a little bit of an introduction to this book.

It's good that we have a good foundation moving forward as we approach this book and just kind of knowing where this book came from.

What where did the need arise for the writing of this book?

So, you know, for the last eight months, we've spent going through the book of 1 Corinthians.

So we're pretty familiar with this church at this point.

So we're not gonna spend a lot of time on who they are or a lot of time on their geography, but we are gonna do just a quick reminder of these things if you need a refresher, or maybe you weren't with us at the time.

So we're gonna throw a map up and just kind of describe.

I know you can't read it, we're gonna zoom in in a little bit, but just to kind of give you an idea of what we're looking at.

This is Corinth right here.

For reference, that's Italy, this is Israel, Jerusalem over here.

But we have Corinth up here.

And on this map, you can see it looks like those old family circus uh comics, you know, with the lines everywhere.

These are Paul's three different missionary journeys that are outlined here, just in this region right here.

So let's zoom in a little bit on the next map here.

What I really want to point out, and I'll try and squat down a little bit, is the regions we're gonna be focusing on.

So Corinth, right here, Ephesus, those are two cities, but then also we're gonna be hearing a lot about Macedonia as well, and that's just a Roman region that's up here in the north part.

But this is modern day Greece, and this is modern day Turkey over there, just to give you just kind of a rough idea of the geography that we're looking at.

Now, I'll keep trying to squat here, but Corinth, right here, if you can see, there's this little piece of land right here that's called an Isthmus.

It's only about a mile wide.

And this is important because the whole southern region of modern-day Greece, this is really just sits all by itself.

It's almost an island, other than that one little piece of land right here.

And so there was a four-way bottleneck that comes to the city of Corinth.

Because when people would sail, it was very dangerous, you know, because these are sail ships, they're wind-powered ships.

It's very dangerous to sail down underneath the bottom of Greece here.

So they would rather, shipping companies and things like that, would rather sail into here and drag their boats over the land for a mile than go around the bottom of Greece.

And if it was too heavy, they'd take the cargo out, they would take it to the to the other side over here, and then they would drag the boat.

Or if there were huge ships, they would just drop their cargo, there would be another ship waiting on this side to pick up the cargo, and then this ship would, you know, would go this way.

But if you're going anywhere from northern to southern modern-day Greece, you also had to go across that one mile strip, that little isthmus uh that's right there.

So Corinth was this bottleneck.

Like if you had to do any traveling in that region, it had to go through the city of Corinth.

So, like I said, instead of doing an extensive background uh on Corinth, I just want to do that little geographical reminder here.

But I think the most beneficial thing that we can do here this morning as we approach the book of 2 Corinthians is to establish a timeline.

Specifically, Paul's timeline with the Corinthian church.

And talk about what we know happened in between the book of 1 Corinthians and the book of 2 Corinthians.

And I think this is gonna help us know both where Paul is physically while writing this letter, but also where he is mentally as we go forward.

What is Paul's tone?

Obviously, it's through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but where is Paul coming from in writing this book of 2 Corinthians?

Now, the first thing that we know is that in between 1 and 2 Corinthians, about a year's time has taken place.

So a lot has gone on within this church in Corinth.

But let's get to the timeline.

We're gonna be using Acts and the book of 2 Corinthians to kind of establish this timeline for Paul.

So in Acts 18, we see that Paul spent about a year and a half planting the church on his second missionary journey.

This was in the early 50s A.D.

He then went to Ephesus and then back to Jerusalem and then to Antioch, and that completed his second missionary journey.

But on his third missionary journey, Paul arrives back at Ephesus, and he spends two years and three months there, we learn in Acts.

While there, he gets word of what's going on in Corinth.

There's some sin issues that needed to be addressed, along with a list of questions that they had for him, because a lot had gone on in that year in between the letters.

So he I mean, between his church planting and 1 Corinthians.

So he writes 1 Corinthians and he sends them the book of 1 Corinthians.

Now, it doesn't seem to go over very well when they receive this letter.

And Paul gets wind of this.

And then this is kind of where we need to fill in a couple gaps here.

In 2 Corinthians 2 1, Paul says, in fact, I made up my mind about this.

I would not come to you on another painful visit.

And in 2 Corinthians 12 14 and 13 1 as well, Paul will talk about coming to visit them a third time.

But in Acts, there's no mention of a second time.

So Paul has this second visit that we just don't see in Acts, and all we get are these references that he throws out here in 2 Corinthians.

So we don't know how he got to Corinth from Ephesus on this second visit.

We don't know how long he stayed.

We don't know what happened while he was there, and we don't know when he got back to Ephesus from that quick trip that he took, but it probably was a very quick visit from all that we do know, probably by boat.

From Ephesus to Corinth and back to Ephesus again.

It's not a quick trip that you can make.

Uh let's throw that map back up.

It's not a quick trip that you can make from Ephesus all the way up here to Corinth and all the way back.

So most likely he just took a boat ride right across and then back to Ephesus, and it was probably on the shorter side because, like I said, it's not outlined in the book of Acts.

And then all we know about that visit is Paul simply refers to that visit as painful.

It did not go well for him.

So let's put the timeline back up there, Joshua.

So what we do know is he had his church planting visit, he had his painful visit, and then he had his third and last visit.

But between the painful visit and the 2 Corinthians is where there's debate of what may have happened in between there.

But the thing is, Paul refers to a letter that he wrote to them in 2 Corinthians 2.4, and he says that he wrote it with many tears out of an extremely troubled and anguished heart.

There's also a reference of a previous letter that Paul mentions in 2.9 and 7.8 and 7.12, and it's hard to be sure if Paul is referring to 1 Corinthians or if he's referring to another letter that he wrote to the Corinthians in between 1 and 2 Corinthians and after that painful visit that we've talked about.

So there's a good chance that Paul wrote another letter in between 1 and 2 Corinthians that we don't have today.

But we don't know these things for sure.

And it's okay.

If we were supposed to have that letter in our hands, God would have put that letter in our hands.

So for whatever reason, God wanted us to have 1 and 2 Corinthians, and we need to be satisfied with that.

Because in the end, it doesn't really change anything doctrinally about the letter that we're about to study in 2 Corinthians.

You know, whether Paul wrote another letter or not.

It's just unclear whether he did or he didn't.

So, in our timeline, after the painful visit, so let's look, uh let's put the map back up.

Paul finally leaves Ephesus.

He's looking for Titus in this time, who had been in Corinth, and he finally finds Titus in Macedonia, up there on the top left, right there.

And it's here that Titus gives Paul the good news that the Corinthians are finally having a change of heart.

Maybe as a result of an additional letter, maybe just as a result of Titus's ministry there in Corinth.

But Titus lets Paul know that the majority of the Corinthians are finally listening to Paul.

Things are finally starting to smooth out for this church.

And we learn that Titus was comforted by them.

He was comforted by the Corinthian church.

2 Corinthians 7, verses 6 through 7 says, But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the arrival of Titus.

2 Corinthians 7:6–7

And not only by his arrival, but also by the comfort he received from you.

He told us about your deep longing, your sorrow, and your zeal for me.

That's huge for Paul to be able to say that about that church.

He said, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced even more.

For even if I grieved you with my letter, I don't regret it.

Okay.

So you got y'all hanging?

There's a lot of facts I'm throwing out at you.

Everybody hanging in there?

I know it's a little warm in here, too, so let's stay awake.

But after Paul and Titus meet up in Macedonia, they have this reunion.

Let's put the timeline back up, Joshua.

And after this reunion, Paul writes 2 Corinthians, the letter that we're holding here in our hands today.

So the context of this letter is that things are much better in Corinth since Paul's painful visit that he had.

But there is still a minority in the church, as we'll see as we study this letter, that still is questioning Paul, still questioning his calling and his authority.

And the gospel that he preached, they're questioning that as well because it involved crucifixion, which was humiliating.

They didn't believe as a culture in resurrection, so they're still struggling with the gospel that Paul taught to them.

Remember, they didn't want a God that was crucified.

They didn't want to have to believe in a God that was resurrected from the dead, because those things were things they wanted nothing to do with.

And as we'll see towards the end of 2 Corinthians, there were some false apostles that were teaching the Corinthians false doctrine as well.

So what Paul's going to do in this letter is he's going to address all of those things.

He's going to talk to those that are repentant of their behavior.

He's going to talk to those that have not repented, and he's going to talk about this false teaching.

And he sends this letter off ahead to Corinth, which completes number four on our timeline.

Then when he's done in Macedonia, he makes his way down to Corinth and spends three months with them there.

So that completes number five on our timeline.

And that's his third and last visit to him.

But the timeline that's up there, that's what we do know as fact, when we piece together Acts and 2 Corinthians.

So that's kind of the foundation of where Paul's writing from.

Now, regarding 2 Corinthians, this may be Paul's most personal letter.

2 Timothy is a very personal letter as well, but 2 Corinthians might be the place where we get to really get to know Paul more and more.

We'll see that this is a more biographical letter than it is a doctrinal letter.

We'll see both of those things, obviously, but it's kind of biography heavy.

So we're learning a lot about Paul as he describes how he sees himself, how he sees his ministry, how he sees his relationship with God, how he sees his relationship with the Corinthian church.

We're going to be able to kind of get a look at all of those different things.

And we're going to learn things like Paul was not a whole lot to look at.

And Paul wasn't a great speaker.

In 2 Corinthians 10 10, we'll see what the Corinthians were saying.

At least some of the Corinthians were saying.

They were saying his letters are weighty and powerful, but his physical presence is weak, and his public speaking amounts to nothing.

Ouch.

Right?

Doesn't that?

An early church historian describes Paul like this: a man of middling size, so not very tall.

And his hair was scanty.

It's a nice way of saying he was bald.

His legs were a little crooked, and his knees were far apart.

So he's bow-legged.

He had large eyes, and his eyebrows met.

So he had a unibrow.

And his nose was somewhat long.

That's the physical description that this early church historian gave to Paul.

So Paul's not this crazy, good-looking, smooth-talking orator like the Corinthians, it seems, really wanted.

Or maybe they were actually used to.

You know, I think the words we would use today is he wasn't very presidential.

You know, they were in this melting pot, as we talked, this bottleneck of commerce.

They were in this melting pot of culture and the ideas and religion and philosophy.

You can imagine the orators that they had presenting these philosophical ideas and having these heady philosophical debates.

They wanted American Idol.

They got Danny DeVito.

Really.

When I think of those descriptions, put a beard on Danny DeVito, and I think that's probably something what Paul looked like.

So part of what we'll see in 2 Corinthians is Paul giving his credentials to this church.

Both through the call of God on his life, but then also through the fruit of his ministry.

And what's the fruit of his ministry?

Well, a big part of that fruit is the Corinthian church.

You know, he planted the church and spent a year and a half with them, discipling and teaching them.

He wrote them the letter that we call 1 Corinthians and just study through.

He'll tell them, you know, you want proof of my credentials.

You just need to look at yourself.

If you want to know that I'm actually an apostle and that God has given me authority in this way, you just need to look at yourself.

You are the fruit of my ministry.

And that's going to be a recurring theme that we see throughout this book.

So that's really 2 Corinthians as a whole.

That's just kind of a quick passover of what we're going to be going through.

Now, let's talk about the verses that we're going to cover this morning.

And that's verses 1 through 11.

And we're going to be talking a lot about comfort this morning.

You know, my first question is why does Paul start off this letter with this theme of comfort?

You know, at this point, I'll give you my opinion.

At this point, Paul has been through a lot with this church.

There's been lots of contention, there's been lots of correction.

They haven't treated him very well.

You know, his last visit before he writes this letter, he just refers to it as his painful visit.

That's how he thinks of it.

That's how he describes it.

And then he sends Titus to them to minister to them and possibly carry another letter to them.

And Titus doesn't come back when Paul expects Titus to come back.

And Paul kind of freaks out a little bit, we see.

He leaves Ephesus to look for Titus.

He goes to Troas, doesn't find him in Troas, but God opened a door for ministry there.

And Paul is so worried about how things went in Corinth and what's happened to Titus that he left that open door for ministry in Troas and went up to Macedonia.

And that's where he finds Titus finally.

And he not only finds Titus and is relieved in that way, he hears the report that Corinth is doing much better and that they actually now have a zeal for Paul.

Paul had just been greatly comforted right before he wrote this letter by the good report from the church and also by finding his brother Titus.

I just picture Paul taking a deep breath after he finds Titus, after he gets this good report, and he puts pen to paper and he says, We worship the God of all comfort.

So as we read this passage, we're going to be reading verses 1 through 11 here this morning.

I want you to just take note of how many times Paul uses that word comfort.

Let's all stand for the reading of God's word.

2 Corinthians 1, verses 1 through 11.

2 Corinthians 1:1–11

Paul, an apostle of Jesus by God's will, and Timothy our brother, to the Church of God at Corinth, with all the saints who are throughout Achaea, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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

He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

If we are afflicted, 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 that we suffer.

And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will also share in the comfort.

We don't want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our affliction that took place in Asia.

We were completely overwhelmed beyond our strength, so that we even despaired of life itself.

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raised the dead.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you so much for being able to jump into this new book.

Lord, as we pour over your scriptures, your inspired word that you've given us.

Lord, that we wouldn't take it lightly, but that we would be able to apply these things to our lives.

Lord, pray we wouldn't just be here for head knowledge, but we would be here for heart knowledge.

That we would want to be more and more like Jesus on a daily basis, and that you would use these times in this book to do just that we pray.

In Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated.

So we're just gonna jump in.

If you're new with us, we just go verse by verse by verse by verse until we're done with the book.

So starting in verse 1.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by God's will, and Timothy our brother to the church of God at Corinth, with all the saints who are throughout Achaia.

So what did we learn in 1 Corinthians?

The church in Corinth did not trust Paul's authority.

That's changed, but there were still some that didn't.

He gently reminds them in this greeting, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, not by his own will, but by God's will.

And the word apostle, it's this fancy religious word that we don't really use in other places.

It simply means a delegate, a messenger.

It means one that is sent out with orders.

You know, a word that we might use today might be ambassador.

You know, countries have their ambassadors, those that are sent out to represent their country.

And in like manner, Paul was sent out to represent the kingdom of God.

So he's saying Paul, an apostle, an ambassador of Jesus Christ by God's will.

Then he mentions that Timothy is with them at the writing of this letter.

And Timothy is somebody that the Corinthians are well acquainted with.

He's been with them and he's ministered to them.

So they know this Timothy well.

And notice that he addresses the letter to the Church of God at Corinth with all the saints through Achaea.

Achaia just being the region that Corinth was in.

It was a Roman province that the city was in.

But I want us to notice that he calls them saints.

That just means holy ones.

If you are In Christ, you can use that term for yourself.

We are saints.

And I point it out because this audience that Paul is writing to, they've given him so much grief.

They've acted so carnally in so many ways.

They've been so selfish within the body of Christ, but Paul still calls them holy ones.

Paul chooses to see them for who they are in Christ.

You know, he's about to say in chapter 5, verse 17 therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away, and see the new has come.

The members of this church are still sinners and they're still messed up.

I mean, we've been reading their mail for the last eight months, haven't we?

We know that.

But in Christ, they have been made holy.

We need to learn from that.

You know, when we're looking at the people sitting around us, we shouldn't be keeping record of wrong.

But we should be seeing each other as holy ones in Christ.

Look at verse 2.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

So this is Paul's typical salutation that he always uses in this order grace first and then peace.

Because really, when you think about it, you can't know the peace of God if you haven't experienced the grace of God, can you?

And Paul uses this in all of his letters, except when addressing Timothy, in both of his letters, he throws the word mercy in there as well.

But this is Paul's typical salutation.

And if you remember, Paul ended 1 Corinthians with grace in the last verse of chapter 16.

He says, The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

And then here he is at the start of this letter, and he's starting it with grace as well.

I think it's because Paul knows better than anyone that we as believers, we need a lot of grace, don't we?

The church needed lots of grace with each other.

They needed lots of grace in their relationship with Paul as well, as we see.

And it is only by God's grace that any of us can be called holy ones in the first place, isn't it?

Then he moves on and he says, peace from God.

Grace and peace from God.

Now I want us to note that peace from God is very different from not having problems and trials.

You know, because I think we tend to think of peace as have, you know, having no conflict to resolve.

We don't have anything hard that we're going through.

You know, when we think of it in a bigger picture, it means that we're not at war, you know, with other countries and things like that.

But peace from God can be experienced in the craziest times of our life.

And it's the peace of knowing that he is beside us and that he's holding on to us.

Peace from God is the knowledge that he holds you for all of eternity.

And there's nothing that can separate us from the love of God.

And there's no conflict that you may be in that you can't bear because he's walking with you through whatever that might be.

So he says, grace and peace from God and Jesus.

And then in verse 3, we're just going to take those first two words.

It says, blessed be.

And we have a slide for this.

And it's not so much about the definition of this word of being blessed and praised, but this is the word that we get the word eulogy from.

Everybody familiar with that word when we're talking about like memorial services and funerals and things like that.

It's a time of that service where the deceased is remembered for their character.

Where we formally talk about who they are.

And we don't have to use this word only for the deceased.

We just use that in our everyday vernacular when we're talking about those things.

But when we see it like that, look at verse 3 again.

Blessed be, really, eulogize the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.

I mean, look at the names that Paul is using for God here, for God the Father, for who he is.

He calls him the Father of mercies.

You know, this is a word you've probably heard kind of the generic definition of mercy as not getting what you do deserve.

It means having pity on someone or being compassionate toward them.

You know, think about it.

If we were begging somebody for mercy, it's in the sense of, you know, please don't do whatever to me, right?

Have compassion on me.

Have pity on me.

And Paul calls God the Father of mercies.

As like it's part of God's name.

As part of his nature, part of who he is.

And notice here that mercies is plural.

It's never ending.

It's not a one-time deal.

But Scripture tells us that God's mercies are new every morning.

He's the father of mercies.

It's part of who he is.

And then he calls him the God of all comfort.

Not just a God that comforts, but the source of all comfort.

Because it's also part of who he is.

And this doesn't mean that when you're down, God's going to bring you a nice weighted blanket and say everything's okay, you know.

This word comfort used here, it's actually used nine times just between verses 3 and 7.

But it's the same word that Jesus used when talking about the Holy Spirit in John 14 and John 15.

And I want to read you John 15, 26.

This is Jesus.

He says, when the counselor, same word right there, when the counselor comes, the one I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me.

And depending on what translation you're holding for that verse, some translations say when the counselor comes, some say when the comforter comes, some say when the helper comes, and some say when the advocate comes.

Those are all words used to describe the Holy Spirit.

So Paul says that he is the God of all of those things.

I have a question for you.

Can a God that is far off and doesn't care about us be all of those things to each one of us?

No.

So we get a glimpse here of how Paul sees God.

And really, because this is the inspired word of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit, we get to see a picture of how the Holy Spirit sees himself.

So he spends the first three verses here painting a beautiful picture of God, of a father that's near and that cares deeply about each one of us.

And I want to encourage you, if your father was absent or abusive, or a really bad person, or a horrible example of what a father should be, I want to encourage you to let Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit here, paint this picture of God the Father for you.

You know, this isn't so much about what God does, this is about who God is.

You know, I really believe that it's so important that we don't see God as this far-off, distant force.

You know, with his arms crossed and a frown on his face, just waiting for us to do something wrong.

The picture that Paul paints here is a father that is grace, that is peace, that is mercy, and that is comfort.

That is how we need to see God.

And that is for all of us that follow after him, just like these saints in Corinth.

Look at verse 4 with me.

He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

Notice it says, God comforts us, what does it say?

In.

He comforts us in our affliction.

He doesn't comfort us by removing the affliction, though he could definitely do that if he wanted to.

He comforts us in our affliction.

We're so familiar with Psalm 23, aren't we?

But Psalm 23, 4 says, even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me.

Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You see, God is the good shepherd.

And a good shepherd is always intently aware of his sheep's needs and their whereabouts and their tendencies.

And in those times where we find ourselves in the midst of affliction, he is there to counsel us, to comfort us, to help us, and to be our advocate.

So that we're able, as he says, to comfort those that also have an affliction as well.

You know, my wife and I were having a conversation a few weeks ago about how, you know, when I was going through all of that brain tumor stuff, the people that God used to comfort us the best were the ones that had gone through something very similar to what we were going through.

From both the patient perspective and the caregiver standpoint as well.

Those people knew not just what we were going through, but they knew exactly how we felt.

And there was something so comforting to have those people that had that firsthand knowledge of what we were going through in that time.

That's what Paul's talking about here.

You know, when we go through an affliction, we can comfort others by having true empathy that are going through the same thing that we are.

And we can be that source of comfort by being able to say, you know, yeah, we've been through something similar.

And here's how God brought us through that.

Or here is how God is bringing us through that.

So that's what Paul's talking about here.

We suffer affliction sometimes so that we can help others that are suffering affliction as well.

Look at verse 5.

For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

If suffering's overflowing, there's going to be an equal overflow of the comfort of God.

But sometimes I think we refuse to see that comfort because we allow the suffering to overwhelm us and to overtake us.

You know, we talk about this a lot, but Jesus truly is our compassionate high priest.

He knows our affliction firsthand.

You know, there's nothing that we can go through or suffer through that he can't relate to or have firsthand empathy toward.

You know, I think our mind so often goes to Jesus' sufferings that he bore on the cross.

And I think we tend to neglect the day-to-day suffering.

But Jesus knew day-to-day suffering and pain and loneliness and rejection, abandonment from his friends.

He knew ridicule, he knew hunger, he knew temptation in every way.

I mean, think about all the critics that he had and all the trials that he went through on a daily basis.

Hebrews 2, 17 through 18 tells us that therefore he had to be like his brothers and sisters in everywhere, obviously referring to Jesus here, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.

For since he himself has suffered when he was tempted, he's able to help those who are tempted.

Therefore, as we're reading right here in 7 Corinthians, through Christ our comfort can overflow.

Paul is pulling this all together here.

He's drawing a correlation of Jesus' suffering, the apostles' suffering, and now he's pulling in the Corinthian church as well, who's suffering.

He's saying Corinth can not only be comforted by Christ directly, but also by what the apostles have gone through.

They can draw comfort from seeing what the apostles have gone through as well.

Paul goes as far as saying that when he suffers, it's for their comfort and for their salvation.

Because when we suffer, please hear me in this, when we suffer, we become more like Christ.

When we suffer, it keeps us on our knees.

It keeps us clinging to Jesus.

It keeps us depending upon him even more, not just for our next steps, but clinging to him to be our source of comfort as well.

And when we suffer, we can then, as we've been talking about, comfort others that are going through that same thing.

You know, I think in our culture, we're naturally just so affliction-averse, aren't we?

But the thing that we need to realize is that affliction is the shaping tool that God uses to fashion us into the people that He desires us to be.

You know, so often we pray for God to change our situation, not realizing that God put us in that situation to change us.

Instead of fighting against the affliction, we need to cling to God to be our comfort in that time of shaping.

Look at verse 7 with me.

And our hope for you is firm, because we know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will also share in the comfort.

We don't want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our affliction that took place in Asia.

We were completely overwhelmed beyond our strength, so that we even despaired of life itself.

Why is Paul telling them about his affliction?

I think it's so he can comfort them in theirs.

You know, this early church we had that map up earlier, that whole region, all of those churches were under intense persecution at this time.

And so Paul's sharing his story of affliction with them so that he can comfort them in theirs.

So Paul says, this is how bad things got for us.

We were completely overwhelmed.

We were beyond our own strength.

He says that they even despaired of life itself.

They were in a bad spot, in a bad way.

And I want to make sure that we understand this.

This doesn't mean that they contemplated suicide.

That's not what's being said here.

Paul knew his life was not his own.

He knew that his life was bought with a price, and he was not going to take his own life.

This simply means that they didn't think they were going to make it.

Things got that bad.

And I think if we read between the lines, that maybe the apostles would have been okay with it if they didn't make it because things were so bad.

You know, Paul says so clearly in Philippians, to live is Christ, to die is gain.

No different than when things get really hard for us.

And we say, you know, I would totally be okay with the rapture happening right now.

All right?

Take me now, Lord.

I'm ready to go.

I think that they just came to that state where I was like, oh man, this is so hard.

God, if you took us now, we would be okay with that.

And verse 9, he continues on.

He says, Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.

You know, when things are good, when they're easy for us, it's easy to kind of trust in ourselves, right?

Like we got this.

But I have a question for you.

Do you pray more when things are hard or when things are easy?

I know the answer for myself.

God allowed Paul and the people that were with him to be in this position to teach them to trust in God more, to cling to him tighter, and to not depend upon themselves.

Look at verse 10.

He has delivered us from such a terrible death, and he will deliver us.

We have put our hope in him that he will deliver us again.

Just like his mercies don't end, as we've talked about, it's not a one-time deal.

And just like God was and is and is to come, God has delivered us.

He will deliver us, and he will deliver us again.

Look at verse 11.

While you join in helping us by your prayers, then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gift that came to us through the prayers of many.

Prayer works.

And Paul obviously believes this.

Paul believed the reason they got out of this trial alive is because Corinth was praying for them.

And really, this is a plea for them to continue in that praying so that they will be delivered again the next time that they face death.

Verse 11 is probably referring to the gift, you know, as we see the gift that was being collected for the church in Jerusalem.

Verse 11 is probably referring to that gift that Paul has been helping gather for this church.

And I think what he's saying is keep praying that we don't die.

So we can deliver this gift that we've been collecting to the church in Jerusalem.

But what I really want to point out is Paul's mentality.

We might be affliction averse in our culture, but Paul was not affliction averse.

He's saying we're probably gonna face death again.

So please keep praying.

Can you imagine having that mentality of yeah, yeah, in the next couple weeks we're probably gonna face death maybe a couple more times?

So would you please pray?

You know, it's like, yes, absolutely, we'll keep praying.

But that's his mentality.

He is not affliction averse in the least.

He realizes, I think, that God, that as long as God keeps him alive and on this earth, it's for the benefit of the church in Corinth.

And it's for the benefit of all the churches that he ministers to.

You know, because if he's around, he can still write these letters, he can still visit these churches and counsel with them.

So he's saying, Corinth, please keep praying so that we can be effective for the kingdom of God.

You know, as we come to a close this morning, I want us to notice that before Paul started talking about affliction and comfort, what did he do?

He first painted a beautiful picture of God the Father.

A picture of grace and of peace and of mercy and of comfort.

You know, I wonder if Paul did this to remind the reader that when affliction comes, that we should not question God's goodness.

Because isn't that our tendency when affliction comes?

We talked about this a couple weeks ago, but I want to touch on it again.

You know, a lot of times when affliction hits, the first question we have is why God?

Why now?

Why me?

You know, all of those questions.

But instead, what God wants us to ask is what?

What do you want me to learn from this affliction?

What do you want to change in me through this?

What kingdom purpose do you have behind this trial?

And I want to end with this.

Turn to James.

Handful of books to the right in your Bibles, right in between Hebrews and 1 Peter.

You know, James sums up this concept so nicely.

So I just want to read this and end with this.

James chapter 1.

James 1 · chapter mention

Like I said, right in between Hebrews and 1 Peter.

And we're just going to read verses 2 through 4.

Wait till I hear the pages stop turning.

James 1, verses 2 through 4.

James 1:2–4

He says, Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials.

Because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

Here's really the question I want us to lead with here today.

Are we willing to allow God to use the carving tool of affliction to shape us?

Are we willing to allow God to use the carving tool of affliction to shape us?

Warm, fuzzy sermon today, isn't it?

The thing is, he will overflow with comfort during that time if we allow him to.

I know it sounds scary.

I know I get it, but God is the God of all comfort.

He is the God of all peace, of all grace and of all mercy.

And he'll freely give us all of those things, regardless of the circumstance that we find ourselves in.

Could you imagine what God could do if we would just stop running from affliction and asking God, what do you want us to learn in this situation, and what do you want us to do in this situation?

But we have to allow Him to do those things through us, and we have to allow Him to teach us and to mold us and to shape us through that whole process.

To allow Him to mold us freely.

Will you please pray with me?

God, we thank you for who you truly are.

We thank you that we can glean who you truly are from Scripture.

The Father of all mercies, filled with grace, filled with peace that you want to share with us, filled with mercies that are unending.

Lord, help us to know that you are a loving Father even in the midst of adversity, in the midst of suffering, in the midst of trials, in the midst of affliction, that you are a loving God that holds on to us, that walks beside us through those things, comforting us every step of the way.

Father, you are so good, and we are so blessed to be able to call you, Father.

I pray that you would teach us how to walk regardless of our circumstance in a way that honors you as we become more and more like Jesus in that process.

Lord, we give you all of these things in the name of Jesus.

Amen.