A. A hurting parent holds a child whose life is slipping away because of an illness and asks, “Why God are you letting my child die?” A family tries to go back to their home after a hurricane devastates the area and they realize they have lost all their possessions, but they don’t have the finances to replace them. An elderly man is told that his own child is stealing from him and he needs to do something before his child takes all the assets he has worked so hard to have, yet he just can’t face his child and call him a thief. A Christian is living far from home spreading the gospel message of Jesus Christ only to be beat up and mugged and all the money she wanted to use to teach the Bible to a lost world is gone. How can a loving God allow this to happen?
B. Heb. 11:32-40; 1 Pet. 4:12-16; James 1:2-4; Rom. 8:18
C. I will never make light of someone’s pain, suffering, or circumstances that bring tragedy into their life. To simply say that, “all things work together for good to them that love the Lord” is an insult to what that person is feeling at the moment. Until a person understands good, that verse is meaningless and just plain mean. To tell someone who is hurting they just need more faith is to spiritually beat them up. Paul, in his great faith, prayed three times for his thorn in the flesh to be removed. Jesus responded that grace would be sufficient. Paul took that hurt and learned from it. He realized that God was not mean, seeking to bring pain into his life, but loved so deeply that he allowed this thorn to be a tool to help Paul lean more upon God than upon himself.
D. Jesus went from town to town teaching in their synagogues. But if you finish the verse, he also healed their sick. Jesus was a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. Jesus knows what it is like to hurt. Today, I to begin a study of 2 Corinthians and as we do, we open this book with a look at comfort for the hurting, and hopefully something we can learn from the trials we face.
I. Learn About God
A. In midst of my troubles and trials what can I learn about God? Paul begins to describe God to the Corinthians as the father of compassion and the God of all comfort. God does not like for his children to be in pain, even if that pain is caused by their own sinful actions. God hurt when we hurt, just as a parent might of their own child. God is described by Paul as compassionate. It is a description of pity and mercy. God has the ability to take away all pain but does not. He has compassion, pity and mercy but allows the hardships we suffer to help us if we learn from them.
B. Paul also describes God as the “God of all comfort.” This is the same word that Jesus uses to describe the Holy Spirit in the gospel of John. Paul says that God comes along beside us in the midst of our pain. So often we are angry with God for not fixing our problems or allowing something bad to happen to a good person as though their goodness should exempt them from pain. We blame him, curse him, hate him, and walk away from him and the church family he has given us to wallow in our own grief. Paul says that God walks with us anyway. He comes along side as the comforter.
C. Paul then uses the suffering of Jesus as an example of God comforting us; walking along side us in our pain. Jesus suffered, not because of anything he had done, but for us. Peter says Jesus suffered for us, and in doing so, he left us an example that we should follow in his steps. He goes on to remind us that Jesus bore our sins in his body on the tree and tells us that “by his wounds we have been healed.” There is nothing that you or I can face that God has not faced in Jesus. He knows and understands far more than we do. God did this willingly, in full knowledge of what would happen, and how many would fail to accept his grace even at the price of the cross. Don’t tell me God does not understand your pain. Don’t tell me he does not hurt with you. Don’t tell me it’s his fault. Paul sees God for who he is and praises and blesses him for being filled with compassion and comfort. But Paul also understood that there were some things he could learn from pain and suffering, not just how great God is, but how that touches his life and the life of others.
II. God’s Comfort Through Me
A. Paul wanted the Corinthians to learn about God, but he also wanted them to learn what their role becomes when a person is hurting. You see, God comforts us, or comes along side us, so that we can comfort others, or come along side them in their pain.
B. People need God with skin on. Jesus was just for about 33 years, but now, with the Holy Spirit (comforter) living in us, we become that to others. So often when a fellow Christian is in grief we walk with them for a short period of time, but soon, our lives continue on and we move away from them in their sorrow and let them kind of be on their own. I am thankful God does not do that. Paul wanted the Christians to know that part of their role within the body is to be the God of all comfort to those within the church that are experiencing some type of trial, trouble, pain or sorrow.
C. He uses himself, Timothy and others with him as examples. Read vs 6-7. Paul was very willing to hurt for and with his fellow Christians. He seemed to have a degree of empathy for others that touched him deeply because he understood how deeply God had touched him personally. The more I realize how much God has done for me, the deeper and more powerful I can realize how much I can do for others. I have experienced from within this congregation a huge amount of long-term love and support when I needed it most. I cannot walk away from that easily. It bonded me to you in away that few things can. Deeper friendships are made though funerals than through weddings.
III. Relying On God
A. While Paul sees God as a God of comfort, and each of us as comforters, the lesson Paul ends this section with is that in our trials as a Christian we need to rely upon God. Read vs 8-11.
B. While much of the suffering and grief I have talked about today is in reference to life, the true trials that Paul is talking about is those associated with being a Christian. There are some who are under the power of Satan and don’t want the message of Jesus Christ to be shared. There are some who would fight against God not understanding the eternal punishment that awaits them. Paul speaks about those trials and says that when he faces opposition to the preaching of the gospel he must rely on God.
C. Brethren, I know you may hurt due to sickness, death, financial problems, marital or family issues, or many other types of pain this world has. I know that the God of all comfort walks beside you and encourages us to walk beside each other. As we close, I want us to think deeper than that those great hurts. I want us to think about the very faith we possess and how people today are forced to endure persecution because of their faith. When I live out my beliefs people won’t like me as much. While, for the most part, our society tolerates Christians and persecution is minimal, I need to understand that even if it was great I would need to keep relying upon God.
D. “But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.” Take hold of the power of that statement. For most of my life I have relied upon me and I find that in my own strength I fail. It is when I submit my will to His that my weakness becomes strength. As Paul said, “When I am weak, then I am strong.” When I get it, when I really get that I am not the power, but only a recipient or conduit of the power, then I handle trails differently. I pray differently. I live differently. God becomes more real to me because I finally get that He is real and not just a theology. Sometimes it takes trails for me to really understand God. I don’t like them, but if that what I need, then I pray that God will value my soul so deeply that he will allow me to face those trials so that I can learn endurance, hope and salvation.
Conclusion:
A. Paul begins this book with hope for the hurting. He opens this letter to us by helping us to realize that God is the foundation and strength for all we face in this life. He has blessed me personally with a good family and a good church family.
B. Paul seeks and desires the prayers of many. Maybe today that is what you need, the prayers of many. Let us be God with skin on in the trials you face. Let us love you and help you as we know how. But more than anything, let us lift you up in prayer to the source of power that goes beyond what any of us can. If you desire that depth of prayer, come as we stand and sing.
