COMFORT MY PEOPLE WITH THE COMFORT I HAVE COMFORTED YOU WITH

Isaiah 40:1 / 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Bible Reading: Isaiah 40:1-2, 27-31; 2 Corinthians 1:3-7

Key verse: Isaiah 40:1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

Theme: Comfort my people with the comfort I have comforted you with.

This morning and over the next 2 weeks I want to take you through Isaiah chapter 40. This morning we’re simply looking at 3 words that are part of verse 1 as an introduction to this chapter. And those words are: comfort my people.

The book of Isaiah falls into two sections. Chapters 1 – 39 emphasise the judgment of God that was going to fall on God’s people because they had abandoned Him. Yes, there are wonderful passages in those 39 chapters about the salvation that God gives to those who turn to Him, but it’s mainly judgment. Chapter 40 begins the second section of the book where God speaks through Isaiah of the salvation He is going to bring to His people after they have been punished for their sin.

And as we’ll see next week God is rescuing them from their suffering; He is bringing salvation to them; He is pouring out His comfort upon them. And His words are: Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

We’re called to comfort God’s people. But why comfort God’s people rather than everyone?

• Our first priority as Christians is to care for God’s people and to bring comfort to them. You are part of a family – the family of God, and just as you and I have a responsibility to care for our physical families, so we have responsibility to care for our spiritual family, the family of God.
• You’re asking, “But aren’t we also to care for our neighbours whether they believe in Jesus or not?”. “Yes”, we are. While we’re caring for the family of God we are also to care for the people around us, our neighbours – to meet them in their need and to bring comfort to them. But we start with God’s people, our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.

So, what is comfort? 

• The dictionary tells us that comfort literally means gaining strength together. Comfort is anything you do to strengthen another person.
• It includes just listening to another person in their pain, it sometimes means answering their questions; it sometimes means praying for them, or sharing the promises we find in God’s word; it sometimes means a touch, or hug (when life returns to normal); it could mean giving a meal, or sharing a cuppa, releasing a smile, or just spending time with them.

So if that’s what comfort is, and if that’s who we are to comfort, what does the Bible go on to say to us? 

This morning I want to focus your attention on how the New Testament explains the meaning of those 3 words: Comfort God’s people. So please turn with me to 2 Corinthians 1:3-7.

I have 3 points:

• Receive comfort
• Store up comfort
• Pass on comfort.

………………………………………………..

1. Receive Comfort

Look at verse 3: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles. (2 Corinthians 1: 3)

Our God is the God who comforts His children. When Moses met God on Mt Sinai, God described Himself like this: The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. (Exodus 34:6) 

Compassion, …….. grace, ……. patience, ……. love,  ….…. faithfulness, ……. forgiveness, ……. all those thingspour out of and overflow from the heart of our God. He is the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort. He is the one who gives comfort to His children, both directly and also through their brothers and sisters in the faith.

Let me show you what our heavenly Father’s comfort is like as revealed in these verses:

1. Firstly, it’s real! This is not just some promise that might or might not come true. This is a promise that is real and true and effective right now. It will come true because our God is true and faithful. He always does what He says He will do. We read in verse 4 that He comforts us in all of our troubles. That’s not just a promise – it’s a reality. His comfort is real to you who are His children.
2. Secondly, it’s true and real in every situation. It covers all your troubles. That same verse, verse 4 says: He comforts us in all of our troubles. There is no trouble that you can go through; no sorrow that you will experience; no disaster that crashes down upon you; no grief that tears you apart; nothing that can come upon you to distress you when He will not pour out His comfort upon you. He will comfort you in every trouble that you will ever endure. He comforts us in all of our troubles.
3. Thirdly, His comfort comes when you need it. As sufferings come, comfort will accompany and follow them. If you aren’t suffering, then you will know no comfort; but if you are suffering in any way, comfort will come. Verse 5. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. You will not have a trouble that God does not comfort. And when you have gliding through life without any troubles, you won’t be comforted simply because you won’t need comfort.
4. Fourthly, His comfort is more than you need. Verse 5 ends with the words: so also through Christ our comfort overflows. God isn’t a miser when He gives His gifts. He doesn’t hold onto His gifts as though He were a reluctant giver. He uses a scoop that is far bigger than your cup. His gifts flow into your cup, they heap up, and they overflow. You will be overwhelmed with His loving comfort. His generosity is matchless – including His pouring out of comfort on His children, on you.
5. Fifthly, as your leaders suffer, you will be comforted because you see that they are human and not on a plane above the normal suffering that you endure; they understand what you go through, even if your suffering is slightly different in the way it looks; their suffering will comfort you. And as they are comforted by God, you will be comforted, because as you see God caring for them and comforting them you will believe His promise to comfort you as well. 

 verses 6 + 7

Now you will have noticed in these verses that there is an emphasis that you will go through trouble as a follower of Jesus. He who died on a cross, said to you, “Take up your cross daily and follow me.” You will suffer simply because you are a member of this fallen human race who lives as a messed up person in this messed up world. But you will also suffer as a follower of Jesus. I am a member of a community committee. There are about 20 people on this committee and I only know one other member who is a Christian. We have argued that certain words are not the most appropriate in the context of our committee. And our argument has been rejected. It hasn’t cost us much except discomfort, but it has highlighted the fact that as Christians we are not walking in step with society. We have a different agenda. Our agenda is to follow Jesus and to promote His kingdom and His values and His morals. And the world we live in isn’t interested in Him at all. 

And that’s true for you as well. You are not walking in step with society. You have a different agenda. Your agenda is to follow Jesus and to promote His kingdom and His values and His morals. And the world you live in isn’t interested in Him at all. So you will suffer from mild indifference to outright hostility and sometimes worse.

And how have I been comforted over this small trouble in this committee? Simply by my Saviour letting me know that He is with me. Or as He said to Samuel, It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. (1 Samuel 8:7); or as Colossians 1:24 states: I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. In some way without adding to the sufferings Christ went through on the cross, as we suffer we participate in the total suffering the church must go through, and hasten the day when Jesus will return to bring an end to all suffering for His people.

Receive the comfort God willing gives to you, His loved children.

1. Store up comfort

Maybe the thought of storing up comfort might sound strange to you. It did at first to me, until I thought through a time I really did need comfort. You see, it is very difficult to actively comfort another person when you are in the midst of sorrow or deep trouble. Yes, in those times God can use you to comfort others, but the greater your suffering the harder it is to actively comfort another suffering person.

I spent 4 days in hospital, and another number of weeks recuperating after discharge. Having gone through brain surgery, I didn’t look my best – shaved head, with 50 staples and dried blood. I had a number of visitors, ranging from very close family to mere acquaintances. It was a time when I felt loved and comforted. But it was also a time of being really tired. 

If someone had visited me during that time needing comfort and reassurance, I would not have been able to help. Although I might have felt for that person; although I had received love and comfort for myself, I would have had nothing to give; my reserves were empty. Every bit of energy I had was being spent in restoring my battered body to health. Maybe I could have comforted that person simply by listening, but that wouldn’t have been an active or a willing thing. At best it would have been God comforting them, because I could not have done it. Even the loveliest and most comforting visitors wore me out.

You see, if you and I are going to be able to comfort other people, we must store up comfort, the comfort you received when you needed it for yourself. The comfort I received while I was in hospital was not for use on that time. It was for my benefit, just to get me through that period. Yet that comfort, and the comfort I received previously and since, has been of great use in comforting other people at different times.

The Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. God comforts you so that you will have a well of resources that you can sometime in the future use to help others when they need that help and comfort.

Store up a careful memory of the way in which God comforts you. Even make notes as aids to your memory. Write down the kindnesses God’s people show towards to – it will turn your thoughts from the miseries of your sufferings and focus them on the goodness of God, as well as give your memory an aid to know what to do to comfort others who go through similar sufferings and sorrow.

1. Pass on comfort

Live out both parts of verse 4: Receive God’s comfort, directly from Him and also from His children; and use the comfort that He has previously given you and that you have stored up. Use it to comfort other people, especially other believers. Look again at verse 4: the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

You haven’t been comforted simply and solely for your good. God blesses you so that you can be a blessing to others. God comforts you so that you can, in His name, comfort other people. I can’t remember when in the first two days after surgery Dennis and Chris came, sat at the foot of my bed and spent time with me. Fortunately Leonie was there because I left hospital with no recollection of their visit. You see, I was still under the influence of anaesthetic. 

I do remember John & Lyndall visiting me three times – once before I went into hospital, once in hospital, and once in the first week of my recovery at home. They travelled well over 1,000kms to call in on and comfort me when I needed it. I was comforted by both the visit I remember and the visit I didn’t remember but was later reminded of.

Yet when I think of those visits, it is an incredible comfort to me, and because of them I’ve had the privilege of comforting other people. You see, it’s quite possible to not feel comfort and not remember being comforted, and yet receive that comfort at a deep level, the level where you really need it. And this is where God’s command to Isaiah comes into effect for you and me: Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.

Because you have experienced God’s comfort, it will overflow from you to others as walk in step with your God.

God will comfort you, directly or through His children, your brothers and sisters in the faith, so that you will know His love, and so that you might pass on that comfort to other followers of Jesus who are going through their own troubles.