COMFORT
Mark B Grant
I was encouraged by the hymn and prayer. The scriptures we have read speak of comfort, encouragement and consolation. The first scripture, Psalm 94, has been on my mind for some time:
In the multitude of my anxious thoughts within me thy comforts have delighted my soul.
I have never seen a time like it when there is so much that the human heart and mind could be anxious about. There is so much that belongs to the modern world in which we are that has been designed to intrude and press upon men and woman and boys and girls, and that causes anxiety.
This scripture, and the others we have read, show us that comfort is to be found in divine Persons and what they provide. There is, of course, natural joy and comfort, and I would not try to minimise that because there is much naturally that causes us joy and comfort and happiness. Those things are right and of God, and we know them and enjoy them and I think we are intended to, but lasting joy and comfort, and comfort that will not break down, is only to be found in divine Persons.
It is a prominent thought in scripture, I think, demonstrated in the last scripture we read, in the way that the Lord Jesus introduces the Holy Spirit to His own as another Comforter; that is the way in which He introduces that glorious Person. When He speaks of the Spirit of truth, both times, in chapter 14 and 16, He presents that Person as the Comforter. So, the Spirit of truth, that title used as the Lord Jesus is speaking to His own about the Comforter, would tell us about how the truth is to comfort us. There is in the present time so much that we could be anxious about, and it does perhaps cause anxiety. I would not want to try to enumerate things or be specific because for each one of us it might be something different, but we are to find comfort in divine Persons.
In 2 Corinthians it is, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassions, and God of all encouragement”. One of the ways that comfort can be known is through kindness and compassion and also through encouragement. The One that we have been brought to know as our God and Father is “the Father of compassions, and God of all encouragement”.
Compassion is something that was seen especially in the Lord Jesus when He was here. In the gospel on Lord’s day, the brother preaching referred to the Lord Jesus being moved with compassion. Compassion is a lovely thought, is it not? It conveys depth of feeling; and sympathy; and kindness; and care; and concern. And in the case of the Lord Jesus, He fully understood and appreciated the situation that was referred to when He touched the bier, Luke 7: 14. He felt the situation that that woman was in; but He also felt the root cause of why that situation had arisen, the whole matter of death and all that belongs to this scene. Think of the feelings of compassion of the Lord Jesus.
I was thinking about how in the Epistle to the Hebrews it says, “he … took part in the same”, in blood and flesh. So, He knows and understands the condition that we are in, although He was in it sin apart. He has been here and seen and experienced the things that we see and experience. He felt those things perfectly. We are perhaps numbed or overcome by things, but He felt these things perfectly. He knows and understands. But then the Father is the Father of compassions. I sometimes like to think of the Father in this way, that He is just like the Lord Jesus. It helps me to understand what the Father is like. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and He is the Father of compassions, and He cares about us. The Lord Jesus says that Himself. He has affection for us, that is what the Lord Jesus says. “The Father himself has affection for you, because ye have had affection for me’ (John 16: 27), and God is “preserver of all men, specially of those that believe”, 1 Tim 4: 10. He has a special interest in believers in the Lord Jesus. So the Father is intensely interested in the detail of our lives.
We might think our anxieties are so small, and perhaps I sometimes feel myself that the things that I might be anxious about, things that should not matter, are almost trivial, but the Father cares about us; there is nothing too small or big for the Father - He is the Father of compassions. As we have to do with divine Persons, they would come in and comfort us. And He is the God of all encouragement; it is not just encouragement; it is all encouragement. So in all the ways and things we can be encouraged by, He is the God of those things as well as the God with whom we have to do, in whom we can find encouragement. And there are so many ways in which we can find encouragement in divine things and in divine Persons.
The way that Paul writes emphasises that if we are going through tribulations ourselves it is to be for the benefit of others, for their encouragement, or if we are encouraged, it is to be for the encouragement of others. So the Lord Jesus is One who cares about us. The Father is One who cares about us. But then what we go through is to be for the benefit of each other, and we prove that in our links together. The way that Paul speaks about it is tremendously encouraging; think of the sufferings and tribulations Paul went through, and he is really saying that it was for the benefit of others. That is an amazing thing.
And then also he says, “even as the sufferings of the Christ abound towards us”. So, again I was thinking in relation to the scripture in Hebrews that He has taken part in the same condition. It is a wonderful thing and I think it is good to keep that in our minds that He has been here and taken part in the same condition and He has been here in the scene that rejected Him, the scene that we are passing through, and so He knows and understands everything that we go through.
Then in Philippians it says, “If then there be any comfort in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and compassions, fulfil my joy, that ye may think the same thing”. While there is far more in this scripture, what was in my mind tonight was that if we are to be a comfort and a consolation to one another, these are the features that will cause that. It is this “lowliness of mind, each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves; regarding not each his own qualities, but each those of others also”. So where you have a company of persons that are marked by these features of going down, that will be a tremendous encouragement and comfort and consolation to all of us, to each one of us.
“For let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”: it is a test to me, but I think we also prove it, the way we find this and the way we experience this; it is so different from the world in which we are, which causes us anxiety. What we may find in a company of believers is in itself a tremendous comfort. That is before we might get specific comfort through what might be said or communicated or what we experience in the way of fellowship. Just to have a company where we can enjoy links with persons who are marked by these features is a tremendous comfort. They are the features that marked the Lord Jesus. Think of what a comfort it is to know the Lord Jesus and to know Him in this way. Well, these features are to mark us in some measure.
Then lastly to refer again to John’s gospel. It is remarkable that the Lord Jesus says this: “But I say the truth to you, It is profitable for you that I go away”. You can well understand the disciples at this point wondering, ‘How would it be possible that the Lord Jesus could say this?’. But “the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go I will send him to you”. So, that then is a tremendous comfort for us because we have never known Christ according to flesh and as the apostle says, “if even we have known Christ according to flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer, 2 Cor 5: 16. But we have the gift of the Holy Spirit, the One who is “the Comforter”, or “another Comforter”. And He has been sent from an ascended Christ. “He will bring demonstration to the world, of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment”. That is the world that causes us anxiety and uncertainty and all of those things. But “he will bring demonstration to the world” of these things.
I think it helps us when we can rely on the Holy Spirit to understand these things; so we are not confused or overly worried about the condition of things in the world. The Lord Jesus says that the Comforter will bring demonstration of these things. What is proceeding in the world at the present time is concerning, but we are not to be surprised by it because the character of the world is such that we are not to expect any more from the world than what it is. The character of the world has not changed since Christ was here. The way it is expressed has changed and we had that recently: its changing faces and how it constantly changes? But really the character is just the same.
Think of the world that rejected Christ. How awful that was. Was there a worse moment in the history of the world than that? Well, the character of the world is just the same as it was then. The way it is expressed is perhaps more pervasive and particularly in our individual lives, it is so pervasive. But we have this One, the Comforter, who is here with us and in us to help us and comfort us. But then it says, “he shall guide you into all the truth … and he will announce to you what is coming”; “He shall receive of mine and shall announce it to you”. So, He is going to announce what is coming. And some of the writings in the New Testament are to that effect, but also there is the present announcing of all that is proceeding from a risen and ascended Christ. So, we have a living link with that Man by the Holy Spirit and what a comfort that is.
But then too there is what is coming. There is perhaps no greater comfort than the hope of Christ. And it says in Thessalonians to encourage one another with these words, in relation to the rapture, 1 Thess 4: 18. But the Lord also says in Revelation to those in Thyatira, to the overcomer in Thyatira, “and I will give to him the morning star”, chap 2: 28. Thyatira I think has been related to what has been called the dark ages. So you think of the darkness of the world, and the morning star is the hope of Christ’s imminent coming again. There is no greater comfort than that. What an incentive to be marked by these overcoming features, so that we might have in a greater measure, certainly for myself, the hope of Christ’s coming.
Well, these thoughts have been rather scattered, but I trust they might be for our encouragement. For His Name’s sake.
Word in Ministry Meeting in Grangemouth
8th January 2025