Paul's authority and ministry are defended in Second Corinthians, a book often neglected due to its complex structure and emotional depth. The sermon highlights Paul's personal afflictions, including a life-threatening experience in Asia, and contrasts them with the abundant comfort God provided. This comfort, rooted in God's faithfulness, qualifies believers to minister to others, not by sharing identical experiences, but by drawing on God's resources. The message emphasizes that even in suffering, believers can remain other-focused and become instruments of God's blessing, reflecting Christ's own compassionate suffering.
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Hello, warm good morning to you all. It's wonderful to be here and to have the opportunity again to share a week of conference with you here. Enjoy this beautiful weather today. My, you folks are having delightful weather here. Although I think we can't complain up our way, we've had a non-winter in that fair state of Iowa, and we're very spoiled with moderate temperatures, so don't feel sorry for us. We're going to enjoy this week together though, and I trust that as we study the scriptures together, God will bless our hearts. I was thinking as Brother Jim was making the announcement about the trip tomorrow, that if that's not challenging enough for any of you, you can go with me.
I'm going to be flying out of Jacksonville at five minutes after seven tomorrow morning, and we'll get back there five minutes before midnight tomorrow night. So if the trip you're taking tomorrow is not challenging enough, come along with me. I would enjoy the company as we travel. Actually, I should explain to you, since many of you have kindly asked about Martha, is she with me? Why isn't she with me? She has been giving heavy duty in the last two and a half weeks. Her sister Dora has been on her deathbed and was at home in hospice and the family needed to care for her, and Martha has been with her in the home there day and night for two and a half weeks.
and is quite exhausted at this point and was certainly not really ready for another out-of-town trip after the long vigil with her sister. I'm sure some of you must have known her sister, Dora. The Lord called her home mercifully at three o'clock in the morning, on Saturday morning, and it's a marvelous thing when you see the suffering that people endure. It's a mercy for the Lord's people to be called home to glory. And we're grateful for the confidence that believers have in a time like this. Appreciate your prayers for my wife and for the rest of the family now at this time of grieving. Now this morning we want to read from the first chapter of Second Corinthians and as you turn there to say that we're going to be looking at some of the sections of the early part of Second Corinthians in our studies together this week, this morning and this evening and then through the evenings of this week.
We'll be working in the first part of this book. We're not going to make it all the way through the book of Second Corinthians. Some say this is not a very good book for a series of studies. In fact, some have even described the book of Second Corinthians as the most neglected of Pauline epistles. It's probably the most difficult to work with, the most difficult to outline. But there are some very valuable things for us here. And I trust that God will bless us together as we study some series of sections in the early part of Second Corinthians. I also remind you if you want to do something very profitable in this week, you might be reading in Second Corinthians.
Refresh your mind on these early chapters of Second Corinthians. We're going to begin reading today in Second Corinthians, chapter one and verse one. Paul and Apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to the Church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints who are throughout Achaia. 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, the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions 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.
For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort in salvation, or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. Now our hope for you is firmly grounded. knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort. You do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life.
Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves in order that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us he on whom we have set our hope and he will yet deliver us you also helping joining and helping us through your prayers that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed upon us through the prayers of many so end our reading there let's take again a minute to pray father give us now we pray The quietness of spirit in your presence, the gracious illuminating work of the spirit of God, that as we think upon the scriptures, we may know your blessing in our hearts and minds.
We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, describing Second Corinthians as the most neglected of Paul's epistles, naturally the question is, why is this? And I'm not sure why it is. If you even go into a very complete library like our library at Emmaus and look at the various New Testament books, you will find fewer volumes that have been written on Second Corinthians. And if you think of your lifetime of ministry, hearing the Word of God taught, you will probably realize that there aren't frequently those times when we go to this book, and yet there are some most important issues in Second Corinthians.
It may well be that one of the reasons why we don't study Second Corinthians anymore is that it's so difficult to outline. We are, some of us, especially preacher types, are compulsive outliers. We like to get everything all sorted out and major points and minor points and follow the flow of thought. The fact of the matter is in Second Corinthians, the flow of thought is somewhat cyclical and you keep coming back again and again to certain themes. And it's not like the book of Romans that is wonderfully laid out in such a beautiful presentation of argument that moved from one point to another so systematically.
Second Corinthians is not like that. When the apostle wrote Second Corinthians as the Spirit of God moved him, it's obvious that he was greatly agitated. He was stirred. There's a lot of emotion in this book. A lot of deep, deep feeling as well as deep truth. And as we read through Second Corinthians, it becomes apparent that the Apostle had a great burden of heart here. And as he expressed his burden, he left us a letter, as I say, which is difficult to outline, which has some very important things for us to contemplate. There's another thing, I think, that makes the Epistle difficult, and that is that the Apostle alludes to two categories of things that are very difficult to identify.
he talks about some previous letters that he wrote to the Corinthians. Particularly he refers to a painful letter that he wrote to them. And it's difficult for expositors to understand what he had in mind when he refers to the painful letter. The easy thing is to assume that he's referring to first Corinthians. But as you look at the references to that painful letter, it becomes apparent that there probably was yet another letter that he wrote that was so specifically personal to the Corinthians that the Spirit of God did not see fit to retain it in the canon of Scripture.
And whether this painful letter was written in between First and Second Corinthians or whether it may have been written even before First Corinthians is a good thing to entertain in your mind. if you want to unravel the complexities of this wonderful book of second Corinthians along with that the apostle alludes to another visit to Corinth and it's difficult to know just when that may have taken place because the historic record in the book of Acts does not include a reference to another visit to Corinth and again the timing of that visit Whether that visit took place, certainly after the initial ministry of Paul in Corinth, in the second missionary journey, when the gospel was first proclaimed in that city and the church at Corinth was established, sometime between that and the time of writing of this epistle, there seems to have been a quick visit that Paul made.
My personal understanding is it probably took place during that three-year period of time when Paul was in Ephesus. on the third missionary journey. That he must have just jumped aboard a ship, went straight across the Aegean Sea, dealt with some problems in Corinth, and hurriedly came back. That's my assumption. But the interesting thing is that, as Paul refers to a painful letter and a painful visit, and to know precisely how these fit together, not easy, because there must have been some complexity of schedule at this period of time. Well, I don't know whether these are the reasons why we tend to back away from this letter, but the fact of the matter is the context indicates that this was probably written during Paul's third missionary journey.
He was certainly in Macedonia when he wrote it, probably in Philippi. And, of course, the reasons for writing seem very obvious. Paul had received news, news when Titus came back to him and reported to him, what was happening down in Corinth. And, and I'll refrain from telling any good news and bad news jokes, but Titus brought back both good news and bad news, that there were some positive things that he could report from Corinth. There were also some very serious negative things that he could report from Corinth. And both of these issues are in the mind of the apostle as this letter unfolds before.
There seem to be some very specific reasons why he wrote this letter. Obviously, in the cyclical theme that we see coming through the letter, he writes the letter to defend his apostleship. And we see him referring to his methods, his ministry, his message, his motives, and these come up again and again and again. Because obviously by this point in time, even though Paul and his associates were involved in the founding of that local church there in Corinth. In the meanwhile, others had come in who probably envious of Paul were saying evil things about him, questioning his motives, questioning his methods.
And unfortunately, the Corinthians were listening to these detractors. And Paul, as the Spirit of God moves him in this letter, is repeatedly coming to that scene of defending the nature of and the purity of and the devotion of his service to Christ in his ministry there in Corinth. Not only that, of course, Paul had had plans to visit Corinth and changed his plans just before this letter was written. And again, his enemies had taken occasion on this account to say, well, that's typical of the man, you see. He's one of these fly-by-night preachers. You never can count on him. You don't know what he's going to do.
and that they had taken the advantage of this change of plans to speak against Paul. And so a second reason why Paul writes this letter, humanly speaking, is in order to clarify the real reasons why he had changed his plans in terms of a second visit or a third visit to Corinth. The third reason that seems very, very apparent in writing this letter is that Paul was, following the writing of this letter, actually going to visit Corinth. And in a sense, this letter is a preparatory letter. We see that very clearly in chapters eight and nine, where it becomes apparent that Paul participating in this gift that was being taken by the Macedonian Achaian churches to take back to needy saints over in Judea.
Paul was encouraging these believers to fulfill their promise to take up an offering and be prepared to participate in this relief gift. And so Paul was preparing them for his visit to Corinth, which took place shortly after writing this letter. And finally, of course, he wanted to prepare them for his visit because there were some serious matters that he had had to attend to. Paul had had a very stiff talk with him, apparently, on that hasty, painful visit. There were some serious problems in the church at Corinth. We see that all through the first letter. In fact, the first Corinthian letter is a problem-oriented letter.
The whole letter deals with one problem after another in the church at Corinth. And Paul had spoken to them some very strong things about some of these things that were going on there. He doesn't want to have to go back with that same rebuking, painful, bearing. in his ministry and so in this letter he's preparing them of pleading with them to deal with yet some unfinished business in the assembly so that his visit to them on that third missionary journey could be less painful and more joyful and you will find some references to that in these letters so you can see that there are a number of factors here that make this book a complex book It's complex in its structure, it's complex in its context, and of course it's complex even grammatically in the syntax because of the agitation in Paul's soul as he writes this letter to the Corinthians.
It's a book of strong contrasts. We don't like this in our day. We live in a world in a culture that likes, we love our shades of gray. Oh, we love to keep our options open. We love to hang loose. Don't trouble us with absolutes. If there's any absolute, the typical late twentieth century American life is that we absolutely don't like absolutes. But this book is full of strong contrast. In fact, right in this first chapter, we see the contrast of comfort and affliction. Strongly so. We see the contrast of human changes and variations and divine immutability.
very strong contrasts in this book, and you need to look for those as you study epistle. But of course, as you work your way through, you become aware that as the Spirit of God moved the Apostle Paul, he's dealing with issues here that we really need. And I'm very grateful for the second letter to the Corinthians. You will also notice in chapter one, as we read here in verse one, that it was not only written to the saints at Corinth, but to all the saints throughout Achaia, very typical of the writers of the Scriptures, they were aware that as the Spirit moved them to pen these letters, that there were more than just the people of that day and of a specific local church that were going to be reading and profiting from these letters.
The application, the purpose is broad, and certainly includes those of us who are here together for our studies this week. Now, notice, if you will, at the beginning of this section which we have read after a typical kind of Pauline introduction, which we're not going to dwell in or detail. In verse three, he jumps right into a very problematic situation. This is not typical of Paul's letters. You know the characteristic in Pauline letters? The first half of the book is doctrinal. very characteristically and so often we find that the second half of the Pauline letters is the practical section but in first Corinthians Paul jumps right into a very practical issue even after just a very brief introduction of two verses right into the middle of a situational kind of thing a very practical kind of situation and of course in this contrast We see that Paul is dealing with a situation that we really don't like to think about, but
here it is. Paul is talking about grief. He is talking about affliction. Now what is behind this section, again, expositors are not clear about. It may be that the affliction and grief that Paul is writing about here is that which happened to him earlier while he was in Ephesus. You remember on that second missionary journey, Paul and his companions desired to go into Asia. This is not Asia as we think of it, including Japan and China, though this Asia that is referred to here was a province.
of the Empire of Rome in the southwest corner of what we now call Turkey or Asia Minor. That's where the important cities of Ephesus and Smyrna and Laodicea and Pergamus and all of those very prominent cities. In other words, Asia, the province of Asia was a highly populated province, a very prosperous province of the Empire of Rome. and Paul desired to go there. On his second missionary journey, the Spirit forbade them to go. And so, since the Spirit hindered them from traveling south and west, they traveled north and west to Troas, and it's on that second missionary journey that that very significant leap was taken of bringing the gospel into Europe, in which Paul went across the Aegean Sea into Europe, and a number of places in Greece what we now call Greece, were evangelized and local churches established there.
On the second missionary journey, however, the apostle was allowed to do what he was not allowed to do on the third missionary journey, rather. He was allowed to do what he could not do on the second missionary journey. And that is he went into Asia and spent the longest amount of time that he spent in any one place in any of his missionary journeys. Three years of time spent there in Ephesus. And there are a number of important things happen. For one thing, he rented a hall, a hall of Tyrannus. By the way, the first Bible school, as far as I can see, it was not carried on in a local church. It was carried on in a rented hall. There were daily lectures and disputings there.
And this ministry of daily teaching of the word went on for almost three years of time. during which time the gospel reached out to a number of cities in the area, like Colossi, where Paul even had not gone himself, but those who were taught in this ministry center there in Ephesus carried the gospel to the city's roundabout. And also there was a riot, a near riot in Ephesus while Paul was there. And it may be that in this time, the agitation, the near riot that came in the city of Ephesus, It may be that in a way that we don't see it in the Book of Acts, that Paul's life was in peril because he says here that we actually had the sentence of death upon us.
There was a point in time, he said, whether if you had asked me, Paul, are you going to live through this or you're going to die? He would have said, I'm going to die. He had the sentence of death. Some think no, that as the Book of Acts spells out that near riot and whatever Paul's part was, in being endangered by that, that perhaps Paul is referring to something else, maybe a bout of critical illness, which does not appear in the historic part of Book of Acts. In either case, it is apparent, even though we're not sure what this was, Paul had experienced a very life-threatening situation.
The Corinthians were aware of that, And in this passage now, Paul gets right to work talking about the mercy of God in alleviating their condition and bringing them out of this life-threatening situation. Notice some key words here. You will find again and again in this passage the words comfort and affliction. Comfort and affliction. Let's take a moment to look at these words. The word comfort... is a word which literally means to be called alongside. It's very much like the word our Lord used in the upper room discourse when he told his disciples that the Spirit of God, the Comforter, would come.
Parakaleos. Called alongside to help. It's a word which had been used semantically in earlier times by the Greeks to describe one of the functions in their military life. I think I've mentioned this before. The Greeks had a phalanx type of military structure in which their forces would meet the enemy with a solid wall of soldiers with their shields locked together. And as they approached the enemy, their shields locked together would present a solid wall of defense, and they could throw or thrust their spears over or under their shields. And if a man was wounded in that case and dropped out, Then there was a second line of troops behind and one from the second line of troops would immediately spring forward to fill the gap, to keep that solid wall of defense.
But what about the man who fell wounded? Further behind there was another line. We would call them medics or paramedics. And they then, hearing the cry of the wounded or seeing this wounded person, they would come and get the wounded man and pick him up and take him out of the fray and they were called alongside to help and if you were wounded you would be glad to see the medic there to get you and to minister to your wounds and to take you out of the fray of battle one way in which this word had been used semantically and it appears a number of times in the scriptures it's a very beautiful word it describes that which really should be going on among the people of God in very extensive ways.
We should often find that in our need, there are those who come alongside to help us. They draw near, they get close, they show their love and concern. They share our burdens with us. They pray with us. They may bring practical kinds of help. This kind of ministry is what is in view in this word comfort. Paul describes with praise to God that he had received comfort in a situation in which he literally had his life threatened. That leads us to the second expression here, affliction. In fact, Paul uses three different words here to describe affliction.
If you get down into verse eight, he talks about being burdened excessively with this affliction. So this was no splinter. This was no morning headache. This was an excessive affliction. An interesting word that was often used to describe situations in a pack of animals. Now, many of you may not appreciate this kind of illustration. If you grew up on a farm, if you worked with animals, you realized that there are from time to time those animals that as you load them down at a certain point they'll just lay down remember one time we were packing into a hunting trip into the mountains in Colorado and we had employed a pack string to take all of our gear in for this week and even as this person approached with his pack of horses he said well now there's Esther sorry if your name is Esther this is what the horse's name was He said, you have to be careful because if you load too much on her, she'll just lay down on you.
And sure enough, she did. We put this on and this on and this on. Finally, somebody put one thing too much and she just laid right down. The fact of the matter is, however, there is another old country expression, you load the willing horse. And it's true that some animals, you can just pile a burden on them until you literally collapse them. They literally cave in. They don't lay down. They just literally cave in under the load. That's the picture behind this word that Paul uses. A burden that was so heavy that even though you try to stay on your feet, it just literally crushes you down and drives you into the ground. That's how Paul describes the affliction, the trouble that he had experienced there.
And of course, The event and the place and the nature of this we're not sure about. But he even likes it to the sufferings of Christ in verse five. And some people have trouble with this statement. We need to recognize now that when the scriptures describe any human suffering in relationship to the sufferings of Christ, you need to recognize several things. First of all, any sense in which believers may suffer in a way that may be related to the sufferings of Christ it certainly has nothing to do with the redemptive sufferings of Christ the scriptures make it crystal clear that when our Lord hung on the cross and bore our sins in his body on the tree the sufferings of redemption were his alone his alone by himself he bore that look he bore our sins in his body on the tree and any thought or any doctrine of anybody else sharing in this is flagrant heresy Jesus Christ in redemptive sufferings bore
the wrath of God alone there was only one Savior there is only one Savior and Jesus Christ is that Savior If you study the Gospels carefully, however, you find that our Lord suffered in other ways. He suffered because of the presence of sin. Do you think how his holy soul must have shrunk from some of the wretchedness of sin that he saw around him? He suffered because he saw the crowds as sheep without a shepherd. And he had compassion. What does compassion mean? It means to suffer with.
the suffering of compassion for people who were like a shepherd, a sheep without a shepherd. He suffered because he was malign and spoken against. And so there are some of the ways in which Christ suffered, the non-redemptive sufferings of Christ, in which the people of God may also taste and share. And there may be times when, like the Apostle Paul, we too, will find the pain of looking at people who are like sheep without a shepherd and no one is helping them, or the pain of the presence of sin, or the pain of being spoken against, or mocked because of your faith.
There may be ways in which the sufferings of a believer might be identified with the life sufferings of Christ. Never, never, never with the redemptive sufferings of Christ. But of course, Paul's great theme here is that they had known the comfort of God. In fact, he uses a title here, the God of all comfort in verse three. The God of all comfort. Love that title for the living God. Paul says, and we were comforted. He drew near to us. Remember that word, paracaleo? To call near, to come near, to help someone?
The living God himself drew near and helped us. We were comforted by God. In fact, Paul uses the past, present, and future tense in verse six. He not only did deliver us, he is still delivering us, and we have confidence that he will deliver us. Such was the great work of God in behalf of the Apostle here. And he shares that encouragement with us. And I hope you live with that same rejoicing in your heart. Yes, I have seen times in my own life when God has drawn near to help and to bring comfort. And he's still doing it.
And that gives us the confidence to know that he will continue to do it in the future. He's the God. of all comfort wonderful wonderful to see this now there's an important thing here you need to get though and you see it in verse four and the argument here hinges on two particles two small words in which people Paul says he comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction actually the word is the same in the Greek New Testament He comforts us in all of our affliction so that we may be able to comfort people in all affliction.
The important thing to get from the scripture here, because we live in a humanistic culture that has some quirks. We live in a crazy world, by the way, folks. Then one of the quirks of humanism often leads people to say, well, you wouldn't understand. You wouldn't understand. If you haven't rolled through the same mud I'm rolling through, you can't understand. Well, young people tell their parents, ah, you grew up in a different, you don't understand me. And we somehow or another, in some strange form of our humanistic way of thinking, get the idea that if you haven't had exactly the same problem that I have, you can't help me. Biblically, that's not true. This passage tells us that what qualified the apostle to help people in any kind of problem, was not that he had had the same problem, but that he had learned to draw upon the resources of God in any problem that he had had.
You see the difference? See, it's one thing to say, well, you know, I've never been where you are. Got a young man and nephew staying in our home right now, student at the college. A few years ago, his life was terribly messed up. He tried to do a self-destruct, did some stupid, stupid things, including drugs and everything else. I'm very grateful that the Lord kept me from getting on drugs. And if because I never took drugs, that is the devastating drugs of the drug scene, does that mean that I can't help somebody like that? No, it doesn't mean that. See, Paul says what qualifies you to help people who are in trouble in any kind of trouble is that you have experienced the help of God in any trouble that you have had.
It's not identical experience that qualifies you to help someone. It is the maturity of having drawn on loads of the resources and the help of God in your life. Now it is true that sometimes human beings are not in a very good position to help others because they still have so many of their own hangups. They still so lack in any kind of emotional or spiritual strength that they can't help people. That's true. But this passage tells me that you don't have to have the same problem as somebody else to help them. What you need to help others is the experience of having the help of God in your life. Learning to draw upon his resources in the problems that you have had.
That's what prepares you to help people in any kind of problem. It's an important distinction. Then Paul makes it very, very clear here. Because this purpose of God in our helping one another, whether it's affliction or comfort, he says in verse six, our affliction is a help to you and our comfort is a help to you. And when believers saw the apostle responding to the hardships that he had in the service of Christ, no doubt it strengthened them and encouraged them to stand. And then when people received of the ministry of the apostle to their lives, because God had comforted him and now as he's doing here he shares the joy of the comfort of God in his own life that helps them too so Paul says whether it's affliction in my life or the comfort of God in my life both of these become a help to others it's a wonderful thing to see people who so know the living God and so draw upon his resources in their lives But whether they're hurting or happy, they're a help to others.
Let me use a very vivid illustration here. About three weeks ago, I made a quick trip into Chicago to see my sister-in-law. Took my nephews in, and we just made a quick trip. She'd made a turn to the worst. She was really critically ill. But I'll tell you, we went away from there feeling like we had been ministered to. Among others, she said, now, number this morbid stuff, on your way home, sing, she said. It was a three and a half hour drive. Don't go away morbid now. Want you to sing on the way home. Then we did. We probably wouldn't have, she hadn't told us to.
And even in her suffering, she was a servant of Christ to us. Have you ever experienced that? I hope you have. And so Paul says whether or not it's our suffering or it is the comfort of God in our lives, in either case, that should spill over into your lives. And that's exactly what's happening in this passage. And I pray that it happens in the fellowship of God's people, that through whatever vicissitudes of life there are, that the living God can use us as his instruments, as his channels, a blessing.
And of course, Paul concludes this section in verse eleven by saying, and the end result is that when God provides his ministry to us and we praise him, then of course that overflows in the praise of many people. And when God answers prayer, we ought to praise him. We ought to thank him. Yes. Now there are some important principles here. Let me just mention a couple of the important principles in this passage of Scripture. First of all, it's vital that we remember that there are people always around us who need comfort. And if we're going to have something to give to them, some help to people who are in trouble, who are hurting for whatever reason, there is one important ingredient if we're to be of help, and that is, We must have learned to draw upon the resources of God in our problems.
That's the message of this passage. That it is the comfort of God, the ministry of God to us in our afflictions that prepares us, that makes us his instruments to minister to others who may have any kind of problem. Even if you didn't have the same problem. If you have drawn on the resources of God in your affliction, the Spirit of God can then use you as his instrument to draw near, to comfort, to come alongside to help of people who are struggling. This passage also teaches us that God's people really need to remain other-centered even when they're hurting.
You know, I'm one of those people. When I'm sick, I just want to crawl off in a corner and close the door and lay there like a wounded dog and lick my wounds. They don't bother me. But this scripture tells me that even in our affliction, the Lord would like to keep us others centered. Because Paul says here, not only is it our comfort that is to your comfort, but it's our affliction that's to your comfort. and the life of the believer can be so other-focused that even when I'm hurting, the Spirit of God can work through this hurting life to touch some others.
Now, you don't see that in the world, but among the people of God, you can see it. Another important principle here, of course, is that Christians will suffer. There is no promise that we will not go through deep waters. And God is glorified not in keeping us in a pristine, trouble-free life, which we would like. But God is glorified in working in our lives through all of the ups and downs of life. We may not like it.
But it's apparent as I read through the scriptures that God is glorified, as Paul later said to the Philippians, whether by life or by death, may God be glorified. It is the purpose of our God to honor the name of Christ and to glorify himself in the life of his people and even in suffering. our lives can be focused upon others and be a reflection of and a channel of his blessing. Wonderful truth. Because God allows a lot of suffering among these people.
And it is not in vain. And suffering doesn't mean that you're on the shelf. And suffering doesn't mean that you're no use to God. In fact, this passage tells me that some of the important things that God would like to do through our lives he will do in times of suffering. And glorify himself, as I say, not by keeping us from all of the vicissitudes and aches and pains and difficulties of life, even the things that imperil us. But that he is free to work in and through the life of his people to touch other lives, even amid the difficulties. And so we should help each other by prayer.
We should often draw near to those who are hurting, even when we are hurting. And trust that the Spirit of God can do precisely what we see this passage unfolding before us, to work through even the sufferings of a believer to touch other lives with help and with blessing. And the nearness of life, the nearness of association in which God can exercise his comfort is always needed. Because the world is full of difficulties. And life does have its downs as well as ups.
We all know that. And I trust that we will be encouraged with the encouragement that Paul gave to these folks. even through his own sufferings, to recognize that our God is a God of all comfort. And he will not only minister to you in your need and to me and my need, but he will use us even in our sufferings as his instrument of blessing to others. May God help us. to so draw upon His resources in our sufferings, and so keep our lives other focused in our sufferings, that you can be a channel of blessing even when you're hurting.
This is the way of our God. This is how our Savior was. Some of the most moving things our Savior ever said. He said on the cross. Father, we give you our thanks today. That as we read through this moving passage of Scripture, we find a man who had been delivered from intense, life-threatening suffering. Giving thanks to God, rejoicing in the deliverance and the comfort of God.
and sharing that comfort with people who were hurting. Make us sensitive, Father, to the fact that we live in a world of great need. People around us need the gospel of Christ. People around us need comfort and encouragement. And we pray that we may be able to see in this passage those ingredients of Christ-likeness that are reflected in the life of the Apostle, not to live a life free from pain and suffering, but to live a life as an instrument of God in bringing blessing to others, sometimes through pain and suffering, and sometimes in the comfort and deliverance of God.
Help us to so walk before you, Father. Help us to learn to draw near to others who have need. We want to be your instrument. We are human. We are afflicted. We hurt. And we need your help and blessing in our lives. We readily confess this. We pray that this will not turn inward to us. That even the comfort that you bring us in our hurting may flow out to others for the sake of Christ. That we may be his instrument. hurting people around us, even when we are hurting. Christ may be honored in our fellowship in our lives.