HE COMFORTS HIS CHILDREN
First thing this morning I received a email from a resident at Messiah Village, where I have the privilege of ministering at the time.
She said, “Pastor Debby, I'm fairly certain that you had no idea how prophetic your message of February 2 was. Thanks for choosing to have that one re-broadcasted now.”
So, I quickly reread my message and chose to share it with others, for what it’s worth.
February 2, 2020 He Comforts His Children John 14:1-21
When two of my daughters had to go back to work after the birth of their children, they were not happy! They were not happy about it all, but like so many women, they just didn’t have any other choice at the time.
But I was recently reminded of my daughter Lolly’s experience the day she went back to work after Anna was born a few years ago.
The plan was for my son-in-law Mark to be with Jacob and Anna on Mondays, then they go to a daycare center on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and then, hopefully, Lolly would be able to work from home on Fridays. But the daycare center wanted Lolly to bring the kids in for two days prior to her going back to work. So they were there on a particular Thursday and Friday morning.
Well, on the first day Anna slept the whole time she was there, but on Friday when she woke up and there were no familiar faces around, well, imagine what it must have been like for her. She had been with her mommy and her brother every day of her short little life. She heard Lolly’s voice, saw her face and smelled her all day every day.
And, for the first few weeks, slept on her chest, in a recliner, every night. Suddenly, when she woke up at daycare she was not a happy camper. In fact, she was inconsolable.
So, the lady at the daycare tried to tell Lolly that Anna couldn’t possibly even know the difference, that she would be just fine…We all had our doubts! We are not a “daycare family.” Never have been. I have nothing against daycares, I know there are people who need them and have no other options, but in my family we just don’t do daycare….unless we are the providers! Which I did for over seven years, so I could be home with my kids, and later two of my daughters would provide daycare. So I didn’t believe for one moment that Anna didn’t know the difference between her mommy and a person she has never seen before.
Anna was less than two months old…but she knew those who comforted her. And when she woke up to unfamiliar faces…she knew that too. And my guess is that, if she could have expressed herself in any way but tears, she was wondering where her comforters were.
My prayer for Anna, during the total two months that she remained in daycare was that the LORD would supernaturally intervene for her…
That He would wrap her in His arms of comfort and that there wouldn’t be a moment of time when she didn’t feel loved and secure.
I prayed that when she looked into faces that she didn’t recognize that she would see eyes of love and care.
I prayed that the LORD will cradle her and not only comfort Anna, but her mommy, too.
Well, those are the kind of things that I am reminded of when I ponder comfort.
But not today. Today is different.
Another event brought me to what I want to share with you this morning.
It was one month ago today, on January 2nd at 11:30pm Missouri time, that my mother was “gently ushered into the Presence of Jesus.”
For over 4 ½ years, everytime my siblings and I were with her we always left with the thought that it may be the last time we would see her.
My first thought, after my sister’s early morning call was, “So I guess this means I’m an orphan now.”
My second thought was a reminder of Jesus’ words in John 14:18, “I will not leave you as orphans…” and the KJV says, “I will not leave you comfortless…” and then there is the fact that He sent His Holy Spirit to be our COMFORTER.
I am particularly fond of Paul’s words to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7
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, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ,
so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
6 If we are distressed, 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 we suffer.
7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
He comforts us so that we can comfort others
and also learn patient endurance.
Have you arrived?
Many of us experience daily struggles and the challenges of finding Biblical ways to live victoriously when there are times that we feel more like victims!
How do we navigate through the murky, dark, seeming to be shark-infested or raging waters of life with faith and assurance?
Is it possible?
Where do we find comfort when we are in need, desperate need of it?
And then, you know, God doesn’t let me dwell on a subject like this without giving me plenty of opportunities to do what He instructs and find examples all around me…people in desperate need of comfort and even situations that cause me to wonder.
Do I really know what I am talking about?
Is there really comfort to be found in every situation?
Can those who are feeling comfortless…what can I say that will really make a difference?
I find the daily newspaper and the evening news to be an ongoing nightmare!
If you read, watch or listen you know what I’m talking about, “No wonder there are so many people who avoid the news at all costs.”
When you have your own set of seemingly insurmountable problems, why would you want to read about anyone else’s difficulties?”
Today I want to share some comforting thoughts with you…obviously we won’t find them in the newspaper. So, we’re going to look to the Word of God to comfort us in difficult times and under difficult situations…and specifically we’re going to reflect on the source of our comfort.
I doubt if there are any of us who haven’t, at some point, felt lost or lonely or abandoned. There are many people who feel lonely even in a crowd, even when surrounded by others…aloneness can be an overwhelming feeling.
Feeling overwhelmed and alone certainly isn’t a feeling or a fear that only children have. In the book of John, chapter 14 there’s a story about some grown men who also felt like they were about to be abandoned and left to face the frightening and uncertain future alone.
While you are turning there, let me tell you about an experience I had one morning when I was pastoring in Hanover. I had the opportunity to minister to a woman I met for the first time that day. I had received numerous e-mails from her over the weeks and we had made arrangements for her to come over that morning. When she arrived she was “at the end of her rope” in every way and with every relationship in her life. But she was like a sponge, as the Holy Spirit gave me one truth after another that brought comfort and a significant amount of healing to her wounded heart. Many of them were from today’s message. I continue to be amazed at God’s timing.
Can we put ourselves in “sponge mode” today and just soak up the truths found in the Word of God? I am trusting that the Holy Spirit will minister truth and healing to you, as well.
In this chapter Jesus is speaking to His disciples…the men who had been with Him almost every day for the past three years. Men who, at His call, had chosen to leave everything of their old life behind and follow Him.
On this particular occasion He had already shared some devastating things with them and…
They are desperately afraid.
They are bewildered and anxious and confused.
They have just been told that one of them would betray Jesus and that another one of them would deny Him not once, but three times.
They were aware that their world was collapsing around them.
That grave danger surrounded them and that many hated them
And Jesus has led them to believe that He is going to die…and leave them
They didn’t know what they were going to do without Him…
How would you feel in their position?
Comfortless and about to be abandoned?
Clingy and searching for hope?
Grasping for alternative straws?
Trying to find a less painful solution?
Would you find yourself denying the inevitable?
Or pointing a finger and trying to figure out who the bad guys are that are going to be the cause of your world tumbling down around you?
What would you have done?
It will help us to better understand Chapter 14 if we keep in mind that in Chapter 13 Jesus’ very public ministry has moved into the private realm, where He meets with the disciples in the Upper Room and instead of ministering to the crowds…
He ministers to the disciples.
He washes their feet.
He shares a last meal with them.
He gives them final instructions.
He warns them of what is to come.
And then we move into chapter 14 where we find them very troubled by what they have heard. As we read this chapter together, let’s make it very personal and ask ourselves the question, “What does the LORD provide for me in times of distress?”
Our definition of distress is “an afflicted, wretched or exhausted condition; a state of extreme need”
What is causing you distress?
One of our greatest needs, in the midst of distress, is comfort.
Is that just true of me...or are there others?
So, what does Jesus want us to know in our distress?
John 14:1-31
Verse 1: Jesus says, "Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
In Greek the word “troubled” is throeo.
It means “an inward fright that is felt because of a shocking occurrence.”
This would be the kind of shock that causes us to be devoured by worry or anxiety or fear.
So, it’s like Jesus is saying, “Do not let your heart be eaten up with worry and fear. You don’t need to be jumpy or nervous about what is happening or what might happen.”
And what is the remedy to that kind of troubled heart?
He goes on to say, “Trust in God; trust also in me.”
That’s it? That’s all we have to do?
How do we do that? Remember Your History with Him…
Has He healed you?
Has He delivered you?
Has He saved you
Has He ever guided and directed you?
Has He ever brought you through difficult trials?
Has He provided for your financial needs?
Has He protected you from the enemy?
Then you have a history with Him!
At those unsettling times for me, I often ask myself…
Has He ever failed me yet?
Have I ever gone without?
Was there a time He just plain didn’t show up?
NO!
So Remember your history with God.
Remember His Promises
Then Consider His Character
Then Jesus says…
2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so,
I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may
be where I am.
He’s promising them a future hope… they will be with Him again… He is preparing an eternal home for them.
4 You know the way to the place where I am going." 5 Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we don't know where You are going,
so how can we know the way?"
Then He assures them and reminds them once again of who He is…
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
7 If you really knew Me, you would know My Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him."
8 Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."
9 Jesus answered: "Don't you know Me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
10 Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, who is doing His work.
11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.
12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
13 And I will do whatever you ask in My Name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask Me for anything in My Name, and I will do it.
15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command.
16 And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him,
for He lives with you and will be in you.
First Jesus promises that He will ask the Father to send another “Counselor”…in the King James Version the word is “Comforter.” The “Parakalete” who comes along side of someone to encourage and to comfort.
Then He says in verse 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”
The King James Version says, “I will not leave you comfortless…”
Why have the translators used two very different words? Because the Greek word “ophanos” means comfortless. That’s where we get the word orphan. A child left without the comfort of a mother or father…an orphan.
Interestingly, it can also be used to indicate students who have been abandoned by their teacher and they are left feeling discarded, forsaken and deserted! No wonder Jesus chose that particular word. He did not want His disciples to feel that, He their Teacher or God their Father, was abandoning them.
So, what is His plan to provide for them? Let’s read a little further.
19 Before long, the world will not see Me anymore, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live.
20 On that day you will realize that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has My commands and obeys them, He is the one who loves Me.
He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him."
23 Jesus replied, "If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
24 He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not My own; they belong to the Father who sent Me.
25 "All this I have spoken while still with you.
26 But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My Name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
What all can we expect from the Holy Spirit?
He will always be with us
He will comfort, counsel and encourage
He will teach us all things
He will remind us of the things we have been taught
He will give peace to our troubled hearts
28 "You heard Me say, 'I am going away and I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe. 30 I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on Me, but the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what My Father has commanded Me. Come now; let us leave.”
Have you ever noticed that Jesus always points us to the Father and the Holy Spirit always points us to Jesus?
Children of God…
We are not orphans in this world.
We have not been left to face its troubles, trials and difficulties without encouragement, support or comfort.
We are not alone.
We have the promised gift of the Holy Spirit and we have one another, the body of Christ.
And when we leave here He has a place prepared for us already with our name on the door. Present hope, future hope.
One of my favorite Paul stories is found in Acts 28, I believe, it has great spiritual significance for us as we consider this whole element of finding comfort in God through the Holy Spirit.
Paul has just been pulled from the sea after one of the shipwrecks he endured and do you know what happens to him just moments later?
Listen: Acts 28:1-6
Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta.
The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold. Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand.
When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, "This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live."
But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.
The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.
I am compelled to wonder…
Do you think Paul sat around watching his hand to see what would happen?
Do you think he kept checking his pulse and feeling for a heartbeat? Not on your life.
Paul just kept on truckin’.
Remember, for him “to live is Christ and to die is gain!”
But, for us today, let’s consider that attack of the viper to be an attack of the enemy. After all, didn’t satan appear as a serpent to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? I don’t have a problem believing a demonic representation of satan visited Malta intent on destroying Paul, do you?
So, once again the enemy is hell bent on destroying Paul!
He has survived ship-wreak, beatings, stoning, imprisonment, danger of every possible kind and now a poisonous viper has attached itself to him!
One might be tempted to say, “Good Grief! I think I’ll go home now.”
Here’s my main question...
What could that poisonous viper from the pit of hell represent for you, personally, this morning?
I have to wonder if the reason it didn’t kill him was because Paul shook it off.
But how many of us carry a poisonous viper around with us…attached to our person and slowly killing us, either emotionally or physically or relationally or spiritually...or all of the above!
(One day, after a particular nightmarish edition of the evening paper, they blessed us with this bit of news… “Chronic worrying inflates odds for a heart attack.”
But nowhere in the article did it caution against reading the paper!
What is the poisonous viper that has attached itself to you and doesn’t want to let go?
I think it would be wise to consider that, just maybe, this is what is keeping you from experiencing the comfort of the Holy Spirit.
It may be fear, rejection or abandonment, worry, anger, resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness, doubt, deception, pornography, addictions, hatred, shame, guilt, animosity, disbelief, apathy, attitude, or rebellion?
You fill in your own blank.
Give the viper a face and a name!
The poisonous viper can take a whole lot of different names and faces, can’t it?
But each one is harmful. Each one needs to be shaken off in some way.
What is it that the LORD would have you shake off?
What needs to go, so that you can be released to fall into His arms of comfort
Are you able...
To accept the Spirit’s comfort in the midst of confusion and chaos?
To accept the Spirit’s counsel when you are perplexed and need answers?
To accept the Spirit’s peace when everyone and everything around you is in an uproar and you are feeling fearful or anxious?
Grief and loss?
If you’re not able to accept His comfort or counsel or peace, might it be because of something poisonous that’s hanging on to you and won’t let go?
Maybe even just the doubt that God is really trustworthy?
Or that He hears your prayers?
Or cares about your distress
Or that He is truly faithful?
Let’s go before the LORD right now and seek the counsel of the Holy Spirit. Let’s do some serious business with Him this morning so that each and every one of us can walk out of this sanctuary free to experience the comfort and the peace of Jesus Christ.
Let’s shake off everything that doesn’t belong and accept His power and His presence in our lives a new.
John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
Friends, let’s remember the only source of true comforts is Jesus Christ our LORD. Shake off everything else and go in peace.
