Our help is in the Name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
Beloved, grace and peace be to you from God our Father, and the Lord
Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Psalm of praise: 145:1,10
Prayer
Psalm 4:1
Scripture reading:
John 17
Scripture text:
Catechism Sunday 1, John 17:8
. . .
for I have given them the words which thou gavest me, and they have
received them and know in truth that I came from thee; and they have
believed that thou didst send me.
Job had already discovered that comfort and wisdom have much in common:
- One cannot obtain either through one’s own intellect or one’s own
experience (Job 28:12).
- One can only receive it from God.
He who thinks he doesn’t need comfort in his life is a most pitiable
person for he has never really heard the very important things God says
about us.
- Consider, for example, Romans 3:23 where the Lord shows us that
we have all sinned en that we fall short of the glory of God.
- We are, therefore, simply people who bear the character of hell.
- Or the verdict that the wages of sin is death.
- And, with that, Paul’s cry of distress for somebody to deliver
him from death (Romans 7:24).
Today we are going to look at the following matters regarding comfort:
1. The comfort prepared by the Lord
Jesus
2. The working of the Holy Spirit
within us
1. The comfort prepared by the Lord
Jesus
When many things go wrong in our lives, it doesn’t mean there is no
comfort for us and for our circumstances.
- We have the comfort of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is so much
more than words.
- It is a revelation that shows that the Lord protects and saves us
as long as we live – and our lives are much longer than this present
life, because we live for ever and ever.
The contents of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross has strength and
meaning for every moment of our lives, in any possible circumstances,
and always when we suffer from pressure and anxiety. Then the Lord
Jesus with his Holy Spirit is very close to us.
The Lord has made us his property in a very special way.
- God the Father gave us to Jesus Christ.
- He welcomed us and set us free with his blood.
- That means that He settled the account for our sins so that we
can live as free men by the grace of God and enter his eternal kingdom
when we die.
- And, with that, He set us free from the oppression of Satan.
All these are written in the Bible. In Romans 15:4 it says:
For
whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction,
that by steadfastness and encouragement of the scriptures we might have
hope.
The Lord reveals through history that He has the comfort that can
remove all anguish and cares from our lives.
- This comfort is the Lord Jesus Christ.
- He saves us.
- No stress can be so great that it can take away your salvation
and estrange you from God.
Many things happening to us hurt and then we need comfort:
- Many parents suffer from great pain caused by their children.
- Many people are deeply afflicted by specific family circumstances.
- Many of our young people experience pain of confusion when they
are pressurised by their peers to do what they don’t really want to do.
- And then there are those who are plunged in morning when somebody
close to them have passed away.
There is very little in life comforting enough to carry us through all
the grief.
- Words alone cannot do much, because words are sometimes so
hollow.
- It often happens that friends who try to comfort us don’t
understand our situation and therefore don’t really touch our hearts.
But, the comfort the Lord offers us is completely different. The Lord
comforts us in so many places in the Bible. It is a chorus resounding
from Him. Just think of Psalm 94:19:
When
the cares of my heart are many, thy consolations cheer my soul.
Or Isaiah 40 that says:
Comfort,
comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry
to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, . . .
The actual meaning is: our iniquity is pardoned, and we are reconciled
to God.
- Stress, or whatever threat in this life, cannot pass the grave.
- The Lord in any case gives us the strength to bear it until we
die and then we are delivered from it, living in the glory of Jesus the
Lord.
- This fact is revealed in 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17:
- At the Second Coming the Lord will descend from heaven.
- He will call and then the dead in Christ will rise..
- Then all the faithful will be caught up in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air.
- From then onwards we shall always be with the Lord.
That is why Jesus is called the Faithful Saviour.
- He personally came to prepare the comfort for us.
- He paid with his body and blood so that we would belong to Him.
- Through his death he released us from the violence of the devil.
- Nothing can change this – the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus is
guaranteed for ever and ever.
- This means that the Lord preserves us whenever we suffer from
attacks – physical and spiritual attacks.
- We always receive the strength to get through, and we always
gain insight to see that the Lord has not deserted us.
It is not that the Lord’s death on the cross safeguards us against
temptations.
- The Lord never revealed that we would be free from temptation
because we are redeemed.
- He only reveals that He will always preserve us during such
temptations.
- He is our Guarantor who did not spill his blood in vain.
We must expect that the faithful will experience grief and afflictions
because the devil’s aim is to estrange the faithful from the Lord.
- When he fails, he at least wants us to suffer.
- Peter, in fact, writes about the devil who prowls around like a
roaring lion seeking anything to devour.
2. The Holy Spirit works within us!
In this lies part of our calling: We are called by the Lord to believe
and to hope!
- We know without doubt that we are conquerors in Christ over all
the threats in life.
- When we suffer the Holy Spirit gives us courage.
- He convinces us to obey the Lord.
- He lifts us up when we despair because He strengthens our faith
through our knowledge of the Bible.
- He grants us resignation because we realise, through the insight
we receive from Him, that nothing happens to us beyond the will of the
Lord.
- The decree of the Lord is best for us: beyond the will of our
heavenly Father we will not lose a single hair.
The Holy Spirit adds to this: He brings about regeneration in us.
- He changes us so that we do not want to sin and that we also do
not wish to partake in the work of the devil.
- He lets us grow in holiness so that we become more and more
willing to live for the Lord. Also in times of suffering and struggling.
These things can happen only when we realise who and what we are.
- We must in all honesty realise the magnitute of our sins and our
affliction.
- In other words, that our own works assist in the suffering we
experience.
- But then we also have to know how we can get out of this
situation.
- Redemption is possible through Jesus Christ.
- And then our entire life should bear testimony of gratefulness.
- Our whole life should be in kneeling before the Lord in
gratitude and faith.
- The comfort of the Lord is that the Holy Spirit lets me believe
that I am God’s child through Jesus Christ.
- The comfort of the Lord is that I am redeemed and live for ever,
and that all evil – also the evil that attacks me – only belongs to
this life.
- The comfort of the Lord enables me to serve Him with all I can
and all I have.
Let us read together Catechism Sunday 1.
Amen
Closing prayer
Closing hymn: Scripture hymn 22:1, 2, 10, 11
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen
Dr MJ du Plessis
Gereformeerde Kerk Bellville
Datum: 22 Junie 2003