Where Is God In Times of Crisis?
Text: 2 Cor. 1:3-7
Introduction
1. Illustration: In light of what happened this week at Virginia Tech University, many people all over the country are asking, "Where was God when all of this was going on?" Just as they asked it on Sept. 11, 2001. They want to know where is God when a tragedy like this takes place?
2. In my mind the answer is very clear: He was right there!
3. Some would say, "Well, if He was there why didn’t He do something to stop it?"
a. Because He has given man a free will.
b. Although there are consequences for our actions, God will not keep us from doing senseless things if we are not willing to listen to His voice.
4. Okay, if He was there, and He didn’t stop it from happening, what was He doing?
a. He was giving comfort to the victims of this senseless tragedy.
b. He was there, like He always is, to pick up the pieces for our mistakes.
5. You see:
a. God gives comfort to us
b. God gives comfort through us
c. God’s Comfort Produces Fellowship
6. Read 2 Cor. 1:3-7
Proposition: In times of crisis, God comforts us so that we can comfort others.
Transition: First, we must understand that...
I. God Gives Comfort To Us (3-4a)
A. God Of All Comfort
1. Paul begins this section of the Epistle by saying "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ..."
a. He usually begins his letters by thanking God for the recipients of his letter.
b. He wanted to put the focus of his message on God.
c. What he is about to say comes directly from God either to us or through us.
2. The first reason that he gives for blessing God is that He is "the Father of mercies..."
a. The word "mercies" means compassion, pity, and mercy.
b. It means looking upon people in need and having compassion and mercy upon them.
c. Note that God is not the God of mercies but the Father of mercies.
d. His very nature and behavior toward us is that of a Father, not of a God. He is our Father, a Father who is merciful and compassionate, and who showers His mercies and compassions upon us.
3. We should also notice that the word "mercies" is plural.
a. God does not show mercy just once, nor just here and there.
b. God showers His mercies upon us continuously.
c. God does not run out of mercy for us, but every time we need His mercy He is there to deliver.
4. However, Paul gets to the heart of the matter when he says "and God of all comfort..."
a. In the Greek, some form of the word comfort appears 10 times in verses 3-7 (Wiseheart, Complete Biblical Library, 501).
b. The word "comfort" means to be by the side of another; to relieve and support; to give solace, consolation, and encouragement.
c. But there is always an underlying meaning to the word. There is the idea of strength, an enablement, a confidence.
d. It consoles and relieves a person, but it strengthens him at the same time. It charges a person to go out and face the world.
5. There are several things that we should note about God’s comfort.
a. Notice that Paul begins with comfort and not suffering (Theodore of Mopsuestia, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, 193). We need not focus on the problem, but on the fact that God will respond to our need.
b. Next, we should notice that word used here is the same word used by Jesus to describe the Holy Spirit - the Comforter.
c. God the Holy Spirit is always standing beside us to comfort, help, and guide us.
d. The third thing that we should notice is that He the God of "ALL COMFORT." This implies a sense of the comfort being immeasurable (Barrett, NICNT: The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 70).
e. There is not limit to His comfort; there is nothing that can happen to us that God cannot see us through.
6. Which leads us to what Paul says next: "who comforts us in all our tribulation..."
a. The word "tribulation" means to be weighed down exceedingly; to be pressed and crushed.
b. It is the picture of a beast of burden being crushed beneath a load that is just too heavy.
c. He comforts us in "all," not in just a few of our trials and sufferings. We do not have to bear a single trial or moment of suffering by ourselves.
d. Our Father—the Sovereign Majesty of the universe who controls all—is not off in the distance someplace far removed from us.
e. That is why I can say with confidence that God was right there in the midst of the suffering at Va. Tech University this week.
f. He was there giving comfort to those who mourned.
B. Giving Comfort
1. Illustration: “When life caves in, you do not need reasons -- you need comfort. You do not need some answers -- you need someone. And Jesus does not come to us with an explanation -- He comes to us with His presence.” SOURCE: — Bob Benson
2. When a madman guns down 32 students on a college campus, God is there.
3. When two disturbed teenagers gun down 12 fellow students and a teacher, God is there.
4. When religious fanatics fly jets into the World Trade Center, God is there.
5. When we lose a loved one, God is there.
6. Isaiah 51:12 "I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid Of a man who will die, And of the son of a man who will be made like grass?
7. We have a God who is:
a. There when we call Him
b. There when we need Him
c. There when we have no where else to turn
Transition: He is the God of all comfort, and He comforts us in ALL OF OUR SORROWS!
II. God Gives Comfort Through Us (4b-5)
A. That We May Be Able to Comfort
1. Now Paul shows that not only does God comfort us, but He also uses us to comfort those in need.
2. He says that one of the purpose of God’s comfort is "that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."
a. Although they had not necessarily been hard-pressed by external persecution, the Corinthian church had gone through a lot of internal dissension.
b. God would comfort the Corinthians through these difficult times.
c. When the troubles passed and the Corinthians emerged faithful, then they would be able to comfort others who needed the same comfort.—Life Application Concise New Testament Commentary
3. Trials are never easy. But it is through trials that God can shape and mold our character.
a. Often, it is only through trials that we can learn about God’s loving care for us.—Life Application Concise New Testament Commentary
b. Phil. 3:10-11 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
c. Paul did not see trials and tribuations as a bad thing in and of themselves, because of what the had the potential to produce if we let them.
d. When trials come we have a choice: we can let them make us bitter or we can let them make us better.
4. When we go through these trials in life, and we come out the other side better people, God then opens the door of ministry to us to help someone else in need.
a. The very comfort that is received in times of suffering brings with it an understanding of why the comfort is sent in the first place.
b. It is not only for the one who is comforted, it will also through that one benefit others (Wiseheart, 501).
5. Paul gives us good news and bad news. The bad news is: "For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us..."
a. The word "abound" means to excel and overflow.—Practical Word Studies in the New Testament
b. 1 Pet. 4:12-13 Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.
c. Peter and John, after they were persecuted by the religious leaders, rejoiced that they had been considered worthy to suffer for Christ.
d. Going through trials is a part of being a Christian.
6. However, the good news is: "so our consolation also abounds through Christ."
a. The point is this: no matter what the suffering is nor how terrible it may be, God showers us with the comfort of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
b. He does not just give us some strength and comfort to bear the suffering; He gives us all the strength and comfort necessary to handle all the suffering.
c. There are no trials too great, no pressures too heavy, that God cannot match them with the comfort of the Lord Jesus Christ.
d. Christ has borne every trial and suffering for us.
e. Just as He meets us every step along the way, He uses us as He meets others at every step.
B. God Uses Us to Comfort
1. Illustration: In the nearly ten years that I have been in the ministry, I have had to endure many trials. However, He has always seemed to put another minister in my life that was able to put is arms around me and say, "It’s okay, Brother Mark, I’ve been where you’re at, and God will see you through." One day he is going to put another minister in my path that is going through some of the same difficulties that I’ve been through, and if I am obedient, He will use me to help them.
2. The questions that people are asking in these times of chaos are the wrong questions. The right question is "Where is the Church?"
a. Where are God’s people in times of crisis?
b. Where are the ones that God has comforted when these need comfort?
3. The real question is are we going to be obedient to God and allow Him to use us in such a time as this?
4. Are we willing to be like Isaiah and says "Here I am Lord, use me!"
5. Times of crisis are not a time to doubt God, but a time to offer ourselves to God to comfort others.
Transition: This leads to the fact that...
III. God’s Comfort Produces Fellowship (6-7)
A. It Is For Your Consolation
1. Now I don’t know what you think about when you hear the word fellowship.
a. Some people when they hear that word they "Oh good, let’s eat!"
b. However, when the Bible uses the word fellowship it means to share in something.
c. Paul makes it clear here that when we are comforted and then in turn comfort others, a fellowship of comfort is created.
2. In verse 6, Paul talks about us sharing in one another’s sufferings when he says, "Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation."
a. His afflictions, like all the rest of his life, are for their sake.
b. The close bonds between Paul and the Corinthians mean that they suffer when he suffers, and likewise share in his strengthening. - New International Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM
c. When we allow God to use us to comfort others it creates a unity of the Spirit like no other.
d. It’s like the old saying "misery loves company."
3. Paul develops further the idea of fellowship of comfort in verse 7 when he says, "And our hope for you is steadfast, because we know that as you are partakers of the sufferings, so also you will partake of the consolation."
a. The word "partakers" comes from the same Greek word from which we get the word fellowship (Wisehart, 503).
b. However, here it is not only the sharing with one another, but also sharing in the comfort of Christ.
c. When we share in the "fellowship of His suffering," we also share in the fellowship of His comfort.
4. Notice also that it not only the trials and comfort that we share in, but also in the victories and triumphs. Paul says "our hope for you is steadfast."
a. The word steadfast mean "to cause something to be known as certain —Louw & Nida: NT Greek-English Lexicon
b. It was a commercial term referring to a guarantee (Barnett, 79).
c. Paul is confident that they will so strengthened in the comfort that they receive that it will create in them an unshakable faith.
B. We Are In This Together
1. Illustration: In the first book and movie, entitled, Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkien describes the camaraderie of a diverse group of people who came together around a central purpose. Called "the fellowship of the ring," their goal is to destroy the power of the Dark Lord that is somehow resident in his ring. The persons in this fellowship are different in many ways, yet they are united in their opposition of the Dark Lord. That is the source of their fellowship.
2. As Christians, we share together in the fellowship of giving comfort to those who face tragedy.
3. You may ask, "What can we do to help these people?"
a. First, we can pray for the families of those who lost their son or daughter, brother or sister.
b. We can also pray for those who are ministering to those students at Va. Tech. Pray for the campus ministers, Chi Alpha missionaries, and Christian counselors who are already they giving comfort.
c. We can pray that God would cause students on that campus to come to Him through salvation.
4. Perhaps the best thing that we can do is to pray for revival in our nation.
a. The only thing that will stop these senseless acts of violence is for a mighty movement of the Holy Spirit to engulf our nation.
b. You cannot change society from the outside in; you have to change it from the inside out.
5. However, there are those in our own community that are in the need of comfort.
a. Those who have lost a loved one.
b. Those who have who are suffering from sickness.
c. These are people who we can reach to in tangible, practical ways.
Transition: Just as we share in their sorrows, we can also share in their comfort.
Conclusion
1. Where was God in all of this tragedy? He was right there all the time.
2. He was there giving comfort to those who would receive it.
3. He was there through the efforts of His people who were offering comfort.
4. He was there in the fellowship of comfort.
5. He was there all the time.
