The Mouth of Exhortation; The Encouragement and Comfort of Christ
Romans 12:8
An article by Sherman Cox was sent to me this week from Sermon Central entitled: “Is the Bible the Seasoning or the Steak in Your Sermon?” I could answer that question with confidence because God’s Word is what we study. We don’t just sprinkle a few verses like seasoning.
Today we place a few more biblical pieces into the puzzle of Spiritual Giftedness within the Body of Christ: Romans 12:5 describes it this way: “In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; (DO IT) if it is teaching, let him teach; (Don’t hold back in discipling others: today we look at the spiritual gift in verse 8:) if it is encouraging, let him encourage; (many versions translate verse 8: ”or he who exhorts, in his exhortation.”)
Our biblical framework is the personal receiving OF and response TO the mercies of God (Rom. 12:1) used in the fellowship of LOVING ONE ANOTHER as Christ has loved us. (Rom 12:10: “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love ; give preference to one another in honor ; 11 not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.”) Spiritual gifts (GRACES or you could say, “GRACEFULLness, “charismata”,) are given to to us to build up fellow GRACE- recipients to the beautification and strength of Christ’s Bride and to the Glory of the GRACE Giver.
SPIRIT- GIFTS
A short review of gifts of GRACEFULLNESS: Spiritual Gifts are gifts from the HOLY SPIRIT. We are studying (and have been studying) this part of God’s Person, the Person of His Holy Spirit on Wed. and Thurs. Everyone ALIVE has certain gifts or talents, but ONLY BELIEVERS who have responded by faith and grace alone in Christ alone will have spiritual gifts given for building up of the Church, the body of Christ. The challenge we have considered is: HAS THE HOLY SPIRIT GIVEN YOU A SPIRITUAL GIFT?
If you look at the Beatitudes in Matthew 5, you will notice that some of them are closely associated with the Spiritual Gifts. The Beatitudes reveal the characteristics of Kingdom people who have been miraculously changed by the Spirit of the King of His Kingdom. The gifts in Romans 12 are examples of how those gifts take effect in the Church and world.
Spiritual gifts are gifts to be USED not abused They are to be utilized and shared. What would your body be like if you were without certain parts? Some are very important, others are not as crucial, but the fact is, they would be sorely MISSED if DISMISSED. I thought about two people specifically whose gifts were sorely missed from this “BODY” when they moved away, but God graciously supplied other people to do what they were doing so that the body didn’t suffer, having lost certain valuable parts. If each does not USE their gifts, they are sorely missed. If YOU dismiss the use of your gift, YOU are causing hurt to the body, hurt to yourself, and hurt to the GIVER of the GIFT, and to the Savior who died for you.
Looking for a Comforter
Today we look at the gift of exhortation. The verb in our text, “parakaleô,” means to encourage, to strengthen, to advise, to comfort.” The noun in our text, “paraklçsis”, means
“a calling near, a summons, admonition, encouragement, exhortation, consolation, comfort.”
We live in a sin-broken world where people have always NEEDED the comfort of being restored and made well. Sin has broken people and separated them from God: Listen to these Old Testament verses which contain the Hebrew word “Nacham”, which is the equivalent of the Greek word (in our text) for “comfort” or “comforter” and is also translated at times as “repent”:
Psalm 69:20: “Reproach has broken my heart and I am so sick. And I looked for sympathy, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.” (This is the condition, not only of Israel, but everyone who has a broken relationship with God.)
Lamentations1:16: "For these things I weep; My eyes run down with water ; Because far from me is a comforter, One who restores my soul. My children are desolate because the enemy has prevailed." (How can I be forgiven and restored to God?!)
God gives some hope in Isaiah 40: 1: "Comfort, O comfort My people," (oar REPENT, REPENT) says your God. 2 "Speak kindly to Jerusalem and call out to her, that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity has been removed.”
Isaiah 51:12: "I, even I, am He who comforts you. (God’s promise to SAVE!) Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies And of the son of man who is made like grass.”
The crescendo widens in Isaiah 52:9; “Break forth, shout joyfully together, you waste places of Jerusalem; For the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.” (The REDEEMER has COME!
How has God comforted the people who could find NO COMFORT? Luke 2:25: “And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon ; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation ( the Comforter) of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. 27 And he came in the Spirit into the temple ; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, 28 then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said, 29 "Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, According to Your word ; 30 FOR MY EYES HAVE SEEN YOUR SALVATION.” Simeon was looking for the Savior of Israel, for the CONSOLATION or Comforter of Israel, who would BECOME SIN and would be the Sacrifice FOR Sin.
THE Comforter Revealed
Jesus Christ is God’s promised Comforter revealed: Jesus comes as the Savior sent from God to die as SERVANT Lord. He is baptized as Prophet of the Good News, but also as THE HIGH Priest, to offer, not sacrifices of animals, but to offer HIMSELF as the PERFECT SACRIFICE, and today HE rules as the RISEN KING and Sovereign LORD.
No wonder that Jesus said in Matthew 5:4: “BLESSED are those who mourn (who repent from their sin and idolatry of self and the world and turn to King Jesus) for they shall be comforted.” (Parakaleo) Those who turn to God in Christ for forgiveness find encouragement and comfort in their SERVANT King who died for them. When you repent and mourn of your prideful life and turn to Jesus and receive a new heart and spirit through the Holy Spirit, you certainly are comforted like never before, because you are brought from death to eternal life by grace…you are EXTREMELY COMFORTED!
Psalm 23: 4 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” Exhortation from God is never Execution: sometimes we use the comfort of our God and sometimes our gifts to beat people instead of directing and guiding them to repentance and reconciliation.
I received an email from a visitor this week who was here several weeks, and one of our congregation was caught…BEING CORDIAL! Someone was CAUGHT BEING CORDIAL! That was a great comfort and encouragement to me. I’ve CAUGHT that person very often being encouraging to others in the body of Christ. That person builds up and encourages the body of Christ, never a complaint or criticism…EXHORTATION is not judgment. When you execute exhortation, it always comes with love and grace because God’s GRACE is death defying: Immanuel, God with US, God’s Grace in Christ, WITH US. WE HAVE TO BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL how we conduct ourselves where we live and work because our conduct defines or destroys our witness, and the witness of the Body of Christ. Show in your life that God’s Comfort is YOUR COMFORT.
The Holy Spirit is our Resident Comforter.
Jesus died, arose, and ascended, but as He promised, He did not leave us WITHOUT an encourager. The Holy Spirit is our resident Comforter. “Parakletos’ John 14:16 "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, (Comforter) that He may be with you forever ; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.”
John 15:26-27: "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, 27 and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”
If you are powerless in your witness, if you do not desire to grow in your Christian life commitment, if you have no desire to encourage others within the Body of Christ, what are you missing? I should say WHO are you missing? You may be quenching the HOLY Spirit, you may be hurting Him or you may be missing Him altogether?
1 John 2:1: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate (“Parakletos” or helper and comforter, exhorter) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Is there any reason why we should be powerless in the world or in our walk with each other? We have the Resident Comforter, the Holy Spirit of God living IN US, and we have the Lord Jesus Christ, the ONLY righteous One, residing and representing us in the presence of the Father. How GOOD is that!
This morning I’ll use the same words as Paul in Romans 12:1 says: “Therefore I URGE YOU, brethren, (THE WORD “URGE” IS EXHORT, parakaleo!) by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” If the offering of your life is truly holy and acceptable to God, it will also be encouraging to others, not divisive or destructive, and your words and life will be COMFORTING to each other! There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever.
The Church comforts one another and the world with the Word.
Words of challenge, Encouragement and COMFORT are the message that the Body of Christ carries. The Church comforts and encourages one another AND the world with God’s Good News. Romans 16: 4: For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement (comfort) of the Scriptures we might have hope. 5 Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind WITH ONE ANOTHER according to Christ Jesus.”
Hebrews 10:25: “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting (encouraging) one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” Hebrews 3:13: “But exhort (comfort) one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” Encouragement in Christ and in the Word protects against hardened selfish hearts.
Amazingly in Philemon 1:8-9: Paul, the great apostle, who teaches and exhorts with divine authority, writes to his friend, “Though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love's sake I prefer to appeal [“exhort”] to you.” In other words, if the gift of exhortation abounds in this way, New Hope fellowship will be motivated by love and not coercion. We may have to push and pull each other sometimes, but it is so that we remain strong and dedicated to the LORD JESUS, NOT to condemn each other, but to GUARD each other. Who within the Body of Christ would want to see ANYONE LOST or without hope and encouragement?
2 Thessalonians is such a letter of encouragement to “Body members, and in chapter 2:16-17 we hear: “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal COMFORT and good hope by grace, COMFORT and strengthen your hearts in every GOOD WORK and WORD.”
Francis Chan, in his book concerning the Holy Spirit, ”Forgotten God”, challenges believers to ask themselves this question concerning their relationship with the Local Body of Christ: “Do I believe the church needs ME like the body needs a mouth?”
A Good Pastor will certainly also be a good exhorter, a good comforter and encourager, but if we are all walking with Christ, and have the Holy Spirit, THE DIVINE COMFORTER living within us, we should ALL BE exercising MOUTHS of EXHORTATION and encouragement, FIRST OF ALL to each other, and then to a World that is still looking for comfort and
What a Glorious Gospel, what a Gracious God, what an enormous privilege is ours to encourage one another with the same comfort with which God has comforted us!
Our challenge as the Body of Christ is found in 2 Cor. 1:3-7: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation ; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer ; 7 and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.”
Have you been comforted by the Lord Jesus Christ? Then that “COMFORT” has to be conveyed to others who are still without the COMFORT and grace of a forgiving and restorative God. May God, by His Spirit and Word, enable US to be instruments of the ONLY COMFORT which is found, not in the wavering security of things, but in the everlasting love of the SAVIOR!
OUTLINE:
RECAP: Gifts of GRACEFULLNESS
1. Are GRACES (GRACEFULLness) given to us to build up fellow GRACE- recipients to the beautification and strength of Christ’s Bride and to the Glory of the GRACE Giver.
2. Are gifts from the HOLY SPIRIT.
3. Are gifts to be used not abused: Sorely missed when dismissed.
“Do I believe the church needs ME like the body needs a mouth?”
I. Christ is God’s promised Comforter revealed. (Lam1:16, Isa 40: 1, 51:12, 52:9,
Ps 69:20, Luke 2:25-30, Matt 5:4, Ps 23:4)
II. The Holy Spirit is our resident Comforter. (John 14:13-26, 15:26-27, 1 John 2:1)
III. The Church comforts one another and a lost world with God’s Word and Spirit presence. It is by His Word AND Spirit.
(Romans 16: 4, Hebrews 10:25, 3:13, Philemon 1:8-9, 2 Corinthians 1:3-7, 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17)
2 Corinthians 1:3-7: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation ; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer ; 7 and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.”
