Been There, Done That
TCF Sermon
October 6, 2002
Last week, Bernie came to the church door. He showed up about five minutes before I was getting ready to leave for an appointment, and my first response to his arrival was, oh, no, not now.
Bernie had been drinking – I could smell it on his breath. He was sweating profusely and was a little bit shaky, though he spoke clearly without slurring. Bernie asked if I could help him, and I asked what I could do for him. He said he was an alcoholic, and he needed a ride to Hillcrest Hospital, because he’d been part of a 12 step alcohol program, and had “fallen off the wagon.”
I thought, OK, I can take him to the hospital on my way to my appointment. I was relieved he hadn’t asked for money, because we cannot give any money to someone who has been drinking.
In my five-minute ride to the hospital, where I dropped him off at the emergency room, Bernie told me he really loved Jesus, but was having a hard time staying off the alcohol. I told him that admitting himself to this program at the hospital was a good step, and that I was sure the Lord would help him. Bernie was clearly hurting physically, but seemed genuinely touched that I would help him in this small way.
When we got to the drop-off point in front of the ER, Bernie thanked me – almost excessively – for helping him. He reached over across the seat and wanted a hug. Smell, sweat and all, I hugged Bernie, and he hung on tightly for a moment as I assured him of God’s love and care for Him. As he stumbled away from the van, he called back for me to pray for him, and I assured him I would. And I did, as I drove on to my appointment – I did pray that Bernie would find help and find compassion from the Lord.
And the Lord spoke to me clearly that, despite my initial attitude, all Bernie really needed was compassion.
I watched as Bernie sort of stumbled into the ER at Hillcrest. I was ashamed of my initial attitude, and the Lord said to me clearly: all he needed was a little compassion. All he needed was to be treated with respect and dignity.
And at that moment, I knew God would have me bring this message to TCF this morning.
We’re in a time in our fellowship when we need this reminder - of the source of compassion, and of how God uses us as His tools of compassion.
You may have heard the phrase, “Been there, done that” – it’s the title of this message. It’s a phrase that represents the idea that someone has already experienced something. When someone says that to you, it means they have some understanding of what they’re discussing with you. In some ways, it might mean that they have sympathy for you, maybe even real compassion, if that’s what’s called for.
In the vernacular, it mostly means they can relate to you and your experiences, and admittedly, it’s often a dismissive way of expressing that, whether good or bad, they’ve “been there, and done that.”
In our Christian lives, in times of difficulty or suffering, it’s often helpful to talk to someone who can relate to your experience. Now, I’ve never been an alcoholic like Bernie, but I know what it is to be hurting, for different reasons than Bernie, and more importantly, I know the source of real compassion, and real comfort.
His compassion and comfort are revealed in His Word. The Word of God is living and active, and it’s for this time and this place, whenever and wherever this time and place might be.
God can speak to us through His Word, just as clearly as I’m speaking to you, by using these words written almost two millennia ago.
2 Cor. 1:3-5 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.
There are some interesting, and, I trust, hopeful things, that I believe we can learn from this passage and the other passages that relate to what’s said here.
First of all, Paul tells the Corinthians that God is the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.
Looking at these descriptive words, descriptive of God’s character, compassion, and comfort, how they’re used here in this passage and in the New Testament,
and what they mean, can help us today.
This and other passages of scripture reveal some helpful things about the words compassion and comfort. First of all, let’s look at the word “compassion.”
Holman Bible Dictionary describes it this way:
“To feel passion with someone, to enter sympathetically into their sorrow and pain. Compassion in English translations of the OT and NT represents at least five Hebrew and eight Greek terms. The New Testament builds on the Old Testament understanding of God’s compassion. There are three primary New Testament words for compassion, sometimes translated as “mercies.” They represent the emotion aroused by another person’s suffering or pain. It is something an orator tries to kindle in an audience or a lawyer seeks to elicit from a judge. God’s command for compassion from disciples finds its roots in the nature of God, who is full of compassion (Ephes. 2:4; 1 Peter 1:3).”
In this passage in 2 Cor., the Greek word here is related to lamentation and grief for the dead, and came to mean sympathetic participation in grief. Such sympathy or compassion stands ready to help the one who has suffered loss, and the fact that it implied participation is important, too.
That’s because Mohammad didn’t participate in our suffering. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, didn’t, neither did Buddha, or Charles Taze Russell, the founder of Jehovah’s Witnesses, or any of the Hindu gods.
But Jesus did – He experienced life just like us. That enables Him to enter into our grief, our hurting, in a way that no one else can. Another word for compassion in the NT is interesting, too.
You know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you are going down the first drop of a roller coaster? It’s the same feeling when you hear horrible news. Your stomach feels like it has just been kicked in. It’s what I felt when I heard our own Lynn Clutter had cancer. The New Testament has a Greek word for that feeling:
The word literally means bowels or guts, but it is translated often as “compassion” or mercy. With one exception in the New Testament, that exception being the story of the Good Samaritan, the only person that this word is associated with is Jesus.
It says that Jesus felt this way when He encountered the sick (Mt 14:14),the blind (in Mt 20:34), the demon possessed (Mk 9:22). In Luke 7:13, it tells of Jesus encountering a widow whose daughter had died, and it reads: “And when the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her.”
The word there is one of the Greek words we’re looking at. It’s the word for guts, a deep moving, deep inside, deeply felt. The literal meaning of the original Greek is to have the bowels yearn. The original word is a very remarkable one.
It is not found in classic Greek writing prior to the New Testament. The fact is, it was a word coined by the evangelists themselves for this purpose. They didn’t find one in the whole Greek language that suited their purpose, so they had to make one fit their need. It is expressive of the deepest emotion – a yearning of the innermost nature with pity.
A writer named Jack Deere wrote about this particular Greek word for compassion: “Some theologians have felt that this term was too rough or graphic to be used in reference to God’s compassion. Using the word for “intestines” to refer to God’s compassion is akin to our using the word “guts” for courage in modern English, as when we say, “He really has guts.” However, I think the New Testament writers meant to do exactly this. They were impressing on the readers the power and the force of God’s compassion. They may also have had in mind a physical feeling associated with compassion. Sometimes a sharp pain in the abdomen will accompany intense feelings of compassion or pity for those we love. The choice of such a graphic word served to impress the New Testament Christians that God’s compassion for them was rooted in his deep love for them and his sensitivity to their pain.”
Our English word for compassion comes from two Latin words (com & pati). It literally means “suffering with” others.
Once during Queen Victoria’s reign, she heard that the wife of a common laborer had lost her baby. Having experienced deep sorrow herself, she felt moved to express her sympathy. So she called on the bereaved woman one day and spent some time with her. After she left, the neighbors asked what the queen had said. "Nothing," replied the grieving mother. "She simply put her hands on mine, and we silently wept together."
Another story to help illustrate this idea:
A little girl was sent on an errand by her mother. She took much too long in coming back. Her Mother asked for an explanation when she finally did return. The little girl explained that on her way she had met a little friend who was crying because she had broken her doll. "Oh," said the mother, "then you stopped to help her fix her doll?" "Oh, no," replied the little girl. "I stopped to help her cry."
So, Paul tells us that God is the Father or, the originator of Compassion. And that leads us to the other word in these verses of scripture we read at the beginning – it’s what God does with His deeply felt compassion, it’s how He responds to this - and it serves as the model of what we should do with our compassion: comfort.
This word is interesting because of the original meaning as well. The Greek word literally means: “to call near, i.e. invite, invoke (by imploration, exhortation or consolation) :- beseech, call for, comfort”
So a comforter is one who is called alongside at a time of need. But the most fascinating thing we learn in studying this word is that the same root word is used to describe the Holy Spirit. The same Greek word, paraclete, is translated “Advocate” in 1 John 2:1 as applying to Christ. It means “one who is summoned to the side of another” to help him in a court of justice by defending him, “one who is summoned to plead a cause.”
The background of the Greek term lies in the law court, where the Paraklete helped someone. Four times in the gospel of John, this word is used, and translated either counselor or comforter, depending on the translation.
But in each instance, it refers to the Holy Spirit. Listen to these words of Jesus:
John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor (or comforter) to be with you forever.
John 14:26 But the Counselor (or comforter), 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.
John 15:26 "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.
John 16:7 But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
The truly remarkable thing about this idea is this: Jesus’ comfort, the comfort sent from the God of all comfort, is possible today, right here, right now, because:
1. God is here with us in the person of the Holy Spirit
2. and, Jesus can say of our sorrow: been there, done that
Hebrews 4:15-16 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses...
Though the context of this passage is our weakness in resisting sin, if death, or suffering, or illness are not weaknesses of the human condition, I don’t know what is...
But this verse of Hebrews 4 goes on to say: Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
The word “mercy” here can also be translated compassion. Because Jesus walked this earth...because Jesus lived in a human body like us... because Jesus felt not just physical, but emotional pain, just like us, what we receive from God at a time like this is not just sympathy, It’s not just sorrow… but true empathy… followed by genuine comfort.
Been there, Done That.
So, one of the things that Paul teaches us here in his letter to the Corinthians
is that pain, whether it be physical pain... or any kind of emotional pain, should drive us to trust God for help. Because He’s the Father of compassion, and the God of all comfort. And He’s the God of all comfort because He’s been there...
He’s done that.
He’s known sorrow.
He’s seen the pain of losing a loved one.
He’s suffered physical pain...
that makes Him able to comfort us as no one else can.
Anyone know the shortest verse in the Bible?
John 11:35: Jesus wept.
Why is this verse important?
Because it reveals the depth of His compassion for us. That verse is from the passage of scripture that tells of one of Jesus’ most amazing miracles. Jesus’ friend Lazarus, the brother of his other friends Mary and Martha, had been very sick. Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus when Lazarus was nearing death
- believing that Jesus could bring healing to their brother.
But Jesus chose to stay where he was until after Lazarus died. That might seem cruel, but Jesus’ words to his disciples give us the reason:
John 11:3-6 So the sisters sent word to Jesus, "Lord, the one you love is sick." 4When he heard this, Jesus said, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it." 5Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6Yet when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days.
So, we know that Jesus eventually raised Lazarus, who had already been dead four days, from the dead. But before that, he encountered the grief of others who, like Him,loved Lazarus. It so moved him, that He wept.
When Jesus saw the weeping and wailing, he too wept openly. Perhaps he empathized with their grief, or perhaps he was troubled at their unbelief, or maybe it was some of both...
In either case, Jesus showed that he cares enough for us to weep with us in our sorrow. He entered into the human experience with us. And the human experience inevitably includes death and suffering. But, thankfully, God didn’t just leave us there. The apostle Paul noted that troubles in life can help us shift our perspective from the external and temporal...that is, the things we see, and the things that are temporary, to the internal and eternal...that is, to those things deep inside us, and the things that last forever.
A few verses after the early part of 2 Cor. 1 that we read earlier, down to verse 9,Paul writes: Indeed in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. That’s pretty deeply felt suffering...
But he goes on to explain: But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead.
So, Paul was focusing on the eternal reality of the omnipotent God of the resurrection - and that was a source of comfort and hope for him. Then, in verse 10, he notes that “on Him we have set our hope.”
One of the seemingly great paradoxes of our Christian life, is that, often, the grace of God is most fully and completely experienced, not when things are wonderful, when life’s circumstances are great, but when circumstances are the most critical, in what we might call the worst of times.
However much we long to exult in God, it’s often in trouble that we most fully find and appreciate God’s compassion, His grace, His comfort. It’s likely that Paul endured more trouble, more pressure, than any of those who read this letter,and probably more than most of us have or ever will.
But again, he reminds us in verse 9: “this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead...”
The same God that Paul earlier gave these important titles: The Father of compassion, the God of all comfort... He’s the one Paul is reminding us to rely on.
The source of all comfort – note the word all. The source of all comfort is God Himself. However, Paul also reminds us that, spiritual gifts are not intended solely for the recipients’ benefit, but are to be used in turn for the service of others.
1 Peter 4:10 Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.
God’s grace also includes this comfort, received from Him, which enables us to comfort others. We can channel that comfort through prayer, we can channel that comfort through practical service, but God uses us – you and me, to provide comfort, to be the tools of His compassion, to a hurting world.
It starts in our own family, and in our church family. Sometimes our presence is all that’s needed – because our presence speaks in ways words cannot speak. This isn’t because of something in us – again, God is the source, but He uses us.
Job’s comforters, who turned out not to be so great, started out well – after Job had lost family and possessions.
Job 2:13. No one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.
There are times when Kindness will influence more than eloquence. There are other times when action speaks louder than words...
There’s a story told of Dr. Albert Schweitzer, when he was 85 years old, living in Africa. One very hot day, a group was walking up a hill with Dr. Schweitzer. Suddenly he left the group he was walking with, and went across the slope of the hill to a place where an African woman was struggling up the same hill with a huge armload of wood for the cooking fires. Dr. Schweitzer took the entire load of wood and carried it on up the hill for the relieved woman. When the others reached the top of the hill, one of the members of the group asked Dr. Schweitzer why he did things like that, implying that in that heat and at his age he should not.
Albert Schweitzer, looking at all of the group, and pointing to the woman, said simply, "No one should ever have to carry a burden like that alone."
When we see burdens carried by those in our midst, and by those God brings across our path, we can remember that, which I believe echoes the sentiment of scripture. No one should ever have to carry a burden like that alone.
In Booker T. Washington’s autobiography, Up from Slavery, Washington recalled a beautiful incident of an older brother’s love. He said the shirts worn on his plantation by the slaves were made of a rough, bristly, inexpensive flax fiber. As a young boy, the garment was so abrasive to his tender, sensitive skin that it caused him a great deal of pain and discomfort. His older brother, moved by his brother’s suffering, would wear Booker’s new shirts, until they were broken in and smoother to the touch. Booker said it was one of the most striking acts of kindness he had experienced among his fellow slaves.
What a beautiful illustration of "bearing one another’s burdens," which we are admonished to do in Galatians 6:20.
Then there are the times when our own experiences, as Paul notes in verse 4,can be used by God to bring comfort to others undergoing similar things:
A store owner was tacking a sign above his door that read "Puppies For Sale."
Signs like that have a way of attracting small children, and sure enough, a little boy appeared under the store owner’s sign. "How much are you going to sell the puppies for?" he asked. The store owner replied, "Anywhere from $30 to $50."
The little boy reached in his pocket and pulled out some change. "I have $2.37," he said. "Can I please look at them?"
The store owner smiled and whistled and out of the kennel came Lady, who ran down the aisle of his store followed by five teeny, tiny balls of fur. One puppy was lagging considerably behind. Immediately the little boy singled out the lagging, limping puppy and said, "What’s wrong with that little dog?"
The store owner explained that the veterinarian had examined the little puppy and had discovered it didn’t have a hip socket. It would always limp. It would always be lame.
The little boy became excited. "That is the puppy that I want to buy." The store owner said, "No, you don’t want to buy that little dog. If you really want him, I’ll just give him to you."
The little boy got quite upset. He looked straight into the store owner’s eyes, pointing his finger, and said, "I don’t want you to give him to me. That little dog is worth every bit as much as all the other dogs and I’ll pay full price. In fact, I’ll give you $2.37 now, and 50 cents a month until I have him paid for."
The store owner countered, "You really don’t want to buy this little dog. He is never going to be able to run and jump and play with you like the other puppies."
To his surprise, the little boy reached down and rolled up his pant leg to reveal a badly twisted, crippled left leg supported by a big metal brace. The boy looked up at the store owner and softly replied, "Well, I don’t run so well myself, and the little puppy will need someone who understands!"
Isn’t it true that we all need someone who understands? We’re like that little puppy, and because Jesus has been there and done that, He does understand...
Some of us are like that little boy, who find ourselves caring just a little bit more, because we understand, too, we, too, have struggled and suffered. We, too, have seen the grace of God, we, too, have experienced His compassion at work in His comfort.
How can we receive so richly of His comfort, how can we so wonderfully enjoy His mercy and His grace, and not comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God?
The source of all comfort in the midst of troubles is God Himself, to whom Paul gave three titles: the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father (i.e., the Originator) of compassion, and the God of all comfort.
That’s who we come to today, and every day, to draw on the comfort of the one who comes alongside us. Here and now, God is with us. Isaiah 41:10 says: So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
As we close, let’s pray for two things this morning:
1. let’s pray for those who are in great need of God’s comfort in the midst of trouble and trial... let’s pray that He would strengthen and sustain them, and that these would continue to set their hope on Him, and rely completely on His mercy.
2. but let’s also pray for others of us who would be the tools of God’s comfort and compassion - that we’d be willing and able to be the comforter used by God that we’d be faithful to respond in His mercy to those opportunities God puts in our path each and every day, both in our church family and beyond...to bring His comfort, His compassion to those who are hurting...
pray
