Biblical Text: 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
“Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work.”
Last Sunday you will remember that we talked about the first prayer Paul included in his second epistle to the church at Thessalonica. This is the second prayer that burst forth spontaneously from his pastoral pen, as he considered the plight of these fragile converts. We don’t know the special circumstances under which Paul wrote, but all indications in the first and second epistle are that they needed consolation.
They were a young church, just delivered from paganism. Like lambs in the midst of wolves, they stood against bitter foes. Their teacher, Paul, had left them alone, and their immature convictions faced a formidable enemy. That’s why, over and over again, in both of Paul’s letters, we read references to the persecutions and tribulations they endured, and to the consolation of the promises of God.
But whatever they were facing, the prayer, which puts special emphasis on COMFORT, is as much needed by us as it could have ever been by them:
For there are no eyes that have not wept, or will not weep.
No breath that has not sighed, or will not sigh.
No hearts that have not bled, or will not bleed.
The prayer that went up for these long since comforted brothers in their forgotten sorrows, is as needed for us – that God, who has given everlasting consolation may apply His balm to our feverish brows and “comfort our hearts and stablish them in every good word and work”.
In the first of Paul’s three-part prayer we notice his emphatic recognition of the divinity of Jesus Christ; a statement that would have been a familiar reassurance to the Thessalonian converts. “Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself” – this is a solemn accumulation of Christ’s imposing, impressive and august titles. Then Paul goes on to affirm Christ’s association with the Father. The remarkable thing about his affirmation is the fact that JESUS is mentioned FIRST. Those of us who are familiar with Paul’s well-known benediction used so often in his correspondence know that this is a deviation for him. Paul habitually says, “From the God, the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ”. But here, in the midst of Thessalonian turmoil, Paul points FIRST to CHRIST. This would have been an egregious and profane error on the part of any Jew, except for one hypothesis…Paul believed Christ to be the Only Begotten Son of God! The church at Thessalonica needed a pastor to remind them that we come to the Father THROUGH the Son – the REAL Son of God.
Paul was thinking about a LIVING Christ when he wrote these words from Corinth to help the poor men of Thessalonica. He was thinking about a Divine Christ when he dared to say, “Our Lord Jesus Christ, and God the Father”. Is that your belief about Christ? Do you regard Him as a sharer of the throne and of the divine attributes of God? There are only two options: Either Jesus was a good man who died and lies in an unknown grave, ignorant of all that is going on here, and the notion that He can help is a delusion and a dream, or else He is the ever-living Divine Christ, to whom we poor men and women can speak with the certainty that He hears us, and who wields the energy of Deity, and works the same works as the Father, to bless the souls that trust Him! You can’t have it both ways…Jesus is either Deity or delusion.
Then we look at the great fact on which this prayer is built, as Paul sites the historical act of Christ’s sacrifice, reminding the church that He “loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace…” Love always finds its voice in GIVING. Love is nothing unless it is expressed. Love is the infinite desire to bestow, and its language is always a gift. According to Paul, there is ONE EVENT in which Christ’s divine love is manifested, one act in which all the treasures, which God can bestow upon mankind are conveyed and handed over to the world – Christ and Calvary.
In all the sweep of magnificent and profitable deeds to come from heaven’s storehouse, there was none so all-inclusive of God’s love than the gift of Jesus Christ on Calvary. Christ is our hope – and the ultimate gift through which everlasting consolation is bestowed upon men.
“Everlasting consolation and good hope” – There is just as much emphasis upon Paul’s adjectives as upon his nouns. What good is consolation unless it is everlasting? And what benefit does hope possess, unless it is good? We need a comfort that will NEVER FAIL amidst all our prolonged and repeated sorrows. Bandaged wounds bleed again.
Fires rise again from ashes.
But there is a source of comfort, which comes from an unchangeable Christ, and communicates unfailing gifts of patience and insight that leads to everlasting blessedness and recompense – it is ETERNAL CONSOLATION.
Of course, consolation is not needed when sorrow’s cease; and when God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes, there will be no more need for comfort. He who makes comfort while our sorrows last, will one day make the triumph and the rapture when our sorrows are dead.
Then Paul describes HOPE as “GOOD hope through grace”. There is weakness in man’s hope, dancing like fireflies in the dark, and tempting men into deeper mire than they have already sunk. Man has prostituted HOPE by partnering it with FEAR – one of the feeblest and saddest characteristics of fallen humanity. But the hope of which Paul speaks is a GOOD hope that comes through the grace of God. It is a hope that was birthed on the Cross…a hope that teaches us the true meaning of sorrow, and whose presence is a bright light in the midst of our darkness.
It is unique in its excellence.
It is sufficient in its firmness.
Because Christ came…and lived…and died…and rose again.
Jesus supplies us with a hope that never fails,
A foundation that shall never be ashamed.
And it is ours for the taking, if we will but BELIEVE.
Even our wildest and widest hopes of what God can do are sober under-estimates of what God has already given us – for if He has given us HOPE, He will APPLY what He has SUPPLIED. God has given…therefore God will GIVE. That is heaven’s logic. God’s hope has inexhaustible resources, unending patience, and an unchangeable purpose. Paul knows God WILL comfort…there is no firmer foundation on which the church can stand.
And the close of Paul’s prayer is the cream on the cake. “May He comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.” Christ has supplied the materials for our comfort and hope; and now the Holy Spirit will continuously apply its balm to our action. Here is the circling truth of the gospel – that God, who has bestowed the materials for our comfort, will give the comfort for which He has supplied the materials.
Consider how poor our plight would be if our Loving Father would only contribute to our peace and calm during sorrow, if we chose to use it. Man comforts from without – but God comforts from within. God steals into our hearts where He diffuses the aroma of His presence. Christ comes into our ‘ship’ BEFORE He says “Peace, be still!” god does not sow His seed of comfort to the wind; He plants it into the hearts of men where it will be sure to root and germinate.
The comforted heart is a stable heart. If we have Christ in our hearts, He will be our consolation FIRST and our stability SECOND. There is no need for us to be slaves to the ups and downs of life, with spasmodic fluctuating like some uncontrollable barometer in stormy weather. Get Christ into your heart, and your ‘mercury’ will remain at one level – UP. Your heart will be like a land-locked lake that has no tide.
The comforted and stable heart is a fruitful heart. It produces GOOD WORD and GOOD WORK. Our righteousness becomes practical when the balm of Christ is applied to our hearts. We get our goodness where we get our consolation – from Christ and His Cross.
All your comforts will die, and all your sorrows will live on, unless you have Christ for your own. Man’s comfort is like an ointment for a poison bite – it treats the flesh but never makes its way to the heart of the problem. All of our hopes are like children’s sand castles, subject to the next tide, unless our hope is fixed on Christ.
The only way to reap the blessing of a calm and steady heart is to grasp hold of Christ and make Him your own – by simple faith and constant clinging. His gift, given once for all, will never die.
His gift offers a hope that relieves and never deceives,
That calms and never quits.
That fills and never abandons.
He is healing for the hurting,
Mercy for the miserable,
Pardon for the prisoner,
And grace for the guilty!
“Jesus, Jesus, I love to praise your name…Everlasting, Mighty God…”
