Our text for this evening's sermon is taken from 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians chapter 1. While you turn there, I should make a couple of changes to the outline in front of you. If you are an outline user, the first point should be comforted by God in suffering, I in, comforted by God in suffering. The second point is through Christ. And the third point is for service. You can be assured with these changes that the work of your pastors doesn't end after Thursday. There's more things found in study and these things are important. The The first point in suffering, the second point through Christ, and the third point for service. Before we read the Word of God together, let's ask Him to bless it for us. Our dear Father in Heaven, we thank You for not leaving us without a witness, but for preserving Your Word, for bringing it to us this evening. We recognize that in reading it, so many have ears deaf and eyes blind. unable to understand the things that You've revealed. And so we pray that You would be pleased to send Your Spirit to enlighten Your Word for us. Write it on our heart. Transform our mind. And grant us the strength we need to live as Your children in this dark world. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 2 Corinthians chapter 1, we'll read verse 1 through verse 11. Hear now the word of God. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. indeed in our hearts we felt the sentence of death but this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead he has delivered us from such deadly peril and he will deliver us on him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us as you help us by your prayers then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. So is the reading of God's Word. May He bless it for us this evening. Some of you may know that a few weeks ago World Magazine reported on the torture and murder of two Christians in Turkey. A devastating report. And we found out through other means that it was a Westminster alumnus, one of our own, who was called upon to identify the bodies. A close friend and brother in Christ to those who died so viciously. What you may not know is that he wrote to a number of those close to him this request. He said, pray for us, not that the persecutions would end, but that we would persevere. You see, this brother in Christ, the body of Christ over in Turkey and throughout the world, understands that, as Paul teaches, it's through suffering that God extends His church. Pray for us that we would persevere. This report is a rather remarkable parallel to our text this evening. It's parallel in location. Achaia is modern day Greece, just a few hundred miles from Turkey. We have the parallel of suffering, tremendous affliction and trouble faced by those who confess and believe in Jesus Christ who at the same time, in the midst of their suffering, are provided remarkable comfort by God. His grace and His strength in Christ. We have Christ Jesus and the good news of His Gospel proclaimed all the more profoundly through the pressures of these trials. And we have as well commitment to service and prayer. Not retreat, not giving up, not pursuing a different profession, but a commitment, an ongoing commitment to service and call to prayer. Like Paul, these brothers and sisters are comforted by God. They're comforted by God in their suffering, in the midst of it. They're comforted by God through Christ. They're comforted by God for service. It's those three points we want to focus on this evening in an effort to get our arms around one of the more beautiful beginnings of Paul's letters. Children, you may have noticed while I was reading some words that were repeated often. In fact, they're repeated so often. words like comfort and suffering that it's a little difficult for us to get our arms around exactly what Paul is talking about. And so in an effort to try to understand this message, we'll begin at the beginning with the words he shares with us, those familiar words, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice how he continues to develop this good news that he proclaims in verse 3, saying, Praise or blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort. The good news he begins with just continues to get better. The God who promised comfort to Israel in Isaiah 40. Remember comfort? Comfort my people. The God who promised comfort to His suffering and afflicted people is the God and Father of Jesus Christ. This is the God who promised good news in the Old Testament, bringing fulfillment to that good news through Jesus Christ. Fulfillment to that promised comfort so that now when we look to heaven, we can see a Father of compassion and God of all comfort. What Paul does here is he picks up an Old Testament and very common benediction and he brings to it a Christocentric character. He takes what might have been common in the Psalter or for the Jews and he shows how it's brought to fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Blessed art thou, O Lord, our God and God of our fathers, God of Abraham, God of Isaac and God of Jacob, great, mighty and fearful, the King who brings help and salvation. That was the benediction of the Jews and that is what Paul shows us is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. So that through Him, we can know the Father of compassion and God of all comfort. This comfort, then, is a major theme in 2 Corinthians. The verb is used four times and the noun six times in just the first seven verses. And with that beginning, Paul begins to unfold this remarkable character of grace, peace, and comfort in the second letter he writes to the Corinthians. Highlighting the good news that our own Heidelberg Catechism begins with asking the question, what is your only comfort in life and in death? Well, this characteristic of 1 Corinthians is rather in contrast with the character of 1 Corinthians. If you remember that first letter written to the same congregation, its character is one of sharp correction and painful rebuke. So painful was the rebuke that Paul in 2 Corinthians feared that he may have caused them too great of a distress in writing it. He talks about how that congregation was wounded by divisions, pursuing immorality, confused in their doctrine, corrupted their worship. It seems that a bad situation becomes worse as Paul in this dark season of a congregation's life presses upon them the law of God. the occasion required it. It shouldn't surprise us then that there are times within the church when we need the law of God pressed upon us to break our wills from pride and sinful pleasure. It was needed for the Corinthians and every church since, including our own. However, Paul makes clear that the character of his ministry was not defined by preaching the law. As willing as Paul was to use it, his preaching was defined not by preaching the law, but by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. The grace, peace, and comfort of Jesus Christ. Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel. I sought to preach nothing or make known among you nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And in a rather interesting way, at the end of 2 Corinthians, Paul says in chapter 13, verse 10, that in visiting them the third time, he hopes that he might come and use his authority as it was intended by the Lord to build them up, not to tear them down. That is the longing of Paul as a minister of the Gospel. To build up the body of Christ to strengthen their faith and encourage them to live in a very difficult world in the midst of suffering. And so that's the defining character of Paul's ministry. The message that he proclaimed to the peoples and died to extend to the furthest reaches of the earth. That was his message. Grace, peace, and comfort to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We might say, better yet, it wasn't Paul who was doing this, but God who was at work through Paul to raise the eyes of His people as they were traveling pilgrims, exiles in a foreign land, facing trouble and affliction of every kind, to raise the eyes of His people from the troubles of this life to the comfort that He provides for us in Christ. He did it through Paul and through every minister of the Gospel since to remind us that we are not our own but belong body and soul and life and in death to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. That is the dominant character of this letter. It's the dominant character of Paul's ministry. As one commentator says in 2 Corinthians, our eyes are not allowed to leave Jesus. That is a beautiful testimony and description of gospel ministry. As we know, Paul not only preached about this comfort, he also experienced it. He experienced it with what he calls in verse 5, the sufferings of Christ. In verse 4, he's talking about these troubles. And in verse 5, he brings further definition to these troubles, describing them as the sufferings of Christ. Verses 8 through 10 are some examples of these sufferings. If you look in your Bible, you notice that he doesn't want the churches to be uninformed about the hardships that he was suffering, particularly in this case, in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, he says, far beyond our ability to endure so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts, we felt the sentence of death. The nature of this suffering is complex. Affecting the whole of Paul. It was certainly physical. We often define suffering and persecution almost purely in terms of the physical. And certainly Paul experienced physical suffering. We see that described in detail in chapter 11 of 2 Corinthians where he goes on and he talks about the various physical hardships that he endured for the sake of Christ. Yet it seems that in this first chapter what he's focusing on is not so much the physical, but rather what arose out of his physical affliction, maybe pointing to it with the words of great pressure. despairing, feeling in our hearts the sentence of death. Certainly, the physical suffering was significant to Paul, but it became the occasion for him to have a spiritual, mental, and emotional trial so that the whole of his being was experiencing and encountering what he called the sufferings of Christ. If time permitted, we could look at chapter 4, verse 10 of our letter, or chapter 7, verse 4. We could look at Philippians 3, verse 10, Colossians 1, verse 24, 1 Peter 4, verse 12. I mention them so that you see that this is not a unique expression or idea for Paul, but it's something that was part and parcel with the whole of his life and ministry as a believer and minister of Jesus Christ that he suffered. What does it mean, sufferings of Christ? A simple definition, we might say, is anything that we suffer because of Christ. You see, sufferings of Christ is not referring to the suffering that Christ Himself experienced while living in this world, but it's talking about the sufferings that we experience living in this world because of Christ. In fact, we might be able to go so far as to say that anything that is suffered if Christ hadn't come wouldn't be a suffering of Christ. But because Christ has come, anything that we suffer because of Him, because He came, because we believe in Him, these are the things that begin to fill out the idea of sufferings of Christ. Anything we suffer because of Christ. Another pastor and teacher describes it this way, anything that threatens to shipwreck our faith, To suffer as a believer is to experience anything that threatens to shipwreck or undermine our faith. And you see, we now see how we too begin to share in those sufferings of Christ. It may begin with physical trauma and grow into spiritual crisis Or we may be in physical bliss, yet face some of the darkest days of our soul. Suffering because of Christ. Whatever the cause, whether our sin or another's, whether my sickness or your sickness, Whether here or in Turkey, we too share in the sufferings of Christ. Now you may be thinking that, well, even so, Pastor, life's pretty good for me. Well, it may be, but at those points we should be reminded of an illustration that maybe you remember from Donald Gray Barnhouse. One of his congregants asked him, Pastor, how do you know when the devil has a town? And he said, you know that the devil has a town when you drive down its main street on the Lord's Day and its grass and hedges are perfectly trimmed and orderly. Its houses are clean, well kept, white picket fence. There's people, families walking down the sidewalk hand in hand and dressed in their Sunday best. A parking lot of church, it's packed. So are the pews. And the people, they're singing. They're singing with great joy in their hearts. And the gospel is never preached. that's when the devil has a town. Friends, we experience suffering beyond what we can even begin to understand in this life because of Christ. We are in the midst of a warfare and a battle that goes beyond our eyes to see, but it's raging. And if we don't have eyes to see it, we will never be moved to cry out and receive by faith the comfort that God offers to us in Christ. But the good news is that God is ever compassionate and ever at work to do just that. to bring us the comfort we need through Christ. That's our second point. As we begin to see how the whole of life is to be lived for Christ, we'll begin to see how this present evil age is a constant battleground of faith and therefore abounding with trouble and the sufferings of Christ. God's answer to this reality is found in verse 5 of our text. What is the answer to the abounding troubles and difficulties and trials we face? Well, just as, he says, just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. We might say it this way. Just as the afflictions of life abound, so also the grace of God comes with comfort through Christ abounding all the more. God never leaves His people wanting. As the afflictions of life abound, so also the God of all comfort the Father of compassion provides us comfort in Christ. How else can we explain? How else can we explain what Paul describes in chapter 7 verse 4 when he says, I'm greatly encouraged. In all our troubles, my joy knows no bounds. Inexplicable. In all my troubles, my joy knows no bounds. Or the testimony of our brothers and sisters in Turkey who ask us to pray, not that the persecutions would end, but that we would persevere. How can we explain it? The old hymn gives a try when it says that He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater. He sendeth more strength when the labors increase. Or better yet, Psalm 46 that says, God is our fortress and our strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble. How can we explain it? We have a God who's present with us, who's near to us, who's compassionate and comforting us. Just as Paul explains himself in 2 Corinthians 9, verse 8, he says, God is able to make all grace abound to you so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. Isn't that a beautiful verse? The abounding grace of God pours into our lives that we too would abound in every good work. This same so that, the same purpose statement is highlighted as well by Paul in verse 4 of our text. He says that the God of all comfort comforts us in all of our troubles. Why? Is God at work to grant us heaven on earth? Is He trying to provide us with the ease and comforts of high success and the glory here and now? Paul says that He comforts us so that we can comfort those with the comfort we ourselves have received. It's the very same idea at work that the overflowing grace of God flows into our lives so that we too, with what we receive, may be able to give and comfort others with the abundance of God's love, grace, and comfort for us. God provides His grace, peace, and comfort, friends, with a driving purpose that must be fulfilled. There is a movement to the grace of God like a fountain that overflows. His grace, His mercy, His peace and comfort moves into our lives and we are fools to hold it to ourselves. For it has a driving purpose that must be fulfilled And that is an extension of His love and mercy to those around us. All the trouble, trials, and afflictions of Paul. He could have ended it. He could have said, enough! I'm not going to Rome. That preacher of election, predestination, and sovereign grace, he could have surely said, the Lord doesn't need me. The martyrs of Turkey, couldn't they simply have closed their Christian bookstore? You and I. Couldn't we just simply deny the faith and practice that we've come to embrace and live in the intoxication of the American dream? It would be an easy life. No. No. Paul, the martyrs, you and I, are recipients of the grace, mercy, and peace of God that is moving to fulfill a purpose. And so, we find ourselves compelled by sovereign grace. We find our wills being moved by His will. We find our minds being transformed to be like His mind. We find these things at work within us by the comfort and the power of the Gospel. And that is why Paul was so driven to bring the Gospel to the churches, to those who've already heard the good news, because they need it. Without it, they won't have the comfort and encouragement and power that's necessary to fulfill the purposes of God. And friends, that's why we can say with Paul that in all our troubles, our joy knows no bounds. We can say it. But so often, don't we feel bankrupt? Don't we feel ill-equipped to deal with the troubles of life? so often don't we too feel pressed beyond what we can bear, despairing sometimes, feeling within ourselves what might be described as the sentence of death. In those moments, brothers and sisters in Christ, in those moments, let us be reminded by what Paul says. He says that these happen that we might not rely on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. Let our eyes be turned from ourselves and the troubles of this world and may they be fixed upon Jesus Christ in prayer. We're comforted by God for a purpose. That purpose is service And though Paul in these verses doesn't try to fill out what exactly that service might mean for you, he does say this. Pray. Hold out your hands and receive the grace of God, those riches of Jesus Christ stored up for us in heaven, ready to be dispensed into our needy souls. Pray. for all the good that our God and Father, our compassionate One, longs to give to His own children. Amen. Our Father in Heaven, we thank You that You've given us such good news to hope for, to hope in, to rest in. Grant us what we need, dear Father, to live out the sufferings of Christ that You ordained for us. And guard us that we might not be blinded to the reality of the battle we face even here. May we never be duped to believe it's easier to be a Christian here in our freedom than it would be elsewhere. Dear Father, guard us from such foolishness and grant us to understand the troubles we face even here so that we might call out to you for the grace we need to endure them. We pray these things in Jesus' name for His glory and our good. Amen.