I invite you to open the scriptures to 2nd Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians chapter 1, the page number is right after the end of 1st Corinthians, that was a joke, 1225, 2nd Corinthians chapter 1, we'll read from verse 1 through verse 11, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and Timothy our brother to the church of God that is at Corinth with all the saints who are in the whole of Icaa. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort in salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. May God bless the reading of his word. Well, as we were on the heels of celebrating the 4th of July, our country's Independence Day, it seemed appropriate for me to consider what we say we are independent from exactly. At a national level, we declared independence from the tyranny of the British crown. That's an appropriate way to think of independence. And yet, even in that act, there was dependence. We needed one another to make that declaration and to defend it. It required solidarity. And so even on an individual level, there is an appropriate sense of independence. We think about our children. We want them to grow up, become self-sustaining adults, to contribute to society, be stable on their own. An appropriate sense of independence. Yet it seems to me that one of the major themes of the Christian faith is not independence, but dependence. We are creatures who depend in every sense of the word upon our Creator. We depend upon Him for life and breath and everything. And in salvation, especially, as he demands perfect righteousness. So we depend upon him to give what he commands. A righteousness which is not our own. The righteousness of Christ, which is accounted to us through faith. We depend upon him and not ourselves. Even in the economic sense, we depend upon him for strength to go about our work. for his blessing upon the work of our hands, that it would return to us sustenance. When we pray to him for our daily bread, as Luther observed, God answers that prayer through an entire supply chain of other people. The seed dealer, the farmer, the truck driver, the baker, the grocer. God answers our prayer by means of other people. We depend upon one another in an economy, and even so it is God himself working through all these people to answer our prayer for daily bread. So you see we have this principle, not only that we are dependent upon God, but that God meets our needs by way of other people. The letter of 2 Corinthians gives us another angle of what it's like to live as dependent people. It's been described as a text of emotional self-disclosure. Among ancient texts, it stands up there with the Psalms, the Book of Lamentations, and later Augustine's Confessions. Emotional self-disclosure. In it, Paul gives an extensive description of his own thought processes, how he goes about coping with all of the trials and afflictions that he faced. He's very transparent. For example, as we read in verse 8, that he said he despaired of life itself. And the point of this, he says, is that he would not rely on himself, but upon God. You see, we're dependent creatures. We need to learn to rely upon him. It's what he's always teaching us. It turns out we are dependent beings, not only in physical and economic terms, but emotional terms as well. Well, there are a number of themes present before us, I think, in this text, but the most important, I think, is this, that God often provides comfort for us through other people. God often provides comfort, but he does it through other people. That means that we must be willing to go to other people to find comfort. We must be willing to go to others to provide comfort, which he himself provides to us. And I think the harder thing, as people who want to be independent, we want to pull our own weight. It's hard to be needy. It's hard to be transparent with our needs and invite someone else to comfort us. And yet, that's what we are to do. We are to declare dependence upon God by way of other people. Well, as we read the text, you may have noticed that Paul has a lot to say in this passage about what he went through and the comfort he experienced. and immediately it invites us to ask the question, what was going on? Maybe it would help us to step back and consider the historical context surrounding this letter. What was going on with Paul and the Corinthians? What drove him to write to them? Why does he jump in talking about comfort? What we find is that the Corinthian church was to Paul a source of both anxiety and comfort. See, the story of Paul and the Corinthians began a few years before when he planted the church there. He spent about a year and a half there in Corinth establishing the church before he moved on in his church planning endeavors. And soon later he would write what we know as the letter of 1 Corinthians. It reveals a number of serious problems since arisen in that church. Paul had to write to them to answer their questions and correct their straying practice, their straying beliefs. And not the least of those problems was a developing party spirit where they were comparing apostles to one another. Some preferred Peter. Some preferred Apollos over Paul. Paul has a sort of fatherly affection for this church. He planted this church. These people came to faith through his ministry. And so in some ways he defends himself in 1 Corinthians, but mostly he says this comparison business is just inappropriate. But when we come to 2 Corinthians, it's like the problem's gone full-blown. He takes up the bulk of the letter defending himself, defending his authority as an apostle. It seems some have come into the church and seriously questioned his integrity. They questioned his financial integrity. They criticized him for his lack of speaking skills. He wasn't even that good. He didn't follow the norms of public speaking. On top of that, he wasn't much to look at. We don't really know what he looked like, but one second century writing suggests he was small in size, bald-headed, bow-legged, well-built, with eyebrows that met, rather long-nosed, and full of grace. Like that last part, redeem the rest. I don't know, full of grace. You know, I fully expect to get to heaven and go, ooh, who's that guy? That's Paul. Really? That guy? Of course, all our thoughts in heaven will be sanctified, so I don't know how exactly that will go. But this is how some of the Corinthians thought of him. They were sizing him up, judging his message, his appearance. We know this because Paul quotes them later in 2 Corinthians. They say of him, his letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account. You see, he was dealing with a personal attack. When all these things, Paul was not concerned with defending himself per se, but defending his message. You see, doubt in him went hand in hand with doubt in his message. He needed to defend the gospel to these people. He has fatherly affection for them, and he compares himself to a father who betrothed this church as a pure virgin to Christ. And now he fears they're no longer sincerely devoted, as he says that in chapter 11. So you see, he's not so much concerned for himself he's concerned for them and their faith and yet to do that he needs to defend himself and he does that throughout the letter by peeling back the curtain for us into his mindset his way of thinking as he goes about ministry to show us his sincerity so you can begin to see how this Corinthian church is to Paul a source of anxiety it's a lot of personal turmoil with these people And in fact, all the churches gave him anxiety. He gives a list of all his afflictions in chapter 11, being shipwrecked and adrift at sea, in danger from thugs and persecution, cold, exposed, without food. And then what does he add on top of that list? Apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me. of my anxiety for all the churches. This is what Paul went through daily. He felt the pressure of all the churches. Paul, indeed, was in need of comfort. Well, I describe all this background, for one, just to give an overview of the letter and some context. These letters were written to be read in a single shot, and we so rarely do that that we can tend to miss the forest for the trees but more importantly i think when you have that context and you go again and look at chapter one it's all the more striking what he says how he opens the letter verse three the first word blessed a word of praise to god blessed be the god and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Paul worships in the midst of all he's going through. He worships. Well, there's one other event I want to mention intervening between 1 and 2 Corinthians, and that's this matter of the lost Corinthian letter. It's a letter that Paul indicates in chapter 2. He wrote to them sometime after 1 Corinthians, but we've lost that letter. It's been lost to history. The Holy Spirit saw fit not to preserve it, and so we don't need it. But what we do gather from what Paul describes there of this letter is that it was painful. He wrote them a painful letter, probably involving church discipline of some kind, maybe about these personal attacks against him. And he was anxious about what would happen. Maybe you've read a scathing email. And right when you hit send, you regretted it immediately. And you have no idea how they're going to receive it. That's the sort of anxiety he felt. How are they going to receive my letter? And he sent it by the hand of Titus. So Paul was anxious to meet up with Titus again. Tell me how it went. And he describes that in chapter 7. And he says, When we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus. And not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you. As he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more. So you see that Paul derived joy and comfort from this church too. It seems they received his letter. Their hearts softened into repentance. Titus was comforted by their response. Titus comforted Paul. So here you begin to see what I call the supply chain of comfort. Yes, Paul says that God did this. God comforted me. But how did he do it? By the coming of Titus. God comforts us. He is the God of all comfort, spreading it amongst his people by way of one another. Well, with all that background, let's look more directly at chapter 1. I've mentioned how the real thrust of this passage is worship. Paul recognizes God as the God of all comfort. Some amazing titles for God here. Father of mercies. The God who raises the dead. And so worship is really the tone of the whole thing, but there are some rich themes throughout as well. when he says God of all comfort, it's an interesting qualifier, all comfort. I think it expands at least into two ways. As it goes into verse 4, you can see the all qualifier on affliction. All our affliction. And then he talks about any affliction. Any and all affliction. You see, the all comfort is sufficient to meet any and all affliction. God's comfort is sufficient for anything. He's the God of all comfort. Additionally, as it shows in verse 4, that there's this supply chain of comfort. That we get to comfort those with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. And so the God of all comfort means whatever true comfort there is in this world, it's from Him. If you find true comfort, worship Him for it. If you find comfort in the presence of a friend, it's from God. If you find comfort in the words of Scripture, perhaps from the pen of David, that comfort is from God. If you find comfort in the simple remembrance of someone's kind words to you from years and years ago, that remembrance is comfort from God. He is the God of all comfort. All comfort comes from Him. And He should be worshipped for it. Well, what about the worst of all afflictions? Is His comfort really sufficient for any and all affliction? And this is where we should look to the sufferings of Christ, which is exactly what Paul does as he moves into verse 5. We share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. As Hebrews 12.3 says, Consider Him, Jesus, who endured from sinners such hostility against Himself that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted. Consider Him. Indeed, as we confess, He descended into hell, into a depth of agony beyond our comprehension. He is like us in every way, except for sin. And indeed, it's only when we look to Christ and hear the gospel message of our forgiveness of sins in Him, in His blood, that we can know the Father to be the Father of mercies. Furthermore, Christ is our model of death and resurrection. He is the image into whom God is conforming our lives. all that we experience is the suffering of Christ himself remember how he confronted Paul on the road to Damascus Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting my people? is that what he said? Saul, why are you persecuting the church? that's not what he said Why are you persecuting me? Who are you? Paul said. I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. You see, the church is Christ's body. And so the church's suffering, Christ takes personally. We are in union with him. We so identify with one another. Augustine put it this way, the church suffered in him when he suffered for the church. As he suffers in the church when the church suffers for him. You might need to see that quote in print and stare at it a while. It's a bit confusing, but that's kind of the point. We so identify with him in our union with him. He identifies with our suffering and he with ours. So furthermore, within this body of the church, the people of God, we have solidarity with one another in suffering and in comfort. This is as Paul describes in verses 6 and 7. There's this back and forth. When Paul's afflicted, he feels comfort. And it's for the church. When the church is afflicted, he can comfort. There's solidarity with one another in the body. When one part suffers, the others join in sorrow and yet can encourage and uplift one another. There is strength when the body has diversity. This is the sort of thing Ecclesiastes talks about. when it says that two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up. Well, thankfully, God so designed fellowship in the church that we need not ever fall alone. But just as we share in Christ's suffering, so also we share in Christ's comfort. Not only is Christ's suffering and death our model, but his resurrection as well. And Paul draws out this theme of death and resurrection in union with Christ in verses 8-10. This is where he gets real transparent about what's happened to him. He says, We do not want you to be unaware of the affliction we experience in Asia. Now maybe they already knew what that was and he didn't feel the need to explain it because he doesn't explain it. I think more intentionally he wants to focus on his internal thought process in the midst of it. As he goes on to say, we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Can an apostle say that? Can an apostle despair of life itself? aren't Christians happy-clappy all the time? No. If you have ever despaired of life itself, you're in good company. Jesus is there. Paul is there, just to name two. But it's striking here that Paul employs the language of death and resurrection in a figurative way. He felt as if he had the sentence of death. But note the turning point from death to resurrection, that God's whole purpose in pressing him down to despair was so that he would not rely upon himself, but on God who raises the dead. God who raises the dead. God delivered him, it seems, from the external circumstances as well as the emotional despair. And Paul turns to hope. On this God, we have placed our hope. He has delivered us before and he will deliver us again. So the way that Paul instructs us to deal with grief is not to stuff it down and pretend it isn't there. He shows us rather that we should enter into the depths of grief to the point of feeling the sentence of death. Because it's there that we get to experience the power of God. This God who raises the dead. What's more impressive? What more displays God's glory? If Christ had merely gotten sick and then got better. Or if he went all the way to death and came back to life again. That is glory and power. So it is that God wants to manifest that power in us. Remember, dear Christian, this title of God, God who raises the dead, you might say God the Resurrector. It's his occupation, his habit, what he takes joy in doing. Even in this figurative sense of emotional despair, The great church father, Chrysostom, from the 4th century, commenting on this figurative sense of resurrection, says that resurrection happens every day. When someone is in great sickness or trial, in despair, and even within their soul brought to the very gates of hell, but God brings them out. Chrysostom says it's appropriate in that situation to say, here we have seen a resurrection from the dead. Indeed, God is God the Resurrector, and he does it every day. So it is that God wants to show each of us his power in lifting us up as often as we have need from the depths of despair and a sort of resurrection from the dead. Over and over again in our lives, we need to learn this lesson, not to depend upon ourselves, but upon him. Again, Paul's very transparent with his own struggle. And I believe that I'm not only to expose the text to you, but in some ways to embody it. And this is, you know, a debated thing. Should someone in a sermon talk about themselves? I believe Paul talked a lot about himself here, so so shall I. With appropriateness intact, I hope. And so this last week was challenging for me. It's a holiday week, which is a nice thing, but I'm a part-time hourly employee. I don't get paid time off, so I either have to make up those hours or just take a hit in the paycheck. And so as I looked forward to my week, it was a sense of despair. I don't know how I can possibly get done all that I need to get done. And my wife is encouraging, and she says, make a plan. Plan out your days hour by hour, figure out what you're going to do, and do it. Of course, I'm too lazy to make a plan. I'm too stubborn to listen to advice. And I'm too proud to ask for help. While I admit I'm not good at caring for my car, I took it in for an oil change this week, and they say there's no oil in it. It all leaked out. Also, the coolant is nearly empty. That leaked out, too. Okay, this is my week. In other news, my wife was stung by a stingray at the beach this week, so that happened. And all these things pile up, and you begin to say to yourself, what is my life? What is happening right now? God of all comfort, where are you? And we know he's wanting to teach us not to rely on ourselves. I know many of you are going through things much bigger than what I am. But He wants to teach us to depend upon Him. Oh, that I would learn that lesson. I'm trying, by God's grace, and you can pray for me. We should rely on Him in depending upon one another. And one great expression of that dependence is prayer. This is how Paul ends the passage. We have solidarity with one another in prayer. He has utter confidence that the prayer of many will be answered. You must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. But what's striking is he's not so much concerned about an answered prayer. He is certain it will be answered. But what he wants, through the prayers of many, is that they would give thanks to God. Worship is what he's after, worship of God. He knows the prayer will be answered, that's no big thing. He wants you to give thanks to God. He wants to invite many people into his need so that when it is answered, we would all worship him. But you see, we miss out on all that when we rely on ourselves. So I encourage you to consider how you can be an agent of God's comfort to others. And in closing, I'd like to share some words from Nancy Guthrie. She suggests what not to say to someone in grief. Three things not to say. She herself is someone acquainted with grief. Lost an infant child at six months, and then went through the whole thing over again. Lost another infant child at six months. So I think we can consider what she has to say. The first thing not to say to someone in grief is, I know exactly how you feel. The reality is, everyone's situation is unique. We don't know how they feel. It even has an effect of bringing attention onto ourselves. Look what I went through. The second thing not to say is, you'll be fine. You know what, that's true. It's beautifully true. That God will make all things right. You will be fine. But it's not so helpful in the moment. It has the effect of diminishing someone's pain. And as Paul has shown us, that's not the solution. How will we experience God the Resurrector by just stuffing it down? So you will be fine, but that's not helpful to say. The third thing, not to say to someone in grief. Any sentence that begins with, well, at least look on the bright side, sort of a thing. Again, diminishes their pain and their loss. Not helpful. Instead, we should point each other to the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort, God the Resurrector. So as you consider yourself in relation to this church body, consider yourself in union with Christ, and thus both in his suffering and in his comfort, sharing together with one another in comfort. Recognize yourself as a dependent being. That you would not rely on yourself, but on God who raises the dead. Be willing to express that dependence and transparency before others of your need. Be willing to be a cheerful receiver and offer comfort to others as you yourself have been comforted. We are indeed dependent beings, dependent on God by way of one another. So, beloved, would you declare this day and every day your dependence day? Let's pray. O Father of mercies, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the Apostle Paul who had the courage to be transparent with his own struggle so that we could know we are not alone. Would you show yourself to be God of all comfort? Would you help us to be comfort to one another, agents of comfort from you? And may it all redound unto your glory, to your worship, that we would say, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Father of all mercies. So we ask this in Christ's name. Amen.