Comfort Pipeline

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"The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever." Isaiah 40:8

Main Readings: John 14 & Isaiah 40

Supporting Readings: Psalm 19 & 2 Corinthians 1

Last week, then, I was keen to share with you God’s eagerness to comfort you. From Isaiah 40:1-5. I trust that you have known something of that comfort this week. And indeed, that it has been comforting to you, to know that God wants to comfort you. Which is such a wonderful gift.

Let’s face it, there’s not a week that goes by when there aren’t discouragements, and setbacks that leave us longing for comfort.

It’s good then to know that God is committed to comforting his people. What an amazing thought that is!

That the God of the universe, who keeps the planets in orbit around the suns; who holds together the very fabric of time and space; who has all 8 billion people on this earth within his constant gaze, is concerned with my comfort!

Well, he is. And since he is concerned with such diverse and immense things - which he cares for with such perfect precision - then we can be sure that whatever he has in mind to be the ultimate source of our comfort is in fact just that.

In other words, we shouldn’t doubt his strange designs to comfort us. Though they be strange to us, yet they are perfect. And we absolutely have to believe that his designs for our comfort are perfect, if we want to know the comfort that he so wants to give us.

Last time, even though the focus was very much on the desire in God to comfort his people, we saw that his desire for that, led him to design an intervention in history that would ultimately supply that comfort.

And that intervention we learnt was Jesus. He came into the world to comfort people by taking their sins away. He saved them from the discomforting consequences of their sins.

And we saw that, anybody who believes in Jesus receives his comfort for their souls. This is the way God has designed to comfort his people – through the work of Jesus on their behalf, and through his being joined to them forever.

What a joy it is to know the closeness of God in the person of the Lord Jesus!

There is nothing more comforting that we can know in all of life than this outstanding reality.

Nevertheless, as Christians, we live between two worlds. Between the world of flesh and death, and that of Spirit and life. We have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit by the death of Jesus. And Jesus has given us his Spirit who lives in us.

But our old fleshly inclinations continue to war within us against our new spiritual natures. ‘The flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other’, Galatians 5 says.

What that means for our comfort, is that it rises and falls.

In other words, if we were, to wholeheartedly, unreservedly, consistently bank on Jesus for our comfort, we would be continuously comforted no matter what the external circumstances.

But, since our flesh wars within us, our tendency is to leave off the all-sustaining source of all comfort – Jesus – and to despair in the circumstances of life.

After that, we usually then look to all manner of other sources for comfort - who are not Jesus. And that typically leads us into a host of disappointment.

Maybe, just maybe, we hit on just one of God’s good gifts that gives a sense of comfort that takes some sort of hold on us for a time.

Alas though, it can’t last, and eventually even that source of comfort proves to be an empty shell. Why? Because only Jesus is the perfect source of comfort God has designed for our lasting comfort.

And so now, in the flow of God’s announcement to us, through Isaiah 40, he wants to give us further foundation – that’s what this message is about, foundation for comfort – he wants to give us foundation for steadfast confidence in his design to comfort our souls through Jesus - and Jesus alone.

So that, we might not be tempted to search elsewhere for lasting comfort. It’s not to say that other people can’t comfort us – they can. But their comfort will not last either.

And their comfort is only meaningful as it points us to Jesus. He’s going to show us then, that the comfort of people is not the ultimate answer. And we’ll be left knowing that the only valuable comfort that people can bring to us is the comfort that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

When we think of all the unsettling things that could cut across our lives, even this week – never mind in the course of the rest of our lives – then it makes the value of this word to us, from God, of simply immeasurable worth.

That God continues in Isaiah 40 to be eager to show us his comfort is marked by what his voice says to Isaiah in verse 6 – namely ‘cry out’.

We had ‘speak’; we had ‘proclaim’, in verse 2. But here we have the exclamation, ‘cry out!’. And it tells us something of what God has in mind. It’s like he’s saying, ‘don’t let anyone miss this, please! What I’m about to sat to them is utmost importance!’

So that puts us on alert, right? ‘What is it lord you want to say so badly to us?’

Isaiah asks the question for us. ‘what shall I cry?’ he says. And the answer God gives is not what you might expect.

You might expect him to say, ‘tell them that I want to comfort them’. Or ‘tell them that I’m sending them my comforter’.

But no! He says nothing like that. He says, rather, ‘All people are like grass, and all their faithfulness like the flowers of the field’. Which does leave you wondering where is he going with this?

He goes on though, ‘the grass withers and the flowers fall’. So, people are like grass, and it withers. And the faithfulness of people is like flowers, and they fall! We could be forgiven for thinking ‘these aren’t very comforting words’!

They sound pretty unsettling to me! How is it comforting to hear I’m like grass that withers. And my faithfulness is like flowers that fall. I mean, it’s true! But it’s not wholly comforting to hear it. And I thought God wanted to comfort me?!

Well, it doesn’t get much better I’m afraid. Because the next thing God says is, the reason why they wither, and the reason why their faithfulness falls is because he breathes on them.

It’s exactly like when you blow on a dandelion clock. He says he blows on people, and his breath withers them like the most fragile dandelion clock you’ve ever blown on. And as the seeds all fall to the ground, so all the faithfulness of people, falls by the wayside.

God’s breath is like a hurricane force wind. And, like when a hurricane blows against the palm trees and bends them to breaking point, so God tests people – all people.

And what happens when he breathes on them? Well, they bend and bend and then eventually they snap. All their faithfulness amounts to nothing. Their very lives cannot contend with the force of his breath.

Turn back a few pages to Isaiah 30. Verse 27 for an example of this: ‘See, the name of the Lord comes from afar, with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke; his lips are full of wrath, and his tongue is a consuming fire. His breath is like a rushing torrent, rising up to the neck’.

That’s what God’s breath does to people. No one can contend with his breathing on them. All the confidence they placed in anything and everything except him, is like shallow soil.

And that hurricane just comes and rips that tree clean out of the ground.

So, it is with people.

Which is all well and good, because it tells us what people are like. And we know it for ourselves because we see how trouble and hardship play havoc with our lives.

How we wither and wilt under the heat of health problems. How we droop under the driving east wind of financial burdens. And how we all ultimately succumb to the breath of God in the closing days of our lives, when our hopes are all spent, and we leave this world with whimper.

As true as that is though, it’s not the ultimate point that God is making. Because all of this has to be placed in the contrasting light of the end of verse 8.

Which says: ‘but the word of our God endures forever’. It’s the end of verse 8 that shows the purpose of everything God told Isaiah to say in verses 6 to 8a.

Verses 6 to 8a have people who wither and faithfulness that falls. The heat of life overwhelms them. Everything they trusted in for comfort comes to nothing.

But, by contrast, God’s word – which is another form of his breath – does not wither. It does not fall to the ground. Instead, the word of God endures. It does the opposite of what people do.

Where they are unreliable, God’s word is totally reliable. Where they are transitory. God’s word endures.

So, it isn’t difficult to follow God’s train of thought here. He’s telling us loud and clear – and he does want us to hear it loud and clear, which is why Isaiah cries it out – he’s telling us, ‘Don’t depend on people to guarantee your comfort. Look at the evidence of their lives to convince you of that. Rather depend on my word as the guarantee for your comfort’.

Recognising that God’s inclination and plan to comfort people is a promissory word in verses 1-5. And recognising that people are so unstable in all their ways (verses 6 to 8a). God now wants to cement our confidence in his desire and his design to comfort us. He wants to do this so that we might be given the tools to fight the temptation to go looking for our comfort in a thousand other places – the likes of which will neither bring us lasting comfort, nor glorify him as the ultimate source of our comfort either.

And the tool that he knows to be totally effective for the purpose of fighting the temptation to resort to competing comforts, is nothing other than his enduring word.

The same breath that breathes on people, and they wither and die, can also issue forth a word that is so totally life-giving that it can sustain our confidence in his comfort for the rest of our lives, until Jesus - our comfort - appears again in the flesh.

In the very same way that God is enduring, his word is enduring also. That’s why Jesus came in the flesh. John says ‘The word became flesh and made his dwelling amongst us’.

God is enduring, his word is enduring. And his word became flesh, and he is enduring. And he is our comfort. And therefore, our comfort is enduring - if we continue to confidently trust him for our comfort.

And crucially, it’s God’s word that gives us good reason to place that kind of confidence in Jesus and not in people.

So that, we won’t be like most people, who, when God breathes on them, they wither and fall. But rather, though we die – and we do - yet our confidence and comfort are, that we shall yet live again through him!

Casual Christianity is not enough to sustain long lasting confidence in the comfort-giving source that is Jesus.

God is telling us that the input of his word is absolutely necessary for that. And so, the rest of this sermon is written to show you how God’s word supplies that confidence to you, if you take it up and make it the staple of your life.

Which we must, if we want the confidence of God’s comfort to remain with us, not just in the good times, but in the massive trials that are coming for us all.

Here, then are 5 ways God’s word supplies confidence to us in order that we might be comforted. And they are all based on a text of scripture, so we can be sure that they are true.

The first thing to say is that the word brings comfort. ‘Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope’. Romans 15:4.

Paul says that it’s through the encouragement of the scriptures – God’s word – that we have hope. God’s word is enduring like we saw in Isaiah, and it encourages us to hope in God’s deliverance through which we get comfort.

The reason the Apostle Paul introduces this idea in the flow of his argument in Romans 15 is that he’s trying to persuade the brothers and sisters to not please themselves.

Like Jesus didn’t please himself when the insults of his enemies were falling on him. He didn’t retaliate. He endured in the hope of better things. It was for the joy that was set before him that he endured the cross. That joy was his hope. And that hope sustained him on the cross.

And Paul says, what Jesus did there was recorded for your benefit. It was written down so that you might see how hope in future joy can help you to endure the pain of present suffering. Therefore, the word is the conduit for God’s comfort in the midst of this troubling life.

The word of God is the pipeline of God’s comfort.

Pipelines are necessary for conveying something from one place to another. This pipeline - God’s pipeline - conveys his comfort to his people from where he is.

And anybody who avails themselves of this pipeline, by faith, obtains the comfort that it supplies.

When we’re faced with uncertainty, we instinctively look for reassurance. But Paul says, the only reliable place to find that comfort is in God’s pipeline - that is his word.

Cut yourself off from his word and you cut yourself off from the supply of hope that builds confidence that God has the comfort your soul is looking for.

The second way the word works with respect to comfort is by application of comfort to the soul. John records Jesus saying that the ‘comforter – that is the Holy Spirit – will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you’. John 14:26-27.

The title given to the Holy Spirit by Jesus is ‘comforter’. And he tells us that the Spirit’s work – at least in part – is to apply the word of Jesus personally to our hearts.

He takes the truth of Jesus found in the word of God – including the words Jesus spoke – and he applies them to our hearts. The results are amazing! They are ‘peace’ Jesus says! ‘I leave you my peace’.

It’s not that the Spirit creates new comfort. Rather he takes the comforting words of Jesus and as you read them; attend to them; bend your ear to hear them, he takes them and presses them into your heart to create effective comfort that sustains you in the midst of life’s challenges.

All the promises of God are yes and amen in Jesus. And the Holy Spirit turns those promises into comfort for your soul, when you read them.

If the word of God is the pipeline of God’s comfort, then the Spirit is the application at the end of the pipeline. Go to the pipeline of God’s comfort repeatedly and you will find, as a Holy Spirit indwelt believer, that he will take that supply and create effectual hope in your hearts by applying it.

Fill your mind, then, with the word, and the Spirit will fill your heart with the peace of Jesus.

The third way the word works to comfort is by content, not vagueness. Where the content of our comfort, is Christ himself. God has no comfort to offer, except the comfort that is Jesus.

‘For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ’. 2 Corinthians 1:5.

God’s comfort is not sentimental. It’s not empty platitudes. His comfort looks like a real Jesus. Like him laying aside his glory and taking on human flesh. Like him being born in a rude stable. Sacrificing himself on the cross. It looks like shame. It looks like death.

And it looks like supreme resurrection in power! In other words, it is what Jesus has done to bring us into God’s favour, that is the only source of true comfort to any one of us.

Peace and comfort then are not ideas, so much as they are a person. And that person is Jesus.

And it is only as we land on him full-square, that our souls can be comforted. That’s reassuring then, because God is pointing us in Isaiah 40, verse 8 to his word for Jesus as that source of comfort and Jesus, himself, reminds us that all these scriptures, from first to last, speak of him.

So, when we open God’s word, we encounter a person who is the embodiment of comfort.

We don’t just look for tag lines or sound bites that might comfort us, we look for a Person who saves and restores and sustains our relationship with God.

The fourth way the word of God imparts comfort is by multiplication. ‘Therefore comfort one another with these words’. 1 Thessalonians 4:18.

The NIV has ‘encourage one another’. The root word is the same as for ‘comfort’ though. And some other translations choose ‘comfort’ here instead of ‘encourage’.

In fact, it’s the same word Matthew uses to quote Jeremiah in the mourning that accompanied the slaughter of the baby boys in Bethlehem after Jesus’ birth.

He quotes Jeremiah recalling how Jacob’s wife Rachel wept for her children and ‘refused to be comforted because they are no more’.

So, the word ‘comfort’ is fitting in 1 Thessalonians 4:18. The point is that God’s comfort doesn’t remain private but multiplies, when people share it.

God intends for his comfort to spread between believers through word-informed relationships. Said another way, the word that comforts you is meant to comfort others through you. Paul says ‘comfort one another with these words’ - namely God’s words.

And even though, people are like grass - they wither and die.

And even though their faithfulness is like flowers – it falls and is no more. That is not true of the words of God in the mouths of those people.

If you fail to trust in the words of God, that people share with you, and instead trust in the people themselves, then you’ve missed the point of Isaiah 40, verse 8. Then you will not find comfort.

But if you fix on the words of God, your fellow believers are imparting to you, then you can find real and meaningful comfort. God’s words of comfort are meant to multiply in a community of believers.

So, ask yourself ‘how can I share God’s words of comfort with my brothers and sisters today?’ Because God has designed comfort to flow to them, that way.

Lastly, number 5, the word of God completes the comfort. ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with people…he will wipe away every tear[comfort]…these words are trustworthy and true’.

The word that promises comfort will, one day, perfect it. Every experience of comfort now points towards a day when, free from sin, we will know eternal comfort. The word of God endures forever – it will accomplish what it has promised.

The words of God are all trustworthy and all true. And he’s given a glimpse of their enduring nature by showing us their results.

He’s promising a day, in the future, where ultimate, lasting, perfect peace and comfort reign forever. And he says, this word that promises that, is trustworthy and true.

We’re just living, right now, between two worlds. We’re not at the end of the story; we’re in the middle of it.

The final word has been promised but not yet spoken. But when it is spoken, every last tear, every weary sigh, every mournful groan will obey that word.

And everlasting comfort will enter in with Jesus’ return. The living word will reign. His kingdom will know no end. And his peace will stretch from shore to shore.

God says to Isaiah, ‘cry out’. ‘What shall I cry?’ he says. God replies, ‘people are useless sources of comfort because they all die. But my word endures forever. Make it the foundation of your comfort all the days of your life. It will bring you comfort. It will be applied to you as comfort, by the comforter. Its comfort is my Son, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Its comfort will multiply through you to others. And my word will complete all comfort in the end.

So, he says, take up my enduring word, and you will find that it is powerful to impart the comfort of Jesus to your soul - both now, and forever more. Until he returns in glory and blazing comfort forever!’