Call to Comfort

December 5, 1993 - Advent II

Isaiah 40:1 "Comfort ye My people . . . "

Introduction

This Christmas Season Handel's Messiah will be sung again in many places, part of the Christmas tradition along with Scrooge and roasted chestnuts. But wherever it is sung the story of Jesus is told again.

After the overture, the tenor soloist will step forward and begin: Comfort ye! Comfort ye! Comfort ye my people, saith your God! Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare . . . her warfare is accomplished!

Is that the word that you or I would begin with, if we were telling people about Jesus? If the word "comfort" means...

I. GOD IS LOVE, GOD IS NEAR

WE ARE NOT ABANDONED, then I cannot imagine a better word!

  1. Handel had it exactly right! When we tell the story of Jesus, the place where we begin— and the place where we end, and everything between comes from the great heart of God, who intends that His people shall know real peace!
  2. The world desperately needs this message of comfort, the word that God KNOWS, and God CARES— that God IS NEAR TO THOSE WHO SEEK HIM!
    1. God asked his prophet Isaiah to tell his people. They had forgotten, if they ever knew, just how much God cares.
    2. God asks everyone who grasps this great grace to pass along the comfort. The word we hear is not: "Comfort yourselves! Be comfortable!" The word, instead, is "Comfort MY PEOPLE!"
    3. The church, in its role as prophet, is to carry this message that this great God of GRACE wants to live right down here where we live — we are to tell to all who will believe and become God's people. THAT IS THE ESSENCE OF THE CHRISTMAS STORY!

      But the message of comfort comes in what seems a strange package; it comes with the declaration that all other comforts are false comforts.

II. GOD'S WORD IS ALL THAT WE CAN TRUST!

  1. God's voice said to Isaiah, "Cry!" And with Isaiah, we ask, "Cry what?" What is this message of comfort to the people of God?
    1. And the reply comes back "All flesh is grass ... the grass withers, the flower fades!" We have to give up trying to stay young, to live forever on earth's terms, stop putting our faith in things that rust and decay. ALONG WITH THE MESSAGE OF PEACE AND COMFORT IS THE MESSAGE THAT ALL OTHER COMFORTS ARE FALSE. TO FOLLOW GOD WE CANNOT CONTINUE OUR "BUSINESS AS USUAL"
    2. Peter puts it in even stronger language in the epistle lesson: "The elements shall melt with fervent heat!" The greatest tragedy we can think about is the melting down of this material world, with all our securities and hard-earned retirement benefits. Isaiah said the grass would fade; Peter puts it a little more dramatically when he says this whole entire visible created universe is going to disappear, to melt down, to change or pass away. But Peter also has had Isaiah's promise of COMFORT! He has total confidence in this one thing: GOD HAS MADE A PROMISE! The promise of God is good enough to make Peter rejoice in the prospect of losing everything!
  2. The first "point" in the message of comfort, then, is that the world as we now see it will not last forever— in fact— it will not last very long at all! But the heart of the message is NOT a negative message; what this world needs to know is there is a place where you can stand that will not be blown away in the storm! "The grass withers .. the flower fades .. but the Word of the Lord stands forever!" THE CHURCH EXISTS ON THE STRENGTH OF A PROMISE! [My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge!]

    If we really have grasped this— if we live in the HOPE of God's eternal PROMISE— then how can we stay silent about it? How do we begin telling our friends and neighbors?

III. GOD'S GREAT PEACE IS OURS TO SHARE!

  1. God's word to the prophet is God's word to His people; it is God's word to you and me: YOU comfort my people!

    We begin the telling of the story of Messiah by sharing God's PEACE with each other. (Testimony? Yes! but more...) How seriously are we concerned with the welfare of our brothers and sisters in the church? And what does this have to do with the comfort of Messiah? What does telling the story to each other have to do with world evangelism? [Only everything!] The church is not simply a mutual admiration society. Far from it! But the church is, ought to be the family of God. To "comfort," that is, to seek the edification of the Body, is to begin making Messiah known. The story of Messiah begins with "Comfort ye!" Who would want to become a Christian, a part of Christ's Body, unless and until this comfort is manifested?

  2. When Christ's peace and love are manifest within the Body the message of a God who comes and a God who cares will have validity when we carry it outside the walls of the sanctuary.

[Exhortation:]

We can tell them IF WE BELIEVE OURSELVES that Jesus brings peace.

We can tell them IF WE OURSELVES ARE STANDING ON SOLID ROCK in our relationship with God.

And we can tell them IF WE ARE WHERE THEY ARE, NOT TURNING OUR BACKS ON OPPORTUNITIES TO SHARE God's love.

If we can tell them, and we don't tell them, then we miss the whole point of our faith, which is to make us like the One we love. If we aren't sharing God's peace there may be something wrong, Before we can tell them we may have to repent -to agree with God in all things, even those pertaining to ourselves! The Psalmist chimes in here "Turn us, O Lord! Let your face shine on us!"

This of course is also an admission of our helplessness; even our repenting is of grace! Unless the Lord turns us, we shall not be turned! If we are willing to be turned, then we can pray for the Lord to turn us, and cooperate with Him in seeking His face. But His power is released with the story we tell.

Part of this "turning" process is LISTENING! (v8) I will hear what God the Lord will speak; AND WHAT DOES GOD SPEAK? GOD SPEAKS "PEACE!" Conclusion: God's call to comfort is a challenge to bring the love of God to people who need it. It is a challenge to say that there is a solid Rock to stand on that will never, ever pass away.

[Move now to Communion - Invitation:]