From Comfort to Courage

  • Kristian Rose
  • Jun 13, 2010
  • Series: Greater Than: The Letter to the Hebrews

From Comfort to Courage - How the Holy Spirit Ministers To Us In Our Weakness

  1. Context & Encouragement (v.7-12)
    1. Paradox of Christianity – save life, lose it; first, last; rich, don’t love money; comfort, suffer.
    2. Context of Passage
      1. 2nd gen church wavering. Not as good as “old days”. Go back?
      2. Being mocked by religious establishment – no legitimate apparatus (altar, hats, robes, etc.)
      3. Day of Atonement process (outside camp – Ex 29) – Jesus truer and better sacrifice, truer and better High Priest
      4. Cross of Christ is the truer and better altar

 

  1. From Comfort to Courage (v.13)
    1. Outside the city was unholy (Lev 16,28) & dangerous – wild animals, bandits, thieves, dead bodies – criminals executed, not Kings enthroned
    2. Christ had gone from the place of comfort, to the place of courage to deal with the present need (sanctify people)
    3. To go to him would be to publicly identify with him and risk further ostracizing, castigating and harm; mocking turned up – to “bear his reproach”
    4. For us to move from comfort to courage – leaving the safety of community and insulated living and meeting the present need – missional
    5. My hope for Apostles: That we would continually move from comfort to courage. My hope is that we would make courageous life choices based on the reality of the risen Christ, not comfortable life choices based on our recreational preferences (COLLEGE DECISION EXAMPLE). My hope is that we would be an exceedingly comforted church. Not a comfortable church, but comforted.

 

  1. Seeking Comfort, or the Comforter? (v.14)
    1. Comfort is Good: But 2 Kinds of comfort: self created & God given
      1. Self Created – self-protecting, self-preserving and self-promoting.; actually has deadening effect – deadens to the boredom, drudgery, pain, meaninglessness, &  disillusionment we sense in life. ESCAPISM – TV nuclear family
        1. SEVERE MERCY ILLUS:



“Now we considered possessions as divisive. We knew a woman who loved her house so much that her husband could never put his feet up or smoke in his own house. We condemned her to wander the earth homeless. Over-valued possessions, we decided, were a burden, possessing their owners. We decided to own nothing that we couldn’t be comfortable with – reproductions, not originals, cheap bindings not rare editions. This idea of the burden of possessions we held to – and years later when we got our first glossy new car, we hit it severely with a hammer to make it comfortably dented.”
-A Severe Mercy, Sheldon Van Auken p.33

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      1. God Given – from the Spirit in the midst of trial and suffering; invigorating; John 14 – Paraclete

 

John 14:16, “16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Comforter (Helper, Counselor, Advocate, Defender), to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth.”

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        1. EX: Spirit Leads Jesus into desert
    2. Inverse Relationship b/w current level of comfort and capacity to be comforted – Negatively Correlated
    3. Want to know & experience the Spirit?
      1. Usual expectations empowering – Ethereal experience, demonstrative & sensational, healing, demons, tongues, SUBWAY PREACHING – Biblical, but not normative and not universal
      2. Most prolific ministry – ex passages (Is 61; Mt 5:4; Ps 23; 1 Cor 1:3-7)

 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4  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. 5 For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.  6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

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      1.  
        1. Very Comfortable  won’t experience
          1. N UNomfortable, no need of comforter
          2. N lvng beyond nat ablt to LV & SV -> no counselor
          3. N open to reproach -> no defender
        2. Seek comfort instead of Comforter  Idolotry
          1. False worship, seeking ultimate that only God ultim can give. AMERICAN DREAM
          2. Anesthetize ourselves and quench Spirit’s work
      2. Response
        1. Move outside of the camp. Be uncomfortable in: GIVING, TIME, HOSPITALITY, SERVICE TO POOR, TESTIMONY TO NEIGHBORS
        2. Seeking only comfort, and not the comforter, we’re like a homeless man living in his cardboard kingdom, having become entirely content with his fixtures and décor – lost sight of a better dwelling. Not willing to go through 9 months of discomfort to get there. Same when we become fixated on our position in this kingdom to the exclusion of our position in the coming Kingdom.

 

  1. How do we experience the Spirit in relationship to Mission?

 

The Spirit comforts us in 3 ways:

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    1. Testifies to us of our sonship


Rom 8: 16The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

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    1. Gives us an accurate valuation of life (v.14)


Phil 3: 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10  that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Rom 8:18 - For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us…22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies…26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.”

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      1. Anne Bradstreet – Upon the Burning of My House



Thou hast an house on high erect Fram'd by that mighty Architect, With glory richly furnished, Stands permanent tho' this bee fled. It's purchased, and paid for too By him who hath enough to doe.


A Prise so vast as is unknown, Yet, by his Gift, is made thine own. Ther's wealth enough, I need no more; Farewell my Pelf, farewell my Store. The world no longer let me Love, My hope and Treasure lyes Above.

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    1. Empowers our ministry (Jesus in desert; Stoning of Stephen; Acts 9)


Acts 9: 28 So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. 30 And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.