The Comforter: Part 1
John Plunkett
July 15, 2017
As I began putting this sermon together, I was sitting at the kitchen/dining room table of our beautiful rented house in the Irish village of Adrigole,
(which is situated on the Beara Peninsula -- one of the very southernmost
peninsulas of County Cork) and I was looking out of the window at the calm waters of Bantry Bay and the lovely cloud-topped mountains that surround it.
Nothing could have been more peaceful and pleasant.
However, as I sat there, my mind was far from peaceful.
Why? Because I knew that so many of our beloved brothers and sisters “back home” in Canada – as well as others in the UK, the USA, South Africa, Zambia and other countries around the world – were – and still are – going through some seriously tough times.
I won’t go into all the details of all the many problems right now; but I’m sure that you’re aware of many of them.
Right off the bat, I can think of brethren who are going through serious trials:
• Right here on Vancouver Island,
• On the Lower Mainland,
• In Ontario,
• In Quebec,
• In the UK,
• In southern Africa.
That is not even an exhaustive list, of course. I’m sure that you know of many others in other locations – brethren whose trials that I am unaware of at this time.
It seems like God’s people almost everywhere are being severely tried right now.
Nevertheless, as sat there in Ireland, thinking about you, and thinking about them, my prayers requesting relief from our brethrens suffering went up to our loving Father and our Elder Brother in heaven.
As I prayed some obvious questions came to mind:
• Do they – our Father and Jesus – do they really hear our prayers?
Do they hear our prayers for relief, for healing, for encouragement, and for comfort?
• If they do, will they provide this requested relief?
• Do they always heal?
• Or, do they only heal “selectively” – according to their perfect will?
• Is their will concerning the relief of their people fixed?
• Or can it change? And does it change?...
- For example, does it change with time… or with timing?
- Or perhaps, according to our faith?
- Or according to our prayers – our own and those of our loved ones?
- Or perhaps, according to the actions we take.. to correct our problems?
These are some of the questions that I would like to cover in the sermon today, and also next time – with the purpose of, hopefully, giving you – or as I should say, “us all” – some much-needed encouragement and comfort during these troubled times.
Anointing
Let’s start off with the sub-topic of anointing. And let’s review what God tells us through James:
James 5:
13: Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms.
14: Is any sick among you? Let him {the sick person} call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord…
We do this, don’t we? This is where we receive our main instruction for anointing.
And, by the way, please never hesitate to ask me for anointing, no matter how minor you feel your illness to be.
15: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him…
This reads like an iron-clad, rock-solid, certain promise, doesn’t it? A 100% guarantee that, if we request anointing, we will, for sure, be miraculously healed by the Lord God.
But is it… really? We’ll come back to this question in a minute. But first, let’s finish off reading James’ sub-topic:
16a: Confess your faults {paraptoma: sins, trespasses, offences, misdeeds} one to another…
Perhaps including any “faults” perhaps which may have contributed to the cause of the illness in the first place?
16b: … and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
That word "may" holds a big difference from the word "shall" in verse 15. "May be healed"? Does this word “may” really mean in the Greek what it seems to say in the English?
Yes, it does!
The phrase “you may be healed” was translated from the single Greek verb iaomai (Strong’s 2390) which can also mean: to make whole; to cure (including, in a spiritual sense, the freeing from errors and sins), to bring about (one’s) salvation.
Unlike verbs in the English language, Greek verbs have a tense, they have a
voice and they have a mood. And the mood of this verb
iaomai, as used here, is what is called the Subjunctive mood.
Now, I am no great Greek scholar; so I had to look up the meaning of this “subjunctive mood” and here is what it said:
The subjunctive mood is the mood of possibility and potentiality.
The action described may or may not occur, depending upon circumstances.
Conditional sentences… are all of this type, as well as many commands following conditional purpose clauses…
This is very important when it comes to God’s promises to heal!
Also, by the way, if you’re not familiar with the scripture that authorizes the use of what we call “anointed cloths,” let’s just take a minute to
review it:
Acts 19:
11: And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:
12: So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons {just two examples of different pieces of cloth}, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.
This practice may have stemmed from two examples in Matthew's gospel account, in which the faith behind the mere touch of the cloth of th hem of Jesus’ garment was enough to heal:
Matthew 9:
20: And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind Him, and touched the hem of His garment:
21: For she said within herself, “If I may but touch His garment, I shall be whole.”
22: But Jesus turned Him about, and when He saw her, He said, “Daughter, be of good comfort; your faith has made you whole.” And the woman was made whole from that hour.Matthew 14:
35: And when the men of that place had knowledge of Him, they sent out into all that country round about, and brought unto Him all that were diseased;
36: And besought Him that they might only touch the hem of His garment: and as many as touched were made perfectly whole.
But let’s go back and seek an answer to the question: “Does God always heal?”
One elderly Church of God member we know back in the UK (like many
others) increasingly suffers with multiple aches, pains and other health problems brought on by a long life of hard work.
Perhaps due to her advanced age, whether naturally or otherwise, this lovely lady is no longer in full possession of her brain’s “logic circuits”
to the same extent as she had them in her youth; and so, she continually and repeatedly complains that, in her case, even though she has been anointed more than once, God does not seem to be keeping the promises He inspired in James 5… those
promises that we just read. And she gets very "down" about this.
I doubt that that poor sister-in-Christ is even aware of the “subjunctive mood” aspect of the phrase “you
may be healed” as we discussed earlier. (Hey! I wasn’t aware of it myself until I was well into my studies for this sermon!)
Also, because this lady no longer seems to be in “listening mode,” I doubt that she could understand the concept even if I tried to explain it to her.
But again, does God always heal? I’m not talking about our ultimate, future,
total healing at the time of the resurrection. I’m talking about our healing now, today, in this life.
This might be disappointing to many; but considering all of the facts at our disposal, the logical answer to this question must be a resounding, definite and perhaps discouraging “No.”
This is true even for the most faithful of God’s people in history!
If the answer was a “Yes” (which it is not), all of the super-faithful people of God, such as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Joseph, Joshua, Job, David, Elijah, Daniel, John the Baptist, Stephen, the apostle John and the other apostles would never have died and would still be walking the earth today!
But they are not!
I’m sure that, just like us, when they became old, frail and ill, they all would have prayed for healing.
And I’m sure that, just like us, they would have loved to have stayed alive, healthy and well in order to continue enjoying human
life, serving God and His people right up until the second coming of Jesus.
But such was not God’s will!
Allow me to break in here to share something that I thought about just this morning.
When our children were young, I told them that they didn’t have to worry about
dying because Jesus is going to return before we get into old age. Because
of the teachings of the church back then, I honestly believed that; but I don’t believe it any more.
Experienec has revealed to me that such is not God’s will.
You might remember this somewhat humorous account close to the end of the book of John:
John 21:
20: Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved {John} following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper, and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?”
21: Peter, seeing him, said to Jesus, “But Lord, what about this man {John}?”
22: Jesus said to him, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you? You follow Me.”
23: Then this saying went out among the brethren that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, “If I will that he remain till I come, what is that to you?”
Like us, our Father and Elder Brother allotted John, Peter and all of His faithful servants from throughout history the same – or similar – life-span limitations as we have. At some point, every one of them closed their eyes in the sleep of death:
Hebrews 11:13:
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
This is a good scripture for us to keep in mind, especially when we – or any of our loved ones – are going through severe, life-threatening health trials.
In our present, feeble, human form, we too are “strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” We are foreigners. Aliens! Like ET, we’re only here in this present human form for a short time. ��
Even Moses – the meekest of all men who ever lived (other than Jesus, of course), realized this fact, and with this in mind, composed Psalm 90. We can look at Psalm 90 as a very sobering one; but I want to read it as a preamble to what I am going to be talking about over the next couple of weeks. I want to encourage and comfort you. I don’t want this series to be a downer. Rather, I want to lead you to the brilliant light of what God’s promises really are:
Psalms 90:
1: Lord {Adonai}, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
2: Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God {El}.
3: You {Lord God – Adonai-El} turn man to destruction; and say, “Return, you children of men”…
Return? Yes. Our physical bodies return to the dust that they were originally composed of and our unconscious human spirits return to God (Genesis 3:19; Ecclesiastes 12:7).
4: For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
5: You carry them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which grows up.
6: In the morning it flourishes and grows up; in the evening it is cut down, and withers.
7: For we are consumed by your anger, and by your wrath are we troubled.
8: You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance.
9: For all our days are passed away in your wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
10: The days of our years are threescore years and ten {70}; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore {80} years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
11: Who knows the power of your anger? Even according to your fear, so is your wrath.
12: So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
We have a problem numbering our years, never mind our days! None of us knows how long he/she will live. We just don’t know how many years any of us has left.
Moses’ mentions here about the External's wrath, anger and His displeasure due to our sins throughout our relatively short human lives. Not, of course, that He is sitting there waiting for us to slip up so that He can gleefully “swat” us; but this is something that we need to keep in mind, again, as a preamble to what I am going to come to in future sermons, because Jesus talked about it as well.
Did Moses and did all of those other “heroes of faith” suffer illnesses that led up to their deaths? Did they suffer illnesses that were, perhaps, similar to those many of our brethren are afflicted with today, at this time?
Maybe. Maybe not. Although we do know that at least a few of them (e.g. Abel, John the Baptist and Stephen) suffered very unpleasant and violent deaths), in most cases, we don’t know the details of their last days in this human form.
When we were visiting an old church building in Ireland recently, our guide,
pointing out some ancient stone effigies, evidently of some of "the
saints," he parroted old Roman Catholic traditions that "Paul died like
this" and "Peter died like that." But really, these ideas
are nothing but unscriptural speculation and tradition.
On another lovely evening during that same recent visit to Ireland, a stunningly beautiful sunset over Carlingford Lough
caused me to think some more about the logic and conditionality of God’s promises in James 5; and to compare this with one of Jesus’ well-known statements in Matthew 16:
Matthew 16:
2: He answered and said unto them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.
3: And in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering.’ O you hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky; but can you not discern the signs of the times?
We might read this and think that the implication is that a red sky in the evening always means fair weather on the following day and that a red sky in the morning always means foul weather that day. But in reality, it doesn’t always turn out that way! In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, the day following that beautiful Irish sunset turned out to be cool, cloudy and showery.
What then? Does Jesus lie? Is His holy, written Word unreliable?
No! Of course not!
The red sky “promises” may be more applicable and reliable to the Middle East weather conditions than to those in northern Europe or here in western Canada; but, even over there in the Middle East, logically, these “promises” are still no more than what we might think of as “a likely – but conditional – generality.” Yes, conditional – on many meteorological factors.
This reminds me of a message that I heard in my childhood from one of our Church of England ministers, in which he was talking – specifically to the young people present – about answered prayer. He put forth the case of all the young people of that congregation praying fervently for fine weather for their annual Sunday School picnic, while, at the same time, all the local farmers in the area were fervently praying for some much-needed rain!
The logical answer here brings up another set of questions:
What is the true priority?
What is the most important?
In that case, was the children’s picnic most important, or were the farmers’ crops more important?
And, above all of those human preferences, what is most important to God Himself?
In any prayer request, what is God’s will?
We can apply this priority of God's will to the healing promises in James 5.
I have heard at least one Church of God minister who seems to almost relegate God’s will to being secondary in regard to healing. I believe that this could be a very dangerous thing for any man to do.
Daniel was another of God’s people who asked similar questions as ours about life, death and the future; but he, too, was given an answer to which he probably would have preferred a more humanly-favorable alternate answer. Like many other believers over the centuries, including Paul and yours truly, Daniel seems to have thought that he might not die, that the end-times and the Messiah might come in his human lifetime:
Daniel 12:
1a: And at that time {referring to the time of the end} shall Michael stand up, the great prince which stands for the children of your people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time…
Verse 4: "But you, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased."
5: Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two {angels?}, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river.
6: And one said to the man {angel?} clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, “How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?”
7: And I heard the man {angel?} clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and swore by Him that lives forever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when He shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
8: And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, “O my Lord {Adown, not YHVH}, what shall be the end of these things?”
9: And he said, “Go your way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
10: Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
11: And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
12: Blessed is he that waits, and comes to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.
Please don’t get hung up on these numbers (1,290 and 1,335) as so many have done. Daniel himself might have scratched his head trying to work out what their interpretation might be. But those numbers were useless to Daniel. They were to no avail for him. The truth of the meaning of those numbers turned out to be totally irrelevant to Daniel – because he died shortly after he was inspired to put them into writing:
13: But go you your way till the end be: for you shalt rest {in the dust of the earth}, and stand in your lot {or 'portion' or 'recompense'} at the end of the days {which, in Daniel's case, will be in the First Resurrection}.
This “adown” angel’s words may have seemed to have been a bit of a “downer” to Daniel at the time; but, by the authority of the LORD God, he prefaced those words with some very encouraging and comforting ones – words which we, no matter how serious our trials may be – can confidently hang our hopes upon. Going back up to the beginning of this chapter (Daniel 12):
1b: … and at that time your people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
2: And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some {those whose names are “found written in the book”} to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3: And they that be wise {those whose names are “found written in the book”} shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
Do you know how bright a star is? We can’t even look at our
comparatively feeble sun with our human eyes. But you and I, brethren, in the resurrection,
are going to shine so brightly that human beings will not even be able to look at us –
unless we turn our brightness down. That is a promise!
God’s true people are those who may be counted among “the wise” that this adown angel mentioned
to Daniel here. God’s true people are those whose names are “found written in the book.”
(See also Revelation 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12-15; 21:27; 22:19). God’s true people are those who are involved in the turning of many people to righteousness.
Trials are Time Dependent
Earlier, I used the phrase, “no matter how serious our trials may be.” I said that for this reason:
I know that many of you who are going through severe trials right now might be thinking to yourselves, “It’s okay for him to say all this. He's not going through what I'm going through.” You might look at Trish and I and you might think that all is well with us, that we appear to be in pretty good health (fat and sassy!), that we don’t appear to have any major trials, and that we don’t seem to be having our faith tested – at least, not right now anyway.
And you’d be right. Not right now anyway.
But it hasn’t always been that way.
I don’t want to go into the details of our past trials today. That’s not the purpose of this message.
My sub-point here, though, is that trials are very time-dependant!
You might be suffering though some of your trials right now. Whereas
others might suffer some of their major trials at some different
time. We suffered some of our most major ones thirty-odd years ago.
What is for sure, though, is that every one of us is going to suffer through some more trials in the coming years. I am not being a prophet of doom; but we are all going to come to it.
How can I be so sure of this? Because, for most people, the transition from human life into the “first death” is the biggest and worst physical trial of our lives.
Another thing that I was thinking about this morning was how God's church is so disunified right now. I find it very ironic that, although we cannot seem to get unified with each other through our Lord Jesus Christ, as we should; but one thing that we are all totally unified in is that we all have seventy, eighty or ninety years – that same, very limited life-span.
It may seem ironic; but pain and discomfort comes, not from death itself; but rather, with human life! Perhaps the most intense pain and discomfort come with the transition between human life and the "first death" – on the way in – from "pre-life" to human life – and on the way out – from human life to the "first death."
Hence the phrase – inspired by the LORD – through the adown angel and through the pen of Daniel – “Blessed is he that waits.”
Many scriptures tell us the same thing: Wait! Have patience! If and when it becomes necessary, have longsuffering! Many scriptures tell us that longsuffering is part of God’s character and we are to be emulating Him in all things.
Job was a man who must have been one of the most afflicted and tried human beings in all human history. He said that pain and discomfort "come with the territory" of human life:
Job 5:7:
Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
Not just trouble, though! If we look at the Hebrew here, the word is ‘amal’ which is also translated elsewhere as: labour, mischief, misery, travail, sorrow, grievousness, pain, perverseness, toil, and weariness. Life sounds pretty miserable, doesn't it? You can see why Job felt that way. And again:
Job 14:1:
Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
And again, not just trouble; but the word here is a different one than in Job 5. The Hebrew word here is ‘rogez’ which is elsewhere translated as noise, fear, wrath, agitation, excitement, turmoil, trembling, disquiet and trepidation. Doesn’t say much for human life, does it? I guess 'excitement' is the best of the bunch!
From these words of Job, it is wise, I believe, to think back to the phrase that came through the pen of Daniel: “Blessed is he that waits.” Many other scriptures tell us the same thing – that we have to wait, that we have to have patience and, if and when it becomes necessary, we have to have longsuffering. Many scriptures tell us that longsuffering is part of God’s character; and we know that we are to be emulating Him in all things. (Matthew 5:48)
Speaking of longsuffering and patience, I'm sure that we have all heard the saying: “the patience of Job.” Let’s continue reading in Job 14, and read just a little of what Job was inspired to write on this same subject:
1: Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
2: He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down: he flees also as a shadow, and continues not.
3: And {question} do you {LORD God} open your eyes upon such a one, and bring me into judgment with you?
4: Who can bring a clean thing {e.g. life} out of an unclean {e.g. death}? Not one.
5: Seeing his {man’s} days are determined, the number of his months are with you {LORD God}, you have appointed his bounds that he cannot pass;
6: Turn from him {man}, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day…
This rest that Job is talking about here is not referring to the sleep of death. Rather, this appears to be a plea – that Job is asking God to allow man (perhaps Job’s own self, specifically) to survive his full measure of a man's human life-span (which, by Moses’ lifetime, had been generally shortened to between seventy and eighty years (Psalm 90:10).
This appears to have been a plea – a request – a prayer – from Job, asking God not to cut his life short; but that the LORD would give him a full lifespan in reasonable health, so that he could accomplish that which He required of him.
Continuing in Job 14:
7: For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
8: Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;
9: Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.
10: But man dies, and wastes away: yes, man gives up the ghost {human spirit}, and where is he?
11: As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decays and dries up:
12a: So man lies down, and rises not…
What Job is saying here, is that the stump of an old felled tree possesses more natural inherent possibility of continuing life, than a human being does! A mere tree that has been cut down! Having more natural, inherent possibility of continuing life than a human being does!
A human being without God, that is. Verse 12 again:
12: So man lies down, and rises not… till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
Job’s discourse is slowly but surely beginning to turn, from negative darkness to beautiful, positive light!
13: O that you would hide me in the grave, that you would keep me secret, until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
The timings mentioned by Job here – “till the heavens be no more” and “until your wrath be past” – appear to refer to the Second Resurrection rather than to the First Resurrection. This is true for the majority of mankind – those who have not been called, chosen and spiritually begotten by God in this first life. And Job, perhaps in his affliction, or perhaps in his humility, seems to have applied the Second Resurrection timing to himself.
However, from what we read in the rest of his book, we believe that Job has been called, chosen and spiritually begotten by God and therefore that he will be awakened and raised out of his sleep in the First Resurrection – at the time of Jesus’ return.
14: If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
Due to the umpteen-thousand-year space between Job’s death and the First Resurrection, that “change” of Job’s being will be from physical dust to glorious spirit. The apostle Paul was inspired to write on more than one occasion about that same wonderful "change" (I Corinthians 15:51-52; II Corinthians 3:18; Philippians 3:21). We find mention of it again in Hebrews 1:11-12.
Back to Job 14 again:
15: You shall call, and I will answer you: you will have a desire to the work of your hands.
16: For now you number my steps: do you not watch over my sin?
17: My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and you sew up my iniquity.
Uh-oh! He is going negative on us again!
18: And surely the mountain falling comes to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place.
19: The waters wear the stones: you wash away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and you destroy the hope of man.
20: You prevail forever against him, and he passes: you change his countenance, and send him away.
21: His sons come to honour, and he knows it not; and they are brought low, but he perceives it not of them.
One of the saddest trials for a person who is dying is the knowledge that he/she will no longer be around to see the successes (hopefully) of his/her children and grandchildren. But sadly, that’s part of the hand that we’ve all been dealt as physical human beings.
22: But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.
Thankfully, in the modern day, we have medical professionals who have better facilities than they had in the past to help us with those pains.
In so many of these verses, Job’s words seem to be very negative, lacking hope and mentioning God’s awareness of – and displeasure over – man’s sins (as did Moses’ words in his Psalm 90). If we didn’t know what we do know, we would be lacking hope. But we do have hope!
We read from Moses and Job about God’s awareness of and displeasure over man's sins – all of our sins. Please keep this in mind. It is not meant to bring a downer on us, and it is not meant to accuse anybody. I have quoted these scriptures with the desire for you to keep these things in mind, because next time in Part 2, this becomes very relevant to Jesus’ "Comfort" statements which we will get into then.
As we just read, the stump of an old, felled tree possesses more natural possibility of continuing life than does a human being without God.
But even speaking through his pains and trials, Job's words should reassure us (as hopefully they did himself) – that every human being who has been called, chosen, and begotten of God, including all of us here today, the brilliant, positive light of the hope and truth of the surety of the First Resurrection shines right through the darkness of the surety of the "first death." In this regard, verses 13 to 15 of Job 14 are well worth repeating in conclusion:
13: O that you would hide me in the grave, that you would keep me secret, until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
14: If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
15: You shall call, and I will answer you: you will have a desire to the work of your hands.
JHP/pp/jhp