Comfort, yes, comfort My people

What comes to mind when you think of the word "comfort"?  Was there a time in your life when someone drew alongside you and gave you comfort?  Was it a gesture, a comment, a look?  Comfort has many forms but for our purpose I am going to focus on words that comfort.  For example, someone may find themselves waiting to hear from the doctor about a biopsy result.  To hear the words, "it's benign," provides you with comfort.  Or maybe you are waiting to hear from the surgeon about the cancer that you were recently diagnosed with.  You may not sleep at night.  To hear, "we got all of it," provides a strong measure of comfort.  

The church at Ephesus was particularly concerned for Paul because he was in prison.  A Roman prison was harsh and deadly.  Naturally they wanted to hear some news of how he was doing.  They were afraid for him.  Their thoughts may have kept them up at night too.  Some may have been praying for him.  Some maybe not.  

So, he sent Tychicus.  Paul writes to them saying, 

    "But that you also may know of my affairs and how I am doing, Tychicus, a beloved brother, and faithful minister in the Lord, will make all things known to you; whom I have sent to you for this very purpose, that you may know our affairs, and that he may comfort your hearts."  (Ephesus 6:21,22)

Tychicus was sent four times in Scripture!  (Eph 6:22, Col 4:8, 2 Tim 4:12, Tit 3:12)  Twice we read that he was sent to comfort.  To provide words and to listen to words for the purpose of comfort.  And how much comfort he must have brought!  Paul was doing well and wanting to know how they were doing.  One man sent on missions of comfort throughout the mediterranean world.  What a guy.  What a role.  The traveling comforter.

The Greek word for comfort in this verse is "parakaleo" - one of the primary words used to describe the Holy Spirit.  It means "to call to one's side - to beseech, urge, exhort, comfort". Through Tychicus God has given us a palpable example of the work of the Holy Spirit.  Tychichus gave comfort, but even moreso the Holy Spirit gives comfort.  What words has He said to us?  An entire book!  For me, Romans 8:29,30 are just such comfort - Predestined, called, justified, glorified - all in aorist tense - completed actions done in the past.  So, by Divine Decree, God has already concluded the matter, I am already glorified.  It's a done deal.  That will help me sleep at night!  The real Comforter.

Loud And Smelly

 Both Elijah and John the Baptist not only had shared doubts, but they probably looked similar too!  Both were Wilderness Men - wearing who knows what and eating who knows what.  They were likely hairy men, bearded with a rough appearance.  They spent much of their days out in the wild.  They would be men that we would not naturally, on first appearance, go toward.  In fact, we would go toward them only if we needed to.  Doesn't that fit!  If I was walking down the street and saw a hairy man with leathery skin and a booming voice ahead of me, I would calculate how to get around him.  Not wearing the refined clothing of the day or of the cities, he displays an appearance of being outside the normal hum of life.  He does not fit in my circle.  

As we look upon John the Baptist, we do not feel the tug on our pant leg while our child says - "Daddy, please take me to the wild, dark, smelly, hairy, loud, harsh looking man!  I want to meet him."  It is not our first inclination to go toward a man like this.  It is not our first inclination to go toward John the Baptist.  It is not our first inclination to go toward repentance.  But it is to the unknown, to the scary looking man, to whom we must go.  We must go out to meet him.  

John finally declares who he is to the Jewish inquisitors.  He is -

    "the voice of one crying in the wilderness"  John 1:23

Prophets Have Weaknesses Too

 It is worth looking at these two prophets from long ago - Elijah and John the Baptist - to see how identical they appear to us in the Bible.  Both had moments in which they would falter in their faith.  After his triumph on Mount Carmel, Elijah ran from the threats of Jezebel.  He ran a long way.  He ran way back to the mountain at which God gave the Law, Mount Horeb.  Elijah sadly ran back to a fleshly way of thinking which of course took him back to the Law.  That is what the flesh does.  It runs to the Law to try to justify itself before God.  It wants to lean on its own righteousness.  It is only fitting that God would ask Elijah, "What are you doing here?"  It would be wise for us to hear God asking us the same thing when we are justifying ourselves, leaning on our own righteousness.  "What are you doing here?"  We are not under law anymore - we are under grace. 

In the very revealing seventh chapter of Luke, we see that John the Baptist also stumbled by doubting that Jesus was the Christ, the Coming One.  He wondered if there was someone beside Jesus who would be the actual Messiah.  So, he sent messengers to Jesus asking if He was the very Christ Himself.  He wasn't sure.  He had doubts about God.  

For both of these men, God answers their failing faith by showing them more of Himself.  Elijah finds God in the gentle stillness - just what his heart needed.  His heart needed to stop the storm of self-focus and self-pity.  So God quiets him.  John finds God as the fulfillment of Scripture - just what his heart needed.  He needed assurance, so God gives it.  It was more convincing for Jesus to show that he was the fulfillment of Scripture than to merely say, "I am the Messiah."  

Prophets Call People To Turn Back

Continuing in our look at John chapter 1 regarding repentance, we find the Jews asking if John the Baptist was Elijah.  No doubt the Jews were remembering Malachi 4:5,6 which says:

    "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.  And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse."

Elijah is the best example of an Old Testament prophet.  To the average Israelite in those days, if one asked for the name of a prophet from the history of their nation, most would reply Elijah.  By looking at Elijah's crowning moment on Mount Carmel, we see the distinct role of a prophet in the mind of God.  The primary role of the prophet is to call people back into relationship with their God.  When it became Elijah's turn to offer the sacrifice on the altar he had made, he prayed a simple but powerful prayer:

    "Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word.  Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again."  1 Kings 18:36-37

Notice His purpose in this prayer.  It is to show the people that their God is turning their hearts back to Him.  A turning back to God.  This is the pathway of repentance.  Repentance at its root means "to turn".  So, we find that the ministry of Elijah is exactly what we find John the Baptist doing.  He was triggering repentance.  Though Elijah and John the Baptist were not the exact same person, if you were to place them side by side, you would find that their ministry would be identical.  It was time for the people to turn again.  What time is it for us?

He Was Unknown

Now let us turn our attention to the book of John as we further explore this mandate of repentance.  John 1:6 introduces us to John the Baptist.  He was the man sent from God.  Don’t miss that comment.  God sent this forerunner.  The text goes on:
“This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe.  He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.  That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.”  John 1:7-9
The Scripture is clear - that all through him might believe.  More appropriately we would say that it is the message that John the Baptist brings that opens the way to belief.  He bore witness of the Light.  This is what the ministry of John did.  It pointed to Light.  Considering the contrary of this is helpful. Without John the Baptist, the nation would not have a witness of the Light.  Nothing to show the way to the Light.  As a result, there is something utterly peculiar about John’s ministry that pointed to Jesus.
Let us walk through the section in John 1 beginning at verse 19.  John the Evangelist tells us the testimony of John the Baptist.  It begins with Jews sending their leaders to John who was outside of Jerusalem to ask who he was.  "Who are you?"  When John the Baptist appears on the scene of first century Palestine, the nation did not know who he was.  One of the keys to this passage is to see John the Baptist as the personification of repentance.  Who he was in the plan of God is summed up in the word "repentance". The Jews did not know who this was.  He was unknown to them.

Power Outage

Having looked at the end of our present age, we find that the people of the earth will experience much pain, suffering and death.  Daniel 12 helps us catch another glimpse of God's purposes during this time.  The last chapter of Daniel sets forth the the purpose of the Tribulation as it concerns Israel - Daniel's people.  Daniel asks, "how long shall the fulfillment of these wonders be?"  Daniel's prophecy says,
    "Then I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever, that it shall be for a time, times, and half a time; and when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished." (Dan 12:7)
The image of the man clothed in linen emphasizes the absolute authority and certainty of his following statement.  What he is about to say is a fixed point, never to be altered, in all eternity.  Israel's self-will, self-drive, self-preservation will be utterly destroyed.  They will have no strength of their own to stand before their God.  Done!  Every corner from which self-power rises will be removed from the nation as a result of God's working in the Tribulation time period.  The Jews will find themselves so persecuted, that they finally as a people will be broken.
Our old friend Jacob - the self-driven, supplanting conniver - who, in part, embodies the spirit of the people of Israel will finally surrender to God.  The Tribulation is actually referred to in the old testament as the time of "Jacob's trouble" (Jer 30:7)  It is interesting to note that his name was changed when he wrestled with God.  His name became "Israel" which means "he who struggles with God and prevails." All of the struggling of the holy people will find its God-appointed end when Christ returns at the end of the Tribulation.  They will be broken, but they will not be destroyed.  They will truly be Israel.  Here is a key.  Emptying someone of their own power is the first step toward seeing the Messiah.  We see Him more clearly when our own power is shattered.  Israel could not see Him the first time because, as a nation, they retained their own power.  There will come a time.  They will yet see Him. . . when they will have no more of their own power.

They Did Not Repent

Continuing in the book of Revelation, the very last book of the Bible, we are still finding God's call for people to repent.  That place of the first step.
Midway through the seven years of judgment / Tribulation, we read "the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.  And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts."  Rev 9:20,21.
People just kept right on living lives of debauchery and egotism.  No relenting.  No turning.  No repenting despite God's judgment bearing down on them.  Even right up to the final judgment of the people on earth, we read that God is looking for repentance.  So important is this one action that God will tighten every last screw on the life of a person to, if possible, bring them to the point of repentance.  Man, woman, child.  him or her.  me or you.
Seal, trumpet and bowl judgments have been cascading down upon the people of earth throughout Revelation.  By the very end, with only 4 judgments remaining, we hear the familiar refrain.
"Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire.  And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over the these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory."  Rev 16:8,9
"Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain.  They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds."  Rev 16:10,11
Five verses later, we read of an angel pouring out the final bowl saying, "It is done!"  Judgments have their conclusion also.  The end of this last judgment finds the heart of those remaining on the earth unchanging.  There is nothing further to do.  They did not repent even when given such evidence of their need and their opportunity.  God has been patient for thousands of years.  God has been merciful.  God has been faithful.  God has been persistent.  God has been beyond accusation.  God.