During our worship service there is a place in the Book of Common Prayer (p. 76) that provides four scripture verses that we call the “comfortable words.” As the name implies, these words are there to comfort us, to ease our distress, to give us confidence and assurance. Why do we need that? How does a “comfortable word” provide it?

          First comes the statement by Jesus that all are who are heavy laden should come to him and he will give them rest. In context it says this (11:28-30):

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (ESV)

What is Jesus talking about? He is talking to all of us. We are all heavy laden and wearied. By what? Does he mean by our jobs? Our schoolwork? The pressures of life? Illness? No, not those things, but spiritual things.

          We are weighed down by our sense of guilt, inadequacy, insufficient righteousness, and poor performance in the face of the holiness of God and his perfection. How do we know that is our burden? Every human being who has ever lived has felt that burden, however it may be expressed (see, e.g., Rom 1:18-32). Even the pagans understood, perhaps better than people today, that their lives, their conduct, their actions, their behavior, would not be considered righteous under the scrutiny of divine authority. They had no doubt that some thing, some one, some person or persons, some god or gods, ruled over them and had authority over them, and ultimately would hold them accountable. That is why they made sacrifices to whatever deities they worshiped. This is what Paul spoke to when he addressed the philosophers in Athens (Acts 17:22-34, page 926).

This is what John Bunyan wrote about in The Pilgrim’s Progress:

I dreamed, and behold I saw a man [Pilgrim] clothed in rags standing in a certain place, with his face [turned away] from his own house, a book in his hand [the Bible], and a great burden on his back [his sense of guilt]. I looked and saw him open the book, and read therein; and as he read, he wept and trembled: and not being able to contain himself any longer, he broke out with a lamentable cry, saying, “What shall I do?”

          In the second comfortable words verse Jesus says is that God loved the world, his creation, so much that he took steps to breach the gulf between us and him caused by mankind’s rebellion. He acted where we were impotent. He forgave us and took the initiative with us and for us by joining with us in a unique and inscrutable way through the incarnation. He so loved the world that he gave his only son, that is he gave something most precious, so that those who place their trust and faith in the son, in Christ Jesus, would not die forever but would have eternal life. There is tremendous power, hope, and joy in those few direct and simple words Jesus spoke.

          And though Archbishop Cranmer gave us these “comfortable words” in 1549 from John 3:16, there are sobering words that follow and that really show us just how wonderful the “comfortable” words are (Jn 3:16-21):

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (ESV)

          And then we have one of the many statements from Saint Paul, in which he tells us the statement he is making is trustworthy and should be embraced by all of us. That statement is that Christ Jesus came to earth not to judge sinners, but to save sinners. The time for judgment will come in the future. But that was not Jesus purpose or function in coming to the earth. As he said when he read from Isaiah he had come to proclaim freedom, liberation from the yoke of the law.       

And finally, what could be more comforting, more “comfortable,” than what John the apostle wrote when he said if we sin, he might as well have said when we sin, we have an advocate with the father. We have a defense attorney when we stand in the dock. And that defense attorney is the perfect advocate, truly the only one who could be our advocate in that circumstance, Jesus Christ the righteous.

          And he doesn’t only defend us, he rescues us because, as John said, he is the propitiation for our sins. Now that’s a big word probably not seen much today except in the Bible. But it is a word pregnant with meaning and power. Some Bible translations call it something other than propitiation, something like sacrifice of redemption. And that’s a good way to put it. God is reconciled to us not by anything we do, or could do, but by the atonement, the propitiation, performed by Christ Jesus the righteous.

          And when we put our faith and trust in Christ Jesus, that sacrifice, that propitiation, is transferred to our side of the ledger and we are redeemed. We are justified. God justifies us, not because of anything we do or possess, but because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The vocabulary of the Bible talks about a declaration by God at the last judgment that we are acquitted because of Jesus (e.g., Rom 2:13, 3:30, pp. 940, 941). 
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          So that’s why we call these brief but pithy statements from the Bible comfortable words. Aren’t they comforting, friends, for people like you and me?
 

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​Saint Paul’s – May 16, 2021 Bad Things/Good Things
 
As we observe the weeks surrounding Jesus’s Passion and Resurrection, we walk with his disciples through an amazing period of ups and downs, despair and reversals, and deep mysteries of our faith.  Seven things stand out.
 

• ONE The last supper. John’s Gospel provides a record of Jesus’s final actions and teachings with his disciples over the Passover, the night before he died. In the Upper Room Discourse, he tells them, “Let not your hearts be troubled (Jn 14:27).  He instructs them, “I am the way, the truth, and the life… 14:6. In the course of the Upper Room Discourse tells them three times he expects them to love one another (Jn 13:34, 14:32 15:17), a very significant repetition of his command to us.  He assures them the Holy Spirit will come, 14:16-17, 26, and that it is good for them that Jesus will leave them so that the Father and Jesus can send them this Spirit.
• TWO His Passion and Crucifixion. After their final meal together and after they hear all the profound and amazing things Jesus has to say, his followers then see perhaps the worst day in human history. But in a way could it be said it is the best day in human history? Because it is the day Jesus proclaims, “it is finished.” His once for all atoning work, sufficient for all people, is completed, is accomplished.
• THREE. In the tomb three days. The disciples cower in that upper room for three dreadful days.  Everything they hoped for has been shattered.  The man they followed and loved for three years has been gruesomely killed and is gone. They fear for their own lives. Can we even imagine how they felt?
• FOUR – Resurrection, Easter!! Then on the third day they learn their Messiah has risen from the dead. It is overwhelming, incomprehensible, and joyous all at once.  Their mad rollercoaster of emotions and experiences continues.
  • FIVE – 40 days Jesus is with them. They are reunited with Jesus, he walks with them, talks with them, preaches to and teaches many (500 at once one time). Everything is unbelievably good again, fantastic, wonderful.  But, it does not last, as Jesus then ASCENDS  to the Fahter, leaving them yet again (Acts Chapter 1). But it is what he said he would do (Jn 14:28). He had to leave them; he came down he must return. In fact it is to our advantage, as Jesus said, for many reasons. Because the Holy Spirit will come,  Jesus will be our advocate with the Father, and even so Jesus will be with us to the end of the age (Matthew 28). Yes, his return is to our advantage, but imagine how difficult for his disciples at that time to see this.
• SIX – Jesus sends the apostles sent back to Jerusalem to ….. WAIT! (John 16:7-8). They had been given a specific charge by Jesus to be his witnesses, but at first he sends them back to wait for the Holy Spirit.  Another ten days they are closeted in an upper room, waiting, unsure, in fear.  What must have been going through their minds! They had Jesus, they lost him horribly, then they had him again, and then again they lost him! It is hard to imagine or comprehend what they experienced and how they maintained faith and unity, but they did.
• SEVEN – Pentecost, the church is born!  After those ten long days the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles and they and the whole world were transformed. They set the world on fire. Like them, we wait for the Pentecost, pray for the Holy Spirit, and trust God.

 
John 15:26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. 16 1“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. 3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.
 
The Work of the Holy Spirit
 
“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5 But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
 
 
 

The Gospel St. John 1: 1
IN the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will or man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. 

Tonight, let’s reflect on three things.  (1) God came to be with us through the man Jesus. (2) Jesus is still with us.  (3) Jesus will come again.

God came to be with us
At Christmas we are remembering and celebrating an astounding, amazing fact: God became a man. Why?
From the foundation of the world God had a plan and a purpose.  In choosing to create the world, and to put mankind on the earth, God also chose to create beings in his image who were free to act according to his will or to disobey. What happened?  You know the story, they disobeyed.

That was no surprise to God. But even then God foretold the remedy, “I will put enmity between you [Satan] and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen 3:15, NRSV).
The rest of human history is the story of God’s patient cultivation of his chosen people until, “in the fullness of the times,” Christ came to earth, born of a woman, to carry out the reconciliation of God and mankind predicted from the beginning.

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children” (Gal 4:4-5).

As the gospel for tonight reminds us about the birth of Jesus,

“22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.”

“GOD WITH US.”  Think about that.  God came to be with us, emptying himself of his divine stature and privilege, to become the God man!

Dieterich Bonhoeffer put it this way, “It is only because he became like us that we can become like him.”

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.

How we can we even get our heads around that? 

Have you ever been to an aquarium?  A really big aquarium where you can watch the fish swimming around?  Susan and I got to see the Atlanta Aquarium a few years ago.  You stand by the glass and are at the same level as the bottom of this huge tank in which multiple fish of all species swim by and overhead. Incredible.  It got me thinking about the incarnation of Jesus.  You know, suppose you were the god of the fish and saw that you needed to intervene for them, join with them, to bring about their redemption. If you put on scuba gear and dove in for a swim, how would that work?  Would you be just like them? No, you’d have to become a fish, have gills and fins, and swim with them and like them.  It’s a poor analogy probably, but maybe it works to give us a small image of what God’s action was for us.
But God chose to become just like us to show us what a life pleasing in his sight would be, to obey his laws perfectly, and to make the perfect sufficient, once for all, sacrifice of atonement that reconciled humanity to God.
There was no other way.  No mere human being or beings could accomplish that.  God, as the Bible tells us, became both the just and the justifier of men.

25 Him God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

26 to declare, I say, at this time, His righteousness: that He might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. (KJV21)

Jesus is still with us

So, for a time he was here with us on earth in the person of Jesus.  But here’s the great part for you and me today: he is still here.  He is here, right here, right now.

20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them. (Matt 18:20, KJV21)
Christ has never left us, though he has departed in his earthly body.  He is with us and among us.  He lives in us. 
And he has sent to us the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, the third way in which God shows himself to us and engages with us, to guide us into all truth (Jn 16:13) and to give us the strength we need to love and serve God.

Matt 28:18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”

Jesus will come again
So, Jesus came to be with us on earth.  Jesus is still with us.  And best of all, one day, Jesus will come again.  He will come back for us.  Everyone will see him. Everyone will acknowledge him.  Those of us who follow him will be with him. He promised it.
John 14:3 And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
So tonight, this is what we celebrate with joy in our hearts. 
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. 
The Word is still with us. 
And in the end, we win, because the Word (Jesus) will return for us.
 

Micheal Reeves is one of the foremost teachers and preachers online.  This series is pithy and rich.