Welcome to the defender bible study. A weekly encouragement to equip the body of Christ through the study of scripture and prayer to manifest the gospel to orphans and vulnerable children around the world. This podcast is a ministry of Lifeline Children Services, where we believe that defending the fatherless begins by being rooted in God's word. Hello.

Hello. Welcome to the Defender Bible Study Podcast. Today is Monday, May 6, 2024. My name is Chris Johnson. Serve as the vice president of church partnerships and government affairs at Lifeline Children Services.

Today, we are beginning a new book of the Bible. We, have just wrapped up 1st Corinthians, and now we're moving into the second letter that Paul wrote, to the church there at court as we begin to look at second Corinthians. And so, you know, really in first Corinthians, we know that Paul had to deal with a bunch of stuff. Right? He was had to address a bunch of issues.

There were a lot of things that were going on there in church that were not pleasing to the Lord and not in line with with God's design and plan for His church. So Paul had to address those things. And, you know, the the reality is that they continue to, to struggle. They continue to to have issues, and Paul had to continue to be patient with them and caring for them. He had to continue to address needs and issues with them.

We he tells us in in second Corinthians chapter 2 that evidently there was another visit between these two letters where Paul went back and he says about that visit that that it was a painful visit. I know maybe us could probably relate to times that we had to visit people or do certain things that we would classify as painful, but but Paul said, man, it was it was hard. It's it's been hard dealing with these issues and these struggles and and continue to to to try to point you to truth and get you to to walk in the right way. We're we're told also there was probably another letter that was written in between these two, books of the bible that have been canonized. And and so we're we're just seeing that Paul is continually having to reach out, care for, nurture, pastor, shepherd this group at the the known as the church at Corinth.

We know that he had sent Timothy there for a season, and now he's also sent Titus there maybe to deliver this other letter, maybe to to to just really kinda pour into him and try to take the things that Titus had learned from Paul and to implement there in the church at Corinth. And so after this just continual pouring into, finally, Titus is giving has been able to share a good report with Paul. They're finally starting to see things turn. They're starting to hear of repentances taking place. They're starting to hear of of things moving in the right direction.

And it's with that kind of mindset and after getting that report that Paul wrote this letter, that we know as second Corinthians. We see here that that Paul is the author. It says that very clearly in the first verse, written to the church at Corinth. We we know that as well. But we see just his love for this church, his desire to see them do well, and his his wanting well wishes for them.

He says there in verse 1 or verse, excuse me, in verse number 2, grace to you and peace from god our father and the lord Jesus Christ. And so Paul wants to see them walking in god's grace. Paul wants to see them enjoying the peace that comes from walking in a right relationship with God and doing things as God designed. So as we look at second Corinthians and kind of begin this journey into it, we see some themes that are present throughout the book, that is important for us to know and to be watching for as we, continue on in this study. One of those themes that we see over and over again is just the the encouragement to forgive, to forgive those who stirred up the strife, who brought this conflict upon the church, to forgive those who had, caused division and and things to happen there.

There's also Paul wanted to kinda give an update on his plans and kinda what was next for him. He has to reiterate his authority as an apostle. Poor Paul. Right? So many times over and over again, He has to defend himself and defend this calling that god has in his life and so he takes some time even in this book to to just kinda reiterate his authority as as an apostle.

He takes some time to encourage them to participate in giving to support others. Shares the knee shares the need of some other churches and encourages them to to be supporters who will give, financially to help those in need. But then really the the primary theme that we see throughout the book is a theme of comfort and encouragement. Comfort and encouragement. We're gonna in just a minute, we're gonna read this first 11 verses as we dig into this first passage, and you're gonna see the word comfort used over and over and over again, really throughout this whole book.

Comfort and encouragement. And the the Greek word that can be translated kind of either direction there is used over and over again. The verb form of that is used 18 times and the noun form is used some 11 times. So 29 different times, we're we're hear we're hearing comfort and encouragement. And so the theme here that Paul wants to encourage, and bring comfort to, this church here at Corinth.

So that's where he's gonna begin the book, here in the first eleven verses. And so let's look together at these first eleven verses. I'm gonna read through the passage now, then we'll dig into it a little bit and see what Paul has to say, to the church there and ultimately to us as well through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Verse 1 starts, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God and Timothy, our brother, to the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia. Grace to you and peace from god our father and the lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and God of all comfort, 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. For as we share abundantly in Christ's suffering, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort in salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raised the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us.

On him, we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. So Paul here is again, is he's you know, we kinda have this typical Pauline salutation that he, again, is kinda sharing who he is, his love for the people that he's writing to, his, his his, again, his authority as an apostle, of of Christ. So he's he's writing again just kind of sharing from the beginning. But then in verse number 3, he kinda he gives really begins this this this passage with a doxology, a statement of praise.

And so right here from the beginning, blessed be the god and father of our lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all afflictions 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. So he starts off this section just with with praising God. Paul certainly knew the value in of praise. Paul often found himself in difficult situations, but he continued to praise the lord. He continued to sing these songs of doxology.

We know, of course, the time that Paul and Silas were in jail, imprisoned for their faith. And they sang songs of praise, and the Lord ended up bringing the earthquake and breaking them out of jail, through praise. Paul knew that praise had the ability to change things. But praise doesn't always change your circumstances. It did that one time for Paul, but but it doesn't always change the circumstances.

But what praise does is it changes our perspective. You see, when we're in the midst of afflictions and strife and struggles, we often are so focused on what's going on to us, what's going on around us, what's going on in us that we fail to look at at who, is worthy of praise. We fail to to look up. We're so inward focused that we fail to look upward, to our heavenly father. And Paul, I think, is just a a great subtle way that he's reminding him from the very beginning, when you find yourselves in times of distress and affliction, there is there is value in praise.

Praise of our God because praise changes our perspective. It causes us to see things differently. So in this time, this season where he's talking about affliction and suffering, he reminds them really who God is. He praises God for who God is. First of all, he says that that God is our our is our father.

He's the father of our Lord Jesus Christ and we're joint heirs with Christ, therefore those of us who are in Christ, we are part of the beloved. He is our heavenly father as well. And as our father, he desires our best. Even when we're going through strife and going through struggles and difficulties, he always desires our best and his goal is always our best and he's always there for us in the midst of that strife. In the midst of that struggle, we can rest in the in the confidence that God is faithful and that God is there with us as our heavenly father.

But he also says that he is the father of mercies. The father of mercies. Man, I love that word mercy. We know it ultimately means not getting that which we deserve. And and and when he says father of when we see when you see father of anywhere in scripture, it's it's it's speaking of the origination, the originator.

So ultimately, he is saying that that that God is the originator of mercy. He is the father of mercy. All mercy flows from him. We know that it's by his mercy that we're saved, that our eternal perspective has been changed. But it's also his mercy that sustains us to live the life he's called us to live.

Lamentations tells us that it is of his mercies that that we are not consumed. It is of his mercies that we're allowed to to continue to live and even have an eternal perspective of eternity together with him. But then not only are his mercies what keeps us from being consumed, but Lamentations also tells us that his mercies are new every morning. So so we we are able to every day walk in the mercy that flows from, that originates from our heavenly father. So he's father.

He's the father of mercy, but then also god is the god of comfort. He is worthy to be praised because he is the god of comfort. Now when we see this word comfort here, it's not meaning a sense of sympathy. It's not kind of a an idea of feeling sorry for and feeling bad, so I'm just kinda patting on the back and and kinda providing some sympathy and going about. But but really the word comfort, it it's speaking of an endowment of courage and strength.

An endowment of courage and strength. The word that is translated comfort and encouragement, it it's it means to come alongside and help. It's the word really a a version of that that that speaks of the Holy Spirit where Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would be our comforter. He is the one that is our helper. He is the one who comes alongside us in our struggles, our trials, our difficulties to strengthen and to sustain us.

I can't help but think of the admonition that we have in Psalm 121 where the psalmist said, I will lift up mine eyes into the hills where my help comes from. My help comes from the lord, the maker of heaven and earth. And that's what we're talking about here. God is the our god is the god of comfort. He is the god of help.

He is the god of encouragement. He is the god of strength. He is the god of power who endues that power, endows that power into our lives as well. Paul, we know experienced this over and over and over. And we too can can share the same testimony of how we have experienced the power and the encouragement, the comfort of God in our own lives so that now we can continue to walk in that comfort, but then also be a comfort to others.

So what are the things that Paul wants us to grasp from this passage? I think 2 overarching things that we see. First of all, we see that trials are inevitable. Trials are inevitable. We will face trials.

We will face afflictions. We will face adversity in this Christian life. No one is exempt from that. Jesus even said, in this world, you will face tribulation. James 1 tells us to count it all joy when we face trials of various kinds.

No one can no one is is able to, escape the reality of trials, the reality of conflict, the realities of afflictions and adversity in our lives. So so we we recognize that some of these trials come through satanic assault. They come because we are standing firm in our faith. Because we are standing firm in our faith, the enemy doesn't like that. The enemy comes against us through trials and assault.

This happened to Paul. It's it's happening here in this passage. Paul is reminding them of the fact that he stood for truth and is being persecuted for it, that they're gonna stand for truth. And because of that, they're gonna be persecuted as well. You know, some trials come just because of sinful living.

It's the result of sinful decisions that we make, and sometimes we put ourselves in hard places. The way of the transgressor is hard, the book of Proverbs tells us. And we put ourselves in hard places because of our sin. Some trials come through god's discipline. It's part of god's design to to bring us back to himself, and so he'll send us through trials to to cause us to turn and and turn our hearts back to him.

But then I found a lot of trials, maybe even most trials come through God's plan to shape and mold us. Part of God's design to to mature us and to grow us in our faith to help us to become more like him. So we see that the trials are inevitable. We're all going to face these things. And I think it's important that we stop and when we're in the midst of adversity, think through, pray through, and ask God, God, why am I facing this?

And and if it is something because of sin in our life or because of, poor choices that we have made or because of god's discipline that we would surrender to that, submit to that. But if it's because of the attack of the enemy because we're doing right, let us stand firm and strong in that. If it's a part of God's design to mature us and grow us, let's trust in that process and recognize the value that that that comes from trials. Trials are inevitable and that leads to the second point, the trials are for our good. Trials are for our good.

Paul's gonna say later in this book, he's gonna kinda make a statement that really reflects the reality that everything God does is for our good and for his glory. So even the trials that we face and the struggles that we go through are for our good and for God's glory. So what are some things that we learn about trials through this passage that help us see that therefore our good? First of all, we see that suffering identifies us with Christ. Suffering identifies us with Christ.

Notice what he says in verses 5 through 7. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, Paul speaking of himself, if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.

So Paul is saying you're sharing in my sufferings and in my comfort, but you also are sharing in the sufferings of Christ and in the comfort of Christ. The reality is it is a privilege for us to suffer on behalf of Christ. It shows that that our faith is genuine when we endure that suffering. Suffering, oftentimes it weeds out superficial believers. It takes those who maybe had said they had faith, but when they face suffering and life gets hard, they they turn away from that faith and their faith never was real and genuine.

And so when we endure struggle and difficulty, it shows that we are one with Christ. It shows that we are allowing him to be at work in our hearts, in our lives, and it's a witness and a testimony to us as well as to those around us. So suffering identifies us with Christ. Number 2, suffering increases our dependency upon God. Suffering increases our dependency upon God.

Notice verses 8 through 10. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, as the afflict as the of the affliction we experienced in Asia, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril and He will deliver us. On Him, we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

The the psalmist said in another place that it was good that I was afflicted because it drove me to you, god. It drove me to your word. We we look to him as our defender, our help, our strength. We can either rely on ourselves or we can rely on him. You know, Paul says here that that he was in such a place of distress and such a place of affliction that he was concerned for his life.

Says that he was burdened beyond our strength. He was so burdened that he knew that he didn't have the strength to go on. He didn't have the strength to sustain and to and to overcome the the burden that he was carrying. It says that that he that it's got to the point that he despaired of life itself. Then you gotta hear this sense of of of almost a depression and a and a dark cloud that's hanging over him that has him so defeated and so discouraged.

He he says that, that that we we felt that we had received the sentence of death. He basically is saying, we didn't think there was any way out of this. We thought this was the end. And so in that time of being so overwhelmed and so burdened, Paul says, god had us at a place where we were so overwhelmed that we knew that we could not rely on ourselves, but we had to rely on God. And then and then look at what he says.

He says, we relied on God who raises the dead. He recognized that God has the power to bring death to life. God has the power to overcome death and the grave. And so even if we do face adversity all the way to the point of death, we know that we serve a God who can overcome that and even in death, he brings victory. Ephesians 3 20 tells us that him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power that Dunamis, that same power that raised Jesus from the dead, according to the power at work within us.

Who is us? It's us who know Christ. We have a power that's so much greater than our strength, greater than our abilities that we can rely on. So when we face suffering and adversity, it increases our dependency upon God and we have to look to him for strength. We have to look to him for power and for comfort.

Another thing we see about suffering is that suffering strengthens our faith. James says this that that suffering trials produce patience and the enduring of that patience produces maturity in our life. When we endure suffering, endure the trials, we are conformed more to the image of Christ. And then we also see in this passage that suffering benefits others. Suffering benefits others.

Look back at at verse number 4. Verse 4 tells us that who the the the God of all comfort 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. You see, we become an an example to those who are watching us and coming aft coming after us when we trust in God through our suffering. We are when we go through suffering and we are comforted by the power of God, we are able to comfort others who go through things that we have endured. It's good to know that our suffering is not in vain.

You know, so often God God does things in us so that we can be His instruments to bring the same thing about in the lives of others. Let me say that again. So often God does things in us so that we can be His instruments to bring the same thing about in the lives of others. We see that in second Corinthians 5 when he's talking about, the fact that we have reconciled to God. And as we are reconciled to God, we are also called to be ministers of reconciliation.

We take this reconciliation we have received and we then share it with others. The same is true of our comfort here. When we go through suffering and we receive the benefit of comfort from God's word, comfort from the Holy Spirit, comfort from the power of God at work in our life, then we become ambassadors of comfort. We're able to share that same comfort with others. What a joy it is to be used to the Lord in this way.

So many of us could give testimony of times that others have gone through things and then we went through those similar things and they were able to comfort us and then maybe even things that we've gone through that we never would wanna experience again, but God has been able to use us to help others who are going through similar situations. And so suffering benefits others as well. Suffering strengthens our faith, suffering increases our dependency on God, and suffering identifies us with Christ. He wraps up the the passage here with verse number 11, really just kinda stressing the power and the importance of prayer. He says, I'm grateful for the comfort I've received, but, man, I need your I need your prayers.

I need you praying for me. He says, you also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. Paul asked them to pray for for him. Paul regularly prayed for them as well. And so it's important that when we see a brother or sister in faith in in struggle or in strife or in adversity or conflict, we cannot underemphasize excuse me.

We cannot overemphasize, the importance of praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ, praying for one another, and allowing others to pray for us as well. The truth is everyone that we see and everyone that we know is going through something, and and we need to recognize that, be aware of that, be willing to pray for them, be willing to share with them the comfort that we have received. So as we go about our day today, let's receive comfort from the Lord. No matter where you're at, no matter what you're going through, I encourage you to receive that comfort from the Lord, but then let's also seek to be his agents of comfort in the lives of others and let's let him use us for his honor and glory. Let's go to the Lord in prayer and as our prayer focus this week, we are praying for, our government relations and the work that, is being done here at Lifeline, and so we invite you to join us in this prayer.

Dear heavenly father god, we can't conclude this passage of scripture and this conversation today without thanking you, thanking you for the comfort that you provide, without praising you as our father, as the father of mercy, as the god of all comfort. Lord, we are so grateful for the comfort that you continue to provide us. And, lord, there may be someone here listening even today that is going through a struggle and going through a difficult season. I pray that your holy spirit would come alongside them, that you would bring your word alive in their hearts to to to help them to receive the comfort and encouragement that only you can bring. Lord, as we think about the ministry of Lifeline and and pray, Lord, we we are, constantly seeking to advocate for the vulnerable.

We're seeking to stand firm and stand strong in ways that, bring about the good and and provide opportunities for vulnerable the vulnerable to hear the gospel and be discipled in the things of God. And so, Lord, as we pray today, we pray for the opportunities to advocate, for the vulnerable, these opportunities you've given our ministry. We pray that we'd be faithful in these opportunities. We pray that we would do so in a way advocate in a way that that keeps the gospel at the center of who we are and what we do. We pray that you would provide protection for that, that our religious liberties would be protected and so that we'll be able to continue to to do this work to which you have called us.

We pray, Lord, for for children around the world who need advocacy. Lord, we think especially of those kids in China who've been matched with families, and they're waiting and longing to to come home and be reunited with their to be united with their families. And so, God, we pray that those who are standing for them would would would not move away, would not pull away in their advocacy, but that they would stand strong and stand firm and advocate for these children and these families. God, we pray that you again just would bring the right people into office, the right people in the places, God, where they are able to, to to stand for truth, to stand for protecting life. We pray that that abortion would end here in in our country and ultimately around the world, that we would see the importance of protecting and valuing and advocating on behalf of life.

And, God, we know that these things would take miraculous work to happen, but, God, you're the God of miracles. You're the God of all comfort. You're the God of mercy. And so we pray, God, that you would, bring these things about, that you would give wisdom, That you would give guidance. That you would open up doors of opportunity.

And that you give us the faith to walk through them. And all these things God will give you the praise and the glory. For it's in Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Thanks again for joining us for the defender bible study. If you enjoy making this podcast a part of your weekly routine, we'd love for you to take a moment to subscribe, rate, and review the Defender Bible study to make it easier for more people to find. For more resources and information on how you and your church can partner with Lifeline, please visit us at lifelinechild.org. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter by searching for Lifeline Child. You can email us directly at info at lifelinechild.org.

We look forward to seeing you again next week for the defender bible study.