COMFORT
Jim T Brown
John 14: 16-17
The economy, as revealed, brings with it a great system of comfort, in which the Persons of the Godhead individually and, one might say collectively too, administer comfort and grace to meet any given situation. The Lord Jesus knew what it was to be without comfort. Psalm 69 says, “I looked for sympathy, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none” (v 20); He found none, and so how well able the Lord Jesus is to comfort His own, in whatever situation they may find themselves. He was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their faces; - despised, and we esteemed him not”, Isa 53: 3. But this very Person, the One who died and shed His precious blood, is available now to administer comfort to each one of us in our need. How very affecting that is! The Lord Jesus says in John, “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe on God, believe also on me”, chap 14: 1. I suppose our faith is involved in that. Peter refers to “the proving of your faith, much more precious than of gold which perishes”, 1 Pet 1: 7. The proving of our faith can involve a good deal of testing exercise but at the same time, we feel the comfort of the Lord Jesus.
Later in this chapter, the Lord Jesus adds, “In that day” - that is, our day - “ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”, v 20. We are thus introduced into a great realm of comfort, solace and divine affections where we can know the reality that we are in Him. It suggests that what is in the Father and in Christ is made available to us as conscious that the Lord Jesus is in His Father’s affections and we are in His. What a system of comfort therefore opens up to us.
But there is something, too, for the heart of the Lord Jesus. He was once without comfort, as Mr Darby says in his poem,
Thou soughtest for compassion -
Some heart Thy grief to know,
To watch Thine hour of passion -
For comforters in woe:
No eye was found to pity,
No heart to bear Thy woe;
But shame, and scorn, and spitting -
None cared Thy name to know.
(from “The Man of Sorrows”)
The Lord Jesus knew what it was in that extreme sense, which we can never ever in our feeble human minds comprehend, to be without comfort. There was the unbroken communion He enjoyed with His Father, during these years of service, but then for those three terrible, incomprehensible hours on the cross, He knew not one particle of divine comfort or sympathy. What a thing to comprehend! Israel too had rejected Him and His own had deserted Him. But then, we have that remarkable scripture in Genesis 24 that “Isaac was comforted after the death of his mother”, v 67. Thus, while the Lord Jesus knew what it was to be without comfort, He now has the satisfaction of being comforted, and He finds that comfort in the assembly, in those whom His precious work has secured for Himself. And I suppose each Lord's day morning in particular, there is something for His own heart. Psalm 110 concludes,
He shall drink of the brook in the way;
therefore shall he lift up the head (v 7)
- that is to say, the Lord Jesus is refreshed by what He receives in affection from His own. There is something for our own hearts as we taste freshly the love of Christ and the fulness of it, but what sometimes perhaps we underestimate is the comfort and satisfaction which the Lord Jesus Himself now finds in those who love Him, until that glorious moment when He comes to take His bride to be with Him forever.
So in John 14 we come to this wonderful word, “And I will beg the Father”. How affecting that one divine Person should “beg” another that a third divine Person might be made available to those who were dear to the heart of Christ. “He will give you another Comforter” - a Comforter who will be with us for ever. What assurance that gives us. Even in eternity the Holy Spirit will be with us.
By the Spirit all pervading,
Hosts unnumbered round the Lamb,
Crowned with light and joy unfading,
Hail Him as the great “I AM”.
(Hymn 14)
But He serves us now. He is “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him nor know him; but ye know him”. How blessed that we should know Him. We know His service, we know His comfort, and we know His guiding into all the truth. We know the Lord Jesus and prove His many different services towards us. We know Him as High Priest and we have recourse to Him at the throne of grace (Heb 4: 15, 16) to find seasonable help and to gain comfort thereby. But we know the Holy Spirit too; “He abides with you, and shall be in you”. How wonderful that a divine Person can actually abide in those in whom God has wrought. It is only as you ponder these scriptures that their immensity comes into your heart. The Holy Spirit will doubtless have His own recompense and joy when the assembly, which has been the subject of His solicitude down through the dispensation, and has in unison uttered with Him that longing cry, “Come”, is eternally united to the Lord Jesus as His glorious bride.
And then we have access to the Father of compassions. The Lord Jesus knew what it was to find comfort from His Father in His pathway here. Towards the end of His life, when all had left Him and fled, the Lord Jesus could say, “I am not alone, for my Father is with me”, John 16: 32. What a comfort that must have been for the Lord Jesus, to know that His Father was with Him. There was the opposition and hostility of men but the Lord Jesus had that blessed assurance as He made His way to the cross that His Father was with Him. As His children, we too experience the compassion and paternal care of our heavenly Father. How fine it is therefore that the Father has an answer to His own desires: “the Father seeks such as his worshippers”, John 4: 23. The Lord Jesus found that woman in Samaria and she became a worshipper; what a joy that would be to the Father.
There is a scripture in Acts 9 that comes to mind: “The assemblies then throughout the whole of Judaea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, being edified and walking in the fear of the Lord, and were increased through the comfort of the Holy Spirit”, v 31. One of the great services of the Spirit, therefore, is to comfort local assemblies. So that collectively as we gather, in whatever way, we can have some sense of the comfort of the Holy Spirit and being edified thereby. How much there is to cause anxiety and concern, but how fine when we are together, and we do prove it, to have a sense of divine comfort and assurance.
Our brother mentioned a recent bereavement in prayer. What comfort those who sorrow can find from the service of divine Persons. Scripture says as to the fatherless that “their redeemer is mighty”, Prov 23: 11. Ruth found in God One “under whose wings thou art come to take refuge”, Ruth 2: 12. In the sense of loss which bereavement brings, there is recourse to One who is mighty.
May we be encouraged by the service of each Person of the Godhead as administering comfort in this way. One of the great titles of the Lord Jesus is “Father of Eternity”, Isa 9: 6. How fine to think of the Lord Jesus as exercising fatherly care and love in the millennial day. No doubt the disciples in some way experienced it in His pathway here; but we have the assurance of His sympathies now, the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and all that is made available to us by the Father of compassions. Indeed we can prove the help of “the God of all encouragement”, 2 Cor 1: 3.
Edinburgh
7 November 2017