Sermon 08/08/04 pm

Jim Huskey, Comfort One Another

As we continue our look this evening at some things in Paul's first

letter to the brethren at Thessalonica, I want us to talk about

something perhaps you've not thought about, but it's something

triggered by some things Paul said in the last two chapters.

Beginning in I Thessalonians 5:6, Paul said, "Therefore let us not

sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that

sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the

night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the

breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of

salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain

salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we

wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort

yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do."

vs. 6-11. Then in the last verse of the 4th chapter, Paul said,

"Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

Have you ever thought why the Lord designed salvation in the church

as he did ?? After all, faith is an individual thing. You can't have

faith for me and I can't have faith for you. Pray is an individual

thing. You may pray in my behalf, but you can do my praying for me.

Commitment is a personal thing. You may be committed, but you can't

be committed for me. I might be committed, but I can't be committed

for you. Christ died for us. "For God so loved the world..." It's

an individual thing. "...that whosoever believeth in him should not

perish but have everlasting life." If you stop to think about it, so

many components of this thing we call salvation could have been

carried out without a body called the Church. Think about that. Could

Christ not have died for you and me on an individual basis ? Of

course. When you get down to it, it is an individual thing. There is

something that caused God to see the need for an extended family.

Have you ever thought about that ? God saw the need for his people to

be a family, for his people to be bonded together. One of the things

Paul said here is "..comfort yourselves together and edify one another."

Did you ever feel like you had something facing you that you just

couldn't do by yourself ? Most folks have, at one time or another.

They say, "Oh, if I just had somebody to whom I could talk !!" "If I

just had someone who would give me just a little bit of encouragement

I might could get through this." "If I had someone who would just BE

THERE, it would help." That, my friends, is what the Church is to do.

That is what the Church is to be. It is to provide, that is, the

members, are to provide that mutual encouragement and that mutual

exhortation to help each other get through those difficult times. Let

me tell you something. You remember back there when God created man?

When God saw that it was not good for man to be alone, he wasn't

speaking sexually, only. We need each other. I know there are some

folks, and I've run across a few of them in my life, who thought they

didn't need ANYBODY. But they're crazy; just remember that; they're

crazy. They do need somebody. We depend on each other. That's the

way God intended it should be. Think for a moment the way Paul has

described for us the Church - the BODY OF CHRIST - and about all the

component parts. Not a single component is the whole thing itself,

yet each of them depend upon the other. When they all work together

and function properly, then the Church is as the Lord intended it

should be. You see, we need each other. You've heard the old

expression "There's strength in numbers." There is !!! You remember

a fellow named Peter ? Do you remember the night of the betrayal, and

where Peter wound up. He wound up warming himself by the fires of the

enemy. Remember that it was on that betrayal night that Peter denied

his Lord three times, the last time with cursing and swearing. Let me

ask you a question. Do you think Peter would have done that if he had

been with John and James, Andrew and the other apostles ? Have you

ever stopped to think about that ? They would have been a support to

him; but in essence he was out there by himself facing the Lord's

enemies, those who had come to condemn him to death, and Peter was

there with them. So what happened? When someone said, 'You're one of

the....'. 'No, no, not me.' But remember what Peter had said in

the presence of the other apostles, when the Lord said he would deny

him ? 'I'm willing to die.' I firmly believe, because the evidence is

to that end, in the garden he whipped out his sword and under normal

circumstances probably would have died on the spot, but the Lord was in

control of that situation. But remember with whom he stood - the other

apostles were there with him. But when he was warming his hands by

the fire of the enemy, the other apostles weren't there and Peter was

on his own. You've heard the old illustration of a father who was

trying to teach his children a very important lesson. He handed one

of them a twig, saying "Break that twig." The child did, with no

problem at all. Then the father took a bunch of those twigs and bound

them together and said, "Now break that." There's a principle there

that has a spiritual application and I believe Paul was making it here

in I Thessalonians. He had already told them of some of the

persecution under which they would go. He tried to encourage them

here and so he said 'You exhort..' The King James Translation in some

places translates it "comfort" but usually there is a footnote that

says "encourage" or "exhort". But the idea is that of bringing comfort

to each other, bring encouragement to each other. We need that. You

notice what happens when somebody withdraws himself from the brethren.

He decides he can "do it" on his own. What happens to him ? He gets

out there by himself and he doesn't do what he should do. He doesn't

go where he's supposed to go, he doesn't worship like he's supposed to

worship. Remember what the apostle Paul wrote to the Hebrew brethren,

when he said they were not to forsake the assembling of themselves

together as the manner of some was, but they were to "exhort one

another" or encourage one another, and so much the more, he said, "..as

ye see the day approaching." You see, the Lord knew man. One passage

tells us that Jesus didn't need anybody to testify of man because he

knew what was in man, and HE DID. For that reason, he knew that we,

standing alone, standing by ourselves, wouldn't make it. You know, we

talk a lot about the apostle Paul and how much he suffered and how much

he endured, but have you ever thought about this? In the first place,

where would Paul have wound up had it not been for Barnabas? Do you

remember when Paul went to Jerusalem after his conversion and wanted

to join himself to the disciples, Acts 9, but they were afraid ?

Barnabas took him. After they hear of the conversion of the people

at Antioch, that the Gentiles had received the word of God, they sent

Barnabas up to Antioch and he went up there and exhorted and encouraged

them, and the record says "..much people was added to the Lord." The

next thing he did was to go to Tarsus to seek Saul (Paul) and he brought

him to Antioch and they "...taught much people." The disciples were

called Christians first in Antioch. Acts 11:25,26. Have you ever

wondered where Paul would have been without those around him? There

was Barnabas....read the beginning of the letter we're in right now -

Paul, Silvanus, Timothy. Read some of the other letters as he listed

the people who were with him. Have you ever wondered why God provided

Paul with such a group of co-workers? Oh, I'm sure Paul was an

encouragement to them, but when I read what Paul wrote about some of

those co-workers I know they were an encouragement to him, and that

Paul fed on that. You see, the Church is God's way of trying to assure

us of salvation. I don't if you've ever looked at it that way, or not.

You could worhsip God by yourself. You remember in the olden days

when they built the altars out wherever they were? That's not the

point. The point is, we need each other. Even in our singing, we're

to teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual

songs. The bottom line is, we need each other !!!! You see, I'm

afraid that in our tattered society the Church has lost some of that.

You go into most congregations today and first of all you find them

segmented. They're not one, they're segmented. There's one little

"click" over here, another little "click" over there, and they don't

have anything to do with this "click". Then there's another little

"click" with whom nobody associates. Then they wonder why they lose

members. It's because the Church is not doing what the Church is

supposed to do. Paul didn't say they were to encourage or comfort

"special" ones. He said "..comfort yourselves together and edify one

another." Remember to whom he was writing. He was writing to the

Church of the Thessalonians, ALL OF THEM !!!!

When we begin to look at the odds, there are not many people in the

world today who are christians in the Biblical definition. They are

in a definite minority. Now that shouldn't surprise us. Those who

have been true to God have always seemingly been in the minority.

"..wherein few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water," Peter wrote.

Noah and his family were in the minority. Jesus said 'Strait is the

gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and few there by that find

it.' So it shouldn't surprise us that we're in the minority. If we

are in the minority already, how are we going to maintain our

faithfulness and our fidelity when we get out into a world that's

against us, if we don't have somebody to lean on and somebody to give

us encouragement and a pat on the back and maybe a kick in the pants

when we need it ?? That's what the Church is...it's an extended

family, for the purpose of helping us get to heaven. When brethren

begin to wake up to that fact, they may see it really works !!! I'm

afraid we've lost sight of that. You see, in the early Church a lot

of folks were cut off from their families when they obeyed the gospel.

Many of them lost their jobs, some lost their lives and those who

survived received encouragment ONLY from their brethren, so they needed

each other. That's what Paul was telling the Thessalonians. Remember

what Paul had endured in Thessalonica. He had to leave there in a

hurry. The christians there were persecuted, so they understood that

well, just how much they needed each other. So Paul said, "...comfort

yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do."

"Wherefore comfort one another with these words." "..edify one

another." Lift each other up, help each other along the way. Let me

tell you something - that advice is needed just as much today as it

was then - and thank God for it.