Peace and Grace To You

Well, let's take our Bibles and turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. As we close this book, just a real quick word here. after we're done with this in a couple more weeks we'll start a series i think i think that's my plan on fear and worry i think that frankly long before the pandemic hit us i have sensed that there's a lot of people in our congregation that struggle with fear and worry and so i figured it's time we talked about that so So in a couple more weeks, we'll head down that path.

All right? 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, beginning in verse 16, reading through verse 18. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. this is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine it is the way I write the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all let's pray Father as we look at these words we pray that you would give us hope that you would help us to understand what we need to do and having done that to look to you for help thank you now for your word Lord use it we pray use it in Jesus name Amen no doubt as you looked at the bulletin when you got it this week by the email you picked it up this morning you looked at it and said to yourself he's got to be kidding he's going to preach on the closing words of this letter this text is merely Paul closing his letter using the same words or similar words that he always uses when he ends a letter Pastor do you really think there's something to be said about the closing of a letter?

Seriously. Couldn't you just read it and say, okay, let's move on. Well when I close my letters I usually use the same words or similar words almost every time And I written just about everybody in this congregation just about everybody You can do that if you've been in the place for 35 years, and some of you have gotten more than one. And you will notice that almost every time I write a letter, I close it with, Your servant in Christ, Tim Pasmo.

That's always followed by a citation of Acts chapter 20, verse 24, which says, But I do not account my life of any value, nor is precious to me, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I receive from the Lord Jesus to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Oftentimes, I'll include the statement, May God bless as you seek and serve him. Now, even though it may be the same closing words and the same verse in almost every single letter I write.

I do want to communicate particular truths, even if I've written to you 50 times and you've seen those same words. I do. My intention is to communicate something to you that every time you get a letter from me, you're going to think about the fact that it's good to be a servant of Christ, that your life is not only good as long as you're dispensing or doing the ministry that God has given you, and frankly, every once in a while, that God bless you as you seek and serve him.

I want you to get that message every single time I write a letter. It isn't for me just the closing of a letter. And so that's what Paul does here. I don't think he's just closing a letter like he always does. I think he really closes a letter with the similar words he uses all the time. Not always the same words, but pretty similar.

And he wants to communicate something to us. Now, as Paul closes this letter, really quickly, let's recall what 1 and 2 Thessalonians is all about. The congregation in the city of Thessalonica, you remember, is a championship congregation. They're doing a lot of stuff right. They had a reputation for transformed lives and for sharing the gospel. They handled affliction well.

They had a great affection for the gospel messengers and for the gospel itself and for one another. Yet the champions still had room for growth. They struggled with sexual purity and the need to pursue holiness. They had to learn, some of them at least, the dignity of hard work and independence as opposed to laziness. They needed to comfort and encourage one another with the news that Jesus is coming in victory They needed to learn about joy and prayer thanksgiving and good works In the second epistle he coaches them on to the finish by praying for them and reminding them of the coming day of perfect, just vengeance on enemies and then insisting that they renounce ways of laziness and get to work.

Now, he closes this letter with prayer, with prayer and blessings. And again, he wants to communicate truths to us in these closing words. In fact, here's what he does. He tells us what we should ask for if we want to finish well. He tells us, he's telling us here what we should ask for if we want to finish well. This is what he's asking for them so that they finish well.

This is what we need to be asking if we want to finish well in order to remain faithful to God when times are difficult. What should we be asking from God? It tells us four things. What are we asking for? Peace, presence, truth, and grace. Peace, presence, truth, and grace.

Those are the four things that he's asking for, for this church. These are the four things that we need to ask. for as we continue if we want to be faithful i remember a speaker we had at our bible conference many many many years ago in fact it was our very first bible conference john armstrong i remember him saying every church is just one generation from being dead from going bad and so in difficult times that's especially true when the culture is pressing in to conform to its views, its values, then we need to remain faithful. And in order for that to happen, we need peace, presence, truth, and grace.

All right, so let's look at this. We need to ask God for peace. He says it this way, now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. What kind of peace is he talking about? We need to recall the situation into which these words were written because the Thessalonians had become disciples of Jesus through the ministry of Paul and Timothy and Silas their lives had been turned upside down they were faced with hatred and persecution their friends and their families their employers had ostracized them they were left out of things They may have even lost their jobs It appears as we look at the first epistle that some of them had even lost their lives in standing for the gospel They found their comfortable lives tossed in every direction.

So Paul says that he's praying for peace, a comprehensive peace that affects everything and is their experience all the time. He's praying for peace for them, not internally, but the peace that could happen in their social situation. The peace that comes, that the hatred and the persecution might cease, that the ostracism might end, that their lives would settle down.

That's what I think he's asking for. He's praying for that kind of peace. Now, we too long for peace, especially now, don't we? We have seen the unjust killing of people right in front of our eyes in the media. We have seen people killed unjustly right on the screens in front of us, not just once, but a number of times in the last couple of years. We have witnessed the chaos of riots and looting.

And if that were not enough, the very fabric of our society and our relationships has been torn by the spread of a virus, right? It's everything right now seems to be tearing at us. And we need to be praying, if you will, for peace. And notice, may the Lord of peace himself give you this peace. It is the Lord. It is only possible if Jesus, the Lord of peace, intervenes.

Now, he may intervene providentially. He may give us a president or governors or legislators or other people who can bring calm to the situation. Some of us are old enough, at least I am, I remember the summer of 1968 when whole cities were burning. Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, Los Angeles. Tons of cities at the death of Martin Luther King. Tons of cities were in flames.

I remember those times. And then calm ensued eventually. God may intervene providentially and bring peace. Okay, that's great. However, lasting peace only comes through the gospel. as the Spirit of God conquers human hearts. Listen, we can have that kind of peace that comes providentially.

Alright? People that can step up and calm the water. But guess what? You look at 1968 and you look at now, and I'll tell you what's happening, things like racial prejudice still are in human hearts. And we ought not to expect that any amount of reform and education or anything else is going to bring permanent peace. It's not going to happen.

Why? Because violence and hatred are born into the human heart, and it only grows in that human heart. It's restrained providentially, but only permanent peace comes through the gospel, through God conquering hearts of people, through the good news of their King Jesus. That's the kind of peace that we long for, isn't it? Not just the peace of everything being calm, but actual conquering of the hatred of the human heart.

Why should we pray for that kind of peace? Why should we pray for peace anyway? Turn over, if you will, just the next page or two to 1 Timothy chapter 2. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says here. 1 Timothy chapter 2, the very first two verses. First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

You see what he's saying there? When a society experiences peace, we can live. It's much easier to live quiet, dignified lives, and it's much easier to live out the gospel and to minister the gospel. It's much easier if there's societal peace. It's easier. Let's face it.

You know, in Paul's day, there was a thing called the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome. For 200 years, there was peace across the Roman Empire. That was during the Apostle Paul's day. You know what happened? The gospel spread like wildfire. Why?

Because there were safe highways. Because there was safety everywhere. You didn't have to worry that much about barbarians bursting in on you and killing you. Right? There was peace. And so he says, it's much easier to live in those times of peace.

We ought to pray for that. We ought to pray for that. You know what And I think I fear too many of us have a romanticized view of suffering that suffering will really really make things grow And sometimes it does Often it does, OK? Often it does. But I think we have a romanticized view. I remember my heroes growing up.

I remember my first couple of years here, on the door of my office was this huge poster. It was about like that big and that wide. and there were pictures of about that big of all the Russians that were in prison for the gospel. Right? Those are my heroes. Those are my heroes. I looked at those men who stood for truth and paid the price.

Those were my heroes. And I think I had a romanticized view so that in 2003, when I was asked to go and teach in Romania, my attitude was, well, I'll put something together. I'll do what you want, Dave. But who am I to teach these people? They've been through suffering. What have I got to offer?

You know what I found out? Here's what I found out. That they knew perseverance. They knew faithfulness. But they had very little view about how to organize a church scripturally. They didn't have their families.

Their families were not real happy because no one had taught them truths about how to live as a family, as a disciple of Jesus. Because there was constant pressure. You see? And so in one sense, in one sense, we can romanticize suffering. Now, don't get me wrong. If God brings suffering, he can do great things through it.

Right. One of the church fathers wrote that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of growth. And that's true. That is true. And and and so there is good things that come from suffering. but he says I want you to have peace peace when when you have peace you can settle down you can learn things you can put them into practice much easier you see so we ought to pray for peace pray for peace that's what we need to be doing if God chooses not to give us that then we'll trust him for that and learn the lessons we need to learn in suffering but this time pray for peace he goes on.

We need to ask God for Jesus' presence. May the Lord be with you all. That's the next thing he asks of God He wants the Lord to be with them Well you know what Jesus has already promised this before he ascended to his throne Again turn in your Bibles to Matthew 28 Matthew 28, familiar words, we know them by heart, but let's review them. Matthew 28, verse 18, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, says Jesus.

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. teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you and behold I am with you always to the end of the age. Jesus promised his presence with us to the end of the age. Jesus was and is Emmanuel, God with us. In the midst of conflicts and confusion we are never alone.

Jesus is with us. All that we do as a church, we do with the powerful presence of Jesus. We are never alone. And our confidence must never rest in our abilities or our ministry schemes or our brilliance. We cannot put confidence in those things. We must put our confidence in Jesus, his presence and his power. now look I may spend hours in study and I may agonize in writing sermons you must understand writing a sermon is pure agony you maybe don't understand that it just is and 90% of the time maybe greater percent I'm being honest with you now can I be honest with you? no Tim tell us lies no I'm going to be honest with you 90% of the time I finish and I say no one's going to want to listen to this before I get up to preach I'm extraordinarily nervous and I pray I pray one thing every Sunday every Sunday when I get up I go over my sermon I pray when I come in here in the last song I'm praying I'm praying oh God please do something with this because it's not up to me.

I can't accomplish anything unless you choose to work. That is truth there folks Unless God chooses to work it useless No matter how listen there have been a few times where I thought this is good And oftentimes you know what happens It falls right in front of the communion table Doesn't get any farther than that. There are incredible amount of times where I'm going, oh God, I cannot preach today.

I didn't spend enough time. It's just not organized right. And man, it'll take off like wildfire. I've learned after 35 years it's entirely up to God what he's going to do with that sermon entirely up to him I am absolutely dependent on the working of Jesus in anything some of you can almost probably see it the corner out there where there's a sign that talks about Bible Club it's melting now in the rain it's melted a few times it's kind of wrinkled and everything else but back in some of the young people have had a Bible Club here for the last several Thursdays.

And I'm telling you right now, it doesn't matter if that sign's melting out there. If Jesus works, nothing can keep it from being successful. Right? Nothing can keep it from being successful if Jesus is at work. Well, someone says, well, then why pray if Jesus has promised his presence? Why even pray about it?

Because he can be here bringing all his power with him and we act as if he's not even in town. We still act as if it depends on us and all the nifty things we can do and if we cover all our bases and get all this done. And we don't even think of Jesus being at work. But prayer expresses our dependence on him. It says, Jesus, we know you're with your church, but unless you work, we cannot succeed.

We pray for the presence of Jesus. We ask him to work. We need to tell him. He has given us an impossible task to accomplish. I don't know about you, but that's what I'm convinced of. When Jesus says, go and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey everything I've commanded, I want to say, that's impossible.

You know why? Because it is. Unless, unless Jesus shows up and does his work. and prayer expresses our dependence to him when we say, Lord Jesus, this is impossible. It cannot be done without your help. It'll never succeed unless you work. Please help us.

And so we pray for the powerful work of his presence. The Lord be with you all. Verse 17, we need to ask God for truth. We need to ask God for truth. I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. This is the sign of genuineness to every letter of mine.

It's the way I write. Oh boy, get some spiritual lessons out of that. There's something going on here. There really is. Why does Paul tell everyone that he's taken the pen in his hand and written the last few words? Why does he do that?

In Galatians he says, see how big the letters are. Which means some people from that think he may have had something wrong with his eyes. And so when he picked up the pen to sign it, it was big letters that he would write. Be that as it may, what's so important about him taking up the pen and writing these last few things? saying, here, this is genuine, this is mine, this is, I, Paul, write this with my own hand.

Why is that important? Well, listen, most authors in that day employed an amanuensis. That's right, I've been practicing that. Amanuensis. What does that mean? That was someone that was employed to write their letters.

That is to say, in And amanuensis was a secretary or a stenographer who would write the words of the letter as the author dictated them. Okay? So Paul was in the habit, just like most authors were, of dictating his letters. And there was an amanuensis, a stenographer, who would write them down. For example, Paul dictated the epistle of Romans to a brother named Tertius.

Did you know that? You know it. if you get to the end, Romans 16, verse 22, all of a sudden you see this. I, Tertius, who wrote this letter, greet you in the Lord. I don't know what happened. Paul was probably going off to get a drink of water. He'd been talking for a couple hours.

He probably went off to get a drink of water, and so Tertius said, hey, I'm just going to let everybody know, hey, the guy who wrote this letter greets you in the Lord, right? Did you know that Silas, who's part of Paul's mission team, eventually ends up with the Apostle Peter working with him because it Silas who writes 1 Peter That is he the one who takes the dictation from the Apostle Peter Because you read Peter says this in his epistle in chapter 5 By Silas, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God, stand firm in it. So Silas, who's on this team now, eventually ends up with Peter and he's the guy who wrote 1 Peter, listened to Peter dictate it, and he wrote that epistle, 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 12.

Often the author would write by his own hand the greetings at the end. It was common for an author in those days, when he got close to the end of his dictation, would pick up the pen and write in his own hand. There's many letters that you can see the difference in the handwriting as he brings it up. Paul mentions Paul says it's his own hand because his letter was read in public at a public gathering and not everyone could see it but they could all hear it as as whoever was designated to read whoever was designated to read this epistle to the Thessalonian congregation would come across this I Paul write this greeting with my own hand because they couldn't see it he was reading it so they all knew Paul had written that letter.

Now you say, Pastor, what's the big deal? Why does Paul say that? Here's why. It goes all the way back to some statements that Jesus made, and we find them in the Gospel of John. So I want you to turn there. Turn to John chapter 14.

What's going on here has its roots back in the words of Jesus. John chapter 14. Let's look at that real quickly. In John chapter 14, verses 25 and 26, here's what Jesus says. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you, but the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you now folks that is not a promise to you and me that's not he's not promising that the spirit's going to bring everything to our remembrance this is a promise to the apostles who were sitting there and he saying to them don worry about it here what here what the holy spirit going to do he going to teach you and he going to bring to remembrance all the things that I said What the implication So that when you write you write my words You'll write what I said.

You'll write the authoritative word from God. Turn over to chapter 16, verses 12 through 15. Here's what Jesus says again. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. when the spirit of truth comes he will guide you into all the truth for he will not speak on his own authority but whatever he hears he will speak and he will declare to you the things that are to come he will glorify me for he will take what is mine and declare it to you all that the father has his mind therefore i said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you now again this is not meant for us.

This is meant for the apostles. He's telling them, right? He's telling them that they're going to say exactly what Jesus would have said if he was sticking around. What's the point? The point is, when you read the epistles, you're reading what Jesus would have told you if he was still here. The Holy Spirit has told the apostles what to write.

Now, not dictation, mind you, but as they write, they are writing what Jesus would have said. What's the point? The point is this. When an apostle speaks, he speaks with the authority of Jesus, the Lord. His writings carry with it the authority of Jesus himself. That's the point.

Now, you remember what had happened to the Thessalonians, remember? Turn back in this epistle to chapter 2. Okay, verses 1 and 2. Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

Now do you see what's going on here? Paul asserts that this letter is his. I'm writing this. I write this so you know it's from me. Why is that important? Because then it is the true apostolic word and thus it has the authority of Jesus behind it They had gotten another letter or something that wasn from him Well how are you going to combat that You going to say I an apostle I tell you what the truth is And you know this is from me because I signed it.

That's what's going on. So the point is, how do you combat false teaching? How do you combat teaching that can shake our faith and cause alarm? How do you do that? You combat it with the apostolic word. the true word of God. The church can stand faithful to the end if we cling to the authoritative word of God.

The word of God must reign supreme in the public preaching and teaching of this place. The word of God must rule in all our private face-to-face and counseling ministries. As you talk to each other face-to-face, listen, you've heard me say it, all of us are counselors. It's the nature of being a human. You're always helping other people. And when you're face to face and you're giving someone advice, you know, you need to tell them what the Word of God says about their situation.

Or at least lay out the parameters of Scripture so they can make a wise decision. But you don't abandon the Word of God. Don't go, don't go to the store and buy the latest copy of some magazine that tells you the 10 most effective ways of being a dad. Go to the scriptures. That has to reign supreme. In our public ministry, in our private ministry, we need the authoritative word of God.

And so we must pray that the truth of God's word will always guide us as a church because if we abandon that, we fail. Now there's the last thing he tells us that he prays for us, that we need to pray for. We need to ask for grace, right? We need to ask for grace. What is grace? Well, many believe it's the unmerited favor by which God saves us.

And it is that. It certainly is that. Romans chapter 3, verses 23 and 24. Romans 3, 23 and 24. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now notice, we are justified by His grace as a gift.

Grace means unmerited favor. God doesn't look with favor on you because you've done so many good things. He doesn't look at you and say, oh, your good deeds outweigh your bad. He says, you're all bad, and I'm saving you by grace. That is, it's a free gift. So it is unmerited favor, but I would suggest to you that it goes beyond that.

The way grace is used means that it's more than just God's favor. It is his unmerited free gift of power available to all believers. His unmerited free gift of power. 2 Corinthians chapter 12 is a good example of that. 2 Corinthians 12 verses 8 and 9. You remember what Paul said there.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this that it should leave me. his thorn in the flesh. The Lord gave me a messenger. There was a messenger of Satan, a thorn in the flesh. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me what? My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. There you see grace and power being equated. that my grace is sufficient to get you through the difficult times. So grace grace begins with God accepting us but it continues with God empowering us not because of anything that we do right Not because of anything we do Again the Roman Catholic doctrine tells us that grace is yours if you earn it It's bizarre.

That's not grace then. It's not grace. If you make sure you're at the serving of Mass, you get grace. right if you are if you do certain things God will give you grace as you you know go to confession all those other things that's not grace grace is God's unmerited giving to us he freely gives us the power that we need okay grace is God's power given to us not because of anything we have done to receive it, but given freely to us in Christ Jesus.

And so he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. You need grace. You will always need grace. You will need grace because of your sin. You will need grace because of your weakness. We need the grace of God or we will not finish the race well.

We need it when we face hatred for our beliefs we need it when we face hatred for our beliefs we need it in our struggle against false teaching and seductive lies we need God grace if we will grow and live godly lives in this present evil age and as we war against the flesh and the devil we need god grace for that or we will not succeed we need it if we want to continue as a loving community of jesus disciples let's face it we need god's grace to live with one another don't we yeah we do grace as john newton has put it grace has led us safe this thus far and grace will lead us home. We need to pray that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ will be with us all. So, as we conclude, as we close the book on the Thessalonians, we need to say to ourselves, we want to finish well.

We want to finish well. And we will, with peace, presence, truth, and grace. So like Paul, we need to ask Jesus, the Lord of the church, to give us these things. We need to be praying for these things. We need to be praying that God give us these. May God help us to pray and to pray for the right things.

Father, we come to you now and ask you for these things. Right now, we ask you for peace we live in everything's in an uproar now and lord if you choose to keep it that way we know you give us the grace we need to flourish in it but we do pray for peace We pray for peace that there would not be obstructions in the way of ministering the gospel to your people and to those outside of the covenant community. We pray for the presence of Jesus.

We pray that he would show us the power of his presence in our midst, Help us to look for that, to depend on it, to expect it. Father, we pray for truth. It is too easy to be swayed from what the Word of God says with all its authority. Too often we dilute it with other ideas. Too often we abandon it. And Lord, we are just as capable as churches in the past who've left the faith.

Please keep us in the truth. we pray for your grace give us grace we pray each day we find ourselves weak each day we find ourselves falling prey to the seduction of sin we desperately need your grace help us we pray and so we ask for these things expecting that you will work and expecting that You will bless. Help us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.