Sermon – Three Benedictions

Three Benedictions   

I Thessalonians 3:11-13; 5:23-24; II Thessalonians 3:16   

 

A message delivered by Rev. Don A. Wicks, PhD,  at Faith Gospel Church, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, on the occasion of its 74th Anniversary,  May 5, 2019

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Note on the history of this congregation:

From the introduction to the booklet “Now Faith Is…” (which I had the privilege of putting together in 1995 on the 50th Anniversary). I was Pastor of Faith Gospel Church from April 1991 through August 1997.

This church actually began 17 years earlier on Oct. 7. 1928 at a home just north of the RR track – as the Bartonville Mission, an outreach of Philpott Tabernacle.  By 1945 the congregation was ready to officially form as a church, with 18 charter members. and Rev. George Parker as pastor (at $17/mo + his phone bill paid by the church).

Highlights in following years included:

  • the church basement completed in 1954
  • the upper portion in 1964
  • 1965 attendances: Sun. School 168; 30 in Cub Pact
  • in my time: AWANA Club had 30 children, Morning Worship 40; Ladies Fellowship 12;  DVBS attracted 30 kids

Our 6 1/2 years were fulfilling and are remembered most fondly.  The fellowship was rich; I appreciated being able to preach and to visit and counsel and be there for the funerals and weddings and baptisms; three of our children were baptized at Faith; the opportunity for our sons to gain some initial experience as Awana helpers was important in their spiritual development. You continue to be in our prayers.

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Today, I want to speak on some themes found in I and II Thessalonians.  I think these scriptures are appropriate for an anniversary service, and for a former pastor to share, because these letters are so personal and of the prayers they contain.

I say that the Thessalonian letters are personal and chatty, informal letters, much different from Romans or Hebrews. These are letters between a pastor/evangelist and his people, expressing a shared testimony and a shared suffering. I like the personal nature of these letters.

But what caught my eye in particular was the fact that there are three benedictions in these two short letters.

Now, according to the dictionary, a benediction = the utterance or bestowing of a blessing, especially at the end of a religious service; a prayer asking God for help and protection; an utterance of good wishes

Biblical benedictions also contain exhortations, encouragements to do something that will be good for the hearers and for others and which will bring honour to God.

  1. Benediction #1

11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you, 12 and may the Lord make youincrease and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, 13  so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. I Thess 3:11-13

This benediction has three components.

First: “direct our way to you”

Paul and these people had a past. Paul had visited Thessalonica, a town in northern Greece in AD 49 or 50 while on his 2nd missionary journey. Silas and Timothy were with him. After evangelizing in the local synagogue, with several becoming believers, there was a riot as some Jews tried to stop the new mission. Paul and Silas were smuggled out of town and went on to Berea, then Athens. Paul, worried about the new believers in Thessalonica, sent Timothy back to see how they were doing. by the time he reported back, Paul was in Corinth and from there he wrote both Thessalonian letters.

So, when Paul says he hopes that God will direct his ways to them, he is, in effect, declaring the companionship, the sense of belonging to one another, that exists between him and this congregation. A bond existed. There are lots of personal details in the letters:

  • 2:8 – you are very dear to us
  • 2:11 – like a father to his children
  • 2:13 – we thank God constantly for you
  • 2:17 – we were torn away from you
  • 2:17 – with great desire to see you face to face
  • 2:18 – we wanted to come to you, again and again

He frequently uses the word “brothers” when addressing them. He recalls the teaching he had shared with them. He boasts about them (II Thess. 1:4).

It is a precious and wondrous thing to be part of a fellowship of believers. I don’t know about you, but for me my time here was a good and timely fit, and the bonds are still there. Thus, my prayer would also be that God would from time to time direct our way to you.

Second: “Increase & abound in love”

3:12 finds Paul’s expressed desire that they increase and abound in love for one another and for “all” (the whole human race – everyone). “And abound” means that the love will grow and overflow – an over-and-above type of love.

It should not be too hard to love one another. We spend time together, get to know one another, work alongside each other, appreciate certain things about each other. But, sometimes familiarity breeds contempt – we also find annoying habits or traits in the people we know best. So, we need to pray for each other in this regard.

Also, it is not always easy to love everyone else we come across in life. Paul wanted them (and us) to love “all” people. These are people we don’t know and have not directly benefited from, in most cases. For a church family, the “everyone” would certainly include those who live in the neighbourhood.  Do you ever pray for the strangers who live in the vicinity of this church? for the person you nod to at a stop sign, or the one you meet at a convenience store, or at a community activity? To do so would be to love them. Even before we can reach them with the good news of Jesus, we are to love them.

Third: “establish your hearts blameless in holiness”

“Establish” is sometimes translated “strengthen” but also carries with it the idea of “console”.

“blameless in holiness”- two words that go together and mean the same thing.

This consolation and holiness are formed in us when we live with a conscious awareness and expectation of Christ’s coming (“at the coming of our Lord Jesus”). The blamelessness and holiness we are to have, then, is being formed in us now, part of the process of sanctification. If we know you are coming to our place for a visit, we sweep the floor and make sure the dishes are cleaned up, and my desk is cleared, and the beds are made with fresh sheets, and our best towels are out, etc. If I am living with the realization that Jesus and his saints and angels will come in glory one day, I keep my life in order. This we ought to pray for one another.

So, Benediction #1 has a personal hope, a desire to see the people increasing in love, and a prayer for their sanctification.

  1. Benediction #2

23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your wholespirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord_Jesus  Christ.24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. I Thess. 5:23-24

This one has two requests that Paul presents to God.

First, “sanctify you completely”.

Second, “be kept blameless at the coming…”

Yes, if this sounds familiar, it is because the same prayer as we found in 3:13. But notice the way he refers to God in v. 23: “may the God of peace”. Peace suggests harmony and inclusiveness. God is the Father of peace in the sense that He is the real author of harmony, but also in that He is the one perfectly integrated personality who exists (John Stott, The Gospel of the End of Time, Intervarsity Press,1991 p.132).

This God wants us to be fully integrated, fully holy in all aspects of our being. This is why Paul says “[may He]sanctify you completely” – meaning “through and through” –  and “may your whole spirit & soul & body” be blameless. The idea is that our whole being needs to be made holy and blameless.

John Stott (p. 133) puts it this way, “..The former [word, namely “completely”] implies ‘a totality from which no part is excluded’ and the latter [i.e., “whole”] ‘an integrity in which each part has its due place and proportion’.”

Combining all three words “spirit and soul and body” also emphasizes this thoroughness. God’s plan is to make us completely holy – holy in spirit, soul, and body.

            SPIRIT = holy in our understanding, obedience, and communication with God

            SOUL = holy in our emotions and likes, attitudes, and unique personality

            BODY = holy in our material being and our actions

This ultimately is accomplished by the application of Jesus’ righteousness to us, but in the meantime we are to grow, make progress, become established as blameless and holy. Such should be our prayer for each other and such should be what we would like others to be praying to be happening in us.

So, now we have a benediction wish and prayer for

  • having times when we can be together in person
  • expressing love for one another and the world around us
  • being firmly and wholeheartedly holy in all our being
  1. Benediction #3

                  16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all. The grace of our Lord_Jesus Christ be with you all.  II Thess. 3:16, 18

The third benediction is in the second letter, ch. 3, vv. 16, 18. It is for peace and presence.

This time it is the “Lord of peace” and this time the desire is for the Thessalonians to have God’s own peace in themselves, all the time.

“Lord of peace” refers to Jesus Christ, the One known as the Prince of Peace.

Ephesians 2: 14 For He himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down_in his flesh the  dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in Himself on new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to_ God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And He  came_and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

  • He brought Jew and Gentile together in peace.
  • He brought all believers into peace with God.
  • Previously in II Thessalonians 3 Paul had addressed a problem that existed in that church. Some people there were working hard and others were loafers. He had warned the lazy ones that discipline may be necessary. This problem threatened the unity of the church. Whatever threatens unity needs to be faced and dealt with. Thus, Paul’s wish for these folk was for harmony in the body of believers.

Only God can give us a peace that is present at all times and in all places. Only the Lord Jesus can give us any of the prayed desires found in these benedictions. Thus, “the Lord be with you all” (3:18) is the ultimate benediction – pray for the presence of the Lord with your fellow Christians.

Presence: v. 18 – “The Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” Some translations have “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.” (as in I Thess. 5:28).

Stott says, “One cannot read the last three verses of this letter without earnestly desiring for contemporary churches what Paul desired for the Thessalonian church, namely the peace, the presence and the grace of the Lord.” Stott then asks, “Is it possible?” and he answers, ‘Yes, if we maintain the primacy of the Word in the life of the church.

This was his prayer in II Thess. 3:1:
Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of  the Lord may speed ahead and be honoured, as  happened among you.

And the word is emphasized elsewhere, too.

I Thess. 1:8 – the Word of the Lord had sounded forth from this church to their province of Macedonia and to Achaia to the south.

I Thess. 1:13- They had received the Word of God – heard and accepted it not as the word of men but of God.

Faith Gospel Church has a history of honouring the Word of God. This is seen in the centrality of preaching in the worship service, the teaching of our children in Sunday School, children’s church, and Awana clubs, the reading of the scriptures, and so on.

The Word has an effect upon us.

In other parts of these letters, Paul had urged them to obey through living morally-upright lives, living in anticipation of the Lord’s return and in confidence of God’s ultimate victory over sin, in unity, and in love and at peace with one another.

If I had a letter or two to write to you, I could say nothing better or more important than

  • that we remain close and be able to see one another from time to time,
  • that we increase in love for one another and others in the world around us
  • that we show evidence of an increase, a through-and-through setting apart to God and His purposes in us
  • that we experience and enjoy God’s peace in our hearts, brought to us by the Lord Jesus and by the anticipation of His soon return

Consider the benedictions  of these letters as what God wants and hopes for Faith Gospel Church as it enters its 75th year.

PRAYER