Living Life in Light of Jesus Return: A Parting Request,

Greeting, Charge, and Blessing

1 Thessalonians 5:25-28

The Reverend Dr. J. Ligon Duncan III

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to 1

Thessalonians chapter 5. As we come to the end of this letter, we've
studied it all along under the rubric of Living Life in Light of the
Return of Jesus and now in the final few words the apostle Paul is
going to give us again important counsel and exhortation and
encouragement for the living of the Christian life. Next Lord's Day,
God willing, we will begin a study of 2 Thessalonians under the
rubric of Enduring Trials in Light of Jesus Return. And so Paul
picks up on some of the themes that we've already been introduced
to in 1 Thessalonians and reintroduces them in another context in 2
Thessalonians.

But if youre like me, sometimes you don't know exactly how to end
the letter. You put a lot of thought into the content of that letter, you
want to express your love and your respect for the person to whom
youre writing; you don't know exactly how to end it. And it's very
apparent that Paul knew exactly how he wanted to end this letter.
Also, there's an indication if you look at verse 27, that Paul himself
actually picks up the pen and finishes the writing of this letter
himself. The content of what he says in verse 27 and 28 indicate to
us that this is in Paul's own writing. His normal practice was to have
an amanuenses, a secretary, who took down the words that he
spoke as he dictated them out loud and wrote them in a nice, Greek
hand so that they were very readable to the churches as they were
sent around, and then it was Paul's practice to sign the letters or
write the last few verses of the letter in his own hand so that people
couldn't come up with false letters and attribute them to Paul. Isn't it
interesting that the churches of Asia Minor got to the point where
they could recognize Paul's writing? They said, Ah, that's Paul's
What would they have said? Is that Paul's scrawl? Would they have
said it was scrawl or was that Paul's elegant hand? I don't know
which it was but they could recognize Paul's writing. He indicates in
one of his letters that he may have written in extra large letters just to
let them know now, This is Paul writing here at the end of this letter.

Well in this letter, the apostle Paul has some very important
exhortations and encouragements for us, even in the very end, in
those final words that so often, in our letters, are kind of throw-away
language that we just sort of pick up from social custom. You know,
you end with a Yours sincerely, or a Yours something else. Well
Paul's ending is filled with significance for the Christian life. Let's
pray before we read it.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word. We ask that You would help us to
remember that the privilege of hearing it read in our own language is
a true blessing. There are tens of thousands, hundreds of
thousands, even millions of people in this world today that have
never heard the Word of God read in their own language out loud.
And so we pause to thank You that many of our forbearers gave their
lives so that we could hear the Scripture read aloud in our own
tongue. We pray then, that by the Spirit, we would respond to it by
believing You, trusting in the Word, and understanding it, having it
applied to our own hearts by Your grace, so that we love it, and
believe it, and live it, in Jesus name. Amen.

This is God's Word. Hear it in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 beginning

in verse 25:

Brothers, pray for us.

Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the
brothers.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, and
inerrant Word. May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

Now in these parting words, the apostle Paul manages to give us a

request, a greeting, a charge, and a blessing. In four sentences, a
request, a greeting, a charge, and a blessing, and I'd like to look at
those four things very briefly with you this morning.

A PARTING REQUEST

First of all, if you look at verse 25, the apostle Paul gives a parting
request. Before he goes, he has one more request to make of the
Thessalonians. And what is that request? It is a humble plea for
prayer. Brothers, pray for us. Now before we get to the plea itself, I
want you to notice to whom he addresses it. He addresses it to
brothers. Now this is one of three times just in these four verses
where Paul uses the word, brothers. Brothers, pray for usgreet
the brothersI charge that this letter be read to all thebrothers. And
we need to pause and think about what that means for a moment.

First of all I want to address my sisters in Christ this morning. If you

are a woman in Christ today, you are a brother. Every woman who
believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is a brother, just like every man
who is united to Christ is a Bride. There are different terms that are
applied to all of God's people in the Scriptures in order to bring out
certain truths about the blessings that God has heaped upon us. We
are all part of the Bride of Christ. Men and women both, who believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, are part of the Church, which is the Bride of
Christ. Were all Brides. And every sister in Christ is a brother. That,
first of all, means that we are a part of the family of God. But
especially in that culture where daughters did not inherit, it indicated
that even sisters in Christ are brothers because they are united to
their elder brother, Jesus Christ, just like their earthly, physical, male,
Christian companions are inheritors, co-inheritors with Jesus Christ.
So if you are a woman who believes in Jesus Christ today, you are a
brother. And Paul is addressing, every time he says brothers, he's
speaking about you just as well as the mal members of the
congregation.

But especially, Paul is drawing attention with the use of this language
brothers, to the fact that we are a part of a family. We have been
brought into a fellowship; we are a part of the household of faith, the
family of the living God. Christ is our elder brother and we are part of
God's household. But in this plea, he specially pleas for prayer. And
you will remember, we've seen Paul say to the Thessalonians
already three times that he regularly prays for them. The letter
begins, if you look back at chapter 1 verse 2, the letter begins with
Paul telling the Thessalonians that he thanks God for them
constantly in his prayers. So he begins his letter by saying, I pray for
you, Thessalonians. And then if you look at 1 Thessalonians chapter
3 verses 12 and 13, he tells you again exactly what it is that he
regularly prays for them - that the Lord will make them increase and
abound in love for one another and that He will establish their hearts
blameless in holiness before their God and Father at the coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then just a couple of verses above our
passage, if you look at chapter 5 verse 23, he tells them again what
he prays for them that the Lord would completely sanctify them at
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul tells the three times
that he prays for them.

And then he closes this letter by saying, Would you please pray for
me? And I want you to think for just a moment about the humility
and the reciprocity of that plea, of that request for prayer. It's a
humble thing, isn't it, to think of an apostle asking a congregation to
pray for him. Paul had been caught up into the third heaven and had
seen things which a man is not allowed to say, he had been invested
with apostolic authority, he had seen Jesus Christ face to face on the
road to Damascus, he had been given Christ's authority over all the
churches, he had the capacity to do miracles, he could speak in
tongues, give real prophecies, and give words of knowledge and yet
he says to this congregation, Would you please pray for me? Why
did Paul do that? Because he believed in prayer. He believed in the
power and efficacy of prayer. The apostle Paul knew that God was
sovereign but he also knew that God exercises His sovereign
providence over the world and over the church through means. And
one of those great means that He has given is prayer so that we can
say that almost no blessing comes to us that does not come to us
through prayer. Paul believed in prayer and he coveted it for himself.

And the apostle Paul knew that he needed prayer because of the
work that he was in. He was peculiarly vulnerable to the assaults of
Satan and so he asked for prayer from the congregation. There's a
humility in that and there's a reciprocity in that too. I've been praying
for you, Paul says. Would you pray for me? Your pastors and staff
and deacons and elders pray for you monthly, weekly, and even
daily. Our staff never gets together when we do not pray for you by
name. Now it takes a long time for us to pray for you by name
because there are a lot of you, but we do that every time we get
together. You can bet on Tuesday morning between nine and ten or
maybe a little bit later, you are being prayed for regularly by your
staff. When the deacons gets together and the elders get together on
their meetings, monthly, they pray for you. The shepherding groups
pray for you. There are all sorts of contexts in which you pastors,
your staff, your deacons and your elders are praying for you. May I
ask you, on all their behalf, pray for them? And may I be specifically
greedy and ask that you pray for your ministers? Your ministers
stand in special need of prayer. I have been acutely aware in the last
two or three years of the spiritual warfare and the Satanic opposition
which we face. And there have been many times where I have felt
that the difference between standing and falling was prayer, that the
only thing between me and collapse was the prayer of God's people.
Pray for your ministers.

Two weeks ago we had an ordination service and we put the vows
that ministers take in the ordination service bulletin just to show you
the things that they vow to God. One of the things that every minister
in the Presbyterian Church in America vows is that we are pursuing
the ministry, in so far as we know our own hearts, out of a sincere
love for Christ. But my friends, even in the hearts of ministers, love
for Christ can wax cold. And we need prayer that our hearts just
like Elizabeth Prentiss led us to sing just a few moments in that
wonderful hymn, More Love to Thee, O Christ, that our hearts
would not wax cold in love to Christ. So pray for your ministers. We
need it.

Paul says, Brothers, pray for us. Come to the prayer meeting and
pray for us. If youre not involved in a discipleship group, come to the
prayer meeting and while youre praying for the needs of the whole
congregation, pray for those who shepherd your souls. David Felker
will be preaching the prayer meeting in September and many of the
ministers will be involved in assisting in that service. Come and pray
for the shepherds of the church in prayer meeting. Come to the
prayer meetings that happen during the services on Sunday morning
and pray for the shepherds of the church. Come to the Saturday
morning prayer breakfast for men and pray for the shepherds of the
church. Brethren, pray for us.

A PARTING GREETING

Secondly, if you look at verse 26, Paul adds to this parting request a
parting greeting. He's asking his greetings to be delivered to the
congregation and he says, Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.
Now the holy kiss was an expression of love and fellowship. It was
part of that culture. We know some cultures today where, when you
greet people, there's a kiss on either cheek or on one of the cheeks.
That's a part of many cultures today. There are even sub-cultures
within the south where that's a very common greeting. In ministerial
culture today, there's a lot of hugging going on. Ministers will get
together for a fraternal and big bear hugs will be exchanged between
the men, but that differs culture to culture. Derek Thomas was
amongst us for fifteen years and his British sensibilities never did
catch on to hugging! He was always stiff as a plank when a hug
came! (laughter) And you know, even in Britain today, sometimes
youll stick out your hand to shake hands and it's like they don't know
what youre doing. Different cultures have different physical
expressions of fellowship and respect and affection.

Well Paul's speaking of one which was apparently common in this

culture, the holy kiss. And he said, Greet all the brothers with a holy
kiss. In other words, he's saying, Convey our love, convey our
greeting, convey our affections. And don't just do it verbally, express
it tangibly. Show the love and kinship and fellowship of the Gospel
not only by genuine, gracious, warm, verbal expressions, but even
show them by culturally appropriate physical signs. Paul's doing this
because it's so important for us to understand that the local church is
supposed to be a community of mutual love and affection. The
Gospel is to create a family and that's to be expressed in the life of
the local congregation where we're genuinely glad to see one
another and we want to express that.

It's easy to experience that and express that in smaller circles in the
church. Perhaps you've been meeting with a group of friends for
many, many years with whom you've prayed and you've shared
triumphs and disaster, joy and heartbreak, and it's easy for you to
hug one another or shake hands or cry in one another's presence or
you naturally break into a big, beaming smile when you see one
another. But outside of those circles, perhaps you've not so
deliberate in expressing your delight to be a fellow member of the
local congregation. All of us ought to be deliberately committed to
cultivating a strong, loving fellowship in this congregation and
expressing it, not just verbally, but with other culturally appropriate
physical, tangible expressions. That's what Paul is saying to this
congregation We send our greetings; show those greetings, that
love, that sense of kinship and fellowship tangibly, from us to you
and to one another.

A POWERFUL CHARGE

Third, if you look at verse 27, Paul gives a powerful charge here and
when the commentators get to verse 27 they are all struck by the
language that he uses. And the ESV catches it very potently I put
you under oath before the Lord. Now we're not used to hearing that
kind of language addressed to us in the context of church. More
often we would hear that language in a courtroom. I put you under
oath before the Lord. What in the world is he about to say? Here's
what he says to have this letter read to all the brothers. Now
friends, if I were to write a First Epistle article and open it by saying,
I adjure you all, I put you all under an oath before the Lord, to have
this First Epistle article read publically before the church, the elders
would be knocking on my door very quickly. I don't have the authority
to do that, but the apostle Paul did because he was an apostle,
because he was invested with that authority by the Lord Jesus Christ
and because he was very aware that the words that he was
speaking, the words that he's speaking are God's words.

Look back with me to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and look at verse

13. We also thank God constantly for this, that when you received
the Word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as
the word of men but as what it really is, the Word of God, which is at
work in you. In other words, Paul is keenly aware that he is not
merely speaking human words, that under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, this letter that he is sending to the Thessalonians will not
simply be listened to by the Thessalonians but will be read by
millions and millions of Christians for thousands of years until Jesus
comes again as divinely inspired Scripture. This is a word both about
apostolic authority and it is a word about the authority of Scripture.

And it shows the importance of the Word of God to us. Do we realize

our need for the Word of God and our need to sit publically under the
Word? Do you remember one of the last things that Paul said to
Timothy in his letter to Timothy? He said, Timothy, give attention to
the public reading of Scripture. Now he said other things to him, but
one of the things he said was, Give attention to the public reading of
Scripture. Now there was a time in Western culture, and especially
since the Protestant reformation, when it would have been almost
impossible to conceive of believers going through a week without
reading the Word of God or hearing the Word of God read. But
today, when we all have twenty copies of the Scriptures lying around
in our house, we probably read the Word of God less than ever
before, and it is not uncommon for Christians to get to church on
Sunday and not have read the Bible at all during the week. And this
means that the reading of the Word of God is more important than
ever. This is one reason why we don't just read the Word of God at
the time of the sermon but we read a healthy portion of Scripture
every Lord's Day because the Word of God is a means of grace. And
this very word that Paul says, charging the leaders in the church
there in Thessalonica to read the Word publically to that
congregation, is an indication that that congregation needs the Word
of God to be read to them.

A PARTING BLESSING

And then fourth and finally, if you look at verse 28, Paul ends with a
parting blessing. He bestows an apostolic benediction. So there's a
parting request Pray for us; there's a parting greeting Greet
one another with a holy kiss; there's a parting charge Hear the
Word of God read publically to you all; and then there's a parting
blessing, an apostolic benediction The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ be with you. Paul used that benediction in almost every letter
that he wrote. It is his common benediction. We might even say it's
his favorite benediction. Now notice something. Turn back to verse 1
of chapter 1. How does Paul begin this letter? Grace to you and
peace. And how does he end the letter? The grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ be with you. He begins with grace and he ends with
grace. Why? Because grace is the blessing that we need. Grace is
not just something that we need at the beginning of the Christian life
so that we are forgiven for sins; it's something that we need to live
the Christian life.

What is grace? Grace is God's free gift to us in Jesus Christ, that in

Christ, He lived for us a life that we couldn't live, He died for us a
death that He didn't deserve, so that we might receive a forgiveness
for which we did not pay, and an eternal fellowship with Him that we
did not deserve all at His expense, freely given. God's grace is
both forgiveness and power. And throughout this letter, Paul has
been expressing that our growth in the Lord, our maturity in the faith,
our sanctification in holiness is dependent upon God's grace being at
work in us. And so he concludes the letter by saying, Grace to you.
He calls us back to the Gospel. John Stott said this, If a local church
is to become a Gospel church, it must not only receive the Gospel
and pass it on, but also embody it in a community life of mutual love.
Nothing but the grace of Christ can accomplish this. And so Paul's
last word is grace to you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with
you because that is what we need.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for these parting words of Paul, not
just to the Thessalonians but to us. We ask that You would make us
a people of prayer, a people of mutual love, a people who love and
sit under Your Word, and a people who live and move and have our
being in the free grace that You provide. We ask this through Jesus
Christ, our Lord. Amen.

As Paul points us to the Lord Jesus Christ in this final benediction,

let's take our hymnals in hand and turn to number 647 and sing,
How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds.

Do you feel that weakness that John Newton sings about? Weak is
the effort of my heart? Well then, receive the Lord's benediction.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.