Four Marks of a Healthy Church (1 Thess. 5:25-28)

This sermon was preached on 28/4/2010

As Paul draws his letter to a close, his mind pictures the church in Thessalonica as it meets. In so doing, he mentions three features of their worship service: intercessory prayer, tender greetings and Bible reading. The common thread through each of them is his emphasis on the family tie, expressed in the repeated use of the word ‘brothers’. Then he pronounces a short benediction: ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.’

As we look at these closing verses we can see in them all that a servant of God would want from and for a church. Paul wanted it to be a church marked by prayer for God’s messengers, love for God’s people, attentiveness to scripture, and recipients of grace. These four details are marks by which we can assess ourselves as a church. So we can consider each of them briefly during this sermon.

1. Prayer for God’s messengers

There is obviously a sense in which we should pray for all Christians, so Paul’s request here should not be taken as minimising such a practice. Yet this request reveals several reasons as to why we should pray for God’s servants.

First, the request is a confession of personal weakness. Paul and his colleagues were in Corinth and we know from the Book of Acts that Paul was finding things hard in that important city. Therefore he called for spiritual help in the form of intercessory prayer.

Second, the request is an acknowledgement of spiritual warfare. Although the Thessalonians were distant from Paul in a geographical sense, they were on the same battlefield in a spiritual sense. United together in prayer, they could face the devil’s onslaught. Prayer is not merely intercession for others in the fight, it is participation with them in the fight.

Third, the request evidences a desire for success. What Paul longed for was converts as he spread the gospel. The real proof that we long for spiritual success is that we engage others to pray for our witness and preaching. Preaching is not the fulfilment of a duty, it is the performance of a debt; it is not a shot in the dark, but the persuasion that the message of the cross is powerful. Yet the way of maintaining the right approach is to ask others to pray that we would be successful.

Fourth, the request arises from personal experience of the benefits of mutual intercession. This was not the first time that Paul had requested prayer. He had been serving Christ for several years by the time he made this request and he had known the effects in his own ministry brought about by the intercession of other Christians.

No doubt, there are other aspects of intercessory prayer that could be deduced from this verse. Yet these four features are sufficient to cause us to pray earnestly for those who are spreading the gospel and nurturing churches.

2. Love for God’s people

Paul mentions a practical way of demonstrating brotherly love – a holy kiss. Obviously, a kiss was a cultural way of giving a greeting and all adults would have practised it. While we may wonder about the noun (kiss), the word to consider is the adjective (holy). So what is a holy kiss?

The distinction is not in the physical expression – an onlooker would not observe any difference between a holy and unholy kiss. Instead the difference between a holy and an unholy kiss is internal, both in the person giving the kiss and in the one receiving it.

A holy kiss is given and received by a heart glad to see the other believer. A holy kiss is given and received without favouritism. A holy kiss is given and received without hypocrisy. A holy kiss is given and received without fear. A holy kiss is given under the control of the Spirit of adoption – it is an expression of family love.

The kiss was a cultural expression redefined by conversion, another example that Christianity affects the whole of life. There will be cultures where other gestures will represent the same as a kiss. What matters is not the gesture, but whether or not it is holy.

3. Listen to the Scriptures

In verse 27, Paul addresses the elders of the church and states that they had to ensure that all the church members heard this letter. I wonder in what ways Paul wanted the person to read it. The reader would proceed carefully in case he missed something out, clearly so that all could hear, confidently because he had an authoritative message, and reverently because he was handling a message from God. In what ways would Paul want them to listen? They had to be attentive to the word of their Lord, anticipating a word of comfort or direction from him, appreciative that they had been given such a great privilege.

This verse also answers a very important question: to whom has the Bible been given? It has not been given to the theologians, although they may help us understand it. It is not confined to the clergy, although they tried to prevent the common person from hearing it during the years before the Reformation. The Bible, in a sense, has been given to all who wish to hear it. But primarily it has been given to all the people of God.

4. Look for grace from Jesus

When we think of the grace of Jesus, several of its features will come to mind. First, his grace is saving grace. There would have been unconverted people listening to the reading of this letter. Perhaps they might have wondered how the various blessings described throughout by Paul could come to them. The basic answer to that possibility is that Jesus delights to give saving grace to those who listen to the gospel. None of us deserve to be converted. Anyone who receives pardon from Jesus receives it through grace.

Second, his grace will always be sufficient, which means that we can never enter a situation that will be beyond the grace of Christ to deal with. His grace will strengthen us for whatever happens, which means that we will be able to cope with the various trials that we will go through. Paul was assured by Jesus in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that his grace would be sufficient and strengthening. That event connected to the thorn in the flesh had occurred long before Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians, therefore he could about these aspects of Christ’s grace from experience.

Third, his grace will be Spirit-given: this means that the grace of Christ will be conveyed to us by the living Link between Jesus and each of his followers (the Link is the Holy Spirit who unites Jesus and his people with one another). Connected to this aspect of his grace is the other fact that it will be sympathetic grace because it comes from the one who has already felt what it was like to be in similar situations.

Fourth, Paul reminds his readers that the grace of Christ is sovereign grace; it comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. No doubt, sovereignty reminds us of the power of Christ. Yet it is also a reference to the wisdom of Jesus (he knows how to rule) and the love of Jesus (he cares deeply for all the subjects of his kingdom). This means that the grace of Christ is effective (his power), exactly what it should be (his wisdom), and sensitive to our persons (his love).

Fifth, the grace of Jesus is satisfying grace. The Saviour knows that we have feelings and emotions that require spiritual input from himself. We need the peace that he had promised, the joy that he can convey, the love that he can pour out in our souls. Experiencing in an ongoing manner the grace of Jesus will prevent us from trying to find satisfaction in other sources, whatever they are.

The amazing reality that Paul’s closing words point to is the actions of the ever-present Jesus on behalf of each of his brothers and sisters. Each of them do not merely take steps into the future, they also take steps into the grace of Christ. Their future world is a world of grace until they reach the world of glory, which is where Paul and his beloved Thessalonians have been for almost 2,000 years. May each of us join them when our time comes to leave this world.