Alba 9-10-2023
HOW TO SAY GOODBYE
Ephesians 6:23-24
People don't write letters as much as they used to do. We do more texting now on our phones. It is really kind of sad since a lot of good conversation between people will be lost in the netherworld, if there is such a place.
Every letter has an ending. The way to end a letter depends on who is writing it and to whom it is written. For example, on the website “Indeed Career Guide” it says, “Ending a letter clearly and professionally is important as it is the last thing your audience will read.”
They suggest the following Professional Closings: Thank you, Regards, Respectfully, Cordially, With gratitude,
or Best regards.
And for a more casual closing, they offer: All the best,
Thanks, Talk soon, Best wishes, Warmly, Have a good day/evening/weekend, and Many thanks.
They suggest not using words like: With love, Yours truly,
Love, or Always if it is a professional letter. But of course, those would be proper ways to end a letter to a family member or good friend.
Letters could include just some normal everyday stuff. Or it might have something that later is of historical interest. I have a number of letters that my father wrote to his mother and to his aunt when he served as a soldier in the Great War, World War I. Although any real information was limited due to espionage concerns.
He often used postcards provided by the Red Cross for soldiers. The last note he wrote when he was returning from the war is dated May 29, 1919.
Here is what he said, “Well I am on the ocean and expect to land by the first. So I think I will be home soon. I have had a good trip so far. I don't suppose I will have much to time to write after hitting shore. So you may not hear anymore from me as I would probably beat it home anyway. I escaped sea sickness again this time, though more of the boys were sick this time. Just passed a boat headed the other way. Well space bids me close. Verner H.”
It is just a simple note, but gives me insight into what my father was experiencing long before I was born. His closing words, “Well space bids me close”, are true. He barely had room to write them.
I am glad that when the apostle Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesian church, he apparently had enough room to say all that he wanted to say and what he wished for the church.
It is not a simple closing to his letter. It expands on all that he had previously written to them.
It is found in Ephesians 6:23-24, where he writes: “Peace to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.”
What a beautiful way to end his letter. Although I am not sure that “indeed Career Guide” would have approved, except that it was very important as the last thing in his letter that the church would read.
He speaks of peace, love, faith and grace. Perhaps you noticed that the hymns we sang this morning also had those same themes. Each one is important to know and experience in our Christian walk.
1. Peace. The letter to the Ephesians mentions peace seven times. This is something that we need in our lives. Peace is a gift from God. It is nurtured by faith and expressed most fully in our most difficult trials.
People often try other means to find peace. Like one person said, “My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far today, I have finished two bags of chips and a chocolate cake. I feel better already.”
But when people are alienated from God, such solutions don't work. We need peace with God. We need the peace of God. And we need peace with one another.
The word for peace here means a state of untroubled, undisturbed, well being. Paul's prayer for the Ephesians is that God might give them peace.
Earlier in his letter, Paul had written that Jesus is our peace who has broken down the walls that separate us from one another (Ephesians 2:14). And in Romans 5:1 he said, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross, and His resurrection, is the source of true peace – both peace with God and peace with others. Jesus broke down every wall that separates us from others – race, social class, gender, or geography.
It is not a peace at any cost, but a unity in the one faith – the true faith of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A unity in the one baptism we share. A true unity in the one body – which is the church. And a true unity in the one God- the one Father, the one Lord Jesus and the one Holy Spirit.
But not everyone has peace with God. Some people have rejected God, but some people don’t have peace with God because they haven’t yet heard about Jesus and what He did for them. That is our responsibility, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love. And that they can also have the peace that passes understanding.
Jesus promised it saying, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
2. Love. What the world needs now is love, right? Robert Leroe said: “When I was stationed in Korea, long before email and Skype, I used the MARS, or Military Amateur Radio System, to call home. Because it was patched into phone lines, after each person spoke, they said the word “over.” I would tell my friends, 'My wife likes to hear those 4 wonderful words: 'I love you--over'.'”
Paul used the word “love” fifteen times in his letter to the Ephesians. In seven places it has the connotation of love for one another, which is its use here in verse 23b. The Ephesian believers excelled in love.
Earlier, Paul wrote to the Ephesians in 1:15–16 “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.”
What is love? The word here, is agapé. Some of you are immediately thinking “Ah, that’s God’s love”. I suppose that’s true. Agape is almost always used to describe the love that is of and from God, whose very nature is love itself: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). God does not merely love; He is love.
But the interesting thing is that when the Bible teaches that men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil (John 3:19), the word there is also agapé. So it appears that love is absolute, whole-hearted devotion to something or someone. The amazing thing is that God loves us whole-heartedly.
I Corinthians 13 is called the “love chapter” because it describes all of the qualities of love. All of which are expressed in connection with others. Love can’t be done alone with just your feelings. Love is active.
The letter to the Ephesians provides us with principles about how we are to treat and deal with each other within the body of Christ, the church. It gives us guidelines about how to live together as husband and wives and parents and children. And it addresses how to treat each other in the workplace.
Jesus said in John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Sadly, over time the love the Ephesian church had for the Lord and one another waned. By the time the Apostle John wrote the Revelation, Jesus said of the church in Ephesus,
“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.” (Revelation 2:4). Let that not be true of us!
Verse 24 says we are to love the Lord “in sincerity” That means to show the genuineness of love by walking before God in holiness of life. There are many who profess to love our Lord Jesus whose lives do not show it. They profess to know him, but in works deny him.
How can one expect to receive God's favor when that is the case. Oh how God loves us and wants us to show our love for Him by the way we live. May He help us do that.
3. Faith. The word “faith” appears eight times in the letter to the Ephesians. This word in very ancient times was used of a stool. Something you could rest on, something that would reliably hold you up, something you could trust.
The story is told of three boys who were asked to write their definition of faith. One wrote: "Faith is TAKING hold of God." The second wrote: "Faith is HOLDING onto God." The third wrote: "Faith is NOT letting go!" All of those answers sound about right.
There is an acrostic that gives a good definition of our faith. Using the letters from the word, faith is: Forsaking All else, I Take Him.
When Paul prays for the Christians to experience God’s love, you’ll notice that there is a qualifier here. He desires that they have love “with faith”. Let's read verse 23 again. “Peace to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
There is a sense in which God loves every one. But the only ones who can experience that love in its fullness are those who have the faith to trust Jesus and submit to Him as the Lord and Savior of their lives.
We are to live by faith to have real meaning in life. Faith is taking action on what we believe!
An obedient faith in Jesus Christ provides forgiveness of sins and makes one justified, made right, before a Holy God. What are we to believe about Jesus Christ to be justified?
We are to believe that Jesus Christ is God who became a man, lived a perfect life and died on a cross for our sins, was buried, but on the third day He rose again, and is King of kings and Lord of lords.
If one truly believes all of this about Jesus Christ, and then responds repenting of sin and being baptized into Christ, that person becomes a child of God, knowing His peace, love, and grace!
Think about it. When Jesus rose from the dead, how much sin was taken care of by God? Can God take care of your personal sins? Jesus Christ died for all our sins, and He has claimed victory over sin with God’s resurrection power!
Believe it!
4. Grace. “Grace” is mentioned 11 times in the Ephesian letter. Grace is always a gift that cannot be earned with merit.
The forgiveness of our sins does not happen because we are, or become, such wonderfully good people. No, it is only by the grace of God that the evil things we have done can be removed from us as far as the east is from the west.
Grace is a gift we can never deserve. We can, however, receive it gratefully. The gospel group, The Hoppers, have a song that says, “Whatever you've done, wherever you've been, God's grace is always greater than sin.”
Without God's grace, none of us could experience a relationship with God, and none of us could even begin to live a life that would please Him. And we must keep the grace of God in mind as we relate to others in the body. We need to treat others with the same kind of grace that God has bestowed on us.
Isn't it interesting that in the introduction to Ephesians in 1:2 it says, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Note how similar it is to this last verse of the letter! In that second verse Paul also blesses the Ephesians – and us - with grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace.
Tying it all together, the British preacher Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones said, “Grace is the beginning of our faith, peace is the end result of our faith.”
Or we can say it this way, that when we have faith in Jesus Christ, through God’s love and grace we are saved from our sins in order to receive His peace.
These are the kinds of things we can speak over one another, whether we are saying hello or goodbye: Peace, Love, Faith and Grace.
Peace: Peace with God and peace with one another.
Love: God’s unconditional, unchanging, relentless agape love, and love for one another.
Faith: faithfulness and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord.
Grace: God’s favor and kindness that is not earned nor deserved but can be received and shared with each other.
I would say that the apostle Paul really knew how to end a letter with words that provide a blessing for the reader. May we bless other as well.
CLOSE:
Kent Hughes writes that a number of years ago a retired couple, alarmed by the threat of nuclear war, began a serious study of all the inhabited places on the globe.
Their purpose was to determine where in the world would be the place to be least likely affected by nuclear war—a place of ultimate security.
They studied and traveled and traveled and studied. Finally they found The Place. And at Christmas they sent a card from their new home to their friends in the States.
It was the Falkland Islands—the soon-to-be battleground for a major war between Britain and Argentina! On April 2, 1982, Argentina’s military government, impatient with the negotiations, occupied the islands with some 10,000 troops.
British prime minister Margaret Thatcher responded by sending a naval task force to the region, and within three months British forces had defeated the Argentines and reoccupied the islands.
People want peace in their lives, but they do not know what true peace is.
Real peace is in Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible, it is what we need, peace with God.
