Welcome to Unveiled Faces, a Redeemer Presbyterian Church podcast. Please enjoy our feature presentation. Well, congregation, a few weeks ago I came across a dialogue, and this dialogue was between a young man and his pastor. And the young man said, well, pastor, why is it that we don't celebrate the Lord's supper each and every week? And the pastor said, well, if we did it every week, then it would become routine. And the young man didn't like that. So immediately he shot back and he said, well, I strongly disagree. And of course the pastor, you know, being a nice man, very humble and wanting to diffuse the situation, Responded, well son, I understand that you don't agree with me, but I'll tell you what, why don't we talk about this next Sunday? And the young man said, but I won't be here next Sunday. And the pastor said, why not? And the young man said, because I don't want it to become routine. Now of course that's a little bit of humor. But you know, as I was thinking about the passage that I chose for this particular message, I have to admit that I myself was thinking a lot like the pastor in that story. It's because after choosing this passage from 2 Corinthians 13, verse 14, it sort of crossed my mind that maybe this material is way too familiar to all of you here today. And part of the reason I thought that is because of my own experience. I spent seven years in a Reformed church where one of the pastors, every time he preached, he used this exact benediction to conclude the service. But you know, as I thought about it more, I realized that if I come to this passage with a feeling that it's somehow no longer special simply because it's so familiar, then the problem is with my heart and with my mind and not with the text of the Word of God itself. And actually, as I began to study this passage in preparing this sermon, that is exactly what I found to be true. Even though this benediction is something that we're all very familiar with, even though I myself have heard it probably hundreds of times, I discovered that it was just as new, it was just as fresh, it was just as much of a blessing as it ever had been before. And so as we begin this service, looking at this passage, I wanna encourage you, may the Lord open up your eyes and your heart to see things here that you hadn't thought of before, at least to give you a new appreciation for this wonderful apostolic benediction. Now, of course, that's the goal. We want to appreciate this more and more, but before we get there, I do wanna back up one step. And I wanna talk a little bit about the uniqueness of the Pauline benediction. So capture that, the uniqueness of the Pauline benediction. You see, in the ancient world, there was a very common benediction that all of the people would use anytime they wrote their letters. And that benediction consisted of a single word, which in English translates as farewell. That's how they signed all of their letters. And not only do we find it in the benedictions of hundreds of ancient letters, including many of the early church fathers, like Ignatius and Polycarp, but we also find it at the end of two letters that we have in the New Testament itself. In Acts chapter 15, there was a letter that was drafted at the Council of Jerusalem, and it was delivered to the Gentile churches by certain delegates. You remember this. The purpose of this letter was to notify all of the rest of the churches about the decision that the council reached about whether or not Gentiles had to be circumcised in order to come and be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, we all know that they didn't have to be circumcised, right? They were saved by the grace of God and the grace of God alone. So they drafted up a letter and they sent it out to announce this truth. But in verse 29, we find the benediction of the letter, how it was signed, how it was finished. And it was in line with the ordinary practice of the day, because it simply says, farewell. That's it, just farewell. And also, if you look in Acts chapter 23, we see the very same thing in another letter that we have in the New Testament. This time the letter was not written by the council or by any Christians. It was actually written by the captain of the Roman guard, Claudius Lysias. You remember when the Jews were conspiring to kill the apostle Paul and his nephew overheard of their conspiracy. He ran and reported it to the guard and they decided to protect Paul and transfer him to another location. Well, on that occasion, Paul's transfer came with a letter of explanation. And in verse 30, you can see that once again, at the end of the letter, the benediction was the same. And so it simply said, farewell. So it's very plain, very, very simple. But the reason I'm mentioning all of that as a background is I want you to see just how universal this practice was in the ancient world. Because it's only when you see just how common this benediction was that you begin to appreciate the uniqueness of the Pauline benediction. You begin to see just how special it was for the Apostle Paul in all of his letters to mention the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and say, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. It's very unique, it's very special. But you see, never once in all of the Apostle Paul's letters do we ever have the benediction farewell. Instead, he comes up with his own formula. He came up with a formula that came directly from his heart and his love and his appreciation for the Lord Jesus Christ. As you read through the New Testament, what you find is that he puts a special emphasis upon the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, you'll know that time and time again, as you finish his letters, he has these exact words, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. And actually, as you think about just that, you realize that the benediction was so much of a hallmark of the Apostle Paul, that he could say in effect, anytime you see these letters at the end of a letter, these words at the end of a letter, you'll know that I myself wrote them. Okay, so this was Paul's hallmark. It distinguished him from the other apostles like Peter and James. Now, how did Peter and James write their benedictions? Well, they would use a traditional Jewish formula and they would wish peace to their hearers. And that would correspond to the Hebrew term shalom. So they would say, peace be with you or peace in the Lord Jesus Christ, but not the apostle Paul. The apostle Paul was the apostle of grace. In fact, he was so fixed on this benediction, it belonged to him, that in 2 Thessalonians 3, verses 17 and 18, here's what Paul said. He said, the salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is a sign in every one of my epistles. So I write the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. So here you can see that Paul was in fact unique in the way he did this. He wouldn't just give a word of peace, but he would give a word of grace. Now that really tells us something about this man, doesn't it? It tells us something about the heart of the apostle Paul. If there's anything that he wanted to emphasize, it was the grace of Christ, but then ask yourself this question, why? Why did Paul wanna emphasize the grace of Christ? It's because the grace of Jesus Christ is the very foundation of our salvation. Apart from the grace of Jesus Christ, no one would be here today. This room would be empty. These seats would not even be set up if it were not for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. So precious is the grace of Christ that the Apostle Paul had it emblazoned, as it were, on his heart and his mind, so that as he wished people farewell, as it were, he would always send them with the blessing of the grace of Christ. Now, it's very interesting as we look at the uniqueness of the Pauline benediction. that when we come to the passage that we're looking at today, we see that our passage is even more unique. The passage that we're looking at is actually an expansion upon what Paul would normally write. And so as we look at 2 Corinthians 13, 14, you find that the benediction in our text is even more special, it's even more powerful, it's even more unique than anything else the apostle Paul would write. because he adds to the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit. And so what is he doing there for us? He's reminding us that we ought not to isolate the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, not to isolate the second person of the Trinity apart from the other two glorious persons, the Father and the Holy Spirit. And so now with all of that as a background, sort of as we're geared up to see the uniqueness of the Pauline benediction and now the surpassing uniqueness of the benediction in our text, I want us to look at some of the details. I want us to walk through each part of this benediction and appreciate it for what it gives to us. I want us to take these phrases one by one. I want us to look at the Father, and then the Son, and then the Holy Spirit, but in the order that they come in the text. So first of all, let's look at the first one, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here, you know, when you look at that phrase, there's probably a lot of different things that might go running through your mind. There's the grace that Jesus secured by his death, There's the grace that Jesus gives us when we believe. There's the grace that Jesus continues to provide for us as we go through difficult seasons and trials in our own lives. And so because Jesus is like an overflowing fountain of saving grace, we have to ask ourselves, what exactly did the Apostle Paul have in his mind when he spoke here of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, I think as I thought about that, in some sense, we could probably say he thought of all of these things, right? All of the above. However, if the context of this epistle is any indication of what Paul had in mind, then it seems to me that what he really wants us to remember is something more along the lines of the disposition of Jesus Christ in the whole of his sacrificial work. So I think he's thinking about the disposition of the Lord Jesus Christ, because it was grace that caused him to be willing to come into this world and suffer for the sake of his people. In fact, the reason I mentioned the context is if you turn back to 2 Corinthians 8, you would see that the Apostle Paul already used this very same phrase earlier in the letter. In verse nine, he said, for you know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that although he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. In other words, Paul wants us to remember that standing at the very heart of the gospel is the graciousness of Jesus Christ himself. There's a graciousness to the fact that Jesus was willing to come into our world and suffer on our behalf. And here congregation, you should really think carefully about what is all included in his willingness to come into this world. We're talking this morning about the Son of God. And we're talking about the one who was in eternity past. And we're talking about the one who, before he came into this world, he was living and he was existing in the realms of eternal glory. Jesus was living in a state of perfect majesty. He was living in a state of self-sufficiency. And as you think about that, you realize that there was nothing missing, there was nothing lacking, so that, There was absolutely nothing that he ever needed that he did not already have in and of himself. There was nothing that Jesus could benefit from in and of himself by setting aside his position and coming into this darkened and fallen world. That's just amazing, the graciousness, the willingness of Jesus to come and to be our Savior. Because even though he was in that high and exalted state, the Bible says that he would look down upon the earth and he would see that his people are in a low and helpless, even a hopeless condition. And he looked down upon his people and there was a great contrast between the Son of God and those whom the Father had given him. Just think about our condition, how we are living in a desperate condition apart from Christ. how our world is fallen and it's broken and our lives have been shattered into thousands of pieces. I think of all the sin that we've both committed and experienced in our lives. Just see the contrast between where Jesus was before he determined to take upon our human nature, enter into our world and suffer to save us from our sins. In the passage that we just read, think about Paul's words again, because he describes us as being in a total state, a state of total poverty. He says, he looks at us and he says that we are spiritually bankrupt in essence, because he said we were the ones who were poor, right? We were the ones who had nothing. And although he was rich, he became poor for our sake, so that through his poverty, we might become rich. And so that's the perspective that we need to have when we think about the willingness of Christ. Because in the end, we have to ask the question, what was it that made him so willing to do all of that for us? And Paul's answer is given in our text. It was the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Paul continues in the benediction and he mentions the love of God. He mentions the love of God. And I think the reason he mentions the love of God here, you know, right after he mentions Christ, is that he wants us to keep in mind a very, very important principle. A theological principle, but a very practical principle as well. And that is that there's no opposition between the Father and the Son when it comes to our salvation. Now, why do I say that? It's because so often when people think about the gospel and they try to picture it in their own minds, they come out with a very distorted picture of how our salvation really works. It's a picture where maybe the father is full of wrath, but the son is full of grace. The father is angry at the world because we've broken his laws, but the son is so merciful and he's sort of guarding and protecting the world against the anger and the displeasure of his father. But of course, if you get that picture in your mind that God is angry at you, and it's the son who comes in between you and the father just to protect you from the father's wrath, then you're actually distorting the picture of the gospel because the Bible teaches us that our salvation is grounded, it's rooted, it goes all the way back into the depths of the love of the father himself. Our whole salvation begins with the love of God. Yes, Jesus Christ came into this world, but Jesus Christ did not send himself into this world. He was sent into this world to be our Savior because the Father loved us. Just think of the famous passage in John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. You see, the scripture grounds your salvation, not just in the grace of Christ, but also in the love of God. And so in some sense, we can say that if Paul were just to stop with the grace of Christ, then the Trinitarian benediction would be compromised. The blessing would be incomplete in the bigger picture of things. Yes, the grace of Christ is important, it's necessary, it's indispensable. But all by itself, it's actually insufficient for a complete Trinitarian theology, and it's incomplete for your salvation. Now, as you think about what I'm saying here about the love of God, think about 1 John chapter four, where John reminds us of this principle. In verses 9 and 10, he says, this is the love of God which was manifested toward us, that God has sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And so I think if there's anything that we can learn from this, it's the fact that our salvation, yes, indeed, includes all three persons of the Trinity. All three persons are willing. All three persons are loving, gracious. All three persons are working together to save a people for themselves. And so you can see now why it was necessary for Paul to add the love of God to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. But now let's move on to the third part of it, and that is the communion of the Holy Spirit. And this is probably my favorite part out of all of them, because you know, when we look at this phrase, the communion of the Holy Spirit, we have to know that the Apostle Paul is not talking about the Lord's Supper directly. Of course, we can get there because as we come together as the body of Christ, we commune with the Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. Most certainly that's true. But here what you need to know is that the term for communion is koinonia, and it means fellowship, participation. And the reference is to that fellowship that we have with the Father and with the Son, but we have it through the ministry of the Holy Spirit Himself. Okay, that's very important that we see the whole picture. And as you think about the different aspects of our salvation, you also realize that the Holy Spirit and His work is just as necessary as the work of the other two persons. You see, there's no question, but the Father purposed our salvation. He purposed it, He planned it, right? But if that was all that He did, then that salvation would have never been accomplished. It would have never been realized. It would have just been on paper as it were. The blueprint would have been there, the plan, the purpose, but it had to be accomplished. And so the son's work was necessary. It was necessary for him to come and accomplish what the father purposed. But then as you continue that train of thought, you could say that if that was all that took place in human history, that Jesus died and rose again from the dead, still, even then, all that the son accomplished would be of no value to you if it was not for the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. The Holy Spirit takes the work of Jesus Christ and he applies it to your life. Through the preaching of the Word, it's the Spirit of God who opens up your hearts. It's the Spirit of God who gives you the faith that you need to cling to the Lord Jesus Christ so that you might be saved. We need the Spirit just as much as we need the Son and the Father himself. As long as you and I remain separate from the Son of God, there is absolutely no way that we will benefit from anything that He did. So what we need then is to be united to Jesus Christ. We need to be in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible talks about that. It says that we must be united to Jesus Christ in His death and in His resurrection. And this is what we call salvation by union. And this is the most fundamental aspect of the gospel. Are you in union with the Lord Jesus Christ? And if you are, then it's only because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit who brings you together with Christ. Now the union that I'm talking about here is not just a physical union. That's true. We do have a physical union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus took upon himself our full and complete human nature so that right now Jesus is bone of our bone and he is flesh of our flesh. That's true, we have a physical union with Jesus, and he has a physical union with us. He is not ashamed to call us his brethren. But you see, that union, as important as it is, is also not sufficient for our redemption. And what we need is we need to have the union of the Holy Spirit, a much more intimate union, a much more profound concept that Paul speaks about in 1 Corinthians 6, when he says, he who believes in Jesus Christ is one spirit with the Lord. One spirit. And in Romans 8, verse 9, he says, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his. So there's a way in which we can be connected to Jesus Christ in a superficial way. And then there's a way in which we can be united to Jesus Christ in a way that actually saves. Apart from the Holy Spirit, we can't have that saving union. But with the Holy Spirit, we do have that saving union. And that union should be precious to you. Why? because it takes all that Christ is, all that Christ has accomplished, and it grafts you into that work and identity. So that at the end of the day, as Christians, we can say it's because of the ministry of the Holy Spirit that we live. In fact, we can say that when Christ died, I died. When he was buried, I was buried. When he rose again, I rose again. When he ascended into heaven, I ascended into heaven as well. And when he was seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, I too was seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Why? Because I'm united to my Savior. And what we're talking about here is not mere representation. It's certainly true that Jesus represented us before the Father, but what we're talking about is spiritual participation in the life of Jesus Christ through the power and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now, just the other day, I got a text message from a friend of mine. And he said, how is it that you maintain your confidence in the Lord? How do you know that you're truly, you know, a true believer when you look at your life and so often you don't see yourself abounding in the fruits of the Spirit? That was a good question. It was a good question. But what I told him is that it seems that he was being tempted to become the fruit inspector of his own life. And I told him that is not recommended. It is not recommended to start to analyze your own self so deeply that you spiral down into a morbid self-inspection. That he needs to lift up his eyes and look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because when we do that by faith, then we can know we are united to him by the Holy Spirit. I gave him a little encouragement. I said, but if you really want to continue to inspect your own fruit, then let me give you an anecdote. And one time someone came to R.C. Sproul and they said, Dr. Sproul, you know, how much fruit should I expect to see in my life to know that I'm a true believer? And R.C. Sproul thought for a minute and he said, any. He said any. In other words, he doesn't wanna get, he didn't want that young man who was asking him to get caught up in examining himself. But he wants him to look to the Lord Jesus Christ outside of himself so that he might participate in the life of Christ through faith. And that faith is given to us by the Holy Spirit. Maybe that's an encouragement for some of you today. You know, sometimes I get down on myself, I look at my own walk and I say, what progress is there, right? You know, what is this? But you know, we know the Holy Spirit's in our lives when we are looking to Jesus Christ for everything that we need. That is the fruit, the primary fruit that we should be looking for. And so now as you sort of look at what Paul's doing here in this Trinitarian benediction, you see how rich this passage can be. I just scratched the surface of this, but you can dive deep into Trinitarian theology. You can go from creation to redemption to consummation. You can see that it was the Trinity who started everything. It's the Trinity who redeems everything. It's the Trinity who will glorify everything. You can go anywhere you want. But I wanna look at this benediction and I wanna look at one more part of it. Because so far we've seen the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit. But there's this last little phrase that makes this an actual benediction and not just a summary of Trinitarian theology. This is a benediction. And so this is what I want you to see. First of all, I want you to know something about the nature of a benediction. What exactly is a benediction? Well, when the Apostle Paul gives his apostolic benediction to the people of God, we are not to think of that in terms of thoughts and prayers. Right, so you're on social media, and maybe you have some Christian friends and some non-Christian friends, and you announce that you're going through a difficult time, and all your Christian friends say prayers go out to you. And then your non-Christian friends say thoughts and good vibes, right? Yeah, that is not what's going on here. We get a response and a mixture of thoughts and prayers. And of course, yeah, one comes from believers and the other comes from unbelievers, but a benediction. A benediction is neither one of those things. Instead, a benediction is an authoritative pronouncement that is made in the name and with the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. It is an authoritative pronouncement. There is a communication of God's blessing that is taking place objectively through the benediction. Now think about that. When Aaron lifted up his hands, he placed the name of God upon the congregation in an objective way. Do you know the difference between something that's objective and subjective? Okay, let me explain it. God gives us His grace. He gives us His gifts. He delivers them to us. They are objective. They are there. But if you don't subjectively lay hold of that grace, lay hold of those gifts by faith, then that gift will just go right over your head. So what you have to know is that when your pastor every week lifts up his hands and gives the benediction, that is an authoritative pronouncement of blessing that is for you to take by faith, to receive by faith. You have to know that because God moves mightily through his spoken word and these are the words that God by the Holy Spirit has given to his ministers to give to you. That's a beautiful concept. And it becomes important when you think about all that's included in this particular benediction. So what I wanna do in this final few moments is I wanna walk through each one of these parts of the benediction and I wanna attach an emphasis on the last few words that the Apostle Paul states. So let's look at the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and remember what's going on here. In the benediction, Paul says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Okay? The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. That is so important. The key thing here is that the grace of Christ is not just for you to receive and, you know, sort of just to store up for yourself, you know, put it in your pocket, save it for a rainy day. So when you're going through a difficult time this week, you can pull out the grace of Christ. No, what Paul is saying is the grace, the graciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you as you go. This is a benediction. This is God's parting blessing that he's giving to you. And he's saying the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you as you go back out into the world to represent Jesus Christ to everyone you come in contact with. Well, what does that look like for you? So today we're here, we have this service. I'm preaching this word to you. And what's gonna happen is you're gonna get up after this service, and you're gonna go back out into this world all week long, having the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm telling you, that grace is not just for you. It's to go with you. And you are to extend that grace. You are to show that same grace that Jesus showed to you, to the people you come in contact with. What does that look like? Well, just take Paul as an example. Paul knew that Jesus became poor. Remember that passage we just read? Jesus became poor so that through his poverty, we might become rich. And so what did Paul do with the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that was exercised towards him? He took that same grace, that same disposition, and he exercised it towards other people. Here's an example. Acts chapter 20, verses 33 through 35. Paul said to the Ephesians, I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands have provided for all my necessities and for those who were with me. I have shown you in every way by laboring like this that you must support the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus Christ that he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. So you see, Paul was not blocking the flow of the grace of Christ, but he was a conduit. And that's what we need to be as well. We need to be that as well. Now, what about the love of God? Again, the apostle Paul says, the love of God be with you as you go. If the love of God goes with you, then I would say to you, don't just receive God's love, but go out and exercise the love that you have been shown by God. In 1 John 4, verse 11, Scripture says, Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. So take the love of God and apply it, extend it, share it. And finally, when it comes to the communion of the Holy Spirit, The lesson is the very same for us. Don't just experience the fellowship, don't just receive the communion of the Holy Spirit, but go out and extend and share that same fellowship. Invite the world into the fellowship of the Holy Spirit himself. Preach the gospel, show the grace of Christ, show the love of God and invite and call the world into the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. That's what the benediction is for. It sends you away with the blessing of God. 1 John 1, verse 3. Listen to what John says. He says, In other words, the reason that John is sharing the gospel is so that those who hear and believe his word might be brought into the fellowship of the Father and the Son, and we know that they are brought into that fellowship by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So congregation. As you hear this apostolic benediction, and as you hear it, not just today, but also as your pastor delivers it to you, receive it with open arms. Receive it with a believing heart. And then know that what God is doing is he's commissioning you to go back out into the world and represent him to the world. And so let that be your mission. First, receive the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, and then, yes, do whatever you can to share that same grace, that same love, and that same communion with the rest of the world. This has been a presentation of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. For more resources and information, please stop by our website at visitredeemer.org. All material herewithin, unless otherwise noted. Copyright Redeemer Presbyterian Church. Elk Grove, California. Music furnished by Nathan Clark George. Available at nathanclarkgeorge.com.