Dennis Tuuri

# 1 Thessalonians 1:1

1 Thessalonians 1:1. Paul and Sylvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

All right, we continue today going through a series of sermons on the book of First Thessalonians. And having looked at the thankfulness required in the epistle and then having done an overview of the entire book in one week and then having looked at who the epistle was written by and who it was addressed to, we now get to the really the last part of the salutation.

What many would call the salutation of the letter. The actual content of the original opening statement of the writers to the recipients of the letter. Remember these are epistles. They’re written to churches who read in the church, which we did a couple weeks ago, the entire epistle. And so it’s important to see it in that context.

Three men wrote it who had been missionaries to this church and they wrote it to a specific congregation but through them the Holy Spirit was also writing to us. And so this is a letter written to us by God for our instruction, our edification, and to cause us to worship him and thank him in all things.

And so we get now to, as I said, the last part of the salutation, the phrase grace and peace. Now it has been said that Paul’s whole gospel is unfolded in this wish, so to speak, and we’ll talk about that word wish a little bit later. It’s not really a wish but in this statement grace and peace to you.

What we have in the salutation really is a summation of the entire epistle and we’ll see that as we go along but it’s also a summation I think of the entire gospel itself and the graciousness of the gospel and the results of the gospel being peace with God.

It has been suggested by some since this is a very common phrase in the New Testament epistles that it was actually a liturgical formula used in New Testament churches and part of their liturgy would include this call to grace and peace. We don’t know that for sure but we do know that in all of Paul’s epistles, he does indeed in the salutation urge or command grace and peace to the congregations that he writes to. And indeed, Peter also picks up that theme and that same phrase is found there.

Yet, apparently, this term grace and peace became a code word or a password as it were among Christians in the first centuries of the church. It identified Christians as such and was their common greeting one to another. I remember when I first got serious about studying the scriptures and trying to apply them to my life and walk in obedience. That phrase grace and peace was one that struck me and I began to sign all my letters and I’d write to people grace and peace. And I don’t think that’s such a bad idea.

It’s interesting how the scriptures do give us this particular form of how to write letters—saying who is writing the letter, who it’s written to, and then a brief salutation. It’s found in the New Testament of course, but it’s also found in the Old Testament as part of the common way people wrote. Artaxerxes recorded in Ezra 7:12 as writing a formula. He in his letter said, “Artaxerxes, king of kings unto Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of God of heaven, perfect peace.” And so that was how his letter to Ezra began, identifying who wrote it, who it was written to, and then a brief salutation.

In the time of the writing of the first epistles, it was a common thing to do. Again, quoting from Cicero, for instance, in one of his letters, Marcus Cicero to Quintus his brother, health. Theon was another letter of a Greek man. He said, “Theon to Theon his father, greetings.” So, it’s a common thing to do to throw a greeting or a salutation on.

But Paul in the greeting that he chooses to use, grace and peace, as opposed to the normal Greek greeting, greetings or health or whatever, gives us a lot to chew on. And so, we’re going to spend some time today looking at the implications of grace and peace and what it means to us.

It has been said by some that in this greeting Paul takes the common Greek greeting, which was greetings and is similar in sound to the word charis, which is the Greek word translated grace. He takes the common Greek greeting, gives it a Christianized version and then tacks on peace, which is the common Jewish greeting of the day. Shalom from the Old Testament was a common way for, as it is to this day, for Orthodox Jews to greet one another. Shalom. Peace to you.

So the saying kind of brought together east and west and shows the universality of the gospel. Well, there may be something of that to it. But I think what I want to do first of all is look at grace and peace as a message from the Old Testament. It’s a message to us and it’s a message that if we don’t understand the full biblical teaching of it, we’re going to get messed up.

But I think a lot of churches have failed to understand the meaning of grace and peace and so have gone off into a lot of incorrect thought and application of the term. So we’re going to take a whole Bible approach again. We’re going to look first at some passages from the Old Testament where grace and peace are spoken of. First, grace.

Now, the word grace, just before we get into actually looking at verses here in the Old Testament, essentially has the connotation of unmerited favor that a superior shows to an inferior. Okay? So, it’s something you do for somebody below you. If they are not really capable of buying or purchasing from you, you give it graciously to them. It’s similar to the word mercy. Whereas grace, however, emphasizes the inability of the one you give the gracious thing to obtain it. Okay, he can’t get it. So when you give it to him, it’s grace. Mercy implies the suffering of the one you extend that gift to. Okay, different connotations being stressed.

And in grace, the thing that’s being stressed is the undeserved quality of what you give to the recipient. And so it is unmerited favor.

Now let’s look at Exodus 33:19 as an example of grace, the teaching of grace, unmerited favor in the Old Testament. This is a portion of scripture that is repeated or quoted rather in the New Testament. We’ll look at that quote in just a minute. Exodus 33:19.

This is necessary because some people posit a grace-law distinction, that grace is a New Testament doctrine whereas law was primarily Old Testament doctrine. But this isn’t true.

Exodus 33:19. And I said, I will make my goodness pass before thee. Now, this is God talking to Moses and Moses wants to see God. So, God says, I’ll make thy goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

So God tells Moses he will grant his request in some way, but he throws in this very important phrase that he will be gracious to whom he will be gracious and he will show mercy upon whom he will show mercy. So God makes it quite clear to Moses here that it is his election, his choice that dictates who he will extend mercy and grace to. Remember, grace stressing the undeserved nature, mercy, the suffering of the person in need.

And he goes on to talk about this in the next chapter as well. Exodus 34:6. The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed. Now in verse 5 it says, “The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord and the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgressions and sin.”

And so God declares himself, the essential manifestation of himself here to Moses and to his people in the Old Testament, as a God who is gracious and merciful, and upon whom that graciousness falls as a result of his free election or free choice.

Turn to Romans 9:15 in the New Testament and we’ll see this verse quoted to emphasize the fact of God’s election. Romans chapter 9:15. We read in verse 15 of Romans 9, let’s see here. For he said unto Moses, I will have mercy on whom I’ll have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I’ll have compassion. Quoting from the Exodus 33 passage. So that it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.

For the scripture says unto Pharaoh, even for this purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. And so Paul in his epistle to the Romans stressing the pure election, the unconditional election of God of saints rather by God to Exodus 33, the Old Testament, to demonstrate how God is a God who is gracious and that grace, the favor he shows to people, is not as a result of anything that they have inherent in themselves or any response they make to God. He is gracious on whom he decides to exhibit his graciousness.

And so grace in the Old Testament is shown quite clearly to be a manifestation of how God worked with the people in the Old Testament. We’ve talked about this model before. Remember when we did our new communion form a couple of weeks ago and we had the law after the partaking of communion. See, that’s a thing I think we’re kind of trying to fix in our communion form—to have the full recitation of God’s Decalogue before communion—really could seem to indicate to people that the law’s only purpose is bringing us to an awareness of our sin, so then we have forgiveness in Christ.

But that is not the only purpose of the law. It is one of the purposes. Back in Exodus when Moses and the elders meet with God, they go up and have a meal with God and have covenant with God confirmed in that meal. And it’s on the basis of that then that God gives his law to his people. He delivers them. He unconditionally elects them. He shows all that through a meal with them and confirms the covenant and signs and seals it with them. And then he gives them the ten commandments.

The commandments are given to a regenerate people. So this grace-law distinction is not in the scriptures. The scriptures say that God is gracious in the Old Testament and the law is a gift given to people that have been graciously called by God and elected by him unconditionally, not based upon anything in their own, nothing in them would merit God’s choice of them.

Psalm 84:11. For the Lord God is a sun and a shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly. So here we have the definition of God saying that he is a sun and a shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. And you can see a little bit of intimation there of grace and peace coming from God. We’ll get to the peace side of this a little bit. You’ll see why I can equate glory with peace. But suffice it to say that again in Psalm 84, the Lord has shown as being gracious to people.

Okay. So, grace is in the Old Testament and of course peace, its essential content in the New Testament, has to be understood in relationship to the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, shalom is used any number of times. I think about 240 times or so. And in fewer than 40 of those 240 occurrences does shalom mean absence of hostility.

Now I bring that up because in the Greek world the word that’s translated peace in First Thessalonians and throughout most of the New Testament, in Greek culture that normally meant cessation from hostilities, no war going on. Peace was defined as the absence of strife. But peace in the Old Testament, the term now translated peace, being shalom, meant much more than that. It did have reference to that, as the small number of occurrences point out, but the majority of the occurrences have a far different manifestation to them.

Turn to Leviticus 26:5 and following and we’ll see what God’s peace is characterized as in the Old Testament.

Leviticus 26:5 and following. Let’s see. Your threshing shall reach unto the vintage and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land safely. And I will give peace in the land. And you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will rid evil beasts out of the land. Neither shall the sword go throughout your land. And you shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight. Your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.

For I have respect unto you and make you fruitful and multiply you and establish my covenant with you and you shall eat old store and bring forth the old because of the new. And he goes on. The basic thrust here is that when he says that he brings peace to the people, it includes the defeat of their enemies, but it includes much more than that. The more than that being the blessing that he brings to them, the storehouses being full, etc.

Leviticus tells us the peace of God has a material aspect to it and a very critical aspect. Turn to Psalm 72. We have another reference to shalom that kind of helps us to understand the full meaning of it.

Psalm 72. My Bible is falling apart. Psalm 72. We could read all of this, but let’s look at verse 3 for instance. The mountains shall bring peace to the people and the little hills by righteousness. He shall judge the poor of the people. He shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. They shall fear thee as long as the sun and moon endure throughout all generations. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth, and in his day shall the righteous flourish and abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth.

Moving to verse 15. And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba. Prayer also shall be made for him continually, and daily shall he be praised. There shall be a handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains. The fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon, and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.

Obviously repeating and expanding upon what he said earlier, how the mountains shall bring peace to the people. And so we have there a picture of the mountains bringing peace to the people with an abundance of goods, gold, fruit. These things are all mentioned as part of the peace that God brings his people.

His name shall endure forever. His name shall be continued as long as the sun, and men shall be blessed in him. Talking about Jesus, of course. All nations shall call him blessed. Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. And blessed be his glorious name forever, and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen. And amen.

Peace there, the peace that’s described to come to those who are in covenant with God through the great King Jesus, is described as a holistic, full-orbed peace, not simply the victory over enemies, the cessation of hostilities, but rather the material benefits as well. This is very important. It’s important that we get our thinking straight about God’s terms that are used in the scriptures.

These, the definition of shalom in the Old Testament rather than cessation of hostilities would be to call it a state of well-orderliness, a state of order under God, a state of calm, but more than just calm, however—a state of bliss and fullness of blessing in all spheres of activity. Peace was not simply tied to outer surroundings, but ultimately peace is seen and shalom is seen throughout the Old Testament as God’s presence with his people. Not simply as a sensation of peace in terms of a lack of activity, but rather the presence of God and all the blessings that manifest that presence with his people. Well-being would be the best way to describe it. Well-being in its widest sense.

Now this was understood and talked about in the intertestamental period so that we’ll see that these two terms, grace and peace, as used in the Old Testament, were seen in conjunction one with another. There’s a couple of quotes in the intertestamental book Enoch, verse 12:5: “You shall have no peace nor forgiveness of sins.” And in that particular intertestamental book, the Jews understood the concept of forgiveness of sins and the grace of God that forgives sins in connection with peace.

And then that same book, chapter 5:6: “There shall be forgiveness of sins and every mercy and peace and forbearance.” So they understood how the grace of God comes to man, brings him into covenant, forgives him his sins, and manifests peace and well-being in his life.

Indeed, the term, the Old Testament term shalom for peace, is actually translated as Irenei, which is the Greek word that is translated peace in our passage here from First Thessalonians. The Old Testament shalom is actually translated with that same Greek word that is translated peace in our text in the Septuagint in various places. And so we have clearly seen in this the correlation between Old Testament peace, New Testament peace, and then also the correlation of grace and peace in the Old Covenant itself in that book.

1 Chronicles 12:18 is another example of this. The Holy Spirit or God’s spirit comes upon Amasai who then says, speaking to David now, “Thine are we, David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse. Peace, peace be unto thee, and peace be unto thine helpers, for thy God helpeth thee.” So the peace that God through Amasai spoke to David was conditioned upon God helping David. The grace of God shown to David exhibiting peace. And so grace and peace is a common occurrence in the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament.

Okay. Let’s turn to the New Testament. Some passages there. In the New Testament, we won’t go to all the passages. These are big doctrines we’re talking about. Grace and peace are big words of course in the Christian faith. Big, lots of content to them. They’re repeated throughout the scriptures. They are the major themes really of much of the scriptures. So, we can’t talk about all of them.

But some of the verses relating to grace in the New Testament show grace as it was in the Old Testament as an attribute of God. God is gracious. Because God is gracious, he then manifests favor to particular people. So, not only is grace used to describe a characteristic of God, grace is used as a term to describe how God manifests favor toward particular people, not based upon anything in them, but graciously.

Third, then, the term grace is used both in the Old and New Testaments to describe the state in which people are in once they’ve come to salvation. Once they’ve been the recipient of God’s grace, they’re in a position to enter a state of grace. And the term is used that way. And finally, grace manifests itself in the attitude that the people who find themselves in a state of grace, having been extended grace by God because he is gracious—their attitude then is seen as grace in which they thank God and rejoice in him.

Remember we said a couple of weeks ago in terms of thanksgiving that the center of thanksgiving is God’s grace, an acknowledgement that God has been gracious to us. And actually, the term Eucharist, that we use for a communion service on occasion, which means thanksgiving, is the Greek word. The middle of that is charis, which is the word grace. A nice visual linguistic picture for us that God gives us to remind us that grace is at the center of thanksgiving.

Additionally, the term that’s translated joy in the New Testament is cognate, is in the same family of words as it were with grace. And so grace ushers forth in joy when people graciously receive gifts from God.

Now let’s take a real fast survey of a couple of passages relating to grace in the New Testament, shown in your outline starting at Ephesians 2 and point out a few things here that are pretty important. And I guess I’ll just read the first eleven verses of Ephesians 2.

You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past and the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace are ye saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So what’s he saying? He’s saying first of all that we walked in, we were dead in trespasses and sins. We were by nature children of wrath. He’s laying the foundation here for unconditional election.

There’s nothing we can do to merit God’s gracious act of salvation toward us. And then he says, but God is rich in mercy. He sees us suffering. He extends mercy to us because of his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins, quickens us together with Christ. By grace are we saved. So grace centrally in the scriptures is seen in relationship to the salvation that God gives as a free gift to sinners who have nothing in themselves to merit favor with him.

God graciously extends salvation in Jesus Christ. If you think you’re here somehow because you made a good choice for Jesus and other people wouldn’t make that choice, that’s a fundamentally incorrect thought on your part. God unconditionally chooses out a people for himself. You are here this afternoon because of the grace of God. And if you’ve been born again, the scriptures are quite clear that it is not because of anything that you have done to merit salvation. And that certainly includes keeping the law in all points, but it also includes any prayer you might have prayed.

Ultimately, the reason that you’re a Christian is not because you prayed the prayer. The reason that you’re a Christian or been regenerate—these scriptures tell us quite clearly—is the gracious act of a loving God who in his mercy reached out to you who were hellbound and rescued you and brought you to salvation in Jesus Christ.

Grace is at the center of the gospel of our savior Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. He hath raised us up together, made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Wherefore remember that ye being in times past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision, by that which is called the circumcision, the flesh made by the hands, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off were made nigh by the blood of Christ. Grace is seen in the book of Ephesians beginning at this particular point in the book as reconciling us to God through redemption in Christ Jesus. But then he then moves on as we just started to read here to talk about the reconciliation of Gentile and Jew in the work of Christ as well. And he then goes on in later portions of the book of Ephesians to talk about the reconciling work that’s effected through Christ between a man and his wife, between a man and his children, and between an employer, a master, and a servant.

Why does he talk about all that stuff? It all flows out of this grace. Grace shown to us by the unmerited salvation offered in Christ works itself out reconciling us to him and all things in the world. The scriptures are clear about that. In fact, in a companion epistle, the book of Colossians, here we go. Colossians 1:20 reads, “And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself. By him, I say, whether they be things in heaven or things in earth or things under the earth.”

He says that Jesus Christ died on the cross to effect salvation, to extend grace, but also to make peace. Peace being defined as reconciliation of men to God, but then reconciling all things to himself. What does that mean? It means bringing all things in correct order or relationship to God.

Now, this shows grace working itself out in the Hebrew concept of peace. Peace being the right-ordered world that God intends, the correct ordering of the world. And so, peace manifests, or grace manifests itself in peace in Ephesians and Colossians.

But in any event, grace is seen primarily then as reconciling grace in Jesus Christ. But it goes on from there. So far, we’re okay. I might mention—I won’t turn to the passages now—but in Romans 3:24, 4:4, and 11:6, grace is seen as saving grace. And again, it’s very clearly spelled out that grace is unmerited favor because the opposite of grace would be works. The wages of sin is death. The only thing we earn or deserve in ourselves is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life.

But turn to Romans 12:6, and we begin to see a little bit different thrust on grace in the New Testament. Again, a bit more of a holistic perspective, I guess, is one way to think of it.

Romans 12:6. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us with prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. And he goes on to list these things. Why do I bring up this verse? Because the same grace that reconciles us to God and begins to reconcile all things in Jesus Christ—that same grace is what’s responsible for our equipping for ministry.

And so if you have a particular ability, whether it’s expositing scriptures, whether it’s serving in an administrative function, whether it’s teaching a Sabbath school class, whether it’s setting up tables in terms of getting ready for the communion meal, if God gives you particular gifting and strength and calling within the context of the church, that calling is not to be seen as a work of your own. It’s the grace of God. And so grace then becomes a principle by which we live, not simply by which we are saved.

Grace is responsible for equipping us for work. 1 Corinthians 3:10. Flip a couple of pages over. 1 Corinthians 3:10. According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon. Again, the grace of God is necessary for doing the work that God has called us to do.

And Paul talking specifically about his particular work—that would be true of all of us. 1 Corinthians 15:10. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

You see, it’s good to start good. It’s good to understand unconditional election. It’s good to understand God’s grace in our salvation. But it’s also important as Paul rings out verse after verse after verse that our work for God and for the work of the kingdom is totally the grace of God at work in us. He says, “I worked real hard, but it wasn’t me working. It was the grace of God which was with me.” And so grace goes out to the equipping grace and the actually fulfilling the work that God has called us to do.

2 Corinthians 4:15. Couple more pages down. For all things are for your sake, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God. Implied in this is that all things in terms of the Christian life are ministrations of God’s grace to us that we might then rejoice in that and thank God for the manifestation of his grace in our lives. All things. Remember, we said that toward the end of the book of First Thessalonians, we’re to thank God for all things. Why? Because we recognize that in all things, God’s gracious work is at work in our lives. The manifestation of his grace.

Finally, turn to let’s see—well, actually, not finally—let’s turn to 1 Corinthians 14:33 for one more aspect of this.

Let’s see. He’s talking about the prophesying in church. That’s the context. He says, “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace as in all churches of the saints.” You see, I turn I want to show you that verse to show you again on this concept that peace is equated with God’s order being manifest in the church.

People weren’t actually fighting with one another. That was what was going on. There was confusion in the context of the worship service. And he says that God is a God of peace and of order. And so God’s grace which leads into peace is a grace that produces peace.

I kind of shifted gears—we’re looking at grace for a while. Now we’re shifting over to looking at peace. But it’s important to see in the New Testament the concept of peace also is one not simply as a cessation of hostilities but the actual presence of God’s order in the church.

Acts 7:26. You don’t need to turn there, but Acts 7:26 says that, talking about Moses, the next day he showed himself unto them as they were as they strove and would have set them at one again saying, “Sirs, ye are brethren. Why do ye wrong one another?” In that passage of scripture, the same word that is translated peace in 1 Thessalonians 1 in the introduction and grace and peace, that word is what’s translated “at one.” Moses, according to Acts 7:26, attempted to create peace between brothers, not simply to stop them from fighting, but to put them in a position of being reconciled one to the other. Reconciled.

James 2:16 tells us that the idea of peace has material aspects to it. We read there, “One of you may say unto them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled, notwithstanding, you give them not those things which are needful to the body. What doth this profit?” So, James says that when you tell somebody to go in peace and yet don’t attend to their material aspects—to feed them, to clothe them—what profit have you done to them?

He equates there the declaration of peace with actually providing for the material blessings that God gives to them.

In Acts 10:36 rather—the word, we won’t turn to that, but there’s actually there the declaration that God preaches peace by Jesus Christ who is Lord of all. And that shows that peace is actually equated in Acts 10:36 with the gospel itself, with the gospel itself. So the peace of Jesus Christ is equated to the gospel of God.

Turn to Romans 10:14 and following. We’ll see the same thing. Romans 10:14 and following. And I’m what I’m trying to do with this particular passage here is to show you again that the peace that is translated peace in the New Testament is not simply a cessation of hostilities, but rather is the same basic concept as the Old Testament.

Romans 10:14. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.”

And again here peace is equated with the preaching of the gospel. But the important thing here is that Paul in Romans 10:15 is quoting of course from the book of Isaiah. Isaiah 52:7. And I’ll read you what Isaiah 52:7 says.

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings that publisheth peace—and that’s shalom there, okay? So there’s a direct tie between the peace of the New Testament brought through Christ and the shalom of the Old Testament. Goes on to say that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. The watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing. For they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion.

Break forth into joy; sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem. For the Lord hath comforted his people. He hath redeemed Jerusalem. And so the preaching of the gospel is not simply peace in terms of reconciliation with God. It is the preaching that brings the salvation of God to the entire universe as the gospel is preached and peace accompanies that preaching throughout all things. Isaiah 52 says that the preaching of the gospel—essentially the preaching of salvation—is the bringing of peace or God’s order to the world.

One final scripture from the New Testament. Romans 16:20. And this is the best. You don’t have to turn there. I’ll read it shortly. This is probably the best indication that peace in the New Testament is not cessation of hostilities.

Romans 16:20 says that the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. And again, a closing benediction.

What’s important here is that God is identified in this text as the God of peace. But what is this God of peace doing? Why, he’s making war against Satan. He is actively involved in crushing Satan’s head under our feet. And so God’s peace has to it this aspect of the right ordering of all things. God’s peace is not the cessation of hostilities with Satan. It is the active prosecution of warfare against Satan on the part of God manifesting himself in our lives.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. That grace ushers forth in peace, a peace that prosecutes warfare against Satan and against Satan’s devices in our world.

So, we’ve gone through this survey here for the reason of showing essentially Old Testament, New Testament continuity in this reading. And we’ll look at a couple of more things along that line in a couple of minutes. But essentially, the scriptures are of one mind on grace and peace. The Old Testament speaks of it. The New Testament speaks of it. The New Testament understanding of grace and peace then should be understood in relationship to the Old Testament.

The peace of the New Testament besides the specific verses such as Romans 16:20 has pointers back within the New Testament text itself to Old Testament peace and shalom, which takes us right back to that Leviticus passage about the material blessings as well.

Now there is some discontinuity. The book of John it says that the law came by Moses and grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Those things are not pitted in counter-distinction one to another. But what we do see there is the development of these things. The realization of what the law pointed to. The law was convicting men to bring them to salvation in Christ. But the law also brought about the peace and the right ordering of society as believers apply it and all that is put into effect and realized with the coming of Jesus Christ.

So there’s continuity in terms of the message between the Old and New Testament—grace and peace—and the discontinuity is the fact that in the New Testament these things are brought to fuller realization and now go out into all the world.

Okay. So grace and peace is a message of the Old Testament. It’s a message of the New Testament. And if we fail to see that, then we don’t understand what this benediction to us is all about.

Now, why is it a message of both Old and New Testaments? Because it’s the message of the covenant. And we all know about the covenant of grace. We all know that the scriptures talk about the covenant of grace. But we don’t often think about the phrase the covenant of peace. And yet, it is a common one in the Old Testament.

In Numbers 25:12, God says, “Wherefore say, Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace.” Isaiah 54:10: The mountains shall depart, the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee. Neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee. See there again the relationship between mercy and peace, grace and peace.

Ezekiel 34:25: I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land, and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.

Ezekiel 37:26: I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will place them and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore. Multiplication of the people is one of the promises of the covenant of peace, the covenant of God’s special blessings to his people graciously delivered.

Malachi 2:5 as well.

The point of all this is that it’s a common, continuous message, Old to New Testament, because it’s part of the very covenant itself. Ephesians 2:12, we read a couple of minutes ago, said that at one time in the past, we were aliens to the covenants of promise. The covenants of promise. The covenant of the Old and New Testament were all alike—one covenant of grace from God because they exhibited favor from a superior to an inferior, not based upon any merit in the person himself, but based upon God’s unconditional election.

And that covenant is a covenant in which God reveals himself to us. He reveals himself as a God of love. He reveals himself as a God of grace and as a God of mercy, and he reveals himself as a God of peace and of orderliness, and of orderliness defined by his law. The covenant that God ushers us into then is a covenant of grace and it’s also a covenant of peace.

And that’s really what we’re celebrating at this time of the year in terms of Christmas. Grace and peace is a message of the new covenant. It’s a message of the old covenant. It’s a message of the covenant, God’s one covenant with his elect people. And that covenant was brought into realization through the coming of Jesus Christ, the birth of which we celebrate at Christmas time.

In Ephesians 2:14, we read that Jesus Christ is our peace who hath made both one, broken down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile. It says that Jesus is our peace. And Jesus in Luke 2, his birth is recorded. And what do the angels sing out to the shepherds that are watching in the fields that night? They sing out to them, “Behold, we bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”

And they give them the sign. And then they sing out, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” And probably the better way to translate that last phrase is “peace, good will toward” or “peace toward men with whom God is well pleased.” Those men that God chooses to manifest his grace to have that grace manifested to them. And the peace of God as well.

And so the scriptures say at the coming of Jesus Christ who is our peace is the great manifestation of grace and peace.

My wife was—I heard my wife this morning reading from Isaiah 9 to our kids around our Christmas tree. And of course we read there of the coming of the Prince of Peace. Says that a child should be born, wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it. The Prince of Peace and of the manifestation of his government there shall be no end.

Jesus came as the Prince of Peace graciously to his people but to affect salvation. Salvation being described as God’s order going off over the entire world.

Now I think that when Paul tells his congregation then at Thessalonica grace and peace, all this comes to mind. It’s the manifestation of Jesus Christ the covenant keeper. It’s the manifestation of God’s grace and love to his people. And it’s the call for them to understand and receive that grace and to be prospered by God in terms of peace.

And this is what it says to us when we come to church on Sunday. We’ve got things that we feel bad that we’ve done in the past week or we’ve got particular problems we’ve got. We’ve got particular shortcomings. We don’t see God’s peace and order in the world. And it’s important when we come to church, we understand that this is what God brings us here to effect—that we might graciously receive from his word and as a result of graciously receiving that word exhibit peace and order in the world.

Now we do this every Sunday. We have the same basic message—grace and peace. Do you know when it is? You think when it is? When do we see every Sunday when we have it here every Sunday the manifestation of grace and peace on us? It’s in the benediction. It’s at the close of the first half of our worship service. The benediction found in number six is the same basic message. And I think that Paul writing to the Thessalonians gave them a short form as it were of the Aaronic benediction.

The Aaronic benediction reads, “The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace.” So the lifting up of God’s face to his people and his countenance shining upon them is seen as two specific things in those last two verses: grace and peace. And that’s what the Aaronic benediction is all about.

Now, remember what the context of that benediction is. Remember we talked about this. God had brought the people all together in the wilderness and he had assembled the people earlier in this book of Numbers in terms of an army. He had given them marching orders as it were. They were assembled around God’s tabernacle with him as an army. And Aaron pronounces the benediction upon the army of God. And the benediction is grace and peace.

Now, how does that help us to understand what Paul tells the Thessalonians and what Paul tells us every Sunday? Well, God rather tells us every Sunday through the benediction. He tells us that grace and peace is to be ours. Not that we might have the peace of the grave or the peace of quietness sitting in our homes alone and not worrying about other things that go on in the world. No, he tells us that all this is put upon us as the army of God.

Remember we said last week the Thessalonians were world changers. They were turning the world upside down. Remember we said that the city was named after a relative of Alexander of Macedonia, the great conqueror. But really now we have the true conqueror, Jesus Christ, whose troops the Thessalonians are. And to those troops, the very first message that Paul tells those troops as he writes to them, having heard a good report of their faith and having wanted to go to see them, what’s the very first thing he tells them?

And indeed, what’s the first thing he tells every church that he writes to? He tells them that God’s benediction is upon them. The benediction of grace and peace. Benediction means good words, but it’s not a wish and it’s not a prayer. It is the placing of God’s blessing upon people.

You know, Jesus sent disciples out. And he said, when you come to a town or you come to a house, you tell them, “Peace be upon this house.” And he said, “And if a son of peace, if a son of peace dwells in that house, peace will stay upon that house. But if not, you’ll depart and the peace will depart.” Jesus said that these words are not empty words I’m sending you out with. My benediction, my grace and peace will be upon that house if it’s received in the manner in which it’s given.

And so God tells us to expect that when you hear the benediction at the end of the service, that is not a time to say, “Oh, I guess the first service is ending,” and you start to pick up your papers and get ready to go and don’t really listen to what’s being said. It’s a time to receive that blessing. It’s a time to acknowledge that God’s grace is upon us and that grace is an empowering grace to take what we’ve heard and have it transform our lives and create peaceable lives, rightly ordered lives in our families, in our own personal life, in our vocational calling, in our schools, in our communities, in our trade associations, in anything we’re involved with to bring God’s peace and order.

He has given us that blessing. It’s the same as in the final blessing we often use at communion. Hebrews 13:20.