The Grace of the LORD Jesus Christ

Series	Location	Subjects	Takeaways	Sermon Link
Allison on 2 Corinthians	Emmaus Orthodox Presbyterian Church	-	-	-

💡Big Idea

Takeaways and Next Steps

📖 Bible Passage

2 Corinthians 13.14

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s love, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

Points

• A minister’s office is to pronounce God’s blessing on His people.
  • This blessing contains no magical powers
    • But is one of the keys given by God to His church.
• Here Paul is pronouncing God’s blessing over the church in Corinth.
• Historically the Reformers had disagreement with the Anglican church. The Reformers met and discerned that it is the responsibility of ministers to pronounce God’s blessing over their congregation.

The Blessing of the Triune God

The order of the persons of the Godhead varies

• In our text the order is Son, then Father, than Spirit.
  • In this text Paul highlights the Son first.
• This order is different from
  • Matthew 28.19 “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”
  • 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 Now there are various kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are various kinds of service, and the same Lord. There are various kinds of workings, but the same God, who works all things in all. [[1 Cor-12#v5|]][[1 Cor-12#v6|]]
• We call the Father the first person of the Trinity, the Son the Second, and the Spirit the first.
  • We use this order, not because it is the order that is used everywhere in scripture, but because this is a logical order.
    • The Father begets the Son
    • The Son sends the Spirit.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is his favor when we deserve death

• Paul says “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s love, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit is¹ with you all. Amen.”
  • Paul does not say may be, or could be. He says it is.
    • Paul is declaring that God’s grace is in fact with the church.

The names of Christ

• Today, many ministers prefer to only say “Jesus” and rarely if ever call Him Christ, or Jehovah.
  • This is not the way that Paul talks about Jesus. Paul uses all these phrases.

What is this grace we are talking about?

• grace is unmerited favor. He gives us favor even though we do not deserve it.
  • Grace means pardoning and mercy.

His grace is mercy and active love

• Jesus was not awkward around people, was not unkind, or uncaring.
• Jesus was loving and compassionate even to the most undeserving of sinners.
• His grace means everything to us.
  • We are called by grace
  • Saved by grace.
  • Sanctified by His grace.
  • His grace identifies and meets our every need.
  • His grace stirs the unbeliever to come to Him and to return to Him when they have turned to sin.
  • What is bad or harmful to me, is kept away from me by His grace.

His grace is infinite eternal, and unchangeable

• His grace is bottomless, boundless.
• Illustration: if you took all the people in the world and took a spoonful of water from the ocean and into a bucket, you could not exhaust the ocean. Even if they repeated this for all eternity, we could not dry the ocean so.
• This grace can solve:
  • every problem you have or ever will have
  • every need
  • every sin you’ve ever committed.
• Jesus Christ never stops giving.

His grace protects us

• His grace protects us
• We have so many dangers that He protects us from:
  • sickness
  • injury
  • strife, violence and rebellion.
• Anecdote: Polycarp was charged and accused of being a Christian. The Romans were going to kill him unless he cursed Christ and called Caesar Lord.
  • Polycarp: “I have served Him 86 and in no way has He harmed me. How can I betray Him now.”
  • Where did Polycarp get such courage and conviction? The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ was with him.
• His grace is sufficient for every need.
• This does not mean that we will never have troubles but it does mean that Jesus will take care of everything.
  • This gives us that “peace which surpasses all understanding”.

Application

The Lord’s Supper

• This means that we should have a joyous, humble gratitude.

  • This gratitude compels us to submit our lives to Him.
    • (Just as Polycarp did).

• This grace should open our eyes to how lovely God’s grace is.

  • It is all from Him. We provided none of it. We are just receivers.

• This grace should work within us a holy, despising of the world

  • How can we be enticed by all the sins, lusts and temptations of the world, in light of the beautiful grace that God has given to us.
  • We should see the sin of the world as an adulterous love.

• This grace should stir within us the desire to publicly manifest this grace to others

  • Others should be able to see in us, the grace of God.
  • Oh how shy we are to speak up for the Lord.
    • We should have more courage and strength.
    • Away with spiritual dullness.

• If you do not know the grace of Christ, come to Him today.

  • He will wash you of your sins

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Further Study

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💬 Discussion Questions

Footnotes

Footnotes

1. NKJV does not say “is” with you all. It says “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s love, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” ↩