Well, for the last time in a while, perhaps, open up your Bible to the book of Ephesians. Our final message. It's been a good journey. Let's read the last few verses here. verses 21 through the end of the chapter by God's grace. I will get through it and I pray that this book has been as much a blessing to you as it has been to me. I mentioned in previous weeks I've been living the book of Ephesians the last couple of years and that's no lie. It really has been the lens through which I've been looking through life and may God bless this final message in this awesome book. So that you may know how I am and what I am doing. Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will tell you everything. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts. Peace be to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. Let's pray. It was a real blessing to pray in Sunday school for the preached word, but I do want to pray again that if there is anything that powerfully is affected this morning that all the glory would be to God and not to some clown in a pulpit speaking long-windedly. Father, we ask that you would send your Spirit to work deeply in every heart. We know You are more than able. Lord, it is Your desire to save sinners. It is Your desire, Lord, to sanctify Your saints. Father, we pray that You would accomplish this by the power of Your Spirit as the Word is proclaimed. Help us, Lord. We've sung about Christ. Lord, we pray now that we would feast upon Christ through the Living Word. Father, we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, you know it's been a good visit when you say goodbye and tears are shed. And I was thinking of Christina's mom. She is a baller. And it's always something that, I mean, Christina always waits for. When she's about to leave, she just starts to tear up. And that's actually a compliment. That means that she's enjoyed her stay. It means that she's had a good time of fellowship. And I was just thinking, that's how I feel about the book of Ephesians. It's been a good stay. We do need to go on. There are other portions of the Bible that we need to explore and dig into. But it's been a good time. And maybe some of you won't be visibly shedding a tear, but I hope that this book is left an impact upon you. I hope that in years to come you will look back and say, yeah, I remember 2012, 2013 into 2014, those two and a half glorious years where we looked at the rich theology and the implications of the Christian life in the book of Ephesians. Some of you have been converted in this amazing book through the gospel that Paul has expounded and explicated in this book. And perhaps this will be a book you cherish for the rest of your life. I know I will. I cherish all the books I preach, but Ephesians has been very special. I've seen God transform me. I've seen God transform many of you. This word is living. It is abiding. It is powerful. And God is sanctifying us as His people and saving His people through it as well. I'm just thinking that as we say goodbye to Ephesians, the sermon is called Farewell, that perhaps we would have tear-shed, but good tears. Good tears, because we've had a good time in this book. And Paul's concluding greetings, or his goodbye you could call it. The old adage, people don't care how much you know. until they know how much you care rings true. And I know some of you are perhaps tired this morning, shame on you, but if you do get sleepy, this is the thrust I want to focus on, is we've looked for the last two and a half years at Paul's mind, and I want to finish the book looking at Paul's heart. Sometimes we forget that Paul was a human, that Paul was a pastor, as it were. He was a shepherd. He cared like a father for the flock. He cared like a nursing mother for the sheep. And sometimes we think of Paul primarily as someone who sits sort of in his own ivory tower. He's sort of far away from the everyday affairs of people. And we need to remember that Paul was a human, he was a Christian, he was a person of flesh and blood just like us, saved by the same grace, pressing on in the same race, looking towards the same face. That literally just came to me, so obviously God's answering our prayers and I'm rhyming Shilin style. Google him if you don't know who I'm talking about. This morning, Paul's great love for the saints in Ephesus can be expressed under two main headings. Paul's messenger, and Paul's benediction. So I want to look at Paul's love, Paul's heart, through these two points. His messenger whom he sends, and the benediction that he gives. And we're going to see that Paul does know a lot, but we're also going to see that Paul also cares a lot for these people. Now all that theology is great, but there's nothing that rings so shallow that somebody who knows a lot, even a lot of theology, They really don't care. And I hope that this will encourage us because I think that's a tendency that we often fall prey to as reformers. Especially when we're on Facebook or YouTube. And we forget that the people to whom we're writing are actually people. They're not just subjects upon which we can foist our theology upon them. But they're really people. And the people Paul's writing to are not hypothetical. They're people just like us. People with struggles. People with doubts. People being assailed by Satan. People who are wondering what's going on in life. People who are tempted to give in to all kinds of sins. Ephesians has dealt with so many of these topics and Paul's basically laid out on the line. He's a pastor who loves them and he wants them to know that. There's nothing shameful about a man saying to people, I love you. It's something I think we could learn a lot from. So there's not this bravado and this machismo that we carry about, that we can't tell someone, you're a beloved brother in Christ. Man, do I thank God for you. I would love to see a lot more of that in my life, and I hope you in your life as well. So let's just get to it. Paul's messenger, verses 21 and 22. I basically have a couple of sub-points under this main point. Paul's messenger first. Who is sent? Well, it says here in verse 21, his name is Tychicus. Tychicus. The scriptures briefly mention him five times. Though the mentions are brief, we can draw some revealing conclusions about his experiences and about his place in Paul's life. I want to say this for the sermon tonight and look through 2 Timothy 2 about how Paul invests himself into men and I want you to understand that Paul is not some maverick. He's not some guy who goes all by himself as an individual, but Paul invested himself deeply into the lives of young men. Men like Timothy, and Titus, and Silas, and Barnabas, and Tychicus, and Epaphras, and Epaphroditus, Luke, Mark. Paul was constantly pouring his life out. Not just his theology, but his very life out to these men. That Tychicus is going to be, as it were, an ambassador for Paul. And Paul was sending Tychicus. Remember, Paul is in prison. And Paul's not just sending a letter with Tychicus, but as he says in Philemon, when he sends it with Anesimus, he says, I'm sending my very heart to you. And it shows how much Paul loves these men. And we see that Tychicus spent a great deal of time with Paul, as you read through his brief appearances. St. Acts 20. As you read about him in Colossians, you read that Tychicus is not just taking the letter that Paul has written to the Ephesians, he's also taking the letter he's written to the Colossians and the unknown letter to the Laodiceans. But Paul trusts this man so much. He's giving them these letters to these hurting Christians that will hopefully encourage them. We know that he was a native of the province of Asia. Acts 20, he was likely from Ephesus actually and converted under Paul's ministry there. It's amazing. I was just thinking how God loves to use local talent. Tychicus is one of you. I'm sending him back to you. Thus, Tychicus likely witnessed the great Ephesian riot in Acts 19. He saw what it was like when people wanted to tear Paul apart. Limb from limb. And yet in God's grace, Tychicus is still saved by the power of the gospel that Paul preached. Though Paul was kicked out of Dodge City, God still saved people. He still saved people who would become faithful ministers, faithful servants, faithful ambassadors. He saved people like Tychicus. I pray God would save Tychicus in our congregation. I pray that though a lot of Lethbridge would reject this gospel, that there would be many in our midst that God would raise up to be beloved brothers. They would be faithful servants in the Lord. A short time later, after Paul moves out of Ephesus for his life, when he returns to Jerusalem, where he would ultimately be arrested, we see that Tychicus was one of the seven who accompanied him as a traveling companion. Remember, Paul knows. He knows what's going to happen. It's been prophesied. He knows, everywhere he goes, that he's going to be rejected. And ultimately he knows he's going to be arrested in Jerusalem, as Agabus predicted, and he would ultimately be sent to Rome. And Tychicus was one of those beloved brethren who accompanied him. I just want us to slow down. Sometimes we read through Acts so quick, but these are months they're spending together. And it's good to just put yourself in Paul's chains or in his shoes. Just imagine how sweet it would be to have a brother you can basically let your heart out unto. You know it's going to happen to you. And you just imagine the closeness of this friendship, of this intimacy as the apostle. Sometimes we just think he's just always writing out treatises. Remember he was in Ephesus for three years. Remember he spent so much time with Tychicus. And here's Tychicus, sacrificing his own time to be with the shackled, imprisoned apostle. When Paul was arrested, Tychicus, along with Dr. Luke and others, stayed with Paul through his epic journey to Rome, which included his arrest and imprisonment in Caesarea, his dramatic appearances before kings and governors, his miserable voyage and shipwreck en route to Rome, as well as his residence under house arrest in Rome as he awaited trial. Tychicus was there the whole time. Paul's not just throwing out words when he says he's my beloved brother. He actually means that. Thus we can say Tychicus shared an immense mutuality of experience and of soul with Paul. When you read in 2 Corinthians when Paul says, I was on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure, Tychicus was there too. We don't know much about him, but I just love that. He's mentioned five times. And yet, how greatly was this man used in the Kingdom of God and the expansion of it? Perhaps you feel that you're unknown, that your names won't be in the annals of history. May God make you faithful like Tychicus. May you come alongside the brothers. May you serve. Even if no one sees, may you serve. as to the Lord, not by way of eye service as it were. May you be a faithful Tychicus, whether young or old, male or female, regardless. I pray. I pray that God would make us like Tychicus. I pray that we would get the grace of Christ and we would live in that sphere. Well, that was the background. Let's see what Paul says. So, who is sent? Tychicus. I've given you his historical background from what we have, but let's see what Paul calls him. How does Paul describe Tychicus? Well, firstly, he says he is the beloved brother. The beloved brother, made up of two nouns. First, the beloved. It's a favorite term of Paul's. 27 times he uses it in his letters. Twice in Ephesians. He uses it in chapter 5 where he says that we're to be imitators of God as His beloved children. And not only does God see us as His beloved children, but we must see God's children as beloved as well. And I was just thinking that the more we are conformed into the image of God, the more God changes us into the image of Christ, we will start to see Christ's people the way He sees Christ's people. Christ sees His saints as beloved. Paul sees Epaphras, Tychicus, sorry, as beloved. It refers to a person who is dear to one's heart. It is used above all of an only and precious child. It's a powerful word, and Paul's not just sloshing it around. We're going to look at a lot of love this morning. I love this word, agapetos. It comes from agape, love, agapetos, beloved. Something that you would feel towards your only child. That's how Paul feels towards Tichycus. It's an amazing thing God gives us as his people, a true love for one another. Do you refer to your brothers and sisters in Christ with this kind of fondness? Are they dear to you? I hope so. If they're not, you need to spend more time with them. But they'll annoy me. Oh, you will see the grace of God shine in relationship with other Christians. I pray that you will not be so isolated that you wouldn't be able to call other Christians beloved. Yes, they are beloved, you know, objectively. And Paul understands, yes, in Christ they are beloved. But I think there's a subjective sense, too, that Paul meant it. Paul says, I love this brother. I yearn for this brother. He is dear to my heart. He is beloved. Paul's use of this word for Tychicus is all the more astounding when we recall Paul's strict Jewish background. Paul is a Jew. Tychicus is a pagan from Ephesus, likely. But it's interesting because we saw in chapter 2 there's a natural animosity in the first century between Jew and Gentile. Philippians 3, Gentiles are called dogs. So likely as Paul is growing up a Jew, becomes a Pharisee of Pharisees, he viewed people like Tychicus pre-Christ as dogs, as enemy, as scum, as scoundrels. It's amazing what happens when Christ removes that dividing wall of hostility. Your enemy, whom you once scorned, becomes your brother in Christ, whom you now adore. It's amazing. This is the power of the Gospel. Chapter 1, verse 10. God's plan is to what? Unite all things in Christ. Things in heaven and things on earth. The things on earth is He's uniting sinners together. People who should be enemies are now brothers. And not just brothers, but beloved brothers. That Paul could say that Tychicus is more dear to me as a brother in Christ, though a Gentile, though many Jews outside of Christ, though we share the same bloodline. This is the power of the Gospel. You can read it afresh in chapter 2, 11-20. And I thought of 2 Corinthians 5-16, it says, When we were once in the flesh, we used to regard people according to the flesh. But now that we're in Christ, we no longer regard people that way. We're a new creation. In Christ we are a new creation. All things have become new. Paul can say, in the flesh I would have regarded Tychicus this way, but now in Christ, with new eyes, I don't regard him the way I once did. I hope you can say that about those who are sitting in this very room. Those that are in your community group. I pray that there would be this fondness that you would say, yes, we have nothing in common and everything in common. We're both in Christ. This is the power of the gospel to unite everything in earth and in heaven in Christ under one head. So the first thing Paul says about him is he's beloved. The second thing he says is he's a brother. He reminds us that we're one big happy family. And Paul says in the theological section, that in Christ we have been adopted into God's family. We have been adopted into God's family, and we're brothers and sisters now. And thus, in Christ, not only are ethnic distinctions abolished, Jew and Gentile, so also are social, societal, economic, and hierarchical distinctions. I've got the verse here, Colossians 3.11, and you can also write down if you want, Galatians 3.28. In Christ, Paul says to Colossians, there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. It's an amazing thing. We're part of the family of God and we're saved. We're transferred out of the realm of darkness and into the dominion of Christ's reign and we're transferred in together as a family. Do you see your brothers and sisters as family? They should. It's something that astounds my family, that I'm closer to people in Christ than I am to my physical family. I love them dearly. Please don't misread me. I love them. And I hope by God's grace I would die for their salvation. But I have sweeter intimacy in Lethbridge with those who are in Christ than with two of my brothers who are not yet in Christ. All we can talk about, all they'll let me talk about, are things like sports and banal things that have no eternal significance. But with you, brothers, with a Filipino named Lazar, we can sit together and pray and rejoice in Christ together, and our hearts can sing together. It's an amazing thing. This is the power of the Gospel. I think this is one of the most sweetest revelations God gave me. It's not just in chapters 1-3, but this very last text, like, what are you going to preach, Ryan? It's so rich. Beloved brothers, Paul, the great apostle, does not see himself superior to Titicus. He's not like, I'm the apostle, he's the slave. All of those are removed. And I was thinking how unfortunate it is. Yes, in churches it's good that you call the pastor, pastor. But there shouldn't be errors put on by the pastor where you feel that he's some kind of superior. We're all one in Christ. And Paul understood that. Unless he was the apostle. Yes, he was a prophet. Yes, he was a great church planter. But when it came down to it, he was just a regular Christian like everyone else. He was a brother of Tychicus. He wasn't Tychicus' apostle. He was Tychicus' brother. I was thinking, I don't know if I should say this, but I will because it will lighten up the mood hopefully. I'm usually a pretty narrow-minded preacher. When I was in Toronto, I'm not going to name names, but we were at a large church. And the pastor was a fantastic preacher. After the service, we were schmoozing as it were. I was a student then. And one of my co-students, actually, Heather's cousin-in-law, Jerome, he was introducing the pastor. He said, oh, well, this is my pastor, Pastor X. And the pastor said, that's Doctor X. And I just thought, that is so wrong. That is so wrong. He's not a doctor. And he's not just a pastor. He's your brother in Christ. And in Christ, all of those distinctions are removed. Not just Jew and Gentile. Not just doctor. Whether you're rich or poor, it doesn't matter. There's no difference. Read the book of James. That was the problem they were succumbing to. The rich, they viewed through a different lens, and James says, no! Yeah, we're all one in Christ. Remember that. Remember that. This is a truly otherworldly testimony of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Abby is speaking, so I'll speak of Abby. She often... I love kids' transparency. It just provides great gospel opportunities. And she said it many times when I called Marvin brother, because she knows Marvin is like 40 years older than me. But the most recent one is when I called Lazar brother. And just the perplexity, the confusion. No, Sean's your brother in Winnipeg. And Rob and Tim, those are your brothers. Why do you call Lazar brother? There's a gospel opportunity right there. In Christ. There's no distinction. Christ is all and Christ is in all. Christ is in Lazar. Christ is in me. We're brothers. Intimate brothers. Beloved brothers. Do you see that the gospel is not just confined to Ephesians 1-3? The gospel is saturated throughout the letter because Paul is saturated with the gospel. It follows him like a fragrant aroma wherever he goes, whatever he writes, even in his final greetings and benedictions. It's just staked in the gospel. I pray our lives would be like that. The second thing Paul says, he says, first, the one I'm sending to you, he's the faithful brother, or the beloved brother. The second thing he says, he's the faithful servant, the faithful minister in the Lord. So we see on the first point, Paul's love for Tychicus. In this explanation we see Tychicus's love for Paul. He's my beloved brother. Now we're going to see how much Tychicus also loves Paul. As we see from Epaphroditus' example in Philippians 2, ministering to Paul was a dangerous venture. Moreover, it was costly. It was dangerous and it was costly. The language implies that Tychicus, a resident of Ephesus, had to minister to Paul in Rome. He would have to leave things behind. Say you had someone you cared about, who was in prison in Edmonton, or further. You have to leave where you are now. You have to leave your job, perhaps your family, perhaps your friends, perhaps your leisure. You have to leave everything because you love this guy so much. You see the common love, the mutual love in Christ's family. Yes, Paul loves Tychicus, but oh how much Tychicus loves Paul. Love is costly. Love is not just signing the end of a letter. Love is a verb. Tychicus shows us how much he cares about Paul. And how much he cares about the work of Christ. Pistos. It means faithful, reliable, trustworthy. Another definition is faithfulness to something to which one is bound by pledge or duty. And implies strict and continuing faithfulness to an obligation, trust or duty. That almost smells like legalism, doesn't it? Don't you wish there was more of that in our marriages? Don't you wish there was more of this fidelity? Don't you wish that more of our conduct and our brothers' and sisters' conduct would be defined by faithfulness, reliability, trustworthiness? That we are bound by pledge? Tychicus says, I'm going to help you, Paul, and he does. We're going to see something radically different when we look in 2 Timothy, where Paul is heartbroken that Paul was abandoned by so many, but not Tychicus. Tychicus was faithful. He was a man of true fidelity, a word we don't hear about much in our society anymore. Okay, I'm not saying, okay, let's be good morals and be like Tychicus. But if the grace of God is resident in our lives, we should desire to be faithful, to be like Christ, to be like men like Paul and Tychicus, to be men and women of our word, and we would do it even at great cost to ourselves. It's a picture of the gospel. Or that we would see more of the fruit of the Spirit in Christ's people. Faithfulness is a fruit of the Spirit if you look it up in Galatians 5. He's faithful and he's also a servant. ESV translates minister of proleborian from Paul's usage in chapter 3. Literally, as you remember, when I preached through the book of Mark, this word was used of waiters and waitresses. And I used the example of Susanna when she used to work at the guest house. This is Tychicus. Left everything so that he might wait on Paul. Wait on him hand and foot. He left everything. Maybe comfort. Maybe affluence. I don't know what he left. But he left all of that, that he'd be a lowly servant. A lowly waiter. A faithful waiter. Faithful servant to Paul. What a beautiful picture of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here's someone in great need. Paul. Here's someone who can meet that need. And he humbles himself. Remember what Jesus says? Who's the greatest in the kingdom? Right? They're all bickering in chapters 8, 9, and 10 of Mark. Who's the greatest? I'll show you who's the greatest. The one who serves the most. Everyone knows about Paul. Very few of us know about Tychicus. And yet, Tychicus is a great saint. He's a great believer. Because he's a servant. And again, not only that we would see increasing measures of faithfulness in our church, but increasing measures of servanthood in our church. You servants, you come here to get, or do you come to give? It's a completely different mindset. There's people who come to church to give, and when they're not met, they complain and grumble, and then they leave the church, and they just repeat it ad nauseum. People who come to church to serve, rarely get disgruntled. I want to encourage you to have that mentality. The mind of Christ, perhaps, of Philippians 2. And as you read Philippians 2, understand that Timothy has the mind of Christ, whom Paul sends as his representative. And Epaphroditus also has the mind of Christ. Paul says to the Philippians and to us, even through Atticicus, let us have the mind of Christ. What is the mind of Christ? faithful servant. Christ came not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom. I might not be able to buy your soul to heaven, but I can imitate Christ as a faithful servant and give my life as a ransom that you might grow in Christ's likeness. I can't reduplicate what Christ did on the cross. I'm a sinner. But we're still called to die to self for the life of others. It's exactly what Tychicus did. No wonder Paul can use such warm expressions. A faithful minister in the Lord. And this, in the Lord, for those of us who are going to steadfastly, faithfully continue in Greek, in the Lord modifies beloved brother and it modifies faithful servant. All of this means nothing. If He is a beloved brother and a faithful servant and that's it, it means nothing, but it's in the Lord. Jesus Christ is the only one who can make a selfish person selfless and sacrificial. Christ is the only one. Being in Christ is the only way we can be a beloved brother and a faithful minister to others. Without Christ, we will not have the sacrificial love between brothers who are beloved. We will not serve them as Christ served us. We need to be in Christ. Are you in Christ? Are you in the Lord? You can't be either one of these if you're not in Christ first. You can't be a beloved brother. You can't be a faithful servant if you're not in Christ. We're very careful now with who I call brothers. Interestingly, this great mutual love we see between Paul and Tychicus shows just how much they both love the rest of the church. Okay, so who is sent? Tychicus. Paul says, first of all, he's my beloved brother. Paul's love for Tychicus. Secondly, he's a faithful servant. Tychicus's love for Paul. But we see in this mutual love for each other, it actually overflows to the love for the people in Ephesus. It's not just two guys who love each other. It's two guys who love each other for the sake of the Church. Isn't that amazing as well? Paul doesn't just send anybody. He sends his best, which shows how much he loves the Church. How do you know how much your mom loves you, Heather? She doesn't just send you. She comes herself or she sends her best. I thought of John 3.16. I'm not saying that Tychicus is redemptively being sent. But God so loves us. How much? How do we know God loves us? He sends us Archangel Michael? He sends us a prophet? No. He sends us His best. He sends His beloved Son. It's exactly what Paul says. I love you so much, saints in Ephesus. I love you so much. I'm sending the one who is with me. The one who I delight in. The one who is ministering to me. The one who is a great benefit to me. I'm sending him. I'm going to be lonely. I could use the service. But I care more about you, oh saints. Don't you just see the heart of Paul here? I hope you read Paul differently after the service. Not like, how can I break down his arguments? How can I see the therefores and the fores and how he structures his arguments? That's great. But understand that Paul's writing as a pastor, not a theologian. He's sending his best, and Epaphroditus is giving up his best for the good of others. Paul and Epaphras, Tychicus, sorry, I have all these beloved brethren in my mind. Paul and Tychicus are showing gospel love because they give up much for the good of the church. Isn't that what Christ did? Although we would see this in our fellowship. I think sometimes we pick on St. Francis, I know the quote might not be attributed to him, but we pick on him a little too much, because there was some truth to what he said. He said, preach the gospel at all times, if necessary use words. I think sometimes we take him out of context. Yes, we need to preach the gospel with words, but sometimes as reformers we just leave it there. Paul didn't. Read Thessalonians. Read all of his letters. He says, we are with you. Like a nursing mother. As a tended father. I stand and I stand for you. I don't just write treatises of theology for you. I don't just send you a systematic theology book. I bleed for you. I love you. I pray that you'll read Paul that way. That Paul is an expression of God's love to you. Who was sent? Tychicus. First, he's a beloved brother. Second, he's a faithful minister. Second set point, why is he sent? I have three reasons. Quick, I'm not going to go through them exhaustively. But Tychicus is sent first to let the believers in Ephesus know how Paul is doing. Second, to let them know what Paul is doing. How he's doing, what he's doing. And third, to encourage their hearts. In the previous point we saw how much Paul loved Tychicus, and how much Tychicus loved Paul, and how much they both loved the same synethesis. So you just see this huge love feast, if you will. Paul's love for Tychicus, Tychicus' love for Paul, their love for the church. Now in this point we see the church's love for them. It's reciprocated. Paul knows they have been troubled by his imprisonment for the gospel. Remember chapter 3 verse 13? I ask you not to lose heart over what I'm suffering for you, which is your glory. Remember the people? If they didn't care for Paul, they wouldn't be so grieved that Paul was being mistreated in prison. See how love is just flowing between all of God's people? Between Paul and Tychicus. Between them and the church. And now from the church towards them. You see how much they love Paul. Okay, now don't answer this audibly, otherwise there might be sounds of crickets and tumbleweeds, but do you love your pastors here? Do you love them? Would it grieve you if Marvin or myself or Chris was thrown into prison for the gospel? Would it grieve you? I hope so. Some of you might rejoice, but I pray that it actually would grieve you. You see how much the saints loved Paul. This reminds us that Paul is not some cold, indifferent theologian, but a warm, affectionate shepherd who cares for the saints and whose care the saints are concerned about too. I love Abby, but it gladdens me that she loves me. Paul reminds us here that there's more to being a good shepherd than merely having good theology. I don't feel this way about theologians. I feel this way about people who are in my life. I know it's one of my shortfalls, one of my shortcomings as a pastor, and I was praying that God would give me a greater desire to be Paul-like towards you, but it is a desire. I see that sounds like case. But I pray that I wouldn't just rattle off theological discourses to you on Sunday mornings. I've been guilty of that. And God's teaching me through Paul's example, there's so much more than being a good shepherd than just having a great sermon. You don't care how much I know until you know how much I care. I think it is true for Paul and it ought to be true for me. So pray for me. So he sent to let the people know how Paul is and what he is doing. Why? Because they actually care. The third reason he sent was to encourage their hearts. Another picture of the gospel. What a paradox. The one imprisoned in chains, who needs comfort, seeks to comfort others. What selflessness. It's an amazing picture of the gospel. I pray that would be more real in my life and yours as well. Not only is Paul's letter saturated with the gospel of Christ, his life is saturated. Awesome, Paul! You're Christocentric in your letter! I want Paul to be Christocentric in his life and in his living. This is a glorious picture of the gospel. This word, encourage, is used only one other place in Ephesians. Chapter 4, verse 1. He says, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy. I made him reading into it. But he's saying that, yes, doctrine encourages you. It's good to be encouraged by the three chapters of doctrine. You need doctrine to be encouraged. Yes. But you also need to be encouraged by someone's example. By their presence. More than just some slap email. Here you go. Romans 8, 28. Paul wants to encourage their hearts with his heart, not just with his mind. Don't you love how earthy Christianity is? I love it. I hope that if you're kind of living an isolated Christianese life, I pray that you would realize how necessary fellowship with other believers is. I hope you will see that. How vitally important it is. that you will make it more of a goal of yours to have this kind of relationship with a tick-a-kiss, or with a church in Ephesus, with someone who's a Christian. Christianity is more than just believing a standard set of doctrines. Did you know that? There's lots of people who can fill out a reformed confession of faith and still go to hell. As a good shepherd, Paul is not content merely with informing their minds by sending a theological letter. He also wants to encourage their hearts. So chapter 4 I said, Paul encourages them in their mind by sending a letter. Now he wants to encourage their hearts by sending his brother, sending his best. We need both kinds of encouragement. If you're in a sickbed, I hope I don't just give you a book. Here, read that. That will help. That's maybe helpful, but maybe at that time what you really need is a faithful minister and a beloved brother to give you His heart. Are you doing that? I hope so. When someone's hurting, yes, give them encouragement through the Word, but give them encouragement with your presence as well. You can spell that the way you want. If this were not enough of a portrait of Paul's Christ-like heart for the saints, there's still more. So we see Paul's heart in the messenger he sends. But secondly, we see Paul's Christ-like love in the benediction he gives. We see Paul's great love in the letter he sends, the first point. And our second point, we see Paul's great love in the benediction he gives. Please don't read over these so quickly. You know how much you love somebody by how much you give them and by what you give them. Paul basically is praying in verses 23 for the main themes he has stressed throughout the letter. All the theology is expounded for us. He's praying it would become a reality in their lives. The last two verses I would encourage you to memorize. They will help you to recall Ephesians. Peace. Love. Faith. Grace. Love. You said love twice. Yeah, because love is the main thing in Ephesians. What's Ephesians all about? The very things Paul prays for. He prays for their peace. He prays for their love. He prays for their faith. He prays for grace. And he reminds them of love. The first thing he prays for, his first benediction is peace and love with faith. Okay, I don't want to go over these. You can go back if you really want to purge yourself. You can go back and listen to those sermons I stumbled through when I defined peace with all the fancy Greek words, etc. I don't want to do that. I just want to remind you of the emphasis of peace. This is one of the main things that Paul preaches and teaches upon. But it's not enough for Paul to preach peace to them, he wants to now pray peace for them. It's one of the main thrusts in Ephesians. Starts the letter with, Grace to you and peace, and he ends with peace. And he reminds us that through the cross of Christ, we have peace with God, and we have peace with one another. Remember in chapter 2, I know it's hard to think back that far, but we see this hostility between Jew and Gentile. This separation by nature, how it's removed supernaturally through Christ, right? The hostility is removed, peace is established. Christ Himself is our peace. He's removed every barrier that divides us by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances. That in Himself, He's created one new man, one new harmonious man. Paul's reminding them. You have peace. The gospel of peace. You are right with God. You are justified with God. Now live it out! And be at peace with one another. That's what Paul's praying. Maybe I'll just move on there. Do you pray that way for others? Do you pray that people would realize the peace they have with God if they're in Christ? And do you pray that they would be at peace with one another? There would be wholeness. That's what shalom means. I hope so. The second thing he prays for in his first benediction is love with faith. Paul again prays for the blessing of God's love to be poured out in a fuller measure on them. We spent a lot of time in Ephesians chapter 3 in Paul's prayer. Oh, that what? You might get the love of Christ. The breadth and length and height and depth. You might know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. To be filled with the fullness of God is not to be flying or speaking in tongues or zapping people. The fullness of God in Christ is to be living a life of love. And so Paul prays for it. You want to be a good testimony to this world? Oh, that God would give you love. Christ-like love. And oh, that you might understand this love and live in light of it. Right? Remember? He set us apart that we might be holy and blameless before Him in love. Yes, He predestined us in love. But He also set us apart that we might be holy and blameless in love. You can't be holy or blameless if you're not loving. If you're holy and blameless without love, you're legalist and self-righteous and probably miserable to be around. I know a lot of Christians like that. All about a false holiness and a false blamelessness, but there's no love. Paul prays that their love might abound in the language of Philippians 1, more and more. So he prays for the Thessalonians, and now he prays it for the Ephesians. Oh, that you might understand this love, as beloved children walk in love. Fulfill the law of Christ. Paul prays not only for love, but he prays for love with faith. I don't want to separate the two. Because the text says it, it says, Metta, love with faith. Which reminds me that for Paul, love has a Siamese twin named Faith. They're inseparable. 1 Corinthians 13. Faith, hope and love, these three abide, remain. And the greatest of these is love. Though love is greatest, it is not separated from faith. I did a little search. on my Bible works with the word love and faith used together, agape and pistos, and then the verbs. Paul links these two together 26 times in his letters. That's amazing, I never realized that. He uses love lots, right? In this one letter I wrote it down how many times he uses love. Anyways, love and faith are mingled together by Paul 26 times together. Okay? It's unbelievable. And it shows that the two always grow together. And so when our love for Christ grows, our faith grows. And when our faith in Christ grows, our love grows. And so if someone says they have great faith, but they have not love, it's not real faith. And if they say that they love, but they don't believe, you say, no, they're together. And so Paul's praying, yes for peace, yes for love, but love with faith. Faith is how they entered into relationship with Jesus Christ, chapter 1.13, chapter 2, verse 8. Grace, you have been saved through faith. And Paul says, oh, that your love might abound, but also that your faith would increase. Oh, that God would give you more faith in your struggle against Satan. Take up the shield of faith. Oh God, give them faith. Paul has already heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus and their love toward all the saints. Chapter 1, verse maybe 13. And now he prays that they would increase. The source of these? God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the fountain of never ceasing plentitude. Peace, love and faith are all gifts. You can't work peace up, you can't work love up, you can't work faith up. All you can do is plead them down. Do you pray that for your brothers and sisters? This is how much Paul loves. He doesn't pray, Oh Lord, give them a new beamer, give them a bigger house, give them comfort, give them security. How do we see how much Paul loves the believers? Give them the most important things they need on earth. Show them all they have in Christ. Show them the peace they have with Christ, and the peace they can now live. Show them the love that they have in Christ, and the love they can now live out for Christ. Show them that faith is a gift from Christ, and now they can live faithfully. You pray that way? I hope so. I hope that you pray these kinds of benedictions, and you'd realize that the Source, God, the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ are more than willing to give their people what they need. First benediction is peace to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The second benediction is simply grace. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. If you've read Paul, if you're acquainted with him, you know that he always begins and ends his letters with grace. Thomas Schreiner's right when he calls Paul the apostle of God's grace in Christ. He's dead on. Paul is the apostle of God's grace in Christ. He begins with grace and he ends with grace. From start to end, we might say, in the words of C. H. Spurgeon, that the Christian life is all of grace. He says at the beginning, grace to you. In other words, God give you grace to understand what I'm writing. Grace to you. And then as the letter ends, grace with you to carry out what you now understand by grace. Grace to understand, grace to live. Grace to you, grace with you. What is grace? I could give you a whole bunch of fancy Greek words. This is the one I learned when I was a newbie Christian. God's riches at Christ's expense. Paul's praying basically they understand all that they have been given as a free gift in Christ. God's riches at Christ's expense. Maybe the only thing you remember from my whole sermon series on Ephesians. Paul wants you to understand, Errol, all that God has given you in Christ, freely, unmeritoriously, He's bestowed upon you. in Christ. Goes all the way back to chapter 1 verse 4. That you might understand all these spiritual riches you have in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He adds a little bit of a troubling ending here in the Greek. When he says, Grace be with all who love the Lord Jesus with love incorruptible. What in the world does that mean? Well, the Greek word denotes, especially for Paul, Something that is unfading and permanent. Grace, literally in the Greek, THE grace, with those who love the Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility. And for those who study Greek, I was talking with Lazar about this yesterday. Does this word incorruptibility, does this word translated unfading or permanent, does it modify grace or love? I said it doesn't really matter, it modifies maybe both. Eternal grace be to those who love the Lord Jesus, or grace be with those who love the Lord Jesus eternally. Or ZSV says here, with incorruptible love, NIV I think says undying love. But it doesn't really matter because Paul begins with eternity, he ends with eternity, and he links it to love for Christ. That's all I want to give to you. Which causes me to ask the question, do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? We can finagle about always that word modifying grace or love. That's not what Paul would have us to do. He says that this grace is the evidence, or evidence is itself, in those who love Jesus. Paul doesn't say, grace be to those who have heard about Jesus. Grace to those who sit in a church and listen about Jesus. Nor does He say, grace be to those who know about Jesus. Grace be to those who can answer catechisms about Jesus. Grace be to those who trust in the salt. Do you love Him? That's an eternal question, by the way. Yeah, I try to look at the kids too. Don't worry about looking in my eye and telling me you love Him. You're going to stand before Him one day. And the only thing that's going to usher you into His presence is, do you love Him or not? He's not going to give you a questionnaire. He's going to say, do you love Me? If you love Him, grace to you. The opposite ending is given in 1 Corinthians 16. Paul says, let a curse, anathema, come upon those who do not have love for the Lord Jesus. Your eternity turns upon, do you love Jesus Christ or not? If you love the Lord Jesus Christ, eternal grace is yours. If you do not love the Lord Jesus, eternal condemnation is yours. Do you love Him? Do you cry out more love to Thee? O Christ, more love to Thee, O Navy! Give me love! I don't love You! Give me love! With Paul in 1 Timothy 1, it says, And the grace of the Lord overflowed from me, bringing with it the faith and love that are in Christ. O that God would give you love and faith in Christ this morning, if you do not love Him. O that you would shudder And tremble if you love not the Lord Jesus Christ this morning, that if you were to die, you would be sent to hell, because you do not love the Lord Jesus Christ. Heaven and hell are determined by the answer you give to my question. Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? Reminds me of my favorite passage. In John 21, and this is probably my favorite passage because I align myself and associate myself so much with the Apostle Peter. Just an egghead. Just spoke before he thought. That's me. And after he denied the Lord three times in a row, which I've done many more times than Peter, to my shame, Jesus asks him a three-fold question. He doesn't say, Peter, let's fill out your reformed questionnaire to make sure you're still right with me. He says, Peter, do you love Me? And the reason why I love that passage so much is because I fail my Savior so many times, but I can say on the third time, grieved and vexed with Peter, Lord, You know. You know all things. I am a sinner and I fall short, but Lord, Thou dost know I love Thee. I can say that. I hope that encourages you. Sometimes we feel that, no, I love Christ and that's enough. I was listening to John Piper one time, and he was having a debate with one of his professors over free will versus election. And it got quite heated. And the professor stopped and he said, I want you to know something. I love the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that amazing? They're bickering and bantering and biting and devouring. And they've forgotten love for Christ. Do you love Christ? I hope so. If you love Christ, you will love His people. I flew by my notes, so I guess that's providential that we're not supposed to go through it. But how do we know that Paul loves Christ? How do you know that you love Christ? Grace be to those who love the Lord Jesus Christ with genuine love, or unfading, or undying, or incorruptible love. How do you know? Read 1 John 3-4 this afternoon. By this we know we pass from death to life, if we want. Love the brothers. A new commandment Christ gives us. Love each other. How will the world know that we belong? By our love. You might say, I don't know if I have a love for Christ. I don't know. You will know. You will know who belong to the devil and who belong to God the Father in Christ. So I've shown you, all throughout this sermon, of Paul's love for Tychicus, of Tychicus' love for Paul, of their love for the church and the church's love for them. Do you understand that the defining characteristic of Christianity is not just lay doctrine? Yes, you know I'm not going there. But it's so much more. Do you know what the new law is? The perfect law that gives liberty? 1 Corinthians. The law of Christ. In Galatians it's called the law of love. It sums them all up. Do you love the brethren? Grace be to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me give you five applications in close. One, theology is never meant to be separated from community. Listen to me, all you Facebook attackers. I attack people I don't know. I went on Wednesday with Chris Purvis to another church to meet, to talk about certain things, and I fell in love with some people who are Armenians. If I wasn't in a community with them, I'd be lobbing grenades at them on Facebook and YouTube all day long. Theology is never meant to be separated from community. Think of Kelvin. He's my favorite theologian, by the way. Calvin, after he was converted and started writing Institutes, he wanted to live a life of solitude by himself in Strasbourg in Germany. And so on his way there, in God's sovereign providence, there was a war going on and he had to pass through a town of Geneva. And in God's sovereign providence, a Frenchman named William Farrell told Calvin he needed to stay there. And Calvin said, I just want to be a theologian, I just want to write, I just want to be in solitude. And I believe that if Calvin wrote in solitude and not in the context of a local church, we would never read any of his works. They would be so impractical, so heavy handed, so high lofty, they wouldn't reach us for that. But Calvin, in God's providence, is the greatest theologian, in my opinion, in church history, for the main reason that he wrote as a pastor. He wrote in community. His great treatise on assurance of salvation. You know why he wrote it? Not so it would get published. Because he cared and ached for the people who wondered if God loved them, if they could truly have assurance that they were in Christ. That's why he wrote it. So much on the Holy Spirit. Why did he write on the Holy Spirit? Because he loved people. Theology can become nasty if it's divided from community. I just want to remind some UK stagers. Make sure you're in community. Second. First, theology is impossible from community. Second, ministry is impossible from community. Paul was not a maverick. Paul needed others. I'm going to talk about that a little more tonight, so I'm not going to get into it. Paul needed others. We always think of Paul all by himself. Read the end of Colossians 4. Read 1 Corinthians 16, read Romans 16. Look at all these people Paul lists. All of his co-brothers, co-workers, co-soldiers, co-brothers in the Lord. Read Philippians 4, Eutychian, Syntyche. Paul didn't do this by himself. Don't insert 21st century isolationist western culture into Paul. Ministry is impossible apart from community. Paul needed others. You need others. Paul needs others. You need others. We're going to see tonight, Paul was always in community. Not just watching football games and eating chicken wings, but Paul was investing himself into young men and women to train them up that they might advance the gospel. Third, gospel-rich relationships take time. I see this when I read Acts 19 and 20. I understand that Tychicus was with Paul a long time. It just takes time. You've got to be with people before you can actually genuinely say, he's my beloved brother in Christ. Yes, I know positionally he's beloved of God, but I mean it from my heart. I see him as dear to me affectionately. That takes time. And it's hard in our society. I'm going to say something that might hurt too. For some of your backgrounds, some of your cultures, it's especially hard and you've got to destroy those and crucify those cultural things. Oh, we're very solo in our culture and we don't open up and we don't get to know people outside of our group in our culture. Not in Christ is that so. Gospel-rich relationships take time. Are you fostering a gospel-rich relationship? I don't want to guilt, I'm just asking you. You just come home from work and do nothing. You're calling someone, fellowshiping with someone, investing in someone, praying for someone, giving somebody everything you have. Gospel-rich relationships take time. Let me say this. We don't have a lot of visitors today, but this is a real danger of this mentality where we church shop. I'll go to this church, and if I don't like it, I'll go to this church, and if I don't like it, I'll go to this church, I don't like it, I'll go to this church, until I like something. It's so unbiblical. You leave before you can even establish relationships that would be encouraging to you. Church shopping prevents deep relationships, like the one we see in Paul's concluding remarks. Do you have a deep relationship with someone, even if it's a husband or wife? Do you have a deep relationship with someone in your community group? Another Christian, maybe, in another church? I hope so. I hope so. Fourth, gospel-rich relationships take effort. They take time, but they take effort. I just want to say this quickly. The best way to foster a gospel-rich relationship is to serve Christ together. Ever gone on a mission trip for a week with people? Not just doing nothing together, but serving together. Lazarus is the one I'm talking about a lot, but when we go door-to-door, I've said to him so many times, Yes, I want people to be saved, but learn, Lazarus, how I'm getting to know you, brother. It's a gospel rich relationship. It takes time and it takes effort. I'd rather be home playing YouTube or whatever else, you know, cool people do, which I'm not. But I'm getting to know Lazarus and it's rich. All these trivialities mean nothing compared to a deep relationship with a brother that I'm co-working with. Paul can say this because he's served with Tychicus. You really want to get to know somebody? Spend some time with them. And serve with them. Go to the soup kitchen. Go witness. Ask them to come over. Minister to their kids. Do something. Serve in the gospel together. My last point. Gospel rich relationships are worth it. Okay? So they take time. They take effort. But oh, they are worth it. They are a great apologetic for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Francis Schaeffer said this. The final apologetic which Christ gave To the church is the observable love of true Christians for true Christians. They will know us, not so much by our theology, they will know us by our love. 1 John 3.14-18, 1 John 4.7, 1 John 4.11, 1 John 4.20-21. Just go home and read 1 John 3 and 4. How do we know that Paul loved the Lord Jesus Christ? How do we know Tychicus loved the Lord Jesus Christ? How do we know the saints in Ephesus loved Jesus Christ? They loved those who were in Christ. I hope you love those who are Christians and have a growing, increasing love for other Christians. This morning, if you call yourself a Christian, but you tire easily of hanging around Christians, if you don't like being in their company, if you're sick of their gospel talk, If you'd rather hang out with your friends who are not Christians, you should really question if you're a Christian. Do you know what it is to be given a divine love? The life of God and the soul of man, have you truly been regenerated? If you could have your choice this morning of hanging out with your punk friends or a bunch of loser Christians, where your heart is will determine where your heart is at. I want to challenge you with that. It's not like, can you answer a questionnaire? Do you love Christ's people the way Paul loves Christ's people? I hope so. If God has taught you the brotherly love of 1 Thessalonians 4 and 9, my prayer for our church is that we would put it into practice, as Paul says, more and more. Conclusion. As important as having a right theology is to effective New Testament ministry, that is not enough. You want to do ministry in this local church, you want to do ministry wherever you're at, it's not enough just to have right doctrine. It is essential. It's not less than right theology, but it certainly is more than. Not only must our minds and morals be right, so also must our hearts be right, as we've seen so powerfully in these last verses of Ephesians. Too often we see the Apostle only as a great theologian, but as the Apostle of God's grace in Christ, Not only did His teaching smell of the aroma of Christ, so also did His actions. And I've been praying that ours would as well. That our teaching would smell of Christ, our doctrine would smell of Christ, but so also would our love. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for the Gospel, which makes us new creations, which gives us new affections, which enables us to fulfill the great commandments, to love the Lord our God with our heart, mind, soul and strength, but also to love our neighbors as ourself. Father, I pray for anyone here who has not a new heart. Father, would you supernaturally grant that to them? I think as Lazarus prayed this morning, would you take out that stony heart and replace it with a fleshly heart that is able to be directed at the impulse of your love, A new heart, new eyes, new affection, new will? Or would you make dead people here alive? Would you make them new creations? Would you, God, in your great mercy, because of your great love for them, cause them to be born again? Would you give them life? Would you quicken them in Christ? Father, for us who have tasted and seen that You are good, O Father, let our lives be the aroma of Christ. Let us love one another in word and in deed. Father, I pray, give us this intimacy. Lord, please help us to see that Satan wants us to be little islands that are disconnected. Islands that don't pray for one another, that don't plead for one another, that don't burn and yearn for one another. Help us, Lord, to understand that when all these coals gather together, it's a great fire, but when they're separated, they're just little smokey, heatless, whatever's. Lord, I just pray. Make us, give us this, Lord, what Paul had for Ticket Kiss, Ticket Kiss had for Paul, they had for the church, and the church had for them. But make us a people of love. Do so by the power of your Holy Spirit, I pray in Christ's name. Amen.