Sermon: A Benediction

This morning we are going to look at Hebrews chapter 13 and verses 18 through 25. And before we do so, let's pray and ask for God's blessing upon the word.

Our Father, like those Greeks who came to the disciples,

we asked this morning in prayer, sir, we would see Jesus.

It is a simple prayer.

It is an un adorned prayer. It is the most necessary prayer that we could pray. Would you hear us this morning? Do so in a way that only you can. Father, we reveal your son to us and open the eyes of our hearts and we pray all of us in the strong name, the Lord Jesus Christ, your son. Amen. Hebrews chapter 13, verses 18 through 25. This is the holy inherent sufficient word of God. Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience desiring

to act honorably in all things. I urge you, the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you, the sooner now the God of peace who brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do, his will working in us, that which is pleasing in a sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.

Amen. I appeal to you brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, bride written. I've written to you briefly. You should know that our brother Timothy has been released with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. Greet all your leaders and all the saints, those who come from Italy send you greetings, grace be with all of you for the grass withers and the flower fades. The word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Well, this is it, 51st, uh, sermon in this series of Hebrews. We're bringing it to a close started back in the fall of 2022. Uh, and this is it. A couple of you came to me last Sunday and you said, how about we just start over? I say, don't tempt me. Uh, what we're gonna do is close it out this morning and I'm going to simply just focus upon the benediction this morning. Uh, that's what I wanna close with. So let's just briefly though, look at verse 18

and then verses 23 through 24, we're gonna spend our time really on that benediction. But you'll remember from last week in verse 17 that, uh, the writer of Hebrews, this preacher, was telling the congregation that they are to obey and submit to their leaders. And so now he gives them the application, same application I gave you last week, that if you are going to obey and submit to these leaders, these leaders that are over you in Christ, the thing that you need

to do in response, the thing that is necessary for them and benefits you, is to be praying for these leaders. I've told many of you that have stopped me out in the fellowship poll or in the hallways and said, ah, Jason, I I I pray for you regularly. And I say the same thing and I'm don't mean it as a a throw off. I mean it from the bottom of my heart there. There's nothing that you could say that means more to me than you pray for me.

Uh, it's the most necessary thing for being a leader in the church. And it not only benefits me, it benefits you. I've said this to you before that I think if you and I knew what we accomplished upon our knees in prayer for the sake of the kingdom, we would be reluctant to ever get off of our knees because God works his will in this world through the prayers of his people. And so the writer of Hebrews as preachers telling them,

keep on praying, you gotta keep praying. And then in the final verses 22 through 24, he gives his final greeting with, which includes, uh, the news that Timothy has been released from prison. And some will say, well, this is evidence that there was the apostle poll that was this preacher that wrote this sermon to these Jewish Christians. Don't believe that you'll have to go back and listen to the beginning of the series

or we'll have to start over to cover that again. But he mentions Timothy here, which is encouraging. Min mentions the Christians that have come from Italy, which is encouraging, and he closes the entire letter with, with grace be with all of you. And that, that grace, the grace of God is going to be our focus this morning, the benediction in verses 20 and 21. So let's start here this morning. What is a benediction? What's a benediction?

If you look at most of the letters in the New Testament, most of them, towards the end of that letter, they have a benediction. You, you hear it here, every Sunday morning, every Sunday evening, one of the pastors, myself or one of the others will get up at the end of the service and we will give a benediction it. It's not a throwaway time. What, what's a benediction think If I was to ask the average evangelical Christian today

or maybe even in this room, so what's a benediction? Probably the, the main response would be, well, it's a prayer. It's not a prayer, not a prayer. If we go back to that first great benediction, the Arian benediction in numbers chapter six, where Aaron, as the high priest gives this benediction over the people of God. It is God's spoken word, spoken on God's behalf, over God's people. It's not a prayer, it's a, it's a blessing.

It's a good word. That's what benediction means. It's a blessing. It's God speaking his word over his people. A blessing. As one theologian said, since God's word is God's deed, this means the benediction is more than a prayer. It's what speech theorist term a performative word, A word that by nature is an action. That is when Aaron is pronouncing the ary benediction upon the people of Israel. Oh, the Lord make his face to shine upon you.

It's not a wish, it's not a hopeful prayer, it's a reality.

God's ordained man speaking on behalf of God, God's word over God's people is blessing them. That's why you don't bow your heads, you lift them up at the benediction. You are receiving the blessing. And it's not hopeful, wishing it's a reality. A reality. The writer of Hebrews in this written sermon is pronouncing a benediction over the readers. It is their blessing and it's also our blessing. If you are a Christian, let's

take a look at it this morning. I want you to see where he is headed so we can get there. So the blessing is in verse 21, equip you with everything good and we'll get there, but he's setting the stage for that blessing by noting what it, it is grounded in. What is that blessing grounded in? So first, notice from whom the benediction comes from whom the benediction comes. This blessing comes from the God of peace. Now he says, may the God of peace, the the God

of shalom, this peace, it's more than just the absence of conflict. This is fulfillment. This is completeness, wellbeing, the God of shalom. Now why out of all of the different titles that he could have used of God, why is it that he uses this as a summary at the beginning of this benediction? Well, remember the context. These Hebrew Christians are afraid. Persecution is on the rise and no doubt they see on the horizon

that greater persecution is coming. And a horrendous persecution of Christians will come with, with Nero and is seeking to stamp out Christianity and they are restless. And so he pronounces this benediction over them. They have the blessing of God that the God of peace circumstances change, but the Christian is comforted that they are shadowed over by the God peace. That's reality. Uh, it doesn't always seem like it because we can't always see what God is doing.

We are always looking through the back door of providence, but we know he's working. And there will be a day that you and I look through the front door of providence, that we look upon its face and we will see all the glory and all the goodness that God was working for his people. He's working God, a peace is working. The benediction flows from him. And so there is always peace under the wings of this God. It's just whether you and I are living it, breathing it in,

understand it are dwelling in it.

BB Warfield, the 19th century theologian told a story of a true account that he had heard from a, a army officer. And he said this general officer of the United States Army, he says, was in a, a great western city at the time of intense excitement and violent rioting. The streets were overrun daily by a dangerous crowd. And, and one day he says he observed approaching him a man singularly combined calmness and firmness of mind.

He was very demeanor inspired, confidence, and so impressed was he with his bearing amid the surrounding uproar that when he passed, he turned to look back at him only to find that the stranger had done the same and observing his turning, the stranger at once came back to him and touching his chest with his forefinger. He demanded without preface what is the chief end of man? And the officer immediately responded, man's chief end is

to glorify God and enjoy him forever. And the officer said to him, ah, I knew you were a shorter catechism boy by the looks of you and the other man said, I was thinking the same of you.

They, they just knew that they were under the shadow of the wing of this God of peace. And in the midst of all of that, that there was still there, they were covered by him. That there's blessing.

It is true even in our bleakest of days. And that's where the benediction goes. Second, he shows us that this God of peace is at work even in the darkest of days. He's at work even in the darkest of days. If ever there was a time when the church should have been without hope, it was during those three days that Jesus was in the grave. You'll remember that the disciples on the Emmaus road as they're walking along and they are comparing notes

and they're talking about the events that happened in Jerusalem with the trial and the crucifixion of Jesus, you'll remember that they're disappointed, they're discouraged. They're even devastated. Why? Because it feels as though it looks as if sin has won. Satan has won, hell has won, the world has won. It looks as though God's enemies and the enemies of God's people have triumph and it is just dark.

Ah, but this God of peace as the author pronounces brought again from the dead or Lord Jesus, the grave couldn't hold him. And the implication that he's extending is this. If he triumphed over the grave in that moment when it seemed more than at any other time in the history of creation that evil had won. If in that moment the darkest of days, God triumphed and Christ is now seated and reigning at the right hand of the Father.

Notice he calls him Lord Jesus there if it was true in that day, the darkest of days,

you can be confident that he's at work in your day. In the present there is blessed hope. This God of peace is at work even in the darkest of days,

which leads the preacher to his third pronouncement in the blessing. The God of peace is that work even in the darkest of days for the good of his people, the good of his people, this Lord Jesus, the one who reigns, he says is the great shepherd of the sheep. And what is a shepherd's job? A shepherd's job is to protect and to provide for the sheep. Again, it's a pronouncement of blessing. He's not saying this is wishful thinking.

He's saying that this is your reality. You're a Christian, this is your reality.

Jesus does not abandon his sheep. He brings them out and he brings them in. He leads them beside still waters. He makes them to lie down in green pastures. He anoints their heads with oil. He makes their cups overflow.

You remember how Jude begins his letter? It's one of my favorites. He, he says that we are beloved and kept Christian, you are beloved and kept.

It's a wonderful video on the internet. It's only 35 seconds long. It's worth you Googling and looking up. But it's of this sheep that is, that is stuck jammed into this trench, this kind of slit in the ground and he's just jammed in there. And so he is kind of suspended in the air and this little boy shepherd, you see him walk towards the sheep and he's just pulling and he's pulling and he's pulling on the sheep and pulls

and pulls and pulls and he gets the sheep out of the slit trench and that sheep just goes running alongside of the slip trench and decides he's gonna jump over to the other side of the slit trench. And he miscalculates and he lands right back in the trench, He's jammed again. And what do you think the shepherd's gonna do

where Jesus, who was brought again from the dead is our great shepherd? And he said in John six, oh, that the father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out for I came down from heaven not to do my own will, to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me that I should lose nothing, nothing of all that he has given to me. Raise it up on the last day beloved and kept, it's truly

the great shepherd as he's called.

He's talking with a sheep farmer recently. It's lambing season. So I asked of the used lambing this season, what, what's a good survival rate for those lambs? And he said, well, if we lost under 10%, that would be adequate. We lost under 5%. That would be great because he expects that 5% will be lowest, 90% saved, adequate 95%. That's great. Jesus bats a hundred percent,

he loses none. None. There's no shepherd like this shepherd. He's the great shepherd. Now, may the God of peace who brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, first is God of peace. Second is at work even in the darkest of days. Third for the good of his people, and fourth, it comes with a guarantee. It's guaranteed. He says it's guaranteed by the blood of the eternal covenant. A covenant is a bond and this is a bond that is eternal.

Eternal in what sense? In what way? Well, it's eternal in the benefits that it grants. The benefits extend into the eternal future, but it's not simply referencing benefits going forward. Now what he's pointing out is this covenant as eternal in that it was established in eternity past. It's what theologians call the covenant of redemption that an eternity past the father and son covenanted together. That the son would be born

of a woman born under the law in order that he might redeem those who are under the law, that he would live a perfectly righteous life in accordance with the law, what we call the act of obedience of Christ so that then he could be substituted for sinners upon the cross and suffer their just punishment. What we call the passive obedience of Christ,

A covenant together, an eternity Pass That this one, this great shepherd, this Lord Jesus is the lamb that was sacrificed before the foundations of the earth eternity past

Again, remember the context.

Their days are hard and they're wondering whether it is actually beneficial to keep following Christ. There's an appeal to go back to Judaism because it's safer. There's not persecution and the writer of Hebrews is telling them this God of peace who brought Jesus from the dead, Jesus who is your great shepherd, the same great shepherd who does not lose one of his sheep, cannot lose them. It's guaranteed. Why? Because the same great shepherd is also the lamb's sacrifice

before the foundation of the world. The blessing is written in eternity past, can't escape it.

You can't escape the care and the grace of God as a Christian 'cause God the father and God the Son, covenanted together to bless you in eternity. Pass his Gerhard Vos wonderfully put it, the reason God will never stop loving you is that he never began.

He always will because he always has

since eternity passed.

So let's review first this God of peace. Second is at work even in the darkest of days. Third, for the good of his people. Fourth, which is an eternal guarantee and that that is the ground for the blessing. Now here's the blessing. May he equip you. It is God is at work in you. The God of peace is at work even in the darkness of days for the good of his people. It's a guarantee that he is at work within you. May he equip you with everything good.

Do you think he can do it After that preface, do you think he desires to do it? After that preface,

I just want you to think about the exhortations the writer of Hebrews gave throughout this book. Okay, think with me back. He gave an excitation about the danger of drifting in chapter two of hardening our hearts back in chapter three of the need for the need for faithful obedience. In chapter four, the the real fear of warning of falling away in chapter six we're were to be pleasing in his sight. And then you think of all these different exhortation,

these commands throughout, lemme just read some of them to you. Draw near to God with a true heart, have a pure conscience. Hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. Stir up one another to love and good works. Run with patience, the race that is set before us. Make straight paths for your feet. Strive for peace with all men and holiness. Be content with what you have. Continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.

Do not neglect to do good. Obey your leaders and submit to them How? How? How can the writer of Hebrews preach such things with such expectations from such sinners? Remember, they're discouraged. They don't know whether to keep following Christ. Is he just pouring more discouragement upon them?

Not at all. His blessing is rooted in this God of peace brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep. By the blood of the eternal covenant, he is able to equip us with every good thing that we may do is will. It Is spoken reality.

God works in us at which is pleasing in his sight,

which understand this Christian, it's not just that he's at work around you, he's just lining things up in your, he's at work in you.

That is a great blessing.

Same God who raised Jesus from the dead. There could not be a more solid hope or a better blessing. This is important to realize I think as we come to the close of this letter, because he spent all of this time instructing these Jewish Christians, he's exhorted them with fervor and he's done so with sound reasoning. He's given biblical arguments, he's given theological arguments, but in the end that they are to strive

and they are to have understand their responsibility to do so to to, to keep after this, but the blessing to do so. But the writer is underscoring the blessing. To do so comes from God. It echoes Jesus's words that apart from me, you can do nothing. It it, it's in me that these things are possible and in me these things are made a reality.

But as if this all wasn't enough, he, he assures them even more by pointing out that the Christian's blessing is tied up with Christ's glory. All this is aimed at the great Doxological conclusion through Jesus Christ to whom the glory forever and ever, your sanctification is tied up, your blessing is tied up with the glory of Christ. So again, let's, let's review first this God of peace. Second is that work even in the darkest of days, third,

for the good of his people. Fourth, it is guaranteed. Fifth, even as he is at work in you. So that six, all this could be to the glory of Christ in what an appropriate way for the writer of Hebrews to end discernment. He's just pointing them to Christ. He has shown them that Christ is the fulfillment of all the, the promise of God over and over and over again in this book. So even now, their benediction, their blessing

to the glory of Christ.

Two quick concluding applications. First, know that Christ is the answer. Know that Christ is the answer. This has been the refrain throughout the book. I I hope that I've preached it sufficiently that Christ has been set before you every week Because That's what the writer of Hebrews is doing. I think Christ is the answer. Again, these Hebrew Christians, they are facing changing times and so there is an appeal to, to head back

to some form of Judaism. It's safer, no persecution, but don't miss it. The writer of Hebrews, this preacher, he, he gives them the secret to surviving after what he says is a short sermon. It takes about an hour to read, no complaints.

He gives them one focus. He gives them one answer. How do they survive in their day? One answer, Christ

concerned, concerned in our day, and I'm concerned because they're evangelical Christians concerned.

Now you have a right to be concerned about different changes in our culture. But what concerns me is that we have evangelicals that are concerned and they're just a degree off.

See, with all of these changes that are happening culturally, the church needs to,

for my Christian family to survive, it needs

for, for me as a Christian in this day to, to keep on going. I need,

I truly believe that every Bible believing Christian in their heart of hearts, believes that Christ is the answer. And yet practically And conversationally

to degree of at least my observation,

yes, I, I I need this. The church needs to do this. My family needs it. I I and yes, and Christ too

and the writer of Hebrews would say, no, there's no Christ too.

What you need is Christ.

And what you need is more of Christ.

If there is anything that takes you just a degree off, it's because you don't understand Christ.

Now, Paul will get to the place in his life where he says, for me to live Is Christ.

And the more you grow in the Christian life, the more you mature in the Christian life, the more that just it's a little clause, the more it makes sense.

Everything you begin to see through that lens,

I guarantee you that what they were facing in that day is much more severe than what you are facing in this day.

They were living in darker days than I hazard. I guess any of us in this room will live in. And the writer of Hebrews, as he preaches of that congregation, he gives them one thing Christ

Second, know your blessing is in and through Christ.

Your blessing is in and through Christ. This is where the blessed life is found. Christ is the blessed one.

Blessed is, if we think back to the beatitudes there at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, what I used as a confession of sin this morning, he, he begins there with blessed is he's saying, look, here is the benediction stained life. This is what it looks like. Blessed is, but blessed is the the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Sinclair Ferguson recently said,

the beatitudes are best read through the lens of the Lord Jesus. That is, if we want the blessed life, then we find it as we see it in Christ. It's in Christ. Why? Because he's the blessed one.

They are not so many kind of attributes that we put on blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who mourn, but they, they aren't garments that you and I put on. That's not what they are. Rather what they are is they are what it looks like. They are the marks of what it looks like to live in the kingdom that has come because the king has come and as subjects of this kingdom, this is what marks those who are in the kingdom

Being blessed, being benediction. People is simply being in Christ and becoming like Christ. It is Christ in us, and Christ manifests through us. For me to live Is Christ. That's the blessed life.

We find all blessing in Him and through him, and we will forever and ever to His glory and praise above all else. This is what the writer wants them to understand and why he has kept turning them back and back and back to Christ. He's the answer. This is the blessed life. Let's even end on this note. He is saying in this sermon, this is what it looks like.

He's the one that Leads You beside Stillwaters. He's the one that when you are in him, goodness and mercy follow you all the days of your life into eternity

and it's all to his glory and praise

this an addiction, this blessing is yours. If you're in Christ pray,

father, we are thankful

that we can be recipients of the blessed life.

It's in your son, that great shepherd of the sheep who you raised from the grave on the third day

who's purchased us by the blood of the eternal covenant.

You give us the great blessing of working in us. That which is pleasing in your sight to the glory and praise of Christ Jesus forever and ever.

And we find more and more so that for us to live is Christ the blessed life that we seek after is found in Christ that the answer that we need for today's trials and troubles and tomorrow's fears is Christ,

and that we do so to his praise and to his glory. We pray all of this in the strong name of Christ Jesus, that Lord and Savior, amen.