May God Work in You What is Pleasing to Him (Hebrews Sermon 74)

Living so close to Colonial Williamsburg my wife and I, our kids have often been there and we love going there. I love history and there’s so many things to love about the way that they’ve set up that community there, but probably my favorite part, and that’s true for most people, are the historical trades workers that are there doing, plying different trades and you can just go in and watch and learn how they do the various things that they do. Everyone has their favorite. Probably the baker is the number one favorite for many people. Very good at making various types of cookies of course. I personally enjoy the blacksmith. I like seeing the way that the guy heats up the coals red hot with the bellows and pulls out the iron and smashes it and sparks flying everywhere and the way they’re making nails or hinges or whatever.

The cooper building barrels, the joiner making furniture. Seeing a desk being made or a musical instrument, special skill there, the silver smith. Some people like the gunsmith, the guy is rifling a long barrel and how difficult that was to do and the precision that went into making it, all of those things are marvelous. And I was thinking about that in terms of our message today, because that kind of work that’s going on, that craftsmanship that’s going on all the time there in Williamsburg is going on at a much larger scale, around the world as Christians are using their spiritual gifts to do various ministries that God has prepared for them to do. And it’s a marvelous thing for us to be craftsmen and craftswomen for the Lord, for us to use our gifts and to do labors, to do works that God has ordained for us to do.

And as we think about this message today, my heart goes to the idea that God has shaped and crafted us and is continuing to work on us as though he is the craftsman on us and we are the work piece so that we can then do the same thing in the lives of others. I’m thinking, of course, of Ephesians 2:10, which says, “We are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.” And that’s what the author has in mind as we look at this incredible doxology, what I’m going to call a prayer, that he prays for his listeners. Look at verses 20 and 21, “May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant, brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will and may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever, Amen.” We’re going to spend almost all of our time on those two versus trying to understand this prayer and the prayer’s simple message is this, May God work in you, so you can work for him. That’s the fundamental idea here, may God by his grace continue to work in you so that you can work for him

I. The Prayer’s Simple Message: May God Work So You Can Work

Now, in context, having sought prayer, the author now offers prayer. Look back at verses 18 and 19, he says, “Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.” So there are certain things that the author here wants prayer for. And so prayer very much a two-way street here, but now he’s offering up a prayer for them. And we learn a vital lesson. This is just one of the great messages, the great sermons there’s ever been preached in history. This is what the author calls a brief word of exhortation. I’ll get to that later. This is my 74th sermon in Hebrews. But at any rate, just so much to learn and the author marvelously calls it a brief word of exhortation and that’s an incredible statement to make, in that it’s over 300 verses. It would take almost an hour to read and it’s one of the longer epistles in the New Testament.

What’s brief about it? In effect, he is saying, “Oh I could have gone on a lot longer about these themes.” The themes are so majestic, so exalted, so glorious. We have such a vision of Christ as our great high priest and of his finished work on the cross for us and of his constant interceding for us at the right hand of God such a vision of what he has done for us in redemptive history, in fulfilling and finishing the Old Covenant and ushering in this New Covenant. There are so many things the author could have told us and we could have gone on and on but the author having given this marvelous word of exhortation he now desires in some way to pray it into his people. And this is a message for me as a preacher. It doesn’t matter how great the sermon is it needs to be accompanied by prayer.

A faithful minister of the word needs not only to proclaim the word to the people but also pray it into the people. And so the author is in effect doing this as Samuel said, “Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you.” And so the author is praying for them and it’s in the form of a kind of a doxology or a prayer. And as I said, the simple concept of this prayer is, “May God work in you so that you can work for him.” Look at the words, “May God… ” I’m simplifying it here. “May God equip you with everything good for doing his will and may he work in us what is pleasing to him.” Or to simplify it even more, “May God equip us and work in us so we can do his will and please him.”

So this is a powerful and a humbling and a needful message. It is humbling because we’re being told in effect, what Jesus said in John 15, “I am the vine and you are the branches. If you remain in me and I remain in you, you will bear much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” So the author in effect is saying you must have more grace, ever more grace, fresh effusions of grace, grace must be flowing into your life from God the Father or you will achieve nothing good and you will in no way be pleasing to him. And that’s why it’s very humbling. Paul gives it to us also in doctrinal form in Philippians 2:12-13, he says, “As you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you to will and to do according to his good purpose.” Same idea, that as God works in us we then work. We work out our salvation with fear and trembling and we do good works for him and so this is amazing.

We are blood-bought, we are forgiven, we are adopted into the family of God, we are royal sons and daughters. We’re justified, completely forgiven of all of our sins, we are in dwelt by the Spirit, we are going to heaven. And yet we still need lots and lots of grace, we need lots and lots of help to live lives that are worthy of that calling that we have, and so this causes me to lament my own wickedness, my own sinfulness, my own weakness. To look again and afresh at what I am, who I am apart from Christ and who I am now in Christ and even more, it causes me to celebrate the great grace of God the triumphant, omnipotent grace of God and the wisdom of God in doing this for us.

The topic here is our good works and those good works are awesome. I’ve broken them. We’ve broken them as elders into two main categories: Internal journey good works and external journey good works. The good works of the internal journey are working out your salvation with fear and trembling. Growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, becoming more and more conformed to Christ. Loving what Christ loves, hating what he hates, putting sins to death by the power of the Spirit, being a valiant warrior in the battle against sin, those internal journey good works. And then those external journey good works where you’re ministering to others. Well, there are other Christians within the body of Christ we could call external in that way or all of us together to the world out there that needy world, lost, dying, Ephesians says, “Without hope and without God in the world.” Desperately needing a savior, needing Christ. Broken by sin, grieving, distressed, poverty-stricken, needing ministries of mercy, needing definitely the Gospel.

These good works are so awesome, there are such eternal consequence that Jesus made this astonishing statement in John 14 the night before he was crucified. He said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing, and indeed he will do greater works than these because I go to the Father.” Now, that’s an amazing statement. How can we do greater works than Jesus? I mean, he did signs and wonders of such a magnitude and of such a quantity that we would… John said that if we wrote all the stories down, even the world couldn’t contain the books that would be written. Well, Jesus didn’t mean I think there in John 14, that we will do greater miracles than him. There’s not a single figure from church history who has done anywhere near the river of healings even resurrections of the dead that Jesus did. He stands alone and that is his unique glory as the Son of God. To do far more miracles than anyone has ever done. And of a quality of a kind, like raising Lazarus from the dead on the fourth day.

But no, what Jesus is saying is, because the church multiplies and spreads to every tribe and language and people and nation, more and more people believing in him, and then equipped, and empowered by his grace doing these good works they are in scope and magnitude greater than anything that he did in the three years that he was walking in Palestine. That’s how I interpret the verse. And so we see the wisdom of God then in this teaching because these are good works that are well worth doing and they will in some way, be a topic of conversation for all eternity. And so we must be humbled before we do them, Amen. We need to be really humbled and we need to recognize that apart from the grace of God we won’t do any of them. And it’s only when empowered by the spirit of God that we will do each one of them, so to God be the glory for any progress you make in the internal journey. To God be the glory when you put any single temptation to death by the sword of the Spirit. To God be the glory, when you open your mouth and speak to any lost person in the name of Jesus. To God, be the glory. We must have this grace.

We were left here on earth to do these good works. God is the craftsman, the master craftsman. We are the workmanship. And we are crafted and we are molded for good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. Now, if I put the two concepts together. So Ephesians 2:10 which I just quoted again and this passage in Hebrews 13. Ephesians 2:10 says that God prepared the good works in advance for us. Hebrews 13 is saying the opposite. God prepares us in advance for the good works. Isn’t that marvelous? And in that way he’s orchestrating the whole building of the church of Jesus Christ. And without this advance preparation we will not do any of these good works. But at the end of a fruitful, healthy Christian life we will have some emblems of our own faithfulness, that survive the testing of fire on Judgment Day. It’s been purified by the testing of God’s assessment that gold and silver and costly stones in some way it’s pictured crafted together into a crown that’s on the heads of these 24 elders. But you know very clearly in Revelation 4, they constantly are falling down before the throne and casting their crowns before God and you know what they’re saying, they’re saying to God be the glory for any good thing we ever did. To God be the glory. So, we will cast our crowns but first we need to go earn them, we need to go do the works, Amen. We’ve got to do the works and may God prepare us for them. May God use this message to prepare you to do a river of good works this week, Amen. Let’s go do them to the glory of God.

II. The Prayer’s Details… Phrase by Phrase

So what I want to do now is I want to take this incredible doxology or prayer and just look at it phrase by phrase. I want to take it out like a box of costly chocolates with the hidden internal. You know they actually make something that you can suck out the internal part and sample it to see if you want to invest the calories on that, if it’s like an orange marmalade thing you may not want to go there. But you may, you may like that but we’re going to actually take each of these phrases like a filled chocolate and we’re going to savor it. And in doing this I’m hoping to do two things. One is just to explain the text and the other is to give you a methodology of Biblical meditation. There’s some portions of Scripture especially the epistles are just so rich that you just take these phrases and just let them, just savor them, taste and see that the Lord is good. And so let’s do that with this one because I think it’ll pay back our effort.

“May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will. And may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever, amen.”

To some degree this is a brief summary of the entire epistle. I’ve summarized the epistle in this way, that a superior mediator, Jesus Christ, brings a superior covenant, the new covenant, resulting in a superior life for the people of God, the life of faith. You can see how this kind of culminates, it goes through the superior mediator, may Jesus Christ that great shepherd of the sheep etcetera. It talks about the elements of the New Covenant, how Christ’s death has bought that for us. And how it leads us into a life of fruitful good works to his glory, you see that by faith. And so this is a bit of a summary here. The God of peace versus the God of fire, you have the blood of Christ versus the blood of bulls and goats, you have the eternal covenant versus a temporary covenant, you have a resurrected mediator who’s standing at the right hand of God, everything comes to us through Jesus Christ, Amen. And so we have him at the right hand of God ministering these blessings to us.

And we have Jesus Christ called that great shepherd of the sheep versus sinful flawed mortal men who were priests in the Levitical priesthood who could not continue to be our priest, who had to offer sacrifices first for their own sins then for the sins of the people and who then died and then their successors took over. So we have the superiority of Christ and working in us good works well-pleasing to God that done by faith versus the works of the law which only work death in us. And so in some senses, we have an overview of the entire epistle.

Now, let’s look at it phrase by phrase. First, may the God of peace. So this is a prayer directed toward the first person in the Trinity, toward Almighty God, God the Father, God the creator, God the king. And here he’s characterized in this way, may the God of peace, may the God of peace. There are two ways to understand this. May the God who is characterized by peace or peacefulness that kind of thing, God sitting at peace enthroned above the circle of the nations. The God who is enthroned in heaven and does whatever pleases him, the God who is serenely in charge of the entire universe and cannot be moved from his pleasure, may the God of peace… It’s a powerful image. Or you could conversely say, may the God who gives peace, the God who gives that peace to us. And here my mind goes to the Gospel itself how this God created the entire world at peace, created it to be good, even very good. As the creator he displayed his goodness in weaving together this beautiful world, this cosmos, that God has made. As the creator he has the right to be king as the king he has the right to be law giver.

And he gave the law to Adam and Eve in the garden that they should not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he had the right to do it and to assign a penalty to it. For the day they ate it, they would surely die. We know very well that our first forefather Adam sinned against Almighty God and he broke the relationship with God therefore man was not at peace with God, and God not at peace with us. There was a spiritual war going on and many of the people who are at war with God don’t even know that they’re at war with God or that God is at war with them, that the wrath of God is remaining on them because they’re not in Christ. It says in Colossians 1:21, that at one time we were enemies with God, alienated as shown by our wicked behavior. God was at war with us and we at war with God, but because of the blood of the eternal covenant, we’ll talk about it in just a minute, God has worked peace with us, we are now through Jesus Christ reconciled to God. And God is at peace with us and he will be forever. And so Jesus is able to come in John 20 and show his hands and his side and the evidence and the cost of what he achieved on the cross and he says, “Peace be with you.” Just like in Romans 5:1, “Therefore since we have been justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“May the God of Peace, who through the blood.” We come to this blood again. There is no book that explains the blood so accurately and so carefully as the book of Hebrews. We’ve learned about it in Hebrews 9:13 and 14, “The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean, sanctifies them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more then will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the living God.” So if the blood of bulls and goats effectively clean people up and enable them to take part in the temple worship how much more then the blood of Jesus, the Son of God the only begotten Son of God shed on the cross, cleanse our consciences. You see the blood of bulls and goats has no power to cleanse conscience. They still felt guilty for their sins but the blood of Jesus has power to free you from a guilty accusing conscience.

And I don’t know that everyone I’m talking to right now has already fled to Christ by faith, I don’t know if you’re at peace with God and God at peace with you, I can’t tell by your faces. And I’m urging you right now as though God were making his appeal through me, be reconciled to God. God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Flee to Christ, don’t leave this place unreconciled to God, don’t leave this place with a guilty conscience. The blood of Jesus is infinitely greater than your guilty conscience, it’s an infinite provision for your guilt. Flee to him. You don’t need to do anything, just look to Christ, call on him, trust in him. It’s really that simple. But without the shedding of blood there could be no forgiveness. Says it very plainly in that same chapter, in Hebrews 9:22. If Jesus’ blood hadn’t been shed, we could not be forgiven, but now that his blood has been shed, we can be forgiven and if you just embrace him by faith, you will be forgiven. You are forgiven now, the blood.

And what else does it say? “The blood of the eternal covenant.” What does this phrase mean, the blood of the eternal covenant? Well, there are many covenants in the Old Testament era, indeed the word testament is another word for covenant. That’s what it means. Covenant’s a binding agreement between two or more parties. And God has chosen again and again and again in redemptive history to deal with people through covenants. You have the covenant that he made with Noah in which he swore never again to destroy the earth by a flood. And you have the covenant that he made with Abraham, to be a God for Abraham and Abraham would be his and his descendants would inherit the land, the promised land and through his offspring, all peoples on earth would be blessed, the covenant with Abraham. And then you have the covenant of Moses a conditional covenant, it’s the covenant the author has in mind here, what he calls the Old Covenant, that’s the conditional covenant made with the Jews that if they kept the precepts of the law God would allow them to continue in the promised land and he would continue to be a covenant God for them but if they broke those stipulations God would bring on them the curses of the covenant, he would evict them from the promised land, and he would kill them.

So it’s a conditional covenant and that’s what Paul means when he says that the law brings death. Because we could not keep the stipulations of that covenant. And then we have the covenant that God made with David, in which God swore to raise up a son of David, and give him a kingdom that would last forever and ever. So those are covenants that God… Is that what the author is talking about here? No, he mentions here the blood of the eternal covenant. The blood of the eternal covenant. So I think it’s called eternal for two important reasons, one of them looking back in time and the other one looking ahead in time. So let’s look back in time. It’s called the blood of the eternal covenant because it was made in eternity. It was made in eternity past, this covenant was made before the world began. This covenant was made between the Father and the Son and the covenant went like this. The father said, “I will elect some people, I will choose them before the foundation of the world, if you will shed your blood for them, then I will forgive them and adopt them. And they will be my people and I will be their God.” And so we have election where we’re told in Ephesians 1 that we are chosen before the creation of the world.

And we have Christ’s death in some sense, happening before the world began. How it says in Revelation 13:8 that he is the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world, though he hadn’t been even born yet of a virgin still in the mind of God, Jesus had shed his blood before God said, “Let there be light.” that’s an awesome thought. Jesus existed as the second person of the trinity, the Son of God under the shadow of the cross throughout the whole Old Testament era. Every time an animal is offered Jesus in heaven was thinking about his own future death. Now both of those election and Christ as the lamb of God put forward for our sins were revealed in space and time at a specific moment in time. Individually it’s elect, is shown to be elect by how they respond to the Gospel. We don’t know who they are until they respond to the Gospel, when they respond favorably to the Gospel, then what God did before the foundation of the world becomes clear, so also with Christ. When Jesus was born, it says in Galatians, in the fullness of time, at the right time, born of a virgin, born under the law, that he might redeem those under the law.

At the right time Christ was revealed as it says in 1st Peter 1:18-20, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you by your forefathers but it was with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but has now been revealed in these last times for your sake.” Wow! Chosen for what before the creation of the world? Chosen to be our lamb. Chosen to be the one who would shed his precious blood for us. And so when I see this phrase blood of the eternal covenant, then that’s what I have in mind. The elect chosen eternally before the foundation of the world, the son chosen to die for them. And therefore, every Old Testament saint that was ever saved was saved by this same covenant. Same way, they’re saved the same way you are. We’re all justified by faith in Jesus.

Now, they had less information than we have. We have more information now that Christ has come. We have the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John but we’re saved by the same way we hear God’s word and believe it, Amen. We hear God’s word and we believe it. We’re justified by faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And so this is the very point being made in Romans 3, God sent Jesus to be a propitiation, a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood, he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.

Do you remember when David committed that sin with Bathsheba? And murdered her husband to cover it up because she was pregnant, remember that whole story. And then God sends Nathan the prophet, Nathan accuses him, “You were the man.” David repents says, “I have sinned.” He admits it, and then Nathan says these amazing words, “You shall not die.” Wait a minute, how is that possible? How is it that he shall not die? The wages of sin is death, how is it that a man like David can go from that kind of action up to Heaven? Where’s the vindication of God’s justice? Well, Jesus is the vindication of God’s justice, that’s what Paul said. To vindicate his justice to display that he had actually dealt with the sins committed beforehand he did it through Jesus, he did it afterwards. Okay. And it also says in Romans 4, that Abraham was justified by faith just like we are and so also is David. And so looking back, the eternal covenant, before the foundation of the world and covering all the Old Testament saints the same way.

So that’s why some people speak of what they call covenant theology. So our Presbyterian brothers and sisters talk about covenant theology and they’re really going to emphasize there’s just one covenant by which people are saved. I understand that, I respect it, I think it’s true, I think we should all be in that sense covenant theologians. I reject that the sign of the covenant moved over from circumcision to infant baptism. I don’t find that taught in Scripture, another sermon for another day. With your permission I’ll move on from infant baptism. But there is this eternal covenant. And Jesus shed the blood of the eternal covenant. The eternal covenant also looks ahead, not just back but it looks ahead. It’s eternal because that Old Covenant was temporary, it’s obsolete and aging, soon disappear the author says in 8:13. Well, not this covenant, this covenant will never be obsolete. It can never age. It will never disappear. By the blood of Jesus we will spend eternity with God forever and ever. So when we’ve been there 10,000 years, bright, shining as the sun, there’s no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun. The eternal covenant guarantees that, the blood of the eternal covenant. You’re saying pastor at this rate, we won’t finish even these two verses so let’s move on.

These are rich, rich phrases through the blood of the eternal covenant, brought back from the dead. This is talking about the bodily resurrection of Jesus. How is Jesus’ resurrection achieved through the blood of the covenant? What is the link between the blood and the resurrection? First of all, just acknowledge there is one. As a matter of fact, in my mind I almost never can think about the crucifixion without the resurrection, we don’t merely preach Christ crucified. Paul didn’t mean that in 1st Corinthians 2. “We preach Christ crucified” and resurrected, Amen. And by the blood of the covenant, in effect what’s happening is God the Father is saying, I accept what you did and I prove it by raising him from the dead. So through the blood he shed as a man, as a real man it was acceptable to God, the judge, and he proved it by his resurrection, isn’t that marvelous? And he’s going to prove in the end, finally, your total forgiveness by raising you in a body like his. And that’s the finish line of salvation. Interesting, the Greek phrase here, it implies almost an exodus, to be brought from a lower place and moved on up to a higher place, that’s what it is.

And so through the blood Jesus has been moved from the grave and went, ascended through the heavens and now is seated at the right hand of God. There’s a journey implied here that the author has already taken us on. So through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead and then he says, “Our Lord Jesus.” how sweet are those words, how sweet the name of Jesus. He says Jesus twice in these two verses. We need to say the word Jesus more. We need to say the word Jesus more to our unsaved neighbors. God isn’t enough. I’m not meaning disrespect or blasphemy, but I don’t know what they mean by God. If there’s a Christian athlete, someone out there, please say Jesus. Friends, this is one of the battles we’re going to fight in the 21st century, the exclusivity of Christ and of the Gospel. We’re fighting other battles. Look at Chick-fil-A this week, what an interesting week, what an interesting culture we live in. What an important time for us to stand firm for the truth. But let’s stand firm for this. Salvation is found in no one other than Jesus, there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

And Jesus is our Lord. The word Lord Kurios. The Old Testament… The Greek-speaking Jews when they translated the Old Testament into Greek used the word Kurios, Lord, to translate what we say Yahweh or sometimes Jehovah, the capital L-O-R-D, the big… The four letters, they use Kurios. When it says, “Our Lord Jesus.” the author is meaning our God, Jesus, the creator of the ends of the earth. And he is our Lord because he died for us, and he was raised for our justification, and he lives at the right hand of God always to intercede for us, he is our Lord Jesus.

So much for verse 20. “May the God of peace who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead, our Lord Jesus that great shepherd of the sheep. Oh, oh, what happened to that great shepherd of the sheep. I forgot that, please, let’s look at it. What does it mean that great shepherd of the sheep? How about this one, the one that was predicted, the one that the Scripture told us was coming, the one who has come according to Micah 5:1 and 2 says very plainly, “But you Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are least among the people of Israel out of you will come a ruler who will be shepherd of my people Israel.” There would be a shepherd born in Bethlehem who would stand in the strength of God and shepherd his flock and he is a great shepherd, the greatness of Christ, of his person and of his blood and of his… The price that was paid.

And he isn’t the shepherd of everybody. Now don’t misunderstand that, he is not everybody’s shepherd. He said the reason… He said to his enemies, the reason you do not believe is that you’re not my sheep. I said before, that will blow your circuit breakers. Not the reason you’re not my sheep is that you don’t believe, it’s the reason you don’t believe is that you’re not my sheep. Election comes before faith. Election is the ground of faith. Because we’re chosen, then we believe and when we believe then we follow. Jesus is that great shepherd of the sheep and he is shepherding your souls right now, feeding you, nourishing you, protecting you from evil, restoring your soul, making you lie down in green pastures, filling your cup to overflowing. Alright, may this God who has given you this great salvation, this great Savior. This is everything he’s achieved for you, now he wants you to get to work.

But before you can get to work, he wants to give you grace, “May he equip you with everything good.” Do you see that? It’s amazing after all that’s been done for us, after all of the provision that we’ve just looked at, you still need more. It says in 1st Peter that he gives us more grace. We need more grace, and if you have enough grace you don’t need more grace, you’re fine on grace. You need more grace. “So God please give me more grace. Oh God, please equip me with everything good for doing you will.”

So what does this word equip mean? Well, the word equip or perfect means to make you fit or able or suitable, capable thoroughly outfitted to do every good work. There is a negative aspect of this and a positive. Negatively, may he in effect rectify what’s wrong with you. Not trying to be insulting but may he fix you so you can do the good works. If he doesn’t repair you, you won’t do the good works. Why is that? Well, it’s because of your flesh. The very thing I hate I do and the other side, the very thing I want to do I just don’t do it. So basically, “God would you please fix me? So I actually do the good things I intend to do. I don’t want to have a bunch of good intentions and very few good works. I want to actually do the good works. I want them actually to happen in space and time. Oh God equip me. Overcome my flesh. Stop me from being so selfish, stop me from being so lazy. Stop me from being so worldly and caring too much what people think about me. Oh God, overcome my flesh. Stop my racism, stop my selfishness, stop my materialism. God make me a different man, a different woman so I can do the good works you have for me to do.”

So, may he equip you negatively. I would suggest this in the air of evangelism, start praying this. Say, “God give me a genuine broken-hearted love for the lost, help me to love them. Not hate them for what they’re doing and all that, but humbly to realize I’m no different except by the grace of God and help me to genuinely love them.” I think as God does that, that plus some other things that he could do but fundamentally that. If you have a rich heart of love toward lost people, if you can do what Jesus did, weeping over Jerusalem or seeing that the people are harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd, you’ll be more evangelistic so pray that God would equip you with a heart of love for the lost. Okay, So, that’s negatively.

Positively, he equips you for every good work by teaching you and instructing you and giving you the tools of the trade. So your gift may be encouragement, it may be administration, it may be giving. He equips you with everything good for doing his… By giving you lots of money if you have the gift of giving or any money at all, just that is an equipping. Or by good teaching. You hear good sermons, you read a good Christian book, he’s equipping you to do good works. That’s my job primarily and the elder’s job as pastor-teachers to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up. I’m kind of giving you equipment so you can go do your good works, isn’t that awesome? I mean, what a great, great job I have.

And other people have equipped me with their books that they’ve written and things that I’ve learned from them. Marvelous. And so, we are God’s workmanship and he’s working on us and he’s equipping us with everything good and he’s working both sides of the equation. I don’t have time to go into this in detail, but look at Acts 10 on your own and how God prepared Cornelius on his side of the equation, Gentile-Roman whatever, by a vision, and all that and then he works over in Peter, the Jew and prepares him remember with the sheep and all those nasty animals, reptiles and all that. “Get up Peter, kill and eat.” “Never Lord, it’s not kosher. Lord, I’m surprised at you. Don’t you know the kosher regulations?” “Peter, I’m surprised at you. Don’t you know we’re in the New Covenant now? Time has come. You can eat anything you want.” Jesus declared all foods clean. And don’t call anything impure that God has made clean. The lesson had nothing to do with food, had to do with people and if God hadn’t prepared Peter, he wouldn’t have walked across Cornelius’s threshold, into a Gentile home and witnessed to him.

But God prepared both sides of the equations the man for the good work, and the good works for the man. It’s going on both sides, isn’t that awesome when you think about missions? God’s getting missionaries ready here, and then he’s working something over there and at the right time he marries them together and good stuff happens. May he equip you with everything good for doing his will. That’s the definition of a good work. Okay, his will. Oh God, let me do your will today. Not my will but yours be done. Oh God. Jesus said this, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, finish his work.” God’s not looking for freelancers, he’s not looking for innovators. He’s looking for obedient servants who present their bodies to him as living sacrifice, and say, “God command me and I’ll obey you.”

“So God will you please equip me with everything good for doing your will, what your will is, and may you work in me what is pleasing to you?” He’s not looking for hypocrites. He’s not looking for people who look good on the outside and inside they’re full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. He’s looking for a genuine heart after God. Now, every good work is tested by these three heart attitudes that you must have. If you don’t have these three it isn’t a good work. First, the work must be done for the glory of God, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.

Secondly, the work must be done by faith. Anything that does not come from faith is sin, Romans 14:23. Third, the work must be done out of a heart of love for the person you’re doing it for. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I’m a resounding gong. If I surrender my body to the flames and give all of my possessions for the poor, but I have not love. If I don’t have a heart of love for the people, it isn’t a good work.

Those are the three things. For the glory of God by faith because you love out of love for the person. Oh God, work that in me, that’s not natural to me, that’s not naturally who I am. Oh, God, would you please work that in me supernaturally? It’s the very thing that I think Jesus is praying for now at the right hand of God and that’s why it says through Jesus Christ, this happens only through Jesus Christ. He is praying for you by name. He knows each of you his sheep by name. Use my name, “Oh God, would you please work in Andy a disposition to do good works today? Would you please transform his heart? Conform it to mine. Father, would you please make the way open for him to do the good works that we have arranged for him to do? Would you give him a heart of willingness to do it?” And that’s why at the end the author says to him be the glory forever and ever. Jesus gets the glory, it’s Jesus that…

Through Jesus Christ to him be the glory. So to Jesus be the glory for all of my good works and yours.

III. The Author’s Final Words: Bear With Exhortation

Well, brothers I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation for I have preached only 74 short sermons and now they’re over, lessons are eternal. Go back and read this any time you want. I know I could have preached 74 more. There’s always more here. The word of exhortation means he’s coming along side like the Paraclete and like the Holy Spirit convicting, encouraging, comforting, urging just doing different things with you, it’s a fruitful word. So, bear with it, put up with it, put up with the good teaching. It’s only a brief word I could have sent a lot more. And then he gives us a few greetings here at the end. Timothy has been released, greet all your leaders, those from Italy send you greetings, and then finally, grace be with you all.

As we close this sermon series in Hebrews, the lessons I got out of it first, the supremacy, the greatness, the glory of Christ. So I want you to start there, just as you’re sitting there and thinking about it. Use Hebrews go back this afternoon and look at how he is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word, look at the greatness of what Jesus has done, how he shed his blood once for all, for sinners like you and me and how God raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand and he’s there interceding for you. And everything he asks for he gets for you, everything. And so start with the greatness, the supremacy of Christ and then look at the benefits of the new covenant. Your sins are forgiven, it’s done, it’s finished. The Old Covenant didn’t forgive any sins ever, it never did. I already covered that with the eternal covenant. It’s not Old Covenant that saves us. And so your sins are forgiven, rejoice and be glad you have eternal life and out of that foundation knowing you can’t improve your position go do a bunch of good works, live a good life, let your life be rich in good works.

Take these two verses and pray them for yourself, say, “God do this in me, equip me with everything good, make me pleasing to you, apart from you I won’t be pleasing to you.” and then pray it for one other person today, someone else that you know, someone in the church. Pick a name and pray these two, Hebrews 13:20 and 21, concerning another person. Close with me in prayer.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

Hebrews 13:20-21 May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

I.   The Prayer’s Simple Message: May God Work So You Can Work

A.  Having Sought Prayer, the Author Now Offers Prayer

1.  Verses 18-19: Please pray for us… specific requests

Hebrews 13:18-19 Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. 19 I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.

2.  But now, the Author turns around and does the same for them

3.  Vital lesson of ministry: no preacher of the truth, however faithfully he has presented the truth, can leave it at that; he must press on to PRAY INTO HIS PEOPLE—into their very hearts—the truths he has proclaimed

1 Samuel 12:23 As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you.

B.  Central Concept of this Prayer:

1.  May God work in you so you can work for Him

Hebrews 13:20-21 May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

SIMPLIFIED:

Hebrews 13:20-21 May … God… equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him

SIMPLIFIED EVEN MORE:

May God equip us and work in us so that we can do His will and please Him.

Or, as I just said

MAY GOD WORK IN US SO WE CAN WORK FOR HIM.

2.  Powerfully humbling and needful message: If God does not give us fresh grace for every good work, then nothing we do will be pleasing to Him.

3.  Jesus gave it to us plainly in a parable form:

John 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

4.  Paul gave it to us in doctrinal form

Philippians 2:12-13 continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13
for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

5.  So the Author is saying this same message: Apart from God’s continual working in you by grace, you can do nothing to please Him

6.  Amazing!!! Even now, redeemed by the Blood of Christ, having had the heart of stone removed and the heart of flesh put in, having been completely forgiven and having had our consciences cleansed, having been adopted as Sons and Daughters, having been given the indwelling Holy Spirit and a new, clear understanding of the Bible… having been GIVEN ALL THIS in Christ, we would STILL not be able to do any good work, not be able to serve God in any way that is pleasing to Him, if He does not work that in us by His power

7.  In this we can greatly lament our own weakness, and greatly exalt God’s ongoing grace…

8.  Do you not see the WISDOM of God in HUMBLING US even more!!

a.  The topic is our good works

b.  Those good works are of AWESOME DIMENSIONS… so great are those good works that they are of eternal consequence… both in the internal journey and the external journey

c.  Good works of the INTERNAL JOURNEY: of making actual progress in Christlikness… becoming more and more like Jesus… thinking like Him, loving what He loves and hating what He hates; putting sin to death by the power of the Holy Spirit; putting on spiritual armor and fighting every temptation until it is dead on the ground under our feet; good works of humility and brokenness within, of yearning for the glory of God, of delighting in God and turning away from idols that once held us fast… GOOD WORKS OF THE INTERNAL JOURNEY. Making us more and more like Christ, more and more glorious and pleasing to God

d.  Good works of the EXTERNAL JOURNEY: resulting directly in the eternal salvation of lost people, the continual upbuilding of Christ’s eternal Kingdom, the sacrificial ministry to poor and needy and sick and dying people… by those good works, spiritually dead people will hear the gospel, repent, believe and live forever in heaven; by those good works, the poor will be made rich, the hungry will be fed, the thirsty refreshed, the lame made to walk, the blind made to see, the captives of Satan rescued from his dark kingdom and transferred forever into the kingdom of Light!!!

e.  So great are those works that the church will do that Jesus made this astonishing statement:

John 14:12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

f.  GREATER WORKS THAN THESE MIRACLES OF JESUS!!! Not

greater miracles… for there is no record of any apostle or missionary or pastor or evangelist having a greater catalog of miracles than Jesus did… CHURCH HISTORY does not surrender to our investigation any single man or woman whose catalog of signs and wonders even comes close to those of our Savior

g.  No, the “greater works” are the works of eternal salvation for a multitude of people from every tribe and language and people and nation; servants of Christ will deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow Him; they will courageously lay down their lives for orphans, widows, poor, lost people… they will sacrifice their time, energy, money, comforts, physical health, etc. They will do it all for the love of God and the love of neighbor

h.  These good works will SHINE FOR ETERNITY… they are of infinite worth in the sight of God

i.  To some degree it is why God created us and redeemed us and left us in this sin-cursed present world age:

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

j.  This prayer implies this:

Ephesians 2:10 God has prepared the good works in advance for us

Hebrews 13:20-21 God must also prepare us in advance for the good works

C.  Clear Implication: Without This Advance Preparation, We Will Not Do These Good Works

1.  God MUST prepare us for every good work, or we will not do ANY good work

2.    God MUST work in us what is pleasing to Him or we will not be pleasing to Him

3.  There is no INDEPENDENT VIRTUE in the Christian life… nothing we do on our own and bring to Jesus for His pleasure

D.  See The Wisdom of God in Humbling Us

1.  These good works are so astoundingly awesome that, if we were able to achieve them on our own, our still fleshly hearts would BOAST IN THEM and SWELL WITH PRIDE and we would be repugnant to God

2.  God must prepare us for the good works and He must work in us what is pleasing to Him so we can be truly humbled when God begins to use us… when we begin to make genuine progress in Christ and become more and more nearly perfect like Jesus, we can truly say EVERY STEP I HAVE EVER MADE IN SANCTIFICATION—IN THE INTERNAL JOURNEY—I HAVE ONLY MADE BY THE POWER OF GOD IN ME… to God alone be the glory; and EVERY STEP I HAVE EVER MADE IN MINISTRY—IN THE EXTERNAL JOURNEY—I HAVE ONLY MADE BY THE POWER OF GOD IN ME… it was God who allowed me to speak a word of wise counsel to a brother or sister; it was God who allowed me to set up a fruitful urban ministry to lead many poor people to faith in Christ and to a healthy lifestyle by which they are now providing for their own needs; it was God who prepared me and trained me and called me and supported me financially to go overseas to an unreached people group and lead eleven people to Christ and plant a church that is now flourishing and multiplying and growing

3.  God prepared me for every good work; God worked in me what was pleasing to Him

Revelation 4:10-11 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power

II.   The Prayer’s Details… Phrase by Phrase

A.  A Brief Summary of the Entire Epistle!

Hebrews 13:20-21 May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

1.  My statement: A Superior Mediator brings a Superior Covenant resulting in a Superior Life

2.  God of peace vs. God of fire

3.  The blood of Christ vs. the blood of bulls and goats

4.  The eternal covenant vs. the temporary covenant

5.  A resurrected mediator who ever lives to intercede for us vs. high priests that die and cannot continue their office

6.  Jesus Christ, that great Shepherd of the Sheep vs. sinful men who were faulty shepherds

7.  Working in us good works well-pleasing to God vs. the works of the law which lead to death

8.  Now… phrase by phrase:

B.  May the God of Peace

1.  This is a prayer to God the Father, Almighty God, the Creator of the Ends of the Earth

2.  Here He is called “the God of Peace”… a phrase we usually associate with the Apostle Paul

3.  Two ways to understand it

a.  First, the God who is characterized by peace… the God who is peaceful within Himself, and at peace with Himself… unruffled, unhastened, serene

b.  The God who gives peace: He draws us into His peace so we experience what kind of peace characterizes His own nature

4.  Theological significance

a.  The God of Peace created the universe and declared it very good

b.  But sin entered the world and Adam and his race fell into rebellion against the Righteous King

c.  God the King is God the Lawgiver, and as a result He becomes God the Judge

d.  Because of our sins, we were at war with God and God was at war with us

Isaiah 57:20-21 But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. 21 “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”

Colossians 1:21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.

e.  God’s righteous wrath was against all sinners… they remained under His wrath while they remained rebels

Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness

f.  Through the blood of the eternal covenant shed by Jesus Christ, God is now at peace with all who are in Christ Jesus

Romans 5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ

g.  Christ has worked reconciliation between a holy God and sinful people

Romans 5:10 For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

5.  Celebrate the GOD of PEACE!!

a.  Delight in the fact that Christ has made God be at peace with you

b.  Know that all of your sins are forgiven and God is reconciled to you

c.  BUT if you are on the outside of Christ, you are still considered an enemy of God… right now, through the gospel of Jesus Christ, God is pleading with you to be reconciled to Him

2 Corinthians 5:20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

C.  Who Through the Blood

1.  This returns us to the infinite worth and value of the blood of Jesus Christ

1 Peter 1:18-19 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

2.  This theme we completely developed in Hebrews 9

Hebrews 9:13-14 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

Hebrews 9:22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

3.  It is only by the blood of Jesus that the sins of people are forgiven, the wrath of God turned away

4.  Paul makes this point plainly in Romans 3, the glowing center of the gospel:

Romans 3:23-25 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.

5.  It is THROUGH the blood of the eternal covenant that every good thing comes to us from the God of Peace

D.  The Blood of the Eternal Covenant

1.  The “eternal covenant” is a striking phrase, filled with meaning

2.  The contrast is clear… an eternal covenant vs. a temporary covenant

3.  The word “covenant” = a binding agreement; covenants are central to God’s dealings with the human race

4.  Many covenants in the Old Testament era

a.  The Covenant with Noah… by which God swore that He would never again destroy the world by a flood

b.  The Covenant with Abraham… by which God promised to give to Abraham and his descendents the Promised Land and by which God promised to be God to Abraham and to his descendents forever

c.  The Covenant with Moses… by which God gave the Jews Laws which would govern their behavior… a conditional covenant by which the Jews could stay in the Promised Land… a covenant which promised life for obedience and death for disobedience

d.  The Covenant with David… by which God promised to raise up one of David’s descendents and establish his Kingdom forever

5.  This verse speaks of the “blood of the eternal covenant”

a.  This refers to the covenant of salvation in Jesus by which every sinner that has ever been saved and will be in heaven with God is saved

b.  The “blood of the eternal covenant” is the blood of Jesus, shed on the cross in the fullness of time

c.  It is called an “eternal covenant” because it was made between the Father and the Son before the foundation of the world

d.  The elect were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world

e.  God also chose before the foundation of the world to atone for their sins by the blood of Christ

1 Peter 1:18-20 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. 20 He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

f.  Revelation 13 speaks of both election and the death of Christ as being established from the creation of the world

Revelation 13:8 names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.

6.  Every Old Testament saint was forgiven by the same blood… the blood of Jesus which WOULD BE SHED LATER for them

Romans 3:25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished

Romans 4:1-3 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? 2 If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about– but not before God. 3 What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Abraham and David were both justified by this same “eternal covenant”

7.  “Covenant theology” should not require infant baptism

a.  Presbyterians and Reformed infant baptizers look to the unity of God’s world across the testaments to prove that infant circumcision in the Old Covenant should become infant baptism in the New Covenant

b.  It is not obvious why this should be so

c.  There is no scriptural warrant for making this connection

8.  Eternal Covenant also looks AHEAD!!!

a.  The Old Covenant was temporary… it appeared in time, ran its course, and was superseded by the New Covenant

Hebrews 8:13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.

b.  This “eternal covenant” will NEVER pass away

c.  Its fruit is eternal; its blessings are eternal; its members are eternal

d.  On the basis of the BLOOD of this ETERNAL COVENANT we will live forever in heaven

Amazing Grace: “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun.”

E.  Brought Back from the Dead

1.  Through the blood of the eternal covenant, the God of Peace BROUGHT BACK JESUS from the dead

2.  This is clearly referring to the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

3.  The blood having been shed for the elect of the human race, God is reconciled to humanity… it was reasonable for Jesus to take on again a human body… now glorified

4.  Greek word: “led up as from a lower to a higher place”… picture like the Exodus, leading Israel UP out of bondage in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land

5.  God has willed for Jesus to spend eternity in a glorified human body, and so He is human NOW and will be forever

6.  Jesus bodily resurrection from the dead proves that the blood He shed for sin was acceptable and sufficient for our redemption

F.  Our Lord Jesus

1.  The Author speaks Jesus’ name TWICE in this prayer… we can’t say the name Jesus enough

2.  Jesus is the specific historical man, Jesus of Nazareth, born of a Virgin, lived in Galilee and Judea, died in Jerusalem

3.  This is the name that we should not be ashamed of… at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord

4.  So the Author celebrates the Lordship of Jesus here

5.  The confession “Jesus is Lord” is central to the Christian faith… the Greek word “kurios” was usually used to speak of Yahweh, God in the Old Testament… wherever the capitalized word LORD appears in the English Bible, the word kurios would appear in the Greek Old Testament of their day

6.  It was a clear assertion of the deity of Christ… that He is our God, before whom we worship, whom we serve

7.  He is here called “OUR Lord Jesus”… He is the one we worship, the one we seek to please

8.  He is also our pattern… the one to whom we are to be conformed

G.  That Great Shepherd of the Sheep

1.  Not just any shepherd… there were many shepherds of God’s people… David was raised up to shepherd the nation of Israel

2 Samuel 5:2 the LORD said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.'”

2.  Jesus is THAT shepherd of the sheep… the one who was prophesied

Isaiah 40:11 He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.

Micah 5:2-4 But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”…. 4 He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.

Ezekiel 34:15-16 I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.

3.  Jesus Himself claimed to be the Good Shepherd

John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

John 10:14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me

4.  The text says Jesus is the GREAT Shepherd… it speaks of the greatness of His care for the sheep, the greatness of the price He paid in blood for their safety, the greatness of the provision He makes for them… feeding them, protecting them, leading them beside quiet waters and restoring their souls

5.  He is the “Great Shepherd of THE SHEEP…”

a.  Jesus is not shepherd to every single person on the face of the earth

b.  He is shepherd to HIS SHEEP… whom He knows by name and calls out

c.  Jesus spoke to His enemies

John 10:26 you do not believe because you are not my sheep.

d.  “The sheep” were chosen before the creation of the world, and faith comes as a result of that prior election… Jesus’ sheep come to believe at the right time

So… verse 20

Hebrews 13:20 May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep…

May the God who is the God of peace, the God who has already provided an eternal covenant, and the blood of His only begotten Son, the God who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus…

MAY THIS GOD WHO HAS PROVIDED EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR SALVATION…

H.  Equip You with Everything Good

1.  Amazing that, with all that’s already been provided we still need MORE

2.  More grace, more provision, more work in us and on us by this same sovereign God

3.  There’s nothing inadequate about what’s already been given us… God is PERFECTLY at peace with us, the blood is PERFECTLY effective for cleansing our guilty consciences, Jesus’ resurrection is PERFECTED and in Him we will live forever… Jesus’ ongoing shepherding of us is PERFECT as well

4.  And yet… we need STILL MORE

5.  May this same God “equip you with everything good for doing His will”

6.  The Greed word translated “equip” or “perfect” means to make you fit, able, suitable, capable, thoroughly outfitted

a.  It has both a negative and a positive connotation

b.  Negatively: may God “rectify everything wrong with us, everything deficient in our souls… everything that gets in the way of doing God’s will…”

i)  This has to do with the way our FLESH gets in the way of doing the good works God wants us to do

Romans 7:15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

For example… our flesh may hesitate to minister to a certain class of people because we have prejudices against them; perhaps someone from that group of people hurt you in some significant way in the past… perhaps you were raised to hate them or be prejudiced against them; perhaps you don’t like that kind of climate or that kind of food or that kind of music… your flesh pulls hard on you NOT TO MINISTER to those people

God has to EQUIP YOU from within to overcome your natural tendencies and do His will Perhaps you don’t have a natural LOVE FOR THE LOST

The centerpiece of evangelistic fruitfulness… a genuine compassion for the lost PRAY TO GOD for this!!!

c.  Positively: this equipping comes by God training you and preparing you to do good works

i)  This comes by good teaching… good sermons, good Christian books read, good role models, good experiences that array your mind and your soul with everything you will need to do God’s will

ii)  It comes by time spent in His word and in prayer… as God transforms your heart and gets you ready to do God’s work

Remember what I said above about Ephesians 2:10 and Hebrews 13:20-21

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:10 God has prepared the good works in advance for us

Hebrews 13:20-21 God must also prepare us in advance for the good works

Example: Acts 10… Peter and Cornelius… the account begins with an angel appearing to the Roman Centurion, Cornelius, and commanding him to send men to Joppa to retrieve a man named Simon Peter through whom he will hear a message he must hear. The story then cuts away to Peter in Joppa, who is hungry and praying… God shows him a vision of unclean animals and he’s commanded “Get up, Peter, kill and eat!” Peter says in effect, “NO WAY, Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” God tells him, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

God was clearly working both sides of the equation… Getting the Jew Peter ready to interact closely with a Roman whom he would ordinarily NEVER eat with or interact with… but who the very next day would become his brother in Christ.

God worked BOTH SIDES OF THE EQUATION

He prepares us for the good works and the good works for us

I.  For Doing His Will

1.  This is the definition of “good works”

John 4:34 “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

John 8:29 I always do what pleases him.

2.  God is not looking for innovators but obedient servants who will present themselves to God for His service and to do His will

J.  And May He Work in Us

1.  The work God must do starts in the HEART

2.  Good works must flow from the inside

3.  God is not seeking external shows of pious behaviorists

Matthew 23:27-28 Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

4.  God must clean us up on the INSIDE… transforming our motives so that everything we do meets the following three spiritual criteria

a.  Done for the glory of God

1 Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

b.  Done by faith

Romans 14:23 everything that does not come from faith is sin

c.  Done in genuine love for others

1 Corinthians 13:3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

5.  These criteria are not naturally worked in us but SUPERNATURALLY

6.  God must work a passion for His glory, genuine faith in His word, and a true love for others in us

7.  This WORKING by God is described also in Philippians 2:12-13

Philippians 2:12-13 continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

K.  What Is Pleasing in His Sight

1.  The whole press of this passage is that God must shape us and mold us and work in us to be pleasing to Him

2.  To me, this is ultimately about complete conformity to Jesus Christ

3.  Jesus is PERFECTLY PLEASING to God the Father

Matthew 3:17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

4.  This is because Jesus is the perfect reflection of the glory of God

Hebrews 1:3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being

5.  The whole direction of our salvation is to take us from being dead in our transgressions and sins to being conformed to the image of Jesus

Romans 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

6.  So God’s ongoing work of sanctification is to make us more and more like Christ and more and more pleasing to Him by His sovereign power

L.  Through Jesus Christ

1.  Every good work done in us and then by us is done only by the ongoing priestly ministry of Jesus Christ

2.  So it is no mere tack on to add the words “Through Jesus Christ”

3.  Jesus is constantly living to intercede for us; and I believe what the Author prays for the Hebrew Christians is what Jesus is still constantly praying for us:

“O Father, would you please pour out your Spirit on and work in him what is pleasing to you? Would you please strengthen him in the inner man, making him love you and live for your glory? Would you please purify him and make him holy, and give him a genuine heart of love? And would you then put him to work in a specific way to advance the Kingdom of Heaven?”

M.  To Whom Be the Glory Forever and Ever. Amen.

1.  All of this is to the glory of God forever and ever!!

III.   The Author’s Final Words: Bear With Exhortation

Hebrews 13:22-25 Brothers, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written you only a short letter. 23 I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you. 24 Greet all your leaders and all God’s people. Those from Italy send you their greetings. 25 Grace be with you all.

A.  The Letter to the Hebrews: A “Brief” Word of Exhortation

1.  Actually, it is one of the LONGEST epistles in the New Testament

2.  So why does the Author call is only a short letter? It’s because of the glorious themes that he’s been discussing and how much he could have said about them

a.  He began with a declaration of the greatness of Jesus Christ…

b.  He unfolded that Christ is greater than all the prophets who spoke to the people in the past

c.  He displayed that Christ is the reigning Son of God, through whom God made the universe and by whom God sustains the universe

d.  He reveals that angels who brought the Old Covenant are merely servants and flames of fire, serving those people who will inherit salvation

e.  2:1 He gave his first warning: DON’T DRIFT AWAY from Christ!!! And coupled with that, the severe punishment awaiting us if we neglect such a great salvation

f.  He then explained the incarnation… how it was necessary for Jesus Christ to become fully human, sharing our humanity in order to rescue us from the devil who held the power of death.

g.  Chapter 3: He proclaimed that Jesus is greater than Moses, who was the mediator of the Old Covenant… that though Moses was faithful as a servant in God’s house, Jesus is faithful as a Son over God’s house

h.  He displayed the seriousness of the danger of sinfully retreating from the Promised Land of faith in Christ… he refers back to the generation of Jews who shrank back in the time of Joshua; and through the words of Psalm 95, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”

i.  Along with that, he spoke of the need for the church to watch over one another in brotherly love… shepherding each other’s hearts so that no one turns away from the living God by the gradual hardening process of sin

j.  In Hebrews 4, the author asserts that Jesus is greater than Joshua, because the Promised Land Joshua gave them was temporary, not God’s final resting place… Jesus alone can bring us into our Sabbath rest

k.  In Hebrews 5, the Author introduced us to the idea of Jesus as our Great High Priest… a priest in the order of Melchizedek

l.  In Hebrews 6, the Author has to stop and warn them again of their hardness of heart and gives the most serious warning in the epistle: IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO RENEW APOSTATES TO REPENTANCE

m.  Hebrews 7 unfolds the greatness of Jesus as High Priest in the order of Melchizedek… a priest whose ministry is eternal, not based on genealogy, who can never die but who always lives to intercede for us at the right hand of God; the author also shows that the Levitical priesthood was inadequate and symbolic and obsolete

n.  Hebrews 8: The glories of the New Covenant… 1) forgiveness of sins; 2) transformed hearts; 3) eternal relationship with God; also Old Covenant is obsolete and aging and will soon pass away

o.  Hebrews 9: The symbolism of the Tabernacle unfolded… The Levitical priests served in a tent that was a copy and a shadow of the real thing; the reality is Christ… a perfect High Priest offering ONCE FOR ALL His own blood before the heavenly throne

p.  Hebrews 10: recounts again the glorious superiority of the New Covenant and invites the Hebrews to DRAW NEAR TO GOD in full assurance of faith by a NEW AND LIVING WAY into the very throne room of God; it also gives the most dreadful warning in the Bible to apostates… saying that there is NOTHING LEFT BUT A FEARFUL EXPECTATION OF

RAGING FIRE; Hebrews 10 also recounts the early days when they were courageously and joyfully willing to have their possessions confiscated and to be imprisoned for Christ

q.  Hebrews 11: the “faith chapter” describes the life of faith by one example after another

r.  Hebrews 12: speaks of God’s loving discipline and gives more warnings

s.  Hebrews 13: final exhortations of godly behavior including brotherly love, hospitality, remembering the suffering, purity in sex and money, respect for leaders, willingness to suffer

3.  So… the Author could CLEARLY have said a TON MORE about these things than the 303 verses he did give us…

4.  He calls it a WORD OF EXHORTATION…

a.  Paraklesis = exhortation, counsel, instruction, comfort, consolation, even REBUKE or WARNING

b.  the great danger of APOSTASY is always there

c.  the Author has said some very stern things to them

d.  He wants them not to turn away from these warnings but to face them as mature believers and live accordingly… to BEAR WITH these words

e.  Conversely… some people like a different kind of ministry:

2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

B.  Final Greetings

Hebrews 13:23-25 I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you. 24 Greet all your leaders and all God’s people. Those from Italy send you their greetings. 25 Grace be with you all.

IV.   Applications

A.  Come to Christ

B.  Understand the Greatness of Christ and of the New Covenant

C.  Persevere in Faith

D.  Seek God’s Ongoing Work in You to Do the Good Works of Faith

E.  Seek in for Others As Well

Hebrews is finished!!!