Tana City Church Preaching
Kim Midgley | Hebrews 13v20-25 - Conclusions
it's praying. Heavenly Father, we're here to worship you. We've just been worshiping you with our sin. You're worthy of even bigger, louder, more joyful worship God. You're worthy of more than we can give. Lord, we want to give our attention to your word as well as an act of worship. We want to hear what you have in your word and we want to put it into practice in our lives. We'll help us by your Holy Spirit this morning God. Come and minister to each soul here, each person go. Come and speak into our hearts with bring life and encouragement and strength and healing in Jesus' name. Amen. So today we're going to reach the end of Hebrews, the book we've been looking at for a better part of this year. And I'm hoping to take a slightly different angle. I'm not just going to summarize it, but I am definitely going to focus quite deeply on the verses that we have still to read. So we're going to start with Hebrews chapter 13 verse 20 and 21. And then I'll look into those verses and then finish with verse 22 to 25. Hebrews 13 verse 20 says, "Now made 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. It put you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." So the writer to the Hebrews puts forth a prayer just before the concluding greetings to people. He puts forth a prayer and prays for the readers and says, "May the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus," he states this incredible idea. It is God the Father who's a God of peace which means at this time in history we have the opportunity to approach God where he is extending the olive branch of peace and saying, "Make peace with me. I'm not coming to condemn. I'm not coming to destroy. I'm not coming to judge sin and evil yet. That time is coming. The time will come when God confronts all the sin and evil. But right now God is the God of peace who is saying, "You can seek refuge in my son. You can find forgiveness for your sins if you come to me." So the doorway is open to you to come. And then the writer says, "The God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of their turtle covenant." I was reading that and it just struck me. What the writer is trying to communicate. I was asking God, "Help me to see what is it that the writer had in mind." And what I'm so aware of is that the writer saying after Jesus received all of the sin of the world upon him and he died, then God looked at that offering at that sacrifice. And he said, "It's very sufficient." And he raised Jesus from the dead. When you think about that, if God could bring Jesus back from the dead by the blood of the turtle covenant, in other words, through the sacrifice of his own life, Jesus was able to fully take care of sin and God brought him back from the dead. If God could bring Jesus back from the dead by the blood of the eternal covenant, he is surely able to bring you through. He is surely able to bring you through. If not even the son of the world was sufficient to make God say, "Oh no no, I can't. I can't deal with that." But instead the blood of Jesus so successfully at times for the son of the world that Jesus was raised from the dead, then there is nothing left to hinder God from saving you. There is nothing left to hinder God from bringing you all the way to the finished life. And this is the glory of the resurrection as a theology that we can celebrate that God was satisfied once and for all by the sacrifice that Jesus' blood provided, his life provided. And so if that succeeded, then everything else about our faith succeeds based on that success. In other words, the hope of the resurrection is Jesus is raised and so too shall we be raised. It is glorious because the writers spent a whole book trying to assure people that their perseverance is worthwhile, that by persevering in the faith you will never be disappointed. You will reach the finished life. There is a guaranteed inheritance that lies ahead for every believer in Christ. And so when you come to that place like you have wandered from the faith or you have doubted or you have disappeared or you have neglected the Word of God or you have indulged in some sin, whatever it is that has led you astray is incomparably small to the son of the whole world that was laid on Jesus. And yet after the son of the whole world was laid on Jesus, the follower was pleased to raise him to life again and so in Christ you will be raised. To me it's just a profound reassurance. This is after the son of the world was laid on Jesus, his life laid down as a ransom for our souls. The new covenant formed between God and man by the night the shed blood of Jesus. This covenant is described as the eternal covenant. If Jesus carrying all the son of the world was brought back from the dead by the blood that speaks on our behalf then surely there is no way we can go that he cannot bring us back. That means even in the future if you wobble or wander away God can find you and bring you back. I'm not advocating that we should be lacking in diligence in our faith but we should be very secure at the same time that despite our failings God is going to save us. He is the great shepherd of the sheep. There is no way we can go that he cannot bring us back. No matter where you have wandered it is because of the same blood the eternal covenant that God will bring us back. When I thought of that concept that the very worst of the worst was placed on Jesus all the son and then he paid for it through his life and the father raised him to his life. It made me think of this passage in Romans 8 that I'm going to read with you the ending of Romans 8 from verse 31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us who can be against us? So he is the God of peace. He is for us. He is provided his son. He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all for all of us. That means every one of us in this room Jesus died for you. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? In other words if God has gone to the maximum by laying everything on Jesus and giving his most precious son to save us what after that could possibly stop God from getting his inheritance. The sin I commit this week coming or the sin I committed last week was put on Jesus that nothing can hinder God from saving. He who did not spare his own son had gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that who was raised who is at the right hand of God who indeed is interceding for us. There is our advocate, our high priest. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written for your sake we are being killed all the day long we are regarded as sheep to be sorted. Now in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. In other words nothing in this life even if it kills you it can't separate you from God's love because even if you were persecuted to the point of dying you would open your eyes to the wonderful face of Jesus you would not ever be lost. I'm sure that neither death nor life love that not even life. No angels, no rulers, no things present, no things to come, no powers, no height, no depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's beautiful. See life sometimes tries to separate us from God not just hardship even happiness even sometimes the good things distract us but nothing will actually separate us from the love of God and certainly not our inability to get life right. Your ability to get life right is not what saves you. It is God you justify. That's what we've read. It is God you justify. Next week I can preach more on the anointing and how to walk in God's power and how not to grieve the Holy Spirit. We can look at all the sanctification things but only look at them after you have settled justification of you've understood how salvation works. There is nothing that can separate you from the love of God because God has made the peace with us through his son. God did this by his initiative. So the writer goes on and he says now may he the God of peace equip you with everything good that you may do his will. So that's how it continues. And now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ the great shaper of the sheep but the blood of the eternal covenant made this God equip you with everything good that you may do his will working in us that which is easing in his sight. Now this is God at work in us. May he the God of peace equip you with everything good that you may do his will. That's normally where I start to get worried. I think you know God's going to give me strength but I don't even know what to do with it and he's given me tasks. I'm not sure if I'm fulfilling them and then it says something amazing. It says it doesn't even depend on you. It doesn't even depend on you for. He is working in us for he is working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ and that's why all the glory is ultimately going to go to Jesus even the glory of your sanctification even the amount to which you live a holy life is unctioned by the Spirit of God within you. In other words it's not that you are going to become good at being a Christian. It's that Jesus is just going to keep on motivating you to be good and do good. And you see the difference it's not that you are necessarily becoming a class A Christian as opposed to that class B Christian who doesn't follow God as well as you but instead it is God working in us what's pleasing in his sight through Jesus so that even the power to love your life right comes from Jesus and he will ultimately receive the glory and the honor. So none of us gets to be proud about how good we are even though we should become more and more sanctified more and more holy even though we should learn to follow God diligently you should learn not too soon grace teaches you to say no to unrighteousness that's what grace does it teaches it trains us it empowers us to live a righteous life but we never become pious arrogant smite religious people saying look how good I am doing all these good works for Jesus it's like by the grace of God I stand if not for the grace of God I would fall thereby the grace except for the grace of God there go and in other words it's only God's working in you that actually will work for you to a place of holiness it's not your own strength and so this prayer summarizes the conviction the right it carries in the whole book of Hebrews the writer is certain that through Christ we have all we will ever need in order to persevere and do the will of God see this is wonderfully encouraging because it says the end is secure and even the journey there the power to persevere is available in Christ and God is working within you so there's every reason as a Christian not to abandon your faith because the end is certain and even the journey is sovereign even God's hand is over your life and sometimes God will give you what you want to teach you a hard lesson like you're lusting after something simple and God just loosens his grip a little bit and you fall but he's training you through discipline to say hey you're weak but I'm strong lean on me you're weak you need me lean on me my grace is sufficient for you it will always be enough for you so God is not guilty of our sins but the times where he'll allow us to sin but not because he wants us to sin because he wants us to see him he wants us to see that he's the saving God and in him we will find the strength we need everything the writer says everything you need is in Christ and now to summarize what we've seen in the book of Hebrew we see in Christ this is what we've seen in this journey a better person that Jesus as a Savior is better than anything else that has ever been offered to humankind the writer started speaking to Hebrews and he pointed out in chapter one that Christ was better than the prophets you see Jesus embodies the word of God he he is the revelation of God God speaking through his son speaks a better word than any of the other prophets ever spoke because he is a more accurate representation of who God is because he is God so when you look to Christ you see what God is saying who God is you hear God's heart through the works and the actions he is better than the prophets he is better than the angels Jesus is a thought of the scripture when I read that how beautiful are the feet of the one who brings good news so Jesus was the bearer of the message of good news better than any of the angels in terms of bringing the gospel the angels could herald his coming the angels could go to Sodom and Gomorrah and herald the judgment of God but Jesus brings the gospel in himself better than the angels he was better than Moses Jesus is the fulfillment of the law there is nothing that that the law could do to save you but Jesus could actually uphold the law and be your Savior stand in your place so while the law was good the law was also powerless to bring salvation the law remains good as Christians we are interested in the law but we are not under the law we are in Christ and so we uphold the law but not as our means to be saved we don't do good works in order to earn salvation we do good works because they are good in their green glory to God but Jesus himself is so much better than the law because he saves and the law cannot save and Jesus we saw in chapter four is better than Aaron so to the to the Jews they put their hopes on the law Moses and the priesthood Aaron representing the priesthood to them and Jesus we see is a great art priest who has passed through the heavens and so by the sixth chapter of Hebrews we come to a great warning that says Jesus is better than all these things that are incomplete and imperfect and unable to save he is to complete the final the perfect and if you don't come to him you have no chance at all and so Hebrews 6 has this great warning of falling away because if you neglect Jesus you have no path to salvation and that's why Jesus could say those words we know well I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the Father except by me you can't come to God through righteous works so the Jew or the Muslim need Jesus because their good works despite being good or not saving you could be a hurry Krishna and you could be the most gentle nature loving you know earth worshiping person and you still can't deal with the problem of sin you can do good but you can't be saved because you can't undo the bad you can't deal with sin there's there's no savior besides Jesus there are noble pursuits there are people trying their best there is man trying to reach heaven but through Jesus you see heaven reaching to man he came to save us he laid aside his majesty he came off his throne he was born of the Virgin Mary he was sinless and perfect in life and in death and he atoned for us so we see the superior person and the warnings don't ignore him but then we also see that through Christ there's a superior priesthood this is what the book showed us that Jesus didn't come from the tribe of Levi so he wasn't trying to perpetuate the old covenant he came in the order of Melchizedek a new priest with a new priestly order and with a new priestly order came a new covenant that was better than the old covenant and the new covenant is repeatedly prophesied in the Old Testament where God says I will write my law on their hearts in that day they won't need to be taught to follow me because they will know me and that's what happens when you become a Christian you're born again by the Spirit of God you come into a covenant relationship with God and you know him from the inside out and you no longer are a person who is trying to do the externals to look good you're a person who has peace in his soul because Jesus has made you reconcile to God and so with the superior priest the superior covenant and a superior sanctuary a heavenly tabernacle so now the holy place is actually with the holy person so we don't worship upper mountain or we don't worship in a city like Jerusalem we don't have to do a pilgrimage we don't have to go to some special place and this building is not a special place it's that we are gathered as the cool out ones the ecclesia the saints have got to put our eyes on Jesus and so we have less paraphernalia less religious looking stuff because it's a spiritual looking to Jesus it's not a temple that is holy your body is the temple of the holy spirit and it has been made holy by Jesus by his blood and here's the superior sacrifice a once for all atonement for sin and so we saw that Jesus when he had made the sacrifice as a priest he is raised from the dead proving God was pleased with the sacrifice it has a tone for sin he is our man in glory he's the first man to truly enter heaven he's gone behind the veil and he sat down at the right hand of the Father because as a priest his work is finished he has done the once and for all sacrifice of himself and so our heart priest isn't making sacrifices day after day there is no more sacrifice for sin you never have to at time for your sin Jesus did you can make a mess in some ways you can go and sometimes apologize to someone you can go and ask for their forgiveness you can look for reconciliation at this level person to person but before God yet there is no offering you have to bring him he doesn't want your money he doesn't want what I should say need because sometimes he sees an idol in your life and says lay it down but he doesn't need your sin he doesn't need affirmation he's not insecure God is completely without need because he is completely sufficient within himself and even when it comes to the problem of your son he made the atonement so he doesn't need your sacrifice but he does give you a command I should get to that sometime in my notes it's a simple line I'll get there so through Hebrews 11 and 12 then it turns practical and they look at the history of the saints the followers of God they're the heroes of the faith who are actually not heroes but ordinary people murderers like David uh polygamists like Abraham doing all kinds of things God doesn't really want them to do but they still followed him by faith through Hebrews 11 and 12 we are exhorted to live by faith and to understand the discipline of God and the shakings that happen and all this then the writer concludes as we go on he concludes with a personal note in Hebrews 13 verse 22 the very next verse to look at Hebrews 13 verse 22 he says I appeal to you brothers bear with my word of exhortation for I've written to you briefly I love it's 13 chapters some of them quite long I can relate to this um you've had to suffer through this too with me I spoke for over an hour at a men's breakfast yesterday just talking about masculinity I felt like they were waiting things to share deep truths that deserve the honor of a solid attention span yesterday in taking over an hour at a men's breakfast I didn't share that you know you're a guest speaker and you get a check after you share a 10 minutes pep talk no I didn't get the check and I spoke for over an hour because I had to do justice to what God had put on my heart so this writer is saying the same thing bear with my word so bear with it why because it's heavier times there were warnings there were cautions there were corrections the word of God is sometimes waiting in our lives and actually it's a little bit of a God are you trying to kill me and God says yes I want to kill the flesh I want to kill the part of you that's addicted to sin that just hurts you I want you to work with me and put to death crucified the sinful nature the part of you that's longing to do wrong God says yes I want to kill you bear with my word of exaltation it's a word of exaltation the writer has written all of this in his mind as an encouragement so if you get hung up on Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10 and all about losing your salvation surely you haven't seen what the writer was thinking because he sees it as a word of exaltation he sees it as an encouragement I've written an encouragement to you that's wonderful I often say just to to my kids or dirt when they were little when when you say sorry or you make an apology because there's a pride to resist making an apology I said even even when it was an accident because they're like but it was an accident well that's exactly why you say sorry when you say sorry to someone you clarifying your motive sorry isn't going to fix anything except it is when you say sorry to someone what you really mean is I'm sorry I didn't intend or mean to do harm my motive was not to hurt you so this writer is saying just like that he's saying I appeal to your brothers bear with my word of exaltation he's telling you my motive towards you is to encourage you I've written to you briefly because there is so much more he wanted to share that's very much how I feel about the word of glory it's how I feel about us as a church the writer is telling them respond well respond well he's saying bear with this word it's only really brief in the context of how much there is in God but you need to bear with it you need to process it you need to grapple with the word of God you need to allow the word of God to challenge you you need to allow these truths about who Jesus is to change you in one Thessalonians 2 verse 13 Paul Paul writing to the Thessalonians he explains a bit about how we should respond to the word of God one Thessalonians 2 verse 13 says this and we also thank God continually because when you receive the word of God which you heard from us you accepted it not as the word of men but as it actually is the word of God which is at work in you who believe the word of God has power when you believe see faith activates the word of God you could study the Bible as an academic an atheist professor you could read it that would do nothing in your life but faith activates the word of God it comes by the word of God and a faith response is how the word of God becomes powerful so we read somewhere in scripture this is the command of God a command of God or this is what God requires of you that you believe in the one he said see so many people want to know how must I serve God what must I do in order to be saved what is the law and the rules and the rituals to follow and yet God's word comes and says this is the command of God that you believe in Christ because without faith it is impossible to please God and faith comes through hearing his word so you need to see the word of God even in the Bible as everything in your life it is to be believed and to be put into practice we do what we believe so out of genuine faith flow Godly actions Jesus spoke about building your house on the rock and he said those who hear and put my word into practice are the ones who built the house on the rock James wanted to see works that accompany true faith because the works should always flow out of the faith it is not the works that produce the faith it is the faith that produces the works the power the grace and the empowerment is from God and that's why we read that his word is living and active God is at work at work through his word his word is alive and he is working in us that which is pleasing in his sight so I'm going through this book of Hebrews I want you to think through it who Jesus is how salvation works why you should be secure in your faith why you should have an expectation of being raised with Christ in eternity and you should know that perseverance is not just possible but it's certain and therefore run high off to go the final few lines of the book of Hebrews are greetings specific in general Hebrews 31st 23 25 and says 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 we are also a community after this time in the auditorium we're going to go and greet one another in the boa greet one another there must be this other dynamic it's not just theology it's not just teacher it's the people of God living on good terms of one another and so the last line is grace be with all of you grace be with all of you I don't know if you notice I don't go through a big religious benediction at the end of our meeting but I often say God bless you I mean it I absolutely mean it like this writing out one simple line grace be with all of you it's not a token thing it's a sincere prayer because we need God's blessing we need His grace remember the what would Jesus do was a good question to ask what would Jesus do a lot of the evangelical churches got their youngsters wearing little bands saying wwjd what would Jesus do I've never been happy with that on its own we are not just trying to copy Jesus behavior we want to know what has Jesus done whjd it's not as cool some it's far more cool spiritually what has Jesus done it's greater he was able to do what he has done because of who he is he is the better one the perfect savior the great high priest the good shepherd the last Adam the final sacrifice the end of the law our advocates in heaven and the ransom for our souls he can never make too much of Jesus if the band come up we're going to close with another song a song one of the ones we've just done not part of the city yeah any of the others we can never make too much about Jesus and I want to encourage you this morning as we finish this look at a book that outlines who Jesus is as the better person and what he has done as a better high priest believe in him you may already be a Christian I say it to you believe in him receive him worship him let's stand