The Book of Hebrews 13:20-25 Grace be with you all

We're going to finish up the book of Hebrews here with verses 20 through 25 in chapter 13. Next Sunday we're going to begin the Gospel of Luke. We're going to go stepping a few verses at a time through the Gospel of Luke. So we'll begin that. So here we are in Hebrews 13.20, the God of the peace.

Now, the pagans had their gods. They certainly did. And the pagans were free to mix and match in the Roman Empire during the time of the writing of this letter. The Jews and Christians believed in THE God. And that's what you see here in this passage. THE God of THE peace is actually the way it comes across. Peace is, in Hebrew, shalom. That's where, like Jerusalem, is actually Yerushalom. Habitation of peace. It was also the standard Jewish greeting. The Jews would say, you know, instead of saying hi, hello, good morning, or something like that, they would say shalom to one another.

The God of the peace that we see here is the one true God, unlike the pagan gods, as opposed to the gods of the pagans. And the peace is the peace from God Himself. The peace from God Himself. God is the one who provides peace. He is the one who offers peace with Him, And by the way, peace with him is on his terms. He offers peace with him, peace within the believer, and peace with others. Now that peace with others may be more conditional. It may be more something that is not necessarily guaranteed, but there's the opportunity for reconciliation and the call to reconciliation.

The next phrase that comes up there is up from the dead. Christ was raised from the dead. It had been more than three decades since Christ was resurrected. But the 500 plus people who saw Christ after his resurrection, all the apostles included more than once, some were still alive at the time of this writing.

And those could testify. And others had heard them testify. of Christ's resurrection. Those witnesses still living could testify that they had seen Christ resurrected, they had seen the empty tomb, that they'd seen that Christ had been brought up from the dead. They could corroborate one another's accounts. They could say, yep, I remember when he rose and remember we were there together when he showed us himself.

They could corroborate each other's accounts. The author of Hebrews then could claim this boldly, not just, you know, I think he resurrected, not just, you know, as far as I can tell, but rather he could proclaim it boldly and say, yes, he was resurrected and we still have some people around who can testify to that fact.

Christ is also called in here the great shepherd of the sheep. Christ is called the shepherd four different places. We'll be taking a look at all of them briefly here. Four different places in the New Testament. It's the same Greek word that's translated pastors in Ephesians 4.11. Pastors is simply the Latin form of shepherd. So that's what that's talking about.

What's interesting, Christ is the only one who is called shepherd as a title, as we see in this one. So that title pastors is actually reserved for Christ himself in scripture. He earned the title, and this is kind of fascinating, he earned the title shepherd by being the lamb, the lamb of God, God's own lamb offered on our behalf.

Here we see three passages where Christ is called the shepherd. Jesus himself proclaims, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep, which Christ did. I am the good shepherd, and I know my own, and my own know me. In 1 Peter, which is also the place that is actually two references to Christ as a shepherd, and this one looks back to Isaiah 53, for you are continually straying like sheep but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls." So here Christ again takes on the title shepherd.

And in 1 Peter 5.4, and when the chief shepherd appears, that's Christ, and His appearing is to take us to be with Him. To take us to be with Him.

You will receive the unfading crown of glory. This is a promise to the elders. promise to the elders. There's the term the Eternal Covenant, which actually doesn't show up anywhere else but here. But let's talk about it. Christ shed his own blood for us. Just think about it. Christ paid for the sins of the whole world within Earth time a few hours. A few hours. He paid for the sins of the whole world. And the only way that that's possible is because of his infinite capacity His infinite capacity.

And He was buried, the Bible records, and was also resurrected by the Father and the Holy Spirit. Both of the other persons of the Trinity were involved in that, as had been agreed in eternity past. You see, before God said, let there be light, this was dealt with between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. This was agreed upon by all three persons of the Trinity as to how this was going to happen.

And the outcome from that death, for our sins, yours and mine, bringing Christ up from the dead, resurrecting Him, will impact everyone who believes, everyone who believes from the first one to the last one on into eternity. So it starts in eternity past, the impact continues on for eternity future. This is the eternal covenant. It's the covenant with eternal impact. Now we get into verse 21, and it continues on, Even Jesus our Lord equip you, so this is a prayer, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight. Through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Now this word equip has a lot built into it. It's a word that is used in other contexts referring to being mended or restored so as to be fully functional and be able to be put into service. It's important we get the idea behind what the author is trying to get across. It's not just giving you a bunch of equipment, right? The word translated equip here means to restore something that was broken or impaired to put it back into service.

So two contexts that we see it come up. The first one, mending torn fishing nets. The mending was the same word. Here in Matthew 4.21, we find the disciples are described as mending torn fishing nets. Why? Because you're going to put them back into service. Back into service. And it's also that same word is used of the disciples mending nets in the Gospel of Mark 2. You have another use for it.

Dr. Luke will be starting Dr. Luke's gospel this next Sunday. Dr. Luke would most likely have set broken bones as a physician and then would bind them up as we would call putting them in a cast so that the bones will heal properly. That would be something that a medical doctor would have done in those days. So Dr. Luke very likely carried this out. And so here's Dr. Luke pictured setting and casting a broken bone.

And so that's another use of the word. Why? So that the bone would heal properly and be fully functional. Back into service. So this word equip has a lot built into it. Now, it means mended or restored. And this passage says, mended or restored to do his will.

So the reason we're mended and restored as to be complete is to do God's will. We don't do God's will just because we decide to do it. This mending and restoring is God's doing, right? It's God's doing. We're not mended to be showpieces or museum relics. You know, hey, look at that guy. He's mended, right? But to do his will, to do his will.

Doing God's will takes place as we abide in Christ. These are some terms that are used in the New Testament. We abide in Christ, as we behold Christ through his word, 2 Corinthians 3.18.

As the life of Christ is lived in and through us, Galatians 2.20.

And as we walk in the Spirit, Galatians 5.16. There's the concept here of we have permanent relationship with the Lord, permanent relationship with the Lord from the moment that we believed initially, our initial salvation.

Our fellowship is then the ongoing issue. The relationship is not at question, but the fellowship is. I've used this illustration before, and that is, Randy is my son, right? He will always be my son. And so we have that relationship. I will be his father, he will be my son.

It's possible I might do something or say something terribly offensive to him or his family. And Randy might say, Dad, what you said was just terrible. You know, you can't come over here for a few weeks until we kind of settle down over here. And so in that case, he would still be my son, I would still be his father, but we would have broken fellowship. So the issue really here is fellowship with the Lord. We have ongoing fellowship, and that's what we're called to. Ongoing fellowship. Working in us that which is pleasing.

God does not want us to work hard at fixing ourselves up. We are not a self-improvement project. That's not what God wants. God is the one who is to do the working, not us. He doesn't want us to make ourselves presentable and clean ourselves up to come before Him. Working in us, that which is pleasing to Him, is His job, not ours. It's not our job to clean up our acts so we can make ourselves presentable to the Lord. He won't be pleased with us if we try to do that. He's got to do the mending and restoring and working it into us. That's His job. So, are you a fixer-upper? It's His job to do that, not ours.

That is God's only plan, His only way of doing things. God has no plan B. If we attempt to do these things for ourselves, we're going to really mess up the works, because it's not at all what God has in mind. Then he says, through Jesus Christ, He's going to do all the mending and restoring so as to make us fully functional and equip us, and the working in us, how? Through Jesus Christ. If we try to do it ourselves, we'll be bypassing Christ. That would be terrible. God does not want us to do it ourselves. The right things will happen only as we walk in intimacy with Christ. That's it. Now, when I say the word intimacy, some people go, huh? This is spiritual intimacy with Him. spiritual intimacy with Him.

That's what God wants, not our best efforts to clean ourselves up. God's eternal purpose is, four things, to reveal and to declare and to share His glory so that He may be glorified. So that He may be glorified. to reveal, to declare, and share His glory so that He may be glorified.

Now let's look at Hebrews 22 through 24. It reads like this, But we urge you, brethren, bear with this word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. Take notice that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom, if he comes soon, I will see you. Greet all of your leaders and all the saints, those from Italy greet you. Let's take a look at that a little at a time. I urge you, brethren, bear with this word. Not that kind of bear. OK? All right. Different kind of bear.

The author urges first by being called alongside. That's the first step. He calls them brethren. So notice he's not talking down to them. He's not talking and saying, I'm the teacher. You guys are the students. You know, you guys got to listen. He calls them brethren. He puts himself at the same level. as these believers here.

He then tells them, and by the way, this is an imperative, that they must bear with this word of exhortation, as opposed to rejecting it. Boy, that guy talked really, really rough, and it's hard to soak up the stuff that he said, and it was really difficult to listen to, so I'm having nothing to do with it. He made me feel bad. No, he's saying you must bear with it and not reject it. He's given them, admittedly, some really strong words in this book. A number of warnings and exhortations that have been pretty intense. And sometimes the assessment of the author of those that he's writing to is pretty severe.

Here's an example, Hebrews 5, 11, and 12. It's been a while since we looked at it, but it reads like this. Concerning him we have much to say, that is Melchizedek, and it is hard to explain since you have become dull of hearing. Wow, that's not easy to hear. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you. And the elementary, the ABCs, right? the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food."

With warnings like that, he's just saying, look, bear with me on this, listen to me, take it seriously, don't reject it or set it aside. But he's done this because he loves them. He's done it because he loves them. He wants them to be mended and restored back into service. See that? to end up being equipped because they've been mended and restored back into service.

Then mention of Brother Timothy has been released. This is the first record we have of Timothy going to prison. It might not have been the actual first time, nor the last. Timothy may have gone to prison other times, but he's being released. It sounds like the author of Hebrews is anticipating, or at least hoping, that Timothy will go with him to see these Hebrew Christians.

So that's his hope. He's letting them know. Apparently they already know who Timothy is. So they seem aware of who he is. And that might also give us an indication that this person possibly had some earlier relationship with Paul. It's fascinating, amazing thing as a matter of fact.

The Lord chose to have more recorded in the New Testament about Timothy than most of the apostles. Timothy, we know the point at which he had been selected. We know that his mother and his grandmother, both Jewish believers, had taught him the Old Testament. We know that Paul circumcised him and went through a training process with Timothy and then sent him on assignment. to Ephesus to take on the false teachers and appoint elders. And so here's Timothy. We know a great deal about him all the way up to this point, the last mention of Timothy, where he's soon to be released from prison.

The first wave of Roman persecution had begun by the time of the authorship of this letter. It may be related to that. It may also be that the Jews, not Jewish Christians, but the Jews had been putting Timothy in prison. What they would typically do is they would appeal to something that would offend the Romans, right? This guy's preaching about somebody else who would be king besides Caesar. Then, greet all your leaders and all the saints. The author of Hebrews used the word leaders as we found out earlier in this chapter.

In such a way, it seems to mean elders, also known as overseers or shepherds, pastors, as it's translated in Ephesians 4.11. The saints are all who believe, and therefore in the body of Christ, so greet all those who are Christians, right?

In ancient times, a letter was more of a rare and special thing. These days, we get all kinds of I understand the postal folks are not allowed to use this term, but junk mail, you get junk mail, you get email, spam, you know, you get people putting things on your door, all kinds of things. In ancient times, a letter that went across town and across the empire even was more of a special thing, often hand carried, and the New Testament even reveals in many cases who carried the letter. It was a very special thing.

So one of the things you'd want to do is to get in all your last thoughts and all the greetings. Greet this one and that one. And in some of the New Testament books, not so much this one, but in some of the New Testament books, you find all kinds of names. Greet this one and greet that one and greet those who are of this. Not quite so much this one, but these greetings of different ones, whether individuals, groups or everyone, was fairly typical because a letter was something far more special. than what we have in our modern culture. We kind of get too many billboards and letters and emails and everything else coming. And so he's putting in actually a fairly light greeting compared to some of the New Testament letters.

Those from Italy greet you. Because of this line in verse 24, some have thought the author was in Italy when he wrote this letter. So some have said, oh, he must be in Italy writing to these believers. However, it says, from. Those from Italy. Not, we're in Italy. Those from Italy. So that would imply that they're actually living or visiting somewhere else, and that there are people from Italy, and so they're saying a greeting.

The location that is likely indicated here is more around the city of Ephesus, where Paul sent Timothy, and hence mention of Timothy, right? Where they also, as we saw in the book of Hebrews, used lots of shipping terms, nautical terms, terms that would talk about anchor, not missing the harbor, things like that. show up in the book of Hebrews, Ephesus being a major port city, that would fit. And also the Greek version of the Old Testament quotes in Hebrews was from a version that was used in and around the city of Ephesus. So there's several different connections there that seem to point to Ephesus as the more likely place.

And now the last line of the last chapter of the entire book, Grace be with you all. This is something that the Apostle Paul had written as kind of an ending or even a beginning greeting. Let's think about this grace. Here's a word that shows up seven times in the book of Hebrews, now for the final time. Think about this.

Is it possible to overdose on grace? Too much grace. Maxed out. Floored. Is it possible to have too much grace? Should we have some kind of limit on grace? Kind of cap it? Keep it down? Yeah, that's too gracious, right? Is that possible? Can that happen?

We'll address that in a minute here. Can one find out everything about grace in one lifetime? I mean, you could study all the things about grace in the whole Bible and look at it and study it and study it deeper and deeper and deeper. Are you, with that, going to learn everything there is to know about grace if you were to do that? No. Well, let's get back to those questions.

One of the things we're going to point out here, Romans 5.2 says that we stand in grace It might make it sound like grace is just something that's sort of massive and static, but grace is also a sufficiency.

2 Corinthians 2.9. Here's the Apostle Paul. He is asking for a thorn to be removed from him. We're not told exactly what that is. He says, three times I asked the Lord to take it away. And the Lord says, no, my grace is sufficient for you. So grace is a sufficiency. It is not simply the operating system, although it is that. Grace can strengthen a believer.

We saw that in Hebrews 13.9. Grace can strengthen. So grace isn't just something that sits there static. Grace does things. It's a sufficiency. But I think we're not done. And this gives us answers to those questions that we asked. in Ephesians 2, 4 through 7.

But God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. So it doesn't say God being merciful, God being rich. You could substitute the word wealthy. Wealthy in mercy because not just his love, his great love. By the way, that's mega love. great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved made us alive together that means we've been identified with him in his resurrection we talked about earlier and by grace you have been saved and by the way that word saved is written in a form which implies ongoing salvation and permanence and raised us up with him there's our identification and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ. We've said before we have been identified with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating. Those five things. We share a history with Christ in those five things.

This verse finishes up with us being seated with Christ in the heavenlies. We're sitting here in pews, right? But we are spiritually seated with Christ right now. We're not waiting to be seated with Christ. Spiritually speaking, it's a done deal. It happened when we believed. "...and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that..." Ah! There's a so that here. Here's the outcome.

"...in the ages to come He might show..." This word show means to demonstrate visibly. he might show the surpassing riches of his grace." Notice, rich in mercy, singular rich, so he's wealthy in mercy, but grace, look at that, the surpassing, that means overthrown, riches, plural, multiple magnitudes, Not just wealth, but wealths, plural. The riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. What does this mean?

When we get done here on this planet, when we're through, the seeding that we have with Christ spiritually now will be fulfilled physically. We will be with Him. And what's going to happen? People often wonder, what am I going to do when I go to heaven?

Well, it's not about what you're going to do, it's about what God's going to do. So that in the ages to come, rolling ages to come, He might show. And that doesn't mean He possibly will show. but that it provides the opportunity for Him to show, to visibly demonstrate to us the overthrown multiple magnitudes of wealth of His grace. Showing for those rolling ages to come, kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

So are you going to have too much grace? at any point. No. Matter of fact, if you were to look and study God's grace until your last days, you would barely scratch the surface. And I don't think that after we get to heaven and are there for a few thousand years, that we're going to be saying, oh, this is great, but when are we going to have a coffee break?

Man, I'm getting tired, you know. I think what's going to happen instead, His grace will be something we continue to gasp at. Wow! After 10,000 years, right? Bright shining as the sun, with no less days. We will be awed at God's grace. Age after age after age after age in the rolling ages to come. And I don't think time will mean a whole lot, but His grace will. He's going to show that to us on into the rolling ages to come. We just barely scratched the surface here.

Study it as much as you like. God's got a lot more grace to show us on into eternity. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for what you've revealed here in this book of Hebrews. We thank you for the insight that we have uniquely in many cases from this book. And we thank you that down to the last drop, so to speak, your grace is made evident. We thank you for your most amazing grace that will continue to occupy us on into eternity. And that is because it is your very character from which it flows. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.