benediction as we'll talk about there is no lack of just beauty in God's word here found in these last six verses of Hebrews chapter 13 but also it's exciting to me it's exciting as a pastor every time we come to the end of a book it's just something to celebrate if you've been with us since the beginning of North Hills we are working on celebrating 10 years this year, September 11th. This year will be our 10th anniversary. And we have asked on Facebook this morning and our private North Hills group, one person responded and one person responded incorrectly. Close, Allison, very close. But this is our eighth book in full to complete. For just reference sake, we began in Ephesians back in 2012. As we started North Hills off in a series through Acts, I would somewhat say we finished Acts, but James would clearly say we did not. We thoroughly went through the first three chapters and finished the next 20 whatever in about one sermon. So we won't give credit for Acts, but Ephesians and then Luke and then Malachi, 1st Peter, Genesis, 2nd Peter, Esther, and now Hebrews. So it is exciting to finish this book, and I'll go ahead and tell you where we're heading to next, and that'll be the book of Habakkuk, that will begin probably sometime in April, and the next few weeks, next four weeks specifically, Evan will be leading us through a series on the family, which I'm very excited about, and you can get some information ahead of time of what text we'll be in. but looking forward to the weeks and months ahead. But this morning we are finishing up Hebrews as this writer concludes what I would say, and I believe we'd all would agree, this magnificent letter that we've spent a year and a half walking through. We began last, or actually June 2019 so whatever math that is with COVID and all kind of things and a few independent series along the way but from June 2019 to today we have made this journey through the book of Hebrews and he concludes it with two sections if you will it may be labeled differently in your Bible but these first couple verses or what are often referred to as a benediction And the last four verses there refer to often as a blessing or sometimes a final greeting. And so we're going to spend most of our time here in this benediction, specifically this very first verse. And then, of course, we'll work our way through through all of it. But before we do so, let us pray. Lord, we thank You for this morning. We thank You for Your Word. We thank You that we can come and we can be together, Father, under the preaching of Your Word, the singing of Your Word, Lord, the praying of Your Word, as we gather around Your Word, who ultimately is Christ. We thank You for Christ. I thank you for revealing Christ to us the way you have, who is our chief, great and good shepherd. And Lord, as we come to this end of this letter written to the Hebrews so many long ago that is also to us today, help us to see, help us to hear, help us to believe and respond. In the name of Christ we do pray. Amen. So as we turn to, let's just read this last section. We're gonna begin in Hebrews chapter 13, starting in verse 20. It says, now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of his sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant. We could just stop right there, right? And just camp for a while. I'm glad you think so, because we are. Just a moment. Verse 21, equip 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 forever and ever. Amen. I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see So this passage that lays before us today it starts with a very simple word but it's a word that does shift the focus of the text for us because we know that the Bible was this is a letter written from this anonymous writer of the Hebrews written to the Hellenistic Jews as we'll talk again about this morning briefly But it's a letter that was written in most of the books of the New Testament are letters that are written by an elder, by a pastor to his people. And so as he's writing this letter, oftentimes we look in scripture and we see the different chapters and different sections and different headings and all these mean something. But especially as we come to verse 20, this is a very clear break. It starts with the word now, and it's actually a Greek word that is used to kind of change direction, if you will. So he's intentionally landing the plane, as pastors and preachers and letter writers and authors do, as he knows that he is wrapping up this letter that he is writing to the dear church. And so this word now, so now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead of from the dead, our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant. May He equip 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 forever and ever. Amen. That's a long sentence, a lot happening right there, but there's one subject, as every sentence, every good sentence anyway, there's one subject and there's one verb. And so if you were to kind of push everything out just for a second, ultimately it says, may God equip you. May God equip you. May God equip you, the church. And so, but he puts so many words around that he describes God in such a wonderful way. And he describes the way that he's going to equip and the why he equips and all these things. But ultimately in the center of that is this is this plea, this prayer, this benedictory thought that may God equip the church. As I'm leaving you, as I'm wrapping this letter up, as this letter is written to, again, these Hellenistic Jews, the church at the time, who were just recently Orthodox Jews, and now they've come to know Christ, and they've trusted Christ, and they're following Him. And so, to a degree, they're hated by the Orthodox Jews, they're definitely hated by Rome and the world, and they're experiencing persecution in so many different ways in their life, and they have so many different struggles they're going through. And as this first century church, His encouragement to them and His exhortations, may God equip you May He provide for you. May He care for you. And as we know, He will. So we're going to see this morning. We're reminded of a couple things. the heart of his farewells, a prayer for God's people that he would provide for his people. And we know that God will always provide for his people, whether you're struggling in the first century, or struggling in the 21st century, or any century in between, or any century afterward, God will always provide for his people. And we know that ultimately, he has provided for us in Christ. as we'll see this morning. And so as we remember this, this encouragement that the early church surely felt by this reminder that may God equip them and what that looks like. So in his final remarks, we're going to see here that the author or we know the author of Hebrews of the Holy Spirit and the writer who is anonymous, we know that we're going to see this writer. He succinctly says so much in these few verses at the end of Hebrews. He's not done with this glorious truth that He's laid out for us in these 13 chapters. So, four truths, if you will, that we see, that we are reminded of, even in this very first verse, in verse 20, four truths that we are reminded of of God. The first one is this, it says, Now may the God of peace, So he brings back to mind who God is, who He is in His nature. By His nature we know God is holy and God is so many things, but He's also a God of peace. And we see this all through Scripture in the Old Testament, we see it in the New Testament, we see it everywhere. that peace is both the nature of God and peace is what He offers His people. Peace is the nature of God and that which God offers His people. 2 Thessalonians 3.16 says this, Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace at all times and every way. And so may God who is peace, may He give you peace. The peace of God, and I hope that we know in this room, doesn't come from meditation, doesn't come from ritual, doesn't come with getting in touch with your surroundings. That the peace of God only comes through the person of peace who is Jesus Christ. Romans 5, verse 1 is this, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So we receive peace from Jesus. We have been made at peace with God who hates sin and hates sinners. And without Christ, without peace, we would know nothing but the wrath of God. But Christ has made peace for us and has given us His peace. And I think we see it in the world around us, that there is this pursuit of an external and an internal peace amongst most people. What do most people want in life? They want peace. What does every parent of kids, right, want in their house? Peace. It's just a good example of the life that worlds around us. There's chaos and there's, if you're gonna be real honest, there's hollering, there's yelling, there's crying, there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. Maybe not that much. But even all of us, every human being desires peace, an external peace. We cry for world peace, we cry for peace in our country, we cry for peace in our communities, we desire inner peace, and we look for all kind of ways to achieve this inner peace. It is the pursuit of man that we know that the only true peace comes through Christ. the word for peace in the Hebrew is shalom and that is one of my only Hebrew words I know and all the reason I know that is not through seminary because we were in Hebrew we were in during the Bethlehem when our kids were little and for an hour and a half it had nothing to say shalom shalom shalom the peace of God may peace be with you and so this word shalom It means peace in the Hebrew, but it means so much more than just quietness, stillness, and tranquility. The peace of God is more than what we understand peace to be. It's more even than we search for. For God always gives us far more. At the root of the shalom of God is His rest. And we see this as a theme in Hebrews. We see it spelt out more clearly than anywhere else in Scripture what the rest of God is. The peace that he offers us through Christ. A cease from our works and our worry. Now, do we still worry? Do we still work? Yes. But do we trust our works to help us to attain eternity? To attain a peace with God? No. Do we still worry? Sure. We worry for our kids. We worry for our careers. We worry for all kinds of things. But at the end of the day, we release that worry because we know that ultimately we are in the hands of, as we'll see in just a moment, a great shepherd. And so this peace of God is this shalom. It is a complete entrusting of ourselves and our world to God. And this is what He offers us, for He is the God of peace. So not only do we see the peace of God and are reminded of this truth, we're also reminded of the resurrection of Jesus. It says, Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus And so what better thing to remind the readers of at the end of this wonderful, magnificent letter than not just the peace of God, but the power of God, the power of God over death to resurrect as we know and we believe wholeheartedly that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead. And this is how we can have peace because Jesus has overcome death. We can have peace because Jesus conquered death. And not just His own death, but He's conquered death for believers as well. And we will never know true death. We'll die, this body will fade away, and as we pray for the sick, and as we think of our own life and our own mortality, no one knows what day or the hour they will end in this life. But we have peace knowing that the death in this life is not the end. It is really just the beginning of eternal life and eternal peace with God for those who have looked to Christ, repented of their sins and trusted in Him. But He has saved us from death. He saved us from eternal death. And thus we are reminded of the power of God, the power of God to raise not just Christ, but us from death to life. And that is one of the treasures of the Gospels, the life. So we never know death. We only know life. So we see this reminder of the peace of God, of the power of God through resurrection of Jesus and from death to life. And also, I love this. this reminder of Jesus the Great Shepherd. And he says that, now, may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the Great Shepherd of the sheep. And I absolutely love this recurring analogy in Scripture from the Old Testament to the New Testament, how the people of God are like sheep. And we won't go through all the passages there are. We'll go through a few here in just a moment. They are abundant throughout Scripture. We talk about this often here at North Hills. And so if you've been around for a while, you're going to hear some of the same things, but I love it so much. I was telling Justin yesterday, this love, this analogy, because it helps us to understand Not because of the cuteness of sheep that we've seen LifeWay and other Christian marketing folks impress upon us in recent decades, thinking about precious moments and all of the ways we see cute little sheep. But sheep that we see in Scripture, we're not called the sheep of God because we're cute. Looking at this room, I can tell you firsthand that it's true. But we are called sheep because we're dumb, and we're stupid, and we need a shepherd. And the truth that I love to point to is that sheep are the only animals, and this is just brilliant to me, that sheep are the only animals in all of God's creation that require human interaction. They have to have a human to live. You will not, for the most part, find a sheep in the wild. If you do, he will not be in his habitat. He will be distressed, looking for a shepherd and his flock. And there's so much we can unpack with this truth that we are sheep. But the point here is that Jesus, he is our great shepherd and he is our great shepherd because of our great need. We need a shepherd. Sheep have to be cared for, especially from their own selves. Briefly, two of the passages that point us to three great truths here is here, as we'll see, and as we have seen, Jesus is our great shepherd, but he's also our good shepherd. We see in John 1, verse 11, I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep. So as the Good Shepherd, Christ died for His sheep. He laid down His life voluntarily for us, that we might know the peace of God, that we might not know death and may only know life. So as the Good Shepherd, Christ died for us. As the great shepherds, we'll see this morning, he works within us. So the good shepherd, we see in the past, he laid down his life. In the present, he works within us. As we see, there's a great shepherd, the sheep of the blood of the eternal covenant to equip you with every good thing that you may do his will, working in us. Present tense, as the great shepherd, he works in us. As we'll see in just a second as to why. but also he is our chief shepherd. And he is our chief shepherd when we look at 1 Peter 5, verse four that says, and when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. So as the good shepherd, he has died for us, as the great shepherd, he lives within us and dwells within us, and as the chief shepherd, he will return for his people. We have a great shepherd. We have a great Savior. Without Him, we are lost, hopeless, and helpless. So not only do we see the reminder in this passage of the peace of God and the power of God, and Jesus is our shepherd, but the fourth thing that we see is a reminder, again, of what we've seen in Hebrews, is this reference to the eternal covenant that's purchased by the blood of Jesus. Now may 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. By the blood of the eternal covenant that we remember, we receive, and that we honor every single week at the Lord's table. And not just at the Lord's table, as we honor throughout our day, every day of our life as believers. Recognize that we are purchased by the blood of Jesus. that brings us into the eternal new covenant that Christ offers to His people, to His sheep. One of the main messages of Hebrews has been the new covenant that Jesus gives His people. This covenant promise that He would never leave us and He will never forsake us. This covenant promise that He is ours and that we are His. That we will be His people and that He will be our God. That He will take away our sin. That His righteousness is and will be forever imputed to us through His blood. And this covenant that declares that we will dwell forever in His presence. free from the penalty and the power and the presence of sin. And so the writer of Hebrews reminds his readers and us today of the precious promise from our faithful God that we are His covenant people made possible by the blood of Jesus. That He offers a covenant that will not run out. That there is no end to. That there is no need to ever be redone. That He is fulfilled and applies to us in this eternal covenant purchased by His blood. So we're reminded of these just beautiful truths of who God is. This is the subject part. Now may God, all these things about God, reminded of the power of God, the peace of God, and the Son of God, our Shepherd, in His eternal covenant that He gives us. So this beautiful, magnificent God, the architect of the gospel, What does it say? It says that He will equip you, that may God equip 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 forever and ever. Amen. So as this writer, as he is writing his benediction, as he is landing the plane, so to speak, He doesn't just remind them of the glorious truths of who God is But he reminds them that he is at work in them that he has a plan for them He has plans for them But the plans for them are not centered around them, but it's centered around Him it's centered around his glory so around his plan so around what he is doing and and He equips us. If you go back and look at that and kind of break it apart a little bit, it says He equips you with what? With everything good. So, everything good. And we see in Scripture that everything good comes from the Lord. Everything good He equips us with. Why? Why does He equip us with everything good? Why does He give us the good things from a good Father? so that you may live a comfortable life. Oh, no. So that you may do His will. So why does God equip us? Why is this gracious God of peace and power who has given us Christ, who has purchased a new covenant by His blood, who is our great shepherd? Why is He at work in us? Why is He bringing good about in our life? That we may do His will in our strength. No. Not only does He give us everything good, not only does He tell us why He gives us everything good, but He tells us how He's going to do it. He empowers us. So He equips us with every good thing. He equips us for the purpose of doing His will. And He also equips us by empowering us with His Spirit. So He's working in us. And who is in us? The Holy Spirit of God. God Himself is in us, dwells inside of us, so that we may do His will, which is pleasing in His sight. So he is reminding these first century listeners that God is good, that God is powerful, and He's gracious, and He's full of peace, and He's provided everything for us in Christ. But he's reminding them that, look, don't look at your own life, don't get so consumed around your purpose and your plans and what you want to do in your survival and all these things about you, but be consumed with God as at work in you. And don't we need this reminder for us today in the 21st century? And it's so easy to get distracted in all the stuff that goes on around us. All the bad news and all the just the junk that happens. Is there any shortage of it? Does anyone even want to turn on their phone anymore? It can be so discouraging, right? But yet, God has us here for a purpose and a plan, and that purpose and a plan is His. It is to do His will, that if you are still here, God is not done with you. He's not kept you just so you can see more of His creation. He's not kept you just so you can be a good tourist in this life. but He has kept you for His eternal purposes, that He is actively at work in you. So every day we wake up and we greet the morning with, God, I'm yours. And whatever today holds, I trust that you hold it. Whatever happens today, I trust you, I look to you. As we sang a while ago, sometimes there are laments in our life. And even while we're mourning, even when we are lamenting, we look and trust God because he is at work and he's good and he's faithful and he fills us with his peace and he's powerful. And he empowers us with his spirit to do his will, which is pleasing in his sight. And he does all of this through Jesus Christ. At the end of this great letter, this benediction and this formal conclusion, he wants to bring it back to Jesus, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. He reminds that your life should be the fragrance of Christ. Your life should be like the light on a hill. Fragrance is kind of a new thing that I've just been kind of captivated with lately and maybe even We're so inundated with light, right? We're not a people that lacks light and except there's a winter storm or something I lose power But ultimately there's light everywhere the only time that you lose light when you turn it off and you go to bed And then you're gonna stir another light for the next hour, right? There's always light around us But there's not always a good smell around us, is there? Maybe very rarely. Depends on how many kids you have in your house and what age they are. But to be a fragrance, to be something when someone smells, it's, oh, what is that? That is the smell of life. And that is what we're here to be, is to be not just a light to a darkened world, but to be a fragrance amongst the stench of death. And we do so by looking to and leaning on Christ. We do so by living for the glory of Jesus and not our own. As we come to this last section, as he is kind of wrapping up, as he's presenting this benediction, he's reminded the people of God of the glories of God and his call on their life and how they're to live and in what way they're to live it. But then he turns to what we'd say this final blessing or this final greeting. He says, I appeal to you brothers. What we see is we see this shift into a very personal nature. That's one of the beauties of these last four verses here is it gets very personal. It reminds us that this is a letter written by a real person inspired by the Holy Spirit to a real group of people whom he loves. We talked about last week as we looked at elders. It says, I appeal to you brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. Don't you love that? All these New Testament writers think they're brief. They don't know we're going to spend a year and a half in it. And we could spend another year and a half and be even more encouraged by the word of God in Hebrews. you should know that our brother, Timothy, and so we just see this connective, collective nature in the first century church as we desire for it to be today amongst those who truly look to Christ. But our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. So if I get Timothy back, we're going to load up in the car, we're going to come and see you, and our hearts are going to be strengthened. He says, greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings. And this final blessing, grace be with all of you. So we're just reminded that really of the personal nature of theology, if you will. That we study God, and we study the Word of God to understand God, to understand His revelation to us. But at the end of the day, we are the people of God, desiring to be the flock of God, looking to our Great Shepherd, who are walking in life together, who are living life together, that God has saved. And we see this all through Scripture. Yes, God has saved us individually, but He saved us as His people. He has saved us to be together. And not just together in this life, and not just together at North Hills as covenant members, but when He brings the entire people of God together by His power and His peace for His eternal resting place. So we see this beautiful reminder of the personal nature of the church. And ultimately, and we understand this because of love, and if you've been a part of North Hills, been a part of a healthy biblical church before you, hopefully you've experienced love. And we only know that love. We can only express that love because the way that Jesus loves us. He's only our great shepherd because of the way that he loves us. He's only saved us because of how much he loves us. He's only offered this new eternal new covenant because of how much he loves us. And the more you understand yourself, the more boggled you should be by the love of God, because he doesn't love us because of us. He loves us because of who he is. And that should cause us to worship all the more. So in the words of this anonymous writer of Hebrews, Grace be with all of you. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you for this morning. Thank you for your word through Hebrews and this journey, Lord, that you've brought us on. I pray that it's not just a book that we have pursued academic integrity. But Lord, that we have heard from you along this journey and we've been encouraged by A reminder of who you are and who we are in our great need of Christ. Lord, as we continue to sing this morning, as we come to your table this morning, even as we have an opportunity to give this morning, may all of these be done in light of Christ. May we sing as those who have been redeemed, May we sing as those who recognize they are sinners in need of a savior and that Christ is our great shepherd. As we come to the table, may we do so knowing we don't deserve to come to the table. We've not earned a seat at this table, but you bid us to come and you remember what Christ has done in his body and through his blood. And as we give, may we do so motivated by how you have given to us and how you continue to give to us and you will eternally give to us in your presence, in your power and in your peace. So my we respond to you in faith and obedience this morning.