A Superior Benediction

For the last time, I mean, not forever, but just in the series, for the last time, please turn to the book of Hebrews. This is the last message in the series on the book of Hebrews. I have one topical message next week, and then I will start an expository series on the book of 1 John. I'll probably do 2 and 3 John right after it, just in order and succession. That's coming in addition to what I told you about the evening services with the Issues of the Day. But we do close the book of Hebrews this morning.

I can't say strong enough that I am— you want to be careful not to jam your thoughts into the Bible. That's very dangerous. It's very dangerous to come to Scripture with biases, with thoughts that you desire or things that are important to you, and then because they're important to you, they're major things to you, you make the Bible about those things, right? So if you love evangelism and that's really important to you, then everything in the Bible starts looking like evangelism. Or if you love, like if you come from the background and learn the doctrines of grace like we hold at our church, now every verse is a predestination verse, you know. And so that can happen.

And the reason I did the series the way I did it in the book of Hebrews was to try as much as I was able to curb that thing that we do where we come to a text of Scripture and read our thoughts into it. But then in doing that, I kind of did it a little bit. I just want you to know, as I tell you that, I'm self-aware that I did it, meaning I kind of read into the book of Hebrews the superiority aspect, the idea that Christ is superior. I kind of have shoved that into the whole book.

Now, when I say I've done that, I do want to make sure we're clear. That is what the book's about. Okay, I'm right about that. That is the theme of the book of Hebrews is primarily the warnings not to miss the superiority of Christ, to not make other things superior, and in particular, the Old Testament and the Old Covenant. But I am jamming it in every passage to the point where look at the title of the sermon, "A Superior Benediction." I mean, come on. I'm trying too hard there, right? I think I have the word superior in every sermon title.

But I hope you don't see that as just me trying to be clever. I promise you that it is important to see that the theme of the book of Hebrews is that Jesus is the point. And I don't just mean Jesus is the point of the book of Hebrews, I mean Jesus is the point of everything. If you want to know what God thinks is most important, the answer to that question is Jesus. Jesus is the most important thing. Not us, not our salvation, not heaven, not blessings— Jesus.

So this text that we close the book of Hebrews with today is essentially a blessing. That's what a benediction is. The idea of— you can see it in the first 4 letters, right? B-E-N-E is like beneficial. That's the idea of the author of the book of Hebrews is ending like a preaching session. He's ending a sermon. He's essentially saying now something like, "The Lord go between you and me," or those kind of things. "May the Lord watch over us," or a blessing like that as we depart.

Some churches do it really formally, right? They announce a blessing at the end of a service, and that's fine to do that. But this is the book of Hebrews ending with the author saying, "Now after I've said everything, I want the Lord to bless you in what you've heard and learned, and take it with you." in your life, right? That's what a benediction is. It's a blessing to essentially to close a formal service or dialogue or something like that.

And it's very easy to think that when the book of Hebrews ends that what you're supposed to do now is just move on to the next book. But what I think we're supposed to do is leave taking the book of Hebrews with us. I remember Pastor Montoya, he's one of the guys that's sort of associated with Masters and John MacArthur's ministry. I heard him say that— I always loved it because it was such a great visual, and if you're a redneck like me, it very much fits my personality— where he would say, you're supposed to have it preached in such a way that the people leave that service that you just preached with the message and the meaning of the text Velcroed to them. You want to Velcro it to them so that when they walk out the door, they take the message with them.

And of course, that does depend on the preaching, but it also depends on the listening. You're supposed to take the sermon with you when you leave. You're not supposed to depend on the one feeding you to chew your food for you. Okay? So you're supposed to take this. And if you take anything from the series of Hebrews and the way I've constructed the preaching series, not the book, but the preaching series is to get the big picture that when I, as a Christian, look at Hebrews, those Jewish believers were being told that of all the things that were important to them as Jewish believers, Jesus is the most important to them.

And the benediction leaves you with the idea that take that with you. When you leave here after going through the book of Hebrews, take this with you, that Jesus is most important. This church had unbelievers and believers alike in it, and so there are lots of warnings to them not to miss their opportunity to make Jesus most important, superior. And then to the believers who are struggling, being persecuted, they are being challenged to fight and continue in the faith. Because Jesus is superior and most important, they're supposed to live that out in their life.

And there are any number of things that can detract or distract from Jesus being most important. The Hebrew people had their own. They had a special class of distractions because their distractions were things that God instituted. Now, I'm not saying God gave them distractions. No, no, no, no. No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying they took God's things and made them a distraction to the idea that Jesus is most important.

So the author of Hebrews has been going on and on and on. The whole book is, here's something that you could focus on that isn't Jesus or making Him most important, angels. Here's something that you could focus on that isn't Jesus and making Him most important, Moses. Here's something that you could focus on that isn't Jesus and making Him most important, the prophets or the promises or the covenants or all the things, the sacrifices. All those things that you could be focusing on, instead of seeing them correctly as pointing to Jesus and making your attention go from them to Jesus, you can focus on them and make more of them than Jesus and miss Jesus being superior.

That's what the book of Hebrews is all about, telling Jewish people who had centuries, millennia of a system that God put in place, telling them God did all of that so you would see Jesus. That's why he did it. He did it because he was going to save the world through the Jewish people. He was going to take that little nothing called Israel, that little sliver on the map, and bless the whole world with it, namely by bringing the Messiah to the world through that people.

And it's very easy for that people and this people— I mean, many of us think that the United States is the only country in the world. Some of us think it's the best country in the world, but that's not the point. The point is it's not the only country in the world. It's also not the only time in history. Things have been different over history. So we can make much of ourselves. We can think that we are the pinnacle, that we are the height, that it's all about us. Even we Americans can make Christianity about America, can't we? Well, Israel needed to learn that, and so do we. It's about Jesus, not about America or Israel. It's about God choosing to use that nation to send his Messiah into the world to save the world.

Why? You'll see it today, why we get saved. You might be surprised to find out that our happiness is not in our text today. His is. So we have a superior Savior, a superior Lord, a superior faith. We're a part of a superior covenant that has superior sacrifice in Jesus, a superior priest in Jesus, a superior prophet in Jesus. We have everything we need in Jesus. And the author of Hebrews is telling those Jewish believers and these American believers, make Him first. Make everything in your life focus and point to Him being honored and glorified. Spend your energy showing that Jesus is superior.

And the benediction today, the close of the book, is essentially that. These last few verses from verse 20 on are essentially saying, prove it. Prove it that Jesus is superior. Show it. Show it in your life. Show it in your testimony. Show it in your works. Show it in your actions so that the watching world and most importantly the Lord himself would look down and say, "That is my person. Their life is proving that they are my people. They're proving by their life, their attitudes, their actions. They are proving that I am most important to them. There's no question that there are no rivals in their heart." to me. That's what's supposed to happen after you read the book of Hebrews. You're supposed to have no rivals. Jesus is first, and you want to glorify him.

Let's pray. Father, a few verses here, but a big message closing the book of Hebrews. This book over and over again has shined a very bright light on your Son to make sure that we do see him, that we not only see him, we recognize that he is superior and better than anything else. That even the things that you gave us to understand and the history you gave us and the people of Israel and the Old Covenant, all of those things are supposed to be shining a light on the superior one, Jesus himself.

Father, it would be a terrible tragedy if we left the book of Hebrews and did not exalt your Son. We would ask that that would not be true of anyone here, that when we leave the book of Hebrews, we love Jesus more, We exalt him. We want to see him as primary, as the motivating factor, seeing him glorified. We want to love what you love, Father, and you love your Son. Would you help us do that? Even as the author gives us this blessing, this encouragement as we leave here from the book this morning, we leave here exalting the Savior. We want that because he did so much for us and he did so much so that we could glorify you. We just ask that that would happen this morning in Jesus' name. Amen.

You're in verse 20. I'm not going to read the whole benediction, the whole blessing, the whole close of the book. I'm going to parse it like I normally do, sort of chop it up into pieces. You can read the whole thing on your own there if you want. The benediction of the superior one, you see in verse 20, "Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead," and then it goes on to say that great shepherd of the sheep. Now may the God of peace, who brought up the Lord Jesus from the dead, comma— there's more to come after it.

The things that come after it are the blessing. But before we get the blessing and we see the encouragement and even the challenge— there's a challenge in our text, there's a command in our text— before we get the challenge and the blessing and the command, who is it that is doing this? Who is it that is blessing us? Who is it that is calling us to action? Who is it that is saying Everything from the book of Hebrews is something you're supposed to take with you, and the answer is God himself. "May the God of peace, who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead."

So God has the power of life. If you didn't know that already, he has life in himself. God has the power to raise his Son from the dead. Incidentally, Jesus also has that power too, because we see that in other places in John and other places where Jesus says, "If you destroy this temple, I will raise it up." We see Paul say the Spirit can raise Jesus from the dead in Romans. So all three members of the Godhead raised Jesus from the dead. But in this case, in the benediction, the author wants to make sure that the worshipers of God and the people of Abraham who would worship the true God understand that it is their God that raised Jesus from the dead.

And it also says he is the God of peace. Now, peace is a prevalent theme in the Bible, and I want to just emphasize here at this stage that this is peace in chapter 13. After a book of 13 chapters, one of which just happened in chapter 12, that says you're going to endure suffering and chastening. So this is not a happy, peace be unto you, my friend, have a good day. This is, you might go through the worst things of life. You might be chastened. You might be persecuted. You might be challenged in your faith. He's already said that multiple times, that you need to stand in the face of persecution.

And when there is conflict and war against the people of God, The God of peace wants to give you peace. So this is not peace in a vacuum or in happy times. This is peace in wartime, that God is the author of peace for you so that you can have personal, unfathomable peace internally as life does what it does when you name the name of Christ. So, "May the God of peace who brought up the Lord Jesus," I already said that about the Trinity, but now the emphasis is on God the Father raising Jesus from the dead. May the God who has the power of life in himself, who raised his Son from the dead, give you these blessings I'm about to give you.

May the source of life, the origin of life, the giver of life, the one who has the power to raise his Son and us from the dead, the one who can give you peace, bless you, and give you the benediction. So I want to make sure we know where the blessing is coming from.

Now, the next thing is interesting. I'm not going to get this right, so I can tell you in advance I will fail you because at the end in a couple of verses, verse 21 where it says, "To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." I want to tell you in advance, Pearl even came because she was putting together the music, and she came and asked me a Bible question, which is not usual because she usually knows all the answers. But in this case, she came to dear old dad, the pastor, the theologian. "I'm going to get some answers from my dad this morning. Hey, Dad." 'Choose music.' That verse 21, when it says, 'To whom be glory forever and ever,' who's it talking about, Jesus or the Father?

And then I gave her the most astute, theologically trained answer I could: no idea. I don't know. So in advance, I'm going to tell you that word order and things like that matter, and it matters right here. Look at the second half of verse 20, 'that great shepherd of the sheep.' That seems to clearly be indicating Jesus that was just said before, and it is normal in Greek that a pronoun refers to the thing, the antecedent, the nearest antecedent, the thing before it. So if I say, "Johnny, he is a goofball"— first of all, don't say amen to that. The "he" part of that is obviously referring to Johnny. Do you got that? Because it's immediate next to it. It's right next to it. And that's a thing in Greek, that when the pronoun is right next to the noun, the proper noun, or the specific noun mentioned, that it refers to that noun. That's actually a grammatical rule. It's not just something that— makes sense in distance or proximity.

So I'm saying that to you because in a moment I'm going to say probably that the "to whom be glory" is the Father, not the Son, even though the antecedent is the Son. So I actually believe because of the construction of a benediction, because of the way this closes, that it's the Father. I'm just saying it now to kind of get your brain working as we unpack this, as I get going. So I think that great shepherd of the sheep, I'm almost sure that is Jesus. Why? Because of what's said next, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, right? The shepherd of the sheep gives his blood here in the book of Hebrews.

So who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, and that's a comma. You notice in your punctuation, you're okay not knowing Greek, but you do need to know that there's no commas in Greek. Okay, there's no punctuation in any of the original manuscripts. So these things are translators doing their best. Okay, so Jesus is the one mentioned. He, I believe, is the second half of the verse, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.

There's so much doctrine. Sam said earlier, I said last week that the whole gospel is in a couple of verses. Well, the whole book of Hebrews might be in this half of a verse, that Jesus is that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Every one of those words is a statement of faith. Every one of them has packed into it the whole theology of the whole book of Hebrews.

So he is the great shepherd instead of the other shepherds who are not great. And by the way, when you hear great shepherd, don't think of great as the superlative of good in this context. That's not what great means here. It's not saying he's super duper great. That's not what it means. Great, the word mega that is used in the original here, has the idea of the good shepherd in the context of good shepherd is opposed to bad shepherds, right? The shepherds who don't give their life for the sheep, the the ones who steal, the ones who abandon the sheep. The Good Shepherd, when Jesus is called the Good Shepherd, it's in contradistinction to bad shepherd. Here, the Great Shepherd is not a mathematical better than good. That is not what it's saying. It's saying he is great where the other shepherds, even the good ones, are not.

The other shepherds mentioned in the book of Hebrews, remember, even the good shepherds don't live forever and can't continually make sacrifice because the men themselves, even the good ones, die. So Jesus' greatness is put in contrast to their sort of mortality, their regularness, if that's a word. So when it says Jesus is the great shepherd of the sheep, it doesn't mean he's great like what Tony the Tiger says for Frosted Flakes. Who remembers Tony the Tiger? Does anybody know who did that voice? That's a trivia question for you later. Famous guy did that voice. His voice is in other places for you '80s cartoon people. Don't pick on me for that, okay?

Before you pick on me for referencing cartoons, It is why I have a family now, because I wanted to be an animator and I met Jaymee in an animation class. So before you pick on me for loving cartoons, every time Jamie serves your children, remember that, okay? Cartoons had something to do with that. I wanted to be an artist and we met in that class. She took it by accident and I got a wife out of the deal.

But I am saying, when you hear Tony the Tiger say, "Great!" That is not what this is talking about. This is not talking about super-duper good. It's talking about Jesus is the ultimate shepherd. That's what it's talking about. Whatever you think of shepherds, whatever you think of earthly shepherds, they are down here and he is up here. That's the idea. Okay, so when you think great, you might take our use of the word great.

And also shepherd is where we get that idea, the poimen, that word. It's where— sometimes that word can mean make or something else like that, somebody who makes something. It is the word that can be translated pastor. That's why we love that word. But he is a shepherd of sheep, and it does— the sheep. I don't want to emphasize that too much, but there is the word the there. And then this last phrase is really important, is through the blood of the everlasting covenant.

The book of Hebrews has talked a lot about blood, and it's talked a lot about sacrifices. And it's talked a lot about covenants. And so now when you close the book, I want you to connect each of those words to the words that came before them, that it is now essentially like it's saying great shepherd, like shepherd here, Jesus here. It's also saying that of the other things too. Covenants here, all those past covenants, the eternal covenant here, temporary here, everlasting here. Do you got it? The idea that every one of these things is the highest degree of the thing. The excellent version of the thing, that idea of the ultimate version of the thing.

So when it says he is the great shepherd, it means he's the ultimate shepherd. When it says he does it through his blood, that is in comparison to the other blood of all the animals that can't save you. Remember, he says that in this book, that that blood of bulls and goats cannot save you. Only the ultimate blood can save you. And then their blood is temporary. His blood is of the everlasting covenant. All the other covenants are bona fide real covenants. I don't want to dig into it right now, but I am going to say it. This does, in my opinion, with many, many other verses, to me, contradict covenant theology, the idea that there's only one covenant of grace.

Because over and over again, the book of Hebrews makes a distinction between this covenant, this new covenant, the Jeremiah 31 covenant that is distinct from the old covenant, that it is not the same covenant in a different manifestation. This covenant is an everlasting covenant. That one isn't. He makes the point over and over again that those things have passed away. The tabernacle has passed away. Moses is gone. The priests are gone. Those old covenants are gone, right? And now he says this one is the everlasting one. So it's not the same one as those. It can't be, or there wouldn't be any sense in the distinction.

So yes, I'm not covenant in my— I went to a covenantal school, you know that. Those are my dear brothers, my Presbyterian dear brothers, my baby baptizing brothers. Those are my brothers. But we very much differ on this subject. I am very much premillennial and eschatologically believe there's a future for Israel and these things are separated. I don't go all the way dispensational, but I am dispensationally— I smell like a dispensationalist even if I'm not all the way one. So I feel compelled to say that because this covenant is different. It's new. It's special. It's superlative like the ultimate covenant.

So He is that great shepherd of the sheep. He is what He is through the blood of an everlasting covenant. So now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. And you notice, if you ever get— if it bothers you in any way that I chop up verses the way I do, that I make breaks the way I do in verses, I do want you to note that the author of Hebrews does it, or at least the translators do here. How does verse 20 end in your Bible? Is it a comma or a period? Yeah, it's a comma. I know it is. So even a partial thought in verse 20 is separated by a comma into verse 21. So I'm just showing you that the author of Hebrews does it, so I'm in good company there if I do that.

Then it says that, "May this God who is as described make you complete in every good work to do His will." —then it goes on to say, "Working what is well pleasing." So whatever God's doing here, the first thing it says He's doing, this God who brought up Jesus, who paid for the sheep by the blood of the everlasting covenant, the God of peace, the one who gives life to the dead, the one who's able to do that, the first thing He's asking or blessing or encouraging the people of the Hebrew church to do is to be complete in every good work to do His will.

Again, I'm going to ask, did you notice that it says— it does not say, may the God who raised Jesus from the dead, who bought you with His blood, may that God make you happy in your life so that you can fulfill all your goals and dreams and passions. Does it say that? No. Why were you saved? Paul, if it is Paul, says the same thing Paul does in Ephesians 2:10, in the most gracy verses of all of the Bible. For by grace you're saved, right? That not of yourselves, a gift of God. Less anyone should boast. Then what is the very next thing said in chapter 10? That you were purchased. Why? You were his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. For what? For happiness? For pleasure? For passions? For your goals to be met? For a good retirement? For his works that he prepared beforehand.

So it sounds very Paul-y right here where it says, may he make you complete. James uses that language, integral, whole. May he If there's any part of you that's disjointed or out of place, may God make you complete and whole in every good work. Why? To do his will. I can't say it enough. I say it over and over again. Who is the main character of the Bible? Jesus is. The Lord is. And in this case, the Lord is telling the Hebrew believers and us his whole goal when we were falling apart, and we were disintegrated, his goal was to integrate us into wholeness so that we would be complete, so that we would be solid, so that we would be capable, so that we could do something. And what is that something? His works, his will.

I think it's safe to say— don't be insulted by this. Don't be insulted because I'm just trying to apply what the author of Hebrews says. So please don't be mad at me. Don't think I'm picking on you. I mean, I wouldn't be a Baptist preacher if I didn't at least make you uncomfortable every once in a while. But if you are not doing His works and His will, you should not feel complete. Some people say, "I'm happy. I'm doing what I love to do." If you do what you love to do, you'll never work a day in your life. Have you ever heard that before? There's a lot of people doing things they love, things they feel called to, things that are very important to them. Things that make them good money, things that give them a good provision, things that provide for them a lifestyle that they love and recreation and everything else. There's things that people do that very much are what they would call their work.

When you ask somebody, "What do you do?" 10 out of 10 times they're going to tell you what their job is, their vocation. "I am a fireman. I'm an electrician. I'm a pastor. I'm a homemaker," right? That's what they will tell you. What the Christian is supposed to say is, "I am a God pleaser. That's what I am." You ask me what I do for a living? I'm a God-will, God-pleaser. That's what I do. No, what do you do for a living? No, that's what I do for a living. That's what I do. My life is in Jesus Christ, and what I do for a living is what makes Him happy. Now, there are things I do for a vocation where I put food on the table. If that's what you mean, I'm a painter or whatever you are. But I do want you to see, God made you whole. You were disintegrated. He integrated you and made you whole, gave you integrity. He gave you wholeness, completeness, so that you would do his works that are his will.

And if you thought that was the end of it, it continues with the same kind of thought. Modern Christianity has you thinking that Jesus' ultimate goal is your salvation and happiness. And that sells, man. That's why it's popular. It sells to say you are the most important person on planet Earth. Congratulations, come to our church and we can take a swim in Lake You. You come here, you're going to be fulfilled. There are going to be programs. We're going to give you everything you need, everything you ever want. You're going to be happy for a short time. And then you learn the truth. What's the truth? God did everything he did throughout history from Genesis on, calling this guy Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, Abram, saving him, bringing him to himself, covenanting with him, saving him and preserving his people for all time so that he could bring a Savior from that family.

That would be the Savior not only of that family, but all family, us unnatural branches being grafted in, us Gentiles. He would include us all in His big plan. Why? So that we could be happy? Wrong. We're supposed to be happy when He is happy. Our happiness is supposed to be based on His happiness, not our happiness. We got the cart before the horse. Eastern philosophy, enlightenment, all those things, happiness. Are all man-centered. The true gospel of Jesus Christ and the book of Hebrews is God-centered and specifically Christ-centered.

Verse 21, "Be," the second half, "working in you." So this is God working in us, right? We hear that in other places, both the will and to do His good pleasure. "In what you is well pleasing." What do all of your Bibles say in the next 3 words? "In His sight." through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Let me handle that last part first. Again, you are absolutely okay to think that because Jesus Christ was named right there, Jesus the Christ— remember, it's a title, not a name. Jesus is a name, Christ is a title, right? It's mentioned there. You could say that it's Jesus, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

That is absolutely doctrinally solid. It's even grammatically solid if you wanted to think that. Again, I think that the whole thing, the whole ending verses are a construction by themselves, like a paragraph. And because I think that, I tend to think that the "to whom be glory" is the God that is doing the things that we just listened— the God from back in the beginning of the benediction.

So may the God of peace— that God of peace is the one who gets the "to whom be glory forever and ever, amen." And you're not wrong for arguing. If you think it's Jesus, that's fine, because There are definitely other places where Jesus gets glory. He prays for it himself, right? "Give me the glory I had that was before." Nothing wrong with that. The "Holy, holy, holy" passage in Isaiah is reiterated in John 12, where those angels, when they see the Lord, when Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, that is Jesus. And the angels are the ones covering their face in the presence of Jesus.

So absolutely, with no question, Jesus deserves all glory because he is God. But in this benediction, I think it's pointing back to the Father, because it's the Father that's given the blessing, "To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." It's okay if you don't agree with that. And then the amen, by the way, here is like a punctuation mark. He's not just saying amen, that word means true, right? The word means true, that's what it means, it's true. But in this case, I think it means for real, like it's a punctuation mark. "To God be glory forever and ever. Amen."

Forever and ever is a fun phrase in Greek, by the way. It's the Greek word aionion, where we get the English word eons. And it's neat because there isn't an actual word for forever in any of the languages. There's not a concept of an eternal forever of time. So the way it's constructed is neat. It would be like saying a long time to the second power or something like that. It's interesting the way it's phrased. I'm just sharing that with you because it's interesting, not because you need to know it. It does mean forever. It's just the way they say it.

Now, I want to go back to the other section. So, "May the God of peace who saved you, who gave the everlasting covenant blood for you, the Shepherd of the sheep through Jesus, do all that, make you complete in every good work to do His will." Then it says, "Working in you what is well pleasing in His sight." I can't emphasize it enough. Whose pleasure is most important?

I appreciate guys like John Piper who talks about Christian hedonism, the idea that We are designed for pleasure too. That's not wrong to say that. It's not wrong to say God wants you happy. It is not wrong to say that. Can I tell you, sovereign grace, God wants you happy. He absolutely, absolutely, he sent his Son to die to make you happy. That's not a lie. That's not, it's true.

The problem is, is we think that was his ultimate goal, was our happiness apart from his happiness. He wants you happy when he's happy. He wants his happiness to be what makes you happy. So we see it here that this is what the author is telling the Hebrew believers. God is working in you. Why? Because God loves God. No, he loves me. No, he loves himself. He loves himself enough to have his Son die to pay for you. Why?

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who prepared a wedding for his son. What does a man who prepares a wedding for his son give him? A bride, somebody he can love. Why? Because he loves the Son. You don't ever see, as far as I can tell in the New Testament, any voice coming from heaven saying, "This is my beloved Johnny, in whom I'm well pleased." You don't see that language. Jesus is the focus. I said earlier, Jesus is the point. Everything is about Jesus, and not just the book of Hebrews. Everything is.

The Father wants his Son exalted, and he wants you to do the works that show his Son is superior in your life. He wants you to do the things with your life that show God is first. That God who is blessing you right now, who sent you the sheep, who raised him from the dead, who accepted the sacrifice on behalf of you of Jesus as your mediator, that God who did that is right now saying, go do the things that show that you appreciate that, that Christ is superior, that he is most important to you. Go live your life in a way that doesn't show you're most important, but shows he's most important.

So you're pursuing holiness. You're pursuing righteousness. You're serving the people of God. You're worshiping. You're gathering. You're evangelizing, you're praying, you're serving, you're praising, you're doing all those things that show Jesus is most important. The old saying always fits. It never gets old to say it and to use it as a picture and something to consider, that if it became illegal to be a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

If you were on trial for being a Christian and the case was, you are accused right now in this courtroom of being a Christian, it's illegal to be a Christian. Would you be able to make the case that you're guilty of being a Christian? Or would they say, ah, there's no evidence this guy's a Christian, let him go? We're supposed to be doing what's well-pleasing, and we're supposed to be doing that through Jesus. He died through Jesus means you're doing what you do because of the work of Christ, the all-sufficient work of Christ.

And it isn't our happiness or him making us happy. That's why people get wore out, because they spend their lives thinking that Jesus cares most about their life instead of us about His.

Continuing on, "And I appeal to you." Now we get some commands, some imperatives, some exhortation to go do some things, like specific commands. "And I appeal to you, brethren, bear the word of exhortation with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words."

13 chapters is few words according to the author. So remember that next time you think I preach too long. He says, "I appeal to you. I'm trying to appeal to your senses to bear with the word." Do you know what the opposite of that would be? It's what Paul says when he says, "Their time will come where they will not endure sound doctrine." That language of enduring sound doctrine, you know what that means. It means put up with.

So there are places and times— now we're in one of those— where if somebody comes out and preaches sound doctrine, the people will not put up with it. That's what that means. It's literally the meaning of the word. They will not put up with it. So he's telling the people of Hebrews, "Hey, Hebrews, put up with it." You want to use our lingo? He would say, Hebrews, I know I'm saying hard things. I told you in chapter 4 you're not smart. I told you in chapter 6 there's probably people that are fake among you that aren't even real believers. I told you in chapter 12 you're going to suffer and be chastened. Deal with it. That's essentially what he's saying when he says bear with the word.

And it could be the overall word of God, but I think it's specifically the book of Hebrews because there's an article there, the word, in other words, I have written to you in a few words. I think he means those words that I gave you, they're hard and they're difficult. Like, I think if it is Paul, this is very consistent, like with what he does in 2 Corinthians. Hey, my previous letter made you sorrowful, and I'm okay with that. In other words, it hurt and you responded. Good.

Well, now he's saying something like that here. I know these are difficult. They might be hard for you to take. Seems like a lot, everything I've told you, but endure it. Bear with it. Put up with it. Internalize it. Don't ignore it. Don't walk away from it. That's what he's saying. I've written to you with enough words. I've given you what you need to be encouraged and to be faithful in the Lord.

You Hebrew believers now know the Old Covenant is the Old Covenant, and you now know you are a part of the New Covenant in Christ. You have a better priest, you have a better covenant, you have better promises. And now that you know it, don't shove it aside. Put up with it. Endure it. Live it.

Then verse 23, this is very interesting, verse 23. Know that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom I shall see you if he comes shortly. It's very interesting, and I don't know what it means. Set free can mean one of two things. It could mean Timothy was imprisoned and has now been set free, you know, like in other places people get imprisoned, like the guys did in Acts chapter 4 and other places, that he had been arrested for preaching or whatever ministry and now he's set free. Or it can mean that Paul is saying, He was serving me and bound to me, and now I've let him go. I've let him go to go do the ministry and come and see you.

And also interesting, it's interesting that he's called brother and not son, because if it was Paul, you might think he would call him son. But before you think that means it's not Paul, Paul also calls him brother in Thessalonians. So it could still be Paul. I've made so many more defenses for it being Paul than I have that it's not Paul. I made your case for you, you who believe he is Paul. So we could take for granted.

One thing I do want to say and for you to take with you, let's go back and say maybe is Timothy in trouble for preaching? Let's say Timothy's being persecuted and now he's being set free. What does Timothy do if he was jailed for the gospel, for preaching, for being faithful to Christ? He is jailed and now he's set free. What is he going to do next? Keep serving Christ. Did you see it? So you might say, man, I was in trouble for preaching. I'm not preaching anymore. Not Timothy. Timothy, if he was imprisoned, he's going to keep ministering. He's going to keep serving. If I'm in jail, I'm going to preach in jail. If I'm outside of jail, I'm going to preach outside of jail, right? Just like Paul, just like his mentor, if that's him. So he's free, he's going to serve the body.

Look at verse 24. Oh, this hurts. This hurts old PJ. I'm sorry to be silly, but it is funny and it does hurt a little for real. Greet all those who rule over you, and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you. Why would that be painful for me? Because the word greet very likely means hug. It's embrace. It could be translated embrace.

So I'm going to be funny first and get that out of the way. Don't let that be the thing you take away from the sermon, me being funny. You all know that I'm not a hugger. I've had to develop that. That happened in my adulthood, by the way. My brother and my father and I were standing in my dad's front yard. And my brother, out of nowhere, we didn't grow up hugging in my family. There wasn't affection and my mom was not affectionate either.

And so my brother and I and my dad standing in the front yard, my brother, like out of nowhere, it was like he had an outburst, said, why don't we hug each other? And I'm like, what's happening? I was like uncomfortable. And he said, we should hug each other. And in our adulthood, me and my brother and my dad started hugging. And we hug every time now we see each other. And I wasn't like that before.

Now I hug my family. And I don't know, Abby took an extra level because she hangs on me. She hasn't in a while. She has a husband to do that with now. I'm saying that to you because hugging and that kind of affection does not come natural to me. It doesn't. I love— I am affectionate. You can ask my family. I am loving and affectionate. I'm not cold. I'm not distant. I'm not separate. But physical touch is kind of a new concept. Well, 30-year-old concept to me.

So as I tell you that, when it says greet all those who rule over you, first of all, it is saying to hug your pastors. So I'm in real trouble here, right? You all know that I'm over that now, and I do— we do hug now. But I am just saying it to you that there is something in the greeting that has some built-in affection. The idea that it is not enough that we respect each other, it is not enough that we exist together and that we're acquaintances.

There is supposed to be a closeness in the family of God where we love each other. And I do want you to know that it's a lot harder to criticize somebody that you hug regularly. It is a lot harder to stand back in an ivory tower of theological astuteness when you love someone and care what they're going through, when you care that they're hurting, when you care that they're being persecuted, when you care that they have challenges in their life. And you love somebody and you go through life with them.

This now, I sound like a modern evangelical, right? But the problem is they leave out all the doctrine. It is a doctrinal thing to have affection for the brethren. It's doctrinal to be kind. It is doctrinal to care what people are going through. When you hear that these new moms are struggling and you're thinking you have to go to the ER because of your baby's belly button, you don't just say, well, that happens. Everybody goes through that. Put yourself in the shoes of those new parents.

When you say, "We might have to spend a couple of nights in the hospital we weren't expecting, but we have a special needs daughter at home," don't just brush past those things. Care about those things. Care. Even if you don't think the same as people, you can care about people. I don't know any of you that care about electric guitar. I know one guy that might in here. But I care about it. So it's this idea of building bridges.

So greet all those who rule over you. Remember the ones that were just mentioned before that you have to obey in verse 17 and 7? He's saying, the author of Hebrews is saying to the church, make sure you guys love each other. And not just love each other. I love my— my dad used to say this. I'm going to get emotional thinking about this, that every time my dad would end a phone call, every time, even when the kids were adults, my dad would say every single time, 'Give them babies a hug for me.' My children were having children, and my dad still called them the babies. 'Give them babies a hug for me.'

See, my dad got this. He got it. Do we get it? Do you think of your fellow Christian, your fellow church member like this? 'I hope they're doing okay. I hope they're all right. I hope their family's okay. I remember they asked for prayer for their mom who went to the hospital. I hope they're doing okay.' We love each other and we greet each other, and we greet each other in the Lord. Stand strong in the Lord. It isn't just, I care about what's going on in your life. I care that the Lord is close to you. I care that you're serving him.

And then it says, and all the saints. And then it says, those from Italy greet you. That is either that the author is in Italy writing to the Hebrews, or he has some people from Italy with him, right? So in other words, he's traveling with some Italians and saying, hey, they're with me. They greet you too. The whole idea is that we love each other. We're in this thing together. The world is against us. It hates us. We need to be together. So encourage each other, strengthen each other, greet each other, hug each other if you have to.

And then the book closes with what might be the most underrated thing you could ever get from an author of a book of the Bible. There's another amen, but it also says, grace be with you all. Both times One of the last series Pastor Heinrich preached in series— if you don't know what that means, those are two different series. One of them starts with an S, one starts with a C— was on the grace of God. And then the first series, if I remember right, it was the first series he preached when we started Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, when he started it. And it was all about grace, sovereign grace, the grace of salvation, the grace of God being good to people who don't deserve it, the doctrinal important statement of the unmerited favor of God.

Nothing the author of Hebrews has written, not a single word of what the author of Hebrews has just spelled out that he's calling a few words, that is a lot of words, nothing he has said can mean anything to you apart from grace. If you have not embraced and experienced the unmerited favor of God, all of the Bible is meaningless to you. There's no point in thinking you're biblical or Christian if you have not experienced the unmerited, undeserved favor of God in salvation, where God has saved you completely apart from any good of your own, completely apart from works, completely apart from religion or any other thing.

Where if God has not looked at you, sinful person, depraved person, person who's broken his law and his commandments, who is separate from him because of sin, who who is dying in your trespasses and sin, a child of wrath, in darkness, if God has not saved you, opened your eyes by regeneration, showed you the gospel, given you the faith to believe in the gospel, drawn you to himself, taken you out of darkness into light, when you were lost he made you found, if he has not done that for you, none of the Bible is meaningful to you at all. It might be interesting, but it is definitely not yours. These words are for Christians. And Christians are people who have been given the grace of God.

So when he closes the book, he's saying the most important thing: you need grace. It's necessary. It's fundamental. I didn't just give you 13 chapters of happy things for your life to be better, how to win at life, your best life now. That is not what the author of Hebrews ends with. And by the way, again, to you Pauline Hebrews believers, Sounds very much— this is how Colossians ends, just like this. Usually he'll add peace if it is Paul, but I'm not going to make an argument. I do want you to understand his last words are very important. I wouldn't say most important because all of the words are important, but they are very important that the author is telling you, you need grace to live everything I just said.

Christ is superior. Christ is better than the Old Covenant. Christ is better than the priesthood of the Old Covenant. Christ is better than the tabernacle. He's better than the animals. Melchizedek even, even though he's after that order. He's better than all those things. You can just stack them up. You can throw David in there. You could throw Daniel in there. You can just stack up all your favorite Old Testament things and people. And the author of Hebrews says Jesus is better. Right? That's the point of the book.

And now he says, in order for you to live that way, you need the grace of God. You need God to give you favor and make you able. He just said that he's able to make you able. Did you see that? He says back in verse 21, make you complete. He's able to make you complete. He's able to— some people don't even really believe in change, like change isn't possible for human beings. And you even hear Christians talk about it like, "I'll never be able to get over this sin," or "I'll never get over this addiction," or "I'll never get—" like people act like the gospel is not powerful to change. Then you have a small view of what grace can do.

I mean, just think of someone like Paul, the persecutor, hunting Christians. Becoming the apostle. That's what grace can do. Grace is all the difference. So the author says, lay aside every weight, lay aside every sin, lay aside every burden, lay aside every effort on your own to be or do something, and embrace the free grace of God. And now run for the Lord Jesus. That's the idea. You can run that grace because you have all the fuel you need.

If you haven't seen Chariots of Fire lately— I rarely recommend movies, But there is a scene in that movie where Eric Liddell, who ended up, if you didn't know, was a missionary to China, a solid Christian missionary to China. And he had this conflict in his life of whether to run in the Olympics or to go into the mission field. And he said, "My heart is in the mission field." But one of my favorite lines in the movie is when he said, "But God also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure."

And then he's preaching, and these are all based on true stories. He's preaching and he says, Where does the strength come from? And he says from within, but then he quotes Isaiah, will mount up like wings of eagles, will run and not get weary and not be faint. You know, he's referring back to Isaiah. I feel a little guilty sometimes that I get worn out in ministry because I realize I'm often relying on the flesh instead of the Spirit when that happens.

Embrace grace. Embrace the superiority of Christ and run and don't get tired. And if you get tired, I'll go with what Spurgeon says, "It's good to be a rag thoroughly wrung out for the Lord." If you're wore out doing good things like ministry, good. But if you're wore out doing things for your own pleasure, let's pray.

Thank you, Father, for the book of Hebrews, for the author. Whether it's Paul or not, it is an inspired letter. The words are powerful and meaningful, and they definitely, if we can see it, point us to Christ. Would you help us see him, savor him, love him, and run toward him, because we're empowered by grace to do that? And we'll thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.