You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the eye?
Is there something here for me? I mean, it's just words printed on paper, right? Well, it may look like just print on a page, but it's more than ink. Join us for the next half hour as we explore God's Word together, as we learn how to explore it on our own, as we ask God to meet us there in its pages.
Welcome to More Than Ink. Oh, I'm sad. We're finishing Hebrews today, but we're finishing with a benediction. What's a benediction? That final good word at the end of the letter, the last thing he says.
I wonder what he's going to say as his final closing word to us as we finish his reading of Hebrews today on More Than Ink. Well, good morning, this lovely fall morning. I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy.
And we're excited today, sad a little bit, but excited as well. Well, it's time to finish. We've read the whole book.
That's right. So we are in our last episode looking at Hebrews, and it goes out with a bang. This is really a nice, there's a nice benediction here that he prays over us, the readers, and it's just really nice. It's more than nice. It's profound. Yeah, it's profound. So it's a wonderful thing to kind of end on. And we're going to take some time also as well to reminisce a little bit back on the themes that really impressed us throughout the entire book.
13 chapters, and he himself says it was a brief written account. So we're going to take some time to do that. So as you've been listening, what has stuck out to you? What things have impacted you?
What kind of things have you seen? And maybe we'll just compare notes as we finish up today's broadcast. So here we are, Hebrews 13. You want to just jump in on the benediction, they call it? Such a beautiful benediction. A closing prayer.
And actually just before I read this, let me just say to you, if you listeners have never taken the time to really pay attention to the benedictions of the epistles in the New Testament, that in itself can be a lovely, fruitful, peace-giving study. Yeah. So okay, here's our very favorite one. Many times you think it's just a throwaway.
Right, it's not a throwaway. He's just closing the book and saying goodbye, thank you for reading, but smart. We just end a letter, love you, by mom or whoever is reading the letter. But this is a clear statement of blessing. So starting in verse 20. 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, 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. Amen. What can you say after that? Amen. Yeah, well let's look at it more slowly.
Because it's pretty fascinating. Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus. That's an interesting title, God of peace. Yeah, God of peace.
And that kind of registers a lot of things in our heads. But principally when we talk about God and peace, often it comes up in the New Testament that before coming to Jesus we were at war with God. And we had no rest.
Had no rest. We were not at peace. We were constantly stirred inside. Yeah, and there's always an attendant idea when you talk about peace in the New Testament about a closing of distance between someone. So when you're wild with somebody, you have a disagreement, you're not at peace with them, you're distant from them. So it ties here to the whole idea that at one time you were opposed to God and you were distant from him.
And you were restless as a result. And actually I have Ephesians 2 open in front of me where it says that. Formerly, this is Ephesians 2, 13 and 14, but now in Christ you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace who has made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall. He is our peace. He took upon himself the initiative to open the way and bring us into this relationship with God where there is no more opposition.
There is a welcome. And that's a very big deal that the God of the universe wanted to narrow the distance between us. We caused that distance, by the way. God didn't cause that distance. But he's the one that takes the initiative to fix that distance and to bring peace between us. And he explains in the very next phrase how he did it.
Well, isn't it amazing? We often live in a state of un-peace, right? We have unreconciled relationships, we're unsettled all the time because things just are not right. Or unfulfilled expectations. Or a relationship, right? But here we have the God of peace, the God who pursues peace, who pursues reconciliation and who takes upon himself the responsibility to put in place everything required for us to enter his presence. Yeah, and the result after that narrow distance is peace.
Or rest. Which is a theme in Hebrews. It's a theme in Hebrews. I'm gonna talk about that.
I'm sure you are. So 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. So this blood of the eternal covenant, that's what accomplished all of this. And attendant to that, he brought him back from the dead and he calls him not the King of kings and Lord of lords, but the great shepherd of the sheep. Isn't that beautiful?
It's tender and near. Yeah, and it's the shepherd who engaged on our behalf in order to bring us to God. That's what shepherds do. They do things that benefit the sheep. And so as the greatest shepherd of all time, he did what he could do to benefit the sheep, to bring us in the nearness of God, and he did that through his own death.
Wow. And this is the, you know, we've talked about the covenant, but this is the only place in the scripture that I am aware of where this phrase, the eternal covenant, shows up. And I was thinking about that. Now we know that when God speaks, his word lasts forever, right? We have plenty of scripture that supports that. But I was looking for this idea of the eternal covenant, and I came to Psalm 111.
Now listen to this. Just let me just read you a couple of verses. The works of his hands are truth and justice. All his precepts are sure.
They're upheld forever and ever and performed in truth and righteousness. He has sent redemption to his people. He has ordained his covenant forever.
Forever, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's an interesting contrast, because through this entire book, we kept talking about the old covenant and the new covenant and the old covenant and the new covenant and so on. Here's an eternal covenant. So which one of them is it?
Is both. Well, you know, Revelation says we see the Lamb forever slain, right? The one who was marked from before creation for this very purpose. So this eternal covenant, this eternal arrangement for doing life or giving us life, has been in the heart of God from before time.
Yeah, right. It's eternal. It's an eternal idea. And he sort of plotted that course through Hebrews. He started it at the covenant with Abraham, so we'll talk about that. Yeah, so it's really the eternal covenant. God hasn't changed his mind at all. And then in verse 21, the last half of his benediction, he prays for our equipping.
Isn't that interesting? Well, this is the whole point of the new covenant, that God says, you will know me in your heart. I will write my words on your heart, and he will work in us. So he says, equip you, finish you out, mend you, put everything in order, provide for you everything required for you to do what God's purpose is for you.
Yeah, yeah. And he's the one that does it. He equips us.
We don't have to kind of hold our breath and pump our muscles and see if we make ourselves worthy be used. He equips us with everything good, so sufficient in every respect for how he wants to glorify himself through us, that you may do his will. Yeah, working in us, that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus.
So he makes us pleasing in his sight. That's right. Remember when we talked about the new covenant, we're impressed by the fact that it says repeatedly, God says, I will, I will, I will, I will.
There is never a you will until we get almost to the end of the statement where it says, and you'll all know me. Right. So the profound emphasis of the new covenant is not what we can do for God, it's what Jesus has done in us. And that's probably the most profound difference between the new and old covenant. The old covenant stressed sort of what we did in compliance. And even at that, he argues that all that stuff that we did in the old covenant really didn't gain us much. But in the new covenant, it's all about what Jesus accomplished for us. That alone ought to give us tremendous peace. Right, Romans 5 says we have received our introduction into the peace of God and this grace in which we stand through Jesus, right?
We have a place to stand in relationship with God because of the peace that he established through the blood of Christ. Right, right. Does that not give you peace, a sense of steadiness and rest in your soul?
Yeah, yeah. And remember earlier he said it's impossible to please God without faith. And here he is talking about the fact that he is going to equip us, he's going to do everything working in us, the sufficiency of every good thing in order that will be pleasing in his sight. And so when you tie that back together with the faith issue, you realize there's a brand new kind of relationship birthed here when you come to Jesus. Where you're in relationship with him, you relate to him through faith, he equips you totally and fully to do his will for the rest of your life. And it's all about what he does in us, not what we do for him. So it's a fascinating thing and then he caps it by saying through Jesus Christ, through Jesus all of this is possible.
That's an amazing thing. So if you're a believer, if you're a follower of Jesus, do you realize he's at work right now within you to equip you to do his will and wherever he's placed you in whatever you're doing? And a lot of us, I don't want to say shirk, but we sort of shy away from being used by God in situations where you know, well if I say this they're going to react kind of weird and what if they ask a question I can't answer and I'm not a scriptorian and I'm not an expert at this? And you just need to realize he's been equipping you all along for wherever he leads you in order to serve his will. That's what he does in you, that's not what you have to figure out how to do for him. You just show up.
Yeah, you just show up. Well I just, while we were talking here I was thinking of another benediction, it's the one at the end of Jude where it just, it's Jude says, now to him who's able to keep you from stumbling, right? You don't keep yourself from stumbling, he keeps you from stumbling. And to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless and with great joy.
That's what he does. That's what God does for us. To the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time, now and forever. There's that new covenant emphasis again on what he does. God is able to make us stand blameless before him with great joy in his presence.
Isn't that what we want? To be able to stand in confidence before God by the blood of Jesus. By the blood of Jesus. Jesus makes it all possible. And from the point of now until the fulfillment of his promise to us, we live this life that glorifies him with him equipping us in how to do that. So that's the new covenant.
To whom be glory forever and ever. The natural result of that in us should be giving praise and honor and recognition to God for what he has done. I love this benediction, the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant.
That phrase all by itself kind of staggers me and makes me kind of step back and just think for a while. It's a great statement, the great shepherd of the sheep. Well and when you think that at the heart of making a covenant in the Old Testament picture was the death of the lamb. The sacrifice, the blood that was brought. And here we have the great shepherd who himself becomes the sacrifice.
That is a stunning picture. And he tutored us all the way through Hebrews about how Jesus fulfills so many different roles in the Old Testament. That's why this is such a fitting benediction for this letter. Not just the sacrifice lamb, which he is, but he's also our high priest.
He's a forerunner into the Holy of Holies. Okay, now you're stomping on my themes. Let me just read the final greetings here and then we'll go back and we'll kind of reminisce about the themes that kind of popped out to us. I'll just read for us the final greetings. 22, I appeal to you brothers, bear with my word of exhortation.
This thing right here, like bear with it. For I have written to you briefly. You should know that our brother Timothy has been released with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. Greet all your leaders and all the saints, those who come from Italy.
Send you greetings, grace be with all of you. The end of Hebrews. Yeah, it's a great quote. Does it make you wonder who wrote it?
It does. By the way, we don't know. There's a lot of presumptions going around, but we just don't know. It's one of the many letters in the New Testament, but one of the few that doesn't state who wrote it. Because they always at the front say, this is me writing this to you and he doesn't do that here.
And we probably talked about that weeks and weeks ago when we started into this. But, you know, many people think that it was Paul, but the more familiar you are with Paul's writing, the less this feels like Paul's writing. Even translated into English, it doesn't sound like Paul. It doesn't sound like Paul. Yeah, so someone else, but we don't know. But somebody who had a close relationship with Timothy. So clearly somebody knew Paul.
Someone in the circle, yeah. Well, let's spend the last ten minutes or so talking about, as we look back on these thirteen chapters, the great themes that you saw. Why don't you go first?
Tell us the things that really jumped. Well, you know, when you said you want to talk about this, the first thing that came to mind is Jesus is better. Jesus is better is the theme that runs all the way through the book for me.
And then when I began to thumb through it and kind of watch for that, the list just grows. He's better than angels. He has a better name.
He's named Son, right? Though he reigns, he became one of us. He's better than Moses. He's a better priest because he sympathizes with us.
He was tempted yet without sin. He forever lives, always intercede for us. He gives us a better hope, a better covenant, a better ministry. He's a better mediator.
All of these things just leap off the page. Better, better, better. Jesus is better. He's a better sacrifice. He entered the true holy place once for all on the basis of a better promise, right? That this blood would pay for good once for all. And we have a better reward, which is to be with him forever.
Jesus is better than anything. That's a very powerful message for Jewish ears. Because in Jewish lore, they tend to hold up in reverence people like Abraham and Moses.
And all these people, they're principal people. Who God gave them as their leaders and moms. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
I mean, there's no doubt they should be prominent. But for a Jew, that's the big list. And Jesus is not on the big list. Well, and the Pharisees took Jesus to task for saying, Well, who are you? Are you greater than Abraham? Are you greater than Moses? And he said, Yeah, I am. Before Abraham was, I am.
Yeah, he was very clear about that. The writer of Hebrews is making a very strong statement about the preeminence of Christ. You might have your own kind of list of heroes in the Old Testament, but Jesus is bigger than all of them. And he's better than any other religious system you might be laboring under or impose upon yourself. Jesus is a better way. So that really struck home to me on this message to the viewers. Not only better, but even at the beginning he says, He's the ultimate way. How are we going to escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
He is God's word, God's final word to us. Yeah, so that's probably the big one for me. But then second to that, I was struck by there's these urgent calls all the way through the letter. Don't do this, but do do this, right? Okay, so now listen to the list. Don't drift, don't neglect, don't fall away through unbelief. Don't harden your heart, which actually is said repeatedly.
Don't grow dull of hearing and don't be sluggish. Well, you know, I'm guilty of every single one of those, perhaps on a daily basis. But then there's a list of do's that keep coming up again and again. Do consider, do draw near, do be diligent, do hold fast. And hold fast happens again and again and again.
I have probably, oh, five times listed here. Hold fast, hold fast. Cling, anchor yourself. Yeah, yeah.
So, you know, it's along with this argument that Jesus is the better, the only way, then there is this very personal, urgent call. So don't let your heart grow cold. Don't fail to believe. Don't fail to cling fast.
Yeah, yeah. And, you know, it should always be the case that what you believe should color a lot what you do. Those two should be tied together in some kind of a way. Well, they actually really are, whether we admit it or not. What we believe becomes clear by the way we act. Yeah, but a lot of people who have never really looked at Hebrews closely will say, well, it's just, you know, it's a big book of theology, you know. And when you say theology, you think, well, not real practical, not real down to earth. It's just kind of theory and stuff like that.
But it's really not. He's outlining what the truth is from a Hebrew mindset. And that has consequences on what you do, which is why he is so pragmatic about saying, don't do this, don't do this. This should color exactly how you walk forward from this point in life.
You know, I left something off that list, which was in chapter 12. Fix your eyes on Jesus. Yeah, big, big deal.
Because he is the only way you will get to that goal. The only way you're going to finish the race and get where you were going. Yeah. So it's very practical in the midst of just some profound truth that's stated from a Hebrew mindset. Well, you know what? Profound truth is practical.
Yeah. It changes everything, really. It really does. And you can find out what someone truly believes about how they act, by the way. Which is why Jesus says, you'll know them by their fruits. Look at what comes on the outside. You'll understand what they really believe.
Because those two tie together closely. Okay, so that can be fairly convicting. Right, because we can say we believe something and then we just don't live like it's true. Exactly. Which makes us a functional atheist. At least a hypocrite.
No, it's really true. And I think that's why God gave us these outward actions so we can start to understand. We can plumb the darkness of our hearts, find out who we are. Just look at what you do. Look at what you do and you'll understand that.
That's like they say, if you want to find out how someone really is, see what they do when there's no one around watching. Well, let me tell you some of my themes. Yeah, tell me yours.
And my themes are actually, they're one and the same. Early on he talked about the promises. You know the promises to Abraham.
And that promise as a thread extends on to us. And that promise is a promise for life. It's a promise for a place to live. And he talked about how the Israelites left Egypt and the promise was he'd bring them to a place to live.
It was a place of living with God. So that promise is there. And then he switched and started to use another word for the same thing, which is this idea of rest, remember?
Because he says they were going into the promise land but they didn't make it because they didn't believe they could get in because of the giants. And so God says, you know, I wouldn't let them enter my rest. So that place of the promise is also characterized as rest.
He uses that as a code word. And then he switches and uses another word for that same promise, the promised rest, which is a city. You know, it's a place to dwell. So these are always about places to dwell that God had designed and God had intended for them. And these places God would be in the midst and God would give life to them in that new living situation. So it isn't just an idea about how to get our heads together so we live happy lives. It's the fact that God has always intended, starting with this promise way back, that he wants to live with us. And with us, living in God's presence, we find real life.
And that's rest and that's a promise. That's the promise from Abraham and that's the city. The city, remember, as we looked at the people in Hebrews 11, he said, you know, they all desired a better country, a heavenly one.
So God's not assumed to be called their God. And so the looking is toward that. So even in this last chapter in 13, he said, you know, here we don't have a lasting city. You can set your tent here, but we don't have a lasting city here, so we seek the city that is to come. And we're receiving a kingdom that will not be shaken.
Will not be shaken, yeah. So I was really impressed with that, this thread of, here's why we're talking about this. God wants us to find life and that life, even when you wind it back to the Garden of Eden, was life with God in that place. And God says, I want to bring you back to that. There's some problems with sin. You know, we work through all that kind of stuff.
But in the end, in the end, the final benefit is if you want to find life, real life, it's life living with God. And guess what? God has it all planned out. And in the last metaphor, it's the city of God.
And you're invited. God lives in our midst and we dwell with him. And I think we said last week that the beautiful picture of that is in Revelation 19.
Yeah, absolutely. Where he says, you know, and the light is, there's no sun there because the light is the lamb. Yeah, he is the light. But he is the center of the city. Yeah, the center of this entire new community designed and built by God. And it's the same place that Jesus said to the apostles, you know, if there wasn't a place that was going to accommodate you, I wouldn't have been telling you about this place in my father's house. There's lots of places to live, so I'm going there so that you can be with me. That's the whole part, so you can be with me. And we're struck when we look in the Old Testament about the fact that when they wandered in the desert in their tents, God said, here's how you're going to arrange your tents by tribe and guess who will be in the center of all your tents? My tent.
That's where I will be. I was just looking for that verse, but you already got there, so never mind. Yeah.
So that's just a remarkable thing. God's intention is to bring life to us by us living with him. But sin got in that way. And God again took the initiative through the blood of Christ and took care of that problem. It was always God's intention to dwell in the midst of his people.
Exactly. Pictured by that tent in the wilderness in the middle of the camp. And then, pictured later on by the temple that was built in the city, right in the middle of the city. And now, then we become the temple in the New Testament in Christ. But we're still looking forward to that city whose architect and builder is God.
Still looking, yeah. And that's what impresses me so strongly in chapter four. If Joshua had given them rest, then God would not have spoken of another day later on. And that's what we are still waiting for.
We're still looking. Is the culmination of that promise, the culmination of that rest. But we have rest right now in Jesus while we look and wait for that final culmination.
If it's possible for you to live life in fellowship with God, you can find that. And we can, because of his spirit. We can. So we start to experience that right now. Well, we are out of time again.
Why don't you tell them what we're going to go to next time. Oh, you know, after Thanksgiving we are going to move into the book of Exodus. Exodus.
Which has been a favorite of mine for a number of years. I never realized until I embarked on a study of Exodus, a fairly focused study of Exodus, how central it was to understanding what God did. Oh, it's huge.
When he brought his people out of Egypt. I mean, we all know the story. You've all seen the movie. The story of the nation of Israel recorded in Exodus. So we're excited about that. Oh, I am too. It's more than just a story.
In my own mind. Yes, it is the central event. It's the central event.
Yes, the defining event. Because this is God taking the initiative to rescue a people in trouble. And that's the largest metaphor for what he's doing for all of mankind. And to literally make them his own people.
Give them his name and an identity. The great rescue. That's what we're going to go to next time and we hope you join us with that. And we're glad you stuck it out with us through all of Hebrews. And it's just been a great, great exploration.
So come back and join us through Exodus. And if you didn't, if you just came in partway through, you can go back and find these online. They're online. They're all posted on the morethanink.org website. So do that. So join us next time again for More Than Ink. More Than Ink is a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City and is solely responsible for its content. To contact us with your questions or comments, just go to our website, morethanink.org. We'll just wing it. Okay. All right.
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