Hmm, God is seated on his throne. I hope you know that. You sang like you know that. That was beautiful. That's a good image to have in our minds. In fact, during first service, I told the congregation that that's one of my favorite scenes to dwell upon is to think about the throne of God and in heaven where everything is the way it should be, where God is there at the center of the universe, where the angelic hosts are declaring his praises and nothing is out of place, nothing is in rebellion, nothing is wrong, there's no pain or sickness. That's the scene we need to get in our heads and keep there. That's the scene we need to meditate on as believers because so often when we flip on the media, when we look at news or other such things, we see the opposite, or at least we're tempted to think the opposite. We see chaos and disorder. We see violence and sickness and death and pestilence and chaos. We see lies and deception and we're tempted in those moments to think that somehow God has lost control of his creation. But nothing further could be from the truth. God is on his throne. His plan is working out to perfection. He's not bothered in any way. And we need to rejoice in that, amen. Well, I have some sad news for you. Don't freak out. We're coming to the end of Hebrews. But I have some happy news for you. It's still in your Bible and you can spend as much time there as you want. But as a church, collectively, we're gonna be concluding, Lord willing, today, the final message from the book of Hebrews. I think, according to my file on my computer, I think this is the 44th sermon that I will have preached through the book of Hebrews. And to be quite honest with you, it could have been more. There's a lot packed into this wonderful book. And how do you bring a book like this to a conclusion? We're told in verse 22, the author says, I appeal to you brothers, bear with my word of exhortation. It really is the appropriate description of the book of Hebrews. He calls it a word of exhortation, a word of encouragement. It's really a sermon is what it is. Written down, he couldn't Zoom call them. So he wrote it down and sent it along. And someone stood up in the congregation and read it publicly to them. And they received it as a sermon written for their edification. And so he says, bear with my word of exhortation. And I was thinking about the way he ends his word of exhortation. He's concluded in chapter 13 with kind of some quick, fast-paced exhortations. He's not really adding new theological information. He's just wrapping it up with some very strategic application. But then how do you bring a sermon like this to a close? Well, you pray. Because as a preacher, what you're ultimately doing is trying to bring the word of God to bear on the congregation that he has put before you, and then you pray in desperation that the God of heaven would take those words and impart them in the minds, in the hearts, in the souls of those who hear. The preacher recognizes that his task is an impossible one. to declare the hope of the gospel, to declare the truth of Christ and what he has accomplished, but knowing that his voice can only reach the ears of his hearers, he beseeches the God of heaven to be gracious, to take those words much deeper than the ear, to write them on our hearts, And this preacher is no different. In fact, he kind of sets the standard for what we ought to follow. And he ends his sermon with a prayer. He says, 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. 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 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. And this is the end of the letter of the book of Hebrews. Written to a people that were somewhere in the Roman world, this small kind of like a house church of believers. No doubt these are people that have come out of Judaism because of the gospel. They've embraced Christ as the Messiah and yet the persecution and the pressure that they're currently facing is causing them to think twice about keep going. They're thinking twice about whether or not they should persist in their efforts to follow Christ. And thus the writer of Hebrews hears of this and writes them this word of exhortation. And it's a good word, isn't it? Isn't it? Okay, good. I thought you all went to sleep. It is a good word. It's good for our hearts to be exhorted. It's good for our hearts to be warned and to hear the promises of God. But the author, like I said, comes to the end of his book and knows that it's God who does the work. And so he prays. In this prayer, which is in our Bibles only two verses long, is not long, it's a brief prayer, but it is packed with theological meaning. And I couldn't help but notice what the author does here is what I have learned to do even in my own prayers as I finish a sermon, and that is instinctively, I just pray through the sermon. I pray through the things that God has laid on my heart through the study of his word. And I'm praying as I conclude a sermon, I'm praying that God would do in us that which he has called us to do. And that's essentially what the author prays. Even though the prayer itself is short, it is packed full. It's like in your cupboards, ladies, when you know where it is, even right now as I say this, you'll probably be able to identify where it is. There is a small jar of vanilla somewhere. And it might only be this big, but it's been there for 10 years. Because it's so flavorful, it's so packed with flavor that you only need a small portion in whatever you're using it in. Small portion goes a long ways. And so too this prayer is really a concentrated theological prayer that encompasses all that he's just said in the first 13 chapters. He begins his prayer, now may the God of peace. Prayer appropriately is communication directed towards God. And the author is directing his communication, even though he's writing in the hearing of these people for the benefit of these people, he is praying to the God of heaven. He is communicating to the invisible God and he calls him the God of peace. That title is significant. for many reasons, but what I wanna do is I just want to help you understand what does it mean that God is the God of peace. Back in Genesis, you don't need to turn there, but in Genesis 1, Moses writes, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning, before there was the heavens and the earth, before there was the universe or anything in it, there was God. God existed in the throne of God that we just sang about was there and God was seated on his throne, so to speak, as supreme authority, supreme being. And God in that state was perfectly at peace. He was not chaotic in his mind. He was not disorderly in any of his thoughts. He was not lacking. He didn't create the universe because he was lacking something. You know, God existed for eternity, then all of a sudden he's like, you know what, I'm kinda lonely. I'm gonna create some stuff. No, that's the wrong idea, that's the wrong understanding of Genesis 1. God, out of his complete fullness, lacking in nothing, decided in and of himself, in the Trinity, I will create. but he always has been and always will be a God of peace. This is a good word for us who live in a world filled with chaos. And this is what we see even in the first few chapters of Genesis. We see that this God who existed in perfect peace, it's his eternal disposition that he decided to create, and it says this, that God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. God created the raw materials, as it were, of the earth, the heavens and the earth, but there is still chaos and disorder. They're unfinished. And so God sets forth to finish his creation, and it says in verse three, and God said. And thus the pattern that is so vitally important for our spiritual lives comes into place. God said and it was so. God said and it was so. Day one, day two, day three, day four, all the way through, God spoke and order came out of chaos. He created the universe out of the power of his word. He spoke in the peace of God that was in the mind of God. He spoke peace into chaotic universe. That's important. In chapter two, we see that God then sets that universe in place. He gives man and woman a divine mandate. to be fruitful and fill the earth, to multiply, to subdue the earth and to make it work for them for the glory of God. And it wasn't very long after that that chapter three comes and the enemy of our souls and of God, the enemy of heaven introduces chaos. The enemies of mankind, the enemy of mankind comes in and speaks a lie and all of the sudden the order that God had created in the original universe came to nothing. Everything came unraveled, sin and depravity ran amok, death and destruction began to spread all across the globe. It affected everything and everyone. But even in the early stages of this undoing of God's perfection, God spoke a word and he said to the woman, or he said to the serpent really, in the hearing of the man and the woman, the offspring of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. And from that day forward, God began to work a plan of redemption. using the power of his word to bring order back to the universe that was subjected to chaos. Why do I say all that? Because in verse 20 of chapter 13 of Hebrews, the author calls out to the God of peace, because heaven has never lost its peace. Heaven was always and always has been orderly as in the mind of God. Heaven reflects God's perfect peace. But earth is chaotic. Earth is filled with destruction. It is filled with disorder, just like our lives oftentimes are. So he calls out from earth in the hearing of these people to the God of peace. This God of peace who has always been orderly, who spoke the universe into existence and who said clearly, I know the end from the beginning. Nothing will thwart my plans. Nothing will come against God's perfect will. It is being accomplished exactly in the timing of his plans. He's never called an audible. He's never had to analyze the defense and make a change of decision. God is perfectly at peace. But he shares this peace with mankind and his peace comes via his word. His peace comes through the spoken word that he's given to mankind in former days through the prophets, but in these latter days through his son. John says, Jesus is the word who became flesh. God's design in the gospel, in the plan of redemption was to bring the peace of heaven to the chaos of earth. And it's perfectly coming about through the message of Christ. That's why Jesus can say near the end of his life, just hours before he would be betrayed and crucified, to that small group of disciples, the 11 that were still with him. He says, peace, I leave with you. My peace, I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you, meaning there is a different kind of peace that mimics the peace of heaven, but really is a counterfeit. It's a false peace. It's a false security. But Jesus, in his body, in his person, offers to his disciples and to us who are hearing today, he offers his peace. Not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Jesus spoke these words hours before he would be betrayed and crucified and buried in a tomb. And he knew the onslaught of fear and panic that would come into the hearts of his disciples when all of that happened. And so he said to them plainly and clearly, like God in the beginning when he speaks into chaos and disorder, he says, let there be and there was. He tells his disciples, let not your hearts be troubled because that is the exact thing that happens when we're not at peace. Flip on any channel in our world today, any source of information that comes to you, and you will hear about the chaos and disorder that is infecting our world. People are running around frightened and fearful. Massive displays of violence and chaos and disorder. It would appear like Genesis 3 is happening all over again, like there is an undoing of the peace, at least the fake peace that we tend to live in day by day. People are becoming fearful. Strong men are worried about what the future will hold. They're worried about whether or not their job will still exist. They're worried about whether or not they'll be able to provide for their families. because they do not have the peace of God which rules from the heavens. God is a God of peace. He has forever and always dwelled in perfect peace. Psalm 2 says, he sits in the heavens and he laughs as the world goes about in its craziness, trying to overthrow heaven. God sits on his throne and he laughs, meaning he's at peace. Like ants trying to assault a grown man, there's nothing they can do to him. And that perfect peace which resides in the mind and the heart of God and which dominates heaven is offered to us through the gospel. These individuals at one point earlier on decades before had heard the gospel and they had heard of the Lord Jesus that he was the Messiah sent from heaven to accomplish all that God had made for him to do, to accomplish salvation on their behalf and they embraced that gospel and they experienced the subjective peace of God in their own lives. Their fear was chased away by the peace of God which flooded their hearts. But now, new worries, new temptations, new struggles, new fears had crept back in and the peace of God which they knew so well was now on the outside. I just think of the example of Peter in that example when he steps out of the boat and he says to Jesus, tell me to come and I'll come to you on the water. And Jesus says, come. Peter steps out of the boat, he begins to walk on water and he's shocked by what he's able to do. And in that moment, he goes from looking at Jesus and being focused on Jesus to being shocked that he's able to walk on water. He feels maybe the water lapping against his ankles. He feels the effects of the wind on his body. He knows this is unnatural and he begins to sink. And he cries out to Jesus and Jesus who is ever present reaches down and picks him up. And that is, is it not a parable for our daily life with Christ? When we're walking by faith, when we're trusting in the hope of the gospel, when we're allowing ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit, we're walking on the surface of trouble, unaffected by the things beneath us. But as soon as we take our eyes off Christ, Our feet begin to sink and the worry creeps in. Do you know what I'm talking about? Have you experienced this or am I the only one? Okay, I'm the only one. The God of heaven is the God of peace. And this is to whom our author prays. And it's the one to whom we can come and pray as well. The God of peace has done things. He has accomplished much on behalf of his people. And it says this in the next clause here, who brought again from the dead, our Lord Jesus. The God of peace who brought up out of the grave, the Lord Jesus. This is the first time in the whole book of Hebrews that the resurrection is mentioned. It's not that it's not important to our author, clearly the resurrection is central to the gospel. But the author hasn't mentioned it explicitly. He hasn't even really referenced it. The author has gone from the death of Christ and the pouring out of his blood to that scene in heaven where he is seated at the right hand of God. The resurrection is implied in the fact that Jesus goes from death to life again, life in heaven at the presence of God. But he never once mentions explicitly the resurrection until here. But here in this short phrase, he encapsulates all that Christ accomplished. And he's praying to this God of heaven, the God of peace, who brought up again from the dead our Lord Jesus. And with this, he begins to unpack how it is that the peace of God has come to us. It has come through the presence of Jesus on the earth who accomplished salvation on our behalf and ultimately who came up out of the grave. When you read the gospels, you will tell, you'll be able to tell that Jesus is unlike any other man that ever existed. He's not in the same category as other religious leaders. No one did the types of things that he did. No one accomplished the things that he accomplished. No one spoke like him ever. Yet at the end of all of that, when he died on a Roman cross and was buried in a tomb, if he did not rise from the grave, it would all be for nothing. The resurrection is God's exclamation point to the end of Christ's life. It's God saying, I'm satisfied with this man's life. I'm satisfied with his death. I'm satisfied with his sacrifice on behalf of sinners. And God says, come home. You've accomplished all that I sent you to do, now come home. And so the resurrection, which is mentioned here in passing, referring to God and what God has accomplished in the person of Christ. The resurrection is vitally important. It says here that he was brought up again from the dead, that Jesus was brought up again from the dead. Our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, And again, we just need to take these phrase by phrase and unpack them because they are like concentrated theology, which the author has already unpacked for us, but now he's praying on our behalf that these things would be beneficial in our lives. The great shepherd of the sheep. We talked even last week about the role of leaders in our lives and that they keep watch over us, like those shepherds on the night when Jesus was born, those literal shepherds who were keeping watch over their flocks by night. This was the role of shepherds, to keep watch over the sheep, to protect them and guard them, but also to feed them. And here in this closing prayer, Jesus, the one who has been brought up from the grave is referred to as a shepherd of the sheep. And that might not seem very special at all because lots of people in the Bible are referred to as shepherds. David was a shepherd. Joseph helped shepherd his father's sheep. Many people shepherded sheep. It wasn't special. In fact, it was kind of looked down upon In the New Testament, the apostles were called shepherds. Pastors are referred to as shepherds of God's sheep. But this title is unique by that one word that sets it apart from all other shepherds. Jesus, the Lord Jesus is the great shepherd of the sheep. This is to say that he is unlike any other shepherd. This is now another comparison, even coming out in the form of his prayer, that when he looks at Jesus, he sees no comparison. Surely there are other shepherds, surely there are other even good shepherds that have gone before, but there is none that reaches the level of the great shepherd. Jesus is uniquely God's great shepherd. And here this title kind of puts it next to another title that Jesus has been given in the book of Hebrews, the great high priest. Earlier he talks about the priestly role and what those priests did in the earthly tabernacle and how they assisted the worshipers who were coming to worship God and they had to go through the priest and the priest was the one to bring the blood into the presence of God. But every priest would stand and do his work and every priest would go home at the end of the day when someone else would take his shift. And week by week, month by month, year by year, generation by generation, these priests would come and go, but they could never satisfy God. We're told that the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. But Jesus is the great high priest. And we're told that by his sacrifice, once and for all, he is perfected for all time, those who are being made new in him, those who have put their faith in him. This Jesus is the great high priest, but he's also the great shepherd of the sheep. And I came in my mind, the only way I could make sense of this, what he's praying in these two verses in my mind is depicted by the shape of an hourglass. I have a small hourglass on my desk and you've all seen them. It's big at the top and it gets narrow in the middle and it gets big at the bottom. And in my mind this made perfect sense that God is represented by that top, heaven is represented by that top portion. And heaven has blessings to pour upon mankind. Heaven has peace and love and security and all the blessings of heaven that want to be showered upon mankind and they all flow through Christ. Christ is the one who is a high priest, a great high priest who represents mankind on the bottom to bring them acceptably into God's presence to worship. But he's also the great shepherd of the sheep who mediates the blessings of God to God's people. Even in this prayer, we see the centrality of the gospel. What else is there to talk about? In this author's mind, he spent all these words just clarifying and building up and comparing Christ and the gospel with everything that has gone before and there is absolutely no comparison. For him, this is the greatest and highest loftiest thing to think about and talk about. And yet people still wanna talk about football or hunting or whatever else. Not that those things are bad in and of themselves, they just do not compare. He is the great shepherd of the sheep. The high priest represents mankind coming into God's presence. The shepherd works on behalf of the owner to care for the sheep. Both of these titles in the book of Hebrews speak of the person and work of Christ, of his roles even now. While he's in heaven, he's representing us before the Father, always there to intercede for us, always there to remind heaven that these ones are mine, these are blood-bought saints. I have made them holy, but also he is with us daily. to shepherd us and to care for us, to lead us into truth, to care for us and to give us his spirit to minister to us. Verse 20 ends with these words, by the blood of the eternal covenant. As we're thinking and unpacking these words, as we're trying to make sense of what the author is saying here, he's just still calling out to the God of peace. He's reminding his readers and his hearers that the God of peace has accomplished all of this in the person and work of Jesus that he brought him up from the grave that he assigned him the role of the great shepherd of the sheep and all of this was accomplished by the blood of the eternal covenant. Commentators and scholars go round and round on what this exactly means that this happened by the blood of the eternal covenant and I just think it's simply saying this, that the blood of Christ represented by his death was paid in full satisfaction of the wrath of God. That when Christ poured out his blood, when he spoke those words from the cross, it is finished. He meant it. There wasn't just a nice way to die. He was speaking to the heavens and he was speaking to all those on the earth, what God has sent me to do, I have done, it is finished. And in the death of Christ, we see in the resurrection that God accomplished, God says, I agree. The blood of Christ absorbed, the death of Christ absorbed the wrath of God. He is a propitiation, a satisfaction of the wrath of God for us. John the Baptist says that we all are under the wrath of God, that all humanity is under the wrath of God, that even though God is in heaven and he's at perfect peace, that he has assigned to us that we are enemies of him. As soon as we followed after the serpent in the garden, we all fell into the category of enemy and God is at war with us and yet God in his son is accomplishing peace. Just like he promised in the garden, the offspring of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. And when Jesus poured out his blood, it satisfied the last drop of God's wrath. And it secured the eternal covenant. This has already been talked about at length in the book of Hebrews but turn over, let me just recap for you the eternal covenant that he's speaking about in chapter 10. He talked about it before that but we'll summarize here in chapter 10. Verse 16, this is the covenant that I will make with them, quoting from Jeremiah here. After those days declares the Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds. God is declaring from heaven through Jeremiah to the people of Israel and by extension to us, I will do this. And then he adds, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. This is the beautiful truth of the gospel, that our sins can be forgiven forever. Listen, Christian, I know that you still sin because you're like me and I still sin. And sometimes when we sin, we're tempted to think that God has maybe just reached the boiling point. Maybe God now is fed up with us. And we have to come back to these words where God has said, before you were ever born, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. When we sin and we sin, we come to the God of heaven, the God of peace, who has made peace with us through his son, and we come through the great high priest, and we say, Father, I've sinned again, will you forgive me? And he says, yes, it's already been accomplished. The blood of the eternal covenant has secured your forgiveness forever. You are no longer an enemy. You are a son or a daughter and you are in my family forever. Nothing could ever come between God's love and his children, not even our own sin. Our sin is forgiven at the cross. and this is a forever covenant. That's what Hebrews 13 says. It's an eternal covenant, not like the previous covenant that was based on if you do this, then I will do this. The eternal covenant, the new covenant is based on God saying, I will do this. It's based in God's character. It's based on the word of God. It has nothing to do with us. It's God declaring, I will do this, period. And so believer, if you struggle to wonder whether or not God forgives you when you sin again, trust the Bible. Don't trust your own feelings. Don't trust the condemning thoughts of the enemy that infiltrate your mind. Don't trust the people around you that say, well, you're really not that good of a Christian. Come and fall at the feet of Jesus who is compassionate and let him bring you into the presence of God where you will be reminded that your sin is not remembered anymore. The God of peace accomplished all of this through the blood of Jesus. But then we come to verse 21. Verse 21 gives us really the rest of the prayer. And let me just, verses 20 and 21 are this prayer. And let me just read you the simplest form of this prayer without all the extra stuff that's tacked in there. Essentially, this is what he's saying. May the God of peace equip you that you may do his will through Jesus Christ to God's glory. Did you hear that? Let me read it again. This is his prayer in a boiled down version. May the God of peace equip you so that you may do his will through Jesus Christ to God's glory. This is a prayer we can say amen to. This is a prayer that represents God's eternal good pleasure for us. Biblical prayers that tell us and show us what God's desire is for us. If nothing else, let us learn from this prayer how we ought to pray for ourselves. So often we pray prayers that just exhibit our own selfishness. Our prayers demonstrate the shallowness of our own spiritual lives. His prayer is simply this, may the God of peace equip you so that you may do His will through Jesus Christ to God's glory. Verse 21, equip you. May the God of peace equip you. May He make you ready. May He cause you to be prepared and equipped and yeah, ready for all that He has for you. This is really the process of sanctification that God has placed all of us as believers in. He is working through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, through the shed blood of Jesus to equip us with everything good, to prepare us and make us ready with everything good, and we need to qualify what this is. Everything good is not determined by us. Let me show you in chapter 11, turn over to chapter 11. At the end of this long chapter where he's going through this hall of faith, he just rattles off a bunch of people at the end because he's running out of space probably. And in verse 35, he says, women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life. Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two. They were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats and destitute and afflicted and mistreated. Now go back to this prayer in chapter 13. May God equip you with everything good. God determined for those saints long ago that certain things were deemed good for them to go through. Certain things were deemed necessary in order to equip them. Chapter 11 flows into chapter 12 where the author reminds us to not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. That he disciplines those he loves. that he sees fit to bring what he would determine as good, what we would determine as painful, he brings these things into our life to equip us and prepare us and make us ready for future good works. He is working. He is preparing through all the things that he deems necessary. so that you may do his will. This is the goal, isn't it? This is the opposite goal of what the serpent spoke to the woman in the garden when he turned her heart away from her God, away from her great shepherd, away from the giver of peace. With a word, with a lie, he turned her heart towards her own self. He put a mirror in front of her or an iPhone, whatever you wanna call it. And he said, instead of looking out at the beauty of what God has made, instead of relishing in what God is and who he is, rather look at yourself. Just take selfies all the time. Selfies, I'm convinced, are a form of idolatry. There, I've ruined it for you. You'll never take another selfie the same way again. Now, listen, obviously, we can capture pictures with us and our family. I'm not saying you can't take a selfie, but really, at the heart of it, what is it? It's mankind expressing their own interest in themselves. It's our fallen human nature saying what I care about most is not the Grand Canyon, what I care about most is me in front of the Grand Canyon. God is equipping us with everything good so that we can do his will. This is how Jesus taught his disciples to pray. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus recognized that in heaven, everything is the way it should be, that in the mind of God, there is perfect peace and that peace is mediated over the heavenly kingdom. And what he wants is for that peace to come through the blessings of Jesus to the life of his people so that that peace will be manifested on this earth. So that God's will will be accomplished. so that his image bearers would reflect his glory back to him instead of absorbing it for themselves. equip you with everything good that you may do His will, and then he says it essentially a different way, working in us, that God is working in us, even though Christ is seated at the right hand of God, He sent His Spirit, he told the disciples, to help them, to be their helper, and the Spirit works in us who believe that which is pleasing in His sight. And again, just by comparison, it's not what is pleasing in our sight. So much of what is wrong in Christianity in our generation is that it is self-absorbed and self-focused. It is us determining what is acceptable. It is us determining what is right. It is us determining what is pleasing rather than what the author has called us to in chapter 12 and chapter 13. Back in verse 28 he says, therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship. He restates this in a little bit different words in verse 16 of chapter 13, do not neglect to do good and to share what you have for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. And then in his closing prayer, he reminds them that the God of peace is equipping us with everything good and he's working in us that which is pleasing in his sight. Do you kick and complain and murmur and argue that God's working in your life? Do you get frustrated at the people He surrounds you with? Or do you accept them as a gift from God to help you, to shape you, to mold you, to benefit you for His good, according to His good pleasure? And how does all of God's equipping come to us? Through Jesus Christ. Again, in my mind, this is so clear that there is this hourglass shaped plan of redemption. where the blessings of heaven that God wants to give to us are mediated through the person in the work of Christ, through the blood of Christ, to us who believe, where we by then are brought into the presence of God by this great high priest. He makes us acceptable to him. He brings us into the presence of God through his shed blood. It's all accomplished through Jesus Christ. There is a sense in which we on earth who love Jesus look to Jesus and we see him as our hero, as our champion. He has accomplished salvation on our behalf and we celebrate Christ. But listen to this, there is also a sense in which heaven also does the same thing, which all the angelic host of heaven look to Jesus, to the Christ, and they say, He is our champion, He is our hero because He has taken God's blessings and He has mediated them to those on the earth. He has redeemed back for God those who are called according to His purpose. And for all eternity, when heaven and earth are brought back together in one dwelling with the presence of God, we redeemed and the angels of heaven will all sing His praises. Amen? It is pleasing in His sight. I hear people say and make the argument that Jesus never claimed to be God. They just need to read the Bible. But even as I say that, I know this, that as they read the Bible, their eyes are darkened. They read these words and see nothing. They read the same words and experience no grace, no benefit for the heart because they're still in darkness, because the blessings of heaven have not been mediated to them through the son. The blood of his eternal covenant has not been counted to their account. They're still under the wrath of God. All that Christ accomplished is at the center of the universe. The author could write series of sermons in line with this theme that Christ is greater, that Christ is better. We could literally just preach the same message week after week after week. He's better than your family. He's better than your job. He's better than your house. He's better than all of your desires. He's better than anything you could live for. He is the greatest. And thus the author ends his prayer and his divine purpose in our life with these words, to whom be glory forever and ever. This and other verses like it are what led theologians and pastors to write centuries or a century ago, years ago at least, that the chief end of man was to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Literally the greatest purpose, the greatest thing you could ever live for, the greatest being to live for is none other than God in heaven. I imagine in my mind, the author of this sermon was being preached, which it's obviously being written, And he opens his eyes and raises his head after closing in prayer, only to give some final instructions, some closing thoughts before sending them on their way. Verse 22, he says, I appeal to you brothers, speaking to the whole congregation, obviously brothers and sisters, but collectively brothers, I appeal to you brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, put up with, endure. Accept my word of exhortation. This is another way of saying my sermon. Deal with it, I could say at the end of my sermon. Bear with it, put up with it, accept it. He says, for I have written to you briefly. Some of you may disagree. takes about an hour or so to read through the book of Hebrews. So in a sense in its original form it was about an hour long sermon which is what you're used to. But he says I have written to you briefly which means I could have said a lot more I could keep going. I hope you know that I don't for your sake and because I get hungry and I need lunch but I have written to you briefly and he says Accept it. Then he gives some happy news. You should know that our brother Timothy, everyone knows who Timothy is. Timothy was Paul's protege. He's an up and coming spiritual man in the church, very helpful. His heart is for Christ and Christ only. And this author wants everyone to know, hey, you should know that Timothy has been released. We didn't even know he was in prison. This is the only place that we can read of that, but they obviously knew that he was imprisoned. And the author says, you should know that Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon. So again, we get this clue that maybe wherever Timothy was in prison, that he's on the other side of the author and the audience is over here somewhere. And when Timothy comes through the area, they'll link up and they'll travel together to come and visit these saints. Just closing thoughts, he's just saying some things. Verse 24, greet all your leaders. To greet means to be happy about or to welcome kindly. It's what my dog does when I come home. She's so happy. I don't even like her that much. Don't tell her. But she doesn't care. Every time I walk in the door, her tail's wagging. She wants to lick me, which that's why I don't like her. But it's probably my fault for not training her properly. So anyway. She's greeting me though, she's happy to see me. That's what this word means, to greet happily, to welcome happily, to anticipate their arrival. Greet all your leaders. It has the idea that you accept their leadership and you welcome it in your life. And not only them, but all the saints. Greet them, welcome them. Those who come from Italy, send you greetings. meaning they're eager to see you one day. And then he concludes his sermon with the most appropriate words, grace be with all of you. In a sense, grace was with them through their leaders and through the other saints around them. Grace was with them in people like Timothy, being able to minister broadly to the church of God. Grace came to them by means of this sermon that was written down for their benefit and by whoever stood up to read it for them. Grace came to them through the prayer that he prayed. And grace comes to us in all those same ways, church. Whoever this man is, God led him in the situation that they were in to sit down and pen this letter so that the church that was receiving it would benefit, but also so that we would benefit. And how does God's grace come into our lives? Well, it comes through the person of Christ, through the blood of Christ. It is mediated through him and through his work, but it comes to us through his servants and the message that they wrote down. which we accept as the word of God. If you were to live a dependent Christian life, if you were to live a life marked by grace, it'll be because you learn to feed on the grace of his word. Amen. Well, I've preached to you briefly. It's time to be done. Let me pray. Father, you are good. You've demonstrated that most clearly through your son, sending him in our place to accomplish all the work that was necessary to bring us back to you. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for your perfection. Thank you for the satisfaction of your blood that you offered to God. And we thank you that you serve as our great shepherd, but also as our great high priest. We thank you for your gospel, which keeps our eyes fixed on you, and we pray that you would help us, Lord, to never look away. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen.