Sermons

Hebrews 13:20-21 God’s Power

Not understatement to say, society is fragile. 

• Never been a time when our fragility is on fuller display.
  • Peaceful protests and violent protests.
  • Riots and looting.
  • People endangered, injured, and even killed.

 

• The sensitivity to what is said about anything going on is also at an all-time high.
  • Every word scrutinized and catalogued for record.
  • This is okay, because everything is scrutinized and catalogued in the annuals of heaven.

 

• Heaven’s log is a far higher level of scrutiny.
• Our guide and rule for what should be spoken and not is God’s Word.

Still, the essential balance for discernment must be applied:

^ESV  1 Corinthians 6:12 ^a“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be enslaved by anything.

^ESV  1 Corinthians 10:23 ^a“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.

 

With society all but halted for the last three months due to a virus and cities burning, to say nothing seems conspicuous and perhaps irresponsible.

• At the same time, there is a lot I could speculate about.

 

• Others in their field of specialty are far more qualified to offer perspectives and opinions regarding meaning and significance and even predictions.

 

• My inclination and skillset does not take me toward something like this.

 

I am not given toward “Bad News” but “Good News”:

• “Bad News” defined: “Circumstances we cannot know the full meaning of with certainty and implications for our lives.”

Verses

• “Good News” defined: “Truths and promises Christians know with full clarity and certainty along with their meanings and implications for our lives.”

Our passage is a Benediction.  This means “To say a blessing.” 

^ESV  Numbers 6:24-25 The LORD ^abless you and ^bkeep you;

²⁵ the LORD ^amake his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

²⁶ the LORD ^alift up his countenance¹ upon you and give you peace.

 

^ESV  2 Corinthians 13:14 ^aThe grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and ^bthe love of God and ^cthe fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

 

^ESV  Jude 1:24-25 ^aNow to him who is able ^bto keep you from stumbling and ^cto present you ^dblameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, ²⁵ to ^athe only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, ^bbe glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

 

The Benediction in Hebrews focuses on the power of God. 

• Power essential to apply the Good News in light of a whole lot of Bad News.

 

• A series of Broad Gospel Statements that apply in any circumstance, from 2,000 years ago today!

What we need.  Truths and Promises we know with certainty with God’s power to live them! 

 

There is a lot we think with know, that we really do not know. 

• Modern, ubiquitous, in your face, aggressive, agenda drenched dripping media makes us feel like we know a lot with certainty.

 

• In fact, there is much we do not know with full clarity or even certainty.

 

• At the same time, when you believe the Bible, there is a lot you actually do know with full clarity and certainty!

^ESV  Psalm 119:97-100 Oh how ^aI love your law! It is my ^bmeditation all the day. ⁹⁸ Your commandment makes me ^awiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me.⁹⁹ I have more understanding than all my teachers, for ^ayour testimonies are my meditation.¹⁰⁰ I understand more than ^athe aged,¹ for I ^bkeep your precepts.

 

 

The good news; what Christians know.

• Good news is why you can face anything in your life.
• These points are only good news for Christians.
• The world also wants this good news but they largely do not know they do.
• The world seeks a kind of good news that is temporal.

“What does the world seek?” 

 

• Their biggest problems solved:
  • Health or a long life.
  • To feel loved and understood.
  • To be secure financially.
  • To have a functional identity.
  • To be inspired with purpose – your “why.”

 

• These common grace desires are all answered in Jesus and brought to an entirely different level.

 1. God solved your deepest problem (v. 20)

“Now may the God of peace” (v. 20).

• “Peace” is a timely word.
  • Title for God, the author of peace.
  • Jesus is also called, “Prince of peace” (Is. 9:6).

 

• We could use some peace as a nation.
  • In the end, all will be reconciled when God ushers in the New Heavens and New Earth.
  • God will make things right bringing judgement on his enemies.

 

• Peace here is not political peace but salvation peace.

 

• “Peace” made between you and God by raising his Son from death. “…who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus” (v. 20). 

 

This is the only explicit reference to Christ’s resurrection but implied throughout Hebrews.  Scholars say Hebrews is light on Christ’s Resurrection!

^ESV  Hebrews 5:7 In the days of his flesh, ^aJesus¹ offered up prayers and supplications, ^bwith loud cries and tears, to him ^cwho was able to save him from death, and ^dhe was heard because of his reverence.

 

^ESV  Hebrews 6:20 where Jesus has gone ^aas a forerunner on our behalf, ^bhaving become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

^ESV  Hebrews 7:16 who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.

• God is the ultimate peacemaker.
• Christ raised means our biggest problem was actually dealt with.
• Really Good News.

 

“What is our biggest problem?”  Riots?  The races?  Hatred?  What to do with the pandemic? 

These problems are real; I cannot with any real certainty tell you what is going to happen with each one. 

What I can tell you with certainty is where each problem originates!  And, thereby solution for each problem. 

• The origin is SIN!
  • Sin, since the fall, has affected this world.
  • Our world is in constant digression.

 

• Everyone born into this world feels this effect physically, circumstantially, and emotionally!

 

• Since the fall, SIN is born in everyone’s heart.

 

• Sin is why people think and act the way they do.

 

Solving sin is the solution to all of these categories. 

• Your sin is solved one way, by a Savior!
  • Believing on Jesus.
  • Turning from SIN.
  • Trusting Jesus paid for it on a Cross.

 

• Sin always leads to death, Jesus died and his resurrection means he won!

 ^ESV  Psalm 110:1 A Psalm of David. ^aThe LORD says to my Lord: ^b“Sit at my right hand, ^cuntil I make your enemies your ^dfootstool.”

^ESV  Hebrews 1:3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and ^athe exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. ^bAfter making purification for sins, ^che sat down ^dat the right hand of the Majesty on high

^ESV  Hebrews 1:13 And to which of the angels has he ever said, ^a“Sit at my right hand ^buntil I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?

^ESV  Hebrews 8:1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, ^aone who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven

^ESV  Hebrews 10:12 But when Christ¹ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he ^asat down at the right hand of God

^ESV  Hebrews 12:2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, ^awho for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising ^bthe shame, and ^cis seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Our reconciliation works in two directions. 

• Vertically, we are reconciled through Christ to the Father.
• Horizontally, we are reconciled through Christ with one another.
  • Your ability to love your neighbor is solely based on Christ’s resurrection.
  • Sin’s dominance is broken so our dividing walls can fall!

God is the “God of peace” because he alone authored this plan!  A plan for peace and reconciliation! 

 2. God meets you as your Shepherd (v. 20)

God as our Shepherd is what makes God distinct from every other made-up god. 

• Jesus conquered sin and death so that he could draw near to you.
• As a Shepherd, he knows his sheep.

^ESV  John 10:11-14 ^aI am the good shepherd. The good shepherd ^blays down his life for the sheep. ¹² He who is ^aa hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and ^bleaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and ^cscatters them.¹³ He flees because ^ahe is a hired hand and ^bcares nothing for the sheep.^{14 a}I am the good shepherd. ^bI know my own and ^cmy own know me

 

He rose as the “great” [megav] of the “sheep” (v. 20). 

• Intimacy is promised and “eternal” as he sealed your relationship “by the blood of the eternal covenant” (v. 20).

^ESV  John 15:13 ^aGreater love has no one than this, ^bthat someone lay down his life for his friends.

• The whole reason Christ saved you was to Shepherd you.

^ESV  1 Peter 2:25 For ^ayou were straying like sheep, but have now returned to ^bthe Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

• No matter how many other things we are considered to be, we are always sheep.
  • A son, yes. And, also a sheep. 
  • A saint, yes. And, also a sheep.
  • A co-heir with Christ, yes. And, also a sheep! 

 

• We follow the Lamb!

What all the sacrificial lambs could never do, Christ did. 

• God promises never to fail you.
• He cannot and will not break his commitment to you.

Everything else feels insecure but Christ’s commitment to you is absolutely secure. 

 

God’s greatest display of power in the history of the universe was the resurrection.

^ESV  Colossians 1:20 and ^athrough him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, ^bmaking peace ^cby the blood of his cross.

 

• This resurrection power is the same power is the power God gives us to follow his will.

 3. God empowers you to follow his will (v. 21)

It is never enough simply to see Christ’s example and follow him. 

• We need his power to follow him.

^ESV  2 Corinthians 3:5 ^aNot that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but ^bour sufficiency is from God

 

I want to let you in on an incredible secret about your life. 

• The sooner you embrace this the better.
• God has planned out your life, beginning to end. So, all you have to do is walk in it. 

 

^ESV  Ephesians 2:10 For ^awe are his workmanship, ^bcreated in Christ Jesus ^cfor good works, ^dwhich God prepared beforehand, ^ethat we should walk in them.

• Much heartache and discontentedness counteracts the ability to enjoy life by resisting God’s unfolding path.
  • God gives you tasks that are “good” – Spirit empowered – foreordained for you to do!
  • It cannot be any other way.

 

• As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, we are “not sufficient” for these tasks but as new creations we are “his workmanship, created…for good works…[to] walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

God’s power “equip[s]” the believer. 

• “Equip” [katartizw] is used of mending nets or repairing a broken bone.
  • We are broken lives that have been restored [katartizw] by God’s power.
  • This same resurrection power is “working in us” (v. 21) to “do his will” (v. 21).

 

• Accepting that this is how life works is you first step!

 

• The key is to coming to a place of “willing yieldedness…opening up your heart like a channel” for God’s power to work in and through you [MacArthur].

^ESV  Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, ^aas you have always ^bobeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ for ^ait is God who works in you, both to will and to work for ^bhis good pleasure. (Phi 2:12-13 ESV)

 

“Why does any of this matter?”    

 4. God inspires you with his glory

These days we need inspiration.  People are looking for causes and Christians have one. 

• One cause. The glory of God. 
• We are “equipped” and “empowered” for this cause.

“What is it?”  To be “pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ” (v. 21). 

 

Doing all to the glory of God through your flesh is a frightening form of legalism. 

• This skewed goal has tied up impossible and crushing burdens onto children through men and women in old age. No! 

 

• The Christian life is by design supposed to be an equipped and empowered path of foreordained tasks you do “through Jesus” for God’s “glory!” (v. 21).

 

• This is the path on the way to “forever and ever” (v. 21).

 

“Are you settling for anything less in life?”  “In your Christian life?”  I know I have! 

If you want to be “pleasing in his sight” glorify God “through Jesus Christ” (v. 21). 

• It you want the Christian’s cause, do all for God’s glory!
• In his power, through Christ!
• This is what will inspire now and forever.
• This kind of inspiration does not ever run out.

 

In the famous motion picture Gladiator, the Roman general Maximus leading his cavalrymen into battle reminds that:

“What we do in life echoes in eternity.”  

“If you find yourself alone riding in green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled, for you are in Paradise, and you are already dead!” 

• His point is that to be a Roman soldier meant you already accepted your death.

 

• A Christian soldier accepts a real mission where you render your flesh as “already dead!”

 

• While your new self as alive and empowered to live.   

^ESV  Galatians 2:20 I have been ^acrucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives ^bin me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, ^cwho loved me and ^dgave himself for me.

• The Gospel empowered life is promised you not matter how bad the news is out there.

 

• Our news is the best news.
• We have Good News!
• Live to God’s glory!

“Amen!”