| Introduction In celebrating the first advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are considering his mission. The baby on Mary's lap or in the mange as nativity scenes portray him, was born to die. He was destined for the cross in order to shed his blood for the redemption of his people. Last week, Peter taught us that the redemption purchase by the blood of Christ motivates us to have our minds ready to do work, minds that are not clouded by intoxication, hoping in the return of Jesus Christ. Peter exhorted us to live holy lives because of the blood of Jesus. This morning we will consider another blood passage, perhaps the most beautiful one in the Bible. It is both a doxology and a benediction. It too considers the mission of the incarnate Son of God and our response to it. Just before these verses, the author of this letter asked the people in the church to pray for him (vv. 18-19). Now he prays for them. In his prayer, he tells us who God is, what God does, and how we respond to whom God is and does. A. God is the God of peace. 1. The Hebrew church was in turmoil. a. They were seriously considering putting Jesus aside and going back to temple Judaism. b. They were thinking that a return to temple Judaism would bring peace to their lives. 1) They would be able to go back to the synagogue. 2) They would be able to do business with the community without being shunned. c. The Holy Spirit shows them how essential to God's identity as the God of peace the work and resurrection of Chris is. d. There is no real peace apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. 2. God is the God of PEACE. a. The Hebrew/biblical concept of peace includes absence of conflict and turmoil, but it is much closed to our concept of wholeness and completeness. b. Therefore, the concept of peace is a positive concept – not just the absence of something, but the presence of someone: Jesus Christ, the Prince of peace. 3. God is the God of THEpeace. a. This is not peace in a general sense, but the very peace/completeness/satisfaction that the human heart craves. b. The implication of the word THEis that this peace cannot be found anywhere else. 1) The source is God – a relationship and prayer to the God of the peace brings peace. Phil. 4:6-7– Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. a) Notice that the result of bringing before God all the issues that are causing you to be anxious is not necessarily a change in circumstances, but the removal of anxiety. b) That happens because at that moment we are finding our wholeness and satisfaction in God. c) If we are complete in God and he promises to never leave us or forsake us, then our hearts will be guarded against anxiety. 2) The peace of God is only found through Jesus Christ. Jn. 14:27– Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Rom. 5:1-2– Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. c. God not exemplifies peace, but also promotes peace/wholeness among his people – the God of Shalom. B. God is the God who raised our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from the dead. 1. God is the God of peace because of the Lord Jesus Christ. a. God raised his Son from the dead because of the blood that Jesus shed on behalf of those who believe in him (inor byis better than through). b. This might sound really obvious, but the means that the Father used to raise Jesus was his death. 1) One might say, "Duh! In order to be raised from the dead, one has to be dead!" 2) Yes, that's true, but the point here is that the Father brought Jesus back to life because of the blood he shed in the sense that God accepted his blood as a sacrifice on our behalf. 3) The resurrection is a declaration that what Jesus did worked and we can know God as the God of peace. Heb. 9:12– Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 2 Cor. 5:18-19– Now all things areof God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 4) Notice how he refers to the work of Jesus as the blood of the everlasting covenant. a) This eternal covenant is the New Covenant that was discussed in great length in chapter 8. b) This is the eternal, that is, the forever way that God relates to us. c) There is no possibility of its becoming obsolete and another being needed. d) The blood of Jesus never loses its power; therefore, God is always the God of peace. 2. This identification of Jesus as the great Shepherd of the sheep plays a big part in God being a God who makes his people whole/complete/satisfied. a. The shepherd imagery connotes not just care but absolute sovereignty over the sheep. 1) Domesticated sheep cannot live without a shepherd. a) They won't find food or water. b) They will not be able to fight the predators. c) They will not be able find their will back to the seep pan. d) We are the sheep; we need to identify ourselves with the sheep. 1 Pt. 2:25a– For you were like sheep going astray… 2) The God of peace did not leave us to ourselves he gave us a shepherd so Peter concludes. 1 Pt. 2:25– For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. 3) We didn't return to him because we found him attractive, but because he sought us out and brought us back to the fold. Jn. 10:14-16– I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep,and am known by My own. As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock andone shepherd. b. The God of peace creates peace in our hearts and lives as we trust our Shepherd fully. 1) Jesus is THE great Shepherd – there isn't anyone greater or who can do a better job of bringing peace/wholeness/satisfaction. 2) And our great Shepherd is a tender Shepherd. Isa. 40:11– He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, and carry themin His bosom, andgently lead those who are with young. 1. Keep in mind that this equipping is still in the context of God being a God of peace. 2. To make complete is to put into proper condition, to equip, to restore, to mend. a. This word is used in Mt. 4:21 of fishing nets being repaired so that they could do what they were designed to do. Mt. 4:21– Going on from there, He saw two other brothers, James thesonof Zebedee, and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mendingtheir nets. b. It is also used of the restoration of a brother who fell into sin. Gal. 6:1– Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who arespiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. c. In extra-biblical writings of the first century, it is used of setting a broken bone straight. 3. How he does that? How does God equip us through the blood of the eternal covenant to be whole/satisfied/at peace? a. The NKJV has "in every good work," but it is better to translate that phrase as "with every good thing." 1) God equips us with every good thing that we need to do all he calls us to do. 2) There is absolutely nothing that we need to be whole, complete, satisfied that God does not provide us through the blood of the eternal covenant. b. Notice that the sufficiency of this equipping – EVERYgood thing. 1) We are so tempted to seek peace and wholeness somewhere else like the Hebrew Christians were. a) We run to substances to provide the peace and wholeness that only Christ provides. b) We run to relationships to provide the peace and wholeness that only Christ provides. c) We run to arrogance to provide the peace and wholeness that only Christ provides – if I think highly about myself maybe I will feel whole. d) We run to our body image to provide the peace and wholeness that only Christ provides. e) We run to our sexuality to provide the peace and wholeness that only Christ provides. 2) In the running we leave behind every good thing that is entirely sufficient for our wholeness and satisfaction. 3) And those things we run to may even provide a temporary relief and sense of wholeness, but eventually they will only destroy us. c. The God of peace equips us sometimes directly, but more often than not through means. 1) He equips us to be whole through his Word 2 Tim. 3:16-17– All Scripture isgiven by inspiration of God, and isprofitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete[related word], thoroughly equipped[related word] for every good work. 2) He equips us to be whole through his Spirit. Jn. 16:13– However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority,but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. 3) He equips us to be whole through his shepherds. Eph. 4:11-13– And He Himself gave some to beapostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…. 1 Pt. 5:1-4– The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. 4) He equips us to be whole through his people (an example) Eph. 4:14-16– … that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Gal. 6:1-2– Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who arespiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 1. Because of Jesus Christ, the Father works in us to want and to do what is pleasing to him. Phil 2:13– …for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for Hisgood pleasure. 2. When we run from Christ and try to find wholeness and peace somewhere else, we are also running from the work of God that makes us satisfied with obedience to him. 3. After all what is what is pleasing to him if not obedience to him. 4. What pleases him is our becoming in practice what he declared us to be in heaven – like his Son Jesus Christ. III. How We Respond to Whom God Is and Does, 21b. 1. He is equipping us in order for us to do his will. a. This idea cannot be lost on us. b. God is working wholeness/satisfaction/peace in us for a specific purpose – obedience to his will, which is the same thing as obedience to his Word. "The work of God makes man's work possible." Westcott 2. We are at our best when we are obeying God. a. The saying, "let go and let God," is only partially true. b. We have to add something like, "let go and let God and do what he tells you in the Bible." c. Paul marries these two ideas together in Philippians Phil. 2:12-13– Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for Hisgood pleasure. 1. As it is often the case, the contemplation of the work of Christ causes the Christian to break forth in doxology. 2. Our response to whom God is and what he does for us in making us whole, complete, at peace is making much of him. 3. Words, deeds, thoughts, attitude, everything bursting with the praises of Christ.
Peace, wholeness, satisfaction can be elusive. But only when we are running from the God of peace instead into the God of peace. May the God of peace who raised out of the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip us with everything good that we 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.
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-blood-of-eternal-covenant-heb-1320.html
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