Episode Transcript
[00:00:16] So is anyone familiar here with Cliff's Notes?
[00:00:20] Everybody I see heads nodding. Did anybody like me for the last three decades think it was Cliff Notes?
[00:00:27] Yes. Okay, good. I was really nervous about getting no head nods. So. Yeah, it's one of those things. You just think of it like Kleenex or Q Tip. Right? You don't ever think about what the word is. You just hear it and you know what it is.
[00:00:39] And I thought about it for our text today, and I looked it up, and it's actually Cliff's Notes. There's actually a dude named Cliff that writes summaries of books, so it's called Cliff's Notes.
[00:00:50] Right. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Useless knowledge for the day. But my purpose in that is that our. The majority of our text today, it really is a precise and glorious Cliffs Notes.
[00:01:03] That's not the main purpose of it. It's a beautiful summary. But verses are beautiful prayer. I mean, but the. But verses 20 and 21 really are a masterful summary of the entire letter.
[00:01:17] And as we've seen throughout the entire letter, Jesus is better.
[00:01:21] And because of that, and by God's power, we are to endure in doing good.
[00:01:27] This is what we've seen throughout the whole letter, that Jesus is better, and that because of all that he is and because of all that he's done, and by the power of God, we are to endure in doing good.
[00:01:40] And so verse 20 lifts high and exalts the person of Jesus, as chapters one through four did.
[00:01:47] And it also glories in the perfect and sacrificial blood of Jesus as the means of God's everlasting covenant with us, as we saw in roughly chapters 10, or sorry, 4 through 10.
[00:02:00] And then verse 21 asks God to equip us, to make us complete with everything good that we might endure in doing his will, as we see in roughly chapters 10 through 13.
[00:02:15] And so let us. Let us remember, though, also that the book of Hebrews is more of a written sermon than anything else. And I think this is important for us to be reminded because it does kind of shape the intent of the letter. It really focuses in the exhortation passages of chapters 10 through 13. That's what the author is trying to drive home to his audience.
[00:02:39] His intent is to exhort his audience to draw near to God with full assurance of faith and to endure in doing good in all circumstances in light of who Jesus is and all that he's done.
[00:02:56] And therefore, it's most helpful to see that the first 10 chapters of the Book of Hebrews really functions as a grounds for the exhortation passages that are concentrated in chapters 10 through 13.
[00:03:11] Or in other words, it's because of all of these things that he's elaborated on in chapters one through ten, who Jesus is, all that he's accomplished through his death and resurrection and ascension into heaven. It's because of all of that that we are to endure in doing good and doing God's will.
[00:03:31] And so we see in verse 20 a summary of sorts of roughly chapters 1 through 10, and in verse 21 a summary of chapters 10 through 13.
[00:03:41] But again, it's not merely a summary. It's first and foremost a beautiful prayer that exalts our Lord Jesus and asks God to equip us with everything good so that we might do all these things the author has exhorted us in.
[00:03:59] It comes from a place or a posture of humility that sees that we need God to do these things in us. We need his help to equip us in enduring and doing good, to do all that is pleasing in his sight.
[00:04:16] And so the prayer asks God to do these things, and it grounds it in the certainty that he will do these things because of all that he's already accomplished in and through His Son Jesus.
[00:04:34] So Jesus is better.
[00:04:36] And because Jesus is better than anything, and because of all that he's accomplished by the power of God, we are to endure in doing good.
[00:04:46] And so with that kind of overarching summary, let's. Let's dig in a little bit more into the verses themselves. So open your Bibles if you have them. We're gonna look at verse 20 to get started, and we're gonna spend the bulk of our time, like 95% of our time in verses 20 and 21.
[00:05:04] Now, may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, buy the blood of the eternal covenant.
[00:05:15] So obviously, so much is packed into this one verse.
[00:05:19] I want us to start with God. God in this. In this context is God the Father. And the author is. Is. Is giving his prayer to the God, God the Father, who is the God of peace.
[00:05:33] Peace is something that characterizes God.
[00:05:36] And he delights to make peace with his rebellious and sinful humanity. And in the context here in this letter, he's also. He's also saying that it's God who gives peace to his people, to. To his church, that as we seek to endure in doing good, it's God that gives us unity and peace among one another, that we might together continue and endure in doing good.
[00:06:00] The author is directing his prayer to the God who is peace.
[00:06:05] And so I want to look a little bit closer at the individual level when it comes to peace. And it's because every human being yearns for a deep sense of peace.
[00:06:18] We all yearn for a calm heart, for a clean conscience, but few of us find it, few people in general find it. That true inner peace that isn't dictated by circumstances, that actually defies circumstances.
[00:06:36] Few people find it because it can only be found in one place.
[00:06:41] So the author of the book of Ecclesiastes, King Solomon, says in chapter three, verse 11, that God has put eternity into the heart of man, that the heart of humanity will not be at peace or satisfied with anything that is not eternal.
[00:07:01] And the implications from the book of Ecclesiastes is that though we seek to fill that void, we seek to fill that hole with infinite anything and everything that is created.
[00:07:12] Only God Himself can fill that eternity sized hole in our heart. Only God Himself can bring peace.
[00:07:22] And so it's necessary for the author of Hebrews and the rest of the Bible to remind us that God is the God of peace.
[00:07:31] And it's because we are all naturally not at peace with God. We are naturally enemies of God.
[00:07:38] And so what I want to do briefly is just lay out the entire story of the Bible, hopefully very briefly and concisely to highlight this reality, that we might kind of get a framework as we dig deeper and deeper into this beautiful passage.
[00:07:53] And so God is the God who created all things.
[00:07:57] Everything we see and experience, God created, and he created it good.
[00:08:02] And then God created humanity in his image as the pinnacle of his creation, to rule and to reign over earth, over creation, not for our glory, but for his glory, to honor Him. He created us and gave us this charge.
[00:08:18] But as we know, Adam and Eve in the garden decided to rebel against their Creator in every single human being. Since we rebel against our Creator.
[00:08:30] And so God being just and holy and perfect, and because he created us in his image and we've chosen to rebel against him, we are all justly under his condemnation. He must judge sin because he is good and holy and perfect.
[00:08:48] And so we find ourselves in this predicament, all of humanity searching for peace and unable to find it because we, we can only find peace in God. And yet we're all in rebellion against God.
[00:09:00] But see, this is not, that's not where the story of the Bible ends, right? The story of the Bible is one of redemption.
[00:09:07] Even though we are rebelling against God, God in his perfect timing and as he's weaving all of history together to this one moment in history where the eternal Son of God, who has existed in all glory with the Father and with the Spirit, has come into the world, who's taken on human flesh to live under the law of God, perfectly perfect obedience.
[00:09:34] And then he goes to the cross willingly to die the death that we deserve.
[00:09:39] The Son of God who took on flesh, goes to the cross willingly, taking on God's justice, taking on God's wrath that we rebellious sinners deserve.
[00:09:51] And then not only that, but three days later, he raises from the grave and he's ascended into heaven. This is the good news of the Bible. This is redemption that is available for rebellious sinners. It's the God of peace who is reconciling rebellious humanity to himself through the work of His Son, Jesus. This is what is being laid out for us in this passage. It's reminding us that it's that by the blood of Jesus alone that God reconciles sinners to himself.
[00:10:22] So this is why we can say there's only one place to find peace. It's in and through Jesus Christ.
[00:10:31] And so the reality is, though, right, as Christians, for Christians in the room, we don't always experience this peace, right?
[00:10:39] It's a struggle, it's a battle every day to fight, to live in light of the peace that we know we have because of Jesus.
[00:10:48] And so the author is reminding us through this passage of the wonderful realities of the God of peace.
[00:10:56] If you are in Christ, you are no longer under God's wrath and judgment. You are under the God of peace, who is made peace by the blood of His Son, by the blood of the eternal covenant.
[00:11:11] So we must be consistently, daily reminded of these truths.
[00:11:17] But more than that, as, as we see in this prayer, it's not just about knowing these things. It's about pleading with God to take these things that we know in our heads and push them down into our hearts that we may truly believe them and walk in light of the peace that we have with God for those who are united to Christ by faith.
[00:11:42] So let's continue. Verse 20.
[00:11:44] The God of peace brought from the dead, Jesus, our Lord, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant.
[00:11:55] And so we're going to look a little closely, more closely at bringing Jesus up from the dead by the blood of the eternal covenant. So if you look at that passage, you see the prepositional phrase by the blood of the eternal covenant.
[00:12:08] And in the Greek, that could potentially be Connected with God of peace, which would make a lot of sense, right? As we've seen, it's the God of peace who makes peace with fallen humanity by the blood of Jesus. So that's absolutely true.
[00:12:21] But I think contextually here it makes more sense that by the blood of the eternal covenant is connected with bringing Jesus up from the dead.
[00:12:32] And so what does it mean? The question becomes, what does it mean for Jesus to be raised from the dead by the blood of the eternal covenant? That's the question.
[00:12:41] And so I think it, the answer is essentially in the culmination of the entire book of Hebrews.
[00:12:47] And so follow along with me. This is going to get a little bit thick. We're going to go down a little bit. We'll come back up. Follow along with me. Okay? Chapter seven through ten of the Book of Hebrews gives one of the most extensive treatments in the Bible of this blood of the eternal or everlasting covenant.
[00:13:09] The blood of the covenant that he talks about here. He labored in chapter seven and eight to show that the Old Testament priests were only temporary.
[00:13:19] They mediated a covenant that was a mere shadow of this everlasting covenant that was to come, that is now here by the blood of, of Jesus.
[00:13:29] And then in chapters nine and ten, he labored to show us that the Old Testament temple in all of the sacrificial system again was a mere shadow of the true things, of the true sacrifice that's now here in the blood of Jesus, the blood of the eternal covenant. And so he shows us that Jesus is the true eternal priest.
[00:13:55] Jesus is the true and spotless lamb of God that was sacrificed for sin once for all time.
[00:14:02] And so if you, if you have your Bibles, turn back to chapter 10 real quick, few pages back, we're going to look at chapter 10 real quick, read a few things and then I'll bring it together.
[00:14:13] Chapter 10, starting in verse 11.
[00:14:21] And every priest speaking of the Old Testament priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly, over and over again the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.
[00:14:35] But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. And for by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. He has perfected for all time those who are united to Christ by faith, those who are being sanctified.
[00:15:01] And so this brings us back to our question. What does it mean for Jesus to be Raised from the dead by the blood of the eternal covenant. What is he getting at here?
[00:15:09] And if you look again at verse 12 in the text we just read, I want to draw this out. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, the blood that was spilt for this everlasting covenant, he sat down at the right hand of God.
[00:15:31] Because Jesus is the one true sacrifice for sin, the sacrifice that actually could take away the sins of humanity.
[00:15:40] Because he offered up Himself and accomplished all that God's justice required, willingly going to the cross and taking on upon Himself the full wrath of God for sin. Because of that, God vindicated him and completed the work by raising him from the dead and ascending into heaven where he rules and reigns over all things right now.
[00:16:06] So it's by Jesus accomplishing all that he was sent to do by the Father to die the death that we deserve to have his blood shed for us, that God finishes the work by raising him from the dead. Right? He couldn't stay dead. Paul says if he's still dead, we're still in our sins. He had to conquer everything, even death itself.
[00:16:26] And he did. And so it's by the blood of the eternal covenant the that Jesus is raised from the dead to a position of authority over all things.
[00:16:36] This is the great news of the gospel. We don't have a Savior who's dead. We're not thinking about a Savior who's long gone, but who exists in heaven eternally.
[00:16:46] And he does so by the blood of his eternal covenant. He's ministering on our behalf by the blood that he spilled for us. These are amazing realities that we constantly have to be bathing ourselves in.
[00:17:02] And so it's by grounding ourselves in these wonderful truths church, that in these realities of who Jesus is and all that he's accomplished that we can then move forward with peace and with joy and with a clean conscience as we seek to endure in doing good, to obey his will, and to do all that is pleasing in his sight.
[00:17:27] And it's because of these wonderful realities that Jesus can say to us, his sheep, his people.
[00:17:33] My yoke is easy, My burden is light.
[00:17:39] Come, follow me.
[00:17:42] And I know that, that, I mean, I'll just speak for myself. I think y' all can relate with this. That's not always the experience that we have on a day to day level, right?
[00:17:52] I mean there's sin in my past that still, the ramifications still rear its head all the time. And I feel the condemnation and I struggle with that. I, I have current present sin that I'm battling and struggling against every day, that I'm sometimes feeling like I'm losing the battle.
[00:18:11] And then even beyond that, that just the suffering of this world and the things as they shouldn't be, that. That we all experience, it's not even related to our sin.
[00:18:20] It's a battle, it's a struggle. We must be reminded of these wonderful truths that even though we don't experience it in the moment, we have a God who has reconciled us, who has given us peace by the blood of his son, Jesus. And so we remind ourselves and soak ourselves in these realities and at the same time know that it's not just a mental game. We're not just here to learn all of these things, but we're here to humble ourselves before God and. And ask him to bring these truths into our hearts that we might fight sin, that we might walk in the peace and the joy that he would have for us.
[00:18:59] And I just wanna say, before we move on, to speak just a brief moment to those who aren't Christians in the room, and what I mean by that is to those who deep in their hearts have not experienced this peace that we're talking about. I'm not talking about those that profess to believe Jesus or to believe in things that he's done. I'm talking about those that in their heart have not laid themselves bare and acknowledged that they have absolutely nothing to offer. And they've laid themselves at the foot of Jesus and said, by your blood alone am I made right if you have not done that. What I want to say is that all of the other Christians that are in this room, there's nothing special about us.
[00:19:38] There's nothing unique about us.
[00:19:41] We would all say together that while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for us.
[00:19:48] That while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
[00:19:52] And again, while we were still enemies, while we were rebelling against God, God reconciled us to Himself through the death of His Son. And so what I'm saying is that we're all in here, we're all just beggars trying to show you other beggars where the true bread can be found, where life and life abundantly can be found, the only place that it can be found.
[00:20:16] And so I and the other Christians in the room implore you, we beg you, to be reconciled to God.
[00:20:24] This beautiful message of the Gospel is for everybody, for anybody who would lay down their arms, repent of their sin, lay their sin at the feet of Jesus, and trust that his blood is sufficient, because it is even for you, even for your darkest sins, the blood of Jesus is sufficient.
[00:20:46] Be reconciled to God.
[00:20:49] And we pray that his spirit would do that this morning.
[00:20:56] Okay, so let's move on.
[00:20:58] Let's get back to the text. If you want to flip back over to chapter 13, we've grounded ourselves in the Gospel, the blood of Christ that brings us peace with God and the exalted and victorious Christ that's reigning in heaven.
[00:21:13] And now he prays, verse 21. Look at the text.
[00:21:18] So it's helpful to realize here that the subject of verse 21 is actually the God of peace. Back at the beginning of verse 20. And then he goes off and says all these other amazing things. And so it might be helpful to read it like this. May the God of peace equip you with every good thing 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.
[00:21:45] God is the one doing the equipping.
[00:21:49] God is the one doing the equipping.
[00:21:51] Now, I haven't forgot about the great shepherd. I want to circle back to that now. And I didn't skip over that intentionally. I want to come back to it now because I think it's such a strong encouragement for us to know that we have a great shepherd caring for us as we seek to walk in God's will, as we seek to do what is pleasing in his sight.
[00:22:15] And so when we look at this passage, the great shepherd of the sheep, it's a bit awkward because it's the only time he mentions Jesus as a shepherd in the Book of Hebrews.
[00:22:25] But it's not that awkward when we realize that. Chapter 13, if you remember last week, he mentions leaders a couple of times. And so in his mind, he's got pastors, he's got shepherding in his mind.
[00:22:36] And just as he's done throughout the book of Hebrews, he can't help but exalt Jesus as better.
[00:22:44] Jesus is the better shepherd. Jesus is the great shepherd of the sheep. Jesus is better than Moses. He's better than the angels. He's better than the Old Testament, Old Covenant priests and sacrifices, and he is the better pastor.
[00:23:02] He is the great shepherd of the sheep.
[00:23:07] And so I imagine if you're anything like me, city boy from Dallas, we hear about sheep. And I mean, I'm a veterinarian and I know nothing about sheep.
[00:23:16] And so the reality that we need to know is that sheep are pretty dumb and left to themselves. They would get themselves into all kinds of trouble.
[00:23:24] I think that's pretty sufficient, right? That's us.
[00:23:28] And God is our shepherd. As we see all throughout the Old Testament, we see God positioning himself as the good shepherd. We see that in Ezekiel, chapter 34 and elsewhere. And then in John, chapter 10, Jesus comes on the scene and says, that's me.
[00:23:44] I'm the good shepherd of the sheep.
[00:23:47] He's the one who provides for, who protects, who cares for who loves the sheep.
[00:23:54] He will pick us up when we stumble.
[00:23:58] He will come after us when we wander.
[00:24:01] He will snatch us out of the lion's mouth. He will lead us into green pastures where we can feast.
[00:24:09] And most amazing of all, as we see in John 10:11, Jesus is the one who lays down his life for his sheep.
[00:24:20] Jesus is the perfect leader.
[00:24:23] He is the perfect shepherd who will never fail you.
[00:24:28] He proves this by laying down his own life for you.
[00:24:33] But in our text this morning, he doesn't call him the good shepherd. Right. He calls him the great shepherd.
[00:24:40] And I think that's important because he does this in other places in the book of Hebrews as well. Anybody remember what else Jesus is the great of?
[00:24:51] Somebody call it out. I know. You know, I don't know who that was, but thank you. Yes. Jesus is the great high priest. In chapter 4, verse 14, he's the great high priest. And then in chapter 10, verse 21, he's referred to as the great priest.
[00:25:07] And what's clear in both of these cases is that Jesus is the great high priest. He is the great priest.
[00:25:15] Not just because he is the perfect priest and perfect sacrifice for sin, but I think more of the point is that because of his resurrection and ascension into the place of power and authority.
[00:25:29] And so if we see in chapter 4, verse 14, it says, since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens.
[00:25:38] That's a reference to Jesus's ascension into the place of power.
[00:25:43] And then in chapter 10, it talks about him sitting down at the right hand of God.
[00:25:49] Jesus completed all that was necessary for our redemption, as we've seen. And he sits down at the right hand of the Father. That is a picture of Jesus's authority in heaven. He is the great high priest because he lives, he has an indestructible life, as the author of Hebrews says in chapter seven, he lives and rules and reigns as our great priest, interceding on our behalf, pleading the blood of his eternal covenant always and ever for us. This is the wonderful great high priest that has done this.
[00:26:23] And so my point in all of this, my point is saying that Jesus is the great shepherd. It's saying so much more than he's just the good shepherd, right? He is the good shepherd. He's perfectly good. He lays down his life for his sheep, but he's also the all powerful shepherd.
[00:26:43] Jesus is the ascended ruler in heaven. He is the all powerful great shepherd. I think that's what the author is getting at.
[00:26:52] He is the exalted shepherd who has already given his life for his sheep and he's been raised up again to indestructible life. And now he sits enthroned above all rulers, above all authorities, above everything, above even death itself.
[00:27:10] Could there be better news in the entire world? That the God who has come and given his life for us is the same God who now rules and reigns in the heavens, always pleading on our behalf, that he has made peace with us?
[00:27:24] This is wonderful, wonderful news.
[00:27:29] There can't be better news in the world.
[00:27:31] The God that made us has made peace by the blood of his cross who has reconciled us to Himself.
[00:27:39] And so how can we not eagerly seek to do his will to endure in doing good?
[00:27:48] Our great shepherd has reconciled us to the Father and he's enthroned in power in heaven, meaning that nobody, nothing can snatch you out of his hands. You are his if you are in Christ by faith. This is the wonderful message of the Bible, of the Gospel.
[00:28:12] So that's the good news, right? Obviously this is wonderful, amazing news. I hope you can see that.
[00:28:19] But despite this wonderful and amazing news, we still have a problem, right? We still have our sinful flesh. We still have an enemy. These demonic forces that prowl around like a lion seeking somebody to destroy.
[00:28:32] We still live in a world that has not fully experienced the redemption that Jesus came to purchase.
[00:28:40] We say this all the time, but this is the already not yet of the Bible. Already Jesus has done everything necessary by the blood of his eternal covenant, to reconcile sinful people to Father.
[00:28:53] But not yet. We don't experience the fullness of that. We know that he reigns in heaven and one day he will return and he will make all things right. That for those who are united to Christ by faith, we will be resurrected. We will no longer have to fight sin. But that's not where we are right now. We live by faith, not by sight. There will be a day that we live by sight. This is the great hope of the Gospel. This is why it's so important to be reminded of Jesus as our great shepherd. He rules and reigns. It's a certainty that what he's promised will be fulfilled.
[00:29:28] So we draw near to him. We struggle and we fight and we stumble forward.
[00:29:36] We are constantly being picked up by our great shepherd and encouraged to push forward and endure in doing good.
[00:29:46] But it's a struggle. And God, our great shepherd, knows this.
[00:29:53] And this is why the prayer doesn't just say, now that you know all these things, just go out and do it.
[00:30:00] No, the prayer asks God to equip us in all of these things. He asks for God's help. Look at verse 21 again.
[00:30:11] It is the God of peace who equips you with everything good.
[00:30:17] The Greek word translated equipped here means to make complete or to make perfect.
[00:30:23] So it's the God of peace that is making us complete with everything good, that we may do his will.
[00:30:32] And that we may do his will. That's a purpose clause. And so it might be more helpful. It's helpful for me to think of it more in terms of It's God that is. He's asking to complete us with everything good for the purpose of doing his will, that he gives us everything we need for the purpose of walking faithfully before our God.
[00:30:59] And he qualifies what this is, what this will is, by saying in verse 21, he says, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, that God is working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. So his will, it's not a mystery.
[00:31:24] It's obedience to the things that are good and right and that honor God and that give glory to God and that honor humanity that is created in his image and its avoidance of all the things that are wicked and evil and that dishonor God and that bring shame upon humanity.
[00:31:43] These things are not mysteries.
[00:31:46] And the God who has reconciled us to Himself through the death of His Son is the same God that by His Holy Spirit equips us with for the purpose of obedience.
[00:31:59] He equips us for the purpose of obedience.
[00:32:03] And when we fail, when we fail right now, this is not an if, but when we fail, when we stumble, Our Great shepherd is there to pick us back up and to remind us of his blood that's been shed.
[00:32:18] And he picks us up and we continue to stumble forward, keeping our eyes on the day when Jesus returns. We keep our eyes from fixed on the glory of Jesus in the certainty that he will come back and make things right. That there will be a day when we are fully sanctified, when we fully look like Jesus.
[00:32:39] That day's not today. So we continue to press forward. We continue by God's grace to endure in doing good.
[00:32:47] We grow by repenting of our sin often and by, by reminding ourselves of the work of Jesus and by, by growing in holiness. We continue to push forward and to endure and doing good.
[00:33:02] And so the next section I'm going to. I'm going to skip. We are going to be done by 11:10 for sure.
[00:33:09] And so, but I do want to say for, for those in the church, I'm going to put this in the community group notes. I've kind of summarized the exhortations that we see in chapters 10 through 13.
[00:33:21] And I've got scripture references in there. I'll make. I'll make sure that gets into the. Into the question so y' all can process and look through that, if that's. If that's helpful.
[00:33:30] And so what I want to do now, as Pastor Brad always says, I want to try to land the plane. I'm going to do it a lot faster than he does, hopefully.
[00:33:40] But the end of verse 21, let's look at that.
[00:33:46] God is working and doing in us what is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ.
[00:33:54] Jesus is present in all of it. He is the one who reconciles us to the Father by His blood.
[00:34:00] And it's only in and through him that we can do what is pleasing in God's sight. This means that even our best works need the blood of Jesus to be pleasing in his sight. We can only please God through being united to Christ by faith, through being united to Christ and all of these wonderful benefits that we've been describing and in this blood of the eternal covenant, meaning that even our already said that. Sorry. And because of all these amazing realities about Jesus, he can't help but end his prayer by giving Jesus all the glory.
[00:34:37] Jesus is present in all of it. Jesus is the one who's doing all of these things. He's the one that's accomplished all of this. And so he ends by saying, y' all can read it. I don't have it in there. But essentially he gives Jesus all the glory. And then he says amen.
[00:34:54] And so, church, I. I hope I said I'm landing the plane. I really am. I. I hope that you've seen throughout this year and a half again, as we've belabored over and over again, that Jesus is better.
[00:35:08] He's better than everything.
[00:35:11] Everything we see in the Old Testament points to Jesus as the better one.
[00:35:16] And that because of who he is and all that, he's done.
[00:35:20] And by God's power, we can and we must and we will endure in doing good.
[00:35:27] And we do this together as we build one another up in the faith, as we point one another to Jesus, not just from the stage, but in our day to day lives. And we continue to press forward, keeping our eyes on the risen Lord.
[00:35:41] So you would think that that's where the letter would end, right? This wonderful prayer. He says amen, but that's not it. There's a, there's a final greeting at the end that I think highlights, it just really highlights to me the deep love that they, these Christians had for one another. And it reminds us that this, this letter is written by a real historical person to a real historical community.
[00:36:04] And also that this letter was not written to us, it's written for us. For sure, God in his providence has given us this letter for our upbuilding, but it's not written to us.
[00:36:16] This is important. If we think about it as written to us, we will inevitably interpret it wrong.
[00:36:23] So we are just reminded about that reality as we see this heartfelt greeting.
[00:36:31] And so we end our series with this, with this greeting that hopefully encourages us in our relationships to cultivate deep and deep, deeper and deeper love for the saints, for all those who have been put into our lives and in our context, but also for the saints broadly as well. Right, we're going to be worshiping with all the saints for all eternity, the risen Lord.
[00:36:55] And so may this stir us to grow in deeper and deeper affections for one another.
[00:37:01] Verse 22.
[00:37:04] I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly the whole letter.
[00:37:12] You should know that our brother Timothy has been released. That's from prison with whom I shall see you if he comes soon.
[00:37:22] Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy, send you greetings.
[00:37:28] Grace be with all of you, pray with me.
[00:37:47] Sam, Sa.
