18 Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear
conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. 19 I particularly urge
you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.
Benediction and Final Greetings
20 Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of
the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great
Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will,
and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be
glory for ever and ever. Amen.
22 Brothers and sisters, I urge you to bear with my word
of exhortation, for in fact I have written to you quite briefly.
23 I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been
released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you.
24 Greet all your leaders and all the Lord’s people.
Those from Italy send you their greetings.
25 Grace be with you all.
Dig Deeper
Over the past few years I have found myself with many
opportunities to travel for ministry purposes both within the United States and
outside of the country. I have taken
most of those trips with my wife but have taken quite a few without her. I don’t really like being gone without my
wife, but I have gotten somewhat used to the process of traveling alone and am
now fairly comfortable with it. But it
wasn’t always that way. When we first
started to fly and travel a lot, she always went with me. And while I would prepare lessons that I was
going to preach and take care of myself in that way, my wife would take care of
all of the travel details. She would set
up the tickets and the trip, take care of reservations, carry the needed
information, and pretty much handle all of the travel, transportation, and
lodging details along the way. Then I
suddenly had to go on a trip without her.
I had never done that before and was a bit nervous. As I was leaving, though, she handed me a
folder and told me that whenever someone asked me for information that it would
be in that folder. The first test was at
the airport. They asked me for my
confirmation number. I didn’t know it
but I opened the folder, just grabbed the top paper, handed it to the clerk and
asked if that was what they needed. It
was and I was in business. That process
continued to happen at the car rental place, the hotel, and throughout the
week. My wife had thought through
everything I would need, and the order in which I would need it, and had
completely equipped that folder with everything that would be necessary. I had to go on the trip alone but she had
prepared everything and I was able to make it through the entire trip without
any problems.
In the book of Hebrews, the author has called his
readers to re-focus their hearts and lives on Jesus. He is the superior mediator who has brought
about the superior covenant. He is the
one that we must all follow. He had
blazed the trail for them to travel down and they needed to stay faithful to
that path. Even when the going got
tough, they needed to keep going. They
were on a long and sometimes difficult journey.
But as the writer brings his lesson to a close he gives them one final
flurry of encouragement. The way might
look daunting and maybe even too difficult, but they must avoid that urge to
give up and quit because God had equipped them.
Regardless of how difficult it seemed, they needn’t worry because God
had fully equipped them with everything they would ever need. He would continue to provide for them and
makes sure they had everything they would require to complete their journey.
As the writer moves into his final thoughts, he urges
the audience to pray for their leaders, a group that would include the author
himself. We have a tendency to assume
that when someone requests prayer it is because something has gone wrong but
that doesn’t always need to be the case, and probably was not the case
here. He wants prayer to bolster his
desire to live a life that is honorable to God and among God’s people in every
way. In fact his “desire” is a little
stronger than this translation lets on and could probably be better rendered
“We are sure that we have a clear conscience and are firmly determined to live
honorably in every way.” Praying for one
another shows support and unity and leaders need just as much, if not more prayer
from those they lead than the flock needs prayer from their leaders.
The writer is no pie-eyed optimist, however. He knows that it is easy for Christians to
agree to pray for someone and then not follow through. Some of us, I’m sure, have been guilty of
that. And while it may just be an honest
slip of the mind on occasion, we need to be careful with our promises and watch
out that we are not becoming hypocritical, saying that we will pray for someone
when we have virtually no intention of doing so and make little to no attempt
to actually remember to do it. The
writer asks them twice to pray for him, urging them to do so, and particularly
to pray that he will be able to come encourage them sometime in the near
future.
The center of this final greeting, comes in verses
20-21. The author hasn’t made the
resurrection of Christ a focal point of his lesson to this point. He has assumed it, though, allowing it to
serve as the backdrop to the sacrificial death death of Jesus and his ascending
to the heavenly sanctuary to serve as our eternal high priest. Of course, it is the resurrection of Christ
that gives meaning and power to the actual crucifixion and makes possible the
state of Jesus serving as the superior high priest of the New Covenant. In this great blessing, though, he directly
hits upon the resurrection, something that was a core foundational topic for
the early church (Heb. 6: 2). In fact in
these two verses, Hebrews teaches us seven important aspects about God and his
relationship with his people.
First, he is the God of peace. The word “peace” used here means much more
than just absence of disharmony. It
means wholeness, completeness, harmony, and fulfillment. It is a lasting peace which the world knows
nothing of. God is a God of wholeness
and harmony and he wants that for his people as well.
Second, he has brought about an eternal covenant with
his people that can never be broken because it has been established by the very
life force, the blood, of his unique and only Son, Jesus Christ. So many other contracts and covenants are
temporary, unreliable, and constantly in need of renewing but not the one with
that we have in Christ.
Third, this was all made possible by Jesus’ resurrection
from the dead. It is the seminal moment
in all of history. It is what vindicated
Jesus’ death on the cross and showed him to be the true high priest, and it is
the source of the great Christian hope of being resurrected with our savior one
day, just as God has promised.
Fourth, Jesus is the Great Shepherd. He is the undisputed head of the body and
leaders should always keep that mind.
Leaders do have an important role but it must always be in service to
the Great Shepherd and the Flock not themselves. This also reminds us, however, that the body
of Christ are like a flock of sheep and they do need shepherds to lead
them. We need the Great Shepherd and we
also need to allow ourselves to be influenced and led by the under-shepherds
(Heb. 13:17).
Fifth, through the life of Christ, God has equipped us
with everything we need. It is so easy
to spend time worrying about whether we will be able to stay faithful, or
capable of growing spiritually, or up to the task of evangelizing the lost, or leading
in God’s church, or any number of other things to which God has called us. But we must trust our Father. He would not call us to do something that he
did not equip us for. Worry is a sign of
trusting in ourselves. Peace comes from
trusting that God has the power and ability to work through us in whatever
situations we might find ourselves.
Sixth, through Jesus Christ, God will work in us so that
we can please him. But we must trust in
him and rely on the life of Christ. Only
then will we walk in the Spirit and be able to please God through our faith in
the life of Christ (Rom. 8:5-8; Hebrews 11:6).
Finally, God has done us this to bring glory to
himself. When we live the path that God
has marked out for us in Christ Jesus, he will equip us to do the most fitting
thing that we can ever do with our lives; we can bring glory to God. As we surrender to the Great Shepherd and
live the resurrected life of Christ we will find ourselves growing in the
desire and ability to bring glory to God in whatever we do (1 Cor. 10:31).
As the letter winds to a close, Hebrews reminds the
readers that this has been just a brief letter.
It may not seem that way to us, but by the standards of the day, it was
a rather short exhortation of this type.
There have been several places scattered throughout the lesson in which
the author hinted that he might have much more to say were he not trying to be
brief, and although we might wish to have those expanded teachings available to
us, we must trust that God has given us everything we need to be faithful and
grow.
The final greetings display the true heart of
Christianity that are built on God’s family and his grace. The greeting that comes from “those from
Italy,” likely refers to those that had fled Rome years earlier and had not
returned, but were instead living at the location of the author.
It is striking that the final word for them, is not “get
it together,” nor is it “obey the Lord and your leaders and stop playing
around.” No, the final blessing is that
“grace” be upon them. It is God’s grace
that is like a stream flowing through the desert that would enable them to
continue on and finish the race that God had marked out for them. And it is God’s same grace flowing through
our lives that will enable us to finish the race as well.
Devotional Thought
The journey has been marked out and God has prepared in
advance everything that you need to complete it. Are you willing to begin? And if you have already begun are you willing
to persevere and trust that no matter how difficult the going might get, that
God has provided for you and will ensure that you finish if you just trust him.
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