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Our scripture reading for this evening is taken from the book of Hebrews, one last time. Hebrews chapter 13, verses 20 through the end of the chapter. This is the word of God. 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. Let’s pray. Father in heaven, we come because we need you. You have inspired, preserved, and given us this word, but we need your Spirit even now, that we might hear it, believe it, receive it, be blessed by it, that these might be words. We ask that you would give us this grace because of Jesus, in whose name we pray, amen. You may be seated. Perhaps you can imagine starting a new job, where your boss hands you a large project with high stakes, deadlines that affect the company’s future, tools you have never used before, perhaps even artificial intelligence, and no training. You feel completely unprepared, stressed, and on the verge of failure. Some of you may already be living this experience every day, every week. It may be especially close to home for some of you. Or there may be other reasons that you feel the demands upon you exceed what you have to give. But now imagine instead that your boss comes and provides not only every tool, every resource, and every skill that you would need to perform the task, but also works alongside you, guiding your hands and strengthening your decisions, even from within. Then the pressure lifts, because the success is not on your shoulders alone. And friends, this is a faint shadow of what God promises in Hebrews chapter 13, especially verses 20 to 21. In the most important assignment of all—doing His will and living a life pleasing to Him—God does not leave us overwhelmed and under-resourced. The God of peace equips us with everything good that we need to do His will and works in us what pleases Him. I have stood where some of you may be feeling right now, staring at God’s commands—love perfectly, forgive deeply, resist sin daily—and thinking, I cannot do this. I am not equipped. My heart wanders, my strength fails, and overwhelm sets in. Peace feels distant. But then I read this benediction from Hebrews chapter 13, and it strikes me afresh, like fresh air. The God of peace who reconciled me through Christ’s blood and raised the great Shepherd promises to equip me with everything good to do His will and to work in me what pleases Him. It is not merely to try harder; it is to trust Me to transform you. And if you are in Christ tonight, this is not just ancient words written long ago. It is your present reality. This is no fairy tale; it is the closing promise of Hebrews 13. The God of peace has raised our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, to equip us, His sheep, for every good thing that pleases Him. If you are feeling lost, weak, or unequipped tonight, hear this: your Shepherd is greater than any failure or fear you may have. Tonight let us unpack this benediction and see how the same power that raised Jesus from the dead equips sheep like us. This will be my last sermon on Hebrews in this series. I hope that if you have been with us over the past 18 months, you have seen that Hebrews is indeed a very glorious epistle. It stands out in the New Testament in a special way. And this evening, as we consider the close of this wonderful letter, which the author calls brief, some of you may disagree with that. I think we find that its closing benediction stands out as well. We will look at this passage under three headings. Number one, the God of peace. Number two, the great shepherd. And number three, the grace-equipped saints. So number one, the God of peace. This little phrase is very easy for us to skip over, the God of peace. But the writer of Hebrews has not used this descriptor accidentally. He has called God many other things throughout the course of this letter. He has called God the majesty on high, the most high God, the Lord, the majesty in heaven, the father of spirits, the living God, and most recently, a consuming fire. But now, as the writer of Hebrews closes out this letter, he wants his readers to remember God in one final way: the God of peace. What do we mean by the word peace? Well, negatively, we can speak of an absence—absence of conflict, lack of disorder, absence of confusion. But positively, the Bible speaks of peace as wholeness or completion, reconciliation. The Hebrew word is shalom, and in the Greek, it is eirene. Speaking of this wholeness and reconciliation, what does it mean for God to have peace? God is whole and complete. He is not worried. He is not in conflict with Himself. He is not stressed about anything. Nothing catches God by surprise. Nothing can make Him feel inadequate or as though there is too much for Him to handle. God never feels threatened by opposition. He is never confused. He is never at odds within Himself, or among the members of the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit never fight, never argue with one another. There is nothing like the peace of God, which He has within Himself. This does not mean, however, that God has no conflict, because the God of peace is completely opposed to sin. He has pure, complete, and holy wrath against sin and unrighteousness. He is not intimidated or threatened by wicked people, even those who express hatred and disdain for Him. But His perfect holiness requires that He judge all wrongdoing and wickedness. This is not an attitude of, “I hate to judge, but I have to,” but rather a complete hatred for all that is evil. The God of peace is completely at war with sin. He is determined to bring perfect judgment upon all who break the law and do what is evil. In pursuit of His peace, the God of peace hates evil with an uncompromising hatred. This leaves you and I in a difficult position. As someone who breaks God’s law daily in many ways and continues to break it, what does it take for me to have peace with the enemy of all wickedness? What does it take for us to have peace with God? I find it fascinating that when the angels came to announce the birth of Jesus to the shepherds, they proclaimed in Luke 2:14, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased.” It is the birth of Christ that brings peace to the world. Peace is also the title of the promised child in Isaiah 9. He is called the Prince of Peace. Peace is associated with Jesus because it is through Him that it becomes possible for sinners to receive peace with God. We see a reference in our passage to the blood of the eternal covenant. This is a reference to Christ’s most central work, indeed the focal point of all history, as Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3 states: “After making purification for sins, he sat down.” Or in chapter 2 verse 17: “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” Because without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. And without forgiveness of sins, there can be no peace with God. But Christ did make purification for sins. He, the high priest, offered the only suitable sacrifice, which was himself on the cross at Calvary. The crucifixion of the rabbi from Galilee was actually a cosmic fulfillment of celestial atonement for sin, as we have seen in our study throughout the book of Hebrews. Christ’s mission was to come and to die so that the wrath of God against our sin could be satisfied, and we could have peace with God. Thus, this brief phrase, “the God of peace,” carries great significance. It should cause us to pause and remember why and how He can be a God of peace to us. He is the God who is at peace and who has made a way for us to have peace with Him. There is no other way to find true peace. If you do not have Christ tonight, you cannot have true peace. You may experience moments when people around you affirm you or make you feel good about yourself. But that will not last long. It does not solve the real problem. For the root of the problem is not merely the surface-level feeling of lacking peace. It is an eternal reality that sin will be judged by God. But if you are in Christ tonight, if you give your sin to Jesus, He will take away the guilt and give you peace with God. If you are in Christ, this benediction is for you. The God of peace is your God. He is speaking these words of comfort tonight. There will never be a single drop of wrath that falls on you for your sin. Your relationship with the living God, with the holy consuming fire, is one of utter peace. Secondly, we see in our passage a reference to the great shepherd. As we continue in our passage, we see another first-time reference in the book of Hebrews. Our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep. We have seen Jesus called many things so far in this book, but shepherd has not been one of them. In fact, the only other mention of sheep in this book is in chapter 11, referring to the clothing of some who suffered by faith. However, the writer of Hebrews does not expect us to read his letter in isolation from the rest of Scripture. He expects you to be familiar with the rest of the Bible. He has been quoting Scripture throughout the book. And he clearly expects his readers to be familiar with the shepherd and sheep imagery throughout the Old Testament, not to mention Jesus’ own words in John 10 in which He identifies Himself as the great shepherd. The Good Shepherd. Shepherd imagery in the Bible begins in Genesis. Adam and Eve’s son, Abel, was a shepherd. Later, Abraham and Isaac kept much livestock. Jacob, who became Israel, made his primary living as a shepherd. Moses became a shepherd for forty years in the wilderness before returning to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. And of course, the famous King David began his life as a shepherd. He first learned to fight by battling lions and bears in the wilderness that were attacking the sheep. But especially during David’s reign, as he wrote the Psalms and reflected on his position as ruler over God’s people, shepherding became more than just a literal description of some of God’s rulers. It became a metaphorical description for all the rulers of God’s people. We find the prophets picking up this language of shepherds to refer to God’s people. Nathan, for instance, confronts David about his adultery and murder by speaking of him as a shepherd to God’s people. And most significantly, Ezekiel, from captivity in Babylon, sends rebukes to the people of Israel, describing them, the leaders, as bad shepherds. In contrast to the wicked shepherds leading God’s people at the time, Ezekiel prophesies that God will send a good shepherd. In fact, God will come himself to shepherd his people. And the shepherd will be both God himself and a descendant of David. And that, of course, refers to the one that we have referred to in our passage this evening in Hebrews, our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep. Now there was a phrase that may be going out of style at this point. It was an acronym that my father, when he was teaching a few years ago, often used when speaking to middle schoolers. They called him the GOAT. Perhaps you have heard of the greatest of all time. In one sense, we could say that Jesus is the GOAT shepherd of the sheep, the greatest of all time shepherd of the sheep. The leaders of God’s people have been called shepherds for a long time, but none of them have ever measured up. They have all failed in various ways. And even your own leaders here at Grace have and will fail you in various ways, including myself. I’m not saying this to disrespect or disregard them. They are worthy of respect, honor, and trust. But they are not the great shepherd. They will sin, as will I. Their judgment will be imperfect. They will rebuke things too harshly. They will let sin go that ought to have been confronted. And ultimately, of course, we all will die. We will not be around forever. They are not the great shepherd. The Great Shepherd will never do any of those things. He will never sin. His judgment is always perfect. He never rebukes too harshly, nor does He let go that which ought to be confronted. And most important of all, as we see in this benediction, He will never die because He has been raised from the dead. That is why it is such good news to see what our passage says first about our great shepherd—that He was brought up again from the dead. Up to this point, the book of Hebrews has not spoken of Christ’s resurrection. The entire focus has been on His sacrificial death. But it is not as though the concept of resurrection has been entirely absent from this book. We saw in chapter 11 that Abraham believed that Isaac would be raised from the dead, and that Isaac being spared was figuratively a raising of him from the dead. But we also saw at the end of chapter 11 the mention of women who received back from the dead their loved ones by resurrection because of their faith. And the author of Hebrews also mentions the resurrection in chapter six as a well-known doctrine along with eternal judgment and other things. But here in this passage at the end, we have the first direct mention of Christ’s resurrection. Now the scriptures as a whole speak about Christ’s resurrection in a number of different ways. In Matthew 28:6 and 7, in 1 Thessalonians 4:14, and in other places, we see Jesus described as the one who rises, who has risen, and who rose from the dead. He speaks of himself as the actor in his own resurrection, explicitly in John 10:17 and 18, where he calls himself the Good Shepherd. He says, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” Thus, in some passages, the Scripture describes Jesus raising himself from the dead to demonstrate his power and authority over death. In a few passages, however, the Bible states that the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. Romans 1:3–4 says, “concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Then again in Romans 8:11, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” Paul connects our resurrection to Christ’s resurrection because we share the same Holy Spirit who gave resurrection to Christ and will give resurrection to us. But by far the most common expression in the Scriptures is that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead. We find this in Acts 3:4, Acts 13:30, Acts 17:31, Romans 4:25, Romans 6:4, Romans 10:9, and other passages, just as we have here in our passage in Hebrews 13:20. Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep. The resurrection has many implications, but one of them is that Christ’s sacrifice was complete and accepted by God as sufficient. Therefore, it is very fitting that, as the writer of Hebrews has surveyed all the aspects of completion—Christ’s sacrifice having fulfilled the Old Testament ceremonies and sacrifices—he then speaks of this final resurrection of Christ, which was complete and accepted by God as sufficient. The God of consuming fire and wrath against sin has fully expended His wrath for your sin on the great shepherd of the sheep, for the sin of the sheep. Christ’s resurrection, being raised from the dead, was a vindication of the completion of His atoning work and the acceptance of His sacrifice. But speaking of Christ Himself, it is His having gone through death and being raised up—referred to also by the blood of the eternal covenant, His own death—that makes the great shepherd especially fit for His work. Because He died, He can never die again. Jesus says this to John in Revelation 1, verses 17 and 18: “Fear not. I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore. I hold the keys of death and Hades.” The phrase “the blood of the eternal covenant,” which we see in verse 20, may also be understood as a reference to what theologians sometimes call the covenant of redemption. And by this, they mean an agreement in eternity between the Father and the Son to accomplish redemption for their people before time began. The plan for our salvation was not a hasty response to undo what Adam did when he first sinned. It was not God trying to overcome the odds or find a way to save something from the ruined world created by sin. Salvation was a gloriously and meticulously planned before the world even existed, in eternity past, with perfect unity and harmony among the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—a covenant of eternal redemption. It was an agreement within God Himself to save a people for Himself. This brings us to the final point: the recipients of this benediction. Number three, the grace-equipped saints. Up to this point, we have looked at the descriptions of God who is doing the blessing. But now we take a moment to consider what this blessing is. Before we finish the benediction, I want to say a few words about the other verses in this passage, verses 22 through 25. He says, “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.” Over a year ago, a year and a half ago, when we first started this series, we talked about the mysterious unknown author of the book of Hebrews. He does not identify himself at the beginning or the end or anywhere in between. He seems to be known to the audience, though. And he also seems to know Timothy, as we see in this passage. So he was probably also known to the apostle Paul and moved in his circles. We discussed various possibilities for his identity, but ultimately we do not know who this author was. We can see that the letter seems to be coming from Italy, as he sends greetings there. The epistle of Hebrews is unusual in its lack of a beginning greeting, leading some to believe it was originally delivered orally, perhaps as a sermon, with the final greeting added afterward. Then it would be written down, additional greetings included, and sent off. For whatever reason, God in his wisdom has chosen to keep the author anonymous to us. As a side note, as we read passages like this, I do not know about you, but sometimes when I read the New Testament letters with their additional details, or the Old Testament with its genealogies and descriptions of geographical locations that I cannot identify today, it can be easy to ask: What is the point? Why is this here? How is it significant that I read this detail or that detail? In 2 Timothy, Paul says, “Do not forget to bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas.” This may seem irrelevant to me, thousands of years later. But these details are important because God did not send his word as a download from the cloud, nor as messages floating down on golden tablets, as some other religions claim. His inerrant, holy, God-breathed word came in time and space through ordinary people, each with their own writing style and historical context. The people who wrote this word from God needed it just as much as you and I do. These small glimpses into their ordinary lives remind us that God used ordinary people to write down his word, and that he is at work in our ordinary lives, in your ordinary lives, with all the details—even remembering to bring your cloak. God did not remove all the secular details. He works with our humanity, not against it. Remember, he became man. He did not make us gods. But to continue with our benediction for our third point, we see that the author concludes his final statement with, “Grace be with you all.” This proclamation of grace, which I believe is connected to the central theme of his benediction in verses 20 and 21, I will read once more: “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.” This benediction in Hebrews is my personal favorite. It is one of the main promises I constantly cling to. It is what I need every week, every day, every hour. My only hope for living a life pleasing to God is His equipping. I need Him to give me what is required to do His will. And if you are a believer here this evening, I trust you can feel that need as well. Equipped with everything you need to do His will. God’s will is outlined in His word. There is much to keep up with. For the tenderhearted Christian especially, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. In fact, I would suggest that if you do not occasionally feel overwhelmed by all that God requires of you, you are probably overestimating your own abilities or underestimating God’s requirements. But if you are feeling overwhelmed this evening, I have amazing news for you. Everything that you need to do God’s will, you will have. God will not withhold anything that you need to do His will. There is not one good thing that He will keep from you. In this fallen world, in your employment, many of you have been asked—or may still be asked—by your boss or your customers to do things that you are not equipped to do. In some cases, this is because your boss is harsh, uncaring, or unreasonable. In other cases, it is due to ignorance or a lack of understanding on their part. Either way, it is understandable and overwhelming to face a task that you are required to perform, yet have not been adequately equipped to complete. You do not have what you need. Depending on the stakes, of course, the stress can be very high. Some of you are undoubtedly experiencing this kind of stress day after day at your job. I cannot resolve your employment stress tonight. Or perhaps, if you are in school, you have struggled with turning in papers and assignments, and you know the stress that this can bring. I cannot make your boss or your professor more reasonable, nor can I provide you with what is necessary for your place of work. But I can assure you tonight that in the matter that is most important, in the place where your eternal destiny is at stake, you have not been left in this situation. You have been equipped. And yet there are millions of people all over the world tonight who are in this spiritual situation. God’s law stands as a requirement for all men and women. The whole world stands accountable to God. Romans chapter three, verses 19 and 20: “Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God.” For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law merely comes a knowledge of sin. Every person outside of Christ stands in an impossible position. They have nothing that they need to do God’s will. They are left to their own devices. They find themselves helpless and without hope. This is a far more troubling situation than having inadequate equipment, time, or training at work or at school. The worst that can happen there is you will be fired or fail your class. But the effects of failing to live up to God’s will, as revealed in His law, last forever. They extend beyond death into eternity. But that is why this promised blessing is so precious. For those who are in Christ, they have and continue to have everything that they need to do God’s will. You, if you are in Christ, have everything that you need to do His will. And then He says, working in you, that which is pleasing in His sight. Every son or daughter has a longing to be pleasing to their father. Even those who have fathers who have failed in massive or persistent ways still desire this. There is a kind of emptiness in a son or a daughter’s heart that nothing else can fill. We read stories of successful writers, musicians, executives, and politicians, who despite all of their success and acclaim, from all around them, still find themselves longing for the approval of one person—their father. And it can be devastating and disappointing to be deprived of that approval. But that is why this benediction here is so precious. For not only does God, our Father, equip us to do His will, but He also works in us that which is pleasing in His sight. Now, equipping us might sound like providing us with everything we need and then leaving us to our own devices, leaving it up to us, which could actually set us up for greater disappointment when we fail. But that is not the way God works at all. That is not His equipping. His equipping is not setting us up and then letting us go. But by the Holy Spirit, He is working on us from the inside. So if you are trusting in Christ, you have not only been given all the information you need to be pleasing to God, but you also have the Holy Spirit powerfully working new desires and new affections for God within you. Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength is not just something you know you ought to do, but something you are empowered to do by His Holy Spirit. And this is to give God all the glory. If God had only given us the equipment and told us to get it done, we might deserve some credit for doing it on our own. But of course, the reality is we would not receive credit, because we would be miserable failures, for we cannot do it on our own. That is why God does not do it that way. Since God does everything—both the equipping and the working within us—He deserves all the credit. So when you see yourself in Christ, putting sin to death, loving God, loving His worship and His people, putting your faith in God despite challenging circumstances, and all the rest, it is the Holy Spirit who gets the credit. Our salvation places us in a situation where we receive all the help, and God receives all the credit and all the glory. You receive the help you need, and God receives the glory, and both of you receive all the joy. There will not be a single situation in your life in which you are left alone. Struggling to find and to follow God’s will in your life. What a relief. What a rest for your soul. When you feel alone. When you feel overwhelmed by your own sin. When you look around wondering if you have missed God’s will for your life. This is a promise to hold on to. To embrace with all your strength. To hold tightly to your heart. The God of peace, who raised from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, will equip you with everything good that you need to do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight. Amen. Let’s pray. Our God and Father of peace, who is in heaven and who has sent your Son, we thank you for this equipping and working in us that which is pleasing in your sight, for which we would be helpless and hopeless without your giving it to us. So we thank you and praise you and give you all the glory. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen. In response, let’s turn to hymn 537. Let’s stand as we sing hymn 537, Jesus, Master, whose I am.