Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Reformation Covenant Church
Pastor Dennis Tuuri

Sermon text today is found in Leviticus chapter 9, verses 22-24. Leviticus 9:22-24. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.

Then Aaron lifted his hand toward the people, blessed them, and came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting, and came out and blessed the people. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people, and fire came out from before the Lord, and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this text. We thank you for your incredibly gracious and marvelous word. We thank you for the Holy Spirit. We pray that he might illuminate this text for understanding that we may be transformed. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated.

God is a God of blessing and a God of life. We serve a great, glorious, most kind, loving, beneficent, glorious God in heaven. We are called each Lord’s day to the divine service. We come forward and engage in our commanded performance of service, of worship to this great God, to our most blessed creator, redeemer, and sustainer. We come here as needy people. God is a great God and he brings us here to serve us. That is the wondrous truth that the scriptures affirm and that we’ve been considering in our series on worship.

Indeed, worship is this tremendous privilege as well as the highest duty that we have to pay to the God who created us and redeemed us for the very purpose that we might be a people of praise in all the earth. God desires our praise and it is our great privilege and duty to attend to this task of worshiping him each Lord’s day.

Today I’ll be concluding our series on worship. Next week I’ll be talking on diligence and we’ll begin by talking about diligence in reference to our worship. I was at a meeting at a get together the other day and one of the men there was describing how he had been inappropriately upset with some folks, friends of his, and they were talking about what I do, and one of the men remarked that if I get upset and yell at the people about how bad they are, people call it a great sermon. That’s true. It’s been my experience that people like to be kind of reminded of their sins and kind of chastised from the pulpit, but I’ll have none of that today.

Today focuses on the culmination or capstone of our worship and it focuses on the benediction, the good words that God gives to us as he sends us forth from this place. The culmination of all the wonderful gifts that the Lord God has done in blessing us. We have a great and glorious God. We have a great high privilege and duty in the context of worship. We never want to forget that. But it must always be seen in the context that we have a great blessed state.

Many churches have actually begun the worship service with a short reference to the benediction words to the effect of “the Lord be with you” and the congregation respond “and with your spirit” and then the confession of sin and assurance of forgiveness and the service flows along. We begin with a call to worship and then the confession of sin and that’s appropriate. But what they wanted to do with that is to remind the people at the get-go, although it’s going to be difficult in worship. It’s going to be hard because we’re going to have to confess that we’re sinners and have fallen short against this gracious God. That word of God is going to cleave us apart but also heal us. It’s going to be difficult elements of the worship service.

But at the end of it, we have this tremendous benediction and blessing pronounced upon us. And the whole service moves to that concluding act of the worship. And so our series seems like it also should conclude or culminate in this great blessing.

Now, we’ve been talking about worship because we entered into this building. God gave us in his grace and mercy to us this structure. And we want to use this first and foremost as a motivation to us to reform our worship to understand what it is we’re doing when we come before the presence of God. I notice we’re not doing real good yet on trying to come into the sanctuary, being quiet, preparing our hearts through prayer and maybe meditation and just peacefulness as we come before God. It is important to always remind ourselves that as much as we want to get to the end of the service and we’re all together and we’re having a great time fellowshipping, we get there by putting God first.

We come here today primarily to worship God and receive his benediction upon us. And secondarily, part of that blessing is the fellowship that we have. I pray that God might make us as a congregation in our worship for first and foremost and then in our service throughout the rest of the week as a church as orderly and structured as this visible representation of the church of Christ. All church buildings are that the way the temple was. These stones are put together nicely and neatly. They’re orderly. They know their place. There’s different stones for different purposes, different architectural structures in the context of this building, but they’re put together in an orderly fashion.

May God grant us the grace in our worship as people to reflect this order and beauty of the sanctuary that he has given to us. And may he enable us to ring the bells of this church to the greater community that we live now in the context of as a church to call them to come forward and receive these great blessings from God that we’re going to talk about today.

Heard church bells out of our Sunday school window this morning. And I don’t know if that belfry works or not or if we can eventually put a bell up there, but if we can’t. Hopefully, we can, but if we can’t, you see, that’s our responsibility to pray that the voice of this church might go out and call the neighborhood to come to the worship of God and receive the gifts and blessings of his benediction upon us.

Last week, we spoke about the last action recorded in John in its long discussion of the last supper, the last action of our savior as he goes to the cross. The last action recorded in John was a ritual action that is before his death and that was of course the washing of the feet of the disciples. Today we’re going to talk about the last action of Jesus before and during his ascension which we just sang about in that wonderful song that we just sang in terms of the conquering hero and how he blesses his people upon his ascension.

So there’s a relationship between what we said last week and what we say this week. This is the last action of the resurrected savior as he ascends to heaven. He blesses and places a benediction upon his people.

Let me just comment, by the way, what a delight it was for me this last week after the sermon was over to just observe last week after the service, during the meal, after the meal, and then during the week itself, how many people here do indeed wash the feet of other people, serve, exhibit the love and the unity and the community that the Lord’s supper is all about. Actually, soon as I sat down, Zach helped me to find the right song to sing at the conclusion of the worship service. That song based on Philippians, which I wanted to sing so badly, and I couldn’t see it, and he helped me. So, immediately the sermon was put into application by Zach. Later in the day, the Core stuck around to help the youngers get into their car and we’re locked out of it. I could mention probably, you know, at least 20, 30 things I saw last Sunday after the sermon.

The way that people do hear indeed engage in this critical action of service to the body of Christ. Yesterday, as I was finishing up some stuff here at the office, Dan Prenice and his two little boys were doing yard work outside and they were hooking up the hoses for him and helping him and he was making this place beautiful again for the worship they were to enter into today. This stuff goes on all the time and I praise God for it.

But today, we want to talk not about his last action before his death, but the last action before his ascension. We have eight things we want to say about the benediction.

**The first is that the benediction is the capstone of our entire worship service. It is the capstone of our worship service.** And first, we’ve talked about worship being seen as a progression of offerings that there is this divinely appointed progression of what worship is to be given to us in the sacrificial system of the Old Testament.

See, if you understand this, you know why we have placed a stress, I have a couple of times in the last couple of months here about getting everybody in here at the start of worship. See, because if you come in at the sermon, you’ve missed one of the first of the three gifts that God has in mind for you today, which is the assurance of forgiveness. And you see, it’s just not the same. I don’t want to be mystical about this or magical. But you see, it’s not the same just to know about it.

God says at the end of this service, the elder, the pastors are to put their benediction, the benediction of God upon you, and he will indeed do that thing as he places it upon you as you hear the words Pastor Wilson assuring you of your forgiveness it means something we don’t know how to fix ourselves God does and he says regulate your lives in the context of the worship service. You couldn’t waltz up to the temple or the tabernacle before it and just do the whole burnt offering if you didn’t get there in time for the purification offering. Didn’t work that way. You should be—see I wasn’t going to wasn’t going to exhort today. Oh well, so we all should be here on time and we all should be here at the beginning of the service because the benediction is the capstone of all of that.

And Leviticus 9 tells us that because it says that what Aaron did and this is when the whole tabernacle system is getting going. They put it all together and then Aaron and his sons are consecrated. Everything’s ready to go and the first thing Aaron does is offer a series of offerings. What is the series? Well, it says that he did the sin offering, the burnt offering, the peace offering. He did the purification offering. That’s what the sin offering is. Confession of sin assurance of forgiveness. He did the burnt offering which means ascension. It’s the ascension offering. The preaching of the word and the people are reconsecrated afresh in the context of that ascension that the preaching of the word and the response to it produces. And then he did the peace offering union and communion with God and with each other. The offering you could eat part of as the offerer.

You see Aaron did these three things in this order, the same thing that we do thousands of years later in that same order. Now, we don’t do it in a bloody fashion because Jesus has come, but we do the same progression. We want to make sure as we come to offer ourselves to God in the ascension offering that everything’s been all the uncleanness and defilement, so to speak, our sins have been confessed and God will accept our worship. Then, if you don’t have confession of sin going on in your heart, the rest of it’s unacceptable to God. And then we want to move and receive that gift of knowledge to the preaching of the word. And we want to consecrate ourselves in the ascension offering. And remember the tribute offering was always layered on top of the burnt or whole burnt offering. So that’s where it is here. There’s this progression of offerings that Aaron does.

And then after he’s done these offerings, after he has pictured to people the gift of God’s glory to them, the gift of knowledge to them, and the gift of life to them at the culmination of all of that. It says that Aaron then lifted his hand toward the people and blessed them. The benediction is the proper capstone to worship when worship is seen as offering and we come before God and go through this progression and it is proper and fit according to the scriptures to at the end of it the benediction occurs.

Now in a way that’s the assurance of everything that’s happened in the service. If worship is this transmission of God to his people of forgiveness and as a result restoring you to glory and if it’s the transmission of his word through the preaching of the word and as a result you get true knowledge and if he gives you real true life rejoicing life celebration life at the celebration of the Lord’s supper with friends and family if he gives you all of those things in the service you see all of those culminate and he wants to assure you that those gifts are yours.

He is that gracious, that loving, that kind, that motivated toward us, his beloved, that he doesn’t just leave it having done it throughout the service. He then pronounces the blessing upon you that all of those things are yours through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants you to know with assurity that you leave this place blessed. Blessed. It’s the culmination of worship is offering. It’s also the culmination of worship as divine encounter connected to the whole—the benediction is what happens after you’ve offered the tribute offering so to speak the tax to the king that’s lovingly paid to him. Then you have the meal and at the end of the meal you’re then commissioned to go out and God doesn’t commission you to do a task without giving you the blessing by which you can accomplish it.

You remember Isaiah 6. You know, men are called. Isaiah is called. Woe is me. He confesses his sin. He’s cleansed from his sin for the purpose that he might take a message to his culture. And God sends him forth with his blessing upon Isaiah that he can transform the world. John’s the same thing in Revelation. He goes, he’s in spirit on the Lord’s day just like us. We’re in spirit on the day of the Lord in worship. He was in worship. And Jesus appears to him and he confesses his sin. He dies. Jesus raises him up and then tells him that he’s blessed and tells him he’s got a message to take to the churches of Jesus Christ. We’re commissioned and for that commissioning, God places his benediction or blessing upon us.

**Third, it’s the culmination or capstone of our worship as seen as covenantal renewal.** Pastor Wilson’s been preaching on theism, transcendence, hierarchy, ethics, oath, and succession rather. I always get that mixed up. The point is that the middle portions of that covenantal renewal again relate to what we’ve been talking about. God declares his hierarchy. He brings us into relationship through telling us our sins are forgiven. He gives us his word, the ethic by which we’re to live. He calls us to a covenant oath, blessing to us, but a reminder that it turns to curse if we sin the way the Lord’s supper is. And that’s bookended by his transcendence and succession. He calls us sovereignly and then he’s in succession he prepares us to go out that we can bring back the world next week. And so the culmination of that is this commissioning and his benediction upon us to the end of accomplishing covenantal succession.

So benediction is the capstone to covenantal renewal worship.

**And then fourth, benediction is the capstone to the dialogue model of worship that we’ve spoken about.** God calls. You say, “I’m sinful. Please forgive me.” So, he says something, you respond. He says, “You’re forgiven.” And you say, “Praise God.” And you sing praises to him. And there’s the first gift. Glory to you, restored person. But then he trains you to be responsive to him in terms of your knowledge as well. The psalter is the psalm is read responsively. He says something, you repeat back his words. You repeat back also the words in the responsive song and then the word is preached to you and you respond with the new knowledge and wisdom by going to the altar as it were knowing that it’s only in submission to Christ that true knowledge happens and you give your work and commit all that you are to the one who has given you this second gift of renewed knowledge and wisdom.

Then Jesus says, “Well, okay, now I’m going to feed you.” And he brings you up to the table and we respond to that by feeding. He says, “Eat this.” And our response is, “Okay.” We eat it. A simple action. And he then commissions us to go into the world. We respond to that commission through a song. He then blesses us and we respond by singing forth his blessings. So the culmination of all of that, this dialogue back and forth, the last thing God has to say to us, the same as the last thing that Jesus said by way of his action, to his disciples upon his ascension is that we are blessed in him.

And so we have this at work. It is the culmination of our worship before God.

Romans 15 records one of these benedictions for us. In Romans 15:13, we read, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” You hear that tri nature to that. May the God of hope who has forgiven you of your sins fill you with all joy and peace in believing, in other words, believing his word that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Abound, celebrate in that life that God has given to us.

And at the end of Paul’s epistles, he has these benedictions that in some cases, in this one, for instance, very clearly cap off the entire message of the epistle and caps off the entire message of what the gift of God is to his people. This hope and this belief and this abounding in the power of the spirit that we see correlated to the Lord’s supper.

Again, in 2 Corinthians 13:14, this trinitarian emphasis, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. See the capstone reminding us again that the benediction is an assertion that all of these things, the grace of God in forgiving your sins, the love of God in giving you knowledge, and the communion of the Holy Spirit experienced primarily or in a most emphasized place at the table that all of these things are yours as you leave this place. It wraps them up.

So the benediction is the capstone to our worship.

**Secondly, the benediction represents the culmination of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.** If these offerings represent Christ, and of course they do, all of the offerings point to the Lord Jesus Christ. Obviously, then what we really are culminating or capping in the benediction is the completion of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and its application to his people. It’s the work of the Savior that’s accomplished, the giving of these three gifts to us. It’s the work of the Savior that’s pictured in these sacrifices. So, if they’re capped off with the benediction, then really the benediction represents the culmination of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And as we said, that’s the last thing he does as he ascends to the father in Luke 24:50. He leads them out as far as Bethany, house of God. And he lifts up his hands and blesses them. And it came to pass while he blessed them that he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God.

You see the culmination of the work of the sacrifices in the ironic benediction in Leviticus 9 is a picture of what happens with the work of the Lord Jesus Christ who having accomplished all things by his death and resurrection on the cross culminates his work with the blessing as he ascends to the father upon the people the end of the service pastor Wilson raises his hands to pronounce the blessing upon you don’t gather your papers don’t be distracted. Don’t think what’s next. Stand in awe in joyful appreciation. That’s what these disciples did. They had great joy. This led to their praising God that the Lord Jesus had gone through everything he’d gone through to the culmination work of blessing his people and pronouncing that blessing upon them. Praise God for the benediction in the worship of the church. It is such an important awesome moment.

1 Peter 5:10-11. May the God of all grace who called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. See, he calls us into his glory through the forgiveness by his grace. After you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

It’s a little different benediction, isn’t it? This benediction says that in this process of your being blessed by Jesus Christ as the culmination of his work. It’s going to happen in the context of trials. But that’s what our life is, isn’t it? The savior moved that same way through trials and tribulations through death and then received the blessing of resurrection and ascension from the father. And as we stay steadfast, the blessing, the assurance to us is that his benediction and blessing is upon us even in the context of trials and tribulations.

Now, that has cash value. It’s fine to at the end of our service be greatly joyous over what Jesus has promised us. But somehow then we go into the week or we even go into the afternoon and problems start happening. We think, well, maybe it wasn’t true. Maybe what pastor said is just wishful thinking or something. He just didn’t get it right because I don’t feel very blessed. But this says that you are going to have to suffer a while. But in the context of that, God is bringing into blessing.

I believe it was Spurgeon who said this, “Shrink not then from the tempestuous winds of trial, but take comfort believing that by their rough discipline, God is fulfilling his benediction to you.” He isn’t just waiting it out because actually God is fulfilling his benediction. Spurgeon says in those rough disciplines of life. In other words, if our worship prepares us to properly understand and relate to our lives, that what it tells us is that in all things the Lord Jesus is in the process of producing benediction and blessing upon us. It’s the culmination of his work.

**Third, the benediction represents our participation in a new creation.** Now, here he goes again. That stuff he’s going to talk about. That’s right. I am.

This is Leviticus 9. And what had happened was is for 8 days, seven days, Aaron and his sons were getting clean. And for seven days, the altar was getting cleaned up. and any offering had to be at least 8 days old. Everything comes together on the eighth day here in this text from Leviticus 9. It’s on the eighth day that the offerings are completed and the benediction placed upon the people. Why? Because what’s what’s being represented in the book of Leviticus in the worship system is a new creation being affected by God. It’s covenantal renewal in renewing the whole creation and bringing about a new creation, a new first day, eighth day first day of the creation of the world. And so the Lord Jesus Christ, of course, his work produces this new creation.

And so in John 20:22, he goes to the disciples and he breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” They’re dead men. They’re part of the old creation. And Jesus breathes into them as new atoms, new Adams in the Lord Jesus Christ. He breathes on them the spirit of life, the Holy Spirit as part of this new creation in Genesis. Of course, what happens in Genesis? Well, God makes man, makes Adam and Eve, and then he blesses them and says, “Be fruitful, multiply, exercise dominion over the earth.” He brings them into being. And then he pronounces a benediction upon them. But they break all they ruin all of that through their sin.

And then we have these series of covenantal renewals in the scriptures, always accompanied by blessing or benediction. You know, Noah God tells Noah right after in Genesis 9 that his God’s blessings are upon him. God tells Abraham that he’s blessed as he renews covenant in the context of Abraham because these all represent they’re meant to bring Noah, Abraham, David, all of these ramifications are meant to show them remember what happened in Genesis 1. When I created you, I blessed you that you might be fruitful and multiply. And now all that prefiguring the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, but his work is been totally accomplished and he has ushered in nothing short of a new creation. And the benediction and blessing at the end of the service is a reminder to us that we exist in the context of the new creation. We have that gift of life again, the breath of the Holy Spirit in us and enlivening us.

And that’s the way to understand Matthew 28. It’s a recommission to the new creation to go forth and fulfill the mandate of Genesis 1. The benediction is a representation of the new creation.

**Fourth, the benediction is a torrent of blessing from the triune God sent through his ministers.** And I preached on this a year or two ago. I don’t remember when, but if you look at the ironic benediction, what benediction did Aaron place upon the men? Well, we’re told in Numbers 6:22-27, this you hear it every week. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, all the priests, saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel.’ You don’t got to guess about it. Here’s how it works. These are the words to say. Say to them, ‘The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, give you peace.’”

And we’ve talked about this literary structure of this blessing. We won’t talk about it again now, but understand that the Hebrew in various several ways. what they have here are a crescendo of blessings going through these three phases. Father, son, and holy ghost, three offerings that whole pattern I think we can see reflected here leading to the great culmination of that torrent of blessings. The final concluding word peace offering conclusion of the gifts of God to us.

And the benediction again is an assertion that those three gifts of forgiveness that God shall indeed bless us and keep us as his people. We are restored in our personhood. That God will shine upon us, enlighten us with true knowledge in that second gift of the preaching of the word that he’ll be gracious in the giving of the law to us. And then third, that God does indeed not just now, you know, bless you, but now he lifts his countenance upon you. He be you behold him face to face as it were. And he grants you the culmination of his presence, which is what peace means in the Old Testament. It’s the total relationship of God’s people to him.

Peace is the culmination of all of his blessings. You know, it’s like that Genesis machine in one of those Star Trek movies. God is the lifegiving presence of all the world. And he has withheld that light from portions of his creation because of their sin. But now through the culmination of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessing and benediction is upon us. And he shines on us and he lifts his countenance towards us and gives us peace. All the blessings that he has affected through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is this torrent of blessings that come to us. And it’s a torrent that is specifically told said rather to be communicated by the priests that God has established.

On Deuteronomy 10:8 we read that the Lord separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord to stand before the Lord to minister to him and to bless in his name. You see he had a special group the Levites who were their specific function was to bless in his name. And that’s why in Reformed churches it there’s a great stress placed upon having an elder of the people as the one who pronounces the benediction or blessing because that goes back to the Old Testament and God establishing a particular office of men to do this. It’s not required but it’s certain that is very important because God says that there are these men that he has normatively placed to pronounce this blessing or benediction upon his people.

In 2 Chronicles 30:27 we read the priests the Levites arose blessed the people and their voice was heard and their pray came up to the holy dwelling place of God. Again, it’s the Levites who are blessing God’s people.

In Judaism, you can go to a Jewish cemetery and know which ones of those men were Levites or rabbis of the people by a symbol that’s placed upon the tombstone of rabbis. And the symbol typically is this pattern here. It’s the hands kind of creating a fan-shaped pattern that is used in the synagogues to bless the people, at least was in days gone by. And so the very mark of a person, you know, tombstone marks who you were, the very essence of the rabbi or the Levite was to bless the people. That’s what I’m here for. That’s what Pastor Wilson’s here for. When we discipline you, it’s to the end that you might be blessed. When we speak to you, whether comfortably or uncomfortably, it’s to the end you might be blessed.

See? And so the end of the service culminates the work of the minister. This is and you get a picture every week. You get a visual reminder of who we are and who the officers of the church, the deacons as well really in a way they’re called not to pronounce the blessing but their service is to be a blessing to the people.

And so the blessing is this pronouncement by God’s particular officers and that’s portrayed visually on some tombstones and at the end of the service to you. It’s also portrayed visually by the way in Star Trek. Leonard Nemoy wondered what was some neat little way to give his blessing or benediction, you know, live long and prosper. And he went to a synagogue service, being Jewish, I suppose. And that’s the way that guy did it was he would put his—well, I can’t do it very well, but the idea was he’d do that. See, kind of a fan-shaped pattern again. He’d have that separated as he blessed the people. So, it’s live long and prosper. Well, that’s just what Pastor Wilson’s telling you, live long and prosper. But it’s not some silly wish from an alien. It is the declarative words of God.

So his ministers pronounce this blessing upon his people. Now listen now I’ve talked about the literary structure of Numbers and that torrent of blessings that picture there. Just listen to some of the other blessings or benedictions described in the scriptures. And this might be a little long but let’s read Deuteronomy 28:1-4. Just listen. Don’t turn to it. Just listen.

Deuteronomy 28. It shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all his commandments, which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. It is a torrent, a flood of blessings. And here in verse two, it’s the language that’s used is language usually described of enemies. is overtaking you. You’re running away. People are trying to kill you or rob you and they overtake you. Well, here the picture is, you know, you’re running away. You’re but that the blessings are so strong as they flow from God that they overtake you and overpower you. That’s the kind of torrent or flood of blessings that God promises to his people.

Blessed shall you be in the city. Blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground, the increase of your herds. the increase of your cattle, the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in. Blessed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all in which to which you set your hand to do. He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

The Lord will establish you as a holy people to himself, just as he has sworn you. If you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways, then all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord. They shall be afraid of you. The Lord will grant you plenty of goods in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to you. The Lord will open to you as good treasure, the heavens to give the rain to your land in season and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations. You shall not borrow. The Lord will make you the head and not the tail. You shall be above only and not be beneath if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today and are careful to observe them. So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day to the right or to the left to go after other gods to serve them.

A torrent of blessings comes to us through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Revelation 2 and 3, each of the letters to the seven churches ends with a benediction or blessing. To the desirable bride, he says that he will give her to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God, the new creation being referred to there. To the church in trials and tribulations, he tells them that their blessing will be that they’ll not be hurt by the second death.

To the church at Pergamum in Revelation 2, he says to him that overcomes will I give to eat of the hidden manna. He will and I will give him a white stone and in his stone a new name written which no man knows except he that receives it. He blesses us with identity, a name given to us by God and with the eternal life feeding on the Lord Jesus Christ.

To the church at Thyatira which means odor of affliction. We read that to the church at Thyatira will I give power over the nations. You shall rule them with the rod of iron as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers. Even as I received of my father, I will also give him the morning star. That’s the fourth blessing in Revelation 2 and 3. The fourth day of creation was the sun, moon, and stars to rule over the earth. And this fourth blessing is a picture of that to the church at Thyatira and to every church really is promised the ability to rule over the nations. That means these blessings are not at the end of all things. They’re in the process of history. When everything’s completed, all the world now is part of the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. But this says that in time and space, one of the benedictions or torrents of blessing that God pours upon you is to exercise rule over dominion over the nations as his bright morning star.

The church at Sardis rather was promised the benediction of being clothed in white raiment. You’ll be progressively sanctified and you’ll be made white and clean in your deeds. I’ll not blot your name out of the book of life. I’ll preserve you as you persevere. I will confess his name before my father. The Lord Jesus Christ pronounces a benediction and blessing saying that he continues to provide intercession for those who receive this blessing and benediction.

To the church in Philadelphia, the benediction is declared that he’ll make them a pillar in the temple of God. You’ll go no more out. I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God which is Jerusalem. And I will write upon him my new name identity with the Lord Jesus Christ. Establishment as the church of God, the pillar of God, the dwelling place of God in the midst of the peoples.

To the church at Laodicea, to him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I also sat down with my father on his throne. The culminating blessing in the list in Revelation 2 and 3 is enthronement. The Lord’s day, the Sabbath day, is the day of enthronement of his people. At the end of that first day, when God went to meet with Adam, Adam was to be enthroned. But he was not enthroned. He was deposed. But the Lord Jesus Christ through his work has restored us to Lord’s day, Sabbath day, enthronement. And when the benediction is placed upon you, that is part of what that benediction is all about. Enthronement, sitting on the throne. of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew 5, blessed are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice, be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The Lord Jesus Christ has this torrent of blessings. I probably warn you out a little reading Deuteronomy 28 and Revelation 2 and 3 and Matthew here, the sermon on the mount, but the point is these things are all component elements of the single blessing and benediction placed upon the people of God based upon the culminating work of the Lord Jesus Christ in blessing his people.

2 Thessalonians 3. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace always in every way. Short form of what I’ve just read from all these other places in scripture. Read it again. Wonderful benediction. May the Lord of peace himself give you peace. His presence, his life, his blessing always and in every way. That’s the benediction placed upon you at the end of the Lord’s day worship service. And then it goes on to say, “The Lord be with you all. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.”

The blessing or benediction is a torrent of blessings from God through his representatives to his people.

**Fifth, the benediction is not a prayer, but it is an efficacious pronouncement, a performative utterance.** Big word. The idea here is that the benediction is not a prayer that something might happen. Leviticus 9 it’s not we hope this will happen. They place the blessing upon God’s people. In Numbers 6, God says, “Do these things and I shall bless them.” See, it’s not that Aaron has power, but it’s God has decided to use the means of his representatives standing before you at the conclusion of the worship service as the mechanism. Yeah, I’ll use that word mechanism by which this blessing and benediction is yours in Christ. It’s not a prayer. You shouldn’t close your eyes and pray when the benediction is pronounced. You should be looking up with joyful anticipation of God’s transforming power affecting you as you leave this place. What it is a performative utterance. It’s words blessing, words—there are good words placed upon you. This is why it’s hard for us because we think of this as man’s words and man’s words can’t really affect anything. But God’s word, see now think of this is God’s word to you. Is it going to happen? Yeah. Because God’s word is not empty.

You know, in Joshua, I don’t remember where it was, but you know, it says not a word failed that God spoke concerning the conquest of the land. And literally, it means no word fell to the ground. We say words, God forgive us. And some are well-intentioned. Sometimes they’re not. Our words fall to the ground. They have no effect. Pish tosh, you know. But God’s word doesn’t fall to the ground. It reaches through the air and gets you and places his benediction and blessing upon you. It’s an utterance that produces performs something. It is a performative utterance.

You know, at the end of a wedding service, the minister says, “Well, I now pronounce you man and wife.” See, if he means by that he’s going to make a man and wife, that’s no good. Because really, there’s no place in the scripture that says the minister is the one who’s got to make sure who marries who. That’s the people’s decision. And they are into covenant with God in the presence of the church and the state witnesses. But it’s their covenant words that affect that union. You see, the minister does not have a performative utterance in marriage. He simply announces what’s already happened. I present to you these people. I now tell everybody that you’re man and wife because you exchanged words. Your words were efficacious to creating covenant.

Well, it’s the same thing here. The word of God is efficacious to producing covenant. He shall put his name upon the people. Aaron shall and God shall bless them.

Reading Psalm 133 about how good and how pleasant it is, brethren dwell together in unity. It’s like the precious oil upon the head running down the beard. the beard of Aaron running down the edge of his garments just like they do of Herman descending upon the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord commanded the blessing life forever more. Again, a summation of all these blessings, life forever more. God commands it. God tells Aaron to tell the people that he has commanded this. He shall bring it to pass. You need to be assured that’s the blessing of God upon you. And it’s not a prayer. It’s not wishful thinking. It’s not something we hope will happen. It affects the bless of God and the blessing found is life itself.

Now 1 Thessalonians 5:23-28 the blessing or benediction is formally verse 28. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. But it’s got to be informed by what comes just before it. In verse 23 of 1 Thessalonians 5, we read this. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful who also will do it. And then he concludes that in verse 28, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

The grace is to be with you to the end that you might indeed be sanctified completely. and your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved. He who calls you is faithful. He will perform it. He who tells us, tells Pastor Wilson this morning to pronounce the blessing and benediction upon you, assures you in the very text from Numbers 6 that it will happen. And he assures you here that he is well able and he will bring this thing to pass. No falling words.

Solomon said the same thing in his blessing in 1 Kings chapter 8. He says, “There has not failed one word of all his good promise which he promised through his servant Moses.” Now, can’t we say that after going through a worship service where we rehearse the completed sacrificial acts of Christ that he has brought all things to pass that the Old Testament system prefigured and affected all things necessary for our salvation and he blesses us the way that he blessed the disciples as he ascends and leaves them. He parts from them, but as he parts from them, as they leave him, him his special presence. He says, “You’re going with my blessing on you.” And when you part from God in the context of the worship, he says, “My blessing has come upon you and it will stay upon you.” No word fails of what God has promised to us. And certainly the word of his benediction.