Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Hebrews 13:20-21

Sermon text today is Hebrews 13:20 and 21. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. This is the concluding section of the book of Hebrews and it primarily consists of a doxology. These first two verses of the last four verses and we’ll talk about these today and for the next few weeks.

Hebrews 13 beginning at verse 20:

“Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you what is well pleasing in his sight. Through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for these wonderful words, this benediction placed upon your people. Thank you, Father, that this is what we move toward—the benediction, your face shining upon us that we just sang about. Help us, Lord God, to understand the nature of benedictions in your scriptures and how they work. Help us to begin to have an understanding of this particular benediction.

Lord God, transform us. Cause our fears to be eased. Cause our dismay to rise again to new hope through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. May your spirit confirm these words on our hearts. Give us Lord God confidence to enter into this week and more than that joy. In Jesus name we ask it. Amen.

Please be seated.

So the church bells ring out over Oregon City all around the region calling people to worship. What are you called here to do? Why are those bells ringing? Why did you come here? Well, there’s of course many aspects, many answers to that, but in one sense, this last verse we just sang—”no more shall we wander delighting in shame. Revive us, oh Lord. We will call on thy name.” We come forward to call on the name of God. “Oh Lord, God of hosts, us restored to thy grace, and then we shall live in the light of thy face.”

That’s the way this service concludes—with the benediction. And we almost always use the benediction of Aaron—the so-called Aaronic benediction—upon the people, and it concludes with God’s face shining upon us. So if we look at the service in terms of what it moves toward and concludes with, the bells have called you forward today. You’ve been called by the elders of the church speaking—maybe sometimes sounding more like clanging bells, sometime like harmonic bells—but the elders of the church call you to worship every Lord’s day and encourage you to do it. Why do we do that? Because we want you here, yeah, but for what reason? And the reason is the conclusion of the service—the benediction. That’s what we’re focusing on today. From this perspective, the worship service climaxes in God’s final great gift to you—peace, his face shining upon you, a benediction.

And so many of the New Testament epistles—and this sermon to the Hebrews more or less—concludes with this benediction. This is why you’re called forward. This is really important to understand so that we can move into the rest of our week without fear, anxiety, or with lessened fear and anxiety. So today your mission is to believe that this is why God has called you forward—not to kill you, but to rather speak words that give life to you.

You know, God’s voice isn’t like our voice. It accomplishes what it sets out to do. You remember creation—he speaks, the world comes into being. One of the psalms talks about God walking and flowers blooming as he goes, you know, and his voice is this life-giving force. And this voice, the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, at the conclusion of this service, to each and every one of you assembled here—this word will go out and this word is blessing. This word is life, and it accomplishes what God says it will accomplish.

So we want to talk today as we begin to look at this concluding seventh day section of this sermon to the Hebrews. We want to talk about benedictions in general. And to do that, then talk about a specific point of this benediction. To do that we want to talk a little bit about the benediction we normally use.

Now, several years ago, the elders decided that it would be good to conclude the first portion of our worship day—the worship service proper—with the Aaronic benediction. And then usually we do a New Testament benediction at the end of announcement time. You know, we did that for a while. I’m not sure that’s—we certainly don’t have to do that. It’d be good to, and I think some of our men do occasionally interject a New Testament benediction. But why the emphasis on the Aaronic benediction?

Well, it’s sort of like why the emphasis on the book of Leviticus for what we do in terms of worship. We have here the penultimate—no, the ultimate, penultimate—leading up to the New Testament benediction. This benediction that really sort of gives us focus and form and understanding of what the rest of the benedictions in scriptures are. This benediction is found in Numbers 6:22-26. We’re very familiar with it, hopefully.

“The Lord spoke to Moses saying, ‘Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons. So this is a benediction that Aaron is supposed to place upon the people of God,’ and then successively the Aaronic priesthood would produce this blessing saying, ‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel.’”

So a specific blessing is given to them here. Now remember that in the order of worship, you know, there’s these little tiny comments about where we’re at in the flow of worship, and then the very last—well, the last page I think is the announcements or stuff—but the very last page of the formal liturgy, we actually have the citation from Leviticus 9 that after offering the sin or purification offerings, the burnt offerings, which is the ascension offering, and then the peace offerings, Aaron then produces a blessing to the people, pronounces a blessing. This is that blessing.

So it’s kind of like the definitive blessing of the Old Testament period, and it helps us to understand ours. It’s an interesting blessing. It has been referred to by various commentators as a torrent—a blessing, a river. There’s a crescendo that comes through this Aaronic benediction. You’ll notice the three-fold repetition of the Lord. “The Lord bless you and keep you”—so, nurture you, bless you to the end that you’re productive, you spring forward and keep you, guard you. So we have those two aspects. The Lord does this. That’s the first line.

The second line: “The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.” So now the face of God is starting to come to us and God gives us his grace.

And then finally the great line: “The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” Peace. This is the conclusion of the benediction.

And in our Hebrews benediction, that’s how it starts: “Now may the God of peace.” So a reminder with this benediction links back to this. This is the God of peace.

Now there’s a three-fold order to this. And some commentators have noted how the Hebrew Old Testament is consonants and then there’s vowel points. The Yahweh, the three-fold repetition of Yahweh here, is pointed differently in three different ways. It’s kind of an anomaly. Well, what is this all about? But of course, we would see it immediately as a reminder of the triune God—that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit bless us. And there are profitable studies done of this particular benediction relative to the persons of the trinity. This trinitarian blessing in the Old Testament has this idea of one God existing in three persons.

It’s also interesting to note, by the way, that the Psalms of Ascent—some people have written analyzing the Psalms of Ascent as an exposition of the 15 words, the 15 Hebrew words that make up this benediction in Numbers 6. So there’s 15 Hebrew words. And so you have the Psalms of Ascent that are sort of a meditation on this. And other people have noticed that if you’ve got 15 words and you got 3 words referencing Yahweh, then you have 12 other words, and there’s a fullness of that and a connection to the 12 tribes of Israel—a comprehensiveness to it.

Beyond that, this idea of a torrent of blessing is based upon the fact that this blessing matures and moves ahead. It gets better and better. It consists of three specific lines obviously: “The Lord do this, the Lord do this, the Lord do this.” And in the first line there are 3 words, 12 syllables, and 15 consonants. The second line in the Hebrew has 5 words, 14 syllables, and 20 consonants. And the third Hebrew line has 7 words, 16 syllables, and 25 consonants. So you’re going from 3 to 5 to 7 words. You’re going from 12 to 14 to 16 syllables and from 15 to 20 to 25 consonants.

It’s very obviously carefully constructed benediction that brings us—just in the very word count, syllable count, and consonant count—shows a crescendo at the end of it. And then of course the actual—if we were to study this benediction at some length, we’d see that crescendo comes up to that final word “peace” that God places upon his people.

So if we’re to understand New Testament benedictions, we kind of want to think a little bit about this exemplar of benedictions from the Old Testament. And what we have here is this streaming, ever-increasing stream of blessings in these three lines from Numbers 6. It’s quite dramatic, is my point. And it’s dramatic to an end. You should—whether we use the Aaronic benediction at the end of the service or whether we use a New Testament one or some other benediction—you should always sense that’s what’s going on as God begins to pour his life out to you, as it were, through his breath, empower you, give you benediction, good words. And those good words—there’s a torrent of blessing. It’s doing more and more and more upon you.

So it’s really quite a beautiful example of what benedictions are. This one from this exemplar—as I said, this example—from the benediction that Aaron was to place upon the people of God in Numbers 6.

Now, a benediction in Hebrews in the two verses we just read—there’s a different Greek tense of this statement. When we read that God make you complete, this isn’t—there’s a particular tense. It’s only used I think 16 times in the New Testament, and it is a tense that indicates not a wish, not a prayer. We’re not hoping. It has this idea of accomplishment or fulfillment. So it is sort of what some people call a prayer wish or wish prayer. But a better word for it is this benediction word. And a benediction—the benediction at the end of the service—is not a prayer. We’re not asking God to do something. It is a performative utterance, to use technical language. It accomplishes what is intended to do.

You know, it’s interesting. When I preached through Joshua, one of the commentaries on Joshua was called “No Falling Words.” This comes from Joshua 21 and 23. We read: “Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass. Not a word failed.” Literally, it says, “Not a word fell to the ground.” You know, our words kind of fall to the ground. “Well, I’m going to be at that C meeting,” and then I get tired and I get fatigued. I’m not feeling good. My word fell to the ground. So we make statements and they’re good, but not one of God’s words falls to the ground. Not one of them fails to come to pass.

Joshua 23:14, Joshua says: “Behold this day, I’m going the way of all the earth, and as you know, in all your hearts, in all your souls, that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the Lord God spoke.”

When God speaks the word, it accomplishes its purpose.

In 1 Kings 8:56: “Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel according to all that he promised. There has not failed one word of all his good promises which he promised through his servant Moses.”

So the benediction is assuredly coming to pass.

Psalm 133 we read: “You know, this wonderful dew of Hermon descending upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, commanded the blessing even life forevermore.”

You see, it’s the word for this life-giving spirit that God has—this word for life—is connected to the breath of God. God is the only one that can give life. He is the source of all life. And when God commands the blessing, the blessing is life forevermore. That’s its culmination. Peaceful life, ordered life with God, blessed life, you know, productive life, guarded life, all that stuff. And that will come to pass because God doesn’t just say the blessing to his people. He commands it. He commands a blessing to his people. It shall come to pass.

A benediction—”Bene” beneficial benefits means good; “diction” of course dictionary, it’s full of words. So a benediction is a good word spoken by God through his appointed representatives. You know, in reformed churches it’s a big deal. You can have a song leader get up here, but you have to have an ordained minister of the word give the benediction.

Why? It’s words. Anybody can read them. Well, the idea is that the congregation should be assured that Jesus is speaking those words to them. That it’s God speaking through a chosen intermediary. And in fact, the scriptures say that this is exactly what the Aaronic priesthood was set up to do. They were actually given to bless the people of God. That’s their purpose.

And so this blessing—God speaks good words to you. It’s not a prayer. It’s not a hope. We’re not hoping something might happen. It’s a performative utterance. It creates what it says it will do. Okay? No falling words.

Well, you know, this is Old Testament I’ve given you, but another benediction—and it doesn’t actually say this in our Hebrews one, this assurance it’ll come to pass—but we’re supposed to understand that from the benediction of Aaron and all these other quotations. But there’s another one in 1 Thessalonians 5. There’s a benediction, verse 23 and following:

“Now, may the God of peace”—that’s how the Hebrews benediction begins, right? So they’re picking up what the essence of the benediction is. It flows to peace.

“Now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. That’s common with our Hebrews 1:2. We’ll talk about this in two weeks. Next week, I’ll be in Sacramento. Pastor Wilson will be preaching. But we’ll pick this up and we’ll see that the purpose of the benediction—it has something to do. It gives us life, but to the end that we would be made perfect, not sinless but equipped for everything that the Lord God wants us to do. So may the God of peace who sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved, the Lord bless thee and keep thee blameless at the coming until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

And then in verse 24: “He who calls you is faithful. He also will do it.”

By the way, it goes on in verse 25 to say: “Brethren, pray for us.”

Again, just like the Hebrews text, it reverses the order—to pray first in the benediction. But “he who calls you is faithful, he also will do it.” And here the specific thing that God is said to be going to be doing is to produce the benediction that he pronounces upon the people.

So get it—not a prayer, not a hope, a performative utterance. When that benediction is said, it affects it, it has the power of God’s voice behind it. And so God’s voice is powerful and affects what he has promised to have accomplished.

So, and that of course we’re told in the Aaronic benediction, “I’ll place my name upon the children of Israel and I will—they will place me in the yul,” and God says, “and I will bless them.” So he says it very clearly, right, in the Numbers 6 text we hear so often in this church. God assures us—and sometimes I read that as part of the benediction, sometimes I don’t—but it’s always there and you always should recognize that benediction is effectual. “I will bless them.” It’s a performative utterance.

Now, another thing we can learn about the Hebrews benediction from the typical exemplar benediction of the Old Testament—Aaron’s benediction—is that it is preparation for warfare. It’s kind of odd to say that because it’s a benediction of peace. But remember that God’s peace is not the peace of the graveyard. It’s the peace of his order, the destruction of people that are in opposition to him.

In the attitude—there’s a flow to what’s happening in these books. And Numbers is specifically the book that’s preparing the army of God. We could say the subject of Numbers is the army of God. It’s preparing the army of God to conquer. They’re done with all the wanderings. They’re going to go now into the land and conquer. And so in the early chapters of Numbers, the army is mustered, they’re counted. They’re getting ready to go in and conquer. And then there’s some stuff purifying the camp. And then earlier in chapter 6, there’s regulations about the Nazirite—the, you know, the exemplar warrior—and it gives us instructions about that. So you know, the main warrior guys, the green berets, the Nazirites, they’re talked about. And then at the end of this section describing the army of God getting ready to move forward, that’s when the benediction is placed.

So it doesn’t say it in the actual wording of the benediction, but if we look at the context, it is empowerment of the people of God to go forward living lives exhibiting the life of the triune God and conquering the enemies of God by moving forward. The benediction is about moving ahead. And the Lord’s day is about moving ahead, not dwelling in the past, moving ahead, conquering. So the benediction is placed upon the army of God. And so it has a specific reference.

So when we read in Thessalonians or in Hebrews that God is equipping us for every good work, you see? Well, again, if we remember that the exemplar is a blessing upon an army to go forward conquering, well, every good work means we’re going to conquer whatever we do this week. We’re equipped. This is the armory.

Worship is not—I mean, I guess in a sense it’s a hospital. We come and we receive assurances that God loves us and we’re built up and comforted. That’s certainly true. But from this perspective, the very conclusion of the service, reminds us that this is an armory. God is going to give you what you need today to understand the world and to have power in the world through the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the last thing he’s going to do is he’s going to give his army a special little zap and everybody’s going to have life and conquer as they go into the week. That’s kind of what it looks like here. So it’s an armory. And this idea of worship as arming the people of God happens in this context.

Now, there’s another benediction—long one—in Deuteronomy 28:1-14, and of course Hebrews ties this benediction to the covenant, as does Deuteronomy 28, and I’ll read the entire 14 verses as the final scripture reading at the end of the service but just the first couple of verses here, Deuteronomy 28:

“Now it shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God. See—now the assumption is he’s blessing an army that’s moving forward. They want to do what God wants them to do 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, and we’re going to read them later on—there’s a great list of them. All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God.”

Now, this is again conquest language. This is the same Hebrew words that happen when an enemy overtakes you, right? An enemy overtakes you and beats you up. You’re running, but you can’t get away. You’re not fast enough and the enemies beat you up. But here the whole thing’s flipped on its head, and this military idea of defeat is turned into military conquest because we cannot escape the blessings of God.

The blessings of God will overpower us in a positive way in the same way the curses, you know, of enemies who hate us would overpower us without the blessing of God upon us. So again, it’s preparation for victory. It’s preparation for going into whatever it is, and this is important because what it means is that your work this week—in some way that God understands fully and we may not—your work this week is to go forth as the army of God.

And I’ve made this point before and people say, “I don’t know if I believe that changing a diaper is part of the conquest.” Yes, I absolutely believe with every fiber of my being that the task—what we think of as the ordinary task that God calls us to do each week—is maybe mystically, I don’t know, but it’s all part of what God is doing, and the benediction comes upon us for every good work. The power of God empowers you to change the diaper without complaining, you see, and to make that holy seed of God, to grow them up as warriors for God as well.

I believe this not because I see it in the world or I understand the significance. I can think about some things relating between the mundane tasks of life, a few of my and connect up. And I suppose if I wanted to think about it, I could think of. But that’s not why I believe it. I believe it because the word of God says so. The word of God says the blessing and benedictions upon the army of God. And we are equipped to do every good work. Every good work is the purpose for the benediction of God. And so the blessings overtake us. Really important to understand this.

You know, I’m sitting—I went to Cats, a youth production of Cats this last Thursday evening of some of my family members, and I had ordered the tickets ahead of time. They all be in Will Call. Okay. So I show up at Will Call and bunch of other people. They’re all getting their, you know, they get their last name, they get the tickets. I give my last name. No tickets. Oh, you know, so the guy starts working on the computer and we’re there for 5 or 10 minutes and, you know, I’m thinking, you know, I’m thinking about this sermon and I’m supposed to have, you know, the sunshine of God over me, but it sort of feels an awful lot of times in my life that there’s a black cloud over me.

Now, I know that some of you think, “Now why too, Dennis?” Well, this is what we feel like, right? You feel that way. I’m sure you—we’re the Christian here. Maybe a lot of these other people are—pay they’re getting their tickets. I’m not, you know, what’s the deal? Well, as it turned out, my order had been taken but not processed. There’s three steps and they had a lot of turnover personnel that day. One day they had a lot of turnover personnel.

There is a global curse that’s going on, you know, in terms of inefficiency. But the point is we got tickets pretty much where I had got them anyway. One row back and a couple rows back the other ones—and they were free—and because of the mixup, they just gave them to us for free. So what I interpreted as a black cloud over me was really was sunshine. At the end of the day, you know, it’s $50 richer, so six tickets or whatever it was. So praise God. Well, that’s all we’re to think of this stuff. The word of God, you know, is flowing to us and God accomplishes what he wants us to do.

Again, this is why the—some churches have said ordained ministers should do this. Listen to what Deuteronomy 10:8 says:

“At the time 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 to this day.”

So the very summary statement of Levitical priesthood here is to minister to God and to bless the people. You know, to bless the people is of the essence of what the pastor’s job is to do. The pastor—you have pastors and their purpose is to bless you, to pronounce this blessing and benediction upon you. Okay. So a benediction—are good words. God absolutely promises that he will bless us. This Aaronic benediction is a crescendo. It’s a torrent of blessings upon us. And the Aaronic benediction was placed upon an army—an army of God—and then the second point is that this benediction concludes with peace. And again, peace is the well-being, the right orderedness of our world.

Peace isn’t just, you know, no problems. It’s not that at all. It’s the presence of God. And if God is the only true life-giving source in all the world, then to be in union with God is to be in union with that life-giving force. And it’s to have peace that is a light abundant—I guess you use the old terminology—abundant life. Yeah. That’s what Jesus promises to us.

And the blessing, the Aaronic benediction concludes with peace, and this peace is pronounced upon his people. So Jesus is the good shepherd, and the shepherd produces all the benefits for his people.

We mentioned last week that the middle of the first book of the psalms is Psalm 22, and Psalm 22 is a transition from the work on the cross to the answered prayers of Jesus and then the declaration that the world will be converted. So there’s this transition and, you know, the psalms are not just placed willy-nilly. The very next psalm is what we just recited responsively earlier—Psalm 23. And Psalm 23 is a picture of that victory being worked out in the again somewhat of the ordinary details of life.

You know, Psalm 23, the great shepherd throughout our lives provides the shepherdly care. And so the blessing, the transition, the crying out to God that Jesus did, God answering him, that and assuring him of victory, results then in peace—the kind of peaceable life that Psalm 23 is an indication of—because the good shepherd is ministering his grace and peace to us.

It then moves on to Psalm 24, which is an entrance psalm to the worship of God and has this emphasis, you know, in a sense of course upon weekly worship, but Psalm 24 talks about “who shall ascend into the holy hill of God.” Well, that can also be seen as, you know, our death and entering into the ultimate holy hill of God, praising him in heaven. And so you have this movement from victory and empowerment in Psalm 22, and then the ordinary life of blessing and peace, and then the conclusion of that is this movement into glory.

And so this movement is the movement of the Aaronic benediction kind of spelled out in larger terminology. And the movement is to peace. Now remember that it’s placed upon an army, and what we think is ultimately the peace of the world is accomplished fully when the world is converted to Christ, and there are many promises that will happen—Psalm 22 being one of them. While the ends of the earth—Luther liked this particular verse when talking about benediction—Psalm 67:6 and 7:

“Then the earth shall yield her increase. God our own God shall bless us. God shall bless us and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.”

Now, there’s a little structure there, right? “So, the earth shall yield or increase. God, our own God shall bless us. God shall bless us and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.” So the benediction—and notice that Psalm 67 puts these three-fold references to God, not Yahweh, but God, Elohim—that they’re there. That blessing and benediction, the trinitarian nature of it, is at the center of these two verses. And the blessing, benediction, the brackets, the blessing of God upon his people to do all the simple things that we’re supposed to do every day, has the effect, according to Psalm 67, of peace in the world.

The earth will yield or increase. The ends of the earth shall fear him. And so God will convert the world through his empowered army as they leave worship. And so peace is affected through the conquering of Christ’s enemies.

You know, the end of the worship service is the benediction. And the end of Hebrews is this benediction. And the end of the worship service in Leviticus 9 is the benediction. And the end of Jesus, his earthly ministry, is benediction.

We read in Luke 24:50:

“He led them out until they were over against Bethany. This is after his resurrection, after the 40 days. He lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass while he blessed them that he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.”

We should go to our homes with great joy, knowing that Jesus does today just what he did then. The last earthly action of Jesus as he’s ascending—this is why I’ve got that coloring picture for you little kids, you know, at the back, picture of Jesus blessing his disciples. The last thing Jesus does is to pronounce blessing upon his people.

If we understand that at the end of the worship service, that’s what Jesus is doing here too, then we’re going to go back to our homes with joy, right? God didn’t bring us here to beat us up. Didn’t give us here to give us a list of things to do. Didn’t give it bring us here just to receive our praise. All those things are true in some sense. He convicts us. But ultimately, the reason why you’re here is to be blessed. And the proper response to blessing is thanksgiving and joy. And of course, a desire to please him that gives us all these good things.

And again there, by the way, if we tie Acts 1 into Luke 24, then the last words of Jesus—we don’t know what the blessing was in Luke 24, but the last words of Jesus as he’s about to be parted—is that they’ll receive power to be his witnesses to all the world. Right? So again, it’s the same common theme. The army is being blessed to go out into the world, and in the very simple actions of obedience to Jesus, the world moves. A giant, you know, lever has been thrown, as some poets say, and nothing is ever the same again. In and as you do these little things for Christ, then victory and peace are yours.

Purpose of the pastors is to bless you, and the last thing—the last action of Jesus’s last act on earth was to bless the disciples.

Now let’s talk a little bit now and just it briefly about the book of Hebrews specifically in this concluding benediction. And on your outlines, on point number three, I talk about the Arc of Hebrews. And you know, it’d be a useful meditation. I’m not—I won’t be here next week. I’ll be here in two weeks to talk more about the benediction in Hebrews. It’s a useful meditation to think about the beginning and end of a thing, right? The alpha and omega of a thing. It sort of defines the thing.

And in Hebrews, there’s a beginning and an ending. And at the beginning, we have this wonderful statement of the supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. It focuses on him, the first four verses—what he does for us—but the focus is him at the very center of those first opening statements of Hebrews. This wonderful Jesus—”who being the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person, upholding all things by the word of his power”—this is Christ. All about Jesus. But at the end of the book, what happens? The focus moves to us. Now the blessing of this wonderful Jesus that is preeminent—that begins the book—it concludes with him blessing us unto every good work.

So the arc of Hebrews moves from a declaration of the beauty and glory of Jesus and then an exposition of that, and it concludes with you being equipped to every good work. And you know, this is this is the arc of many books in the Bible.

James B. Jordan talked about this at camp, but we could think for instance about the book of Revelation. In the first chapter you got this description of the marvelous Christ. And as we move to the end, we have a picture of the city and how beautiful it is—the church, the bride, in other words, us. And so there’s a movement. The purpose of history, the purpose of the judgments of God in AD 70, was to take the beauty of Christ and make Christians like him—to move from the groom initiating all things to the bride being the express, you know, the beauty of the groom. And so there’s this movement, right?

Song of Songs—you know, wonderful pictures of Solomon toward the beginning and throughout it—but then toward the end, the woman assumes beauty. By the end of the book, so there’s a there’s a movement.

Proverbs begins the declaration—the transcendent wisdom of the king—and it concludes with a description of a queen. The queen says these things, and then here is the picture of the bride of Christ. It’s not a picture of individual women per se—Proverbs 31 rather. It’s the picture of the bride. So it’s the same movement from the king to the queen, from Jesus the groom to the bride, from Jesus—this express image and reflection of God and his glory—to now us being equipped to every good work. That’s exciting stuff, if we understand the arc of Hebrews—is to bring us to be imagebearers of Jesus as Christians and to be equipped for that purpose in the world.

Hebrews begins by focusing on Jesus. It ends by focusing upon us. And The Lord’s day is a day of enthronement. God brings us here to empower us to cause us to be seated with Christ in the heavenlies and to empower us and bless us as kings and queens to go forward victoriously for him in all that we do and say.

Now, one last point before we conclude today. This is really just an introduction to this benediction in Hebrews, but there’s a structure to it. I think if you look at the handout or just look at your own Bibles in verses 20 and 21, we begin with “the God of peace” and the concluding phrase is “to whom be glory forever and ever.” So it ends at the doxological formula praising this God of peace. And as we move toward the center, this God of peace “brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep.” So his actions relative to Jesus are described in this doxology. And then after “the blood of the everlasting covenant” says “make you complete in every good work to do as well working in you”—or us, and some probably it’s probably better translated “working in us,” the author identifies with the people—”working in us that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ.”

So again, in the benediction itself there’s a movement. There’s two sentences about what this God of peace has accomplished. The first is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ coming again from the dead. And the second is the empowerment of you. So again, here the benediction is a little arc to it too. It begins with Jesus, ends with the empowerment of his people. That’s why Jesus came—to perfect the people, right, to create a priesthood to serve him and transform the world, and all that stuff. And that’s given to us here.

So you know, we got peace, doxology at the end, blessed forever. He’s got done two things. One relative to the resurrection of Christ, bringing down from the dead, and the second he’s going to equip us to every good work. And in the context to this we have the Lord Jesus referenced in a parallel fashion, as well as I’ve indicated on your handout. And then this means at the very center of this benediction is the phrase “through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” And so there’s a structure, you know—the center point of this thing.

Now the benediction almost always—in this case certainly it does—sums up some of the major themes in the context of the book. And in the book of Hebrews, we’ve had some major themes: we’ve had peace with God, blood, covenant, resurrection, shepherd, equip. These are major themes that come back in this benediction. So in a way, it’s a summary of what this book has been all about.

And, and so there is—at the focal point of the benediction, there is this focus on the covenant and specifically on the blood of the covenant. This is central in this particular benediction. Now it’s also central in this entire book. This summation benediction sums up the entire book. And I didn’t have it printed up on your handouts, but remember we said that this book has four parts or seven parts to it. And the very middle of this book was a section dealing with the inadequacies of the old covenant and the great adequacies of the new covenant. And so there was a structure to this fourth center as well.

You probably don’t remember it. That’s okay. But there was the fourth section really dealt with this bringing in of the new covenant. And the very middle of the fourth section was Hebrews 9:1 that “Jesus Christ has come as a high priest of good things to come.” So the priest work of Jesus in the context of the covenant is at the center of this entire book, and this emphasis on covenant and blood is found in the center of the book as well.

The word “blood” is used I think about 22 times in Hebrews, and 17 of those 22 references are found at the center of the book, in the middle section of the book. So here, at the middle of the benediction, as a reminder that the centrality of the covenant and of the blood of Jesus Christ affecting and putting this covenant into effect—this was dominant theme of the whole book. This was the center of the whole book. And so it makes sense that it becomes then the center of the doxology as well.

And so this really sort of sums up the entire book of Hebrews—this central section, the blood of the covenant.

In Hebrews, the new covenant is seen as being ratified at the cross. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ, his blood—speaking better things than that of bulls or goats, or better things than that of Abel’s. The contrast to the blood of animals, the animal sacrifices preparing for the coming of the one whose blood would redeem men. This is at the center of the book of Hebrews. And so this idea is that the new covenant is ratified by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, that’s what we see at the table. Jesus said, “This is the new testament. This is the new covenant. The blood represents the covenant of Jesus Christ.” And so covenant and blood go together here. They’re a focal point in the context of the book of Hebrews, and they’re a focal point here in the benediction as well.

So Hebrews reminds us of that. Now if we were to look at references to blood then in the book of Hebrews—this is you know, looking at the context of it specifically, the very center of the book—I’ll just add a couple of verses to the very center in this section. I talked about Hebrews 9 verse 10 says:

“Being only with meats and drinks and diverse washings, carnal ordinances imposed until a time of reformation. But Christ having come a high priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is to say, not of his creation—nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood—God entered in once for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.”

So the idea is that the blood of Jesus Christ has ratified, sealed, affected the covenant. It is the blood of Jesus on the cross that’s the focal point of the benediction in the book as well.

Now what does that blood do? Well, in Hebrews 9 verse 12: “These things we read that with his own blood he entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” So the blood of Jesus, one thing it does is it redeems us from our sins.

Hebrews 9:13 says: “That the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh. And how much more so Jesus blood is a cleansing agent from the perspective of the book of Hebrews. It was in the Old Testament. Now it’s a total cleansing in the New Testament.” So blood cleans us as well. It sanctifies us, that rolls away the defilement so that we can then approach God and serve him and go into the world with his blessing upon us.

And in verse 14: “We talked about this last week, how much more the blood of Jesus who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

So the blood of Jesus is what’s necessary to cleanse your conscience. Now we can’t have a bloodless gospel. Hebrews makes it very clear that all these blessings of redemption, the atonement for our sins, cleansing, sanctification to serve God—all these things are affected according to Hebrews by the blood of the New Testament.

The blood of the New Testament—Hebrews 9:18: “Not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. And remember, we talked about this. The new covenant is dedicated, ratified, set in place by blood. Without blood, without the blood shed of the Lord Jesus Christ, without his death, without the demonstration to that death and his blood, and without the atonement for sins affected by that blood, then there is no new covenant established and ratified. The world hasn’t moved forward. But it has, and it has because of the blood of the eternal or everlasting covenant.”

This phrase is even found earlier—Hebrews 9:20: “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.”

We read in Hebrews 9: “This is referring to the Old Testament. So when we read the blood of the everlasting covenant in the benediction, talk more about this in two weeks, it really is not discontinuous with all the administrations of the covenant of grace, but this is what they all pointed toward. They were all everlasting, eternal covenants. We’ll look at this more in a couple of weeks. But certainly, Moses—even in Hebrews—it’s referred to as the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you. So blood of the covenant here links back to the blood of the covenant of the Old Testament. And the covenant was looking forward to its fulfillment and ratification in Christ. And that’s been accomplished.

Hebrews 9:22: “According to the law, most all things are purified with blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins.”

So if we’ve got a sin problem, we can’t have sins remitted or forgiven without the shedding of blood.

Again, in Hebrews 10:4: “It’s not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.” And the inference is that the blood of Jesus has taken away our sins.

Blood finally—in Hebrews 10:19: “Says that we therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the high holiest by the blood of Jesus. Then we come forward into the blessings of God.” So blood is linked here to the covenant. It’s essentially identified with the covenant in the context of Hebrews. It’s the central message of Hebrews that the new covenant has been established and ratified.

What the old covenant couldn’t do, Jesus has done. And he’s done that by means of his death, the presentation of the blood of that death. And so every covenant ratification in the Old Testament, every ratification, renewal of the covenant happened with blood. That’s what we learned in Hebrews. So that finally, all that showing that the new covenant would be affected by the true man, sinless man, shedding his blood for us, affecting the cleansing of our sins, the atonement, the atonement with God—remember, peace with God, atonement means we’re at one with God.

The blessings of this God can flow to us because of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, this blood and blessing, blood and benediction is told to us many places in scripture. For instance, in Revelation 2 and 3, there’s seven churches. And there’s benedictions at the end of each of the letters to the seven churches. But the benediction, the blessing comes to those who overcome, right? “The one who overcomes, I will grant this benediction and blessing to.” Well, how do you overcome?

Well, Revelation 12:11 says: “That they’ve overcome by the blood of the lamb. The beast is at the door. Sin is trying to conquer us again, as it did Cain. But we overcome these things by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So blood is necessary to overcome and then inherit the blessings of the Lord Jesus.”

So then blessings and benediction flow from overcoming by the blood, which is identical to the affirmation, ratification of the covenant. So we overcome by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the blood of the lamb.

You know, Aaron—it wasn’t until he had finished the bloody offerings described, you know, specifically in Leviticus, the nine, the purification offering, which was bloody, involved blood, the ascension offering, which was again an animal killed, blood was sprinkled, peace offering, animal killed, blood, blood, blood. And then benediction. Jesus’s blood produced atonement—at onement with this God of benediction and blessing.

To be at one with God means to be blessed. That’s what it is. That’s where you get blessing—is to be connected to God. The blood of Jesus washes us from our sins. The blood of Jesus put the covenant into effect. The blood of Jesus gives us boldness, boldness to enter into the life that God has called us to lead.

So benediction, blessing, the word of God. Don’t—at the end of the service today, you know, collect your papers during the benediction. Don’t look around. Don’t bow your head in prayer. Look up. Believe that the hand of God’s power and authority, that the words of the Lord Jesus Christ are being spoken by the officiant to you, and that this is not some wish or hope. This is a performative utterance. The God who is life, who is the source of blessing, productivity, and peace will empower you by the benediction to do every good work.

That is the great message. The bells ring today to bring you forward to the end—that God’s blessing would be pronounced upon you. That you would have peace. That you would have empowerment to do the things that God calls you to do this week. It can be effectual for King Jesus.

Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for the wondrous truth that you’ve called us here for the very purpose of blessing us with life and that most abundantly. We thank you for the blood of the covenant, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross that set this covenant into effect, by which we enter into these covenant life blessings that exist in the context of you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Bless us now as we come forward, pleading the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, delighting, Lord God, that the covenant has been affected and your blessing and benediction flows to us. In Jesus name we ask it.

Amen.