"The Great Shepherd of the Sheep" April 1, 2018 AM

The Prayer for Illumination and the Opening of Hebrews 13

We need you to work in our lives. We need your Holy Spirit to fill us, to move us, to give us understanding of your word, to help us truly grasp the glories of Christ as they are revealed here in the scriptures.

Father, we lay ourselves into your hands and ask for you to move us according to your will. We pray these things for the sake of Jesus Christ, in whom you are well pleased. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 13, which is the last chapter in the book.

If you're thumbing through a Bible, look near the end, minus a few books. Verses 20 and 21 will be our focus this morning. It is a prayer. It is a prayer for blessing. These two verses are a benediction.

They comprise a prayer that is worth praying, and we ought to pray it precisely because Christ is risen, and he is risen indeed. He is risen indeed. Would you do Christ the honor of standing as I read Hebrews chapter 13, verses 20 and 21.

Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever, amen.

You may be seated. The title of the sermon this morning is The Great Shepherd of the Sheep. I'd like us to think about what it means that Christ has been raised from the dead, why it matters, and how we should now live.

Why the Resurrection Changes the Way We Live

I was out in my garden yesterday, happily making a mess, moving dirt and leaves and all manner of everything around, thinking what a great blessing it was that the cold was far beyond us, behind us, and we were not going to have any more freezes.

Then news came by my prudent wife. You do know that it's supposed to get down into the 30s. You do know it might freeze. No, I did not know that. I went from gardening in one way to gardening in a different way very quickly, and I stopped trying to make progress in making new garden beds for new vegetables and new flowers, and I went to trying to cover everything that was now growing in hopes that it would somehow survive a freeze in April.

Once I found out this information, it changed everything in the way that I was gardening. I was gardening in this way. I hear some news. Now I'm gardening in a totally different way. As Brian put it so well, he heard some news.

He was living in a way, a true living, a one way of living. You hear some news. It changes everything in the way that we live. I've heard it said by secular historians that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is far better attested than almost all events in historical antiquity.

It is not a difficult thing to lay out the many proofs and the many tracks of logic, the many evidences that there was a man named Jesus who hailed from Nazareth who died on a cross outside of Jerusalem, executed publicly, and was later raised from the dead and seen by over 500 witnesses, and the impact of this shook the world.

It is not difficult to establish that for any fair-minded person. The difficult part is this, the next question, so what cares? That you see is an entirely different proposition. It's not so much trying to prove the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth and his resurrection from the dead.

Oh, that's easy. People caring about it is a whole other thing. The preacher to the Hebrews, he's away from his congregation. He has written them what he calls a brief exhortation and he closes it now.

If you read it out loud, it's about 55 minutes long. I assure you my exhortation will be briefer than his, so hang on. As he closes, he has a prayer, a blessing, a benediction, and he prays for them and desires things for them that are entirely dependent upon the fact that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead.

But he doesn't just say Jesus of Nazareth once died and now lives again. He says that God raised up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord.

You see, he's giving expression to the meaning of this resurrection. What does it mean that this man was dead and now lives again to die no more? What does that mean? It means hope. It means salvation.

It means a very great deal that we should give some thought to, and it should make a huge impact on the way that we live. We ought not leave this place this morning living as if we had not heard the news that Jesus has been raised from the dead.

We ought not live as if there has been no resurrection. Change the way that we live. We were living, we live one way, but then we hear that Jesus Christ has been raised and therefore we live now an entirely different way.

Let's consider this. What does it mean that Christ is risen? That the great shepherd of the sheep has been raised from the dead? Here in verse 20, we see that the God of peace has brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep.

He has done so through the blood of the eternal covenant, and this great shepherd of the sheep is none other than Jesus our Lord. In other words, the God of peace has brought up from the dead Jesus our Lord.

Right off the bat, you ought to hear that this is good news when we hear that he is a God of peace, and this is not the idea of peace that we often have a sense of solace, quietude, calmness. This is not the idea of being at peace in the vein of those who follow the teachings of Hinduism or Buddha, emptying our minds into a total calm.

This idea of peace harkens back to the Hebrew word shalom. Still a common greeting today. Shalom means a wholeness, a completeness, a sense of rightness, and this God is a God of peace. Firstly, because he is a God who is whole and complete and right, and there is nothing lacking in God.

God for all of eternity has been in right and whole and complete, fully satisfying fellowship and relationship within himself as the triune God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, nothing lacking.

A God who is satisfied, a God of shalom, and he has made us in his image. He has made us in his image to be a relational creature, one who is special and set apart from all the other creatures that he has made, that we would be relationally whole as well, that we would love God supremely and love each other rightly and steward this created order in righteousness to his glory.

And when we do that, we're whole. When that's true of us, we are in shalom. But what does he do? This God of peace knows our frame. He knows our need. He is a God of peace who raises the dead. And so we desire him to be for us.

He raises the dead. He raises his own son, Jesus Christ, from the dead for our salvation because let's face it, we are not in and of ourselves whole. Augustine said we were made for him and we are restless until we rest in him.

We're not whole in and of ourselves. We don't love God supremely. We love ourselves supremely. And the virtue of self-promotion again and again leaves a wasteland of broken relationships and the people who ascribe to it.

And we put ourselves above others and we are told it is right to do so. And then we look at the carnage that it causes. And we don't steward the creation responsibly. We worship stuff. Stuff becomes what we live for.

No, we are not whole. But we need to be made whole. We need to be born again. We need new life. And that new life comes through Jesus Christ. And this is the one whom God raised from the dead. And he is not simply one who unfortunately died and then was recovered in fresh life.

No, he is the great shepherd of the sheep. All the way through the book of Hebrews, we keep on hearing about this comparison and contrast between one who was named Aaron. Aaron was the first priest, the first high priest of the nation of Israel, brother of Moses.

The first shepherd of Israel. And Jesus is called the great high priest, meaning greater than Aaron. And he is also called the great shepherd because he is greater than Moses. And Moses was great. Moses was great indeed.

Moses, when he was 40 years old, was exiled from Egypt where he had a place of prominence. And he went out and shepherded sheep in the wilderness for 40 years. His father-in-law's sheep for 40 years.

And then God brought him back down to Egypt to deliver his people from bondage to sin. And to lead them out where he would shepherd the sheep of Israel, the people of Israel, for another 40 years in the wilderness.

There is a moment where Moses is shepherding the people. And they have just been delivered from Egypt. And they are making their way across the Sinai desert. And they're coming up against one of the inlets of the Red Sea.

And they must cross. But behind them comes all of Pharaoh's army. And they are trapped. And God uses Moses and tells him, stretch out your hand. And the Red Sea parts. And the people cross because Moses was there.

With his hand, he parted the sea. And he went across. And all of Israel followed him across to safety. And when they got to the other side, they see Pharaoh and his army and his chariots racing across this dry ground in the Red Sea.

And then God says to Moses, stretch out your hand again. And the Red Sea collapses upon them. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, in Isaiah 63 verse 11, it says this. Then he remembered the ancient days saying, where is he that brought up from the sea the shepherd of the sheep?

Where is he? How great is this God who brought up from the sea the shepherd of the sheep? And this phrase is racing around the head of the preacher to the Hebrews. And by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he says, yes, but there was one greater than this shepherd.

Now may God who brought up the great shepherd of the sheep. Brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep. Not just the sea. No, brought him up from the dead. Do you know why he puts it this way?

He puts it this way because the resurrection of Jesus Christ is set forth before us as hope of salvation. As the Israelites were trapped against the Red Sea and destruction was coming upon them, there was only one way they were going to get through to safety.

If they followed the shepherd named Moses. And they made it through the Red Sea to the other side to safety and to victory. And then the writer of the Hebrews says, yes, but the resurrection of Jesus Christ is greater than that.

Because he was brought up not from the sea, but from the dead. And if there's any way, there's only one way that you are ever going to make it through death to the other side and safety and victory is if you follow the great shepherd of the sheep.

Jesus Christ, who was dead, but now is alive forevermore. This is good news. This is where the preacher to the Hebrews is answering the so what of Jesus of Nazareth having been raised from the dead. He is a great shepherd of the sheep.

He's greater than Moses because he shepherds his sheep, not just through the Red Sea, but through death to glory. He's also a greater shepherd than Moses because though Moses shepherded millions of Israelites in the wilderness, the flock of Christ once gathered around the throne, total a number that no man can count from every tribe, tongue, people and nation.

Meaning he is a shepherd, the great shepherd of the sheep, sheep from all over, from every place, from all kinds of backgrounds. Question to ask, is he your shepherd? Is he your shepherd? Jesus once stood at a point of view where he saw Jerusalem.

He once looked over the masses in the crowds and he had compassion for them because he saw them going through their lives, trying to live life, but he had compassion on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd.

Meaning they were living life as if Jesus Christ would never come, live, die, be raised again, living life without Christ, living life according to whatever it seemed best to them. Christ had compassion on them.

And the God of peace raised the great shepherd of the sheep from the dead so that we would have a savior. Notice he raised him from the dead through the blood of the eternal covenant. What is a covenant?

The Eternal Covenant and the Blood of Christ

A covenant is a careful arrangement for a relationship. You can think of a marriage covenant. Before God and witnesses, these two people, man and woman, agree to be for one another in a way that is unlike any other commitment to anybody else in their life.

To love one another no matter what is going on, no matter what severities may occur, no matter what kind of blessings occur, they are going to be for one another, before God and witnesses. A careful arrangement of a relationship.

And God makes covenants with people. We have a record of that throughout the scriptures. God made a covenant with Adam and Eve. God made a covenant with Noah. God made a covenant with Abraham. God made a covenant with Israel.

God made a covenant with David. Every time God makes a covenant, it's a careful arrangement of relationships. And every single time he does, there's something very similar going on. He says to them, he lays out before them, here is blessing, here is life.

Insofar as you love me supremely and love others rightly and steward the whatever I've given you responsibly, you will know blessing, you will know life. But then the blessings and the life very often are given very clear conditions.

If you turn away from me, if you commit idolatry, if you turn away from each other, you commit injustice. If you turn towards creation and worship and idolatry, there will be curse and there will be death.

Why is it that way? Because it's the way God designed us. That's the way God made us. God made us in his image. We turn away from him and turn against each other and begin to worship the created order.

It's death. It's a curse. But he made us to live differently. And every time he makes a covenant, he arranges things so that the image of God is in full display. Every single covenant he makes is so that we might know his goodness and show his glory.

And the fact that we come now and read about the eternal covenant, the fact that there is one eternal covenant that sums all the other ones up tells us that they were all aiming at the same thing anyway.

Ultimately, they're all but the same idea, summed up in Jesus Christ, who is the word of God, who is the image of God, the son of God. Why is it important that we see that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead through the blood of the eternal covenant?

This is reminding us that Jesus Christ fulfilled everything that God required for humanity to be. Everything he wanted humanity to be. Everything that he wanted Abraham's seed to be. Everything he wanted Israel to be.

Everything he wanted David's son to be. This is Christ. He has fulfilled these covenant agreements. For example, the phrase, blood of the covenant comes from Exodus 24, 8. In verse 7, Moses took the book of the covenant and read it in hearing of the people.

They said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do and we will be obedient. So they said, but no, they did not do. So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, behold, the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.

The idea is this agreement that Israel would live in a certain way so as to display God's glory. They were called a son. They were called a servant. We hear that in Psalm 80. And yet Israel fails, but yet Israel points the way forward to the son and the servant who would keep the covenant in the place of and for the sake of all who would believe in him.

This is exactly what Jesus says at the last supper. Matthew 26, he says, drink from it. He takes the wine at the last supper and says, drink from it, all of you, for this is the blood of my covenant. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.

How is this so? It is so because Jesus Christ. In keeping the covenant and being faithful to his father in doing all that is required in this arrangement of relationships, he earns all of the life and the blessings that God promised.

And yet in his full obedience to the father, he takes upon himself in our place and for our sake, our curse and our death. That we deserve for betraying the uniform of the image of God, which we bear.

But because he has earned all the blessing and all the life, how is it that he could stay dead? In full obedience to the father, he dies upon the cross, but he can't possibly stay dead. Peter. Preaches now once at the consummation of the ages, Christ has been manifested to be to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

This man, the great shepherd of the sheep delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, haters nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death. But listen, but God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for him to be held in its power.

He was raised from the dead through the blood of the eternal covenant because Christ's death, the manner in which he died, the full merit of what it means that he fully obeyed the father, even to the point of death upon the cross, that the very nature of his death brought about his resurrection.

Because of his own merit, because of his own quality, because of what he deserves. God would be unjust to allow Christ's state on the Sabbath to remain the same on Sunday. Remember that Christ in his full obedience to the father says upon the cross as he dies for our sins, it is finished.

The resurrection of Christ is the amen of the father on the it is finished of the son. Yes, indeed, it is finished. Shows everyone that Christ has earned our blessing in life and he has borne our curse and our death.

What I want us to see is that Jesus of Nazareth being raised from the dead means that the great shepherd of the sheep has been raised from the dead and the one who has fulfilled the eternal covenant, even through the manner in which he died for our salvation.

Do we know, do we see that in our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ that all has been accomplished? That nothing is left for us to contribute so as to make sure that this salvation really sticks. Do we see that all of what we experience and accomplish as the sheep of the great shepherd is because of what he has already experienced and accomplished in full for us?

Our living does not make Christ live. Christ's risen life is what makes us live. When the preacher to the Hebrews prays this, he prays of a salvation. He prays of a blessing that you and I could never, ever deserve.

You and I could never, ever earn. I am a sheep. I cannot, I cannot win the shepherd's favor. He already owns me. I, I am dead, but I must be made alive again. Christ does so in his death and resurrection.

I hope we've answered, so what? It's not that just Jesus of Nazareth, an historical figure, a wandering teacher and perhaps miracle worker was risen from the dead, risen from the grave. But that he is the great shepherd of the sheep who rescues us and brings us all the way through death to glory, that he is the one who keeps the eternal covenant in our place and for our sake.

How Christ Equips Us to Do God’s Will

And now, and now, how do we live? Now, how do we live? In verse 21, we are going to sum up everything from verse 20 to verse 21. We could sum it up this way. Now, God equip you. If you're going to diagram the sentence of Hebrews 13, 20 and 21, God equip you is the most simple way to sum up everything here.

That's a prayer. That's a prayer. It's all right. We sure miss a whole lot in between. I'm terrible at that. When my dear wife wants to tell me something, I'm looking for the three word summation of what it is that she wants to say.

She's got 60 words to say this, and it's the extra words that matter the most. It's the extra words here that matter the most. God equip you. How is this so? Through the great shepherd of the sheep who has been raised from the dead, the one who has, by the blood of the eternal covenant, brought life to us.

Now, God, the God of peace, equip you in every good thing to do his will through Jesus Christ. We need to live continual reflection, belief that Jesus is alive. That he is risen, that he is ascended, that he is soon to return.

We cannot keep going on in life as if Christ has not been raised from the dead. Because he has been raised from the dead, God equips us in every good thing to do his will. The God of peace, the God of shalom, the God who is satisfied in and of himself, the one who made us in his image that we would be made complete and whole.

He is the one who equips us through Jesus Christ. This word equip is a word which means to be made complete. It is a word which means to mend, to fully restore. The God of peace who raised up Christ from the dead does this through Jesus Christ.

He makes us complete and he mends us and he fully restores us in his image that we would live the life that he has given to us in Christ. He equips us to live risen lives through our risen Lord. He fills us with every good thing.

He completes us and makes us whole in every good thing that we may do his will. Some may have the idea that God being so high and so powerful and having said so much in the Bible, that his will is something that will never get done.

It's too much. It's really too demanding. And after all, to err is human and to forgive is divine. So we're just going to mess it up anyway. Let's move on. And yet that is living as if Jesus did not rise from the dead.

Because he has risen from the dead through Jesus Christ, through the great shepherd, everything the sheep need is provided to them. You ever read Psalm 23, keeping in mind that the good shepherd has been raised from the dead.

With Christ as our great shepherd, we shall not lack anything good. Good. He makes us to lie down in green pastures. He leads us besides still waters. He restores our souls. He guides us in the paths of righteousness for his own namesake.

And when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we fear no evil. Our great shepherd of the sheep has already been down that road. And we're with him and his rod and his staff. They comfort us.

He prepares a table before us. Our risen Lord prepares a table before us in the presence of our enemies. He anoints us with oil. Our cups overflow. Fully overflowing with all the good God has for us. Surely through Jesus Christ, our risen Lord, because he is alive forevermore, goodness and loving kindness will follow us all the days of our lives.

And we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23 is true, forever true, because Christ is risen. He is our great shepherd who equips us for God's will, gives us every good thing that we need, a submission to God's authority, a desire for holiness, a love for truth, a passion for wisdom, everything that we need to be about God's will.

We have it in Christ. And not only are we fully equipped and we have everything we need, but we are also made effective by this same God of peace who works in us what is pleasing to his sight through Jesus Christ.

It is not only that we have been given all the supplies we need. It's not that we have been given all of the paints and the palette and the brushes and the tools and the room and the great canvas and we sit there fully supplied, but gazing at a monstrosity of a canvas empty and saying, oh, there's no way I have everything I need, but there's no way I can get this all done.

It's not that we're left alone. It's not that God says, here's all this stuff. Good luck with it. But that he himself is working in us that which is pleasing in his sight. So he's right with us. He's right with us the whole time because of Christ, because he has been, he has raised from the dead, ascended to the right hand of the father, and he has sent the spirit to indwell us.

And so he is right with us and he is working in us that which is pleasing in his sight. Paul says, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me. It's God who is at work in us, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

It's a full salvation, folks, because Christ is risen. It's a full salvation. It's not partial in any way. This is good news. Brothers and sisters in Christ, as long as we look to Christ, we can never fail in living for Christ.

Joy abundant and peace overflowing, fullness of life is ours in the risen Christ. God made you in his own image. And the way we live in that image is in Christ. And that's when we know the abundant joy.

Notice the way in which this benediction is wrapped up. To whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. And the God of peace who brought up from the dead, the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus, our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ.

To whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Let us be suspicious of all compliments and let us be repulsed by all flattery. If anyone ever sees the beauty of true life in you or in me, it is but Christ.

It is but Christ. To whom the glory belongs forever and ever. Forever and ever. Father, we come before you this morning and we thank you. And we may pray this benediction. We may pray this prayer for one another with all good faith.

Because you have raised up from the dead our great shepherd. What a joyful thing it is to know this truth. To believe it, hold fast to it as we are held fast by you. And then to know that our lives can never be the same as you complete us, activate us unto Christ.

What I pray that this day we would reflect upon the truth of the resurrection with great joy and thanksgiving. And that we would live according to this great news. And pray these things for Christ's sake.

Amen.