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Reading Hebrews 13:17-25 and finishing up a study in the book of Hebrews with a final exhortation, benediction, and closing words of encouragement. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Well, we have one final lesson in our study of the book of Hebrews that the hearers of this sermon, and this applies to us today, would continue to hold fast to Christ and live according to His gospel.
When We Understand the Text.
This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will. For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.
Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. Well, I've been away for a couple of weeks. I'll wait until the Friday edition of the broadcast to explain all of that. Finally, we have arrived at the last lesson in our study of the book of Hebrews.
This is chapter 13, verses 17 to 25, which I will read from the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they will do this with joy and not with groaning, for this would be unprofitable for you.
Pray for us, for we are convinced that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves well in all things. And I urge you all the more to do this, so that I may be restored to you the sooner.
Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, equip you in every good thing to do His will by doing in us what is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever.
Amen. But I urge you, brothers, bear with this word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly. Know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom, if he comes soon, I will see you. Greet all of your leaders and all the saints.
Those from Italy greet you. Grace be with you all. And there we go. The final reading of our study in the book of Hebrews. And as we come back to this here, verse 17 sounds a lot like what we read in verse 7.
Let me go back to that, where we heard from the preacher, remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you, and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. In verse 17, we have obey your leaders and submit to them.
So it's kind of like there's bookends here. You could start with verse 7, and that's a section that goes all the way to verse 17. Why would we have leaders on the opposite ends of this particular passage?
Well, it is, of course, talking about those elders in the church, the pastors, the overseers that's qualified by the next statement. So obey your leaders and submit to them for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.
That's got to be the shepherds, which is where the word pastor comes from. Pastor means shepherd. In verse 7, it was remember your leaders, and then that's qualified with who spoke to you the word of God.
They're the ones who taught you God's word. Of course, that's the preacher who's supposed to be standing in front of the congregation and teaching, proclaiming the word of God and giving the sense, helping the people to understand what this word means and how to apply it to their lives.
Now if there's any difference between these two verses, verse 7 and verse 17, remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. That could be something past tense.
And then verse 17 is present tense. Obey your leaders and submit to them for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. They keep watch. They will give an account. So there's something more present tense about that.
Verse 7, remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. They previously had spoken God's word to you. The leaders mentioned in 17 are speaking. They're teaching you now. But the leaders mentioned in verse 7 spoke to you before.
So here's the possibility that those leaders that are being talked about in verse 7 are those who have given their lives for the sake of the gospel. Like literally, they have died preaching the gospel.
Or maybe they had given their whole lives to preaching the word and then they died in their old age. It could be that as well. But most likely we're talking about somebody who gave an example to the church.
They lived a full life proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, either died still preaching it or died while preaching it in the sense that they were persecuted for it. And so the attention is being called upon to pay attention to the way that they gave their lives.
That's the context of verse 7. So remember your leaders, those who, you might say, formerly spoke the word of God to you. Considering the result of their conduct, consider the way that their lives concluded, how they finished all the way to the end, imitate their faith.
So this is remembering those faithful from before. And then verse 17, obey your leaders and submit to them now, for they keep watch over your souls now as those who will have to give an account so that they will do this.
There's kind of a future expectation there with joy and not with groaning for this would be unprofitable for you. So don't be constantly arguing about your pastor or gossiping about your pastor or refusing to consider his instruction because that makes his job that much more difficult.
And you know who doesn't benefit from that? You. When you gripe and complain about your pastor, you don't benefit from that. It is not of any profit to you. It's unprofitable for you, as the preacher mentions here.
So if we listen to what the preacher says and we do what the preacher says, that's beneficial for the preacher and it is beneficial for us as well. Now, as a pastor, one of the best compliments that I can receive from a member of my church is to say, I'm walking with the Lord because of you or that you spoke something to me Sunday that really convicted my heart, changed my attitude, changed my mind about things.
And I'm desiring to walk in a different way this week. That is the greatest compliment to me. You don't have to come up to me after church and say to me, well, I love your voice. I love your preaching style, so on and so forth.
I happen to know I have a good voice. I don't think I'm boasting when I say that, especially when you consider I didn't give myself this voice. I sound like my dad, so it was inherited. And then I was brought up in radio, so I was taught how to do this.
I know that I've got a good voice. I don't need to be told that people like my voice. That is not a compliment on my preaching. But if somebody says to me that something that I said convicted them of their heart, that I showed the word of God to them, that Christ came through my sermon.
If they say something to that effect, that is much more complimentary than anything involving my skill or the way that I delivered my sermon. If I'm preaching something that is changing somebody's hearts, then I know I'm doing my job.
I know that I am fulfilling my calling as a pastor to be committed to the trustworthy word as taught, teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it. That's what Titus 1 .9 says. So in doing those things, if a person understands God's word and they know how to apply it and they live according to it, then that's the best compliment that I could receive.
To see that the people that are sitting under my teaching are walking with the Lord. But when somebody is arguing back with their pastor, they refuse to follow or they'll say to the pastor to his face, hey, I love your preaching.
But then behind his back going, oh, I just cannot stand his sermons, they drive me crazy. That is not of any benefit to you. You don't profit from that. And it's certainly not easy on the pastor. He will be doing his job with groaning, as it says here, so that they will do this with joy and not with groaning.
That's the desire that the pastor will indeed love the work that he does in service to the Lord for God's people. So then after saying that, which really kind of closes a length of instructions that has gone from verses 7 to 17, then the preacher gets a lot more personal, personally applicable, you could say it that way.
In verse 18, he says, pray for us, for we are convinced that we have a good conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves well in all things. Now, in the very beginning of our study of the book of Hebrews, I had said that a lot of the writing in Hebrews has the flavor of Luke.
It sounds like Luke. When you read Luke's writings in the gospel of Luke and in the book of Acts, could be that Luke is the one that's writing Hebrews. But a lot of the theology and even the phrasing, that sounds a lot like Paul, very, very similar to Paul, especially when you consider that here at the closing, Timothy is mentioned, and Paul would sometimes mention Timothy either at the start or at the conclusion of his letter.
When he says in verse 18, pray for us, for we are convinced that we have a good conscience. That's something Paul has said. He said to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1, the aim of our charge is love that echoes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
And he talked with Timothy on a couple of other occasions in those pastoral epistles about having a clear conscience. So we are convinced that we have a good conscience, he says. We have not conducted ourselves in any kind of way that where it could be said of us that we preached contradictory doctrines, that we preached doctrines that were contrary to the gospel or that we lived our lives in any sort of way in which somebody could blame us for sin.
So the preacher is able to say here, we are convinced that we have a good conscience. Our doctrine's been sound. And then the way that we live our lives has also been solid, desiring to conduct ourselves well in all things.
But the preacher says here, starts in verse 18 by saying, pray for us. We're convinced that we have a good conscience. So pray that they would continue in that way of preaching sound doctrine and living according to that doctrine.
That's a good thing to pray for your pastor about as well, especially when we come right on the heels of verse 17, obey your leaders and submit to them. As the preacher has said here, pray for us, pray for your leaders as well.
Pray for those shepherds and teachers in the church that are committed to guiding you according to the word of Christ. Verse 19, I urge you all the more to do this so that I may be restored to you the sooner.
Now this is right after the preacher says, pray for us. And I urge you all the more to do this so that I may be restored to you the sooner. Now everything happens in exactly God's timing, but God still accomplishes what he means to accomplish even through the prayers of his saints.
So God has, you know, a particular date in mind, but he has also intended that his saints would pray leading up to that specific date when that event or whatever is going to take place so that the saints are even bringing about that day even sooner than our own expectations.
Sooner than, you know, the Romans might let one of the prisoners go because we have Timothy that's mentioned here as having been released. Verse 23, know that our brother Timothy has been released. So maybe if the preacher is in jail for some reason or whatever else, that praying will hurry that day forward.
The Romans may have intended to keep them a lot longer, but through the prayers of the saints, God has worked to bring about that day sooner than man has intended. Pray for us that we may be restored to you the sooner.
And then we have this closing benediction. So we have this instruction to obey your leaders, pray for us, and do this all the more. All of that kind of lumped together in verses 17 to 19. And then we have an exhortation in verses 20 to 21, and then some final closing words in verses 22 to 25.
So in verse 20, now the God of peace who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, equip you in every good thing to do his will.
So he is the God of peace. God has made peace by giving his son to be a sacrifice for us. That is keeping with many of the themes that we've read about in the book of Hebrews, talking about how Jesus is the great high priest.
He is the greater sacrifice. He is the greater Moses. All the things that he has done to bring peace by the shedding of his blood, by the giving of his life, and the father has given his son so that through Jesus Christ, we would have the forgiveness of sins and therefore peace with God.
So he is the God of peace. He who gave his son to die on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for us is the God who has made peace with his enemies. We who were formerly enemies of God through faith in Jesus Christ, we've been adopted and become part of the family of God.
So he is the God of peace who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep. That is of course in reference to Christ in John 10, where Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. The sheep know my voice and they follow me.
They will not follow a stranger, but they follow me and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand.
I and the father are one, as Jesus says there in John 10. So he is the great shepherd of the sheep, and God has brought from the dead the great shepherd through the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus.
And you've probably heard it said that the father showed that he had received the son's sacrifice by raising the son from the dead. That's kind of what's being stated here. Jesus was brought back from the dead through the blood of the eternal covenant.
So it's because of that shed blood, because it was perfect blood, because the giving of the life of Christ was a spotless sacrifice. The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world because Jesus gave his life.
He was a sinless, spotless sacrifice. Then the father showed that he received that sacrifice by raising him from the dead. May the great shepherd of the sheep who has been brought back from the dead equip you in every good thing to do his will by doing in us what is pleasing in his sight.
Now that reference to doing in us, that could be in reference to the preacher and his missionary brethren, or it could be all of us collectively, all believers. May he equip you in every good thing to do his will by doing in us what is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever.
Amen to Christ. Be the glory for he is God and he is worthy of our praise. So there's that benediction in verses 20 to 21. And then we have these final closing thoughts in 22 to 25. But I urge you brothers bear with this word of exhortation for I have written to you briefly word of exhortation.
An exhortation is like an imperative. It is an instruction. It is taking the word of God and applying it to the hearer that he may live according to what has been preached. A good sermon is going to include exhortation.
Now there are a lot of passages in the New Testament that may not give an explicit imperative. There may not be a direct command. Do this. You know, like Ephesians 6, 1, children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.
There's a direct imperative. Wives submit to your husbands. That's an imperative. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church. That's an imperative. This is exhortation. But sometimes the imperative is not that clear.
Like for example, in my Sunday school class right now, if you heard the lesson that I had posted on Sunday, I'm currently going through 1 Corinthians chapter 12, where we're starting to go through the gifts of the spirit section, chapters 12, 13 and 14.
And I mentioned my Sunday school class on Sunday in 1 Corinthians 12, there's no imperative. There is nothing in that whole chapter where Paul says to do something, but he starts that chapter by saying concerning spiritual gifts, I don't want you to be uninformed brothers.
So that whole chapter right there is something informative. Paul is talking about spiritual gifts. He's giving the Corinthians something to think about. Now when you get to chapter 13 and 14, well, those chapters are very particular with the imperatives.
Do this, love one another, so on and so forth. But with chapter 12, it's just something informative. In preaching on chapter 12, I have to give exhortation to the passage that I teach through, even though there isn't an explicit imperative, right?
So that's what the preacher refers to here with exhortation, and it is direction. It is instruction that they must follow. And there's been instruction all the way through Hebrews. I'm not saying that this is more informative and we have to come up with the imperative.
The preacher is explicitly saying this whole letter, the whole reason I wrote this letter, this is exhortation. This is direction for you that I've given to you that you must follow. But it's not under our own power that we're able to follow these instructions.
Remember back to verse 21, remember that benediction. May the Lord Jesus Christ equip you in every good thing to do his will. So our ability to hear and understand the word of God being preached and knowing how to apply it and live according to it.
All of that is by the working of the spirit in our hearts. I urge you brothers, bear with this word of exhortation. Don't ignore it. Listen to what has been said. Be convicted in your heart and do it.
Verse 23, as I mentioned, know that our brother Timothy has been released with whom if he comes soon, I will see you. So there's something that we can know about the life of Timothy. We don't have much that said about Timothy's life in the New Testament.
Most of it is based on what Paul said about Timothy in his two letters to Timothy, first and second Timothy. But here we just have a very short statement in Hebrews that directs to us, Timothy had previously been in jail.
So he had been thrown in prison also for his commitment to the gospel. He's been released though, the preacher says, and if he comes, I will come to you as well. Now, what would be unclear about that is whether the I is Luke or whether it's Paul.
It could be Luke. It could be both. Verse 24, greet all of your leaders and all of the saints. Those from Italy greet you. It could be that this letter was written from Rome or at least that particular area.
Verse 25, grace be with you all. And there we go. That is the very conclusion to our study of the book of Hebrews. Remember once again, the central proposition, the main point of this entire book, why was this sermon preached?
Why was this letter written? The sermon that was then taken and written down in a letter form and then sent out to the churches or to Hebrews all over the Roman empire. What was the reason and purpose for this?
It was so that the Hebrews would know that Jesus Christ is the greater than he is the greatest, the greatest high priest in the order of Melchizedek. He is the greatest sacrifice. He is the greatest word.
He is greater even than the angels. He is the greater Moses, the greater David, the greater sacrifice on and on it goes. All of that is presented for us here in the book of Hebrews and so that the Hebrews would know that there's not going to be another Messiah.
There is not another gospel. This is it. If you fall away from this, what judgment will come upon you who had heard the truth and did not believe? How will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
The preacher said back in Hebrews two and that constant reminder and exhortation comes up throughout the book of Hebrews that the Hebrews would remain steadfast in their faith in this gospel, not turning to the left or the right to anything else, but would remain fixed upon Christ for as we had it said in Hebrews 12 one, laying aside every weight and the sin, which so easily entangles us.
Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
And my friends, he's going to return to judge the living and the dead. The only way to stand victorious with Christ on that day is to turn from your sin to Jesus Christ today. Heavenly Father, I thank you for what we have read in the book of Hebrews and may it remind us to remain steadfast in our faith, to remain fixed upon Christ, to hold tightly to him for we know that he is holding on to us the steady anchor of our souls as he is described in the book of Hebrews.
May we bear with this exhortation and live according to the instructions that have been given to us here, to our sanctification and to the glory and praise of your great name. It is in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.
You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.
On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.