Please turn with me in the Word of God to the letter to the Hebrews, chapter 13, the last chapter of that book, and we'll read the first 21 verses of that chapter. Hebrews chapter 13, beginning at verse 1. Hebrews chapter 13, beginning at verse 1. Let us hear God's own Word. Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, because God has said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. So we say with confidence, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for your hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them. We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. The high priest carries the blood of animals into the most holy place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us then go out to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore, for here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess his name, and do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy and not a burden, For that would be of no advantage to you. Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon. May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will. and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. So far the reading of God's word. I gave some thought, briefly, to beginning this sermon by just standing here quietly for a minute or two. I had hoped that might make the point that we live in such a noisy world that we quickly get nervous when we find ourselves just quiet. But I feared you might just conclude I'd had a stroke or something, so I thought it might not be a very productive way of beginning. But it's true, isn't it, that we live in an amazingly noisy world. We go to the mall, and there's noise, and there's music, and there's voices. We even go to a baseball game, and between innings, they have to blare music. It makes it very hard for me to read. There's noise everywhere, it seems, that surrounds us, radios and televisions, and much of that noise is words, words blaring at us. I've been thinking recently of those poor people in Iowa and New Hampshire, Bombarded, no doubt, for months and now with greater intensity by political ads on the television all the time. But we, too, are surrounded often by talk radio and news television and programs and noise and noise and words and words and so much of it silly, so much of it wrong. I noticed over the Christmas season that a variety of channels on television had to have some kind of Christmas special, some kind of reflection on the Christmas story, something about Jesus, something about Christianity. And the main impression I came away with was almost all of those programs were rooted in some fundamental misstatement of Christianity. All sorts of experts with all sorts of academic degrees standing up to say, in effect, you can't really believe the Bible because we know better. And I thought with all of that pressure upon us, just the pressure of noise and the pressure of silliness, but also the pressure of misinformation and opposition to our faith. What should I preach here on this last Sabbath day of the old year? And I thought maybe what I should preach is just a few words from the Lord. In the welter words that bombard us, it is good for us at the end of a year and near the beginning of a new year to hear simple but essential words from the Lord. And so I want to preach this morning from this benediction that we have near the end of the letter to the Hebrews that we find in Hebrews 13, verses 20 and 21. May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will. And may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever. This is a very lengthy benediction, as benedictions go. But actually, it's very few words, a very compact statement from God. As he speaks to his people, words of blessing, words of encouragement, words to stimulate our faith. And I hope this morning as we spend some time reflecting on these words that you will be built up in faith. That we together will be able to approach a new year with the words of our God ringing in our ears as an encouragement to live out our faith and to live for him. This is a benediction. It's a word of God to his people. And that's the first point I want to stress with you this morning. A benediction is a proclamation from God. It's a statement that God makes to his people. Sometimes we get a little confused about that. Sometimes we're in churches where the benediction is turned into a prayer. Now, prayer is not a bad thing. Prayer is never a bad thing. But a benediction is really not a prayer. A prayer is the word of God's people lifted to God. But a benediction is a declaration of God pronounced to his people. That's why our pious practice of bowing our heads for the prayer may lead us to misunderstanding. If you want to bow your head for the benediction, that's not bad. But in bowing your head, don't think that you're praying. If you want to bow your head to be reverent, that's okay. If you want to bow your head because the minister doesn't look so hot, that's okay. But don't bow your head because you think you're praying. It is not a prayer, the benediction. It is a word from God. And it is a practice that we find through the whole of human history. It is not just ministers who pronounce benedictions. Whenever I pronounce a benediction, I always think of Reverend Hauerzile. Because Reverend Hauerzile was very adamant with every young preacher and every young intern, not interns because they can't pronounce benedictions, every young preacher that you have to keep your fingers together when you pronounce the benediction. You lay the benediction on the people. He said that to every young preacher. I always think, but I don't know if I quite agree with him, but I always do it, because he told me to. Ministers pronounce benedictions, but they stand in a great heritage. The apostles pronounced benedictions. Every one of Paul's epistles close with a benediction. John in 3 John and in the book of Revelation writes a benediction. Peter in 1 Peter writes a benediction. Jesus, we're told, at his ascension, lifted his hands to bless his people. It was a parting benediction of the ascending Savior. See that at the end of Luke's Gospel. Jesus is standing in the priestly tradition of Israel as he does that. It was Aaron who was commanded to bless the people and to pronounce that familiar benediction that we find recorded for us in Numbers chapter 6. There we read, The Lord said to Moses, tell Aaron and his sons, this is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. The benediction goes all the way back. The first human benediction we have recorded in Scripture is Melchizedek blessing Abraham in Genesis 14. But this practice of human benediction, Melchizedek through Aaron and the priests and Jesus and the apostles and the ministers, that long heritage of benediction reflects the action of our God himself. who in creation turned to the man and woman he had first created and we're told in Genesis 1.28 that he blessed them. And then on the seventh day we're told he blessed the seventh day and made it holy. In a profound sense, every Sabbath is for us a benediction or a fruit of benediction in our lives as God comes to bless us. And so this wonderful heritage of the benediction that perhaps we take kind of for granted. We almost all rejoice in a benediction. We know the service is almost over. But it should be more than that. It should be this sense that God comes with a final word. A brief final word to send us on our way as a blessed people. As an encouraged people. And in this benediction that we have recorded for us at the end of Hebrews, we see what God is saying to us in benediction in a particularly profound way. This benediction, in the first place, is the proclamation of God. May the God of peace, the benediction begins. This is God's word. This is God's declaration. And he comes to us identifying himself, revealing his character to us as he reminds us that he is for us the God of peace. And that's a wonderful encouragement as we think about it. He comes to us not as the God of war, not as the God of judgment, not as the God of righteousness, although he possesses all those things in himself, but he comes to us, his people. with a word for us because he is our God of peace. The God of peace. He's revealing his character. He's the God who has made peace for us in the work of Jesus Christ. And that benediction highlights that as well, through the blood of the eternal covenant. We have peace with God because of the covenant God has made. And that theme of covenant is a prominent theme in the epistle of the Hebrews. We're told that in the coming of Jesus Christ, we as the people of God now have a better covenant than the people of old had. We now have a new covenant as opposed to the old covenant that Israel had. We have, as it says here, an eternal covenant. A covenant that will not change. A covenant that will never be replaced. A covenant that will never be revoked. A covenant that is forever reliable and sure because it's a covenant established in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, God's own Son. Early in Hebrews, we're reminded that Moses was a great man and a great leader. But he was only a servant in the house of God. And in the new covenant, our God has sent not a servant, but his own son to make covenant for us. His own eternal son, who shared with him through all eternity his glory and his majesty and his power. That eternal Son has been made flesh, has dwelt among us, has fulfilled all righteousness for us, and spilled out his blood on the cross that he might take our sin upon himself and pay the penalty for that sin. That's the blood of an eternal covenant that will never fade away. It's the blood that the book of Hebrews reminds us in chapter 9 has purchased for us an eternal redemption. Are you redeemed today? Are you saved today? Then that situation, the scripture says, can never change. The redemption that Jesus Christ purchased is an eternal redemption. It cannot be taken away. It cannot be stolen from us by the opposition of the world. It cannot be diminished even by our own sinfulness. The Christ who has bought us and has redeemed us and has brought us to himself has promised that he will never let us go, that he will never forsake us. And that's why we have that wonderful verse here in Hebrews 13. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. He doesn't change in his purpose. He doesn't change in his love. He doesn't change in the covenant that he's established for us. And there are religions in the world today, some of them powerful and prominent, that say, oh, Jesus was all right in his time, but he wasn't the last word. There are other words yet to come. Jesus was a prophet, but he wasn't the greatest prophet. He wasn't the final prophet. There was yet another prophet who has replaced him. And it's almost as if the book of Hebrews is written to oppose any such notion by underscoring again and again, Jesus is the final revelation of God because he is his son. There can be no greater prophet because Jesus is the eternal Son of God, bringing the eternal Word of God, establishing the eternal covenant of God that can no change, made as it is in the blood of his own Son. That's what's promised us. That's what's established for us. And that's why our God is a God of peace, peace for his people. Peace that he bought at such an extravagant price in the suffering of his own son. And when he comes to speak these few words to us, he identifies himself in the first place in that way, I am a God of peace with you because I myself have made peace for you in the covenant grounded in the blood of my son. That's a wonderful way in which God identifies himself, isn't it? God of peace. But he also makes clear here, as he identifies himself, that he is a God of power. The God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ. Our God who makes peace over and over reminds us that he is a God with the power to fulfill the things he promises to do. And that should be the greatest encouragement for us. It's one thing to make promises. It's another thing to deliver on those promises. We've probably all known people who made promises and then didn't fulfill them. We've probably all been people who've made promises and didn't fulfill them. Sometimes people don't fulfill promises because they're just not able to do it. They may mean well, but they don't have the strength, they don't have the ability to do it. And we are reminded here that our God of peace is also a God of power. What extraordinary power! He can bring the dead back to life. I would submit there are few powers on the face of the earth that could compare with that power. God often identifies himself, doesn't he, as the God of creation. He's the maker of heaven and earth. We use that text of scripture often at the beginning of our worship. Our help is in the name of the Lord who made the heavens and the earth. That's extraordinary power. But our God is powerful not only in creation, but also in redemption, because he is the God who is able to bring the dead back to life. He is the God who brought His own Son out of the grave to everlasting life. And we know that as we look into the face of Jesus Christ, a living Savior, a resurrected Savior, that we are assured that we too will not be left in the grave if we have known Him. That the God who brought Jesus Christ forth from the grave will bring us forth from the grave unto everlasting life in a new heaven and a new earth. and we do think this morning of those who mourn we've prayed particularly for those in the DeYoung and Brower families as they mourn today but there are many others who mourn mourning is not something that lasts only for a week or for a month and here is a wonderful promise from our God that he's the God of peace and he's also the God of power who raised his son from the dead and will raise us all from the dead to eternal life by his grace. And finally, God identifies himself here as the God of protection in Jesus Christ. The one he brought back from the dead is the Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep. Or as the Greek has it more literally, the shepherd of the sheep, The Great One. That's who Jesus is for us. He's a shepherd. He's one who has looked at us and seen our helplessness and our need and has had compassion on us. And has given his own life for us. When Jesus in John 10 says, I am the good shepherd, he goes right on to say, who lays down my life for the sheep. He saw us in our helplessness and in our need. And he provided for us and he now ever lives to protect us as our shepherd. When we sing Psalm 23, that's the confession of our souls and the experience of our faith. We have a shepherd and that shepherd is the Lord, the Lord Jesus, who cares for us, who goes with us, who guides us, who watches out for us, who protects us. That's the God, you see, who comes to us in his benediction. The God of peace, the God of power, the God of protection. And when he comes, we should listen. We should listen to what he says to us, because he comes to pronounce a blessing. He comes to pronounce a blessing. As I said before, the benediction is not a prayer. It's not an appeal from us to God for help. The benediction is a pronouncement from God of a blessing upon us. And we know that what God pronounces, he accomplishes. What God promises, he gives. And that's why, as we listen to the words of benediction, we are hearing what God says he will certainly do for us. And what this particular benediction says is that he will equip you with everything good. Or maybe an even better translation of that word equip there in verse 21 is that he will make you complete in everything good. He will give you all that you need. That's his promise to you. That's a wonderful promise, isn't it? That's a promise to be going out with. That's a promise to be going on with. He will make you complete in everything good. This isn't a unique promise in the scripture. We can think back to Ephesians chapter 1 where Paul had said, who has given us every spiritual blessing in Christ. That's what this benediction is promising. That's what this benediction is laying upon us. This declaration that God will make us complete in everything good, it's not the same as he will make us perfectly holy in every way, but he'll give us all that we need to be going on with the Christian life. He'll give us new life in the Savior. He'll give us faith. He'll give us power to live for him in the Holy Spirit. That's what this benediction is promising to us. That's what this benediction is laying upon us. We'll be complete in every good thing. It's a wonderful promise, isn't it? Well, you see, this benediction is promising to us what the prophet Jeremiah promised when he talked about the New Covenant. That promise of Jeremiah 31 that's quoted for us in Hebrews chapter 8, where we read God promising that in the New Covenant, I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be my people. That's the promise. That's why when we read the Ten Commandments every Lord's Day, there should be a resonance in our minds and in our hearts. We should acknowledge to be sure that we are sinners as we stand under that law. But we also should sense in ourselves, in our minds and in our hearts, that this is the law that we agree with. This is the law that we long to fulfill. This is the law that we want to live by. We may not always do a very good job at it. But when we hear our God speak in his law, there must be part of us that says, yes, that's what I want to be like. I want to be in that fellowship with my God where I just can confess that he is my God and I'm his child. That should be the confession of all of us together. He is our God and we are his people. This is the blessing, you see, that God brings to us. And what a contrast it is to the world in which we live so often. God comes promising everything good for us. The world comes promising almost everything but goodness. you see the great question for us as we hear the benediction of God as we hear the word of God in any of the forms that it comes to us is how do we respond do we receive it in faith do we trust that word do we rely on that word do we accept that word as what life is all about as how we should be living see how wonderful this proclamation of blessing is to us so we see first of all that benediction is the proclamation of God second of all that it is a pronouncing of blessing upon his people and finally that it is a promise that there will be fruit to that blessing when God pronounces a blessing upon us It's going to have a result. There's something going to happen. And that's described for us here in this benediction where we read in verse 21. May God equip you or make you complete with every good thing for doing his will. That's going to be the fruit of the promise that you and I more and more are going to long to do his will. Want to be conformed to the image of the Son. Want to be like him as our God. Make you complete with everything good for doing his will. And the translation could be a little better hereafter too. What this benediction is really saying is that God's going to bless you with everything good. so that you may be doing His will as He is doing what is pleasing to Him in us. That is, at the same time that this benediction talks about us living differently, it moves right on to say, we are going to be living differently because God is going to be working in us to make us different. This is not a blessing that says, God has done his part, now you're on your own. God has pronounced a blessing, now you work hard and see if you can't make something out of it. No, this is a promise that says, God has given us great gifts in Jesus Christ so that we are new people. Alive in him. And we're going to be working to be making progress as his people. but know that all the time we're working to make progress as his people, he's working in us to do that which is pleasing in his sight. We're called to work, but God is always the real worker. God is always the one at work in us. And so even the call to holiness that we find in this benediction is never discouraging but always encouraging because it assures us that God is at work in us. through Jesus Christ through Jesus Christ Jesus is always the foundation Jesus is always the center Jesus is always the savior and the enlivener and the sanctifier it's always by looking to Jesus that all of these things are accomplished so I hope you agree with me that this is a good last word from God as the year closes benedictions always come at the end they're salutations if they come at the beginning benediction literally just means a good word a good word spoken and God wants always to leave his people who look to him in faith with a good word a good word that says to them now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead that great shepherd of the sheep even our Lord Jesus make you complete in everything good for doing his will doing in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever Amen may every one of us be able to say Amen in faith to that benediction Amen let us pray Lord our God how thankful we are that you are a God who comes so faithfully to bless your people for we acknowledge again oh Lord that we are a people in constant need of your blessing in constant need of your encouragement in constant need of the reminder that we have peace with you because of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that we have life because the Spirit of Jesus Christ is ever working in us to conform us to his image. O Lord, we pray as we end the year 2007 and begin the year 2008, that in the babel of voices that surround us, we might hear your voice and that we might rejoice that you are a God who blesses us in Jesus Christ. Hear us, for we pray in his name. Amen.