Hebrews 13:20-21 - Homiletics

Concluding prayer for the Hebrews.

The apostle, having earnestly requested the prayers of the Christian Jews for himself, proceeds to plead for them at the throne of the heavenly grace. He virtually says, "Pray for me, brethren; I pray for you." And what a wonderful prayer is this! How brief, yet how comprehensive; how exquisitely simple, yet how deeply sublime! It is a benediction as well as a petition. And it is so richly colored with the doctrine which the writer has been discussing that it reads almost like a summary of the Epistle. Consider—

I. THE TITLE UNDER WHICH GOD IS ADDRESSED . "The God of peace." This is a Pauline expression. Outside of this book it occurs only in the writings of Paul. The appellation is profoundly suggestive. God is "the God of peace"

II. THE SPECIAL REDEMPTIVE ACT HERE CELEBRATED . It is that of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus—an event not referred to elsewhere in the Epistle. The God who works peace had sent his Son to obey and suffer and die for man's sin; and the same God had brought him again from the dead, and confirmed him in his high dignity as "the great Shepherd of the sheep." Throughout this prayer of benediction the writer seems to have in view Isaiah 63:11-14 , and to think of the Lord Jesus by contrast with Moses, and the other shepherds of ancient Israel. Jacob and Joseph, Moses and Aaron, Samuel and David, had all been true" shepherds of his flock;" but the Lord Jesus is "the great Shepherd." The Hebrews were to cherish the memory of their own former pastors ( Isaiah 63:7 ), and they had other pastors set over them now ( Isaiah 63:17 ); but the Lord Jesus, the crucified and risen One, was ever their chief Pastor. He had laid down his life as "the good Shepherd," but in rising from the dead and ascending to heaven he had shown himself to be "the great Shepherd." On every account he is entitled to be called "great;" e.g. because all the prophets spoke of him, because all former true shepherds were types of him, because he is himself mighty to save, and because of the vastness of the flock over which he shall preside. Here in particular, however, the apostle calls him "great" because he has sealed the new and "eternal covenant" with his "blood." That blood was the blood of God' himself ( Acts 20:28 ); and so the covenant confirmed with such a costly sacrifice cannot but be everlasting. Not only so, but the Lord Jesus died, not merely as a federal offering; he died as a Sin Offering. His death completed the fulfillment of the covenant stipulations on his and our part; and, as we know that God also will be faithful to the treaty on his side, we are sure it shall stand forever. Christ is "the Mediator of the new covenant" and "the great Shepherd of the sheep," through virtue of the merit of his blood.

III. THE SPIRITUAL BLESSING PRAYED FOR . (Verse 21) It is the gift of perfect sanctification, a blessing that had been expressly promised and guaranteed in connection with the new covenant ( Jeremiah 31:33 , Jeremiah 31:34 ). The God who has elevated the Lord Jesus to be the Head of the final dispensation is both able and willing to perform his own covenant promise. "Make you perfect;" i.e. put you into order, restore you, equip you. Naturally, every man needs to have his soul reorganized before he can learn to do God's will. And sometimes a good man requires, as many of these Hebrew believers did, a second conversion. The apostle prays that their equipment may be thorough; that it may be a deep and comprehensive work within the soul, wrought there by the power of the Holy Ghost, and which shall bear fruit outwardly in a career of perfect holiness that shall be "well-pleasing in God's sight." It is not enough to practice only some of the virtues of the Christian character; we must be "perfect in every good thing "—in worship and work, in thought and feeling, in body and spirit. The rule of our perfect equipment is "his will"—the mind of God as made known to us in Holy Scripture. And the medium by which it is accomplished is "through Jesus Christ"—by means of his gracious operations upon the heart by his Spirit. Perfect holiness in man is all of his creation: not by his doctrine merely, or by faith in him; but through himself, and by virtue of the believer's union to him.

IV. THE DOXOLOGY WITH WHICH THE PRAYER CLOSES . "To whom " —i.e. as we take it, to "the God of peace" who is addressed in the prayer. And yet, when "the glory" is ascribed to him, it is given to all the three Divine Persons—to God the Father, who "brought again our Lord Jesus from the dead;" to God the Son, "the great Shepherd of the sheep" and Mediator of "the eternal covenant;" and to God the Spirit, the executive of the Deity, who personally "worketh in us" and "makes us perfect." This doxology is the language of spiritual instinct; and, being such, it is irrepressible. So soon as any human heart really apprehends that Jehovah is "the God of peace," and feels grateful for his unspeakable gift of "the great Shepherd," and accepts the blessings of "the eternal covenant," and becomes conscious of the transforming influence of grace within itself,—how is that heart to be restrained from breaking forth into adoring praise, and from uttering the desire that the Divine glory should be universal and eternal? May our souls be in such full sympathy with this prayer of benediction as to join with emphasis in the apostle's rapturous and fervent "Amen"!