Bible Study

It's been extremely cold back here, as it has been in most of the United States in the last few days. We are coming out of the deep freeze. For those of us that are not used to this, which is about all of us, I think, we can take a little bit of heart, I'm sure, because the way I look at it, it's all uphill from here. We've reached the coldest point of the winter. Not that winter's over, but we've reached the coldest point. We can't get any colder than it has been. Normally, this doesn't happen twice in one winter. I've been through one of these before, about 20 years ago. It came like this, but it's been a long time. And it's been very, very cold. So hopefully that everyone has not had any major damage to homes or animals or anything like that, everyone is safe. So we are prepared for this study. I will go ahead and ask the blessing on the Bible study. So if you would please bow your heads, and we'll ask God's blessing tonight. Lord in heaven, Father above, we bow before your throne of grace and come through Jesus Christ as our high priest, to gather here tonight as friends and family in the Bible study of your word. Thank you, Father, for this opportunity, for the warm facility that we have and the meal we've been able to enjoy together in our fellowship. We pray that your spirit will have been with us and that you and Christ are in our midst. We ask for that to guide us, to guide our understanding as we go through now and complete the book of Hebrews.

We are thankful, Father, for again your revelation and the guidance that it gives in our lives. Help us tonight and for those who will listen in at a later time to this, to be instructed, to be encouraged, and to be fed and led spiritually in your holy word. We thank you. Father, commit this now into your hands in this study, doing so in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

All right. I think it was about two years ago we began going through the book of Hebrews.

It seems like it was two years ago that we began that. Steve Myers was asking me tonight when exactly we begin this, and I cannot remember, but 13 chapters of some very, very important, heavy-at-times material that the book of Hebrews composes takes a while to get through. Gary Petty and Steve Myers and I and a few others probably have worked through this over many, many months. When I took it last time back in December, it was my intent that we would finish that night, and that didn't happen. So I said, well, if you want me to, I've already got the notes and planned on it, so I'll go ahead and finish the book of Hebrews here in January, which he was glad that I was able to do, so I will wrap it up and conclude this. And when I conclude tonight, I've got a special announcement about the future of these Bible studies. I think you're going to find it to be exciting. And as far as the direction and the course that we want to take with these Beyond Today Bible studies, we were talking about it this morning in a production meeting that we had for our Beyond Today taping that we're doing this week. And so I'll wait until the end of the Bible study to share with you exactly what we are going to be doing. But we have come to a point in the book of Hebrews where we need to finish up chapter 13. So if we go ahead and turn first to Hebrews chapter 2, let me at least set as an anchor scripture something I think that I was thinking about as I thought about wrapping this up here. There's a verse that speaks to a theme in the book and an idea that is important to us in chapter 2 of Hebrews. And it's been some time since we covered it in the study that I thought it would be good to set this again as a reminder because it speaks to God's great purpose and plan for all of mankind. Verse 10, where it says, it was fitting for Him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, and bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffrage. God's purpose in working with mankind in the creation in His image is to bring many sons to glory. And we have worked that into our vision statement of the United Church of God because it is a vision that God has for all of mankind to bring many sons to the glory that the Father and the Son share. And through that process of making the captain of our salvation perfect through suffering, which is explained thoroughly not only in this book, but throughout the New Testament, that's made possible for us to be able to have that hope.

And that is what, in one sense, the book of Hebrews walks through to show how this can be done and will be done and speaks to a transformation, really, that we are in the process of working through in our lives as we grow in grace and knowledge and as we grow in the knowledge of God. To come ultimately to live a life that is changed, that is transformed day by day, episode by episode, chapter by chapter through the experiences of our life to where we ultimately, as we look to the hope that is possible through Jesus Christ and the resurrection, we come to a point where we will share the glory as sons of God. And that is our goal. And everything that we do and everything that we work toward in our lives is toward that image. And that is our mission as a people of God to share that great spiritual understanding and truth with as many people as God gives us the opportunity to do so. And so this is a very, very good verse, at least, to go back to as we jump now over to chapter 13 to finish some concluding thoughts with what has transpired throughout the teaching here in the book of Hebrews. I left off last time in chapter 13 with verse 7 and verse 8, actually. I intended to get through verse 8 and I got off on a rant about doctrine and the calendar. Those of you that were here will remember that. As an example of a doctrine or various and strange doctrines that people sometimes are let off on. And that is a peculiarity that we have within the church. I could have gone off on other ideas as well. It was interesting. These are taped, of course, and immediately on our website and people from all over the country listened to them. I had made the statement that I did about the calendar and how we figure it, what's important, how we come to certain conclusions and essentially move on with our life.

I was at the Winter Family Weekend a couple of weeks ago during the Sabbath service just before it started. A lady whom I did not know came up to me from another church area visiting. She had this real serious look on her face. She introduced herself and said, I have a question for you. She said, I have a calendar question I'd like to discuss with you.

I looked at her and smiled and said, well, not really. I thought, good, we can sit down and enjoy the service today. She had been listening in and caught the drift of my comments and thought she'd give me a hard time there. She was going to wrangle me into a corner and take two hours to discuss the calendar issues. At any rate, that was one that I chose. I could have chosen others. I happened to be on the Doctrine Committee of the Council. I think I mentioned this last time, but I'll repeat it again. One of our main goals in the Doctrine Committee of the Council of Elders, which is a very important standing committee of the church, we entertain numerous questions and matters that people, members, ministers will bring to the church, want questions answered, this and that. We entertain those. We treat them all with respect as they come through our membership. But sometimes people think that the work of the Doctrine Committee, perhaps when they get off on that, they announce that a particular subject is being discussed. Sometimes people jump to a conclusion that, well, we're looking at changing something, changing if it's a fundamental idea, belief, or teaching in the church. And that is not the case. Since my time on the Doctrine Committee and on the Council, we have not considered any issue or question with the intent of changing any of our fundamental beliefs of the United Church of God. Usually, sometimes questions come that will maybe challenge our fundamentals of belief or have a different interpretation of a fundamental understanding. And it's our job, we look at on the Doctrine Committee, our job is to preserve the fundamental beliefs and the doctrinal integrity of the Church of God. Our job is not to change the teachings of the Church. God leads us to see something in a period of time in the collective body of the ministry. That's another issue. But the main drive of our work is to preserve the doctrinal integrity of the Church. So I wanted to mention that again, just to state the record, that that does take up the majority of our time. We have our doctrine and our teaching, solid foundational doctrines that we understand from the Word of God, is enough to keep us busy for a lifetime.

And the majors of those doctrines, whatever they might be, some of those, if I were to rank them, I guess, understanding of who God is, who and what man is, in a sense, those are so important to understanding the Bible and God and the plan of life and the purpose of life, that if I just focused on those particular teachings that talk about God and the nature of man, to me, that's a whole lifetime of study right there. As I observe and keep the integrity of all the other teachings, to probe deeper and deeper into those would be what I would choose to spend my time on, and to learn more about God, and to learn more about my role as a human being in coming to the glory of the sons of God that we just read in Hebrews 2 and verse 10. That's enough for my lifetime. The other matters that we get out on sometimes, the little peripheral issues, twigs that can be out there, in my opinion, do more to detract from what we should come to understand about God and about Jesus Christ. Christ prayed in John 17 verse 2 that He said, If this is eternal life, to know you, the only true God, and your son whom you have sent, and if that's eternal life, from the words of Jesus, the night before He died, then to know God, the one true God, and your son whom you sent, I can stay right there in that verse and work through that one for the rest of my life, and continue to grow in grace and knowledge of that. I feel we would have a lifetime well spent in terms of coming to know God in His Word and the Bible. So, perhaps enough about not being carried about with various and strange doctrines here in verse 9. Alright, let's go on in verse 9 here of Hebrews 13.

He says, The benevolence, the kindness of God, which is part of what the idea of grace is, be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. And the foods that He is talking about here are foods that are associated with an altar for sacrifice, which is what Paul spent his time talking about in the book of 1 Corinthians and Romans 14. When he would talk about foods and meats, meats offered to idols, the whole context that you would put this statement into from the New Testament speaks to food that is being discussed as being offered to an idol, and not as a proof text, one text alone, to do away with the teaching from Scripture about clean and unclean meats. So you would take one verse like this and take it off in that direction. You would put it within the context of the other Scriptures that are being described in Paul's writings, in Romans and Corinthians, about foods. And what he's talking about here is foods associated with an altar or a sacrifice that was a common part of life in the first century, with the pagan temples, where an animal sacrifice would be made, and then the majority of that meat would wind up in the meat market, that same day where people would then go and buy meat. And so a believer, either buying that meat or consuming it in someone else's house, would not know if it was offered to an idol or if it had been sold direct into a meat market. And where a person had a conscience problem with that, Paul always instructed to be careful not to offend, but that the meat itself was not tainted by being offered to an idol. And that was the teaching that he gave in other places.

And so to look at what is being said here, he said, it's good that the heart be established by grace, a spiritual strengthening of one's mind and heart and relationship with God, which foods in that sense and foods offered to idols don't do. And they don't profit to those who are occupied with them in that particular way. Perhaps the sub-teaching of this is to realize that always be able to understand the relation of the physical aspects of worship and obedience and the Word of God to the deep spiritual lesson that is behind every aspect of our physical observance, physical understanding.

We worship God. We don't worship the law. We keep the law. We obey God through the tenets of the law, but we don't worship the law. We worship God. We worship Jesus Christ. And again, there's the deeper spiritual significance behind that, which leads us to having a mind and heart and attitude being established by the grace of God and a relationship with God and understanding why He instructs us to do what we do and the various aspects of our relationship with Him as defined by the law and other teachings of Scripture.

There is always a deep spiritual meaning behind that. And when one comes to know that, there is then a matter of being established within one's heart and one's relationship toward God. And again, in a proper doctrinal teaching alignment with all of Scripture. Now, in verse 10, He says, We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. So again, you get even the context here in Hebrews 13. He now moves into, again, the altar, a tabernacle, and eating in that terms, all which were associated with the temple, the tabernacle. And again, you have the connection of what these foods are being described and talked about in verse 9 in that context of an offering.

But He's moving to a deeper matter here. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. And He's moving again to the spiritual altar, the spiritual place that we come where a sacrifice has been made, that others who are only tied to that and have not come to understand the role of Jesus Christ as the high priest and the sacrifices, all of which that has been explained in the previous chapters of this letter, or parts of this letter, as it would have been looked at at that time, would show they don't understand that.

And so they are not partaking of the spiritual knowledge, spiritual relationship through Christ that is the ultimate meaning behind all of the altars in the temple and sacrifices there. For the bodies of those animals whose food is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned outside the camp.

And again, the description here of how things would work during that time under the Old Covenant. But then He pivots in verse 12 to talk about, therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. So when Christ was crucified in Jerusalem, He was taken outside the gate of Jerusalem as it existed at that time. And just as certain sacrifices were put without the gate, He had to go outside the gate, and He was. And where Golgotha was located in the time of Jesus was outside the city gate.

Wherever that gate was in the walls of Jerusalem at that time, it was. Now, you go to Jerusalem today, and if you would go to the traditional site of the crucifixion of Christ, which is now enclosed within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, it's within the Old City, it's within the gates. One should not be confused if, even with that, though that's likely not the spot where Jesus was crucified, it became very early a traditional site. But there are some experts in archaeology who feel even at that time that spot was outside of the gate as it existed at that time.

You would not see it outside the gate today, which led people in the 1800s who went to Jerusalem looking again for holy sites. They went to Jerusalem and they looked at a site outside the gate at that time, and they chose a hill that looks kind of like a skull as the place where Christ was crucified. And that is called, it's a place where you would see it today, and if you were to go there, you would see it. It is literally outside the gates of the Old City. It's just across the road. What's called Gordon's Calvary.

If you've ever seen pictures of this skull-like rock outcropping, it is outside the gate. But that's not the gate that existed. The gate that is outside of the walls is not the gate that was there during the first century when Christ was crucified. And the substantial body of evidence holds that not even that hill is the actual spot where Christ was crucified as well. Anytime you get into trying to figure out the actual spots of a lot of those biblical places, even the tomb and the spot where Jesus was crucified, you miss the bigger point, which is that it's the event itself that took place, the death and then the resurrection.

Where it took place is not a place to be venerated. The fact that it took place and Christ himself suffered and died and was resurrected, and we worship God and worship Him in spirit and in truth. You don't have to have the actual location. Those are all academically interesting places in one sense. They're elevated to a spiritual place, but there's no physical spot regarding anything, any act of Scripture that it, of and by itself, makes it holy.

God is holy and not a particular place. So, at any rate, He did have to go forth outside the gate, suffer outside the gate. And the point is, He said, therefore, let us go forth to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. As we follow Christ, we then have to symbolically go outside the camp or into a different relationship with man to be in a right relationship with God. Outcast from the camp or from the world, if you will, to be right with God. And in that sense, we bear His reproach, the same reproach that He had, we share in His sufferings, not just as we keep the Passover, but in our whole way of life.

And this is the whole point of what He is saying here. We go forth to Him as we worship, obey, follow His teachings, and we bear His reproach as we live our life. We bear our cross, which is another reference which would bring in. And the reason is, as verse 14 says, we have no continuing city. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. This world is not our ultimate destination. It's where we live, and it is, of course, where we exist and we come to know God and about God.

But to come to understand the purpose for this life and this entire universe, we then come to a profound thought and realization that was brought out back in chapter 11, that like Abraham and the others, we look for another city, one to come. And this world, this life, is not ours. Hold your place here and turn back to 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 15. John writes here, in the same light, Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Pretty strong statement. 1 John 2.15. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world.

So notice what he says. It's the things that the flesh, the eyes, and pride, and lust bring out of life in a wrong sense, that's not of the Father. But it comes and is generated by the society, this age. And then in verse 17, he makes a very profound statement. The world is passing away, and the lust of it is passing away. And however you want to interpret that, wearing down, aging, although scientists say that the universe is continuing to accelerate in its expansion, the best scientific knowledge about the universe as it continues to expand is that it is accelerating.

Now, physical does wear down, and certainly our life wears down, and ages come and go within human civilization. And that's really primarily what is being spoken to here. This world is passing away, and the lust of it. What is generated by human conduct, lust, and pride, and envy, and all of those works of the flesh is passing away. How then do we relate to it as human beings? As me, a baby boomer? You, a millennial, or a Gen-Xer?

How do you relate to it? It's passing away, but he who does the will of God abides forever. And you bring that back in then to chapter 13 of Hebrews in verse 14. We have no continuing city.

And if we think this is the life that consumes us, and we put this before God in whatever degree, whatever way, and we don't seek the one to come, then we are loving the world more than we are loving God. And I'll leave that thought there, perhaps come back at another point and develop that a little bit longer, because it has implications for every one of us, regardless of our age. But sometimes it seems it's a bit more applicable to a young person than it may be for someone who has gone through certain experiences in life. But it does apply to all of us. But what John says there in 1 John 2 and some of the verses before that we did not read indicates that it speaks to all of us.

And there are some profound lessons for us to learn there. But let's go back to chapter 13, and let's pick it up in verse 15. Therefore, by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name. This is where Paul then turns his attention to us as we seek the world to come. Let us then be always offering up a sacrifice of praise to God through worship, through obedience, praying in the Spirit, thinking of God, having the fruit of our lips and of our words. Therefore, from our heart and therefore from our life, expressing an entire thanksgiving before God. Do not forget to do good and to share, but with such sacrifices God is well pleased. In Romans 12 and verse 1, Paul writes that we are to be living sacrifices before God, which is our acceptable service, a reasonable service, a living sacrifice. God is more interested in that. In fact, that comes to us even out of the Old Testament where Samuel said to Saul at one time when Saul thought he was really doing well. He was really doing well by killing a bunch of animals and his heart wasn't right. Samuel came to him and said, God is not interested in all this, sacrifice of sheep and oxen. He is more interested in the sacrifice of a contrite heart. That's a living sacrifice, a changed life that turns and then worships God. That's what Paul picked up on in Romans 12 and verse 1. We are to be living sacrifices. And that's harder to be a living sacrifice than it is to be a dead sacrifice. It really is. You know, Solomon wrote that a living dog is better than a dead lion. A living dog is better than a dead lion. You can roar and go out in a big flame of glory and kind of just be cut off with the knees, shot down, as we say, fired, shown the door.

You may have said your piece. You may have took your stand. You may have been a brave lion. Wisdom sometimes says it's better to be a living dog than a dead lion. Now, that's a whole other study in itself. I'll leave you to figure out when it's... that you have the wisdom to know when it's better just to kind of tuck your tail between your hind legs and give a whimper and kind of...

like a dog does, and go off under the couch to another room until the storm has passed. I've been a dead lion too often. Sometimes wisdom is learning when to become a living dog. And it's better to be a living sacrifice. You learn from your lessons, learn from your experiences, repent, humble yourself, remove the pride, the arrogance, the ambition, the envy, and serve God and do good, share. For that type, as verse 16 says, with that type of sacrifice, God's well pleased.

And when we come to that and we are then able to just take off the pride and clothe ourselves with humility, as Peter says, that is maturity. That's wisdom. That's understanding.

Verse 17, he says, Obey those who rule over you and be submissive.

This is the second time, and I believe there's one more time that the leaders are going to be mentioned in verse 24, three times in this chapter alone. He is mentioned to obey those that have the rule over you. That's speaking of the ministry and a spiritual role and relationship within the church.

He covers more specific instruction to the ministry in his letters to Timothy, 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus, which are instructions to ministers on how to be proper stewards in the church. And there's a lot of details in those letters. But here, the instruction is this letter seems to then be given to a segment of the church that's not the leadership, not the ministry. It says, Obey them that have rule over you. So whatever group of people in the church this went to, the membership, they're being directed to look to your teachers, look to the elders, and have a respect for them that obeys them as they rule over you and be submissive. That's wording that people kind of chafe at. You mean submit. I don't want to submit. Who are you? They asked me to submit. Sometimes if the church or the ministry is not always set the example, sometimes people think, well, the members could do a little bit better than the ministers. Well, yeah, sometimes that's been the case. But then we all have to come back to what does the Bible say.

And to be in an office of an elder, a teacher, is a very responsible job. It's far more than just having the ability to rule over anybody and to command some submission. You can't command submission. I mean, you could try to. But we all should realize by now that just commanding anything does not bring respect. And it might bring compliance, but it won't bring the heart. There has to be an example. There has to be care. There has to be love. And the lot behind all of that is shown by one who does rule over people in a spiritual sense to be able to deserve that respect. And that leads to a submission in a sense that everyone works together in the roles that they have been given to accomplish the job within the church. And in verse 17, there's some profound teaching here. It says, Obey them that rule over you. Be submissive, for they watch out for your souls. They watch out for your souls. That's the spiritual responsibility that a minister has to watch for the soul, the spiritual life of those that they teach and have a responsibility for as a minister and elder within the church. And Paul goes on to say, as those who must give account.

That pulls every one of us in the ministry up short and makes us realize that we will have to give an account. An accounting. We're going to be auditing. There's going to be an audit at some point over our stewardship. Some of us in the ministry were sitting and talking after dinner before we came in the room here tonight. And I just asked their question, what is it you fear or are concerned about in your ministry, I said, that you're going to have to give an account for? All of us that were sitting there a while ago, everybody has a perspective on that. And I think every minister does, who's worked for some time teaching, preaching to, counseling, anointing, baptizing, yes, correcting, leading, laboring among the people of God, we all come to certain conclusions. I've been doing this 40 years, and I think about what I've got to give an account for. And I recognize there are things that I could have done a lot better in my ministry. There are things that I think that I did pretty good, too. And I wouldn't hesitate to say, yeah, I think I did that all right. And I also know there's some, well, I could have done better over here. And being human, we all tend to look at our faults. Any time you get an evaluation on your job and you tend to look at that, too. But it's something that we should think about. And believe me, a responsible minister does think about this, that we watch for people's lives. We are concerned. We give ourselves to the sacrificial calling of the ministry. And it is for a spiritual purpose. And there are many aspects of what we have to do to fulfill that ministry. And, you know, there are things that I did 30 years ago that I don't do today. I'm older, perhaps a bit more experienced. My skills and abilities are better suited now to other parts of the ministry than they were at another time. There's others that can do that and learn through the process of time as well. I've learned a lot about focusing on those areas where I do have certain strengths and let others with the strengths in the areas where I'm weak do that and not worry about it. I don't sweat that anymore. I can't do everything. There are some ministers that have certain gifts in certain areas while others are gifted in others. And I've learned to accept what I have and what I don't have and appreciate what others do have and not be envious of that and think that I should do that. And when we do that in any part of our life, we're able to function better.

This is a very important matter. He said to realize we have to give an account, very serious. No one should ever assume to take this to themselves. If God's not supporting one, there's a lot of futility. We had a call yesterday. We were telling somebody calls us. We get calls all the time from other groups that call themselves ministries, churches, whatever they might be. And one of our staff got a call yesterday and was telling us about it. We looked on their websites and they were talking about, If you want to be ordained, come down to where we are. We'll ordain you.

And they have a lot of other errant teaching about Scripture that you could see clearly right there, attitudes that I wouldn't advise anybody to get mixed up in. But a person can appoint themselves to the ministry. But if God's not behind it, then they've assumed something that is very, very serious.

And God says there will be an accounting for it. And one should not take that lightly. Sometimes I've jokingly said, and I've mentioned this before, after 40-plus years, sometimes I thought, You want this job? Come get it. You can have it. I'm not saying I want to give it up. I'm just saying, but I'm kind of in tongue-in-cheek saying, You really want this? Okay. It's long hours. It's this and it's that. And if you're prepared for it, okay. But if you're not, be aware that it is not for everyone. As Paul goes on here, he says, Let them do it with joy.

Let them do it with joy. As we all work together in the church, elders, pastors, members, young people, pre-teen, all of the different age groups, as we all work together, there is joy for everyone to be able to function and do their part to contribute. And to the degree we create an environment where that can be done, there will be joy and not grief. All right. One of the things that, just last night, we had a Council of Elders teleconference, and one of our items of business was to set the theme for the upcoming general conference of elders' meetings here in May.

And we decided on a theme that is, the theme is creating an environment for growth. I don't mean to have a marker here to write this on the board tonight, so I'll just tell you. Creating an environment for growth. It's not a new and original theme. I actually was assigned to speak on it last year at the general conference meeting, and it was a few years ago, even a part of a regional conference idea that was presented to the ministry across the United States. Creating an environment for growth is the theme that we have set, and we hope that we will stick with that for some period of time, and that will be something that develops some programs and an approach that really does embed this idea of all of us working together to create the optimum environment for spiritual development and growth and grace and knowledge.

In general, we want to go with that. We'll fill in all the details, and there's plenty of there to do. But if we do that, if we create an environment for growth, then there will be joy in all parts of the Bible, all parts of the church, and not grief. And everyone will be working together to accomplish the mission of the church and getting closer to the vision that Christ has. So this is what Paul says is the result of obedience and submission, watchful care for the spiritual lives of the people. Tempered with it is understanding that we will have to give an account, and it will create an atmosphere where there is joy if people do that.

Thank you, Rudy. I'll use it to point now. Alright, verse 18. He goes on and says, Pray for us, for we are confident that we have a good conscience in all things, desiring to live honorably. So he asks for prayer, which is one of Paul's trademark statements throughout his epistles. We are confident that we have a good conscience in all things desiring to live honorably.

But I especially urge you to do this, that I may be restored to you sooner. Paul spent a lot of his years under house arrest, in prison, for various charges that had been made against him, and there were times he couldn't always get to where he wanted to be, and he would ask people to pray for the ability to be able to do that. Now, in chapter 20, he begins to move to conclude this.

And, as you can well imagine, I'm starting to move to where I can conclude the book of Hebrews as well here. But the heading in the New King James Bible has this as a final exhortation of farewell or a benediction. And in just a few verses here, five verses, he does move to an amen. And Paul is a master at that. I'll just say this. I believe it's Acts 20.

I just didn't intend to mention that, and I won't read it, but I want to make sure I've got the reference correct with you. It's Acts 20, where he says farewell to a group of elders in the city of Ephesus. And Paul gives one of the, to me, the most moving part of his, everything that he says, and certainly everything that's in the book of Acts about Paul, which is a farewell. What he says to the elders there is very touching. Well, here in Hebrews 13, he's now moving to put a final farewell upon this letter.

He says, "...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." So he begins to weave a passage and a path to what he wants them to be left with, the God of peace.

Peace is a good thing. Peace has to be fought for. It's ironic that you have to fight for peace at times. But when Christ said, blessed are the peacemakers, he knew what he was saying. We spend a lot of time learning what he meant. Because to be a peacemaker, sometimes you have to fight to make peace. I'm not saying you fight in a sense that you offend and you create division and you create strife.

That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that to fight to create peace, the godly peace, often requires us to humble ourselves, to eat crow sometimes, to eat humble pie, to suffer for righteousness' sake, to be willing to yield on a matter that's not a point of the law, but where there's personal differences or strife, to be willing to say, okay, you want that? Hey, you can have it.

I'll go over here. I'll go over here. You want to do that? You take that job, I'll do this job over here. And as we put distance between ourselves, we have peace.

But sometimes you and I have to be the ones to do that. That's what James describes in the book of James. I believe it's the end of chapter 3 in James, where he talks about a godly wisdom that is from above. Verse 17 of James 3, it's peaceable. The wisdom that is from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, willing to yield, sometimes to our own hurt, to get to the peace, to establish a peace.

Sometimes other people, when they see that, they realize, hey, you know, I was a real jerk. And they may not say it, but maybe they learn, maybe they won't be that way next time. And the result is peace. May the God of peace, who brought up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, who had to die and suffer for righteousness' sake and for our sins, and willingly took those upon Himself, that we might have peace with God and our fellow man. That great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, the new covenant that God makes with us is everlasting.

It's not to be replaced by any other. That is the final covenant that we have in the Bible that God makes with man, what is called the new covenant that has been explained in these previous chapters of Hebrews. It is once for all. Christ entered into the holy place with His own blood, His blood, to create an everlasting covenant that is sealed by that.

May that 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 Him to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. And so in verses 20 and 21, again, there's just a classic trademark Pauline farewell benediction, summing up, and he points to God. He points to God and to those things that are of utmost foundational importance, the death of Christ, His resurrection, His shepherding role, the covenant, the blood of Christ.

And that is what makes us peace with God and ourselves as we yield to that. And then almost like an afterthought. He says, Amen, and then he says, oh wait, one more. And I appeal to you, brethren, bear with the word of exhortation, for I have written to you in few words. Verse 22 is the understatement of the book. This is one of the longest, this is the longest epistle of Paul in the New Testament, 13 chapters. And this is the longest series of Bible studies you've ever sat through on the book of Hebrews.

And it's ironic if Paul comes to this and he says, I appeal, please bear with the word of exhortation. I've only written a few words. How many more could he be written, you might be thinking about these things. And he gets pretty deep about some pretty deep subjects. He could have gone on further. But what he said was pretty deep. And I've written to you a few words, but he makes an appeal. Take these words kindly, is what he's saying. And look back over at the book of Hebrews, there's a mixture of encouragement. There's a lot of teaching, and there's some rebuke. There's inspiration, and there's correction. And so he's asking them to bear with these. Please, treat these words kindly. Think about them. Go back over them.

Don't be put off. Don't be offended.

You know, sometimes words could be straight, direct, a little bit tough.

Sometimes our words will put people in a place that may be a little bit uncomfortable.

And as he said back in chapter 12, there's no correction that's joyous. It's grievous at times. It usually is grievous at any time. But we have to think about it, and afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness for those who are exercised by it, he says. And so again he says, please bear with us word of exhortation that I've written to you. Know that our brother Timothy has been set free, with whom I shall see you if he comes shortly. Greet all those who rule over you and all the saints. And the reference to those who rule over them, the spiritual leadership, and all the other saints or all the other members of the body of the church. Those from Italy, greet you, where this was written from. Grace, be with you all. Amen.

We're done with the book of Hebrews.

And they said it wouldn't happen tonight.

It's a wonderful book. It really is.

For those of us that have gone through it all here together in these Bible studies, either here in Cincinnati, Milford, or online, I hope that you've all been encouraged by it and to repeat what was said that you'll treat those words kindly, as we should all the words of God. These especially for what they teach us about Jesus Christ and His role as our High Priest. Before I conclude tonight, I did want to mention what I said that I wanted to give you a little bit of a preview of what we're going to be doing with these. Wednesday night, Beyond Today Bible Studies, moving forward here. We made a decision this morning as we were wrapping up our production meeting for Taping Beyond Today, what we wanted to do with these, and we've kind of put the name Beyond Today Bible Studies on this for a purpose, which is to ultimately, since they go on the web, to treat them as an adjunct to the Beyond Today name and program that we are doing, we are going to be very shortly kind of beginning to turn our attention toward the Spring Holy Days. And we looked at the calendar. There are six Bible Studies after this one tonight, scheduled between now and the Passover service, the Days of Unleavened Bread. And so what we are going to do, and I've got my trusty marker here. I'll go ahead and write this on the board. We're going to start a series called Six Steps to Passover.

And in two weeks, on the 22nd, I believe it is, Steve Myers will give the first Bible study that will be given, and it will be describing Jesus our Passover. That will be the title of that one. The next one will be given by Gary Petty, and he's going to be talking about Jesus the second Adam. And then I will do the third one, Jesus and Reconciliation. And then Gary Petty will do the Bread and the Wine, the symbols of the Bread and Wine, the spiritual meaning of both of those, and a Bible study that will deal with that. And then Steve Myers will do one on the Suffering Servant, dealing with many aspects of that, including, but not limited to, the Footwashing attitude, the Footwashing Service, Suffering Servant. And then the sixth one and the final one, just prior to the Passover service, will be the subject of the resurrection, Christ in you. So those are six steps to Passover that we will begin in the next series of Bible studies that will take us up to the Passover. And Steve Myers and Gary Petty and I will each have two of those to take you up to help prepare you for the Passover service. We would like to do a whole lot more material with this if we have the time. And we'll see what we can get done. We had even discussed kind of a study aid guide to go along with that, maybe a Harmony of the Gospel accounts of each of these. But that's probably a little bit more than we could do on such short notice. Maybe next year we could do something like that. But there are other matters that we think we can pull together to give some additional study material that will be available on the website along with this. We'll probably create a special landing page where all of these will be archived along with other material that we'll probably pull together and we'll be a part of this as we move through this. So it's a bit of an extensive project that we've bitten off. We think it'll be profitable for the entire church, as all of us here, go through this and our audience around the world, all of you who will be able to access this on the web or live as we're going through six steps to Passover. And our intent is, in a sense, all of us together as a church, those that participate in this, move through the Scriptures, through the concepts, and through the ideas together to help us to prepare spiritually to be prepared for the Passover service and then the days of Unleavened Bread. And all the deep meaning that all of them involve. So those are the broad topic of six steps to Passover that we will begin next time and we'll take our time leading up to the Passover service. So we hope that you'll find that to be beneficial and that you'll be supportive of that. I think everyone will be. I think you'll find it quite exciting. We were kind of jazzed by it as we talked about it this morning in our production meeting. So with that, I will conclude the study tonight. Thanks all of you for coming out. Those of you that are listening in, good-bye. Good night. And God, give us all a safe journey home. Please stay warm and let's pray for one another as we...