Sermon Cloud

The Equipping of the New Covenant Priest

Hebrews 13:20-21

Grace Fellowship Church

Series 3 Sermon 83

May 31, 2009

 

²⁰ Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, ²¹ equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

 

Introduction

One of the Scriptural truths of the Bible that we must always keep in the forefront of our mind is that we can do nothing good apart from God.  Everything that is pleasing in His sight will flow from Him and ultimately return to Him.  The Lord Jesus said in John 15:5,

⁵ "I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

 

So many people have this wrong view of the Christian life.  They think that when they are saved or converted that somehow they have exercised their will and God has responded to that and now they are saved.  Then God leaves them to live out the Christian life by other acts of their will.  The words of Christ, “apart from me you can do nothing” has not sank in at all. 

 

People get that idea because they read Scripture through the lens of self sufficiency.  The attitude is that they have everything needed to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord if they will just try hard enough.  There is no reliance upon His grace. 

 

If you take nothing else from this sermon this morning I want you to understand this.  We can not live the Christian life in our own strength.  It is impossible.  And besides that God has no desire for you to live the Christian life in your own strength.  His desire is for His glory and He will share that glory with no one and that includes you and me.

 

One of the most glorious truths about our Lord is that He desires to glorify Himself by the way we live our lives in a sinful world.  Malachi 1:11 says,

¹¹ "For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations," says the LORD of hosts.

 

What Malachi was saying is that even among those who formerly did not know the name of the Lord, the name of the Lord would be great and in those places that formerly were ignorant of the ways and will of Almighty God there would be acceptable sacrifices made that are pure.  This is the Lord’s will.  This is what He has planned and purposed to do in His sovereign will.  And when the Lord says that something will happen it will happen.  And we have seen this priestly activity unfold before us in the 13^th chapter of Hebrews. 

 

Let’s remember for a moment that God has established a New and better Covenant inaugurated by the Lord Jesus Christ at His death, burial, and resurrection.  In that covenant the Lord has set His heart to have a people that will have the law of God written on their hearts and they will walk in His ways.  He has chosen to reveal Himself to these people and the day will come when they will all know Him from the least to the greatest precisely because the Lord has chosen to cast their sins from them and remember their sins no more. 

 

In light of this new and better covenant in Christ we are called to forsake our old way of life and live and walk by faith in the promises of God made to us in this covenant.  We are called to hold fast the faith in good times and in times of persecution, trouble, and affliction.  While holding fast the faith we are called to endure the discipline of the Lord as He shapes and molds us into the image of Christ Jesus.  And then in chapter 13 of Hebrews we have been given our duty as Christians, members of the household of God and partakers of this New and better Covenant in Christ.  Chapter 13 of Hebrews calls us to a lifestyle of worship.  Every activity that we engage in is an act of worship.  And the writer begins chapter 13 by telling us how we are to relate to the people we come in contact with and with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who may be suffering.  Look at verses 1-3.

1 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.    

Then the writer calls us to a higher level of morality and trust in God.  Look at verses 4-6.

4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. 5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

In verses 7-10 the writer calls us to doctrinal fidelity.  Look with me at verses 7-10.

7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.

 

Verses 10-14 is a call to radical Christian living that takes us from the culture that offers us protection if we fit in and places us outside the camp where Christ is which brings danger upon us.  Look at the verses.

10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.

Verses 15-18 is our clarion call to our office of New Covenant Priest.  We are all new covenant priests and the Lord has given us sacrifices to offer to Him.  Look at verses 15-18.

15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. 17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. 18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.

 

These are all tall orders.  These are all impossible tasks if we are left to accomplish all of this in our own strength.  So as we wrap up this series in Hebrews I want us all to understand that God does not expect obedience from us done in our own strength and for our own glory.  If any of us are obedient it will be because the Lord has equipped us and empowered us to do so.  I want you to take a close look at Hebrews 13:20-21.

²⁰ Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, ²¹ equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

 

I want you to notice the two verbs and who the recipient of the actions are.  In verse 21 my translation says “equip you.” Your translation may say “make you perfect” or “make you complete.”  It is not the same word (telos) that we are accustomed to hearing when we talk about something being perfect or complete.  The Greek word is “katartizo” and it “was familiar to the people who received this letter. The doctors knew it because it meant “to set a broken bone.” To fishermen it meant “to mend a broken net”. To sailors it meant “to outfit a ship for a voyage.” To soldiers it meant “to equip an army for battle.” ^[1]

 

So in verse 21 God is doing the equipping of us to do something.  What is it that He desires and equips us to do?  Look at verse 21 again.

 ²¹ equip you with everything good that you may do his will,

What does He desire from us?  What is His will?  It is to hold fast the faith in Christ and serve Him as a New Covenant priest in all that Hebrews 13 has told us.  The writer does not stop there.  He uses another verb in verse 21 where the Lord is the one acting upon us.  Look at verse 21 again.

 ²¹ equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight,

 

So why would the Lord do this?  Why not just let us do our best to obey Him and He just not get involved in our day to day lives?  It all goes back to the giving of this New and Better Covenant in Christ Jesus.  In the Old Covenant there was no promise of obedience. There was simply the demand of obedience.  Listen to Deuteronomy 11:26-28.

²⁶ "See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: ²⁷ the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I am commanding you today; ²⁸ and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by following other gods which you have not known.

Listen to the curse of verse 16 and 17.

¹⁶ "Beware that your hearts are not deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods and worship them. ¹⁷ "Or the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and He will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its fruit; and you will perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you.

 

I could list other passages that say the same thing and as you read the Old Testament you see that curse and blessing motif played out over and over again. 

 

But the New Covenant is better because it is enacted on better promises.  Turn over to Hebrews 8 and start reading with me in verse 6.

6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. 8 For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” 13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

 

In the declaration of the New and Better Covenant in Christ the Lord is speaking and the promise is that this Covenant will do what the Old Covenant did not do and that would be to present a people before Him holy, blameless, and beyond reproach.  The Lord has taken sinful people and cleansed them in the blood of Christ and is in the process of changing them from corruptible to incorruptible, from the likeness of Adam to the likeness of Christ.

 

If you take more than a moment to think about this glorious truth you would be awe struck.  There is no good in any of us.  God did not look down and see me or you and think that there was anything at all redeemable in us and then decide He would save us on that merit.  He did look down with the eyes of grace and see lost and dying sinners that were in desperate need of a Savior and then sent His only begotten Son into the world filled with sinners to be brutally killed on their behalf.  Then the Lord would call these wretched sinners through His Holy Spirit and the Gospel of His Son to repentance and faith in Christ.  After He did this those of us who are in Christ have Christ for our Savior and we stand before the Father now with Christ as our head and our representative.  We do not stand in our own strength or our own good works or obedience to the Law.  But in the New Covenant we are guaranteed obedience to the Lord.  The New Covenant promise is that we will have the Law written on our hearts and we will walk in His ways and the Lord Jesus Christ died to make sure that happens.  All of the New Covenant obedience hinges upon the love of God poured out on us in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf. 

 

So why would the Lord do this?  Why is He so determined to make sure we are equipped to do His will and be pleasing in His sight?  What we have in Hebrews 13:20-21 is a prayer.  The prayer is one that will be answered in the affirmative.  The technical Greek linguistic term for verses 20 and 21 is called a voluntative optative.  This is a technical term that simply shows how we pray.  “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done” is a prayer of petition that we know the Father is going to do.  His Kingdom is coming and His will will be done in earth as it is in Heaven but we still ask.

 

1.     

 

PNP

From our text, Hebrews 13:20-21, I want you to see the two reasons that the Lord has set His heart for our obedience as New Covenant priests to do His will and to be pleasing in His sight. 

 

2.  The Lord will do this so that Christ will be glorified. 

 

Purpose

The reason I am closing out this series in Hebrews with these verses is to show you that God’s desire for you and His will for you is for you to be obedient to Him and to be pleasing in His sight and He has determined to make that happen in you and me as His new covenant priests.  We will be pleasing to Him and we will be obedient to Him. 

 

Have you ever wondered if God is pleased with you?  Have you fallen into the trap that so many of us fall into where we put ourselves on the treadmill of self righteous obedience and think that one wrong move and the Lord will disown you?  Do you think that God is not able to work in you so that you will be obedient to His will and pleasing in His sight? 

 

Then you need to listen closely to this message this morning. 

 

RPNP

So look with me at these two reasons that the Lord has set His heart for our obedience as New Covenant priests to do His will and to be pleasing in His sight. 

The first reason is because:

1.   The Lord is able to do this by His power. 

Notice verse 20.  

²⁰ Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,

 

Notice the first phrase, “Now may the God of peace…”  This term is never used in the Old Testament.  The phrase is used five times in the New Testament and Paul uses it four times and the writer of Hebrews once.  Now I want you to imagine just for a moment that you are living in the first century with this group of Christians.  You have an oppressive government that allows the persecution of you simply because you are Christians.  Some of your fellow Christians have been thrown into prison.  Some may have even been killed.  You have received public mockery and slandered because of your faith and your property has been plundered and stolen.  You have been enduring the affliction of God as He disciplines you for your good and suffering has become your way of life. 

 

The church has been attacked from without and it has been attacked from within by false teachers and false Christians.  And in the midst of what the world would call turmoil which was the norm for the early church the writer offers a prayer on your behalf that starts off with the phrase “Now may the God of peace…”  It seems like a contradiction in terms.  Before these early Christians were thrown out of the synagogues and left their pagan temples for Christ the world would have said they had peace.  They had the protection of Rome on their previous religions.  But now they have been made enemies of the Jews and enemies of the pagans and they are bombarded on every side.  And the writer starts off this prayer with “the God of Peace.” 

 

So how can the writer say this?  How can he say that God is a God of peace when the church is being bombarded by persecution and false teachers and the Christians themselves are under the disciplining hand of God’s affliction at times?  How can this be peace?  The reason is because of the next phrase.  Look at verse 20 again. 

²⁰ Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus..

 

The peace of God is rooted in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Without the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world we are not at peace with God.  We may be at peace with our fellow men but that is a false peace at best and in the eternal understanding of what is required of us from God there is no peace in that.  When we are not at peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ we are in serious spiritual danger, eternal danger.  I want you to listen to Romans 5:1-5.

¹ Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. ³ And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations,(How in the world can we exult in our tribulations?) knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; ⁴ and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; ⁵ and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Then Paul goes on and reminds us in Romans 5:9-11 of our previous standing before God and our glorious present standing before Him.  Listen as I read.

⁹ Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. ¹¹ And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

 

Peace with God will always bring war with the world.  Reconciliation with God means a divorce from this present world.  Being a friend of God means that you have eternally made Satan the prince and power of the air your enemy.  And ultimately we are saved from the wrath of God by Christ enduring this wrath on our behalf.  This is true peace.  This is real understanding of how we have peace with God. 

 

It is not at all what many American Christians think when peace with God equals good health and great financial success.  Peace with God may mean you get beaten by an angry mob for your witness to death or near death.  It could mean that you put yourself in jeopardy for the sake of the Gospel. It could mean that you don’t take that promotion at work so you can spend more time with your family and so you miss out on that big raise.  It could mean that you are ostracized from your profession because you are a Christian.  It could mean that you ask the Lord to remove the thorn from your flesh and three times He tells you that His grace is sufficient. 

 

Through Christ we have peace with God.  But our verse is about us as Christians being equipped to do the will of God and to be pleasing in His sight.  Notice that is what verse 21 says.  Look at it with me. 

²¹ equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight..

 

So the promise is that God Himself who has given us peace will give you and I the necessary tools so that you and I can do His will and He will work in us that which is pleasing in His sight.  I want this to really stick in our minds and our hearts this morning.  So many of us live these defeated deflated Christian lives because we are so busy looking at our outward circumstances and comparing ourselves to others that we don’t take the time to see what God is doing in us and through us.  We often think that our lives are insignificant and God is not really doing anything in us or through us. 

 

But that is not what our text says.  Verse 20 and 21 says that God is presently and in the future equipping us with everything good so that we may do His will and He is at present and in the future working in us that which is pleasing in His sight.  And what is pleasing in His sight is His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is molding and shaping us into the image of Christ, with whom He is well pleased.  

 

So how can we be sure that this is going to happen in our lives?  What historic fact can we base our assurance on?  The answer is in verse 20.  Look at it with me.

²⁰ Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,

 

The historical fact that proves both God’s promise to equip us and to be pleased with us and His ability to do so is the resurrection of Christ.  If Christ is still in the grave then the Father has no authority or ability to equip you to do His will and then to ultimately be pleased with us. 

 

If you do a quick study of the book of Acts what you will soon find out is that the meat and potatoes of the message of the Gospel the apostles proclaimed was the death and resurrection of Christ.  His death was for the atonement for sins and His resurrection both proved this truth and established Christ as different than all other religious leaders.  Christ overcame the power of death and only God can raise the dead.  And because God has raised Christ from the dead all men everywhere are accountable to God and will one day stand before Him.  The universal call to repent of sin and believe the Gospel has gone out.  Listen to Acts 17:30-31 and the summation of Paul’s sermon at Mars Hill.

³⁰ "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, ³¹ because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."

 

So all men everywhere are commanded to repent and believe the Gospel and the proof of that is the resurrection of Christ.  But for us who have already repented and are believing the truth of the resurrection is the guarantee that we will be equipped to do all that God has planned for our lives.  He, Himself based on His own might power to give life to the dead, will equip you and me to do all that He desires for us to do that ultimately will be pleasing in His sight. 

 

I want you to listen to Ephesians 2:4-10 with this idea of God’s resurrection power in mind.

⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,(The same power that raised Christ from the dead has raised us from spiritual death to life and now God the Father has seated us in the heavenly places in Christ.  Physically we are here on earth but positionally we are at the right hand of the Father where intercession is being made for us.  This is all based on God’s ability and power to accomplish His will in the life of His people because of the proof shown in the resurrection of Christ. So what is going to happen?  There is an eternal security and there is a temporal security in this salvation.  Listen to verses 7-10) ⁷ so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

 

Here is where we are going to get some help this morning.  All of us at some time have scratched our heads and wondered whether or not we are doing what God has called us to do.  We have all wondered if we are right in the center of God’s will.  We have scratched our heads and prayed and read the Bible and taken spiritual gift inventories and read books all to discover what it is that God has called us to do.  And most people who do this are paralyzed in their Christian walk.  They can’t do anything because they are waiting on God’s perfect will for their lives to be revealed to them in a dream or vision or some other miraculous way. 

 

Maybe this morning you are struggling with what the Lord wants you to do.  Maybe it’s with your vocation.  You may be asking yourself and the Lord whether or not He wants you in some vocational ministry.  You may be wondering who the Lord desires for you to marry.  You may be wondering if and when the Lord desires for you to retire or change vocations.  And the Lord does not always make the decisions that you need to make ultimately clear.  Some of you are wondering about other things that I did not mention.  You know what you are seeking the Lord about and I want to give you some biblical help in making those decisions this morning. 

 

First look back at verses 20 and 21 and read with me the whole of the verses.

²⁰ Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, ²¹ equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

 

When you are diligently seeking the Lord about decisions that you are making then I believe at the heart of that seeking is a desire to do the Lord’s will and be pleasing in His sight.  And this is the same desire that God has for us.  Based on the promises in the New Covenant we will do His will and we will be pleasing in His sight.  But here is where the going gets a little bit treacherous.  The Lord has not called us to walk by what we can see but rather we are called to walk by faith. 

 

There are things about our lives that God will not show us beforehand.  Deuteronomy 29:29 is a great verse to live by and here is where our help comes in.

²⁹ "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.

 

Here is where our responsibility and God’s sovereign providence comes together for our good and God’s glory.  If we will simply do what God has clearly revealed in His Word for us to do then the secret things He will providentially take care of.  Remember the context of Hebrews 13.  We are New Covenant priests under the Lordship and authority of the New Covenant Great High Priest and the Lord has given us things to do.  Starting back in Hebrews 13:1 there is a whole list of things that we should be doing as New Covenant priests.  We should be caring for one another and loving one another.  We should be living lives marked out by holiness and righteousness.  We should be trusting in the Lord and not in riches and be looking to Him for our provision.  We are to be working toward doctrinal fidelity in our church and our lives.  We are to be careful to avoid false teaching and not be carried away by every wind of doctrine.  We are to live lives of radical obedience to Christ where we forsake the culture that we live in and go to Him outside the camp and willingly bear the reproach that He endured.  We are to live like refugees because here we have no lasting city but like those in Hebrews 11 who walked by faith we look for the city that is to come, the Heavenly Jerusalem.  We continue to acknowledge His name and to do good to others.  We bring ourselves into obedience and submission to the leadership of the church and then we pray for those leaders to shepherd us and keep watch over our souls.  And then once we have done and are consistently doing these things that God has revealed for us to obey then He in His time will open the door for further service or bring that person that you are to marry into your life or whatever it is that you are seeking that God has not revealed. 

 

The problem with this is that we are Americans and we want some quick fix and don’t think that we should or need to do all this.  And many of us are new to the biblical truth of God’s sovereignty and His providential care for His people.  If you are paralyzed in your Christian life because you are unsure of what God wants you to do then you have stopped walking by faith and are now trying to see what God may not desire for you to see yet.  Walking by faith and trusting in the Sovereign hand of God is what we are called to.  Listen to Hebrews 11:8.

⁸ By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.

 

And the reason Abraham could do this and the reason you and I should be doing this is because God has set His heart and promised by the power of the resurrection that we are all going to do His will and we are going to be pleasing in His sight.  His power is what shows us that He is able and willing to do this.  That was the first point now lets see the second point and I promise it will be shorter than the first because they are linked.  Second:

 

2.  The Lord will do this so that Christ will be glorified. 

Look at Hebrews 13:20 -21 again with me. 

²⁰ Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, ²¹ equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

 

Did you notice what the end of verse 21 says?  All this equipping and being pleased with us is because the Father has not only set His heart for our obedience to Him and our walking in His ways but He has also set His heart to glorify His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Look at verse 21 again.

²¹ equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

 

Some of us may be quick to dismiss ourselves in this.  We may say, “who am I that the Lord would be pleased with me?”  But if you are a Christian this morning that means that who you are is wrapped up in who Christ is because Christ is our righteousness and in Christ we stand before God holy, blameless, and beyond reproach.  And furthermore God has glorified His name in His Son and will continue to glorify Him. 

 

Think about what we will be singing in heaven.  Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.  For eternity we will be singing the glory of the Father as He has projected that glory onto His Son.  But before we get to Heaven the Son of God is going to be glorified in us as we live out the will of God and are pleasing in the sight of the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 5:16:

¹⁶ "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

 

So in our obedience to the Word of the Lord the Father is glorified and in turn the Lord Jesus Christ is glorified also.  In Christ’s High Priestly prayer in John 17, particularly verses 6-10, He links the obedience of His people to His Word with the Father glorifying the Son here on earth.  Listen as I read this.

⁶ "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. ⁷ "Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; ⁸ for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me. ⁹ "I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours; ¹⁰ and all things that are Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I have been glorified in them.

 

So if Christ Jesus is ultimately glorified in our adherence to and obedience to His Word then the Father will be sure to equip us to live out that Word and to be pleasing in His sight so that in the ages to come and in the days ahead and today the Son will be glorified. 

 

Folks, this is something we can rest in.  This is something we can find help and comfort in.  The biblical truth for the Christian who is seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness is that all these things will be added unto us and we will walk in a manner that is worthy of the Lord who called us out of darkness into His glorious light.

 

If we understand that Christ is glorified in our obedience to God then we will diligently seek to be obedient to what God has revealed to us in His Word.  If we are truly concerned with the reputation of Christ we will seek diligently to know all that our Heavenly Father has commanded us and we will in His power and in His grace seek to do all these things as New Covenant priests and then wait as the Lord works out His plan and His purposes in our lives.

Let's pray.