Theme: God Will Bring it to Completion
This time of adjusting schedules and staying at
home provides an opportunity for reflection and thought. I’m sure each of you
have had plenty of moments to contemplate the experiences of the last couple of
months. The thing is, just because we have more opportunity to think, doesn’t
guarantee that such thinking occupies our free time. An opening of time can
also lead to an increase of stress, anxiety, and concern. We can also occupy
that free space in our minds with sinful lusts and thoughts or growing doubts
and fears about the future.
It’s well established that major changes in our
lives can lead to all of these things – even if we have more free time. When we
encounter moments like this, the worry and fear can build and grow because it’s
difficult for us to process new events that are unfamiliar. To process
something in mental and spiritual terms is essentially to understand it, to
make sense of it. Sometimes, we process things in unhealthy ways as we seek to
mask feelings or cover up behaviors and attitudes that make us comfortable. At
other times we fail to process because we feel paralyzed. We may not know
exactly what to make of the situation we’re going through.
My guess is that most of us are in the latter
scenario. We’re all in uncharted territory. No one has experienced anything
quite like this virus and all the changes that have accompanied it. And that
feeling of unknown, of uncertainty as to how to process these events, can
create an unrest of anxiousness and fear in our hearts. That unrest is well-known,
but hard to describe. I think we’ve all felt it a bit, some more than others
perhaps. I think of it as being on edge because it’s a hard thing to put into
words. Unrest is that feeling of knowing something isn’t right but not really
being able to put a finger as to why. And when we’re on edge like that, we
express that in different ways.
The unrest leads us to lash out at others. It
leads to seeking to get what we want because we want to control something in
life. It leads to delusional thoughts, like maybe someone is out to get me, or
in spiritual terms, maybe God isn’t in control anymore. It can cause us to turn
to sinful things for comfort, or at the very least, things that do not really
fulfill our sense of longing. The unrest causes us to act differently than we
normally would, than we would when we’re processing events in healthy way.
Now, I say this not to continue a feeling of
helplessness, or force you lower than you may already feel. We can talk about
these things, things that we are feeling and experiencing now, because God does
help. God forgives. God comforts. God instills hope. God builds up. God has
power and love, tenderness and authority. But, also, for that problem of
unrest, even at the times where we feel off but can’t explain just how – God
completes. Consider the words of our text for today.
Hebrews
13:20-21 Now 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, 21 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
whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
The simple message of these words can be
condensed to this: “Now may the God of peace make you complete.” That is the
purpose. This is what we gain and learn from these words. This is the
confidence we have. It is simple and sweet.
But what a blessing that God expanded on that
single thought as well! The stability of our hope in God’s promises comes from
the fact that this entire truth is surrounded by Jesus - who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the
sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant – to Him be the glory
forever and ever.
A key word in this
text is the substance of God’s promise – that He will make you complete.
This is very interesting word. It means to make something adequate or
sufficient, you can think of it as filling in all the missing pieces. Even more
basic than that, it has the idea of mending something – the idea being fixing
something that has been broken and restoring it to its original purpose. Obviously,
when God promises to do this for us – it’s quite a comforting picture. Consider
some other Scripture references that include the same word:
2
Corinthians 13:11 Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of
good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will
be with you.
Galatians
6:1 Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore
such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be
tempted.
1
Peter 5:10 Now the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in
Christ Jesus, will personally restore, establish, strengthen, and
support you after you have suffered a little.
It’s this lack of
completeness that leaves us with that empty, on edge feeling when times are
unusually stressful and out of control. Oftentimes, the sinful reactions we
have toward one another are grasping attempts in the fog of uncertainty to feel
better and to have more control. The primary thought of this text is that God
can and will help. Sometimes, we’re led astray to distrust the Word of God for
certain problems. The modern, personally enlightened mind thinks there are just
some things in life that God, religion, Christianity, or the faith can’t
address. So, we turn to science, popular talking heads, the so-called experts.
These things cannot make us complete.
God is equipped for
each problem we face because every trail, helpless feeling, hardship, and
struggle goes back to the reality of sin, and God alone has properly dealt with
sin. It was for the purpose of handling sin, and its disastrous effects in our
world, that the thoughts of the rest of our text come in. God raised His Son
from the dead. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who tends and cares for your life. The
guarantee of the blessings you have in Christ by faith are sealed with His own
blood – the blood that stands as the testament of God’s love for you. This is
the certainty you have that sin has been handled, and with that comes all the
ills the accompany sin in this world.
Now there are plenty
of times where our own personal sins give us problems. Because of the
stubbornness of our hearts, or the corruptness of our natures, we become our
own worst enemies by the sinful thoughts, words, and actions we commit. This is
certainly a real aspect of our lives and in those moments we stand ready to
repent, as King David confessed: 7
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than
snow. 9 Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create
in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not
away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to
me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. (ESV)
Christ brings a peace
and beauty to personally confessing your sins before God and being honest about
the ways you have created problems for yourself and for others. We should stand
ready to do that at all times as we did earlier in our service.
Sometimes our
uneasiness and on edge attitude is due to an unrepentant attitude. The fog of
spiritual dismay grows in such circumstances, and so God gave us the gift of
repentance to cleanse our hearts of sinful filth.
At other times, that
helpless feeling is present simply because we are living in a sinful world.
There are a host of sorrows, pains, and disturbances of heart, mind, and body
that are not due to a specific sin in our lives, but because this world is
fallen and corrupt. Sometimes, those troubles can be harder to overcome because
it’s not a matter of awareness about something in your life, such as repenting
of your sins, but rather it’s a matter of a tragedy beyond your control.
For even times like
this, God is able to make you complete. The work that Christ accomplished
through His death and resurrection did much more than just extend forgiveness
and renewal to you personally. It changed the world. It set in motion another
promise from God sealed in the blood of the Savior. Not a personal righteousness
for you, but a final rendering of all sin and wickedness in the world. A time
when all pain, sorrow, heartache, stress, and emptiness will be done away with.
A mending not just for your heart, but for every aspect of life that affects
you.
This is how God makes
good on His promise to bring completion – total restoration. This is the
believer’s hope for those feelings of helpless anxiety and consuming fears that
seek to rob us of hope in Christ. God knows and God completes. The resurrection
of Christ is your assurance that this promise will not fail.
We wait now, but we
are not hopeless. God gives us His Word of truth and peace to guide our way and
strengthen our faith. And though we wait, there is one who has seen and
testified of God’s complete renewal:
John records what He
saw in the vision of the new heavens and new earth:
Revelation
21:1-5 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the
first earth had passed away, and the sea no longer existed. 2 I also saw the
Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a
bride adorned for her husband. 3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne:
Look! God's dwelling is with humanity, and He will live with them. They will be
His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe
away every tear from their eyes. Death will no longer exist; grief, crying, and
pain will exist no longer, because the previous things have passed away. 5 Then
the One seated on the throne said, "Look! I am making everything
new." He also said, "Write, because these words are faithful and
true."
This was all made
possible by Jesus, our Savior. This is the hope we have right now, when we are
at a loss for words. This is the light that always shines no matter how dark
your life becomes. So as our text concludes, let us seek Jesus in His Word,
cling to His promises by faith, and exercise the good works of service and
glory that He has prepared for us. In Him, you are complete. Amen.
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