s of things that God has done and continues to do from his beginning acts of creation to the second by second, millisecond by millisecond upholding his whole cosmos one atom at a time to his marvelous works of redemption, salvation in Christ. The ways that we could answer that question, what has God done, are innumerable. So where would you begin? Well, of all the things that the God of peace has done to grant us peace with him, none are so great as his act of bringing back from the dead our Lord Jesus. Now, over the years, I've preached messages on Easter Sunday that really delve into the rational proofs and the evidence of the resurrection. And it's good to do that, and we'll do that more in the future, because there's very good reason to believe in the empty tomb. Very good reason to believe it. And that's why so many billions of Christians have believed it over the last 2,000 years. That's why the church was founded by people who would have walked away from Christianity and walked away from Jesus had he not walked out of the tomb. So there's really good reasons. There's all sorts of rational reasons to believe in the resurrection, and we've looked at those, and we'll continue to in the future, Lord willing. The point is, is that Christianity is not an esoteric religion. We don't say, regardless of historic facts, we just find Christianity philosophically very satisfying. Christianity is a faith that is founded upon certain specific historical events and persons, including the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And the point is that the Bible isn't messing around when it comes to the resurrection of Jesus. The writers of Scripture are very good at letting us know when they're writing something metaphorically or symbolically. Jesus was very good about letting us know when he had shifted into to telling a parable, for instance. But in the case of Jesus' resurrection, it is very clear that the writers of Scripture are not writing symbolically or parabolically or metaphorically. They only ever considered the resurrection of Jesus and historical event witnessed by hundreds, if not thousands of individuals. So away with all of the nonsense that modern biblical interpreters and liberal Christianity has come up with to try to explain away the real, live resurrection of Jesus. When they say, well, Jesus didn't actually raise, but he was raised spiritually, metaphorically, to give us a sign of hope that winter will one day recede into spring. Nonsense. I love the Apostle Paul's honesty. He said, if Christ is not risen, essentially what Paul said, if Christ is not risen, then I'm going to go get drunk. I'm going to eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. We're dealing here either with fact or fiction. And if it didn't happen, if it didn't physically happen, and if Jesus did not physically exit that tomb and speak to his disciples and appear before hundreds if not thousands, if he didn't take Thomas' hand and fit Thomas' hand into that wound in his side and into the wounds in his hands, if the synapses in Jesus' brain did not start firing again, if the amino acids did not reform in the glorified body of Jesus, if his heart did not start pumping blood again through that body, then this is all nonsense. Todd, you're making us kind of uncomfortable. No, seriously, I am that confident in the resurrection of Christ that I can say without it, we're wasting our time. I'm not going to waste my time on a Jesus who can only ever be, at best, another dead guru. The Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that if Jesus is not raised, then our faith is futile, and we are to be pitied above all people. Paul says, if Christ isn't risen, then we are pitiable, pathetic people. Our lives depend upon the risen Christ. And so if you take a scalpel and remove this one little clause in this blessing, then the whole thing falls apart. Because it is by the Son's resurrection that God ratified and brings to completion the atoning death of Jesus on the cross. It is by the resurrection that God has made peace with us through an eternal covenant. In fact, the resurrection of Jesus is so central, so essential to our life and our salvation that we're told in Romans chapter 10. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved. That's how essential the risen Jesus is. And that third clause, do you see it there? Who is this risen Christ? Do you see that third clause? He is the great shepherd of the sheep. The one who has conquered death by his resurrection. This Jesus happens also to be the great shepherd of the sheep. He leads us beside still waters because he's risen. He restores my soul because he's risen. He sets a table before me in the presence of my enemies because he's risen. He's the great shepherd. There are so many ways in which scripture reveals and depicts Christ. But here, the writer of Hebrews digs into Israel's own history and points to the Lord as the great shepherd of God's people. Israel had a practice of picturing and describing and depicting both their priests and their kings as shepherds of the people. And don't miss the significance of that, that Jesus is both king and priest, the great shepherd of the sheep. The apostle Peter calls Jesus the shepherd and overseer of our souls. In John's gospel, in that series of I am statements, Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. And after that, he makes this remarkable statement, he says, I laid down my life for the sheep. And that brings us to that very next clause, that fourth clause. And notice how it begins with the little preposition, by. 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. Now here he is setting up the blessing he's about to to pray for and pronounce here. It is by the shed blood and resurrection of Jesus. It is by this, on the basis of this, that God will bless them. And he calls it an eternal covenant, this shed blood of Jesus, an eternal covenant. Here he is, I think, almost certainly referring to what theologians call the covenant of redemption. It's referred to in scripture, not by that title, but by description. So for instance, when when Jesus says, all that the Father has given to me will come to me, and I will lose none of whom the Father gives me. He's referring back to what what Paul would describe in Ephesians chapter one, is the fact that that we were chosen in Christ, Paul writes, before the foundations of the world. That that that there is this intra-trinitarian promise made between Father, Son, and Spirit, that the Father will decree to save a people from among all the nations of the world, that the Son will accomplish that through the shedding of his blood and his resurrection, and that the Spirit of God will apply that in power to all of God's people. It was a covenant there, a promise bond between Father, Son, and Spirit, that this would come about. And here the writer of Hebrews is making reference to this. This is the blood of the eternal covenant. And in this, he is differentiating between the covenant of God's grace towards his people and the covenant that God had made with Moses. Now, the covenant that God had made with Moses was a good covenant. It began with the giving of the Ten Commandments and continued as God established all of the ceremonial laws that would govern the religious life of his people. I mean, think about it. Everything from the tabernacle to the priesthood to the sacrificial system, the holiness codes, and all of the religious ceremonies and festivals, all were a part of God's covenant with Moses to help teach the people of what he was going to do and accomplish when the Messiah came. And so all of those things would end up becoming abrogated or passed away, fulfilled once the Messiah came. The problem was is that when the Messiah came, so many of the people who had been tutored in this since childhood refused to recognize him. And now these Christian Jews were being tempted to return to the old covenant shadows and reject the substance. And think about it. For around 2,000 years, probably a little more than 2,000 years, up to this point when he writes this, they'd had it down. We belong to a particular clan in a particular tribe. We have a temple. We have priests. And we have all of these rituals. The priests wear certain clothes. And then they sacrifice certain animals on certain days to atone for our sins. And then they do it all over again. And then they do it all over again and again and again. They had it all figured out. It was predictable. And now with Jesus, he's saying, if you tear down this temple, and you will, I'll raise it back up. So where's the temple? Where's the high priest? Where's the animals? How are we supposed to know that our sins are forgiven? And that's why the letter to the Hebrews is all about showing them how Jesus fulfills those promises that had been made to Israel. How Jesus is superior to Moses, superior to angels, superior to the temple, superior to the sacrifices and to the priests. He's the fulfillment of all of those things. Jesus is the substance of the covenant that God made so long ago. And the writer of Hebrews is saying, don't go back. Don't go back to the shadows. You've got the substance here with Christ. Repeatedly in the New Testament, the death of Jesus, his shed blood is linked to his love and to the Father's love for his people. The Apostle Paul was so profound in his writing about God's love and his grace towards us in Christ, his mercy for us in the death of Jesus. But he also understood what all of that had meant for him personally. You know, you get the idea very early on when you start to read Paul's epistles that this is not just abstract ideas for him. This is not just doctrine to be examined. It's something very personal for Paul. And so in Galatians, he writes, This whole notion of Christ shedding his blood for us, again, is not just an idea to dissect. It is something that was done for me, for you. And then we get to the fifth clause, and this is now finally where he gets to what exactly he's calling upon the Lord to do for them, to bless them with. That he would equip you with everything good, that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in your sight. Now here we get to the crux of what he is praying the Lord will do for them. I'm praying, I'm praying that God will bless you to equip you with everything good, that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight. So here, the writer of Hebrews moves from doctrine concerning the person and work of Christ, his crucifixion, his shed blood, and his resurrection. He moves from that directly to the particular way in which he prays that they will be blessed by God. And specifically, the benediction moves directly from Jesus in the direction of our sanctification. That is, may God bless you in such a way that you might be just exactly what humanity was originally created to be. May God bless you by granting you everything you need to do his will, to do what is pleasing in his sight. Now, if you have any depth of understanding at all about yourself, then you ought to know right away that there is a sort of dilemma exposed at this point. It's a dilemma because every day we can point to multiple experiences in which we do not do what is pleasing to the Lord. Think just about today already. I'm not suggesting that anyone here has done anything particularly heinous yet today, and let's hope not. But if we're really honest, maybe we can already recall, just from this morning, thoughts, attitudes, motives, maybe even a few choice words that were not pleasing to the Lord. And that's on Easter Sunday before we get to lunch. What's tomorrow going to be like? So if you hear this expectation that we would be a people who do God's will, who live lives that are pleasing, not to me because my standard's pretty low, but pleasing to God. If you're at all thoughtful, you might be thinking, man, that's hard every day for me. Right. And scripture's really honest about this dilemma of ours. The Bible teaches us very clearly what we already know, which is that we are sinners by nature and by choice. Every day we feel the war going on between our desire to sin and our desire to do and be what is pleasing in the sight of God. The prayer then, the blessing, zero in on the language of the benediction because it takes into account our struggle with sin. You may not have noticed it first, but it openly acknowledges our struggle with sin at the very root because what does he say? What is the blessing? That God will give us everything good to do his will. That God will give us everything we need to do what is pleasing in his sight. He will equip you. He'll give you the equipment. He'll give you the tools that are necessary to do his will, to do what is pleasing in his sight. Now, there are plenty places in scripture and in the New Testament, which we are told in one way or another to strive for godliness. The apostle Paul, the champion of free grace, compares the Christian life to a race and also to a boxing match. He says that he has to go under strict training to walk with Jesus. But under that and behind that and before that and around that, around everything that we might contribute in our striving, around all of that is this reality that what we need more than anything is for God to give us everything good that we need in order to do his will. I think of of St. Augustine's prayer, Lord, command what you will, but give what you command. It's a great summary of the Christian life right there. And it's exactly what Paul is, or the writer of Hebrews, I don't think it's Paul by the way, it's exactly what the writer of Hebrews is saying here. Lord, command whatever you will, that we would do what is pleasing in your sight, but give what you command. And it's into this very reality that the Bible fits the resurrection of Jesus. In Ephesians chapter 1, we are told, quote, of the immeasurable greatness of God's power toward us, Paul says, toward us who believe according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. In other words, what Paul is saying is, you Christians, I've got great news for you. The measure of strength that God will dispense to you is very much like the power he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead. Do not tell me, Christian, that there is no way for you to avoid that sin. Let us not say or deal in the self-indulgent fantasy that there are some temptations that are just too great for us. If we are saying that, then we don't believe in the resurrection of Jesus. Christ in you, the risen Christ, that has to mean something. That has to amount to the working of a great power and a great love and a great motive within us. May God, may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of his sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you, give you, supply you with everything you need to do his will and to be pleasing in his sight. What a blessing. And if we hadn't gotten it yet, there's that very next little clause, through Jesus Christ. May God equip you to do all of this through Jesus Christ. This is the doctrine of our union with Christ. When we are saved by God, he unites us to Christ. We are in Christ, repeatedly we're told in the New Testament. So that in Christ, we are not only forgiven, but we are empowered to live for his good pleasure. Ephesians chapter 2, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. And just in case we forgot, he adds this final clause to his benediction. Through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. The Lord Jesus is, Ephesians 1, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come. Remember that this Christ that we have been united to in faith is God Almighty, the Glorious One. Why did God make you? For his glory. Notice that the blessing is not, may God give you what you need in order to be saved. Thank God, thank God, that's not the message. But the benediction is grounded in what God has already done to save us. It's grounded in the shed blood and resurrection of Christ. The prayer is that this great salvation, which was ratified in the rising of Christ, will come alive in us, that our union with the resurrected Jesus, that for his glory we will be a people who do his will, who live lives that are pleasing in his sight. Let me just end with reading you a paragraph from Charles Spurgeon. It's not a good sermon without a little Spurgeon. He writes this. Actually, he preached this. This is from one of his sermons. From an Easter sermon, by the way. He preached. In these dreary times in which we live, men tell us that Christianity is a failure, that the gospel is a delusion, and I do not know what is going to happen. Yes, yes. But there is one very important thing which they omit to mention. He lives. He lives. He lives. Who can never be crucified again. The Lord has set him as king upon his holy hill of Zion. And though the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us, he who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. For the Lord reigns, and he shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah. Let's pray. And now, O Lord, we ask that by your Spirit, you would continue to speak to us from your Word and remind us of its truth and what you would have us know and learn and have applied to our hearts today. And we ask t