The True & Greater Restorer (The True & Greater #22)
Thirty-five weeks. That’s how long we’ve spent in the book of Hebrews: thirteen chapters, twenty-two messages in The True & Greater, plus our side trip through Hebrews 11 that we called Jesus in Genesis. That’s why verse 22 of the last chapter makes me laugh every time: “I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.”
Briefly.
One of my wife Leanne’s college Bible professors used to say that verse proves a woman wrote Hebrews. Some people say that as a joke. Some people mean it. Their argument is that the author leaves her name off so men would still read it, where a man’s ego would have slapped his name right across the top. I don’t buy it, mostly because of verse 19, where the author says, “I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.” The author knows these people and they know the author. Whoever wrote this had no reason to hide.
Others think Paul wrote it. Look at how it ends: Timothy is mentioned in verse 23, there are greetings from “those who come from Italy,” where Paul was held under arrest, and the closing line, “Grace be with all of you,” sounds just like him. But that ending is the only part of the whole letter that sounds like Paul. Everything else reads differently from his other letters, so I’m not convinced.
It bothers some people that we don’t know who wrote it. Early on, one test for whether a book belonged in Scripture was whether an apostle, or someone taught directly by an apostle, wrote it. Even so, the early church received Hebrews as God speaking. It’s easy to see why. This author knows the Old Testament and knows Judaism, and keeps showing that Jesus is the true and greater: greater than angels, greater than Moses, greater than Abraham, greater than the tabernacle, the Sabbath, and every sacrifice. In week one we called him the true and greater GOAT, the greatest of all time.
Right at the end, the author does it one more time. Jesus is the true and greater Restorer.
All the King’s Horses
You know the rhyme. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again.
I learned more about that poem this week than I ever expected to. There are several versions of it, and plenty of theories about who Humpty Dumpty really was. Some say “humpty dumpty” was an old insult for someone short and heavy, so the rhyme is a taunt: fall down, and nobody’s going to help you up. Some say it was King Richard III, who lost a battle he should have won with more men and more horses. Some say it was a siege engine, a machine built to knock down castle walls, that fell apart in battle and couldn’t be rebuilt in time.
I don’t care much about any of those, because I know who Humpty Dumpty is. It’s you, and it’s me. Not because we’re short or failed kings or broken war machines, but because that little story is our story.
When most of us were born, our parents were thrilled. In a sense they set us up on a wall where everyone could see us. Grandparents and siblings doted on us, neighbors admired us, the church family celebrated. Then somewhere along the way, we had a great fall. Maybe Dad walked out. Maybe Mom was fighting an addiction. Maybe friends betrayed us, or a teacher ignored us or said something cruel. Maybe someone touched us. Maybe we went to that party and drank too much, or slept with someone we regret, or cheated on a test, or cheated in a relationship. Maybe there was a car accident, or maybe we caused it. Maybe it’s our health.
Whatever it was, we fell. And no matter what we throw at it, all the king’s horses, all the king’s men, all the king’s money, substances, or fame, nothing has put us back together. Many of us end up feeling like a cracked egg on the ground, and that becomes our life.
But feelings don’t decide what’s real. Feeling like that doesn’t mean you have to stay that way. At the very end of this letter, the author wants his readers to hear that God can put you back together. Jesus is the great restorer.
Prayed Over by Someone Who Knew Them
Here’s the passage, Hebrews 13:18–21:
Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things. I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner. 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, 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.
Verse 17 tells the readers to submit to their leaders. Verse 18 is the author saying, in effect, “we’re your leaders too, so pray for us.” We want to do this ministry with a clear conscience and help people see Jesus as the true and greater. Then he turns around: you pray for me, and now I’ll pray for you. What follows is a benediction, a blessing spoken over people he loves.
Verse 20 shows how God puts us back together. Verse 21 shows what a put-together life looks like.
The God Who Has Wrath Is the God of Peace
“Now may the God of peace.” That’s where restoration starts.
I’ve known people who put so much weight on God’s wrath that they either delight in it or cower under it. Don’t get me wrong: God has wrath, and you want a God who does. There is real evil in this world, and a God who shrugged at it wouldn’t be good.
But the people who delight in God’s wrath seem almost glad to see unbelievers destroyed, and that isn’t God’s heart. God so loved the world, slave and free, Jew and Gentile, men and women, rich and poor, young and old, that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life.
The people who cower end up in legalism. Am I doing enough? Will God get off my back? It starts to look like the relationship someone has with an abuser. But God is not an abuser. He came to be abused. He took on himself what we owed at the cross. That isn’t what an abuser does. That’s what a lover does. So his love should draw us toward him, even as we know he hates sin. The God who has wrath is the God of peace, and he wants peace with you.
Paid For, Not Overlooked
Skip to the end of verse 20: “by the blood of the eternal covenant.” How does the God of peace put us back together? Through the blood of Christ.
God didn’t look at our sin and say, “No big deal, I’ll let it slide.” Sin is a big deal. It was against a holy God, and the penalty was death. Instead of making us pay it, Jesus paid it, and his blood established the covenant that brings us home.
Out of the Grave
This God of peace “brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus.” Romans 6 and Ephesians 2 both show that what Jesus went through physically, we go through spiritually. We’re born physically alive but spiritually dead, buried in the tomb of our sin. Jesus walked out of his grave, so we can be raised out of ours and made alive.
That’s why Paul can say something as bold as “you have died to sin.” I know Romans 7 too: the things I want to do, I don’t do, and the things I don’t want to do, I keep doing. We can all relate. But if you’ve put your faith in the cross and the empty tomb, then at the deepest level of who you are, you don’t have to sin anymore. You’ve died to it and been raised to walk in newness of life. The old is gone and the new has come. You are a new creation.
The resurrection helps me in another way too. When I’m going through something really hard, I remind myself that if God could raise Jesus from the dead, then what I’m facing isn’t the end. Whatever is weighing on you right now, whether it’s money, a relationship, your body, or your mind, it isn’t the end. There’s more coming.
A Shepherd, Not a Lizard
Look at how verse 20 describes Jesus: “the great shepherd of the sheep.”
God isn’t like a reptile mother who lays her eggs and leaves. Good luck, babies, hope some of you make it. He’s like a mammal mother, who gives birth and stays. When you put your faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to live in you, to protect you, guide you, give you wisdom, and give you the strength to say no to sin. The same power that raised Christ from the dead lives in you. The more you lean into that and let it become who you are, the more put together you’ll be.
Scripture keeps using this picture. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” He leads me to green pastures, so I’ll have plenty to eat, and beside still waters, so I’ll have plenty to drink. He protects me and provides for me. In John 10, Jesus claims the title for himself: “I am the good shepherd.” In 1 Peter 5, Peter calls him the chief shepherd. If you find yourself following coaches, teachers, thought leaders, or politicians, Peter’s point is that the one you need to follow is Jesus.
That’s how God does it: the God of peace, through the blood of Jesus and the resurrection of the shepherd, puts you back together. So what does that life look like?
Equipped With Every Good Thing
Verse 21 begins: may he “equip you with everything good,” which you could also translate “with every good thing.” Think of an expert camper. Not a camper trailer, a person who knows how to camp. They bring everything they need. God does that for you.
He equips you with his Word. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17). If you haven’t been reading Scripture, start. It’s for your good. It keeps you from going the way of the world and leads you into the freedom Jesus offers.
He also equips you with himself, the Spirit and the Son. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3). A few weeks ago at our Thursday night wrestling Bible study, we looked at that verse together. Every spiritual blessing. I know some of what that means: salvation, the Holy Spirit, God’s presence, the mind of Christ, wisdom when we ask, eternal life that starts now, and a place in heaven. Beyond that, it’s more than I can fully understand.
Doing His Will When It’s Hard to Hear
We’re equipped with every good thing “that you may do his will.”
When we worked through the start of Hebrews 13, I had to bring up some hard topics, things that cut against our culture and our own desires. I’m not a confrontational guy, and I didn’t enjoy it. But when Scripture says something hard, we have a choice: do God’s will or do our own.
The world pitches its way as freedom. This will be fun. Don’t get stuck in the cage of religion. But that is the real cage, the cage of sin, and Christ came to break it. “For freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1).
Here’s an example. Our culture says fun is found in alcohol. Turn on any NFL game this afternoon and you’ll see a beer commercial, and it will be the funniest one of the day, way funnier than the medicine ads. Scripture never forbids alcohol, but it says plainly, “Do not get drunk” (Ephesians 5:18). So which will we follow? Will we follow God’s will and limit ourselves, or even abstain, or follow our own and do what everyone else does?
If you choose God’s way, you’ll probably get teased, maybe even left out a little. But you’ll spare yourself arrests, car accidents, broken relationships, and things you’re embarrassed about later. I’ve never had a couple walk into my office and say, “Our marriage was struggling, and then we started drinking and it got better.” What I hear is, “Things were bad, the drinking made it worse, and then we found Jesus.”
Doing his will can feel uncomfortable at first. But after years of trying to live this way, I can tell you I have a far better life than many of my peers. Not because I’m better, but because he is.
Both Ends of the Same Road
The last piece: his will is “working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ.” When you let God work in you, he delights in it, because he’s shaping you into the image of Jesus.
If you’re paying attention, you’ll catch that I just called following Jesus how God puts us back together, and now I’m calling it what a put-together life looks like. So which is it?
Yes. It’s both. Following Jesus is how you get put back together, and it’s what a put-together life looks like. That life lives like Jesus lived and loves like Jesus loved. It’s marked by grace, truth, and trust. It’s full of joy, not because life is easy, but because Jesus is good.
The author knew his readers wouldn’t find wholeness through the Sabbath, through strict observance of the Levitical law, or through eating or avoiding certain foods. None of the things we’ve studied these past thirty-five weeks could do it. Only Jesus could.
Let the King Put You Back Together
So, my fellow Humpty Dumpties: you may have had a great fall. Will you let the King, King Jesus, the true and greater restorer, put you back together again? It will be for his glory and for your joy.
Maybe you’ve been letting an addiction, your past, or your fears run your life. Bring it to him. Confess it, and let his grace cover the cracks. Restoration is why he came. Maybe you’ve never acknowledged that Christ’s blood was shed so you could enter an eternal covenant with God, or that his resurrection was for you, to raise you out of spiritual death. Today can be the day you give him everything.
And as he puts us back together, I pray he makes us a put-back-together church: one that welcomes the broken and hurting not just into a room on Sunday, but into our homes, our calendars, and our lives.
The communion table is open to everyone who knows this story as their own: that Jesus died on a cross for your sin and rose again from the dead. We take the bread and the cup in remembrance of him. If you haven’t given your life to Jesus yet, I’d ask you to wait on the elements for now and keep thinking about what you’ve read here. If you realize this story is true, that God the Son took on flesh, lived without sin, died in your place, and now invites you to let him put you back together, then the most important thing you can do today is give him your life. Then the table is yours too.
