I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Hebrews 4:1-3
Hebrews
4:1-3
New
International Version
3 Now we who have
believed enter that rest, just as God has said,
“So I declared on
oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’”
And
yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world.
-- One day, a photographer was taking
school photos of first graders at an elementary school -- they were nervous and
a little scared, so he began making small talk and asking them questions to put
them at ease -- one little girl came on the stage and sat in the chair in front
of him, and he asked her, “What are you going to be when you grow up?” -- “Tired,”
she said. “Just like Mama and Daddy”1
-- boy, how familiar is that? -- If
there is another more ubiquitous comment among working people, I don’t know
what it is -- pundits like to quip that when an older person asks another how
they are doing, their response is always about how bad they feel -- about their
aches and pains -- about all the problems they are having -- their doctors and
the medicines they take and how they hurt all the time
-- but when somebody asks a younger
adult in our day how they are doing, the answer is almost always like that
little girl -- “I’m tired -- I’ve been so busy -- I’m just worn out” -- you
ever said that? -- you ever thought that?
-- just this week, I remarked to Kim
and to the folks I work with that I just didn’t understand why I was so tired
all the time -- I get up tired -- I go to work tired -- I come home tired -- I
go to bed tired -- and after a good night’s sleep, I wake up tired again and
the cycle starts all over -- if it wasn’t for the coffee and getting to sleep
in and take an afternoon nap here and there, I don’t know how I’d make it --
but I do know that I’m not alone
-- without a doubt, we are a tired
people -- I saw a study from this past year that said over 60% of adults in
America today are more tired now than ever before -- even the quarantines and
lock-downs during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic did nothing to erase our
weariness
-- we long for rest -- we long to
get away -- to just withdraw from life for a time -- to find a place where we
can just relax and rest from the struggles of our daily lives
-- it may surprise you to find out
that this longing for rest is a symptom of a spiritual problem -- we were
created for God, but sin has separated us from Him and keeps us from
experiencing Him in our lives -- this longing for rest in our hearts is our desire
to find God again -- to know the peace of His presence that we lost in the
Garden of Eden -- we long for the peace and the rest that can only be found
through the person of Jesus Christ
-- for the past several weeks, we’ve
been working on a series of sermons about who Jesus is -- we spent quite a bit
of time in the book of Ruth, talking about Jesus as our Redeemer -- and then last
week, on Easter Sunday, we turned to 1 Corinthians 15 and recognized Jesus as
our Resurrection
-- this morning, we are turning to
the Book of Hebrews, where we find Jesus as our Rest
II. Scripture Lesson (Hebrews 3:7-4:11)
-- we’re mainly going to be looking
at Hebrews 4:1-11, but I want us to back up to chapter 3, starting at verse 7,
so that we can get the context of the author’s point that he is making here
about the Rest of God
-- look with me now at Hebrews 3:7,
and let’s read this together
Hebrews
3:7 So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today,
if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts
as
you did in the rebellion,
during the time of testing in the
wilderness,
9
where your ancestors tested and tried me,
though for forty years they saw what I did.
10
That is why I was angry with that generation;
I said, ‘Their hearts are always going
astray,
and they have not known my ways.’
11
So I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ”
12
See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving
heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily,
as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s
deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our
original conviction firmly to the very end. 15 As has just been said:
“Today,
if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion.”
16
Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of
Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who
sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did God swear
that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we
see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.
-- so, this discussion in the Book
of Hebrews on the Rest of God is found in an extended passage about faith --
without faith, he says, you cannot please God -- without faith, you cannot be
with God -- without faith, you cannot find the Rest of God
-- as I said a few moments ago, we
originally lost our place with God when Adam and Eve sinned and fell in the
Garden of Eden -- their faith faltered because of the words of the serpent, and
they gave in to temptation and took of the fruit they were commanded not to
eat, and they sinned against God -- the real sin was disobedience to God’s law
because they did not have faith and trust in the word that God had given them
-- as a result, they were cast out
of the paradise of Eden -- they were cast out of the presence of God -- they
were cast out of His Rest -- and were sent into the world -- and for the next
several thousand years, mankind constantly sought God’s presence and His Rest
-- but the author points out here,
the presence of God and His Rest can only be realized through faith in Him --
so, God sent Moses to Egypt to remind the Israelites of who He was and to lead
them out of Egypt, through faith, and into the Rest of God
-- now you need to know that the
word, “Rest,” used in Hebrews 3 and 4 refer to three distinct situations --
first, we see the term God’s Rest used to refer to the Promised Land here in
Hebrews 3
-- the Promised Land was the land of
milk and honey -- the land of perfect peace -- that God promised the people of
Israel would be theirs if they would follow Him in faith out of Egypt and
across the Jordan River -- the thing to note here is that God’s Rest is not so
much the physical land that the chosen people were to inherit, but God’s
presence with them in the land
-- but we see here that the people
hardened their hearts in the wilderness -- they did not believe God when He
brought them to Promised Land and told them to go and take possession of it -- they
said the land was filled with giants and refused to go in -- and God punished
them for their lack of faith by sending them into the wilderness for 40 years,
declaring here in Hebrews 3:11, “They shall never enter my rest”
-- faith is the prerequisite for
entering the Rest of God -- that’s why we read in Hebrews 3:19, “They were not
able to enter, because of their unbelief” -- the Israelites did not believe --
they did not possess a saving faith in God -- and so they were barred from
entering God’s Rest, which for them, would have been realized in the Promised
Land
-- but the story of God’s Rest does
not end there -- look at Hebrews 4:1-3a
4:1
Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be
careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also
have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they
heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those
who obeyed.
3
Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,
“So
I declared on oath in my anger,
‘They shall never enter my rest.’”
-- the writer of Hebrews encourages
us here by telling us that the promise of entering God’s Rest still stands --
he makes sure that we know that our way into God’s Rest has not been barred
because of the lack of faith of our ancestors -- the door to God’s Rest is
still open through personal faith
-- what the author is telling us
here is that we all must come to faith on our own -- we cannot depend on the
faith of our parents or our grandparents or anyone else to open the door to
God’s Rest -- we must come to God in faith on our own in order to enter His
Rest
-- and that’s why the author
cautions us here to be careful that we are found to have true, saving faith on
our own
-- he points out in verse 2 that we
have had the gospel preached to us, just as the Israelites did -- the good news
of God’s salvation and deliverance through His Messiah -- but just hearing it
is not good enough -- you have to act on what you hear -- you have to actively
put your faith and trust in Jesus in order to enter God’s Rest
-- and to those who have believed,
we have already entered into the Rest of God -- this is the second way the
author refers to the Rest of God -- first, he described the Rest of God as the
Promised Land -- here, we see the Rest of God described as the peace and
presence of God we find through the indwelling Spirit within believers
-- this is the abundant life that
Jesus promised us in John 10:10 -- His perfect peace that He said He was
leaving with us -- His very presence in the form of the Holy Spirit to guard us
and counsel us and lead us every moment of every day
-- in this definition of God’s Rest,
the author is saying we find rest in God in the midst of our chaotic existence
in this fallen world because God is with us and we are with Him -- His presence
permeates our very existence -- and we experience Him in our lives in a real
and personal way
-- we continue to see God’s Rest
experienced by His people in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic -- for most of
the world, the pandemic has been a highly stressful event -- “Numerous recent
studies have shown global increases in the prevalence and severity of
depression and anxiety as well as increases in post-traumatic stress disorder
and substance abuse”2 because of the pandemic -- people have been
stressed about income loss -- job loss -- the threat of sickness to themselves
or their loved ones -- isolation from others -- the list goes on and on
-- but when the researchers compared
the stress levels and mental states of Christians to non-Christians, a striking
difference was noted -- believers reported less anxiety and stress than
non-believers -- people who read their Bibles daily -- who spend time with God
in prayer and in His word -- rate themselves twice as hopeful and at peace as
those who do not
--as Tyler VanderWeele, director of
the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, pointed out, “Bible
reading—along with other forms of community and discipleship, such as going to
church or participating in a small group—appear to contribute to people’s sense
of well-being and happiness -- churches have an important and profound role in
contributing to people’s well-being in general—and especially so during this
time.”3
-- what we are seeing is the result
of a people living in the midst of God’s Rest in the pandemic -- living in
faith in God -- actively living in faith in His Rest -- helps believers fare
better in the stresses of this fallen world than unbelievers
-- one other point here -- in verse
3, when it says, “we who have believed enter that rest,” the Greek verb that is
used there for “enter” has the idea of continuous action -- in other words, the
author here is saying, “you don’t receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior in
faith and enter God’s rest and quit, but you keep moving -- you keep growing --
you keep maturing in your faith -- for that is how you continuously experience
God’s Rest and peace and presence in this world today”
-- look at the second part of verse
3b-6
Hebrews
4:3b And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. 4
For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the
seventh day God rested from all his works.” 5 And again in the passage above he
says, “They shall never enter my rest.”
6
Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those
who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of
their disobedience
-- here we see the third definition
of God’s Rest used by the author of Hebrews -- the first time he used the
Promised Land as the example of God’s Rest -- next, he showed that believers
enter God’s Rest in their present-day lives through the peace and presence of
the Holy Spirit within them -- here, the author is referring to the ultimate experience
of God’s Rest -- our eternity with Him in Heaven
-- as the author points out in verse
4, when God had finished creating the heavens and the earth, God rested on the
seventh day from all His work -- God didn’t rest on the seventh day because He
was tired -- He rested on the seventh day because His work was complete -- He
had accomplished all that He had set out to do, and so He rested from all His
labors
-- we see a similar example of this
in Jesus -- after the cross and the resurrection, Jesus remained with His
disciples for 40 days, teaching them and helping them to understand the
Scriptures and what the gospel message truly meant -- and then Jesus went to
the Mount of Olives, where He ascended into heaven, and we read that He sat
down at the right hand of God the Father Almighty
-- Jesus didn’t sit down because He
was tired of all that He had been doing on earth -- no, He sat down at the
right hand of the Father because His earthly work was complete -- He had
accomplished all that He had set out to do -- and now He had entered the Rest
of God
-- in the same way, the author says
here, we will enter into that same Rest -- at the end of our lives -- when our
work here on earth is done -- we can look forward to finally arriving into
God’s Rest for all eternity
-- verse 7
Hebrews
4:7 God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long
time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted:
“Today,
if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”
8
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about
another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10
for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did
from his.
-- apparently, some in the church
had gotten worried that they had missed the Rest of God -- that their
opportunity to enter into God’s Rest had ended
-- the Apostle Paul dealt with this,
too -- we see that same worry echoed in 2 Thessalonians from some church
members who had been told that the Day of the Lord had come, and they had
missed it -- that the Resurrection had happened, and they were left behind
-- so, both Paul and the writer of
Hebrews here take time to encourage their readers that they had not been
forgotten -- that the promise of God’s final Rest was still ahead of them
-- he uses Psalm 95 to make the
point that today is the day of the Lord’s salvation -- that God’s mercies are
new everyday -- that we should be finding our faith and experiencing our faith
in God daily -- that today we should be hearing His voice and responding to Him
in faith -- not hardening our hearts as the Israelites did, but living for Him
in faith and in expectation of the return of Christ
-- some in the church had taught
that God’s rest was realized when Joshua finally led the people of Israel
across the Jordan River into the Promised Land after the death of Moses -- but
the author says here that true rest was not found in the Promised Land through
Joshua -- true rest -- the Sabbath-rest of the people of God -- only comes when
our work is done and Jesus takes us home
-- which leads us to his exhortation
in verse 11
Hebrews
4:11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one
will perish by following their example of disobedience.
-- basically, the author is telling
us here in this verse to keep on, keeping on -- to make every effort to enter
into the Rest of God through faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ -- to
know His word -- to hear His word -- to do His word
-- to not follow the example of
disobedience of the Israelites, but to live as true believers in Jesus --
enjoying His Rest now in our daily lives -- and looking forward to our
Sabbath-Rest with God for all eternity
-- the Israelites were only looking
for an earthly rest as they gazed across at the Promised Land -- but in Christ,
we find our spiritual rest -- open to all believers through faith in Him
III. CLOSING
-- the stress of constantly running
and working and being so tired has reached the point where some people in South
Korea actually pay $90 to go to prison -- it’s actually a mock prison called,
“The Prison Inside Me,” where “inmates” pay to spend 24 hours in solitary
confinement, away from all phones, clocks, and people -- the inmates spent time
meditating and resting in their self-imposed isolation and silence
-- Clients get a blue prison
uniform, a yoga mat, tea set, a pen, and notebook -- They sleep on a mat on the
floor -- There is a small toilet inside the room, but no mirror -- The menu
includes steamed sweet potato and a banana shake for dinner and rice porridge
for breakfast
-- one participant said, "I was
too busy -- I shouldn't be here right now, given the work I need to do -- But I
decided to pause and look back at myself for a better life."
-- the co-founder of the mock prison
said that participants discover their time in solitary isolation is not a
prison at all -- the real prison is what they return to outside in their normal
daily lives
-- St. Augustine said, “Our hearts
are restless, O God, until they find their rest in Thee.” -- we
can take vacations from work -- we can go to mock prisons and sit in solitary
confinement for 24 hours -- but we’re not going to find rest in this world --
our constant quest for rest can only be satisfied in Christ and in His presence
in our lives
-- all of us are tired -- all of us
are looking for rest in our lives -- for peace -- for tranquility -- for
meaning -- for purpose
-- Jesus is the Rest we are looking
for -- He alone is the promise of peace and rest in the middle of our harried
and busy lives -- if we come to Him in faith, He promises to be with us always
-- to give us His peace and His presence to encourage us in the midst of our
daily lives
-- and through His death and
resurrection, He gives us the promise of a final Sabbath-rest -- of a place
with Him in eternity where we will know and experience true Rest in His
presence forever
-- let us pray
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sources:
1
Illustration modified from J. R. Love, Rushton, Louisiana; www.
PreachingToday.com
2
“COVID stress syndrome: 5 ways the pandemic is affecting mental health,” Gordon
J. G. Asmundson [https://theconversation.com/covid-stress-syndrome-5-ways-the-pandemic-is-affecting-mental-health-147413]
3
“When Covid-19 Hurts, the Bible Brings Hope”
[https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2021/march/when-covid-19-hurts-bible-brings-hope.html]
4
“South Koreans lock themselves up to escape prison of daily life” Photography
by Kim Hong-Ji, reporting by Minwoo Park and Yijin Kim [https://apple.news/AkZfcRlJ8TnKu1Vrb_q8FyQ]
