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HOLY HELP FOR THE HOPELESS WHO ENTER GOD'S REST BY RESTING2 Hebrews 4:1-11INTRODUCTION One of the surest ways to get lost is to be overwhelmed by the details of where you are and forget the big picture of where you are going. This is true whether we’re talking about getting lost in the woods or in life. Anyone who has hiked through unknown terrain knows how necessary it is to regularly lift your attention away from your immediate surroundings and become reoriented to where you are on the map. If you only pay attention to the terrain you are currently in, you will get lost. You reorient yourself either by way of the position of the sun or through the use of a compass or in our modern times through the use of a GPS unit. Referring to each of these lifts you out of the details of where you are and enables you to fix your attention on where you are aiming to go. It is the same in our lives isn’t it? It’s so easy to be overwhelmed by the details that we lose sight of the goal for which we are living and thus lose our way. As a parent I regularly get lost in the details of my failures as a parent and my children’s present behavior and lose sight of the goal of my parenting. The daily pressures of work and housekeeping and parenting and staying in touch with the important people in our lives and taking tests and maintaining cars and houses and bodies often lead us to despair because it is hard to clearly see the point to it all. We regularly need to reorient ourselves to the big picture, to the ultimate goal of our lives so we are not overwhelmed by the details and end up wandering in circles. Today’s passage is eminently suited to the task of lifting our eyes beyond our present circumstances and helping us locate ourselves on the map. The scope of this passage takes us from creation to the end of all things. It is a masterful summation of God’s purpose in creating the universe. It aims to help us locate where we are at in reference to God’s grand plan for the universe. This passage aims to show how the entire story of the Bible fits together and how we fit into that story. If you will permit it, this passage can help you figure out where you are at on the map of God’s universe and the way to the end for which he made you. Whatever circumstance you currently find yourself in, this passage can help you walk through it towards the goal and keep you from getting lost in the circumstances. There is no circumstance in your life that can prevent you from finding your way to the great and glorious end for which God made you. This passage both sets before us the goal and the way to that goal through the forest of details that make up our existence on this earth. MAIN POINT Before the world began God determined to live with his people in a place of rest and rejoicing forever. Therefore… I. God’s place of rest is available only to those who believe the gospel (vv. 1-3a) Our passage today is a continuation of the argument that the author begins back in 3:7 based on Psalm 95. As we talked about some six weeks ago, Psalm 95 is a reflection by David upon the history of the nation of Israel from the time they came out of Egypt until they entered the land of Canaan 41 years later. While the psalm summarizes Israel's behavior as recorded in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, in particular David fixes his attention on the rebellion of Israel at Kadesh Barnea as it is recorded in Numbers 13-14. By way of reminder, Israel was camped at Kadesh Barnea, on the southern border of the land of Canaan, about one year after they left Egypt. They had sent 12 men into the land to investigate the situation. When they came back, ten of these men told the people that there was no way they, the Israelites could take over the land because there were giants living in large fortified cities in the land of Canaan. However, two of the men, Joshua and Caleb said they could do it because God was with them. The people believed the ten and formed a mob to confront Moses and Aaron and said they were going back to Egypt. It is this rebellion that David refers to in Psalm 95. The author to the Hebrews quotes this psalm and then applies it to the situation faced by Christians. Verses 12-19 of chapter 3 emphasize the negative aspect of Israel’s response to God. God made Israel wander in the desert for 40 years until all the people who were 20 years old and up at Kadesh Barnea were dead, except Joshua and Caleb. The author of this letter is addressing this local church of formerly Jewish but now Christian people as if they are in the same situation as Israel. God is promising to bring them to the Promised Land, to his eternal kingdom, through the work of Christ. The warning to them and to us in vv. 12-19 is that if they or we do not keep trusting in Christ as our Savior then we will perish eternally, just like all the people who were 20 years old and up died in the desert. The emphasis of the author at the end of chapter 3 is the threat of God’s judgment against all who refuse to believe his promise. (Read the last three verses of chapter 3). However, in chapter 4 the emphasis shifts from the threat of judgment to the promise that is implied in the threat at the end of Psalm 95 as stated in 3:11. The author of this letter asserts that in Psalm 95’s description of Israel’s failure to enter the Promised Land there is a promise being held forth to us that we can enter into God’s rest. He draws that conclusion from the oath that God takes as recorded in the last verse of Psalm 95, which he repeats in 4:3. We are going to discuss the content of the promise in a moment but right now I want you to see how the author sees a promise of rest in the Psalm and in the historical event the Psalm is based upon. The key to understanding this is in the first line of v. 2. “We also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did…” The good news that the Hebrew Christians heard and that we have heard is the good news about Jesus. The author began describing that good news in chapters 1 & 2 and he is going to continue with his description of that good news in 4:14. Essentially it is the news that God’s eternal Son took on human flesh as the Son of David in fulfillment of all the OT prophecies. As the fully human great David’s greater Son he has suffered death in order to make holy all the people of God and rescue them from their slavery to sin and death and hell. He has become the faithful high priest on behalf of all those who trust in him. The critical thing to note here is that this same gospel that we have heard was also heard by the people of Israel who came out of Egypt and indeed by the people of Israel who read that story and Psalm 95 through the centuries. The same good news that Christ has died for our sins so that we can be declared not guilty by God and accepted into his eternal heaven that we have heard was also heard by the people of the OT. The unity of the Bible is openly declared here, there is only one gospel and that gospel has been spoken by God from the creation of the world right up to the present moment. Since Psalm 95 is thinking specifically about Israel at Kadesh Barnea we can look and see where this gospel was preached to them. Joshua and Caleb preached the gospel to Israel in Numbers 14:7-9. They said, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and he will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” In the next point we will see the ways that the gospel is present in this promise. But for right now the thing I want you to see is that the promise of entering God’s rest, which for Israel was symbolized by the land of Canaan, was conditioned on their response of faith. That is what Caleb and Joshua are calling for. "God has promised to bring us in and it does not matter who or what stands in our way because God is able to do what he has promised. Don’t be afraid of the people who live in the land but trust God to bring you safely into the land." In other words Joshua and Caleb call the people to believe the promise of God, just as we are called to believe the promise of God spoken to us in the gospel. This is exactly the same language that the author of Hebrews uses in v. 1. It literally says, “Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest yet remains, let us fear (not as the NIV has it, “let us be careful”) lest any one of you be judged to have fallen short of it.” There is a reason the author says we should fear failing to enter that rest. Remember, these Hebrew Christians were faced with persecution because of their faith. They were fearful of the physical, economic and relational harm they were facing because they were Christians. They faced the possibility of real harm due to their faith just like the Israelites faced the possibility of harm at the hands of the Canaanites if they trusted God and went into the land. The same kinds of fears that caused the Israelites to abandon God are facing these Christians and so the author is calling them to fear not gaining God's rest rather than being persecuted. As v. 2 says the Israelites gave in to their fear and did not trust God to do what he promised. They feared the people living in the land rather than the judgment of God. The majority of the Israelites did not believe the promise as did Joshua and Caleb. They heard the promise but did not believe it due to their fear of harm at the hands of the Canaanites. The first time I heard the gospel was in high school. I refused to believe it because I feared that if I trusted in Christ that he would ask me to break up with a girl I was dating. I feared losing her more than I feared not entering God's rest. Simply hearing what God has promised does you no good. You must believe what he has said in order to obtain what is promised. So in v. 3 the author identifies those who enter the rest that God promises as those who have faith in God to do what he promises. We find out right here that faith is being confident that God will do what he has promised and that what God promises is worth whatever dangers and costs I might incur in order to gain what he has promised. The Israelites did not believe that God could take them into the land and they did not think that the risks entailed in entering the land were worth the possession of the land that God promised. They did not believe the land flowing with milk and honey was worth the cost of facing giants. They feared the giants more than they feared the loss of the Promised Land. I have a friend that is afraid of flying. Recently his wife’s company paid for all its employees and their spouses to fly to Cancun, Mexico for a week. My friend was nervous, indeed fearful of the flight right up until he took off. In order for him to get to Mexico he had to believe that the plane would safely take him to Mexico and he had to believe that being in Mexico with his wife for a week was better than keeping both his feet on the ground in Janesville. The only way he could get to Mexico was by faith, trusting in the promise of the airline that the plane would safely take him there and trusting that the risks and trouble involved in flying were nothing compared to being in Mexico . In the same way, only those who believe that Jesus lived and died to bring you safely into God’s rest and that entering God’s rest is worth all the losses and risks involved in being united to Christ will actually enter God’s rest. God swears on oath in his anger, to all who refuse to trust Christ, “You shall never enter my rest.” Before the world began God determined to live with his people in a place of rest and rejoicing forever. Therefore…
II. God’s place of rest is infinitely and eternally valuable (vv. 3b-9) At the end of v. 3 the author sets out to answer this question: what does God mean in Psalm 95:11, as quoted in Hebrews 3:11 & 4:3a, by the phrase “my rest”? What is “God’s rest” and why should I care whether or not I get to enter into it? What value is there in this “rest” that is worth exposing yourself to ridicule and persecution and the loss of many earthly pleasures? What the author is attempting to do is to show us why being a Christian to the end of life is worth it. He seeks to give us a way to answer these kinds of questions: Why should I get out of bed on Sunday morning and go to church rather than relax like the majority of Americans do? Why should I bother fitting family worship into my family’s lifestyle? Why should a single Christian be celibate when the whole culture is declaring that hooking up is fun and normal? Why should a Christian give away a significant portion of his income to support the work of the church in preaching the gospel and caring for the poor? Why should a person risk being shunned and mocked by her family and neighbors and coworkers by identifying herself as a Christian? Why should I not get mad at God and people but cheerfully care for my injured son while continuing to be a pastor? Why should a husband or wife continue forgiving and loving his or her insensitive and mean spouse? Why should I invite the new person at church to my home for dinner? Why would anyone give up the comforts of the U.S. in order to live in a foreign land to preach the gospel to people who are contented Hindus or Buddhists or Moslems? Your whole life can be different if you can grasp the enormity of what is being said in these verses. This passage is summing up the message of the whole Bible. The author is attempting to show the purpose of God in making the universe and to show how the message of the Bible is a unity. The author to the Hebrews, as he ponders the meaning of "God's rest" in Psalm 95 goes all the way back to the beginning of the Bible, to Genesis 1:31-2:3 where we are told that after God finished making the universe that he rested from his work. Two times in Genesis 2:1-3 we are told that God rested from all his work. The verb that is used there is the same as the noun that is translated "rest" in Psalm 95 and throughout this passage in Hebrews. On the seventh day of the creation week God rested from all his work. In v. 5 the author makes the point that the rest that God swore on anger that the disobedient Israelites could not enter is God's rest that is described in Genesis 2. Look at v. 6. The author concludes that when God said that none of the disobedient Israelites would enter the land of Canaan that he wasn't just talking about entering into the land of Canaan. The Israelites who did not trust God were not merely prevented from entering the land of Canaan but were kept from entering into God's eternal place of rest. Also, note that the author recognizes that the offer of entering into God's rest was not limited to just those Israelites living in the desert but has been available since the creation of the world and is still available to all who will believe the promise. He draws this conclusion because of what David says in Psalm 95 which he wrote centuries after the events recorded in Numbers 14. Verse 8 captures the point most clearly. If God's promise to the people of Israel that he would give them the land of Canaan was the sum of God's rest then David would never have written what he wrote in Psalm 95. When David wrote Psalm 95 he was living securely, as was all Israel in the land of Canaan. If God's promised rest was Israel getting to live in the land, then God would never have mentioned any other rest after Joshua takes Israel into the land of Canaan. Verse 9 puts it all together in one giant assertion. "There remains then a Sabbath rest (or celebration) for the people of God." What v. 9 means is that every reference in the OT to the Sabbath or to rest is ultimately referring to the unending seventh day of creation when God rested from his work. Every mention of Israel living in the land of Canaan in security and prosperity is referring to God's eternal Sabbath rest first mentioned in Genesis 2. What this passage tells us is that every believer in the OT knew that God's promises to give them a land and security were not primarily about the land of Canaan. Joshua and Caleb knew that the land of Canaan was not their ultimate destiny. David knew that conquering the enemies of Israel so they could live in peace was not the whole story. Every believer in the OT knew that all the festivals and Sabbaths and years of Jubilee were about God's eternal rest. They knew this because of Genesis 2. Think with me about the conditions of that seventh day recorded for us in Genesis 2. First, there is no end to the seventh day. Every one of the other six days of creation ended with the phrase: "And there was evening and there was morning the sixth day." However, there is no end to the seventh day. It is an eternal day. Second, it is a day in which there is no sin and no curse upon sin. In Genesis 2 the universe is operating exactly as God made it to operate. It is a perfect world in which there is no death or decay because there is no sin. There is no sickness, no futility to work, no fractures in relationships because there is no sin. Third, I want you to note that the seventh day is a day where God lives in perfect fellowship with physical people in a physical world. God's rest is not some super-spiritual disembodied experience but a living with God in a perfect physical universe in perfect physical bodies. God's rest requires, after the fall of Adam and Eve into sin and sin's penalty, which is death, a resurrection and the re-creation of a new heavens and a new earth. Fourth, in Genesis 2 and thus in God's eternal Sabbath rest, God lives in perfect fellowship with perfect people who perfectly do his will and rule over his perfect creation. It is a world of love where God and humans perfectly love each other and where humans perfectly love one another. Fifth, it is a holy place dwelt in by a holy people. In other words it is a place where everything and everyone lives to the glory of God. It is a place where God's name is always treated as holy. Everything that has breath glorifies the Lord as the creator and now redeemer of the universe. No one that does not believe God is the greatest of all beings is permitted into this place of rest. The weekly Sabbath day is given in the OT as an anticipation of that eternal Sabbath rest. On it all the members of the community were to rest from their fruitless, sin-cursed work and to rejoice in God's saving work. Every Sabbath was a day of resting and rejoicing in the Lord. It was a day that anticipated the perfect fellowship of perfect people in a perfect world rejoicing in the perfections of our creator and redeemer. Jesus' frequent confrontations with the religious teachers of his day over their scrupulous adherence to the rules of Sabbath keeping was not a controversy over what kinds of work can be done on the Sabbath day. Rather Jesus, by healing on the Sabbath and by declaring himself to be the Lord of the Sabbath was showing that he and his salvation were the meaning of the Sabbath. In God's eternal Sabbath celebration all sin would be forgiven and all of God's curse on sin would be undone. No more sickness or demonic oppression or hunger, but by his work all would be made holy and all God's people would rest in his finished work and enjoy his Father forever. In v. 9 who are the people who are going to inherit or obtain this eternal Sabbath rest of God? It is the people of God who will one day enter into God's Sabbath rest. What this means is that there is now and has always been just one people of God. There are not two different peoples, Israel and the church. Since the beginning of creation God has been preparing a place of rest for his people and he has been preparing his people for that place of rest. None of the Jewish people whom God brought out of Egypt and who refused to trust God's promise to go into the Promised Land were part of God's people. The only ones we know for sure were part of God's people were Moses, Joshua and Caleb. Today, who are the people of God? That's what the last two verses of this passage tell us. Before the world began God determined to live with his people in a place of rest and rejoicing forever. Therefore…
III. God’s place of rest requires that we make every effort to rest (vv. 10-11) According to v. 10 the people of God are all those who rest from their work and thus enter into God's rest. This is the point of God's promise to Israel that he would bring them into the land of Canaan. They were to recognize in the power of the Canaanite people and in their weakness as former slaves that their only hope was not in trusting themselves but in trusting God to do what they could not do. Possessing the land of Canaan did not depend upon them. This was the message of Joshua and Caleb. We will take over the land because God will fight for us. God will do what we cannot do. The battle belongs to the Lord. We must stand and watch. The way to know that you are a part of God's people is to be a person who no longer depends upon your own ability to create your own salvation but one who has abandoned all self effort and is simply resting in the finished work of Christ. We recognize that we have no ability to save ourselves. God demands perfect obedience to his law 24/7 throughout all of life and this is something that I cannot do because in myself I don't want to do it. I am a slave to sin. In myself, I love to break God's laws and I hate to obey them. I have no ability to do what I hate and therefore my only hope is to rest in the perfect obedience of Jesus and in his perfect death for my flagrant disobedience. God, through Christ has done all the work and I contribute nothing to my salvation. I simply rest in Christ. This is just like my relationship to creation. I did nothing to contribute to the creation of the universe or to my own creation. I simply live in and receive all the benefits of God's creation work. I enter into God's eternal Sabbath rest by resting in Christ's work on my behalf. Verse 11 in one sense almost sounds like a contradiction of what I just said that v. 10 says. In v. 11 we are told to make every effort to enter that rest. If you enter God's rest by resting from your own work how do you make every effort to rest? Isn't that an oxymoron? This same verb "make every effort" is used in a very similar way in 2 Peter 2:10-11 which says, "Therefore, my brothers, make every effort to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." This also sounds like an oxymoron because the terms "calling and election" refer to the work of God in saving his people not on the basis of what we do but on the basis of his own grace given in Jesus Christ. Yet, Peter, like the author to the Hebrews says that we are to make every effort to make our calling and election sure or certain by doing certain things with the result that we will enter into God's eternal kingdom and rest. The solution to the riddle lies in considering what happened back at Kadesh Barnea to Israel, to which the last half of v. 11 points. The Israelites did not enter the land because they did not believe that God could take them into the land. They did not rest in God's promise but instead rested in their own judgment and strength. They determined that life would be better back in Egypt. They trusted in the promise of an abundant life in the land of slavery rather than trusting in God's promise to give them a land flowing with milk and honey. Their lack of faith in God's promise caused them to act in certain ways. They mourned over their present situation. They accused God of hating them and wanting to kill them. They feared the future. They wanted to kill those who were urging them to trust God's promise. They refused to head into the land of Canaan. In other words, certain disobedient actions followed their unbelief, their unwillingness to rest in God's promise. However, in the case of Joshua and Caleb, their faith led them to a different set of actions. They stood in front of the angry mob and pled with them to repent and to believe. Moses and Aaron fell on their faces and interceded for the disobedient people. Ultimately Joshua and Caleb entered the land of Canaan and led the people of God in their conquest. In other words, their faith in the promise of God led to certain actions. Therefore, making every effort to enter that rest is to live like Joshua and Caleb. It is to believe that in spite of the fact that you have never obeyed God, yet God considers you perfectly righteous through Christ and will warmly welcome you into heaven because of Jesus. Then it is to live now as if you were already in heaven; to live as a citizen of the new heavens and the new earth. Joshua and Caleb lived in the desert as if they already possessed the land of Canaan so confident were they of God's ability to do what he promised. If you just think about the circumstances of these Hebrew Christians as they were faced with persecution and thus being tempted to abandon faith in Christ, the implications for them are quite clear. They must stand their ground in the face of the angry mob and declare that it is only through faith in Christ that God's rest can be entered and they would rather die than deny that fact. They must continue to associate with God's people and care for those who are being persecuted because they believe that God will bring them safely into his rest and that his rest is better than a safe life on earth. No one will be saved by their work. Only those who rest from all their work and rest in Christ will be saved. But everyone who rests in Christ, who trusts his promise to save, lives a life of obedience to Christ. It is the nature of faith to produce a certain kind of life. All of our actions flow out of what or who we are trusting in. So if we are resting in the finished work of Christ, confident that one day we will live, resting and rejoicing with God, in the new heavens and the new earth, then now we live as if we really are going there. We don't live as if this world is our home. We are willing to suffer loss and take risks here because we know that the rest of God is infinitely better than any good we can have here and worth every loss we suffer while going to that place of rest. Before the world began God determined to live with his people in a place of rest and rejoicing forever. Therefore…
© Copyright 2007 John Swanson.
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