Note: the following is the manuscript for the message and will not match exactly the recorded message above.
Introduction
We will begin by going backwards once again to the Israelites. We will go all the way back to Egypt, where they have been slaves to Pharaoh for hundreds of years. Slavery is their identity and they know nothing but oppressive and continuous labour. Seven days a week, 365 days a year. No rest.
Now, pay attention to the order of events that happen in the book of Exodus. The Israelites are in captivity in Egypt. God rescues them. He draws them to himself at Mount Sinai. He gives them instructions on how to live as his people. And he moves into a tent in the middle of their camp.
They are saved, delivered, and then instructed.
This is very important. The law was not what saved them. God did. He rescued them from their oppressors. The law was not to rescue them, but to align their behaviour with their salvation so that they could be in relationship with God.
God’s salvation has always been by grace through faith. The Israelites needed to have faith that the blood of the Passover lamb would protect them from the judgment of God that swept through Egypt. Then they had to have faith in God’s provision as they went out into the wilderness with him leading the way.
The purpose of the law was not to save, or to rack up merit points. The purpose was and is relationship. The law describes how have a relationship with a holy God.
He doesn’t just give them the law, he also gives them his very presence in the form of the Tabernacle. He doesn’t require them to make a way to him. He moves into their camp and lives with them. But, because they are impure, they must keep offering sacrifices so that God can continue living with them.
We come to Jesus and we must understand his salvation and his instructions in the same way. God saves us by grace. Jesus is our Passover sacrifice. That is the moment of salvation. The shed blood of the Lamb of God protects us from judgment and death. We are saved because Jesus sacrificed himself. Our obedience and right living are a response to salvation so that we can be in relationship with our Creator, the one in whom all satisfaction is found.
The instructions given to us in the Bible continue to tell us how to have a relationship with God, which is filled in by the life and teaching of Jesus.
The law is still relevant, but we need to consider not only what was given through Moses, but also what Jesus said about how to have a relationship with God.
He interpreted the law to help people understand that we cannot possibly save ourselves through the law, but also so that we understand what God was really after when he gave the law through Moses. God was and still is after our hearts.
And that’s what today’s message is all about. It is titled Jesus Our Sabbath-Rest, because the eternal rest that we are promised can only be experienced when our hearts belong to God.
What is Sabbath-Rest?
It’s important we understand what is really behind this idea of Sabbath-Rest. Because we are not just talking here about one day a week of no work. This is much bigger than a day off.
Hebrews 4:9 is where we see this term Sabbath-Rest. It is the only place in the Bible where we see the Greek word that is translated as Sabbath-Rest. It has in view the festivity and praise of a Sabbath celebration.1
So, it’s not just the idea of taking a break from work. It involves the idea of a special event that celebrates the Sabbath, which includes festivity, joy, and the expression of adoration and praise of God.
For the Jewish people, the weekly Sabbath came on the seventh and final day of the week. After six days of working, they stopped their work and rested, just as God did after the six days of creation.
The early Christians began observing the Sabbath on the first day of the week because that is the day of Christ’s resurrection. It symbolized the dawning of the new creation in Christ.
Both expressions of the Sabbath have in mind something bigger, and more permanent, something eternal. It is about resting in the presence of God. It is a rest that God himself enjoys and desires to share with his creation.
This rest will find its ultimate fulfillment for those who believe when Christ returns. But Hebrews 4:3 has me curious. What does the author mean, “we who have believed enter that rest”? It does not say, “will enter,” as though it is yet to come. It is present tense and active.
Before we get to how we enter God’s rest, let’s look at how we can miss it, both now and in the future.
How to Miss It
There are several statements in our passage that give hints about how we can miss God’s rest:
- “do not harden your hearts”
- “Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.”
- “a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God”
- “none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness”
- “because of their unbelief”
- “they did not share the faith of those who obeyed”
- “following their example of disobedience”
The author uses the Israelite rebellion as a warning. Let’s look at this rebellion in Numbers 14. Leading up to this chapter is the story of the twelve men who went to explore Canaan, the land that God had promised to them.
The men came back and all but two of them advised against trying to conquer the land. They were afraid because the people were of great size.
Numbers 14 begins… [read verses 1-4]
Among the men who explored the land were two men, Joshua and Caleb, who had faith in God and trusted his ability to give them the land. They said to the entire Israelite assembly… [verses 7-9]
But, the people refused to trust God. This is the turning point for the generation of Israelites who were rescued from Egypt but were unable to enter the Promised Land. This is what the author of Hebrews is referring to when he writes, [Heb 3:18-19]
And then the warning follows in 4:1-2. The nation of Israel was rescued, but they fell short of the promise because they did not trust God. The good news of the Promised Land was of no use to them because they did not share in the faith of Caleb and Joshua.
You see, it is not enough to hear about God’s promise. It must be received and take root in our lives. If it doesn’t reorient our entire lives toward God’s promised rest, we have not received it.
The warnings in this passage are mainly about the condition of our hearts. The author quotes Psalm 95 at length, which was read throughout the service. The central idea is simple: do not harden your heart.
What is a hard heart? The author describes it in verse 12 as sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
A person with a hard heart is one that is unwilling to admit they are in need of saving and that God is the only one who can save them. The hard hearts of the Israelites were convinced that they were better off in Egypt.
Their fundamental failure was their refusal to believe that God was actually present among them, directing them. Refusing to acknowledge his presence and voice, they forfeited the possibility of entrance into God’s rest.2
A hard heart will believe, “I can save myself?” or, “Who is this God who claims he can save me?” or, “From what do I need saving anyway?”
A hard heart shows itself when a person is being corrected, redirected, or being shown a new way of thinking about something. It shows up in pride, arrogance, a lack of compassion, or even laziness.
It is an unresponsiveness to God and his Word.
How to Enter It
Now that we have seen how to miss God’s rest, how do we enter it and experience it, both now and in the future?
Once again, we see several statements in this passage that point us in the right direction.
- “encourage one another daily”
- “if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end”
- “we who have believed enter that rest”
- “make every effort to enter that rest”
As I mentioned already, 4:2 says that the message the Israelites heard was of no value to them because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.
The faith of those who obeyed are Caleb and Joshua. They were the only ones from their generation who were permitted to enter the land.
Entering God’s rest is made possible by holding onto God’s promise. His promise is to bring us into his rest. This is a gift and cannot be earned through obedience. But, it also cannot be entered into unless you keep trusting God.
Remember, the Israelites were rescued by God. They did not rescue themselves. That act of salvation was complete, but it was just the beginning. There was more to the promise.
They were not just rescued so they could be free from their oppressors. They were rescued so that they could experience the rest of God. Salvation and rest. That is the promise.
Consider what you are rescued from. Who, or what, holds you captive? Most of us do not have human oppressors. Although, if we did, this would not be what God promises to save us from.
Your sinful nature is what holds you captive. Your rebellious heart is your oppressor. But, as Saint Augustine wrote in his confessions some 1600 years ago, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
This restlessness is a desire to be filled and fulfilled. We all have it. It is meant to point us to our Creator. We are meant to find satisfaction in him. Yet, we so often seek satisfaction elsewhere.
Like the Israelites, we don’t believe that God will give us rest. We think our old master will provide what we need. Take a lesson from Israel. We have the benefit of hindsight. We can hear the story of their rebellion and the insanity of wanting to go back to Egypt.
Are you restless? Are you searching? Do not harden your heart to God’s promise. Trust that he will give you rest. What is this rest? I’ll tell you what it is not. It is not relaxation. It is not entertainment.
It is completeness. God completed creation and then he rested. It is goodness. God said that all things were very good and then he rested. It is fellowship. God made humans in his own image and then he rested.
Our experience of rest will come when we learn that God has completed the work, he has made all things good, and he is inviting us into fellowship. All of this is done through Jesus. God became human. He entered the wilderness. He delivered us from our oppressor and made a way for us to enter God’s rest.
As I said, this is not only a promise for the future, but also for today. So, how do we rest? I will suggest two practices. They come from Hebrews 3:13 and 4:12. Encourage one another daily and allow God’s word to penetrate your heart.
It is not enough to come together once a week on Sunday. We need daily encouragement from one another and we need a daily dose of God’s truth.
We can call, text, or visit one another. There is nothing wrong with using the technology we have in order to do this.
The main thing is that we hold fast to our conviction that all God’s promises are fulfilled in Jesus Christ, which includes the promise of the rest our hearts long for.
What does it mean to allow God’s word to penetrate your heart? First, what is God’s word? The author of Hebrews did not have the New Testament when he wrote this. And the Hebrew Scriptures he would have had at the time were different than what we have.
The way that the New Testament referred to God’s word meant more, but not less, than what we refer to as the Old Testament. They also meant the message that Jesus proclaimed—that God’s kingdom was coming and is in fact already here because of the incarnation of God in Jesus.
God’s word is the entire message of the Bible. It is not just the read of the Bible that will penetrate your heart. It is the hearing of God’s truth, the preaching of his word, conversations about the Bible, and prayers that align with what we see in Scripture.
Anything spoken that is in alignment with the Bible is God’s word. Hebrews 4:12 says that God’s word divides the soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
God’s word brings our subconscious motives to light and exposes the rebellious tendencies to go back to our oppressor. Holding on to God’s promises, his truth, will keep our hearts from hardening. It will keep us headed toward the promised land, God’s eternal rest.
1 William L. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, vol. 47A, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1991).
2 William L. Lane, Hebrews 1–8, vol. 47A, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1991), 90.
Hebrews Series Bibliography
Allen, David L. Hebrews. The New American Commentary. Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing Group, 2010.
Bruce, F. F. The Epistle to the Hebrews. Rev. ed. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990.
Guthrie, George. Hebrews. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1998.
Lane, William L. Hebrews 1-8, vol. 47A, Word Biblical Commentary. Dallas: Word, Inc., 1991.
New International Version Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016.
Wright, Tom. Hebrews for Everyone. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2004.