I. Introduction
A. We are almost at the end of handling a long passage (Heb.3:7–4:13) piece by piece.
B. This whole passage is applying a lesson from the story of the Israelites in the wilderness.
1. God had delivered the Israelites from Egypt through Moses. After two years they’d finally made it to the doorstep of Canaan, the land promised to Abraham and his descendants.
2. The Israelites were expecting a land flowing with milk and honey. But when they sent 12 spies in, ten of the spies reported that the land was flowing with giants and strongly fortified cities! ‘We can’t attack those people! They are stronger than we are! These people will eat us for breakfast! We look like grasshoppers next to them!’ (Numbers 13:31–33)
3. Moses, along with the other two spies, Joshua and Caleb, tried to assure the people that God was with them and would give them the land (Num.14:8-9). But “That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud: ‘If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness! Why is the LORD bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? Wouldn’t it be better for us to go back to Egypt? We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt.’ ” (Num.14:1-4)
4. And then came the devastating news. God made another promise, this time a negative one. “I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’ ” (Ps.95:11; Hebrews 3:11) They would not be allowed to enter the promised land after all. They were subjected to wandering in the wilderness until they all died.
5. And from this story the author of Hebrews draws an important lesson for these Hebrews who had come faith in Christ but were now wavering: “Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.” (Heb. 4:11)
C. Rest
1. Like v.11 above, last week our passage focused primarily on the negative consequences of unbelief, the horrific scene of human carcasses scattered in the wilderness being used to urge his vacillating readers to fear abandoning Christ and instead be zealous to stick with Him and put their hope in Him, lest they similarly perish.
2. But our author’s approach is not a negative one. He goes back and forth between the carrot and the stick, between warning them of the disastrous consequences of losing their faith and encouraging them with the glorious result of fixing one’s faith in Christ.
3. In fact, that’s exactly what he does in today’s passage. He reflects more deeply on this rest into which we enter when we put our trust in God, and says some very precious and profound things about that rest.
4. So, today we reflect on rest. The word “rest” is used nine times in these 11 verses.
II. Truths about rest which we find in Hebrews 4:3–11:
A. There is a rest remaining.
1. In many ways, this is THE great question our society is dealing with: Is there a rest?
2. Many movie makers today have given up on the idea that there is real rest. You can see it in their movies: This aimless, purposeless wandering through life is all there is.
3. My wife and I just saw the movie “Boyhood,” which depicts the life of a boy growing up. All through it the boy is wondering what life is all this about. And it’s pretty clear that the movie has no answer for that question. It seems that in this view life is all about wondering what life is all about.
4. Many of the younger generation laugh at my generation for our Disney view of life, where every story has a happy ending. And there’s plenty that deserves to be laughed at, to be sure.
5. But at least my generation held on to the idea that in the end, there is victory, there is happy-ever-after. In the end everything will make sense. Everything does happen for a reason.
6. But today it is more and more popular to think that there is no real rest, there is no real home, there is no real reason for everything.
7. Is there a rest? This passage answers that question. Verse 6 tells us that rest still remains, and that some will indeed find it, some will enter it.
a. This is wonderful news. How privileged are those who find it.
b. And how sad it is that some will not.
B. It is those who put their faith in Christ who enter into God’s rest.
1. This passage answers the question of whether or not there is a rest, but it doesn’t necessary answer it the way we’d like. It tells us that there is a rest, but it tells us that this rest is only for the people of God:
a. Heb.4:3 “Now we who have believed enter that rest.”
b. Heb.4:9 “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God.”
2. Why is it that those who believe receive the rest God provides?
a. Trust produces rest, because you cast your burden on another. (Analogy: kids are fine in a car pulled over onto the side of a busy road, as long as their parents are there, but what if the parents are taken out of the picture?)
b. Trust produces rest, because your desires are satisfied. The trusting heart looks to God as the object of desire and rests in having the object of desire. “Trust in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” (This passage is commonly misunderstood to mean that if you trust in the Lord He will give you everything you want. Really it means that if you trust in the Lord you will have what you want because the Lord will be what you want.)
(1) Think about the parables of the treasure in the field and of the pearl of great price. In both those parables we see someone getting his heart’s desire. The person is not worried about the price he had to pay, he is enthralled about the treasure he now possesses.
c. “Trust brings rest; rest from the gnawing of conscience, rest from the suspicion of evil consequences resulting from contact with the infinite divine righteousness, rest from all the burden of guilt, which is none the less heavy because the man appears to be unconscious of it. It is there all the same. ‘We which have believed do enter into rest,’ because our trust brings about the restoration of the true relation to God and the forgiveness of our sins.” (MacLaren)
C. The rest here is not merely a future rest, but a present one.
1. The rest we are exhorted to be sure not to miss is not just heaven after we die. It is a rest we experience here and now in our day-to-day lives.
2. There are two aspects of this remaining rest. One is its final fulfillment: the eternal promised land. But meanwhile there is a Sabbath rest we can enjoy right now, by faith, entering into the rest of the Lord: v.3 “We who have believed enter that rest.”
3. As we’ll see in a minute from v.3-4&10, in referring to His rest, God doesn't mean something merely future, but something which has existed since the completion of His creating work.
D. God’s rest isn’t just something He bestows, but something He experiences.
1. In other words, God was inviting the Israelites into the rest He already enjoyed.
2. In v.3-4, 10 the author links the promised rest for believers with the rest God enjoyed after creating the world.
3. This leads us to rethink what is meant by rest.
4. The point seems to be this: there is a rest God dwells in, a peace known only to Him and to those to whom He gives it.
5. Rest was not something God was going to create for the Israelites when they entered into Canaan. Rather, true rest already existed — in God — and they were to be welcomed into it.
6. It is important for us to understand that God is supremely happy. And afterr He created the world, He rejooiced in what He had made.
a. Why is God’s rest after creation such a big deal? Because God sees the end from the beginning. He created and saw in the creation its destiny, its result, its finale.
b. God’s rest included His glorying and rejoicing in how things would turn out.
c. All of the happiness we will have when we see the glorious, triumphant conclusion to the story, God had from the moment He created everything.
7. This reminds me of what Tim Keller says in his book, King's Cross: that at the center of redemption is a Trinitarian God living in a dance of perfect happiness between the members of the Trinity, and who invites us into His dance. Here He is inviting us into His rest.
8. All of Scripture is based on rest imagery.
a. Adam & Eve were at home in Eden.
b. Then toil was introduced in the curse. Then they were expelled, driven from their home, their true home, and forced to wander in the wilderness. And mankind has been wandering in the wilderness ever since.
c. Rest is not the opposite of work, but the opposite of restless.
d. The Israelites reenacted the fall and expulsion of Adam and Eve: sent out into the wilderness to eventually come back in another way.
e. Just like the Israelite generation which was barred from the promised land for their unbelief, mankind failed to take hold of God’s rest in Eden and has been on a circuitous route to find it, a route which, in a sense, had to be taken in order to learn lessons.
9. This is why mankind is so restless. This is why we are unhappy with who we are.
10. The reason the Israelite generation didn’t find the rest of the promised land is because they never found rest in the wilderness. The fact is that Rest was with them all along and they didn’t see Him.
11. The sin of Israel was not a failure of works but a failure of faith.
a. Their sin was in thinking they had to enter Canaan by their own power. Their sin was in thinking that it was on them — like the disciples in the boat during the storm.
12. We long for the rest from toil, the rest from dangers, the rest from suffering, the rest from conflicts, the rest from disappointments.
13. But the fact is that we can have rest in the midst of all these things.
14. Jesus: Come to me and I will give you rest.
15. He doesn’t remove toil or danger or suffering or disappointment. But He gives us Himself, and the assurance that none of these will separate us from resting in His love, and that in all these things we will be super-conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:35–37)
E. This rest for believers involves resting from their work.
1. V.10 says “for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.”
2. Resting from works: What does that mean? Well, when God rested from His work of creation, it was a rest of delighting in what He had made, a rest of being satisfied with what He had done.
a. Rest in this verse is not a ceasing from activity but a satisfaction in results.
b. This was the nature of God’s rest in creation: “It was very good.”
3. Similarly, our rest is also found in being fully satisfied and pleased with the work that God has done. We have rest because we are satisfied with the results of Christ’s work.
4. This is very significant. Because of what Christ has done, our sins are forgiven, our deepest needs are met, our safety is insured. God has not withheld any good thing from those who seek Him. And because of these things, we rest in what God has done.
5. This rest is closely associated with the abandonment of hope in one's own labors as bringing salvation, and complete reliance upon the work of the One who is our substitute.
6. God’s rest is for those who fall down and say, "I cannot do it. I cannot save myself. If I am going to be saved, it is going to be by His grace, not by deserving it."
7. “Anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works” refers to resting from our works as a means of salvation, because we wholly lean on the works of Christ.
8. Until you rest from your works and rest in the works of Christ, you are not saved.
9. There is nothing wrong with work, of course. The problem is when work is self-justifying (working in order to get a feeling that you’re alright, or proving to others that you’re worthy, or making yourself worthy to God). And the rest the author is talking about here is the rest from self-justification, the rest from carrying the burden of our own salvation, the rest from self-righteous labors that we think will justify us before God.
10. Entering the rest of God means repenting of our damnable good works.
a. Even pharisees repent of their evil works. But they still look down on others. They still are critical of others in order to feel better about themselves.
b. Resting from our works means giving up on our ability to justify ourselves.
11. We who live in Christ live in God's Sabbath rest. We haven’t entered the promised land, but the one who’s presence is paradise is walking with us.
12. One man is weary even when he’s resting. The other is resting even when he’s working. Because the giver of rest is right there beside him.
13. Looking for the missing element in your life? Looking for the missing element in Christianity? The fact, is, if you have Christ, you have everything! And anyone who tells you that you need something else to be happy is lying to you. Even if you can’t find anything on the earth to find joy in, you can “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” – Matthew 11:28–30