A Thought About Rest
Notes
Transcript
Enter Into Rest
Enter Into Rest
1 So we are bound to worry that some of you might seem to have missed out on God’s promise of entering his rest, the promise which is still open before us. 2 For we certainly had the good news announced to us, just as they did; but the word which they heard didn’t do them any good, because they were not united in faith with those who heard it. 3 For it is we who believe who enter into the rest; as it has been said,
As I swore in my anger,
they will never enter my rest
—even though God’s works had been complete since the foundation of the world. 4 For it says this somewhere about the seventh day,
And God rested on the seventh day from all his works,
5 and again, in the present passage,
They will never enter my rest.
6 Therefore, since some failed to enter into it, and those who received the good news earlier on didn’t enter because of unbelief, 7 he once again appoints a day, ‘Today’, saying through David—after such a long interval of time!—in the words already quoted,
Today, if you hear his voice,
don’t harden your hearts.
8 If Joshua had given them rest, you see, he wouldn’t be speaking about another subsequent ‘rest’. 9 Thus we conclude: there is still a future sabbath ‘rest’ for God’s people. 10 Anyone who enters that ‘rest’ will take a rest from their works, as God did from his.
What is this passage talking about?
What is the unbelief that prevented from people from entering into “rest”
What is it that we are to believe in order to enter into God’s “rest?”
1 So, then, we must pay all the closer attention to what we heard, in case we drift away from it. 2 You see, if the word which was spoken through angels was reliable, with appropriate and just punishment every time anyone broke it or disobeyed it, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore a rescue as great as this? It started by being declared through the Lord, and it was confirmed to us by those who heard him; 4 and God bore witness as well, along with them, in signs and wonders and many different types of powerful deeds, and by the holy spirit, distributed in accordance with his will.
5 You see, God didn’t place the world to come (which is what I’m writing about) under the control of angels. 6 Someone has spoken of it somewhere in these terms:
What are humans, that you should remember them?
What is the son of man, that you should take thought for him?
7 You made him a little lower than the angels,
you crowned him with glory and honour,
8 and you placed everything under his feet.
When it speaks of everything being subjected to him, it leaves nothing that is not subjected to him. As things are at present, we don’t see everything subjected to him. 9 What we do see is the one who was, for a little while, made lower than the angels—that is, Jesus—crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by God’s grace he might taste death on behalf of everyone.
10 This is how it works out. Everything exists for the sake of God and because of him; and it was appropriate that, in bringing many children to glory, he should make perfect, through suffering, the one who leads the way to salvation. 11 For the one who makes others holy, and the ones who are made holy, all belong to a single family.
This is why he isn’t ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters, 12 when he says,
I will announce your name to my brothers and sisters;
I will sing your praise in the middle of the assembly,
13 and again,
I will place my trust in him,
and again,
Look, here I am, with the children God has given me.
14 Since the children share in blood and flesh, he too shared in them, in just the same way, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and set free the people who all their lives long were under the power of slavery because of the fear of death. 16 It’s obvious, you see, that he isn’t taking special thought for angels; he’s taking special thought for Abraham’s family. 17 That’s why he had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way, so that he might become a merciful and trustworthy high priest in God’s presence, to make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 He himself has suffered, you see, through being put to the test, and that’s why he is able to help those who are being tested right now.
The exalted Jesus who is equal to God became a human. The scriptures declared that God has been mindful of humans despite us being made lower than the angels and has placed everything under our feet.
The problem is that we don’t see this yet. But what we do see is Jesus being crowned with glory and honour as a result of.... suffering?
Why? Because he tasted death on behalf of everyone.
What’s does that mean?
When he became us, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, everything that He achieved, we have now achieved.
“The one who makes others holy, and the ones who are made holy, all belong to a single family.”
If He was tested,
we are tested.
If He suffered,
we too will suffer.
If He died,
we too will die.
If resurrected,
we too will gain new life.
The audience of this sermon were in danger of slipping away or denying the new “Way” of Jesus and His movement and were tempted to conform back to old rituals, not so much for the sake of salvation, but for the sake of escapting the test/persecution and having it easier.
The “Way” of Jesus is a remarkable phenomena.
On the one hand it provides a better a way of BEING.
It provides wholeness and completeness; it makes the individual and anyone in his circle of influence flourish.
But on the other hand it can so quickly attract challenges, negative attention, resistance, jealousy, hatred, oppression.
But the one who can recieve the achievement of what Jesus has accomplished is the one who places their “trust in Him.”
1 Well then, my brothers and sisters: you are God’s holy ones, and you share the call from heaven. So think carefully about Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession of faith. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. 3 He deserves much more glory than Moses, you see, just as the one who builds a house deserves more glory than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but the one who builds all things is God. 5 And ‘Moses was faithful, as a servant, in all his house’, thereby bearing witness to the things that were yet to be spoken of; 6 but the Messiah is over God’s house as a son. What is that house? It’s us—those of us who hold on tightly to the free delight and confidence of our hope.
7 So listen to what the holy spirit says:
Today, if you hear his voice,
8 don’t harden hearts, as in the great bitterness,
like the day in the desert when they faced the test,
9 when your fathers put me to the test, and challenged me,
and saw my works 10 for forty years.
And so I was angry with that generation,
and said, ‘They are always straying in their hearts,
they do not know my ways.’ 11 As I swore
in my anger, ‘They’ll never enter my rest.’
12 Take care, my dear family, that none of you should possess an evil and unbelieving heart, leading you to withdraw from the living God. 13 But encourage one another every day, as long as it’s called ‘Today’, so that none of you may become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
14 We share the life of the Messiah, you see, only if we keep a firm, tight grip on our original confidence, right through to the end. 15 That’s what it means when it says, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, don’t make your hearts hard, as in the great bitterness.’
16 Who was it, after all, who heard and then became bitter? It was all those who went out of Egypt under Moses, wasn’t it? 17 And who was it that God was angry with for forty years? It was those who sinned, wasn’t it—those whose bodies fell in the desert? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest? Wasn’t it the people who didn’t believe? 19 So we can see that it was their unbelief that prevented them from entering.
What is the “evil and unbelieving heart?”
Israel see God perform mighty acts in Egypt and deliver them and promise to take them to a land where they will be able to rest.
But on the journey, they’re tested. They have no food at times. No water at other times.
But the test that this passage is referring to is when they’re Kadesh and they rebel because of the report provided by 10 of the 12 spies who spied the land they were to “rest” in.
This is the “evil and unbelieving heart”.
It was a heart that said that God is not able to get me into that land.
It’s impossible for Him to keep His promise.
He won’t do what He has said He will do.
32 But remember the earlier times! When you were first enlightened, you went through great struggles and suffering. 33 Sometimes you were exposed to public reproach and physical abuse. Sometimes you stood alongside people who were being treated in that way. 34 You even shared the sufferings of those who were imprisoned. When people looted your property, you actually welcomed it joyfully, because you knew that you had a better possession, a lasting one.
35 So don’t throw away your confidence. It carries a great reward. 36 What you need is patience, you see; then, when you’ve done what God wants, you will receive the promise.
37 For in just a little while from now,
the Coming One will come, and won’t delay;
38 but my righteous one will live by faith;
and if he hesitates, my soul will not delight in him.
39 We are not among the hesitators, who are destroyed! We are people of faith, and our lives will be kept safe.
6 And without faith it’s impossible to please God; for those who come to worship God must believe that he really does exist, and that he rewards those who seek him.