Sermon Tone Analysis

BOOK OF HEBREWS: HEBREWS 4:1-16

HOLDING FAST TO OUR CONFESSION

If I have never told you before, I hope you know what a privilege I count it to stand before you as your pastor.

It is such an immense weight of responsibility to stand before you and explain the word of God, but I hope you know I wouldn’t change it for the world.

I praise God every day that He has placed me right here behind this pulpit.

I love this church, and I love all of you that are a part of this church.

I also love the book of Hebrews.

Last week, the author of Hebrews showed us the scary possibility of leaving the faith, but he mixed in several words of comfort to us.

We saw how it is possible to leave the faith, but we also saw how Christ has made us into the house of God, and how He has no intentions of letting us go.

We also saw how He has given us each other to help us stay strong in the faith.

In this morning’s chapter, the writer of Hebrews gives us three great reasons why we should always stay strong in the faith.

But before we look at Hebrews chapter four, let’s quickly think about why not to stay strong in the faith.

In the year 2011, being a Christian is not a very popular stance to take.

And when I say being a Christian, I am not talking about the broad umbrella of beliefs that many people call “Christendom.”

No, I am talking about people that believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation, and all other roads lead to an eternity in hell.

In a society where the catchphrase is “tolerance,” holding fast to the claims of the Bible is considered extremely “intolerant.”

Following Christ can lead your friends and family to avoid hanging around you, because they know that you are going to take a stand against the sins that they so enjoy.

Most employers aren’t interested in hiring someone who isn’t willing to sacrifice every Sunday morning for the greater corporate good.

From a strictly worldly point of view, becoming a Christian may be one of the worst social, fiscal, and political decisions a person can make.

And yet, I firmly believe that the vast majority of you in this room have decided to follow Christ.

You knew that not everybody was going to be happy with your decision.

You knew that there is a devil that would do everything in his power to destroy you, and yet you still chose Christ.

The question is, “Why did you choose Christ?”

Well, while I hope you can think of many answers to that question, the writer of Hebrews gives us three great reasons in Hebrews chapter four, which is where I ask you to now turn in your Bibles.

Again, Hebrews chapter four, and I’ll be reading all sixteen verses.

“Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

For we which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, ‘As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest:’ although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

For He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, ‘And God did rest the seventh day from all His works.’

And in this place again, ‘If they shall enter into my rest.’

Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: again, He limiteth a certain day, saying in David, ‘Today’, after so long a time; as it is said, ‘Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.’

For if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day.

There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

For he that entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His.

Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.

Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

Let’s pray together.

The title of this morning’s sermon is “Holding Fast to Our Confession.”

As we look through Hebrews chapter four, we are going to see three distinct reasons why it is always worth it to follow Christ, even in the hard times.

First, we are going to see that it is worth it to follow Christ because He has promised us a future rest.

Second, it is worth it to follow Christ because God knows our hearts and everything that is in them.

And third, it is worth it to follow Christ because He is acting as our High Priest in Heaven.

Sound good?

Let’s begin.

Reason #1: Jesus has promised us a future rest

Out of this chapter of sixteen verses, this first point actually covers all of verses one through eleven.

Because I just got done reading these verses, I’m not going to read them again in their entirety, but I trust that you have your Bibles open so that you can see what I’m talking about.

While we’re not going to read each individual verse again, I do want to read verse one again.

“Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.”

Remember, the theme of Hebrews chapter three was the theme of leaving the faith through unbelief.

And also remember, that chapter headings were added in by men more than 1,000 years after the Bible was finished being written.

So while we have a nice big number “four” right next to verse one, the original audience of Hebrews needed some written cues to see that the writer was switching topics.

That’s what we have here in verse one.

In chapter three, the writer was talking about what happens to people who leave the faith.

But in verse one of chapter four, he transitions into talking about the rewards of the people who do stay true to the faith.

In verse one, he says that the reward for us is the promise of entering into His rest.

The writer continues this great theme of rest by talking about how God rested.

The writer reminds us that even God rested after He created the universe.

And after he talks about how God rested, he talks about how we have a promised rest that will one day come.

One thing we have to remember about this book of Hebrews is that it was written originally to the Jewish people.

There were many Jewish people in the first century that were hyper-rationalistic.

In other words, if they couldn’t see something with their own eyes, or smell it with their own noses, they tended to not believe in it.

For this group of people, called the Sadducees, eternity was a pretty controversial subject.

For many of these Sadducees, life was all about the here and the now, because they didn’t really think that there was anything after this life.

So for people that believed like this, whenever the Bible promises the people of God rest, they most likely would have interpreted this to mean that God has already given them rest by putting them in the Promised Land.

They could see the Promised Land with their own eyes, and they could smell the Promised Land with their own noses.

Heaven, on the other hand, isn’t so easy to detect with the five senses.

This is the kind of notion that the writer of Hebrews addresses in verses seven and eight.

Look at what these two verses say.

“Again, He limiteth a certain day, saying in David, ‘Today’, after so long a time; as it is said, ‘Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.’

For if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day.”

I realize that sometimes the writer of Hebrews says some hard-to-understand things, but in these two verses I believe he is speaking out against the kinds of people who think that there is no sort of afterlife.

Here is the basic argument he was making: the writer is quoting from the same psalm that he was quoting from last week, which is Psalm 95.

In this psalm, David is reminding the children of Israel to stay true to God, so that they could enter into God’s eternal rest.

David reminds the children of Israel what happened to their ancestors when they rebelled against God in the wilderness.

That entire generation died because of their unbelief.

The writer of Hebrews is saying that there must be more to life than just arriving in the Promised Land.

Because if there wasn’t, then David never would have written Psalm 95, because the people were already enjoying all of the spiritual benefits they were ever going to.

In other words, there is the promise of a future rest for you and me.

Isn’t that nice to know?

Look at what the text says in verse nine.

“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.”

In the Greek language, there is more than one word that we translate “rest.”

Most of the time, the word for “rest” is similar to us taking a nap on Sunday afternoon.

I mean, it’s nice and all, but pretty soon that alarm clock is going to start buzzing.

But in verse nine, it is a very different word for “rest.”

This word is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word “Sabbath.”

Another way to say this verse then is that there remains a Sabbath for the people of God.

And you know as well as I do that the Sabbath was one day a week when the Jewish people relaxed all day and thought about God.

They did zero work.

The wives didn’t do laundry or cook supper, and the men didn’t do their farm labor or anything like that.

The whole land took the day off.

But is that what the writer means for our future?

So then, is the writer saying, “Buck up, guys, because one day, in a couple of years, God is going to give you a whole day off!”

Not at all!

The writer is saying that one day, we are going to enjoy an eternal Sabbath.