Hebrews Study - The Believer's Rest
Notes
Transcript
Review:
Building the house:
4 For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.
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The work of building the house is
Entirely of God’s grace. There is no boasting to be found in our fruitfulness.
The builder of all things is God
The work is fundamentally characterized by faith. Those who stumbled in the wilderness are characterized as evil and unbelieving.
We do have a role to play in this work. That’s the heart of the warning. We are called to perseverance in faith, in believing, in assurance.
There are times when we stumble.
There are times when we wander.
There are times when we sin even grievously, but in the end
5. The building of the house is God’s work evident in our perseverance through faith and works.
1 Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5 and again in this passage, “They shall not enter My rest.” 6 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. 9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. 11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.
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vs. 1-2
1 Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it. 2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.
What can we say about the character of Israel from this verse?
The writer of Hebrews is making a comparison between the church and Israel,
How are we similar?
How are we different?
In light of our differences, how should we receive this warning? Do we have reason to fear?
Hearer => Believer => Doer
Israel: The covenant people of God are identified as the hearers/ receivers of promises. Not all of them are necessarily believers.
The Church: The New covenant people of God are identified by hearing and believing.
16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.
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Two pathways.
If there is fear the solution is faith.
Others us fear to produce works.
3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just as He has said, “As I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter My rest,” although His works were finished from the foundation of the world.
10 “For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways. 11 “Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.”
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Why wouldn’t Israel enter God’s rest? They were given the law. The law provides for a Sabbath doesn’t it?
How is it then that the rest God intended for His creation is actually given to us?
Faith! Belief. “we who have believed enter that rest.”
4 For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5 and again in this passage, “They shall not enter My rest.” 6 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”
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Trick question: Which day is the Sabbath day?
The seventh day?
The day we believe in the good news.
In what ways might we try to rest, but not actually rest?
In what ways might we rest like Israel, but not necessarily like a Christian?
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. 9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
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What’s the writer trying to tell the church?
There’s something lacking in the Sabbath given to Israel. There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Where is that found? In Christ! Don’t revert back to the law and forget Christ because you revert back to something that did not ultimately provide you the rest we were intended to have.
Let’s come back to our distinctions questions.
How is Israel different than the church?
Israel was given the law, given the Sabbath, but there remained a rest for the people of God.
The church today, the people of God, we know that rest. We are characterized by belief and faith and thus have received that true, eternal rest in the gospel.
How does the world recognize the church? Which rest do they see first?
9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. 11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.
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What are the implications of this rest for the church?
What does it mean that we have rested from our works?
Christ has fulfilled the law. Christ has satisfied the demands of the law in accomplishing righteousness and salvation. This is the object of our faith and because the work is finished we can rest.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
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The creation work is done. Righteousness has been accomplished, but do we cease from good works?
Hearer, believer, doer.
11 And He said to them, “What man is there among you who has a sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 “How much more valuable then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
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The rest provided in the law doesn’t prevent someone from doing good to his neighbor.
The rest provided in Christ doesn’t inhibit us from doing good works for our neighbor.
The writer of Hebrews though recognizes what is of first important.
11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.
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“Be diligent to believe!” Make sure there is faith in Christ leading to real rest else we are no different than Israel who fell short of that rest.
