Let Us Rest

Welcome

Good morning once again everyone. Today we are going to start a short three week series that will take us up to Advent. (Can you believe that? Advent is right around the corner.) I had been thinking about what we should cover these three weeks because it is kind of a weird time, not really long enough to get into another book of the Bible but not short enough to just do a bunch of stand alone sermons. And I came across an article that pointed out something interesting about Hebrews 4. A lot of my sermons end in the same way. We look at the text and figure out what we should be doing, what we need to be doing. It’s a lot of “you need to do this, we need to do this.” And that is fine and good, but Hebrews 4 phrases it a different way. Within Hebrews 4 we find three “Let us” statements. So instead of viewing it as, “Hey, you need to do this.” We can look at this passage as things that we have the privilege of doing as followers of Jesus. Think of it in terms of a conversation you have with someone. When someone says, “Hey, you need to go to town and run errands.” it feels quite a bit different than if that same person said, “Hey, let’s run into town and run errands.” That is why I thought it would be good for us to look at these three “let us” statements as a church. These are things that we get to do, we get to participate in, because of our relationship with Jesus. So the author of Hebrews is encouraging us and saying “Hey! These are things that you get to do!”

Over the next three weeks, starting today, we are going to look at these three “Let us” statements from Hebrews 4. 1) Let us enter into God’s rest. 2) Let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. and 3) Let us approach God’s throne with confidence. Like usual though, let’s go to God in prayer before we dive into our scripture passage.

Prayer

Engage

As we begin this morning, I want to start off with a question. You don’t have to answer it, but think about it. When is your next free day? When is the next day on your calendar that you don’t have something planned or something that you have to do? It is absolutely crazy at times how quickly our schedules fill up, isn’t it? At the start of the week you think you might have quite a few free evenings, but by the end of the week as you look back you wonder what happened to all of them. Things comes up, problems, events, and our time for rest is quickly taken away from us. Some of that is unavoidable, but at other times we feel like we just have to be doing something. If you have felt this way, you are not alone. In our culture in the US we value work and staying busy so much that it has started to affect how we look at rest. There was a study done a few years ago that found out 55% of Americans didn’t use all of their paid time off at work. And a separate study found that 36% of Americans don’t get enough sleep at night.

There are a lot of reasons that contribute to those statistics, but I don’t think its a bold comment that we seem to have a hard time taking time off, finding times of rest for ourselves. On the weekend or vacations you are still checking and responding to your email. Taking phone calls, sending texts, or even just thinking about work.

Tension

There isn’t just one kind of rest though. We have all had moments of rest where we don’t do anything, but we don’t actually feel rested after that. But in Hebrews 4 we are told that there is a special kind of rest that we can enter into because of our relationship with God. So let’s turn to Hebrews 4 and find out about it.

Bible

Hebrews 4:1–13 NIV

1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. 3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ” And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. 4 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.” 5 And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.” 6 Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, 7 God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Israelites and Rest

The first half of the passage talks about Israelites coming out of Egypt and how they were supposed to have rest, but were unable to enter into it because of their unbelief. The Israelites had been told by God to enter into the land of Canaan where they would experience rest, but instead of believing God they disobeyed and spent the years wandering the desert, never entering into that special rest. This is the wilderness generation of Israel. The group that went with Moses out of Egypt, the group who saw God do amazing, miraculous things. God had told them to enter into the promised land and they would experience his rest, but their unbelief ended up costing them. Instead of experiencing the special rest of God, they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years.

Now, God isn’t calling us to a special promised land to find rest in today, but he does offer us a special sabbath rest through Christ. Just like the Wilderness generation, we have decisions to make. We can trust Christ and enter into the rest that he offers, or we can neglect it. So why should we rest? When there are things to do, work that needs done, why should we take time and rest? What are the benefits of this special rest? There are two huge benefits from entering into the rest that God offers.

Let Us Enter God’s Rest

Eternal Rest

The first benefit of entering God’s rest is eternal. It’s an eternal rest that we get to receive. When we put our faith and our lives in the hands of Jesus, we are promised that after this earthly life, after this wilderness stage of our own, we are going to have an eternal rest with God. This eternal rest means that we will rest from sorrow, from sickness, from loss, we will have this eternal rest from sin. Verse 8 once again mentions that wilderness generation and how Joshua didn’t give them ultimate rest. Even though Joshua was the one who led the Israelites into the promised land, the promised land was never the final answer. This was a place where they would build houses, settle in, and eventually build the temple, but it was never the final destination. It was a picture, a glimpse, into what a future heavenly type of rest would look like with God. This wouldn’t have been a surprise to the early church, nor should this be a surprise to us. Later on in Hebrews, in chapter 11, we are told that the people of faith weren’t looking forward to an earthly country or an earthly city to be the final answer. Instead, they were looking forward to a heavenly city. This city that would provide them with the ultimate rest. They would be able to participate in the same kind of rest that God experienced after creation. This is the ultimate picture of what perfect Sabbath rest looks like. A rest where we join in with God to do what we were created and designed to do, that is to worship God in perfect fellowship for all of eternity. But where Joshua failed, Jesus succeeded. Jesus is the one who grants us this eternal rest that we desperately crave.

There are times in life when this eternal rest is what gives us the hope that we need. There can be times in life where it just feels like life is suffering. You’re suffering in some way or another whether it’s a physical problem, battling depression, whatever hardship you are facing. The hope that we have is that even if your life is full of suffering, that isn’t what eternity is going to look like if you believe in Jesus. Because of Jesus you know that you have a perfect rest coming. A very simplistic way of thinking of this is how we often schedule times of vacation. A lot of times you schedule your vacation time, your time of rest after the busiest most stressful parts of your year. And because you know that period of rest is coming, because you know at the end of the week you’re going to be sitting on a beach somewhere or doing something you love, you can make it through that busy, stressful time. Our eternal rest can do that same thing. Even though we suffer, even though life may not be great, we know that we have a perfect eternity of rest with God waiting for us.

Temporary Rest

Now I know that is not always the greatest encouragement in the world. You’re suffering, just think about what is waiting for you. But, there is a different level to this. God does bring to us a special kind of rest for us while on earth. We can enter into that rest if we choose to. Our culture doesn’t exactly value rest at the moment. It values work. And so many of us, we just work and work and work some more. A day off? What’s that? But the truth of the matter is, is that God values rest. I want to say that one more time because it’s important. GOD VALUES REST. You know how we know that? Because in creation God worked six days and on the seventh, what did God do? Did he work on that list of things he had been meaning to get done? He rested. Did God have to rest here? Was he so exhausted from creation that he just needed a break? I don’t think if God is all powerful he would need to take a break to catch his breath. And so the question we have to ask ourselves is, “Why did God rest?” If he didn’t need to, then what was the point of it? God was demonstrating to us that he values rest. One of the ten commandments that we don’t spend a lot of time talking about is the command to observe the sabbath and keep it holy. This is a day set apart for God. In this day, we model exactly what we see God do in creation. We rest from our work and we recognize that rest as a holy act before God.

So often we think we have to be doing things for God, but a day of rest for God is also pleasing to him. Now, there’s a whole lot of debate on what should a sabbath day look like, in fact the Jewish people made up all kinds of rules to prevent them from doing any kind of work on the sabbath. But I think if you reach the point where you have to remember a few dozen rules about the sabbath, about your day of rest, chances are you aren’t approaching it with the correct mindset. I think one of the best ways to see if you are practicing the sabbath is to ask yourself, “Does your body need rest?” “Does your mind need a break?” “Does your soul need a period of rest?” Chances are that if you haven’t been keeping the sabbath, if you haven’t been having periods of time where you rest from your work, you’re going to feel it in some way or another.

I will be the first to admit that I don’t do a great job of this. Just the other weekend Amy and I were home on a Friday night and I told her, “You know what, I don’t think I have anything going on tomorrow.” Between my work for the church and trying to help Dad I hadn’t even realized how long it had been since I actually had a day off. So you know what we did? We slept in. (As long as Kanan would allow us to.) We made blueberry waffles in the morning and sat around home. And part of me kept thinking, I should be doing something. I shouldn’t just be sitting here. But the other part of me, recognized that I needed to have this time. It was good for me but it was also good for Amy. This day of rest is once again not a waste, because God values rest.

But even beyond resting from work and labor, through Jesus we can have rest of everything else this world throws at us.

Matthew 11:28 NIV

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

This is a promise from Jesus. So where are you right now? Are you just totally exhausted? Are you burned out? Are you overwhelmed? Stressed? Worried or filled with anxiety? Jesus tells us that if you are, you can go to him and he will give you rest. Today Jesus is inviting you to go to him and experience the rest that he can provide.

And so the first “let us” from Hebrews 4, is this “Let us enter into God’s rest both now, and for eternity.”

Prayer

Communion