Rest for the People of God

REST FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD

Hebrews 4:13

INTRODUCTION

So how was your week last week?

I have to say that I had great week. I did ………

And I can tell you that I have the best job in the world. You the people of God have called me to this work. Yes, there have been weeks in my ministry which have not always been that good. Tough weeks. Too many funerals. Too many people to see in the hospital. Too many things to do and not enough time.

But please know that I “count it all joy” friends, that I have the privilege of doing the work the Lord has called me to do.

And I know that some of you have jobs like that.

Things you like to do most of the time.

But, it’s work and work always has its ups and downs no matter what. After all, that’s why it’s called work.

Of course, it’s been that way from the beginning.

Take our first parents, Adam and Eve.

They had a great job – take care of the creation God had given them.

“Be fruitful and multiply”

Eat anything you want out of the Garden except for the fruit of the tree in the center.

And you know the rest of the story.

They disobeyed.

And the curse changed the concept of work all together.

The creation they were to take care of has been radically altered from sin’s entry into the world.

It’s going to fight back with “thorns and thistles,” not to mention the labor of child birth.

They were going to need a Savior (Gen 3:15)

He would redeem all things

Even work so that they would find rest

Not only physical rest

But eternal rest

What they would need, all God’s people would need as well. For God in his grace and mercy would provide what our message today calls “Rest for the People of God.”

(NOTE: At this point, one could use the outline R – E – S – T. But just for an example, I am going to give you a rough out line using the format I told you about: SITUATION – COMPLICATION – RESOLUTION.)

(SITUATION) The text tells us that rest was important for God and His people.

On the seventh Day what did God do?

He rested.

With good reason; it was all good.

BTW, that doesn’t mean that God sat back and had a cup of coffee. He didn’t take a break. He rested from creating the world. That work was done.

He invited Adam and Eve into the creation He had given them and also into the rest He himself had provided. In other words, His rest was a gift.

The Jewish Christians to whom this letter was addressed knew that.

Every week they would celebrate the Sabbath (not Sunday; sundown Friday to sundown Saturday).

They would enter into God’s rest every week.

Why? Because it was pointing them to the eternal rest that that He had promised for all who would believe

Believe in the coming Messiah before Jesus came (We could call them “Messians,” believers in Christ before Christ would come into the world)

Believe in Jesus the Christ, the Messiah

In other words, their earthly rest would point to the heavenly rest that awaited all who would believe.

But for some, the rest was not combined with faith. That is, they had the physical rest but no faith in the spiritual rest to which it pointed.

(COMPLICATION) So it is for people today:

There is the promise of rest for God’s people (vs 1). God wants people to enter into his rest. It’s His will ((I Tim 2:3 - “God our Savior wants all to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” i.e., the truth of His Word, the truth of His love for us in Jesus Christ, the truth that heaven is a free gift that we can never deserve or earn).

Every time we come into the presence of God, each and every opportunity for worship, God invites us to enter into His rest, physically, so that the Holy Spirit will enable us to “Fix our eyes on Jesus …, “ (Heb 12:2), and so that we do not give up “meeting together as is the habit of some …” (Heb 10:25).

Yet for some there is no rest:

“No rest for the wicked,” as the saying goes

We are just too busy. We need the physical rest. Sunday is the only day for that. So we just stay home.

Or we work all week and the weekend is the only time for fun: golf, fishing, hunting, traveling you know the drill.

For some, we know that going to church is a good idea. We know there is a Jesus. We know He must have had a lot of good things to say. But we say to ourselves that we are doing OK on our own. And we’ll just have to live as good a life as possible.

(RESOLUTION):

Nevertheless, the text tells us, that “Nothing is hidden from God’s sight and from Him we must all give an account.” The standard for that account is the Word of God (vs12).

And He invites to confess that we know that.

That we have ignored his invitation to enter into His rest

That we have let all things get between us and His Word

And that He has sent Jesus our Great High Priest to intercede for us on our behalf his shed blood as the remedy for our sin and the power for us to enter into his rest

Physically

Spiritually

He says, “Come you labor and are heavy laden 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. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt 10:28-30).

But there is more. When we do that the Holy Spirit gives us some thing more:

Confidence

Except the Greek word means “boldness,” to “approach the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (vs 16).

Boldness to receive grace

Boldness to receive mercy

Boldness to be forgiven

Boldness to enter into God’s rest, not because I say so

God has to forgive me, give me grace, give me mercy take me into His eternal rest. Because He says so. And He is always faithful to His Word.

That dear, friends, is the rest God has for His people, for you and for me, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

And now may the peace of God that passes all human understanding, guard your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of Christ Jesus our Lord unto eternal life and rest everlasting. Amen.