Please note that this article is derived from a sermon series on Hebrews given in Bermondsey Gospel Hall, the audio of which can be found here.
Last week we continued our journey Back to the Future. We have seen that the hit 1985 film has a similar plotline to this section of the book of Hebrews. In the movie, Marty McFly uses the Doc’s time machine to return to the past, and as a result impact his present and influences his future. We have sought to the same. The author starts the section of with a lengthy quotation in 3:7-11, a quotation that dominates his discussion throughout the rest of Hebrews 3 and 4. In 3:7-11 we are return to the past, and not just one point in the past, but two. For we read the words of David in Psalm 95 in which he retells the story of Israel around 400 before him. Delivered from Egypt, brought safely through the Red Sea and guided to the foot of Mount Sinai, the nation of Israel heard the voice of God on that mountain. And yet they had barely left its shadow, the voice had hardly stopped ringing in their ears, when they had already returned to their old ways. Grumbling and complaining about their physical needs. Murmuring and plotting against God’s faithful servant Moses. When offered the chance to go into the Promised Land, trusting God to overcome the enemies within it, they refused to enter. They disobeyed God’s command, they refused to trust his saving power. Rather than make plans to enter, they start to prepare for a journey back to Egypt. Instead of relying on God, they rebelled against him. This resulted in forfeiting the rest God had promised them in Canaan, instead they remained under his wrath. They were destined to die in the wilderness, that generation would never enter into the land which they had refused to trust God for. A Voice from the Past.
Last week we returned from the past. 3:12-19 is A Warning for the Present. The author wants what we seen in the past to have an impact on our current circumstances. He exhorts us to take care of our hearts and to expose the deceitfulness of sin in one another’s lives so that we might not fall away as they did. He tells us that the greatest danger in the Christian life is unbelief. It is deceit and disbelief that is the root of all our rebellion. We must take care not to succumb to the same fate as they did in the wilderness. None of us can rest easy, sit comfortably, think that we are immune from stumbling. For even Israel fell in the wilderness despite having both heard the voice of God and seen the works of his hands. Their feet had walked on dry ground in the Red Sea, their mouths had tasted the bread fallen from heaven, and yet they still did not trust God in their hearts.
This week we turn to Hebrews 4 and see that not only should their example in the past impact the present, but it should influence how we think about the future. Paul says the same in Romans 15:6, ‘For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.’ And it is to this hope for the future that the author now turns. In Hebrews 1 we thought about the Revelation of the Superior Son. Hebrews 2 taught us about the Salvation of the Suffering Son. Hebrews 3 spoke of the Congregation of the Steadfast Son. Hebrews 4 now tells us of the Destination of the Sympathetic Son. Here we complete our Back to the Future journey, seeing that this last paragraph on the quotation in Psalm 95 provides us with a Promise for the Future.
Hebrews 4:1-10 breaks into two parts: 4:1-2 will make a promise and 4:3-10 explain that promise. 4:1-2 tells us of The Promise of Rest, that ‘the promise of entering his rest still stands’. Just as the Israelites in the wilderness had a promise of rest, so do we. Then 4:3-10 tells us of The Rest of Promise, the author explains what this rest that is promised to us is. He declares that ‘there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God’.
1. THE PROMISE OF REST – We should fear failing to reach the promised rest
Every cloud has a silver lining. That’s what we sometimes say when we find ourselves in difficult circumstances, when we are looking for good news within what appears to be a hopeless situation. Within the book of Hebrews, there are a collection of passages that appear to only contain bad news. They are called the warning passages. In these author uses strong words to caution us against forsaking faith, he tells us of the consequences of failing to hold firm. We have just dealt with such a passage. In 3:12, we were cautioned against an evil, unbelieving heart that could cause us to fall away, commit apostacy, abandon the confession we once made. This warning is weighty, and yet if you read on into Hebrews 6 and 10 you will find that the author’s warnings only become more alarming as the book progresses. If we were simply to look at these passages in isolation, it seems that all the author has to share is bad news. However, as we shall shortly see, such a view could only exist if you looked at these passages in complete isolation from the rest of the book. For each time the author tells us of such a dark cloud, there is undoubtedly a silver lining. In 4:1-2 we see it for the first time in the book. From in the caution in Psalm 95, there is a concealed promise. Our author reaches within the warning and produces that promise. ‘Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands…’.
If you continued through the rest of the book of Hebrews, you would see that this same pattern repeated. From within the warning in Hebrews 6, the author produces a promise he describes as ‘a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul’ (Hebrews 6:18). From within the warning in Hebrews 10, the author produces that promise spoken by Habakkuk, ‘my righteous one shall live by faith’ (10:38) and presses on into Hebrews 11 with example after example of God’s people persevering and being preserved by faith. Each time the author scares us with a warning, he strengthens us with a promise. Warning and promise. That is the pattern repeated throughout, and it is what makes Hebrews perhaps both the most unsettling and most encouraging book in the Bible.
Before we take a look at what exactly this promise is, the author points out how we ought to react to it. Before explaining the features of that rest which remains, the author emphasises the fact that the possibility of it remains. There is a promise that still stands. An offer that is still open, it is still available and applicable today. How should we react to this? ‘Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear…’ (4:1).
Fear does different things to different people at different times. In times of war, fear can drive an army to victory and soldiers to bravery. During exams, fear can push students to achieve better grades. Fear can have positive effects. However, this is of course not always true. For every student pushed toward success by fear, there is one who is overcome by it. For every soldier driven into the heat of the battle by fear, there is another fleeing because of it. Fear can have either positive or negative results.
We find that the same is true in the Bible. Already in Hebrews we have seen the negative effects of fear. In Hebrews 2:15 we were reminded that it was through the fear of death that each of us was subject to lifelong slavery. We were restricted, paralysed, chained by this fear of our inevitable death and impending judgement. This is the kind of fear that John writes of in 1 John 4:18, when he states ‘perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment…’. The love of God casts out the fear of punishment. And yet, the Bible also tells us that there is a kind of fear that is positive. Proverbs 28:14 explains, ‘Blessed is the one who fears the LORD always….’ In fact, in Jeremiah God promises that he will give this kind of fear to his people, ‘I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me.’ (Jeremiah 32:40) In the New Testament, Paul tells the Philippians, ‘work out your own salvation with fear and trembling’ (2:12). And here the author says, in reaction to the possibility of this promise, ‘let us fear’. When you read this, think not of the kind of fear of falling that causes somebody when they come near a ledge of a building to freeze to the spot in terror. Picture instead the fear of falling that caused experienced rock climbers to check their ropes for weaknesses before starting to ascend a rock face. This fear is not to be a fear that causes us to break down, but to take care. This is a fear that causes us not to draw back from this promise, but to grasp it tightly with both hands.
We should fear. Notice I said ‘we’ should fear. For here again we see the communal nature of the caution. In 3:12 we were told to ‘take care, brothers, lest there by in any of you’ and in 3:13, ‘exhort one another ever day…that none of you may be hardened…’. Last week we seen that we have a responsibility to take care of each other. This communal emphasis continues, for the author instructs ‘let us fear lest any of you’. We should have this fear not only for ourselves, but for one another. As a local church, we should fear for each other. Just as a mother or father fears for a child in facing, we ought to fear for each other as we face this danger.
What is it are we to fear? What is this danger? We should fear failing to reach the promised rest. ‘Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it.’ (4:1) How is it that we might fail to obtain this promised rest? The author presses on, ‘For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.’ (4:2) Looking back at Israel in the wilderness, the author builds upon the conclusions of Hebrews 3. Despite them hearing the good news, they did not benefit from it, for instead of reacting to it in faith, they rejected it in unbelief. As the Psalmist describes it in Psalm 78:22, ‘they did not believe in God and did not trust his saving power.’ They failed to reach the promised rest for they did not respond to the good news, that promise that they heard of God’s saving power, with faith. Hearing wasn’t enough to benefit from the promise, they had to believe in it. They needed to be united to Caleb and Joshua, who responded to it in faith. They needed to trust in God’s saving power just as Caleb and Joshua did.
As you come along here on a Sunday, you need to realise that hearing the good news isn’t enough. You must believe in order to benefit. The good news of Christianity, just like it was in the wilderness, is about the saving power of God. God is able to save you from the power of and punishment for your sin. This si the gospel message we seek to explain here every Sunday, that Jesus Christ was sent to die on the cross to bear the punishment for your sins, being risen from the dead he declared victory over them, so that if you trust in him, if you confess your sins to God and rely on him for forgiveness, you will be forgiven, given new life and a new heart. That is the good news, the promise, of the saving power of God. And yet merely hearing it will not benefit you, you must respond to it in faith. Unless you do that, you can come along and sit with God’s people each week, you can have friendships with us and enjoy our times together, but you will never be united to us in faith. You may be friends, but never brothers and sisters. Coming to church and listening to good news from the Bible does not make you a Christian, only believing that good news does. We should fear failing to reach the promised rest. [Christians?] For unless we enter that rest, we will remain under God’s wrath as Israel did.
2. THE REST OF PROMISE – You can enter this Sabbath rest by faith
If you do believe, if you do listen to the good news of God’s saving power in faith, what are you promised? What is this rest available to us? This is what the author sets out to explain in 4:3-10. The logic in these verses is simple and yet its consequences are complex. One of those complex consequences is our understanding of the Sabbath, an issue that is fiercely debated and discussed between Christians. What somebody believes about the Sabbath (and the fourth commandment) provides a kind of litmus test as to how they believe the Bible is put together, how the Old Testament and New Testament, the Mosaic and New Covenant, are connected. Hebrews has much to say about this, but today we will simply focus on the primary point of the passage, rather than the principles underlying it. The main point the author makes is you can enter this Sabbath rest by faith.
I’m sure most of you will have travelled abroad on holiday seeking a rest. You fly away to lie by a pool or on a beach relaxing for a few days. Such holidays can be restful, and yet you don’t need to travel to far away locations to find some rest. Rest is not exclusively reserved for sunny beaches and poolside loungers. A good night’s sleep in your own bed, a nap on a Sunday afternoon, an evening at home watching a movie or a meal with family or friends. All of these things can help us relax and rest. Despite what travel agents might tell us, we don’t need to fly away to the sun to get some rest. Rest is not restricted to certain locations.
On a straightforward reading, you might think that the rest promised to the Israelites in the Old Testament was to be found in a location. The land of Canaan flowed with milk and honey; it was fruitful to the extent that you could easily sustain yourself on its produce. No longer would the nation have to labour as slaves in the hot Egyptian sun or travel as wanderers in the wilderness. They could finally put their roots down, build a home and settle down for generations in the one place. The Promised Land would be a significantly more restful place for Israel, once they removed their enemies of course, than they had experienced elsewhere. However, here the author shows us that the rest promised to them was not limited to a certain location. When we are promised rest today, we don’t need to fly to Israel in order to enjoy it. The rest promised to them, promised to us, is far greater than even a peaceful, fruitful, tranquil land. The author teaches this by speaking of three different kinds of rest: Creation Rest, Canaan Rest and Christian Rest.
A. CREATION REST (4:3-5)
The author starts off by telling us of Creation Rest. This rest referenced in Psalm 95 started long before any mention of the Promised Land of Canaan. Before Joshua and Moses. Before the exodus from and slavery in Egypt. Before even the start of the Hebrew nation with Abraham and that first promise relating to a land that would be given, God spoke about this rest. About his rest. Back in Genesis 2:2, on the seventh day of creation, after he had made the heavens and the earth and everything thing in them, we hear of God’s rest. ‘And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.’ Here in Hebrews 4:3-5 we see the author pointing out that the ‘my rest’ referenced in Psalm 95 is not the Israelite’s rest in Canaan, but God’s rest on the Sabbath. Sabbath in Hebrew literally means ‘to rest’. That rest that God entered into on the seventh day of creation, the first Sabbath, is the rest he remains in today. It doesn’t mean God is sitting with his feet up today, but rather than after he finished all the work he completed in the first six days, he rested from doing that work. He was able to enter into the enjoyment of his work.
B. CANAAN REST (4:6-8)
In 4:6-8, the author then moves on to speak about that Canaan Rest. He explains that the rest promised in Psalm 95 cannot be limited to the location of Canaan, because in Psalm 95 it is promised not only the Israelites in Joshua’s day, but to the listeners in David’s day. Very simply, the timeline of when this promise is made in Psalm 95 means that the promise cannot have expired with Joshua leading the Israelites into Canaan. ‘For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.’ (Hebrews 4:8) Just as our rest isn’t restricted to holiday locations, this rest was not restricted to the land of Canaan. In David’s day, when Israel was residing in the land of Canaan, he still held out this promise, there still remained the opportunity to enter, along with the risk of failing to enter, this rest even though they were in Canaan.
This doesn’t mean that God didn’t give rest in Canaan, for we are told that he did. ‘Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers.’ (Joshua 21:43–44) Not only in Joshua’s day, but also in David’s, ‘Now when the king lived in his house and the LORD had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies’ (2 Samuel 7:1). However, the earthly rest they experienced did not exhaust the promise, it was not the full and final rest they were promised. The earthly rest was just a taste of the future eternal rest, the Sabbath rest of God
C. CHRISTIAN REST (4:9-10)
This then is what drives the conclusion of the paragraph in 4:9, ‘So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God’. In Creation Rest, we seen that the promised rest existed prior to the entry into Canaan. And the Canaan Rest showed the entry did not exhaust the promise of rest, for it was still being offered after they had entered the land. Therefore, the author concludes, the promised rest is still available to us today. That there is a kind of Christian Rest, which is a continuation of the Creation Rest and a fulfilment of the Canaan Rest.
What is this rest? In 4:10 we are given an insight into what it looks likes when the author says, ‘whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.’ When we enter this rest, we will join God in his rest. Our rest will be like his. It is after all ‘my rest’ God speaks of in Psalm 95. The rest that is promised to all who believe and hold fast is the same rest that God is enjoying right now. The rest he was been enjoying since that seventh day of creation, that first Sabbath. That is why it is called our Sabbath rest, for in it we shall join God in his Sabbath.
Six days of creation God worked, and then once he had completed what he had set out to do, he entered into his rest on the seventh day. He rested not because he was exhausted, but because his creation work was finished. This rest isn’t inactivity, God is active and working today, and yet he is resting because he completed the work that he set out to do in the six days of creation. On the seventh day he was able to step away from his work and enter into the restful enjoyment of it.
This is the kind of rest that is promised to those who trust in God’s saving power. John speaks of this in Revelation 14:13 ‘And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Blessed indeed," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!"’ After we fight and struggle through the difficulties and trials of this life, we are able to enter into the rest of our master at the end. Once our race is run, our journey is done, we can rest. Michael Kruger writes, ‘Heaven is joining God in his Sabbath rest.’ It is a destination free from the frustration and suffering caused by sin. It is the place where we can rest from our labors in this life, entering into the reward of all we have laboured for. Like the Promised Land was supposed to point to, it is ‘A future destination of unthreatened and uninterpreted communion with God.’ (Johnson) The author tells us you can enter into this Sabbath rest by faith. By persevering and holding firm, enduring to the end, you can reach that promised rest, which Augustine speaks about when he writes ‘All shall be Amen and Alleluia. We shall rest and we shall see. We shall see and we shall know. We shall know and we shall love. We shall love and we shall praise. Behold our end, which is no end.’
CONCLUSION
If you are not a Christian this morning, it is not this eternal rest of God you will enough, but the eternal wrath of God. If, despite hearing the good news you refuse to respond to it in faith, there will be no rest for you. Charles Spurgeon writes, ‘There is no rest for an unbelieving heart’.
If you claim to be a Christian, if you are seeking to hold fast and endure to the end in your faith, give thanks that the Joshua that leads you towards this eternal rest is far greater than the Joshua who led the Israelites towards their earthly rest. If you read on in Hebrews 4 you will see that he has already entered into this rest, and is a faithful and sympathetic high priest, he knows the difficulty of the road ahead of you, for he walked it himself. It is with him that you find rest, it is from him that you can receive it. He called ‘Come to me, all who 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 lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ (Matthew 11:28–30) Ask him to strengthen you, to keep you and to guide you, as you journey through life until you reach that promised rest.
ALEXANDER ARRELL