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The fourth chapter of Hebrews points us to a truth I don’t live well. I grasp it with my mind – at least partially. But I have a hard time translating it into experience. Who knows? I might not be the only person here with the same problem! Some of the symptoms of my failure here are worry and occasional sleeplessness and pointless-but-annoying guilt when things “don’t turn out right.” Those are only the symptoms of my problem, I repeat. The real problem is that I tend to have too little faith in God. I never sin and feel good about it; repentance comes easy for me. But I tend to take too much on myself, think too much depends on my effort, or rely too much on my own activity. At the bottom of it all is, of course, pride. The more I depend on me, the less I am depending on my Heavenly Father. The harder I try, the more likely I am to frustrate the Holy Spirit. The longer I tolerate the false notion that my smarts or my moral strength or my good works will get me by, the longer I am denying the biblical truth that Jesus Christ must be my everything. Augustine (354-430) said it this way: “O God, you made me for yourself, and my heart is anxious until it finds rest in you.” Even better is the prayer of Edward Pusey (1800-1882): “Lift up our souls, O Lord, to the pure, serene light of thy presence; that we may breathe freely, there repose in thy love, there may be at rest from ourselves, and from thence return, arrayed in thy peace, to do and bear what shall please thee; for thy holy name’s sake.” The writer of Hebrews begins this epistle-sermon with a series of comparisons. Jesus is superior to angels; he created them, and they serve at his pleasure (1:5-2:18). Jesus is greater than Moses; he is as much greater as a son is superior to a servant in a family (3:1-19). Jesus is better than Joshua; the leader Yahweh raised up to finish Moses’ task and lead Israel into its Promised Land was not able to provide them the blessed rest only Christ can give (4:1-13). For the sake of emphasis, let me repeat what has been said all through these opening few chapters: These comparisons are not putdowns but praise. Angels are both real and important to our salvation. “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” (1:14). Moses was the greatest man of his generation. “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future” (2:5). And faithful Joshua was the man the Lord raised up when Moses died and the nation could have thought all was lost. God raises up the right man for the right time, and he gave Israel Joshua to complete the task of leading the people into the territory that had been promised to Father Abraham on behalf of his descendants. Angels, Moses, and Joshua have been crucially important to God’s purposes. They played roles on behalf of human redemption that were decisive. Appreciate them. Tell of their work. Give them the honor they deserve. Yet know that it took the work of Jesus Christ to bring all things to completion and that their contributions to the divine purpose would have been in vain but for him! In Joshua’s case, the “rest” for which the wilderness wanderers had sighed was only partially granted in Canaan. Indeed, most of the people who started out from Egypt with Moses failed to enter Yahweh’s rest because of their unbelief (3:18-19). Even so, the people who took Jericho and settled in the land flowing with milk and honey received a rest that was only a shadow of what they needed – and what God wants us to have. “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then a Sabbath-rest for the people of God . . .” (4:8-9). This preacher wanted people to understand that the divine promise of rest – whether to Israelites in the wilderness, to them, or to us – requires faith in order to become a reality. 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. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith (4:1-2).He has already made this point in the closing verses of the previous chapter. The sin and disobedience of the generation delivered from Egypt is what caused Yahweh to turn them back into the desert for 40 years. They were not given rest because of their unbelieving hearts. Yet, he points out, there is a promise of rest that “still stands” for us. And we must be wise enough to learn from the experiences of Israel under Moses and Joshua. And what is the “rest” we can have? Don’t think too quickly of heaven at the end of your pilgrimage, for the writer of Hebrews sees it as a present reality which both his original readers and we can experience. Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,As with so many things our preacher will say are mere “shadows” of some greater reality, the Canaan-rest for Israel pointed to something beyond itself. Just as the tabernacle, sacrifices, and priests of the old system pointed to a completeness and comprehensiveness that Christ himself would supply, so too with the Sabbath.“So I declared on oath in my anger,And yet his work has been finished since the creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “And on the seventh day God rested from all his work.” And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.” If you know anything about the religion of the Israelites, you have heard about Sabbath. In their Promised Land, the Jews were to honor the seventh day (i.e., Saturday) as a day of Sabbath-rest to Yahweh. Business as usual was to cease. The people were to observe the divine pattern from creation week by working six days and resting on the seventh. They were to be together in families and as a worshiping community. They were to focus on the Lord and one another, not on their animals and crops. Just as first-century Christians saw the fulfillment of tabernacle, sacrifices, and priesthood in the work of Jesus, they saw the fulfillment of Sabbath in him. Seventh-day observance gave way to first-day assemblies for worship and exhortation. Saturday gave way to Sunday. It was Paul who said the legal demand of Sabbath observance ended at the cross. He specifically wrote this: “Do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration of a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ” (Col. 3:16-17). And it is technically incorrect to call Sunday “the Christian Sabbath,” for Sabbath is Saturday and always has been. Since Pentecost Day of A.D. 30, the first day of the week (i.e., Sunday) has been the primary day of corporate worship by the church. Sunday quickly came to be called “the Lord’s Day” (cf. Rev. 1:10). It is shadow-life and legalism either to fall back to Sabbath life or to impose the Sabbath rules on the first day of the week. So what did seventh-day rest foreshadow in Christ? What did Canaan signify to those who would come later in God’s plan? What is the “rest” we are supposed to be experiencing here and now? The preacher-writer of our material does not leave us to wonder. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience (4:8-11).Verse 10 is the key text here: “Anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work.” Unlike Peterson’s rendering “at the end of the journey we’ll surely rest with God” in The Message, this isn’t something that comes to Christians at the end, in heaven. Verse 3 says we have already entered it by believing in Christ. Yes, heaven is a promise of future, perfect rest for the redeemed. But the rest of this text has a “Today” dimension. It is available right now to those who turn their backs on unbelief, hardness of heart, and disobedience. Divine rest is God’s present-day gift to those who will put their full faith and trust in Jesus. Rest from your turmoil, and believe in him. Cease your feverish striving. Park your ego. Banish the foolish notion that you can make things work the way they should in your personality, with your family, or in life’s uncertain ways. You’ll only frustrate yourself – and burn out. Rest from your efforts; trust his on your behalf. For your salvation, don’t rely on your dogmatism and good deeds. Rest. Trust Jesus. When you are wronged, don’t try to get even. Rest. Trust Jesus. When you are struggling with alcohol, don’t lie and deny. Rest. Trust Jesus. When you are trapped in sexual sin, don’t excuse immorality. Rest. Trust Jesus. When flesh, pride, and unbelief threaten, don’t fight them in your strength. Rest. Trust Jesus. But can it really be that easy? Just believe that Jesus will fix it? If you’re thinking that right now, you don’t get it yet! There will be nothing “easy” about it! This isn’t couch-potato rest. It is the rest that comes from relying on God’s promises, trusting him for outcomes, and surrendering your will to his. God will have to take you into his spiritual hospital, put you on a surgical table, and cut you to the core of your spiritual being. You will have to submit to his laying you wide open for a heart transplant. Then you will have to rehab in the unit that completely renews your mind, reorients your behaviors, and teaches you to walk all over again – not by sight this time, but by faith. For the word of God is living 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. 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 (4:12-13). Nobody can do it by herself. You’re no match for Satan and his temptations. You can’t stand up under the withering assault of life’s burdens. You don’t know enough to see what’s coming up ahead. You’ll fail and die in your own wilderness – unless you give up trying to do it yourself and trust the work of Jesus on your behalf. Jesus himself didn’t attempt it without help. “It is the Father,” he said, “living in me, who is doing his work” (John 14:10). This is what Paul wrote: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). And this is the secret for you and me: “It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Phil. 4:13). Now maybe you can understand why I began this sermon with a confession. I know what this preacher says is true! The only way I can live well, honor God, and rise above my petty anxieties is to trust Jesus. To know that God is God – and I’m not! My pride hates that. My unbelief that still lurks around the edges of my weak faith resists it. I need to learn to “rest from myself” in order to experience and appreciate God’s Sabbath-rest that has become a reality in Jesus. My strong-in-his-gentleness Savior comes to me and says, “Rest! Let me do it. Let me be your partner. I’ll carry the load and support you along the way.” But my arrogance insists on shouldering my own load. Fixing my own mess. Generating my own outcomes. What stupidity! Then he speaks again to all of us who are beset with this problem of unbelief: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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. 11:28-30). Why does a weary, burdened soul volunteer to come under a yoke? What would lead anybody to think there is “rest” in that arrangement? He is the Strong One. He carried the burden of your sin to Calvary. He rescues me from the unbelief of thinking I can fix what is wrong in my life by working harder. He supports me when I stumble. And he will not stop until you are home safely with your Father, his Father. Yes, I’m impressed that Joshua – by God’s strength – brought the Israelites into Canaan for rest. Yes, I’m intrigued that even God himself rested after six days of finished creation and required the Israelites to observe Sabbath-rest as a shadow of something yet to come. But I am absolutely in awe of the Christ who has saved us by a finished work at Golgotha – and daily carries us through this present wilderness by his great power at work in our weakness. O God, you made us for yourself, and our hearts are anxious until they find rest in you.   |
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