
Hebrews 3:16 - 4:11 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
1 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. 2 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. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, 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 somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this passage he said, “They shall not enter my rest.”
6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words 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 of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
Intro: “FOMO”
…the Concern of the Inspired Word is that Current Believers Might MISS OUT on Something God Has for Them—Like a Previous Generation Did!
Israel’s response to the good news was tragically deficient: “the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.” Literally, “they didn’t mix it with faith.” —Kent Hughes, Hebrews (Preaching the Word Commentary) [Heb. 4:1]
Do you see the great lesson here? The Christian life is a life of day by day, hour by hour trust in the promises of God to help us and guide us and take care of us and forgive us and bring us into a future of holiness and joy that will satisfy our hearts infinitely more than if we forsake him and put our trust in ourselves or in the promises of this world. And that day by day, hour by hour trust in God’s promises is not automatic. It is the result of daily diligence and it’s the result of proper fear. —John Piper, “Be Diligent to Enter God’s Rest!”
…So, What Were They “MISSING OUT” On??
“GOD’S REST”
…What is God’s Rest? [Used in more than one way here] … Heb 4:3-9
Thou movest us to delight in praising Thee; for Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee. —St. Augustine
What is it, then, that this desire and this inability proclaim to us, but that there was once in man a true happiness of which there now remain to him only the mark and empty trace, which he in vain tries to fill from all his surroundings, seeking from things absent the help he does not obtain in things present? But these are all inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself. —Blaise Pascal, Pensées (VII, para. 425)
“REST” = katapausis; reposing down, i.e. abode: — a putting to rest, calming of the winds …it denotes God’s rest, i.e., the place where he fixes his presence. In Heb. 3-4 (cf. Ps. 95:11), the reference is to the rest (or resting place) that God gives to his people. As the OT promise points beyond Moses to Christ, so the rest of God in Gen. 2:2 points beyond Joshua and David (4:7-8) to the final rest to which believers in Christ will attain if they hold fast to their faith. (Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Abridged -Kittel))
REST… Then & Now
…Hebrews is going to present this “REST” from a Variety of Reference Points
• There is a Rest that is referenced to God Entering the 7th Day at the Foundation of the World v. 3-4
• There is a Rest that is referenced to JOSHUA (a Rest that exists, BUT also points to another dimension of “rest”) …v.8-9
• There is a Rest that is referenced and connected to DAVID—a “TODAY REST” that God’s People are Compelled to Enter (Some 400+ years after Joshua) …v.7
• There is a Rest that is being offered to the HEBREWS (also a “TODAY REST”) v. 11
…So, this verse presents Historic Rest, Today Rest, and Future Rest! …But the Concern for the Writer is that the Hebrews EXPERIENCE Rest NOW!
Heb. 4:1-3 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. 2 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. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest…
It appears from the text that even now persons of a certain character enjoy rest. …It is not a rest merely to hear of, to speak of and to desire — but a rest into which Believers have entered. They have passed into it and are in actual enjoyment of it today. —Charles Spurgeon, “Rest” (Spurgeon’s Sermons, The Complete Set (63 Vols.))
HISTORIC REST
“Joshua’s REST”
Deut. 12:1-11 “These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. 2 You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. 4 You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way. 5 But you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, 6 and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7 And there you shall eat before the LORD your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the LORD your God has blessed you.
8 “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9 for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you. 10 But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, 11 then to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the LORD.
…v. 1 …A “Land on Earth” HAS BEEN Given by God …what is waiting is for them “to possess it”
…v. 2 …It is expected that there will be resistance and people/ideas to destroy and to dispossess
Canaan was a representation of the rest of Believers. By some it has been thought to picture Heaven and it may be so used without violence. But remember that in Heaven there are no Hivites or Jebusites to be driven out, while in the rest which God gives to His people here on earth, there yet remain struggles with inbred sins and uprising corruptions which must be dethroned and destroyed. …Canaan is a fair type of the rest which belongs to the Believer this side the grave. —Charles Spurgeon, “Rest” (Spurgeon’s Sermons, The Complete Set (63 Vols.))
…v. 4 (also v. 8) …There is A WAY to worship God!!!
…v. 5 …Some dimension of God’s Presence and Dwelling among them will be
…v. 6-7 …There’s Activity that Engages God in This Rest!
…v. 9-10 …They are at the “Entranceway of This Rest” …and this “Rest” is described as what “God is giving you to inherit”
NOTE: This is a Land that is Defined and Ordained by God for Them at This Time! …Even Though it is NOT the Ultimate Land of Promise that God has instore for them (and us)!
FEAR–AT THE ENTRANCE TO REST
Numbers 13:27 - 14:4 And they told him, “We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. 28 However, the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large. And besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there. …30 But Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 Then the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we are.” 32 So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, “The land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people that we saw in it are of great height. 33 And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”
1 Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night. 2 And all the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness! 3 Why is the LORD bringing us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?” 4 And they said to one another, “Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.”
…But There are Some Who Succeeded—who DID Enter This Rest!
“TODAY REST”
Heb 4:2-3 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. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest…
…Entering Rest is about FAITH being Mixed with God’s Promise & Purpose—in the Here & Now! —as well as the Eternal Future
Remember (as we seek to understand this “Entering of Rest”)…
In the rest which God gives to His people here on earth, there yet remain struggles with inbred sins and uprising corruptions which must be dethroned and destroyed. …Canaan is a fair type of the rest which belongs to the Believer this side the grave. —Charles Spurgeon
Hebrews 11 is the “Hall of Faith” of those who DID ENTER God’s REST!
Heb 11:30-40 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days. 31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.
32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, 40 since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.
…The Allstars of Heb 11 …DID Enter In by Faith! (They are the Joshuas & Calebs!) …NOTICE: Their Unique Particulars are HIGHLIGHTED in This Passage!
v. 39 … ALL THESE …are Commended (for their faith to Enter In) …YET, they didn’t receive what was ULTIMATELY PROMISED! …they, like the N.T. Hebrews and like Us—are Waiting for Something Better! …God’s ULTIMATE REST—the New Heaven and the New Earth!!
Heb 11:8-10, 16 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. … 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
…This means there is Something of a “TODAY REST” that we are called to Enter Into! A “Today Calling/Purpose of God” that we Participate in. …Our Own “Geography” of “Promised Land” that Will be:
(1) a “Firstfruits” of the Heavenly Land
(2) A Land where God’s Presence is Promised to Uniquely Dwell
(3) A land of God’s active Favor & Protection
(4) A Land of Opposition, Resistance, and Enemies—thus, a land where “FEAR” will greet us at the front door!
(5) A Land that Gets Experienced by Faith–or Not Experienced because of Unbelief