REST

The Rest Of God.

Readings - Psalm 95 & Hebrews 3:12 - 4:11

Today we are continuing our look at the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews is an interesting book – written by an unknown author (although Paul is traditionally accepted as the author).

It is written to Jewish Christians probably some 30 years after the death of Christ. These Christians were experiencing persecution and growing doubts.

Just as the Jews had expected their Messiah to come in a different manner than Jesus - they were expecting an earthly king that would free them from Roman rule. So too the early Christians were expecting the return of Jesus any day. As more and more time went by doubts began to grow. And many of the Jewish Christians were being tempted to return to Judaism.

The letter to the Hebrews was written to encourage these people to hold on to their faith in Christ. The theme of Hebrews is the Superiority of Christ – God's new revelation.

• Chapters 1-2 show how Christ is superior to the angels.
• Chapters 3-4 demonstrate how Christ is superior to Moses.
• Chapters 5-7 show how Christ is superior to the Aaronic priesthood.
• Chapters 8-10 explain how the sacrifice of Christ is superior to the sacrifices offered by the priesthood.
• Chapters 11-12 are a plea to persevering faith.
• And Chapter 13 offers some practical advice before concluding the letter.

This morning we are looking at chapters 3 and 4. Jesus is superior to Moses.

Moses was found to be faithful by God and given the task of leading the people out of bondage in Egypt into the promised rest found in Canaan--the land of milk and honey.

The author of Hebrews shows how this “rest” was inferior to the rest that Christ offers.

Let me pause for a moment to ask you what do you think of when I say prophecy? How would you define a prophecy?
What constitutes a prophecy?

I suspect you are thinking that someone would predict something that would at some time in the future be fulfilled, correct?

That way of looking at things comes from your Greek heritage. The Hebrew view of prophecy is somewhat different.

In the Bible we see a prophecy, or a prediction, and then we see a fulfillment of that prophecy (so far the same...right?). But then we see that prophecy fulfilled again. Only this time in a greater way. And perhaps we might see an even greater fulfillment of that prophecy at yet another point in time. Each fulfillment is complete in its self. Yet each time there is a greater fulfillment.

Paint the town Red

I might try and explain that with an example. Suppose I was to say some friends and I were going to paint the town red this week. And on Monday night we went to town and a jolly good time kicking our heels up as the colloquialisms go. You would probably understand that to be a fulfillment of the prophecy or prediction that we were going to “paint the town red.”

However, on Tuesday, we get together again. And this time we go town and have a jolly good time. But during the course of the night we get out some spray cans and we paint the main street red. This time we have fulfilled the prophecy again, but it has taken on an even greater understanding.

This could happen again on Wednesday. Except this time we steal a fire truck and mix a red dye into the tank, then we proceed to cover the whole town in red.

Same prophecy. Fulfilled completely in each case. But each fulfillment is greater than the one preceding.

Back to the Rest example in Hebrews.

The first mention of rest in the Bible is when God said he rested on the 7th day after 6 days of creation.

This became known as the Sabbath. There were three kinds of Sabbath mentioned in the Old Testament.

There was the 7th Day Sabbath. One day each week that was to be set aside for rest and worship in the example that God himself had set from day one ..err.. day 7.

Then in the time of Moses there was instituted the 7th Year Sabbath. This was to be a year when the land was to be given a rest. It was to lay fallow for the year, and you were only to eat from it what grew naturally.

And finally there was the year after the 7th Sabbath year (ie. the 50th year), which was to be a Sabbath year on steroids. Not only was the land to lie fallow, but any land that had been sold was to be returned to its original owner, and any slave was to be set free.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews explains how the rest that Moses offered was inferior to the rest found in Christ.

If we use these three different Sabbaths as different fulfillments of the same prophecy of God's rest. We might say that the Sabbath day, occurring once a week, is like the rest that Moses offered.

The rest that came in the land of Canaan was not that much of a rest. Before they could even attain it they had to conquer 7 foot giants living fortified cities with only a rag tag ill-equipped army. Then the peace did not last long – because of the disobedience of the people.

The writer of Hebrews quotes Psalm 95 where David acknowledges another rest. One that they had obviously attained to in the promised land, one that can only be reached through faith and obedience to the word of God.

That is the rest that Jesus is offering to us today.

MT 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

This rest might be compared to the Sabbath Year. It is greater than the rest of the promised land, but it is not yet the complete picture.

There is a rest that is yet future. A rest that is like the Jubilee of rests.

As we read about in the end times --

REV 14:13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on."

"Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them."

This is a rest where we will labor no longer, just as God rested on the 7th day. This will be a rest from temptations, and a rest from suffering.

That is not the rest that we experience today. We cannot yet rest from our labors as in a cessation of activity – that is laziness and disobedience. We are called to rest under the yoke of Christ. Inactivity is not rest.

The rest that we have now is like rest offered in Matt 20:1-16 parable of the workers in the vineyard.

A vineyard owner need some work done in his vineyard so he went into the town center and hired a group of men to work the day in his vineyard.  They agreed to work for 1 dinar (a days wages).  As the day progressed the vineyard owner could see the work wasn't going to be completed, so he went back into town to hire some more men - agreeing to pay them a fair but undisclosed amount.  This was repeated another 3 or 4 times during the day.  The last time the vineyard owner went to town there was only an hour left to work in the day. 

Once the day was over the vineyard owner had his Forman bring the men to be payed.  He asked the last hired to come up to be paid first.  The owner paid the men who had only worked one hour 1 dinar.  The men that had worked all day then expected more.  Once they had all received their 1 dinar for the day the owner addressed the grumbling men.  "Why are you mad, did you not agree to work for 1 dinar?"

The message is that the workers selected in the morning to work in the vineyard "rested" in the knowledge that they would take home a full days pay to feed their family. Those chosen with only an hour of the day left had spent the day in torment wondering how they would provide for their families that day.

Today we are offered rest from our own work, our own selfish desires and our own ambitions. Our rest is in knowing that we are walking in the grace and favour of God. Our rest is knowing that God is waiting to welcome us home.

We are to rest here as sojourners. Not to stop and get comfortable here, resting in the ways of the world. That is a rest of destruction.

We need to be diligent in actively pursuing the rest that is to come, lest we be like the Israelites of little faith whom perished in the desert.

Psalm 95

 ^{PS 95:1} Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD;

let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

^{PS 95:2} Let us come before him with thanksgiving

and extol him with music and song.

^{PS 95:3} For the LORD is the great God,

the great King above all gods.

^{PS 95:4} In his hand are the depths of the earth,

and the mountain peaks belong to him.

^{PS 95:5} The sea is his, for he made it,

and his hands formed the dry land.

^{PS 95:6} Come, let us bow down in worship,

let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;

^{PS 95:7} for he is our God

and we are the people of his pasture,

the flock under his care.

Today, if you hear his voice,

^{PS 95:8} do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,

as you did that day at Massah in the desert,

^{PS 95:9} where your fathers tested and tried me,

though they had seen what I did.

^{PS 95:10} For forty years I was angry with that generation;

I said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray,

and they have not known my ways."

^{PS 95:11} So I declared on oath in my anger,

"They shall never enter my rest."

^{HEB 3:12} See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. ¹³ But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. ¹⁴ We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. ¹⁵ As has just been said:

"Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts

as you did in the rebellion."

^{HEB 3:16} Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? ¹⁷ And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? ¹⁸ And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? ¹⁹ So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

^{HEB 4:1} 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 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. 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 work has been finished since the creation of the world. ⁴ For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: "And on the seventh day God rested from all his work." ⁵ And again in the passage above he says, "They shall never enter my rest."

^{HEB 4:6} It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. ⁷ Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before:

"Today, if you hear his voice,

do not harden your hearts."

^{HEB 4:8} 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 his own work, just as God did from his. ¹¹ Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.  [NIV]