Come and Rest

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0:00I know Christians who have an amazing prayer life or who are very wise counselors. I know Christians who have servant hearts and they are just giving of themselves often and just over and above what you would think someone would do. I know many who love the Word of God, who know the Word of God, who teach it, who can explain it well. Other Christians I know are excellent leaders. I know Christians who work well, who serve well, Christians who pray well, parent well, think well, lead well.

0:34But I don't know many Christians who rest well, including me, through confessions. So that's what today's sermon is about. That's what the text is about. It's about rest. And I don't know many Christians who rest well, who really have thought through this subject very much and have applied it to their lives, including me. So this is a, you know, I would say it's the blind leading the blind, except for it's Jesus and His Word, right? We believe that, right?

1:16The living God leading us by His Word. So it's not the blind leading the blind. It's the seeing leading those whose sight is being recovered, right? So when I say rest, I'm not talking about sleep. I'm not talking about taking a nap, although it could be that. But I'm not just talking about physical sleep. I'm talking about the biblical concept of rest. What God means when He says this in Psalm 46. Let's put it on Psalm 46. It's be still, be still, and know that I am God.

1:53Talking about that. Rest is a part of the Christian life that is underdeveloped in many of us, in our thinking and our acting. And it's no wonder in our culture, our culture of hyper-busyness and abundant distraction.

2:15No matter whether you feel like your calendar is too full or whether you are constantly being pulled away from it by distractions, rest is not easy. It's not easy to understand. We get free time. This is me talking a little bit, but I think it's true for you too. We get free time, but we spend it doing things that don't leave us refreshed. We get to the end of it, and we don't feel refreshed by how we spend our free time. We get ready for bed, but then we doom scroll on our phone for an hour on social media and YouTube.

2:52It's time for bed, but we're scrolling for no purpose. We plan a vacation, and then we come home saying, whew, I need a vacation from that vacation. Rest is a riddle to us. We talk about it a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, but we don't really understand it. We yearn for it, but we can't seem to get it on our own. Everybody's working for the weekend, the song in the 80s goes. But then the weekend comes and goes, and we're like, well, what was that?

3:40We know we were made for rest, but we wonder, are we ever really going to get it? We are a restless people in need of help, and along comes the writer of Hebrews, the divinely inspired writer of Hebrews, to tell us that help comes from the Lord.

4:01Help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth, maker of us, maker of us and designer of us and the one who knows how we're supposed to rest. This sermon series is called Toward an Enduring Faith. Toward an Enduring Faith, and today we see that a call to endure in faith is an invitation to rest. It's good news. I presented us with the problem that we all have, but this is good news today. Let's be attentive to the Word of God. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 4.

4:38It's in your bulletin. It'll be up on the screen. This is the Word of God for us today. Let's pay attention to it. Let's have open ears together. As God speaks to us.

4:56Therefore, while the promise... Just notice how many times rest is said in this passage, by the way. 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. 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. For we who have believed enter that rest. As He has said, as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.

5:31Although His works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way. And God rested on the seventh day from all His works. And again, in this passage, He said, they shall not enter my rest. Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 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.

6:16For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from His works as God did from His. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

6:57And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Pray with me. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, as You have promised, make Your word go forth with power. Power to convict, to change, to comfort, to encourage, to give wisdom and insight, but also a new love in our heart and a new desire to come to You and entrust ourselves to You in all the ways that we haven't yet, all the ways that we're holding back.

7:38Do good work in our heart today, Lord, and produce good fruit that lasts. Jesus, we pray this in Your name. Okay, so this passage gives us an invitation. Come and rest. There's good news for weary people who endure in faith. So, this is a topic we need help on. There's a lot of ground to cover in this passage. There's an enormous amount here, actually. And I'm going to approach it with four questions. Who is this rest for? What is it? When can we have it?

8:21And how can we have it? Who is it for? What is it? When can we have it? And how can we get it? So, here's the first one. Who is this rest for? Well, first of all, it was for those who came before. When God brought the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, He was bringing them to a place of rest. They got to the edge of Canaan. He brought them to the edge of the Promised Land, and they sent in spies. And those spies came back talking about the goodness of the land, but also the mightiness of the people that were in it.

9:00Two of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, said, people, we can do this. If the Lord delights in us, He will bring us into this land. Don't fear those people. Let's go do it. God brought us here.

9:17This good news fell on deaf ears. Verse 2. Good news came to us just as to them. The them is the wilderness generation at the edge of the Promised Land, according to the last passage in Hebrews. Good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them. So, that generation disobeyed, failed to enter. Forty years later, the next generation came into Canaan, came into the Promised Land. They entered the Promised Land, and it took some time, but eventually it became theirs.

9:55Near the end of the book of Joshua, we read this. 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.

10:21I could only put so much on this slide, but it goes on to say all the promises of God were kept. All the promises of God had come to pass. Okay, so hold that in one hand. Now, the divinely inspired author of Hebrews says this, if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. What does this mean? He's referring to Psalm 95. Psalm 95 is the passage that the author of Hebrews is teaching on in this part of his sermon.

10:57Psalm 95 was the one that said, today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, like the previous generation, the one that did not enter the Promised Land. Okay?

11:10So in verse 7, he says, today, 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. He's saying, he's saying, okay, according to Joshua, the rest was given. But according to Psalm 95, there's still a rest remaining. What's the deal with this? How can they both be true? How could He give them rest? But then, Psalm 95 says, there is still a rest remaining.

11:43I thought you gave the rest, God. Now listen, this is important. I'm taking time here because this is really important. One purpose of the New Testament is to help us understand the Old Testament. That's one of the reasons why the New Testament was given. We have to read the Old Testament in light of the New Testament. It's one of the purposes of these divinely inspired authors is to help us see what God was doing in all of these promises and people and figures and institutions and practices.

12:17All of those things have a purpose and we understand them when we read the New Testament. Okay? I promise you this matters. This is not just a theology lecture. The book of Hebrews is one of the principal books for understanding the Old Testament in light of the New. And in this passage, this is what we learn. The rest of the promised land was pointing forward to a greater rest. Okay? Joshua said, I've given... God gave them rest. But it was a symbol.

12:52It was pointing forward to something greater than that. That's why later, David says in Psalm 95, today if you harden your voice, if you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts. And that's why in Hebrews, he's repeating the warning and he's saying today, today, it's still open. The rest is still available. The rest in the promised land was real. It's not a myth. It's not a fable. It was real rest. But it was not final. It was a stage along a journey.

13:27A journey towards the ultimate rest. Okay? That's why it says here the promise of entering his rest still stands. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. Here's the point.

13:43The rest is for those who came before, but it is also for us. It's also for us. The rest in the promised land was a symbol. It was pointing forward. And now, and the rest is offered to everyone. Just like Jesus says, come to me, all who labor and are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

14:06The rest is for weary people like us. It's not just for those who came before. It's for us now. People who can't find rest on their own. People like you and me, all the readers of Hebrews, down through the ages, this call of rest is for all of them. And it's for you and for me right now.

14:36Now, what is this rest? Well, it's not simply any rest. It is His rest. It's God's rest. God Himself calls it my rest. It's all over this passage. This is an invitation to join God in His rest. Well, but what is God's rest? Verse 4, the preacher now introduces Genesis 2. He brings in Genesis 2 to help us understand rest. He has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way. God rested on the seventh day from all His works. After creating the sun, the moon, the planets, the stars, the seas, the land, all the living things on the earth, and man and woman in His image, after making all this, God rested.

15:30Now, was God tired? Did God break a sweat in those six days? No, He didn't. He didn't have to take a nap. His rest is His rule. That's what it means. He had finished creation and now He is resting in complete control over everything that He had made. He is reigning and ruling over it. That's what His rest means.

16:00Now listen, in Genesis, there is something that's conspicuously absent about the seventh day. Every other day, it begins and it ends. Every other day that's recorded in Genesis 1, it ends with there was evening and there was morning the first day, the second day, the third day, the fourth day, the fifth day, the sixth day. There is no phrase there was evening and there was morning the seventh day. There's no phrase there. Symbolically, that means that there is no eighth day.

16:44Seventh day is going on and on and on and on. It never ended. God's rest is continuing even now. He has rule, His reign, His rest is never ending. There is no end to the seventh day. It's going on right now. God is still resting and He is still reigning. And here's why that matters because He is calling all people to come under that reign, to come under it in the seventh day, the rest. To help them with that, God gave them the fourth commandment, which is the Sabbath rest commandment.

17:21Remember the Sabbath day, Exodus says, to keep it holy. Six days shall you labor and do all your work, but a seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and earth, the sea, and all that is in them and rested on the seventh day. The Hebrew word Sabbath means rest. A command to rest is very strange to us. It sounds a little bit like a parent telling a child, like giving a child a time out. Go stop what you're doing, go sit over there for a while.

17:54Maybe a whole day. The Sabbath rest is not a punishment to you. It is not trying to constrain you or make your life miserable. It's the opposite. This command is given to us as a way to exercise our trust in Him. To live out our trust and our dependence on Him. Instead of ourselves. The account of the manna when it first appears is a great example of this. Now if you don't know the story, I'll walk you through it. When the people said we need food, God said I'm going to give you manna.

18:32And he said here's the deal. It's going to appear every morning. Go out and collect it. But don't collect more than you need for the day. If you keep more than you need for the day, you're going to wake up the next morning and it's going to be rotten. It's going to be disgusting. It's going to be filled with maggots. Just take what you need for the day. Right? And so they did. And he said but on the sixth day I'm going to give you twice as much and I want you to go out and collect twice as much because on the seventh day it's not going to appear because I don't want you to go out and have to pick up that manna on the seventh day.

19:11And he said on this one day that manna is going to last twice as long. You're not going to wake up on the Sabbath day and it's going to be rotten in your pots. It's going to last. Right? But think about the exercise of faith that that is. I'm sure people were like I'm not sure that maybe I'll take a little bit extra. I might be hungry at midnight. I might be hungry early in the morning. Maybe if I get twice as much now I don't have to go out tomorrow.

19:39They're thinking this Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Surely there was someone who found out the hard way. They took too much they kept it overnight and they woke up and they're like what is that smell? Right? That's their experience and they have to believe on the sixth day they have to believe on this one day there's an exception. I can collect twice as much and I can keep it and it won't be stinking in the pot when I wake up on the Sabbath morning.

20:08Right? It's an exercise of faith. Is this really going to keep? Am I going to be hungry on the Sabbath day? They had to go out and collect twice as much and just believe the Lord that on the seventh day they were going to wake up and they could still eat that day even though they wouldn't have to go out and collect. That's a principle of the Sabbath. God is saying to them depend on me. Live dependently on me. How can we be sure that the manna will still be good when we wake up on the seventh day?

20:42Well you just have to take God's word for it. You have to trust and obey. Trust and obey. Depend on him not on yourselves. That's what the rest is all about.

20:57Depend on the Lord's provision. Don't fend for yourself. Lean into your father's faithfulness. That's what rest is all about Charlie Brown. It's entrusting yourself to God's rule and God's care and enjoying double underline. Enjoying all the blessings of it.

21:22God is not giving you a time out when he tells you to rest. He is saying relax. I got this. Enjoy being provided for. Whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. God is saying you know what you need to learn that I got this and I'm going to give you a day where you have to practice that. Where it sinks in over the course of your lifetime that I got this and that's how I really want you to live all the time. When our girls were little sometimes we would come home late from a road trip and they would be fast asleep in their car seats and Nikki and I would come over and we would carefully unbuckle them scoop them up in our arms take their blankets and their stuffed animals and put it over them and walk them upstairs lay them in their beds and tuck them in and cover them up.

22:34They might have stirred a little bit. They might have said where are we? Are we home? But it was us carrying them, laying them down in their beds. They were resting. We were the ones doing the work.

22:56All they knew is that they were home and they were safe. This is what it means to rest. It's like a constant trust fall into your father's arms believing that he has got you. It's depending on his work and not your own.

23:28Now when can we have this rest? I hope I've got you feeling yeah you know what I do want that. When can we have it? Well you won't be surprised to hear me say that this rest is in the future. First of all Jesus said he's gone to prepare a place for us. Look at this passage.

23:52I've gone to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again and I will take you to myself that where I am you may be also. That place that he's talking about is what the Bible calls the new heavens and the new earth. Let's look at these verses here.

24:12But according to his promise we are waiting for a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. In Revelation John gets a picture of it. The first heaven and the first earth had passed away. All who belong to Christ, all of God's people throughout all time, that's where they're headed. That's where we're headed. Jesus is going to bring us there. That's the true promised land that we are going to. It's the rest that remains for us to enter.

24:47But this rest, listen, it's not just lying around in heavenly hammocks all the time. Swaying in the breeze. He has designed us to dream and to envision and to build and create. In that new land we'll have things to do. We'll have meaningful activity. You could call it work, but I wonder if another word would be better. Because here we think of work as a four letter word.

25:18I know it has four letters, but you know what I mean. We have negative associations with work. Right? It's because of the curse. We're living in a fallen world. There's thorns and thistles that come up from the ground.

25:36But there in the new heavens and new earth, the curse will be gone. There will be no more thorns and thistles, no more resistance, no more human resources issues, or mandatory safety trainings, or sexual harassment concerns. There will be no favoritism, no oppression, no workplace injuries, no lost time. It's all gone. Compared to our life now, the things we do there won't seem like work at all. And that makes sense because there every day is the Sabbath day.

26:12It's a continuation of the seventh day that has already begun. And that's why I think we need a new word for it. I don't know what the word will be, but we won't associate it with the word that we think of as work. it's going to be meaningful activity that's refreshing all the time and fulfilling all the time and worshipful all the time. It's amazing. We're going to be able to do this in a completely dependent on God way forever as an act of worship.

26:46It will be totally restful all the time. now that rest lies in the future, but here's what, here's why this matters to us now, because we can have it right now. The Christian life, it's not looking at a poster of a beach while we're slaving away on an assembly line. That's not what it is. It's not just looking forward. Man, my hands hurt. I'm never, I can't wait to sit down in that place. You can have this rest now. There's a clear present tense emphasis in this passage, for we who believed enter that rest.

27:27Do you see the present tense? We who believe enter it today, now. This rest is first of all forgiveness for your sins, reconciliation with your God. This rest is security for your present and it's hope for every one of your tomorrows. And finally, it is a stable identity. You're an adopted child of God and you have purpose in his household.

28:01Each and every one of those aspects of rest is available to you today, right now, through Jesus. You don't have to be, you don't have to wait to be forgiven someday. He says it about you now. You don't have to wait someday to be counted significant, to be given purpose. You have it now in the kingdom of God. Those are realities that you can rest in today, every day of the week, not just Sunday. And the most important thing about this rest is that it happens through trusting God instead of yourself.

28:43God's work instead of your work. Whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his work as God did from his. This is maybe the best thing of all because you can have it all the time. It doesn't matter what you're doing. It doesn't matter what day of the week it is. It doesn't matter whether you're sitting or standing, whether you're parenting or whether you're taking a break and walking around the block. Mark Twain wrote this. He said, find a job you enjoy doing and you'll never work a day in your life.

29:15How many people ever heard that phrase? Find a job you enjoy doing and you'll never work a day in your life. But here's a better word. I mean, I'm no Twain, but here's a better word. Find your life in Christ and you can rest every day. Find your life in Christ and you can rest every day. Even if you have a crummy job that you don't love.

29:42Isn't that good news? I mean, Twain is right. It'd be great if we all had jobs, right? That you love and you never work a day in your life. But what about the people who never find that? Is there rest for those people? Yes, there is rest for those people in Christ Jesus.

30:02You're freed from a life of trying to find that perfect job where you would never work again. You can rest in Christ today even if your job is crummy.

30:16True rest. It's way beyond leisure time. God is calling us to something more satisfying. Living dependently on Him, leaning in to your Father's arms as He carries you. No matter whether you're working or reading a book, Jesus said this, 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.

30:57What good news that is. Rest comes through discipleship, through following Him, through accepting His easy yoke and His light burden. That's where rest is found. It's not found in your phones. It's not found in your Netflix queue. It's not found on Vrbo or Airbnb. I love a good vacation. I love a good Airbnb, right? True rest is found in Christ through the yoke that He puts on us that is light and easy as we follow Him. You can go to a great Airbnb and be unrestful the entire time.

31:43Tied up in knots. About the longings that you have, the anxieties that you have, worries about your future. Or you can go to your job, which is hard and frustrating, and be at rest because you know your future is safe and secure, that God smiles on you. He calls you His child and you know you're forgiven and that your ordinary, everyday acts of faithfulness are pleasing to Him. Now that is rest.

32:23You can keep your Airbnbs. I'll take Jesus. Now how can we get this rest? Here it comes. Be willing to go under the knife. Now I don't know anyone who goes to the hospital and gets surgery for fun. There is no one looking through a menu at St. Francis saying, hmm, you know what, last time I got the triple bypass. The knee replacement looks really good, but you know what, I'm just going to go for the appendectomy today.

33:08People only go under the knife because they have to. Right? You have to. The incisions are a means of rescue. They're a means of deliverance from whatever is ailing you.

33:29Well, the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any two-edged sword. When God speaks, He cuts through our pretenses, our self-delusion. The truth is laid open.

33:45We want rest, but we don't want to come under His rule. That's what God sees in there. For all of our, yeah, we want rest, we want rest. God slices us open and says, but look inside. You don't want to come under my rule.

34:05We're impatient. We're prideful. We say, yes, Lord, provide for us. But we don't wait very long. Slice. God points it out to us. There it is. His Word operates on us. When the Word of God pierces us down to joints and marrow, when it discerns the thoughts and the intentions of our hearts, how will you respond?

34:32Will you wriggle and try to run away as if God was an attacker with a knife chasing you? Or will you submit to Him? Will you lie down on that table as a patient under a doctor's care and let Him perform surgery on you?

34:54If we accept this life-saving procedure, He will find that cancer in us. The cut will be for our benefit. And then we can say, yes, take that out of me.

35:10I want you instead of that. I want you instead of myself as the ruler of my life. Friends, we avoid this surgery at our own peril. All are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. No one can avoid Him forever. That cancer will only grow. If we turn away now, we will have to answer the question someday, why did you refuse my rest?

35:49Let that never be so for any of us. Let it not be so. Don't just hear the good news. Listen to it. Respond to it. That's how we have this rest. God spoke to the Israelites long ago that wilderness generation through Joshua and Caleb. They heard, but they didn't listen.

36:16He is calling us now through His word. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest. Over 1600 years ago, there was a young man. He had struggled all of his life avoiding the surgery, avoiding the surgeon. And then at age 31, he had finally struggled long enough. And he yielded himself to the living and the active word of God. He finally rested from his own works, his own pursuit of the good life. He entrusted himself to God's rule and care. And he enjoyed the benefits of it.

37:02His name was Augustine. He lived in North Africa. And years later, he wrote this beautiful sentence. You have made us for yourself, Lord. And our hearts are restless until they rest in you.

37:2131 years he struggled. And then he submitted and he rested in his father. Church, the promise of entering his rest still stands. For those of you who have never put yourself under God's rule, aren't you tired of your own works? of trying to find what your heart is looking for on your own?

37:56Your heart will be restless until it rests in God. You were made to rest in him. For those of you who have put yourself under that care, aren't there places in your life that you're keeping away from God's rule? That's a lack of rest in your life. Find those places. Let the word of God point those things out to you and come more and more fully under the loving care and rule of your God. Entrust yourself to him more and more because the more you do, the more you'll find rest for your soul.