Hebrews 4:9–10
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
How many of you like to take a nap on Sunday afternoon? Yeah, oh yeah, we got some nappers. Some amens. I wondered if Lovett was going to be here to enthusiastically say it. I don't know if he naps or not. My family is not big on napping, but my mother's family was very big on napping. And in fact, my maternal grandmother, napping was so important to her that on the way home from lunch after church she would remove her shoes and her jewelry and her dress and walk from the carport to her bedroom in her slip ready for her nap to maximize that time on Sunday afternoon.
She was a big napper. Is that what Sundays are about? Is Sunday a day of rest? Should we be singing easy like Sunday morning on the way to church? All the parents, you know, get that. Our text tonight is Hebrews chapter 4, verses 9 and 10. It says, therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God's people. For the person who has entered his rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from his.
And what I want us to see tonight is that Christians are defined by active rest in the completed work of Jesus Christ. And so as we think about the Sabbath tonight, we'll sort of have a loose structure. What is the Sabbath? Why is it relevant? How do we keep it? We're jumping into the book of Hebrews. Hebrews is a letter, it's a call and a warning to Jewish Christians to hold on to the gospel, to faith in Jesus alone and not turn back to the Old Covenant, which is what they're tempted to do, and in chapter 3 and 4, we're jumping into a part of the letter where the author is really preaching from Psalm 95, and he's warning them about the danger of failing to listen to God's word and pointing to the rest that is offered to God's people. So as we think about what is the Sabbath, the first point, what is the Sabbath? If I asked you in the hallway before the service, what is the Sabbath? Most of you would probably say it's a day, right? It's a day, and that's a good answer. It's a reference to the creation pattern of Genesis 1 and 2, where God created all the earth, everything that we know about in the first six
days, and then he rested on the seventh. He pronounced creation itself good, complete. It was very good, and then he rested. It wasn't that God went into retirement, but he stopped his work of creation and went into a phase of enjoyment of that creation. And then in Exodus, the Israelites were commanded to observe the Sabbath weekly by following this pattern of six days of work, one day of rest. That's what established the week, right? Six days of work, one day of rest, to identify with the God of creation and to celebrate the fact that he had completed his work. It was a reminder that God created and sustained his people. It was a reminder of the perfection of Eden and the fact that that had been lost, and it was a way for the people to long for that to be restored. But then in Deuteronomy, when the commandment was given to the next generation, the emphasis was not so much on the creation pattern, but remembering the God who had set the people free from ruthless slavery and oppression in Egypt. And so the Sabbath became
this weekly holiday to break from the normal routine of work and monotony and to remember that God had saved this people for himself. So the Sabbath is a day, but it's also a place. And we first start to hear about it in Genesis 12 when God promises he's going to bring Abraham to this great land. Abraham sees this land and God says, I'm going to give you all of this, every place you can see. And then he describes to Moses a land that's flowing with milk and honey, or Reese's and Coke Zero if you're part of my family.
But then in Deuteronomy 6, God really captures the essence of the nature of this land. He describes it as a land with large and beautiful cities that you did not build, houses full of every good thing that you did not fill them with, cisterns that you did not dig, vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant. So you get the picture, it's a place of abundant provision, joy, but not as a result of the effort of any of the Israelites. They're going to inherit this place that's mature and full and ready to be enjoyed. It's a gift of grace. And so if we put these things together, what we see is that both ideas sort of are painting a similar picture of Sabbath. The Israelites were to be identified as a people by God's grace and not by their effort. And God had delivered them from the bondage of the futility of ruthless work. So their job as God's people was to enjoy and celebrate what God had done on their behalf. So that's what the Sabbath is. So then we ask, well, why is it
relevant? And the main reason it's relevant is because verse 9 says a Sabbath remains. So there's still something out there for us. We know the story of the Old Testament. The Exodus generation was excluded from the promised land and condemned to die in the desert because of their persistent rebellion and unbelief, because they did not trust God's promise and his provision. And so then Psalm 95, written hundreds of years after the Exodus, is encouraging people not to ignore God's word, not to lose out on his promised rest.
And the irony or the confusing thing about that is, well, they're in the promised rest. Psalm 95 is written to people living in the promised land. And so the author of Hebrews picks that up and says, that's exactly right. And so it only makes sense if there's another rest, if there's another Sabbath for God's people. And so the promised land itself pointed to a greater rest, a closer identity as God's people, a deeper experience of deliverance from sin, a more joyous celebration of God's grace. And so true Sabbath, true Sabbath rest, is a spiritual and physical reality.
It's a state of completion, a state of enjoyment of a finished product. And it's something that, as just creatures in God's image, we get tiny glimpses of all throughout life, all throughout our day. So, young men, you're here. If you've ever worked really hard to put together a Lego set, and then you've got a really cool spaceship to show for it that you can play with and enjoy, right? that's a glimpse of Sabbath. Or if you've ever colored a picture and used all the colors and stayed in the lines and it's a beautiful piece of artwork, now you have to put on your refrigerator.
That's a taste of Sabbath. When you work really hard at a paper or a Sunday night devotional, whether it's because you're satisfied with the outcome or just because you've run out of time, you finally take your hands off it, you turn it in, say that's as good as it's going to get, That's a kind of Sabbath. It's folding and putting away laundry, having an empty basket, or cutting the grass, or changing a diaper, or winning a championship, or finalizing a merger and acquisition. You take that feeling, that sense of accomplishment and completion, and apply that to your whole life, and that's really what the quest for Sabbath is all about.
It's a statement that says, I've worked hard, I've put together my best performance, and this stands as proof of who I am, what I'm worth, what justifies my existence. We read in the New Testament, by the first century, the Jewish leaders had turned Sabbath into an identity. It became a long list of rules and addendums and footnotes that were all about what people could and couldn't do on the Sabbath. It was about performance, how people could attempt to gain God's favor and prove their righteousness to God and to the people around them.
And so the Sabbath really is a quest for identity. It's why we chase career opportunities and athletic accomplishments and romantic relationships and possessions and social media influence and followers. We want something to point to to prove that we have worth and value, that our life is meaningful. But none of those things ever deliver. Promotions and possessions get stale. Relationships disappoint us.
Influence and popularity fades. And true rest can never finally be found in this life. And so we find ourselves subject to futility. But true Sabbath rest is what Jesus came to bring to his people. In fact, Jesus says he is Lord of the Sabbath, right? He's all about the Sabbath, in other words. And so Jesus offers to God's people a true identity as God's children. He comes to call us brothers. He offers freedom from slavery to sin.
He actually destroys the works of the devil. And he also offers us freedom from the burden of our own works, that nagging obligation to prove ourselves by our own effort. So the letter of Hebrews was written as a warning and as a plea to Christians who were tempted to turn away from Jesus, turn away from faith alone, and to go back to a system where they could work and earn their status by their effort. So they were refusing the free gift of God's grace and wanting to take their salvation back into their own hands.
And according to verse 10, a Christian, sorry, so that's what they were doing. But according to verse 10, a Christian is someone who has rested from his own works as God did from his. So in other words, a Christian is someone who has taken their hands off their life. They've emptied themselves. They've given up the quest to justify themselves by their own works and they rely completely on what Jesus has done for us through his life and death and resurrection. So Christians have given up that quest to make life my own, to make my identity my own, to give it, hand it over to Christ.
And so if you're here tonight and you're not a Christian, the good news is that's all it takes to become a Christian. All you have to do is go to Jesus in faith and repentance and tell him, hey, I'm tired. I can't do this anymore. Ask him to forgive you for your sins, for your rebellion against him, for your self-sufficiency, and then commit to follow him in faith. If you have questions about that, there are lots of people in this room who would love to talk to you about that after the service. As we move into the last point, we're going to think about how do we keep the Sabbath? What does it mean for us?
And in order to do that, I think we need one more verse. So permit me to read verse 11. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. So we put these things together, and we see that the Christian life is a call to rest. It's to trust in Jesus alone for salvation, and not your performance in anything that you do. But it's also a call to strive to enter that rest. That is to realize that there is a natural tendency in all of us to move away from the sufficiency of Jesus.
And the theme throughout Hebrews is several warnings to Christians against drifting away and being led away and falling away and throwing away their faith. So in this way, I think the Christian life sort of feels like driving a car that needs an alignment, right? It already doesn't want to go straight and you have to take extra control over it. But you're driving on a windy mountain road. And on one side is a rock wall of overwork and performance and self-righteousness. And on the other side is a cliff of careless licentiousness, right?
And so if you're not diligent to keep yourself in the middle, you can fall on either side and do harm to yourself. And so the call to strive as Christians is a call to hold fast, to keep the gospel absolutely secure in the first place in our hearts. It's like traveling to a foreign country, not something that I do a lot, something that Brandon is doing now. And I hope that, among all the other things, he has kept track of his passport, right? Because you have to have your passport to get home. And so it's something that you need to know where it is at all times, keep it secure.
That's essential for your safety, right? And the gospel functions like that in our lives as Christians. Now, some of us are by nature resters. Probably a lot of you who had your hand up that you nap on Sundays, right? And the temptation for resters is to hear this offer of free grace and to lead us to respond casually and not urgency to the gospel. And making effort in all of that sounds kind of scary. But then, on the other hand, some of us are by nature workers.
And we struggle to believe that God accepts us completely in Christ. And so the idea of rest makes us kind of nervous. And some of us can go back and forth depending on the day or the issue at hand. But that presents a challenge for me to apply this because we tend to hear the part that we don't need to hear, right? So the resters tend to hear the part about rest, and the workers tend to hear the part about work. But we need to switch that. We need to be very careful to listen to the things that are most relevant to us. And if you're not sure what's relevant to you, make it a point to talk to somebody about this this week, and they'll help you sort it out.
So, the call to rest in Christ. Let's think about that. The most important thing, spiritually, we have to understand that our identity in Christ for Christians is absolutely secure. The verdict of heaven has been rendered, right? The gavel has come down. You have been pronounced innocent in Christ, which means you're never more accepted on your best day than you're on your worst day. Your identity is secure. So for some of you, That just means you need to get some more sleep.
You need to take a nap. You need to have a bedtime, right? And when you get caught up on your sleep, then you need to start interrogating the reasons that you do not rest. Are you working tirelessly in your job, in your schoolwork, in your relationships, in your hobbies? Are you trying to justify yourself to get that grade, to get that promotion, that accomplishment, and then you'll feel like your life is worth something? Then you can take it easy. So friend, if that's you, just set those things aside.
Set them down. You can rest from those things because you are already secure in Jesus. You don't have to prove yourself to God or to anyone else. And I think even in the church, this is a place where we can struggle. Some people spend themselves signing up to fulfill every need, to make every meal, to give every ride, to attend every event, to meet with every person, to respond to every message. And some of you just need to learn the spiritual discipline of saying, no, I can't do that. Pray for that person, say, Lord, help this person, and then trust God and the 600-something other of us to do that.
Another simple way you can kind of diagnose if you're resting in Christ is, are you characterized by defensiveness? Someone brings a concern to you, does it fire you up? Do you sound the alarm? Do you activate the defenses and you retaliate? Or can you listen patiently, graciously to that concern? Because you know you're a sinner, right? You have lots of room to grow. It's not surprising that somebody else sees sin in your life. You may agree with that person. You may disagree.
But either way, you know that you're a way worse sinner than that person even knows about, right? So it doesn't threaten your identity because you know that's secure in Christ. So again, if you're a Christian, your life is already secure in Christ. So rest in him. The flip side of that is some of us need to strive to enter God's rest. So is there evidence of striving in your life? Rest can be a dangerous place to be. Right after God described the promised land to his people in Deuteronomy 6, he gave them this warning.
When you eat and are satisfied, be careful not to forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. Fear the Lord your God. Worship him and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you, for the Lord your God who is among you is a jealous God. Otherwise, the Lord your God will become angry with you and obliterate you from the face of the earth. How many of our lives are characterized by eating and being satisfied? And this text warns us that when we're in that state, we are one step away from forgetting the Lord, turning to idolatry, falling into condemnation. That's scary. And what's striking about this passage, our passage in Hebrews 4, is that community plays a tremendous role in the outcome of the life of faith. And so chapter 4 begins with this warning. Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still remains, 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. So just like the man from james 1 exodus the exodus generation heard god's words but those words didn't benefit them because they didn't believe they didn't receive them with faith but more specifically it's because they were not united with those who did receive them by faith so from this this text we learned that one of the biggest factors in your life as a christian is your community the people that you surround yourself with. And that's why we as a church are so committed to meaningful membership. We want your life, your presence here to matter. So how important for you is it to gather with the church community? I'm saying this to people who are here on Sunday night. Of course it's important, right?
What causes you to miss a gathering though? It's interesting that in the New Testament the Sabbath is fulfilled in Jesus and in some ways replaced with the Lord's Day. That's why we meet on Sundays and not Saturdays. But rather than focusing on all the things not to do, the emphasis is what the church proactively does on the Lord's Day, which is gather to proclaim the message of the gospel. So friends, don't ever take that lightly. But our weekly gatherings are not the only thing that we should be doing as Christians. According to chapter 3, we need daily exhortation so we are not hardened by the deceitfulness of sin? Do you have people in your life who are helping you to fight sin, to think more carefully about God's word, to love Jesus more faithfully? If they're not, then you need a better community. You need a different community, and you need to go evangelize that one that's not helping you grow. And are you making time to help others in that way? Do you
have a love for other Christians that compels you to move toward them, to say hard things to them, to snatch them out of the fire? Are you a spark of faith in the life of your Christian relationships? If not, maybe a good place to start would be just to reaching out to someone who you notice is not here on a Sunday and offering to sit with them next Sunday. And then maybe identify someone to connect with outside of the normal structured schedule of the church. Just one person, one week. Let it start there and see where that takes you.
What we're doing when we proactively pursue people like that is not just helping to save other people, but we're actually safeguarding our own lives. Your friend's struggle with sin today could be your struggle with sin tomorrow. So we strive to enter God's rest by staying focused on the gospel. The Christian life then is restful striving, not trying to earn something from God, but trying to keep what he has freely given us in Christ. And in some ways, that's exactly why Jesus has given us the meal that's in front of us.
As we take the Lord's Supper, we work and we rest. We remember Jesus' death for our sins, and we proclaim it to the world. It's not something we do as a performance metric, right? There's no tracker, there's no award for who's taken the Lord's Supper the most times. And it's not just something that we do to sort of scan our card to reactivate it so it doesn't expire before we get to heaven. It's an act of active remembrance of what Jesus has done for us. It's confessing that I'm still a helpless sinner. Nothing less than the blood of the Son of God could pay for my sins.
It's a meal of thanksgiving to God for his love to send his Son for me. It's believing that Jesus has promised to return and bring us to himself for all of eternity. And it's taking those symbols, the body and the blood, and ingesting them into our bodies to press them into the depths of our souls. And then it's a proclamation that these truths go out from ourselves to each other and to the world around us. So I hope that helps you, encourages you as we prepare to take the Lord's Supper. Let me finish with reading this hymn called It Is Finished by James Proctor.
Nothing, either great or small, nothing, sinner, no. Jesus died and paid it all long, long ago. It is finished, yes indeed, finished every jot. Sinner, this is all you need. Tell me, is it not? When he from his lofty throne stooped to do and die, everything was fully done. Hearken to his cry. Weary, working, burdened one, wherefore toil you so? Cease your doing, all was done, long, long ago. Till to Jesus' work you cling, by a simple faith.
Doing is a deadly thing. Doing ends in death. cast your deadly doing down down at Jesus' feet stand in him, in him alone gloriously complete let's pray together our Father in heaven, we come to you tonight to do exactly what these words have just said, to cast our deadly doing down to renounce anything in ourselves that would qualify us to be your children and with those empty hands to cling firmly to Christ and all that he is for us.
We pray this in his name. Amen.