Jesus, the Source of Rest

Several years ago, there was an article in the New York Times entitled, Bring Back the Sabbath. And in it, the author Judith Shulovitz described a condition, a weekly condition that she found herself in as a young working professional in New York City. She said, my mood would darken until by Saturday afternoon, I'd be unresponsive and morose. My normal routine, which involved brunch with friends and swapping tales of misadventures in the relentless quest for romance and professional success made me feel impossibly restless. I started spending Saturdays by myself. After a while, I got lonely and did something that, as a teenager profoundly put off by her religious education, I could never have imagined wanting to do. I began dropping in on a nearby synagogue. And as she did, she began to realize the benefit of a Sabbath routine. And so she says, most people mistakenly believe that all you have to do to stop working is not work. But the inventors of the Sabbath understood that it was a much more complicated undertaking. You cannot downshift casually and easily the way you might slip back into bed at the end of a long day. That's why the Puritan and Jewish Sabbaths were so exactingly intentional, requiring extensive advanced preparation. The rules did not exist to torture the faithful. They were meant to communicate the insight that interrupting the ceaseless round of striving requires a surprisingly strenuous act of will, one that has to be bolstered by habit as well as by social sanction. So Sabbath, that principle of resting is very different from what we do when we're talking about recreation. She talks about how for us in our free time, we choose from a dizzying array of leisure options and pursue them with an exemplary degree of professionalism and perfectionism. We rush our children from activity to activity, their days a blur of tight connections. So on the one hand, what she's saying is that in our culture, work tends to trump rest. Even though we know we need rest, if there's work, if there are pressing things to be done, we push through. We don't rest like we should and we work through it. But on the other hand, even when we try to rest, even when we do so-called leisure, we work at it. We make a work out of it. And so for us as 21st century Americans, while rest is something that's essential to who we are as human beings, something we need desperately, it may be that it's more foreign to us as a people than it's ever been. So this morning, we're going to be thinking about rest as we continue studying the book of Hebrews together. So far, just if you're new, you're just joining us in the series, we've seen that Jesus is the unique son of God. He is the creator and the redeemer. He's greater than angels. And so he speaks with an authority that's greater than any way God has spoken in the past. And likewise, he's not just God, he's also the son of man. He was made lower than angels for a time. He came for the purpose of dying, to identify with his people, to suffer for them, and to make them God's children, God's sons and daughters, and then reign over them as their good king. And so that's who Jesus is. And as we continue looking into that, considering who Jesus is, what he's done, what it means for us, what I hope for us to see in our text this morning is that Christians are characterized by resting in Christ by faith. Christians are those who rest in who Christ is and what he's done. This morning we're going to be studying Hebrews 3 verse 1 all the way through chapter 4 verse 13. A pretty good size of text at page 1002 in your pew Bibles. If you're here with us visiting and you don't have a Bible, we welcome you to take that Bible as our gift to you. It is God's Word. So let me read the text for us. Hebrews chapter 3. Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus. the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God's house. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses. As much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later. But Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the day of rebellion, as on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years. Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said they always go astray in their heart. They have not known my ways. As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ. If indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the day of, as in the rebellion. For who are those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see they were unable to enter because of unbelief. Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear, lest any of you 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 it is said, as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Although 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. For 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 marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Amen. What I want us to see this morning is the source of rest, the barrier to rest, and the entrance to rest. So three points. First, we'll see Jesus, the source of rest, verses one through six. So the author is addressing his audience based on this common identity and destiny that they have. They are holy brothers. They share in a heavenly calling. They are made holy because of Christ's work. They're called out to glorify him by their lives. And we see here that the governing command is to consider Jesus. So we saw at the beginning of chapter two, God has spoken finally, authoritatively, definitively through him. He's the most important person in the whole universe, that's been crystal clear for the first three chapters, first two chapters. He's the most important person, therefore his word is more important than anything else we can hear. We can't lose sight of who Jesus is, we can't fail to heed his word. He's the Apostle of our Confession. He's the one sent from God. He speaks for God on His authority. And He's also the High Priest of our Confession. We heard last week about how He's a merciful and a faithful High Priest. His mercy is demonstrated by the fact that He came to die for sinners. His mercy is demonstrated in the fact that he came to satisfy God's wrath against their sin. He suffered for us, and so he's a sympathetic, he's a compassionate high priest. He's willing to help those who suffer. We'll be thinking about that more in weeks to come. we see that he's also a faithful high priest. And the author says he's specifically, he's faithful like Moses. So Moses is the one who brought the law to God's people. He's the one who led them out of slavery in Egypt and into the promised land. God had a unique relationship with Moses. And so the quote that Moses is faithful is actually from Numbers chapter 12. He says that Moses was faithful in all of his house. He says that rather than speaking to Moses, like he did the prophets through dreams and visions, God spoke with Moses face to face. In the Old Testament, there was no one like Moses. But the author of Hebrews, as he has before and will continue to, shows us that Jesus is greater than Moses. Even though Moses was a special human being, he had a special, unique, privileged relationship with God, he was still like the angels. He was a servant. He was fulfilling a specific role. And so he gives us this general principle, this metaphor, that the builder of a house is worthy of more glory than the building. The one who builds is worthy of more glory than the builder. And so God is the builder of all things. He's worthy of all glory. And he says that Jesus is the builder. Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses. He's worthy of glory because he's the son. So yes, just like Moses, he's side by side there laboring for the construction of the building. He's participating in the work. His hands are dirty, but he's also the son. He's part of the planning. He's part of the design. He's part of the purpose of the building. He's the one who's going to inherit the house. He's the owner. So it's one thing to just build something for somebody else and give it to them to enjoy. It's a whole other thing to build something that you'll have, you'll enjoy for the rest of your life. So just to give us context, remember this, the author of Hebrews is addressing a group of Jewish Christians who are being tempted to go back to worship under the old covenant. And Moses, of course, is very appealing to them, but he's reminding them, he's trying to convince them that because of Jesus, there's no going back. Moses was cooperating, Moses was good, but Moses was a servant. Moses' work was always looking forward to what Jesus would come and do. Moses worked for Jesus. Moses was faithful as a servant, but Jesus is faithful as a son. As a son, Jesus came and perfectly executed the eternal plan of God the Father. Jesus actually builds the house. He assembles a people for God. And this is what the church is called to be, not the building that we meet in, but the people who are assembled together for God, a dwelling place for Him, where God's presence is made manifest, where His glory is put on display. And that really gets to the heart of rest, doesn't it? So what is your house for, but for rest? It's a place where you come home at the end of the day, shelter from the elements, spending time together. A house is a place of rest. And we see in scripture that ultimately rest is a place of being in absolute harmony with God and with the world. It's how things were created to be. We were supposed to be in perfect rest with God. but sin has broken that state. We're no longer in perfect harmony. We're no longer in step with God. We're out of step with him. We're out of step with each other. We're out of step with the entire creation. And so as we see here that Jesus is the source of rest. He came to speak God's word to us to perform our perfect obedience in our place to accomplish salvation for us. So we say he came to live the life that we owed God, die the death, that we deserve for our sin and to be raised as the glorious king of the new creation, the world to come. That's who Jesus is. And so if you're here this morning, you're not a Christian. We're thankful that you're here with us, but that's what you need to know and understand about yourself and about Jesus. You're a sinner in need of a savior. And Jesus is that great savior. He receives all of those who come to him in faith and repentance. So don't, please don't leave here without talking to somebody about him. For us, being a Christian means resting in what Christ has done for us. That's what he's emphasizing in verse 6. So he talks about confidence, having confidence. Confidence means looking back to what Christ has already done, the completed work of Christ. It means trusting that through Jesus' death, we are actually forgiven and cleansed and adopted into God's family. It means we're not trying to earn God's favor because we know Christ has already earned it for us. And likewise, boasting in our hope looks forward to the fulfillment of Christ's promises. He says that if he's already done this, we know what he's done in the past, he will certainly finish the work that he's going to do. It's boasting, it's living in hope of what his promises will be, that he's fulfilled them, that there is a glory and inheritance that awaits us as his people. We see that at the end of this verse 6, that the promise is conditional. If indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting and hope. So we see that God's household is not everyone. And it isn't even everyone who likes Jesus or comes to church or walk the aisle and pray to prayer at some point in your life. It's for those who persevere. It's for those who remain steadfast, remain holding on Christ until the end. Now I know that for a lot of you here this morning, the issue of assurance and perseverance and confidence is a really difficult one. What the Bible teaches us very clearly is that all who are truly saved will persevere, and only those who are truly saved will persevere. Through Hebrews, we'll see several warnings, several exhortations like this. The purpose of them is to remind the faithful, to exhort the faithful, to keep going, to press on, to keep holding on to Christ. But as we'll see, the emphasis is not ultimately on our effort. It's not ultimately about what we do. It's not about the quality of our faith. It's about the object of our faith. So the first week we thought about drifting, how easy it is to drift, this image of going downstream and ultimately to destruction. The point is not how tightly you're holding on to something, right? Because you can have a death grip on a log that's also floating downstream to destruction. The point is not how strong your grasp is, how hard you're holding on to. It's a matter of what it is that you're holding on to, right? What matters is that you're attached to something that's fixed. And so, Christian, it doesn't matter if you're attached by chains or by twine, as long as you are attached to Christ. That's what you need to be focused on, being tied to the rock who is unchanging. Confidence and boasting ultimately come down to each one of us standing before God to give an account, as we'll think about at the end. So when God calls you to give an account of yourself, what is it that you plan to say to him? God, this is who I am. This is what I've done. This is what I have. These are all the things I've accomplished here. Accept me on the basis of this. Or, will you say, I have nothing. I am nothing. I bring nothing to you. I did nothing for you. But Christ did. Christ is, and I trust it in Him. Ultimately, that's what rest is all about, friends. It's about trusting who Christ is and what he's done. And we're all either here trusting Christ this morning or trying to justify our existence through someone or something else. So that brings us to our second point, the barrier to rest, unbelief. This section is a long quote from Psalm 95. So let me read verses 7 to 11. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years. Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart. They have not known my ways. As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. So we see in Israel the example of unbelief. So Psalm 95 is summoning God's people to worship and then reminding them to be warned, to be fearful because of the Exodus generation. So most of us here are familiar with what God did through Moses. God's people are slaves in Egypt and God comes to them through Moses and says, I'm going to bring you out of slavery. I'm going to deliver you and bring you into a promised land. So God brought the plagues upon Egypt. showed utterly his power over Egypt and their so-called gods. He eventually brought the death plague onto them, killed the firstborn sons, brought Egypt out, and then Pharaoh changed his mind, started to chase them. They get to the Red Sea. Israel looks hopeless. God parts the sea, brings his people through it, and then as Pharaoh and his army come through the Red Sea, God crushes them and destroys them. And it would seem, on the base of all they had seen at that point, that Israel had everything they needed to trust God, believe in Him, follow Him. But they didn't. As soon as they crossed the Red Sea, they praised God, and then immediately, they start grumbling and complaining. They get hungry and complain, and God provides. They get tired of the food God's giving them, and God provides different food. They get thirsty, God provides. And they finally get to the edge of the Promised Land. They've seen God's work all along. They have no reason to doubt Him, and yet, They complain. God, you've brought us here to kill us. There's giants in that land. We could say that they were restless. The Israelites refused to accept their identity, being delivered slaves, being God's people, called to trust Him and obey Him, to enter the promised land of rest, a great place. Houses they didn't build, wells they didn't dig, vineyards they didn't plant. It was to be a place where they enjoyed their relationship with God and with the world. But as we see, they always went astray in their heart. They did not know God's ways. And finally, God had enough. He kept them from entering the promised land. And so as we read, they spent 40 years wandering in the desert, waiting for everyone to die. And so the author says that this is a warning for us. So 12 to 14, we see the danger of unbelief. Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. but exhort one another every day, as long as it is called today, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. So we are called to take care, to be watchful for the same kind of roots of unbelief that kept Israel out of the promised land. If they had all the evidence they needed to trust God, friends, how much more do we have? We who see the cross, who know that God's plan was to sum up all things in Christ, who've seen, who have read all that God has done, and who know from our own experience what God has done for us in Christ. We see God's plan, God's goodness, His mercy, His love. We have no failure. I mean, no excuse for our failure to trust in God. This warning applies to all of us. He says, any one of you, there are no exceptions. We're all vulnerable and the stakes are sky high. The stakes are falling away from the living God. We see here that he equates evil and unbelief together. That's something that we often do in our culture, but we see that the most evil thing, the most immoral, terrible thing that we can do is refuse God's word. is not believe him. I think often this creeps up in different ways for us as Christians. So we question God's abilities. We start saying to ourselves, God can't do that. Or we question God's motives. Say, God won't do that. He doesn't do that. We question God's character. God isn't like that. And when we start to do that, what happens is we start to take those things on ourselves. The implications become, well, it's on me. God doesn't really know what he's doing, but I know what I'm doing. And when that happens, it introduces unrest into our lives. We take God's roles upon ourselves and we place our identity in things that can't hold our weight. And that leads to anxiety and fear and striving. Verse 13 tells us how we are to fight this tendency, this proclivity to unbelief. It says that we are to exhort one another every day as long as it is called today. So God's answer for unbelief is community. A group of fellow believers who are in your life. They have to know you, they have to know what's in your heart, how to exhort you, how to correct you, how to encourage you. I wonder if you have relationships like that. Do you see the need that's there to be stirred up in Christ? Not, not just here once a week, but daily in Christ. Do you see your responsibility to do that for others? We need others in our lives because we are so often blind to our own sin. He says here, sin is deceitful. And we think of falling away as if it's, it's a trap door, right? That you just walking along minding your own business. And then the floor falls out underneath you and you're dropping, but that's, that's not what it's like. It's usually very subtle. Slowly, we grow colder, we grow harder until Christ, his person, his work, just starts to mean very little to us. We get blind to his glories, we get deaf to his word, and that, friends, is a terrifying place to be. This ministry of exhortation and encouragement is for every day, as long as it's called today. So friends, Christians, you need other Christians in your life. You need people who know your joys and your struggles, who can speak the truth and love to the details of what's going on in your life, who can warn you when you're in sin, who can encourage you with the hope of the gospel. And that requires a lot of effort. It's going to require that we spend time together. We can't do that in the few minutes we're here before and after services. So just a question for members of Jefferson Park, how are you prioritizing the other members in this body? Who are you intentionally spending time with throughout the week? Who has God placed around you, whether it's where you live or where you work or where you spend other time, that you can meet with, that you can strategically find during the week? It's a ministry that requires that we know each other. We know each other well, that we know our struggles. It requires that we're vulnerable enough with each other to share our fears, our failures. It requires that we're courageous enough to bring warnings, to bring rebukes to one another. It requires that we're humble enough to assume that we are still in sin, that other people may see my sin better than I see it myself. It's a ministry that requires time. It means that we have to devote energy throughout the week, mental energy, praying for, thinking about other people, how to encourage them, and then actually spending time with them to do it. Means that we may not have a lot of time for much else in life. So between being faithful in marriage and family and work and evangelism, it may be that the only time you have left in your life is to devote, to spend with people from the church and sleep. And that's okay. That's okay. Friends, we will have plenty of time to recreate in eternity. If you're here this morning and you're not in that phase of life where those responsibilities seem to crowd out your schedule, God calls that phase of life a gift. Figure out how you can use that freedom for the good of others who don't have that gift. But for all of us, it requires us to be strategic, to figure out how we can get our lives together. Whose schedule overlaps with yours? Whose kids play sports or music or whatever at the same time? Who works in the same area that you do? Who likes to do the same things that you do? Figure out how to get life on life with one another. Some of you already think a lot like that, and I commend you for it. I think you are exemplary in that. But a lot of us have room to grow in that area. And so let me encourage you this week, just practically, identify one person who you can follow up with this week to find out how you can pray for them, how you can encourage them in their relationship with Christ, and find one person whom you can open up with, share a struggle, share praise, share something, let them into your life to care for you. In verse 14, we see that Christians are those who share in Christ, in the benefits of what he has done for us, what he will do for us. But we see again here in verse 14, this is conditional. It's conditional on holding firm to the end. The word confidence in verse 14 is an interesting word. It communicates that all of us are standing on something. But it's not about the subjective experience of standing. It's not how we feel about standing. It's about the object that we're standing on. So we think about as Christians, our original confidence refers to our conversion. For every Christian, there was a time when you didn't believe and then you did. You saw Christ for who he is. You understood your need for him and you committed your life to him. That's what it means to become a Christian. And he says that confidence has to remain till the end. We can't start depending on Christ and then move on to something else. If we are truly dependent on him, we will remain dependent upon him. Beginning in verse 15, we see the consequence of unbelief in the community. So the consequence of unbelief. As it is said, today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. For who are those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was he provoked for 40 years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. For the Israelites, unbelief was like a disease. It was like a plague that infected the whole community. All heard, all failed to enter. It started somewhere. We heard the spies brought back the report, right? 10 spies, negative report. Two spies, good report. And then it spread through the whole community so that they forgot who they were. They forgot all the good that God had done for them. And the result was that they were kept from his promised land. And so we see here the effect of grumbling and complaining upon a community. It's so easy. We sour so much easily than we sweeten, don't we? It is so easy to get worked up, to get negative, to get frustrated about the way things are going, to complain about anything from simple superficial things like food and what's on the menu to serious things like leadership. We see that in Exodus. We see that here. We must be vigilant to stomp out those tendencies, those roots of unbelief. We learn from Israel's example that no one has a neutral effect on the body. You're either contributing to holiness, to growth, to purity, to strength, or you're undermining those things with your presence. So question for you is who at Jefferson Park is better off spiritually because of your investment in them? Remember, brothers and sisters, the stakes here are eternal. To ignore Moses was disastrous. It kept them out of the promised land. How much more for us to ignore Christ? This is not optional. We need each other in this fight. This moves us into our third point, the entrance to rest, which is faith, beginning in verse one of chapter four. 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." So the author begins with this warning, let us fear, let us take this seriously. Again, this is an eternal matter, eternity is at stake. He says that while the promise still stands, it implies that the promise won't always stand. There is a door open. There is an opportunity now for salvation that may not always exist. Today may be the only today that we have left. And again, he says that this is for any of you. It's not just those who we perceive to be the slackers spiritually. Any of us can fail to enter the rest. Verse two emphasizes that mere hearing is not enough. Hearing the right thing is not enough. We often talk about two ways to live, and those two ways are not hearing God's word and not hearing God's word, not being at church and not being at church, not reading theology or not reading theology. It's about believing God's word or disbelieving God's word. It's about trusting or mistrusting, obeying or disobeying. We know that who we listen to is really important. It's essential to defining who we are, and that's why we put a lot of effort and time and thought into what takes place, what's said in this pulpit on Sunday mornings. This message is essential to forming our identity as a community. It's also why we as elders, as we're spending time with you, we will probably ask you what you're listening to, who you're listening to, what preachers, what things you're reading. We care about what voices are influencing you. But we see that who we listen with is just as important as who we listen to. So he says they were not united by faith with those who listened. Not that they weren't united to the word, but they weren't united to the people who listened. They didn't share in their faith. So we heard the story again when the spies went to the land. Ten spies came back and said, no way, there's giants there. But two spies, Joshua and Caleb, said, God told us it's a good land. Let's go get it. Let's go get it. Let's take it. Let's enjoy it. This text demands that for us to be faithful, for us to persevere in the Christian life, we must be united by faith with those who listen, who believe. So let me ask you about your relationships. Do the people in your life encourage you toward faithfulness, holiness, perseverance? Who do you share the most personal aspects of your life with? Who do you cultivate intimacy with? Who really gets you? This text warns us that it better be someone who is just as, if not more committed to Jesus Christ than you are. It's one of the reasons that our weekly gathering here as a church is so important. One of the defining characteristics of a local church is that we're all hearing and applying the same word of God in our lives together. We're committed to putting this word into practice every week. And as we've seen, unbelief happens naturally. So we all have this common need to be encouraged daily and therefore around those who encourage us daily. No one drifts toward holiness and belief and faith. We also see here that the church is actually a dangerous place to be. We talked about this a little bit in Hebrews 1. We hear God's word every week. And the amazing thing in Deuteronomy was not that you hear God's word, but that you hear God's word and live. So those of us who preach regularly, we're committed to making God's word as clear as we can, but the effort of making God's word clear is the means, and it's not the goal. So we must be in the habit not just of gathering and hearing something here, but putting that into practice every day. And I want to address specifically, wake up, nudge your kids, those of you who are children and youth here. You're here because your parents make you come here. You are perhaps in a more dangerous position than anyone. Because you come and you're, this is just part of life, this is just a common experience of coming and hearing the word of God and it's something that you either endure and roll your eyes at or you start to learn how to take good notes and that sort of thing. But what can really happen in the midst of all that is your heart just grows cold and hard and this is something you just, this is an experience, this is just part of life that you endure. So make it your goal not just to endure, not just to take accurate notes, but to think carefully about what's being said. Every week you should try to answer these questions. What is the gospel? What is the gospel message? And what does it mean for how I live? And that's not just a question for kids. We see in this text that unbelief is equivalent to unrest. When we stop listening to God, we stop trusting God, we start going our own way, that begins this cycle of work and trying to define ourselves apart from Him. It happened to Israel and it will happen to us if we stop listening to Christ's Word. So let's pick it up in verse 3. For we who have believed enter that rest. As he has said, I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Although his works were finished from before the foundation of the world, from the foundation of the world. For he has said some, 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. For 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. So we note here that rest is a state. Rest is a status. It's not a place. Its origin is creation. So the author quotes Genesis 2 where God rested from all his works. And we know that that means God didn't take a nap. He didn't stop working at all. He continued to sustain the world. He continued to bring it to its appointed end. But it means that he stopped creating. Remember that every day of creation ends with God's declaration, and it was good, and it was good, and it was good. And then on the last day, he says, it was very good. In other words, job well done. I'm finished with the work of creation. Now I can sit back and relax and enjoy what I've made. Everything that needed to be created was created. The work itself was finished. And so in some ways it's like a project or a paper or the end of the day at work or even writing a sermon, right? At some point you have to say, it's finished. I've done everything I can do. I'm turning it in. This brings us back to the Sholovitz article I talked about at the beginning, because she describes the Sabbath day, the practice of Sabbath, as a day when not only did drudgery give way to festivity, family gatherings, and occasionally worship, but the machinery of self-censorship shut down too, stilling the eternal inner murmur of self-reproach. The eternal inner murmur of self-reproach. You see, for us, unlike for God, our work is never finished. We never actually get to sit back and enjoy what's been done, do we? That's true if you're religious or even if you're a completely secular person. We're all about the endeavor of trying to justify our existence somehow. And we can never live up to the standards. And even if we do, we only do it for a moment. It's never enough. There's always tomorrow. And so I'm sure many of you have heard examples of like coaches and athletes who've just won the championship, right? accomplish the dream. They've done everything they hoped to do. They've accomplished their goal and yet the next day they talk about the hollowness, the emptiness, the unrest that's in their souls because they've accomplished their goals and there's still more. The state of rest is being finished with respect to a particular work. That's what Sabbath means. And the author goes on to demonstrate that this is the kind of rest God has always had in mind. So Joshua succeeded Moses. He brought the people into the promised land. And then hundreds of years later through David, God inspires this Psalm for the people talking about a future rest. They're living in the promised land and God is still saying, don't fail to enter the rest. So there's something beyond the promised land. Verse 9 tells us, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. And what is that rest? Verse 10, whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. So we saw at the beginning, Sabbath rest comes from Jesus. Jesus is the source of Sabbath rest. And we enter God's rest by faith in Jesus. Just as God looked at his work and declared it very good, that's what God did in his rest, and so Christians then are people who look at their lives on the basis of what Jesus done and say, very good, it is finished, there's nothing left for me to do. It means that we stop trying to define ourselves by whatever other ways we're trying to do it, but we live trusting in what God has done for us in Christ and what God will do for us in Christ. It means that we rest from our efforts to make ourselves right with God on the basis of something we have. It means we rest from our attempts to create an identity for ourselves apart from God. And it's really what the Lord's Supper is a picture of, isn't it? It reminds us of the gospel, that we have a relationship with God. We are who we are only because Christ's body was broken and his blood was spilled for us. And of course, that rest looks forward to the final rest that we share in glory, where we truly enter the state of perfect rest in God's presence, enjoying Him forever. But we experience it now as we appropriate the gospel by faith, as we believe in Jesus. We rest in who we are in Him. Ultimately, there's really no such thing as rest apart from Christ. All of the luxuries we can buy, all the vacations and places we can travel to, all the hobbies that we can do, never do for us what Christ can. So in that way, it's kind of like sleep. So doctors and experts that study sleep know that we need about eight hours of sleep a day, give or take. But eight hours of sleep have to be consecutive. So you can take eight one-hour naps every day, and you'd be crazy in a few days. Physically, you would suffer. Mentally, you would suffer. You have to get what's called rapid eye movement, REM sleep. You have to get through those cycles. You have to sleep long enough to get deep sleep that actually is what your body and mind need. And that's really what Christ offers for us spiritually, is that REM, that deep rest of the soul. So you can take vacations, you can buy fun things, you can do these hobbies, but those are like taking one hour naps every day. You sort of feel rested maybe initially, but in the end they don't give you the deep, satisfying rest that you need. Only Christ offers that. For the nation of Israel, the practice of Sabbath was a regular reminder of spiritual realities. So it was an exercise in freedom. God says, keep the Sabbath day because you were slaves. Slaves don't get a day off, right? Slaves have to work every day. And so for Israel, it was an act of freedom. It was a reminder that they didn't have to work. God had set them free. And it was also an exercise in dependence. It acknowledged that God was in control. He's the one who provides. He's the one who keeps the world moving. He's the one that protects us. All these things. God is the one who does this. He sustains his people. And this is true for our rest as well. As we, as Christians, rest in Christ, it celebrates the freedom that he's won for us from sin. And because of that, we aren't defined anymore by what we do, but who we are in Christ. And likewise, we rest in him, acknowledging that God has made provision for everything that we need. We trust in him. So a few observations here for how we know we've entered in God's rest. How do we know that we're resting in Christ? First, we take physical rest. So we sleep. So that's the first thing. Sleep is an exercise of humility, an exercise of dependence. It acknowledges that God created us to need sleep and rest, just like he created us to need food and water and air. Sleep is this daily metaphor God has given us to die and rise again, to show that we are absolutely dependent, that the world keeps moving. Everything happens without us. It acknowledges that God is the one who protects us and keeps us. And so because of that, we are secure. So we take physical rest. Number two, we pursue a spiritual identity. So resting in Christ means that we rest on his accomplishments and not ours, that that's what ultimately defines us. It means that we regularly rehearse the gospel to ourselves. We talk to ourselves about Christ. We don't listen to that inner murmur that we were describing. A practical way to gauge your spiritual identity is how defensive you are when someone brings a concern to you. Do you have to justify yourself or can you trust that you are who you are in Christ? Another practical marker for us to think about is how do we identify ourselves? So if someone wants to get to know you, what is it that you say to that person? Usually when we talk about our identity, we talk about our relationships. I'm a father, I'm a husband, those kind of things. Or we talk about our work. This is what I do for a living. Or maybe we talk about our hobbies and interests. Here's what I like to do for fun. But in the reality, if we're Christians, the most important thing about us is being in Christ. Everything else is subordinate to that identity, right? How do we rest? Number three, we appreciate work. So we realize that work is not a result of the fall. We were created to work. It means that your attitude toward your job shouldn't be drudgery, it should be worship. It's a way to respond to God and his providential placement of you. You get to participate in how God is providing for you and your family. So it rules out laziness, but it also rules out a fear of failure. So a lot of people can't work because they're afraid to fail. But the gospel pushes that out. It actually frees us to enjoy work because we know it's not ultimate. We know it's not the most important thing. We rest when we balance our work. So we know that our job doesn't define us, and therefore, it doesn't control us. We can actually take time off work every day, every week, because we can disengage. We know that we don't have to work. We know we don't have to be defined by work. So nowadays, technology allows us to work anywhere, anytime, all the time. But if we're resting in Christ's work, we're not driven by the same need that others have to prove themselves through their work. And it means we can put the phone down, we can ignore email, we can be free from the need to stay at work at all time. We can be free to risk falling behind in comparison to our coworkers, to trust God with our career. And that applies not just to your vocation, but really to all of life, right? Some of you here are so busy, so committed because you're trying to prove yourself to other people. And resting in Christ means freeing yourself, being able to balance work, to trust in Him. It may mean that you actually do less overall. You're not as productive as you otherwise might be. It may mean that you forego promotions or commitments that would affect your spiritual priorities. And at the same time, it actually means you'll do more for Christ's kingdom. As a son or daughter of God, you're ultimately about the family business of making disciples. That's who you are. That's what you want to do. And that really becomes what you truly care about. How do we rest? We are cautious toward entertainment. Now, we're cautious. That doesn't mean we're against entertainment. That doesn't mean we don't participate in it at all. But it does mean that we're careful not to confuse rest and entertainment. Entertainment is kind of like a drug. It nags, I mean, it fills the void. It numbs us temporarily to that nagging need to justify ourselves. But for Christian, rest always takes precedent over entertainment. So everything we've thought about, all these things are more important than our weekly entertainment. The author exhorts us to strive to enter that rest. It's a bit paradoxical to strive to enter, to work hard, not to work hard. But it acknowledges how difficult it is for us to remain focused on Christ, isn't it? How naturally and easily we drift from him into ourselves, into the world, and ultimately into unbelief. So just like the Sabbath day of the Old Testament, we have to create a culture as God's people that's centered on, revolves around reminding ourselves and each other of who Christ is and what he's done for us. Consider Jesus, hold fast to him, trust in him. Verse 12, 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 marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. So we've seen this morning that rest comes from the gospel. We're reminded here that there is no rest apart from the gospel. There's no hope apart from Christ. God's Word, it says, is like a double-edged sword. And if you've ever seen a double-edged sword, it's not for chopping vegetables. It's for piercing. The point is that it cuts to our very core, both spiritually and physically. God sees all, He knows all. He knows the deepest recesses of our hearts. There are no fakers before God. We can all fool each other. We can all present ourselves in a certain way. We never fool God. We are naked and exposed before Him. Literally, this is the image of a wrestling move, a chokehold. He's got us. There's nowhere to move, nowhere to turn. Completely vulnerable and helpless before him. This text tells us that there is a certain coming judgment. All of us will be called to give an account of ourselves to God. God knows us exhaustively, and each one of us in that moment, when we give an account of ourselves to God, will come up short. We will be found wanting. And ultimately, we know that. And that's why we are so restless. That's why we're trying to drown it out with entertainment. That's why we try to overcome through work, through relationships or hobbies or things. We try to avoid that inescapable truth. And friends, let me remind you again, that's why the gospel is such good news. because Christ comes to us as the great prophet who brings God's final word of salvation. He comes to us as a great high priest who offers his life in our place so that we can stand before God accepted and loved. He comes to us as a great king who reigns over us, who protects us, who will lead us into the promised land, into his kingdom of perfect peace and rest. So brothers and sisters, let me remind you once again, consider Jesus, enter into his rest. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you once again for your grace and your goodness to us, shown to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We thank you for who he is. We thank you for all that he has done for us. We thank you that we get to participate in your eternal plan to bring glory to him. And God, we pray that you would make us a people who rest in you. Make us a people who trust the work of Christ. Make us a people who help one another to trust the work of Christ. And Father, we pray that you would remind us of that, especially as we come now to the table. As we eat his flesh and drink his blood, Lord, remind us. That's our only hope. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.