ENTERING HIS REST

#083                                             ENTERING HIS REST                                                              

Scripture  Hebrews 4:7-16, NIV                                                               Orig. 2/16/1964; 8/1970

                                                                                                                  Rewr. 4/1975; 11/4/1989

Passage: 7 God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted:

“Today, if you hear his voice,
    do not harden your hearts.”[d]

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works,[e] just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.

12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Jesus the Great High Priest

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven,[f] Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Purpose: Sharing a message aimed at our extensions of ourselves that deplete our spiritual vitality.

Keywords:                  Sovereignty                Suffering

Timeline/Series:         Sequential

Introduction

            Did you ever find  yourself over-extended?  Judith Viorst1 wrote about her experience in a book entitled How Did I Get to Be Forty and Other Atrocities.  She called it her “Self-Improvement Program.”  “I’ve finished six pillows in Needlepoint, and I’m reading Jane Austen and Kant, And I’m up to the pork with black beans in Advanced Chinese Cooking.  I don’t have to struggle to find myself for I already know what I want.  I want to be healthy and wise and extremely good-looking.

            “I’m learning new glazes in Pottery Class, and I’m playing new chords in Guitar, And in Yoga I’m starting to master the lotus position.  I don’t have to ponder priorities For I already know what they are: To be good-looking, healthy and wise.  And adored in addition.

            “I’m practicing my serve with a tennis pro, And I’m practicing verb forms in Greek, And in Primal Scream Therapy all my frustrations are vented.  I don’t have to ask what I’m searching for Since I already know what I seek.  To be good-looking, healthy and wise.  And adored.  And contented.

            “I’ve bloomed in Organic Gardening, and in Dance I’ve tightened my thighs, And in Consciousness Raising there’s no one around who can top me.  And I’m working all day, and I’m working all night to be good-looking, healthy and wise.  And adored.  And contented.  And brave,  And well-read.  And a marvelous hostess, and bilingual, Athletic, Artistic, . . . . Won’t someone please stop me?”

I.          Rest Must First Recall Surroundings.  V7, “Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying . . .

Today,  if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”          

            It is interesting that half the verses in this chapter speak of a coming rest.  Vv 1,  3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11.  All but v9 are katapausis, “to cease for rest, repose.”  V9 is sabbatismos, “a sabbath rest.”  There remains a rest beyond imagining for “the people of God.”  Remember sabbath rest in terms of people who labored.  Listen to some of the old spirituals to fulfill the picture.  The idea is not so much cessation from all activity, but orderliness, tranquility.

            We must rightly understand the need for rest.  God is the source of cohesion.  Colossians 1:17, “By Him all things consist.”  Satan is the source of confusion.  I Peter 5:8, “Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  The world was not and is not a world of disorder by design.  The problem is a sin problem. Generic man has a weakness of self-will.  Whether an original Adam/Eve. Whether there was a composite human beginning.

            Every corruption of this cohesion results from man’s separation from his roots.   Several years ago PBS did a series called “The Ascent of Man.”2  There was little reckoning of spirit. Generic man picked himself up and discovered ways to conquer dissenting natural forces. 

            The “naked ape’s” potential to recover is amazing.  Most that we must recover from is self-afflicted.  Man’s mind has conceived tv.  It influences us to abuse our bodies and each other to an inestimable degree.  War is pictured as a vested, patriotic duty.  Only the suppliers of war-material gain.

            We must stop where we are, gain insight into ourselves, and heed another voice.  John the Baptist had this in mind in John 1:23.  “I am the voice of one crying . . . .”  The Psalmist found his refuge (Psalm 46).  “Be still and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”

II.         Rest Next Recalls Sovereignty.  V16, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”

            The invitation to such sovereignty is extended to all.  We are encouraged to come boldly.  The inclination is to fear.  The invitation is to dialogue.  Paul uses the word to the Ephesians (6:20).  “Pray that I may (speak boldly) for which I am an ambassador in chains.” 

            A missionary tells of an African who was brought to a leper hospital.  Life was saved, lost hands, became a believer.  Stayed to work with other lepers.  Read Bible by breathing pages.  Thank God for my leprosy.  It brought me to the hospital.  Hospital brought me to Jesus.  WOV John 3.

            But, it is an invitation that must be claimed.  We can do little to change the skeptic.  But with most of the lost known to us, it is intimidation.  God is viewed as a much-rebuked child sees his parent.  We can change this by helping such people grasp God’s openness. 

            A great gift of sovereignty is ours.  We have recourse to the king.  At Sinai, God resided behind the clouds only Moses could penetrate.  By Jesus’ day, He withstood the people from behind Holy of Holies curtains.  Vice President Quail has a heavy schedule of appointments, but his children have access to him anytime.  Moreso, back during the Kennedy years when John John had run of White House.

            We are recipients of an invitation drawn up in mercy.  It is mercy that we are to expect.  There is no reason not to be confident.  Faith demands it.  In Christ, the tribunal is negated.  Imagine yourself before court.  Imagine [Jim] Bakker’s feelings upon hearing sentence. He had so compromised himself, he imagined those things his right.

            In Christ, to a throne of grace. (Rest.)  To refuse it as it is thus offered is to see it become a judgment seat.

III.       Rest Then also Recalls Struggle.  V9f “There remaineth therefore to the people of God a sabbath-rest.  For he that is entered into his rest, . . . hath ceased from his works, as God did from his.  Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest.”

            There are few of us who have never doubted.  Some have had due cause to cry out, “Where is God?”  They have seemed beset by trial as prey is stalked by predator.  There is a fitting example of such struggle from God’s own Word.  Story is told in Psalm 73 (Asaph).  Any person whose faith totters under the duress of cold fact and grim reality.  “But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well-nigh slipped.  For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.  They are not troubled as other men, neither . . . plagued.”  He perceived injustice, as if it were from God.  “All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.”

            His cynicism is for the ears of God alone.  He will not offend others because he may be in the wrong.  “If I say I will speak thus, Behold I will offend against the generation of thy children.”  In this struggle, he is helped to see the real burden of forsakenness.  “When I sought to know this, it was too painful for me, until I went into the sanctuary of God, Then understood I their end.  Surely thou didst set them on slippery places.”

Conclusion, added by editor:

23 Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Links 

Viorst:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/204351.How_Did_I_Get_to_Be_40_Other_Atrocities

Bronowski:     https://www.amazon.com/Ascent-Man-Complete-BBC-Region/dp/B000772842

1  Viorst, J. (1976). How Did I Get to Be Forty and Other Atrocities. Simon and Schuster.

2  Bronowski, J. (1974). The Ascent of Man.  Little Brown & Co.