Rest

Read: Hebrews 4:1-13

“Rest” is not a December word.  There are lots of words associated with Christmas:  hope, joy, peace, love, but the word “rest” is not usually among them.  People are running here and there; our calendars are full of activities and events.  We’re shopping; we’re rushing to get jobs done before ‘the holidays’; we’re mailing things and hoping things arrive; we’re trying to get everything done and still have time to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life”.  And often by the time Christmas arrives, we’re out of breath. 

“Rest” is not a December word.  But it should be.  Advent is a season designed not for hectic activity, but for contemplation and the heart’s preparation.  Christmas is about finding rest in the One who came to save us from slavery to sin and our insecurity in the face of death.  Christmas invites us to find rest in Jesus.

But what is this rest that we speak of – that our passage from Hebrews speaks about?  It’s not just getting a break or taking a nap or getting a holistic spa treatment.  It’s the rest that God enjoys and offers to us.

Now we could then think of rest as being the Promised Land, since God said of that wilderness generation of Israel, “They shall never enter my rest.”  However, Joshua eventually led the people into the land and yet we are told in this passage that he was not able to give them rest.  Therefore, God’s rest must be more than just a physical place.  And since disobedience and unbelief kept the people from entering that rest and both are directed toward God, then God must be the rest.  Rest must be in Him – in a faithful, covenant relationship.  Entering God’s rest is not simply getting an address in Canaan, it is belonging wholeheartedly to the Lord.  As St. Augustine so famously stated, “Thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”  To enter God’s rest then is to belong to God through Jesus Christ.

And so the opportunity to enter God’s rest is still available. We read in v. 1, “since the promise of entering his rest still stands…” and v. 6, “It still remains that some will enter that rest…” and v. 9, “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God.”  Today you can enter that rest.  When you come to God in humility and repentance and through faith in Christ, you will receive God’s rest – you will be drawn into it!

Now the perfect and complete rest will be had in the future when Jesus returns in judgment and bringing full salvation – when He establishes the New Jerusalem and the New Heavens and New Earth.  That will be the ultimate rest.  The Sabbath rest began when God finished creation and it will find its fulfillment when Jesus returns and restores all things. 

So, is this rest only a future hope or is it a present reality?  It is both.  Like salvation, this rest is a future hope and a present reality; it is a now and not yet reality.  It is a future state that has broken into the present. 

So what is this present rest?  It is rest from self-justification before God and everyone else. 

We rest from ‘works’ in the sense of trying to earn our salvation or wrestling God into loving us and accepting us.  Christians are saved by grace through faith in Christ.  We do not work our way to God, He picks us up out of the pit and we follow as He leads us back home.  

And we also rest from trying to justify ourselves before others.  If our sense of security and significance were based on other people’s opinion and approval of us, then we would have to justify ourselves before them, but our security and significance is found in Jesus and so we don’t have to be slaves any longer to our insecurities.  We don’t have to prove our worth to others in a blaze of frenetic activity.  We’re not dependent upon approval ratings or the applause of others, but on the grace of God.

And so, our present rest is resting in who Jesus is and who we are in Him.  Jesus came to save us from our sin; to redeem us; to reconcile us to God the Father; to carry our burdens and sorrows; to become sin for us; to die in our place – taking our punishment upon Himself; to be raised from the dead so that we too may rise; to intercede for us at the Father’s side until that day when He will return as the Bridegroom and bring us, His Bride, to the place He has prepared.  Jesus has done it all!  His righteousness is ours.  We rest in what He has done!

Other religions involve insecurity because they, in essence, teach that it’s all up to us to earn our way to God.  Only in Jesus Christ can we rest secure in and assured of God’s love and forgiveness and acceptance.  That is why we call it Good News, because it is!

But this present rest is not passive or lazy.  It’s not ‘sit back in your recliner munching chips and watching football’ until Jesus returns.  We are called to live.  There is a race marked out for us that we must run with perseverance.  There is a faith to hold fast to.  There is a battle to be fought.  But we hold fast; we run the race; we fight the battle with confidence and freedom.  The rest we enjoy is not the suppression of all activity nor the avoidance of all struggle, it is rather freedom from fear and relief from insecurity.

As we strive, as we run, as we fight, we do so resting in Christ.  And so what does this active rest involve?  It involves believing and obeying God’s word.  We read in 4:1-3a, “Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. Now we who have believed enter that rest.”

The Israelites in the wilderness heard God’s word – the author even states they heard the Gospel, but though they heard the Gospel, it was of no value to them because they did not combine it with faith.  On the contrary, the author of Hebrews states that we who have believed enter that rest.  Rest then is received when God’s word is combined with faith – with obediently active belief.

Receiving God’s word requires active living because it is (as we read in v.12) living and active.  We are to take it seriously because it takes us seriously.  “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.”  Many try to avoid God’s word or water it down or relegate it to a historical artifact or even an unhistorical religious piece because it intimidates them – it challenges and confronts them and they don’t like it.  God uses His word to penetrate us – to not only reveal Himself to us but to show us ourselves.  As we read in v. 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.”

But if we avoid or dismiss God’s word, we miss out on Gospel truth and Gospel power.  If the American Atheists are right and the Gospel is a myth, then we have no rest.  Our hearts remain restless because there is no God who has come to us and in whom we can find rest. If they are right then Jesus never said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Rest is found; rest is received when we combine God’s word (His promises, His truth, His way) with faith.

That’s the only way we can explain Mary’s response to the astounding and most likely terrifying announcement of Gabriel.  Mary gives us a picture of this rest when she says, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”  How could she say that?  How could she handle that news and the radical in-breaking of God into her life like that?  Because she combined God’s word with faith.  She heard the overwhelming announcement of Gabriel and believed him when he said that “nothing is impossible with God.”

Do you want to enter God’s rest?  Do you want that future hope and reality?  Then “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”  Hear God’s word and believe it. Take in God’s promises by faith. Respond to the Good News of Jesus Christ with obediently active belief.  Give yourself over to the One who says to you: “Come to me” - Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

There are a lot of words associated with Christmas.  Make “rest” one of them.  Hear God’s word today.  Believe it.  Obey it.  Trust in His word and enter that relationship that gives you rest.

O ye, beneath life's crushing load whose forms are bending low,

Who toil along the climbing way with painful steps and slow,

Look now! For glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing;

O rest beside the weary road and hear the angels sing.