Hebrews 4
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Questions:
What do you think of Lordship salvation?
Are we able to tell who is saved and not saved?
What happens if someone is doubting their salvation?
Unbelief = disobedience = unrest = wrath of God
Belief = obedience = rest = presence of God
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
Pharisees, Works-based salvation not heritage
Intro
Intro
Who is Jesus revealed as in ?
My Burden
My Burden
Christian and heavy weight
My heavy weight.
How do we know we’re in the rest?
Have someone read large portions
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,’ ”
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.”
Heb 4:
Imagery-we’re in the desert
Jewish Culture
Photosynthesis
Hearing is not enough to enter promised land
Rest is the goal - 2 types of Jews
Seekers of YHWH
Beneficiaries of YHWH
One is obvious, the other is subtle
“Seem to have failed to reach it”
Not exhibiting the right vitals
Difference between strong vitals and ambiguous vitals
In our congregation - Spiritual vitals are either strong or ambiguous
Author is speaking to ambiguous
2 options:
Spiritual desert
Lost in desert
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.
Is the TV plugged in?
Obvious question, but still needs to be asked
Is your spiritual life and answers and information sitting on a shelf, but not plugged in?
Christ is the connection!
Christ is the rest!
Believing in Christ is access to the rest!
For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,
“As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest,’ ”
although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Jesus says “Come to me”
Not come to Church, not come to the Promised Land, come to a good moral compass, come to do good works.
Without coming to Yeshua, the Jewish life is in vain
Rest
Entered through what means?
Belief - Obedience, same thing
One person read:
For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has 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.
Heb 4:
Author depicts rest in a few ways:
7th day at Creation
Promise Land
“Today”
What is the rest?
Is this something immediate, or eschatological?
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.
Heb 4:
Spiritual reality now that will be consummated later
The Wrath and Rewards of God
Sabbath
Rest on the 7th day
Every festival was also a sabbath to cease work
Day of Atonement
It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath.”
And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God.
Deny yourself
Wilderness adventures were self reliance
We need YHWH reliance. Less stress, less punishment, more rest, more delight
Not about following the Sabbath literally - Friday to Sat
Spiritual reality
Attending Synagogue, or being a legalistic pharisee, or an obedient Jew were insufficient
Doing all the right things as a Christian are not enough to rest
“Today”?
Indicates spiritual reality, not just a festival or 7th day
Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,
Disobedience is unbelief
Urgency and immediacy clear
“Today if you hear His voice”
Promised Land?
Joshua was not the second Moses
After wilderness, they entered and experienced relief, but not the true rest of Christ
Jewish cornerstone was the Sabbath
Author indicates the Jews have no rest in what they expected
Looked for it in the patterns instead of the real thing!
Like someone looking for romantic satisfaction by ready love novels or chic-flics
Sabbath not restful, festivals and Jewish customs not restful, nor liberated Israel restful!
Rest is found somewhere else
Belief in Christ
Read
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
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 of spirit, of joints and of 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.
Delightful and terrifying
Reassuring to the faithful
Morbid for the disobedient
Parallel to armor piercing rounds in battle, or a scalpel on the operating table
Imagery of the Word being a Sword
Believers are to wield the sword of the Spirit
Jesus having sword protrude from mouth at judgement
Jesus’ words unlike any other words
Offend
Convict
Change
Enliven
Set at rest
“Come to me all you who are weak and heavy laden”
All are naked
Imagery of the Garden of Eden - the animal that died to cover
There are some who are on the brink of entering the Promised Land, the rest of God, but disobey
Look like everyone else
Not fully engaged spiritually
Dr Guthrie
“Those who have yet to come to real faith in Christ, who may be associated with the church in some way but continue to treat the gospel lightly, need to come to grips with what it means to have awe for God and the power of his Word. Thus, our communities of faith need to be places of real worship, reverence, and radical openness to that Word. When those who are “playing church,” stranded between Egypt and Canaan, truly enter into his presence and are confronted with his holiness, they will have their flippant, shallow “churchianity” stripped away and, like Isaiah in the shadow of King Uzziah’s death (), will find themselves naked before his striking presence, crying out that they are indeed ruined and dirty.”
Passage causes spiritual reflection
Passage causes spiritual reflection
Is church-life and worship trivial?
Where do I stand with Christ?
Have I ceased from my works as Christ did from His?
Do I need to repent, or am I realizing for the first time I never entered the rest?
Who can I exhort in the same fashion to enter the rest and to avoid the wilderness?