Sermon Tone Analysis

*Hebrews 4:1-3…* Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it.

2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, just 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.

*Commentary*

God led Israel out of Egypt in 1446 BC promising to lead them into the land of Canaan (Palestine), hence the Promised Land.

While in Egypt they were slaves; in Canaan they would find rest.

But because Israel failed to believe God’s promise to them He kept them from entering, and they were thus deprived of the “rest” He prepared for them.

This is the theme of Hebrews 4.

The problem the author is addressing is the sin of unbelief (3:18-19).

It was unbelief that kept the first generation of Israelites coming out of Egypt from finding rest in the Promised Land.

God gave the land to the next generation of Israelites who did believe God’s promise.

So with the problem clearly exposed, the solution is now in order, and Heb.

4:1-3 introduces it.

There is no way the author would write what he wrote to true Christians, for true believers have no need to be exhorted to enter God’s rest.

They already have it!

But those who are on the brink of decision do need exhortation to receive Christ fully and enter His rest.

Hebrews 4:1 warns the audience to have great “fear” if they are among those who have not fully committed themselves to Jesus Christ.

The word means “to be frightened; terrified.”

And if anyone of the audience had not yet placed their faith and commitment in Jesus the Messiah, then they should be terrified.

After all, the author says that God’s promise of rest still remains for those who choose to enter it.

And “rest” in this instance is spiritual rest that comes only from placing one’s full trust in Christ.

This is in contradistinction from a life of works without rest that Judaism prescribed – the very way of life some of the audience still sought.

In v. 2 the explanation of the problem was that the Israelites in Moses’ day actually had the good news preached to them, and they witnessed God’s mighty acts that attested to His power.

But the words they heard “did not profit them” because they did not accept God’s word by faith.

So too had the Hebrews audience had good news preached to them, and they were in danger of falling short by failing to unite the preached word they heard with faith.

So it’s one thing to hear God’s word preached; it’s another thing altogether to respond in faith.

Mere intellectual understanding of Jesus does not equate to salvation.

Only faith in Christ saves.

Verse 3 plainly states that eternal rest comes from uniting the preached word with faith.

Those who believe in Christ “enter that rest.”

What rest?

The very same rest that God entered into following the six days of creation.

Once God finished creating He rested having completed His work.

And those who trust in Christ enter the same rest because they no longer have to work to please God.

For God is pleased solely through our faith in Christ.

That is why salvation comes only through faith in Christ apart from works.

That’s God’s rest and ours if we believe it.

*Food for Thought *

            If you’ve ever been caught plagiarizing a paper you wrote in college, you don’t defend yourself by showing the professor the student handbook which bears your signature showing that you know all about plagiarism.

To do so only makes you more guilty.

Knowing the rule is worthless unless you obey the rule.

So too with being a Christian.

Knowing the truth about Christ and obeying the truth are two different things.

And it’s obedience that defines us as Christians.

*Hebrews 4:4-8…* For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh /day:/ “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; 5 and again in this /passage/, “They shall not enter My rest.”

6 Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly had good news preached to them failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that.

*Commentary*

Genesis 2:2 says that God rested after creating the world in six days, and the author wants to make perfectly clear that God is at rest in v. 4. Now this doesn’t mean that God is inactive, for though He rested from creating, He is active in His creation (cf.

John 5:17).

(Keep in mind that Hebrews is an exposition taken from OT Scripture, and the author is making a point with that same Scripture.)

So having established that God is at rest in v. 4 from Gen. 2:2, the author then goes back to his central text in Psalm 95 by saying “and again in /this/ passage.”

He quotes from Psalm 95 for the fourth time, this time showing a distinction between those who have not united knowledge with faith and with God who is at rest.

They have no rest, but God rests eternally.

Now having made his point from two OT passages, the author of Hebrews draws his conclusion beginning in v. 6.

He explains that entering God’s rest is still a possibility for anyone who hears his words: “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked me” (3:15).

So God’s rest is available to anyone who will call upon Him for salvation and join their intellectual knowledge of God with faith.

While Israel served as a negative example who failed to believe and thus forfeited God’s rest, the author had greater hope for his audience that they would not make the same mistake.

Clearly the author preached passionately!

In God’s grace He has fixed another day – “today” – for believers to enter into His rest.

And lest his audience argue that the Israelites under Joshua found rest in Canaan in 1406 BC, the author then makes a pertinent point by dating Psalm 95 and the time in which Joshua brought Israel into Canaan.

He says that if Joshua had truly brought Israel into eternal rest in 1406 BC by bringing them into the Promised Land, then David would not have spoken of God’s rest 400 years later when he penned Psalm 95.

So even though the author of Hebrews steers clear of human names in his epistle when he references OT passages in order to be clear that God is the ultimate author of Scripture – even keeping his own name anonymous – he speaks of Joshua and David as writers of Scripture in order to make his point that David would not have written about God’s rest 400 years later if Joshua had truly brought Israel into God’s rest.

Therefore God’s eternal rest is still available for Israel and for anyone who is willing to trust in Him.

Rest is available for the weary soul, the same rest that the Father eternally enjoys.

*Food for Thought *

The Sabbath day in the OT was given by God to Israel as a mere symbol of the coming rest they would have in Christ.

This is why Jesus was able to break the Sabbath in the NT, and it’s why there is no admonition in the NT for Christians to keep the Sabbath.

Since Jesus is Rest, the symbol is useless.

Consider Colossians 2:16-17: “Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day – things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.”

If you are in Christ your entire life is a Sabbath, for your soul and life are at rest from useless works.

And our current rest is merely a precursor to the eternal rest we’ll have in Christ’s Kingdom which awaits us.

*Hebrews 4:9-11…*  So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has entered God’s rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. 11 So let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, by /following /the same example of disobedience.

*Commentary*

            The Sabbath (“seventh”) is used in at least four different ways in the Bible.

First, it is a reference to a single day of rest.

God set forth one day in seven for Israel to rest, and this was to reflect God’s example of rest after creating the world in six days, resting on the seventh (Exodus 20:8-11).

Exodus 20:11 says that God rested on the seventh day, and Exodus 31:17 says that He ceased from His work and “was refreshed.”

Therefore, the Sabbath was to be a day that commemorated God’s work and a day to be observed by Israel as a day of rest and worship.

The second use of the Sabbath is in reference to the Sabbatical year.

This Sabbath was not for people but for the land where Israel lived (Lev.

25:2-5).

God commanded Israel to allow their land to lay uncultivated after six years of sowing, pruning, and gathering.

In the seventh year it was not to be worked, and the unattended growth of the field was for the poor to glean from and for the beasts of the field (Ex.

23:11; Deut.

15:2-18).

God then told Israel that He would provide food for them through a sixth-year harvest that would be enough for three years (Lev.

25:20ff.).

Unfortunately, Israel failed to keep this ordinance (Jer.

34:14-22), so God exiled them from the Promised Land (2 Chron.

36:21) until the land would enjoy all of its Sabbaths (Lev.

26:34-43).

Violating God’s command to keep the Sabbatical year was clearly an atrocity.

The third use of the Sabbath in the OT is in relation to the Year of Jubilee (Lev.

25).

This occurred every 50th year, for it was the conclusion to the Sabbatical years.

In other words, there was a Sabbatical year every seven years, and at the end of seven Sabbatical years (49 years) the 50th year was a year of jubilee (anniversary, celebration).

The regulations of the normal Sabbatical year were enforced, but in addition to those sanctions property reverted to its original owners, financial debts were forgiven, and Israelite servants were released from enslavement.

The fourth use of the Sabbath is found in Hebrews 4:6-11 which speaks of a Sabbath rest for the people of God.

In this instance the Sabbath rest concerns believing in Jesus Christ as the Messiah.

And what an appropriate message for the author given that he was preaching to Jews who knew the Sabbath laws of the OT.

Having shown that the “rest” the OT spoken of was incomplete (Heb.

4:8) and yet future, now the author clarifies exactly what he means.

Since Joshua, having brought Israel into the Promised Land, did not bring rest to God’s people in an eternal sense, David spoke of “rest” in a later context in Psalm 95 – 400 years after Joshua.

And now the Hebrews author explains that God’s rest is attainable only by faith apart from works.