Sermon Transcript
Our online service looks a little different today because our church isn’t in the building. Our church is out at the beach. Once a year we hold church out on Seabright Beach near Santa Cruz where we have baptisms, spend the afternoon together. But for any of our online participants, we still post a sermon, a service that people can engage with while us as a church body are physically somewhere else. So as always, we’ll have a text, we’ll have teaching from that text.
Service also has, of course, you’ve already seen, worship through singing. So our text today is from the book of Hebrews chapter 4, speaking of the rest that God offers us. From Hebrews chapter 4, verse 1: 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 7th day in this way: And God rested on the 7th day from all his works. And again in this passage he said, They shall not enter my rest. Therefore, it seems for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed enter it because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day— today— saying through David so long afterwards, 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. Since then there remains a Sabbath rest for God’s people.
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.
One of my favorite things about our Beach Worship Sunday is how it almost forces us to pause from our normal routines, you know, our busyness, and dedicate a day just to be together. For many of us, it’s probably atypical to pause, sit, and just be. But such moments of pausing are reminiscent of the biblical concept of Sabbath and rest. Now, if you’re not familiar with Sabbath, it’s from the very beginning of time God demonstrated his intentions for humans to rest. Rest is built into the creation narrative, as we just heard.
I mean, the day God, rest. Then rest is one of the 10 Commandments. God says, you know, you shall take a Sabbath. And then we get to this curious text in the book of Hebrews that claims there’s a rest still yet to be had, which means these Old Testament believers, you know, who knew about certain types of rest had not yet experienced the fullness of rest that God had in mind. In fact, the author of Hebrews explicitly states, verse 8, if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.
And now, if you’re not familiar with the biblical story, Joshua is who led them into the Promised Land. And going into the Promised Land is certainly a type of rest, especially after the Israelites had been slaves in Egypt for 400 years, and they escaped, then they were nomads for 40 years, On top of that, then they went into the land, but then the land had war. Finally, eventually, the land had rest from war. That, once they entered in and the land had rest from war, undoubtedly that was a season of calm compared to their last 450 years as a nation. But this text in Hebrews says that even that wasn’t the real rest.
There was a rest yet still to come, which exposes the— the arc of the biblical narrative kind of mirrors our lives. It exposes there is a way to have a break. You know, you could enter the Promised Land, you could have rest from war. You know, you can have a day off, you can have an easier season than all your previous seasons from the last 450 years. It could, it could feel like a break and calm and peace, and yet still you’re not really at rest.
It’s like us, we can take a vacation but not really cure the restlessness of our souls. You know, real, true, deep rest might still elude us. In fact, no matter how many days off we have, there are some of us that We are still going to feel stressed, anxious. We still feel busy, hurried. We might feel like we’re not enough, like we haven’t proven ourselves.
We have to work harder to make sure our future isn’t in jeopardy. Our souls can feel frantic, even if we’ve had a bunch of vacation. But God says there’s a real rest that we can enter into that remains available. So what is that? Since this is an abbreviated sermon, we’re just going to jump straight to the end.
The, the rest we can find is in the finished work of Christ, and the reason we don’t have it is because we work, we strive Not because we feel like it’s what God’s called us to do, what we can add to the world, how we can help those around us. That’s not really the real reason that we work. Instead, we work in order to provide for ourselves what can really only be provided by the finished work of Christ. We’re caught up in what Tim Keller calls the work beneath the work, you know, the why behind our work. We’re trying to give ourselves something that we can’t give ourselves, so it feels feels like a rat race because it is, because we will never arrive at the finish line.
I’ll give you some examples instead of talking abstractly. Let’s talk concretely. Some of us work, you know, we strive to climb the corporate ladder, right? But why are we doing that? For some of us, at least partially, the reason is because we want to make ourselves feel like we matter, like we’re somebody, like we’ve accomplished something.
You know, we’re significant because we’ve reached this level in the company. You know, we’ve we’ve made it, which we’re working to make ourselves feel like we’re worthy. That’s the work beneath the work. Others of us, you know, we’re not after, you know, a personal feeling of worth, but we work, we’re— we stress, we are frantic all the time, um, because we feel a need to control our circumstances. We think if we pay attention to enough details, we anticipate everything that might go wrong, then nothing will go wrong.
That’s why we work. We’re frantic about schedules and maybe cleaning and organizing. We want to protect against anything that might go wrong, control our world. That’s others of us. And then still others of us, we’re not after worth or control, but we work in order to make ourselves feel safe.
We think if we make ourselves indispensable to our team, well, then we’ll always have a job. If we have enough money in the bank, then we can weather any storm. It’s not so much about controlling circumstances to prevent storms. It’s more like we are trying to protect ourselves whenever a storm comes. What we’re after with our work is security.
See, there’s a work beneath the work.
Worth, control, security. That’s why we work. That’s the work beneath the work.
Um, we’re trying to give ourselves something that we really can’t give ourselves. And if you don’t believe me, that we are not able to provide these things for ourselves. Let me just ask you, how’s it going?
Do you feel like you’ve made it? Do you feel like you’re enough of a somebody? Is all of your inadequacy cured?
You know, you made it to the level, you were invited to the meeting, Great. Do you feel at rest, or are you worried about losing this worth that you’ve kind of attained? Are you worried about being found out that you don’t really belong there?
You’re not at rest. Don’t kid yourself. You didn’t provide yourself rest. What if you’re, uh, what if you’re the person who feels like you need to control all circumstances so that you can ensure that nothing’s gonna go wrong in your life. You work and you work and you’re neurotic about all the details to get everything in place.
How’s that going? Do you feel at rest ever?
Of course not. Of course you don’t feel at rest. You’re neurotic. You’re not at rest. What if you’re the person who works so that you can feel safe?
You know, you think, if I make enough, you know, if I make enough money, if you’re respected enough in your field, if you’re essential enough to your team, then you’ll never need to worry about being on the outside looking in, to be safe. How’s that going? Do you really never worry about what might happen? It’s comical, isn’t it? We, we know that working, our working at least, it does not produce rest.
It cannot produce rest.
So what does? These verses tell us there is a way to enter into God’s rest. Verse 10: Whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his work, as God did from his. Okay, great. What is God’s rest?
How do we enter into it? Well, twice in the Bible it says that God was finished with his work. The first was the creation narrative. The second was on the cross. So creation narrative, 7th day God rested from his work.
And that makes sense, you know, everything was perfect when, when God was done creating. All of the cosmos was in harmony. Everything was as it should be.
That’s rest.
But the world didn’t stay that way. Because we messed it up. We created discord, chaos, calamity, hatred, sin. The harmony God created was disturbed. So God goes back to work.
He began a project to put everything back together that was broken, and thus unfolds, you know, all of biblical history. But the climax of that history, the climax of his work, was on the cross. Where Jesus said, it is finished. This is the second time that God rested from his work, and this is the rest that we can enter into. We can safely assume this is the rest that the author of Hebrews refers to that’s still available to us to enter.
Because of the reason we know this is the rest he’s referring to is because of all the references of the Old Testament of this rest is yet— is still yet to come after creation, yet to come. After the law, you know, Sabbath required, it’s still yet to come. After Joshua goes into the land, yet to come. After King David, who’s quoted in these verses, after King David, it’s still yet to come. So it hasn’t happened yet.
But what happens after all of those events of biblical history? It’s when Jesus said, it is finished.
That’s when God rested for the second time, because he had now paid what was necessary to restore the brokenness of the world. It was the final act of his reclamation project, and it is how he provides everything we need to rest. Um, you know, for us Really, I mean, everything that we ultimately really need was provided through Jesus’ finished work on the cross. And it works like this, okay? Think back to the reasons why we might feel frantic in our work, and then let’s apply Jesus’ finished work to those reasons why we’re frantic.
So, you know, if, if we work because we need to feel worthy, you know, like we matter, like we’re somebody, if that’s the work behind our work. Do you realize what Jesus did for you on the cross provides a way for you to never feel unworthy again? Because he’s given you his worth, his status, while at the same time he took your inadequacy, your failure, your shortcomings. He did an exchange with you on the cross. He gave you you know, a throne in heaven while he took your seat in hell.
No matter how much you achieve, you’ll never have a higher status than a throne in heaven. And any failures that, you know, are in your future that’ll make you feel unworthy, whenever those happen, you say, those have been paid for, and I have my throne in heaven. If you feel that in your heart, you will be at rest.
You’ll know that you’re worthy. You won’t have the pressure to measure up. So what about control? If we work because we need to, you know, we need to make sure nothing goes wrong and we’re frantic, how does the cross apply to that? Listen, child of God, you realize on the cross Jesus took all the curses that you deserve, you know, all the punishment that you deserve, in a in a punitive sense.
Jesus stood in your place to bear that cost, which means, you know, God will never have any amount of wrath for you ever. He will always only be favorable to you in Christ. Whatever happens, he’s going to use it for your good because you get what Jesus deserves. So if God is always only going to be favorable to you, if he’s working all things for your good, All things for your good. What are— why are you worried about something going wrong?
He’s holding you in the palm of his hand. He’s never going to let you go. You’re okay.
You don’t need to be frantic and control everything to be okay. You’re already okay.
Christ finished it for you. You can rest. See, the cross provides real rest. Okay, lastly, just, you know, just from our few examples, what, what if we work because we need to feel safe? You know, we, we, you know, we work to make sure we have enough money in the bank so we’re sheltered from calamity.
We work so we’re indispensable from the team so we’ll never get fired. We’re frantic about, you know, making ourselves feel Safe. How do you apply the cross to that? Well, I mean, if you can reflect on the other things we’ve said— God will only ever be favorable to you, you have a throne in heaven— those things will help. But also, do you really want to feel safe?
The cross has already freed you from the ultimate danger: being cast out of the presence of God forever. You don’t need to worry about that. You don’t need to worry about the biggest thing that could ever possibly go wrong. Jesus has already taken care of it. And in fact, the cross guarantees a happy ending to your story.
At the end of our story with Christ, the end of the story is we’re going to live together with God in a recreated world where all sad things come untrue.
And nothing will change that. Whatever happens in the, in the meeting, whatever happens with your kids’ schedules, I mean, no matter what, in the end, we will live with God forever in a recreated world where all sad things come untrue. That is guaranteed. You are safe. Your future is safe.
Provided by what Jesus did on the cross.
The invitation is to enter into that rest.
If we do, the weight on our lives will be lifted.
No matter how many vacations you take, vacations will never provide that kind of rest. To lift the weight off of your life.
But Jesus will provide that rest. So place your hope in him and you’ll be free.
Let’s pray. Father, thank you, uh, that you have provided real, true rest, that through the cross you have given us everything that we really need. I pray that we would embrace what you have provided. May you increase our faith in Christ so that we will be free from needing to prove ourselves, we’ll be free from needing to control everything, we’d be free from feeling unsafe. Lord, free us by what you’ve done on the cross.
We pray those things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
