Exploring My Strange Bible - Book of Hebrews Part 3 - Invitation to Rest

Episode Date: December 18, 2017

In this episode, we dive into Hebrews Chapter 4. In the chapter, the pastor urges these followers of Jesus to remember a whole bunch of themes and stories from all over the Old Testament. He is going to recall the stories of Israel’s wilderness wanderings. They were on the way to the promised land, and he links the life that God wanted to give his people with the theme of Sabbath rest. The pastor then links this story to faith. Faith, by his definition, doesn’t mean you do nothing, but rather it means a sort of active or loyal trust.

Tim Mackey, Jr. utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 10 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith. And I hope this can be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called The Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology. You can find those resources at thebibleproject.com. With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week. All right. Well, this is going to be the third part of a series we're doing exploring the New Testament letter to the Hebrews. These were lectures and teachings I gave a number of years ago at Door of Hope Church when I served as a pastor there.

And here in this lecture, we're going to dive into Hebrews chapter 4, which is a man, just a powerful, every part of the sermon letter is powerful. Every part of the sermon letter is powerful. But here, the pastor is going to urge these followers of Jesus to remember a whole bunch of themes and stories from all over the Old Testament. He's going to recall the stories of Israel's wilderness wanderings and how they were on their way to the promised land. But then he links the life that God wanted to give his people in the promised land. He links it with the theme of Sabbath rest from Genesis chapter 1. And then he weaves all of that to pack this pastoral challenge to his audience about how faith is the way to enter into the promised rest that God wants to give his people. And faith for this pastor doesn't mean you do nothing, you sit back and do nothing, but rather it means this kind of active, loyal trust that informs all of your behavior as you trust in God to do for us what we can never do for ourselves. This is a very powerful theological theme. You can watch him doing these cool tracing theological themes all over the Old

Testament, but then running it through the story of Jesus and challenging the people of his day in the first century. And it's still a challenge to us here in the 21st century. So Hebrews 4, man, this is awesome. Let's dive in and learn together. and learn together. We are continuing on our series in the book of Hebrews. And so I invite you to get out your Bibles, if you have one, and turn with me to the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, Hebrews chapter three. As the months now begin to go by that we're diving into the book of Hebrews and we're like, well, was there ever a time when we weren't in Hebrews or whatever? So that's coming at some point eventually. And so it's okay. So we need to just remind ourselves of what's going on here from time to time. So we're exploring this book in the New Testament, one, because it's awesome, but two, because it's not just a letter.

You might have a letter to the Hebrews as you open the book of Hebrews, but in fact, it's a sermon. You might have a letter to the Hebrews as you open the book of Hebrews, but in fact, it's a sermon. It's an early Christian sermon, and it's written by a preacher, a pastor, who is anonymous. You'll recall. It doesn't say anywhere in the text who the writer or the preacher is. He's a pastor of a church, of an early Christian. It was almost certainly a home community, because that's all the early Christians had to gather in was homes. And he had a passionate, passionate, urgent message to communicate to them because he knows these people well. That's reflected in the letter. And he's concerned because this, this church that he's writing to, and I think also for us here at Door of Hope,

you know, just people are all over the map spiritually. And people have been believers for a long time, that he says, but they're not growing. Or some people feel stalled out in their faith. Others have been believers for a while, but they're facing persecution and they're beginning to wonder if all this is really worth it, this whole following Jesus thing. There are people in the church that he's pretty sure maybe think they're believers, but in reality they're not. And so what he does is he turns up the heat as he challenges them to really examine their hearts. But first and foremost, the main thing he does in the book is just talk about Jesus constantly. He just constantly talks about Jesus, exploring the character and the work of

Jesus on the cross and in his resurrection. And in so doing, he's just getting in our face. He's challenging us to remember, to pay attention, to focus. That's the big picture of what's going on here. And so last week, Josh, he brought us into chapter three. Now, just for the sake of time, we had to split chapters three and four into two weeks, like two different teachings. But in terms of content and flow of thought, it's just one big, like two different teachings. But in terms of like content and flow of thought, it's just one big long flow of thought. So we're kind of jumping in halfway in the middle

here. So if you're new or whatever, you weren't here last week, sorry, I'll try and make up for it. But we're just like, it's like watching a sequel movie without ever having seen the first one, you know what I'm saying? So that's kind of what's going on. How are you guys doing tonight? the first one, you know what I'm saying? So that's kind of what's going on. How are you guys doing tonight? I'm so, Josh, I don't know if you would ever say that, I'm so mystified by the 5 p.m. crew because I know, I know you're engaged, but the room is so chill. So, and I choose to interpret this as chill, not like bored out of your minds, you know what I'm saying? So, because that just helps me, like, do okay. So So you guys doing okay? You're on board with me? All right. So there you go. Signs of life. I love it. Okay. Feel free to do that often.

You know what I mean? Whenever I go like this or talk to you or whatever, you can laugh. If I make a joke, you can laugh. That's cool. So even if it's not funny, feel free to laugh. So that's okay. We'll talk about that again. So anyhow, so Hebrews chapter 3. So last week, Josh brought us into chapter 3. And what the author is doing, and he's Jewish, his audience is mostly Jewish. And so the way he's going to exalt Jesus and just write this expose on how awesome Jesus of Nazareth is, is to constantly compare him to people and figures and stories and things in the Old Testament scriptures. So he began chapter 3 last week by comparing Jesus to whom?

What key Old Testament figure? To Moses. To Moses. So look at the chapter 3, look at verse 5 with me. You remember, he says, Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's

house, not as a servant, but as a son. So it's this exaltation of Jesus over, not that Moses is bad, but that Moses himself and what he said was just pointing forward to what God was going to do in Jesus. Now, in bringing up Moses, this is not random. Nothing's random in the book of Hebrews. He's not just like, oh, I'm going to compare Jesus to, who should I do now? Oh, Moses, sure, why not? And he just kind of trots him out. That's not what's happening here.

When he brings Moses onto the stage to compare him with Jesus, this fits in with his larger plan of going through the story of the Old Testament scriptures and showing how every part, every person, every story in its own way pointed forward. And so when he says Moses, you're just supposed to have a whole storyline in your head. Like, oh yeah, Moses. He's this guy and here's what he did. And here's the whole story connected to Moses. Most of us, for better or worse, we don't have that story in our heads. Because we didn't grow up immersed in the scriptures the way the audience and the

author did. So Moses, the whole story connected to Moses. And I think at least for our purposes here in reading these chapters, we can kind of summarize the big picture. I've done it for us on the screen here. So Moses, the big thing he's connected to is the story of the Exodus, right? So Israelites are suffering in slavery. He's the little baby born, miraculously delivered and saved, you know, his life and so on. And he becomes this great deliverer. And through his agency, through his hands, through his prayers and his leadership, God accomplishes this great act of salvation, right? Leading the Exodus, leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. After the Passover night, the Passover lamb is slain, the people are spared

from the justice that he brings on Egypt. They go out into the wilderness, and the wilderness is a time of testing for the people. This is summarizing the storyline of the first five books of the Bible. Wilderness is a very tested, testing time for the Israelites. After the time of wilderness, Joshua takes leadership and he brings the people to rest in the promised land. Now, let me ask you a question. You may or may not know this if you've read through these parts of the Bible before, but was the time in the wilderness, was this happy, rosy, flowery memories as the people look back on the wilderness? No, this was a very dark, dark time in Israel's's story and it happens in a number of different

ways but the main story the author has in his mind and wants you to have in the forefront of your mind is that Moses was the one who led the people through the time of rebellion in the wilderness so the people were in the wilderness the whole goal was to get them into the promised land and so they send out spies how How many spies do they send? As you might know, there's 12 spies, one for each of the tribes of Israel. And so the spies go into the land, the land of Canaan. And so they kind of check out the land or whatever.

Okay, here's who's living here. I guess this is what God's going to have to do. And so they come back to the people and they say, what do they say? What does 10 out of 12 say? They say, we're done for. Like, we're going to get eaten alive. Literally, they say, we're going to be like little grasshoppers, little bugs who are going to get stepped on and eaten

if we try and go into the land. The people who are in the land, they're powerful, they're strong, they're going to crush us. And then they rebel against Moses. They're like, why did you bring us out of Egypt? They start saying, we want to go back to Egypt. They want to replace Moses. What do you think you're doing, leading us out here into the wilderness and so on?

It's a great act of rebellion in the wilderness. And so here's what happens in the story. Then God says, essentially, to the people, he says, all right, you don't believe in my promises. You don't believe that I can take you into my rest, into the promised land. You don't want to go, then you don't have to. You don't have to. And so he lets that generation, the Exodus generation, just die off in the wilderness. And it's their children who get to go in.

That's the story that he is summarizing here as he goes on to the next part. Look at verses 7 through 11 with me. He says, therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today if you hear his voice, don't harden your hearts as in the rebellion on the day of testing in the wilderness. That's the story that he's talking about here. The spies and the people rejecting God's promises and not going into the promised land. He said, they saw my works for 40 years. Therefore, I was provoked with that generation and said, they're always going astray in their hearts. They have not known my ways. And so as I swore in my wrath. They will not enter my rest. And so that generation dies off in the wilderness. It's their children who get to go in. So what the author's doing, he's telling you the story,

and he's saying Jesus is superior to Moses, and the people in the wilderness rebelled against Moses, people in the wilderness rebelled against Moses and they faced the consequences. The larger underlying kind of challenge here then, if Jesus is greater than Moses, if that's what happened to people who rejected Moses, then what's going to happen if we reject the message that comes through Jesus? See, that's the challenge. That's where it starts to get in your face here. And so go to end of verse 16 with me. We're going to go into chapter four here into new territory. He says, who was it that heard and yet rebelled? It wasn't those who left Egypt led by Moses. Those who, they experienced God's redemption and salvation, but yet they rebelled later on. These were the same people who saw him thump on the Egyptians. And these are the very people who totally rebelled

against the same God and against Moses. Who was it, let's see, with whom was he provoked for 40 years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?

So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. Now up to this point, the author is just telling the story. Here's a story from the Old Testament scriptures. But the reason he's telling you this story, and really the reason anytime you're reading the story is in the Old Testament.

Yes, they're about ancient people in faraway places who have names that are hard to pronounce. Okay, sure. That's fine. But no story in the Old Testament was preserved and told and retold and retold just for like interest in ancient history. The biblical authors preserve and tell these stories because we are meant to find our story in them.

And so the author of Hebrews, he retells the story of Moses, Exodus, the wilderness generation, because he wants us to see ourselves in that same storyline. So he goes on and he says, chapter four, he says, 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 the good news came to us just as it came to them. But the message they heard did not benefit them because they were not united by faith with those who listened. Some of you might have a different translation that says something like the message did not benefit them because it was not combined with faith for those who heard the message. There's

a difficulty in like translation, boring Greek detailed stuff you don't care about. No matter how it's translated, the message is basically the same. There's the good news was announced to them. You can enter into God's rest. He saved you by his grace out of slavery. He wants to bring you into his promised rest. And what did they do? They didn't believe. They didn't believe. And so they missed out on what God had for them. And do you see this here? The author wants us to see that we are on a similar journey. The author wants us to see that we are on a similar journey. That in the past, there is the great act of salvation, right?

The great exodus accomplished not by Moses, but by his superior, by Jesus, whose death on the cross was like the Passover lamb. And we take the bread and the cup during worship, right? We're remembering the last supper that Jesus had, the night that he was betrayed. And what traditional Jewish meal was Jesus celebrating that night? It was the Passover. He was saying there is a new exodus about to take place in his death and in his resurrection. And so now, post Jesus' death and resurrection, we are in this period of wilderness where we're invited to trust in God's promises, to hold fast to them, and it's hard.

It's a time of testing. Following Jesus is hard. Can I get an amen? You know what I mean? So that's where you respond now. Okay, all right, good. So it's hard. It's not simple.

It's complex, and it's just difficult because our hearts are so screwed up. But we're invited to hold fast until God brings us into all that he intends for us, into the rest that he has for us. And that just opens big questions then. Well, what is the rest? He says the promise of rest is still standing. So I thought the rest was the promised land.

Well, no, apparently it's something bigger. What is the rest that he invites us into? We'll get to that in just a couple of minutes here. But I just want to focus, I want to camp out here on verse two, because this is very powerful, what he's getting at here. Look at what he says again. He says, we, just like the wilderness generation, we know of God's great salvation accomplished through Jesus. He says, we've had the good news proclaimed to us too. For them, it was God wants to redeem you out of slavery and bring you into the grace gift of his promised land. For us who are listening to the word through Jesus, it's this great act of salvation where Jesus, he came and

announced that God's kingdom has come among us to set things right, to put all things right that we have done wrong. He absorbs into himself the pain and the evil and the guilt just of all the mess that we make with our lives. He takes the hit for us and he lets it do it worse to him. It takes him to the grave. But in the resurrection of Jesus, he shows that his passion and his love for broken, messed up, sinful people like us is stronger than our sin. It's stronger than death. And so he offers us, in his resurrection, he offers us life and grace in the present and in the time to come. We've had the good news announced to us. But look what he says right here.

He says the message, it was no use. The message didn't benefit them because it wasn't combined with faith or with belief. And so before we get to exploring the whole rest of that, I think we just actually need to camp out here because he wants us to see our own hearts reflected in the story of that wilderness generation. We have fickle hearts. And belief is actually a much more involved thing than we tend to think it is. To simply sit among the community of God's people and to hear the message, that should not for one second trick any of us into thinking that we actually believe it. It just means that we hear it. It doesn't mean you believe it. And so how do you know whether you believe it that's the question he wants you to get

asking and you know whether you believe it how how well they show by their actions that they didn't believe and just flip that coin over then how do you show that you believe through your actions and so this is a tricky thing, because in the Bible, faith and belief has a much more profound meaning than most of us tend to think it does, or whatever. So in the Bible, belief, to say I believe something, we can throw that around so carefully. Sure, I believe that, whatever. The Cubs are gonna win the World Series one day.

Oh, I believe that, or whatever, I don't know. So I'm not a baseball fan, but apparently it's been 100 years or something like that. I don't know. So, I'm not a baseball fan, but apparently it's been a hundred years or something like that. I don't know. So, we might throw this around, whatever. We might think of belief as like mental assent to just, okay, sure, I acknowledge that fact or whatever. You know, the moon is made out of rock or something like that. Great, I believe that. Sure. But there's no commitment there. Who cares if the moon is made out of rock? Whatever. That doesn't affect anything. So, if the moon is made out of rock? Whatever. That doesn't affect anything. So when the Bible talks about belief, when it says they were disqualified because of their unbelief, they failed to enter into what God had for them.

There's much more going on here, and we need to do some heart searching on this. Josh said it beautifully last week, a great little line. He said, in the Bible, faith is manifested in faithfulness. In other words, it's not just mental assent. It's actually internalizing the truth of something to the degree that it actually begins to reshape how I see reality and think about things and I act on it. Belief and faith is about action that shows that I've truly internalized and believed it. I've been helped here by an author I've just found really helpful. His name's Michael Novak, and he's a philosopher, which means most of what he writes is impenetrable, right? But, you know, he writes things from time to time that are good for, like, the rest of us.

He's a political philosopher. Super interesting, super interesting guy he writes things from time to time that are good for, like, the rest of us. He's a political philosopher. Super interesting, super interesting guy. He was an ambassador to the UN Human Rights Commission. And he's a believer. And he's just a fascinating, fascinating guy. He wrote a little book called Belief and Unbelief. And he talks about three kinds of belief, three kinds of faith, that in terms of, whatever, in our day-to-day life, things that are characterized. I believe that. I believe. What's happening when we say we believe in something?

And so he talks about three different kinds. He talks about public convictions. You should see them here. And that's what I say I believe. He talks about our private convictions, which is what I actually think I believe. So our public convictions are things that we're happy to talk about and say that I believe. And it's because we are all our own, you know, favorite PR agent, so to speak, whatever. And so I want to manage your perception of me. I want you to think certain things about me and I want to come off a certain way. And so I'm going to say that I believe and I think certain things or whatever. But if you want to know what I actually believe, don't listen to my words. And I'm not going to listen to your words, you know, because talk is cheap. That's why. And I'll say all kinds of

things to make you think certain things about me. And so the next layer that's a bit down deeper then is our private convictions. And even these are unreliable, Novak says, because we like to think about ourselves much more highly than is really true. You know what I'm saying? So I might like to think that I truly believe it's good to be more generous to others, even sacrifice, even when it hurts or whatever. Oh, that's such a noble thing to believe. I believe that. Of course I do. You know? But then circumstances arise where that belief is tested, and then you find out that your private beliefs are even unreliable because you find yourself being stingy and selfish and not wanting to give away your stuff or your

resources. And you're like, oh, I guess I don't actually believe that, do I? And he said, so our So our public beliefs can be bogus. Our private beliefs are fickle. But our core beliefs, we never deviate from our core beliefs. Our core beliefs is like our default mode. It shows what we believe by just how you live. If you want to know what I believe, don't listen to me. Watch my life. Look at the choices that I make. If you want to know what you believe, don't look at what you tell yourself. Study your behavior. That's how you find out what

you believe. Oh, I actually think I'm the most important person in the world and I don't like to give away my stuff to anybody. That's actually what I believe if you look at my behavior, you know what I'm saying? And so he just explores, it's this crazy thing where the gap between what we say we believe and what we think we believe and what we actually believe, you know, I don't know, for you, for probably different areas of our lives, some it's here and some we're like,

here's a huge gap or whatever. It's constantly vacillating and so on. And so I think this is something of what the author of Hebrews is getting at. He's saying, listen, these people, they sang God's praises when they came out of Egypt. Exodus 15, they have a hoedown, you know, to praise Yahweh who delivered them out of Egypt. And so they worship, they build the tabernacle, they're entering into worship of Yahweh. Okay, they believe in him, but when it comes down to it, a choice they have to make, believe in him. But when it comes down to it, a choice they have to make, venturing out to take a step of faith that scares them, that goes against their instincts or whatever, no, no way are we

going to go into that land. No chance. There's no way God is able. And it shows what they actually believe. And so what God, what the author of Hebrews is getting at is very powerful. He says, and so what God, what the author of Hebrews is getting at is very powerful. He says, the message, hearing the message, being, sitting in a community of people where we say, yeah, Jesus is cool, isn't he? That's, you know, that's great. That doesn't actually mean anything. What means something is, how does my life reflect this core commitment and allegiance to Jesus? Because our own view of ourselves is terribly, terribly unreliable. And this, I debated whether to tell this story, but I'm going to. It makes me look horrible.

But I think it's good. Because it's precisely the kind of thing that we do with what the author of Hebrews is saying here. We are in a community of those who believe. And we say we believe certain things. But in reality, our core convictions are very different. So one of the things that I noticed after moving back to Portland, so I was gone almost 10 years, and I grew up here in Southeast,

so we're living in kind of upper division, and I was just so pleasantly surprised, living in East Portland here, to find how pedestrian friendly the streets are. Anybody? Like, just people stop for you. Has this been your experience? People stop for you when you go out on the street.

It's unbelievable. So, and I don't remember this from growing up. It's just really uncanny. And so, you know, you just, whatever, it doesn't need to be a crosswalk even. You just kind of make, you're looking out here and you make it clear that you're looking across and the cars just stop.

It's just unbelievable. And so I was like, great, what a wonderful town where people do this for you. So after just being here a few weeks, I invited a friend or I had a friend up here. He was from California. So I was telling him about this. I was like, this city is so great. You know, it's part of town. People stop for you, you know. I love this. And he was like, really? So we were testing it out. We were on Upper Hawthorne. And so we were just walking. And we were just walking. And he just makes, he just kind of makes a little turn. It's the middle of Upper Hawthorne.

You know, his car's going. And he just takes two steps out. Just, it was just, he was not crossing the street. He just wanted to see. And so he just gets out into the street. And what happens? Like, lo and behold, the cars stop for him. And I was just like, this is the coolest city ever. I love this.

You know, I love being a part of a community that does this and so on. Okay, wait, so the punchline's coming. So two weeks ago, my wife and I were driving to somewhere. And so we're on seventh, between seventh division and Hawthorne. You know that stretch down there? It's kind of a wide street. It's four lanes and a, so two lanes each direction and a center lane. But it's not a very busy part if you've ever driven that strip there. It's just not a big thoroughfare. And so it's like the evening, and we're driving, and I'm the only car right now on this stretch between Hawthorne Division,

and there's one pedestrian. And he's about two blocks off. And so he starts walking into the street. And by my mental timing, if he were to walk, And he's about two blocks off. And so he starts walking into the street. And by my mental timing, if he were to walk, and even walk a little faster, if he sees a little car coming, he'd be totally fine. He'd be totally fine. But here's what happened.

This guy had a swagger. So he had a swagger, and he saw me coming. He knew I was coming. And so I could just tell. He's a young guy, whatever, and he was just started slow, almost walking leisurely as he got directly in front of me to purposefully be there when I reached him. You know what I'm saying, and so in that moment, I just see this guy, and he's just looking right at me, just like, you know what I mean, as he walks in front of my car, and so it just kind of, I don't know, it flipped something in me. I was like, this punk, whatever, come on, he can totally, he can totally hurry up and go across the street. He just needs to hurry up a little bit, and so I maintain my speed. I don't, I don't even give any sign of slowing

down. I'm so sorry. I feel like such a failure. And so it eventually became clear that I had to slow down or else something bad was going to happen. So I did. It wasn't dangerous or anything, but it was clearly a showdown. And so I just gave it to him. And so I just come right up to him, whatever. I'm kind of slow and come right up to him. And he just starts laying into me.

He's a young guy calling me every name in the book. Don't you know what city you are in? It was this horribly, horribly unpleasant experience. And so, you know, whatever. I kind of go around and we go on. And so my wife, God bless her, she was just like, why did you do that? Like, why? What was inside of you?

And I was like, I don't know. Could you see this wagger? And she was just like so annoying. And then came this line. Here's why I like so annoying. And then came this line. Here's why I'm telling this story. Then came this line. Then she said, weren't you just the other day talking to Brian and telling me about how much you love how pedestrian friendly this part of town is?

And what do I have to say in that moment? I don't have anything to say. I'm totally caught. I love to talk and publicly proclaim what a pedestrian-friendly this part of town. I even like to think that I believe that this is a pedestrian-friendly part of town. But do I actually believe it?

Before that night? So no, my actions betray my false faith. That's the thing. And I was just caught red-handed. So now I'm trying. I'm working on that one. You know what I mean? But so you guys, we all have our own version of this.

You know what I'm saying? I like to say and make people think, oh, what a wonderful, so pedestrian-friendly. Oh, yes, I believe in Jesus. Or yes, whatever. I even, you even begin to believe yourself that you believe and are committed to certain things. But when you actually study your behavior, you don't believe it at all.

And neither do I. And so this is what the author is inviting us into. He's saying these people had a public experience of God's grace, of his salvation. They proclaimed his praises in the wilderness. Do they actually believe when it comes down to it? There's a moment they have to make a decision? No, they don't. They don't.

And because their actions betray their false faith, they miss out on everything God has for them. This is the punch in the gut of Hebrews chapter four. And so he says, while the promise of God's rest still remains, we should take note. He says, let us fear, lest any of us should seem to have failed to reach it. Now, he's not talking about somehow like pulling up your moral bootstraps and earning your salvation or something like that. He's saying, God has accomplished our salvation.

What's your response going to be? Is it a response of faith? And not just this mental ascent, like let's get around and like just, hey, we all believe it. When it comes to it, are you really grasping onto God's grace that's been revealed to you in Jesus?

Are you holding onto it? You're purposing to be faithful to show that I have faith. That's the challenge. It's the challenge. And if my false faith is exposed, what do I miss out on? What are the stakes? We miss out on entering into his rest, which is a whole difficult, complex thing that let's jump into right now, shall we? Okay. Let's look at verse three. He says, we who believe, we who have faith, and by here, I think he means biblical faith is when my private, my public, and my core convictions are all aligned, where there's no gap, where they're

all aligned. He says, we who believe enter into that rest. As he said, and here quotes Psalm 95 again, as I swore in my wrath, they, they who did not believe, will not enter my rest. What is the rest? And what does it mean that by unbelief I'm going to miss out on God's rest that he has for me? So rest. So the rest was a very common image in the Old Testament scriptures to refer to the land, the rest in the promised land. So I talked about this a little earlier. There's one passage here just in Deuteronomy chapter 12 that kind of makes it clear. This is Moses talking to the people. And he says, you have not yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. But when you go over the Jordan,

and when you live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, he will give you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety. So rest originally refers to the land of Canaan, modern-day Israel, Israel-Palestine. So if we want to enter into God's rest, we all need to buy plane tickets, apparently, right? So I go there, right? So no, obviously not, obviously not. There's something much deeper here, much more profound. Look at what he says here. Whose rest were the Israelites invited to enter into? What does he say here? They shall not enter into what?

My rest. The rest of this passage is going to turn into an exploration. What does it mean that people are invited into God's rest? Has anyone maybe ever read another passage in the Bible about God resting before? Everything's intentional. Not a sentence or word is unintentional. God resting.

Anybody. Anybody. The Genesis chapter 1. So he says, As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. Although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. In other words, God's rest was accomplished long, long before the people ever went through the wilderness and into the promised land. What is my rest? What is going on here?

Verse four, for he has spoken somewhere about the seventh day in this way. This is what I like about the book of Hebrews. So he just assumes you know what passage he's talking about. So he just says, I know somewhere, somewhere. And it's like, where is that somewhere? Oh, the first chapter of the Bible. Okay, sure. Right. That's somewhere. So he said somewhere about the seventh day and then quote from Genesis chapter one, and God rested on the seventh day from all of his works. So the psalm says, the psalm itself, the poet in Psalm 95 is giving us a hint here that the promised land wasn't just, wasn't the ultimate thing that people were invited into. It's a picture. What they were actually invited to is

to experience God's own rest. And where do we find out about God's own rest? Well, the first chapter of the Bible. So what does it mean that God rests? And here we get invited into Genesis chapter one, which is just a whole teaching and world of awesomeness, but we don't have any time for it. So Genesis chapter one depicts, it's an ancient Israelite cosmology. It's a world origins story. And in particular, ancient world origins stories were focused on the who and on the why of why this world is the way that it is. And so, God is depicted as this royal architect laying out his plans. And particularly, the creation is depicted as this cosmic temple where his presence fills the creation and these image-bearing creatures, these humans, serve and

worship him. They're like priests and so on. It's a very cool way that the chapter is set up. And it's this seven-day framework or whatever. And there's just a can of worms here that I'm not going to open for you, okay? So, but whatever's happening with the seven days, it's this framework, right? That God, he produces these patterns and laws and functioning processes of creation. And then in the second three days, he fills those processes and places with inhabitants and birds and creatures and so on. It's just amazing, amazing depiction. And then, so these work for six days. And there's something very curious about each of the six days in Genesis chapter one. Each one concludes with a little notice, a little mark. It says there's evening and there was morning the first day. Evening, there's morning the second day.

Evening, morning, the third day. That's how the chapter is structured. But you come to the seventh day. God completes his work and he's stoked on it. He says it was very good. And he rests from all his work, right, as quoted here, because it was very good. And there's no little notice about the conclusion of the seventh day. And what most people think is happening here is the author has depicted this grand kind of tapestry of all creation as God's cosmic temple. And at the very end of his work, he enjoys it with his rest.

He enjoys his work. He rests from his work. And that rest, that divine rest and enjoyment of God's good world did not end. It's ongoing. did not end. It's ongoing. To live in God's good world is to live in a world where God is at rest

and inviting us into his rest. Seems to be what's happening here in Genesis 1 and what the author is locking onto. God's rest was available long before the promised land ever came onto the scene. And that's the rest

that God's people are invited into. Let's keep reading here. This is the point that he makes here, verse six. He says, since it remains for some to enter into the rest, and since those who formerly received the good news, they failed to enter into it because of their disobedience, he again appoints a certain day, calling it today, and saying through David so long afterwards, in the words already quoted, Psalm 95,

today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Now, just listen, put this together. If Joshua had given them rest, in other words, if the promised land was really the ultimate rest the people were invited into, then God would not have spoken of another day later on. So he's saying Psalm 95 was written hundreds of years after the people already came into the promised land. And it's talking about another rest that not just the past generation, but that every generation is available to enter into. In fact, it's available as long as it can be called today. And whatever that rest is, it's something that transcends just like something we can point out on a map.

It's about something that God experienced at the foundations of history that's perpetually open to experience and that will be experienced at the conclusion of history. So this is part of the author's way of viewing the Old Testament. Everything in the Old Testament is a symbol or a pointer or a signpost pointing forward. And so here's the cash out here. I think this is such a brilliant description. Verse 9, he says,

So then, here we go. You want to know what it means to enter into God's rest? So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered into God's rest. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered into God's rest also rests from his own works just as God did from his. That makes everything clear, doesn't it? So this is a great depiction. He says, imagine, imagine how many of you have been a part of a Jewish Sabbath meal before? Okay, so a handful, handful of it. It's a great time, right? Because the whole idea is that the rhythm of our week imitates the rhythm of God's good world. And so we work, we produce, we pour our hardest creative energies into our work and so on, into our families. But then at a certain point, we

stop and we rest. And we say, to live in God's world is not just about production. It's about enjoyment. It's about receiving the gift of God's good world and his grace. It's resting. And so you have a huge party, lots of good wine and lots of good food every Friday night. So that's the point of the Sabbath, to remind yourself of that. And so he says there remains, as he looks forward into the rest that God invites us into, it's like experiencing this ongoing Sabbath celebration, party, where you rest in the goodness of God's grace and in his own rest. And you rest from your works. So what does this mean here? Some of you are like, just get to the point.

Is the rest, is heaven? Is it heaven? And is it that I don't go to heaven if I don't believe? Is that what he's saying here? Well, no, if he wanted to say that, he would have just said that. And so here's the trick with the book of Hebrews, is that he tells a story. He knows that he has people all over the map spiritually in his church, just like there are right here. People have been believers a long time, and they're tired. People have been persecuted. People who are maybe believers, but in fact, they just say they believe, and they just think they believe, but actually look at their life and their behavior. They don't believe at all. There may be people in all the spectrum in between that. And so to challenge every one of these groups, he retells the story of Exodus and wilderness and of the rest.

And for different ones of us, it might have a different challenge. For those of us who actually, when we think about it, we think, yeah, I just kind of like to say I believe in Jesus. But in reality, if I look at my behavior, I know I actually don't. Then to you, this storyline and these images are going to be a very powerful challenge. Because it's like, holy, am I just tricking myself? Am I just kidding myself? Am I actually just paying lip service to this whole religion thing? And the fact is, is I'm going to lose out in the end because I don't really believe. This is all just a show for other people. And so to you, this, the meaning of the rest might have a different significance

than for another one of you. You're a believer a long time. You know that you're holding fast to God's grace, but he wants you to experience the experience of his salvation in the present and the rest that comes from not having to work for your salvation. And you're waffling on that.

You're trying to do this all on your own energy and your own gumption. And so to you, the image might have a different significance. I think that's why the author does never come out and spell out what he says very clearly. How you guys doing? So that's my view. You might disagree with me, whatever.

So that's okay. I don't think I'm wrong, but I'm open to being wrong. But I really think that's what the author's doing. He never comes out and spells it out. Look what he says in verse 11. It's very powerful, and this wraps everything together as he concludes. He says, let us strive to enter that rest so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. Did anyone get the joke? There's a little pun here. Did you get it?

In verse 11? Strive to enter what? Wait, I thought the rest is supposed to be rest from your striving. So this paradox here. You strive to enter into this rest that God has for you. So this rest points to our experience in the present,

but also in the future of the gift of God's grace that have accomplished salvation for us. And once you get that, once you internalize the gospel, you begin to live your whole life in a place of confidence and of rest. But it takes work to maintain that mindset and that focus on Jesus, anybody. It takes work.

And so here's the fact is that I can miss out on the rest that God wants me to experience in the present because I'm not striving and working to maintain the rest. You know what I'm saying? Jesus has done his work for me. I can rest in that, but then I shift into all kinds of different modes or whatever. I think, oh, I need to, oh, maybe God actually doesn't really like me. I need to make him happy. Whatever, I need to read my Bible and pray more, whatever,

be a good person. And you slip into the different mode and all of a sudden you've lost out on the rest that God wants you to experience. So he says, strive, maintain your your focus and this fits with the theme of the whole book pay attention to jesus he's inviting you into an experience of salvation and rest don't miss out on it examine your heart whether you just say publicly or whether you just think that you believe or whether you actually believe and you're acting and grasping onto Jesus in light of that. Now, let me just name something in the room right now as we look at the last sentences here. So, there's some of us when we hear this and we just feel nailed, you know? We're like, I totally am just giving lip service to this whole Jesus thing. Or you think about the last week, the choices that you made, the ways you treated the people that you're in relationships

and you go, you know what, man? If I look at my behavior, I'm not sure I actually say I believe. Look at my behavior. Do I actually live like what I say I believe in Jesus? And some of us, we're nailed when that issue comes up. And the author knows that's gonna happen when he begins exposing unbelief in our hearts.

And so look at how he concludes. He says, verse 12, he says, For the word of God is living, it's active, it's sharper than any two-edged sword. It's piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow. It discerns the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight. We are all naked and exposed before the eyes of the one to whom we must give an account. You almost feel like you need a dun-dun-dun-dun music. Whoa, holy cow. So here's the thing. When we hear the story of the gospel when our hearts are exposed

the author's saying pay attention to that and i would challenge you pay attention to that because what's happening is that some something happens when we tell the story of the gospel and when our brokenness is exposed before the one to whom we have to give an account. And it's like the gospel has a way of working itself past all of our lip service into the motives and intentions of our hearts, like a scalpel, like a sword, he says. It just gets in there. And you go, holy cow, the gap between what I say I believe

and what I actually believe is so wide, there's no hope for someone like me. And so how you respond to the powerful working of God's word in your life, it's very important. It's very important. When he says that it's searching and that it gets into your heart, that's not bad news.

That's actually good news. It's good news. Because when my failure and when my sin and when the huge gap between what I say I believe and what I actually believe, when that's exposed, that's a chance for me to once again have faith in the gospel. How I respond in the moment like that

shows whether or not I really believe the gospel. And I say, you know what? All I can do amidst the fickleness and the brokenness of my heart is to hold fast to Jesus and what he accomplished for me and to reenter the rest that I can have that he invites me into

because of his love and his grace for me. And so that may be where some of us are at. And so as we close and we kind of enter into our time of worship, I just encourage some of us just need to sit with the passage in front of us. Some of us need to do some real heart searching about our public proclamation of what we believe or what I'd like to make myself think I believe, but what I actually

believe based on my behavior. And so some of us need to just have a come to Jesus moment as we enter into worship. Some of us need to remember as we take the bread and the cup to experience the grace of what he accomplished on the cross and in his resurrection for us. Guys, thanks for listening to Exploring My Strange Bible podcast. We're going to keep rocking the letter to the Hebrews. There's so much here to learn and so much here to live in the light of. And so hope you have a great day or evening or morning, whatever time of day it is for you. And we'll see you next time.