Given 21 August 2020
To watch this talk given live in Sydney, click here.
Lesson Four: Rest in the Lord: A call to unity of faith
I’d like to welcome each of you today as we study and learn together again from the letter to messianic Jews written before the destruction of the Temple in AD 70. Today we study chapter 4, and if you haven’t yet read it, please, those of you on YouTube, pause the playback, read the chapter, and then press play again to re-join us. Thanks.
Welcome back.
The author is going to spend this chapter asking, appealing to the believers to whom he’s writing, to join together in a series of ‘let us’ charges. It’s almost as if the author is a national speaker at a political convention, saying “We can change” or “Let’s press on” or “Come on, everybody, it’s time for something again!” Not quite a cheerleader, but an enthusiastic supporter of everyone to do the right thing. And this enthusiasm is based on two things: 1) the pastoral love the author has for the believers and 2) the promises of the Lord which are yet unfulfilled. We see the word “promise” used 18 times in this letter, and in today’s section, we see it used for the first time. If God promised something, and we don’t yet have it, the author says, “Come on, mate, let’s work to get it. Look around you. Grab onto it. It’s YOURS!”
That hortatory cry is an appeal and one which we want to be careful to make real. We also want to be those who hear that, who listen to what is said, and respond in the faith God desires. Let’s open today’s text and see what the Lord has to say to us as 21st Century people.
If you are a lawyer or a logician, you will see four ‘therefore’s’ in today’s chapter (4.1, .6, .11, .16), and feel very comfortable. It’s obviously a series of points and follow on points so that we can get where the author wants us to go—which is to the idea of REST.
Let’s start with verse one.
1. Warning #3: Fear lest we fall short of God’s rest
Let us fear. That’s not a usual opening in conversation in modern days. We want fear to subside. Our government is assuring us daily about COVID and fearlessness, that is, that if we all do the right thing, and comply with restrictions, then the virus will go away. We will be safe. You don’t usually hear leaders open their press conference with “Let us fear.” But that’s exactly how today’s episode begins. Why? It’s a warning about not entering into rest.
God wants us to know him personally and find a sense of peace and assurance in his presence. That’s titled “rest” in these chapters.
There is a standard preposition ‘kata’ which is used throughout koine, that is, ancient Greek, and certainly with frequency in Hebrews. Kata means ‘down’ usually, like thrown down or brought down or it can be a reference to motion or related to a place or related to time or a succession of things following one another. It’s a multi-use preposition to be sure. And it’s in the word for ‘rest’ in today’s reading and ‘veil’ later in the letter which caught my eye.
The word katapausis translates the Hebrew menucha hjwnm often in the LXX. I want you to notice the direction implied in the Greek that doesn’t show up in the Hebrew. The word katapausis means the rest, the state of being blessed, the place where God dwells and the promise that this blessedness is available to humanity. Last week the author quoted Psalm 95, saying ‘today if you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts as you did in the Wilderness,” and then calls us to enter God’s rest. This rest is directionally from above and shared with us down here in a ‘putting to rest’ from heaven to us. That tells me this idea is directionally ‘heaven to earth’ and is not earth to heaven. How significant is that to religionists in these days or any day! Paul wrote to Titus saying, it’s “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he (God) saves us, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.” (3.5-6) God gave us salvation and life and we didn’t earn it. We still cannot earn it.
So, the ‘rest’ is a promise. It was a promise to Joshua and to Moses and to the wilderness people. When King David wrote about this rest 500 years after Moses and the Exodus people died, this rest was still available. Listen to how the author addresses this still remaining.
Verses 2-3: They heard the word, but it did not profit them, (why?) because it was not united by faith in those who heard.
This could be confusing. Didn’t the Jewish people enter Canaan and thus the rest promised in the Exodus? No, says the author. If the rest remained in King David’s day, then Joshua had not supplied it. Joshua even reminded our people (1.13) to go in and take the land and thus receive rest.
Moses had heard the word of the promise (Exodus 33.14, Deut. 3.20, 5.33, 12.10) and passed that word on to the Jewish people, but we didn’t get it then. We didn’t enter into it in Joshua’s day. Nor in King David’s day.
According to William Lane “Jewish teachers of the early second century debated, on the basis of Numbers 14:35 and Psalm 95:11, whether the oath of God excluding the desert fathers from entrance into his rest implied their exclusion from participation in the age to come at the consummation of redemption (Sanh. 13:10 [Zuck. 435]; Sanh 110b [Baraitha]; Sanh 10.29c [Baraitha]; AbotRNat 36; cf Hofius, Katapausis, 44–47, 52).”
2. Warning #4: Let us strive to enter rest
Listen, the author says again and again… ‘let us take care” (3.12), “let us fear” (4.1), “let us labour to enter that rest.” (4.9) There’s that borderline cheerleader telling us to work together. Let us fear. Let us labour.
WAIT a minute… labour to enter rest? How is that even possible? Didn’t I already explain that the rest is something which is given top down? How can we possibly labour in the sense of earning this rest? The NASB translates the word ‘labour’ to ‘let us be diligent’ and is used throughout the NT to mean endeavour or make haste, even exert oneself.
Does that confuse you?
What is the author saying? DON’T LET ANYONE BE LEFT OUT. Work to bring each other along. This is not a private religion. It’s for all Messianic Jews to care for one another and to labour together that no one should be left out. Note that in verse 11, so that ‘no one will fall’
One more thing on this warning #4 in the book. The Greek for ‘be diligent’ is spoudaswmen gives us the English word "speedy" and tells us to speed on to do something. Don't let anyone delay you. Be diligent and keep going.
The idea of faith and work to rest… Yeshua had already hinted at that in John’s Gospel when asked by the disciples about doing God’s work. Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” (6.29)
Belief, or we should say, exercising our faith, that’s the way to perform God’s work in these days.
And the author says that’s how to enter rest. Look at verse 1. Don’t come short of it. Verse 2: They didn’t enter rest due to unbelief. Verse 3: We who believe have entered that rest.
3. The 2nd therefore (verse 6): An eternal Shabbat
The Wilderness folks died out without entering the rest of the Lord due to their disobedience. That’s why in verse 9 we see ‘there remains a Sabbath rest for God’s people.” This is not the same Greek word for rest. It’s the word ‘Sabbaton’, almost a transliteration of the Hebrew and now into English. Shabbat matters to us as Jews throughout our history, and I imagine most of you who are Jews on this zoom call or who watch this YouTube will take tonight being Erev Shabbat off and tomorrow will rest in one way or another. The author is saying something MORE than that weekly Sabbath.
The author is describing heaven’s rest, from all our earthly troubles. Eternal rest it might be said. There is a long-ranged rest in view. This is the inheritance. This is the fulfilled promise. And how do we enter that rest?
The Word of God (verse 12) described this and in a way it’s a nickname for Yeshua himself! (Revelation 19.13) It’s more than the Bible, for sure, it’s the word applied to our lives. That word is able to divide body, soul and spirit and judge us. That certainly sounds like a person—like Yeshua!
Now those of us who are living 2,000 years since this book was written have the word of God, the Bible, and we put our faith in the Messiah who is evidenced there again and again. His work on Calvary, in dying for humanity and in rising from the dead to enact our redemption, is what I trust. My rest if not based on my accomplishments in religion. It’s top/down now. It’s what God did that makes me able to rest. IF I WILL TRUST HIM. And, my friends, I do even now.
Who is this one whom I trust? Yes, he’s the word (v. 12) and by being laid bare to his eyes, Jewish believers have to realize who is #1.
That’s a scary phrase, “laid bare.” Like you are exposed on a doctor’s surgical table. You are there and only the doctor can slice and cause the surgery to go well. The doctor can cause healing and health and restoration, by that ‘laid bare’ reality.
4. The challenge is to whom will we yield our lives? (The 3rd therefore)
Sometimes I have been surrounded by hostile Jewish crowds. I remember a scene at Brooklyn’s Long Island University 35 years ago when I was being hit again and again by an angry Jewish man. I kept turning away from him and loudly proclaiming “This man is mad that Jesus wants you to know the love of God. This man wants to prevent you from knowing the Living God.” And other quick statements of God’s love. A crowd grew and I remember eventually the young man abandoned his quest to prevent my sharing the Lord there at that uni.
Another time I was surrounded by several young Jewish students here in Sydney at Macquarie University. They actually took one of my leaflets I was distributing and set it on fire and pointed it in my face. A crowd quickly gathered and within moments a security guard came up and took me away. He directed me to abandon my post in front of the library. Initially I was not happy that the guard was moving me rather than those hostile young folks. But he told me that he did it for my safety, taking me into the library and away from the hostility.
I tell you those two episodes, and I could tell you many more, that there are times when I was outed by Jewish people who were troubled by my existence, by my statement that I was a Jew who believed in Jesus.
I tell you these stories to let you know that I’ve been ‘laid bare’ (verse 13) before Messiah and thus, no matter what others do to me, they are not the ones ‘with whom we have to do.” (verse 13)
My commitment is not to a religion. I’m not committed to Judaism or to Christianity. Nor is it to this ‘ism’ or that one. My commitment is to the One who is the Word of God. He is my life and he has made me alive in Him.
And how do we handle that exposure, being laid bare? How do we handle the disdain of the crowd? How do we respond when troubled? Where is the therefore now? We can hold fast our confession, by turning to our GREAT HIGH PRIEST (v. 14) who is not still on earth, but who has “passed through the heavens.” He can “sympathize with our weaknesses” (v. 15). How? He was “tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” (v 15)
5. Draw near: The 4th therefore
The final ‘therefore’ finishes up the chapter. Given our desire to enter that rest and given the call of God for us to believe, and given the great high priest, we can DRAW NEAR with confidence. What hope! What assurance! What a great God we have. When do we need him? “In time of need.” (v. 16) How do we appropriate what we need? We draw near. We don’t run away. (We often will say things like, “Oh, I did so badly yesterday.” Or “I didn’t keep God’s law” or “I failed him.”) You don’t turn away from the one who can help you; you turn towards him. You draw near to the throne of grace; (Not to the throne of judgment); we receive mercy and find grace to help. Hallelujah! It’s top down! It’s a gift. We receive our gifts from the Gifted One. Our Righteous Messiah showers his love on us, and we rejoice in the presence of the One who gives us Rest and help.
And what is the access point? How do we receive this? By faith! By taking God at his word. (Not faith in ourselves or our religion, but faith in HIM!) Faith in the Living Word, Yeshua.
As a result, we can hold on.
As a result, we can help each other to hold on. Be diligent. Strive. Speed down; work it out. Together! Don’t let anyone fail. Don’t let anyone fall behind. Bring everyone along.
Dear friends on Zoom, or on YouTube, if you don’t yet know Messiah Yeshua, please I appeal to you today, surrender your life to him. Admit your need of him. Trust him who came from heaven to earth to show the way. And to set you free. That’s faith. That’s the opposite of unbelief, and do it today (4.7) the author says. Even now.
If you want to talk more about that, start with prayer. Talk to the Almighty. He loves to listen to your faintest whisper. And if you want to ask me a question, just use the email here on the screen. I’ll give it a go to try to answer you.
Until next week, when we will meet again to share about chapter 5 and more about this Great High Priest-- Until then,
Shabbat shalom.
Actual text:
Heb. 4:1 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 1they heard did not profit them, because 2it 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.
4 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 1through 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. 9 So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. 11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Heb. 4:14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have aa high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Bibliography
Ladd, George E., A Theology of the New Testament, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1974. (Pages 571 – 587)
Lane, William L, Word Biblical Commentary Series, Hebrews.
Vine, W.E., An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, Revell, Old Tappan, NJ, 1966.
Weirsbe, Warren. Be Confident. David C. Cook Publishing, Colorado Springs,1982.
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D-Groups for this week
1) Tuesday 11 am Sydney time. Led by James Howse
2) Monday 10 am Sydney time, led by Rebekah Bronn
3) Thursday 7 pm, Sydney time, led by James White
(Contact our office for zoom details)
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