God’s Promise of Rest (Hebrews 4:1-11)

Sometimes people express their idea about God by saying, “I’m not very religious.” I think, “Good, neither am I.” Not in the sense that people think, which is usually that you are committed to something that is negative and prohibitive. The Pharisees were religious, and Jesus was in constant tension and conflict with them. Their belief was an exercise of moral gymnastics that left everyone around them exhausted and uneasy. Jesus called religious people whitewashed tombs. They looked good on the outside but inwardly were full of dead men’s bones. Religion tends to look outward at the mess around us, rather than inwardly at the mess within us. When the Bible clarifies what God is concerned with in His quest with people, He lands on the word rest. It’s what Jesus said, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). This passage explores two key questions.

1. What is this rest? Rest is a repeated promise. God keeps recommending his rest in successive “Todays.” It was available to the people under Moses after the Exodus. It was available to the community of people the writer of Hebrews addressed, and to each successive generation. The basis of rest is Jesus’ atoning work. Rest is putting the full weight of all our sin on Jesus. Rest is putting the full weight of every anxious thought on Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7). Rest is believing God even when we don’t know how it’s going to work out. Rest comes from knowing that everything doesn’t depend on you and knowing the One upon whom everything depends. Rest is pausing. Rest is breathing. Rest is exhibited in gratitude and worship. 

Rest is ceasing from our works as an approach to God. Rest is a hopeful direction. Rest is a long vacation from working our spiritual fingers to the bone. Rest is an escape from the echo chamber of our doubt. Rest is trusting the Good News preached to you—that in Christ, God has reconciled you to Himself and is not holding your sin against you. He has committed to you a ministry of peace-making so others may rest, too. Rest is obedience’s consequences. It shows up in the life of the consistently faithful person. 

Rest is paradoxical because we must be diligent to enter into it (Hebrews 4:11). Rest is the opposite of frenetic activity. Mary and Martha illustrate this: “As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me. “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:38-42). 

Rest is an antidote to harried, hurried, religious doing—it is the opposite of religion. Religion is always undone—always incomplete. But rest is final because it has stopped sweating about whether it is enough. The resting person trusts in Christ as enough.

2. How do we enter this rest?

A. We experience His rest through seriousness – Rest is a serious business. We are warned, “Let us fear lest any of us seem to come short of it.” Everywhere the Bible says, “Fear not,” but here it says, “Let us fear.” Fear is cultivating a life that is attentive to God. It refusing to treat God casually or flippantly. What good is it if I heard but I didn’t heed? Healthy reverence keeps me from compartmentalizing my life. It helps me be comfortable in all kinds of situations because I’m not trying to be what I’m not.

B. We experience His rest by faith – Faith is more than accumulating religious information. In the Bible it meant devotion and commitment. Faith directs and redirects us. Faith has exploits. Faith without works is dead. Faith and repentance are “two sides of the same coin.” “Without faith it is impossible to please God, for those who come to Him must believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who carefully seek after Him” (Hebrews 11:6). Apologetics, archaeology, philosophy, ontology and epistemology all have their place in a quest for faith. I’ve read CS Lewis, Josh McDowell, Norm Geisler, and Chuck Colson, and they have helped me believe that God is believable and that the history the Bible affirms is convincing, but at some point, a person must act on their faith. The Bible doesn’t say without knowledge it is impossible to please God. "Jesus revealed enough of himself to make faith possible, but hid just enough of himself to make faith necessary” (Pete Scazzero). Faith takes humility and surrender. Leonard Sweet wrote a book called Out of the question … into the mystery. That is the disposition of faith. Michael Card wrote, “Give up all your pondering; fall down on your knees.”

C. We experience His rest in the imitation of God – “God rested on the seventh day from all His works.” And Jesus took naps. He napped in a boat during a raging storm on the sea of Galilee. When He woke up, He rebuked everyone for being in such a dither. "Why are you so frightened?" Jesus answered. "What little faith you have!" (Matthew 8:26). God resting is not God inactive. God is at work. Jesus said so. But we rest in His work. Martin Luther said, “Pray and let God worry.” But of course, God isn’t worried at all!

Conclusion – Guthrie writes that this passage “brings home the solemn consequence of underrating God’s provision for His people.” The Message paraphrases Jesus’ description of Rest in Matthew 11:28-30 this way, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” God keeps commending His rest in successive “Todays.” He invites us to stop our obsessing and stressing. We are told, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10). If we are going to be followers of Jesus, we must get comfortable with holding things in tension. Rest doesn’t mean doing nothing; it means doing everything while deeply appreciating God’s sustaining reality. Rest is a deep-seated understanding of God’s acceptance in Christ. So, we may be bothered sometimes, but we aren’t destroyed. We may be tested but we aren’t untethered from hope. We may disappoint ourselves, but we aren’t divorced from God’s love.