Hebrews 4:1-14



"Today Is Another Day"



Hebrews is teaching you how to read the OT.

Do you just read the OT as a story of "what happened back then"?

No-though the OT provides a truthful history.

Do you read it as a series of moral lessons?

No-though the OT provides lots of moral lessons.

The OT is your story, too.

We saw last time that Hebrews sees you at Kadesh-will you believe God's promises?

But here in Hebrews 4 we discover that Hebrews does not leave you at Kadesh.

Having suggested that you are being asked the same question-

"Will you listen to my voice in faith, or in unbelief?"

The context is different.

Because at Kadesh the promised rest is still entirely future for all God's people.

But for us it is different.

It is true that we have not yet entered God's rest,

but Jesus has.

Our Joshua has entered God's rest,

and therefore we are not so much Israel at Kadesh,

as we are Israel in the midst of the conquest.

We have entered the land, but we have not yet received the full inheritance.



The major theme of chapter four is entering God's rest.

There is a promise of entering God's rest-through faith.

But there is also the peril of not entering God's rest-through disobedience.



And so there is then the call to be diligent-to strive to enter God's rest (v11),

with the corresponding warning to "fear"

lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it." (v1)

and the final call to hold fast our confession.



Chapter four makes the implications of chapter 3 explicit.

The Christian community is the heir of the promise to enter God's rest

the promise to enter God's rest is open-do not fail to enter it.



1. The Promise Still Stands (4:1-5)

This is the first time that we hear the language of "promise" in Hebrews.

We'll hear a lot more of it as we go.

You are probably used to Paul's usage:

that which was promised to the fathers has been fulfilled in Christ.

Hebrews has a slightly different way of saying it.

What God has promised to the fathers, he has promised to us in Christ.

And because Jesus is the faithful high priest,

we have greater confidence.

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,

Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession (4:14).

So the point of 4:1 is not that Jesus has fulfilled what was promised,

but that the promise itself still stands.

God promised that his people would enter his rest.

And that promise still stands.



a. The Gospel and Faith

Hebrews reminds you that the wilderness generation failed to enter God's rest through unbelief.

And then calls you to "fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it."

Do not be like Israel in the wilderness!



And just as in chapter 3,

Hebrews starts with a comparison.

Remember how Hebrews compared Moses and Jesus?

He started by saying, "Jesus was faithful, just like Moses."

And so here, he begins,

"For good news came to us just as to them."

The gospel was preached to us, just as to them.

They heard the good news of redemption from slavery in Egypt.

"But the message they heard did not benefit them,

because they were not united by faith with those who listened."

Hebrews starts with a message of continuity:

all those in the wilderness heard the message.

But those wilderness generation did not believe the message that they heard,

because they lacked faith.

But there were some who believed.

Caleb and Joshua.

They are "those who listened"-but the wilderness generation was not united by faith,

they did not share the faith of those who heard and believed.

Hebrews will draw attention to Joshua in verse 8,

but here the simple contrast is sufficient.

The only way to enter God's rest is to hear the message and believe!

"For we who have believed enter that rest,"

and then Hebrews reminds us that we are still dealing with Psalm 95.

"As I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest."









b. God's Seventh-Day Rest

What is this "rest" that Psalm 95 and Hebrews 3-4 are talking about?

The promise of entering God's rest is the promise of sharing in the eschatological blessings-

the blessings of the last days-the blessings of the kingdom of God.



But while this "rest" is future for us,

it is present for God.

God entered his rest on the seventh day of creation.

(Read verse 4)

The image is rather simple.

Genesis tells us that God created the heavens and earth in the space of six days.

Each day begins and ends with "and there was evening and there was morning,

an "Nth" day."

But after the seventh day, there is no such statement.

Hebrews takes the silence of Genesis 2 as suggestive.

The reason why Genesis never speaks of the "end" of the seventh day,

is because the seventh day has not ended.

God's work was a six-day work,

but his rest is never-ending.

And when God promised Adam an inheritance of life,

he was calling Adam to enter into his rest.

Adam was to labor in his six-day weeks,

just as God had labored in six-day week.

Every Sabbath was to be a reminder of God's Sabbath-rest,

and day of anticipation, in looking forward to Adam's eschatological entrance

into God's rest.

The whole history of redemption can be seen focused around this idea of rest.

Hebrews gives us a glimpse of that here.

Israel was called as God's firstborn son to enter his rest.

But at Kadesh, in Numbers 14,

the son refused to heed his Father.

He refused to enter God's rest,

and so God swore in his wrath, "They shall not enter my rest."

In other words,

Israel has repeated the sin of Adam.

God promised Abraham that through his seed all the nations would be blessed,

but it will not be through the wilderness generation!

The first generation of Israel repeats the sin of the first generation of Adam.

It is not the first Adam-it is not the first Israel-nor is it the first Joshua, or the first David,

who will enter God's rest.



So the fact that Hebrews starts by saying that "the good news came to us just as to them"

does not sound like very good news!



2. The Peril of Disobedience (4:6-11)

Because there is a genuine peril of disobedience.



a. The Gospel and Disobedience

The Promise is that "it remains for some to enter" God's rest,

but the peril is that those who formerly received the good news failed to enter.



Verses 6-11 focus on this peril of disobedience

Verse 6 says that some failed to enter because of disobedience,

and then verse 11 warns us not to fall by the same sort of disobedience.

It is not enough to hear the message.

It is not enough even to follow the external directions of the message.

Israel followed the external directions:

They left Egypt, were baptized in the Red Sea, followed Moses,

and ate the manna and drank from that spiritual rock that followed

Israel through the wilderness

(And Paul says that that rock was Christ).

So Israel partook of Christ in all these external ways.

But simply hearing the message and following its external directions is not enough.

You must believe the message.

And Hebrews says that this warning is still the same today.



The warning is still the same.

But today is different!



b. Entering God's Rest

Last week we saw how Israel was like a 2-year old-constantly testing his Father

and rebelling against him.



The promise of Psalm 95 is that there is a new day.

"Today, if you hear his voice..."

The experience of the wilderness generation is not going to define

the history of God's people.

The test is the same: the call to persevering faith,

but the result can be different!

And, in the end, the result will be different.



And in Joshua, the answer was different.

Joshua's generation believed God!

They trusted God's promises, and so entered the Promised Land,

following the Anointed Conqueror, and taking possession of their inheritance.

The solution to the wilderness rebellion is Joshua.

Right?



But after Joshua comes Judges!

And as we're seeing on Sunday evenings,

Judges does not paint a pretty picture of life in the Land.

The lessons of the wilderness did not endure long in the memory of God's people.



So it is not the first Joshua that matters.

In Greek, the name Joshua is "Jesus."

So verse 8 says "for if Jesus had given them rest,

God would not have spoken of another day later on."



Having started by saying, "you are like Israel at Kadesh,"

Hebrews now says, "but here's the difference. We have a new Joshua."



When Adam failed to enter God's seventh day rest,

that was the moment that created the necessity of another day.

If man was going to enter God's rest, there must be another day-beyond the seventh day.

Read verses 6-7.

There must be a new "today"-an eighth day, as it were, when man can enter God's rest.



If Joshua had brought about that day of rest, then David would never have spoken of another day.



And that day has come in Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ "Today" has dawned.



And because this final "Today" has come in Christ,

therefore "there remains a Sabbath-rest (or Sabbath-celebration) for the people of God,

for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works

as God did from his."

God entered his rest (ceased from his creative work) on the seventh day.

We enter that rest (ceasing from our creative work) on our Sabbath-rest.



Some have tried to make "resting from works" a reference to resting from "sinful works,"

but that destroys the parallel between God's works and our works.

Our Sabbath-rest is our entrance into God's rest,

when we will share in that glorious rest which God entered on his seventh day.



Now, this word "Sabbath-rest" (Sabbatismos) is not the ordinary word "Sabbath."

Because Hebrews is not talking about the old seventh-day Sabbath of the Jews.

The Sabbath-rest, or Sabbath-celebration, that he refers to is the eschatological Sabbath.



Jesus has entered God's rest.

He now partakes of the eschatological Sabbath,

so to continue to practice the old seventh-day Sabbath

would be to return to Moses-to live in the shadows.

Do we yet partake of the eschatological Sabbath?

Again, some have tried to say that we are living in the eschatological Sabbath,

and that we have entered God's rest in Christ.

And there is a sense in which that is true.

But that is NOT what Hebrews says.

Hebrews says that we must still "strive to enter that rest."

In other words,

we have not yet entered God's rest.

Yes, Jesus (our Joshua) has entered God's rest.

You, however, are still at the point of decision at Kadesh in the wilderness.

Will you believe God's promises in Jesus Christ?

Or will you rebel and perish in the wilderness?

The call for us is to be diligent-to strive to enter God's rest.

The time has not yet come for rest.

We are called to work.

Notice that Hebrews does NOT say,

work, in order to be saved.

Our works do not save us-

our works are simply those (as Paul says)

that God has created us in Christ Jesus to do.

"It is by grace that you have been saved, through faith,

And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not by works,

so that no one may boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which he prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." (Eph 2:8-10)

Either you believe God's promises,

and therefore walk in good works,

Or you rebel against God's promises,

and fall by the same sort of disobedience as Israel in the wilderness.



So does this passage say anything to us about our weekly Sabbath observance?

Obviously Hebrews is not focusing on this.

And plainly Hebrews is not very friendly to the idea of a 7th day Sabbath.

The seventh day, for Hebrews, is insufficient.

There must be another day.

And given the fact that the book of Acts speaks of the regular gathering

of the people of God on the first day of the week for worship,

it is easy to see a sort of argument from analogy here.

Later on in Hebrews, he will portray the corporate worship of the church

as participating in the heavenly worship (Heb 12).

Even though we have not yet entered our rest,

we have a foretaste of it in our worship.

When you hear the message proclaimed,

and you respond to it with faith,

you are striving to enter your rest.

Hebrews seems to be using the weekly Sabbath-celebration as a picture of the future.

The attempt to eliminate any weekly Sabbath has a gnostic flavor.

If the sabbath-celebration is entirely future,

then how do you know that it is going to happen?

The weekly sabbath-celebration which we celebrate every Sunday,

is a sure sign to the church that we are still "on the way."

We are the eschatological community-we are those who live in anticipation

of that final sabbath-rest.

And so our weekly sabbath-rest functions as a sign,

reminding us week-by-week that we are still walking by faith.

This is why Hebrews will later admonish his hearers:

"Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, as is the habit of some"

You need each other!

And you need to be reminded of who you are in Christ



3. The Power of the Word/Son (4:12-14)

It is particularly in the preaching of the Word that you find this.

The wilderness generation refused to believe the word that was preached to them.

(Read v12-13)



This Word slew the Israelites in the wilderness.

This Word will judge you as well.



The "Word" does not mean the "Bible" (although the Bible is God's Word)

nor does it mean preaching (although preaching is also God's Word)

and for that matter, it does not mean Jesus (although he is emphatically God's Word).

All of these are included-

because scripture, preaching and the incarnate Word all do this!--

but however the Word of God comes,

it penetrates to the deepest crannies of our being

and lays bare the secrets of your heart.



You cannot hide from God's Word.



Does that sound terrifying?



Hebrews does not think so!

Therefore, having a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,

Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.



The wilderness generation fell in the wilderness and were destroyed by the Word of God.



The difference between the wilderness generation and us

is that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens.

We have the faithful Son of God-not just a servant in the house, like Moses,

but a Son over the house.

This is what gives comfort to Hebrews' exhortation.



And because Jesus was faithful over the house as a Son,

therefore you are called to faithful living as children of God.



Hebrews' point is that we have a different future than the wilderness generation.

History does not have to repeat itself,

and because of what Jesus Christ has done,

history will not repeat itself.



Yes, let us fear and let us strive,

but our godly fear, and our humble striving is not because of any lack of confidence.

It is because we hold fast our confession!

4:14 draws us back to 3:1.

Jesus is the apostle and high priest of our confession.

He is the substance that we hold fast to.

He is that which endures while all the passing fancies of life flit by.