Preached at Northfield Community Church, Northfield, MN, on December 29, 2024.

Sometimes, the Bible records a sermon. In other places, the Bible teaches us how to read the Bible. In this passage, the author of Hebrews—whoever he is—teaches us how to read Psalm 95 and apply it to our lives. The psalm promises rest to God’s people. The author teaches his readers how to benefit from the promise, that is, not miss out on the promise. And since the promise of entering God’s rest still stands, I want you, Northfield Community Church, not to fail to reach it but to benefit from the promise.

            So, let us pray and dive into the sermon.

O holy God how promises rest to his people, help us now to value your promise and benefit from it. To that end, give us ears that hear, and hearts that believe, and a will that obeys. In Jesus’s name. Amen.

Here is the path of my sermon. First, I will show you how the author has identified the promise. Second, I will examine what this promise is. Third, I will describe what results in failing to benefit from the promise. Finally, I will teach what must be done to benefit from the promise. That is our path: discovering the promise, examining the promise, learning from past failures, and resolving to succeed.

The Promise of God’s Rest

One of the blessings of the author of Hebrews is that he reads the OT very well. He helps us learn how to read the OT as Christians. Consider how he reads Psalm 95. Let me pretend like he is a contemporary preacher. He wakes up in the morning, half groggy with a cup of coffee in his hand, he brings his Bible, his notebook, and a pencil to spend time with God in Scripture intake and prayer. He prayerfully begins reading his Bible. His passage is Psalm 95. As he reads, his heart is filled with thanksgiving and praise. He considers how everything belongs to God and how he belongs to God—how he is God’s people. But as he finishes verse 7, he is awakened by a warning. He takes it seriously. His mind scans through the wilderness stories in the Bible. And as he reads verse 11, he is fully awake and slightly disturbed even. “God denied the wilderness generation from entering his rest, but he commands me today to not harden my heart?” he wonders. How can that be? Did not the next generation enter the promised land under Joshua? How, then, does God speak later and bid us to enter into his rest? If God rested on the seventh day of Creation, what other rest is God speaking of? If this is not that rest, then it is something else. He writes in his notebook all his questions. He writes some initial thoughts that may be his answers. He determines to study this passage further. Thankfully, he has a sermon to write. So, he spends the day studying “God’s rest” in the Bible—his Bible, the OT. And he discovers this promise. God wanted to give the people of Israel rest. But they did not obtain this rest. So, later on, God still offers this rest to people. Today, he offers it to us. That’s a promise. We may enter into God’s rest. That is a promise.

What Is God’s Rest?

The promise is “God’s rest.” It is something that you should enter into. If you pay any amount of attention, you will realize that there are two concepts that you and I must understand here. First, what is God’s rest? Second, what does it mean to enter it?

One can seek rest. One can find rest. One can feel rested. One can rest. But how does one enter into rest?

The way our mind learns concepts is by association or linking. We link unknown concepts to known concepts. So, when we read enter God’s rest, we associate it with some form of resting in God’s presence. Or we may associate it with resting in peace and thus connecting it with the resurrection or with the intermediate state. Or we may connect it with the rest that Isaiah 11 speaks of. Or some such notion. But which one is it?

When our mind is challenged with such questions and realizes its wrongly associated ideas, it tries to make creative suggestions. What if entering into has a different meaning? There’s an idea. So, I looked up all the times the word appears in the OT and NT. And guess what? Entering into always means entering into. One something enters into another something—a spatial concept.

If, then, entering into always is used as a verb to express entering into some space, is God’s rest a space? Now, our minds are no longer creatively suggesting anything. It is open and asking questions. Can we know what God’s rest means? Is it some space we enter into? There are two parts to that answer. The first part of that answer can be found in Hebrews itself. The second part of that answer can be found in the OT.

Let us first look at the part of the answer that can be found in Hebrews. There are two other passages in Hebrews where “enter into” is found. First, Hebrews 6:13–20.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Look at verse 19. Our hope enters into the inner place behind the curtain. That place is called the Holy of Holies. Now, in the OT, only the High Priest entered into that space on the Day of Atonement. That is a place that now Jesus has gone into as our High Priest. Our hope goes ahead of us into this place. The second passage is Hebrews 9:24. “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.” Christ entered a space. It is called heaven. It is also the real holy place of which the earthly human-made one was a shadow. So, I pause here and ask, “Is it possible that ‘God’s rest’ is a metaphor for the most holy place in heaven and a spatial concept and not a state?”

            To be sure, let us now turn to the second part of that answer, which I said can be found in the OT. There are three passages in the OT that I bring to your attention. First, Numbers 10:35–36. If you recall, when the Israelites were in the wilderness, they camped when the cloud rested and marched when the cloud lifted. “And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, “Arise, O LORD, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you.” And when it rested, he said, “Return, O LORD, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel.” The word rested is the verb form of the noun in Hebrews. The second passage is 2 Chronicles 6:41–42. After Solomon built the temple for God, he dedicated it. These are the last words from his prayer of dedication. “And now arise, O LORD God, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. Let your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let your saints rejoice in your goodness. O LORD God, do not turn away the face of your anointed one! Remember your steadfast love for David your servant.” God’s resting place is the most holy place in the temple. Finally, let us turn to Isaiah 66:1–2. “Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” God says that his real rest is not a man-made space. Hebrews 9:24 says that Jesus entered into heaven itself and not the holy place made with hands. Now I ask again, “Is it possible that ‘God’s rest’ is a place, not a state? What’s more, is ‘God’s rest’ a metaphor for the most holy place in heaven?” I think you may be inclined to agree with me and say yes to both questions.

However, it could still be mere word associations and linguistic tap dancing we are performing. Can we be sure that this is really the case? Let us look at Psalm 95 once again. The context of the warning and the oath (verses 7–11) is the call in verses 1–6. Look specifically at verse 2. Let us enter his presence! Friends, we are not merely associating words or making up ideas. This is what the author of Hebrews discovered. He saw the call to worship, the invitation into God’s presence, and then he noticed the warning to him and the failure of the wilderness generation. He discovered the promise. That is why his epistle uses the word enter into in a specific sense.

So, now we are in a place to answer the question, “What is ‘God’s rest?’” God’s rest is a metaphor for the place that Jesus entered into in heaven, which is not part of this creation or man-made—it is the real heavenly temple. It is the place where our hope anchors itself. We are promised entry into that place.

Unable To Enter Because of Unbelief

Now that we have discovered and examined the promise, let us consider what led to the wilderness generation’s failure to benefit from it. Multiple incidents in the wilderness caused that generation’s failure to benefit from the promise. It was their repeated failure. Yet, Psalm 95:8 picks the first significant incident and calls it “the day at Massah in the wilderness” while Hebrews 3:8 calls it “the day of testing in the wilderness.” The incident is recorded in Exodus 17:1–7. If you look at your Bibles, Exodus 17:7 has a footnote for the word Massah. Massah means testing. It is the noun form of the verb to test in the Hebrew language. So, the author of Hebrews is simply using his Greek Bible, which has the word Massah translated as testing. The sin of the people was not failing God’s testing. God disciplines his sons, the wilderness experience was meant to be a disciplining, a training. However, the sons despised and loathed God’s disciplining. Instead of trusting God and seeking him prayerfully, they rebelled and grumbled. They tested God. They provoked God to anger. In fact, their sin was so severe that God gave us a commandment based on this incident. Look at Deuteronomy 6:16. “You shall not put the LORD your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah.” Now there is no time to see this verse in the context of Jesus’s temptation and even further back in Genesis with Eve’s temptation. The failure is unbelief. Look at Hebrews 3:12. Not trusting God’s promise to sustain your life and your faith. Sin deceives our hearts. Look at the next verse. It causes our hearts to harden and develop unbelief—the result is an ear that cannot hear and a heart that does not believe. The wilderness generation failed to benefit from the promise because of their unbelief. Particularly, they failed to unite with those who listened (Heb 4:2).

Benefitting from the Promise

Their example warns us that the message did not benefit them. But we have a better message and a superior messenger—God now speaks to us through his Son (Hebrews 1:2). So, we better pay attention to his word—it is alive and active and discerns our thoughts and intentions, our unbelief, and our faith (Heb 4:12). No creature is hidden from God’s sight (Heb 4:13). How can we benefit from the promise of God.

            There are four commitments that the author of Hebrews gives us to help us benefit from the promise. First, we must be on the lookout for sin and unbelief in our lives (Heb 3:12). Take sin seriously. Put it to death. If not, it will lead you away from the living God. Sin is not merely a name given to acts that displease God. Sin is a leader. It leads you away from the living God. Sin tempts you, draws you, entangles you, and takes you away from God. You must fight it. Confession is good for your soul—not merely to feel forgiven but to actually protect you and pluck you out of the traps laid by the devil.

            Second, we must exhort one another every day (3:13). As long as it is called today. Remind each other of the promises of God. Not just on Sundays. Tell one another each day, “We are one day closer to heaven.” While it is one thing to train a child to sit through a long drive and not keep asking, “Are we there yet?” it is another thing for Christians not to want to ask, “Are we there yet?” Inside us should be a longing for his appearance. We must cry out, “How long, O Lord?” We must join the spirit and the bride and say, “Come, Lord!” Brothers and sisters, we are one day closer to heaven. Do not give up. Do not grumble. Do not test God. But believe!

            Third, we must fear. Look at 4:1. In the Christian walk there is a place for genuine godly fear of failing to reach the promise. It does not look like spiritual hysteria. It does not look like condemnation—a failure to see Jesus’s work on the cross as sufficient to forgive your sins. It does not look like legalism—a failure to see Jesus’s work on the cross as sufficient to declare you righteous. But it looks like a genuine desire to not be complacent. It looks like a desire for increasing sanctification. It looks like a fight against sin in one’s life. It looks like recognizing our daily need for help. It looks like hope that anchors itself in the inner place behind the curtain and holds onto that anchor chain for dear life.

            Finally, we must strive to enter that rest (4:11). As a Christian we do not coast into God’s presence. In the NT coasting leads to shipwreck of one’s faith. Striving is an active verb. It is the same word used in Ephesians 4:3. Be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Striving is an eagerness. Paul says to Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,” “Do your best to come to me soon,” and “Do your best to come before winter.” The same word translated “do your best.” That’s another meaning of striving. Peter says to be diligent in confirming your calling and election and that he makes every effort in his writings that they can recall his teaching after his departure. To be diligent and to make every effort are other meanings of striving. So, brothers and sisters, let us make every effort, be diligent, do our best, and eagerly strive to enter God’s rest.

Conclusion

These are the four commitments that the author of Hebrews encourages us to maintain that we can benefit from the promise of God’s rest. Brothers and sisters, let us pay attention to God’s voice and enter his rest.

Let us pray. O holy God who invites us into your presence. We are unworthy, and you perfect us. We are complacent, and you warn us. We fear the world, and you call us to fear you. Help us so that we may not fail to enter your rest. Amen.