Entering God’s Rest – Looking Back Before Moving Forward
In Shabbat school last Spring I began a series on Hebrews. We looked at the first 3 chapters and this morning I want us to consider Hebrews 4. Let’s review what was covered so far in this most significant letter to the early Jewish Believers.
These messages were recorded and are available on the Olive Tree website. They are also available along with other Bible studies and sermons at my website at Royschwarcz.org. Let me give a brief overview of the first 3 chapters:
In chapter 1, we saw that God has spoken finally and fully through His Son, Yeshua the promised Messiah. That He is greater than the prophets because He is visible manifestation of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature. That He is greater than the angels because He is the eternal Son who reigns forever.
In chapter 2, the writer warned us not to drift away from so great a salvation. God has spoken, and we are responsible to respond. The chapter also reminds us that Yeshua became fully man so that He might destroy the power of death, deliver us from the fear of death, and become our gracious and faithful High Priest.
Chapter 3 compares Yeshua with Moses, Israel’s greatest teacher and prophet. Moses was faithful as a servant in God’s house, but Messiah is faithful as the Son over God’s house that He created and sustains. Chapter 3 ends with Israel’s sad failure in the wilderness.
Although they experienced God’s miraculous deliverance from Egypt, they hardened their hearts, refused to trust God’s promises, and failed to enter His rest because of their failure to trust and obey Him.
Chapter 4 continues the warning of chapter 3 concerning God’s rest for His people. The question is no longer, “Will God provide rest?” The question is, “Will we enter it?”
There are all kinds of television commercials that promise life if we buy their product. Take this vitamin and we’ll have more energy. Install these new windows and we’ll enjoy greater comfort.
Drive this new car and we’ll be headed down the highway of life. Whatever the product, the message is always the same: Do more. Live more. Get more out of life.
Our culture constantly tells us we should live life to the fullest. There is certainly nothing wrong with working hard or making wise improvements. But somewhere along the way we’ve failed to understand something essential. We have forgotten how to rest.
Years ago, studies predicted that advances in computers and technology and now AI, would shorten the workweek and give us more free time to relax and enjoy life. Instead, the opposite has happened.
Fifty years later, studies show that free time has decreased, work hours have increased, and people are more exhausted and stressed than ever. Perhaps we need to rediscover what God intended all along.
Hebrews 4 reminds us that God not only offers rest; He commands it. Not merely physical rest, but rest for our souls. The question I hope to answer this morning is How do we enter and experience that rest?
Heb 4:1–8 Read
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. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard. 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. For He has said somewhere concerning the seventh day: “AND GOD RESTED ON THE SEVENTH DAY FROM ALL HIS WORKS”; and again in this passage, “THEY SHALL NOT ENTER MY REST.” (Next slide)
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, He again fixes a certain day, “Today,” saying through David after so long a time just as has been said before,“TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS.” For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. (Next Slide)
In these verses the writer reminds us that God promised rest to Israel. Yet an entire generation did not enter that rest because of their unbelief that expressed itself in disobedience.
God is the same, He has not changed. He promises His people today peace amid life’s trials and assurance in the face of impossible circumstances. This life of rest is described throughout Hebrews. One could say it is the main message of Hebrews.
For example, in Hebrews 6 (Next Slide)
Sabbath rest involves “going on to maturity in 6:1”, in 6:11 it includes “the full assurance of hope” and in 6:12 “inheriting the promises.” All of these describe the blessings of living and abiding in the God of creation. And entering His rest.
We need to remember the original readers of this letter were first century Jewish believers experiencing intense persecution (10:32–39; 12:3–14; 13:13).
Like Israel in the wilderness, who longed to return to their former life of bondage rather than trust God and walk forward in faith and obedience, these Messianic believers were tempted to turn back to the old covenant system.
They struggled to trust that God would fulfill His promise of the greater rest found in the gospel and message of the New Covenant through faith in Messiah.
These first-century believers had received greater revelation than those who left Egypt. They knew God’s promises had been fulfilled in Yeshua, and it is possible that some had seen the risen Messiah or knew those who had.
He also gave them His Word through the Apostles and Prophets. But Hebrews 4:2 tells us they did not mix what they heard with faith. They possessed God’s promises but refused to trust them.
That same danger exists for us today. It’s possible to know God’s promises intellectually without believing and applying them personally. The writer’s argument is simple: (New Slide)
God promised His people rest (v.1) “Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest…” (New Slide)
In v 6 we see that Israel failed to enter that rest: “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”(New Slide)
Joshua did not ultimately provide them that rest as we see in v.8: “For if Joshua had given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that.”
If Joshua had fully accomplished God’s rest, David would not have centuries later written Psalm 95 urging God’s people to enter into His rest. He wrote:
Therefore in Heb. 4:9: “There remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” This rest is connected to God’s own Sabbath. God did not rest because He was exhausted. He rested because His work was complete and perfect.
His rest speaks of satisfaction, completion, and confidence. This is the Sabbath of the soul. It is the very rest Yeshua offered. (New Slide) Matthew 11:28–30: Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
The rest Yeshua is speaking of begins when we come to Yeshua. The ongoing rest is experienced daily as we willingly submit ourselves to His will. We find rest as we walk minute by minute, hour by hour, and day by day, in obedient faith.
That’s why Hebrews begins this section with the warning: “Let us therefore fear…” Many believers possess salvation yet never enjoy the daily rest that God desires us all to experience.
The writer of Hebrews is not shifting the focus from the seventh day to the first day of the week. Nor is he calling believers to debate whether Saturday or Sunday is the Christian Sabbath. His concern is far greater than that.
The Jewish people understood the Sabbath as the seventh day of creation, commanded under the Mosaic Covenant as a sign between God and Israel (New Slide): Exodus 31:17 (the Sabbath) is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.”
That Scripture along with Deut. 5:15 was a reminder that every Shabbat reminded Israel that God had finished His work in creation and redeemed them from Egypt. That He continues to provide and sustain them even when they ceased from our everyday labor to sanctify the Sabbath.
But Hebrews tells us that even though Israel faithfully observed the weekly Sabbaths, and many still do to this day, that an even greater rest still remained.
David, wrote centuries after Joshua had brought Israel into the land in Psalm 95, which is quoted in Hebrews 4:7-8: (New Slide)
“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” If Joshua had given them the ultimate rest, God would not have spoken of another day
That tells us that the weekly Sabbath was never intended to be the final destination. It pointed to something greater—to Someone greater. Messiah Himself who is our Sabbath rest.
When Yeshua declared, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest”, He was offering the very rest that Hebrews describes.
This is why the New Covenant never commands believers to keep the Sabbath as a condition of their standing before God. Instead, believers are warned in Colossians 2:16-17 (New Slide) “not to allow anyone to judge them regarding the Holy Days, a new moon or a Sabbath day—things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Messiah”.
For the believer, our Sabbath is not just one day each week. Our Sabbath is a Person. Every day we rest from trying to earn God’s favor. Every day we cease from trusting our own works. Every day we abide in the finished work of Messiah through the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Our salvation and our sanctification are all a work of God by His grace consider Eph. 2:8-10 (New Slide): For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Messiah Yeshua for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
I underlined v. 10 to make the point that even our works, the fruit of our walk with the Lord is, His works that He has prepared for us to walk in. It will flow from the Holy Spirit within us and not a labor or work on our part.
Jesus said, “Abide in Me, and I in you…” (John 15:4). That abiding is continual. It is not limited to Saturday or Sunday. Every day becomes a day of resting and fruitfulness in His finished work.
This does not diminish the importance of gathering with God’s people (New Slide). Rom. 15:5 One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord …
The issue was never which day made someone righteous before God. The issue was whether they had entered God’s rest through faith in His Son. Therefore, when Hebrews says,
“Let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to have come short of it” (Hebrews 4:1), the concern is not whether we have chosen the right day to worship.
The concern is whether we have entered the rest that only Messiah can give.
That rest begins the moment we trust Him, continues as we walk daily in dependence upon His Spirit, and will one day be experienced in all its fullness when we enter His eternal presence.
II. Then in Hebrews 4:9–13 we are called to Be Diligent (New Slide)
So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.
(New Slide) 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. 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.
Verse 11 told us: “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest.” This sounds almost like a contradiction. How do we labor to enter rest? The word means to be earnest, diligent, and intentional.It is the opposite of drifting.
Earlier in Hebrews 2:1 the writer warned (New Slide): “We must pay much closer attention…so that we do not drift away.” No believer ever matures accidentally. Spiritual growth requires deliberate attention to God’s Word and carving out time to study it.
Peter makes the same point: 2 Peter 1:5–11 “Applying all diligence…add to your faith moral excellence…knowledge…self-control…perseverance…godliness…brotherly kindness…and love.”
If we’re careless, we will repeat Israel’s failure. What is God’s primary instrument for leading us into this rest? His Word.
Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword…” The Word is alive. It searches us. It exposes us. It reveals our motives. It cuts away unbelief.
Israel refused to hear and obey God’s Word through Moses. As a result, they wandered for 38 additional years until that generation died in the wilderness.
God’s Word is repeatedly pictured as a sword (Ephesians 6:17 : And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.; Revelation 1:16; 2:12; 19:15). When we submit ourselves to Scripture, God searches our hearts before sin hardens us.
When we ignore God’s Word, we rob ourselves of the peace and blessing He longs to give. The pathway into God’s rest is always through hearing, believing and obeying God’s Word.
III. Finally in v 14 we’re called to Look Ahead by holding our confession
Although verse 14 begins the next section, it provides the perfect bridge. The writer says, “Therefore, since we have a great High Priest…let us hold fast our confession.”
Notice that he does not say, “Hold fast your salvation.” He says, “Hold fast your confession.” The issue throughout Hebrews is perseverance in a faithful walk before God and others.
Israel remained God’s redeemed people after leaving Egypt, but they became a poor testimony because they stopped trusting Him to protect and provide for them. God brought them out, but they refused to trust Him to bring them in.
That is why Hebrews 11 points us to men and women who maintained their confession through faith. Hebrews 11:13 says they confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on this earth.
Enoch had a good testimony, and the Lord took him before he experienced death. The chapter concludes that all these men and women obtained a good witness through faith. Faith produces a faithful testimony. Unbelief destroys it.
Where does faith come from? The answer is found in Romans 10:17 “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Messiah.”
That’s why the writer repeatedly says, “Today, if you hear His voice…” Those who hear and obey God’s Word continue to bear faithful witness before the world.
Someone once said that the hardest place to score a touchdown is from the one-yard line. The goal is in sight. Victory seems certain. Yet many drives fail in those final few feet.
Israel stood at the border of the Promised Land. They were almost there. Yet unbelief kept them from entering. Hebrews warns us not to repeat their mistake.
“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.” (4:1)
God still offers His rest. But it is entered only through believing, obeying, and abiding in Him.
To experience God’s rest requires: A willing spirit. An open mind. A courageous heart, and a daily discipline in reading, believing, and obeying God’s Word.
Rest is available. God still gives rest to those who come to Him. Rest is essential. The deepest rest is not found on a vacation, in retirement, or a lighter schedule. It’s found in a growing relationship with Messiah.
Three simple keys to entering God’s rest are:
- Faith — Believe God’s promises.
- Obedience — Respond when God speaks through His Word and Spirit.
- Surrender — Choose God’s will over your own.
Every day we have a choice. Will we strive in our own strength? Or will we pray, “Your will be done in my life, on earth as it is in heaven.”
That’s where true rest begins.
