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God's Rest Stop
July 04, 2010
Hebrews 4
by Pastor Stan
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THE SUPREMACY OF CHRIST: A SERMON SERIES IN HEBREWS
“GOD’S REST STOP” (HEBREWS 4:1-13 / P. 847)
JULY 4, 2010

INTRODUCTION
-- Lead-in song: Lord, Most High
-- A few years ago a store called “MinneNAPolis” opened in the Mall of America. Tired shoppers could rest and take naps for 70 cents a minute and could choose from themed rooms such as Asian Mist, Tropical Isle, and Deep Space. The walls are thick enough to drown out the sounds of squealing children in the Mall’s amusement park. The company's website said, "Escape the pressures of the real world into the pleasures of an ideal one." It must have not been ideal enough because the store closed a year after it opened.
-- In today’s passage from Hebrews God offers rest, a rest that won’t disappoint and that can even be experienced in the real world.
Turn to Hebrews chapter 4.
    The theme of Hebrews is “the supremacy of Christ.”  So far we’ve seen the author of Hebrews declare that Christ is superior to the OT prophets, to the angels, and to the great law-giver Moses.
    Then in the last part of chapter 3, the author pauses to give a warning about resisting the message of this book and turning away from Christ. That warning continues in chapter 4.
    -- Read 4:1-10

I. WHAT “REST” MEANS
    -- Obviously, the topic of “rest” dominates this passage. Some form of the word rest occurs 11 times in these verses. But what exactly is the author talking about? What does he mean by “rest?”
    One reason people can find this passage rather confusing is that the author uses the word “rest” in 3 different ways here.

A. CANAAN (THE PROMISED LAND)
    -- One way he uses “rest” is to refer to Canaan, the Promised Land.
    Cf., v. 3
    This is a quote from Psalm 95 and is a reference to God’s anger at Israel over their failure to trust Him and invade the Promised Land of Canaan after the Exodus. God was ready and able to give Canaan to Israel as a land that they could possess, where they could settle down and have rest from their enemies and from oppression.
    Deuteronomy 12:9-10 you have not yet reached the resting place and the inheritance the LORD your God is giving you. 10 But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety.

B. THE SABBATH
    -- The author of Hebrews also uses “rest” in Hebrews 4 to refer to the Sabbath.
    Cf., v. 4
    -- The Sabbath rest was rest from the hardship of toil and from the busyness of activity. The roots of this rest are in the Creation.
    Genesis 2:1-2 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
    -- Why did God “rest” from the work of creation? Not because He was tired, but because He desired to take delight in what He had created and to enjoy fellowship with the part of creation that had been made in His image—Adam and Eve. And God then gave the Sabbath as a gift to mankind so that mankind could also rest from labor and focus on enjoying fellowship with God.
    -- The rest of Canaan was the rest of being at home, and the rest of the Sabbath was the rest of being with God. Both of these are pictures of the third way that the word “rest” is used in Hebrews 4.

    C. SALVATION
        -- The ultimate rest is the rest of salvation that is announced in the Gospel.
        Cf., vv. 1-2a
        -- The rest of salvation is the rest from trying to earn God’s favor, a Sisyphean task. In Greek mythology Sisyphus was a proud and conniving king who was punished by the g


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