Last week we looked at how many people
witnessed all that God had done in the Old Testament, yet did not
believe. We reviewed how people saw Jesus perform miracle after
miracle and still questioned if He really rose from the dead. Seeing
is Not believing. We were not alive when the Hebrew people left
Egypt, we were not there when Jesus walked on water, but today we
believe. We do not need to see to believe, because God has given us a
sign and a wonder. The cross and the blood of Christ speak volumes
and inspire our faith in Him.
Hebrews 3:7-15
“7 Therefore, as the
Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear His voice, 8 do not harden your
hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,
9 where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works 10 for 40
years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation and said, “They
always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known My ways.”
11 So I swore in My anger, “They will not enter My rest.” 12
Watch out, brothers, so that there won’t be in any of you an evil,
unbelieving heart that departs from the living God. 13 But encourage
each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you
is hardened by sin’s deception. 14 For we have become companions of
the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had
at the start. 15 As it is said: Today, if you hear His voice, do not
harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
How many have had children who just
hated going to bed? I can tell you even today, our boys are never
enthused about going to bed and really just want to stay up until
they feel like it. Many years ago it used to be worse in the Hudson
house. When Chris was little he hated going to bed without us. He was
a baby and he would sleep in his bouncer, on the play mat, or in the
playpen until we went to bed. There was a period of time we tried to
get him on a bed time and he hated it so much he would scream and
scream. We were afraid someone would call the cops. He actually would
shake his crib so much that he stripped the screws out of it. As he
got a little older he would not go to sleep in his own bed. We would
have him lay on the couch turn off all the lights and if we were
lucky we could be at our computers and he would fall asleep at some
point. Chris has never liked going to bed when he was told, I guess
some things never change.
Children resist bedtime. Sometimes
routines help, but most children feel like they are missing out on
something and it drives them to stay awake. As parents we know that
rest is a good thing, I know I get cranky or struggle through the day
if I do not get enough. It is necessary, but the kids hate it. Our
Father knows we need rest, but I think His idea of rest may be
different than ours. It is obvious by what we see in scripture that
historically man did not agree with or understand what God meant by
rest.
Exodus 20:8-11
“Remember the Sabbath
day, to keep it holy: 9 You are to labor six days and do all your
work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You
must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female
slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates. 11
For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything
in them in six days; then He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the
Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.”
God commanded the
Israelite's to rest.
They had been slaves for
so long they did not know what rest was. They did not understand how
they were to rest and worship God. Shortly after leaving Egypt God
spelled it out for them, but history has shown they did not
understand or choose not to listen. They had created hundreds of laws
that people needed to follow and things they could not do. I think
they got the idea right. They built everything up around spending
time with God and family and no work was to be done. Problem is they
went to far. They thought they had it, but they had strayed from the
path.
Mark 2:23-28
“23 On the Sabbath He
was going through the grainfields, and His disciples began to make
their way picking some heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees said to Him,
“Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25
He said to them, “Have
you never read what David and those who were with him did when he was
in need and hungry— 26 how he entered the house of God in the time
of Abiathar the high priest and ate the sacred bread—which is not
lawful for anyone to eat except the priests—and also gave some to
his companions?” 27
Then He told them, “The
Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore,
the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Jesus' response to the
Pharisees is that the Sabbath was not created to make a series of
rules that are hard to follow. It was not designed by God to be hard
to follow. The intention from the very beginning is for it to be a
time of rest, a time to relax, a time to be refreshed.
The Israelite's were told
to rest on the seventh day and we are told to take a Sabbath. No one
can continue to work without taking a break. Working non-stop makes
us grumpy, makes us tired, hurts our health, and hurts our
relationship with God and our loved ones. All of us can be like a
toddler who wants to stay up no matter what, but at some point our
body will force us to stop. God's plan for the Sabbath is for us to
never get that bad.
If we take time every week
to stop and rest, we are obeying God, spending time worshiping God,
and being with our loved ones. Their is nothing more refreshing than
that.
Matthew 11:28-30
“28
“Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give
you rest. 29 All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I
am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.
30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Jesus offers rest to those
who are weary. Jesus offered a rest that was not possible for those
burdened by keeping the Law. Hundreds of rules to be followed was
more than anyone could really handle. Imagine trying to live by these
rules day in and day out. Law created by God was to help humankind to
be Holy. The law created by the religious leaders was a yoke that
many could not carry. The rules got harder and harder to follow and
forget about doing something good for someone if it broke the man
made law. You would be condemned for doing the right thing.
Jesus came to fulfill the
Law and in this case to teach people how to live their lives. He was
clarifying that the Sabbath is not meant to be a weight that cannot
be carried. It is meant to be a time of rest where the weary can find
relief.
The Israelite's had all
these rules to follow that held them down. Today, weariness comes
from enduring burdens caused by sin in our lives and the consequences
of the choices we have made. Jesus is calling us saying 'come take my
yoke, it is easier than it looks!' By choosing to take up Jesus' yoke
and learning how we are to live our lives, we will find rest from our
burdens and our sins.
We cannot find true rest on our own, it
is only something given to those who connect with Jesus. Being yoked
with Jesus is our only hope. All of us are called to serve Him, and I
can tell you that it is not a burden. We will never get there on our
own, we need Jesus to guide the way.
Hebrews 3:16-19
“16 For who heard and
rebelled? Wasn’t it really all who came out of Egypt under Moses?
17 And who was He provoked with for 40 years? Was it not with those
who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And who did He
swear to that they would not enter His rest, if not those who
disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of
unbelief.”
The author wants everyone
to understand that unbelief, lack of faith in God, were the reason
God's people did not enter the promised land. After all they had seen
they did not want to follow God when things got difficult. They
thought the burden of God's yoke was going to be more difficult than
the yoke they carried on their own as slaves in Egypt.
They did not realize that
the God that performed miracles right in front of their eyes was
going to help them along the path. Joshua, the Son of Nun, tried to
convince them that God would be with them but they did not listen.
Joshua had faith and while we had to wait forty years he was able to
enter the promised land. He was able to witness first hand what God
did through the Israelite's.
Belief and faith are what
is needed to not get caught in the same trap as the Israelite's did.
We have not seen the same miracles that they did. We are not looking
at a physical land for our people to conquer and inhabit. Instead we
are looking for where we are going to spend eternity, where we are
going to have eternal rest. Through belief, faith, and following what
God teaches us in the Bible we will get there. Be faithful like
Joshua and you will receive your eternal rest.
Ephesians 2:10
“For we are His
creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
ahead of times so that we should walk in them.”
While our ultimate goal is
to spend eternity in the presence of our Lord, we are here to serve
Him in every way possible. We cannot earn our way into heaven as
salvation is not something that we can work out on our own. Doing
good works does not get us in the door, instead we are to do these
good works that we were created to do.
Think about it this way,
God has already prepared a path for us to walk along in this life.
This path has pot holes, bumps, curves, and hills in it. It also is
full of beautiful sunsets, beautiful views, and fragrant flowers. As
we walk down this path God has already arranged that we will meet up
with people along the way. Some of them are their to be a blessing to
us, and others are meant for us to be a blessing to them. Our task is
to walk in faith and do the things that God has put in front of us,
essentially we are to let God work through us so that He can bless
others by our faithfulness.
John 9:4
“We
must do the works of Him who sent Me while it is day. Night is coming
when no one can work.”
We only have so many days
on this planet. Our job is to make sure that while we are here, while
we can bless others, that we do it. Our job is to bring Christ to
others, by sharing His wonderful message of salvation and by showing
how much He loves us. Don't waste today, share Christ everywhere you
go, everyday of your life, and with every person you meet. They are
on your path for a reason.
1 Peter 2:9-10
“9 But you are a chosen
race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession,
so that you may proclaim the praises of the One who called you out of
darkness into His marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but
now you are God’s people; you had not received mercy, but now you
have received mercy.”
While this sounds like
something Moses might have said to the Israelite's, it is something
that applies to all believers. Every person here whose Lord is Jesus
Christ is a member of the royal priesthood and belong to God. What
did the priests do in the Old Testament? They were God's
representatives. They carried out His commands, they lived Holy
lives, they intervened for other people, in others words they served
God in every way.
Each of us are called to
serve and we are uniquely gifted to serve in one way or another. We
need to make sure we do not let our hearts be hardened like those who
rebelled in the wilderness. Instead we need to serve as God's people,
as His messengers, and share the message of mercy we have already
received.
The Israelite's in the
wilderness rebelled against God and did not follow the path of faith
that God paved for them. We need to obey God and let His Spirit guide
us down our path and to the tasks we are to perform.
Moses was one of God's
greatest servants, yet he did not enter into the promised land. What
must have been going through Moses' mind when God took him up on
Mount Nebo to overlook the promised land?
As we read Hebrews
3:16-19, we discover something scary. Everyone had heard the message,
Everyone knew what it meant, and Everyone would have said they
believed. But very few entered into the promise land, very few
received rest.
On judgment day are things
going to be any different? Many will say they had heard of Jesus.
Many will say they knew Jesus. There will also be many who will claim
they believed in Jesus, but few will enter into an eternal rest.
Matthew 7:13
“Enter
through the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the road is broad
that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it.”
Are we there yet? No, but
we need to make sure we are walking down that path that God has
prepared for us, the path that leads to the narrow gate.
Thank You for joining us on our adventure through Hebrews.
God Bless,
Robert
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