Hebrews 4:1-13 Devotional

Are you stressed?  Isn’t everybody?  Maybe not.  I truly hope not.  Personally, I’ve been a teeth-grinder since I was a child.  Yes, I’ve been stressed for a long time.  A few years ago, I started sleeping with a mouth guard because I began suffering the consequences of that teeth-grinding behavior.  Where are you reaping consequences of stress in your life?

 

Here’s a follow-up to our opening question: If you’re stressed, why are you stressed?  Stress is usually a response to fear.  Here’s a follow-up question:  How do you deal with your stress?  Exercise?  Food?  Alcohol?  Therapy?  Drugs?  Extreme Sports?  There are positive and negative ways of dealing with stress.  But wouldn’t it be nice, as a believer in Christ, to walk in the freedom and rest Christ bought for us with His blood.

 

We are discussing Hebrews 4:1-13 today.  These 13 verses are all about rest for God’s people.  What does rest mean to you?  Is it doing nothing?  Is it doing what you enjoy?  Is it serving Jesus?  Is rest only coming when we get to heaven after we die or are raptured?  Or do we get to enjoy that rest that is found in God right now here on earth?  God’s people enter His rest, others perish out of disobedience.

 

When we are done here, today, I want you to walk away knowing God’s people enter His rest now through faithful obedience to His Word.  Let’s pray.

 

Father-God, speak to us today.  Teach us something new that we’ve never seen before.  Open our hearts to the transformation You want in our lives.  May we allow You access to the deepest, darkest parts of us so You can shine Your light there.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

 

We have three divisions:

1.Some shall never enter God’s rest (Hebrews 4:1-5)

2.Sabbath-rest for the people of God (Hebrews 4:6-10)

3.Enter God’s rest or perish (Hebrews 4:11-13)

 

Read Hebrews 4:1-5.

 

Verse 1 plainly tells us to fear in the NASB (New American Standard Bible) and NLT (New Living Translation).  The NIV (New International Version) says “be careful.”  The word “fear” makes us stop and really contemplate in this case.  I’m glad the word did make me stop.  I would’ve glossed over this verse, otherwise.  Aren’t we told in Scripture NOT to fear?  We just spent time studying the Gospel of Matthew that told us pointedly not to worry about anything!  Right?  Worry isn’t the same as fear.  I’m not going to dive into a Greek word study here, but maybe God is calling you to do that.  Anyway, back onto the track: Proverbs 1:7 tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  Ooh.  I think we’re onto something here.  The author is advising his audience to have a healthy respect for God so they – we – don’t fall short of entering God’s rest.

 

Verse 2 says that we have had the good news – the Gospel – proclaimed to us just like those who will never enter God’s rest because they have no faith to believe and obey God.  Technically, everyone should have an awareness of God because of creation.  Check out Romans 1:20.  Shouldn’t our very existence drive us into the arms of the One who created us?  It is a rebellious heart that denies God.  I remember being so rebellious against certain people when I was younger that I would go against what they said just because they said it – even if I agreed with them.  What a wicked heart is revealed in such behavior!

 

Verse 3 refers back to Psalm 95, which refers to a future rest.  But we who have believed have entered God’s eternal rest.  Yes, God’s rest can be found here on earth, before we get to heaven.  And that DOES reduce a lot of my stress.  It is the work that Jesus Christ completed on the cross that allows us to enter that rest.  Those of us who have accepted Jesus as our personal Savior have entered into that rest by faith and obedience.  And the author of Hebrews here declares that there will be some who never enter God’s rest.  So sad.  But since I don’t know who those people are, I will attempt to love everyone I meet into the kingdom.  Only God knows their heart.  I cannot discern the condition of their heart by their behavior.  Besides, God transformed my rebellious heart.  Right?

 

Now, in verse 4, we’ve transitioned to talking about a Sabbath rest since it mentions God resting on the seventh day after all His works.  Did God need to rest because He was tired?  No.  He set an example for His people to follow so we would be completely dependent upon Him.  How do you celebrate Sabbath?  I read about a preacher who was asked about when he celebrated Sabbath?  His answer was, “Saturday and Sunday and Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday back to Saturday again.”  He explained that Sabbath rest was complete dependence on God.  Sadly, according to verse 5, it appears that there are some who will never enter that sort of rest, either.

 

Principle 1:  Those who believe enter God’s rest.

 

Application 1.Where is your faith shaky and providing opportunities for you to disobey God’s Word?  How might you fear the Lord and not your circumstances so that you enter God’s rest now?  Where do you need to let go of control and trust God and depend on Him?

 

Read Hebrews 4:6-10.

 

Verse 6 sounds a bit repetitive of earlier verses in the chapter, and doesn’t really inject a new thought, but it puts things another way in the NIV.  Like in verse 2, the author is talking about those who did not enter God’s rest.  Back in verse 2, it says they didn’t enter God’s rest because the good news had “no value to them because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.”  In verse 6, the author doesn’t want his audience to miss the point that disobedience was the cause for those who didn’t enter God’s rest.  Remember, the audience was a group of Hebrew Christians who were tempted to give up on this Christianity thing and go back to just being Jews.  The author is trying to encourage them to stick with the truth.  He is calling these believers to listen for God’s voice and obey it, not to harden their hearts.

 

When you’re suffering, isn’t it tempting to give up on the cause that you’re suffering for?  Are you being persecuted or teased for your faith in Jesus?  Have you lost friends?  Have family members turned their backs on you?  Have people stopped inviting you places?  How are you combatting that?  Have you found new friends in your church or Bible study?  Have you discovered the physical, mental, emotional and prayer support of your church family?  Jesus prayed for our unity with Himself, the Father and each other in John 17.  Have you linked up with your Christian brothers and sisters for strength?  That is what the author is reminding these people.  Serious persecution was happening at this time.  Believers were losing their lives.

 

Let’s take another little detour in verse 8.  The author mentions Joshua.  The belief is that the author is alluding to the rest Israel received from their wanderings when they took the Promised Land, yet that was not true rest.  There is still Sabbath rest.  Verse 10 is very interesting.  It says, “for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from His.”  Hmm.  There’s really only one way to rest from our works, and that is to let God work through us.  We need to stop striving.  We need to stop serving to earn our salvation.  We can’t do it.  We need to accept Jesus’ free gift of salvation and enter God’s rest and quit trying to behave in such a way, do enough, be good enough to enter heaven.  We will never be able to behave in such a way.  We can never do enough.  We can never be good enough.  Only Jesus.  He is the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through Him.

 

Principle 2:  Those who disobey and harden their hearts don’t enter God’s rest.

 

Application 2.Where does your heart need softening so you’ll be more receptive to the Holy Spirit’s guidance and instruction?  Where are you still striving, trying to earn your way into heaven?  In what areas do you need to let God work through you to serve Him?

 

Only a few verses left…

 

Read Hebrews 4:11-13.

 

Okay, so I just got done telling you to quit striving and verse 11 says, “make every effort to enter that rest…”  Sounds like a contradiction, doesn’t it?  The point here is this: you can’t earn your way into heaven, but you must put your faith in Jesus Christ for salvation to go to heaven.  Disobedience is an action.  So is obedience.  Let your action be obedience to Jesus.  Let your action be obedience to God’s written word.  That brings me to verse 12.

 

I read something interesting about this verse.  God’s word is sharper than any double-edged sword.  God’s word is a scalpel that is capable of performing the most intricate heart surgery.  It divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow.  It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  Let’s back up to the double-edged part for a minute.  As I write – or as I teach the Bible – what I say may cut you.  That’s the Holy Spirit using the scalpel on your heart.  At the same time, as I study, as I write, as I teach the Bible, the Holy Spirit cuts me, too.  Let that sink in a bit.  Pray for me.  Pray for your pastors.  Pray for your teachers.  I am so grateful for the privilege of this ministry.  I need the Holy Spirit to perform regular heart surgery on me.  Create in me a clean heart, O God.

 

One final thought before we close.  God knows your heart.  He knows your mind.  He knows your attitudes.  He knows your motives.  Nothing is hidden from Him.  I pray that knowledge is freeing for you.  I pray that enables you to confess everything to Him.  I pray you understand that you cannot conceal anything and that makes you completely honest with your Creator.  When you drag your dark secrets into the Light, they lose power over you.

 

Principle 3:  Obey God’s Word to enter His rest.

 

Application 3.Where is your heart clinging to disobedience rather than being transformed by God’s Word?  What do you need to confess to be completely open and honest with God?  How has confession brought freedom into your life and given you rest from striving to conceal what God already knows?

 

How are you dealing with your stress?  The only way to spell true relief is J-E-S-U-S.  Enter God’s rest now by accepting Jesus’ free gift of salvation.  Being in Christ may not completely eliminate the stress in your life.  But it will eliminate stress over the one thing we cannot achieve on our own: saving ourselves from an eternity outside of God’s presence.  Quit striving to earn your way into God’s kingdom.  You can’t.  Put your trust in the fact that Christ’s death paid the price to give you entrance into God’s presence for eternity.  That is the first step.

For those who are in Christ and still stressed, have you spent time in prayer with God to discover why you are stressed?  Sit in His presence until He responds to you.  What has He revealed?  An area of disobedience?  A lack of trust?  A point of rebellion?  Whatever it is, don’t go one more minute before acknowledging it, repenting of it, and leaving it behind.  And every time you start to turn back to retrieve that deadly thing, get back in God’s presence again until the urge passes.  Christ died for us to be free.  Experience that freedom today.  Let’s pray.

Holy Father, we come to you in Jesus’ name asking You to cut deep and get the disbelief our of our hearts and minds.  Dig the disobedience out of our hearts and minds, and replace it with seed of truth from Your word that will grow and be fruitful for Your kingdom and help others to know the salvation and rest that is found only in Your Son Jesus.  Amen.