Are we there yet, are we there yet? Parents put up with this if ever they venture to take their kids on a holiday. How long is this going to take? Mum he’s pulling my hair. Well, she won’t give me the iPod. But it’s my turn. SHARE THE CHIPS. Mum, his feet are on me. Do I have to sit next to HIM. It’s my turn next to the window. But I just got here. I need to go to the toilet. Are we there yet? Yuck. I’m not going to THAT toilet. Disgusting. Why did you bring us here? I wish we were back at home.
Ever had a holiday like that? Unwilling travellers, unhappy campers and a painful pilgrimage.
Why do we do it to ourselves? Because we want a time of rest. A parent has thought to herself or himself, 'No, it’s important, we need to have a family holiday. I will go without and pay the money and endure the travel, so that my family will have a rest together.'
What do you put up with to go on holidays? Getting up to date with the washing? A day of packing? Arranging care for the business, the pets, the kids? Getting the car serviced?
Friends, we too are on our way. One of the most popular images for the Christian life is the walk. Enoch walked with God… And so does each one of us who trusts in Jesus. Often, our lifestyle as Christians is called the way we ‘walk’.
Where is our destination as Christians? Where are we heading?
Psalm 95 and Hebrews 3 to 4 tells us, our destination is rest. We are heading for a holiday, God’s seventh day, a heavenly rest, and we mustn’t give up till we get there.
In the passage read out today, the author to the Hebrews quotes the last third of Psalm 95. The author of Hebrews says that King David wrote Psalm 95, about 1000 years before Jesus. But it is not just King David who speaks, but the Holy Spirit, and indeed God himself, who speaks to us. Verses 7 to 11[1]:
7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, 9 where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. 10 That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.' " (NIV)
400 years before, God was angry with Israel for their constant grumbling. Moses didn’t get to go into the promised land. He missed out on God’s rest with that whole generation, except Joshua and Caleb.
And David reminds his people of those dark times 400 years previous. King David wants the nation to learn from her disobedience in the past. Don’t put God to the test, like your fathers did. Don’t rebel or harden your hearts. The God who spoke way back then also speaks today.
In 1400 BC, in Moses time, God warned his people: Today, if you hear God’s voice, do not harden your hearts. In 100 BC, God said it again during David’s Time: Today, if you hear God’s voice, do not harden your hearts. In about 60 or 70 AD, God said it again when Hebrews was written: Today, if you hear God’s voice, do not harden your hearts. And God says it again to us now, in 2012 AD. Today, if you hear God’s voice, do not harden your hearts.
There is a timeless today, which happens every day God’s word is heard. And that today is now. Tomorrow we will describe tomorrow as today. Yesterday we described yesterday as today. You always live in 'today'. And the word for today is, ‘Don’t harden your hearts’. The warning comes to us today, just as it did in 1400 BC, in 1000BC, in 60 to70 AD, in 2012 AD. It always applies
And thus Hebrews does not just say the word of God is living and active. It shows it, by the use of Psalm 95, which applies today and every day.
There is a danger of us hardening our hearts, even though we are Christians. So Hebrews gives some practical advice. Verses 12 to 13:
12 See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. (NIV)
When someone turns away from God and his Christ, we rightly think it is sad and a tragedy. The person might refuse to come to church. They might be angry at God for something:. They might have lost a loved one, or someone from church has sinned against them. Maybe life has not turned out they way they would have liked.
So it was with God’s Old Testament people. God showed them his mercy and grace by rescuing them out of Egypt. Along the way God sent them tests and trials of all different kinds: shortages of water, of food, sometimes God made them take the long way. Sometimes they were frightened by people bigger and stronger than them. Sometimes God took their leaders away for a time and they felt abandoned. Sometimes they saw some of their people suffer and die. And they hardened their hearts and turned away from the living God.
And God says this is sin. It comes from a sinful, unbelieving heart. I don’t think we normally regard people turning away from Jesus as sin. We call it an affair, or mid-life crisis, or road rage, or a crisis of faith. But that is not the way Hebrews looks at turning away from the living God. It is sinful and unbelieving. And we are told not to do it.
Each of us has a role in helping our Christian brothers and sisters avoid this sin. Verse 13 again:
13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. (NIV)
Encourage one another daily. We can help each other to avoid this sin of turning away from God. How? By turning up to church, seeking to encourage one another. Just by turning up, you’ve started the process of encouraging one another daily. But do more than just turn up. Turn up to church having through about how you can spur one another on to love and good deeds. Church is not a spectator sport. It is a participation sport. Don’t be a spectator. Be part of the action. That’s why our after church time is so important. Notice it says daily. The question is not, ‘how often do I have to go to church?’ That’s the wrong question. The question is ‘How can I encourage my brothers and sisters daily?’
At the time of the reformation, the Church of England took this seriously. Archbishop Cranmer wrote services of morning and evening prayer for daily use. Why did he do this? Because he wanted the church to read the bible and pray before they went out for their days work. And after they finished the days work, they returned to prayer and read the bible together in the village church.
How can you do daily encouragement of your brothers and sisters in Christ. You can read the bible and pray with your families, your spouse, your children, your parents. Maybe you can visit the elderly who can’t come to church to pray and read the bible with them. You can come to bible study yourself or midweek church. That keeps us encouraging each other to be Christian. Or you can take initiative to meet up with another Christian of the same sex to pray and read the bible. You can do 1 to 1 ministry and be a blessing to others.
In the letter to the Romans Paul talks about this as a spiritual gift each Christian can give to the other. Romans chapter 1 verses 11 and 12:
I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong – that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. (NIV)
That is every Christian’s mission at church. You have a gift, and you are a gift. Your mission is to encourage other Christians by your faith. And that is what you are called to do each day, no matter where, at work, at home, in your family, with your friends. Be an encouragement.
It is said that the Christian life is not a sprint, but a marathon. And that is what chapter 3 verse 14 is about. Verse 14:
14 We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. (NIV)
It is not just starting well that matters. It is finishing strong. We believe in the perseverance of the saints, not ‘once saved always saved’. It is not, 'Oh well, once I went forward at an evangelistic meeting, I was baptized once, I was confirmed, so now I’m fine, it’s my sure fire ticket to heaven. Now it doesn’t matter how I live.'
No. Rather, all God’s children persevere, they keep going as Christians. They hold firmly till the end. They care about how they live. Yes, they might stumble, but they keep going. Scripture says that the saints persevere and keep going and show themselves to be saints by not giving up. Verse 14 again:
We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. (NIV)
And the author to the Hebrews gives us some Old Testament examples of people who started the race, but didn’t finish it[3]. Verse 16:
16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? (NIV)
They started, but didn’t finish. Israel had the benefit of being saved from Egypt. They shared in Christ, in their own way. They had their own sort of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. And we need to take warning, because God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered over the desert. Why did they not make it? Chapter 3 verse 19:
19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief. (NIV)
Again chapter 4 verse 2:
For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. (NIV)
The message of the gospel, that Jesus is God who became flesh, that Jesus is our Lord, Christ and King, who made, upholds and inherits us, and who died for our sins and rose again to defeat death, and who now reigns in heaven, and one day will return, this gospel only works if you believe it. It only saves you if you trust in Christ. For those who say, ‘That’s interesting that Christians believe that, but it’s not for me’, this message is of no value. Not combined with faith, with trust in Jesus Christ, and the gospel does not save, but increases condemnation.
But the Author of the Hebrews does not just use a stick to get us to heaven. He also uses carrot. Both warning and encouragements are used to get God’s people home into God’s rest.
We’ve seen the stick. Now let’s go to the carrot. Chapter 4 verse 9:
9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God (NIV)
The Author to the Hebrews uses three facts to show that the Sabbath rest is open to God’s people.
Firstly, according to Genesis 1:1-2:4, the seventh day does not end. There is no ‘morning or evening, the seventh day’, like there is for the 6 days of creation. In other words, the seventh day is open-ended. And the implication is that God is still resting from his work of creation. Hebrews seems to pick up on this (Hebrews 4:4-6). Hebrews says God is resting from his creation and invites us to enter into God’s rest or a ‘Sabbath rest’, too (Hebrews 4:9).
Secondly, Psalm 95 seems to imply that God’s people could still enter God’s rest. Today, if you hear his voice. If the rest isn’t open today, why would David say this. So the author to the Hebrews takes it that the God’s rest remains open. See chapter 4 verse 1, since the promise of rest still stands. And chapter 4 verse 6: it still remains that some will enter that rest.
Third, Joshua didn’t seem to give the people rest. God spoke about Israel arriving in the promised land as rest. (Ex 33:14; cf Josh 22:4) Yet, it seems that life in the land was never the rest they hoped for. Because soon enough, just like God promised, their sins would be judged. And because of sin, life in the promised land was not rest. So the author to the Hebrews says in chapter 4 verse 8:
For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. (NIV)
So rest is available. God’s holiday is hanging there, waiting for us to pluck it and take it. And how do we receive it? Chapter 4 verse 3:
Now we who have believed enter that rest (NIV)
We enter that rest when we believe in Christ. By faith in Jesus, we enter the rest of God. Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, says this:
Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, 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 burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30 NIV)
We find rest when we come to Jesus. And when we come to Jesus by faith, we enter that rest. We have come to the heavenly Jerusalem when we trust in Christ (Hebrews 2:22-24). And so God’s rest is a present experience for both us and God (Genesis 2:2; Hebrews 4:10). We enter God’s rest NOW, and we enjoy the taste of God’s rest by faith until it is consummated in God’s kingdom LATER.
We know that coming to Christ for salvation has given us rest. We don’t have to work for our salvation anymore. Salvation is found in coming to Christ and sticking to him. God does not save us because of the righteous things we have done once we’ve come to Christ. He saves us because we cling to and depend on Christ, who is our righteousness. So the author to the Hebrews says in Hebrews 4 verse 10:
For anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did for his (NIV)
Come to Christ, and rest from trusting in your works. And you will discover that his service is perfect freedom. Christ’s yoke is easy and his burden is light.
And this rest will be consummated in heaven. When not only do we rest from works as a way of salvation. But then we rest from all our labours, even the works God planned in advance for us to do.
Brothers and sisters, we are on a journey. We are heading for a holiday. But, the journey of faith is not different from the destination. Our journey is a taste of the rest that God will fulfill for us in heaven. Jesus has promised rest NOW. And we have tasted and experienced the wonder of resting from our own works as a way of salvation. And Jesus will complete our rest in heaven. When in the new heaven and the new earth, our service of the Lord Jesus Christ will be our perfect freedom. All the traces of the curse of work will be completely irradicated. Instead, we will be in uninhibited enjoyment and service of God and his Christ. And that service will be our freedom, just as our service now is freedom.
Let’s pray.
[1] The background of Psalm 95:7-11 is the grumbling of the Israelites in the desert following the Exodus, and in response to God enabling Moses to bring water from a rock. Two such events are recorded for us: first in Exodus 17:1-7, when Moses is told by God to strike the rock; and second in Numbers 20:1-13, after God has condemned the people to wander for 40 years, Moses is told to speak to the rock, but strikes it instead. The name ‘Massah’ means ‘testing’ and ‘Meribah’ means ‘quarrelling’. The latter word is used of both incidents, the former of only the first. In the BCP 1662 Prayer Book, the whole of Psalm 95 was used in the service of morning prayer. In APB 1978 Prayer Book, all except for verse 10 is read out in the First Form of the service of morning prayer.
[2] Hebrews 3:7-4:13 is an extended commentary and Christian exposition of Psalm 95:7-11. In Hebrews 3:7-4:3a, the Author observes the original topic of Psalm 95:7-11 – the Exodus incidents under Moses – and uses it as a warning and exhortation for Christians under the Christ.
[3] Compare 1 Corinthians 10:1-13.
[4] In Hebrews 4:3b-11, the Author advances his explanation of Psalm 95 by reference to the ‘rest’ or ‘sabbath’ theme in Genesis 2:2 and the giving of the people rest under Joshua (Gk Jesus). In Hebrews 4:12-13, Hebrews re-affirms the effectiveness of God’s ancient word written as the voice of the Holy Spirit to minister to us ‘today’. He has of course just illustrated this with his use of Psalm 95:7-11.