The Hope of Rest
Advent 2023 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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How many of you all feel like you get enough sleep on a regular basis
Facts about sleep
Tiredness peaks twice a day, at 2 am and 2 pm. That’s why you’re less alert after lunch.
‘Morning people’ are more likely to be successful in their careers
The perfect nap, according to NASA, lasts for 26 minutes.
It’s thought that up to 15% of the population are sleepwalkers.
85% of police officers, 80% of regional pilots, and 48% of air-traffic controllers fall asleep while working according to research.
Well, this sermon isn’t about sleep necessarily
But I do want to talk about rest today
How many of you all feel like you get enough rest?
Rest is a bit of a different story than sleep.
How many of us have had the experience of maybe sleeping all night long, but waking up and not feeling rested?
Because rest encompasses so much more than sleep, if you think about it
we can think in terms of physical rest
Maybe you have been working at a physically demanding job
And your body, your muscles just ache. Your body just needs to stop and rest
Going to Florida and cutting up trees last Feb. I don’t get involved in as much physical labor as I should and, man I really felt it!
I really felt the need for physical rest in the evening
But we can also think in terms of mental rest
Airplane pilots have duty time limits
Not because it is a physically demanding job, necessarily
But because it is a mentally demanding job
Staying alert mentally takes energy and puts demands on our body (so maybe in a sense, this is also physical rest that we are talking about)
But many an accident or mishap has taken place because a pilot has just been worn down mentally and has not had enough time to rest
We could also think in terms of emotional rest
And this sort of crosses over into these other areas of rest as well
But when we were with MAF, they developed a course that we were required to take called “Inside Out Safety”
And it basically had the premise that what is happening on the inside of a person
What is happening with your relationships
The kinds of emotional burdens you are carrying
All of these things on the inside of a person have an effect on our safety as pilots
Because they can weigh us down and distract us and make is weary
We need to be able to rest emotionally because these burdens can be very heavy
And last, but certainly not least, we can talk about spiritual rest
And spiritual rest, I believe, leads, or eventually will lead to all these other kinds of rest that I mentioned
And that is what I want us to think about today
The Lord God
When Adam and Eve ate the fruit and disobeyed Him
Came down and pronounced upon them the results of their disobedience
We’ve talked about the loss of relationship and the hope of reconciliation
We’ve talked about the bondage to sin and the hope of a deliverer
And today we are going to talk about work and toil, and the hope of rest
16 To the woman he said,
“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be contrary to your husband,
but he shall rule over you.”
17 And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”
Now, I believe that God created work.
He created mankind to be industrious
He commanded man and woman to “replenish the earth and subdue it”
Which means to work the earth and have dominion over it. Care for it.
And that involves work and effort
But I also believe that it is God’s plan that we should experience rest
It says in Genesis chapter 2 that God, after he had finished His work of creating, He rested.
Now, I don’t believe that God took the day off, or slept in that day, or that He refuses to answer prayers on that day.
But He certainly consecrated that day to teach His creation that
Rest is important
In fact, rest is in the very plan and will of God
But what happened in the fall is that finding rest became very difficult for His creation, for man and woman
But what I notice here in this passage
Is that this work commission of replenishing the earth and subduing it is going to be accompanied by a great deal of weariness and turmoil
Childbirth is going to involve a great deal of pain
Your relationships between husband and wife are going to involve conflict which along with it brings weariness
Trying to get the earth to produce is not going to be easy
In fact, it’s going to involve pain
I don’t know how much pain you farmers go through in order to get something out of the ground, but I can imagine that before there was much automation,
Farming probably involved a lot of pain, aching muscles, injury
You try to plant a crop of corn, and you end up dealing with thorns and weeds
But God said, it’s going to involve sweat and some disappointment and.
The people of Israel, in bondage in Egypt were certainly in need of rest
They were driven hard by their task masters
Exodus 1:14 “14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.”
Bitter means desperate
They were in fear of their male children being killed as Pharaoh had ordered
They had to make a certain quota of bricks each day, and eventually had to find their own straw to mix with the mud
The people were in desperate need of a place of rest
I think this illustrates for us well what it is like to be alive.
We work, we strive
Sometimes it seems that nothing comes easily.
Have you ever said, “It just doesn’t seem like it should be this hard!”?
Our work even though maybe it’s work that we enjoy just doesn’t go so well at times, and there are many days when we think, man it just doesn’t seem like it should be this hard
I thought that certain days when I was a pilot
I’ve thought that about being a pastor
What about our relationships?
We are supposed to love each other
Husbands and wives, brothers and sisters here in church
It just doesn’t seem like it should be as hard as it is
But it is! Or it can be at times
Job put it well when he said
“Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble”
And he goes on to talk about the brevity of life and the difficulty of life.
But, God looked down on His people toiling in slavery
But the Lord heard, and the Lord knew
Exodus 3
English Standard Version (Chapter 3)
7 Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey,
Now, a lot of times when we think of the children of Israel leaving Egypt and going to the Promised Land, we think about
Them being set free from bondage, from slavery
And indeed, that’s very true!
We talked about that last Sunday.
The people were delivered and given a new land where they could be free!
But you know, God also had something else on His mind when He set them free.
REST
in the book of Hebrews, chapter 3, the author is writing about the supremacy of Jesus
In chapter 2, it says that Jesus is our merciful and faithful High Priest!
How awesome is that, amen?
And then in chapter 3 the author tells us to “consider Jesus”, or think about Jesus, as being greater than Moses
Yes, Moses was faithful in what God had told him to do.
However, Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses because He is faithful over all of God’s house as a Son
And that house, the writer says, is US. We are His house as we continue walking in faithfulness
And then He says this in 3:7
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, (and the writer is quoting from Psalm 95 here)
“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 put me to the test
and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
they have not known my ways.’
11 As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest.’ ”
Do you see this? God had it on His mind that His people should experience rest
Just as God had designed His people, He wanted them to experience rest from the hardships that sin has brought upon us
The writer goes on to say:
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.
So, God’s design was that His people should enter into His rest and experience His rest
But, so many of them failed to do so, because of unbelief
And indeed, many who entered the promised land failed to experience the rest of God because they turned away from Him
And so many people still today fail to experience the rest of God because of unbelieving hearts
But there’s good news here
And the good news is that God still holds out the offer of rest!
And what we see is that, yes, the Promised Land was to be a place of rest for God’s people
But it was supposed to be a type, or a picture of something much greater
The author of Hebrews continue on in chapter 4
(and btw, he circles around a few times in his reasoning, but we’ll try to summarize it at the end)
English Standard Version (Chapter 4)
4 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 3 For we who have believed enter that rest, 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. 4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 5 And again in this passage he said,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.”
And here is the pinnacle of this whole discussion about rest
8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. 9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.(oh my goodness, that verse is packed so full right there! There is a load of Gospel truth in that one verse!)
11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Did it hit you what is written in verse 10?
For the people of God, there is a Sabbath rest
Notice that word, “is”.
I believe that right now, there is rest available
and you and I should be experiencing that Sabbath rest every single hour of every single day
Because, whoever has entered God’s rest has rested from his works, just as God rested from His.
You know, I believe that is is important and biblical for us to have a physical Sabbath—a day of the week to rest from our physical labors and renew our bodies.
But I believe that this Sabbath day should point us toward an even greater and more wonderful truth
That for the people of God we experience our Sabbath rest when we are able to rest from our works
And I don’t believe that he is talking about physical labor here
I believe by works, I mean all that we do to try to please God, find acceptance from Him, trying to make our way to the promised land, heaven?
How hard do you find yourself working in order for God to accept you?
This is where a lot of people are:
working
Toiling
Struggling
worrying
There are messages being preached that ultimately come down to pressuring us to work harder
you didn’t have enough faith
You didn’t pray hard enough
You didn’t give enough to this ministry
Trying their best to make it through the Christian life, and trying their best to make it to heaven somehow
Just like the children of Israel did—
Struggling through the wilderness trying to make it to the promised land
And why were they there?
Why did many of them fall and die in the wilderness?
Because they failed to believe God.
They failed to believe that God was their deliverer and by His power and might and His providence, would bring them through
They failed to believe that God is enough
those who failed to believe God. Those are the ones who failed to enter into God’s rest
But we have a Sabbath rest offered for us
And we enter into our Sabbath rest when we believe God. when we rest in His promises. When we rest in what God has done for us through Jesus Christ
And when we rest in what God has already done, then we rest from our works as this verse says
Jesus, Matthew 11 pronounced judgement on cities where He had done might miracles
Chorazin
Bethsaida
Capernaum
All cities where the power of God had been displayed and yet they failed to believe
And Jesus pronounced judgement on them because of their unbelief
But I have to think that Jesus did not do this in a vindictive way
Rather, i can almost imagine Him doing this with tears in His eyes and His heart
He said, if the Gentile cities of Tyre and Sidon had seen what you have seen. If the ancient city of Sodom had experienced what you experienced, all of them would have repented and been spared
But, for you, my own people. My own family and relatives, because you haven’t believed, there is terrible judgement coming
And then down a few verses, He extends this amazing invitation:
Matthew 11:28–30 “28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.””
Church, This is the hope that we have extended to us today, this Advent season. The Hope of Rest
Are you weary this morning?
Are you tired?
Do you find yourself often struggling and toiling and worrying about whether God really is pleased with you?
The invitation for rest stands.
Jesus invites us all to come to Him.
And by faith to accept all that He has done for us. To REST
Jesus came so that we might experience a Sabbath rest