Sabbath School Class Week 8

Sabbath School Class Week 8

INTRODUCTION:  This is one of my favorite chapters in Hebrews.  Hebrews 4.  This chapter is about perhaps my favorite theme.  REST!  REST! REST!  Each of us yearns for rest.  Each of of strive to take vacations, to create an oasis at our homes so we can rest.  We spend our whole life planning for retirement... REST!  Millions of dollars are spent each year on the prefect mattress... seeking REST!  REST... REST...REST.  Rest is pursued and rarely achieved.  Why is so much time and energy spent on rest?  Because it is a necessity for life.  You will die if you never sleep or rest.  Is death the same result if we fail to find all types of rest? 

Read the entire 4th chapter of Hebrew.

A Sabbath-Rest for the People of God

4 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.[a] 3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said,

“So I declared on oath in my anger,
    ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”[b]

And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. 4 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.”[c] 5 And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.”

6 Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, 7 God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted:

“Today, if you hear his voice,
    do not harden your hearts.”[d]

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works,[e] just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.

12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. 13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight.Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Jesus the Great High Priest

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven,[f] Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.  

How does this passage say we enter the rest?  

What is it about believing.  Is it just that if we believe he gives us the rest or are we wired in such a way that the act of believing is rest producing?

Has there ever been a time in life when you didn't believe someone or something, you had no faith in even a product? 

Think back to a time when you didn't have faith in someone or something....  Did you feel at rest?

I realize this is talking about a much more important faith or belief, and it results in a much more important rest, but I think it is important to understand that this is not a situation of... "If you are good enough then I will reward you" 

I think too often we read this passage that way.  It is a warning that if we don't believe him then he won't reward us.  

The truth is this:  If we will believe Him, have faith in who He is, that brings us the REST that is life sustaining, here and now and for all time!  It is eternal rest that saves us, and also a current, TODAY rest.  

Is this just talking about a SABBATH rest? Or the seventh-day Adventist Sabbath, you know church, Sabbath school, afternoon walk or nap.  Is that the Sabbath referenced here?  

What is SABBATH rest? 

READ:  verse 10

Sabbath Rest, requires a rest from work, it is blessed and made Holy by God. 

So let's put this together.  If we trust in God, then we can...,will...,must, stop working and rest in what He is and will do in our lives.  

What could that look like?

Do we struggle change, do we struggle to grow in him, do we spend a lot of our time perhaps even struggling against him.  Can you imagine God, getting angry, getting angry at us for not having faith in who he is, in what he has done and in what he is desperately wanting to do in our lives?  Can you imagine how frustrating it must be for him to see us struggling to be good enough, to heal ourselves, or to medicate ourselves, or to work work work work, when He has already paid the price, and is currently doing the work to transform us if we will but TRUST in him.  I can just hear him with a bit of disappointment and sadness saying, "They will never enter my rest."   

CHALLENGE:  This week each day.... have faith and belief in the one and only who can give you rest.  Have faith that he is your Savior and he is enough. Have faith that he will complete what he has begun in you and He will bestow a rest like no other.  A Sabbath rest.  Holy, blessed and free from work.  Seek Him instead of rest and you will have rest!