The Best Rest of Your Life :: Hebrews 4:9-13

[Introduction]

Are you tired? Are you “reTIRED” ... working too hard too often for too long, “reTIRING” yourselves after tiring yourselves during a lifetime of work? Do you long for rest?

Even if you don’t feel you are, you should know our children are tired ... our mothers and fathers are tired ... our husbands are tired ... our wives are tired ... our world is tired. We’re all constantly confronted by bickering and unrest ... upheaval and tension ... pressure and anxiety. We’re making demands of others trying to feed the need for rest. And it’s downright tiring. We’re even too busy to call our pastor and say, Hey, Pastor, I’m tired. ... Will you help me? 

I need rest ... Will you pray for me? 

Yes, we long for good rest. ... So where are we to find it?

The evangelist to the Hebrews has the answer. He proclaims that ...

THE LIVING WORD OF GOD DELIVERS THE BEST REST TO HIS PEOPLE

I. God has given and promised this best rest to his people from the beginning.

The best rest is not just physical rest ... the precious bit of sleep we get ... a few relaxing hours on Sunday afternoon as a football game echoes in the background. The best rest is “IN” God, “WITH” God, “OF” God. He provides the best rest to all who are weary and heavy laden. The best rest comes through the peace of God ... knowing you have been set free from everything that spoils life as God intended it. 

We find the best rest on the Sabbath Day (Gen 2:2) ... the day God sanctified, set apart with his rest. Even before the foundation of the world was laid, God ... in his gracious will ... resolved to give his people this rest. As Jesus says in Mark 2, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. It was given so that we could rest. 

In the beginning ... after God worked for six days creating the heavens and the earth, the sea and the sky, the land and the man ... God finished his work which He had done, and He rested (Gen 2:2). He dwelled with his people.

Because he was with us, we had the best rest. Everything was in harmony with God. All of our senses were delighted with the gifts of God. There was no strife, no shame, no bloodshed, no death, no unforgiveness ... no unrest. There was neither drought, nor flood, nor pestilence. We had no need. God nurtured man in his Divine Work. He provided the best REST.

But God’s people seldom go along with God’s plan ... they work against it. That’s because we don’t like the idea of doing nothing ... resting. Like the world, we long to work things out for ourselves, to serve ourselves. We convince ourselves that we know best. We say things like “God helps those who help themselves.” But that is NOT what God said. That saying is actually a fable popularized by Benjamin Franklin, a deist who didn’t believe God is at work in the world. 

So we tell ourselves ... I don’t need a helper. Let me work things out my way. 

Adam and Eve were first in line for this job. Then Noah. Then the people of Israel during the Exodus. And even us. We all began by working toward our own knowledge, our own understanding, our own making. 

Adam and Eve did this first by reworking God’s Word into their own image ... declaring that they should nourish themselves instead of allowing God to nourish them ... declaring they knew what was best ... declaring they should look out for themselves (Gen 3:6). But they never found that rest. Neither did Noah. After God blessed Noah and his sons, they went their own way instead of God’s way (Gen 11:2), even working on their own path into the heavens. 

The sons of Israel did the same after being promised rest. When God told them to do their work in six days ... that he would provide the best bread so they could rest on the seventh day ... they grumbled and complained about it. So instead of receiving the promise of rest ... after being baptized in the cloud and in the sea ... God was not pleased with them (1 Cor 10:1-5), and they didn't enter their rest. ... They were unable to enter (that rest) because of disbelief (Hb 3:19-20). 

And here we are still trying to work out our own salvation. Our sin continues to destroy rest and safety and security. Too often we allow our sin to continue to steal our peace.

II. But the promise holds: God has provided the best rest for his people.

While you and I were busy working ourselves to death, killing ourselves, for the wages of sin is death (Rm 6:23), the evangelist reminds us: A Sabbath-Rest remains (as a promise) for the people of God. For The One who entered into his rest also has rested from his works just as God [did] from his own (vv 9-10).

God provided the best rest for us in Christ ... through his life, his death, his Sabbath rest after completing his work of redemption. Though he was born through the pain of a woman, born to toil as True Man on a cursed earth, he knew no sin. He then took our heavy burden ... sin, iniquity, transgression ... upon himself. Following intense torture for it ... scourging and mockery, agony and bloody sweat ... he was crucified, died and was buried. Then he rested in his tomb from the work of redemption, on the Sabbath, no less. And because of it, death has lost its sting.

And now He is risen! ... And he lives and reigns to all eternity. And He is seated at the right hand of God. And he is putting his Word to work through the Spirit, declaring that our debt is paid. Now as Jesus said, we are able to come to him, all of you ... who are weary and heavy laden. [He] will give you rest (Mt 11:28). 

We have no sacrifices left to make. We have nothing left to give. Jesus has achieved the only gift and sacrifice that is necessary for you, atoning for our power trips, our guilt, our shame, and the consequence of our sin. Rest in the truth that his work brings us to repentance. 

III. And then come: THIS is where you find that best rest of your life in Christ.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, May we therefore be eager to enter that place of rest so that no one by the same pattern may fall to faithlessness (v 11). 

Though the fullness of our rest is still to come in the second Advent of our Lord, a type of God’s best rest has come to us today. It is of God, in God, and with God.

Here, in the Divine Service of Word and Sacrament, God gives us his best rest. Here, he proclaims the Gospel of what God in Christ has done, giving you rest in the faith it provides. Here, he announces to you his absolution that your sins are forgiven. Here, he refreshes you and makes you new in the waters of Holy Baptism. 

Is there anything more peaceful than this day when he leads you beside still waters? 

Here, he then nourishes you with his unending heavenly feast that provides the bread of life and the cup of salvation, which overflows with the tangible forgiveness of sins. 

Is there a finer feast on earth to eat and drink? 

Here, He serves us. He washes us. He nourishes us. For the Word of God is living and energized, and is sharper than any two-edged sword, even passing through until the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and criticizing the passions and intentions of the heart. 

[Conclusion]

Brothers and sisters in Christ, rest in this living Word ... in his continuous service ... knowing he is coming again for you. And no creature is hidden before him, but all are naked and [their throats are exposed] to the eyes of him, the Word, which is before us.

Then we truly can be eager to hear his Word being preached, not despising the Sabbath. 

Then we truly can be eager to keep his Word always before us, studying it at home and on Sundays with your pastor, learning to distinguish Law and Gospel. 

Then we can truly be eager to teach it to our children and grandchildren and unite with our brothers and sisters in Word and sacrament, knowing the power of God’s Word is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12:9). 

Finally, we will be able to receive his gifts and share his peace with one another, coming together in soul and spirit. You cannot create your best rest. But you can receive the best rest ... in Jesus’ name.