Charles Zimmerman | Rest and Reorient | Calvary Church

We're in a series on the book of Hebrews

called Jesus is better. And so far we've

talked about Jesus is better than the

priests and better than the prophets,

better than Moses, better than the

angels. This morning we're going to look

at the fact that Jesus provides rest

which is better than any external rest

you and I are able to experience. Now,

just to make sure

this message is needed, I thought we'd

start with a little quiz. So, let's talk

about the need for rest and let's take a

little fatigue assessment. Anybody out

there tired? Are you tired? Ra. Oh, we

got a few hands up. Okay. Uh, I'm not

going to leave it go leave it go at

that. Some of you are so full of energy

and so untired you didn't stop at the

coffee bar because you putting caff

caffeine into your system would be like

gasoline on a fire. Others of you are

really tired and you're can't wait for

the sermon to start so you can nap for

the next 30 minutes. Hopefully, you'll

be able to stay awake. Here's a little

fatigue assessment. Now, you need to

actually fill this out. So, if you have

your outline when you came in, you'll

notice under the need for rest, need for

RNR, there are five uh numbers and a yes

and a no next to them. No questions. I'm

going to give you the question. Here's

what you have to do. Circle either the

yes or the no if that statement pertains

to you. All right. So, here's the first

one. I live with a constant sense of

hurry. Never enough time to get it done.

More expectations than margin. I live

with a constant sense of yes or no. I

see some yeses. Okay, next one. I have

trouble turning my mind off. So, even if

you do get to uh lie down and you're

going to try to your mind doesn't stop,

right? And so, you're rehearsing the

details from the day. You're planning

the conversations for the next day. And

if you're like me, we can be real clever

in those planning sessions, can't we?

Yeah, we're planning the con. You can't

turn your mind off. Yes or no? Three.

I am spiritually busy. You go to church,

you go to small group, you come

Wednesday night, you participate in lots

of spiritual activities, but you feel

spiritually shallow. So, you're very

busy doing spiritual things, churchy

things, but you don't feel you have

roots that are too deeply uh sunk into

anything. Next one.

I'm easily irritated and emotionally

short. Now, be careful how you know who

you are. We walk on eggshells around

you. Never know when you're going to

blow, right? You're easily irritated

emotionally. Yes or no? Interestingly,

that relates to rest. We're going to

see. And next one,

I feel pressure to prove myself. And so,

you can't stop performing because then

people may think less of you. You can't

stop earning because then your identity

is going to be crushed a little bit. And

so, you've got to keep running. Got to

keep performing because somehow your

identity, who you are, is connected to

how you perform. All right. How'd you

do? Let me sh let me tell you how to

calibrate those or actually do that. If

you circled one or two yeses, you're

tired, but life's manageable, right?

You're able to kind of coast through.

You can handle it. If you circled three

or four,

you're fatigued

and your faith is suffering. And if you

circled all five, when we read the

passage on rest today, you need to write

your name above this, right? because

this was written for you. All right.

Now, we're going to go come to the

scripture and we're going to see where

the author of Hebrews says, "The rest

that Jesus provides is better than any

other kind of rest you can imagine." So,

if you have your Bibles, your phone,

your iPad, whatever you want, turn to

Hebrews chapter 3. I'm going to start

Hebrews 3 · chapter mention

reading in verse 16. I'm going to read

through chapter 4:12. This is all about

rest. And I'm going to warn you ahead of

time. It's a pretty dense passage. So,

if you're tired, you're going to be

tempted to nod off. Hang in there.

There's a lot of weird pictures,

different combinations. He's making

complex arguments. Hang in there. We're

going to kind of give you We're going to

hopefully give you some hooks to hang

things on so we can understand what the

author is saying and we can experience

the rest that he speaks of. All right.

As I read through, you think of the

pictures. We're going to look at

pictures. The pictures of rest. Verse 16

of Hebrews 3.

Who were they who heard and rebelled?

Were they not all those Moses led out of

Egypt? And with whom was he angry for 40

years? Was it not with those who sinned,

whose bodies perished in the wilderness?

And to whom did God swear that he that

they would never enter his rest if not

to those who disobeyed? So we see that

they were not able to enter because of

their unbelief. Chapter 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. 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. 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. And yet his works have been

finished since the creation of the

world. For somewhere he has spoken about

the seventh day in these words. On the

seventh day God rested from all his

works. And again in the passage above he

says they shall never enter my rest.

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, 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." For if

Joshua had given them rest, God would

not have spoken later about another day,

there remains then a Sabbath rest for

the people of God. For anyone who enters

God's rest also rests from their works,

just as God did from his. Let us

therefore make every effort to enter

that rest so that no one will perish by

following their example of disobedience.

For the word of God is alive and active,

sharper than any double-edged sword. It

penetrates even to the dividing of soul

and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges

the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Nothing in all creation is hidden from

God's sight. Everything is uncovered and

laid bare before his eyes of whom of him

to whom we must give account. All right,

you got it. I'll close in prayer. We're

done. You're good. You get a rest. Uh,

fairly complicated, right? All right.

So, we looked at the need for rest. You

took your little quiz and now that those

verses actually speak to the rest that

comes through the gospel, but the author

does it in pictures. He does it in the

form of metaphors. He gives us three

different metaphors that describe this

rest. And there are common themes

underneath the metaphors. And you're

going to see this often if you haven't

noticed it already in Hebrews. Here's

what the writer of Hebrews does. The

writer of Hebrews looks back to the Old

Testament, looks back to those pictures,

looks back to those shadows, and then

doesn't just bring them forward, shows

how those shadows are actually shadows

of the reality of Jesus and what he came

to do. So writer of Hebrews looks back

to the shadows Old Testament moves

forward to the reality of Jesus and then

says now since the shadows pointed to

Jesus live today in light of the shadow

but ultimately because of the reality.

All right, three metaphors. I'm going to

show you the verse verses and I'm going

to ask you to kind of yell out the

picture the metaphor, right? We'll see

how good you are. Here's the first one.

And to whom did God swear that they

would never enter his rest if none if

not to those who disobeyed? All right,

that whole context around that verse,

what in the world is he talking about?

What's the rest behind th those words?

Any guesses?

I'll help you out because you're

napping, right? It's the rest of the

promised land. So, here's the picture,

right? And all that all that stuff at

the beginning and earlier in chapter 3,

I didn't have time to read all that.

Here's what's going on.

Moses was sent to the Israelites. They

were enslaved in Egypt. You know what?

If you're a slave, you don't get much

rest. And so God says, "I'm going to

lead Israel out." And where's he taking

them? Where's he leading them? To the

promised land, which is called the land

of rest. So I'm going to take you from

the burden, from the suffering of

slavery, and I'm going to move you to

the land of promise, the land of rest.

That's the picture. But when they leave

Egypt, they don't immediately show up in

the promised land of rest. What they do?

No, they leave the pro they leave is

they leave Egypt and they wander in a

desert. Actually, the word that I read

here is wilderness. And here's where we

get tripped up a little bit. We live in

lush green, actually snowy Pennsylvania

these days. When I say wilderness and

you're in Pennsylvania, you think

probably trees and brooks, rivers,

little deer running down to get a drink

before their meat for the winter. You

know how it works, right? We live in But

that's not wilderness in the Bible.

Wilderness in the Bible always refers to

a desert. What is a desert? A desert is

a place that cannot sustain life.

And as Israel wandered in the desert,

they could not survive there unless God

showed up regularly and continuously

by miraculously providing for them. You

cannot sustain life in the desert. God

provides life in the desert. Now, here's

a a little interesting tidbit for you if

you don't know. Um, some of you may go

to Sunday school, maybe in a small

group, so you may be able to answer. How

long did it take the Israelites to get

from Egypt to the promised land? How

long did that journey take?

>> 40 years. 40 years. Do you know how long

it should have taken? A few weeks. You

can walk from Egypt to Israel in a few

weeks, even taking your time. What in

the world happened that took him 40

years? That's what the writer of Hebrews

is telling us. Here's what happens.

Leave slavery. Leave your place of

burden and suffering, go through the

ordeal of the desert for a short period

of time, and then recognize the land of

rest. But because of their disobedience,

because of their lack of faith, they

wandered in the desert for 40 years

and then eventually

they made it to the land of rest. You

got it. First picture u picture of

promised land being the land of rest.

Next metaphor

for elsewhere somewhere he has spoken

about the seventh day in these words. On

the seventh day God rested from all his

works. And again in the passage above he

says they shall never enter my rest.

That's not promised land rest. What rest

is being spoken about here? This is the

rest of creation and this is God

resting. Right? So, if you read the

first couple chapters of the Bible,

here's how it goes. God created

all that exists in six days. And then on

the seventh day, he rested. Now, God

didn't rest on the seventh day because

he was tired. It wasn't like he was worn

out the way we get worn out. God doesn't

get tired. He doesn't get weary. He

doesn't work up a sweat and need to take

a break. No, he rests. But it's an

interesting kind of rest. The work is

completed. The work's done, right? It's

also this internal completion where God

is satisfied. You see, rest on the

outside means work is completed. Rest on

the inside means that you're satisfied.

Now, how do we know that from Genesis 1

and 2? Because it goes like this. On day

one, God made this and then he said it

is good. That's satis that's inside,

right? On the second day, God made this

stuff and he said it is good

satisfaction six days. And on this on

the day he made human beings, what does

he say? It's very good. So something

with this rest we're already learning in

creation and promised land that there's

this external rest, the rest of the

promised land, no longer slavery, no

longer in the wilderness, but it's

connected somehow internally to trust

and faith and satisfaction. There's an

external and an internal part to this

rest. And we see it in the first two

metaphors. And then we get a third one.

Here's the third one. A little more

complicated, but you'll all get it.

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. So here we go

again. What's good news? That's gospel.

So the third picture of rest that the

writer of Hebrews brings out is gospel,

the good news. Now notice we see that

external internal part again, right?

There's the external part of obeying and

doing based on the internal part of

faith and belief. And so rest has an

external component stopping the activity

based on the internal component of rest

and recalibration. Is that how it works?

So three metaphors help us understand

what's going on. Now

there's also a pattern in how that

works. So in creation six days of work

once that's completed there's rest.

wandering in the wilderness for that

period where there's trusting God rather

than yourself. And then there's the rest

of the promised land, the gospel. You're

living life trying to work hard to cover

your inadequacies, cover your guilt and

shame until Jesus comes. Then there's

rest from the work. But that internally

is transacted by faith and trust. That's

how rest works in the Bible. Three

pictures. the writer of Hebrews very

carefully selected to remind us of rest.

Now he also does does something really

interesting. Rest is one of the ideas

and there are a number of these but rest

is one theme that actually runs from the

beginning of the Bible to the end all

all the way through. So let me explain

it to you this way. We already looked at

the creation right? God works for six

days and on the seventh day he rested

and then God says you know what I want

this to be the rhythm. This will now be

the cadence for my people. I want them

to I don't want them to work as much as

they can. Not 24/7. No, no, no. They

need to take a break from the work. They

need to trust me to provide just like I

did in the wilderness. Trust me to

provide. They can rest. Not maximum

activity. There's rest. Then eventually

there are slaves in Egypt and God says,

"I'm going to deliver you from this land

of bondage. Go through a little bit of

an ordeal in the desert where you learn

to trust." And then based on that trust,

I'll leave you in a promised land, a

land of rest. But then the writer of

Hebrews quotes Psalm 95. And Psalm 95

says, "This rest is still future."

What could be future? Rest of creation.

That's not future. That's past. Rest the

promised land. That's Oh, no. The rest

is still future. Hang in there. Don't be

like those that went before. Believe so

you can enter the rest.

And then we get the rest of the gospel.

What does Jesus say?

Come to me all who are weary and heavy

laden and I will give you rest. But

that's not the end either. When you turn

to the end of the scripture, end of the

Bible, you discover the new heavens and

the new earth is the place of ultimate

rest. And so from the beginning to the

end, there's this theme of activity

leads to ordeal. Ordeal prompts faith.

Faith leads to rest. One of the main

themes of the Bible. Well, that brings

us to uh our third point. And here's

where you're going to have to work a

little bit. Let's call this the paradox

of God's rest. The paradox of God's RNR.

Um this happens in two ways. Let me f

first of all mention this one. When he's

telling us how to enter the rest, here's

what the verse says.

Let us therefore

make every effort to enter the Wait a

minute. Make every It told me to work

real hard in order to rest. That doesn't

mean you work and then you get the

result. No, no, no. You've got to do

something in order to enter the rest.

Well, what is that really hard work?

What's that effort that you have to that

you have to employ? Well, he actually

tells us in the next few verses. Now,

that if you hang out at church a lot or

you've kind of read the Bible a few

times, you've got a famous verse right

here, right? 4 412. Here's what it says.

For the word of God is alive and active,

sharper than any two-edged sword. It

penetrates even to the dividing of soul

and spirit, joints and marrow. How many

of you have ever heard that verse

before? All right. Now, I'd be willing

to bet I'm not going to bet. I'd be

willing to bet some of you have those

words in a plaque embroidered on a

pillow or somewhere around your house.

Why is that? Because we read that the

word of God is living and active,

sharper than any two-edged sword, able

to cut between soul and spirit, joints

and marrow, and we think

that's so comforting.

>> Comforting? That's threatening. You

know, we oft

comfort. No, those words are dangerous.

Do you feel a sense of comfort is if

somebody's swinging a double-edged sword

around? Right? Imagine your grandkids

are playing. They got a real

double-edged sword or swinging under.

That's dangerous. Um, well, what in the

world is going on? Uh, here's what's

going on.

In order to find rest,

you can't find it superficially.

So, what does God's word do? What does

the scripture do? What's the gospel do?

It penetrates.

It doesn't just deal with the

superficial with the external actions.

The Bible actually deals with what's

driving all of that superficial

activity. So it works like this. We

often live with a in a sense a frantic

activity. Lots of activity, lots of

noise, and we need to keep it going,

right? That's why we did the quiz.

Notice they went from physical activity

to mental activity. Um, we live in a

sense of frantic action,

but stopping the frantic action doesn't

solve the problem. The Bible goes right

to the heart of the problem. God knows

that the problem with the frantic

activity and lack of rest isn't really

an activity problem. It's a heart

problem. The scripture goes down to the

real issue. Um, I know a number of you

have had surgery. How's surgery work?

Hurt precedes the healing.

Pain

precedes

the rest.

That's what this verse is saying. And so

if you if the surgeon doesn't cut you

with the scalpel, if there's no pain, if

there's no time in the desert, if

there's no sense of work doing the

activity, there can be no healing.

What did Israel learn in the desert?

They learned that the desert can't

sustain life, but God does sustain life.

And so rather than trusting my efforts,

which weren't going to supply life in

the desert, I'm going to learn to trust

in God. And as I trust in God, he

regularly supplies. And it took him 40

years to learn and they still didn't

learn it. Well,

we didn't learn it too well either, do

we? And so we're at a frantic pace. Lots

of activity. Not just busy on the

outside, busy on the inside. Because

we're chasing the wrong stuff, the

activity never ends.

The scripture cuts to the heart of the

matter. This verse is not giving us um

an anthropological model to understand

people. No, no, no. It's saying, yeah,

the Bible doesn't just deal with the

externals. It's not just the put ons and

put offs of self-help. It deals with the

engine that's driving that. If you trust

the wrong thing, you'll live with

frantic activity. If you're somehow

putting your trust in all the money you

can accumulate, your life will be out of

out of order. You'll be running a

million miles an hour trying to get more

and more and more and protect what you

have. If you're living because you're

loving your reputation or you're

building a reputation, there'll be lots

of activity on the outside because

you're running running trying to build

your resume. You see, what's on the

inside is what's driving what's on the

outside. And the author of Hebrews says

the Bible goes after the real problem,

not the superficial problem. The real

problem is not putting our bodies at

rest. The real problem is learning how

to put your heart at rest. Once you do

that, you will be able to rest on the

outside. And all the metaphors point to

the same thing. The metaphors all say

life in this world is unsustainable,

but God regularly provides. Will you

look to yourself to provide life? If you

do, you'll be frantic. If you trust God,

you'll be able to rest because he has

provided all that you need. Um, but

we're going to talk about a couple

practice because some of you said,

"Well, how in the world do I do this?

I'm I'm trying to sleep here. All right,

here we go. Three three practices.

Here's the first one. Now, you got to do

something with your body in order to get

to the real work. Quit working.

Quit all the activity. Um, most of you

know this. If not, I'm going to tell you

right now, I am not a car guy.

Um, I can wash my car. That's about it.

I don't know how to open the hood. I

don't know how I I can put air in the

tires when the little light goes on.

That's all I do. You know what I have

learned though that preventative

maintenance is pretty important. When

that little light comes on and says it's

time to do this, I need to do that. You

know what the difference is? If you

don't do preventative maintenance,

you'll never have your car in the

Barrett Jackson

antique car show. Never. Where will your

car be? In a junkyard. Preventative

maintenance allows your car to function.

Preventative maintenance allows your car

to fulfill what it's supposed to do. If

you don't do that, that preventative

maintenance, if with lack of

preventative maintenance, that car is

not going to run well. Same with our

lives, right? God says you need some

preventative maintenance on a regular

basis. Whatever the rhythm works best

for you, quit working on the outside,

that's like preventative maintenance.

That's not the end. All the when the

Bible talks about rest, it doesn't just

mean take naps regularly. You've got to

do something when you rest. Oh, that

brings us to the second thing. Not only

quit working, you've got to reflect and

remember. Isn't it interesting? That's

exactly what the writer of Hebrews shows

us how to do. What's he say? You want to

learn about rest? Oh, let me tell you.

Here's how you here's how you rest.

Remember, Israel

was in bondage in Egypt. God led them

out not because they were good. God led

them out because they trusted. They

wandered in the desert for 40 years

because they didn't trust. Eventually,

they got to the promised land of rest

because they trusted God and God

provided. That's the message. Oh, yeah.

Faith

is what brings rest.

How about creation? Six word, six days

God creates. Seventh day we rest. Um I I

usually smile when I think about this.

Um on what day did God create human

beings? What day? Day six. Day six.

And what did God tell the people to do

on day seven? Rest. Isn't that good? So

the first day, right? And so day one,

the very next day in your daytimer,

rest. What in the world? Usually the

first day, well, get up, get moving, set

your agenda, accomplish the task, set

out all your to-dos. No, no, no. Um,

rest.

What's the message? God saying,

"I got this.

Your life fulfillment, all that you need

is not based on what you provide. Not

based on your frantic activity. I will

do all that you need. Just rest. Now, he

does give us things to do and we have to

do it. I'm not telling you do nothing.

But rest. Build those patterns of rest

and reflection. So, promised land,

wilderness, rest. Creation rest. Psalm

95. And God still this rest is still

future as we look for Jesus provides

ultimate rest but even now there's a

sense in which we're we're wandering in

the wilderness right we're here and life

can't be sustained by the our effort but

God provides God sustains our lives day

by day as we look to the ultimate place

of rest the new heavens and new earth

reflect and remember the story

and then lastly this is the harder

assess and reorient.

I put this last because we started with

a little fatigue assessment.

How'd you do? Now, beyond we're among

I'm not going to ask you. How'd you do?

Are you restless?

Are you restful?

My guess is um

none of you got five nos on that quiz.

Many of you got five yeses. two, three,

four.

What's that mean? That means something's

going on and it's a skew. Something's

not right. And God gives us this little

mechanism of assessment. God says, you

can evaluate

your trust by measuring your rest. So,

if you're frantic on the outside,

that's a good indication you're trusting

the wrong stuff on the inside. Because

if you're trusting the right stuff on

the inside, you can rest because God's

got this. If God through Jesus has taken

care of our ultimate problem, we can

trust him to take care of the other

problems. Um this morning uh backstage

before the service we usually have a

prayer time and somebody will share a

little devotional thought. Uh Patrick um

shared this morning. Um he read a

passage about Mary. You know, I don't

know why we're back in Christmas, but he

read the Mary story from Luke. And here

here's what the devotional said.

The greatest act of faith in Mary's

life,

she allowed God to write her story.

She rested in the fact that God was

writing her story.

Uh, how about you? How about me? We

don't rest because we want to take that

pen, right? We want to write our own

story. We know how tomorrow should go.

We know what should happen this next

week. We know how our life should go. We

know what you're at with that promotion

in our work. We know what that health

report should be. When you take the pen

and you write the story, you're never

going to rest.

How do you rest? Allow God to write the

story. It won't always be the way you

want it, but in the end, you'll realize

it was the best way. We can rest. The

author knows what he's doing. Let's

pray. Father, we confess that we are a

restless group. not a restful group. But

Lord, you want us to be able to rest.

Not rest in our accomplishments, not

rest in what we can perform, not rest in

our successes or achievements,

resting in what you've accomplished on

our behalf through Jesus. Lord, help us

to quit work once in a while

to remember and reflect the pattern of

the story is repeated over and over

again. and help us to regularly assess

and make changes to be able to rest on

the inside recognizing all of our guilt

has been covered and you are satisfied.

That's why we can rest on the outside.

The bill's been paid. We pray in the

name of Jesus who paid it. Amen.