Introduction
Faith in Christ is always contested. Ideologies clash, worldviews collide, and truth claims compete for allegiance in the marketplace of ideas, tempting Christians to abandon Christ for His rivals. This is the primary pastoral concern that Hebrews was written to address. The original recipients were being tempted by suffering and social pressure to turn away from Christ and go back to Judaism. Hebrews, then, is to show the supremacy of Christ over every rival claim and to urge Christians to persevere in wholehearted allegiance to Jesus.
Text: Read Hebrews 4:1-11 and pray.
Passage Summary: Our God is the God of rest. He created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. He gave Israel rest from their labors through the weekly Sabbath. He also gave them rest from their life as a homeless nation through the gift of the promised land. These gifts of rest, however, foreshadowed a deeper rest—from sin, enmity with God, and ultimately death—which can only be found through Christ. In this passage, the author of Hebrews urges his readers not to abandon Christ for the lesser, shadowy rest offered in Judaism, but to strive to enter the rest that only Christ can give.
Discussion Questions
1. “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” (v1). In context, the author of Hebrews is comparing his readers to the Exodus generation. Just as God promised to give them “rest” by giving them a land of their own, so he has promised an even greater rest to us by giving us a land of our own—a new creation free from sin and death where Christ is King! But just as the Israelites failed to enter into God’s promised rest because of unbelief, so we should have a healthy fear, lest we too fail to enter the even greater rest God has promised us in Christ.
This is now the fourth time the author of Hebrews has warned us against “falling away” from God (2:1; 3:6, 12; 4:1). Why do you think warnings like this are so important in the life of a Christian? And what do you think it looks like to live with a healthy fear of falling away?
2. “Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 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’” (vv6-7; cf. Ps 95:7-8). The author of Hebrews now brings urgency to this warning. We often think we have all the time in the world to respond to God’s call, but the truth is this: none of us is promised tomorrow. Therefore, it is vital that we listen to God’s voice “today” and respond to Christ in faith “today.”
Whether you are a fully committed Christian or a curious seeker, what do you sense God is saying to you “today” that calls for immediate repentance and trust?
3. “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience” (v11). Having warned against unbelief and having called for an immediate response to the voice of God, the author now issues his main exhortation: “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest.” There is a paradox here. On the one hand, the rest that Christ promises—forgiveness of sins, adoption into God’s family, resurrection life in God’s new creation—comes to us by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, apart from any of our good works. On the other hand, however, the author tells us that we must “strive” or work hard to enter God’s rest. So, while we could never “strive” to earn God’s rest, we must “strive” to enter God’s rest. In other words, we must make every effort to remove from our lives anything that would keep us from hearing Christ’s voice and responding in faith and repentance. Jesus described this sort of striving in Matthew 5:30, “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell”.
What are the things in your life that pour fuel on unbelief, distract you from the things of God, and make it hard for you to hear and respond to the voice of Christ? And how do you specifically need to strive to enter God’s rest?
Close in Prayer
Close your time by confessing and forsaking anything in your life that is keeping you from hearing and trusting God’s voice. Pray for the grace of Christ to produce within you a healthy fear, an urgency of faith, and a willingness to strive to enter God’s rest.