Series: Hebrews: The Superior Christ
Dr. Woodrow Kroll
April 16, 2009

Woodrow Kroll: Welcome to our study room here at Back to the Bible. Hi, I'm Woodrow Kroll.

Tami Weissert: And I'm Tami Weissert and I hope that you can join us for the next half hour or so as we take a look at the superior Christ.

Woodrow Kroll: Yeah, we're looking at the Book of Hebrews all this week. Jesus is superior to angels (we've learned that already), superior to the prophets (that's what we saw yesterday), and superior to other human beings. But today we're going to see something--that He is superior to even the rest that we can have.

Tami Weissert: Now obviously, you're going to be talking about the Sabbath today, and we're looking at how Jesus is superior to the Sabbath when it comes to getting us close to God. We're in Hebrews 4, and it has a lot to say about rest that really isn't about the Sabbath.

Woodrow Kroll: I've heard a lot of people talk about Hebrews 4. They were great messages, but none of them had to do with the context of Hebrews 4. I think in order to stay with that context, we need to go back and read a little bit of that passage. So if you have your Bible at home and want to follow along, please do.

Let me start at verse 1, "Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: 'So I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter My rest,' although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: 'And God rested on the seventh day from all His works'; and again in this place: 'They shall not enter My rest'" (Hebrews 4:1‑5).

I look at that passage and I say, "Wait a minute! It's talking about entering the rest of the Promised Land."

He says, "Oh and by the way, the seventh day was the rest as well, and in My wrath I'm saying to them they cannot enter any of My rest." Now surely that peaks our curiosity as to what on earth God is talking about and what is the writer of Hebrews talking about here?

To get an understanding of what he's talking about here, because remember (these words are written to Jewish Christians. These words are written to Jewish people who continue to believe in a lot of the promises and the feasts of Judaism. They continue to celebrate their feasts, but they've turned to Christ as Messiah), they understand better than you and I do today what it means for the people of God to be denied rest because of the wrath of God.

Now, if we want to understand what they understand, we have to put our hand there in Hebrews 4 and go to the Old Testament. So let's do that. Let's go back to the Book of Numbers in the Old Testament because in Numbers we are reading about what happens after the children of Israel are at Mt. Sinai. That's generally the Book of Exodus. And after they are at Mt. Sinai, God moves them on and they move ahead in their wilderness journeys and then they come to Kadesh Barnea and God wants them to go into the land because that's the land He's promised to them. But Moses knows he first has to send these spies into the land. You know the story very well.

Let me read just a portion of it to you. This is Numbers 13 at verse 1, "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, every one a leader among them.'"

Now Moses says, "Look, go into the land. Spy out the land. See what you can see."

Now, go all the way down to verse 17, chapter 13, verse17, "So Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, 'Go up this way into the South, and go up to the mountains, and see what the land is like: whether the people who dwell in it are strong or weak, few or many; whether the land they dwell in is good or bad; whether the cities they inhabit are like camps or strongholds; whether the land is rich or poor'" (vv. 17‑20) and on, and on, and on, and on he goes. "I want you to go into the land and look at the land; find out what it's like."

All right, you know the story. The spies go in the land. Numbers 13, look down at verse 25. It says this, "And they returned from spying out the land after forty days. So they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. Then they told him, and said: 'We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit [and they showed him its fruit--ripe, huge, luscious fruit]. Nevertheless [There's the word that gets them in trouble. "It's exactly the way you said it would be, however . . . "] the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan'" (vv. 25‑29). And they're afraid.

God sends them into the land. They're afraid. Caleb quiets them down and in the next verse says, "Look, we can do this! We can take this possession!" They gave a bad report. They didn't want to go into the land. Caleb said, "We can do it!"

But you know who the people listened to. They did not listen to Caleb or to Joshua. They listened to the ten who gave the bad report. And isn't it interesting? Just a chapter or so away here, chapter 14, look at verse 40. After they realized how foolish they had been not to go into the land with the promise of God's protection, the promise of God's blessing, look at this, verse 40, "And they rose early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, 'Here we are, and we will go up to the place which the Lord has promised, for we have sinned!''

In other words, they do exactly what Moses told them to do, but they did it too late. They said, "We can't go in the land. The land is too big. The giants are there. The walls around the cities are too tall. And then they realized how stupid they'd been, so they say, "OK, we'll do it.'" So they go up to the top of the mountain and say, "Come on Moses, we're ready to go now."

Moses says, "I'm not going. The Ark of the Covenant isn't going, and God isn't going."

Well, if you read the rest of chapter 14, you find out they went to battle. They were beaten soundly. The Amalekites and the Canaanites drove them out of the land. They failed miserably. Now the land is the rest that they were promised here in Hebrews 4. So with that in our minds, let's remember then that entering the rest of Hebrews 4:1 and following (a rest which is also mentioned, by the way, back in Hebrews 3 at verse 12, "Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." He wants them to know that they can trust the living God.

But historically, the Israelites did not trust the living God. The promise had been made to the Israelites, but they failed to mix the promise of God with faith in God. That's what it says there, right in verse 2 of Hebrews 4.

Now, because the promise was made to Israel and Israel failed to enter her rest (the Promised Land) that does not mean the promise has been withdrawn. The promise has not been fulfilled, but it also has not been revoked. That's why you get down to verse 9 and it says, "There remains therefore a rest for the people of God" (Hebrews 4:9).

OK, Israel blew it. They had their chance to go into the Promised Land and find the rest of God. That's what the Promised Land was, a rest from their wilderness journeys. They blew it, but because they blew it doesn't mean God doesn't extend that same promise to all of us.

Now, I want to come back in just a minute and talk about the rest that God extends to all human beings. Sure, He gave this great privilege of entering Canaan, the Promised Land, to the Israelite people, and they failed to believe God. So what rest does He promise for you and me, and what requirement does He make for you and me to enter into our rest? I'll have the answers to those in just a minute.

Tami Weissert: You know, the world says that one religion is as good as the next, that all roads lead to heaven, and that you shouldn't be so . . . well, "picky"! But that's NOT what God's Word says. In fact, the book of Hebrews makes it clear that Christ is superior in every way. And the best part is that we can have a personal relationship with Him.

Now, if you want to learn more about all that's written in Hebrews, then don't miss any of this exceptional series. But if that's just not possible, then here's your solution. Order the Hebrew series on CD or DVD. Both formats include the entire series. That's over six hours of Dr. Kroll's teaching ready for you to listen to or watch at your convenience.

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Woodrow Kroll: Well, God offered His people, the Chosen People of Israel, the opportunity to simply waltz into the Promised Land and have rest. They chose not to, and what Hebrews 4 is about is offering rest to people. But he says the reason the Israelites did not receive the rest God promised to them was they did not have faith in the promise of God.

Now because they blew that rest doesn't mean that rest is not available to the rest of us. So if you look at the next verse, Hebrews 4:4, he introduces the concept of the Sabbath rest. "For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: 'And God rested on the seventh day from all His works'; and again in this place: 'They shall not enter My rest.'"

OK, if they blew the rest of the Canaan promise of God, what is the rest of the promise here that He has to say with regard to the Sabbath Day? Well, you know that God, after He created six days, rested the seventh day. Genesis 2:1-2, "Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. [Put that word on the sticky side of your mind because that's what rest is all about--the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished.] And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done."

Now, God didn't simply rest on the seventh day, take a little break from His work the first six, so He could go back to work on the eighth day and start all over again. What God did at the end of six days is He finished the work. So the rest of the Sabbath is a rest of God ceasing the work that He did in creating the world. It's not that that work is going to start up again at some point; it's done!

And the whole point of the rest here is to say the work of creation isn't just temporarily suspended; it is over! God rested. That's means it has ceased. The work of His creation is all over. You don't have to work anymore, because what God has in providing rest for you is done as a result of His creation.

Now what I want you to see, though, is back here in chapter 4 of Hebrews. If the rest that He's talking about in the first three verses is entering the Promised Land, and the Jews blew that; and if the rest that He talks about in verse 4 is the Sabbath Day, and the intent there is to show that God finished work on those six days, then look down at verse 9. "There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His" (vv. 9-10).

OK, so we have two illustrations: 1) entering the Promised Land and 2) the Sabbath Day. And from those two illustrations he says "Here's the point. Here's the message I want you to get from Hebrews 4. God finished the work in six days and on the Sabbath Day, He rested. It wasn't that he was tired. It wasn't He was taking a little break before He started again. The seventh day indicates He is done." And this verse is so clear about that, "For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His" (v. 10).

When you discover the rest (R-E-S-T) that God has for you, there's one thing you'll know for sure: You won't be working toward that rest. You will be resting in what God did in working for that rest for you. So entering into the Promised Land was trusting God that God would get them there. They couldn't trust God, so they worked to get in, and they failed.

The Sabbath Day was not designed to show that God was taking a little break. It was designed to show that God was done! And whatever the rest he's talking about here in Hebrews 4 is, you'll know one thing is true about this rest: You can't work for this rest. You have to believe the rest is provided for you apart from your works. It's when we fall into the arms of God and rest in His arms that we're not trying to work to become peaceful, trying to work at getting peace, trying to work at getting salvation. We're trusting what He's done for us, and we simply rest in Him.

Tami Weissert: This listener-supported ministry can be found online at backtothebible.org.

Woodrow Kroll: You know, there are some subtle things in this passage that don't just jump off the page at you. For example, if you look there at verses 9, 10, and 11, when the writer of Hebrews gets to verses 9 and 10, he changes the word for "rest" there. He actually uses the word sabbatismos, and this word means, "to cease, to end, to finish."

Now I want you to be very, very clear about this. The rest that he's talking about here in Hebrews 4--that he's comparing Jesus to every other kind of rest, whatever that rest is--you know you cannot work to get that kind of rest because that's the whole point of the passage. In fact, he changes the word so that we're sure we get the point. So what is he talking about here? What rest does Jesus provide that's superior to all other kinds of rest?

Well, it's resting in the promises of God that Jesus provides for you salvation. Jesus provides for you the cessation of your need to work to try to please God. Jesus said it this way in Matthew 11:28, 29, and 30. "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 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. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Now, I want you to think with me. Jesus is our rest. He is our salvation. He is, after the long journey of trying to please God and trying to get rid of our guilt and trying to find our way to heaven, when we discover Him, we discover the rest that God promises to us. We discover a place that we can simply give ourselves over to Him and find rest.

Now Hebrews 4 coordinates, I think, very nicely with Matthew 11. But did you notice in Hebrews 4 it says, verse 11, "Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience"?

And then he goes on and talks about the Word of God, how powerful the Word of God is to bring that rest to us. Did you notice though, when I quoted that verse from Matthew 11, that the word rest was used twice, not just once? Once the rest is given to us; once the rest is found by us. Let me go back and read the verse again. "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest." There's the second time it's used. "I will give you rest. You will learn of Me, and you will find rest."

And so I think there're two things going on here. Number one, the day I came to know Jesus as my Savior, I received the gift of rest. I knew I no longer had to struggle with my own guilt and my own sin. I received the free gift of God in my behalf, the blood of Jesus Christ to cover all my sins. I was given rest.

But, throughout my life like yours, difficulties came and I found that the closer I came to know Jesus, the more intimate I became with Jesus, the more rest I found in Him. Sure, I had rest from my labors. I had rest that would take me all the way to heaven, but my daily life was a struggle. And here's where a lot of people, I think, and maybe you're one of them, are struggling with this today. You've gotten the rest of salvation, but things aren't going well for you in life. And I want to suggest to you that the second time the word rest is used in Matthew 11 is the one you need to discover today and that is to find rest in Him. Take His yoke upon you. The more you get to know Jesus, the more intimately you know Jesus, the more rest you discover.

And if you don't think you're enjoying the rest that God gives you the way you ought to today, maybe it's because you're not enjoying Jesus the way you ought to today. He is superior to the rest that God promised to the Israelites when they entered the Promised Land. He is the rest that God can give you today if you have faith in the promise of God.

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Well, Dr. Kroll, you said Jesus is our rest several times here in this last segment. And then we looked at two ways that that rest can be: 1) being salvation [and] 2) once you've already become saved, the rest is more of a peace in Christ. And I think there're just people out there, I can just sense it, that aren't in that place of rest right now and they're not really sure how to reach it. So can you just give us a couple of practical suggestions of how we can work towards just attaining that rest?

Woodrow Kroll: Yeah, let me make the distinction again very clearly. When we come to trust Jesus as Savior, we receive God's rest. What we're doing is we're resting on what Jesus did on our behalf. We're not striving to get the job done ourselves. We found out we can't do it, so we rest in Him. We just let it all go and fall into His arms. That's salvation. But while He's carrying us along through life, we discover that we have a lot of battles in life, and that's when we need to know that we can find rest in Him just like we were given rest in Him.

Now, how do you do that? Well, I think one of the ways you have to find rest in Jesus is you have to know enough about Jesus to know where rest is. You know, if we're so concerned about the problems we face in our lives that we say, "There is no answer. There's no one who can help me." And maybe you've been there. We forget that equal to the rest that Jesus gives us is the hope that He gives us. All these are wrapped up in one package we call the Savior. And He is superior to every other kind of rest which means He's also superior to every other kind of hope. The more you know Him, the more rest you'll find in Him.

Now, if you're struggling today with a habit or an addiction or something and you're working hard at it, my suggestion to you is give it to Him. Let Him work hard at it. Say to Him, "Look, I've been a miserable failure overcoming this problem in my life. I trusted You for my salvation. I'm going to hand this over to You now, trust You to deliver me from this. And I'm going to ask You to be strength for me." That's what it means to find rest in Him, not just be given rest in Him.

Tami Weissert: I can think of a few times where I've been there, right where you described. And I went to the Word and the more I was in the Word I just found that rest coming. And it didn't necessarily happen overnight. But boy, the more I kept going back, God just gave that rest to me.

Woodrow Kroll: Well, that's the whole point. We need to go back again, and again, and again. It's like vitamins; do it every day.

Tami Weissert: OK, Day 5 tomorrow, yet another comparison, the Old Testament high priest verses the ultimate High Priest.

Woodrow Kroll: Yeah, we're kind of working our way through the Book of Hebrews, looking at various images that the writer of Hebrews uses to compare Jesus to other people and other things. And every time, Jesus comes out better than all the rest. And tomorrow, as Tami says, we're going to look at the Old Testament high priests. Now, what did the high priest do? What was his role? What was his responsibility? And then, how did Jesus best the high priests in what He did for us? Tomorrow, Jesus is superior even to the high priests of the religion of Judaism.

Well, thanks to all of you for being a part of our discussion today, and thanks for your questions and your interaction with me. Thanks to you at home. It's always a joy to have you join our discussion. God bless you. I'm Woodrow Kroll. Have a good and godly day.

All Scripture in today's program is taken from the New King James Version of the Bible.