San Diego, California,
United States - Come and Go Sunday school with Dr. Frank Carver and Dr. Herb
Prince for Sunday, 23 March 2014
GOD HAS
SPOKEN!
The Rest
of Faith: “a sabbath rest”
Part One
(Hebrews Twelve)[The following outline is that of Kevin L.
Anderson, Hebrews: A Commentary In The Wesleyan Tradition, New Beacon Bible
Commentary (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 2013), 5-6.
I. Hearing
the Apostle and High Priest of Our Confession: Hebrews 1:1—4:13
A.
Hearing God’s Word in These Last Days: Jesus the Merciful and Faithful High
Priest (1:1—2:18)
B.
Hearing God’s Word Today: Jesus the Apostle and High Priest of Our Confession
(3:1—4:13).
1.
Commitment as Christ’s Partners, God’s House (3:1-6)
2.
Entering God’s Rest: Warning and Promise (3:7—4:13)
a.
The Peril of Defying God’s Voice (3:7-19)
b.
Warning Not to Fall Short of the Promised Rest (4:1-13)
II. Jesus’ Superior High Priesthood: Hebrews
4:14—10:18
III. Call to Persevering Faith and Acceptable
Worship: Hebrews 10:19--13:25]
Hebrews 4:1 Let us fear therefore, lest perhaps
anyone of you should seem to have come short of a promise of entering into his
rest. 2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did,
but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed with faith
by those who heard. 3 For we who have believed do enter into that rest, even as
he has said, “As I swore in my wrath, they will not enter into my rest”;[a]
although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he has
said this somewhere about the seventh day, “God rested on the seventh day from
all his works”;[b] 5 and in this place again, “They will not enter into my
rest.”[c]
6 Seeing
therefore it remains that some should enter therein, and they to whom the good
news was before preached failed to enter in because of disobedience, 7 he again
defines a certain day, today, saying through David so long a time afterward
(just as has been said),
“Today if you
will hear his voice,
don’t harden your hearts.”[d]
8 For if
Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another day.
9 There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. 10 For he who
has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did
from his. 11 Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest
anyone fall after the same example of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is
living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the
dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern
the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
13 There is no
creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open
before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.
[Footnotes:
a. Hebrews 4:3
Psalm 95:11
b. Hebrews 4:4
Genesis 2:2
c. Hebrews 4:5
Psalm 95:11
d. Hebrews 4:7
Psalm 95:7-8]
Hebrews 4:3:“For we who have believed enter that
rest.”
Out of his eternal silence God spoke the Word[Henri J. M.
Nouwen, The Way of the Heart: Desert: Spirituality and Contemporary Ministry
(New York: Random House Inc., 1983), 49.]
‘Till by the Spirit of faith reveal’d,
The Book is still unread, unknown,
And opened by the Lamb alone.[Charles
Wesley, Short Hymns o Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures (Bristol: Farley,
1792), 1.324. http://www.divinity.duke.edu/Wesleyan/texts/cw_published_verse.html.
a two volume work with an editorial introduction by Randy Maddox.]
Indeed, the word of God
is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it
divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts
and intentions of the heart.[Hebrews 4:12.]
Introduction
And I say, “O that I
had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be
at rest; Truly, I would flee far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; I would
hurry to find a shelter for myself From the raging wind and tempest.[Psalm 55:6-8.]
“Come to me, all you
that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and
you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”[Matthew
11:28-30.]
“Rest” is a welcome
word for many of us, especially for those of you on whom the years are taking
their physical toll. “Rest” takes on a more prominent role with each birthday.
How to get adequate rest is a more urgent quest than it used to be when it only
took physical weariness to get us 8-10 hours of “uninterrupted” sleep!
And there are many
kinds of “rest” apart from the rest of a good night’s sleep. There is the
“rest” of retirement as the majority of us here know, and this “rest” does not mean
the cessation of activity as your busy lives evidence. It does mean that we are
set free to determine what we give ourselves to and when and how long we do it.
Limitations are present of course, family, health, and circumstances, more so
for some of us than others.
One form of “rest” remains
vivid and precious in my memory bank. Since March 1928 (I was born in May 1928)
my father worked a ranch thirteen miles west of Valentine, Nebraska. Formerly,
he was mostly a farmer in southern Nebraska. After I left home for college,
graduate school, and my vocation as a pastor and teacher, we would naturally return
from time to time for a visit and experience “home.” Dad, as I knew him, was a
quiet man—as I can be. Often on those
visits Dad and I would get into his pickup and drive around the ranch, the
fields, the meadows, and the pastures, and in the neighboring countryside—we
would even go to town! Sometimes we could ride for an hour together and neither
of us saying hardly a thing. We were just enjoying the renewing “rest” of each
other’s presence in the landscape we loved. I would like to think that our
“rest” was not totally unlike the rest of our text, Hebrews 4:1-13!
Beginning with 3:7 as
we have seen and now through 4:13, as “partakers in a heavenly calling” (3:1),
we are exhorted to enter into “God’s rest.” This theme of divine rest
throughout the centuries has captured the imagination of theologians—Augustine,
Eastern Fathers, John Calvin, etc. Interpretations have ranged from the final
kingdom of heaven to an advanced spiritual state and even to justification by
faith. [For a brief sketch see Kevin L. Anderson, Hebrews: A Commentary
in the Wesleyan Tradition (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 2013), 148.] Anderson suggests that “possibly the richest
interpretive heritage concerning this theme” flows out of our own 19th
century holiness heritage.[Anderson, Hebrews, 148-150, discusses this
relationship in detail.] We touch briefly that
heritage.
In the process of coming
up with a title for this lesson, I found two suggestions in a little book by W.
T. Purkiser, one time president of Pasadena College (1949-1957).[Westlake T.
Purkiser’s career included not only teaching at and the presidency of Pasadena
College, but also Professor at Nazarene Theological Seminary, Editor of the
Herald of Holiness, author of several books, and in his retirement, some
teaching at Point Loma College. He died July 18, 1992.] The first I use, that of “the rest of faith,” for
today’s lesson title: “The rest that is promised is therefore a rest for the
people of God; it is a rest of faith; it is entering a state compared to God’s
own rest.” [W. T Purkiser, Hebrews, James, Peter, Beacon Bible Expositions,
volume 11 (Kansas City, Missouri: Beacon Hill Press, 1974), 42.] H. Orton Wiley, President of the then named Pasadena
College in its formative years (1913-1916, 1926-1929), earlier used it as his
favorite designation: The rending of the veil of Christ’s flesh not only opened
up the way for us into the holy of holies of God’s presence, but through the
Spirit so purifies our hearts that through that veil also God comes to dwell
within us. The “rest of faith,” therefore is our rest in God and God’s rest in
us. [H.
Orton Wiley, The Epistle to the Hebrews, ed., Morris A. Weigelt (Kansas City,
Missouri: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1984 [original publication 1959]),
122.]
The other suggestion,
long existing in the Wesleyan heritage, used also by W. T. Purkiser was that of
“a second rest.” He writes: The Christians to whom the author writes are told
that this is a possession to take hold of in this present life, and it is to
those already converted that the exhortation is given to enter into rest. . . .
this is a second rest, distinctively for the people of God, and providing a
foretaste of the final rest of heaven.[Purkiser, Hebrews, James, Peter, 42.
Besides Wiley and Purkiser in the 20th century, we could list among other
scholars, Richard S. Taylor and George Allen Turner.]
Charles Wesley, the
hymn-writing brother of John Wesley, in the 18th century, penned the
lines in his hymn “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” that we still sing,
hopefully:
Breathe, Oh, breathe
Thy Loving Spirit into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee
inherit; Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to
sinning; Alpha and Omega be.
End of faith, as its
beginning, Set our hearts at liberty.[This verse was original with Charles
Wesley, but was possibly removed by John Wesley because of his objection to the
line “take away our bent to sinning.” Thus this verse was omitted from Franz
Hildebrandt, Oliver A. Beckerlegge, and James Dale, ed., A Collection of Hymns
for the use of the People called Methodists, Volume 7, The Works of John Wesley
(Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1983), 17, 545. Whatever the history of its inclusion/exclusion,
its inclusion in our hymnals was fully acceptable to the understanding of the
19th century holiness movement whose perspective has been part of our history
since.]
Our American holiness
forbearers have traditionally used Hebrews 4:1-13 to proclaim their emphasis on
a “second” work of grace following in God’s good time initial conversion. This
they also labeled the “second blessing,” and among other designations “entire
sanctification,” following the language of 1 Thessalonians 5:23: “May the God
of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body
be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This,
however, was a somewhat reductionist interpretation of this great text. Wiley’s
exposition, although in this interpretive tradition, explored fully the Biblical
context and thus escaped in part such simplistic reductionism. [See Wiley, The
Epistle to the Hebrews, 121-144.]
Today with the help of
Kevin Anderson’s excellent work, especially on this passage, which was
published in 2013, we will take a fresh look at this fascinating text. As
indicated by the conjunctives “therefore” (v. 1, oun), “since therefore” (v. 6, epei
oun), and “indeed” (v. 12, gar),
the author’s presentation progresses through three stages: verses 1-5, “A Rest
is Promised”; verses 6-11, “A Sabbath Rest Remains”; and verses 12-13, “The
Living Word.” Length demands that we look today only at the first of these
divisions, 4:1-5.[We intended to treat the whole of 4:1-13 in one lesson, but as
our preparation grew beyond what could be meaningfully presented in one
session, towards the end of the week we divided in into Part One (4:;1-5) and
Part Two (4:6-13).]
We begin as the writer
first refers back to what he has just written (3:7-19) with
I.
A Rest is
Promised
4:1-5
1Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is
still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to
reach it. 2For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but
the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by
faith with those who listened. 3For we who have believed enter that
rest, just as God has said, “As in my anger I swore, ‘They shall not enter my
rest,’” though his works were finished at the foundation of the world. 4For
in one place it speaks about the seventh day as follows, “And God rested on the
seventh day from all his works.” 5And again in this place it says,
“They shall not enter my rest.”
The first words in the
Greek text, “let us take care” or “let us fear” (NASB)[ The writer uses this hortatory subjunctive in
classic rhetorical fashion often in Hebrews: 3:1, 11, 14, 16; 6:1; 10:22, 23,
24; 12:1, 28; 13:13, 15.] identifies or puts the
writer on the same level with his readers in his concern that “while the
promise of entering [God’s] rest is still open, let us take care that none of
you should seem to have failed to reach it.” This is followed in the Greek
order by “therefore” that links the author’s exhortation or warning back to his
illustrative use of Psalm 95 in 3:7-19. In Psalm 95 his readers’ ancestors
because of their unbelief failed enter the rest of God in their day: “They will
not enter my rest” (3:11). “Therefore, . . . the promise of entering his rest
is still open” or, “still stands” (NIV). The more literal translation, “let us
fear” is quite appropriate for with Johnson “the prospect of not reaching the
presence of God is truly reason to fear.”[Luke Timothy Johnson, Hebrews: A
Commentary (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 124.]
The writer now appears to
compare two groups: “the good news” was offered or “preached” (NASB) to both “us”
and “them.” For the latter, however, the people of God just out of Egypt, “the
message they heard did not benefit them.” Why?”
Again, unbelief, their lack of trust in God’s word (ho logos) was the culprit. But what about how to understand what is
said about this failure of “faith”? Two interpretations are possible.
We expect that of the
NIV: “because they did not combine it [their hearing] with faith.” The NRSV goes
a different direction with a daring comparison: “because they were not united
by faith with those who listened,” that is, “we Christians” are “those who
listened”! This sounds like a “bold conceit.”[Harold W. Attridge, The Epistle
to the Hebrews, Hermeneia (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1989), 126: “the
conceit is a bold one, and that boldness no doubt was a cause of the plethora
of variants in the textual tradition. Yet the notion is quite similar to that
expressed later (11:40), that the faithful heroes of the old covenant were to
be perfected only by their union with Christians.”] Yet, the next verse draws the inference: “we who
have believed enter that rest.” Thus a sustained comparison may be being made
between the ancient and present people who have been “evangelized” (euēnglismenoi). [Anderson,
Hebrews, 137. The Greek euangelizō means bring or preach the good news, i.e.,
the gospel.]
The comparison of the
two groups continues: “we who have believed enter that rest, . . . God has said,
. . . ‘They shall not enter my rest.’” According to the quotation from Psalm 95
God calls the rest in view “my rest”—“God’s own way of existing”; [Johnson,
Hebrews, 122.] this leads the writer
to the Hebrews in a new and fascinating direction as he begins to define God’s
rest: “though his works were finished at the foundation of the world.” The
divine rest was established when God completed “his works” in the creation of
the heavens and the earth: God’s rest “has an enduring, everlasting quality
grounded in God’s own nature and in the divine purpose for salvation history.” [Anderson,
Hebrews, 139.]
Scripture is again
quoted, this time Genesis 2:1-2 where the seventh day is spoken about: “Thus
the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude And on the
seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the
seventh day from all the work that he had done.” And to this our author adds the familiar
warning from Psalm 95:11, but now directed to his first century readers—and to
us: “They shall not enter my rest”--but--“Today, if you hear his voice”! [Hebrews 3:7, 15; 4:7.] Thus for the people of God from then until now
II.
A Sabbath
Rest Remains Open
4:6-11
6Since therefore it remains open for some to enter
it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of
disobedience, 7again he sets a certain day—“today” —saying through
David much later, in the words already quoted, “Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.” 8For if Joshua had given them rest, God
would not speak later about another day. 9So then, a sabbath rest
still remains for the people of God; 10for those who enter God’s
rest also cease from their labors as God did from his. 11Let us
therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through
such disobedience as theirs.
So we need not cry out like the Psalmist,
“O that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be
at rest,” [Psalm 55:6.] for we
are the recipients of a gracious invitation:
“Come to me, all you
that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and
you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light.”[Matthew 11:28-30.]
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First Church of the
Nazarene
3901 Lomaland Drive
San Diego, CA 92104
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