Entering God's rest

The Letter to the Hebrews is one of the more complicated books in the New Testament, but also one that is most rewarding if we study it. Here I would like to look at one of the themes in Hebrews, namely that of entering God’s rest. We find this in Hebrews 3:7-4:13.

When we hear the word “rest” we think of putting our feet up, of not doing very much, but this gives a misleading impression when we look at the Bible speaking of entering God’s rest. Perhaps a better way of looking at it in order to get a sense of the meaning is to think of it as “entering God’s completed work”. Heb 4:4 speaks of God resting on the seventh day. In Genesis 1 we read after each day that God saw that it was good. After six days everything was complete and God rested on the seventh day. Man was meant to live in this completed world. God had made everything for man. Man was not to rest in the sense of doing nothing, far from it. He was to fill the earth and subdue it, to be fruitful and multiply, but everything was there for him to complete this task. Of course, as we know, Adam sinned against God and came under judgement because of this.

The dominant theme in Hebrews is the supremacy of Christ and the absolute completeness of His work. The Hebrews were in danger of wanting to add to this work, of wanting to go back to offering sacrifices, and to other aspects of the Law. When the writer speaks of us entering God’s rest he is talking of us entering into the completed work of God on the cross. In John 19:30 Jesus declared “it is finished”. Through the cross and resurrection, and the giving of the Holy Spirit God’s work of salvation is complete. There is nothing that needs to be added to it, indeed we must not seek to add anything to it. We are to live in the light of the completed work of God in Jesus Christ. It most certainly does not mean that we do nothing, but that we live in the glorious completed work of salvation that God has worked through Jesus Christ. And we enter that rest through faith in Jesus Christ.

Acts 17:32-34 - Some mocked, some believed

17:31

A part of the gospel that is so often neglected is that there is a day of judgement, and on that day the Lord Jesus Christ will be the judge. So often people think that the gospel has nothing to do with judgement, when in fact it has everything to do with judgement. There is a day when we will all be called to account, and on that day none of us can stand on our own merits, it is only in Christ that we can hope to endure the day of the Lord. How do we know that Jesus is the judge? Because God raised Him from the dead.

17:32

Mention of the resurrection produced two responses. Some mocked, others wanted to hear more. The people of that day were not gullible fools, and they knew full well that men did not rise from the dead. So either Paul’s message was complete nonsense, or there was something special about it and it was worth learning more. We need to appreciate the shock value of the resurrection.

17:33,34

Paul left at that point, and some believed. Two particular names are mentioned, one man, one woman, continuing Luke’s emphasis on the impact on women, and the role of women in the church. In Athens women were on the whole excluded from public life, but one or two philosophy schools had women disciples. Damaris may have been one of these women.

Jonah - Complete Notes

Complete notes on Jonah can now be found on Dundee Believer.

Acts 17:29,30 - He commands all people everywhere to repent

17:29

This verse is still so relevant today. God is not like man. We are made in His image, but we are creatures, He is the Creator. We are time bound, He is eternal. We are sinful, He is holy. The idols of the day were made of silver and gold, they were made by man’s artistic abilities, but ultimately they were not gods, just lumps of metal. Today our idols tend to be in the mind, but they share the same faults. They are based on a human perspective. This applies to the atheist and humanist when he discusses God, but they also apply to many Christians when we discuss God. It also often applies in our personal lives. A lot of our anxiety and fears are a results of looking at things from a human perspective, forgetting who God really is. We ought not to think this way, we need to learn to think in a Biblical way, in a Christlike way.

17:30

A rhetorical device was to have the punchline, the hard-hitting point at the end. Paul now comes to the punchline. The Greeks had a high opinion of themselves, just as liberal elites have a high opinion of themselves today, but in truth they were ignorant. There are a number of times where the Bible speaks of people acting in ignorance and seems to imply that God takes a lenient view. However, now God commands all people everywhere to repent. So often we treat the gospel as if it was a nice message just telling people that God loves them. That is not what we find in the Bible, that is an idol of our minds, a man-made gospel. The gospel is a message commanding all men everywhere to repent. It demands a response from us.

Haggai 2:22,23 - I have chosen you

2:22,23

There would be an overthrow of kingdoms, the strength of the Gentile kingdoms would be destroyed. The Persian kingdom would fall to Alexander the Great in 333-330 BC. The use of horsemen and chariots was one the marks of Persian warfare, but Alexander would defeat them. I think that once again we have to look at this prophecy with the partial fulfillment - later complete fulfillment lens. The apocryphal book, Sidras refers to Zerubbabel as a signet ring (Sidras 49:13).

Israel of Haggai’s day saw surrounding nations, especially Persia, as being all powerful. Today many nations are anti-Israel, and the world is anti-Christ. But these kingdoms will fall, and the reason they will fall is that “I have chosen you”. The signet ring guaranteed the contract, the agreement. We are God’s signet ring, God will work through us, we need to recognise the importance we have in God’s plans.

Acts 17:26-28 - In him we live and move

17:26

God created all of us. The Bible presents Adam as the first man. It is interesting that evolution has common descent as one of its fundamental elements. Now I think there are very serious questions to be raised about evolution and that it is incapable of explaining all that evolutionists say that it can explain, but this point of commonality (I appreciate there are enormous differences as well!) is interesting. God created us to inhabit the whole earth, and set times and places. We see here that God has purpose in all things. However, it does not mean that God determines every little detail, ti does not imply that He micromanages. Indeed the thread in Scripture is that God gives man responsibility.

17:27,28

God did this so that we would seek Him and reach out to Him. The order in nature, the events that happen are meant to encourage us to seek Him. This happens in various ways. The wonder of nature should encourage us to see that there is a creator behind the universe, a designer. Disasters and many other things should show us the limitations of humanity, that we are not, and cannot be, in total control. Paul then quotes from two of their own philosophers, Epimenides and Aratus.

Haggai 2:20,21 - A whole lot of shaking

2:20,21

We now get the final recorded prophecy of Haggai. Before focusing on the text, let me make one of my criticisms of the cessationist line which sometimes, when talking about “modern” prophecy (and let me say that some of modern prophecy is rubbish, see Charisma News for a selection) is that they assume everything that is said has to be of the same authority as scripture. The sensible continuationist line is that no modern prophecy has anything like the same authority as scripture, absolutely everything is to be judged by scripture. Anyway, back to Haggai. We have in this book a few short prophecies. We know he was called “Haggai the Prophet”. So are the words we have recorded in the book of Haggai the only things he said? Certainly not. But they are the only ones preserved by God as Scripture. Prophecy is not necessarily scripture, and the only prophecy that is scripture is the prophecy that is recorded in the Bible. And the Bible is God-breathed.

Anyway, back to the book! Like the last word, this is one that is given to Haggai, giving him instructions, rather than a word to be declared directly to Zerubbabel, Joshua and all the people. Haggai is to speak to Zerubbabel, the governor, and he repeats the earlier word about God shaking heaven and earth.