Abiding in the rest of God

By Pastor Stephen-John Yeo, preached at Harvester Reformational Church Pretoria, 29th January 2012.

How is it possible to abide in the rest of God when the world is so restless? In John 15 it says that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. The command is given to abide in the vine which is Christ. It says that we cannot do anything apart from Him. A branch is dependent on the vine for life, sustenance, growth and fruit. The word abide means that I remain where I am, a fixed state. It speaks of unbroken communion with Jesus Chris. If this is true then we can abide in the rest of God. As a body we understand that Jesus is the centre around which al activities are done in the body. He is the head of the body. When Apostle Andre visited us in Sandton, we had a newsletter that said that: “our church is cell based”. Meaning that all the activities in the church revolve around the cell groups. Now I do not have a problem with cell groups, we have cell groups, but listen to what Apostle Andre said to me. “You cannot be cell based, you should be Christ based”. Uh! Why did I not think of that? Wow! That is true. It all about Jesus. Our rest can only be found in one person.

Hebrews 3:7 – 4:11

“Beware, brethren, lest there be any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.”  Hebrews 3:12

“And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? Hebrews 3:18

“So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Hebrews 3:19

“For indeed the gospel (good news) 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.” Hebrews 4:2

“For we who have believed do enter that rest…” Hebrews 4:3

“Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached not enter because of disobedience.” Hebrews 4:6

“Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.” Hebrews 4:11

Take note of why Israel could not enter into the rest of God. Unbelief and disobedience. Moses was sent by God to declare good news to Israel. And the Lord said:”I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land…”Ex 3:7-8

Moses brought them good news. No longer will you be slaves. No longer do you have to live in fear. A slave belongs to his master and everything he has belongs to his master. Nothing he has is his own. What kind of advice would a father give his children? Don’t look an Egyptian in the eye, look down or else he will beat you. Don’t ask anything just work. There is no hope of one day having your own land house ECT…

Now Moses comes with good news, vers 2 of chapter 4, the word gospel means good news. God has heard your cry and He is going to give you your own land. No longer will you serve Egypt, but God will be your king. God is going to give you your own house (Deut 6:10-12). You will have your own stuff man! No longer someone beating you with a whip. Your children will be safe. This is GREAT news!!! But Hebrews 4:2 says that the good news that they heard did not profit them because they did not believe it. JA, sure, that will be the day. How will that ever be? It sounds like a fairy tale to me. He has lost it, it happens to people who reach 80.

Unbelief forfeits the rest of God. When Israel reached the border of the Promised Land, we see that they refused to enter it. They wanted to appoint a new leader that would take them back to Egypt (Numbers 14). Here their refusal demonstrates their disobedience. This generation could not enter and died over a period of 40 years. Even the next generations could not stay in the land of rest because of their disobedience. After some time they exited the land because of disobedience. They ended up in exile. So neither Moses nor Joshua could offer God’s people rest.

Then where does our rest come from?

Let’s look at the story of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve were completely righteous when they were created. They walked and talked with God. They lived in God’s rest. They relied on God for everything. They had no pain, no worries, no frustration and no heartaches. They had fellowship with God. They were made for Him. They were His perfect work and they rested in Him. Then Gen 3 happens, the devil enters the scene. God’s command: ‘but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Satan says to Eve: “No way, that will never happen.” The temptation was to doubt God’s word. Did God really say that? You will not die. Eve ate the fruit believing that what Satan was saying is the truth. So doubting God’s word she ate. When she lost her trust in God, she lost His rest. Adam disobeyed God’s word. Eve was deceived, Adam disobeyed.  Unbelief and disobedience forfeits the rest of God.

Man was not just sinful but restless. No longer walking in the cool of the day. They are running around in the garden looking for something to cover their nakedness. They never knew things like shame and fear fear. When they hear God they are running around in the garden looking for the best place to hide from God. But God was not going to leave things there. He wanted to bring man back into His rest.

But before He could do that He had to remove the barrier between Him and man. He had to take care of sin. And God sent His son to do that and to give man God’s rest. Through the death of Jesus Christ, man was offered life (John3:16). Rest is another word for life, life as God meant it to be. Not like the world. The world is restless. There is only one person who can offer us God’s rest and He uttered these words:

“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”. Matthew 11: 28-30

The rest of God cannot be found in a thing, but it is found in a person, Jesus Christ.

What does abiding in the rest of God mean?

1. Rest means to cease from work, action and labor. In other words, no more effort. Apply this to God’s rest then it means no more self effort. Rest is an end of fleshly works, legalistic works.  Something that is, what can I say, trying to steal our liberty that we have in Christ is that there are some that say that there are certain Jewish festival, Sabbath that we must observe if we want to be saved. All these Jewish festivals and Sabbaths are a shadow of Christ. The Sabbath cannot save you. Only Jesus Christ can. The Sabbath did not die for you, Jesus did. When light shines on me then my body cast a shadow. All these things are shadows of Christ. There are men today who experts in shadows. The shadow can only tell you so much. Look at the person making the shadow. A shadow cannot show you what the color of my eyes or hair is, if you look at the shadow you will never see all the details. Why am I standing the way I am standing? Paul , a Jew said : “for I am determined not to know anything among you except Christ and Him crucified, I count all things dung, rubbish that I may gain Christ. Look at the tabernacle, Christ is the fulfillment of everything. The altar, Christ died for us. The lamp stand, Christ is the light of the world. The basin, Christ cleanses us from all our sin. The table of show bread, Jesus is the bread of life.   The veil, the book of Hebrews tells us that Christ’s flesh is the veil through which we enter into the presence of God.  Another word for flesh is body.  The Ark of the Covenant, Jesus is called Immanuel, God with us.  No more self effort. 
2. Rest also means freedom from whatever worries, disturbs or upsets us.  Some people cannot rest mentally and emotionally because they are so easily annoyed by the things that happen to them.  Every little thing upsets us, now rest does not mean freedom from all these circumstances.  I wish I could say that rest means the absence of troubles, but that would not be true. Rest is not the absence of challenges. It means to be inwardly quiet, composed and peaceful. To enter God’s rest means to be at peace with God. It means to be free from guilt.
3. Rest means to lie down, to be settled, fixed and secure. No more running around in circles. We are settled, fixed and secure in Him. Rest involves remaining confident in Him, keeping trust. On the 4^th of January 2012 I woke up hearing these words: “a quiet confidence”.  I started the day looking at the meaning of confidence, but as I was doing this the Holy Spirit showed me that the emphasis was on the word quiet. The Lord wants us to have a quiet confidence in Him. This means that we maintain our confidence in Him no matter what. This is rest. We have absolute confidence in God.
4. The word rest means to lean on. Rest means that you and I can lean on God. We can be sure that He will never fail us nor forsake us. We can depend on Him. Why? For He loves you so much. “Jesus loves me this I know, for the bible tells me so…..”