Download this sermon (right click and save)

To Enter the Eternal Resting Place
(Ps132:13-14; He4:1-11)

God is the Lord of rest.
Rest is in Him alone and
He will give rest to those who obey His commands and remain in His covenant and
Those who are troubled (2Th1:7).
 
Faith is longing for God’s rest and
The life of this faith is making every effort to enter eternal rest, obeying His word and not avoiding any hardship (He3:16-19, 11:35).
 
Everyone yearns for rest
Especially those who undergo hard labor, hardship, suffering and torture.
While all want to enter eternal rest after their life ends
The Bible says that
Only those who die in the Lord will go to heaven where rest is after their toils end (Rev14:13),
While the wicked will head to hell where there will be no rest day or night where
They will be tormented with burning sulfur for ever and ever (Rev14:9-11).
 
For since God finished six days of His creation work and entered rest on the seventh day (Ge2:3),
All creation within Hades, the universe, groans in pain (Rm8:22).
 
God delivered Israel from the toils of slavery in Egypt (Jer31:2)
So they enter the promised land and find rest there (Dt12:10).
Even in the wilderness the ark of Jehovah went before them to find them a place to rest (Nu10:33).
The commandments of the stone tablets inside the ark reminded them
To remember the Sabbath and keep it holy (Ex20:8-11)
For generations to come as a lasting covenant (Ex31:16).
While the ark of the covenant became woe to the uncircumcised (1Sa5:1-12),
To Obed-Edom who welcomed it to his house it became a blessing for generations (2Sa6:10-11).
 
On Zion which the LORD chose to be His resting place for ever and ever (Ps132:13-14)
Solomon built the temple to put the ark (2Ch6:41).
As such, Jerusalem should have always been a peaceful place
But there was more war, killing, and destruction there than anywhere else in the world for
They desecrated the Sabbaths and defiled the sanctuary (Eze23:38; Neh13:18).
More importantly, there is no place of eternal rest on earth (Is66:1).
 
Yeshua said, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days,” for
Through the death and the resurrection of the temple of His body (Jn2:19-20),
He would enter through not a tabernacle made with humans hands
But the greater and more perfect tabernacle (He9:11),
Not the land of Canaan but the Father’s house, the eternal resting place for
He is greater than the temple and the sabbath, which are shadows of things to come (Col2:16-17),
For He is Lord of the Sabbath (Mt12:1-8).
During His public life for three years, He worked without resting and
To these who toiled to follow the Sabbath regulations
He said to come to Him and find rest (Mt11:28-30).
 
As He died in the pains of hanging on the cross for six hours,
He said, “It is finished” (Jn19:30), for He:
1) Ended the toils of His flesh and commended to the Father His soul in Hades (Ac2:27);
2) Judged the devil the restless one (Ge3:4-6; Is14:12-15); and
3) Carried the burden of all men’s sin so they escape the punishment in hell (Ps68:19; Jn1:29).
 
He resurrected the day after the Sabbath, on the eighth day, another day (Mt28:1; He4:8), and
Entered the heavenly temple, the eternal resting place, and He is the ark (Rev11:19).
The Holy Spirit lets believers find rest not found anywhere else on earth
In the temple where the name of Yeshua is, that is, in the Church during worship
On the Lord’s Day, when the Redeemer God finished His work and
Resurrected and entered His rest (Ac20:7; Rev1:8).
 
The Christian, therefore, while on earth labors for the Lord’s work:
He prays (Col4:2), gathers (He10:25), preaches the word (2Ti4:2); serves (1Th4:10),
Obeys (He4:11), and does not avoid hardship (He11:35-38) for
He longs to finally be brought into the eternal resting place.
 
O Lord,
On the Lord’s Day, let the Church of Jesus during worship
Find rest for our souls that we cannot find anywhere else on earth.
Let us not break the Sabbath by personal matters, words, ways or entertainment (Is58:13), and
Even if we go out to the world where storms await,
Let us not lose this rest.
Let us be yoked with You and toil now, so we all enter eternal rest in that day!  Amen.