Hebrews 4:1-11

No Rest for the Wicked | Hebrews 4:1-11

2025:

66% Americans experience some level of burnout

18 to 24-year-olds: 81%

25 to 34-year-olds: 83%

55+: 50%

24% say they have more work than time allotted

24% say they don’t have the right resources or tools to do the job properly

72% face moderate to high levels of stress at work

Simply stated: “We are worn out.”

Hebrews 3:16-19 – “For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient?”

Hebrews 4:1-2 – “Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 2 For 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.”

The Encouragement: It is still possible for the people of God to enter into God’s rest

The Warning: It is still possible for the people of God to miss God’s rest due to unbelief

Q: What is God’s rest?

a. Divine Rest (Genesis 2)

b. Divine Rescue (Gen. 5:29)

c. Divine Relief (Ex. 23:12; Is. 14:30, 28:12; Ps. 54:7; Josh. 11:23; Lev. 25:4)

EXAMPLE #1: ENJOYING GOD’S FINISHED REST

Hebrews 4:3 – “For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, ‘As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall not enter my rest,’ although his works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

“Believed,” Gk. πιστεύω (pisteuō), “faith, trust”

Ja. 2:19

Hebrews 4:4 – “For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: ‘And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.’”

Q: Why did God rest?

Immutable – “unchanging”

Omnipotent – “unlimited power”

Truth: Biblical rest isn’t just about recovering your strength; it’s about delighting in God’s finished work.

EXAMPLE #2: ENTERING INTO GOD’S PROMISES

Hebrews 4:5-7 – “And again in this passage, he said, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’ Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain day, ‘Today,’ saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.’ 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.”

Promised Land = Rest

Deuteronomy 12:9 – “For you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you.”

Joshua 21:23-24 – “Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. 44 And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands.”

Hebrews 4:8 – “For if Joshua would have given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on.”

III. ENDING MY OWN SELF-RELIANT EFFORTS

Hebrews 4:9-10 – “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.”

“Sabbath rest,” Gk. σαββατισμός (sabbatismos), “a ceasing of work”

Q: What kind of work are we to cease from?

Hebrews 4:11 – “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.”

Matt. 5:16

TAKEAWAYS

1. Without rest, burnout and/or breakdown are inevitable.

2. There is no rest in the Lord without trust in the Lord.

Truth: Rest is not a promised land; it’s a promised Person.