Message Title: Jesus and Rest

Jesus is Greater!
SO FAR In Hebrews:
- God has spoken in the past, but now He has spoken through His Son - a shout!
- Jesus is greater than the angels and every spiritual power
- Jesus shared our humanity, entered our suffering, and leads us all the way to eternal restoration.

Moses: Teach me your ways!
“My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. “

Jesus is all that and He has done all that!
Why is it that we can still get hijacked by worry, fear, and the pleasures and comforts of life???

And what price do we pay for drifting away from God??
And how can we find God’s help?

Hebrews 3:1–19
“Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.
“Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.
So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ” See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.”

We have to stare at the BIG "IF" in v6

Two questions every human will wrestle with:
- Where is God when times are tough in my life?
- Why can't my soul consistently find comfort, peace, and rest?

The answers are found in Jesus, our Apostle and High Priest.

The wilderness generation failed AFTER their rescue from slavery - when obedience became inconvenient. And Hebrews is saying, don’t repeat that mistake.

That rebellion, that lack of trust, caused God to deny them entrance into the Promised land. (His land and provision of Rest)

You and I can have this struggle, too.
Can I really trust Jesus or is there more I must control or do to find peace?

Hebrews is saying, don’t miss the parallel.
These core issue in Hebrews 3 isn’t behavior, it’s unbelief.

Not intellectual doubt, but relational distrust.

Hebrews 3 calls you to answer three core discipleship questions:
1. Where do my thoughts go when life is hard?
2. Where does my heart turn when it is unsettled?
3. Where do I naturally go to find rest and peace in this world?

Here is how you do it:

1. Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus


2. Focus Your Heart on Jesus


3. Enter God's Rest with Jesus


1 Corinthians 10:1-6
“For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. ”

BIG ROCK #1

1. Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus
(Hebrews 3:1–6)
Hebrews assumes your thoughts are already fixed on something.
The question is not whether you are fixating, but what is shaping your trust.

The Command Is Mental but the Outcome Is Spiritual

What we mentally rehearse determines what we spiritually trust.

The problem Hebrews addresses is not rebellion first—it is misdirected trust.

Jesus as Apostle and High Priest
(This dual role frames the entire Christian life:)
* Apostle → God comes to us
* High Priest → We are brought to God

Nothing else you cling to can do both.

The mind is the steering wheel of trust. Wherever your attention goes, your confidence eventually follows.

Reticular Activating System

Formation Questions for Response:
* What am I trusting to make sense of my life right now?
* What voice is the loudest when I’m disappointed?
* Where am I trying to manage outcomes rather than trust God?

BIG ROCK #2

2. Focus Your Heart on Jesus

Hebrews 3:7–15
That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' So I declared an oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.'"

Hearts do not go astray all at once; they drift when attention is unmanaged, pain is unprocessed, comfort replaces commitment, small compromises go unchecked, and the story of love and faithfulness is forgotten. What is left unattended in the heart will eventually become the direction of the life.

Fixed thoughts on wrong stuff
Unprocessed Pain
Small compromises left unchecked
Beauty and power of Jesus forgotten

By the time unbelief looks like rebellion, it has already lived in the heart for a long time.

The helpful habit:
But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

Hebrews assumes that faith erosion happens slowly and quietly, and most people don’t notice it happening in themselves. We’re very good at justifying our own drift. From the inside, hardening almost always feels reasonable. That’s why community matters. Other people can often see what we can’t.

Israel didn’t fall apart because one person doubted. They fell apart because distrust spread unchecked. Grumbling became normal. Fear became shared. Resistance became collective. And no one stopped it early.

Community isn’t about accountability in the harsh sense. It’s about shared attentiveness to trust.

"Encourage one another DAILY."
Hardening happens during the ordinary grind.

We need the Body of Christ to call us back to trust and rest.

Let's Read from Psalm 95 together and then sing

Psalm 95:1-7
“Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care.’ ””

BIG ROCK #3

3. Enter God’s Rest in Jesus

Hebrews 3:16–19
“Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.”

Rest Is Not Inactivity. It is Shalom.
“Rest” in biblical terms includes:
Security from enemies
Stability instead of wandering
Fruitfulness and inheritance
Becoming a blessing to others
Rest is life ordered under God’s reign.

Rest Is Not Inactivity. It is Shalom.
“Rest” in biblical terms includes:
* Security from enemies
* Stability instead of wandering
* Fruitfulness and inheritance
* Becoming a blessing to others

Rest is life ordered under God’s reign.

Why the Wilderness Generation Failed
They had, Deliverance, Provision, Leadership, and Evidence
They had everything necessary to trust God—except trust.

The barrier to rest had symptoms: rebellion, sin, disobedience.
But the root cause is Unbelief.

“They were not able to enter, because of unbelief.”
A Sobering Truth: Miracles can coexist with mistrust.

Illustration: Adopted kids that horde food and never unpack.
You can be fully adopted and still live like you might be sent away.
Rest begins when we believe we are actually home.

Hebrews 4 will teach us that there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God; for anyone who enter's God's rest also rests from their own works. Let us make every effort to enter that rest.

Formation Questions for Reflection
* What would “rest” actually look like in my life right now?
* Where am I surviving instead of trusting?
* What fear is keeping me outside of God's Rest?