Teaching for Intercession 28.04.06
11. Entering God’s Rest
Luke 24:5 5 And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?
God is God of the living not of the dead. People are looking among the dead for one who is alive.
Romans 8:10 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
The body is dead because of sin
Matthew 22:32 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”
An Indian lady had experienced persecution for following her god but had forgiven her persecutors and now has a considerable following because of her charitable works, but she does not know God through Jesus as her Lord.
Acts 2:36 36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Jesus established His Lordship over death when He died and was raised and glorified in victory over death unlike those whom He raised from the dead and died again.
Luke 24:39 39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
This has to do with visibility (flesh and bones are visible) because it is impossible to tell whether there is blood because it is inside. It was important that He be seen by the disciples when He appeared in the midst of them after the resurrection
John 20:19-20 19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
Their gladness was evidence of Jesus’ impartation to them
Hebrews 4:10-11 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
Hebrews 4:6 6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,
These people did not have a resurrection promise. Many Christians today are striving to enter into a ‘Promised land’ on earth and going back to Egyptinstead of going on in the faith of a resurrection promise. In Egyptwater was always present and only needed to be diverted but in Canaanthey had to rely on God to send them water. The principle being that the Israelites knew what to do to get a crop in Egyptbut in Canaanthey had to rest in God because He was the only One who could send the rain. So much effort today instead of resting in God to send times of refreshing.
Deuteronomy 11:10 10 For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it (lit:with your foot), like a garden of vegetables.
Joshua 9:27 27 But Joshua made them that day cutters of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord, to this day, in the place that he should choose.
The people still wanted to go back to Egyptbecause they didn’t want to cease from their own works.
Deuteronomy 28:24 24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
Droughts instead of rain from heaven
2 Samuel 21:1-10 1 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David sought the face of the Lord. And the Lord said, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” 2 So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites. Although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had sought to strike them down in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah. 3 And David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? And how shall I make atonement, that you may bless the heritage of the Lord?” 4 The Gibeonites said to him, “It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.” And he said, “What do you say that I shall do for you?” 5 They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel, 6 let seven of his sons be given to us, so that we may hang them before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the Lord.” And the king said, “I will give them.” 7 But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul’s son Jonathan, because of the oath of the Lord that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. 8 The king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite; 9 and he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before the Lord, and the seven of them perished together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest, at the beginning of barley harvest. 10 Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until rain fell upon them from the heavens. And she did not allow the birds of the air to come upon them by day, or the beasts of the field by night.
The bloodguilt on Israelrequired corporate identificational repentance.
Amos 8:11 11 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.
Ezra 10:13 13 But the people are many, and it is a time of heavy rain; we cannot stand in the open. Nor is this a task for one day or for two, for we have greatly transgressed in this matter.
When there is a famine of hearing the words of the Lord, atonement brings heavy rain. Pentecost is a harvest festival where there is a sequence (a) Jesus dies as the atonement; (b) the Holy Spirit is sent from heaven as a wind (Acts 2); and (c) there is a harvest of people, i.e. Pentecost. Today there is a famine of purity; humility and righteousness
Psalm 11:3 3 if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
Acts 7:41-43 41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: “ ‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices, during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 43 You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images that you made to worship; and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’
The idol worshipper puts effort into making his idol in order to worship what he makes so there is no rest. God doesn’t do that and that’s what makes Him God.
Psalm 50:12-13 12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. 13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
(Ancient flood story) The Sumerian gods got angry because their rest was disturbed by the noisy humans so they sent a flood and saved one man on an ark. When he came off the ark and offered sacrifices, the gods literally gorged themselves on the smell of the burnt offerings through their nostrils and they decided never to kill people again because they needed the sacrifices. God is not completed by His creation and He enters into rest. He doesn’t need the blood or any works from us for us to receive His favour. That is what it means to be in rest.
John 4:22-24 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
The Father is seeking worshippers with a sense of eternity.
2 Chronicles 6:18,26,36 18 “But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built! 26 “When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray toward this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin, when you afflict them, 36 “If they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you are angry with them and give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to a land far or near,
Vs.36 God is no longer angry with us CROSS it out.
John 4:22-24 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Because God is spirit this creates a crisis. The Samaritans had built a shrine on Mt.Gerazinand the Jews had built a temple in Jerusalembut both would be destroyed because they themselves had become objects of worship and instruments of propitiation. Ex opere operato (by the deed done) or ex opere operantis (by the deed of the doer). What counts? What is done or who does it? i.e., where is one’s faith, in the relationship or the action? At the time of the Reformation and today, the people do not care what is inside of the minister in action as long as they do the stuff and fix us up with God. People today don’t want to upset the gods who might bring floods and famine as in Jonah when the sailors felt the gods must be angry. God is Spirit; he doesn’t need conferences, programmes etc.etc. What does one offer a spirit - a holy spirit? A sacrifice of thanksgiving. No-one can manipulate God and when that is understood, it leads to rest.
Hebrews 10:14 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Thus we only need God, not people.
Genesis 3:6 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
In the garden, nothing had died; there was no sense of guilt or shame until they sinned, then in taking the fruit from the tree, they entered into work and not worship.
Deuteronomy 8:7,17 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 17 Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’
Vs.7 is the language of Eden. The Israelites entered into a land they didn’t have to work for and which God had given to them freely. So with the Kingdomof God, it is a gift of the King. One can work in it, for it or by it but one can never work for, in the sense of obtaining, the Kingdomof God. Edenwas the King’s gift to Adam and Eve and they were in the rest of God. God was not at rest about good and evil however. He was protecting humanity from entering into a place of restlessness through the knowledge of good and evil.
Matthew 25:4 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
God experiences great anger and fury against evil even before the temptation. If Adam and Eve had refused the temptation they would have shared in God’s wrath and they would have cast the serpent out of the universe with kingly power and straight into hell.
Isaiah 30:19-29 19 For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. 20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. 21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. 22 Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, “Be gone!” 23 And he will give rain for the seed with which you sow the ground, and bread, the produce of the ground, which will be rich and plenteous. In that day your livestock will graze in large pastures, 24 and the oxen and the donkeys that work the ground will eat seasoned fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork. 25 And on every lofty mountain and every high hill there will be brooks running with water, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. 26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord binds up the brokenness of his people, and heals the wounds inflicted by his blow.
Mark 3:5 5 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
When Jesus comes to the temple he sees evil in the fact that they were worshipping the Sabbath not the Lord of the Sabbath. What has God given us that we are worshipping today? Churches, ministry gifts etc., because the people always make idols out of what God has given them out of the good land and in this way, good is turned into evil.
Isaiah 5:20 20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Idolatry – we spiritualize the created order in such a way that we believe we can control the fruitfulness of what God gives us for our benefit (inverse principle). We deify creation so that it becomes a substitute for God by materializing it because only that which is material in essence can be manipulated. God cannot be manipulated.
Hebrews 11:6 6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Genesis 15:6 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
1 Thessalonians 2:4 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts.
Did God give Abraham the promises before or after he trusted him? Before.
Genesis 12:2-3 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
Work is a tyranny over humanity and it dominates human lives in that they think they can conquer evil. People have to have acceptance approval and honour. Everyone wants to live in the pleasure of a father. Our culture is built on it, that is, keeping someone in power happy by some act or work and therefore, people never enter into rest. People have to receive adulation, be well thought of and receive approval by keeping someone else happy.
Judges 17:1-13 1 There was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. 2 And he said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse, and also spoke it in my ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it.” And his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the Lord.” 3 And he restored the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother. And his mother said, “I dedicate the silver to the Lord from my hand for my son, to make a carved image and a metal image. Now therefore I will restore it to you.” 4 So when he restored the money to his mother, his mother took 200 pieces of silver and gave it to the silversmith, who made it into a carved image and a metal image. And it was in the house of Micah. 5 And the man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household gods, and ordained one of his sons, who became his priest. 6 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. 7 Now there was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. 8 And the man departed from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn where he could find a place. And as he journeyed, he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah. 9 And Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?” And he said to him, “I am a Levite of Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to sojourn where I may find a place.” 10 And Micah said to him, “Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year and a suit of clothes and your living.” And the Levite went in. 11 And the Levite was content to dwell with the man, and the young man became to him like one of his sons. 12 And Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. 13 Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.”
Micah turned from idol worship to the idolatry of a priest! What’s changed? Today people want the Lord to prosper them too. Jesus only wanted his Father to be pleased and not angry.
Mark 3:5 5 And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
Genesis 6:6 6 And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
Both Jesus and God were angry at humanity’s hardness of heart and their wickedness. God’s anger causes us pain, but for God, His anger is pain. Jesus never had to deflect the anger of God because he always worshipped in Spirit and in truth. He sacrificed himself in order that the Father’s anger might not cause Him grief.
2 Corinthians 5:21 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Galatians 3:13 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
Ecclesiastes 7:29 29 See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.
How many religious acts have we sought both in and out of churches? Jesus had no schemes and had not devices but had an absolutely pure heart. He understood there is no remedy for evil. People imagine that if only they were better, holier, more prayerful etc, they would overcome evil, but Jesus did not attempt to make things better for himself. Instead he submitted to the lordship of evil over humanity and cried out in extreme distress. Jesus’ confession was that fallen humanity was completely powerless in the face of evil and entry into resurrection power requires us to likewise go through complete powerlessness but without paralysis. Jesus knew His Father could never be an angry Father but Adam and Eve felt they needed to become like gods because they thought their Father could forsake them. Since then, people have strived to build bridges to get to God and are burning themselves out trying to find the pleasure of the Father. Titanism – people have made themselves like giants on the earth because God has given us over to our own imaginations. The Bible never speaks of an angry Father.
Hebrews 7:16 16 who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.
What does it mean to us to live in the resurrection power? How have we reduced it in the Church?
Hebrews 4:11 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
Jesus’ purpose in striving to enter into the rest of God on the cross was to be resurrected. To be reunited with the Father to release the Spirit; to be vindicated by the Father and restore humanity to God; to justify us.
Romans 6:4 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
To bring the children into rest is the glory of the Father.
Hebrews 11:34 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
God turns the weakness of the children into strength which is the cross and the resurrection. People get angry and frustrated because they don’t believe in God’s character to make their weaknesses into His strength.
Romans 12:1-2 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Repentance can transform the mind by the Spirit.
Romans 8:6 6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.