The reason I know these two words are not the same is because I consulted a Greek and Hebrew scholar by the name of Paul of Tarsus. Do you know what he does? He translates into Greek Genesis 2:2 which uses the word Shab'bat, meaning to stop.
This is where we get a Greek lesson. Keep two words straight.
Except for Hebrews 4:9, every occurrence of the word rest between Hebrews 3:7 and Hebrews 4:10 (most of chapters 3 and 4) is the word katapausis, and its variants. It does not mean rest, as they have translated it here, but it means to cease or to end.
You might ask why, if they knew Paul translated it from the Hebrew into the Greek as katapausis, why did they not put cease there? Because they were referencing Genesis 2 where the translators have always translated it as rested. But, Paul chose the correct Greek word which translates the Hebrew word Shab'bat as to cease.
Who in the world knew Hebrew and Greek better than the apostle Paul? I do not know. He was quite a scholar.
The other word that would mean rest, that Paul could have chosen to put in here, is a similar word to katapausis. There is a change in the preposition in the form of the prefix. This word is anapausis. So we have katapausis and anapausis. All the difference is kata- verses ana-. This is because the root, pauo means to cease, or to stop, or, to leave off doing something.
The root meaning of the Greek word, then, means, to stop, and you change the definition of your word by prefixing a preposition to it.
The differences then, are kata- and ana-. They are opposites as far as prepositions go in Greek. Kata- means down. Ana- means up. So, what you have here is that katapausis is a down-cessation, or a down-stoppage. And anapausis means an up-cessation, or an up-stoppage.
Now, we do not think like this. Greeks have a different way of looking at the world than we do, and it is reflected in their language. What would you think an up-cessation means, verses a down-cessation? It is a matter of products or results.
The first one, katapausis, because it is given the prefix kata-, meaning down, is negative, or neutral in its outlook. Anapausis, because it is given the prefix ana-, meaning up, is positive, or uplifting.
When you stop something, everything slows down and stops, and nothing positive is happening. It is just stopped. That is katapausis. It is a stoppage - a cessation. Activity ceases.
Anapausis means, rest, because, when you rest, you are uplifted. You have stopped your work, let us say, and you rest, and it brings benefit to you. So, that is an up-stoppage. Funny way those Greeks think. I would have never put it together like that, but that is the difference between these two words.
Let us go to Matthew 11 and we will see Jesus himself using the word anapausis, and, we will see exactly what He meant. The context shows perfectly what He meant. Verse 29 is a memory scripture for some of us:
What he is saying is that from the time of creation, this plan has been going apace. This is how God set it up to work. The people of Israel did not enter that rest. But, we have taken their place, as it were, and are in the process of entering that rest. That is why it uses the phrase, do enter, because it is talking about a process that is ongoing. We are a part of it now, and it will continue on if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence to the end.
What he's doing is showing that the Sabbath day, the time of creation, the wilderness wanderings of Israel, and this future time of rest are all linked together. He is giving proofs here. And, the most important fact, let us say, is You are in the thick of it.
The original Israelites failed through lack of faith and through disobedience. Then he mentions Joshua and the fact that even this new generation of Israelites that God commended may have entered the land, but they did not enter God's rest because the psalm speaks of another day in which the rest would be entered, the day in the future.
The author here says it is still out there. You can still enter God's rest. You are on the road already, and make sure you enter God's rest, and you can do this by being diligent, by obeying, by being faithful, or as Jesus says, by enduring to the end in your calling.
So speaking of the generation that Joshua led, though their conquest in the end was incomplete, they did far better than their parents. But the author implies that those events that occurred back then are to us only types. We are not to take them in terms of the reality of their incompletion, but we are supposed to think of them as typical, as metaphorical, as symbolic of the journey that we make in order to enter His rest in a spiritual way, in the only way that really matters.
And he then says that the Sabbath is a type of the rest of God, and that in itself is a foreshadowing of the Kingdom. Just so we get all our ducks in a row here. So we can say God's real rest, the one that He has been shooting for all this time, giving us all these examples from the Old Testament and elsewhere, even in the New, that is still future. The rest of God is still future and it is now open to God's elect. And it is still Israel that is journeying to God's rest, but as Galatians 6:16 says, it is the Israel of God.
It is a different group. It is a spiritual group. We call it just generally spiritual Israel. And it is the church, the Body of Christ. Lots of different names, but the same people. God's people whom He has called to take up this journey.
And so we will enter it only if we remain obedient and faithful, unlike ancient Israel.
This has all been a big, long explanation of why I think the conquest constitutes a second type of our spiritual journey toward God's Kingdom. This time, in the second type, it is concentrating on a faithful, obedient people dealing with and overcoming the obstacles in the way. Just as we endeavor to come into full possession of our inheritance, they were trying to come into the possession of their physical inheritance, the land of Canaan. But we in the antitype are coming into our inheritance in the Kingdom of God. And then having done that, at the return of Jesus Christ, we will enter God's rest.
So what I am going to do as a kind of frame for talking about this group of people and how they apply to us in our walk to God's Kingdom, the sermon will focus on the four astounding miracles found in the book of Joshua. That is my frame; that is my organizational template here for this sermon. And my aim in giving these, talking about these four miracles, is to highlight what God is willing to do to aid us in our journey to His rest.
That is, what He is willing to do to aid us in our Christian fight over sin and Satan and this world. Because He accompanied them on their journey in the conquest, just as He is accompanying us. And so the types pop out when you go through the book of Joshua.
As one of my mentors, the late Bob Hoops, declared, the weekly Sabbath is a miniature or foretaste of the annual Sabbath - the Feast of Tabernacles, which is itself a miniature or foretaste to the Kingdom of God in the wonderful world tomorrow, ushering in the New Heavens and New Earth. The Millennium, symbolized by the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles depicts a sanctified thousand years when the world will be at peace, resting from the horrible abuse and mis-governance it had endured for 6,000 years on mankind's tyrannical and irresponsible misrule.
Before that Millennium arrives, God's called-out ones, by faithfully honoring God's weekly and annual Sabbaths, are promised much needed tranquil rest and spiritual reinvigoration for our lengthy and arduous spiritual journey.
In this sermon, Richard made two illuminating points (a long-ranged point and a short-ranged point) about our striving to enter God's rest, as referenced in Hebrews 4:1-11, one of our lead-off scriptures.
The long-ranged point is that we need to be diligent to enter the rest that is the Kingdom of God. That is the rest we are looking for. That is when God will cease from His spiritual labors, when we have come into His rest in the Kingdom.
The short-ranged point is in verse 9 of Hebrews 4: There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. That word rest is sabbatismos - the Sabbath rest. In fact, there is another translation that says: We must therefore keep the Sabbath as the people of God.
But the point I am getting at is that the Sabbath is a type of God's rest. Richard continues, We have a weekly, twenty-four-hour period of time when we can be still. God gives us one day in seven as an opportunity to be still and come to know Him. That is one of the reasons we have the Sabbath day. People of God need this one day - to pull out of the world, to take it easy, to get out of the rat race, and to get into communion with God. We need to use this time, on the Sabbath day: to get into the right attitude, to see godly reasoning, to receive instruction, to see God at work, and to get to know Him.
We have just participated in a week-long annual Sabbath depicting a world at peace which should supercharge us with the will and power to forge ahead on our taxing spiritual journey into our Promised Land - our inheritance - God's Kingdom. Please turn once again to my second favorite scripture in the Bible.
Paul then concludes, Look at the children of Israel. How many of them died? All of them! They did not enter the rest. Since God's promise is sure, this must mean that this rest is still future.
In Hebrews 4:3-4, we saw that Paul refers to the creation and God's rest on the seventh day and creating the Sabbath. This proves, if you will, that the rest Paul is addressing here is not from fatigue or due to the fact that we have done some work because God is never weary.
Had it been fatigue or God allegedly resting because of work, Paul would have had to use another example. Since God never gets weary, He needs no rest, so this rest must be something other than relaxation or taking our shoes off after a long day of hard work.
In Hebrews 4, Paul reminds us that God stopped or God katapausis. Paul uses the Greek word katapausis for God stopping. That is a down-cessation, God's down-cessation. God stopped His creative efforts on the physical side of things. As we already saw last time, God stopped His physical work and picked up a spiritual work on the Sabbath. God ceased working to set us an example of what we have to do. It is an example of what we have to do on the Sabbath: We too have to cease working.
Paul is telling us very pointedly here that the future rest, the one that has not been entered into fully yet, contains elements of the Sabbath rest: a very simple point showing that stopping from physical works is a large part of it.
One of the major things Paul points out here is in its full completion, God's rest will feature a complete cessation of human works - physical works, works of the flesh, and works of our carnality. The main attribute of God's future rest is the fact that the works of the flesh and the works of the human mind, driven by carnality, will have stopped and ceased.
We could go to II Peter 3:13 where God says that no unrighteousness will dwell in the new heavens and the new earth: In God's future rest, unrighteousness will have stopped.
I should also mention that once human works will have been eliminated true rest can be experienced. This will result in the condition we already read in Revelation chapter twenty-one. These are all the things that are going to stop:
Let us go to Hebrews 4. This section has two points that I want to make here.
Now, what are the two points? The first is a long-ranged point, and the second is a short-ranged point.
1. The long-ranged point is that we need to be diligent to enter the rest that is the Kingdom ofGod. That is the rest we are looking for. That is when God will cease from His spiritual labors, when we have come into His rest in the Kingdom.
2. The short-ranged point is in verse 9: There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. That word rest is sabbatismos - the Sabbath rest. In fact there is another translation that says: We must therefore keep the Sabbath as the people of God. (I am not saying that is right or wrong; but it seems a good translation to me.) But the point I am getting at is that the Sabbath is a type of GOD's rest.
We have a weekly, twenty-four hour period of time when we can be still. God gives us one day in seven as an opportunity to be still and come to know Him. That is one of the reasons that we have the Sabbath day. People of God need this one day - to pull out of the world, to take it easy, to get out of the rat race, and to get into communion with God. We need to use this time, on the Sabbath day: to get into the right attitude, to see godly reasoning, to receive instruction, to see God at work, and to get to know Him. (Those are the five points that I just mentioned a few minutes ago.)
We have the Sabbath day to be still; but it is not just limited to the Sabbath day. Those of us, who are lucky, find time during the week (and, during the year) when we can be still. This time of the year is one when we need it the most. That is, to be still before the Passover - to get our minds in the right attitude and get the right instruction so that we are in the proper way of thinking (in the proper mode) for the Passover and the holy days.
It is not restricted just to now. Also before Trumpets and Atonement, and the Feast, is another time when it would be good for us to find a time of stillness. Any time, when we are in need of self-evaluation, is a time when it is best to be still.
We are told that we are to be partakers of Christ, and that entails if we hold to the beginning of our confidence with the foundation, as I mentioned. We are told not to neglect our salvation or let this world take your crown. We must not allow our hearts to become hardened. He tells us that we should not be like those that came out of Egypt. They saw the miracles of God and the awesome power of God, and then rebelled against Him and troubled Him forty years and died short of the rest that was set aside for them.
Our journey, brethren, is to the Kingdom of God and our rest is the Kingdom of God. Who is it that could not enter that rest? Those who hardened their hearts.
The apostle Paul knew that he was on a journey, and that he had two hearts, or two ways of living, in him. One of these hearts was to fight against and the other was to fight for.
You might wonder why this happened on the Sabbath. What is the significance of this being done on the Sabbath? It is the Sabbath that commemorates God, our Creator. This is the same God who rested on the seventh day of creation. This is Jesus Christ - the Word of God!
The word sabbath, in Hebrew, even means rest. That is the basic idea of the Sabbath - it is a rest. It looks back on creation. Now to what does this rest, the Sabbath, look forward to?
Now what happened when Jesus Christ was raised from the dead? He entered His rest! And guess when Christ was resurrected? On the Sabbath, when the wavesheaf was cut!
They all tie together. So by a resurrection from the dead, we inherit and fully enter the Kingdom of God. We could call it the World Tomorrow, or maybe a few other terms may come to mind.
We need to understand that we have been moving along in God's plan, and He has put us in it. And God has given us an even better opportunity than what He gave to the Israelites because we have faith.
He keeps pounding away at this warning. Even though we have been given all of these wonderful gifts and all of these helps, we could still fall away. We can still fail to enter His rest.
